January 2012 Archives - Recipe Renovations

Monthly Archives: January 2012

Jan 31 2012

Guilt Free Real Buffalo Wings

by Steph

Guilt Free Buffalo Wings

3 Weight Watchers Points+

I know what you are thinking…low fat buffalo wings? Really? They are just about the worst thing you can eat. They are the quintessential football food and they are loaded with fat and grease. But I was reading Fitness magazine the other day and Ellie Krieger gave the advice to boil the wings before hand and then broil them. Boiling them removes most of the fat from the skin and broiling them removes more. Broiling also eliminates any added fat you usually get from deep-frying them.

I made them for my husband the other day and they were pretty delicious and I will definitely be making them for Super Bowl guilt free! A lot of people lighten buffalo wings up by just using the chicken tenders but I always feel like I am missing out, they are just not the same in my opinion. This way, I felt like I was eating the real thing. Regular buffalo wings are about 3 points per wing. But this way, they are 1 point per wing. I can get down with that

Here are your ingredients:

2 lbs chicken wings, split into wings and drummets
1/2 cup hot wing sauce of your choosing (I used franks red hot)
Juice from 1/2 of a lemon
Celery

When you take the wings out of the package go through them. Sometimes you can find little hairs still remaining (YUCK!!!) just pull those off. I like my chicken wings hair free, thank you very much. Then add them to a deep pan or pot and cover them with about 2 inches of water

Over medium high heat, bring the wings to a boil and let boil for ten minutes. What produces might gross you out.

See all that? GROSS! Thats the fat from the skin. I would prefer to leave that in the pan and not on my thighs. Both my Tom and I were thoroughly disgusted by this.

Ok, so back to the the process. While the wings boil, mix the hot sauce with the lemon juice and set aside.

Line a baking sheet with foil and top with a cookie rack

When the wings are done, take them out with a pair of tongs and place them on the cookie sheet

Broil the wings for about 5-6 minutes on each side. Until the the skin starts to brown and crisp.

Toss them in a bowl with the buffalo sauce and return them to the baking sheet.

If there is any sauce left in the bowl pour it over top…I like lots of flavor, don’t waste it.

Broil for another minute or two until the sauce is heated through. Serve with Celery sticks and ranch or blue cheese dressing or whatever your little heart desires.

Enjoy guilt free!!

Nutritional Information (from fitness magazine)

4-5 wings per serving

4 WW Points+ per serving

CALORIES 170; FAT 6g; SAT. FAT 1.5g; CARB. 1g; PROTEIN 23g

Categories: 2-4 PointsPlus, Appetizers, Poultry, Recipes | 4 Comments »

Jan 26 2012

Baked Apple Oatmeal

by Steph

Does everyone else have the same amount of trouble with breakfast? I get so bored… I find breakfast the hardest meal of the day to get creative with. When I stumbled upon this recipe from the blog cooking for seven, I decided I had to try it and lighten it up a little bit. It was delicious! Its like having dessert for breakfast. A couple changes I made from the original recipe: I used skim milk instead of whole, replaced some of the butter with applesauce, and lightened up on the amount of sugar in the recipe. I also replaced the eggs with ground flaxseed and water. Flaxseed is an excellent source of Omega 3, its got a wonderful nutty flavor and can be added to smoothies, baked goods, and lots of other things. To use it as an egg substitute, you mix 1 TBS of ground flaxseed with 3 TBS of water.

This recipe is a little on the high side for points (even lightened up) but its all natural and very healthy for you. And delicious to boot!

Here are the ingredients:

2 cups sliced apples (or any fruit of your choosing)
1/2 cup skim milk
2/3 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups uncooked rolled oats
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup applesauce, unsweetened
1 TBS ground flaxseed, mixed with 3 tbs water
1 TBS Sucanat
2 TBS chopped walnuts
2 TBS melted butter

Preheat your oven to 375. Slice your apples very thin

Spray the bottom of a 9×13 with cooking spray. Layer the apples on the bottom and sprinkle with 1 TBS sucanat and 1/4 tsp cinnamon.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the oatmeal, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a separate bowl, mix the wet Ingredients. Milk, maple syrup, flaxseed mixture and melted butter.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix.

Pour the mixture over the top of fruit. Top with chopped walnuts. Bake for 20 minutes and golden brown and bubbling with deliciousness!

Sorry, its not the greatest picture in the world. But its really yummy.

Enjoy!!

Nutritional Information

Makes 6 Servings

7 WW Points+ per serving (calculated through WW online recipe builder)

CALORIES 271; FAT 7.1g; SAT. FAT 2.9g; CHOLEST. 10.6mg; CARB. 47.9g; FIBER 3.4g; SUGAR 28.9g; PROTEIN 4.5g

(Calculated through loseit.com, some data may not be accurate)

Categories: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Jan 25 2012

Homemade Healthy Fish Sticks

by Steph

Success!! I did it. I got both my boys to love a fish dish!! I almost got up and did a dance last night. My son kept stealing more off our plates because he loved these so much.

Its very hard getting healthy food into a toddler, especially a picky one like my son. He would eat peanut butter and jelly, hot dogs and chicken nuggets every day if I let him. So the other day I was trying to think of a kid friendly meal and decided to give fish sticks a try. I ate them all the time as a kid. But when you look at the ingredients on the box of frozen fish sticks its got a lot of weird additives and preservative, including MSG which I try to avoid.

This took no longer then it would if I bought a box of the frozen stuff and tasted much better. I used seasoned whole wheat bread crumbs. But you could certainly use plain and add your own seasoning. Panko would also work great, I just did not have any in the pantry.

Here are your ingredients

3 Egg Whites
1 1/4 lb Cod (or other white fish)
1/3 cup white whole wheat flour
2/3 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees

Lay a cookie rack on a cookie sheet and coat with cooking spray.

Cut your your fish into “sticks”. Mine were kind of short because of the fish I used. But don’t hate on short things, good things come is small packages Like me.

Next get your assembly line set up. You will need 3 pie plates or shallow dishes. In each one put the flour, beaten egg whites and bread crumbs

Dip the fish first in the flour…Shaking off the excess flour

Then dip into the egg whites

Last into the breadcrumbs to coat

Place the fish sticks on the cookie rack and lightly spray with cooking spray to help crisp them

Bake for about 10 minutes until fish is cooked through. I served mine with oven roasted potatoes and string beans. It was very good, I hope you will try it

Enjoy!

Nutritional Information:

Makes 4 servings (serving size depends on how you may pieces you cut your fish into)

3 WW Points+ per serving (calculated through WW online recipe builder)

CALORIES 253; FAT 2.4g; SAT. FAT .4g; CHOLEST. 66 mg; CARB. 16.3g; FIBER 2.5g; SUGAR 1.5g; PROTEIN 38.6g

(Calculated through loseit.com, some data may not be accurate)

Categories: 2-4 PointsPlus, Seafood | No Comments »

Jan 24 2012

Creamy Parmesan Risotto

by Steph

Side dishes have always been kind of hard for me. I use to be the queen of the boxed rice dishes, until I looked at the sodium count on them. I have one collecting dust in my cabinet and the sodium count for one serving is 1240mg. Holy Mackerel! If you are sodium sensitive like me, you just can’t eat these things. I am not able to get my rings on for days after eating one of them, its just crazy!

I hesitated attempting making risotto for a while. Its kind of scared me, don’t tell anyone But its really not bad, just a little time consuming. But if your standing in the kitchen cooking, why not, right?

Here are your ingredients

1/2 cup arborio rice
1/4 cup white wine or cooking wine
2 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth), warmed
1 TBS light butter
2 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1/4 cup parsley
1 garlic clove
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper

First heat your broth.

Then in a medium skillet, melt the butter and olive oil. Sautee the garlic and onions with salt and pepper for a few minutes until they soften

Then add the rice and stir continuously for about 5 minutes

Add your wine, and cook for a just a minute. Then working with 1-2 ladles at a time, add your warmed broth

Continue stirring. Once most of the broth is absorbed…

Add more broth. Continue adding broth 1-2 ladles at a time until the rice is cooked through and creamy

Once all the liquid is absorbed, add your parmesan cheese

At the end very mix in your chopped parsley, and serve immediately.

Don’t be scared, risotto is not that hard

Hope you enjoy!

Nutritional Information

Makes 4 servings

5 WW Points+ per serving (calculated through WW online recipe builder)

CALORIES 166; FAT 4.5g; SAT. FAT 1.6g; CHOLEST. 6.3g; CARB. 23.4; FIBER 1.4g; SUGAR 2.4g; PROTEIN 5.6g

(Calculated through loseit.com, some data may not be accurate)

Categories: 5-7 PointsPlus, Vegetables and Sides | No Comments »

Jan 23 2012

Homemade Pizza Rolls

by Steph

I use to love Pizza rolls growing up. I really do have an obsession with pizza, qnd pizza rolls are bite size pizza. Really can’t get any better. As part of my challenge to myself with lightening up Football foods, I decided to take a swing at homemade pizza rolls. You know what, they came out pretty good. After two attempts I think I got it. I had to play with the thickness of the dough and the filling. The first time we made them the filling disappeared when cooked. These are made with a whole wheat crust, part skim cheese, and turkey pepperoni. They are baked instead of fried.

Here are your ingredients:

1 whole wheat pizza dough (you can buy it or use my recipe here)
4 oz part skim mozzarella
17 slices turkey pepperoni (optional)
1/2 cup pizza sauce

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees

Dice up the cheese into very small pieces

Then dice up your pepperoni in very small pieces

Add both the pepperoni and the cheese to a bowl and add 1/2 cup of pizza sauce. Mix well

Now for the crust. Cut your dough into four pieces

Working with one piece at a time, Roll each piece into a rectangle

And cut into smaller rectangles

Fill each rectangle with a large teaspoon of the filling

Brush the edges with water and fold over the sides to seal

Trim the edges to pretty them up a little

You should get about 36 rolls. Place them on a greased cookie sheet and lightly spray with cooking spray.

Bake for about 10 minutes until golden brown.

Hope you enjoy!!

Nutritional Information

Makes 6 servings, 6 rolls per serving

4 WW Points+ per serving (calculated through WW online recipe builder)

CALORIES 177; FAT 6.9g; SAT. FAT 2.4g; CHOLEST. 16.9g; CARB. 19.7g; FIBER 3.7g; SUGAR 1.6g; PROTEIN 9.2g

(Calculated through loseit.com, some data may not be accurate)

Categories: 2-4 PointsPlus, Appetizers | No Comments »

Jan 22 2012

Taco Dip

by Steph

I’ll apologize in advance for the amount of “football” recipes I will be doing over the next week. I already did the pigs in a blanket, which were awesome, today will be taco dip. We are big football fans and I am making it my mission to find a way to have football food that is not so terrible for you.

This dip is so good. My friends and I have been making this dip for years. It always ends up at all the parties and its a perfect dip for football. You need a good sturdy chip for this dip. We had blue corn tortilla’s and these cute little dippers from Trader Joe’s shaped like surfboards. They were perfect for scooping.

Here are your ingredients:

8 oz light cream cheese
8 oz sour cream
4 tsp taco seasoning (or one packet)
2 cups light shredded cheddar or mexican blend (I used mexican blend this time)
2 cups finely diced or shredded lettuce
1 Large tomato or 2 small/medium

First you add the sour cream to a large bowl

Then drop in your cream cheese

At this point, I took a wooden spoon to mash up the cream cheese a little. It is SO important to use room temperature cream cheese or you are never gonna get these mixed. You could add the cream cheese in chunks which might make mixing a little easier (something I thought of AFTER I started mixing these up). Get a whisk and mix them until there are no more cream cheese lumps. You have to really whisk it, I was and my son walked in and said “Mommy your shaking your tushy!” Haha kids say the best things.

Add your taco seasoning and mix well. Spread this mixture on the bottom of a 9×13 pan

Top with two cups of cheese

Chop up your lettuce. The vegetables need to be diced up small so that they are easy to scoop. I used romaine because it was what I had in the house. Iceberg works too, I have used both. Top the cheese with a layer of lettuce

Next is your tomatoes. First, cut them in quarters and de-seed them.

The seeds and water can make this dip runny which is really gross. Wet cheese? No thank you!

Next dice them up small

Top the lettuce with your tomatoes

Dip, eat, repeat.

Hope you enjoy!

Nutritional Information

Makes 12 servings

3 WW Points+ per serving (calculated through WW online recipe builder)

CALORIES 126; FAT 9.5g; SAT. FAT 6g; CHOLEST. 30.3g; CARB. 4.6g; FIBER 0.5g; SUGAR 2.1g; PROTEIN 7g

(Calculated through loseit.com, some data may not be accurate)

Categories: 2-4 PointsPlus, Appetizers | No Comments »

Jan 19 2012

Parmesan Flounder

by Steph

My husband dislikes fish, which is weird because he loves fishing, go figure. Doctors say you should eat fish 3 times a week, if it was not so expensive I would. I make it once a week…once a week is good, better than none right? Now, most of the time when I make fish, Tom eats maybe half of it. So when I make a fish dish (haha that rhymes )and he eats he whole thing, I am pretty darn excited.

This recipe is super simple, very delicious and takes just minutes to make. Perfect trio when it comes to cooking in my humble opinion. Try this one, It may make a fish lover out of you. The recipe below is for two servings, I did not make it for my son even though he ate mine and really liked it. Should have made more, oh well. Next time

Here are your ingredients:

12 oz flounder (or other white fish)
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
1 TBS basil
1 tsp lemon zest
salt and pepper

Preheat your broiler and season your fish with salt and pepper. Make sure you season your fish liberally. Fish, as well as chicken, is kind of bland so you need to make sure you season it well. Mix your grated parmesan cheese with the basil and lemon zest

Divide the parmesan cheese mixture over top of the fish

Broil fish for about 6 minutes (depending on thickness and type of fish). Fish is done when it flakes with a fork

Seriously, Ten minutes for dinner? Could it get any easier?

Try it, tell me what you think. Enjoy!!

Nutritional Information

5 WW Points+ per serving (calculated through WW online recipe builder)

CALORIES 242; FAT 5.5g; SAT. FAT 2.3g; CHOLEST. 124.5mg; CARB. 0.4g; FIBER 0; SUGAR 0.1g; PROTEIN 45g

(Calculated through loseit.com, some data may not be accurate

Categories: 5-7 PointsPlus, Recipes, Seafood | No Comments »

Jan 18 2012

Sweet and Sour Slow Cooker Chicken

by Steph

I really need to utilize my slow cooker more often. It really is the best invention ever. I had mine in a box forever before I finally got the courage to use it. I was terrified it would burn my house down. After several of my coworkers at the time reassured me I was insane and that they are completely safe, I decide to try it out. Boy am I glad that I did. Its so easy. Its nice when its dinner time and your hungry and dinner is done already! Woohoo! Most of the recipes I make in the slow cooker, make a lot, and keep well for left overs. So I have dinner for two nights, which makes life easy.

I decided to try to tackle sweet and sour chicken in the slow cooker. The recipe I came up with was nice, a little bit on the sweet side, but good. I might add more vinegar next time? Or maybe a little bit of spice and dial it down on the sugar. But this is a good solid recipe and full of vegetables and fruit, serve it over some brown rice and you have a nice well rounded, healthy meal.

Here are your ingredients:

4 – 5 oz chicken breast cut into cubes
1 red and 1 green bell pepper, sliced
1 large yellow onion sliced
1 cup chopped carrots (I used baby carrots cut in half)
1 – 20 oz can pineapple chunks in juice
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp chicken bouillon granules
1/4 white wine vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
3 TBS cornstarch
Salt and pepper

First slice your carrots and layer them on the bottom of the slow cooker

Next, dice your onions and layer them on top of the carrots

Then your peppers, and place them in the slow cooker

Dice up your chicken into bite size pieces, season them with salt and pepper and add them to the pot

Drain the pineapple, reserve the juices in a bowl. Place the pineapple on top of the chicken.

In the bowl with the pineapple juice, add your spices, soy sauce, bouillon cube, sugar and vinegar. Whisk it all up, nice nice

Pour this mixture over everything in the slow cooker

And Set and it and Forget it! Wait… thats for the something else. Oh well. Set the slow cooker on low and cook for 6 hours. At the end of the cooking time, mix the cornstarch and 1/4 cup water and add it to the slow cooker. Let it cook for 30 minutes. 30 Minutes is about the time to cook rice, so if you are having rice on the side start that right after you add the cornstarch.

Hope you enjoy!!!

Nutritional Information

Makes 6 servings, about 1 cup per serving

5 WW Points+ per serving (calculated through WW online recipe builder)

CALORIES 226; FAT 3.5g; SAT. FAT 0.9g; CHOLEST. 54.2g; CARB. 30.6; FIBER 2.7g; SUGAR 22; PROTEIN 19.3g

(Calculated through loseit.com, some data may not be accurate)

Categories: 5-7 PointsPlus, Poultry, slow cooker | No Comments »

Jan 17 2012

Crazy Good Pork Chops

by Steph

Once and a while you come across a recipe that is just so darn delicious you could eat it all the time. This is one of those recipes. Now I might be a little bias because I LOVE anything with white gravy. But this is seriously good, I mean, I literally almost licked my plate when I was done because I was sad the meal was over. And its quiet easy to make too. Serve it up with some mashed potatoes with the gravy on top, yummers.

The original recipe was from cooking light, found here. I did not really stray a whole lot from the original recipe. I think the spices work well in this dish, but if you don’t like any of them feel free to leave them out or swap them for something else.

Here are your ingredients:

4 – 4 oz lean pork chops
1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried marjoram
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried sage
1 TBS butter
salt and pepper

Your pork chops should be relatively thin in order for them to cook fully in the pan. Pound them with a mallet until they are about 1/2 – 3/4 inches thick.

Season them with salt and pepper. In a pie dish or shallow bowl place 1/4 cup of flour and spices (including salt)

give it a whisk

Dredge your pork chops in the flour mixture, reserve the remaining flour for later.

Let the pork chops rest for a few minutes while you melt butter in a large skillet

Add pork chops to the skillet

Cook over medium high heat until they are brown on each side and cooked through

While your pork chops are cooking, add the 1 1/2 cup milk to the reserved flour mixture and whisk until there are no flour lumps.

When pork is cooked through, remove from skillet and keep warm. Add the milk mixture to the pan.

Use a wooden spoon to scrap all the goodness off the bottom of the pan.

Whisk consistently until the gravy thickens

Pour 1/2 cup of sauce over a pork chop and mashed potatoes.

Enjoy!!

Nutritional Information (for Pork chop and sauce only)

Makes 4 servings; Each Serving is 1 pork chop and 1/2 cup sauce.

6 WW Points+ per serving (calculated through WW online recipe builder)

CALORIES 304; FAT 10.6g; SAT. FAT 4.4g; CHOLEST. 113.7mg; CARB. 10.6g; FIBER .3g; SUGAR 4.7g; PROTEIN 39.2

(Calculated through loseit.com, some data may not be accurate)

Categories: 5-7 PointsPlus, Meat, Recipes | No Comments »

Jan 17 2012

Lightened Up Pigs in a Blanket

by Steph

This post is dedicated to my best friend Stephanie and my husband Tom. One of their favorite appetizers are pigs in a blanket and can you blame them? They are just down right delicious, but really, have you ever seen how bad these things are for you?? 2 of them are 7 WW Points+, the ones I made are only 3 points+

Fortunately these bad boys are relatively easy to make lighter. Just find a lower fat hot dog and use reduced fat crescent rolls. I found a really good, low fat hot dog, and its organic. They are only 2 points+ per hot dog, Nice. They are applegate farms, organic beef hot dogs, I got mine at Trader Joes (Love that place). Now I guess I could have made the crescent rolls, but I have yet to venture into the world of homemade crescent roll dough yet. I will try that soon. For now, I just used the pillsbury reduced fat crescent rolls.

Here are your ingredients:

8 applegate farms organic beef hot dogs (or any low fat hot dog)
1 package reduced fat crescent rolls (8 rolls)

First, slice each hot dog into 3 pieces

Then take each crescent roll and cut it into three pieces. We tried dividing each in two but there was too much dough for the hot dog. Three pieces gave the perfect dough to hot dog ratio