Good Burger

After drooling at my husband's massive kobe beef burger at Cheesecake Factory earlier this week, I felt like I needed a good burger. In my local Pathmark I found lean ground beef burgers from the company Laura's Lean Beef.

The company sells beef products without antibiotics or hormones that come from family farms. They cooked up lovely on the grill!

A Great Birthday Present!

So I officially lost 10% of my body weight this past week! I've lost nearly 25 pounds since starting Weight Watchers, which is equivalent to the weight of 3 gallons of milk. I'm ecstatic!

This week was the week of my birthday as well, which made the loss that much more wonderful. What a great birthday present! But that also made it more challenging as well. Who doesn't want to celebrate another year of life? And that celebrating usually comes in the form of cake, drinks and a sumptuous meal. Well, I managed to get in all three but budgeted everything against the Weight Watchers Points system. I was proud of myself for enjoying myself, but not going overboard. Also, I tried to make it more about my day (of course) and the people I celebrated with, instead of the food. I like this new person I'm becoming. I think I'll keep it up.

Another Good Diet Dessert

I made this last night. Tasted just as good as the fried version!

• 2 taco-size corn tortillas
• 1 tsp. cinnamon sugar
• quick spritz of cooking spray

Heat the tortillas in the microwave for 1 minute; turn over. Heat for another minute, or until crisp.
Lightly spray the tortillas with the cooking spray; top each with cinnamon sugar.

(You might be able to forego the cooking spray; I just thought it would make the cinnamon sugar adhere better. I'll try without next time.)

A Filling Diet Breakfast

This was my breakfast today. I found this one from a regular on one of the Weight Watchers message boards. (I think it was Lawchick but am not 100% sure.)

• Light English muffin (I went with Thomas' Light Multigrain)
• Laughing Cow light cheese (I've tried the swiss and French onion)
• 1 slice Canadian bacon (I use turkey Canadian bacon, but you could go with pork)

Toast the muffin, spread on the cheese. Heat the Canadian bacon and add it to the bread and cheese.



I usually have the sandwich with a cup of tea flavored with 1 tablespoon of honey and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

Awesome Oven French Fries

Got this recipe from the Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook, and made some tweaks.

• 4 small baking potatoes cut into 8 wedges each (WW recipe says 1 1/4 potatoes peeled and cut into 1/2-inch strips, but I like doing the wedges because it makes it easier to count out a serving.)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 4 teaspoons oil
• 1 teaspoon paprika

Place the potatoes in a bowl of water; add 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and all the sugar. Soak for at least 15 minutes; remove from water and blot with paper towels.
Toss the potatoes in the oil and paprika.
Place in the oven until potatoes are cooked and crisp. (WW recipe says 45 minutes for this.)
Top with remaining salt.
Makes 4 servings.

Easy Fajitas

I mean really easy:

• Frozen precooked, pre-sliced, grilled chicken breast (I purchased this wonderful find from ALDI and used maybe 3/4 of a 2- to 3-lb. bag)
• Frozen bag of sliced peppers and onions (Probably 12 oz. Sorry, I'll have to pay attention to quantities and sizes more!)
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• Garlic powder to taste
  
• Small corn tortillas
  

Heat the oil and add the chicken and vegetables. Stir until everything is coated with the oil. Add the garlic powder. Cover the mixture but check back regularly to stir. Cook until the meat and veggies are thawed and everything is heated through, not more than 15-20 mins.
Heat the tortillas in the microwave and add the meat and veggies mixture. Voila! I guesstimate the meat/veggies mixture is enough for about 10 fajitas.

Pasta Much?

Before I started Weight Watchers, I tried the South Beach diet, and South Beach is not the most carb-friendly of diets. As a result, I cut back on my pasta consumption.

But now I've learned that pasta isn't really the problem, it's the portion size. Did you know that a true serving size of pasta is two ounces uncooked or one cup cooked? That was certainly eye-opening when I read that this week.

After reading this, I decided to give pasta another chance. But I could see myself easily getting into a rut by doing the usual ground meat-, sausage- or meatball-and-sauce combo, so I decided to branch out. Here's what I came up with.

Oh, and with the exception of the lasagna, I used whole wheat pasta for the recipes.

Without further ado...

Penne Pasta With Spinach and Pepperoni: This is scaled to one serving size, as I had some cooked penne on hand.

• 1 cup cooked penne pasta
• 1/2 cup sauteed spinach (this came from a larger batch I made, sauteeing the spinach in olive oil and garlic)
  
• 17 slices of turkey pepperoni (17 slices is one serving!)
• 1/2 cup of spaghetti sauce

Basically you're just mixing everything together. I also mixed in 1/4 of a cup of mozzarella cheese. (roughly 1/4 of a cup, or 1 oz., is a serving of shredded cheese.)

Mexican Penne Pasta: Also scaled to one serving.

• 3 oz Mexican-spiced ground meat (Ground turkey cooked it in the microwave with canola oil, a touch of salt, chili powder, garlic, minced onion, cumin, oregano, hot sauce, and a little lime juice added in. I made a larger batch of the meat that we used for burritos that week.)
• 1 cup penne pasta
• 1/4 cup spaghetti sauce
• 2 tablespoons fat-free sour cream
• 1/2 cup corn
• 1/4 cup black beans
• cilantro to taste
• red onion (optional)
  

Curry Spaghetti: I'm going to make this one tomorrow. I plan on making a big batch, because I know my husband will eat it, too.



UPDATE:
Here's the recipe I used:

• 2/3 of a box of cooked spaghetti
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
  
• 1 lb. Ground turkey
• 3/4 of a medium onion
• 1 tablespoon Garlic
• Curry powder... I didn't measure, but I usually use a lot. Don't think I'd be exaggerating to say half a cup. But do to your taste.
  
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
  
• 1/3 of a container of sour cream
  
• Cilantro, to taste
• 1 cup chickpeas
• 2/3 cup peas

Brown the onions, garlic and ground turkey in the canola oil. Add the curry powder, chicken stock, sour cream, chickpeas and peas. Mix in the spaghetti. Add the cilantro at the end.
The last pasta recipe I'm going to post is not new, but is my post-Weight Watchers version of lasagna. A teensy bit lighter, plus veggies, and also fast to make!

• 1 package of turkey meatballs (should be 12-16 of them; can't remember.)
• Spaghetti sauce (I usually use a 28-oz jar plus maybe another cup or so. Use as much as you like.)
• Frozen spinach (at least half of one of the small boxes), cooked
• 12 no-boil lasagna noodles
• Small container of fat-free ricotta cheese
• 8-oz bag of low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella
• reduced fat parmesan cheese
• Italian spices
• Salt to taste
  
• Pepper to taste
  

1. Dice the meatballs. Mix the meatballs, spinach and spaghetti sauce together, reserving some spaghetti sauce to pour on the bottom of your baking dish.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together the entire container of ricotta cheese, half the mozzarella and the spices. I usually also mix in some milk to thin out the mixture a bit and make it easier to spread when the time comes.
3. Pour enough spaghetti sauce in a 13"x9" baking pan to cover the bottom.
4. Add 3 lasagna noodles.
5. Top with meatball mixture.
6. Top meatball mixture with cheese mixture.
7. Repeat steps 4-6 two more times.
8. On top of the final layer of cheese mixture, add the final 3 noodles. Top with any of the meatball mixture that's remaining, or just plain spaghetti sauce. Top the sauce with the remaining mozzarella and parmesan.
9. Bake pan, covered with foil, in a 350-degree oven until the noodles are cooked. Uncover the lasagna toward the end of the cooking time.

Enjoy!
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