Interesting Vegetable Ideas

I have come across some great blogs with some interesting vegetable ideas. I haven't tried these yet, but they come from awesome sites, and look great! Here are some that I can think of right now...

Zucchini Pizza Bites

Cauliflower "Spanish Rice"

Cauliflower Fritters

Stuffed Mushrooms

Zucchini Lasagna

Spaghetti Squash Salad w/Tomato, Basil and Feta

Cauliflower Cream

Garlic-Honey Asperigus

Easy Veggie Ideas

What are some great ways to eat lots of veggies throughout the day? Here are some of my favorites:

1. Pita Pizzas or Calzones
-Start with Western Bagel Alternative Pita
-Spoon some low cal pizza sauce
-Pile on the veggies
-Top with a little bit of mozzarella cheese


2. Weight Watcher's 0 point vegetable soup
-Can freeze in individual servings

3. Quick Egg White Veggie Omelet

4. Broccoli Salad (Lasts for a few days in the fridge)

5. Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers
-Frozen veggies with cheese sauce you steam in the microwave
-1 pt. for huge serving

These are my top 5, what are your ideas?

The Best Broccoli Salad Ever!

I never thought I could eat raw broccoli until I made this salad. You can use florets, or broccoli slaw mix. Either way, it is amazing! My husband wants me to make it every week and he can eat 2 cups at a time.

8 Servings/ 2 pts. ea (about a cup)

2 bags broccoli slaw or 8 cups chopped broccoli
7 T Sweet Poppy Seed Dressing (I used Trader Joes, but another brand at 2 pts. for 2 T would work too)
1/2 C Dried Cranberries
1 oz. candied pecans, chopped
2 oz. light feta cheese, crumbled

Mix everything together and enjoy!

This is souper!

Hi! I'm Jen's dinner swap partner, Melanie, and every now and then if she really likes something I make, I try to remember to stick the recipe up here. I don't know if it's because we're beachside that our weather is suffering from multiple personality disroder right now, or if that's just Spring any where, but one day you wake up and it's a beach day and the very next is a definite soup day. If you love soup weather, this is a really good recipe. Total crowd pleaser. If you beef it up with some whole grain Goldfish crackers sprinkled on top, it makes a great lunch all by itself.

Bell Pepper-Tomato Soup

2 tsp olive oil
2 medium garlic clove(s), minced
1 medium onion(s), diced
1 medium carrot(s), chopped
1 1/2 tsp herbes de Provence
3 medium sweet red pepper(s), or orange, sliced**
14 1/2 oz reduced-sodium chicken broth
28 oz canned crushed tomatoes
1 tsp table salt
1/2 cup(s) fat-free creamer, or fat-free half-and-half
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp sugar

In a large pot, heat oil over medium-low heat. Add garlic, stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add onion and carrot. Cook until onion is tender, about 5 minutes.

Add herbes de Provence, cook, stirring until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add peppers. Cook until begins to soften, about 5 minutes. (See footnote: You do not need to cook peppers if they are charred and peeled.)

Add broth and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Cover; simmer for 25 minutes. Stir in salt, pepper, half-and-half and sugar. Purée in small batches; briefly reheat, if needed. Yields 1 cup per serving.

**The bell peppers are awesome if you roast them. Just halve them, remove the seeds, and place them face down on a foil covered cookie sheet under your broiler for fifteen minutes until charred. Remove them from the heat and seal them in a Ziploc bag for fifteen minutes, then remove the charred parts (comes off easily in your hands). It really adds a lot to the flavor.

This makes 8 servings at only 1 point per serving!

You can check out my blog where I dump out all my random thoughts for a low calorie sweet and salty snack I love here.

Really Good Light Ranch Dressing

Tonight I made baked "fried" zucchini,

which I got from Gina's Weight Watcher Recipe Blog. It definitely needed ranch to dip it in. I am not a fan of reduced fat ranch dressing from the store, so here is a great recipe:

Makes 16 Servings/2T each Serving/.5pts ea.
26 calories/1.5g fat ea.

Ranch Salad Dressing/Seasoning mix, 1/2 pkg.
1 1/2 C. Reduced Fat Buttermilk
4 T Light Mayo
4 T Light Sour Cream

Whisk all ingredients together and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Creamy Blended Mushroom Soup

So I used the Cream of Zucchini soup as my inspiration, and made a mushroom version. With mushrooms, most people either love them or hate them. I love them. There is a little French restaurant that I have gone to occasionally that makes the best mushroom soup. My version (to me at least) tastes just as great! (With a lot less fat I am sure. The only thing mine doesn't have is the crusty french bread to go along with it!)

I made this on Monday, and ate a bowl with lunch several times this week. It was great.

So if you are a mushroom fan, keep reading. If not, this post is not for you.

2 pts/Cup

2 T butter
2 C chopped onion
1/2 C brown rice
8 C chicken broth
1 1/2 lbs mushrooms (I used 2 portabello and the rest-white button)
1/2 C light sour cream

In a large pot on medium heat, melt butter. Add the onions and rice and saute till onions are golden and soft. Add 4 C broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat to med low, and stir frequently until rice is soft, about 30 min. Meanwhile, finely chop the mushrooms, (I used a food processor). When rice is cooked, add 2 more C of broth, and the mushrooms. Raise the heat back up to medium. Cook until mushrooms are soft. Using an immersion blender, blend until desired consistancy, adding the additional 2 C broth once it is blended. (Or you could take out of the pot and use a blender) Heat till hot, and turn off the stove. At the end, add the sour cream and stir till incorporated.

By the way, I did not take a picture. It is just brown soup.

Warm Zucchini and Corn Salad

Today started off with a great start. I actually got out of bed early, and got my workout in before 8:30. (I am NOT a morning person) This gave me time to shower, eat breakfast, get my daughter ready and leave the house by 9:45 for Mommy and Me Ballet class.

Today was my cooking day, and not only was I cooking for my cooking group (we now have a third member), but I made dinner for 2 other families, one who just had a new baby. I was cooking from 1:30 till 5:15 non-stop. Won't be doing that again for a while... Since I was cooking for a large amount of people, I decided to make my yummy creamy chicken enchiladas. I made a couple of small adjustments to the recipe which made it even better.

As a side, I made this really tasty Warm Zucchini and Corn Salad. It is a great side dish for Mexican food. You could eat it as a dip with chips too, I guess.

Here is the recipe:

4 Servings/1 pt. ea. (about 2/3 C)

1 1/2 cups whole kernel corn, frozen
2 1/2 cups diced zucchini
2 T green onion, chopped
1 t. olive oil
1 T lime juice
1/8 t. freshly ground pepper
1/2 t. salt
2 T fresh cilantro, chopped

Toss corn, zucchini and green onions with olive oil. Pour into large skillet, and cook, stirring frequently, until zucchini is fork-tender. Remove skillet from heat, and mix in lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper.

I love finding healthy side dishes that go with Mexican food. It seems like rice and beans are your only option, and to eat rice and enchiladas is a bit too many points. Anyone have any other sides that you eat with Mexican food? I would love to hear them...

Fruity Slaw

I really did drop off the planet for a while. I have been so crazy, between the stomach flu, a Hawaii trip, coming back from the Hawaii trip, getting ready for Christmas that I literally have had nothing to say about weight loss. I "vacation ate" while I was gone, but I was ok with that. You have to be flexible. Since I have been back, I've been pretty good, eating wise. It really was easy to get back on track. Like I've said before, lifestyle-not diet. I haven't weighed in in a while, and I need to get to a meeting. I will be happy if I am maintaining this month.

Now I would like to post a yummy recipe. I made Taco Soup for dinner last night and tried to think of a side that would go with it, besides a green salad. I get sick of them. So I came across this recipe and it was really good - light and fruity.

Fruity Slaw (Sorry no picture)

6 Servings/1 Pt. each

Salad:

3 C cabbage, grated
1 C tangerines, sectioned and thinly sliced
1 C grapes, quartered
1/2 C celery, thinly sliced
1 lg. apple, cored and diced

Dressing:

1 C nonfat plain yogurt
1 t freshly grated lemon zest
1 t lemon juice
1 1/2 t honey

Mix together salad ingredients. Mix dressing ingredients. Chill seperately till serving, then mix all together. Makes 6 servings - about 1 C each.

Feta Stuffed Zucchini

I've mentioned it before, but me and 2 friends do a dinner swap. We each pick a night, and make dinner for all 3 families (small families). Then the Thursday dinner, we rotate. It is the greatest thing ever. Most weeks, you make only one dinner, and the other nights, dinner is brought right to your door! We are all doing Weight Watchers, so we write the points on a sticky note. Anyway, we all are driven to try to make good, well-rounded dinners, with sides.

While trying to think of good side dishes and vegetables, I came across an awesome blog called A Veggie Venture. On it she lists vegetable dishes by Points, and alphabetically. I was browsing through her recipes and found this amazing one called Feta Stuffed Zucchini. It looked amazing, so I made it this week. It was super yummy!

New Way to Cook Veggies

With most of my dinners, I usually make steamed veggies. I have been doing this for years. And they are good. But tonight I tried something new. A friend and I have started doing a meal swap. We are both doing Weight Watchers, and we both have small families, so we decided to split up Mon-Thursday dinners and each cook 2 meals, enough for both families. I cook for everyone on Monday and Tuesday, and she cooks on Wednesday and Thursday. We write the points of the meal down on a sticky note, and deliver the meal between 5:30 and 6pm. It is sooooo great. Meal planning time is much lower, food is less wasted, and grocery bills are lower. And you get different types of meals than you would normally cook, which is nice because variety really helps when you are eating to lose weight. It also motivates me to try out new recipes, and make my meals really balanced.

So tonight, I tried out a recipe for roasted veggies that a few of my friends use.

8.5 Points Total, servings vary
(1.5 points total if you use olive oil cooking spray instead of oil.)

1 lb veggies ( I used broccoli, but you can use asparagus, zucchini, or other types of veggies)
2 T minced fresh garlic
2 T Olive Oil (Can adjust for smaller amounts of veggies) (Could omit and use spray, probably)
2 T Grated Parmesan Cheese
Kosher Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to 400. Stir veggies, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper in a large bowl till coated. Line baking sheet with foil. Top with the veggies, and sprinkle on the parmesan cheese. Roast in oven until crisp tender. Time varies with the different type of vegetable.

Roasted Butternut Squash Wedges

AKA butternut squash fries. I am not calling them that because the end result is too soft to be called fries. This recipe is all over the internet, and on two diet sites I like, Hungry Girl and Greenlitebites. In case you haven't seen it, these are really good, and are a great side dish for sandwich type meals.

1 T Olive Oil
Kosher Salt
1 (2 lb) Butternut Squash

Preheat oven to 450. Cut ends of squash off, and cut lengthwise down the middle. Remove seeds, and peel the skin off with peeler. (be sure to get down to the bright orange layer) Cut into 1/2" wedges or slices. Pour into large ziplock bag or bowl with salt and olive oil. Shake or stir till coated. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Arrange squash in a single layer on baking sheet. Bake for around 30 mins, turning a couple of times. Bake till edges start to brown. I like mine quite toasted, as it kind of carmelizes the squash. Be sure to eat them hot, though- they taste way better that way!