Meatballs - 30 Days 30 Recipes - Day 5

I was pleasantly surprised at how good these meatballs really were.  I know adding onion soup mix to things can really bump up the flavor, but in this case I wasn't sure how the oats would overtake the whole recipe.  I had a bad experience with an oat-y meatloaf in the past.  These meatballs, though, I would make again and I would definitely recommend trying them.  Even though you can see the oats, and they oddly look like no-bake cookies, they don't taste weird at all!

This recipe does not suggest how to serve the meatballs, but I made them a day ahead of time and warmed them in a brown gravy the next day.  The gravy I used was from a packet.  I do like scratch gravy but I didn't do it this time.  I would suggest two packets if you want to serve it this way.  One was not quite enough.  Then I served it over rice with a side of roasted vegetables.  It was a very delicious meal!

As a side note, I'd like to do a post soon on making your own onion soup mix.  I don't have a recipe I use right now, but I'll be on the hunt and do a review sometime soon.


Find the original recipe on page 7: 100 Favorite Weight Watchers Recipes.


Taste Score - 8
Ease of Preparation Score - 9


Meatballs

Ingredients:

1 pound 93% lean ground beef
1 cup uncooked oats
1 egg
1 package onion soup mix

Mix all ingredients and form into 42 1-inch balls, measuring approximately 1 tablespoon each.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.


Nutrition Information
Serves 7 (6 small meatballs)
166 calories
8 grams fat
3 grams carb
0.4 grams fiber
18 grams protein

Weight Watchers POINTS - 4
Weight Watchers Points Plus - 4
Weight Watchers Smart Points - 4


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30 Days 30 Recipes

Low Fat Hummus - 30 Days 30 Recipes - Day 4

Here is day four of my 30 Days 30 Recipes Challenge!  As a reminder, these are Weight Watchers recipes.  

Today I tried out the Low Fat Hummus.  I have a hummus that I really like, but it's high in calories and 10 POINTS per serving.  And when I'm trying to lose weight, it's not something that makes the menu too often.  I figured I'd give this version a try and let you know how it turned out and if it's a good substitute.  

So the consensus is, at a savings of 8 points per serving this recipe was a very good substitute.  It had a super garlicky kick!  That could be due to the larger heads of garlic I used.  I didn't mind it at all.  It gave the hummus a nice bite.  My daughter, however, found the garlic far too "spicy".  

In the future, I'd add one less clove of garlic.  Also, I would add toasted sesame seeds.  Instead of the two tablespoons in my other recipe, I would cut it down to one.  At 52 additional calories for the whole recipe, I feel it would be worth it for the flavor.  Overall, though, this recipe is quite good as is.

Find the original recipe on page 39: 100 Favorite Weight Watchers Recipes

Taste Score - 8
Ease of Preparation Score -8


Low Fat Hummus 

Ingredients:

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup low fat plain yogurt

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 19-ounce can chick peas, drained

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth.  Chill.

Nutrition Information

Serves 4

1 serving = 

128 calories

2 grams fat

21 grams carbs

4 grams fiber

5 grams protein

Calculated at CalorieCount.com

Weight Watchers POINTS - 2 

Weight Watchers Points Plus - 3

Weight Watcher Smart Points - 4

All nutrition information is approximate and is calculated at caloriecount.com.

   

Check out the other posts in this series!

30 Days 30 Recipes

Easy Cheese Lasagna - 30 days 30 Recipes Day 3

The quest for fat free ricotta made this recipe quite a challenge.  Since low fat dieting has all but died, finding some fat free dairy products is not easy.  My shopping adventure started at Walmart.  They didn't carry it.  Then on to Price Chopper.  They had it but it expired three months ago.  I let the employees know and moved on to the next store, hopeful that I wouldn't have to try a fourth.  Finally, Big Y actually had it and it was in date!  Success!

So was this Easy Cheese Lasagna worth all the effort?

Well, yes.  This was a delicious meal and I would definitely recommend trying it if you're looking for a lower calorie lasagna.  My husband and daughter liked it.  My son didn't try it.  But that doesn't mean a thing because he won't touch regular lasagna!

There are a couple tweaks I would make. First, I would add salt and pepper to the ricotta mixture.  Second, and this would affect the calories, I would add a quarter cup of parmesan to the ricotta and mix it together.  Even without those additions, it was delicious and I'll be making it again.  For the vegetable I used eggplant, which was delicious.  I also think it would be great with different vegetable add-ins like zucchini or mushrooms.

This is a no fuss, quick lasagna, and if you're not looking to save on calories, I'm sure it would be even tastier with full fat ricotta and full fat mozzarella.

Find the original recipe on page 1: 100 Favorite Weight Watchers Recipes.

Taste Score - 9
Ease of Preparation Score - 8

Easy Cheese Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 jar spaghetti sauce (I used Fransesco Rinaldi Sweet & Tasty Tomato)
6 uncooked lasagna noodles
1 15 ounce container fat free ricotta
1-2 cups chopped, raw vegetables (I used 2 cups eggplant)
8 ounce shredded low fat mozzarella

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray an 11x13 baking dish with nonstick spray.  Spread 1/3 of your sauce onto the bottom of the dish.  Then lay, without overlapping, 3 noodles on top of the sauce.  Top the noodles with more sauce followed by all of the ricotta, all of the vegetables and half of the mozzarella.  Lay 3 noodles over the cheese and top with remaining sauce.  Top off with the rest of your mozzarella cheese.  Cover with foil and bake 1 hour.  Remove foil and bake 5 more minutes.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving.


Nutrition Information (calculated with eggplant)
Serves 6
1 serving =
299 calories
9.6 grams fat
33 grams carb
18.5  grams protein

Weight Watchers POINTS - 6
Weight Watchers Points Plus - 7
Weight Watchers Smart Points - 10

All nutrition information is approximate and is calculated at recipes.sparkpeople.com.

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30 Days 30 Recipes

Baked Oatmeal - 30 Days 30 Recipes - Day 2

Day 2 already?

Whenever I hear "baked oatmeal", I think it must be some healthy diet food.  And while this is that, it's actually quite tasty.  I like it much better than yesterday's recipe and I actually think I'd make it again.  I might even try a variation, adding blueberries instead of raisins.  And I would add a few pinches of salt.  I'm not sure why that wasn't included in the original recipe.  Other than that, though, a good find.


Find the original recipe on page 21: 100 Favorite Weight Watchers Recipes

Taste Score - 7/10 - 

Ease of Preparation Score - 10/10 

Baked Oatmeal

Ingredients:

2 cups dry oatmeal
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup skim milk
1 whole egg plus 1 white (or 1/4 cup egg substitute)
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix oatmeal and baking powder.  Add remaining ingredients and mix well.  Pour into a 9 inch pie pan sprayed with nonstick spray.  Or pour into 12 muffin tins*.  Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

*I poured into 6 large muffin tins and baked for 30 minutes.  It came out just right.  Also I used 1% milk instead of skim.

Nutrition Information
Serves 6
1 serving =
181 calories
3 grams fat
34 grams carbohydrates
3 grams fiber
7 grams protein

Weight Watchers POINTS - 3
Weight Watchers Points Plus - 5
Weight Watchers Smart Points - 7

All nutrition information is approximate and is calculated at caloriecount.com.

Check out all the posts in this series here!
30 Days 30 Recipes

Mandarin Orange Mousse - 30 Days 30 Recipes - Day 1

Are you ready?

Here's day one!

Today's recipe is Mandarine Orange Mousse.  I won't leave you in suspense, I'll tell you right off.  It was definitely NOT a hit in my house!  Ha!  But don't let my family be your judge.  I thought it was decent and was very reminiscent of an orange creamsicle.  My son thought it tasted like orange Tums.  My husband thought it tasted like chewable vitamin C.  My daughter thought it was ok.  I'm not sure I'll be making it again but it was worth a try.  I don't hate it, certainly.  It won't go to waste, but I think I'll be spending my calories differently after this one is gone!

If you love orange creamsicles and are looking for a low calorie treat, go ahead and give it a try.  You might like it!

Find the original recipe on page 2: 100 Favorite Weight Watchers Recipes.

Taste Score - 5/10 

Ease of preparation score - 10/10 

Mandarine Orange Mousse

Ingredients:

1 box sugar free orange gelatin
1 box sugar free white chocolate pudding
1 can mandarin oranges, drained
1 8 ounce container fat free Cool Whip, thawed

Mix gelatin with 1 cup boiling water.  Dissolve gelatin completely.  Add 1 cup cold water and let sit 5 minutes.  Using electric beater, beat in pudding mix until well combined.  Fold in drained fruit and cool whip.  Chill and serve.

The original recipes says 4, 1-cup servings are 2.5 points each.  I found there to be far more points than that, but the serving size is more than a cup if you count the serving as one fourth of the recipe.

Nutritional Information
Serves 4
1 serving =
234 calories
0 grams fat
49 carbs
0 grams fiber
0.5 grams protein

Weight Watchers POINTS - 5
Weight Watchers Points Plus - 5
Weight Watchers Smart Points - 10

Wow!  10 Smart Points!  At 5 I call it questionable because I don't love it, but if I was doing the Smart Points plan, I would definitely not make this.


All nutrition information is approximate and was calculated using caloriecount.com.


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30 Days 30 Recipes