Cabbage Roll Casserole

This turned out awesome last night and made great leftovers for my lunch today. And it's zero points on the simply filling weight watchers plan! Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture. Sorry :(  I'll make it again soon and post a picture then.

Cabbage Roll Casserole

Servings: 6

WW Points+: will update once I enter into recipe builder
WW Simply Filling: 0 points

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic (or 1 tsp garlic powder)
• 1 package of coleslaw mix
• ¼ cup water
• 14 oz diced tomatoes
• 14 oz tomato sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• Pepper to taste
• ½ tsp paprika
• ¼ cup water

Instructions

1. Brown ground turkey, onion and garlic until cooked through.
2. Stir in coleslaw mix and ¼ cup water, cook and stir for 2 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, seasonings and another ¼ cup of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until cabbage is tender, 10-15 minutes.

Serve over brown rice. I use This Brown rice recipe, it always turns out perfect.

(Perfectly) Baked Brown Rice

Baked Brown Rice

Servings: 6

WW Points+: 5 points per serving
WW Simply Filling: 0 points

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups long grain brown rice
• 2.5 cups hot chicken broth (I boil water and add chicken oxo)
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix the rice, broth and oil in an 8” casserole dish.
3. Cover and bake for 1 hour.
4. Fluff with a fork and serve.

Low Fat Gluten Free Lasagna

This awesome lasagna is only 1 point on the simply filling weight watchers plan. It has all the taste of regular lasagna but without all the fat, plus it's gluten free! This recipe make 8 large servings. I froze some of it for work lunches.

Low Fat Gluten Free Lasagna

This is how it looked before going in the oven...

and after it came out of the oven...

Low Fat Gluten Free Lasagna

Servings: 8

WW Points+: I'll update once I've calculated using the recipe builder
WW Simply Filling: 1 point per 1/8th of lasagna

Ingredients

• 9 brown rice lasagna noodles, cooked al dente
  
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 pound extra lean ground beef
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 796 ml crushed tomatoes
• 398 ml Italian stewed tomatoes
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp salt
• Pepper to taste
• 2 or 3 big handfuls of fresh chopped spinach , chopped
• 500 gr fat free cottage cheese
• 1 egg
• ½ cup parmesan cheese
• 1 cup light mozzarella cheese, shredded

 Instructions

1. In a small skillet over medium-low heat, cook fennel seeds, stirring constantly until sees are lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Pulverize using a mortar and pestle.
2. Cook beef, onion and garlic over medium-high heat until beef is browned and pan juices are evaporated, about 10 minutes. Stir in crushed tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, fennel, oregano, basil, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes. Add chopped spinach, stir and then simmer for an additional 5-10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, combine egg, cottage cheese and parmesan cheese in a bowl. I usually add a little johnny’s seasoning to this mixture as well, but you could use garlic salt or something similar (about ¼ tsp)
4. Spread a little sauce on the bottom of a 9”x13” baking dish.
5. Cover with 3 noodles, spread half the cottage cheese mixture on top then top. Add 1/3 of the sauce.
6. Cover with 3 more noodles, remaining cottage cheese mixture and another 1/3 of the sauce.
7. Cover with 3 more noodles, remaining sauce and mozzarella cheese.
8. Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.
9. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes to brown the cheese a little.
10. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Bites

Well, I guess I'll admit I've been struggling with weight watchers. The points are driving me a little crazy, tracking every single morsel is what's getting to me. So I recently decided to switch to the simply filling technique. This way, I don't have to count unless it's not a power food. I'll try and include points for both points+ and simply filling for my recipes.

Last week I made Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Bites. They worked out to 1 point each points+ or 1 point for 4 muffins on the simply filling plan. I froze most of them and have been taking out a few here and there to pop in the microwave for a quick snack.

Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Bites

Servings: 24

WW Points+: 1 point per muffin
WW Simply Filling: 1 point per 4 muffins

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• 1/2 cup reduced fat mozzarella
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 cup finely chopped cooked chicken breast
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1/4 cup Franks Red Hot Sauce

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine all ingredients in bowl.
3. Spray mini-muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray.
4. Fill with mix, press down to compact, and cook for 25-30 minutes.

Can serve with fat free blue cheese or ranch dressing for dip.

Easy Chicken Parmesan

Tomorrow will be one week on Weight Watchers. Whoohoo!!!  

Seriously, that's the longest I've stuck to any diet in I don't know how long! And it's been a great week food-wise, I mean I haven't felt deprived at all. But I have been absolutely terrible at remembering to take pictures of my recipes. Every single night I ate dinner and then went - whoops! I forgot to take a picture! So here's the one picture I did take (Easy Chicken Parmesan), but it was taken before baking. Yup, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product.

Anyway, what a super easy recipe for those nights when you just want to be able to throw dinner together quickly. I served this with rice but I think it would be even better with pasta. I just didn't feel like cooking two types of noodles that night (the family won't eat my gluten free rice noodles). EVEN THOUGH TINKYADA ROCKS! So I decided we'd all have it with rice. (little vent, sorry.) :)

Easy Chicken Parmesan

Servings: 4

WW Points+: 5 per serving

Ingredients

4 small boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 jar (about 2.5 cups) of jarred pasta sauce (make sure it's a low fat variety)

4 Tbsp Grated Parmesan

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp dried oregano

1/8 tsp black pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Pour sauce into a 12x9” baking dish. Stir in parmesan cheese and spices.
3. Add chicken and turn to evenly coat both sides of breasts with sauce. Cover.
4. Bake for about 40 minutes or until chicken is done. (I used frozen breasts and cooked them for an hour)
5. Serve with rice or pasta (WW points not included)

Note

If you have extra points to splurge on, top chicken with some shredded mozzarella about 5 minutes before removing from the oven.

Meatloaf

This is my standard meatloaf recipe, made many times, so it's tried and true! I've been meaning to post it on here for ages (so the picture is from a couple months ago). I put it into the weight watchers recipe builder and it comes out to 6 points per serving. 

Meatloaf
Yeild: 12 servings

2 eggs

1/2 cups milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3/4 cups gluten free bread crumbs
1 onion
1 small carrot
2 lbs ground beef or ground pork (or a mixture)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
1 Tbs prepared mustard

Directions:

1. Beat eggs in large bowl, add milk, salt, pepper and crumbs.
2. Add onions, carrots, and beef. Mix well and shape into meatloaf pan.
3. Combine brown sugar, ketchup and mustard, spread over loaf.
4. Bake in oven at 360 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
5. Let stand 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Meatloaf

Battle of the Bulge

I just returned from a week at an amazing all-inclusive resort in Cancun. I have to say, in terms of wanting to lose weight, there's nothing more motivating than spending a week in your bathing suit surrounded by skinny, beautiful people! Ugh. About halfway through the trip I decided that I'd join weight watchers as soon as I got home.

I've been gluten free for over a year now. When I first went gluten free the thought of dieting at the same time as learning this new way of eating was just too much for me. So I decided to focus on the gluten first. I didn't mean to let a whole year go by before getting serious about battling my bulge. 

My biggest problem is actually is my love for wine. Sweet, beautiful, wonderful wine oh how I love thee. Every night.  So I had to come to grips this week with the fact that if I want to be serious about losing weight, I'm going to have to cut down on the wine consumption. 

I'm on day 3 of weight watchers, I'm doing the online version - and so far so good!  I'll start posting some of the photos and recipes with the points as I go along. Last night I made a big batch of turkey chili! 

Excellence Playa Mujeres