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.

So last weekend before running to HEB, I went through my Fix It and Forget It Lightly Cookbook and decided to give Barbecued Pork Chops a try. I’ve made pork chops before in the slow cooker and they have turned out fairly well so I figured why not. The ingredients were things I already had on hand so I just had to pick up the pork chops which were on sale last week.

Barbecued Pork Chops
4 loin pork chops, 3/4″ thick, trimmed of fat
1 cup ketchup
1 cup hot water
2 Tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp paprika

1. Place pork chops in slow cooker.
2. Combine remaining ingredients. Pour over chops.
3. Cover. Cook on high 5-6 hours.
4. Cut chops in half and serve.

Nutritional information: 180 calories, 7gms fat, 11gms carbohydrates, 20gms protein

4 Weight Watcher points per serving

My review: The recipe was super simple. I will say though that I was disappointed in the recipe but I think it was more “cook’s error” than anything with the recipe itself. The chops I bought at the store were bone-in and had quite a bit of fat still on them. As I was making this before running off to work, I focused on cutting out the major chunks of fat on the exterior of the chop but didn’t make it to the inside of the chop. Therefore, there was a ton of fat floating around in the pot and all of my chops cooked into a giant meaty clump. It wasn’t very appetizing looking so I decided against posting a photo. Overall, I would give this recipe a rating of 3 out of 5 stars. I would make it again but I would use different chops and possibly a little more sauce to prevent the fat and cooked together issues I experienced.

Easy Chicken

1. 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2. 1 packet of Italian Dressing Mix (found on salad dressing aisle)
3. 1 cup of warm water or chicken broth

Line the slow cooker/crockpot with disposable liner.  Put chicken on the bottom of the slow cooker.  I used a mallet (is that the right word?) and gently beat them until they flattened out a bit.  Next, sprinkle chicken with the Italian dressing mix.  Lastly, pour cup of water/chicken broth over chicken. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. The ideal crockpot size is 4 quart so that the crockpot is 2/3 the way full.  I have a 6 quart so I just added more water so the chicken wouldn’t dry out.  Adding the water diluted the Italian flavor but it kept the chicken moist so I can’t complain.  Next time I will just double the entire recipe.  The recipe makes 4 servings.

Overall, the meal was good.  I served it with a salad and corn.  You could probably serve it over brown rice as well.  I opted for cooking on 7 hours since I didn’t fill the crockpot 2/3 the way full and everything turned out fine.  As previously reported the Italian seasoning was diluted so next time I’ll just double everything and it should turn out fine.  I didn’t calculate Weight Watcher points but I would imagine it would be one point per ounce of chicken.

I was surfing and came across A Year of CrockPotting blog.  Basically, the blogger used a crockpot to cook/make something every day in 2008.  I have spent hours on her blog copying recipes into Word so I can put them into my rotation because they are so tasty especially since she includes pictures of the ingredients used and how it should look when it is done cooking.  I highly recommend this blog if you crockpot.  There really are 365 different recipes, believe me I was digging through the posts but was not able to finish reading it.

The first recipe I tried from the website was Lazy Chicken.  It really is just that – lazy chicken. LOL.  All you need is a pound or two of chicken, a crockpot liner, and a jar of spaghetti sauce.  It was very quick and easy to throw together during the tail end of busy season.  Here is the official recipe and directions.

Lazy Chicken

1-2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken

1 jar spaghetti sauce (depending on the amount of chicken you may need 2)

1. Line Crockpot with liner.
2. Put chicken in. Cover with sauce.
3. Cook on high for 8 hours (I did 6 hours and it turned out just fine)
4. When you get home boil some noodles for 20 minutes. While noodles are going shred up the chicken with a fork in the pot then serve chicken mixture on top of noodles.

This made approximately 8 generous servings mainly due to the amount of sauce I used.  Next time if I use the restaurant bought (homemade) spaghetti I will be throwing in 2 pounds of chicken and then freezing half of the mixture.  I would estimate about 6 Weight Watcher points per serving maybe less if you use Whole Wheat noodles.

So earlier this week, I decided that I would drag my slow cooker out and make something that I could bring to work.  I had a pound of ground beef and not a clue what to do with it.  So I pulled out my favorite cookbook and found  a recipe for Beef-Lite.  The recipe seemed easy enough and only had 4 ingredients so I gave it a whirl.  Overall it was a good and quick thing to throw into the slow cooker over night while I slept.

Beef-Lite

1 pound extra lean ground beef
1 package dry onion soup mix
1 10 3/4oz can of 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
1 10 3/4oz can of 98% fat free cream of celery soup

1. Spray slow cooker with fat-free cooking spray or insert 1 liner
2. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker
3. Cook on low for 6-8 hours
4. Serve over brown rice

This recipe made approximately 6 half cup servings when placed over a half cup of rice.  It was fairly tasty but could use a little seasoning but I’m not sure yet what I would add.  It comes out to about 5 weight watcher points per serving including the brown rice.  Not too shabby!