Sicilian Rice Ball Casserole (WW)

Haven't posted since Tuesday... guess I didn't have anything to say!! ;)

At least I can share this great recipe now.


Never had sicilian rice ball casserole before, so I can't compare - but we loved this!


Only changes I made was to use a spicy sausage and used canned tomato sauce (as I didn't have time to made from scratch).

I got this from skinnytaste - my favorite WW recipes I get from Gina!

Sicilian Rice Ball Casserole
Gina's Skinny Recipes
Servings: 8 • Serving Size: 1/8th • Old Points: 8 pts • Points+: 9 pts
Calories: 367.2 • Fat: 9.5 g • Carb: 46.8 g • Fiber: 2.0 g • Protein: 20.9 g

2 cups uncooked long grain rice
4 cups water
1 (2.5 oz) sweet Italian sausage link, casing removed (I used a hot Italian sausage)
10 oz (.65 lbs) 93% lean ground turkey (1/2 package)
1/4 cup onion, minced
salt and fresh pepper
5 oz frozen peas (used canned)
16 oz homemade tomato sauce (used Hunt)
1/3 cup egg beaters or egg whites
1/2 cup pecorino romano
cooking spray
4 tbsp seasoned breadcrumbs, divided
1 1/4 cup shredded part skim mozzarella

Cook rice in water according to package directions. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, sauté sausage meat; cook until brown breaking up into pieces with a wooden spoon as it cooks. Add turkey and onions and cook until browned, breaking up as it cooks. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then add peas and 8 oz tomato sauce and simmer on low, covered, about 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400°. In a large bowl combine rice, pecorino romano, eggs, and 3-4 oz tomato sauce and mix well. Rice should be a bit sticky.

Spray a 9 x 12 casserole dish with cooking spray, making sure to spray sides too. Add 2 tbsp breadcrumbs to the dish and roll around to coat the bottom and sides.

Take half of the rice mixture (a little more if needed) and cover the bottom of the dish and up the sides; press to form the bottom layer.

Add the meat and peas.

Sprinkle mozzarella on top. Top with remaining rice and press until even. Top with remaining 4 oz of sauce, remaining 2 tbsp breadcrumbs, and remaining mozzarella.

Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake 10 more minutes. Cut into 8 pieces.

Pizza Night

I love my bread machine. Especially to make pizza dough.  Saturday, tried a new recipe (that a nice pea, Val, shared) - and, so far, this is our favorite pizza!!  Look at that crust!! Mmmmm!



It was kinda healthy too, as we used turkey pepperoni, some veggies and light cheese!

WW - Zucchini soup

While I was cooking, I had a stalker - she kept moving though, so the photo is a bit blurry :)


Since one of my resolution is to eat healthy and try to lose those last 10 pounds, I tried a new recipe from Gina's.



 cream-of-zucchini-soup-1-ww-point.html - We enjoyed this soup - you have to enjoy zucchinis to love this soup!! :)  What I loved about it is that I get my veggies and it's low fat! ;)



Cream of Zucchini Soup

Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 4 • Size: 1 cup • Old Points: 1 pt • Points+: 2 pt
Calories: 65.3 • Fat: 1.0g • Protein: 3.5 g • Carb: 11 g • Fiber: 2.8 g


• 1/2 small onion, quartered
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 small zucchini skin on cut in large chunks
• 32 oz fat free chicken stock
• 2 tbsp reduced fat sour cream
• salt
• pepper

Combine chicken broth, onion, garlic and zucchini in a medium pot and cook on medium heat.

Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover, and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat. Purée: Add the sour cream. Using an immersion blender, purée till smooth.

Stir in remaining ingredients, and adjust seasonings to taste. Serve hot.

Optional: Top with 2 tsp parmesan cheese - 1 point extra

I didn't use the sour cream - and took out some of the bouillon so it would be thicker. Will try it with the sour cream next time or the parmesan cheese!

Tex-Mex Lasagna

I love to cook some comfort food during the Winter months.  And I love anything Italian!



This is a lasagna I made a few times that is very filling and delicious.




Tex-Mex Lasagna
From Light and Tasty

1 lb lean ground beef

1 (16 ounce) can refried black beans
1 cup black beans, rinsed and rained
1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
1 (1 ounce) envelope taco seasoning
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce, divided
2 1/2 cups salsa
12 no-boil lasagna noodles
1 1/2 cups shredded reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend (used low-fat mozzarella)
1 1/2 cups shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese
1 cup nonfat sour cream (didn't add)
1 medium ripe avocado, peeled and cubed (didn't add)
4 green onions, thinly sliced  (didn't add)

1 In a large nonstick skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain.

2 Stir in the beans, corn, jalapeno, taco seasoning and 3/4 cup tomato sauce.

3 Combine salsa and remaining tomato sauce.

4 Spread 1/4 cup into 13x9 inch baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Layer with four noodles, half of the meat sauce, 1 cup salsa mixture, 1/2 cup Mexican cheese blend and 1/2 cup cheddar cheese. Repeat layers. Top with the remaining noodles, salsa mixture and cheeses.

5 Cover and bake at 350F for 45-50 minutes or until edges are bubbly and cheese is melted. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting. Serve with sour cream, avocado and onions.

WW - 0 point soup

Finally had a good week at WW!!! Yeah!! Lost 1.6 pounds!!  It helped that I didn't have any Christmas parties to attend!  The big test will be the weeks to follow though! I want to enjoy the holidays but I don't want to go overboard!!



I have been on and off WW for about 4 years and one of the secret to my "success", are the WW 0 point soups.  I just love having a nice veggie soup before my meal.  It fills me up and there are some great ones out there!



My favorite one (and I have tried quite a few!), is this ww-0-point-favorite-vegetable-soup.  I always double this recipe and freeze a few in containers to have on hand when I run out!


0 Point Favorite Vegetable Soup
1 cup diced onion

6 chicken bouillon cubes or 3 -4 teaspoons broth, seasoning mix
6 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups thinly sliced zucchini
2 cups thinly sliced carrots
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
3 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon basil leaves
1 teaspoon Italian spices
salt & pepper (to taste)
Tabasco (a few drops to give it a kick!)

In a large nonstick saucepan, combine onion, broth mix and garlic; cook stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent.

Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine; cover and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes.

Add 4 cups water and bring to a boil. reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook until vegetables are soft, about 20 minutes.

Using slotted spoon, remove about 2 cups of vegetables from saucepan and set aside.

In blender, in a few batches, puree remaining soup, return pureed mixture to saucepan, add reserved vegetables and heat.

 

WW - Granola and Birthday

Today is a special day.  It's my big brother's birthday.  Happy birthday Gil!! xoxo


We celebrated last Saturday by going out to a nice restaurant.  One of my gifts was homemade granola.  Even though he has no problem with his weight (lucky guy!!), I decided to make this WW granola again!


Granola is so easy to make - and so much cheaper than buying it in the store!! And so yummy too!


Bought a nice big container - and filled it up with the yummy granola.  Gues my brother enjoyed... he asked me for the recipe!! :)


I had saved the recipe on food.com. Made a few changes - never make it the same way - depending on my mood! 



WW Down To Earth Granola

4 cups old fashioned oats

1/2 cup sliced almonds  (didn't use this time)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/4 cup honey (used maple syrup)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups raisins or 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries (I used dried blueberries this time)

In a bowl, mix oats, almonds, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. In a sauce pan, warm the oil and honey. Whisk or stir in the vanilla. Carefully pour liquid over the oat mixture. Stir gently with wooden spoon, finish mixing by hand.

Preheat oven to 300°F Spread granola in a 15x10x1? pan. Bake 40 minutes, stirring carefully every 10 minutes.

Transfer granola-filled pan to a cooling rack. Cool completely.

Stir in raisins or dried cranberries. Seal granola in an air-tight container or self sealing plastic bags.

Store at room temperature for 1 week or the freezer for 3 months.

WW - Grilled Grapefruit

Can't even call this a recipe... two ingredients:

1 grapefruit split in half
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Broil in the oven for a couple of minutes.  That's it - how easy is this!! And so tasty with a nice pink grapefruit!!




Just looking at these pictures make me crave this again!! :)


On the WW front - not a great week - gained another half pound... but all my fault.  Will do better next week (after two Christmas parties - hopefully I'll lose some calories on the dance floor!).

WW - Skinny Italian Meatballs

Stable week at WW.  Stayed the same.  Even though I went to the gym 4 times (including a body combat class that I took last Sunday that my body is still hurting from!) Got to say though that I ate two of the cupcakes I baked. So I guess 4 times at the gym equals 2 cupcakes... ;)

One goal I gave myself is to cook more light recipes - I did good - made another great recipe from skinnytaste :)





skinnytaste

Skinny Italian Turkey Meatballs

Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: about 30 meatballs • Total Time: 1 hour • Points: 1 ww point each

20 oz (1.3 lb) Ground Turkey Breast 99% lean (used lean chicken)
1/4 cup whole wheat seasoned breadcrumbs (used Panko)
1/4 cup Reggiano Parmigiano cheese, grated
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
1 egg
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp olive oil

Quick marinara sauce:

1 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, smashed
2 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes (I like Tuttorosso) (used diced)
1/2 small onion, keep whole
1 bay leaf
1 tsp oregano
1/4 cup fresh chopped basil (used dried basil)
salt and fresh pepper to taste

In a medium size pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until golden, being careful not to burn. Add crushed tomatoes, onion, salt, pepper, oregano, basil and bay leaf. Stir and reduce heat to low. Cover and let simmer.

In a large bowl, combine ground turkey, breadcrumbs, egg, parsley, garlic and cheese. Using your (clean) hands, mix all the ingredients well until everything is combined. Form small meatballs, about the size of a ping ping ball.

Heat the 2 tbsp olive oil on medium high in a large saute pan. Add the meatballs and saute until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. When brown, add the meatballs to the sauce and cook about 20 minutes. Discard the onion and serve over pasta or on whole wheat Italian bread for a meatball hero

WW - Low Fat Baked Pasta with Spinach

This week's weigh in at WW was not great.  I have been gaining and losing the same 2 pounds for the last 2 months!  I have been going to the gym 3-5 times a week.  Bringing some kind of salad everyday at work. The only thing left for me to do, is to give up my cheat nights...

Since my weigh-in on Tuesday, I tried to stop eating those 100 calories pack.  I usually have one or two a day - some I am trying to not have more than one now.  We'll see if that helps!!

I have been cooking more healthy recipes. 




I love skinnytaste's blog for her healthy recipes (and she give the WW points too). 

Last weekend, when my inlaws came over, we made her Low Fat Baked Ziti with Spinach.  Mmmmmmm!!!




Low Fat Baked Ziti with Spinach

Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 8 • Serving Size: 1/8th • Points: 6 pts
Calories: 331.9 • Fat: 7.1 g • Protein: 17.5 g • Carb: 54.7 g • Fiber: 7.8 g


1 lb high fiber ziti such as Ronzoni Smart Taste (used penne)
28 oz crushed tomatoes (I prefer Tuttorosso) (used diced tomatoes)
1 tsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic,minced
10 oz frozen spinach, thawed (used two small bags of fresh spinach)
1 tsp oregano
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
salt and fresh pepper to taste
8 oz fat-free ricotta (used low-fat cottage cheese)
1/4 cup Parmesan (used freshly grated Parmesan)
2 cups (8 oz) part skim mozzarella
Spray olive oil (I used my Misto)

Preheat oven to 375°.Spray a 9x13-inch baking pan with oil spray.

In a large pot of salted water, cook pasta according to instructions until al dente. Drain and return to pot.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, add olive oil and sauté garlic. Add chopped spinach, salt pepper and chopped tomatoes. Season with basil, oregano, salt and pepper.

Add sauce to the pasta and combine the ziti. Add half of the mozzarella, Parmesan cheese and ricotta. Mix well then transfer to the baking pan.

Pour the pasta mixture into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Top with the remaining mozzarella.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until mozzarella is melted and the edges are lightly browned.

This can be made up to a day in advance and stored, tightly covered, in the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking

Quick Butternut Squash Soup

Since butternut squashes are everywhere - decided to make again a recipe I had made last Fall - quick-butternut-squash-soup - so tasty and yet so easy to make!



Quick Butternut Squash Soup

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon fresh sage, chopped (or 1t. ground dry sage) (didn't add)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper (added more!!)
3 cups fat-free chicken broth
1 1/2 lbs butternut squash (peeled, seeded, cubed)
parmesan cheese (Garnish)
Add oil, garlic and onion to large stockpot over medium heat.
Saute for 3-4 minutes.
Add sage, salt, pepper, broth and squash.
Bring to a boil.
Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes (or until squash has a tender consistency).
Use stick blender to lightly puree, leaving some chunks, or puree half of the soup in a food processor or blender and return to pot.
Garnish with parmesan cheese and more fresh sage (if desired).

WW Lemon-Blueberry Pound Cake

Yesterday night had a great BBQ - Ben made some juicy burgers on the bbq, I made some nice cole slaw, and, of course, baked some dessert!!  We were having a very good friend of mine over for a nice dinner and a lot of catching up! 

The cake I decided to prepare was the first recipe I tried from the book WeightWatchers Best Ever Desserts - and they were right about this one!!

Lemon-Blueberry Pound Cake







 We all enjoyed it and I will be making this one again for sure!!

Lemon-Blueberry Pound Cake (my changes in red)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (about 2 lemons)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar (used 1 cup)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup fat-free egg substitute
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream, at room temperature
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (used about 1 1/2 cups)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a 4 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.

2. Whisk together the flour, lemon zest, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

3. With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Reduce the speed to low. Gradually beat the egg substitute. Alternatively add the flour mixture and sour cream, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beating just until blended. Gently fold in the blueberries. (didn't use my mixer - did it by hand)

4. Scrape the batter into the pan; spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a rack 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and let cool completely on the rack.

Per serving (1/12 cake):  236 calories - Points value: 5

Since it was a festive occasion - added a few calories more by making a glaze with some lemon juice and confectionner sugar ;)