Smoothie Craziness!

So the boyfriend bought us an early Christmas present: The Ninja Blender! It is seriously the coolest blender I’ve ever used/had! It has three sets of blades! Yup, three! Regardless, it’s been smoothie madness in our house! (Apologies to our neighbors who have to listen to the loud ass blender at one in the morning and then again at six am!)

Here’s a few great smoothies I’ve been addicted to!

Peanut Butter Coffee Wake Up:

1 tbls. Jif Peanut Butter (Creamy Style)

1/2 cup fat-free milk

1/4-1/2 cup strong brewed cold black coffee (I prefer pumpkin spice Dunkin’ Donuts variety)

1 banana (peeled, duh)

1 1/2 cap fulls of sugar-free caramel syrup (Like the one by Torani)

2 cap fulls of sugar-free chocolate syrup (Like the one by Torani)

5 ice cubes

-It’s soooooooooooooooooo GOOD!

 

The Best Breakfast Ever!

1/2 cup fat-free plain Greek Yogurt (Like the one by Chobani)

3/4 cup fat-free milk

1 cup frozen unsweetened blueberries

Optional add ins: 2-3 cap fulls of sugar-free chocolate syrup, 2-3 cap fulls of sugar-free caramel syrup, 1 tbls. sugar-free strawberry jelly/jam (or all of the above 🙂 )

-The.Best.Breakfast.Ever!

 

You know you’re a smoothie addict when the top rack of your dishwasher is full of cups and the bottom rack only has 2 plates.

 

Something Different: Smoothies!

I’m kind of veering off path here and not doing a cookbook recipe, however I think/know you all will like these recipes just as much even though they aren’t hand stamped by Hungry-Girl. They are hand stamped by Fat-Free Jacque though, so it makes it just as good, right? LOL! For those of you not on Weight Watchers and/or haven’t read up on the new Points Plus program all points values of fruit are ZERO! Yes, you read that right! Free/zero points to eat your fruit! Which has encouraged me in so many ways to make better choices like more smoothies instead of ice cream for dessert. I’ve been meaning to post these recipes for a while  now, and I’m finally doing it! I think sometimes I should open my own Smoothie shop, that’s how good these bad boys are! I’m truly addicted! Hopefully I can inspire you as well!

(Some of these  recipes I’ve made on the whim and don’t have exact amounts. I use a Magic Bullet blender, so they are all single serving portions, please feel free to double, triple and even quadruple these recipes to share with friends and family!)

ORANGE DREAMSICLE

Juice of 2 oranges (freeze juice in ice-cube trays for extra coldness)

4 ounces vanilla soy or almond milk (low-fat and unsweetened)

1/4 cup fat-free sugar-free cheesecake or vanilla pudding

6 frozen peach slices

2-3 packets of Splenda

-This one reminds me of an Orange Julius!

CARAMEL APPLE:

4 ounces frozen cinnamon apples*

4 ounces vanilla soy/almond milk (low-fat and unsweetened)

2 tbls. sugar-free caramel topping

-This is not a gigantic smoothie, but it’s so flavorful and filling you won’t need much!

(*peel, de-seed/core apple, slice up and sprinkle liberally with cinnamon. Place apples on baking sheet (single layer) and freeze for 3-4 hours. Can then transfer to either a Tupperware container or plastic bag for storage)

NEOPOLITAIN:

6 frozen strawberries

1/4 cup fat-free sugar-free cheesecake or vanilla pudding

4 ounces vanilla soy or almond milk (low-fat and unsweetened)

2 tbls. fat-free sugar-free chocolate pudding mix (dry mix, unprepared pudding)

-Can you say milkshake? (Without the milk or the ice cream!)

BLUEBERRY PIE:

1/4 cup frozen blueberries

1 ounce frozen cinnamon apples*

4 frozen peach slices

2 ounces blueberry yogurt

4 ounces vanilla soy or almond milk (low-fat and unsweetened)

4 tbls. cool whip free

2 packets of splenda

-This one by far is my favorite! It tastes like pie! Seriously!

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE:

1 tbls. Almond butter (I make my own Almond butter with Splenda, feel free to ask for my recipe!)

4 ounces vanilla Almond milk (low-fat and unsweetened)

2 1/2 ounces ice (yes, it’s important to weight your ice, don’t want to water it down too much!)

3 packets of splenda

-Ironically this recipe has no peanuts or peanut butter. Ha! I’ve never actually tried it with peanut butter but I bet it would be just as good!

PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE:

3/4 cup frozen pineapples

1/4 cup fat-free sugar-free butterscotch pudding

1/4 cup fat-free sugar-free vanilla pudding

4 ounces vanilla soy or almond milk (low-fat and unsweetened)

Dash of cinnamon

1/8 tsp. almond or cherry extract

1 tsp. brown sugar

Top with Cool Whip free if desired

-I made this one because the boyfriend requested it. I’m actually allergic to pineapple (Sad, I know) so I have no idea if it’s good or not, he said it was  “Freakin’ fantastic” so I’m guessing it’s pretty tasty!

SWEET TART:

1/4 cup frozen blueberries

1/4 cup frozen raspberries

1/4 cup frozen cranberries

6 ounces fat-free lemon yogurt

Pomegranate/Blueberry/Acai Berry Sparkling Water (I didn’t measure this, oops, put fruit and yogurt in blender/magic bullet. Pour just enough sparkling water to cover the fruit/yogurt.)

-Remember those fantastically sweet yet tart candies? Yea, this recipe tastes just like those!

NO NAME:

(I don’t have a clever name for this one, but it’s pretty tasty and kind of reminds me of the Acai Super Antioxidant from Jamba Juice)

1/4 cup frozen raspberries

1/4 cup frozen blueberries

1/4 cup frozen blackberries

1 cup of fat-free milk

3 “cap-fulls” sugar-free chocolate Torani syrup

Splash of Pomegranate/Blueberry/Acai berry Sparkling Water

-Wow, I didn’t realize until I typed these out that this is the first recipe I’ve done with regular milk and not soy or almond milk. Crazy!

I’m currently working on perfecting a Strawberry Rhubarb Pie smoothie and a Peanut Butter and Jelly Smoothie. Will keep everyone updated as soon as they are good enough to share!

Good luck and happy smoothie making!
(Sorry for the lack of pictures, I get too excited and start chugging away before I even think about snapping a photo! You understand right?)

Good Chick Lollipops Part One

(Who else is currently singing in their head now?)

I’m having a slight dilemma with this next recipe. On the new Weight Watchers Points Plus program it puts a huge emphasis on eating more whole foods and less processed foods. I am all for this change and quite frankly really needed it! Not that I am unaware of the fact that I should/need to eat more fruits and veggies, and could have come to this conclusion on my own, but it was kind of a wake up call I guess you could say. I know I made some pretty silly decisions when it came to allocating my points. I own up to my stupidity. For example, if I wanted a quick 1 to 2 point snack, 9 out of 10 times I would reach 3 cups of air popped popcorn instead of an apple, or a  banana simply because they both held the same point value. I’m not proud of it, but it’s true. Now, since starting the new Points Plus program (3 days ago) 9 out of 10 times I have reached for that ZERO point apple/pear/grapes/bananas/frozen blueberries. I have eaten so many fruits and vegetables in these last few days, and I feel fan-frackin-tastic! I have so much more energy, feel less groggy mid-day, less hungry, and all together (for lack of a better cliché) like a million bucks!

This next recipe: Good Chick Lollipops are some tasty sounding chicken strips breaded with Funyun’s onion flavored rings and fat-free sour cream & onion potato chips. One of the main things I love about Hungry-Girl is that she is able to come up with tasty treats that make you feel like your cheating on your diet, but calorie wise, you’re not at all! This recipe is 5 weight watchers points plus points. I’m not sure how I feel about this. This is why I need some opinions. It’s loaded with processed crappiness, unnecessary sodium and fat, and pretty much too much junk that I am trying to steer away from. Plus, if I have to buy a bag of both of these kind of chips (and only use a handful of each) I will be tempted to eat the leftovers.

Something I love about Weight Watchers is that you can treat yourself to the occasional non-diet food, and still stay within plan. Eating real food is important to me! If I get a craving and don’t cure it, I go slightly insane and then go on stupid buck wild eating binges. This is why Weight Watchers works for me. I need that happy medium! I know that I can make this recipe without feeling guilty, but I also don’t know if I should risk the temptations. Now I feel like I”m just rambling. I’ll stop now.

What do you think? Please discuss!

Amazin’ Asian Ahi Tuna Burgers

I’ve got to start this post off with a little ‘woo-is’ me/feel sorry for me story! Let me first state that the first line of this recipe says “You MUST have fresh ahi for these burgers. DON’T cut corners and attempt to make these with the frozen stuff.” I might have taken this a little too literally! Being new to Southern California, I still don’t know where to get certain items, or where any specialty stores are. Sometimes I don’t even know what to search for in my GPS to find said items/stores. This was no exception! I searched google for fresh fish markets near me. First place that came up was less than a mile away and called something like “Fish Market”. SCORE! Or so I thought, it was non-existent! This used to happen to me all the time with my old GPS, but the new one has never been wrong! This place was just not there! After 2 hours of driving around, following directions and 4 stores later I came up with absolutely SQUAT!  Seriously, I was so annoyed and ready to give up! This is not how I wanted to spend my morning! I finally just said to h.e.double.hockey.sticks with it and was gonna buy the frozen stuff. I just didn’t care anymore! So I went to Ralph’s. I’m looking at the frozen fish right next to the fish/meat counter and saw frozen ahi. A little spendy but why the heck not? Just for shits and giggles I look at the fish counter. What did I find you ask? Oh, fresh ahi tuna! (Well it was from Indonesia but at least it wasn’t currently frozen) Son of a B! I finally calmed down, grabbed what I needed and headed out of dodge to my apartment (1/2 mile away btw. ha) What happens next? Some jack-ass son of a bitch mo-fo rams the back of my car with his! You have got to be kidding me! Luckily nothing and no one was hurt, and we went on our merry ways. This got my blood pumping though and I was aggravated beyond believe. Now that you feel sorry for me and feel the need to cheer me up with gifts, let me digress into the actual recipe:

THE RECIPE:

Amazin’ Asian Ahi Tuna Burgers

PER SERVING (1 burger) 246 calories, 2.5g fat, 734mg sodium, 26.5g carbs, 3g fiber, 3.5g sugar, 33g protein

(Side note: Who else is excited about the new Weight Watchers? I am I am! This recipe used to be 5 points now its 6, seems like a bad thing but really, it’s not! It’s such a good thing it’s ridiculous!)

INGREDIENTS:

1/3 cup fat-free mayonnaise (hate this stuff but decided to buy it and try it anyways, I’m such a good sport)

2 tsps. wasabi, or less for a milder taste (hell with that, give me spicy spicy!)

1 pound fresh raw ahi/yellowfin tuna, finely chopped

1 extra-large egg white or 3 tbls. liquid egg whites (I cut this entire recipe in half because it makes 4 and it’s just me and the boyfriend. For this item though I should have used 1 1/2 tbls. of egg whites, I used about 1/2 tbls. If you remember the Tremendous Top Shelf Turkey Burger, you’ll  know why I did that!)

3 scallions, chopped

1 1/2 tbls. reduced-sodium/lite soy sauce

2 tsp. ground ginger (ginger really isn’t my favorite spice. It’s just so over-powering, I used a few dashes, didn’t want to go overboard! I love fresh ginger btw, just not so much the dried/ground variety!)

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

Dash black pepper

4 small light hamburger buns, about 80 calories or less each.  (I couldn’t find these little buggers, so I went with some sandwich thins. Good enough at 100 calories each, at this point in my grocery shopping trip I just didn’t give a hoot!)

1 small cucumber, thinly sliced

DIRECTIONS:

In a small bowl, combine mayo and wasabi. Mix well and set aside.

In a medium bowl combine tuna, egg white, scallions, soy sauce, ginger, mustard and pepper. Mix well. Using your hands, shape mixture into 4 patties, each approximately 4 inches wide. (Seriously, I can’t measure that way! I use the “hope they are all even method” and cross my fingers!)

 

The tuna before I took out my frustrations on it with my favorite knife! (No the two pieces weren't really that different in color, I think the flash hit one more than the other one! Couldn't even correct that in Photoshop.)

Ah, I feel so much calmer now! Chopped up the tuna into small "ground" up pieces.

 

Spray a large skillet with nonstick spray and bring to a medium-high heat. Place patties n the pan and cook until golden on the outside and medium-rare on the inside, about 2 minutes per side. Be sure to flip them gently! (Not a problem for me, I didn’t overload them with egg “binders” LOL!)

 

Looks like it could be a turkey burger huh? Nice!

Place each patty on the bottom half of a bun. Top each evenly with mayo-wasabi mixture. Finish each one with cucumber slices and top bun half!

 

An open-faced view!!

Would you like fries with that? (Oh, I so did!) Served them with some roasted sweet potato wedges (aka fries!)

 

Makes 4 servings.

THE REVIEW:

My first bite reaction: Sushi, on a bun! Nice!

Mike’s first bite reaction: (I wasn’t paying attention when I finally noticed he had taken a few bites and then moved over to the “fries”. I asked what he thought) “I like the sweet potato fries,” then I grilled him about the burger. He didn’t like it at all! Had too much wasabi, too many cucumbers and reminded him of sushi! I’m such a bad girlfriend! I forgot that he doesn’t really like sushi! MY BAD! He’s more of a california roll type of sushi person (crab and avocado) where I’m more of a sashimi person (raw slabs of fish). I’m such a ditz, felt bad and gave him my fries. Ugh lol!

(Now I want some Sweet Potato fries!)

Taste: If you love sushi, you will love this recipe! If you only sorta kind of like sushi you might want to make sure someone who loves sushi is around to eat it incase you don’t like it (and so it doesn’t go to waste) if you don’t like sushi at all (or only prefer the american variety of sushi aka california rolls) do not even attempt to look at this! 🙂 It has all the right components, fish, wasabi, soy sauce, ginger. I thought it was great! I’d make it again (if it wasn’t such a pain to find the right fish) and gobble up the leftovers too!

Texture: By not adding very much egg whites it was perfect. Held together well and had a nice bite to it! If adding the right amount of egg whites be prepared for a soggy/sloppy mess! Or at least that’s what I think! I don’t understand adding eggs to burgers.

Creativity: Absolutely bloody brilliant! When I looked at the ingredients I really didn’t put two and two together. It sounded like it was going to be a simple tuna burger with wasabi. It wasn’t until I was putting it all together did I think “Duh, Sushi!” I was impressed!

Satisfaction: I wish I would have eaten my sweet potato fries. I was still a little hungry afterwards. Instead I drank a big glass of water and pouted a little. But I guess I didn’t have to give him my fries! Regardless, it was worth the points and calories for sure!

How do you like your sushi?

Where in Southern California can I find a fresh fish market?

Who else is thrilled about the new Weight Watchers?

(I know too many questions!)

Quick tidbit: As stated in my last post I think I’m gonna have to hold off doing all these recipes so quickly. Some of the Weight Watcher points are just a bit high! Plus having to buy more fruits and veggies is getting more and more expensive! I will try to do at least 2-3 a week, but no longer 7 days a week. (Sorry) The reason I wanted to even start doing this blog/cookbook was to try new foods and eat new things! I tend to get myself stuck in ruts and eat the same thing everyday (In result, not lose weight) and so far, that’s what I’ve accomplished! However, my pocket-book has gotten a bit too small trying to keep up at this pace! Until next time!

 

 

 

 

Quickly

I am currently overly obsessed with the new changes to Weight Watchers. I do my weight watching online, and the new plan won’t be revealed until tomorrow (Monday). I think I’m gonna wait until things have changed (for the best) to do my next post/recipe. I hope the Hungry-Girl recipes don’t go up too high in values! I’m a little worried! (Not too much though, I will still keep on keeping on this book!)

Thanks for your patience and Happy Holidays!

Corn Bread and Apple Pies!

Apologies for the lack of recipes/posts these last few days! Thanksgiving kind of set me back a bit! Tuesday we had to clean out the fridge to make room for the turkey and all the leftovers. Wednesday I had to do prep for the big day (aka Thanksgiving) and Thursday was well, Thanksgiving.

Turkey day was just the boyfriend and I (my first holiday not with the family) so I had to make some wise choices! I decided (besides the turkey) I wanted a Weight Watchers Thanksgiving. Mike wanted a regular full-fat dinner. So we compromised. He picked two side dishes to have “regular” style (plus deviled eggs, but I don’t eat those anyways so that was easy) and I did the rest of the menu low-fat Weight Watchers “style”. I found a few great Hungry-Girl recipes that made perfect additions to make brand new Turkey day traditions!

First was Corn MegaMuffins! (Click the link for the recipe)

Holy Cow! These are NOT baked yet! Look how gigantic they are!

Yup, these ginormous MegaMuffins are only 3 weight watcher points each! Woot! Woot!

A close up, because I think its fun! (Apologies for the blurriness)

Taste: I love cornbread! I also haven’t eaten cornbread in over 5 years because they are so ridiculously high in fat and calories! These big guys are the perfect replacement for my favorite bread item! I honestly couldn’t even tell they were low-fat! 10 thumbs up! (What? I have 10 thumbs, so what?)

Texture: My first suggestion; make sure you let them cool down completely before consuming. When they were still hot they were a little gummy and seemed to be undercooked even though you could tell they were done. Second suggestion: Eat them the next day reheated for a few seconds with a little I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spray! YUM! Loved the bits and chunks of real corn in them! Perfection!

Satisfaction: Needless to say throughout the course of the day I ate 3 of them!

I also wanted to make an apple pie for Turkey day (Since I don’t like pumpkin pie) and found: Awesome Apple Pie-lets! Whoops, I forgot to take pictures of this one! I was too pre-occupied with eating them and preparing the rest of our feast. If you click on the link you’ll get the idea of what they look like :)!

Texture: Using an egg roll wrapper as the shell: BRILLIANT! My only complaint is the crust edges, once the wrapper is rolled over to seal it, it gets a little tough and chewy. Just a little too much! Other than that, it was awesome!

Taste: Apple pie filling was so easy and fragrant and delicious! It really really did taste of apple pie! A little apple pie pocket! Best dessert we had at dinner! (Probably because I don’t like pumpkin pie.) Top it off with a little frozen Cool Whip Free and it’s Apple Pie A la Mode!

Satisfaction: 2 Weight Watchers points; yeah I’m sold! Holy wow, really? Only 2 points for a pie?

In slightly other related news: I lost 3.4 pounds last week! Yay! For a total of 8.4 pounds in 3 weeks! I’m hoping that I can keep this up. I’m also so super excited about the new Weight Watchers Points program to roll out on Monday. I’ve heard through rumors on the net that all fruit is gonna be zero points. And that they are actually going to take protein into account on calculating the points! This is so exciting! I am a protein junkie!

I should be back to doing recipes again on Saturday. I just need to find some fresh Ahi tuna. This is going to be a tough one. I don’t even know where to begin! Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving and that you got to spend it with the ones you love!

Three-Cheese-Bacon-Apple-Bella Frittata

If you look up the word Frittata on Wikipedia it basically says: a frittata is an egg based dish similar to an omelete or Quiche.  I like omelets, and even though I’ve never had a Quiche before, I know I would like it! If you’ve never had a frittata before I suggest trying out this recipe! With the holidays coming up and family possibly visiting from out-of-town, this would be a great breakfast or brunch to start out the day with!

THE RECIPE:

Three-Cheese-Bacon-Apple-Bella Frittata

PER SERVING (1/4 of the frittata): 157 calories, 3.25g fat, 506mg sodium, 12.5g carbs, 1.5g fiber, 6.5g sugar, 18.5g protein

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups fat-free liquid egg substitute

2 tbls. fat-free nondairy liquid creamer

2 slices 2% milk Swiss cheese, chopped (I could only find 2% milk Cheddar, so I decided on fat-free “white” cheese)

1/2 cup shredded fat-free cheddar cheese

2 slices center-cut or turkey bacon, chopped (I used turkey bacon, yum, turkey!)

1 cup chopped Portabella mushrooms

1 large apple, preferably Fuji, cored and finely chopped (I chose HoneyCrisp, it’s my fave!)

1 tbls. reduced-fat Parmesan-style grated topping

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat broiler.

In a medium bowl, combine egg substitute and creamer. Whisk together for 1 minute. (This step helps add volume to the eggs, I know it sounds like a useless step, but  it is important!)  Add Swiss cheese and cheddar cheese. Set aside.

Bring a large oven-safe skillet sprayed with nonstick spray to medium heat on the stove. Add bacon and mushrooms, and cook until bacon is slightly crispy and mushrooms have softened, about 3 to 5 minutes.

Beginning to smell good in my kitchen! Bacon and mushrooms, oh my!

Add apple and continue to cook until softened, about 1 minutes. (Just like in the AM Apple Scramble recipe, eggs and apple sound so bizarre together, hmmm….will this one work out well too?)

I hope my "finely chopped" apples are small enough!

Pour egg mixture into the skillet, and tilt the skillet back and forth to ensure egg mixture is evenly distributed. Make sure cheese is evenly distributed (This was not an easy task!) , as well, if needed, run a spatula along the sides of the skillet to help the egg flow underneath the bacon, mushrooms, and apple. Cook for 2 minutes, and then remove from heat.

The frittata before the broiler. See how I didn't move the cheese around very well, it was hard damn it!

Sprinkle grated topping evenly over the frittata. Place under the broiler for about 4 minutes, until the egg mixture has puffed up  and the mixture is set.

Tried to capture the height of the egg, can you tell that its puffy?

How bout now?

Allow to cool, and then cut into quarters. (Frittata may look runny, but it’s just all the cheese oozing out) Enjoy!

Sliced like a pizza, and resembling an omelete. Oh yeah, I'm excited!

Makes 4 servings.

THE REVIEW:

My first bite reaction: Appley! Sweet and salty, weird, good!

Mike was at work, I ate this alone! Let’s hope the left-overs are good! 🙂

Satisfaction: I am NOT a morning person at all! I don’t actually like eating right after waking up, but I force myself to do so and am rewarded by not devouring an entire box of donuts 3 hours after waking since by now I’m a starving mo-fo! I usually will pop a VitaTop into the oven, pour and drink a cup of coffee and by the time the coffee is coursing through my veins my VitaTop is ready to eat. (About 10 minutes). This recipe took me over an hour to make! (I’m really slow in the kitchen first thing in the morning, ok I’m really slow doing everything first thing in the morning.) I was so hungry I wanted to eat the whole thing! (Plus I burned more calories standing and moving in the kitchen than I would have with my usual sitting on my arse reading Facebook/twitter/google reader). This being 3 weight watchers points I should have been 100% satisfied! Instead, I was still hungry and wanted more! Instead I drank a huge glass of water and more coffee. Needless to say, if you are not a morning person I suggest making this the night before and re-heating it when you wake up!

Taste: In all honesty the apple was too overpowering and the cheese and bacon took a part way too far back in the background. Overall it was good, but some of the ingredients/calories I could have dealt without, seeing as how I couldn’t taste them! Would I make this again, yes! But I would only use half an apple and make sure the cheese was better distributed!

Creativity: I give this a big A+! The combo of all the ingredients for only 3 weight watchers points, hell yes! It’s a great breakfast for those who are sick of the same old same old boring breakfast!

Texture: The apple was too crunchy still, other than that, it was great! I wanted more cheese though, give me give me give me!

What do you eat first thing in the morning?

Shrimp & Grits……..For Hungry Chicks!

I know this recipe insinuates that this dish is just for Hungry Chicks, but let me tell ya: the Hungry Guy will love it too!

Now this may come as a shock to some people, (or not) but I’ve never had grits before! I think that’s why I was excited to try out this new dish! I love trying new foods, it’s always so exciting to have adventures in food (especially when it’s new)! I know grits are a southern thing, I know they can be fairly healthy or extremely unhealthy, depending on how they are prepared, but that’s all I know! I was a little worried about the healthiness of this because it’s suppose to be a Paula Deen swap. (I love Paula, but her food scares the hell out of me!) It is 8 weight watchers points, and that scares me too! This better be worth it, satisifying-ly filling, and the tastiest thing I’ve ever had!

THE RECIPE:

Shrimp & Grits……………..For Hungry Chicks!

PER SERVING: (1/2 the recipe) 380 calories, 8g fat, 900mg sodium, 40g carbs, 2.5g fiber, 1g sugar, 40g protein

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup quick-cooking grits

Dash salt

1/2 cup shredded fat-free cheddar cheese

1 tbls. light whipped butter or light buttery spread (I can’t believe it’s not butter light is always my choice)

1 wedge The Laughing Cow Light Original Swiss cheese

8 ounces raw shrimp, peeled, tails removed, deveined

1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions (white and green parts)

1 tbls. chopped fresh parsley (ugh, stupid store had a ton of cilantro but no parsley, lame!)

1 tsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. chopped garlic (I never measure garlic, I used one clove)

2 tbls. precooked real crumbled bacon (hell yea! BACON!)

Optional: hot sauce

DIRECTIONS:

In a medium pot, bring 2 cups water to a boil on the stove. Add grits and salt and stir well. Reduce heat to lowest setting. Stirring occasionally, cook until water has been absorbed, about 6 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in shredded cheese, butter, and cheese wedge, breaking cheese wedge into pieces as you add it. Cover and set aside until ready to serve.

GRITS! (This is exciting!)

Bring a skillet sprayed with nonstick spray to medium heat. Add shrimp and cook until opaque, about 3 minutes, flipping halfway through cooking. Add scallions, parsley, lemon juice and garlic. If you like, add a dash or two of hot sauce. Stir well and remove from heat.

Shrimp, onions and garlic!

Serve grits topped with shrimp and bacon. Eat up, y’all!

Makes 2 servings

I cannot wait to dig into this! Holy yum!

THE REVIEW:

My first bite reaction: O.M.G! This is so good!

Mike’s first bite reaction: I like it!

Satisfaction: As stated before, 8 weight watchers points! That’s a lot of points to be eaten in one sitting! 8! And so worth every one! I was stuffed after eating this! My taste buds were 110% satisfied as well! Oh my, I’m so glad I tried grits!

Difficulty: If you can follow directions, this was really easy! Very little to no prep work, super super easy!

Taste: Having never had grits, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it had cheese, bacon and shrimp, I knew it was gonna be good! Wow! Cheese, just the right amount, not over powering but there in the background. The shrimp, reminded me of shrimp scampi! Grits, remind me of a cornmeal oatmeal! I am so in love with this dish! Mike even asked if I could make something like it for Thanksgiving! Oh, and bacon! I love bacon!

Texture: Creamy cheese, hearty shrimp and bacon and gritty grits. All that mixed together. It was weird but really good!

How do you like your grits?

Sausage, Peppers, and Onions Italia

Oh Italian food, how I love you! Let me count thy ways! (Ok, I’m not gonna count anything, Math is hard 🙂 )

I work in an Italian restaurant, Mike is Italian, yet I have little to no experience in cooking Italian food (unless you count spaghetti or lasagna!) I honestly don’t even know that much about it (shhh…don’t tell anyone!) besides what I’ve learned working these past few months. Before we moved to California our Italian food restaurants were very limited and well, not actually worth going to, so that’s my excuse! 🙂 I have however, had the full fat version of this dish, and LOVED it, but felt so incredibly guilty with each bite! Let’s see how this one stacks up to this simple Italian dish!

THE RECIPE:

PER SERVING (entire recipe) 295 calories, 8.25g fat, 905mg sodium, 35g carbs, 7.25g fiber, 18g sugar, 22g protein

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup canned crushed tomatoes

1 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 1/4 cups thickly sliced onion

1 1/2 cups thickly sliced red and green bell peppers (for pictures sake, I wish I had green bell peppers, but for tastes sake I used yellow  and orange)

1 precooked 3-ounce chicken or meatless sausage link with 8g of fat or less, sliced into 1/2-inch rounds (I didn’t want to go meatless since yesterdays dinner was meatless, and couldn’t find any chicken links low in fat, so I went with lean turkey kielbasa, close enough right?)

Optional: Salt and black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Combine crushed tomatoes, oregano, and garlic powder in a bowl, and stir well. Set aside.

Bring a skillet sprayed with nonstick spray to medium-high heat. Add onion and cook for 2 minutes. Add bell peppers and continue to cook, stirring occasionally for 2 to 4 minutes, until veggies are slightly softened. (A few suggestions for those making this at home: 1. Add the onions and peppers at the same time, in my opinion they both cook at the same rate. 2. I don’t know why this recipe suggests the peppers and onions to be thickly sliced, I honestly would have preferred them pretty thinly sliced, maybe it’s just me)

 

Veggies! (I love this picture!)

 

Add sausage and cook for an additional 1 to 2 minutes, until heated.

 

And then we add meat!

 

Add tomatoes and stir. Once heated, season to taste with salt and black pepper (or not). Now chew!

 

Can we all agree that green bell peppers would have made this picture so much better? Oh well, I tried!

 

THE REVIEW:

My first bite reaction: Um, these peppers are too thick!

Mike’s first bite reaction: I’ve never had this dish with tomato sauce, it’s different but (wait for it…………………….) I like it!

Taste: Like Mike said, it is different having the veggies and sausage smothered in tomato sauce, but it works! In restaurants they usually saute with oil and wine (adding extra fat and calories) I like the addition of extra vitamins from cooked tomatoes! Besides the fact that I really was wanting thinly sliced peppers this was a great low-fat swap! I really liked the large dose of oregano flavor. Made me add less salt (oh my!)

Texture: I’ll only say this one more time, don’t thickly slice your peppers. The texture would have been so much better if everything was more uniformly thin!

Creativity: This gets 4 out of 5 for creativity for adding tomatoes instead of fat and calories! It’s a super simple yet delicious comfort food dish!

Satisfaction: 6 weight watcher points? (Mine might have been less since my kielbasa only had 2g of fat per 2 ounce serving) I wasn’t fully satisfied. I do like though that it was loaded with at least 3 servings of vegetables! I ate it with steamed broccoli and was ever so slightly wanting more! 2 out of 5. (Mainly because it was so high in weight watcher points!)

Would Mike make it himself? Probably not. Would he eat it again if I made it? Only if I cut the veggies smaller. And maybe if I actually used a sausage instead of kielbasa. (I like kielbasa, screw you Mike. Haha! I’m Polish, kielbasa is our “thing”! Since he’s Italian sausage is his “thing”!)

What’s your favorite Italian dish?

Bowling For Pizza

You know what the best thing about this recipe is? (Besides the fact that it’s yet another pizza recipe) It’s that it’s so cleverly named that I almost didn’t get it! HA! (ok, maybe it’s not the best thing about it, but it made me smile!) Seriously though, I read the title and ingredient list and still just didn’t get it! Why are we bowling for pizza? What does this have to do with pizza? What does this have to do with bowling?  I think it took me about 5 minutes to “get” it! Pizza (ingredients) in a bowl……………

Get it?

THE RECIPE:

Bowling For Pizza

PER SERVING (entire bowl):284 calories, 7g fat, 1025mg sodium, 28.5g carbs, 9.25g fiber, 11g sugar, 30.5g protein

INGREDIENTS:

1/3 cup canned crushed tomatoes

1 stick light string cheese

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1 cup sliced green bell peppers (or a little red and yellow like I did)

1/2 cup sliced onion

1 Boca Original Meatless Burger, vegan, thawed and chopped

1/2 cup diced tomatoes (wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be canned diced or fresh diced, I went with grape tomatoes, diced)

1 tsp. reduce-fat parmesan-style grated topping

8 slices turkey pepperoni, chopped

1 tbls. sliced black olives (I totally could have used more than just 1 tbls…………….)

Optional: salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, crushed red pepper

DIRECTIONS:

If you like, season crushed tomatoes to taste with option ingredients. Set aside. Tear string cheese into shreds, roughly chop and set aside.

In a skillet sprayed with nonstick spray, cook mushrooms, bell pepper and onion over medium heat until softened, about 3 to 5 minutes. (I sliced my veggies pretty chunky so I cooked them for about 8-10 minutes to make sure they were done!)

The veggies! (Just downloaded a photoshop tool for my camera, doesn't this picture look amazing!)

Add chopped Boca patty, diced tomatoes and crushed tomatoes, and continue cooking until heated through, about 3 minutes.

It's a little red! Yum, tomatoes!

Transfer to a microwave-safe (or oven safe since I don’t have a microwave) bowl and immediately sprinkle with string cheese, grated topping, turkey pepperoni, and olives.

About to emerge into the oven! (or microwave, whatever!)

Microwave for about 30 seconds (or about 10 minutes in a 225 degree oven, I wish I would have preheated the oven to a higher temperature, this took forever with no microwave! ) Just long enough to heat and soften the cheese! Enjoy!

All stirred up, and ready to eat!

THE REVIEW:

My first bite review: Wow, it somehow tastes like a pizza! I’ve never put hamburger (or meatless hamburger) on a pizza before! This is amazing! (yeah, it was a long thought, I am capable of these things!)

Mike’s first bite review: I like it! (What a spazz!)

Taste: I didn’t miss the crust. I really felt like I was eating a pizza with a fork and in a bowl! It was a bit tomato-y but I love love love tomatoes! So this didn’t bother me in the slightest! Mike doesn’t love tomatoes like I do, so I was worried he wouldn’t love it, he said it was perfect! Not too many tomatoes, not too acidic, just like a pizza! Hells to the yes! (yeah, I just typed/said that! I’m sorry!)

Satisfaction: Its 5 weight watcher points! It had a lot of veggies, protein, cheese and tomatoes! I mistakenly served it with some steamed broccoli (because it’s just not dinner without something green!) and was STUFFED after eating all of this! In fact it’s been 3 hours since eating this, and I’m still full! This is an amazing thing! I’m always hungry! A+, gold star and 5 out of 5 rating for satisfaction!

Creativity: Genius! First, a hamburger on/in a pizza! Would have never thought of this! Loved it! Out of all the pizza recipes this cookbook has delivered so far, this is my favorite and the most creative! It didn’t miss a beat, and made me happy!

Texture: When it comes to pizza, the crust is my favorite part! Yes I like the toppings, but I could care less about them at the same time! And I’m not really a bread person either, so I don’t think its a “carb thing” I really just like pizza crust! (When Mike is eating pizza, he eats all the way to the crust and I eat it,  normally he would throw it away! ) I was worried! But this “pizza” has sold me on crustless pizza! The meaty-ness of the Boca burger and the thick tomato-y sauce all over the “toppings” was a perfect match for my teeth! Not too much crunch, not mushy (like I expected) and just all around great!

Would Mike make this himself: eh, probably not he said! Would he eat it again if I made it? Yea, for sure!

What’s your favorite part of a pizza?