At Home Italian Dinner

I love Italian food but man oh man is it a lot of points.  My favorites are lasagna, chicken parmesan, and fettucine. 

I spotted some breaded chicken patties in the freezer section at Walmart and was pleasantly surprised when I used the barcode scanner in my WW app one patty was just 3 points on my Personalized Points plan.  What was even better is that it was a nice sized patty for 3 points.  I knew instantly I could make it into chicken parmesan at-home.

 

Since I love fettuccini too, I also picked up a WW frozen meal that was 7 points to go along with my chicken parmesan rounding out a delicious Italian dinner with a fraction of the points. 

 

I have made this twice so far and really enjoyed every bite.  The entire plate is just 10 points on my plan which doesn’t break the bank.

 

Enjoy.

 

 

 

Mexican Vegetable Soup With Salsa Verde

 My Mom shared a soup recipe that I tried last week and loved so much, I made it again this week.  Besides the fact it is delicious, my WW Friends also get an added veggie point for each serving.  Win:Win

I added chicken, which was a great idea.  I would have added beans at the time I prepared the soup but since Kenyon doesn’t like them, I added beans in after.  For the second round of soup, I also added frozen roasted corn from Trader Joes, which makes soups and chili taste extra delicious.  I also added the half cup of salsa verde into the recipe instead of as a garnish.  Kenyon requested some green chile too so I put some in for round two.

If you need an easy soup recipe, this is for you.  Search the WW Recipe tab for all the details.

Kroger CARBMaster Low Point Bread

Finding a low calorie/point bread that tastes good is difficult.  My favorite is the Sara Lee DeLightful bread, which now comes in white bread vs. just wheat bread.  My husband calls it “candy” since it tastes so much like regular bread.  We recently found the CARBMaster bread which is sold at Fred Meyer/Kroger.  While I still don’t love it as much as I love the Sara Lee, it was the perfect addition to my late night breakfast meal since I decided to make it into French toast.  I also made an omelette.

I also amped it up by mixing in some Coffeemate Pumpkin Spice Creamer since we don’t keep milk on hand at our house.  Oh yum!  It was good.  And at just one point per slice, it makes a really low point breakfast meal…or anytime of day meal.

Enjoy!

New Cocktail Recipes

I have gone down the rabbit hole of binge watching Below Deck, the show where young adults with no responsibility work on a sailing yacht for several months.  It is so much drama but also so fun to see what goes on behind the scenes of causing vessels and the people who vacation on them.  

Every time the crew has a day off, they usually go into town to a restaurant/bar and they always order an espresso martini.  I am a social drinker so when I see people drinking on TV, I really wish I could join in.  I kept thinking I’ll wait until we are at a bar to order an espresso martini but then decided to give in and make one at home.

The internet directed me to several recipes and I picked one with Kahula.  

It was good.  I think next time instead of equal parts vodka, Kahula, and espresso it needs two or three times the espresso.  It was very “liquor” tasting and less espresso tasting.  

I also think I might want to try it with a canned Starbucks espresso drink that has the light cream and sugar already added.  Not as low calorie/points but still tasty.

I also heard a yacht charter guest order a crown and ginger, I assume Crown Royal and Ginger Ale.  It planted another seed and since I was at the liquor store buying Kahula, I also picked up some Crown Royal.  It was a really good combo.  I found this recipe on the Crown Royal website and can’t wait to try it next. 

Drink Responsibility. 

Chocolate Donuts

I had a hankering for something sweet the other night and remembered I had spotted a chocolate donut recipe that I saved for later.  I happen to own a mini donut maker so I revisited this recipe from Drizzle Me Skinny for her Chocolate Glazed Donuts and figured with some modifications of what I had on hand at home, I could make us some donuts.  

They turned out pretty well and are low-points too.

I don’t keep milk in the house since neither of us drink it regularly.  The first substitution I needed to try was adding Premiere Protein in place of the milk.  I know you can do this with sugar free pudding, but it always makes it really thick.  In this recipe, it worked just fine.  I used the Cafe Latte flavor.

While the recipe calls for only 2 Tbs of sugar, I knew I wanted to substitute the sugar for Swerve, a sugar substitute that is good for baking.  This also allows them to be better for Kenyon and reduces the points.  The last two times I have baked with Swerve, we felt like it was just not quite sweet enough.  I may consider adding 1/2 Tbs regular sugar and 2 Tbs Swerve although next time I think they could use some chocolate frosting so that would amp up the sweetness with some points addition too.

Lastly, I wanted to try grounding up Quaker Oats vs. using the flour.  I have no problem using flour and taking the points for them.  I am also thinking that grounding up oats into flour consistency changes the breakdown and thus it isn’t technically a Purple Plan zero point food.  I decided to try the ground up oats and tracked them in the recipe as oats vs. oat flour.  I’ll need look at what else is in oat flour the next time I am at the store and compare.  If you don’t feel comfortable counting this as zero points, than factor in the points for 1/2 cup oat flour and go with that.

The result, the mixture was a bit runny.  I’m not sure if this was because of the oats vs. the flour.  The donuts cooked up just fine but were small and thin.  The baking powder also didn’t mix in really well on the first batch.  I added more oat flour as I had ground up extra to make sure I had 1/2 a cup and that seemed to help make the batter thicker. 

Either way, they tasted really good but not very sweet.  I added some sugar free whip cream and really do think they needed a glaze or some frosting.  I didn’t have confection sugar on hand so I couldn’t make the glaze.  I knew Swerve also sells that variety so I might need to pick some up at the store.

Drizzle Me Skinny has a lot of great donut recipes that I am eager to try now that I don’t feel I need to buy a donut pan.  My recipe was able to make four batches of seven mini donuts (the amount the maker has spots for).  So, I tracked this recipe as four servings, seven donuts in a serving.

Enjoy!

New Cocktail Alert - Peppermint Cranberry Moscow Mule

Phoenix found a new peppermint vodka and an amazing recipe we were also excited to try.  I’ll admit, I don’t think I’d ever thought of trying Peppermint Twist Vodka in anything other than some hot chocolate.

The original recipe was from Parade magazine Celebrate Candy Cane Day With A Peppermint Cranberry Moscow Mule.  

I wanted to make this drink at our Thanksgiving dinner which meant I need to swing by the liquor store.  I picked up some Diet Cranberry, with only one gram of sugar in a bottle and I also already had some sugar-free ginger beer mixer on hand.  

A low-point festive cocktail was adopted.

1.5 oz Smirnoff Peppermint Twist

2 oz cranberry juice

6 oz ginger beer

Until I get a cocktail shaker, I mixed the peppermint twist and cranberry in the glass first and then poured over the ginger beer until the glass was full.  It was amazing!  You first get the taste of peppermint and then you get the sweetness of the ginger beer on the back in.  Of course, my sugar-free ginger beer wasn’t quite as delicious at regular ginger beer, but this way, I don’t have to count point for anything but the vodka.

My drink is just 3 points.  

After trying out a drink at home a few nights ago, I was craving more.  I didn’t need to spend the points nor did I need to get really drunk at home…although temping!  I decided to have a mocktail with the rest of the cranberry and ginger beer.  It still hit the spot!

I also found this Ruby Red Grapefruit also made my Ocean Spray and just 1 gram of sugar in 8 ounces.  I love the cranberry varieties and this grapefruit is just as delicious.  I got some diet ginger ale to try another cocktail recipe with spiced rum.

This the season! 

Lentil Sloppy Joes With Easy Prep

 After our WW Virtual Workshop on eating more plant based foods, Coach Cindi kept plugging the Trader Joes cooked lentils, which I’ve seen in the produce section.  I decided to pick some up and give it a whirl.  I also picked up the Mirepoix to make my life easier with meal prep this week.  It is $2.99 for cut up celery, carrots, and onions.  I’ll take the convince over the price any day.

I have loved the Rachel Ray Sloppy Joe Recipe and have always modified with with less brown sugar and/or brown sugar Splenda.  I have made it with ground turkey breast and with lentils.  After Coach Cindie suggested using the lentils from Trader Joes, that eliminated the step of having to cook them.  I threw together some Lentil Sloppy Joes, adding a few more ingredients than the original recipe.

I am planning to serve my Sloppy Joes over steam n’mash potatoes.  It was a very easy meal and on the Purple Plan, it is a whopping 1 point!  Even better.

Apple Cinnamon Oats To Spice Up Your Tastebuds

My Mom was encouraging me to buy the Apple Cinnamon Oat Premier Protein, which they enjoy drinking alone.  I don’t love milk and so I don’t keep it on hand.  I was thinking these might be good for the occasional over night oat and/or on some cereal.  I love cereal but I don’t keep it in the house because I lack control!

After picking up a pack last week at Costco, I finally got around to making some overnight oats.  Since I was hoarding my fat free yogurt for my chicken salad recipe, I mixed together 40g dry regular oatmeal and half a shake drink, as well as, two Stevia.

OMG!  It was amazing!  I loved it.  It almost had that cereal consistency since it was still a little milky and had an excellent sweet flavor.  I chopped up an apple and tried it first with just that.  Since I had the points to spare, I added in a dollop of peanut butter.  Of course it made it even more amazing.

This was the perfect snack to tide me over after my extra long work shift Friday night.  I had not planned to be at work 11.5 hours so I was really glad I had prepped the oats ahead of time.  It was a lifesaver as I was starving.

Enjoy.

Recipe: WW Pound Dropper Lemon Cheesecake

For several weeks now, I’ve been wanting to try the WW Pound Dropper Lemon Cheesecake recipe.  The only thing that has deterred me is the cheesecake needs to chill overnight.  Every time it sounds good, I don’t want to wait for it to chill.

Yesterday while picking up some grocery items, I got everything else I needed for the lemon cheesecake and decided to finally make it…and wait for it to chill.

The result?  It was delicious!

I couldn’t find lemon sugar-free fat-free pudding at Fred Meyer and I didn’t want to go all over town in search of it.  I went with vanilla, as per her instructions.  I also went for a real lemon/lemon juice and some sugar-free lemon jello power to amp up the flavor since I didn’t have the lemon pudding.  I think that was a fantastic idea.

I also tried Swerve since it was cheaper than Monkfruit.  

Had I been planning ahead better, I could have gotten the larger bag of Monkfruit at Costco for the better cost.  But, the Swerve worked just fine.  I want to try to the Oreo next.  With eight servings, although two servings is just 1 point on the Purple Plan, I am not sure if it will freeze well and how it will hold up in the fridge for multiple days.  I can see myself taking this to a family party though.  It was really tasty.

New WW Recipe: Italian Soup With Beans And Chicken Sausage

Hello and Happy Sunday.

 

We have had a BUSY 4^th of July holiday weekend at work.  I am officially halfway through day 3 of 4 and boy am I ready for the weekend.

 

I have been trying to branch out on my meal plan and this week I tried out a new WW recipe.  As always, I modify my recipes.  Part of that is to lower the points and part is due to what I have on hand and/or what I like as far as types of products.  I also like to reduce the servings because I only like leftovers for a few days.

 

Today’s recipe was Italian Soup with Beans and Chicken Sausage.  It was delicious.

 

For ease, I used the Instant Pot.  It came together really easy and I still have three days of leftovers.

Upping My Egg Game

I’ve been taking my eggs to the next level with Tostitos Queso Blanco Dip.  Ohhhhhh yummmmm…

Did you know that Tostinos (and other varieties on the market) has queso dip for 1 point?  That is right.  A serving of 2 Tbs is just 1 point.  That is some great bang for your buck.  I picked some up when I was doing my shopping for Cinco de Mayo and added some into my scrambled eggs.  The next day, I decided to put a dollop into my Southwest Egg Beater egg cups.  While they didn’t cook up nicely, they taste amazing.

I also added some turkey sausage crumbles to my cups.  I measured out 10g crumbles and added them to the bottom of the cups.  I put a dollop of queso into each cup and then poured the egg beaters on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.  

2 egg cups is 2 points.  

Next time, I think I’ll add the queso after they are baked.  I think I will top it and then put it back in the oven for a minute or two to warm it up.

Enjoy.

Meal Prep Shake Up: Tostadas & Lasagna Rolls

In the quest to find new meals for my week, I found some WW recipes that sounded good, Shephard’s Pie & Chicken Picatta Stir Fry, as well as some a few other recipes that sounded good and/or some I’ve not had in a while.  Also on the menu this week: Tostadas and Lasagna Rolls.

I love an easy meal and these tostadas with fat free refried beans could not be easier.  

When I was looking for my usual street taco corn tortillas (1 point each) The Hubs encouraged me to find something with less ingredients.  I found these that ended up being 3 points for two.  That means I don’t have to toast them.  They are tasty too.

Quick and easy meal.  I topped my tostadas with Daisy Light Sour Cream and some romaine lettuce.  I’m having round two at work tonight.

Fresh out of the oven is Lasagna Rolls.  This was a WW recipe idea that I knew I could shave some points off.  It started with using half the meat mixture of the Shepherd’s pie (before adding in the veggies).  I tucked half into the fridge.  I mixed together fat free cottage cheese, Italian seasoning, and grated Parmesan cheese.  That mixture was blended into the meat mixture I had set aside a few days prior.

After cooking the pasta noodles, I spread a small bit of mixture down the center and also added some mozzarella cheese (a mix of both fat free and reduced fat) and topped with tomato sauce and the remainder of the mozzarella cheese mix.

I’m excited to try these out later tonight for my work meal.  I’ll have a salad along side and I’ve saved some points for a Built Bar.

New WW Recipes: Chicken Piccata Stir Fry and Shepherd's Pie

Good Afternoon.  I had a great day off yesterday, especially since Kenyon decided to take an extra day off and join me.  We had some sick coverage this week so I have to work overtime on our only day of…today.  

We ran errands yesterday, which wasn’t super exciting but it meant we were in the car together and able to visit.  We also did a lot of eating out, one meal Tuesday evening and two meals on Wednesday.  I don’t have any other plans this week so I’ve meal planned and tracked low point foods.  Look out scale, I’m coming for you this week.

The new recipe we tried last night was Chicken Piccata Stir Fry. 

I had this WW recipe flagged and since we had just bought capers, it was the perfect time to try it out.  I also had asparagus on hand so we subbed that for green beans.  Lastly, since Kenyon is on a low carb diet, I cut back the amount of corn starch, which made it a bit soupy.  I’ve got ideas for next time to combat this.  I’m going to serve the leftovers with rice.

The evening meal at work tonight is Shepherd’s Pie.  

We had Shepherd's Pie when we were in Florida and now that potatoes are zero points on the Purple Plan, I knew I wanted to make it soon.  I found the WW recipe, and of course, modified it.  I can’t wait for dinner tonight so I can dig into this deliciousness.

I’ve talked about it before but these Steam n’ Mash potatoes make it so easy to complete this recipe.  I don’t even have to steam the full bag and it makes mashing super easy in my veggie steamer.

On track the remainder of this week and planning earning those blue dots!

Chow Mien x 2

I’m trying out a Chow Mien recipe for a second time and keeping my fingers crossed it is delicious.  So far, the taster is and I’ll see how it re-heats later at work.  I'm having it with General Tso's Chicken. I doubled the recipe and split this into two servings.

The last time I made this recipe, it was a bit dry.  I added half a cup of chicken stock and let it simmer in it and thicken near the end of cooking.  I also broke the dry pasta in half so it combined better with the cabbage (coleslaw) and celery.  

Also…this came today…

Eeeeek!  I did really great keeping my sweet tooth at by yesterday but today, I’ve pre-tracked 4 points so I can try one of these peanut butter brownie Built Bars.  I caved and ordered on the 15% off deal and wanted to try the PB brownie vs. just the PB, which I also like. I’m hoping this is worth every bite because I’ve been wanting to eat it since it arrived this afternoon.  But, I’m saving it for after one of my meals at work for my dessert.

Purple Plan Meals: Easy & Delicious

My meal prep this week has defentally set me up for success on the scale.  And, as long as I plan ahead, the Purple Plan is really versatile and easy to experiment with different types of meals.  I’m really enjoying the new myWW choices, especially the Purple Plan.

I used the air fryer to cook some chicken breast and OMG these were amazing.  I love crispy chicken and this was spot on.  I served my chicken along with some brown basmati rice for an easy 0 SPV meal.

We had on hand in the chest freezer a bone-in turkey breast which made a delicious Thanksgiving Dinner Re-Do.  I love turkey and all the fixings so I was in heaven.  Plus, cooking my turkey breast in the Instant Pot was super easy.  I have leftover turkey for turkey and noodles later this week.  

Kenyon found these ready-to-go russet potatoes in the freezer section at Walmart.  These were a game changer!!  We used them as the mashed potatoes for our turkey dinner but I’m super excited to pick up more to use in an easy potato soup.  Since potatoes are 0 SPV on the Purple Plan, I have been throwing together an easy potato soup in the Instant Pot and this will make it even easier.

I have also been enjoying whole wheat pasta on the Purple Plan.  I threw together this easy pepperoni pasta dish that I caught whim of the idea on Instagram.  My version had canned fire roasted tomatoes, fat free ricotta, fat free and light mozzarella, Italian seasoning, and garlic.  I mixed all that together with the cooked pasta and after portioning it into individual ramekins, I topped it with more cheese and turkey pepperoni.  This will be my meal at dinner served along side a salad so I’m excited to see how it tastes.

Don’t think I’m not also having some fun with my food this week.  And, I’ve had a few meals out as well.  We had our Team Cookie Exchange at work last night and I was feeling super festive.  I tracked two homemade cookies in the WW app, which I might have actually eaten more than just two.  There is no temptation in my house but I’m sure there will still be cookies at work when I arrive.  I am not tempted to indulge and with WI a few days away, this will help keep me on track.  I am going to remind myself that I’ve already tasted them all, they were delicious, and to pass right on by.  I feel good today despite extra cookies consumed yesterday and that is a big win in my book.

This has felt like the longest week ever and I can’t believe we are only on Saturday.  Let’s do this!