Garlic Roasted Chicken Leg Quarters

Garlic Roasted Chicken Leg Quarters

This recipe was a little different for us in our house. We almost always cook with chicken breast because the white meat is lower in points than the dark meat is (although my personal preference is dark meat...love me some fried chicken legs!) However, when I was shopping at Aldi one week, I saw this huge package of chicken leg quarters that were marked down to like $2 or $3 because they were almost to their "sell by" date, so I just couldn't pass it up. I'm always looking for ways to save money, and I am so not above buying marked down meat. (Just make sure to stick it in the freezer when you get home unless you are cooking it that night!) So once I had the meat, I went searching for a recipe and found this one. It was soooooo delicious! We had my in-laws over for supper and they loved it too! Yes, this is definitely one of those higher point meals, but as long as you plan your day so that you know what you'll be eating, you should be good to go!

Ingredients:

4 cloves diced garlic

1 tsp. dried oregano

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. chili powder

1/4 tsp. cumin

Dash of pepper

2 T extra virgin olive oil

4 chicken leg quarters

½ c. chicken broth 

Directions:

1.   Heat oven to 425

2.   Combine garlic, oregano, salt, chili powder, cumin and black pepper. Add olive oil and mix well. Mash it up with a fork

3.   Rinse chicken leg quarters and pat dry. Snip off any excess skin. Arrange chicken in a shallow baking pan. (I used a jelly roll pan). Pat the garlic mixture over the leg quarters.

4. Pour chicken broth in the pan to keep chicken moist while baking.   

5. Bake 40-50 minutes or until juices run clear.  

Yields 4 pieces – WWP+ 9 per leg quarter 

Shown here with a 1 point salad: lettuce, mushrooms, cucumbers and 2 T. fat free Caesar Italian dressing.

Recipe from www.southernfood.about.com

Garlic Cauliflower Mash

Garlic Cauliflower Mash

This recipe is focusing on the side dish, rather than the main dish. For dinner, we made a seasoned, baked pork chop. It was good, fine, nothing spectacular. I'd definitely use different seasonings the next time around, I was just playing around with some different things. The cauliflower mash was definitely a different take on a side dish. I wish I had an immersion blender to really have gotten it creamy, I think it would have tasted much more like mashed potatoes, but they were still good. I had a hard time figuring up the points for this one because it was pretty much all vegetables, with the exception of a little milk and one tablespoon of butter, and vegetables are free, so if I go into weight watchers and mark each ingredient separately, it would have been like 1 3 points for the whole pot of them. However, if you use the recipe builder on weight watchers, it doesn't necessarily count fruit and veggies free like the PointsPlus system does, it figures up the nutritional value of every ingredient then divides it out by servings, so according to that, it was like 2 points a serving. Either way, it's low points, I went with the 1 point, because it was eating a lot of vegetables and I felt good about that.

Ingredients:

1 large head of cauliflower

3 cups water

4 garlic cloves

1 tsp salt

1 bay leaf

1 T. butter

½ c. skim milk

Salt and pepper 

Directions:

1.   Cut cauliflower into florets and place in slow cooker.

2.   Add water, garlic, salt, and bay leaf.

3.   Cover and cook on high 2-3 hours or low 4-6 hours.

4.   Remove garlic and bay leaf and drain water.

5.   Add in butter and let it melt.

6.   Then using a potato masher or immersion blender, mash it up adding the milk as needed. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Yields 4 servings – WWP+ 1 per serving

Shown here with a 1 point salad: lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumbers and 2 T. fat free Caesar Italian dressing, and a 5 point seasoned, baked pork chop.

***Recipe adapted from www.momswithcrockpots.com***

 

Easy Baked Chicken

Easy Baked Chicken

I debated even writing up and posting this dinner because it's so basic that it seems completely unnecessary to post. It's a seasoned piece of chicken breast, and that's it. However, I realized that in the 2.5 months that we have been doing this, I have been so caught up in making these incredibly yummy and fun dinners that are all weight watchers pointed out that I have not once just cooked some regular chicken. So I figured if I needed the reminder, maybe someone else did too. I actually put the baked chicken on the menu at the request of the hubs. It's been frustrating for him, and me as well, these last few weeks because his weight has been coming off much slower than it has in the past. He has been doing everything right (except maybe not exercising as much as he should, he just has a busy schedule this time of year) but the weight has just been slow to come off. The only thing he could think of that was different from the last time he did Weight Watchers and dropped so much, so fast, was that we ate a lot more plain meats and less fancied up recipes. While I explained to him that I would loose my mind and my motivation if I had to go back to eating nothing but chicken breast all the time again, however, I would be happy to implement more non-fancied up proteins for meals once or twice a week, so that's what I did! I was also having a major craving for mashed potatoes, so I fixed a small pan of instant mashed potatoes, which was 3 points for 1/2 c. and 5 points for a whole cup. We still had our big salad and also served it with broccoli. As for making the actual chicken, I get these really big chicken breasts that I then butterfly so they are thinner and cook faster and much more evenly. You can use whatever seasonings you want, I used what I had on hand and what sounded good to me. The chicken broth in the pan really does help keep the chicken from drying out. And point value-wise, for the most part, unless you get up to 9-10 cooked ounces in one chicken breast, we just weighed them after they were cooked and they are one point per ounce. This meal was nothing fancy, and certainly anything that anyone could do and has done a million times before, but sometimes going back to the basics is a refreshing change of pace.

Ingredients:

4 (4-6oz) thinly sliced chicken breasts

½ c. chicken broth
Onion powder
Garlic salt
Basil
Freshly ground pepper
(or any seasoning of your choice)

Directions:

      1.   Heat oven to 350.

2.   Place chicken breasts in a 9x13 baking dish.

3.   Top with seasonings of your choice, I used onion powder, garlic salt, black pepper and dried basil.

4.   Very carefully add about ½ c. of chicken broth to the bottom of baking dish (try not to pour it right on seasoned chicken so to wash off the seasonings).

5.   Bake about 20 minutes or until chicken is done. 

Yields 4 pieces – WWP+ 4-6 per piece (1 point per ounce of cooked chicken)

Shown here with a 1 point salad: lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumbers and 2 T. fat free Caesar Italian dressing and 3 points of instant mashed potatoes (1/2 c. serving)

Hawaiian BBQ Cupcakes

Hawaiian BBQ Cupcakes

I keep saying it, over and over, but we have yet to try a cupcake recipe that we don't love! This one was no exception AND it was super easy and fast to put together. There was only 3 layers (then repeated) and was just a quick and easy and yummy dinner to put together! I will say, they didn't hold up as well when I reheated them the next day for lunch as other cupcakes have, and I'm not entirely sure why, tasted just as good, just didn't hold shape quite as well reheated. But if that's my biggest complaint, then I think we're doing pretty good!

Ingredients:

1 2/3 c. cooked chicken breast, chopped or shredded

½ c. chopped fresh pineapple (if you have to use canned, drain, and don’t buy any in syrup)

4 T. BBQ sauce

1 T. chopped scallions

16 wonton wrappers

4 oz. (about 1 cup) 2% shredded cheddar cheese 

Directions:

1.   Preheat oven to 375, spray 8 cups in a muffin tin.

2.   In a bowl, combine the chicken, pineapple, BBQ sauce and scallions. Stir well to combine.

3.   Put a wonton wrapper in the bottom of each of the 8 muffin cups. Using half of the chicken mixture, divide evenly among the muffin cups. Then using half of the shredded cheese, divide evenly among the muffin cups. Repeat layering with remaining ingredients: wonton wrapper, chicken mixture, shredded cheese.

4.   Bake 18-20 minutes, then let sit about 5 minutes before serving.  

Yields 8 servings – WWP+ 4 per serving. 

(Pictured above with a 1 point salad – lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms and 2 T of fat free Caesar dressing) 

Recipe from Emily Bites

Crock Pot Cheeseburger Soup

Crock-Pot Cheeseburger Soup

This was our delicious dinner tonight on this chilly winter evening...and it was so good! It may not look the fanciest, but it was really tasty! The hubs and I are both big fans of soup and salad for dinner and this one did not disappoint. It did take a few more steps to make than some of my recipes, but it was worth it. Bonus....it's a slow cooker recipe, however, you only put it in the slow cooker for 2 hours. I started my dinner around 2:00 since I knew we would be eating early tonight with other things we had going on. So if you're one that works a 9-5 job, I would save this recipe for the weekend, only because you can't stick it in the crock pot in the morning, and I would imagine that starting dinner at 5 that takes about a half hour to prep and 2 hours to cook would lead to a pretty late dinner. It was definitely worth the effort for us and I'm looking forward to my leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Ingredients:

1 clove garlic, minced

1 onion, chopped

1 rib celery, chopped

1 pound extra lean ground beef

2 T. all-purpose flour

3 c. chicken broth

1 c. low-fat evaporated milk

8 oz. low fat cheddar cheese, cubed

½ tsp. paprika

¼ tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

24 baked tortilla chips

 

Directions:

1.   Spray a large skillet with cooking spray. Add garlic, onion and celery. Cook over medium heat 4-6 minutes or until cooked. Remove vegetables from skillet and put in slow-cooker (I always use crock-pot liners, if you don’t, spray the bottom of it first).

2.   In the same skillet, brown the ground beef and drain. Once cooked, add to crock-pot.

3.   In a small bowl, combine the flour with ½ c. of the chicken broth. Stir well until no clumps remain. Then pour into the same skillet you just removed the beef from. Add the remaining 2 ½ c. chicken broth and bring to a simmer (using a wooden spoon make sure you are scraping up any browned bits at the bottom of the pan…good flavor!) Pour liquid into crockpot.

4.   Stir into the crock-pot the cubed cheese, evaporated milk, paprika, salt and pepper.

5.   Cook on low for 2 hours, no longer! Stir occasionally. With each single serving of soup, add 3 baked tortilla chips crumbled up on top.

Yields about 8 (3/4cup) servings – WWP+ 5 per serving.

***original recipe from www.weightwatchers.com

Mini Mexican Biscuit Casseroles

Mini Mexican Biscuit Casseroles

Okay, so I've been wanting to do this recipe since the day we started doing weight watchers again. This recipe is my absolute FAVORITE from my days of eating whatever I felt like without giving it a second thought. I love this, it's a casserole my mom has made for years and there is just something about it that I love. It's kinda taco, kinda chili, topped with cheese and biscuits...wonderful. It's because of this recipe that I used to love to make biscuits when I would make chili, then I would dip the biscuits in the chili. I just love it. I knew if I made it again, I would have to lighten it up though, so I made a few changes, but overall, it gave me the same flavor and the same comforting effect that this dinner has always done for me. Now, I'll admit, my intention was to take the 4 biscuits, and cut them across (kinda butterfly style) so I would end up with 8 round biscuits, just thinner. However, I had a bit of a challenege doing that as my biscuits weren't quite firm enough. You're welcome to try it! That would definitetly make it look a little more like the original recipe. And....I love that it heats up awesome for lunch the next day! In fact, sometimes I think the flavor is even stronger the next day!

Ingredients:

1 lb. extra lean ground beef

¾ c. cooked corn kernels

½ c. drained black beans

1 ½ c. drained kidney beans

4 large homestyle buttermilk refrigerator biscuits

2 T. taco seasoning

2/3 c. water

4 oz. 2% shredded sharp cheddar cheese

 

Directions:

1.   Preheat oven to 375 and spray 8 individual glass baking dishes with cooking spray

2.   Brown ground beef in skillet. Drain off excess fat/liquid. Add taco seasoning and water. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Add cooked corn, black beans and kidney beans. Cook a few minutes on the stovetop (just warming the beans and corn).

3.   Evenly fill 8 baking dishes with the meat and bean mixture. Shred 4 oz. of cheese and evenly sprinkle on top of meat mixture in the 8 dishes.

4.   Using 4 of the biscuits (my can came with 8), cut into small pieces, I did about 12-16 per biscuit. Evenly divide biscuit pieces over the cheese.

5.   Put all baking dishes on a large cookie sheet and bake for 14-16 minutes or until biscuit pieces are golden brown. 

Yields 8 servings – WWP+ 7 per serving.

(Pictured above with a 2 point salad – lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms, and 2 T of fat free French dressing)

Recipe from: Yum to the Tum original!

 

Cheeseburger Cupcakes

Cheeseburger Cupcakes

This recipe we had for the first time a week ago. A cousin of mine has also decided to make a change in her life and has been doing AWESOME eating healthy, working out and losing weight!!! I'm super proud of her! We've been good motivators for each other and as a thank you from her, she came over after church last week and cooked lunch for us. These cheeseburger cupcakes were awesome!! They reminded me very much in flavor of the bacon cheeseburger wraps that I absolutely adore so I was totally in love with these! I'm excited to be making them myself this week for my own menu plan! Can't wait to have them again!

Ingredients:

¼ c. onion, finely chopped

½ lb. extra lean ground beef

1 T. McCormick Hamburger seasoning

4 oz. mushrooms, chopped

3 Weight Watchers White Cheddar soft cheese wedges

3 T. ketchup

1 T. mustard

16 wonton wrappers

½ c. tomatoes, chopped

4 oz. (about 1 cup) 2% shredded cheddar cheese 

Directions:

1.   Preheat oven to 375, spray 8 cups in a muffin tin.

2.   Spray large skillet with cooking spray and heat to medium heat. Add onions and sauté a few minutes until cooked. Add ground beef and hamburger seasoning and cook until meat is browned. Add mushrooms and cook a few more minutes until mushrooms are browned as well.

3.   Put meat mixture in a microwave safe bowl, add cheese wedges, ketchup and mustard. Microwave for 1 minute then stir really well until cheese is all melted and well-coated on the ground beef.

4.   Put a wonton wrapper into each of the 8 muffin cups. Using half the meat mixture, divide evenly among the 8 cups. Then using half the tomatoes, sprinkle evenly among the cups, followed with half of the shredded cheese, sprinkled evenly among the cups. Then repeat layering with remaining ingredients: wonton wrapper, meat mixture, tomatoes, shredded cheese.

5.   Bake for 18-20 minutes and allow to cool a few minutes before serving.

 

Yields 8 servings – WWP+ 4 per serving.

 

(Pictured above with a 2 point salad – lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms, 2 T of low fat shredded cheese and 2 T of fat free Caesar dressing) 

Adapted from Emily Bites

Spinach Artichoke Chicken

Spinach Artichoke Chicken

Anyone who enjoys a good spinach artichoke dip will LOVE this dinner! It tastes so amazingly good that I have remind myself that it's okay for me to eat! Low fat cream cheese with greek yogurt makes up the creamy base and with some chopped artichoke hearts and spinach, it is just amazing! This one, I always prep for when I get home from the grocery store by cutting up my chicken breasts to the weight that they need to be before I stick them in the fridge or freezer. These are supposed to be 4 oz. chicken breasts. I typically buy my chicken in a big package at Walmart because I can get it for the best price per pound and they are pretty uniform in shape which makes cooking with them easier. However, most of them are 11-12oz. chicken breasts alone, so even butterflying them still makes them a little too big for this recipe (and I always want to make sure my point values are spot on!) So I usually take my big chicken breasts, butterfly them, weigh them, then trim off any extra bits until they are 4 oz each, and with all the extra bits, I throw them in some boiling water, cook them up, and use them as chopped or shredded chicken in other recipes during the week. Waste nothing!

Ingredients:

8 (4oz) chicken breasts (I took large chicken breasts, trimmed off the fat, then butterflied them, and they came very close to 4 oz. each…use a scale to weigh if you can).

Salt and pepper to taste
4 oz. 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
½ c. fat free plain Greek yogurt
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ c. chopped onion

14 oz. can artichoke hearts, in water, chopped (while they were chopped in the can, I chopped them even further on my cutting board)

10 oz. pkg frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

½ c. parmesan cheese

½ c. shredded 2% mozzarella cheese

 

Directions:

1.   Preheat oven to 375, spray 9x13 in baking dish.

2.   Lay chicken breasts out in the baking dish, season with salt & pepper and bake 15 minutes.

3.   While chicken bakes, combine yogurt and cream cheese and stir until well blended. Add all remaining ingredients and stir well to combine.

4.   Remove chicken from the oven (will not be done!), drain off any excess juice produced in the baking dish. Using a spoon, spread cream cheese mixture evenly over the chicken breasts. Bake another 15-20 minutes, depending on the thickness of your chicken, or until the chicken is cooked all the way through.  

Yields 8 servings – WWP+ 6 per serving.

 (Pictured above with a 2 point salad – lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms, 2 T of low fat shredded cheese and 2 T of fat free Caesar dressing)

 
Recipe from Emily Bites

Bacon Cheeseburger Wraps

Bacon Cheeseburger Wraps

Our dinner tonight was delicious, as usual! The first time I ever made these, I was a little unsure, but when my husband took his first bite, he said, "it takes like a cheeseburger," and I knew that I had accomplished what I set out to do. I think I've made these now 3 or 4 times in the last month and a half. They are so tasty and really very easy to make!!

Ingredients:

1 lb. extra lean ground beef

1 T McCormick Hamburger seasoning

3 wedges Weight Watchers White Cheddar cheese (soft cheeses, found near Laughing Cow Light wedges)

2 T ketchup

2 tsp. yellow mustard

1/3 c. 2% sharp cheddar shredded cheese

2 T real bacon bits

4 Light Original Flatouts (found with pita breads usually by the deli counter)

½ a medium tomato, diced small

1-1 ½ c. shredded lettuce

 

Directions:

1.   Heat a large skillet and add ground beef and hamburger seasoning. Cook until meat is browned, then drain meat.

2.   Put meat in a bowl and add cheese wedges, ketchup, mustard, shredded cheese and bacon bits. Microwave for 1 minute and stir really well until meat is well coated.

3.   Lay out 4 Flatouts on the counter, divide meat mixture evenly among the 4 flatouts, about ½ cup each. Spread mixture lengthwise, leaving about an inch on the end. Evenly spread tomato and lettuce on top of meat mixtures. Fold in the 1” ends of the Flatouts over the filling, then fold in the long ends to cover it.

4.   Lightly mist a large skillet or griddle with cooking spray and turn heat to medium. Place the wraps with seam-side (folded side) down on skillet (I did two at a time, that’s all I could fit on my skillet) and let them cook about 2 ½ - 3 minutes on each side. Cut in half and serve! 

Yields 4 servings – WWP+ 8 per serving.

(Pictured above with a 2 point salad – lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms, 2 T of low fat shredded cheese and 2 T of fat free Caesar dressing)

Adapted from a recipe from Emily Bites

French Dip Cupcakes

French Dip Cupcakes

These french dip cupcakes were the first wonton cupcake recipe I tried and I was hooked! I LOVE them! They are so delicious and super easy! They require very little cooking and they taste incredible!

Ingredients:

12 oz. deli roast beef, chopped into small pieces (I used the packaged kind that was 95% ff)

4 Laughing Cow Light Swiss wedges, chopped

1/3 c. au jus gravy (canned, found near jars of premade gravy at the store)

16 wonton wrappers

4 oz. (1 c.) reduced fat 2% shredded mozzarella cheese

 

Directions:

1.   Preheat oven to 375. Lightly spray 8 cups of a muffin tin with cooking spray.

2.   In a microwave safe bowl, combine the roast beef, Laughing Cow wedges and au jus sauce. Microwave 2 minutes, then stir really well until beef is well coated with cheese and sauce.

3.   Push a wonton wrapper into each of the 8 muffin cups. Using half the roast beef mixture, spoon evenly into each cup. Sprinkle 2 oz. of the cheese evenly on top of beef mixture. Press another wonton wrapper on top of the cheese, then repeat layering with the rest of the roast beef mixture, then top with remaining cheese.

4.   Bake 18-20 minutes until tips of wonton wrappers are golden brown and cheese is melted. Let cool a few minutes before removing from cupcake tin.

 

Yields 8 servings – WWP+ 4 per serving

Recipe from Emily Bites