Recipe Ideas with Spinach

Chicken Florentine

I started looking on pinterest looking for a Florentine sauce. And just in case I am mistaken, my understanding of what makes a Florentine is that there is a "white" sauce and spinach in the pasta.

Right away I saw this recipe...
Grilled Bacon-Wrapped Chicken over Creamy Spinach Pasta

I like the sauce recipe so I decided to try it since it seemed really easy.

What you need:

*1 cup chopped chicken ---apx 4 oz = 4 old ww pts

*2 TBS minced garlic --- less than 1 old ww pt

*5 servings of pasta of your choice --- most pastas out there are, each serving is apx = 3 old ww pts

*1/2 block of fat free (or low fat) cream cheese --- fat free 1/2 block =4 oz =200 calories= 4 old ww pts

*1 cup chicken broth (or in this case I used bullion) --- average 1 cup is 10 calories = less than 1 old ww pt

*3 cups fresh spinach (side note- we buy 2.5 lb bags and eat spinach for a week almost every night, makes it affordable, at the end of the week when it starts to look like its going to go bad soon, I freeze the rest). --- apx 3 servings at 20 calories per serving, and 6 fiber per serving.

*pan spray (or oil)

What to do with it:

Cook pasta according to directions. In a sauce pan melt cream cheese in the broth cooking it until smoothly mixed together in a creamy sauce. In a saute pan, on low heat, cook spinach and garlic. Toss together lightly until spinach is all soft and mooshy. If chicken needs to be grilled/ heated then cook it with the garlic and spinach. When both the spinach and sauce are done, mix them together. Then pour and mix over the pasta. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

Easy. Took me about 20 minutes to make from start to finish.
apx 5 points per serving. Enjoy

Chocolate Peanut butter Balls- 3 balls for 2 pts

Through pinterest I found this post on the blog Peace, Love, and Low Carb. Its for low-carb peanut butter balls. Calculating her recipe out they are 34 calories per ball (when making 25 balls out of one recipe).
Talking to my husband, we discussed the differences between thoughts on eating "healthy" On various diets, and how they conflict. And when I say "diet" I mean a lifestyle they choose to eat. Everyone has their definition of what is healthy. To my sister, she lives on an 'organic', 'sugar-free' and 'no artificial sweeteners diet. For her family it doesn't matter how high in calories something is, only that it is all natural and sugar-free. When you follow a low-calorie diet (like Weight Watchers) it can sometimes be in direct opposite goals with low-carb diet (ie Adkins). Sometimes they can be perfectly in line with the choices of food. There are items that are LOW calorie but HIGH carbs and other things that are LOW carbs but HIGH calories. A specific example of this is Heavy Whipping cream. It is HIGH in calorie but very low carb. I used evaporated milk instead. So after them making them, I am sure that it would make up just fine using whatever milk you have. (have since used milk and YES it works just fine)

In this recipe she uses an Adkin's pre-made milkshake as the milk. Its a low carb milk. It is more calories than 'normal' milks, but less than her suggested option of heavy whipping cream. I knew that heavy whipping cream was used instead of milk because it is lower in carbs, but I wasn't sure if this recipe really needs the whipping cream. Using heavy cream 66 calories each.
What you need:
4 oz. Low-fat Cream Cheese
8 oz. of some sort of milk
1 box Sugar Free Chocolate Pudding (I used the small box)
4 TBS Peanut Butter (recommend chunky)

2 TBS chopped almonds
How to make it.
Mix cream cheese and milk of choice, in a large mixing bowl with a mixer on low speed until cream cheese is well blended and there are no chunks left. Add the packet of sugar free pudding and the peanut butter. Mix until well blended. It will become very thick. Line a plate/pan with wax paper. Scoop mixture little balls (I used a one TBS scoop, flattening out each scoop and using a spoon to push it out of the tablespoon) and put them on the wax paper. Take a pinch of the chopped almonds and push them onto the top of the ball. Place them in the freezer to set. They need about an hour to set enough to eat. Once hardened place in an enclosed container.

In previous blogger said that she can make 50 balls out of batch. I barely got 25 balls. The blogger must have made them about 1 tsp size balls.

based on a serving size of 25 balls per batch

Here is the break down:

Using the Adkins shake

calories: 34, fat: 2.6, fiber: .5

using heavy cream

calories: 66.5, fat: 6, fiber: 0

using fat-free evaporated milk

calories: 36, fat: 2, fiber: 0

using fat-free milk

calories: 31, fat: 2, fiber: 0

Using milk (non-cream options) you can eat 3 for 2 points on the old systems. Also another good thing about them is eating 3 is way more than you're going to want to eat. By the third one you'll be done -they are that rich and filling. So the rest of them aren't going to call to you for the rest of the night.

NOTE: I have made these many times since and milk works just fine.

Carrot Stew 3pts

The last time we were up in Mesa we had dinner at my sister's house with her family. In the summer they eat vegetarian. She said they were having "Carrot Stew" for dinner. "oh great I thought a veggie soup in the summer for dinner". But even before I could express my thoughts aloud she assured me that it is so good. And she was right. It was so very good. I asked for the recipe and she told me I could find it on her vegetarian meals board on pinterest.

Her pin took me to this site http://coppeefamily.blogspot.com/2011/12/carrot-stew.html. Take a look and read her story about Carrot Stew. I enjoyed it.

Anyway, this has been a hit with my family. From my husband to our toddler to our almost 1 year old twin girls. It can be served pipping hot for cold days, just a little warm if you don't like cold soup, or its even still tasty as a chilled soup.
I have made only a couple of suggestions and a few changes.

CARROT STEW
6 carrots (about 1/2 pound)
3 potatoes (small to medium)
4 celery stalks
1 small onion
1 TBS garlic
Dill -I didn't have Dill we substituted Thyme
Parsley- didn't have parsley substituted Marjoram
Salt
Pepper
4 Chicken bouillon cubes
Peel carrots and sparingly peel potatoes (all the vitamins you get from potatoes are in the skin, do yourself a favor and leave at least some of them there) and put them in a pot to boil.
Finely chop onion and celery and saute in a sprayed pan with garlic (It will add flavor to use butter, the original recipe calls for 2 tbs of butter, if you want to add this make sure to adjust your calories. As for me I used cooking spray). Add dill, parsley, salt and pepper as desired (about 1 to 2 tsp each of dill and parsley)
When everything is soft, its time to put into the blender. Spoon in carrots and potatoes, then celery and onion mixture, then carrots and potatoes and celery and onion mixture, back and forth until the blender is filled (It takes me 2 full blenders with my blender). Puree everything and dump into a bigger pot. (I always spoon in some of the water from the carrot and potato water to the blender so the vegetables will blend up nice and creamy). Do this until everything has been pureed.
Once everything is in the pot, add a little water until creamy soup is the desired thickness (or thinness - I prefer mine a little thicker and creamier). Add chicken bouillon while soup is simmering. Salt and pepper as desired.

Serving a bread side is a perfect complement. 

I didn't calculate the calories or points, but if you wanted to make it a full meal all in itself you can add cooked lentils to it. As it stands the whole soup (if you were to eat every last drop yourself, has ~800 calories, 2.6 grams of fat, and 35 g of fiber. If made into 4 servings that makes it ~200 calories per serving, <1 g of fat, and 8.75 g fiber.

again

total calories: 800

4 servings- ~1 1/2cups is one serving. 

calories per serving: 200

fat: <1

fiber: 8.75

 

Raw Peanut Butter Ball Cookies- 1pt each

These are fast to make up, but then need about 30 minutes in the freezer before eating.


Raw Balls
2 TBS Peanut Butter
1 TBS powdered milk
2 TBS chopped almonds
2 TBS oats
2 TBS honey


*if you don't want to use peanut butter you can substitute with Almond Butter or Nutella, same amount and will be approximately the same calories and points. Also if you don't have powdered milk you can use oat flour or add 1 more TBS of chopped almonds or oats.


Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Roll into balls. Makes 8-10 balls. Place balls on freezable surface (plate, cookies sheet, plastic container). Place in freezer for 30 minutes- 1 hour prior to serving (until hard enough to hold, but soft enough to eat). Once taken out of the freezer they will hold together for about 45 minutes before they are too soft again and will need to be refrozen.
Also if you're a raw food eater, this is considered an acceptable "raw" food. It is also a good recipe for those with food allergies (dairy, peanut, gluten) with minimal changes. I made them for my friend's son, who is allergic to peanuts, dairy, gluten, soy... and a ton of other things) I omitted the powdered milk and oats, used almond butter instead of peanut butter, and 3 times the amount of almonds and an extra tsp of honey. Turned out great.
8 servings Calories: 48, Fat: 2.5g, Fiber: 1g

Sugar-Free Homemade Honey BBQ sauce

BBQ sauce is so expensive considering how cheap it is to make.
I tried my hand at making my own for my pulled pork recipe. This is only sugar-free as far as honey has natural sugar in it still.


Sugar-Free Honey Homemade BBQ sauce
1/4 c water
1/4 c Worcester Sauce
2 TBS vinegar
1 small can Tomato Sauce (no salt preferred)
1 TBS Honey (more if you like that honey taste but calories count is for only one)
2 TBS Dijon Mustard
1 TBS corn starch
1 tsp garlic powder *optional if you want the garlic taste or sprinkle straight on the meat
1-2 TBS Splenda or Stiva (as you see needed, DO THIS LAST, once removed from the heat)


In a small sauce pan mix in slowly each item mixing with a whisk on a low heat EXCEPT for the sugar substitute!
Once all added, thickening, and boiling remove from heat, let cool a little add sugar substitute and then place on meat for marinading. 


Disclaimer I have never used without slow cooking or marinading the meat. Have not used straight on the meat.
It makes almost 2 cups of BBQ sauce.
The whole thing is: 214 calories and 3.7g fiber 
I use it to cover pulled pork, it fully flavors 8 servings of pulled pork, adding 27 calories per serving to the calories of the pork.

Guilt Free Chocolate Chip Cookies- 2 cookies for 1(old) ww point

photo of "world's Healthiest Chocolate Chip" used from chocolatecoveredkate.com- thanks

I love Chocolate Covered Kate's blog. She is a Vegan, but takes into consideration that there are different needs when eating healthy. I like that she has such a range of "healthy" recipes.
This one I made a few tweeks to but for the most part it is Kate's "World's Healthiest Chocolate Chip" recipe. 

My version of the 'Guilt Free Chocolate Chip Cookies'

Guilt Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/3 c flour
1/4 c oat flour (take oats and grind them in a grinder or blender, I do a cup or so at a time and store what I don't use.)
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 c chocolate chips
1 TBS brown sugar 
2 TBS white sugar substitute (Splenda, Stevia)- add more as you feel it needs to sweeten
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp oil
1 TBS apple sauce
2 TBS skim milk 


Mix all up scoop mixed dough and roll into a ball. Place balls on cookie sheet. If you want a flat cookie look, press ball down flat. Cook for about 8 minutes. Be very careful not to over cook. They taste burnt before they fully look burnt.
Makes 14 small cookies (apx 1tsp ball). Calories: 27 fat: 2g fiber: 1g
That's 685 calories if you eat the WHOLE thing yourself.
That's 1 point for 2 cookies under the old ww system. Woohoo
You can get more fiber for   the same number of calories by using entirely oat flour.


Warning to Remember: ONLY do ONE batch at a time. I don't recommend doubling or tripling this   recipe. I can't explain why, but any time I do I loose cookies. The dough just doesn't go as far and I end up with a cookie missing (and I did not eat it by eating the dough). The other day I doubled it and was only able to get 22 cookies out of the dough. For the 4th of July I tried to triple it and lost 5 cookies. For each cookie you lose that means those calories are in the other cookies and it is no longer as "guilt free" to eat.