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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Dessert for Y'all Chocolate Lovers

I was a fiend for Haagen-Dazs' Mayan Dark Chocolate for a minute...A sale at Shop Rite introduced me to this decadent treat, and then the flavor was discontinued!

Oh, well, don't need 'em now. I have a diet-friendly alternative. I found a fudge pop at my local ALDI that's very low-cal (50/0/0 for my Weight Watchers fam), and I rolled it in a teaspoon of cinnamon sugar. It satisfied my chocolate/cinnamon jones.

Latin Pork Fried Rice

So I took the partial pork loin I slow cooked in my post below and used it to make a Cuban-influenced fried rice. To do this, I made a big batch of instant brown rice (6 servings of rice), and let it cool for a few hours. Then, I heated 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sauteed some onion and garlic in the oil. I added the rice, and then a can of black beans (liquid and all), followed by the pork, which I had diced earlier. I seasoned the mixture with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin, garlic powder, lemon juice, and a bunch of fresh, chopped cilantro.

I think next time I'll get adobo to use, but all in all, not bad. I ate the remainder of my shrimp and grits last night, so I'll be dining on this fried rice creation tonight. Be back with a pic later!

Getting the Most for Your Money

My grocery store is Shop Rite, and their sales start on Sundays. I made a special trek there yesterday morning to take advantage of a sale on pork loin. A 99-cents-a-pound deal? I'm there!

To my surprise, these were whole pork loins instead of remnants, monstrosities of many pounds. I figured I could cut one up and use it for several meals. And that's exactly what I did with my $13 hunk of meat. I slow cooked a pound worth of it (more on that later) and cut the rest into 3 roasts.

With the pork loin on Sunday, plus a sale on ground turkey for which I grabbed 5 packages costing less than $2 each, my freezer is now full! These finds join about 6 packages of meatballs, boneless chicken breast, other assorted chicken parts, turkey and chicken burgers, assorted veggies and tater tots, and pita bread for pizzas. Freezer bags are my friends--I generally take the ground meat and burgers out of the pillow packs. I also buy large packages of chicken quarters when they're on sale, cut them into the separate drumsticks and thighs myself, and freeze them in bags.

So for pork hunk #1: I trimmed the visible fat off of it and did a mock rotisserie in my slow cooker. I first learned about this method from the Weight Watchers message boards, for chicken. Basically you spray your slow cooker all around with cooking spray, then set foil coils in the slow cooker for the meat to sit on. Season the meat with spices, then spray with cooking spray. Set it on the coils and cook on high for 4-6 hours, depending on how big the piece of meat is.

I wanted to make a Latin-spiced pork loin, so I added salt, pepper, garlic and cumin. Once the meat was finished, I got it in my mind to make a Latin pork fried rice. That experiment went well!