The Healthy Tales

Archive for the ‘Weight Watcher Foods’ Category

When I first came across the recipe for Slow Cooker Lasagna on the Weight Watchers website, I wasn’t sure what to think. For some reason the thought of making lasagna in a slow cooker just sounded odd to me. I think it was because I thought it was not going to come out in the pretty layers I see at the Olive Garden when I order it.  I thought it was just going to come out mushy and all mixed together.  In the end all of my thoughts turned out silly and unnecessary. The lasagna came out cooked perfectly and plated prettily.  The bonus out of the entire experience was that I failed to buy the correct noodles (the no cook noodles) and used regular noodles you had to boil – oops! and so I decided to just soak them for a few seconds under running water and move on… Well you couldn’t tell the difference. The noodles came out perfect. So I think I’ll just continue to use the boil, whole wheat noodles and not worry about the no boil kind.

Enjoy!

From the Weight Watchers website
8 points per serving. Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:
1 pound(s) uncooked lean ground beef (with 7% fat)
1 small onion(s), chopped
1 medium garlic clove(s), minced
28 oz canned crushed tomatoes
15 oz canned tomato sauce
1 tsp table salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
1 cup(s) part-skim ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cup(s) part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded, divided
6 item(s) dry lasagna noodles, no-cook
1/2 cup(s) shredded Parmesan cheese, strong-flavored like Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano

Putting it all together:

* Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add beef, onion and garlic; cook, stirring frequently, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon as it cooks, about 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, salt, oregano, basil and red pepper flakes; simmer 5 minutes to allow flavors to blend.

* Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, stir together ricotta cheese and 1 cup of mozzarella cheese.

* Spoon 1/3 of beef mixture into a 5-quart slow cooker. Break 3 lasagna sheets in half and arrange over beef mixture; top with half of ricotta mixture. Repeat with another layer and finish with remaining 1/3 of beef mixture.

* Cover slow cooker and cook on low setting for 4 to 6 hours. Remove cover; turn off heat and season to taste, if desired.

* In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese; sprinkle over beef mixture. Cover and set aside until cheese melts and lasagna firms up, about 10 minutes. Yields 1/6th of dish per serving.

Not too long ago the Hungry-Girl newsletter included a news alert that Yoplait was coming out with a new flavor – Red Velvet Cake. I love the pie flavors as they feel indulgent without all the extra calories that come from eating the real thing. Where else can you have red velvet cake for only 2 Weight Watcher Points?  So of course I had to try the Red Velvet yogurt as soon as it hit the shelves at my local grocery store.

Overall Yoplait did another great job with their flavored fat free yogurts. While I wouldn’t say this is a true red velvet cake taste, it is still very yummy. My husband likens it to the Very Cherry flavor but without the cherry pieces in it. I disagree slightly as it doesn’t have that strong of a cherry flavor but it is there hiding in the background. Between this one and the Banana Creme Pie flavor, I think I am set for life just rotating the two flavors every other day.

I was visiting the Yoplait website and noticed that they are about to release fat free Greek Yogurt. I am interested in trying it as it should have 2x’s the protein of regular yogurt and it has been known to have good health benefits. Hopefully it will be in a store near me really soon.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!  I’ve taken the day off to run errands – mostly involving my name change.  Bleh!  I hope it will be fast and painless but these are government agencies so you never know what to expect.

My recipe for today is a family favorite.  By family favorite, I mean my entire mother’s side of the family.  I don’t know who developed this recipe or when we started eating it but you can’t pry our fingers away from a pot when it has been cooked.  Normally you have to make 2 batches for us crazy people – 1 to eat immediately and 1 to freeze.

When my grandmother was sick, we use to joke with her that this recipe had special healing powers.  She would go in once a month to have her chemo treatment.  She always picked the first Sunday of the month.  She would feel terrible the rest of Sunday and through Tuesday.  Wednesday was my day off at the time other than Sunday so I would always go over to visit on both of those days.  On chemo week, my mother and I would gather all of the ingredients for this recipe and get to work in her kitchen while she rested and then when it was done we’d bring her a big bowl and she would start feeling better.   I don’t think this recipe really has healing powers but she always knew once she had chicken spaghetti she would be on the upswing the rest of the month.  I guess it was just a small thing to look forward to.

Chicken Spaghetti

• chicken (you can use anywhere from 1 breast to a 1.25 lb of chicken breasts)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 stick oleo or butter (you can cut this or eliminate it – I normally eliminate)
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 can tomato soup
• 1 can died rotel (regular or mild)
• 1 pound of Velveeta Cheese (look for the light or 2% package)
• 1 package of vermicelli noodles

1. Boil chicken with 1 bay leaf until cooked (~30 to 45 mins). Let cool
2. Saute onion in butter in an oven safe soup or stock pot
3. Shred your chicken into small pieces
4. Add Can of Tomato soup and can of Rotel into onion pot.  Stir until mixed.
5. Start boiling your noodles.  Boil in same water that chicken was boiled in to add flavor
6. Chop your Velveeta cheese into small chunks.  Start adding to soupy mix.  Stir until melted.  Add more, Stir.  Repeat until all cheese has been incorporated and is fully melted (very important!!)
7. Add in Chicken to mixture.
8. Drain noodles.
9. Add cooked noodles into cheesy chicken mixture and mix very well.  Make sure all noodles are coated and mixture is throughout the mass of noodles.
10. Bake in oven at 350 degrees until the mixture bubbles.  Normally this is 10-15 minutes.  Not very long at all

I don’t have all the nutritional information on this recipe but if you stick with a 1 cup serving it is 6 Weight Watcher points.  This recipe makes 6-8 servings depending on how big your 1 cup serving is.

A few years ago, I decided to try Weight Watchers and one of the best support systems I have found has not been attending the meetings, but rather reading posts on Dottie’s Weight Loss Zone. It is a regular message board atmosphere focused on the ups and downs of weight loss while on Weight Watchers. I have found numerous recipes in the forums that I make over and over. Cheesy Chicken and Rice is one of them. I wasn’t sure what I was going to cook this week, but I went shopping in my pantry and found all of the ingredients and knew it was a sign. So right now Cheesy Chicken and Rice is about 30 minutes away from being dinner.

All you need are 7 simple ingredients:

1.5 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts (or tenders), 1 cup instant brown rice, 1 envelope Lipton’s dry garlic/mushroom soup mix or onion soup mix, 1 can of Low Fat Cream of XYZ soup, 2 cups water, and 4 oz Velveeta Light.

Start by layering the bottom of your casserole dish with the brown rice. Like so:

Next cut the cheese into small chunks. Once you are done combine the water, soup, soup mix, and a few pieces of cheese and heat until the cheese melts. Add more cheese, heat, stir, and repeat until the cheese and soup have melted into the water.

Next, remove the chicken from package and assess the size. I find tenders work the best for this recipe but breasts will do fine. If you are using breats, you might want to consider cutting them into small pieces and even using a meat tenderizer to decrease their thickness. Just be careful not to pulverize the chicken if you choose to use a tenderizer.

Place chicken pieces on top of brown rice, and then pour mixture over the chicken and rice. Cover with a piece of foil and cook for 60 minutes on 375 degrees.

Make sure you check on the mixture during the cooking process. I tend to take it out every 15 minutes to stir so that the chicken and rice cook evenly as well as ensuring the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom and burn.

After 60 minutes are over, uncover and let cool before serving.

This recipe makes about 6 servings at 6 Weight Watcher Points per serving!

We all know dark chocolate or pure cacao can be good for your health but who really likes going around eating dark chocolate all the time.  I know I prefer milk chocolate to the bitter dark chocolates.  But this isn’t what I want this post to be about: milk vs. dark. vs pure cacao.  Instead, I want to write about my new favorite way to work chocolate into my diet.  In fact, I eat it about every day and it only costs 1 Weight Watcher point.  No it’s not by eating 1 bite of a Snickers bar, Hersey’s bar, or 1 Ghiradelli chocolate carmel square (though that is an awesome way to spend a point).  Instead it is actually much more filling and can be eaten as breakfast with some fruit, or a mid-afternoon snack, or dessert after dinner, or to top things off after you workout.  So what is it?

“It” is called Vitalicious Chocolate vitatop muffins.  These are decadent treats that you buy from vitalicious.com and pop into your freezer.  When you are craving one you just pop it into the microwave and heat for 30 seconds and enjoy.  There are tons of flavors and they are my new favorite Chocolate fix because I feel like I am eating something really bad but it really isn’t. Vitatops are all approximately 100 calories and contain at least 4 grams of fiber.  I first heard about them a few years ago thanks to HungryGirl and then I was reminded about them again at a Weight Watchers meeting.  I finally broke down and bought some on sale and fell in love.  I eat on average one per day usually with a half cup of fresh berries and a glass of milk.  Absolutely fabulous as it tastes like a chocolate covered whatever-berry and it is a great way to spend 3 points out of your daily allowance.

Whoever said chocolate was not a weight loss friend has never tried a Vitatop!