Category Archives: 5 points +

Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

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Yesterday, I was cooking up a storm in my kitchen. I made some potato soup, homemade soft pretzels with ranch seasoning, and these oatmeal square bars. I think this was my favorite recipe that I made all day.

Have you ever had jars of jelly or jam in your fridge just sitting there waiting to get used up? For some reason, I end up with 4 or 5 different flavored jams in my fridge. I go kind of crazy whenever I find some Stone Wall kitchen jams that I haven’t tried yet. I’ve got a little jar of pepper jelly waiting to get used up. I think that would be good on top of some cream cheese with crackers. Not sure how well that would work with this recipe? lol Normally, I just use jam to put on some toast or a bagel. This is a good recipe to use up those extra jars sitting in your fridge. Go crazy and try different flavors with this. These bars are delicious and are only 5 points per bar. Not too bad. You could use sugar free jam to lighten up the carbs a bit.

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Calories: 177; Total Fat: 7 grams, Carbs: 28, Fiber: 1, Protein 2 g

Points Plus: 5

Recipe from the Ree Drummond

Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

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Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 stick butter
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups oats
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 10oz jars jam (any kind)

Directions

Step 1
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-by-13-inch rectangular pan.
Step 2
Mix together the butter, flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Press half the oat mixture into the prepared pan. Spread with the strawberry preserves. Sprinkle the other half of the oat mixture over the top and pat lightly. Bake until light brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Let cool completely, and then cut into squares.
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Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

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The first time making these peanut butter and jelly bars it didn’t turn out so well. That’s because I was experimenting with the dough. I thought I could mix together the flour with the butter and peanut butter and have it be a short bread type crust. That didn’t turn out so well. Instead it was a big crumbly mess.

The second time, I creamed the butter and the sugar together first. That worked a lot better. Hey, we all learn from our mistakes an sometimes, for some reason I like to mention them on this blog. Bet you all get a kick out of that. Oh yah, I also wrote this blog post after drinking a manhatten. This was inspired by Ina Garten’s Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars too. Try them if you love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Servings: 12 bars
Points Plus: 5
If using with Better N Peanut Butter it’d be 4. Not sure about Pb2. Couldn’t find that on the Weight Watchers site.

Ingredients

1/4 cup of butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup of peanut butter
1 cups of flour
1/2 cup of flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup of your favorite jelly
1 teaspoon of baking soda

Directions:

Mix together butter and sugar until soft and creamy. Add in peanut butter and vanilla. Next add in all the dry ingredients and the egg at the very end. You can add the dry ingredients into a seperate bowl
if you wish but they’ll come together eventually.

Layer about 3/4 of the dough mixture on to the bottom of the pan. I used an 8 X 8 pan. Next spread the jelly on top of the dough, and then sprinkle on the remaining dough. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

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Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

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In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day, I made you a red velvet whoopie pie. I know what you’re thinking…. shouldn’t it be green? Well… a whoopie pie really isn’t Irish now is it? ;)   Ha, just kidding.

I managed to make a whoopie pie for only 5 points a pie. I tried making it lighter but I couldn’t think of what else to change.  Some muffins are around 5 points a piece  so I thought this was ok. If you really want to, you could have a whoopie pie in place of your muffin for breakfast. It wouldn’t be a very healthy breakfast but oh well, right? ;) I also think I found a new favorite frosting. I used some marshmallow fluff in place of all the butter that goes into frosting and it turned out pretty good.

Servings: 22
Points Plus: 5 (1 whoopie pie)

Ingredients

1 box of Red Velvet Cake Mix (18.25oz)
3 eggs
1/8 cup of canola oil
3/4 cup of water

Frosting:
2 cups of powdered sugar
4 tablespoons of light butter
1 cup of marshmallow creme/fluff
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

In a bowl combine the cake mix, 3 eggs, 1/8 cup of oil, and 3/4 cup of water. Stir until well combine. Drop the batter in tablespoons
onto a cookie sheet tray. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, while the whoopie pies are cooking… Mix together in another bowl 2 cups of powdered sugar, 4 tablespoons of light butter,
1 cup of marshmallow fluff, and 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

I used a piping bag to frost the whoopie pies. Makes 22 servings.

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Cheddar and Scallion Scones

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I was trying to make homemade pasta tonight, but I got so frustrated. The pasta got all stringy, when running it through the pasta machine. I tried different settings and nothing worked. so, I decided to say screw this! And I made scones instead.

Baking is really easy once you figure it out. It seems to me, there’s a different process for cakes, biscuits, breads, etc. Once you learn that process, you can put together your own recipes. Adjust them to what you like. If you cut back on the butter, that are in biscuits, you can still make a pretty good one. Add some scallions and cheddar cheese into the biscuit or try different spices. If you want a sweet scone, add in some sugar and dried fruit. I came up with this recipe myself and wrote it all down right away after I was done. Thought they turned out really well. Better than my pasta anyway. ;) Hope you like them too!

Recipe Diaries Original

Servings: 8
Points Plus: 5

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons cold butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup low fat butter milk

1/2 cup cheddar cheese
3 tablespoons of scallions

Directions:

In a food processor combine flour, soda, baking powder, and salt, and butter. Pulse 3 times or until butter resembles peas. Add in cheddar, and chopped scallions. Gradually add in milk until the dough comes together to form a ball.

Roll out dough about 8 inches round. Cut 8 wedges and brush egg wash on top of the scones. This will help them get that golden color on top. Bake at 450 for 10- 12 minutes.

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Mexican Bean Pizza

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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.

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Crockpot Enchilada Soup

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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.

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Canned Biscuit Waffles

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I had a can of low-fat biscuits and saw on pinterest that you could use canned biscuits to make waffles. I’ve been meaning to try this for awhile now and I finally got around to it, and let me just say, this is probably something I’d never do again. It just tasted too much like biscuits and I like homemade waffles better. You can also use cinnamon rolls to make waffles too and I’m thinking that would taste a little bit better.

For 5 points a biscuit this really isn’t worth it either. Go ahead and give it a try if you want. I’m not trying to scare you away from it or anything. :) The waffles were pretty tiny in the end and didn’t spread out much. Yes, I definitely think cinnamon rolls would work better here since they’re sweeter than a biscuit.

Pillsbury Grands Reduced Fat biscuits

170 Calories | 6.5 g fat | carbs 26 | Fiber 1 g | Protein 4 g

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Weight Watcher Recipes – Red Velvet Cupcakes

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I know, I’m not really a huge fan of red velvet cupcakes but I had one the last time I went to Minneapolis and it changed me. It was so huge and you could see the specs of vanilla bean in the cream cheese frosting. I wish I would have had my camera to take a picture. You can buy them at Macy’s for all places. They had them at this little cafeteria I went to and so I decided to get a red velvet cupcake. Man, was it good.

I have been trying to make my own baked goods using agave nectar and these actually turned out really good. The first time, I tried baking anything with agave nectar was when I tried making a batch of meringue cookies. Agave nectar and meringue cookies don’t work well together. I did a little research on agave nectar and the source I used had a nice little chart to go buy. From Herbs, Love to Know. This site also tells you how to reduce the amount of liquid when baking too. Pretty nifty site. The only sugar I’d like to learn more about replacing ingredients with is confectioner’s sugar. That still has a lot of carbs and it would be nice to find a substitute that works. I read that you can take Splenda and pulverize it in the food processor until it looks like confectioner’s sugar with some corn starch, but I don’t like splenda because it has a weird after taste. Wonder if you could do the same with Stevia?

Agave Nectar Conversion Chart for Baking
If the Recipe Calls for this Amount of Sugar… …Use this Much Agave
1 cup 2/3 cup of agave
3/4 cup of sugar 1/2 cup of agave
1/2 cup of sugar 1/3 cup of agave
1/4 cup of sugar 1/6 cup of agave

Anyways, these cupcakes only came out to 5 points plus a cupcake. Hurray! No cake mix boxes or diet soda used. It was a recipe I adapted from Paula Deen and had to change a lot of the ingredients. They kind of puffed up a bit in the oven but overall it was a good first try baking with agave nectar. I hope you try these and like them yourself!

Ingredients from Paula Deen

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup agave nectar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk , room temperature
1 large egg , room temperature
2 tablespoons red food coloring
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 ounces low-fat cream cheese
1/8 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with cupcake papers.
2.In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.
3.Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.
4.In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.
5.Garnish with chopped pecans and a fresh raspberry or strawberry.
6. Cook’s Note: Frost the cupcakes with a butter knife or pipe it on with a big star tip.

 

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Monster Cookies

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Ohh how I miss my DSLR camera. I got a message in my email today that it’s going to cost me about 146.00 to fix the camera. That’s not bad I thought for an error message that won’t go away. I hope they fix it right away and I get it back to me in a couple of weeks here. My Olympus camera works ok, but it’s not the same. I really can’t wait to bring my DSL-R camera to Jamaica because I’ll be posting and taking pictures of everything we eat there, and I plan on sharing that with everyone on this blog.

Now back to the cookies… These cookies probably aren’t the most points friendly cookie out there. It’s a Paula Deen recipe so of course it’s good. I don’t think there’s a recipe I’ve tried of hers that I haven’t liked yet. Everyone just seems to love that strawberry pretzel salad of hers. I’m bringing that for Christmas day and I also brought it to our Holiday pot luck at work.  These cookies have oatmeal, peanut butter, raisins, m & m’s and chocolate chips in them. There is no flour at all in these cookies. The dough doesn’t spread very well if you roll them up into a ball. You have to squish the dough down with some kind of utensil in order to get them to spread out more. I was wondering what these would taste like with white chocolate chips, nuts, and some dried cherries?  That sounds so good.

Yields: 36 cookies

Calories 189.9 | Fat 9.5 g | Carbohydrate 23.3 g | Fiber 1.7 g | Protein 4.8 g

Points Plus: 5

Ingredients from Paula Deen

3 eggs
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 12-ounce jar creamy peanut butter
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup multi-colored chocolate candies
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup raisins, optional
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 1/2 cups quick-cooking oatmeal (not instant)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats.

In a very large mixing bowl, combine the eggs and sugars. Mix well. Add the salt, vanilla, peanut butter, and butter. Mix well. Stir in the chocolate candies, chocolate chips, raisins, if using, baking soda, and oatmeal. Drop by tablespoons 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Do not overbake. Let stand for about 3 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool. When cool, store in large resealable plastic bags.

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