Sunday, January 27, 2013

Meal Planning Monday January 28, 2013

I am feeling a bit under the weather so today's post is  quick one.  Have a great week all!


Monday: Quinoa Beef Stew (6P+)

Tuesday: Lemon Dill Salmon (5P+)

Wednesday: Whole Chicken in the slow cooker (4+)with skinny mashed red potatoes (4P+)

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos (4P+ with no tortilla or toppings) with a taco bar

Breakfast: Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oats- I leave out raisins and use all water (4P+ plain)  topped with fresh blueberries and 5 almonds chopped (5P+)

Lunch: Slow Cooker Vegetable Soup- leave out potatoes and use 7c water and 7c fat free chicken broth (1P+)

Dessert: Fat Free Sugar Free Brownies- use gluten free flour, add 1/4c skim milk and1tsp baking soda(1P+ for 1/16 of the pan)

Kid Friendly Korner: Gluten Free Mac and Cheese with tomatoes

Happy Eating! :)


Sunday, January 20, 2013

Meal Planning Monday January 21, 2013

Well this past week was a bit harder than I had anticipated when it came to healthy eating.  We had a family funeral on Monday which always involves eating in my family, then we went out to dinner with family on Tuesday before everyone returned home and I had final exams at work which altered my teaching and eating schedule.  Needless to say I did not do as well as I had hoped, but today is a new day!!  Time to plan out this week's meals and stick to it! :)


Monday: Deep Dish Pizza Casserole (6P+/serving) note: while I try not to do this, this is a repeat from last week that I never made and I need to use the ground turkey before is spoils

Tuesday: Slow Cooker Catalina Chicken (4P+/serving) note: this is a favorite in our house and here is a link to 5 different ways to use the leftovers, if there are any! :)

Wednesday: Parmesan Chicken Cutlets (4P/serving)

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Pizza at my parents

Saturday: Nachos (4P+/serving) or Chicago Style Hot Dogs (6P+/each) followed by a movie and make your own microwave popcorn!!

Sunday: Slow Cooker Pork Tenderloin with Apples (5P+/serving)

Breakfast: Breakfast Tacos (3P+/2 tacos)

Lunch: Zero Points Soup (0P+/serving) This is a very versatile recipe and can be changed to add any zero point vegetable you have on hand.

Dessert: Not making anything this week, I am indulging in Fiber One Chocolate Squares (only 2P+ for 3/4 of a cup!!!)

Kid Friendly Korner: Chicken Nuggets (I will sub gluten free flour and rice chex for the corn flakes)

Linked up at:

Sassy Little Lady Show and Tell Saturday

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Meal Planning Monday January 14, 2012

This week's meal plan is focused on filling and low Weight Watchers Points Plus foods.  I am working hard to get back on my WW track but finding I am hungry a lot, so my goal is to get the most "bang for my buck" in terms of filling foods.  Let's hope it works!

Monday: We have a funeral so will be eating out

Tuesday: Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos (3p+/serving)

Wednesday: Ginger Soy Salmon (5P+) with roasted broccoli and brown rice

Thursday: Weight Watchers Deep Dish Pizza Casserole (6P+) add veggies of your choice

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan (7p+)

Breakfasts: Biggest Loser Oat Cakes (4P+) sub vanilla Greek yogurt for cottage cheese

Lunches: Tomato Basil Caprese Soup  3P+

Dessert: Chocolate Chip Cookies (1P+/2 cookies) sub gluten free all purpose flour and 1tsp xantham gum

Kid Friendly Korner: Burger "Tacos" with gluten free corn tortillas


Sunday, January 6, 2013

Meal Planing Monday January 7, 2013

Happy 2013!!  Hope you all rang in the New Year with friends and loved ones and that your 2013 is off to a happy and healthy start.  We are doing pretty well with our healthy eating plan so far, now to just get more movement time in...one step at a time :)

This week I go back to work after a a very restful and fun filled 2 week winter break, so there will be plenty of easy prep, slow cooker meals this week.


Monday: Ground Turkey Soup (sub quinoa for barley) with pita bread (4 Points+)

Tuesday: Bunless Turkey Burgers (thinking I may use my Italian Turkey Meatloaf recipe - 4 Points+) using the George Foreman grill and oven roasted broccoli

Wednesday: Slow Cooker Beer Chicken (3 Points+)

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Cauliflower Pizza 5 Points+ depending on toppings (didn't make this last week, so it is on the plan again because I really want to try it!)

Saturday: Eat Out

Sunday: Cocoa Crusted Pork Tenderloin (5 Points+)

Breakfasts: Individual Baked Oatmeal Cups (4 Points+)

Lunches: Weight Watchers Taco Soup (3 Points +)

Dessert: Weight Watchers Berry Cobbler (4 Points +)

Kid Friendly Korner: Gluten Free Tortilla Pizzas

Happy Eating! :)

Linked Up At:
I Should Be Mopping The Floor
A Dose of Dannie 

Recipe Review: Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Oat Pancakes (5 Points +/serving)

Sunday morning Little A woke up and was begging for pancakes.  Since we are trying gluten free and I have yet to get a gluten free pancake mix, I went to my favorite place in search of a solution...Pinterest :)  Of course there were more options than I knew what to do with so it took a while to settle on one.  After looking over recipes and what I had in my pantry I settle on this one.  It can be made gluten free, dairy free even vegan with tweaks given by the author which makes it usable for almost anyone!  The only other change I could see would be sunbutter and coconut or soy milk for anyone with nut allergies, but I haven't tried it yet so I'm not sure if it would work.  If you try it, let me know how it works! (My version is listed below.)

So on to the review.  (Disclaimer: for this recipe I used fat free milk, peanut butter, oat flour and coconut oil because that's what I had in my pantry and I doubled the recipe to make sure I had enough.)

1. These pancakes have a really hearty texture and mildly sweet taste which is perfect for us.  I love that I was full after 2 small pancakes.

2. Next time I will but back on the banana a bit (1.5 bananas for a double batch) because the overall banana taste was too strong for me, but that really is to taste.

3. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that these are REALLY hard to flip.  Your best bet in cooking these is to make them silver dollar size not full pancake size.  If you make them too big they will fall apart when you flip them.  (I used a 1/4c measuring cup and filled it about 2/3 full.)  They also don't bubble like a traditional pancake so you just have to check them frequently to know when to flip.

Overall this is a great recipe and I will definitely make it again!
 Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Oat Pancakes (adapted from Minimalist Baker.)
Serving Size: 2 pancakes  Points Plus: 5  Makes approximately 12 pancakes
Ingredients:
  • 2 very ripe medium bananas
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 eggs
  • pinch salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 Tablespoons peanut butter
  • 1 Tablespoon coconut oil (liquid)
  • 1/3 cup fat free milk
  • 1 gluten free oats
  • 1/2 cup oat flour
  • 4 Tablespoons dark chocolate chips
Directions:
  1. Mash your bananas and baking powder together in a medium sized mixing bowl.  Very easy if you use a fork.
  2. Add eggs, coconut oil (liquid), salt, vanilla, peanut butter and milk.  Mix thoroughly with a fork.
  3. Stir in oats and oat flour until just combined. (Note: I made the oat flour by grinding 1/2c gluten free oats in my coffee grinder.)
  4. Sprinkle in chocolate chips and mix.
  5. Heat skillet over medium flame and place 1 tablespoon coconut oil on the skillet to grease it.
  6. Fill 1/4 cup measuring cup about 2/3 full with batter and pour onto prepared skillet.
  7. Cook for 2-4 minutes on each side – until golden brown.  Check frequently as these will not bubble like a regular pancake!
Linked Up At:
I Should Be Mopping The Floor

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Gluten Free Drop Biscuits - 1 Points+/Biscuit

So I am trying out this gluten free thing because I know I need to.  I don't have a diagnosis requiring it, I just know based on what my body is telling me that I will feel better if I remove (or at the very least significantly reduce) gluten in my diet.

That being said, I am sucker for all thing bread, cake, cookie and biscuit so I know I will be playing around with recipes a lot in the next few months.  Yesterday Little A asked for biscuits and I was struggling to come up with something.  I searched my trusty friends Pinterest and Google and found a lot of choices, but most had way too much fat.  I stumbled on this recipe on Whole Lifestyle Nutrition (a site I think I will be frequenting a lot in the coming months) and it seemed easy enough.  The problem was I was still not wanting quite so much fat when I knew I would be eating at least 2 (or 3) of these.  After a few episodes of trial and error, I knew I got it right when Little A was sneaking back into the kitchen to grab more when I cut him off after 4!

Adapted Slightly From: wholelifestylenutrition.com

  Oat Flour Drop Biscuits (1 WW Points+/biscuit)
Ingredients:
1c Oat Flour (I just ground GF oats in my coffee grinder)
2tsp GF Baking Powder
.5tsp Salt
1T cold, unsalted butter
3T unsweetened applesauce
fat free milk (if needed)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl with a fork.
3. Cut butter into small cubes.  Using a fork or pastry mixer, incorporate cold butter into dry mix.  (This will create a very crumbly mixture.)
4. Add applesauce and mix thoroughly.  This will create a doughy mixture but it will not be liquidy, it actually looks a bit like oatmeal cookie dough.
*Optional: If your dough is not sticking together, add milk 1T at a time until a sticky dough forms*
5. Grease a baking sheet with coconut oil.  Using a tablespoon, drop dough onto baking sheet.(~10 biscuits)
6. Bake at 425 for 8-10 minutes or until tops begin to brown.
*Note: because there is very little fat in this recipe the biscuits will not spread much, so if you want a flatter biscuit make sure to flatten them with the back of a spoon a bit before baking*

You can top these will butter, jam, honey, peanut butter, nutella, the possibilities are endless.  To be honest though, they are so good I eat them plain!

Hope you enjoy these as much as we did!

Happy Eating! :)



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