How to not get fat on Fat Tuesday

I went to a pancake breakfast at a friend’s house last night as part of a Fat Tuesday celebration. I knew this was coming, so I was able to prepare a plan for how to deal with my favorite cuisine – breakfast for dinner! Luckily, this was a pot luck so the hostess had sent around a list of what was being served. Here’s what I decided to have:

2 pancakes (6) w/ 1 Tbsp maple syrup (2) and sliced (sugared) strawberries (1)
Fruit salad (0)
2 slices bacon (3)
Seltzer with a splash of OJ (0)

Now, truth be told I ended up eating a little more than this. I had an extra slice of bacon, a sausage patty, and a small bite of a Pączki (a polish filled donut that I’d never heard of, but my amazing friend R made from scratch!). That added another 6 PTS+ more than I had planned for, but I wrote it all down and still had enough WPAs to absorb the excess. And I’m going to dial it back the rest of the week (and up my exercise) to make up for it.

So the next time you have a party to go to where food is a centerpiece of the event, fear not! With a little advanced planning you can go, enjoy yourself, eat what you want, and still have a good week at the scale when it’s all said and done.

Couscous and cucumber salad with buttermilk-dill dressing

I had forgotten about the recipe below, but it’s a perfect summer side dish. I had some english cucumber to use up so I made this tonight and it was delish!  I highly recommend it.

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Couscous-and-Cucumber-Salad-With-Buttermilk-Dill-Dressing-123944

According to the Recipe Builder it is 3 PTS per serving when split into 6 servings.  The only things I did differently were fat free buttermilk instead of low-fat, and 2 tsp dried dill weed instead of fresh dill. But you really can’t tell the difference.  You could add more veggies or different veggies if you want. Just be sure that if you use any veggies with PTS you factor those in.

(This is also a unique dish to bring to a barbeque or other summer party – a nice change from the typical pasta or potato salad. So I listed this under “entertaining” too.)

Roasted Green Beans

I recently discovered the joy of roasting veggies instead of boiling or steaming them, and I swear I don’t know how I ever lived without it.

I just made roasted green beans and they were amazing (and I’m not a veggie person, so if I loved them you KNOW they’re good!).  All I did was take a large fistfull of fresh green beans, trimmed the ends and tossed them in a ziploc baggie with 1 tsp of olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper. I roasted (a.k.a. baked) them on a cookie sheet at 400 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes and voila! They were great.

I was reading comments on a similar recipe online and someone said “these cured my craving for french fries”. I thought she was nuts, but when I tasted them I thought “wow, these do kinda taste like french fries!” So if you are a sucker for fries try these as a healthier substitute.

And these also help you get in 1 veggie and 1 oil, so a double whammy on the Good Health Guidelines.

Philly Cheesesteak

Long ago I dated a real “meat and potatoes” kinda guy who refused to eat anything healthy (except Brussel sprouts – he loved them in a way that most of us love chocolate. It was weird!)  I took it as a challenge to learn to cook his favorite meals in a way that we’d both eat – him for taste and me for health value. One of my crowning achievements during that phase of life was my Philly Cheesesteak. Here’s how I did it:

1) Get 1/2 lb Stop & Shop 95% lean, rare roast beef from the deli slicked thick, so it’s like a steak-um. 

2) Take a medium onion and slice it into strips. Do the same with green pepper. Cook in a frying pan in 1 tsp evoo until soft and onions are carmelized. Set aside. 

3) Cook the roast beef in a non-stick frying pan (no oil needed) shredding/slicing as it cooks.  

4) Add the onions and peppers back to the pan, and mix with the roast beef. Warm through.

5) Get a whole wheat hoagie roll and slice it in a V, so the back is still connected. Toast it in the oven on 250 for 5 – 10 minutes, or until slightly brown and crusty.

6) Fill the hoagie roll with 1/4 of the meat/veggie mixture.

7) Top the hoagie with 1 slice of reduced fat cheese, broken into two strips and laid end to end.  Let the  sandwich sit in the low heat oven for a few minutes until the cheese is melted.

Serve warm!  These were so good, I used to make them for the guys when they’d come over to watch a baseball game – they loved them. What made these more PTS friendly was:

• lean roast beef, which is the same PTS/oz as turkey
• Lots of veggies to bulk it up
• Whole wheat hoagie roll with high fiber (I had found one brand back then that was only 3 PTS)
• Reduced fat cheese

All told it ended up being 6 PTS for a nice, juicy cheese steak sandwich on a warm crusty roll.  Mmmmm….I’m hungry just thinking about it! These may need to work their way onto this week’s menu. (Note – the 1/2 lb of meat makes 4 sandwiches.  If you need a different number, get 1/4 lb of roast beef for every 2 sandwiches you want to make).

Roasted Asparagus

I was invited to attend Easter brunch at a friend’s house this morning, and was told to bring a veggie. I know asparagus is a traditional dish for Easter but I’d never made it before, so I bought some and hoped for the best!  In the same trip I picked up a copy of a new (to me) food magazine someone recently recommended – Everyday Food (a Martha Stewart publication).

In the magazine was a recipe for roasted asparagus with breadcrumbs and parmesan. Being Passover I couldn’t do the breadcrumbs, but I thought I could just leave those off and follow the rest of the instructions. It seemed easier than trying to steam the asparagus, which intimidates even some of the good cooks I know. I went with the roasting, and it turned out great. Here’s what I did:

0) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
1) Cut the bottoms off of 1.5 lb worth of asparagus stalks.
2) Using a peeler, peel the bottoms so they’re not as thick.
3) Place the asparagus in a single layer on the bottom of a 9×13 glass baking dish.
4) Drizzle 1 Tbsp olive oil evenly over the asparagus. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
5) Sprinkle 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese evenly over the veggies, too.
6) Roast at 425 for 20 – 25 minutes, until the asparagus is tender.

It really couldn’t have been easier, and the people at brunch seemed to like it.  Split into 6 servings, it’s 1 PT per serving. The evoo also helps count toward your daily servings of oil on the Good Health Guidelines.

I know we’re coming to the end of fresh asparagus season, but if you get another good bunch or two I recommend this preparation. Thanks, Martha!

Crustless veggie/ham quiche

I  have never made a Quiche before, but a friend at work had some for lunch Friday and said it’s a great way to use up veggies that don’t have much longer before they go bad. For me it wasn’t the veggies I needed to use up, it was 6 eggs, so I decided to give it a go. Being Passover I didn’t do any crust, but honestly I don’t think  I needed any. I can hardly call this a “recipe”, but here’s what I did:

Ingredients:
~1 c frozen diced green peppers
~1 c frozen chopped onions
1/2 bag broccoli/cauliflower florets (fresh)
1 tsp evoo
3 oz lean ham steak
3/4 cup 2% milk shredded cheddar & colby jack cheese
6 – 8 fresh large eggs
~1/4 cup fat free milk
1/2 tsp dry mustard
Dash of salt and pepper

Directions:
1) Sautee the peppers and onions in the evoo until they’re soft and the onions are starting to brown.
2) Dice the ham into small chunks. Place in a medium bowl.
3) Chop the top (floret) part of the broccoli and cauliflower into small pieces. Place in the bowl with the ham and toss it all together.
4) Add the peppers and onions to the ham, broccoli, and cauliflower. Toss to mix.
5) Coat a 9″ pie plate with cooking spray. Spread the veggies and meat evenly across the bottom.
6) Top the veggies and meat with the shredded cheese.
7) Crack all the eggs into the bowl that used to have the veggies and ham. Whisk together.
8) Add the milk, salt, pepper, and mustard to the egg mixture and stir to combine.
9) Pour the egg mixture into the pie plate on top of the meat, veggies, and cheese.
10) Cook the quiche at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Let cool slightly, then cut into 8 wedges.  Serve warm.

That’s it! Really, really simple. And by my calculations each slice (which is fairly large) is 2 – 2.5 PTS. There are a few caveats or notes to share, though:

- I used a deep dish pie plate, like you’d use for apple pie, to make sure nothing spilled over. I highly recommend this because it was puffed up quite a bit when I took it out of the oven.

 - I only had 6 eggs, which did not make enough liquid to cover the filling. I ended up adding about 1/4 cup of egg beaters, and you’d never know. That’s why I said 6 – 8 eggs in the listing above. It may push the PTS up to 3 PTS per piece if you do that, but I’d be afraid of what would happen if you didn’t have enough liquid.

I’ve had this for breakfast for the last 2 days, and it makes a quick, easy snack with protein. It’s also a great way to get your veggies in if – like me – you don’t like some of the ones that are best for you. I actually don’t like broccoli, cauliflower, OR eggs so it’s a miracle that I like this dish. But I do, so I’m going to run with it!  (this also looks great and is something I would serve to company or bring for brunch without a second thought)

Passover Date and Nut Bars

My mom and I tried a new-to-us recipe from the Passover section of my grandmother’s 1972 temple sisterhood cookbook. The goal was to use up some potato starch my grandfather bought, so we found a recipe for Passover date & nut bars. They were AMAZING!  Light and fluffy – like blondies but with dried fruit and nuts instead of chocolate chips. And I was happy to learn they were only 2 PTS per bar!  I took a few home from Mom’s to use as snacks for the week, and will definitely add them to next year’s menu.

Passover Date and Nut Bars
 
1 cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup potato starch
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3 eggs, separated
½ cup matzoh cake meal
1 cup dried dates, cut up
½ cup orange juice and rind (we interpreted rind to mean a little zest)
1 cup raisins (we actually did have raisins, half dried cranberries)
 
Beat yolks and sugar well.

Add salt, cake flour, potato starch,dates, nuts raisins and orange juice and rind.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites to a stiff peak. Fold into the rest of the mixture. 

Spread in greased shallow pan (about 8 x 11) .  Bake at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes . Let cool, cut into 24 squares.

PTS per bar: 2

Thanks to Mrs Abraham Altman  of the Temple Beth El sisterhood for contributing her recipe way back in ’72! It’s a winner!

Marinated Pork Tenderloin

I made this last night and shared the recipe at my WW meeting tonight. Someone asked me for it so I told them to look on my blog, but when I got home to send her the link I was surprised to find it wasn’t here. Oops! I discovered this one a while back and fell in love but I guess I neglected to put it up here. Well, that’s fixed now:

1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup Splenda brown sugar blend
¼ c balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp dried minced onion or fresh onion (I used frozen, it was fine)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (optional)
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ tsp minced garlic
2 lbs pork tenderloin (usually 2 tenderloins of 1 lb each come in a package)

Mix up all the marinade ingredients, pour in a gallon ziploc baggie, add the meat, shake it up to coat, and let sit (on a plate) in the fridge for at least 6 hours. Flip it over every few hours if you can to make sure the marinade absorbs evenly.

I pour whole thing in a 9×13 pyrex baking dish and bake it at 400 for about 45 min or until it reaches an internal temp of 155 degrees. Take it out and let it rest for about 10 min – the temp will go up to about 160 (recommended done-ness for pork).

You could cook it without the rest of the marinade in the bottom of the pan – I’m just lazy.

Slice into 3 oz servings and it’s 4 PTS per serving by my calculations.  Such a sweet but salty taste!

 (This is also a good dish for entertaining because it serves a big group, and you can do all the work the night before and prep your sides while it’s in the oven. It tastes good enough for company, and looks good on a serving platter sliced on the bias.)

Sweet Potato Soup (4 PTS)

In honor of National Soup Month (January) I’m having a “soup swap” Saturday. 4 friends are coming over with a big batch of their favorite soup, and we’re going to sample each one for lunch. My contributions include a big salad, crackers, whole grain baguette for dipping (4 PTS/per) and a yummy soup of my own.  I had to choose a soup without onion because one of my friends is allergic to them, which is easier said than done. Onions are the first ingredient in virtually every soup recipe out there.

Luckily, I found  a great one on Weight Watchers.com for Creamy Sweet Potato Soup.  It’s 4 PTS, stupidly simple to make, and absolutely delicious. In honor of National Soup month I highly recommend you give it a try!

Awesome Appetizer: Chick Pea Patties

I’m blessed to have some great friends who entertain often, so I’m always looking for healthy new appetizers to bring. My mom got me an appetizer cookbook for the holidays and tonight I tried the first recipe from it. The results turned out well so I though I’d share. It’s a stupidly simple recipe, too, which is nice.

Chick Pea Patties
Makes 18 patties, 1 per serving

1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained
1 cup shredded carrots
1/3 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs
1/4 cup Hidden Valley Light ranch dressing
1 egg

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mash the chickpeas in a bowl with a potato masher or fork.
3. Add the carrots and mix together.
4. Add the breadcrumbs, dressing, and egg. Stir to combine.
5. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray, or cover with parchment paper.
6. Form the mixture into patties using about 1 Tbsp of mixture per patty. Arrange on the cookie sheet.
7. Bake for about 28 minutes (or until golden brown on both sides) flipping halfway through.

Let cool and serve with extra light ranch dressing for dipping.  These little gems are only 1 PT apiece, and made almost entirely of filling foods! My only issue is that they were a teensy bit bland so I may try adding some additional herbs and spices to the next batch. But even without any additional doctoring they’re still tasty.