Skinny Garlic Chicken: A Weight Watchers Recipe

I’m back to blogging, and back to cooking! Unpacking our kitchen boxes was like Christmas morning. So far, everything has been found unbroken – a major relief! I am so thankful to have nice stuff…in all aspects of life, but when it comes to kitchen appliances and tools I was absolutely blessed by my friends and family at my wedding shower and again with wedding gifts. Having cool things makes cooking even more fun – just ask my husband, King of the Ninja Chopper!

Today I want to share a recipe I made last night for Skinny Garlic Chicken. I found this recipe on Skinny Kitchen and you can read the original here… or just read below to see how I made it.

Check out this yummy 11 point dinner plate – Skinny Garlic Chicken (5 pp); Brown Rice (3 pp for 1/2 cup); Green beans with a little butter (1 pp); Spinach and Spring Mix Salad (0 pp); Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese (1 pp for 1/2 oz.); Kraft Viva Italian Dressing (1 pp for 2 T)

Skinny Garlic Chicken

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breast, approximately 4 oz. each (Note: I buy 3 lb. bags of frozen B/S chicken breasts. I picked out 4 that were the thinnest and medium sized. The piece on my plate pictured above weighed exactly 4 oz. after baking.)
• 1 T olive oil
• 2 T minced garlic (I used my handy dandy garlic press.)
• 1/4 c brown sugar
• 2 t water

 

 

Directions:

• Thaw chicken breasts, if frozen. Pat dry and place in a 9×13 baking dish lined with foil (easy clean up!). I found it helpful to spray the oil with cooking spray before placing the breasts in the dish.
• In a small skillet, sautee garlic in olive oil over medium heat. This should take 1-2 minutes and will make your house smell like an Italian restaurant. No complaints!
• Once the garlic is starting to change color, remove from heat. Add brown sugar and water. Mix well. I used the back of my spoon to breakup the clumps of garlic and sugar.

• Spoon the mixture over the chicken breasts.

You’ll notice that I didn’t trim the fat and gross parts off the chicken. Mainly, because I’m lazy and I choose to do that as I’m eating.

• Bake the chicken at 450 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. You will be pleasantly surprised by how juicy, tender, and flavorful this dish is!

Jeremy and I REALLY enjoyed this chicken and are planning on making this later this week, but subbing soy sauce for the water and adding garlic chili paste. Can’t wait to see how it turns out!

Thanks for reading!

 

White Vegetable Lasagna “Cupcakes”

Last night’s dinner was a home run. White Vegetable Lasagna Cupcakes were easy, tasty, and are here to stay!

Thank you Alexa from Losing It With Alexa for posting about this recipe and encouraging me to check out Emily Bites! The tagline of Emily Bites is “lightened up comfort food” and that is exactly what I want. All the time. The next EB recipe I plan to make is this Bubble Up Pizza Casserole – yum!

Here’s the link to the original recipe if you’re interested. I’ll be giving you my version, which is very similar.

Photo courtesy of emilybites.com

Ingredients:

• 2 t olive oil
• 3/4 c shredded zucchini
• 2/3 c broccoli
• 1/4 c shredded/diced carrots
• Mrs. Dash Original seasoning
• 1 c Classico Light Alfredo Sauce (use whichever brand you prefer. I’ve never been a fan of pre-made alfredo, so I compared nutrition labels to make my choice)
• 1/2 c to 1 c low fat ricotta-depending on how much you like ricotta (fat free ricotta is best, but it was over a dollar higher than the low fat so I went with the cheapest option)
• 1 package of wonton wrappers. You will need 24.
• 1 c reduced fat cheddar cheese, shredded
• Parmesan cheese to top each cupcake

Set your oven at 375 degrees. This recipe yields 12 cupcakes.

How to make the veggie filling:

• Heat the olive oil in a non-stick pan. Once it shimmers, add the veggies. (Note: if you’re using frozen broccoli like me, put it in the microwave for a couple minutes to thaw it out.)
• Cook the veggies for 6-7 minutes until they look dehydrated and the carrots are no longer firm. This is a great recipe to clean out the fridge and use up extra veggies that may go bad soon. I’m talking onions, bell peppers (red bell peppers would be amazing in this), or whatever else floats your boat.
• Set the cooked veggies aside in a bowl and mix with the alfredo sauce. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and a shake of Mrs. Dash. Because, Mrs. Dash is a bold flavor with a little spice I did not use pepper.
• Boom- filling is done. How easy is that?

How to assemble the cupcakes:

• Begin by giving your cupcake tin a light coating of non-stick spray.
• Press a single wonton wrapper into each hollow of the cupcake tin. You’ll have to pinch it down in there. I recommend letting your wrappers sit on the counter for a bit so that they soften and are pliable.
• The layering begins! Spoon one teaspoon of ricotta into the bottom of each cupcake and spread it gently with the back of a spoon. This doesn’t have to be perfect. Don’t worry about the ricotta being evenly spread.
• Spoon in the veggie alfredo filling. About one table spoon will do.
• Top each cupcake with a pinch of cheddar. Layer one is done.

 

• Add another wonton wrapper. If you’re going for presentation points, you will want to place the second wrapper in a way so that the corners are off-set compared to the first wrapper. If you’re like me, you’re wanting this to be done as soon as possible so you can eat. Press the second wrapper down, focusing on pinching around the blob of filling.
• Repeat the ricotta, filling, and cheese steps. Top with a little Mrs. Dash and Parmesan cheese on each cupcake.

 

It’s baking time!

Pop these babies into a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes. They’ll come out with crispy edges and noodle-like softness inside.

The hubby and I (oh, and my mom) really enjoyed these. We think they would be great paired with a grilled chicken breast.

As far as Weight Watchers points value is concerned, the Emily Bites recipe comes in at 4 pp per cupcake, but I know mine may be a tad higher since I chose low fat ricotta instead of fat free.

I encourage you to get creative with this lasagna cupcake idea… What would it be like to use ground turkey sausage, peppers, or a different cheese? If you make these, be sure to let me know what you used and how they turned out.

Thanks for reading and happy “cupcake baking”!

-Andrea

 

WW Update: Week 20 Results

20 weeks? Wow!

For week 20, I gained 0.4 pounds for a total of 26.6 pounds lost.
I am 13.4 pounds away from my “40 pounds lost by September 1st” goal. I started Weight Watchers on 3/14/14, so if I do not reach my September 1st goal, I can give myself two more weeks to make it happen before the 6 month landmark.

I know 0.4 pounds is nothing to fret about, but the fact that I didn’t lose weight pisses me off. I told myself I would not step on the scale daily, like I normally do. Apparently that didn’t work for me… back to daily weighing! When I weighed on Monday morning I was the same weight as I was the previous Friday (same day as my Week 19 update). I did well with working out and eating well this week, but that wasn’t enough.

My staples for this week have been:
– I’ve been all over the place. I can’t think of anything that I relied on all week. Our garden has died so the gravy train of free cucumbers, zucchini, squash, and peppers is over.

My saving grace this week:
– Hard-boiled eggs. I love them. Is that weird? They are only 2 points plus a piece and I have been eating them before workouts. I found an article on Weight Watchers’ website that suggests removing the egg and replacing it with hummus. Sounds pretty tasty! You can read that article discussing pre and post workout snacks here: http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=43791

Featured meal this week:
I made turkey burgers for the second time in my life! The first time was about two years ago and my burgers turned out flavorful, but dry. Boo!

Second time was the charm! Our grilled turkey burgers were so tasty, moist, and pretty low on points when you weigh the cooked burger on a food scale.

Moist and flavorful Turkey Burgers

• 1.25 lb ground turkey
• 2 T seasoned bread crumbs(heaping for 1.25 lbs, level scoops for 1 lb.)
• 1 egg
• 4 t garlic powder
• 4 t finely chopped onion (I used more because we love onion)
• 2 T soy sauce (use reduced-sodium if you have it)
• 2 T Worcestershire
• 1/2 t steak seasoning (sprinkle on top of patties)

It’s pretty simple, folks… Dig in and hand-mix together the ingredients (set aside steak seasoning) and form into patties. I believe I made 6 or 7 decent sized turkey patties. Sprinkle one side with your favorite steak seasoning. We love the McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning shaker. Oil your grill (I didn’t do this, but should have) and grill the burgers for 5-7 minutes per side over medium heat.

While these were grilling I whipped up some homemade guacamole and put a dollop on top of my burger. We ate these without buns, but lettuce wraps would be a great zero-point choice.

Eating out this week:
BAD. Hey, maybe this is why I didn’t lose weight? Taco Bell & a hot fudge sundae on Sunday… not good. The family went out for pizza on Wednesday, but I limited myself to 2 pieces and a big salad with French dressing (around 4 pp for 1 oz.)

Working out this week:
I did well!
– Saturday: Walked 5 miles at Wilson’s Creek with my friend Melodie!
– Monday: Zumba
– Tuesday: 5 a.m. PiYO
– Thursday: PiYO with my Mother-in-law

Visible changes this week:
Better posture, which is a weird thing to notice. The few remaining pants that fit seem to be more loose this week. Yay! This weekend is a “Sales Tax Holiday” here in MO, and I plan on buying just one pair of pants to get me through a few more weeks.

Goals for next week:
Track every little snack, no matter how few points it is. (Same goal as last week, but I did not manage to accomplish it.)

 

Recipes worth sharing

Over the weekend we visited our cousins for a casual housewarming cookout. I’ve had my eye on a couple Pinterest recipes for a while and decided to give them a shot this weekend. I whipped up these two treats and they were home runs!

Warning – these are FAR from healthy recipes! Not good for the dieting population who may be reading my blog. Consider this your disclaimer!

Charleston Cheese Dip

Photo courtesy of FoodNetwork.com (I failed to photograph this weekend)

This recipe is a Trisha Yearwood original, featured on her Football, Friends, and Comfort Food episode.

As usual, I made a couple changes. Here’s my version of the Charleston Cheese Dip. I can’t put its yumminess in words! This was a perfect appetizer to munch on while we prepared the burgers, brats and beans.

Ingredients:

• 1 8 oz. block of Cabot Extra Sharp White Cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 8 oz. package of cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup Miracle Whip
• 1 handful of regular shredded cheddar cheese (nice unit of measurement, huh?)
• 6 slices of cooked bacon
• 4 green onions, chopped
• a dash of black pepper
• a dash of paprika
• Club crackers

Directions:

• Begin by stirring together the cheeses, onions, Miracle Whip, black pepper, and paprika. This will be much easier if your cream cheese is truly at room temperature. Make sure it is blended well.
• Crumble 4 slices of bacon into the mixture. I used kitchen scissors to get smaller, uniform pieces.
• Spread the cheesy mixture into a small baking dish, like the one pictured.
• Crumble the remaining bacon on top along with 10-12 Club crackers.
• Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.
• Serve warm with Club crackers, fresh veggies, or whatever floats your boat. So creamy and delicious!

Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Photo courtesy of Sally’s Baking Addiction

Yeah, you read that right. Cake batter and chocolate chips all wrapped up in one cookie! Our friends that would be at the get-together are cookie lovers so I knew it was the perfect opportunity to try out this recipe.

The cookies are perfect! It’s the ideal marriage of cake batter flavor and classic chocolate chip cookie flavor. The cookies are moist, super sweet, and chewy.

I followed the recipe to a T, except for the part where the dough is supposed to be chilled prior to baking. I simply did not have time for that! I stuck my mixing bowl in the freezer between batches to try to help chill the dough. One thing I love about this recipe blog post is the science behind creating the perfect cookie and the explanation about why it’s important to work with chilled dough here.

My cookies came out great, but they did break a little at the top, unlike the ones pictured above. Next time I will plan ahead and give the dough plenty of time to chill. I’ll copy and insert the recipe below…

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/4 cup (160g)all-purpose flour
• 1 and 1/4 cup (190g) yellow or vanilla boxed cake mix (I typically use vanilla cake mix)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks or 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (100g) light brown sugar
• 1 egg, at room temperature
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup (180g) chocolate chips (I used a blend of white and semi-sweet chocolate chips)
• 1/2 cup (80g) sprinkles

Directions:

In a large bowl, sift together flour, cake mix, and baking soda. Set aside.

Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream the softened butter and both sugars together on medium speed until smooth. Add the egg and mix on high until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and beat on high until combined. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix on low-medium speed until just combined. Add the chocolate chips and sprinkles. Mix on low until the add-ins are evenly disbursed.

Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours, or up to 3 days. This step is mandatory. The dough is fairly sticky, so chilling the dough is required in order to avoid the cookies from spreading too much. If you chill longer than 2 hours, make sure you roll the cookie dough into balls after the 2 hour mark. Place dough balls on a plate, cover tightly, and store in the refrigerator until ready to bake.

Once dough has been chilled, preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Scoop rounded balls of the cold dough onto an ungreased baking sheet, use about 1.5 Tablespoons of cookie dough per cookie. Shape your cookie dough balls to be “taller” than they are wide, as pictured above. Press a few chocolate chips into the tops of the cookie dough balls, if desired. That makes a pretty cookie. Make sure to keep dough chilled when working in batches.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until edges are slightly browned. Mine took 10 minutes exactly. The centers will still appear very soft, but the cookies will set as they cool. You may also press a few more chips into the tops of the cookies at this point (the chips will melt down and stick from the warm cookies).

Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 4 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 7 days. They won’t last that long!

 

WW Update: Weeks 13 & 14 Results

Yay, it’s Friday! It’s been 2 weeks since my last post to update you on my Weight Watchers progress. I’m running behind because I went to a work conference last week and then Jeremy and I were on vacation. I’ll spare you all the vacation details in this post, but if you’re curious about what we did, ate, saw, etc. read yesterday’s post here.

For the purposes of getting back on track with the weekly updates and trying to avoid a super long post, I’m changing up my topics. I’ll get back to the usual next week.

At the end of Week 14, I gained 0.8 pounds for a total of 21.4 pounds lost. So basically, after a week and a half of not following WW or working out, I gained weight. 2.6 pounds to be exact. I’ve lost 1.8 of that in the past 3 days as I’ve gotten back on track.

I’m not upset. Not at all really. Here are two reasons why I don’t regret anything I ate or not working out:

1. It’s a Reward. I have lost over 20 lbs! That’s no small feat. I deserved the numerous glasses of wine, filet mignon, pasta, cheese, etc. It doesn’t hurt to stop and pat yourself on the back.
2. It’s a Reminder. If I eat like shit, I feel like shit. If I eat great, I feel great. It’s as simple as that. I was sluggish and sleepy over vacation while I was eating like, well like I used to. It’s amazing that when you fuel your body with good stuff,  it performs better. Such a simple concept but one that’s so easy to ignore.

Week 13 Road Trip Snacks:
I did my best to pack healthy snacks, and I didn’t do too terribly bad.

• I made Spicy Pretzels. It’s a WW recipe that the hubby and I really enjoyed. Here’s a little tip: use only half the amount of cayenne pepper. These little babies pack a PUNCH. Which makes you want to chug bottles of water = numerous potty breaks! 3 pp per 2/3 cup
• Jell-O Sugar Free, Fat Free Chocolate Pudding, 2 pp per snack
• Weight Watchers String Cheese, 1 pp per stick
• Bananas, free!
• Nutri-Grain cereal bars, 3 pp

Week 14 Meals:
I posted about our sausage, peppers, and onions dinner earlier this week. It was so tasty for just 8 pp!

Yesterday, Jeremy made dinner. A Pinterest find at that! Click here to view the original link for Tortellini Soup. Of course, we can never follow a recipe, so let me detail the small (but healthy) changes we made. We cooked this on the stove and opted to not sautee the veggies first. Therefore, no oil is needed! Also, we subbed the Parmesan for reduced fat cheddar.

We used Louisa brand frozen tortellini. I used my digital food scale to measure out 4 oz. of cheese tortellinis. That’s right – picked the tortellinis out of the soup and put them on the scale. Hey, the details count! 4 oz. totaled 7 pp, and the rest of the soup is made from 0 point ingredients.

The soup is very filling. We both decided it’s a dish that we want to make again.

Working out this week:
– I went to my first PiYo class last night. It was the first time I had worked out in 2 weeks! (Minus, evening walks.) Boy oh boy, I am feeling the burn this morning! If you haven’t heard of PiYo, it’s is a fast-paced pilates and yoga strength training class set to popular music.

Goals for next week:
– Attend a 2-hour Zumba party on Saturday.
– Track everything I eat.

I’m looking forward to eating healthy and working out during Week 15. If any of you have done PiYo and have words of wisdom – PLEASE SHARE!

Creamy Ranch Chicken Pasta: A Weight Watchers Recipe

I made a good one tonight, folks! Keep on reading if you’re game for a delicious recipe that disguises itself as a fatty-full-of-carbs dish.

This recipe was inspired by the Chicken Bacon Ranch pasta recipe on LaaLoosh today. You can read it here.

Before I say this, please don’t call me a bacon hater… but I thought this recipe could be done without bacon, and that it could be made to be more filling. Sure, a 1-cup serving might be enough for you but I wanted something more!

With that being said, I nixed the bacon from this recipe. Instead, I added sauteed veggies. Lots of them! I thought adding veggies would be a good way to extend the serving without increasing the points plus value.

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts (thawed), boneless and skinless
• 1 box of whole wheat penne pasta (any pasta shape will do)
• 2 T olive oil
• Chopped veggies of your choice (I used: 1/3 c yellow onion, 1/2 medium zucchini, 3 baby bell peppers, 1 small roma tomato)
• 1 cup low-fat or fat free milk (I used 1% because I had it handy)
• 1 packet Hidden Valley Original Ranch Mix
• 1/2 cup reduced fat cheddar cheese (I used the WW brand mexican blend)

For the Chicken:

• Heat 1 T of olive oil in a skillet.
• Once it begins to shimmer, at chicken breasts.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Cook 3-5 minutes per side, until golden brown.
• Remove. Let it rest on your cutting board.
  (I used a well-seasoned cast iron skillet for this. If you choose not to multi-task, you can make this a one pan meal.)

For the sauce:

• Begin by heating 1 T of olive oil in a non-stick skillet. It is also a good idea to begin boiling water for the pasta at this point.
• Add onion and zucchini.
• Cook the onion and zucchini down for a couple minutes before adding the bell pepper.
• Finally, add tomato.
• The onions, zucchini, and peppers should be lightly browned and the tomato should begin to “melt”. Transfer this veggie mix to a bowl.
• In the same non-stick skillet, pour in 1 teaspoon of the grease remaining after cooking the chicken (if you’re doing this one pan style, you’ll need to reserve this.)
• Add milk and ranch packet. Stir continuously while bringing it up to medium high heat.
• As the milk slowly thickens, add cheese and reduce to low heat. Continue stirring. The sauce should thicken fairly quickly at this point.
• The sauce is finished when you’ve achieved the consistency of gravy. Add in the cooked vegetables and stir.

Putting it all together:

• Create your bowl: Add 1 cup of pasta, a scoop of sauce, and a few pieces of sliced chicken breast for one delicious meal!
• Here’s where it gets confusing… I’m not so sure about the points plus value for this dish, but I will do my best to explain why I gave it a 6 pp, just like the LaaLoosh recipe.
• Serving size: 1 cup of pasta, 1/2 of a chicken breast, and approximately 1/4 cup of sauce.
• By omitting the bacon, I figure that I am okay to use the 1% milk versus fat free without changing the points value. (only 1 point difference between the two for a 1 cup serving)
• Also, adding vegetables doesn’t change the points value which is another reason I’m keeping it at 6.
• If you have any ideas or suggestions on how to better calculate points, let me know!

So there you have it, another scrumptious meal. I had no idea eating healthy could taste this fabulous! After making this, I have 3 or 4 servings to have for lunch or dinner this week. Give it a try and let me know what you think. This recipe would work great if you have a few vegetables going bad and need to use them up in one dish. I wish I would have had baby spinach on hand. I think it would have made this recipe even better – and even more nutritious!

WW Update: Week 4 Results

TGIF and Happy Weigh-In Day to me!

After a flat week last week, I did not know what to expect today when I stepped on the scale. I am happy to report that I was 2.4 pounds down for the week, for a grand total of 8.4 pounds lost. I was really trying to hit that “10” mark this week, but it didn’t happen.

My staples for this week have been:
– Eating Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers for lunch. These are pretty darn tasty!
– Making a waffle taco for breakfast… the healthy version. I toast one Eggo Whole Wheat waffle and spread one wedge of Laughing Cow Smooth Sensations Cinnamon Cream Cheese on top. And, to make myself feel like I’m eating the latest and greatest fast food breakfast item, I fold it in half like a taco!

My saving grace this week:
– Variety. I’ve been mixing it up. My dinners for this week were: Pork loin and veggies, bean and cheese quesadilla, pizza, omelette, and grilled chicken.

Featured meal this week:
Homemade pizza on a Mama Mary’s personal-sized crust!

I’m not going to give an exact recipe for this because it’s just a simple pizza. I bought a 3-pack of these crusts (8 pp for a whole one), made my own sauce with a can of no-salt-added petite diced tomatoes, fat-free mozzarella cheese (2/3 c. for 3 pp), and onion, green pepper, and banana pepper for toppings! I ate the whole thing, but I could have probably gotten away with eating half and having some fruit.

About the marinara: Homemade marinara is not 0 pp and I don’t know why. Canned tomatoes are 0 points and since I season my own sauce with fresh garlic, Mrs. Dash Original, and basil and parsley I’m not sure why there’s a difference. Does homemade marinara have sugar? Can anyone help me out to better understand this? I want to make sure I track correctly.

Eating out this week:
I visited my BCFs (best cousins forever) in Bolivar on Friday and we went out to a BBQ joint. I splurged. I ordered fried okra (10 pp). It was heavenly! I also had brisket (didn’t eat the bread that it came on) and beans. I used my indulgence points and it was totally worth it.

On Thursday I had a lunch meeting and managed to steer clear of the basket of rolls, cheesy scalloped potatoes, and dessert table. There was coconut cream pie and chocolate cream pie and I didn’t even consider having a bite. Winning!

Working out this week:
Zumba-ed on Monday.

As part of my job I go in and out of doctor’s offices and medical buildings. I’ve been making an effort to take the stairs!

Goals for next week:
– Zumba twice!
– Continue to make healthy choices when eating out.

(Goals I set for last week that I achieved: Limited coffee in-take, eating more fresh foods.)

I am driving to Wichita tomorrow to visit my hubby and taking Monday off work. I know we’ll be eating out so I will do my best to make healthy selections! 10 pound weight loss, here I come 🙂

Fudgey Chocolate Cupcakes: A Weight Watchers Recipe

Move over traditional sugar and fat laced cupcakes. There’s a new sheriff in town! These super moist and rich chocolate cupcakes may be my new favorite dessert. And, at 3 pointsplus each, they’re guilt-free and don’t “cost” much in the WW points world.

I found this recipe on SkinnyTaste and fell in love. Sydney and I made them on Friday and split the 20 cupcakes the recipe yielded.

Click here to read the original recipe, or read my version below.

Cupcake Ingredients:
– Chocolate fudge cake mix (we used Pillsbury, 15.25 oz. The Skinny Taste recipe calls for a box that is 18 oz.)
– 1 box Jello brand sugar free, fat free chocolate fudge pudding mix
– 1 8 oz. can of puréed pumpkin (make sure you don’t pick up the pumpkin pie mix on accident- it’s not the same thing)
– 1 1/3 cup water

Chocolate Drizzle Ingredients:
– 1/2 cup powdered sugar
– 1 T cocoa powder
– 1/4 t vanilla extract
– 1 T 1% milk
– pinch of salt

Begin by preheating the oven according to the cake mix directions.

Using a mixer, mix the water and pumpkin. Because our cake mix did not yield as much product as the original recipe, I left out a couple of teaspoons of the pumpkin. It probably would not make a difference to use the entire can.

Add the pudding mix and beat until well combined.

Finally, add the cake mix and mix until it is all incorporated and smooth. This takes about 2 minutes. You will find the texture of the batter to be mousse-like.

Spoon into a lines cupcake tin. We went a bit overboard on filling our cups and made about 20 cupcakes… It should have made 24. Oops!

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Once the cupcakes are cooled, mix the dry ingredients for the drizzle. Add the vanilla and milk and mix well. If you find that your icing isn’t wet enough, add more milk but be careful. A little bit of liquid goes a long way in powdered sugar.

Drizzle over the top of the cupcakes and enjoy!

Note: You can forego the drizzle to make these 2 pp, instead of 3pp.

I think you will find these cupcakes to be moist, rich and not at all pumpkin-y. I would definitely bring these to a pot-luck or some type of social event and feel confident that people would scarf them down never knowing how healthy they really are!

Give ’em a try. You won’t be disappointed!

Baked Broccoli Mac & Cheese: A Weight Watchers Recipe

I planned to post this recipe in my weekly recap on Friday, but I’m so excited about it I could not weight! (See what I did there?)

Behold, a WW-friendly recipe that doesn’t taste like health food. This recipe packs in flavor, cheesy wonderfulness, and doesn’t leave me hungry.

These iPhone photos aren’t my best.

I originally found this recipe on SkinnyTaste and then later on Weight Watchers’ website. There are a couple differences in the two recipes, but I combined elements of each to create my own.

The SkinnyTaste recipe is listed as 8 pp for 1 cup of pasta and the Weight Watcher’s recipes is listed as 7 pp for 1/8 of a 9×13 pan portion. The SkinnyTaste recipe calls for more cheese, less milk, less broccoli than its WW counterpart.

Ingredients:

– 12 oz. pasta (I like Ronzoni Garden Delight. It has a bit of veggie and this particular box was a mix of penne, rigatoni and shells!)
– 2 cups (8 oz.) reduced fat cheddar cheese (I had a hard time finding ANY reduced fat cheese at the grocery store. I bought the WW brand cheddar blend.)
– 2 cups skim milk
– 1/2 cup chopped onion (I tend to use yellow onions.)
– 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
– 1 T butter
– 1/2 t garlic powder
– 1/2 t Mrs. Dash Original (One of my favorite seasonings. No sodium!)
– black pepper
– 1/3 cup bread crumbs (I used Italian seasoned bread crumbs.)
– 2 T grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

– Preheat oven to 375.
– Begin by cooking the onions in the butter in a large saucepan over medium to medium-high heat. Cook until they become translucent.
– While the onions are doing their thing, cook the pasta al dente. About 9 minutes for the type of pasta I bought.
– Cook the broccoli in the microwave. I put my broccoli in a microwave safe dish, add 1/2 cup water, cover and cook for 5-6 minutes.
– Add flour. Stir continuously to keep the flour from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Cook on medium until it all becomes golden brown. This shouldn’t take too long.
– Add milk. Increase heat to medium high and continue stirring to keep the onions and flour from sticking to the bottom. Over time this will thicken. Add garlic powder, pepper, and Mrs. Dash. Once you see some bubbles rise to the top, decrease the heat and continue to stir. When it becomes the consistency of thin gravy remove it from the heat and stir in the cheddar cheese. After you stir in the cheese, you’ll want to move quickly to put the dish together.
– Put the drained pasta and broccoli in a 9×13 glass pan (spray it first!). Mix it up. Pour cheese sauce over and stir everything together.

 

Colorful AND delicious!

– Disperse bread crumbs and Parmesan over the top. I also added a light sprinkle of Mrs. Dash, because I love it so much.
– Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, then broil for 5 minutes.

This makes one fantastic meal! Tastes like comfort food, but doesn’t break the PointsPlus bank. Give it a try and let me know what you think! I think adding cubed grilled chicken to this would be awesome!

Pork Fajitas: A Weight Watchers Recipe

Hola! Today I’m posting a recipe that totally hit the spot.

My mom had put a pork loin in the crockpot this morning, which caused me to think long and hard this afternoon about what kind of meal I could eat that involved pork and was Weight Watchers friendly. (Read about why I’m living with my parents here)

Here’s what I came up with, simple pork fajitas!

Ingredients:
– Pork, 4 oz. unseasoned
– Bell peppers, I used baby bell peppers (orange, yellow, red), julienned
– 1 small onion, cut into strips
– Fajita size fat free flour tortillas
– Canned black beans, low-sodium or sodium-free are best!
– Shredded cheddar cheese
– Olive oil, 1 tsp.
– 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
– Crushed red pepper
– Mrs. Dash fiesta lime seasoning
– Salt
– 1 tsp. fajita seasoning
– 1/8 tsp. ground cumin

Weight Watchers info:
– My plate, pictured above is 11 pointsplus
– These are the portions: 1 oz. pork per fajita, 1 1/2 cups roasted veggies, 1/4 cup cheddar cheese, 2 fat free flour tortillas, 2/3 cup black beans

Directions:
– Prepare pork in crockpot. We like to add a thawed roast to a crockpot with 1 cup of warm water. No seasoning is required for this recipe. We cook the pork on low while we’re at work.
– Heat a cast iron skillet to medium high heat. Add olive oil.
– Chop veggies. Add to skillet. Yes, these will sizzle!
– Sautée veggies for 2 minutes on medium high heat then reduce to medium. Stir occasionally.
– Partially drain the black beans. I don’t mind the goopy sauce but I don’t like any sauce on my plate. Heat thoroughly.
– Season veggies with a shake of crushed red pepper flakes and garlic powder.
– Season black beans with Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime and cumin. Season these to taste! I like a pretty powerful flavor with these. Add salt and pepper if necessary. Cook on medium. Remaining sauce/bean juice will thicken.
– Add pork to veggies. It should shred easily as you stir it. I sprinkled some fajita seasoning on top. Add a couple tablespoons of water if it appears dry.
– It’s time to eat!

Here are the seasonings I used.

I encourage you to try this and to make it your own. Don’t like pork, do chicken! Want to go lighter? Try a low fat cheese or sour cream. If I would have had salsa in my fridge I would have used it!

This was a quick meal that left me full and satisfied. This made enough for 4 fajitas and 2 servings of beans. That means I’ve got lunch for tomorrow!

Have a great week!