3 new dinner recipes - Try them!

Tuesday Night- Almond Crusted Tilapia. Its a new favorite fish recipe, for sure! I've made it once before and it went back on this month's dinner calendar for a reason! YUM!

Almond-Crusted Tilapia

 

*NOTE- this recipe makes TWO(2) fillets- double recipe if cooking for a family of 4!
Weight Watchers Points Plus - 6

 Ingredients:

1/4 cup whole natural almonds
2 tbsp dry breadcrumbs
1 tsp garlic and herb seasoning blend (like Mrs. Dash),
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp canola oil (I use Olive Oil)
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 (6 oz) tilapia fillets

Instructions

Place the almonds, bread crumbs, garlic-herb seasoning, and pepper in a food processor (I used my blender), and pulse until finely ground.
Pour crumb mixture into a shallow dish or plate.
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.
Brush mustard over both sides of your tilapia fillets.
Dredge the fillets in crumb mixture then place fish in skillet.
Cook for 3 minutes on each side or until fish flakes away easily.

Wednesday we had one of my favorite "summer" meals. I say summer because to make it the best possible way, you really need FRESH basil, and since my mom bought a plant last week that had plenty of beautiful basil, I used fresh, instead of my frozen "fresh" basil.  This is a super easy and quick stove-top meal that is easy to throw together!

Pan Glazed Chicken with Basil  

WW – 5 pts each

Ingredients
4 skinless boneless chicken breasts (4 oz. each)

2 teaspoons olive oil
¼  teaspoon salt
¼  teaspoon pepper
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 Tablespoons honey
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh (or 2 teaspoons dried leaves crushed) Basil

Directions:
Put oil in a skillet and heat to Medium high. 

Sprinkle both sides of the chicken with a little salt and pepper
Cook chicken on medium-high for 5 minutes or until lightly browned.                          
Flip it over and brown for about 6 minutes or until done.

Mix vinegar, honey and basil and drizzle over chicken and into skillet. Cook about one minute and flip it over for about one minute on the other side.  Very easy and very yummy! 

Thursday I had planned to make Mexican Meatball Subs, but kinks in our schedule prevented it. I did however, go ahead and make the actual meatballs and threw them in the freezer to make the subs later this month!

Friday night- I made a new recipe - Asian Lettuce Cups. It was fairly easy to throw together and was quite yummy. It was a "weird" dinner. Hubby and I ate it - the kids wouldn't touch it. I didn't really serve any "sides" and we just kind of helped ourselves and ate on the sofa while watching the news. Its almost more like an appetizer. THAT being said, I had TWO (2) servings for 9 points and I was NOT hungry the rest of the night!Its not comparable to PF Changs, in my opinion, but still something pretty good and very different than our normal dinner.

Oh - and since I have a freezer stocked full of ground venison, I used it instead of ground turkey. Ground Venison is basically the same points per ounce as ground turkey, so it was an even swap. However, if you choose to swap the ground turkey for ground beef- your points WILL be higher, so be aware of that!  This recipe requires some asian ingredients that most of us are not going to have lying around the pantry, so be aware of that, as well. I will now be investigating other recipes where I can use Hoisin sauce, rice vinegar and roasted red chili paste (sauce).

Asian Lettuce Cups

• 1 1/4 lb. fat-free ground turkey

• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• 1/8 tsp. ground ginger

• 2/3 cup thinly sliced green onions (about 4)

• 1 (8 oz) can sliced water chestnuts, drained and coarsely chopped

• 12 Boston lettuce leaves (I never found these- I used another large lettuce)

• 3 Tbsp hoisin sauce

• 2 Tbsp lower-sodium soy sauce (green top)

• 1 Tbsp rice vinegar

• 2 tsp. roasted red chili paste (what I found was more of a sauce...in a small jar)

• 1/8 tsp. salt

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add turkey, garlic and ginger to the pan and cook for about 6 minutes or until turkey is browned. Stir to crumble. Combine turkey mixture, onions and chopped water chestnuts in a large bowl, stirring well, and set aside.

Meanwhile in a small bowl, whisk together hoisin, soy sauce, rice vinegar and roasted red chili paste and drizzle over the turkey mixture. Toss to coat completely. Add about 1/4 cup turkey mixture to each lettuce leaf, serve and enjoy!

 

Below is the nutritional info that came with the recipe. However, no matter how I calculated it, I couldn't come up with 5 points per serving, I was getting 4.3 = so I said 9 points for 2 servings (or 4 lettuce cups).

 

Servings: 6

Serving Size: Two (2) lettuce cups with 1/4 cup turkey mixture each (so basically -1/2 cup is one serving)

Calories: 182

Fat: 7.5 g

Carbs: 9.7 g

Fiber: 0.6 g

Protein: 19.1 g

Old Points: 4.1 pts

Points+: 5 pts

Here is the original blog post from Eat Yourself Skinny regarding the recipe.

Saturday we ate out- Mexican. I had Portabella and Vegie Fajitas. VERY good....the filling was basically 0 points, but each flour tortilla (3 came with it) was 4 points. I ate 2 1/2 of the tortillas, but I rounded up and went ahead and gave myself 12 points. I also enjoyed a few chips and cheese dip, so I added 6 points for that, as well. I pretty high dinner for me, but that is what the extra weekly points are for, right?

Sunday night, Hubby smoked a turkey! YUM!  Complete with roasted vegies, brocolli and a fruit salad, dinner was only the value of the turkey, which is 1 point per oz- and I figured I ate about 8 oz. It was SOOOO good!!!  I have 2 other meals on my dinner calendar this week that will use some of that turkey - Turkey Club sandwiches and Turkey Tortellini soup in the crockpot (which ironically is for a day that rain and cooler temps are forecasted this week).

And as a weight loss update- I am down 17.5 pounds total. My goal is somewhere between 20-25 depending on how my clothes are fitting. I want to give myself some wiggle room! :-)  Still on pace to hit my goal by Memorial Day (or sooner!)!!!

Down 16 lbs....and a new recipe & 3 point BLT!

Sorry to be MIA for a while - it was spring break!  I am officially down 16 lbs and I am in my size 10 stretch jeans & dresses. I can get INTO and fasten my size 10 khakis and slacks, but I wouldn't wear them in public! Yeah..still a tad TIGHT.  I'd say another 3-4 lbs and I'll be good to go! Although I do have lots of clothes already in that size, I still see a shopping trip in my future the next time we are in Destin (Memorial Day!)!!!

So, since I've been MIA and on spring break, it meant I didn't cook much and we ate out several times. I did make the WW deep dish pizza "casserole". Have I posted that recipe? I also made a new Chinese Chicken Stir-fry. Super easy and pretty good. I may add a few more flavors next time I make it though.The original recipe link can be found here.

Chinese Chicken Stir-Fry

 

 

ingredients:

 

3 chicken breasts - I used 1 lb.

1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced - I used 1/2 of a large red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced - I used 1/2 of large yellow bell pepper 

1 stick celery, chopped

3 skinned carrots (or about 10-12 baby carrots)

1/2 white onion, diced

20 edamame (I used sugar snap peas)

2 Tbsp light soy sauce (the green bottle) - I think I used about 3 Tbsp...I just kept adding a dash of it to make it taste more "asian."

3 Tbsp lemon juice - this was about 1 whole lemon.

1 Tbsp olive oil

Dash of salt and pepper

Pinch of red pepper flakes (I used a "dash" of Cayenne red pepper- it was not enough)

 

Chop up all veggies, except for the edamame, and cut up chicken breasts and season with a bit of salt and pepper. Set aside. Heat a skillet on medium heat and add about a tablespoon of olive oil. Throw veggies into skillet and sauté for about 3 minutes. Add chicken, soy sauce, lemon juice and red pepper flakes and cook for about 10-15 minutes or until chicken is completely cooked. Enjoy!

Servings: 4
Serving Size: 1 cup
Calories: 167
Fat: 4 g
Carbs: 8.7 g
Fiber: 2 g
Protein: 21 g
Old Points: 3.3 pts
Points+: 4 pts

I served the Stir-Fry over approx. 1/2 - 3/4 cup of brown rice, for an additional 4 points. (about 1/3 of the "bag" of Uncle Ben's 90 second microwave brown rice! The whole bag is 10 points and its supposed to be only 2 servings, but I can usually get 3-4 out of it. I would have PREFERRED Jasmine Rice, but its several more points a serving.) And just and FYI - my kids did NOT eat this, but I liked it! I will try more pepper and maybe a tad more soy sauce next time.

OH - my new 3-point lunch fave is a BLT. (4 slices of pre-cooked Turkey Bacon - 1 point per 2 slices), on a 1-point wrap, with lettuce and tomato. No mayo required, but if you must, I recommend a Laughing Cow cheese wedge or maybe even Olive Oil light mayo or a 100-calorie guacamole pack (3 points). But its YUMMO, and less points, without any "dressing" in my opinion!!! As always, I eat my wrap with a heaping portion of fresh vegies like fresh cut bell peppers, baby carrots, sugar snap peas, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes and a heaping portion of fresh fruit- like items such as a sliced up mango, grapes, a cut up orange, fruit salad, banana...etc...you get the drift. Its all very filling and satisfies me until about 3 or 3:30 when its snack time! :-)

On the menu this week are a few old favorites like Almond Encrusted Tilapia and Pan-Glazed Chicken and a few new ones to try - Mexican Meatball subs and Asian Lettuce cups. The weekend includes a smoked turkey - so excited!!

3 point lunch & Baked Sweet & Sour Chicken

After a weekend full of family meals and celebrations, I stepped on the scale this morning..and ouch. BEFORE I did so, I had lost a total of 14.5 lbs. Somehow, in 1 day, I gained 1.5 lbs. Huh?  I'm hoping that was a fluke or water weight or something crazy. I know I ate more than I should have in chocolate yesterday, but I didn't eat 1.5 lbs worth of Hershey Kisses! EEK!   Here is a fun pic of me (in my size 10 dress!!) and my girls on Easter Sunday:

Regardless...back on the wagon today. I ate oatmeal for b'fast (5 pts) and had coffee (1 pt for creamer) and had a banana for snack. Now I'm eating my 3 point lunch - yep - 3 points! Turkey (3 slices = 1 pt), Cheese (1 pt), lettuce (0) all on a 1 point wrap, with lots of fresh vegies and a sliced up orange - all 0 points. Its pretty filling, that is for sure. Its pretty much what I eat each day for lunch. I change up the wrap somedays to include a 100 calorie pac of guacamole (3 pts) instead of cheese (so the wrap would be 5 pts) and to that..sometimes I add 2 strips of turkey bacon for an extra 1 point = total of 6 points. OR, to the turkey and wrap, I sometimes add one of the flavored Laughing Cow cheese wedges for 1 point (3 points total).  It all really depends on what is for dinner and if I need to eat a conservative lunch or if I have points to spare! The Progresso soups with WW points are also kinda good- at most, a whole can is 4 points. (the pot roast is yucky, but the others are ok, in my opinion). I really need some other low point lunch options- do you have any suggestions?

And also- I would like to say that the Ranch encrusted tilapia recipe that I made on Good Friday was SOOO YUMMY!!  It was the first time I had ever cooked with Panko crumbs and I swear, the taste VERY MUCH reminded me of Captain D's!!  Very yummy...even as leftovers the next day!

Tonight is Baked Sweet & Sour Chicken. Its a new recipe that I'm about 99% sure I plucked from Pinterest. I will let you know how it is! I plan to serve it with Jasmine rice, which is another reason I'm having a 3 pt lunch! :-)  Jasmine rice is 5 points a serving! I don't know....I may forego the rice, but I'll make it for everyone else.

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

This amazingly delicious Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe tastes just like the kind that you’d get at your favorite Chinese fast food restaurant, but this light sweet and sour chicken has just 2.5g fat and 8 Points per serving.

Ingredients

• 1lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 4 tbsp ketchup
• 1 tbsp soy sauce (I plan to use "lite")
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• Salt & pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dip chicken into the cornstarch to coat then dip into the liquid egg substitute.
3. Spray a large skillet with non-fat cooking spray and set over medium high heat. Cook chicken until browned but not cooked through.
4. Spray 9×13 baking dish with the non-fat cooking spray and place the chicken in it.
5. Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl with a whisk and then pour evenly over the chicken. (I plan to pour only on 1/2 of the chicken, otherwise the kids won't eat it!)
6. Bake for one hour and turn the chicken every 15-20 minutes.

Preparation time: 15 minute(s)

Cooking time: 1 hour(s) 10 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 4

Culinary tradition: Chinese

Entire recipe makes 4 servings
Serving size is about 1 cup
Each serving = 8 Points +

PER SERVING: 335 calories; 2.5g fat; 42 carbohydrates; 27g protein

A Weekend Full of Food & Vegie Spiral Recipe

Today marks one month I've been back on Weight Watchers. I've lost 5 lbs, which as I remember, is about right for me. If memory serves, it typically takes me 4-5 months to lose 20-25 lbs. My original goal was 10% of my body weight and I'm over 1/2 way there, however, after going through boxes and boxes of size 10 clothes I am still hanging on to, I believe my goal will be a size 10...however much weight that is, which I suspect will be about 7-10 more lbs than my original goal. But here's the deal. I probably have 3 boxes of size 10 clothes- pants, shorts, dresses, shirts, etc., all in size 10! I can save a ton of money by not having to shop too much when I reach my goal. Most are just plain jeans, khakis, black pants, etc....nothing that goes out of "style". I will probably need new "trendy" summer shirts by the time I reach my size 10 goal, though. SO...my new goal...a comfortable size 10, however much weight that is! (I'm GUESSING about another 15-17 lbs). I am hoping to reach that goal by Memorial Day.

I hosted a lot this weekend...a Slumber Party for my almost 10-year old, which consisted of pizza (which I didn't eat) and FroYo (which I did eat- but it was 'sorbet' with fresh fruit on top!). I ended up eating steamed Chinese "dumpins" or "potstickers" or whatever they are called, for dinner. I probably ate one or two too many, but they were yummy!  I calculated that they were about 5 pts for 4 of them.

Saturday night we had family over and hubby smoked some chicken breasts. We had 2 different vegie dishes, both really good, as well as cookies, and appetizers (Wholly guac & chips and cocktail shrimp & sauce). I ate way too much Wholly Guacamole, but OMG, its soooo good!!! The dinner was "low points", but the appetizers and dessert...not so much. I knew it was coming, though, so I ate a small points breakfast and a 3-point lunch and I had almost all of my "extra" 49 points to use!

Sunday night, hubby grilled a venison steak. I made this Vegie Spiral from the blog "For the Love of Cooking", to go with it and it was good.

I think I packed the vegies TOO tightly together in mine. I used 2 potatoes and I think one (1) would have been sufficient. I don't think I used but about 1/4 cup of cheese on top, either, so I gave it 1 point per serving to account for the potato slices and scant amount of parm cheese. It was missing  something...which I ultimately decided was BUTTER!  Next time, I may give it a few squirts of "I Can't Belive its Not Butter" spray and see if that improves it. I also think it was TOO garlicky, if there is such a thing. Maybe 1 garlic clove would have been enough? And next time, I may sub bell peppers for the potatoes. I also served a fruit salad and Sister Schubert Parker House style rolls (soooo good- 4 points for 2 of them, but so worth it!).  They talked me into going to DQ for dessert and upon doing a little research on the internet, I settled on a DQ sandwich for 5 points, which was way better and the same size as the 11 points for the mini-Blizzard! YIKES! Although not on the big board menu, they do sell the DQ sandwiches and Dilly Bars (another low point option). The small cones (not dipped) are also low in points if you really need a DQ fix!

Whew - basically the weekend was all about food, but I managed to survive it without gaining any weight. I didn't lose any, but I DID NOT GAIN ANY!  That is a win in my book!

Today is Monday- leftovers for dinner, which probably means smoked chicken and leftover vegies. The rest of the week looks like this:

Tuesday: Broiled Tilapia Parmesan
Wednesdsay: Baked Ziti (from the freezer- prepared months ago before I was on WW- I will have to watch my portion size, as NOTHING about this dish is "diet", but it needs to be eaten soon!)
Thursday: Chicken Cordon Blue, made with fat free ham and Laughing Cow swiss cheese
Friday: Layered Mexican Chicken (from Pinterest- a WW recipe)
Saturday - my oldest daughter's birthday, so its her choice. I'm guessing Spaghetti.
Sunday: Sauted Tilapia w/ Lemon-Peppercorn Sauce

And how is this for motivation- I have to get my Driver's License renewd before 3/30. I would like to drop another 3 lbs by then!!! I think I can...I think I can.....

Weekend Update - ribs & Chinese food

Ok - First and foremost- the blackened tilapia tacos on Friday were good. Not great. I think I would have preferred just the Blackened Tilapia! It was pretty yummy by itself. And I left out the cumin in the spices. I don't like it and didn't have it on hand. It tasted fine to me. The Key Lime sandwiches were good, but I am quickly discovering I'm not a fan of Greek yogurt. They were too.....tangy? yogurty? I think I might have liked it better with maybe a mixture of FF Coolwhip and a Yoplait Key Lime Pie yogurt. I may have to play around with it.

Saturday, hubby smoked "spare" ribs, complete with a yummy honey and BBQ sauce mixture on top. I ate four, along with some roasted vegies and some fruit. They were SOOO good. My WW book said 4 spareribs are 9 pts, but since it probably didn't consider the sauce, I gave myself 12 pts. I had the points to use, so it was all good!

Sunday, hubby and my oldest daughter wanted Chinese. I did Chinese food a lot my first few rounds on WW and knew that Moo Goo Gai Pan (5 pts- 1 cup) and egg drop soup (1 pt- 1 cup) were ok. Add in 1 cup of steamed rice (5 pts) and I did okay for dinner...11 points. I may opt for steamed dumplings next time (7 pts for 4, maybe?), as this particular restaurant's Moo Goo Gai Pan was pretty tasteless. Tonight is ballet night for my youngest, which means I'll be running to/fro during the dinner hour(s), so Mondays are typically leftovers or "fend for yourself" nights.

Mondays are also the "end" of my week, and I have 35 points in my bank to use (or lose). I probably will not use them this week. I'm sure I will use my points next week, though! Birthday dinner on Wednesday night and a possible Girls Night Out on Saturday night! Looks like my total lost for this week will probably be 2.5 lbs - which brings my total lost to 8 lbs (4 lbs lost on WW in the last 2 weeks).

I also have a Honey Pecan Chicken recipe in my frig that has been in the freezer for 6 months. I HAVE to make it soon. Its NOT WW friendly, as some of the ingredients for the sauce include butter, whippping cream, orange juice and whiskey! I will just use very little sauce on my chicken. The chicken itself won't be but about 5-6 pts, I think. I would post the recipe, but its SO not diet friendly. Maybe I'll make it tomorrow. :-)