Tag Archives: recipes

Honey Glazin

26 Apr

I had to use both a pork loin and shrimp by the same day and, unfortunately, I found myself on that day.  I’m always nervous about letting food go past expiration dates, but pork and seafood are on the top of my fearful list. I had a Weight Watchers recipe for a honey glazed pork loin so I figured I’d just double the sauce and use it for the shrimp.  It works great for both!  So much flavor for just 4 points.  We paired it with some garlicky spinach and quinoa. Nom Nom Nom.

Pork loin is so easy to cook and so tasty!

The shrimp in the same sauce was also sooooo tasty.

Full pot of raw spinach and garlic:

Reduces to tiny bit of cooked spinach and garlic in the same pot.

(I’m always so impressed with how the volume of raw spinach reduces to the volume of wilted spinach)

Full plate with quinoa.

The sauce was soooo good over the quinoa!

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RECIPES
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Honey Glazed Pork Tenderloin (Just use the same sauce for the shrimp!)
4 points!

Ingredients:

  • 16 ounces Extra Lean Port Tenderloin
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce, low sodium
  • 2 cloves garlic — minced
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
  • 

Instructions:

  1. Trim excess fat from pork. Tie it to make it even shape. Place in a heavy plastic bag.
  2. Mix the soy sauce, garlic, and ginger. Add to bag. Coat pork well. Marinade for 2 hours or over night in refrigerator.
  3. Remove pork from marinade. Pat dry.
  4. Combine honey and sugar. Brush over pork. Coat with sesame seeds.
  5. Roast for 20-30 minutes at 375 degrees F.
  6. Slice thinly and serve.

Weight Watchers Cooking Take 2: Zero Point Soup

9 Apr

I was told that there was a mysterious “Zero Point” soup recipe out there… and I figured “hey… I like soup. And I like making soup. And I really like the idea of eating meals that I don’t have to count towards my points!” So I went in pursuit of zero point soup.  Turns out there are several, but the “Italian Veggie” sounded best to me so I set to it.

It’s so easy and quick to make. Lots of fresh veggies. 

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RECIPE
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This is the original recipe as I found it:

Italian-Inspired Zero POINTS Value Soup
Makes 12 servings

POINTS® value | 0 per serving

Ingredients

  • 2 cups escarole, chopped (I used cabbage instead)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 cup onions, chopped
  • 2 cups baby spinach
  • 2 small zucchini, cubed
  • 1 medium red pepper, chopped (for allergy reasons, I ommitted this)
  • 2 cups fennel bulb, thinly sliced (one bulb)
  • 6 cups vegetable broth (I used fat free chicken broth)
  • 28 oz canned diced tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted
  • 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (ommitted for obvious reasons)
  • 2 tsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp fresh oregano, finely chopped (I used dry)
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped (I went dry due to available ingredients)
  • 1/4 cup fresh basil

Instructions
Put escarole, garlic, onions, spinach, zucchini, red pepper, fennel bulb, vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, red pepper flakes, thyme and oregano into a large soup pot; stir to combine. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, partly covered, for about 10 minutes.

Stir in salt, black pepper, parsley and basil. Serve.

Serving size: about 1 cup

Variations:
They used the POINTS Tracker to calculate the following additions to an individual 1-cup serving:
1 1/2 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese, POINTS value: 1
2 oz cooked chicken sausage, POINTS value: 3
2 Tbsp cooked chickpeas, POINTS value: 0.5
2 Tbsp cooked orzo, POINTS value: 0.5
2 small, store-bought turkey meatballs, POINTS value: 2

The most amazing recipe I’ve ever shared

5 Apr

I read about this mysterious “one ingredient ice cream” on TheKitchn.com and was shocked to learn that the one ingredient was… bananas.  How can you possibly make ice cream out of JUST bananas?  Well… turns out not only is it possible… it’s just about the most amazing thing I’ve ever made.  I am so enthralled with this that I bumped all my other posts to share it with you.  And the best part? It’s good for you!  Figure one banana per serving and I calculated it to be just 2 points (and less than 100 calories)!

The instructions were pretty easy sounding… take bananas… freeze (great way to keep bananas on the verge of over-ripening anyway)… put in food processor… blend until creamy.  My bananas probably should have defrosted a bit before I tried this, however, after some tenacity I got it to this state…

And that made me nervous.  How was this ever going to be CREAMY?  Wouldn’t it be chunky? Or gritty? Or… well… NOT ice cream?

Oh no… 5 minutes later it was downright creamy. 

And then I took my spoon and I dug right in.  Holy crap. This was even better than the moment I discovered Krispy Krack Kale.  Holy cow! 

I have since made it twice more… once with peanut butter (4 points with one tablespoon per banana) and once with peanut butter and chocolate chips (5 points with the same amount of peanut butter plus 1 tablespoon of chocolate chips per 2 bananas).  Use my new favorite, Better’n Peanut Butter, and you can get the PB and Banana combo for jut 3 points!

And then I decided that I couldn’t sit over my counter with a spoon in the food processor forever, so I pulled out the ice cream scooper for the real test…

It scooped beautifully.

Go make this.

Now.