Summer is coming…I’m getting ready. This mango salsa makes a great snack to enjoy sitting poolside with a nice cold beverage. Maybe a margarita…MMMM margaritas, I guess I can make mine non-alcoholic. My husband bought me a margarita maker for a Christmas this year. This was before we new that I was pregnant. He decided to not give it to me as a Christmas present, smart decision. I don’t think that would have went over so well. Anyways, I will be busting that bad boy out later this summer and putting it to some good use. And serve up some chips and mango salsa.
We served this mango Salsa over some tilapia filets we cooked that were just seasoned simply with cumin, oregano, garlic, salt, pepper and tiny pinch of cinnamon.
Ingredients
1 Cup diced mango
1 medium tomato, diced
½ cup red onion, diced
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
Juice from ½ lime
¼ tsp Cumin
¼ tsp salt
Now, these instructions are hard….I mean it. Get ready…
Dice all your ingredients and place them in
Add the Lime juice and seasoning.
Mix well.
Now here’s the hard part. DON’T EAT IT!
Put it in the fridge and let it set for a couple hours.
Ok, let me just say… You’re welcome! This is a good one ladies and gents. Not only is it delicious but it has cauliflower hidden in it, and let me tell you, It was the only way I have EVER gotten my dear hubby of mine and son to eat cauliflower. By swapping out half the potatoes for cauliflower you decrease the calorie and carb count on this dish significantly. Gotta save some calories so you can add it cheese and bacon! HAHA J I used low fat cheese and center cut bacon to keep the fat content down a bit. Give this one a try folks and let me know what you think.
Just a note, I did not add salt to the dish. I only salted the cooking water of the potatoes. This has a lot of cheese in it so I felt it didn’t need it, but feel free to add some.
Ingredients
1 lb. Yukon gold potatoes, quartered
1 small head cauliflower, core removed and cut into pieces
½ cup reduced fat sour cream
4 oz. reduced fat cream cheese
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
6 slices center cut bacon, cook until crisp
1 cup reduced fat shredded cheddar, divided
¼ cup chopped green onion
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350.
Dice your potatoes into small pieces, it keeps the cooking time down. Place them in cold salted water and bring it to a boil. Cook for about 20 minutes (or until potatoes are fork tender)
Meanwhile, remove the core from the cauliflower and cut into florets. In the last 5 minutes of cooking the potatoes add the cauliflower florets.
Once both the potatoes and cauliflower are cooked through, drain well and place them in a bowl.
Mash the potatoes and cauliflower together
Add the cream chees, sour cream and ½ cup of cheddar cheese. Mix well.
Crumble 4 slices of the cooked bacon, reserving the other two for the top of the casserole.
Stir in the bacon and green onion
Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray and add the mixture. Smooth out the top and top it with the remaining cheese and bacon.
Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the cover and bake for 5-10 more minutes.
** Nutritional information calculated through weight watchers online recipe builder and calorie-count.com. Some data may not be accurate.
** I am not a nutritionist and am not affiliated with Weight Watchers. Please consult a doctor before starting any new nutritional program or diet
Loaded Mashed Potato and Cauliflower Casserole
Ingredients
1 lb. Yukon gold potatoes, quartered
1 small head cauliflower, core removed and cut into pieces
½ cup reduced fat sour cream
4 oz. reduced fat cream cheese
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
6 slices center cut bacon, cook until crisp
1 cup reduced fat shredded cheddar, divided
¼ cup chopped green onion
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350.
Dice your potatoes into small pieces, it keeps the cooking time down. Place them in cold salted water and bring it to a boil. Cook for about 20 minutes (or until potatoes are fork tender)
Meanwhile, remove the core from the cauliflower and cut into florets. In the last 5 minutes of cooking the potatoes add the cauliflower florets.
Once both the potatoes and cauliflower are cooked through, drain well and place them in a bowl.
Mash the potatoes and cauliflower together
Add the cream chees, sour cream and ½ cup of cheddar cheese. Mix well.
Crumble 4 slices of the cooked bacon, reserving the other two for the top of the casserole.
Stir in the bacon and green onion
Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray and add the mixture. Smooth out the top and top it with the remaining cheese and bacon.
Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the cover and bake for 5-10 more minutes.
Herbs De Provence is a wonderful spice to keep in your pantry. It’s a blend of different spices, typically lavender, basil, thyme, fennel and savory. Its great on potatoes, poultry, fish and vegetables. One of our regular side dishes in our house is roasted potatoes, its such an easy delicious side dish. Sometimes I make it with garlic and onion, or carrots, or just salt pepper & garlic. But often I add some Herbs De Provence. You can add onions to this dish as well, I often do.
I use the bags of either the small red potatoes or baby Yukon golds (1.5lb bag)
Tell me, whats your stand by side??
Ingredients
1.5lb bag of baby potatoes
3 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. Herbs De Provence
½ tsp. garlic powder
¼ tsp. salt
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350. Cut the potatoes into quarters.
Place them in a bowl and toss with olive oil and seasoning.
Lay potatoes in an even layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, flipping halfway through, until potatoes are golden brown and crispy.
Enjoy!!
Nutritional Information
4 Servings
4 Weight Watchers Points Plus per serving
150 Calories; 3.7g fat; 0.6g Sat Fat; 27.3g Carbohydrates; 2.9g Fiber; 1.8g Sugar; 3.3g Protein
**Nutritional Information calculated through Weight Watchers Online Recipe builder and Calorie-Count.com. Some Data may not be accurate
Roasted Potatoes with Herbs De Provence
4 Servings
Ingredients
1.5lb bag of baby potatoes
3 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. Herbs De Provence
½ tsp. garlic powder
¼ tsp. salt
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350. Cut the potatoes into quarters.
Place them in a bowl and toss with olive oil and seasoning.
Lay potatoes in an even layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, flipping halfway through, until potatoes are golden brown and crispy.
Nutritional Information
4 Servings
4 Weight Watchers Points Plus per serving
150 Calories; 3.7g fat; 0.6g Sat Fat; 27.3g Carbohydrates; 2.9g Fiber; 1.8g Sugar; 3.3g Protein
**Nutritional Information calculated through Weight Watchers Online Recipe builder and Calorie-Count.com. Some Data may not be accurate
Only a few official weeks left of summer and this recipe for Cucumber Salad is a perfect summer recipe. It is best in the summer when the cucumbers are plentiful, and the tomatoes are in season and delicious. Cucumber Salad is great either as a light meal with a slice of Italian bread, or a side for some hamburgers. It can be made ahead and let sit in the fridge, the flavors just get better. The servings are any where between 2 and 4, depending on if you are eating it as a side or light meal, the points plus value stay the same.
Ingredients
2 Large Cucumbers, peeled and sliced
3 small tomatoes
2 TBS fresh basil, minced
1 TBS Fresh oregano, minced (optional)
1 Garlic clove, minced
1 TBS olive oil
1-2 TBS wine vinegar (depending on taste)
Salt to Taste
Peel and slice the cucumber into rounds
Add the fresh herbs
Seed the tomatoes and cut into bite size pieces, add to the salad
Add Garlic, Olive oil, Vinegar and Salt.
Mix Well and let sit for at least 1 hour
Enjoy!
Nutritional Information (4 servings)
2-4 Servings = 2 Weight Watchers Points Plus
61 Calories; 4g Fat; 0.5g sat fat; 6.2g Carbohydrates; 1.8g fiber; 1.9g sugar; 1.4g protein
*** Nutritional Information calculated through weight watchers online recipe builder and Calorie-Count.com. Some Data may not be accurate
Italian Cucumber Salad
Ingredients
2 Large Cucumbers, peeled and sliced
3 small tomatoes
2 TBS fresh basil, minced
1 TBS Fresh oregano, minced (optional)
1 Garlic clove, minced
1 TBS olive oil
1-2 TBS wine vinegar (depending on taste)
Salt to Taste
Instructions
Peel and slice the cucumber into rounds
Add the fresh herbs
Seed the tomatoes and cut into bite size pieces, add to the salad
Add Garlic, Olive oil, Vinegar and Salt.
Mix Well and let sit for at least 1 hour
Nutritional Information (4 servings)
2-4 Servings = 2 Weight Watchers Points Plus
61 Calories; 4g Fat; 0.5g sat fat; 6.2g Carbohydrates; 1.8g fiber; 1.9g sugar; 1.4g protein
* Nutritional Information calculated through weight watchers online recipe builder and Calorie-Count.com. Some Data may not be accurate
There is nothing overly unique about this recipe, its just simple and good; two of my favorite things. I usually cook my string beans first and then toss them in Olive oil or Butter. But I was at a neighbor’s house and she introduced this way of cooking them. Don’t know why I never thought of it before but its pretty darn delicious. It gives the strings beans a whole new flavor.
*The points+ value is 1 if you do not count the green beans in the recipe builder; 2 Points+ if you count them
Ingredients
4 Cups green beans
2 tsp. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Trim the ends off your string beans and wash and dry them thoroughly. If they aren’t dry the oil is going to splatter on you when you add them to the hot pan. Not fun…I know
Heat 2 tsp. of olive oil in a sauté pan. Add the green beans.
Toss them in the pan occasionally.
Cook for about 10 minutes until they are crispy and browned
Season with salt and pepper and serve hot.
Hope you enjoy!
Nutritional Information
1-2 WW points+
94 Calories; 7g Fat; 1g sat fat; 7.8g Carbohydrates; 3.7g Fiber; 1.5g sugar; 2g protein
Crispy Green Beans
Ingredients
4 Cups green beans
2 tsp. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Trim the ends off your string beans and wash and dry them thoroughly.
Heat 2 tsp. of olive oil in a sauté pan. Add the green beans.
Toss them in the pan occasionally.
Cook for about 10 minutes until they are crispy and browned
Season with salt and pepper and serve hot.
Nutritional Information
1-2 WW points+
94 Calories; 7g Fat; 1g sat fat; 7.8g Carbohydrates; 3.7g Fiber; 1.5g sugar; 2g protein
I get so excited when summer rolls around. The produce is just so good. Sometimes I get a little over zealous in the produce isle and buy WAY too much for me to eat. I had all these fresh veggies in my fridge and they were getting to the point where I had to cook them. I decided to roast them and toss them with some pasta and pesto sauce. This is a delicious pasta salad recipe. It is great as a light meal or a side dish. You could also grill the vegetables instead of roasting them, either way it’s delicious. You can also use any vegetables that look good or that you have laying around. These are just what I had in the fridge. Feta cheese would also be DELISH in this, it would just change the nutritional value.
Ingredients
2 small yellow squash
1 small eggplant
1 red onion
2 red bell peppers
¼ cup olive oil
1 tsp lemon zest
Juice from 1 lemon
6 TBS pesto
8 oz cooked whole-wheat bowties
Pre-heat your oven to 450.
Dice up all your vegetables into bite size pieces. Toss with olive oil
Spread the vegetables in an even layer on 2 baking sheets and roast for 15-20 minutes flipping halfway through
Mix the cooked pasta with pesto sauce. OMG don’t you just love pesto??
Add the roasted vegetables, lemon juice and lemon zest.
Mix well. Serve either at room temperature or cold.
Trader Joes makes this really good Eggplant Caponata, my mother and I buy it all the time and make sandwiches with fresh mozzarella and Eggplant Caponata. It’s delish. So I had this eggplant sitting around the other day and I figured, how hard could it be? I looked through tons of different Caponata recipes and settled on my own version. Its pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. I had mine warm over creamy parmesan polenta. But it would be good as well room temperature or cold on some nice crusty bread.
I chose to calculate this one on the recipe builder with the vegetables included. If you count the veggies as zero, the points drop down to 1 points+ per serving
Ingredients
1 TBS olive oil
1 medium eggplant
1 onion
1 rib of celery
5 small green olives
1 TBS capers
1 TBS Balsamic Vinegar
1 packet of Truvia
2 tomatoes
1 TBS tomato paste
2 TBS fresh chopped basil
Chicken stock as needed
Equipment
Cutting Board and knife
Large skillet
Mince the garlic and celery into small pieces.
Chop all your veggies into small bite size pieces.
Dice up the olives.
Heat oil in a large skillet and add onion, garlic and celery. Season with salt and pepper and cook for 5 minutes over a medium heat.
Increase the heat and add the eggplant, cooking until browned, about 15 minutes. I added a splash or two of chicken broth to help keep it from drying out.
Add the remaining ingredients, olives through tomato paste.
(Calculated through calorie-count.com, some data may not be accurate)
Eggplant Caponata
Ingredients
1 TBS olive oil
1 medium eggplant
1 onion
1 rib of celery
5 small green olives
1 TBS capers
1 TBS Balsamic Vinegar
1 packet of Truvia
2 tomatoes
1 TBS tomato paste
Chicken stock as needed
Equipment
Cutting Board and knife
Large skillet
Instructions
Mince the garlic and celery into small pieces.
Chop all your veggies into small bite size pieces.
Dice up the olives.
Heat oil in a large skillet and cook onion, garlic and celery for 5 minutes over a medium heat.
Increase the heat and add the eggplant, cooking until browned, about 15 minutes. I added a splash or two of chicken broth to help keep it from drying out.
Add the remaining ingredients (olives through tomato paste), lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Do you have any little ones that refuse to eat their veggies, but love Mac and Cheese? Or is that you? This is a great recipe to sneak some in. My son just devoured these, and so did we by the way. And the best part, they are portion control. So, If you are like me, I have a hard time with the portions (I like to eat a lot), these cute little muffins are perfect.
The addition of butternut squash adds some nutritional value and fiber to this macaroni and cheese. The use of low fat cheddar and skim milk decreases the fat content.
Ingredients
8 oz cooked whole wheat elbows
1 TBS butter
½ cup skim milk
½ chicken broth
3 TBS white whole wheat flour
1 ½ cup low fat shredded cheddar
½ cup parmesan cheese
9 tsp panko breadrumbs
5 oz frozen butternut squash, defrosted
1 tsp dry mustard
1/8 tsp nutmeg
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
Equipment
Immersion Blender (or regular blender)
Sauce pan
Muffin Tins
Small pot
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook the pasta and set aside. In a small pot, add the butternut squash and chicken broth. Cook for 5 minutes.
Using an immersion blender (or regular blender) puree the butternut squash and set aside.
In a saucepan, melt the butter. Add flour and mix well. Cook for about 3-5 minutes stirring the entire time.
Whisk in the milk, making sure there are no lumps. Whisk continuously until they are combined.
Add the cheeses and spices. Combine well.
MMMMMM cheese, I just love cheese.
Stir in the butternut squash. Then add the pasta
Spray 9 muffin tins with cooking spray and divide the mixture between them.
Top each muffin with 1 tsp of panko. Spray lightly with cooking spray (I used butter flavor)
Bake for 30 minutes, remove from the oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes to let the muffins set.
If I had to pick my one weakness when it comes to food, I would have to be French Fries. I just adore them, could eat them everyday. I love both regular and sweet potato equally. I have a hard time not ordering them at restaurants; I can sometimes refrain if I have made oven fries during the week. They are a great alternative, and so much better for you.
It has taken me a while to get the perfect oven fry. Two key things, you need to use Russet Baking potatoes. Second, you need to pre-cut and soak the potatoes in cold water ahead of time. I usually soak them anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. The result is a perfect crispy french fry…delicious.
Ingredients:
4 Russet Baking Potatoes
2 TBS olive oil
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
Equipment
1 bowl
French fry cutter, or good knife
2 Kitchen towels
baking sheet
First Cut the potatoes into match sticks either using a French Fry cutter or a sharp knife.
Place them in a bowl and cover with cold water. Let them soak for 30 minutes to 2 hours.
Pre-heat your oven to 450. Drain the potatoes and lay them out a kitchen towel. Place another towel over the potatoes and dry them well.
Place them back in a bowl and coat with olive oil, salt and pepper.
Lay them out on a baking sheet (coated with cooking spray) in a single layer.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, flipping them over half way through.
These would be good with any variety of spices…Garlic, Cajun, parmesan cheese. Go Crazy! They are guilt free
So I am the worst offender with using the same dinner-time veggies. I am trying to start to branch out and try different things, but it’s hard with 2 boys that don’t like veggies. Tom refused to try my zucchini chips, he’s a scaredy-cat, don’t tell him I told you J They were so crunchy and delicious. I am happy I tried these. I think I will be making them often when we grow zucchini in the summer. If you grow zucchini, you know towards the end of summer you get lousy with zucchini and start finding very creative ways to eat them.
You have to get a zucchini that is on the bigger side because these chips do shrink in the oven. Also, they need to be eaten hot. Once they sit and get cold they are no longer crunchy and delicious.
Ingredients
2 Large Zucchini
1/3 cup whole wheat seasoned bread crumbs
2 TBS parmesan cheese
2 Tbs almond Milk or Skim Milk
Equipment
2 Small bowls
Baking sheet with cookie rack on top
Pre-heat oven to 425
In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs and parmesan cheese
Slice your zucchini into rounds
Dip the zucchini into milk and then into the breadcrumbs
Place zucchini chips on the cookie rack and bake for about 25-30 minutes until they are golden brown.
