The Healthie Foodie

REALLY Healthy Pasta with Tomatoes and Arugula

2010-05-11T20:07:00.003-04:00

This is really healthy pasta, I mean it... 2 Weight Watchers points per cup of cooked pasta. (Compared to 4 points for normal).

A big thank you to Gourmet Mom on the Go, who sent me a package of this Fiber Gourmet pasta and some other goodies as a pick-me-up when I was having a rough week.

This stuff is good. I was a little afraid that the nutrition facts and therefore the Weight Watchers points would be, um, too good to be true.

Let's put it this way, when you see 18 g of fiber per serving on a package, you think you will most surely be "punished" for trying to skimp on points by overloading on fiber.

Honestly... it wasn't really a problem! Again, I was a little worried that I'd be overloading on fiber, since I typically eat a lot of fiber throughout my day anyway (fruit, fresh veggies, whole grains), but there honestly weren't any bad side effects. (This is a lovely conversation, isn't it?)

So, now that I know this is a low calorie, low point way to get some delicious pasta in the evenings when I'm craving comfort food and a glass of wine, I am addicted.

I've been making the tomato fettuccine pasta with grape tomatoes that I blister and roast in a pan with fresh garlic, then add a little spinach or preferably arugula. I drizzle about 1 Tbsp of olive oil, some salt, and possibly some grated Parmesan, and there ya go!

Honestly, it is really delicious. Just read this review at Slashfood. I just ordered a case of the spaghetti for 20 bucks (6 packages).

And if I eat this pasta the way I like it with some olive oil and a bit of parm, it's around 4 points total!

Honey mustard brussel sprouts with bacon

2010-05-10T23:15:00.003-04:00

This recipe for brussel sprouts would probably count as an unhealthy dish, but since the brussels are leafy green healthful veggies, I still pretend the recipe is a healthy choice.

And while the recipe is tremendous, I'm sorry to say that I don't actually have a recipe for these. But, I think there's a Southern Living recipe out there somewhere for honey mustard brussel sprouts, because I believe that's where my mom got the recipe. So, ya know, let me know if you find it. It wouldn't hurt for me to start following a recipe too since I also think my mom mentioned her version called for a dash or two of Worcestershire sauce.

So here's how you make the ones I experimented wih one day:

Start with bacon...

(yes, I know I told you it wasn't that healthy of a recipe. Go with it).

Cook the bacon in a pan (around 2-3 strips). Remove the bacon, and drain any excessive grease from the bottom of the pan, leaving just a little for cooking.
Add fresh, trimmed brussel sprouts cut in halves to the pan to saute until they start getting tender, and to where they have been moderately roasted. Add a bit of kosher salt or pepper to the pan.
In a side bowl, melt half a stick of butter. (Yes, I know... the real healthie foodie would be disgusted by this amount of butter. In the meantime, I've taken over and think butter on brussel sprouts is absolutely delicious and necessary.)
Add about 2 Tbsp of Dijon mustard. Add sugar or honey to taste. Some might say you could also use honey mustard. That might be easiest.
Coat the brussels in the honey mustard sauce and crumble bacon on top.

And there you are! And PS, the butter is truly necessary in the sauce in order to cut the overwhelming taste of the mustard.

It is important to note that Ben loves these so much, he eats them like candy. He has been known to make them just for himself on a Tuesday night...

We made these with salmon and it was delicious!

Playing catch up: Classic Beef Pot Roast (for 300 calories!)

2010-04-13T20:55:00.005-04:00

What month is it? Hmm.... April. Yeah.

What are you craving these days? Fresh produce like strawberries and asparagus that are finally in season?

Yeah, sorry - this recipe is out of season. But well worth noting, because back when I made it - it was above noteworthy!

I looked up pot roast recipes over the winter, simply because I was looking for a man-pleasin', stick-to-your-ribs kind of recipe for winter. This recipe really did the trick, and also reminded me that hearty doesn't always mean... fatty.

Put simply: this was awesome. I should have known by the ratings on myrecipes.com:

I was getting lots of compliments from all of the guys I was feeding that night, but more importantly, this was the kind of recipe where I said to myself: "This really is awesome! Go me!" I kind of couldn't get over myself... and shouldn't we all feel like this when we slave over a meal?

(And now you know why I felt it necessary to post about a meal I made 4 months ago...)

So, on with the recipe :)

Classic Beef Pot Roast

From Cooking Light, October 2006.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 (3-pound) boneless chuck roast, trimmed
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cups coarsely chopped onion
1 cup dry red wine
4 thyme sprigs
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium beef broth
1 bay leaf
4 large carrots, peeled and cut diagonally into 1-inch pieces
2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
Fresh thyme leaves (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350º.

Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sprinkle chuck roast with salt and pepper. Add roast to pan; cook 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove roast from pan. Add onion to pan; sauté 8 minutes or until tender.

Return browned roast to pan. Add the red wine, thyme sprigs, chopped garlic, beef broth, and bay leaf to pan; bring to a simmer. Cover pan and bake at 350° for 1 1/2 hours or until the roast is almost tender.

Add carrots and potatoes to pan. Cover and bake an additional 1 hour or until vegetables are tender. Remove thyme sprigs and bay leaf from pan; discard. Shred meat with 2 forks. Serve roast with vegetable mixture and cooking liquid. Garnish with thyme leaves, if desired.

Lentil and Arugula Salad with Pine Nuts and Goat Cheese

2010-02-21T13:30:00.005-05:00

Sorry that it's been a while, but I have a lot of catching up to do on what I've been making. First off, is one of my new favorite salads.

I'm always looking for a new way to enjoy salads, because truthfully I most often prefer vegetables in another form. I've found that I like lentils and onion on salads because they bring a lot of flavor and extra texture to the salad without packing on too much additional fat and calories. I tried this combo on a previous version but I'm still experimenting on what I like.

So what's been missing? The right dressing. I've recently discovered that I would prefer a homemade vinaigrette over a bottled dressing, any day. In particular, Ive been taking some white balsamic vinegar and whisking it with olive oil, salt and pepper. Making it myself allows me to get the right level of tangy sweetness without being overpowering. In particular, some of the low fat dressings seem to rely too much on sweeteners to compensate for flavor, and end up turning me off of the salad altogether.

So - here's what's in the salad I've been loving lately:

Arugula
Goat cheese (or feta)
Toasted pine nuts (or sliced almonds)
Sauteed red onion
Steamed lentils (precooked from Trader Joe's)
White balsamic dressing

The goat cheese here was a little melted from the onions and pine nuts, which I had just taken from their respective pans on the stove, but it was still good!

I've also added chicken occasionally to make it an entree salad. Ben really like this salad, too so we've recreated it several times. I've tried using a regular spring mix of greens or spinach but looking back I think it was best with the arugula.

Please share any other salad recipes you have; I'm always looking for more!

Chicken, Potato and Corn Chowder

2010-01-18T15:21:00.004-05:00

This recipe is a slight variation from Cooking Light's Potato and Corn Chowder (January 2006 issue). Like many other cooks, I'm now in love with MyRecipes.com, which is where I found this archived Cooking Light recipe. By finding the recipe online, I was able to benefit from a ton of great ideas for tweaking the recipe based on the reader reviews. See below for the recipe and some tweaks of my own in red!

Chicken, Potato and Corn Chowder
Based off of Cooking Light's Potato and Corn Chowder (January 2006) I added calories with the olive oil, chicken and broth, but saved a few on the fat-free half and half.

Ingredients

Cooking spray (I used olive oil - I have a cast-iron dutch oven and prefer using real oil rather than cooking spray with it)
1 1/2 cups prechopped green bell pepper (I took this out based on the reviews)
1 cup chopped green onions, divided (about 1 bunch)
A hefty handful of pre-diced celery and onion mix (I added this in to replace the bell pepper)
2 cups frozen corn kernels
1 1/4 cups water
About 1 1/2 cups of low-sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon seafood seasoning (such as Old Bay)
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 pound baking potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (I probably ended up using about 2 lbs. of potatoes.... oops?)
1 cup half-and-half (I used fat-free and it turned out reat, still. Less fat!)
1/4 cup chopped parsley (nope.... I don't really care about parsley)
1 1/2 cups rotisserie chicken, chopped. (I got mine at publix.)
3/4 teaspoon salt (I added more because te reviews said it was a little bland, and because I added more volume to the chowder with the potatoes and broth)
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese

Preparation

Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray (or about 1-2 tbsp olive oil). Add bell pepper and 3/4 cup green onions (I added the celery / onion mix here) , and sauté 4 minutes or until lightly browned.

Increase heat to high; add corn, (I waited at this step and let the corn do a little bit of roasting with the veggies before adding the liquids - the reviews said roasting the corn gave it a little more flavor.) water, chicken broth, seafood seasoning, thyme, red pepper, and potatoes; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender (it took about an additional 5-10 minutes since I had added more potatoes and broth). Remove from heat, mash the potatoes down using a potato masher or pastry fork so that the consistency thickens a little. Stir in half-and-half, chicken, and chopped parsley, and salt. Place about 1 1/2 cups soup in each of 4 bowls; sprinkle each with 2 tablespoons cheese and 1 tablespoon green onions.

Roasted Winter Veggies

2010-01-10T14:14:00.006-05:00

When I'm being good, roasted veggies are what satisfy my cold-weather cravings for something warm, savory and filling. I posted about my favorite roasted veggies earlier last year, and truth be told, brussel sprouts onions and carrots remain my favorite. But this recipe is another alternative with butternut squash, turnips and yams.

I bought these root veggies already pre-cut from Trader Joe's, which was such a life saver! Truly, curring up a butternut squash is my version of a nightmare; it's harder than carving a pumkin!

I added some carrots to the medley and roasted the mixture at 425 with some olive oil, kosher salt, pepper, garlic, rosemary and thyme. I think it took roughly 20-25 minutes to get the veggies to a roasted brown color.

Here was my finished product:

I was particularly happy that I could take this photo during the daytime, when lighting made it so much easier to take pictures. The veggies smelled delicioius, although I think I discovered that I like butternut squash and yams more when they are roasted with sweet flavors, like brown sugar. Personally, I'll probably stick to my original roasted vegetables. The bitterness of brussels sprouts is much more appealing to me with garlic and herb flavors.

The recipe itself is really not brain surgery, and I've seen lots of great foodies make these veggies with some variation. Here are a couple of good recipes to try as well:

Roasted Winter Vegetables from Ina Garten
Herbed Roasted Winter Vegetables from Bon Appetit via Epicurious (I really want to try this recipe because it roasts beets, acorn squash, and rutabegas among others - all of which I haven't worked wth much before!)
Roasted Winter Vegetables from NYT's Bitten Blog

An overdue holiday baking post (and an unofficial tribute to nutella)

2010-01-09T19:53:00.022-05:00

I made a lot of baked goods toward the end of 2009 that were delicious and worthy of sharing (even though I'm a couple of months late!) The two that I'll feaure now had nutella on the ingredients list, which means I was SOLD as soon as I saw them in Cooking Light.

The only downfall was, while these recipes came from Cooking Light, I discovered they are not actually "light" by my own definitions, but really just an example of a "responsible portion" of a full-fat food. Some people would practice the "everything in moderation" mantra when eating sweets, but I just can't have a 1 inch square of baklava for 300 calories and call it a day....

Generally if I know I can't have just one of something, I try not to set myself up for disaster, but in this case, I did not follow my own advice. These recipes were pretty high calorie for the serving size, so, please know that while they were super delicious, these recipes are NOT your best bet for a conservative calroic alternative.

Chocolate Baklava from December 2009 issue Cooking Light

This baklava probably ranks among one of my favorite kinds of desserts, because it has all of my weaknesses. Delicious nuts like almonds, hazelnuts and pistachios that give it texture and crunch, with buttery flaky phyllo dough... and nutella!!!

As I mentioned, I have an unhealthy love for Nutella. Ben looked over into the kitchen at one point in my baking process, and saw me elbow-deep in nutella and gladfully licking it off of every finger. Not my finest moment...

The whole process was a little frustrating the day I made it. First off - the grocery stores in the area were working against me, and it took me forever to buy everything I needed. I even had to buy a glass baking dish, since Ben's apartment is not quite as stocked for baking as mine...

Then , of course we all know how difficult it can be to work with phyllo, but once I finally got everything assembled, I accidentally poured the honey solution over the dish BEFORE baking (what was I thinking?!!). Fortunately, the consistency was still spot on, except for pieces in the middle of the dish which were a little too gooey.

All in all, this recipe was completely delicious, but I'll have to wait awhile before making it again, since I'll be inclined to eat 1/3 of the pan in a sitting...

Yield: 24 servings (serving size: 1 piece = 238 calories)

Ingredients

3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup water
1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick
1 cup hazelnut-chocolate spread (such as Nutella)
1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup roasted pistachios, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup blanched toasted almonds, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped (I subbed the walnuts, which I'm allergic to, for more almonds))
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray
24 (14 x 9–inch) sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed
1/2 cup butter, melted

Preparation

Combine the first 3 ingredients in a medium saucepan over low heat; stir until honey dissolves. Increase heat to medium; cook, without stirring, until a candy thermometer registers 230° (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat; keep warm. Discard cinnamon stick.
Preheat oven to 350°.
Place hazelnut-chocolate spread in a microwave-safe bowl; microwave at HIGH for 30 seconds or until melted. Combine hazelnuts and next 5 ingredients (through salt). Lightly coat a 13 x 9-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Working with 1 phyllo sheet at a time (cover remaining dough to prevent drying), place 1 phyllo sheet lengthwise in bottom of prepared pan, allowing ends of sheet to extend over edges of dish; lightly brush with butter. Repeat procedure with 5 phyllo sheets and butter. Drizzle about 1/3 cup melted hazelnut -chocolate spread over phyllo. Sprinkle evenly with one-third of nut mixture (about 1/2 cup). Repeat procedure twice with phyllo, butter, hazelnut-chocolate spread, and nut mixture. Top last layer of nut mixture with remaining 6 sheets phyllo, each lightly brushed with butter. Press gently into pan.
Make 3 lengthwise cuts and 5 crosswise cuts to form 24 portions using a sharp knife. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes or until phyllo is golden. Remove from oven. Drizzle honey mixture over baklava. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Cover; store at room temperature.

Next up....

Chocolate-Hazelnut Thumbprints f rom December 2009 issue of Cooking Light

Truthfully, I was sick as a dog when I made these, but I was determined to do some holiday baking, and wanted to bring these for a Christmas party with close friends from college. They were a delight to make, although I found that this was a particularly cakey dough, so it wasn't as easy as I had thought to roll the cookies in chopped hazelnuts.

Aaaaand just like the baklava above, I truly could not resist snacking on the nutella straight from thejar, and sneaking bits of dough while I was cooking. So if I am being honest, this was really a healthy cooking FAIL.

Yield: 28 cookies (serving size: 1 cookie = 104 calories)

Ingredients

4.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
1 cup powdered sugar
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1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon instant espresso (optional)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup finely chopped hazelnuts, toasted
1/3 cup hazelnut-chocolate spread (such as Nutella)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.
Weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, and salt; stir with a whisk. Place butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Stir egg yolks with a whisk, adding espresso, if desired. Add the yolk mixture and vanilla to butter; beat well. Add flour mixture to butter mixture; beat at low speed just until combined.
Turn dough out onto a sheet of wax paper; knead 6 times or until smooth and shiny. Shape dough into 28 (1-inch) balls. Roll sides of balls in nuts, pressing gently. Arrange balls 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Press thumb into center of each cookie, leaving an indentation. Bake, 1 batch at a time, at 350° for 10 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool completely on wire racks. Spoon a scant 1/2 teaspoon hazelnut-chocolate spread into center of each cookie.

The good, the bad, and the ugly of recent foodie encounters

2009-11-30T22:10:00.005-05:00

It's been a while since I posted - given that little Thanksgiving thing last week, ya know - so I thought I should write up a little post tonight.

Lately, I've had mixed emotions about eating, dieting, cooking. It's a mix of being inspired to cook non-healthy things for the nurturing fun of it, but then also wanting more than ever to drop a couple of the pounds that I've gained back since moving to Atlanta, and re-joined the real world. ("Real World" meaning a life that is shared with other people - a boyfriend I see and cook for on the weekends, cooking for fun, and actually going out to eat with friends - rather than sticking to myself, working out and barely eating.)

I'm still not sure I've figured out the right balance or the right routine to make sure I don't put on weight. Maybe it's just that I am super concerned since it's the holidays and I am coming off of a week where I indulged, but it's been weighing (no pun intended) on my mind lately.

But if there's one thing I've been doing right, it's this:

My trusty, HUGE tupperware full of raw veggies and fat-free T. Marzetti's ranch veggie dip. It's so filling, and I think pretty tasty. If there's one thing I need to keep doing, it's filling myself up on stuff like this.

If there's another thing I've been doing right, it's this:

Enjoying things like fresh flowers, instead of food-things. Oh, and generally enjoying life and other people.

What I need to do more of:

Work out. This means stop wasting time in the evenings. Which probably also means working late, and then coming home and wasting time on the computer. If I can't control the working late part, I can't keep making excuses for letting it affect the routines I know are good for me.

Stay focused. You see, it's the eating, stupid: during a dinner party, at work when someone brings in a baked good, at home when I get a recipe I want to try that I know I'll over-indulge in. Regardless, it all starts with just NOT eating it (or cooking it) in the first place. Not sure if that's something I'll ever truly master, but I can try.

In the meantime, I should probably just work out more. Which means I should go to bed, so I will wake up in the morning and get on the trusty elliptical machine.

Good night!

Grilled chicken salad with lentils, feta and shallots

2009-11-16T20:41:00.006-05:00

I wanted to share the salad I made for lunch today, because it's a new winning combo for my lunches of late.

I - like a lot of people - typically only like salads when they have a lot of stuff on them. The usual suspects are cheese, croutons, chicken, hard boiled egg, and creamy dressings. I've tried using the low-fat versions of all of these items, but at the end of the day, even the lowfat condiments and toppings "add up" to sometimes not be worth it in my diet book.

For instance:

A salad with lettuce, cucumber, tomato = O points
Add 1/4 cup reduced fat shredded cheese = 2 points
Add a hard boiled egg = 2 points
Add 3 oz grilled chicken = 3 points

= 7 points total

And that's not even counting dressing.

Now, that's not an unreasonable amount for most dieters - about the same as your average lean cuisine meal - but it's still close to half of my daily points value. For me, I've always needed enough budge room in my points or calories to be able to "play" throughout the day, whether that's a mid morning snack, a little candy, a latte, etc.

So, in the end, I've experimented with different kinds of salads, but more often than not, I defer against them because I'd rather get veggies a different way.

But this salad.... this salad was a keeper. And for what I calculated was a 4-5 point total.

Baby spring greens, grilled chicken, 1/4 cup lentils, 1/4 cup reduced fat feta, shallots.

Shallots = o points
1/4 cup lentils= 0 points (60 cals / 4 g fiber)
1/4 cup reduced fat feta = 1 point
Lettuce = o points
3 oz chicken cooked with spray (no oil) = 3 points.

I had brought some lemon and garlic herb dressing that is 25 cals per 2 Tbsp. which would have been 1 point, but I had enough going on with the salad that I didnt even use it. It was really yummyand I think the lentils were a great way to add stuff with hardly any additonal points or calories.

Before this salad topping magic-maker, I had really been enjoying grilled veggies, like red onions and peppers, but they were not as good leftover as they were freshly cooked.

What are your favorite salad toppers?

Low Fat Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

2009-11-15T21:42:00.006-05:00

I was excited to make these low fat chicken enchiladas that I had found through MyRecipes.com, since I'm always looking for guy-friendly meals.

These were a delicious change of pace, and about 8 Weight Watchers points a piece (454 calories). Both Ben and my roomate's boyfriend liked them a lot, which begs the question: if these pass the "not-so-diet-conscious-guy" taste test, why would you make them with full-fat ingredients?

(I also just noticed the Cooking Light picture has these in a green casserole dish as well!)

These call for normal flour tortillas (medium sized), but I was wondering how they would be with low-carb flour tortillas? Maybe it would compromise the taste. I may experiment at report back. Normally I'm a sucker for cutting out the calories of normal flour tortillas since they can be so "expensive" calorically.

A serving is one enchilada, and this makes 8. Here's the recipe from Cooking Light below. Enjoy!

Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas, Cooking Light May 2009

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken breast
2 cups (8 ounces) preshredded reduced-fat 4-cheese Mexican blend cheese
1 2/3 cups plain low-fat yogurt
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed reduced-fat, reduced-sodium cream of chicken soup (such as Healthy Request), undiluted
1 (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
8 (8-inch) flour tortillas
1 tablespoon canola oil
Cooking spray
1/2 cup (2 ounces) finely shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup chopped green onions

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine first 9 ingredients in a large bowl. Remove 1 cup chicken mixture; set mixture aside.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Working with 1 tortilla at a time, brush oil over both sides of tortilla. Add tortilla to pan; cook 5 seconds on each side or until toasted and soft. Remove from pan; arrange 1/2 cup chicken mixture down center of tortilla. Roll jelly-roll style; place filled tortilla, seam side down, in a 13 x 9–inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Repeat procedure with remaining 7 tortillas, remaining oil, and remaining chicken mixture. Spread reserved 1 cup chicken mixture evenly over enchiladas. Cover and bake at 350° for 20 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle evenly with cheddar cheese and green onions; bake an additional 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 454
Fat: 20.3g (sat 10.4g,mono 6.7g,poly 1.5g)
Protein: 30.8g
Carbohydrate: 36.6g
Fiber: 2.2g
Cholesterol: 73mg
Iron: 2.3mg
Sodium: 757mg

A Not So Healthie Birthday Celebration (Plus Dinner by Kevin from Top Chef!)

2009-11-08T13:29:00.008-05:00

First, let's just start with this picture:

That's right, in the middle there you'll see a man named Kevin Gillespie. You might recognize him from this season of Top Chef. (We're all such huge fans! We're rooting for you Kevin!)

Yesterday was my sister's birthday, so Erin and her boyfriend Richard decided to come to Atlanta last minute to head to Kevin's restaurant, Woodfire Grill. Ben and I of course willingly joined them :).

It was so decadent and delicious, although a little pricey for a standard Saturday night.

I had a champagne cocktail, with elderflower and oregano syrup which was such a delightful addition to the normal bubbly. Then, we did the 5-course tasting menu. Since we did the tasting menu, everything was a surprise, so my apologies that my descriptions of what we ate are not exactly on point.

Compliments of the Chef: A sort of Amuse Bouche that was a play on waldorf salad. It had braised apple and celery, with a mixture of creme freche and some kind of aioli.

First Course: Sous vide egg with micro black eyed peas and tomato broth (and other fancy stuff I can't remember...)

Second Course: Caramelized Georgia Diver scallop with an olive tapenade, local Georgia butter beans and a lamb jus.

Third Course: Raw oysters from Washington state (can't remember the formal kind we had) and they had diced pepper and red onion on top (again, can't remember the fancy components!)

Fourth Course: Roasted duck, over a pink lady apple and parsnip pure with firewood roasted gala apples and an apple cider reduction on the side.

Fifth Course: Braised pork belly with a watermelon radish and fresh herb salad on top, with roasted carrots dusted with cumin.

Dessert:Toasted sponge cake with apple-pear gelato with a banana chip and an apple-balsamic reduction and apples tartin on the side and a dark chocolate stuffed crepes with cocoa nib streusel, whipped cream and latte sauce.

I can't believe how good it all was! Since we decided to go kind of last-minute, we could only get a reservation for 10:15, which means we had to have a few things to snack on earlier in the evening to help us make it to such a late dinner!

First, I put out the classic veggies and dip to snack on:

Then - because it was a special occasion, I also made a baked brie. I think this is by far one of my favorite things in the world. I don't think I could ever get tired of it:

(Clearly we devoured this... truth be told, I probably ate a little too much of this before such a nice meal! I was a little too full for the rest of the evening...)

We had some wine and beer, and watched some football for the evening while we waited for our dinner reservations. Overall I think Erin had a pretty good birthday and we were glad we could help her celebrate.

Highlights from Halloween

2009-11-02T21:50:00.010-05:00

Well, it wasn't a completely "Healthie Halloween" ... mostly just cute. My caloric intake was not a total disaster that day, but let's just say I was hardly on track...

But back to the cute part! Here are some pictures and recipes of the treats I made on Saturday, which I dare say were the highlight of my holiday.

Pumpkin Cheese ball....

Recipe from Southern Living

I thought this was so cute!! I didn't even care if people ate it, I just wanted to make it. Just because... and let me tell you it was so easy! As easy as forming cheese into a ball and making divets with your fingers. We'll call this playdough for big kids. Hungry, big kids.

Next up, sausage balls:

If you look close up, you'll see I decorated some of them as bats, trying to mimic this adorable recipe for Bat Bites from All You Magazine. Basically I shmeared some cream cheese lightly on the sausage balls to provide some stick, rolled them in poppy seeds and stuck in some broken tortilla chips. I unfortunately did't get an up-close pic of them, but they were cute :)

(As for the sausage ball recipe itself, it was 1 lb. hot sausage, 1 lb cheddar, 3 cups biscuick and 1/2 cup of water. cook sausage and let cool, combine ingredients, form the bite-sized balls and cook on ungreased pan at 400 for 12-15 minutes.)

And finally.... Ghost cupcakes!

Idea based off of this recipe from All You

So - were there any "healthie highlights" from Saturday? Actually, yes.

You'll be glad to know that those chocolate cupcakes were made low-fat by substituting the oil for applesauce. In truth, I was going to make them the regular way, but realized we were somehow out of vegetable oil. I was forced to be healthy, but they were delicious in the end so I was glad! Because the ghosts were made with cool whip, I saved some significant fat and cals from regular icing.

Also, I had a strategy on Saturday that some may not agree with, but it was realistic for me. Basically, I knew I would be snacking as I cooked, and snacking throughout the party. So why bother eating a formal lunch or dinner? It was basically a landslide of snacking, but at least I didn't waste calories on additional meals when the snacking would have occurred anyway :) When possible throughout the day, I did snack on veggies and yogurt ranch dip to help fill up on the good stuff.

How was Halloween for everyone else?!

I need a new camera + TheDailyPlate.com

2009-10-28T19:54:00.005-04:00

I would post so much more often if I had a good camera. I swear.

Well,the camera and good picture-taking skills to match, actually.

But I say this, because I take even worse pictures than usual with my camera right now, particularly due to poor apartment lighting. (Not to mention that the face plate of the camera is falling off!) So, I keep not posting recipes and items I made because I keep not taking pictures, and well - posts about cooking seem to just be boring without the images.

I'm looking at getting a new camera, but in the meantime, I continue to be inspired (and I'll admit, jealous) by other bloggers far more talented than me. (Ahem, see the blogroll to the right.)

I've also been playing with TheDailyPlate.com, which let's you populate your "plate" online with items you ate that day. Once you've filled your plate, it helps you understand how many calories you have left in the day based on your body and weight loss goals.

I must say - it's a little tedious to look up and populate items online like this, but it is extremely informative. Unlike weight watchers (which I love), this tool helps you track progress over a week, and also helps you track all factors of your diet: cholesterol, sodium, fat, calories, sugars, carbs, etc.

This is particularly helpful for when you may need a reminder to avoid certain slip ups in your diet, like sodium, which I consistently consume WAY too much of. (155% of what I normally should!)

t helps show you where these totals are coming from based on the foods you ate. For instance, while I love a brand of chicken sausage I eat because it's tasty and low in calories and fat, it's also chock full of sodium, like many other processed foods. It seems that in a realistic world, some thing's always got to give, and for me usually that's my sodium levels, although this tool is a good reminder that I should be keeping an eye on that too.

I'm going to try to use it ever day for the next week, so try it out and let me know what you think too!

Updates around the blog

2009-10-18T22:40:00.002-04:00

A few updates!

While I've been slacking on the posting, it's only because I've been working on my new Twitter account for healthie foodie ideas. I've been meeting so many great new diet bloggers to follow, so I've really been enjoying it!
I also just started a different section on the blog for all of my favorite brands and food stuffs. You can find that at the top under favorites, and I'll be updating it regularly as I find great new products.

That's all for now.... off to pack my lunch before heading to bed. I need to stay on track tomorrow because Ill be traveling for work and won't have as much control over the food selection. Wish me luck; I'll need the extra willpower!

Latest Foodie Favorites

2009-10-05T21:50:00.011-04:00

I'm what you call a grazer. Literally, when I am at work, I probably eat once an hour. Maybe every once in a while if I'm particularly full I can go a few hours without something to eat. (Well, and when I have meetings and my schedule doesn't permit of course.)

But I am quite sure that it's gotten to the point that my coworkers aren't certain I really do work at the office. Despite what it may look like, no I do not just walk back and forth to the kitchen all day!

Here are a few of my latest favorite snacks and saving graces during work that keep me walking back and forth from my desk:

Cabot reduced fat cheese wedges. I love cheese, and the benefit to eating cheese is that the protein keeps you full. These are great because they are reduced fat, so each snack is only 1 Weight Watchers point. Sometimes I eat 2 or three of these in a day, honestly. Especially one late in the afternoon or before I leave work to keep me from getting too hungry right before dinner. I get a big bag of them at Sam's Club, but I'm sure they have these at other grocery stores, just probably not in the jumbo bag. (disclaimer: Sam's is a client. Photo courtesy of the Cabot web site.)

Spinach and Asiago Chicken Sausages. Ok these are from Sam's too (the Members Mark brand), but are seriously delicious. Don't take my word for it, Google them and you'll see plenty of other people talking about them! They are only 110 calories so I was thrilled at the idea of having these around as a tasty low fat protein for me - since it's rare that I eat meat during the week - but also for Ben when he's around. (Men otherwise would drown in diet food in my apartment, and would likely still die hungry). I personally think these things are amazing. Truly, I think they are the tastiest things I've ever had. Ben of course would prefer a hearty kielbasa or some sort of manly equivalent, but he thinks they're good too I guess...

Fresh roasted green beans with shallots. I'm really into sauteed green beans lately, cooked with a little bit of chicken broth and shallots. (Shallots are amazing: smaller portions than having to cut up a whole onion, and not nearly the awful tear-jerking dicing ordeal.)

Skinny cow ice cream sandwiches. We had a little ice cream social at work one day and I was so thankful that someone brought these along as a healthy alternative. It also reminded me how totally satisfying they are. (Sorry Weight Watchers, but these I think are better than your version...). I keep these around to have at night when I want something sweet, and they're only 2 points.
Good old 100 calorie snack packs. I currently have a big box that has a mix of baked Cheetos, Smartfood popcorn, and cheddar Sunchips. These packswere kind of a cliche at one point, and can be completely ineffective at helping you lose weight if yourely on them too much to make up your diet, but in a weak moment for junk food, they are a saving grace. These are all delicious, and they take away the vending machine urges for just 2 weight watchers points each.

Dark chocolate yogurt covered raisins. I always want something candy-like in the afternoons, and these have been a good antidote. 1/4 of a cup are 2 weight watchers points.

Some of the old stand-by's are still around too, like veggie patties. I've recently discovered Gardenburger's sun dried tomato basil flavor is delicious and the patties are just one point a piece. Raw veggies with fat-free ranch dip, and edamame are both still great, filling snacks that take you a while to eat. (I feel more satisfied when a snack takes time to munch.)

I'm looking for some new ideas though - particularly for fruits to snack on now that melons aren't in season any more. Let me me know if you have any ideas!

Back in the Saddle Again...

2009-10-05T20:41:00.004-04:00

It's time to dust off ye old blog. I can't believe it's been two months. (I'm sorry Lindsey and Erin! Healthie Foodie is back!)

I realized, when I started this blog I was at the peak of my diet and it was a great way to stay motivated. Also, at the time I lived alone and didn't have a lot going on... My roomie was already living in Atlanta, and I was only surrounded by friends who were also dieting. (It's pretty easy to stay on track when you're not tempted during the week, and to indulge, you and your friends make low fat brownies and eat sushi!)

I was living in a healthy (unrealistic) bubble world...

I've struggled a lot with temptation since moving to Atlanta: new restaurants to try, and more friends to go try them with. Most importantly, a certain food-devouring boyfriend that I love to cook for is also around more often now that I'm closer. Turns out I am not 6'4" and should probably not be eating the same quantities and snacks he does...

But despite some serious slip-ups, I have been doing a couple of things right:

Cooking Light is still a great inspiration for finding a way to scratch the cooking itch, without quite as much guilt. This came in really handy when friends would want to cook out over the summer! Back in July, I went to my friend Libby's to grill with friends, and Ben and I brought our own scallops to grill along with this roasted red pepper butter sauce.. I'll have to write a separate post on this one! All in all, I think the scallops were around 2-3 weigh watchers points, so I was really proud.)

I quickly bounced back from some bad eating habits in a new work environment by finding snacks that work for me. For me, new environments mean new urges to reach for food as a mental break. This meant I had to get very strategic about lunch packing again. I had to find foods that would keep me full, because Lord knows if I was the slightest bit hungry I would reach for something carb-loaded and covered in sugar. I'll be writing soon about my new snack favorites and old stand-by's that have been really helpful lately!

Making time to work out (or trying to). Nothing will ever replace working out and burning calories. Nothing. Because about 50% of the time, I won't end up eating the way I should have that day, and burning what I eat is my only saving grace. That said, this has still been a struggle for me. Working late, being back around good friends and with Ben closer, it's hard to carve out the time. But I joined a gym, and I've been trying to find ways to go work out with people (Ben is always up for coming with me, and I'm finding more and more friends who are willing to go on a walk around the neighborhood to catch up instead of going to dinner or drinks.)

So, there's lots to catch up on. I'm sorry I haven't posted much (err... .at all), but I really have been cooking and trying to stay on track, so there's more to come, I promise!

Healthie Beach Trip Snack: Avocado, Corn and Black Bean Salsa

2009-08-04T18:34:00.007-04:00

This weekend, I went to the beach with some of my dearest college friends, and it reminded me how long it had been since I spent time on the Gulf. While I made a day trip or two to Emerald Isle and Atlantic Beach back when I visited Ben where he was stationed in Jacksonville, N.C., it had been about 2 and a half years since I had been to the beaches I grew up going to in Florida, It was so nice to be back!

The houses we were staying in were so unbelievably nice, and more importantly, stocked with cookware and basically every kitchen essential. So, rather than spending money going out several nights in a row, my friends and I had all agreed to pack things to eat and cook at the house. While the daiquiris and Parmesan garlic oysters I ate meant that I was hardly "good" all weekend, I did take the opportunity to bring a few healthy items to eat like those chicken Caesar wraps, my favorite "No Pudge" Fudge Brownies, fresh fruit, veggies and dip, and some granola bars.

The most satisfying snack while on the beach though, was the black bean and corn salsa that my roommate Caroline had made for all of us. It was SO delicious with Baked Tostitos (and a beer or two, I'll admit...). A few of us could barely stop ourselves from eating the whole bowl before the rest of the group got to have some. Here is a recipe based on what I think was probably in Caroline's, and based on some of the other recipe's I've seen around online.

Black Bean Salsa:

2 15 ounce cans black beans, drained.
1 17 ounce can of whole kernel corn, drained.
1 red bell pepper, chopped.
2 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 large avocado, chopped.
2 T olive oil
1 T red wine vinegar
cilantro (optional - personally I'm not a big fan and would prefer it without!)
Salt, pepper, and juice of one lime.

You definitely need to make some of this at some point during our last few weeks of summer, and enjoy with baked tortilla chips and a light beer for a relatively healthy, completely tasty snack. I also thought this Watermelon Salsa recipe from Eating Well looked good, although I would probably add some cucumbers in to this one. Any other ideas?

Potato and Greens Torta from Cooking Light

2009-07-27T22:06:00.018-04:00

I tried this recipe a while back, so it's really about time I posted it here for everyone else to enjoy. The April issue of Cooking Light where this little gem came from was filled with tons of great springtime recipes and ideas for having Easter brunch that just made me want to cook. I jotted down a lot of recipes from here that I want to come back and try, like Spring Asparagus Risotto, Goat Cheese Grits, and Linguine with Arugula Pesto, and if you remember the Italian tomato tart that I raved about came from this issue too. You won't quite have the springtime setting like the pictures in this issue, but I promise if you make it now, this torta will be just as tasty!

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds small Yukon gold potatoes
3 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt, divided
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups torn romaine lettuce
2 cups packed fresh spinach leaves
2 cups packed arugula leaves
1/2 cup 2% reduced-fat milk
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded fontina cheese
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
Cooking spray
3 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated fresh pecorino Romano cheese

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°.
Place potatoes and 1 tablespoon salt in a large saucepan; cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 15 minutes or until tender. Drain; cool slightly. Peel potatoes; discard peels. Press cooked potatoes through a ricer into a large bowl.
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add garlic; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in romaine, spinach, and arugula; cook 1 minute or until greens wilt, tossing frequently. Remove greens from pan; finely chopped
Add greens, milk, fontina, eggs, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt to potatoes; stir well to combine. Coat a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray; dust with breadcrumbs. Add potato mixture to prepared dish. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes. Remove from oven; sprinkle with pecorino. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

This makes 6 servings, that are 4 weight watchers points each (214 calories / 9.1 grams fat / 3.2 grams fiber). Personally, I think I would divide the the dish into fourths, and make it roughly a 6-point meal instead, although this smaller portion could be great as a small meal / snack.

Here are a few things I noted / recommend:

If you have a "ricer" at home, I salute you. I did not know what this was, but of course my mom knew and she said it wasn't a big deal to just find a way to grate up the potatoes myself. It turns out it looks kinda like a big garlic press. If you want one, check out this one from OXO on Amazon. I have yet to personally invest the money in one, because while it took some serious elbow grease, a good-sized cheese grater ended up doing the trick for getting the potatoes to the right consistency. Also, let's be honest - there's not much keeping you from slicing up the potatoes to make it more like a gratin and it will be just as delicious! Or how about whipping the potatoes... a little shepherd's pie twist? I'll let you be the judge.
Personally, I think I would divide the the dish into fourths, and make it roughly a 6-point meal instead, although this smaller portion could be great as a small meal / snack.
I loved the greens in it, but I noticed that the bagged romaine lettuce I used had some "stalky" pieces that messed up the texture for me. I think I will use a less crisp alternative, like a spring mix, a bibb lettuce, or more of the spinach and arugula the next time I make it. Also, I used a pair of vegetable / herb scissors to chop up the greens and it made it a lot easier!
Don't skimp on the 2% milk, the folks at Cooking Light seem to know what they're doing. So, while I am usually tempted to shave off calories and fat with items like skim milk, I trust that they put the 2% in for a reason, and that the original recipe will end up being more satisfying if I just leave it alone!

Recent healthy finds and favorites

2009-07-21T21:12:00.000-04:00

I think anyone who watches what they eat goes through phases filled with new ideas and snacks they discovered recently. I think there's also always that re-discovery phase too... you know, when you finally rediscover why you loved a food or flavor that you burnt yourself out on a couple months prior.

So, here are some of the things I've been eating and craving lately. Some aren't that revolutionary by any means, but I just think it's helpful to see what other healthy people are eating because it inspires me to switch it up. I hope some of these give you some new ideas, too :)

Cantaloupe and cottage cheese: Such a classic... I've always LOVED melon more than any other fruit, and cottage cheese is rich enough that it makes eating fruit feel more indulgent than just biting into an apple. If you're getting burnt out on snacking on fruit - put some cottage cheese on top and see what you think. (1 cup of melon is 1 point, 1/2 a cup of fat-free cottage cheese is about 1 point too.)

Diet lemonades from Chick-fil-A: A large (and I mean large) sized diet lemonade is only 30 calories. It's really tasty, and can really curb my craving for other snacks in the afternoon.

Wine and cheese crumbles: I actually saw my friend Libby crumble up cheese to eat while sipping wine once, and it inspired me to find a healthy way to enjoy cheese with my wine, since it is by far one of my favorite, favorite things. Instead of braking off cubes or slices of your favorite cheese, breaking it up into crumbles allows you to "taste" the cheese as you sip, rather than chowing down larger portions as you go. It worked really well for me!

Chicken Caesar wraps: Kind of like these chicken pesto wraps I wrote about. Wrap up some mixed greens, a bit of shredded Parmesan and some chicken in a whole wheat tortilla and put some low fat Caesar on the side for dipping. Extremely flavorful and satisfying.

Biscotti: I rediscovered how satisfying biscotti is, when I was frequenting GreenBerry's for latte's while packing for the move. Nonni's Biscotti is in grocery stores, and each one is 2 points.

Roasted green beans and peppers: This is my new favorite combination of roasted vegetables for small meals, side dishes or snacks. Get a package of pre-washed / trimmed french cut green beans and slice up some red bell pepper, drizzle sparingly with olive oil and add salt and pepper. Roast in the oven at 400 until slightly charred or roasted. I use frozen green beans and peppers and to me it's just as good, and super easy.

Good old lean cuisines: An oldie, but goodie. I've certainly gotten tired of lean cuisines in years past; both of eating the same meals over and over again, as well as becoming painfully aware that the meal is over as soon as the tray is empty. While generally I do best when I can look forward to several low-calorie meals and snacks throughout the day, there's something to be said for sitting down to a meal. Lean cuisines may not be a hearty meal for some, but for someone dieting, they are just right if you are craving some pasta or a real entree.

Anyone have any other ideas? Anything that's helping you push through cravings lately?

Eat This, Not That: Chick-fil-A Breakfast Remix

2009-07-15T21:52:00.007-04:00

While it's a little depressing to realize how not-so-great for you the foods you love really are, I just had a come to Jesus with the delicious breakfast I love at Chick-fil-A. My beloved chicken biscuit with hashbrowns on the side is 17 Weight Watchers points, which is really about as many points as I should be eating in an entire day!

Now, I'm all for a splurge from time to time, but I thought we could all benefit from exploring our options on the menu. So here are a few of the nutrition facts for some of the most popular breakfast items

Chicken Biscuit: 450 calories / 20 g. fat / 3 g. fiber (10 WW points)
Hashbrowns: 280 calories / 19 g. fat / 2 g. fiber (7 WW points)
Plain Biscuit: 310 calories / 13 g. fat / 2 g. fiber (6 WW points)
Chicken Minis ( 4 ct): 350 calories / 14 g. fat / 2 g. fiber (8 WW points)
You can also calculate your own meal on the site: http://www.chick-fil-a.com/#calculator

In honor of the book "Eat this, not that," Here are a few ideas for making it work and some other considerations for when you order:

If you want the real deal - the combo - with hashbrowns, go with the chicken minis instead of the full biscuit; a 4 count of the minis instead will save you 100 calories. (hashbrowns + minis = 15 points. Going for the 3 count would be even healthier. All things considered, though, it may not be so terrible when you realize that some Lean Cuisine pizza's are 12 points. I'm just sayin')

The chicken biscuit's still better than the sausage biscuit... The sausage biscuit is 590 calories! Which, uhh basically broke the points calculator. It doesn't even register, but just just based on my own estimates, I think with 41 g of fat, it would weigh in at around 14 - 15 WW points on it own, so... actually the chicken ain't lookin' so bad...

And of course you could get a multi grain sunflower bagel (220 cal), and a fruit cup (70 cal), but let's be honest... you're at Chick-fil-A... why would you get a bagel and fruit when there's fried chicken to eat?

Go to http://www.chick-fil-a.com/#healthylifestyle for some other good ideas - the chicken breakfast burrito on it's own, for instance, isn't that bad for you!

Blog Envy: The Chubby Vegetarian

2009-07-13T18:54:00.005-04:00

Since I have been neglecting my blog for about a month now (ok I know I have been milking the move excuse, but hey.... I moved...), I thought my first post back would be an appropriate time to say how jealous I am of a blog I came across today: the chubby vegetarian.

The obvious reason that Justin's blog is good is because, well, he updates it. (I really need to get back into the swing of things!)

But aside from his frequent updates, here are just a couple of things you can look forward to:

Great photography - as a freelance photographer, needless to say he puts healthie foodie to shame.
Southern roots - and we all know good food comes from the South.
He makes being a vegetarian seem appealing - with recipes like portabello mushroom carpaccio with goat cheese and balsamic, or porcini mushrooms over garlic polenta, broiled tomatoes and smoked mozzarella, well you can see why anyone could still get fat and happy off of this veggie diet.

If you're looking for some new side dishes, or healthy veggies, revamped please go check out his blog! I know I've added it to my reader.

No Pudge Fudge Brownie Mix - Very Easy, Very Worth It

2009-06-09T20:43:00.008-04:00

More low fat baking from a box, folks. These fat free brownies are delicious, and each serving is 2 points (about half of what it normally would be!)

Plus, the packaging is cute... (it's pink, with a little piggie!)

So, all you do is mix nonfat vanilla yogurt in with the batter, which I think makes this mix better than other fat free mixes I've tried where you just add water. In fact, if I get other brands, I'll probably still use yogurt instead of water. I wasn't able to find this mix at a Publix in Atlanta when I was there, so I'm afraid I'll never see this cute pink box and little piggie again after I move... A case of this mix might be traveling South with me!

And... here's something I did that makes these really delicious - borderline decadent. I made a lowfat cream cheese frosting to go on top! All you have to do is take fat free cream cheese, add some splenda to taste (or a half splenda / sugar blend), and if needed, pour a little fat free milk (or even fat free liquid coffee creamer!) to make it a little smoother.

It is so freaking good. And, this makes a fat free brownie that much richer for just another point or two. If you're not up for the extra decadence, a little bit of cool whip would be tasty too:

Make these immediately to have on had for a lowfat snack! Or, if you're feeling like a low key night, make these with some girlfriends and you won't feel nearly as guilty as you might if you had broken down and gotten ice cream or baked cookies.

Enjoy!

Wellternatives

2009-06-04T20:36:00.007-04:00

Some of you may have noticed the "Wellternatives" widget on the sidebar of my blog! I got it off of Wellsphere, and while I haven't gotten the opportunity to test it out much, I do like the principle behind it. Just like the popular Eat this, not that books, making the right choices each day is really about making informed choices. The most sustainable diets are effective because they teach you a new perspective that helps you make better choices. Years of point calculating on Weight Watchers has really just translated into an enlightened way for me read nutrition labels.

Test it out and let me know what you think! The one thing I'v elearned about dieting is you never know if something is really that good or bad for you until you know.

Healthie Hoppin' John

2009-06-03T22:27:00.000-04:00

Perhaps it's because I'm from the South, but of all the wonderful food I had when I was at Restaurant 3 in Clarendon, a side of Hoppin' John was what I just couldn't stop eating! It was deliciously buttery, and it reminded me how good a basic rice dish can be. Before I go on to explain how I made my own (probably healthier) version, I should say thank you, by the way to my dear friends Erin (Corgy) and Stephanie (StephCo) for the wonderful gift card to go there while Ben was in town last! They surprised me with the card for my birthday :)

Ok, so back to the food... For the folks who don't know what Hoppin' John is, it's a Southern version of rice and beans, typically made with black eyed peas ad bacon fat... afterall it is a Southern dish.

When I told my mom I was making it, she said, "but it's not even New Years?!" The tradition is to have this on New Years Day to bring you wealth for the coming year, because the peas are symbolic for coins. Well clearly the wealth part is all a bunch of phuey... I'm still totally broke. But, when cooked sans pork fat, the dish is just another great side that can be a small vegetarian meal.

Recipes vary a lot. Emmeril, for instance, uses a little green pepper and celery in his version. I was going for an exact replica of the version I had that night at Restaurant 3, though, which included green onions, halved grape tomatoes, black eyed peas and rice.

I never used a recipe really, but here is what I did and I was totally pleased with it! I can't really claim to have directions to give y'all, since I didn't really follow any to begin with, but here's a loose structure of what I did.

What you need:
Amounts will depend on how much you want to make

brown rice
chicken broth
grape tomatoes
scallions
blackeyed peas
1 packet of Goya brand ham flavoring (gives you that great flavor of cooking with a ham hock, without any calories!)

Directions (or lack thereof):

Cook rice according to package. For extra flavor, substitute half, or all of water for boiling with chicken broth. Add the ham concentrate packet to the liquid.
When the liquid has absorbed by half, add the beans. Cook for a couple of minutes. Add in the tomatoes for the last minute or so.
When rice is done cooking, and all of the liquid is absorbed, stir in a tablespoon or two or light butter.
Toss in sliced green onions, and voila:

I also just made this last night with wild rice and garbanzo beans, and left out the ham concentrate because the chicken broth and the wild rice already had a good flavor. The wild rice I thought was also particularly pretty in this version. So honestly you can make this with any variety of rice and beans. A cup of this is about 4 points; a great little meal.

Eating what's in your pantry

2009-05-28T21:48:00.012-04:00

Well, the healthie foodie is moving. Not like a new web domain, like literally preparing to move from D.C. to Atlanta, so I apologize for the lack of posts. For one, I have been preoccupied with apartment hunting, and traveling. Secondly, I have had a new mission to eat all of the food that is currently in my freezer or pantry.

This has been an interesting experiment in not only working with what you have to save money, but also making sure that my "make-shift" meals are still healthy. This can be a little challenging when much of what is in my pantry is crackers, pasta, and other carb variations.

The other challenge has been staying "inspired" by the lackluster pantry items. As I've said before, a subscription to Cooking Light was a true blessing after 2 months of hardcore dieting in the fall. I was able to maintain my diet and continue losing weight by finding new ways to make low-fat small meals, and new sensible alternatives for food groups that I love. Unfortunately, working with what you have means you have to work hard to not go buy additional ingredients that might be needed for a fun new recipe.

Here are some of the things that I've had to work with:

Multi-grain crackers (wheat sociables), triscuits
LOTS of fat free cream cheese (I had bought a tub, and for some reason had a block of reduced fat cream cheese too. Oh and individual packets of WW brand cream cheese.... I mean, what?! Why did I have so much... I don't have a good explanation!)
Several frozen chicken breasts
Frozen spinach
Frozen corn
Frozen chopped onion
Frozen ground turkey
Pasta galore
2 jars of pasta sauce
Couscous
1 tube of polenta
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 can fat free refried beans
1 small can of sliced black olives.
2 packages potato gnocchi
Wild rice
1 can garbanzos
2 cans canellini
1 can seasoned black beans
brown rice
blueberry muffin mix
1 package steamed lentils
Cheese galore: crumbled blue cheese, feta, goat cheese; shredded mozzarella, parmesan.
golden raisins
2 packages fat free brownie mix
1 carton of egg whites, 1 carton of egg substitute
Pretty much every condiment, oil, vinegar and spice.

The good news for me was that, since I had been buying more groceries than usual when I was cooking for the last couple of months, I now have a pretty well stocked pantry filled with great basics. The bad news is that I really do need to start chipping away at all of this stuff.

In particular, I've had a real come to Jesus with myself over how much cream cheese I had. But now, I've really come to appreciate it; it's versatile, and to me it is a condiment that is easily forgotten unless it's being put on a bagel. Cream cheese is the perfect low fat spread for wraps (remember my chicken pesto wrap?), and it's actually good on crackers too! Weight Watcher's brand of 1-point tubs of cream cheese are perfect for this: good for portion control, and great for grabbing and taking to work.

So, while I have been able to get creative with some of these items, most of the time, it's just been a matter of getting back to basics: crackers with cream cheese, pasta with spaghetti sauce, etc.

More recipes to come, although I've had to breakdown and buy a few ingredients here or there.

Weekend Baking Fail: Tasty, but Not-So-Pretty Meringue Cookies

2009-05-17T12:12:00.025-04:00

I love meringue cookies, and because they don't contain butter or flour like other cookies, they can be pretty reasonable snacks.

I used to buy Miss Meringue chocolate chip meringue cookies from the grocery store (www.missmeringue.com), and really liked them. Making them yourself, though is a lot cheaper, especially since they go fast! (You can eat about 4 for 2 weight watchers points a piece - right under 100 calories!).

So this weekend I prepared to make these Chocolate Hazlenut Meringue Kisses that I had seen in an old issue of Cooking Light. I knew there was an art to beating egg whites, and that making a meringue can be tricky, but I was ready.

It was not pretty site, though. Here's what the finished product was supposed to look like (picture from Cooking Light, December 2008) :

Cute, huh? Problem is.... mine did not look like this. And I've had a lot of difficulty after 3-4 attempts (sad, I know) to make stiff peaks with my meringues. But, before I show youa pic of how mine turned out, here is another picture of what meringue cookies should look like. This time, Sandra Lee's Strawberry Meringue Cookies. Picture courtesy of the Food Network:

By the way, this recipe was labeled "Easy" on the Food Network's web site. Apparently it's supposed to be "easy" to beat egg whites and make a meringue with a proper, stiff peak. Well, apparently I am challenged in this arena, because I did not find it easy... At all. And I don't consider myself a total rookie in the kitchen...

But clearly I was doing something wrong, because here is a picture of my cookies (image courtesy of my crappy camera and terrible photography skills):

Granted, they do look more like cookies (do I get points for that?). Granted, they still taste like a meringue cookie; just as healthy, and just as melt-in-your-mouth good as the more proper kind... But obviously, something is not right about these bad boys, and I followed the recipe to a T... so what went wrong?

The difference in color I can explain: the recipe called for toasted hazlenuts, chopped bittersweet chocolate, and cocoa powder to be combined in a food processor. The hazlenuts were still warm when I combined them, so it made the cocoa powder clump with the melted chocolate, rather than dispersing throughout the batter. Oh well, that I wasn't worried about.

The clear problem is that my egg whites never reached the optimal volume.

Here are some details from a few of my failed attemps:

Round One: The first time I beat the egg whites, I think I actually got the right consistency. But then instead of gently folding in the chocolate nut mixture, I continued to use the mixer, so I think I over-beat the eggs.
Rounds Two and Three: I was going try again, making sure to not over-beat the whites. Except I was using liquid egg whites I had bought from the grocery store, which were not foaming, or peaking whatsoever. After another try with them, I came to the conclusion that there was something very different about the liquid egg whites that was preventing them from fluffing.
Round Four: I went back to regular egg whites, and went through the steps, and saw better results than through the liquid whites, but the peaks never reached a really stiff consistency, and obviously, made my meringue batter like the consistency of pancake batter.... which is why my meringues are flat like pancakes.

Well, after so many attempts, obviously I'm exhausted, and a little confused. One thing I think makes the difference is having the egg whites be room temperature. Sandra Lee's recipe above calls for the whites at room temp, and my mom agreed that to her knowledge, egg whites separate easier when cold, but beat better when a little warmer.

Round Five to come... I'm determined to get this right eventually. Int he meantime, does anyone have any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?

White Pizza Remix: A Chicken Pesto Wrap

2009-05-14T18:17:00.005-04:00

I was so excited about this when I packed it for work, and was NOT disappointed when I heated it up today at lunch.

Using a lot of the same ingredients from the White Pizza from the other night, I made a wrap to take to work. This post will be short and sweet, people... here's all you do:

Spread about 1 Tbsp. fat free cream cheese on 1 garlic and herb tortilla from La Tortilla Factory
Spread about 2 tsp. of the store-bought pesto on top of that.
Put about 1/4 cup of chicken breast strips on top (I actually just bought a package of pre-cooked, sliced chicken strips... Perdue / Tyson, etc. all make them and I was pleasantly surprised.)
If desired, add a couple of artichokes.

I wrapped it all up in some saran wrap to take to work. It was good cold, and very delicious heated up for about 1:25 in the microwave... I loved it.

Also, the good news? It's 3 WW points each too! (2 pts for chicken, 0 points for the tortilla, and 1 point for the combination of cream cheese and pesto.)

I didn't have time to take a pic of it since this was an impormptu creation this morning, but I did prance around work showing my friends. My coworkers pretty much make up my readership, so it's the same thing...?

You should make this white pizza. Wow.

2009-05-12T21:10:00.013-04:00

I have a new favorite meal... and it's only 3 Weight Watchers points.... and it's delicious.

The secret is a low fat / high fiber small tortilla as the crust. I bought the 6 inch garlic and herb tortillas from La Tortilla Factory. Each one is ZERO Weight Watchers points, since they're just 50 calories, with 6 grams of dietary fiber a piece.

Here's a look at what you're getting:

Pesto. Goat cheese. Feta. Mozzarella. Artichoke hearts.
Mmmm.......

Here's what you do:

Place the tortilla on a cookie sheet lightly sprayed with cooking spray, and place in the oven to toast at 375 for about 4 minutes. (You need to give the tortilla a little bit of a head start on getting crispy).
Remove the tortilla from the oven and spread about 2 teaspoons of jarred store-bought pesto, or however much you need to cover the tortilla. (I used the pesto I had left over from using it in the crust of my beloved Italian Tomato Tart!)
Sprinkle about 1/4 of a cup of white cheeses on top of the pesto, using reduced fat varietes when possible. I used a mixture of part skim mozzarrella, reduced fat feta, and goat cheese. Any of these by themselves would be delicious.
Chop about 1/4 cup of canned, quartered artichoke hearts so that they're bite-sized, and sprinkle on top.
Return the mini pizza to the over for about 4 more minutes.

At 3 WW points, really you could have this as a snack, or you could put some sliced chicken breast on there to make it a little heartier. I was just using what I had in the pantry (the artichokes), but you could use diced roma tomatoes, mushrooms, fresh spinach, prosciutto, onions, etc.... I can't wait to try it with more toppings!

Happy Belated Cinco de Mayo!

2009-05-11T22:17:00.007-04:00

I was craving Mexican food when I came home from work on Friday (perhaps as a belated Cinco de Mayo craving), and decided to whip up a variation of those goat cheese and roasted corn quesadillas from the March 2009 Cooking Light.

I mentioned these quesadillas briefly in my other post because they were delicious, and have inspired me to looks at quesadillas in a new (healthier) way using smaller corn tortillas and goat cheese. I used the Cooking Light recipe, but added some black beans I had left over from another recipe. After roasting the corn in the pan, I removed it from the heat and added the beans till they just warmed through before setting the mixture aside to add to my quesadillas.

I quickly found that roasted corn is DELICIOUS with black beans as a side and nothing but a little salt. I munched on this in a bowl for a while until my quesadilla was done!

My Not-So-Cinco de Mayo celebration was a total success: a roasted corn and black bean quesadilla, with a dab of light sour cream and salsa verde on the side (oh and another helping of the leftover corn and beans!). It was a totally satisfying meal. The quesadilla was about 4-5 WW points, and another 4 points came from the additional corn and beans....

When was the last time you had a super filling mexi-feast for about 8 points? I'm still craving the corn and bean mixture, and plan to make it again to take to work as a small meal.

Tangy Berries-and-Cheese Salad from Southern Living

2009-05-07T19:03:00.018-04:00

I first mentioned this salad in this post; it was just one of the many recipes I tried making after reading several issues of Cooking Light and Southern Living while traveling.

The April 2009 issue of Southern Living I was reading was filled with recipes for using strawberries since they are so delicious this time of year. Salads are something I get burnt out on easily, and this salad seemed like a great way to mix things up. Plus, I adore fruit and cheese together. (who doesn't?!)

The recipe called for "farmer's cheese" and noted that queso fresco could also be substituted... Um. Yea, I didn't know what either was, so that was a problem.... After all, prior to this past year I mostly just ate turkey sandwhiches, lean cuisines and soup (with the occassional session of cookie baking). So what do I know? I looked it up online and then just made a point to look for it at the cheese case next to the deli counter at Safeway. Sure enough, I found the farmer's cheese with the bries and gourmet cheeses near the deli, and the queso fresco was easy to find too. (I found this on the dairy aisle with the yogurt and butter, where they had a specific section for Hispanic cheeses and tortillas.) I went with the farmer's cheese:

I divided the round of cheese up into individual portions once I bought it, and calculated that one eighth of the package was 3 Weight Watchers Points. Having the cheese divided made it easier to grab a wedge to add to my salad if I was packing it for work, or even just as a snack by itself. Without the portion control, I tend to keep cutting off little chunks of cheese here and there while I'm around the house, and may not be actually tracking how much of it (and how many calories) I've had. (In fact, one of my favorite snacks to take to work for a while was a wedge of this cheese, and about a cup of diced pear, blackberries and strawberries mixed: absolute healthie heaven as a small meal for about 4 Weight Watchers points.)

This salad was not from Weight Watchers or Cooking Light, but I calculated the different components on their own to make it work with my diet. (Goes to show you don't have to read diet books to eat healthy!) With three WW points worth of cheese (1 wedge shown above), and about 1 point worth of almond slivers and strawberries combined, youre looking at a tasty salad for about 4-5 WW points, depending on how much dressing you use if any. Enjoy!

Tangy Berries-and-Cheese Salad
Southern Living
April 2009

Ingredients

1/4 cup slivered almonds
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
1 tablespoon thinly sliced fresh basil
1 (5-oz.) package mâche (about 4 cups), thoroughly washed* (yeah I didn't know what mache was either...)
1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, cut in half
1/2 cup crumbled farmer's cheese**

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°. Bake almonds in a single layer in a shallow pan 5 to 7 minutes or until toasted and fragrant.
Whisk together oil and next 3 ingredients in a bowl; stir in basil. Add mâche; toss to combine. Top with strawberries, farmer's cheese, and toasted almonds. Serve immediately.

*4 cups Bibb lettuce may be substituted.

**Queso fresco may be substituted

Use leftovers to make these easy (healthie) veggie quesadillas

2009-05-02T20:16:00.039-04:00

Consider this Part II of the post on Rachel Ray's Honey-and-Lime-Glazed Salmon with Warm Black Bean and Corn Salad. When Ben and I made that recipe, we only made 2 salmon fillets (instead of 4), but made the full amount of the warm veggie salad that the recipe called for. When I was halfway done cooking the salad - which called for a full bag (roughly 6 cups) of spinach - I realized just how much of the veggies we would have left over.

While the extra spinach, bean and corn salad would have been delish on its own as a filling snack between meals at work, the full flavor potential of the leftover mixture was finally realized one night for dinner, when I used it as the perfect filling for a veggie quesadilla.

I first thought to use this veggie mixture with corn tortillas and goat cheese after making this recipe for roasted corn and goat cheese quesadillas from Cooking Light (where else?). These quesadillas are also completely delicious, and I believe 5 Weight Watchers points.

A few notes about these quesadillas before I jump into the recipe:The veggie mixture is the most complicated part, but it's still very simple. And if you make the full batch of veggies you'll have a TON to keep on had in tupperware, which will make it incredibly easy to assemble the quesadillas when you're ready to eat. (I'm actually considering freezing some of it sometime, but I'm not sure how it will turn out.... any ideas?) Also, using tortillas made of corn is a lot healthier than flour tortillas and is essential to making these extra healthie. It of course doesn't hurt that you're using the smaller 6 inch tortillas compared to 9 inch big guys... Now on to the recipe!

Veggie Quesadillas with Goat Cheese

You'll need:

2 6-inch corn tortillas
1/4 cup goat cheese
a couple of rounded tablespoons full of the Rachel Ray's Warm Corn and Black Bean Salad (or see below for the details)
Pam, or any cooking spray to coat the skillet

Quesadillas don't really require directions, but I'll tell you what I did in case it helps...

Heat a skillet over medium-high heat
lay out one of the tortillas; spoon veggie filling onto tortilla, making sure not to pile too much on (this will make the quesadilla too full to flip easily in the pan).
sprinkle 1/4 cup of goat cheese on top of the veggies, and slap the other tortilla on top.
spray the skillet with cooking spray, and heat the quesadilla for about 1-2 minutes on each side. I'll admit I'm not an expert on getting these golden brown yet, so just keep a close eye on them the first couple of times.

Making the veggie salad:

4 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 - 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (depending on how spicy you want it)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 20 oz. box frozen corn kernals, defrosted
1/2 cup of chicken stock / broth
1 15 oz. can of black beans, rinsed and drained
2-3 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped
6 cups baby spinach

Preheat a medium skillet over medium heat with 2 tbsp. of the olve oil (twice around the pan.) Add the onions, garlic, red pepper flakes, cumin, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring ocassionally, for 3 minutes.
To the cooked onions, add the bell peppers and corn kernals and cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken stock and continue to cook for another 2 minutes. Add the black beans and cook until the beans are just heated through. Remove the skillet from the heat and add the juice of the second lime, the cilantro, and spinach. Toss to wilt the spinach and then taste and adjust the seasoning.

The quesadillas are 5 weight watchers points each: 2 of these corn tortillas is 2 points (110 calories / 1.5 g fat / 3 g dietary fiber), 1/4 cup of the cheese (or 1 ounce) is 2 points (80 calories / 7 g fat according to the daily plate), and while most of the veggies in the filling are generally 0 points, I count 1 point for the olive oil, corn and beans that are mixed in.

If you're like me, either of these recipes will be so good that you'll want to make another one when you're done. To avoid this, I recommend drinking a diet soda, or just getting up and walking away from the table when it's all gone...

ENJOY!

Rachel Ray's Salmon with Warm Black Bean and Corn Salad

2009-04-28T21:34:00.000-04:00

I am pretty sure my sister has made every recipe from Rachel Ray's cookbook, 365: No Repeats. In fact, she once was so dedicated that she wrote down each recipe's number that she had tried and enjoyed, and read them off to me over the phone. That piece of paper with random numbers jotted down is still stuck in the pages of this cookbook actually, and I'll continue to reference it whenever I try a Rachel Ray recipe. If it worked for my sis, it will work for me. She's a fabulous cook, and has managed to keep a healthy weight without obsessing over the calories, unlike me.

So, you can bet that recipe #288, Lime-and-Honey-Glazed Salmon with Warm Black Bean and Corn Salad, is listed on that piece of paper, and I've now tried it myself and it is delicious! I looked for the recipe online, but I'm convinced it's not anywhere. These ladies at Four Foodies gave it a good review, and even took a great picture of it, which unfortunately... I did not. But alas, there's no recipe listed, so the least I could do is type it all out for you.

Rachel Ray's Lime-and-Honey Glazed Salmon with Warm Black Bean and Corn Salad

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 - 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (depending on how spicy you want it)
1 tsp. ground cumin
Juice of 2 limes
salt and fresh ground black pepper
3 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. chili powder
4 6 oz. salmon fillets
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 20 oz. box frozen corn kernals, defrosted
1/2 cup of chicken stock / broth
1 15 oz. can of black beans, rinsed and drained
2-3 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped
6 cups baby spinach

Whew... Let me just say that when I made this, Ben was in town and we were cooking together. Which actually turned into him doing all of the prep work (measuring, chopping, cleaning, rinsing - he is amazing) while I was finishing getting ready. So maybe I should say when he made this. Anyway... Directions:

Preheat a medium skillet over medium heat with 2 tbsp. of the olve oil (twice around the pan.) Add the onions, garlic, red pepper flakes, cumin, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring ocassionally, for 3 minutes.
While the onions are cooking, preheat a medium non-stick skillet over a medium-high heat wih the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. In a shallow dish, combine the juice of 1 lime, honey, chili powder, salt and pepper. Add the salmon fillets to the lime-honey mixture and toss to thoroughly. Add the seasoned salmon to the hot skillet and cook until just cooked through, about 3-4 minutes on each side.
To the cooked onions, add the bell peppers and corn kernals and cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken stock and continue to cook for another 2 minutes. Add the black beans and cook until the beans are just heated through. Remove the skillet from the heat and add the juice of the second lime, the cilantro, and spinach. Toss to wilt the spinach and then taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve the lime-and-honey-glazed salmon on top of the warm black bean and corn salad.

Ben and I agreed that on it's own, the salmon was overpowered with too much sweet from the honey, but when eaten with the veggie mix - which had a little kick to it - it was all delicious together.

I never calculated the points or calories for all this, but I say when you're eating a healthy piece of fish, and nothing but veggies on the side, why even worry about it? You're doing what you should by eating a healthy dinner, so just enjoy :)

An Ode to Sensible Snacking: Meeting your bad habits head on

2009-04-23T20:39:00.026-04:00

OK, this is going to seem like a totally neurotic post... but I'm unveiling my weird snacking habits with the hope that this will be helpful to some people!

Avoiding cravings and finding out how to control bad habits is such a victory if you're dieting. And I think many would agree that only 25% of avoiding temptation is willpower. The rest is often just meeting cravings head on by knowing what your weaknesses are and coming prepared.

I have come to realize that I gain weight when a change in my routine occurs because I don't know how to anticipate when I'll want a snack. The same reason so many college students gain that "freshman 15" (and by so many I mean myself included) is what made me gain weight when I moved to D.C. Not only was I in a new city - with lots of great new restaurants to try - but it was the beginning of the 9 to 5 work schedule: an entirely different environment, with new stresses and tempting activities that would make me want to give in. So, after many years of adjustments and new situations that have made me put on a pound or 10, I feel like I'm getting the hang of understanding when I crave foods most, and learning what low calorie snacks actually satisfy my cravings so that I can stave off the need for bad food that's constantly calling my attention.

Here are some of my own observations about the way I eat, and what helps me avoid eating something I shouldn't. It may not work for other people, but it may help you learn more about how you eat!

I have a bad history with controlling my portions. This is particularly bad since I am someone who views a snack as a mental break. Maybe all I really need is to just stop what I'm doing and walk around for a minute to take a break, but unfortunately that usually involves walking to the kitchen.... So, I know now I need to be prepared with lots of little snacks throughout the day, and that I have to come up with snack ideas that are low enough in weight watchers points that I can stay within my range.

For instance, I know I need a snack at around 11 in the morning. I don't know why, but it always happens, and often times I'm craving something salty (perhaps as an antidote to all the sweet coffee and breakfast in the morning?) So, I've started making it a point to have snacks around that are about 2 weight watchers points for this occasion - just a little something to get me through the rest of the morning for a light lunch later.

I drink water all day, and I mean all day; I probably drink about 8 glasses of water throughout the work day alone, so I've learned to keep the Nalgene at my desk constantly filled.

I will almost always prefer something warm and savory for lunch. Otherwise, a sandwich or cold salad can feel too much like diet food. And we all know that when you're not reall feeling what you brought for lunch, you're more likely to a) spend money going to get something else, and b) break the calorie bank by eating somehting you shouldn't. Not to mention warm food just feels more like a meal and is more filling in my opinion (haven't they shown that in a study somewhere, or did I just make that up?) Anyway, I usually make lunch a 4 point meal/snack that can be something I made at home and is easily reheated.

After this savory lunch, I usually want a Diet Coke or a Fresca. I now keep a 12 pack of each in the cabinet of my cubicle so that I don't waste money on vending machines during the work day.

I always want something sweet mid-afternoon, and it's best if I can satisfy that in only a point or 2. Sometimes fruit will satisfy this, but let's be honest, a lot of times I want this to be a chocolate flavored carb.

And then I start getting hungry right at the end of the work day. Another 2 point snack will usually tide me over, and helps get me through a work out session or errands until I can eat a small meal later. Otherwise I head straight home for something savory for dinner and won't go do what I need to. I've found that going ahead and eating a little something before I leave work means I'm less likely to over eat when I do eat dinner later, and it helps me be productive without rushing through work at the end of the day, or blowing off exercise and errands just so I can go eat.

When I do get to dinner, I generally want a real meal. It's the same thing that I encounter with lunch - I can't just eat a salad and feel satisfied. So I have to think of really filling, warm and savory meal ideas that are low in fat, but tasty enough to keep me from making a big bowl of pasta instead. Most of the dishes I post on this blog will fall into this category!

So, given some of the needs I know I have throughout the day, I make food for my main meals that is full of flavor, but low enough in fat and calories that I can afford some good snacks throughout the day. A lot of the meals I post about generally fall between 4-6 points so that I have room for some 2-3 point snacks. So, here are some of my favorite snack ideas, and I'll try to write a post that rounds up my favorite meal ideas, too!

Some good salty or savory 2-3 point snacks:

one hard boiled egg is 2 points

a Morningstar veggie patty (southwestern black bean and regular garden veggie are both delicious! - 2 points)

100 calorie pack of almonds

about 24 of those new Special K crackers I was talking about is 2 pts.

5 mini cubes of light Laughing Cow cheese (1 pt), spread on approximately 7 Rosemary and Olive Oil Triscuits (2 pts.)

1 serving of light soup (roughly half a can, I like Progresso's line of Weight Watcher's friendly soups.) - 1 pt.

about 3/4 cup of this roasted edamame salad, or just a good serving of steamed edamame by itself (about 2-3 points)

about 1/2 cup of this lentil salad for 2 points, or double the serving for a small meal.

1 chunk of cheese (usually 2-3 points if you don't go overboard)

Some good sweet 1-3 point snacks (perfect for that late afternoon craving):

Chocolate Vita Top (1 point and they are GOOD! 18 seconds in the microwave, and then toasted a little)

Weight Watchers Caramel Snack Cakes (1 pt. They're tiny, but even if you sneak another, still totally affordable in a diet for 2 points.)

1.5 cup of mixed fruit salad (blackberries, strawberries and diced pear, OR honey dew and cantaloupe mix have been my favorites lately. 1 cup of strawberries is 1 point, for instance.)

1 slice of low-calorie bread, 1 Tbsp Nutella is around 3 points. Just be careful that your spoon doesn't keep going in the jar for more... you'll rack of calories fast that way. I generally can't be trusted with Nutella around.)

A small bunch of grapes, and 5 cubes of that light Laughing Cow cheese.

And finally, my favorite 3 pt. dessert: Strawberries over angel food cake (slice strawberries, add splenda, and mash it all so that it turns into a juicy sauce. pour about 1/2 cup of this mixture over 2 thin slices of angle food cake (I get pre-sliced from a grocery store bakery section so its easier for portions and so I can read the nutrition facts).
Add a dollop of fat-free Cool Whip for a delicious strawberry shortcake taste. You should double check the nutrition facts of the cake, and recalculate on your own to make sure you're not going overboard, but I account for 2 points from the angel food cake I use, and about 1 point for the strawberries and tbsp. of Cool Whip if it's fat free. IT IS DELICIOUS, and leaves you feeling like you had a real dessert instead of just a bite. I probably should write a whole post on this one!

Does anyone have any other good snack ideas?

Italian Tomato Tart

2009-04-23T19:21:00.014-04:00

This recipe is divine. I just got done eating a piece of this for dinner, and it was so mouth-watering to me that I had to start writing this post just to keep myself from going back for seconds... or thirds.... Clearly I'm excited about this, and if you love quiche or a good Tortilla Española, you'll love this Italian Tomato Tart from the April 2009 issue of Cooking Light

What makes this recipe both incredibly healthy - and tasty - is the crust. Unlike a normal buttery crust in a traditional quiche, the brilliant folks at Cooking Light suggest a crust using a mixture of brown rice (that's right), pesto, parmesan, and egg. The pesto in the crust adds an incredible amount of f lavor, too.

What I appreciate the most about this recipe is that a serving is ONE FOURTH of the pie plate. That is so refreshing... Afterall, if it's going to be my dinner, I'd like more than 3 bites, right? And this generous portion is 6 Weight Watchers points (279 calories / 13.9 g. fat / 1.8 g. fiber).

The issue of Cooking Light that I got this from had a lot of great quiche-like recipes, including a potato and greens torta that I'll be posting about soon. It was another favorite that I would recommend to anyone!

Italian Tomato Tart from Cooking Light

Ingredients

Crust:

1 (10-ounce) package frozen long-grain brown rice (such as Birds Eye Steamfresh - I actually couldn't find frozen broaw rice that day, and just roughly measured out 10 oz. of minute rice and prepared it according to the box.)
2 tablespoons commercial pesto
1 tablespoon grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1 large egg
Cooking spray

Filling:

1/2 cup fat-free milk
1/2 cup egg substitute
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Dash of ground red pepper
1 large egg
3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1 ounce prosciutto, cut into thin strips (about 1/4 cup - you can get it siced and pre-packaged at Trader Joe's, or really any grocery store. I found it at Harris Teater by the deli counter)
3 small plum tomatoes, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.
To prepare crust, cook the brown rice according to package directions. Combine cooked rice, pesto, Parmesan cheese, and 1 egg; firmly press mixture into the bottom and up sides of a 9-inch pie plate coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Remove dish from oven.
Increase oven temperature to 400°.
To prepare filling, combine milk and next 5 ingredients (through 1 egg) in a bowl; stir with a whisk.
Sprinkle half of mozzarella and half of prosciutto into bottom of prepared crust. Top with half of tomato slices. Repeat procedure with remaining mozzarella, prosciutto, and tomatoes. Pour milk mixture over tomatoes; bake at 400° for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325° (do not remove tart from oven); bake an additional 35 minutes or until set. Cool 10 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with basil. Cut into wedges.

The finished product...

Time to catch up on all of my cooking...

2009-04-22T23:06:00.008-04:00

Ok, so I have a lot to post, and I've done a terrible job of updating. BUT... here is my defense:

Boyfriend was in town for a week, my aunt passed away, business trip, and lastly, the boyfriend came back into town for my birthday: an event that was the culmination of a series of bad eating habits that left me uninspired for "healthie" posts. Including a friend's birthday, which FORCED me to be a not-so-healthie-foodie by making three different kinds of cupcakes with 5 different kinds of buttercream frosting. Alright, well no one really twisted my arm, but they were delicious. Let's all take a moment to reflect on those:

Yellow cake with chocolate frosting, chocolate cake with coconut cream, yellow cake with mint chocolate frosting.... yum. And not Weight Watchers friendly in the least! (I got these buttercream recipes out of the March 2009 Southern Living: start with the vanilla buttercream and add variations from there!)

Anyway, I can honestly say I've done a lot of cooking lately and I can't wait to ell everyone about some great recipes. I think I've actually been doing so much cooking in fact, that I hadn' been taking the time to actually crank out the posts.. So, bare with me while I catch up and post about these individually, but here are a few posts you can look forward too:

Rachel Ray's Honey Lime Salmon with Warm Corn and Black Bean Salad
How I used the left over corn and black bean mixture as a filler for some yummy veggie quesadillas with corn tortillas and goat cheese (4 or 5 weight watchers points, but sooo delish)
Butterschotch bars out of Cooking Light - 140 calories a piece, but I'll tell you why they're not worth it to me.
A potato and greens torta that was delicious. If you love quiche, you'll want this all the time. (from Cooking Light, naturally.)
Variations on a tangy strawberry salad with farmer's cheese from Southern Living.
Prosciutto and melon salad with canteloupe vinaigrette (I actually busted out the food processor at 10:30 one night to make this. I don't know.)
Some not particularly healthy pasta courtesy of Giada de Laurentis that I made for the boyfriend. It did have spinach in it though, so maybe I get some points for nutrients?
My new favorite fruit salad and snack: pears, strawberries and blackberries - and it's so pretty too!
Totally satisfying strawberry shortcake that's only 3 Weight Watchers points per serving. Screw the butterschotch bars...
Italian Tomato Tart from Cooking Light (I read a lot of Southern Living and Cooking Light while on the road last month...) but again - this rocks if you love quiche or a good tortilla espanola.
How I recreated a delicious Hoppin John that I had at Restaurant 3 last weekend in Clarendon.
Some general thoughts and tips on snacking; a few pitfalls I'm learning to avoid.
Oh and speaking of pitfalls, some thoughts on the day to end all diets: a terrifying confrontation with so many birthday treats in a short period of time, that I was positive I would go into a diabetic coma. Turns out I was fine, I just gained a pound or two...

So that's it - lots of good recipes to come, guys! Sorry it's taken so long to get back on the bandwagon....

Finally, a solution to portion control for almonds, and some other store-bought snacks

2009-04-05T01:08:00.009-04:00

Who remembers my disastrous experience with the cinnamon sugar almonds I bought at Trader Joe's ?

(My friend Erin is probably the only one raising her hand right now, by the way. Mainly because:

She loves those almonds too
She actually checks my blog every day.)

Well, in case you didn't read that post, the disaster occurred - not because the almonds were not good - but because they were TOO good. And apparently I have no portion control when it comes to nuts.

So imagine my delight when I saw these bad boys in the grocery aisle:

I was so excited! I've known for a long time that nuts can be a healthy part of any diet, I just didn't know... errr.... how to keep them within the "healthy" restrictions when they were in my own pantry. I've always said I would love to buy a pack of nuts that were individually packaged in reasonable portions, and so now here comes Blue Diamond to the rescue with the 100 calorie pack. Not only does this make it easier for me to portion appropriately for snacks, but the pack is so easy to grab and take to work. And right at 100 calories, each pack is 2 weight watchers points - definitely workable in to any diet...

Speaking of Blue Diamond - my mom just mentioned that she had tried a new type of cracker they make, that's made from nuts and rice. They're called Nut-Thins and she told me that 16 crackers were 130 calories. By looking at their web site it looks like they have versions in plain almond, plain hazelnut and now fun flavors like cheddar cheese and cool ranch. I had made a point to look for the brand in my grocery store after my mom raved about them, but I couldn't find them. Let me know if you have tried them too and how they are!

One snack on the cracker/cookie aisle that I have tried lately was the new Special K brand of crackers - and let me just say I was pleasantly surprised! I bought the multigrain version, and they were delicious. They have a sweetness to them and kind of remind me of those "honey braided pretzels" that Snyder's makes. My sister will know what I'm talking about - we both love those pretzels... Anyway, the Special K crackers are delicious, and just like the Nut-Thins, they're incredibly sensible. Twenty-four crackers (about the size of Wheat Thins) is 120 calories, or 2 weight watchers points.

Like a lot of people, carbs are kind of the enemy for me. Not because of their nutritional content, but because they're just so addicting to me that I can't control my portions. So if you've got a good idea for a snack that's tasty and healthier than your normal alternative - please share!

Alton Brown's Roasted Edamame Salad

2009-03-30T21:36:00.007-04:00

I love love LOVE this edamame salad. I just really don't know if I could ever get tired of it.

Half a cup of shelled edamame is 2 weight watchers points, and with some corn, tomato, scallions and a little bit of olive oil thrown in there, I estimate that that 3/4 cup of the salad is about 3 points. I keep frozen corn and shelled edamame around so that I can make this pretty easily on a whim. Try it, I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Alton Brown's Roasted Edamame Salad:

Ingredients:

12 ounces fresh or frozen shelled edamame, about 2 cups
1/2 cup fresh corn kernels, about 2 ears of corn
1/4 cup finely diced scallion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup chopped fresh tomato
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place the edamame, corn, scallion, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper into a 13 by 9 metal pan and stir to combine. Place on the middle rack of the oven and roast for 10 to 15 minutes, just until the edamame begins to brown. Remove from the oven and place in the refrigerator until completely cool, approximately 30 minutes.

Add the tomato, basil and vinegar to the edamame mixture and toss to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning, as desired. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

My favorite roasted brussel sprouts

2009-03-30T20:30:00.007-04:00

My mom has been making these roasted winter veggies for basically as long as I can remember. I believe she got the recipe from Southern Living, although I can't seem to find it online now.

The basics are brussel sprouts, whole baby carrots and pearl onions, roasted in the oven with some garlic, olive oil, rosemary and sage. I use all frozen vegetables, which I'm sure a lot of fancie foodies would sneer at, but it's the most convenient and frozen veggies are surprisingly good and just as nutritious. I usually just wing it when making these because I don't have the recipe written down, and it's all pretty hard to mess up. You put the frozen veggies (a bag of brussel sprouts, a bag of carrots, and a small bag of pearl onions) on a baking sheet, still frozen. Then coat them with a couple swirls of olive oil (probably 2 tablespoons) and sprinkle fresh chopped garlic, rosemary and sage. (I use dried rosemary and sage, but fresh garlic makes the difference here, so don't skimp.) Heat the oven to a high temperature - around 425, and cook for around 45 minutes to an hour. They'll take a long time to get roasted since they're frozen, although it may take a little less than an hour for some ovens. Just keep an eye on them! But, I like for them to get a little charred so leaving them in too long isn't often a problem.

If you're scared to "wing it" and want to follow a recipe, you can use this one I found at The Daily Green using fresh veggies. This one leaves out the herbs, so you'll have to add those for the extra flavor, but it's a good representation of the concept.

I make these vegetables all the time, and there is so much flavor in them that sometimes I just make a big bowl of them for dinner and I swear I'm eating garlic mashed potatoes. Ok, not really, but they're really tasty!

My Variations For a Receipe from Cooking Light

2009-03-14T15:34:00.000-04:00

I've mentioned that I adore Cooking Light - especially after my beloved roommate gave me a subscription for Christmas. It's more stimulating than a cookbook, and they give you the nutrition facts at the end of each recipe so you can easily work them in to any diet plan.

In this month's issue, they have a recipe for seared scallops over spinach with canellini beans. I wanted to try this recipe because I love wilted spinach, and scallops are ridiculously healthy for you. 2 oz of scallops (either 10 small or 4 large) are only 1 Weigh Watchers point. So here's the original (which I plan to make when my boyfriend comes to town in a week), but I've followed the recipe up with a few, lower-maintenance ideas for using the same ingredients that you might have on had.

The Original: Seared Scallops with Warm Tucan Beans

I think this recipe looks amazing, and quickly earmarked the page I saw it on when I got my March 2009 issue of Cooking Light. I liked that you add beans to the wilted spinach, and the delicious broth you make to simmer the beans in with onion and garlic. They also give a great suggestion for making some grilled bread to soak up all the extra liquid too!

I had gotten home on time from work one day and was ready to try the recipe just for fun; I even had all of the ingredients, including the scallops which I had bought frozen from Trader Joes. After realizing that it takes a LONG time to thaw scallops (apparently you can't just defrost them in the microwave... what do I know about scallops?), I decided to go ahead and make the rest of the dish leaving out the scallops, and saving them for another time.

(Photo from Cooking Light)

An Easier Twist: Simple side dish of spinach and white beans Yeah, so this "low maintenance" twist is now not near as exciting I know, but the spinach and beans... ahem.... warm Tuscan beans... were still delish, and I love veggie dishes that I can bring towork as a low-calorie snack during the day. You can definitely taste the white wine in the broth, but it's a refreshing flavor to cut the taste of the spinach on it's own. Without the flavor of the scallops in this solo act, you might want to kick up the amount of garlic. Plus, I just love garlic.

Wilting the spinach.....

Fabulous photography I know. Fortunately my stove top is the only place with good lighting in my entire apartment. Please don't compare my photos to the beautiful one from Cooking Light above.

Using Leftovers: Pasta with spinach, beans, mushrooms and feta
I was craving pasta one night (shocker) and since I had some of the spinach mixture leftover, I thought it would be great over linguine, particularly since the mixture still had a lot of liquid to it. I also had some mushrooms in the the fridge that, admittedly I just threw in because I needed to use them before they went bad. It was easy enough to saute the mushrooms with a little bit of low-fat butter while I boiled the pasta.

I reheated the spinach leftovers in the microwave, and added it to the drained pasta and stirred in the mushrooms. I also had some crumbled fat-free feta on hand and tossed it in for a different flavor and for a little protein.

Overall I was pretty pleased with my impromptu dish! It was pretty tasty, and he beans and veggies added more to the bowl without increasing the amount of pasta. Also, I was proud I could take advantage of what was in the fridge last minute. This recessionista is trying not to waste food, ya know.The only tweak I would make for next time would be to ease up on the amount of mushrooms - I put it a pretty big carton since I was trying to use them all up, which was robably overkill.

So help me, I will never buy these almonds again

2009-03-09T21:27:00.006-04:00

I cannot sop eating them. So when I found my hand inside a bag of cinnamon sugar almonds that my friend Erin had, I knew it was bad news.

Actually, I believe it was bad news when I was standing in front of them in the store saying to myself "hey, nuts are healthy - just get them Ashley, they're tasty."

A little over 24 hours later, they're all gone. Here is the culprit:

Note the empty bag. Also note the mocking tagline on said bag: "an irresistible snack" ... ugh

There are just some things I don't know how to control my portions with, one of which are nuts. I actually blame this on my nut allergy as a kid - all that deliciousness being withheld for 17 years and now I have to make up for lost time. I'm still allergic to walnuts, peanuts and pecans, but most others - particularly cashews and almonds - have been a weak spot ever since I first discovered I could have them.

Here's the thing: I should have known better. I know that as long as I can keep reaching my hand back in the bag for more, I will. Anytime you know you have a weakness for a food, don't buy it unless its in controlled portions. Unless you're addicted to carrot sticks, and then you just go ahead and chow down... freak. I'm sticking to these delicious almonds.

If you can practice some self control, feel free to buy these - they were delicious, and were about 3 weight watchers points for 1/4 a cup. But that's actually a pretty depressing amount when you realize you've eaten about 10 times the portion size.

Needless to say, I am convinced I will never buy these - or any tasty almonds - in a mass amount.

Some new things around the blog...

2009-03-08T22:31:00.002-04:00

All five of my regular readers may have noticed that the design of this little blog has changed! Many thanks to Hannah Craner of Sherbet Blossom Designs for helping me out with this!

In the meantime, you'll notice some of my links and formatting may not be exactly right. For instance a lot of the navigation links above... err... well they aren't really navigating you anywhere yet.... ooops!

This will all get fixed eventually - many changes to come for sure!

Lentil Salad with Blue Cheese and Scallions

2009-03-08T16:47:00.008-04:00

When I saw a pack of precooked lentils at Trader Joe's on Friday I remembered how good a cold lentil salad was that I had once from Breadline in D.C.

Lentils have a delicious meaty flavor to them already, but I decided I would try to make a salad out of them that would mimic the version I first had. It had been a while, but I believe the salad has crumbled feta and maybe red onion. In my version, I used reduced fat blue cheese and green onion, since I had just bought a big bunch while I was a the store. I am now obsessed with this snack, since it has a ton of flavor and is only 2 Weight Watchers points per half a cup!

Ingredients

1lb (about 2.5 cups) lentils, cooked
1/4 - 1/3 cup reduced fat blue cheese crumbles.
1/3 cup sliced green onions
Salt to taste (I used a couple of pinches of Kosher)

Directions

Um, there really aren't directions. You just put it all together and enjoy... so it's really easy.

Half a cup of lentils are 2 Weight Watchers points, and 1/4 a cup of this light blue cheese was only 2 points. Since we didn't use much more of the cheese in the whole batch, the points per serving don't really go up on this. So half a cup of this mix would be a great snack during work for roughly 2 points. I'm probably going to kick the serving size up a bit for myself and portion out a cup's worth for 4 points so that it's more of a small, filling meal than a snack.

A recipe I've been meaning to try... Balsamic Roasted Green Beans

2009-03-03T21:11:00.003-05:00

I adore roasted veggies, so I completely drooled over the picture of these roasted green beans with mushrooms, balsamic and parmesan when I saw Kalyn's post in January.

I actually just shared the recipe with a guy friend who was looking for a good side dish to make for a friend. He said they were tasty, so I can't wait to try them myself!

Easy Chicken Dijon (and some potatoes on the side...)

2009-03-02T21:02:00.001-05:00

I found this recipe in the January / February 2009 issue of a Weight Watchers magazine (pg. 151 to be exact!).

It is a nice little (healthy) throwback to Shake 'n Bake (which I loooved growing up!). The baked breaded chicken is not only delicious on its own, but the mustard, oregano and thyme in the seasoning remind me of flavors in a delicious roasted chicken dish that an old college friend's native Greek mother used to make. Her version involved roasting whole chickens over potatoes - all marinated in lemon, olive oil, mustard and oregano. Her chicken was divine, but this recipe may just be a liiitttttle easier, and healthier too!

Ingredients:

2 lbs. chicken drumsticks, skinned.
3 Tbsp. whole-grain dijon mustard. (don't stress folks, use whatever dijon you have around)
2/3 cup panko, or any kind of bread crumbs
1 1/2 tsp. dried herbs (such as tarragon, thyme, or oregano.
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or foil and lightly spray with nonstick spray.
Brush the drumsticks with the mustard. Mix the bread crumbs, herbs, salt, and pepper in a large ziploc bag; add the drumsticks. Squeeze out the air and seal the bag; urn to coat the drumsticks.
Place the drumsticks on the prepared baking sheet and lightly spray with nonstick spray. Bake until browned, 35-40 minutes, spraying the drumsticks with nonstick spray halfway through the baking time.
Let stand about 5 minutes before serving.

Some Tweaks....
This is a great recipe - and already incredibly healthy. I just prefer boneless chicken breasts on average over drumsticks (unless it's really good, unhealthy, southern-style fried chicken of course!) But as a lady who is usually cooking for one, I typically only keep individually wrapped frozen chicken breasts on hand, knowing that I'll never make it through a whole pack of fresh chicken in a week on my own. So I preferred to make this recipe with about 3-4 small boneless chicken breasts rather than the full version with drumsticks.

There's really nothing stopping you from making this recipe for one chicken breast at a time on a weeknight, but I made a couple so I could have leftovers throughout the week (best reheated in a toaster oven).

Boneless chicken breasts cooks faster, though - so make sure that you...

Lower the oven temperature to somewhere around 375 degrees.
Reduce the cooking time to around 20 minutes. (Although to be honest, I was winging it when I did it - just knowing I needed to reduce the time - so I think I baked them for around 20 minutes but keep an eye on them!

The recipe in the magazine says that 2 drumsticks are 4 weight watchers points, and since the program also estimates that a 3-point piece of chicken breast is about the size of your palm, I think it's safe to say one average-to-small chicken breast would be about 4 points too.

Use the mustard and herbs as a rub for roasted baby potatoes too....
I've actually used these flavors in the past (again - inspired by this one dish made by my old friend's Greek Goddess of a mother), rubbing them on these special small yukon gold potatoes that I get at the store (either Safeway, Harris Teeter).

Coating the potatoes with some mustard and a little bit of oil (although nonstick spray would take out the calories) and a little bit of salt, pepper, thyme and oregano makes the potatoes just as good as the chicken, and would be great served as a side. My boyfriend loved these potatoes when I made them once, so I can't wait to make him this chicken to go alongwith them!

(PS - if you go easy on the oil, these potatoes are pretty healthy too! The mustard and spices are zero points, so a small portion would round out this meal that would make even Lean Cuisine proud...)

My Love for Weight Watchers

2009-02-28T18:53:00.000-05:00

Let me just say, I adore Weight Watchers. I've been doing the program on and off since I was a senior in high school.

I remember at the time, the mothers of three who were looking to loose baby weight, or others who had packed on 50 pounds over the course of 20 years of marriage, were looking at me - a teenage girl weighing in at a whopping 134 - like I had no business being there. I had become increasingly self conscious of the few pounds I had gained since my junior year of high school though, and in typical over-dramatic, high-school-girl fashion, I had begged my mom to let me join a silly "quick fix" fad diet program to help shed the pounds. My mom said "enough" and insisted that if I really wanted to lose weight, I was going to do it the right way by learning how to monitor calories with real food, rather than following a ridiculous plan that in no way would help prepare me for eating right in the real world.

I joined Weight Watchers, and went to my meetings each week (probably still in my cheerleading uniform no less) and ended up losing about 7 pounds if I recall. I've gone back on the program informally several times ever since, skipping the meetings and weekly fees, but still using the same points calculator and food guide booklet that I got about 7 years ago.

By now, I'm freakishly good at estimating how many points are in something just by glancing at the nutrition facts, and still use my calculator to get familiar with how much the things I like to eat can be factored into my day-to-day calorie intake.

I would say my weight has fluctuated within 10-15 pounds ever since my senior year of high school (eeek, college...), but I'm now back to my slimmer weight and I think I'm finally getting the hang of how to follow the basics of Weight Watchers and incorporate enough of the things I love to do and cook to keep me staying with it.

This blog is a tribute to helping others stay encouraged, and sharing the recipes I find that have helped me.

Healthy Baking From a Box

2009-02-28T16:50:00.001-05:00

I wanted to share a brand of muffin mix that I find particularly tasty, in case some of you are not feeling up for all the fuss of homemade.

For many dieters, Krusteaz brand of fat-free muffin mixes is no secret. I personally enjoy the cranberry orange muffin mix, but the blueberry are good too! And when all you have to do is add some water to the mix, stir, and pour into a pan - you could not find an easier way to bake.

This makes 11 muffins, which is kind of random, but I would go ahead and skip filling the last cup in the pan, since these guys are pretty small as is.

As small as they are though, each one is only 2 weight watchers points! For breakfast, I usually toast two in a toaster oven, and put a little bit of low calorie butter spray on them to add that salty butter taste that is so delicious on a warm muffin. They're surprisingly satisfying!

(Don't you know some guy is finding this post and is totally grossed out at the idea of fat-free muffins and low calorie butter spray, but I promise I've seen two marines eat these muffins - they're not too shabby!)

Image from the Krusteaz.com...

Seriously Healthy Banana Muffins

2009-02-26T21:35:00.000-05:00

To my ladies at work: I apologize, I intended to bring in a loaf of this bread for everyone to enjoy at the office. But, I just liked it too much, and decided to pretty much keep it all for myself!

I had been craving pumpkin bread on a whim before Christmas and true to form, wanted to find a way to squeeze as many calories out of a recipe as possible. I started out by googling a low-fat version just to see what tricks they had for making the bread healthier. After remembering some good tricks like substituting applesauce for oil, and after some experimenting with sugar/splenda blends and light butter, I ended up with my own little recipe which turned out divine. So this time when I wanted to make some banana bread to take advantage of some ripe bananas I had, I decided to do the same - making these same tweaks to this recipe I found on RecipeZaar.

So enjoy this version below based on some of my suggestions and the great ideas I found in the comments to the recipe on Recipe Zaar. Also, this supposedly makes two loaves, but they were awfully skimpy when I did it, so I think I would take the advice found in the comments to make muffins instead (plus this makes it easier to control portions!)

Ingredients

4 very ripe bananas
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup blend of regular sugar and splenda, equal parts.
2 tablespoons light butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
2 tablespoons applesauce
1/4 teaspoon salt

Some things to keep in mind...

Make it healthier by making substitues for the flour... some people substitute half a cup of wheat flour, or half a cup of oats, or both - oats would be good in the muffin version!
Not every "light butter" is the same... Land O Lakes light butter is 1/3 of the fat and calories of regular - and I can never taste a difference! I picked up a package of another brand of "light" butter that was only half the fat - Land O Lakes definitely won that contest!
Always add salt... I was surprised when this recipe didn't call for salt at first, so I made sure to add about 1/4 of a teaspoon. salt really brings out the flavors in food, sweet or savory.
This recipe is very sweet... Some of the comments mentioned cutting down the sugar blend to about 3/4 of a cup. This makes a lot of sense especially if you're using sweetened applesauce for the butter substitute. (I personally bought sweetened because I knew if I had to buy a whole jar, I would want to eat sweetened applesauce as a snack.) Not to mention that ripened bananas are deliciously sweet on their own!

Directions
There's really nothing stopping you from just dumping all the ingredients in a bowl, mixing it all together, and then pouring it in the greased pans to bake, but I really think following these directions will make the end product just a little better. So here you go:

Preheat oven to 350
Cream sugar with butter (this helps to get all the butter blended smoothly!)
Add egg, and beat lightly to get the mixture to fluff up a little.
Add the 4 bananas, already smashed up in a separate bowl (a pastry fork works really well for mashing and mixing the bananas if you don't feel like busting out the mixer)
Add the vanilla, and applesauce.
Then add all the remaining dry ingredients and mix well.
Pour mixture into pan sprayed with cooking spray so they don't stick! (Either 2 loaf pans, or a 12-cup muffin pan)
Bake for around 50 minutes, probably less for muffins, but keep an eye on them either way. You'll be able to tell it's all ready when the color is good and golden brown, or when a knife comes out clean from the center.
Remove muffins or loaves from pans to cool on a rack.

Because this has artificial sweetener in it, I can just tell you that it taste's so much better - like many things you bake - once it's cooled for a bit, so if you can resist, wait to taste for about 10-15 minutes!

When I made this recipe with the 2 Tbsp of butter, and full 1.5 cup of flour and 1 cup splenda / sugar blend, the whole batch had 30 weight watchers points - making 1/5 of each loaf about 3 points. I'm going to experiment soon with the muffins, using less butter and substituting 1/2 cup of oats for 1/2 cup of the flour - which I think can make these bad boys about 2 points per muffin!

Black Bean and Feta Salad

2009-02-22T15:53:00.001-05:00

This recipe was a pleasant surprise on the inside of the lid to my reduced fat ATHENOS Feta crumbles. I'm always looking for a little snack that's high in fiber, low in fat, but is actually TASTY (I am so not a raw carrot stick kind of girl... I gotta have some FLAVA!)

So here is what he recipe calls for:

1 can (15 oz.) Black beans (rinsed and drained)
1.5 cups chopped tomatoes
1.5 cups cooked rice
1 pkg. (3.5 oz.) crumbled reduced fat feta (I guess you HAVE to use ATHENOS to pay homage to where the recipe came from?)
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup italian dressing
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro or parsley.

Here are a few of my tweaks:

I used brown rice: it's healthier, and I preferred the light brown color since the feta is already white. Silly I know but I like color in my food. Also - make sure to get minute rice. Just takes too dang long with regular rice....

Reduced fat feta is key here - really saves on the calories and fat.

I skipped the celery because I didn't have it on hand, and I hate buying a huge bundle unless I know I'll use it all. Definitely include it though to make it even more healthy and filling if you feel like buying!

Use fat-free Italian dressing. Let's be honest, with all the other flavors already here you won't notice the taste difference, and it's about 1/3 or the fat.

(I actually didn't have Italian on hand so I skipped it too!) I thought it was good with just a little bit of garlic powder, white wine vinegar and a drizzle of olive oil to give it a little bit more kick. Looking back the Italian dressing would probably be the best though, so go ahead and buy a bottle if you don't have it on hand and keep it around for a low-fat marinade for chicken.

I also skipped the cilanto or parsley. Just didn't feel like adding it to the grocery list, and let's face it, the name of this blog is not "Fancie Foodie" and that's why. So there. My ignorant palette cannot taste the difference...

Mix it all together and refrigerate and you're done! Makes 5 servings, roughly 3/4 of a cup of the mix each. With fat-free Italian dressing, I would estimate this to be about 4 Weight Watchers points per serving, and around 200 calories. ( See below if you want to see how I calculated it!)

Weight Watchers Conversion -
Generally speakigng there are about 50 calories per WW point, although the program is much more complex, taking grams of fat and dietary fiber into consideration when making the real calculation.

2 Tbsp. of fat free dressing is 1 pt, so at 8 Tbsp.'s worth of dressing (1/2 a cup) that's 4 points' worth of dressing in the whole batch.
1 cup of brown rice is 4 points, so with 1.5 cups in the whole recipe, that's 6 points' coming from the rice.
I calculated 3.5 points coming from the 15 oz. can of black beans.
And with each serving of reduced fat feta being 2 pts. according to the nutrition facts, and roughly 3 servings in each package, I calculated another 6 points coming from the cheese.
The rest of the ingredients are 0 points! (tomatoes, celery, green onions and parsley/cilantro)

At roughly 20 points in the whole batch, 5 servings would total up at about 4 points each! Not bad for a filling snack that gives you some protein and veggies all at the same time.

Let me know if anyone has better ideas for a different variation - Enjoy!

Finally biting the bullet....

2009-02-18T22:30:00.000-05:00

.....and starting this foodie blog.

Let's make one thing clear: I'm not half the cook, or true "foodie" that so many of the people online are that I admire and read everyday. The thing is, I love to cook. And I get so excited when I find a recipe that inspires my chef wannabe side, but is also sensible enough that it will help me stay on track.

I constantly tell my mom, friends at work, sister, boyfriend - anyone I can find - about the recipes I'm trying: what I loved, what wasn't so great, and what I think could be tweaked to make it "lighter." So it's about time that I just started putting this down in a blog.

It's going to take a while for me to get this up and runnign the way I like but I can't wait to get started!

Favorite Brands and Food Stuffs

2009-01-18T20:59:00.002-05:00

Krusteaz Brand Fat-Free Muffin Mix
T. Marzetti's Fat Free Ranch Dip
MorningStar Farms Veggie Patties (Chipotle black bean, and garden veggie flavors)
Gardenburger brand Sundried Tomato Basil patties.
Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches
Cabot reduced fat cheddar wedges, or Sargento reduced fat colby jack wedges.
Caffeine-free Diet Coke (can't have too much caffeine during the day!)
Yoplait Whips (Chocolate Mousse flavor - put them in the freezer and they're so good!)
Nature's Own whole wheat light bread
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray
Smuckers Sugar Free Blackberry Jam
Dannon Light and Fit vanilla yogurt
Sam's Club Members Mark Spinach and Asiago Cheese Chicken Sausage
Sabra Roasted Garlic Hummus
Fiber One Chocolate and Oats granola bars.
Splenda (I mean, this kind of goes without saying, but for the sake of thoroughness, I added it.)
International Delight fat-free french vanilla coffee creamer

Good resources to help you stay healthy

2009-01-01T21:55:00.004-05:00

Good Healthy Cooking Sites:

Cooking Light
My absolute favorite. You have to get a subscription today. If you're anything like me, you'll buy it just wanting some new ideas for healthy food, and it will slowly turn you into a foodie and wannabe gourmet. I'm addicted. But seriously, it just makes you feel like you're not dieting, but instead just cooking. And it gives you great tips for stripping fat and calories for tons of great recipes.

Dieting Resources:

Weight Watchers
I swear by it. Not because I stay within my "points range" every day, but because it just helps you know what you're really eating. Perspective is everything in understanding what you really need to eat in any given day and this just seems like the most holistic way to do that, since it takes into consideration, fat, fiber and calories.

South Beach Diet
I've never personally tried South Beach, but after a bad experience with Atkins in high school, it seems like it is just the more sensible alternative. The bottom line to any diet: carbs aren't the devil, but you should probably just stop eating so much of them if you're trying to lose weight. No matter what program you're on. Period.

Exercising Resources:

Fit Sugar
I love the Sugar Network, and Fit Sugar is a great blog to give you ideas for being all-around healthy, not just tips for burning calories and building biceps.

Denise Austin
She's fabulous, and even though it's all a little corny, somehow she convinces me to keep going in her work out videos. I'm convinced she's a genius because in her videos - just when you get realyl tired of doing a certain exercise, she'll switch it up for you. She keeps you on your toes without making you feel like you can't get the hang of the motions. Her Yoga video is better than any other I've bought, and this work out DVD of hers was also an old stand-by for many years.

The Firm
A little more on the "no frills" workout side than ol' Denise, and I'm really liking the one DVD I have so far: The Firm Bootcamp: Maximum Calorie Burn. I'm not going to lie though, this video pretty much kicks my tail compared to the "high intensity" setting on the Personal Training DVD by Denise that I link to above. Don't let the Southern accent fool you with Allison in this video, she's serious, but go for it if you're looking to kick it into high gear. I'm looking forward to trying a few other videos too.

A little about me....

2009-01-01T21:34:00.000-05:00

I've been watching my weight since I was in high school, and after several years of trying to find "what works" for me, I'm starting to discover some good tips and ideas for staying on track. I've done the crash dieting, which inevitably leads to toal burn out, and now I'm just happy cooking light, and finding tricks for keeping myself from overloading on the delicious stuff that temps us every day.

So here is my humble blog, where I just want to share some tips, snack ideas, good recipes, and general thoughts on eating healthy and feeling good about yourself. Most of the recipes will be to the credit of people far more talented and creative than me, with some suggestions and tweaks here or there.

Oh yeah, please don't judge my photography... I'm no artist when it comes to the camera, that is for sure. And I have bad lighting in my apartment!

Feel free to contact me if you at healthiefoodie@gmail.com - I'd love to hear from you!