Pasta Primavera- 7 points

This is a family favorite of my husband's side. It works best with no long pastas, such as penne or shells. 
Serves 4, 7 points per serving.

• 1/2 box of pasta
• 1/2 lb of ground beef
• 1/2 chopped onion (optional)
• 1 jar of pasta sauce
• 1 large bag of frozen California mixed Veggies (broccoli, carrots and cauliflower)
• 1/4 c parm cheese

It can be made 2 ways no difference in points.

Stove and Oven: Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook up the ground beef and the chopped onion. Suggestion to use the Italian Sausage Seasoning mix to give your meat more flavor. Cook up pasta to almost done -still a bit hard. Defrost bag of veggies in the microwave. Mix pasta, meat, and veggies in a oven baking dish. Pour the pasta sauce over it and cook in oven for 15 minutes. You can sprinkle Parm on before or after putting it in the oven. 

Stovetop: Cook up ground beef and onions (suggested Italian Sausage Seasoning Mix) and then pasta in a separate dish. When pasta is ready drain off water and mix in the cooked ground beef. Mix in thawed veggies. Pour in Pasta sauce, mix and let sizzle. Serve hot off stove with parm sprinkled on it.

ideas for lowering points:

Double recipe, serve 8 but still only use 1/2 lb of ground beef. It would take each serving down to 5 points. To make up the difference and fill it more, add more veggies- specially more broccoli and cauliflower. Maybe us one mixed bag and one bag of all broccoli or cauliflower. If you did it just pasta and veggies it takes the serving to 4 points per serving. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Turkey/Chicken Veggie Cobbler (6pts)

I used too much water & milk and  my biscuits are mixed in.

I found and have modified this recipe in the Pampered Chef "It's Good For You" recipe book.


Its is a good recipe to use leftover turkey or chicken.
Turkey/Chicken Veggie Cobbler
(6 points per serving, 6 servings)
filling:
2 c diced cooked turkey/chicken
1 c diced carrots
1/2 c chopped onion
2 c broccoli florets
1 c cut green beans
1/2 c chopped celery
1 garlic clove, minced
Any other veggies you like in a pot pie or soup
1 can reduced fat and sodium condensed Cream of Chicken (or Mushroom) soup
1/2 c chicken broth (I precook all my veggies, by boiling in water then I use 1/2 of that as my broth)
1/2 c Milk (reduced fat/skim)
1/4 tsp thyme leaves
1/8 tsp ground pepper
1/8 tsp salt
biscuit top:
1 1/4 c reduced-fat all-purpose baking mix (I often substitute pancake mix)
1/2 c milk (reduced fat/skim)
1 egg white 


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut up meat and veggies. Precook veggies (salute, boil, steam, microwave) otherwise they end up way to crunchy. Mix soup, milk broth, and spices blending them together. Then place veggies and the soup-milk mixture in a deep baking dish. Mix up biscuit topping and pour it over the veggies (do not cook soup-veggies mixture before placing biscuit on it, if you do the biscuit mixture will sink into the soup-veggies) OR spoon drops over mixture for best results. Bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes, until biscuits are plump and browned. 
Serve warm. I serve it in bowls because the consistence has come out more runny sometimes.

Chicken Stir Fry- 6 pts

This is the Stir Fry I've always used. I was really wanting it last night. So I made it up and figured out the points. I like to use a pre-made stir fry veggie mix. To make it less points I only used 1- 8 oz chicken breast. I used about half the amount of rice I normally use, and filled it with veggies. I used a bit too much soy sauce and it looked really yucky- tasted fin, but I didn't want to put a picture up.

Stir Fry

• 1-8oz chicken breast, cut into cubes
• various veggies- carrots, green beans, zucchini, peas, yellow squash, celery, peppers, onion, broccoli, anything that sounds good to you.
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 4 tbs soy sauce

Cook up the chicken, when almost cooked turn heat to low, add 2 tbs of soy sauce, let simmer. When the chicken is done, add in the veggies, and the last 2 tbs of soy sauce. Mix well, then add rice, mix well and serve. Makes 2 servings (to make more servings just double the recipe). If you aren't up for rice, this could also be made with 1 package of Ramen noodles, if you use Ramen instead of rice the total is 7 points (its actually more like a point and half).