Jamaica Day 4

Posted on January 31, 2012 by jgisvold

I’m going to skip a day because all the food we ate yesterday was taken on our Olympus camera, and I can’t load any of those pictures until we get home on Thursday night. It’s already day 4 and we have just one day left here. There’s so many things I want to try making myself when we get home. I really liked the blackened fish we had at lunch time today. I also got to try some Gazpacho soup, which I really enjoyed. The dessert buffet had Canoli and biscotti and they were both good. I liked the biscotti better than the canoli. We’re waiting for this big dinner party the resort is supposed to be throwing on the beach later on tonight. On our last night, we get to eat lobster for dinner. Can not wait for that! It’s all you can eat too. Only one more day left here. I’ll be sad when I leave, but I’m already missing my dogs back at home.

Gazpacho Soup

Blackened fish. I’m not sure what kind of fish it was, but my guess is it was snapper.

Chocolate Fondant

Banana Sabayon

Jamaica Day 2

Posted on January 30, 2012 by jgisvold

Boy let me tell you something. You can surely gain a few pounds at this place. They don’t let you starve at all. The bar has pop corn and ice cream that you can snack on between meals which is pretty nice. The turtles also like the pop corn too. We went to one of the restaurants that you have to make a reservation for at night here and we didn’t care for it too much. The buffet and beach bar have been our favorite places to eat at. Tomorrow, I’m getting a massage and we’re going to go shopping in down town Ocho Rios. Hoping to find some Jamaican vanilla beans. Don’t know if we’re really allowed to bring those home yet, guess we’ll find out on Thursday, if we find them.

Shrimp Pizza

Beef Straganoff. Yum, Yum.

The desserts here are fantastic. Just look at this cake.

The turtles love it when you feed them.

Jamaica Day 1

Posted on January 29, 2012 by jgisvold

Jamaica has been pretty awesome so far. They have the freshest fruit imaginable here. In the states it’s hard to find that sometimes, depending on what kind of fruit you’re looking for like pineapple. They have fresh coconuts hanging from the trees and I want to take one down and drink the juice out of them. There’s a bar right next to the beach that we’re staying at and you can go down there just about pretty much any time of the day and grab something. My favorite so far has been the dessert bar. There will be a different kind of ice cream/ sorbet every time you go and they rotate the desserts too.

Jamaica Jerk Burger, this was really spicy. Had it with a side of onion rings.

Guava Sorbet

Creme Brulee. I like it how the desserts here are tiny and bite size. Makes it easier to try them all.

They also have lots of flowers and lizards here. I don’t know if I’d consider eating those.

Fish Taco Cups

Posted on January 25, 2012 by jgisvold

You know it wasn’t going to be long before you saw someone make a fish taco cupcake. I don’t like the term cupcake because it really isn’t a cupcake. The taco isn’t baked with anything like flour, eggs or salt, so I prefer to call them cups. This is a really fun appetizer and if you’re still on the prowl to find something to make for the Super Bowl this weekend, you should give it a try. You can basically use your favorite fish taco recipe and just sub the shells with wonton wrappers. I prefer tropical fruits with fish tacos like mangoes, pineapple, or avocado but since the only fruit we had in the house were blood oranges, I decided to use those. Wonton wrappers are so versatile you can do anything with them pretty much. Still want to try making baked egg rolls.

I’m leaving for Jamaica on Friday, but don’t worry. I’ll be updating my blog with pictures during the week of what we eat there, drinks we have and whatever other picture I feel like posting. I’m so pumped, I can’t wait!

Fish Taco Cups inspired by Giada De Larentis

Servings 10 (one cup)
Calories 66 | Fat 1.36g | Carbohydrate 7.72g | Fiber 0.8g | Protein 5.78g

Ingredients
Jenna’s Weight Watcher Recipes

2 3 oz tilapia filets
old bay seasoning
10 wonton wrappers
2 cups of cabbage mix
2 tablespoons of green onion
1 blood orange, diced
2 teaspoons of chipotle en adobe sauce
lemon juice
1 tablespoon light mayonaise
2 tablespoons of light sour cream
salt & pepper

1. Place wonton wrappers into 12 cupcake tins. Bake at 375 for 10 – 15 minutes or until
crispy. Spray with cooking spray to get crispy if needed.

2. Heat a non stick skillet. Sprinkle fish with old bay seasoning or whatever your favorite fish seasoning is. Cook fish until they’re white in the middle.

3. In a bowl combine cabbage, blood orange, and green onion.

4. In another bowl combine chipotle sauce, mayonaise, sour cream, a dash of lemon juice.
Season with salt and pepper, just a dash of each.

5. Layer taco cups with cabbage mix, fish, and then sauce. Enjoy!

Evil Oreo Cake

Posted on January 23, 2012 by jgisvold

I think I’m better at coming up with my own desserts than trying to come up with my own meals. I love to bake more than I like to cook, and I know the methods of baking better anyway. Should have went to pasty school, perhaps? I had some reduced fat oreos left over from that cheese cake I made this last weekend and I had a frosting idea running through my head. White chocolate pudding mix, oreos, a little milk to help the oreos bind together better, and cool whip. The idea came to me because I had made a frosting for a cake using crushed pineapple, cool whip and vanilla instant pudding mix before. With all the different pudding flavors there are out there the varieties of frosting you can make with them are endless. Who needs butter cream or cream cheese frosting anyway?

After I made this cake, Ben told me I was evil because it was so good. To make the cake lighter, I left out the oil the boxed cake mix usually calls for. I kept the eggs and water, and added a 1/2 cup of fat free greek yogurt. You could make these into cupcakes if you wish, but the points plus is figured out using 15 servings of equal sized cake pieces. Not sure if that would change anything. Enjoy!

Servings: 15
Points Plus: 6
Ingredients:

Jenna’s Weight Watcher Recipes

18.25 oz Moist Sumpreme Pillsbury Devil’s Food Cake Mix
20 reduced fat oreo cookies
1/2 cup of fat free greek yogurt
3 large egg whites
1 1/4 cup water
18 tablespoons of light cool whip topping
1 package of instant white chocolate pudding mix (sugar free kind)
2 tablespoons of 1% milk

1. In a food processor, blend 20 oreos and one box of pudding together. Add one
in 2 tablespoons of fat free milk if it’s not combining together. Fold in Cool whip and place in the fridge until cake is cooled.

2. In a bowl, combine cake mix, egg whites, water, and yogurt together until well blended. Pour into a 9 X 13 inch pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

3. Once the cake is cool, top the cake with the frosting and cut into 15 equal pieces. Enjoy!

Kale Chips

Posted on January 22, 2012 by jgisvold

I’ve been trying a lot of new things lately. My latest culinary adventures have been blood oranges and kale. Blood oranges are beautiful on the inside. I tried making my own marinade with blood oranges and after I cooked the chicken it wasn’t very flavorful when it was done. I think the chicken needed to marinade more, than just 1/2 an hour.

Kale chips are like a healthier alternative to potato chips and I was surprised at how good they taste. They smelled kind of funny baking away in the oven but in the end they were nice and crispy. Ben said it was like eating a dried out leaf. I guess that’s a good way to describe it. Eating Kale chips is a good way to eat your greens! You can get Kale greens at the Wal-Mart supermarket.

Kale is high in beta carotene, Vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, and Zeaxanthin.

Servings: 2 about half of the bowl
Points Plus: 2
Weight Watcher Recipes

Ingredients from Anne Burrell

1 large bunch Tuscan kale
Extra-virgin olive oil (I used two teaspoons
Kosher salt
Pinch crushed red pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.

Remove the tough lower stems of the kale. Toss the kale generously with olive oil, salt and crushed red pepper.

Lay the dressed leaves in a single layer on a sheet tray (use more than one if you need to!) and place in the oven. Roast the kale or until the leaves are crispy, 30 to 35 minutes.

Serve as a snack or side dish.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Posted on January 21, 2012 by jgisvold

Chocolate Chip cheesecake is rich, creamy and chocolately. Is that even a word? Chocolately? If you’ve been craving cheesecake and chocolate give this a try. It’s only 6 points per slice. I was kind of hesitant to try this recipe because it had fat free cottage in it. Fat free cottage in cheesecake? That doesn’t sound right to me, but it works. When you blend it together in the food processor it becomes really creamy, almost like cream cheese. I’m tempted to try making a cheese cake just with cottage cheese and see how that turns out.

Since the husband doesn’t like cheesecake, I like to make it and then freeze the cheesecake. That way it won’t go to waste and I can take out a slice whenever I’m craving it. You don’t need that many oreos for the crust either, so you can put those away in the freezer as well and save them for next time you have to make a dessert with oreos for the crust. Make this chocolate chip cheesecake for your next party, and your guests will never know it’s a Weight Watcher recipes. Almost cheesecake factory worthy.

Calories: 240 | Fat 7.83 g | Carbs: 35.03 | Fiber 0.3 | Protein: 6.3g
Servings: 12
Points Plus: 6
Weight Watcher Recipes

Ingredients: from Weight Watchers

10 item(s) cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookie(s)
8 Tbsp fat-free cream cheese
8 oz low fat cream cheese, tub-style
1 cup(s) sugar
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup(s) fat-free cottage cheese
2 tsp almond extract, or less to taste
6 large egg white(s)
3/4 cup(s) mini chocolate chips

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325ºF.

Lightly coat a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray. Crush cookies and sprinkle cookie crumbs evenly over bottom of pan.

Using an electric mixer, beat together cream cheeses on lowest speed until well blended.

In a small bowl, combine sugar and flour. Add to cream cheese mixture and beat until smooth.

In a food processor or blender, purée cottage cheese until smooth. Add cottage cheese and almond extract to cream cheese mixture; beat until smooth. Add egg whites and beat until well blended. Stir in 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.

Pour into springform pan; top with remaining chocolate chips and bake until cheesecake puffs and center is almost set, about 60 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Run a knife around sides to loosen and release pan sides. Cover and chill overnight. Cut into 12 slices and serve.

Mexican Bean Pizza

Posted on January 20, 2012 by jgisvold

I really love those store bought pizza doughs you can get from Pillsbury. I used that to make this pizza. If you like Mexican food then you’ll really like this. This pizza has fat free re-fried beans, salsa, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and green onions. You can top it with fat free sour cream or guacamole but that wold be more points.

I’ve been eating a lot of re-fried beans lately and just can’t seem to get enough of them. Ortega is my favorite brand, and I like to buy the fat free kind. The grocery store where we normally shop at has their own brand of re-fried beans with nearly not enough flavor in them. They’re very bland.

Servings: 9 ( cut into 9 equal pieces)
Points Plus: 5
Jenna’s Weight Watcher Recipes

Ingredients

1 10 oz pizza crust
3/4 cup of refried beans
3 tablespoons of fat free salsa
2 tablespoons taco seasoning
1 1/2 cups of reduced fat mexican cheese blend
1 cup of ice berg lettuce
3 tablespoons of chopped scallions
1 cup of diced tomatoes

1. Preheat Oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a bowl mix together beans and taco seasoning. Spread onto pizza leaving about 1/2 inch
for the crust. Next spread 3 tablespoons of salsa on top of the beans and then layer on the
cheese.

3. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Layer on lettuce, tomatos,
and scallions. Serves 9 people.

Honey Mustard, Pretzel Coated Chicken Strips

Posted on January 18, 2012 by jgisvold

I found this recipe on pinterest and it was from Hungry Girl. I’m going to come right out and say this, but I’m not a very big fan of her. I’ve tried many of her recipes and thought that most of them lacked in flavor. I do however like to watch her on the Cooking Channel to get ideas. So, I thought I’d give this a try and sure enough it was kind of a flop. The idea of coating chicken in pretzels sounded really good to me and I thought the pretzel coating would make the chicken really crispy. WRONG. The honey mustard actually made the pretzels really soggy.

I think if I were to do this over again I’d just dip the chicken in flour first, then the eggs, and then the pretzels. The honey mustard sauce can be used for dipping. I made my own honey mustard sauce and it’s pretty easy. It’s just honey, dijon mustard, and vinegar. I had these chicken strips a long with this beautiful blood orange salad. The salad had lettuce, blueberries, blood orange, green onions, and walnuts in it.

Recipe adapted from Hungry Girl

349 calories | 2.5g fat | 39g carbs | 1g fiber | 37g protein
Points Plus: 8 (4 chicken strips)

Ingredients

10 oz. raw boneless skinless lean chicken breast, cut into 8 strips
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. honey mustard
1/4 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters Original)
20 standard-sized (not mini) hard salted thin pretzel twists
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. granulated sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray and set aside.

Season chicken strips with salt and pepper. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine honey mustard with egg substitute and whisk well. Submerge chicken in mustard-egg mixture, and set aside to marinate for at least 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, place pretzels in a sealable plastic bag, seal, and finely crush through the bag with a meat mallet or other heavy utensil. Add sugar, reseal, and shake to mix. Spread the mixture out on a large plate or in a large dish. Set aside.

Using tongs, transfer chicken strips to the pretzel-sugar mixture and thoroughly coat. Then transfer them to the baking sheet. (Discard excess mustard-egg mixture.) Mist the tops of the strips with nonstick spray. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, flipping chicken halfway through baking, until the chicken is cooked through.

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Crockpot Enchilada Soup

Posted on January 15, 2012 by jgisvold

I’ve been doing Jillian Michael’s 30 Day shred now for 10 days and so far I’ve lost 2 inches off my waste and I’m starting to develop some muscle in my arms. I’ve been trying to eat less too and some days, I just can’t help myself though. Just an FYI, in case any of you are thinking of starting that DVD. I know it’s pretty popular on the Weight Watcher boards.

This enchilada soup was fantastic. It was nice and spicy. I left out the butter, flour, and milk because when I make enchiladas, I don’t use any of those ingredients. Just enchilada sauce, chicken, flour tortillas and cheese. Just those ingredients alone wouldn’t make a very good soup now wouldn’t it? I added a jalapeno instead of a diced pepper. One serving is about 1 1/2 cups. Anything extra like chips, cheese, and sour cream is extra.

Look at all those veggies.

Crockpot Chicken Enchilada Soup

Calories 226 | Fat 4.44g | Carbohydrate 23.32g | Fiber 4.9g | Protein 22.73g
Jenna’s Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 8 (1 1/2 cups)
Points Plus: 5

Ingredients: adapted from Dainty chef

1 can (15 ounce) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14.5 ounce) Rotel diced tomatoes and jalapenos
1 package (10 ounce) frozen corn
½ cup onion, chopped
½ cup bell pepper, diced
1 can (10 ounce) Enchilada sauce
5 cups of low fat, low sodium chicken broth
2 whole chicken breasts
1 cup shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

What you’ll do:

In a crockpot, combine drained beans, tomatoes, corn, onion, and jalapeno. Place the chicken breasts on top of the mixture. Pour chicken broth and enchilada sauce over ingredients in cooker. Cover; cook on low heat for 6 to 8 hours or on high for 3 to 4 hours. When you are ready to serve, remove chicken and cut or shred into bite-sized pieces. Add chicken back into the soup, mix together. Top with cheese and serve. I topped ours with slices of avocado, sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips.

I did it! French Macaron success!

Posted on January 14, 2012 by jgisvold

I’m proud to report, that I finally made a successful batch of french macaroon cookies. This made me so happy tonight! I used the recipe that I used before, but did some different things. I’m curious to find out how many points plus these cookies are since it’s a meringue cookie and those are pretty low in points. Stay tuned for points plus values!

1. I bought my own almonds and processed them in the food processor until the almonds looked like flour.

2. I also used the food processor to blend the almonds and powdered sugar mixture together. It’s good to have my food processor finally back again! The blade was broken on it for the longest time and we finally replaced it.

3. I baked them at a different temperature. At 300 degrees they were actually done at 18 minutes and at 275 they just wouldn’t get done.

4. You can fill these with whatever pretty much you like. We have leftover ice cream toppings and Nutella. Those seem to work great. I have this dark chocolate mint fudge topping and I think, I’m going to try that next time. Chocolate macaroons with mint fudge in the middle? Sounds pretty good to me.

Ms. Humble’s Scatter Plot Macarons (her ingredients)

yields 50 (100 shells) macarons (feel free to divide it for fewer cookies)
120g almond meal
200g powdered sugar
100g egg whites
30-35g granulated sugar
food coloring gel

Directions (re-written by me)

In a food processor blend almonds together until it forms a flour consistency. Measure and
weigh out powdered sugar and almonds on a food scale. Process the almonds and powdered sugar together (about 5 pusles).

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and gradually add in sugar. There should still be stiff
peaks once the sugar is added.

Fold in the almond flour and powdered sugar mixture in the egg whites a little at a time. The batter should be kind of thick. Fill a piping bag with the cookie mixture and pipe little
circles about the size of a quarter onto a baking sheet with parchment paper. I like to
use those silicon mats. Bake at 300 for 18 minutes.

Baked Oatmeal w/ Blueberries and Bananas

Posted on January 14, 2012 by jgisvold

Let’s face it, oatmeal can be very boring. Every morning, I’d have one of those quaker oatmeal packets for breakfast and that got to be very boring. For breakfast now, I like to have one of those sausage, egg and cheese muffins…. Once you try this, oatmeal won’t be boring anymore.

It was so easy to make. It’s like baking. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl, all the wet ingredients in a bowl, pour, mix it up a little bit and bake. So easy! The bananas on top, I didn’t really care for, but I just loved the combination of blueberries and cinnamon together. Just think of all those oatmeal flavors that you had and all the different possibilities you could do with this. Think I’m going to try apples next.

Calories 232.8 | Fat 3.5 g | Carbohydrate 43.4 g | Fiber 4.1 g | Protein 7.7 g
Points Plus: 6 (figured out by WW Recipe Builder)
Servings: 6 (cut 6 equal pieces)
Weight Watcher Recipes

Ingredients from Inspired Taste

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1 teaspoon Chinese five spice (used cinnamon)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup walnut pieces, chopped (left out)
1 cup sliced strawberries (used blueberries)
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I left out)
2 cups milk (used 1%)
1 large egg
3 tablespoons butter, melted (left out)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ripe banana, peeled, 1/2-inch slices

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F and generously spray the inside of a 10-1/2 by 7 inch baking dish with cooking spray and place on a baking sheet.
In a large bowl, mix together the oats, sugar, baking powder, orange zest, Chinese five spice, salt, half the walnuts, half the strawberries and half the chocolate. (Save the other half of strawberries, walnuts and chocolate for the top of the oatmeal).
In another large bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, butter and vanilla extract.
Add the oat mixture to prepared baking dish. Arrange the remaining strawberries, walnuts and chocolate on top. Add the banana slices to the top then pour the milk mixture over everything. Gently shimmy/shake the baking dish to help the milk mixture go throughout the oats.
Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until the top is nicely golden brown and the milk mixture has set. For an extra tasty top, sprinkle a tablespoon or so of extra brown sugar on top then place back in the oven under the broiler and broil for 20-30 seconds. Serve warm with an extra sprinkle of sugar or drizzle of maple syrup.