Sorry I haven’t posted lately. My fancy dslr camera has died. The memory card won’t even insert into the camera and I’ve already sent that camera back to Nikon once and it was pretty expensive to get it fixed. I might be buying a new camera here pretty soon, so I’m stuck taking pictures with my fancy Nokia Lumia phone. I highly recommend these phones because the camera quality on them is AMAZING. I have the 920 which has 10 megapixels on it, but now the 1020 is coming out and has 40 megapixels on it. It is a Windows based phone which I like too.

This pie was really good. Like lasagna, there is the basic noodle layer, cottage cheese layer, and meat sauce layer, but this is in pie format. That is right 3.14. You can use 93% lean ground beef or lean ground turkey to make this pie lighter, and use low fat mozzarella cheese and cottage cheese. It came to 7 points plus a piece for 8 servings. The points plus would be around 10 if you changed the serving size to 6. Enjoy!

Note: I only cover the pie with half the cheese because I have a husband who doesn’t eat dairy products.

Spaghetti Pie

Ingredients

6 oz spaghetti
1 egg, lightly beaten
6 Tbsp Parmesan cheese, divided
1/2 pound Italian sausage
1 and 1/2 cups spaghetti sauce
1/2 teaspoon basil
1 cup cottage cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spray a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray. Set aside.

Cook the spaghetti according to package directions. Drain and place in a large bowl. Toss pasta with egg and 4 Tbsp Parmesan cheese. Press the spaghetti mixture on the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate.

Brown Italian sausage. Drain fat. Stir in spaghetti sauce and basil.

Combine cottage cheese and 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese. Spread over spaghetti. Top cottage cheese with meat sauce. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese on top.

Bake for 30 minutes or until heated through. Allow to stand for 10 minutes before serving. (It will be runny and fall apart if you serve it immediately)

Yesterday was a good day. Made an excellent soup for dinner, found a black pair of boots for Winter, and got $20.00 in Kohl’s cash. I ended up getting some items for Fall and Winter. Mustard color jeans, a purple sweater that came with a scarf, a Viera Wang scarf, and  a new top. I had some extra spending money so I went a little wild yesterday. In case most of you don’t know…. I’m really into fashion now. I never used to be either. Kohl’s is a good place to do that to find the newest fashion for not a lot of money. I’m almost thinking about having one blog post a week on different clothes that I find. I’ve been looking for a good pair of mustard jeans for a long time now and finally found them. Yay!

Anyways, enough on clothes. I made a really fantastic chicken and dumpling soup with leftover rotisserie chicken that we had. It was in Martha Stewart’s magazine from the October issue. There were 3 different ways to re-make chicken pot pie and this was one of them. They took one recipe and just did it 2 different ways. Kind of cool. To save time on chopping vegetables, I used about a 1/2 bag of mixed frozen veggies from the freezer section. The only vegetables I chopped were the celery and onions.  I want to make 5 other recipes from that magazine too. This soup was really good and only came out to 7 points plus per serving.

Points Plus: 7

Servings: 6

Calories: 273; 12 g fat; 15 g protein; 27 g carbs; 3 g fiber

Chicken and Dumplings

Print recipe

Ingredients

• salt and pepper (to taste)
• 1/3 cup green beans
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 small yellow onion
• 1 stalk celery
• 2 medium carrots
• 1 + 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons cold butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 3` cups chicken broth

Directions

Step 1

In a large sauce pan, melt butter over medium high heat. Add onion, celery, and carrots and cook until onion is translucent. 4 minutes

Step 2

Add flour (1/4 cup and save the other 1 cup for the dumplings) and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Gradually add broth. stirring constantly, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in chicken an season with salt and pepper.

Step 3

To make dumplings: Whisk together 1 cup all-purpose flour. 1 teaspoon baking power and course salt. Add 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley. Cut in 2 tablespoons of cold butter. Stir in 1/2 cup whole milk. Drop heaping spoonfuls batter on top of chicken mixture.

Step 4

Cover and simmer dumplings until they are cooked through. About 12 minutes. Top with additional chopped parsley.

I love making key lime pies or lemon curd pies. I get to use my micro plane to zest the limes and lemon and you inhale the fresh scent of it.  Ahhh… My hands end up smelling like lime from the juice too. When making this pie DO NOT use the bottled lime juice or lemon juice. It will not taste the same. Trust me. If you zest too much lime I read that you can freeze it in ice cube trays. Not sure how that effects the flavor though. Haven’t it tried it yet.

To make this pie lighter I used a can of fat free sweetened condensed milk. I didn’t bother messing with the egg yolks. One slice of this isn’t that big, but you don’t need it because you’ll be overwhelmed by the sweetness and tartness of this pie. Sorry about the picture. The the cool whip kind of got out of hand.

Recipe slightly adapted from Cook.Eat.Love

Servings: 10

Points Plus: 7

Calories 254, Fat 7.7g, Carbs: 42.2g, Protein: 6.15g, Fiber 0.4g

Lighter Key Lime Pie

Print recipe

Ingredients

• 1 store bought pie crust
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk ((fat free))
• 2/3 cups lime juice
• 1 zest lime
• 1 carton cool whip light or fat free

Directions

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 325°.

Step 2

To make filling: in an electric mixer with the wire whisk attachment, whip the egg yolks and lime zest at high speed until fluffy, or 5 to 6 minutes. Gradually add the condensed milk and continue to whip until thick, 3 to 4 minutes longer. Lower the mixer speed and slowly add the lime juice until incorporated.

Step 3

Pour the mixture into the crust and bake for 15 minutes, or until the filling has just set. Cool on a wire rack, and then refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Ever since starting Weight Watchers again, I’ve been making a lot of different types of quesadillas. Last week was buffalo chicken and this week is pepperoni. They can be very filling if you’re smart and use the right ingredients. I made this black bean and corn salsa and put some of that in the middle. I also like adding pico de gallo inside of them too. Pico is zero points if there’s no type of oil in it.

Smart & Delicious is a tortilla brand that makes low carb, high fiber tortillas. Perfect for people watching their weight and just want to eat healthier. Dip these pizza quesadillas in some pizza sauce. What do you like inside your quesadillas?

Servings: 1
Points Plus: 7

Calories 245, Fat 12.16g, Carbohydrate 26.08g, Fiber 14g, Protein 20.83g

Ingredients:

1 Low Carb High Fiber Smart & Delicious Wrap
8 slices of turkey pepperoni
1/4 cup of part skim mozzarella cheese
1/4 teaspoon of Italian seaosoning
1/4 cup of pizza sauce
Cooking Spray

Directions:
1. Spray the inside of a pan with cooking spray. I prefer using a  non-stick skillet.
On one side place the cheese and 8 slices of pepperoni. Cook until cheese melts. Sprinkle
the one side with the pepperoni and cheese with italian or your favorite seasoning. The tortilla is
done when they’re golden brown.

Getting the taste of cedar plank isn’t hard at all. Just go to your local Wal-mart or hardware store and pick up some cedar plank. It’s pretty cheap too. I got 2 pieces of wood for only about $4.00 at … Continue reading →

I just love having breakfast food for dinner and lately, I’ve been posting a lot of breakfast recipes. These breakfast enchiladas took no time to make too. Just make the ham mixture, wrap into a tortilla and bake in the oven. I was kind of concerned about the egg mixture not getting done, because after 30 minutes the eggs weren’t set yet in the oven. After the last 10 minutes they were done. Hurray.

I think if I were to make this again, I’d add in some more spice. I wish I would have read the comments before eating this recipe  too, because someone had suggested to heat up some enchilada sauce on the side to dip the enchiladas in. This recipe has left me wide open to create a breakfast/tex mex dish of my own!

Mix the ham,  cheese, pepper, and green onions in a bowl.

Place about 1/3 of the mixture onto the tortilla and roll it up and place it into the baking dish.

Mix together the eggs and milk. I just used the same bowl the cheese and ham mixture was in.

Last 10 minutes, melt the cheese on top of the enchiladas and serve.

Recipe from Inspired Taste

Servings: 10
Points Plus: 7 (per enchilada)

Ingredients

2 cups finely chopped cooked ham
1 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup sliced green onions (8 medium)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (8 oz)
10 flour tortillas for burritos (8-inch) *I used Smart & Delicious High Fiber Low  Carb Tortillas, they were 2 points plus each
6 eggs
2 cups half-and-half
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method

Lightly spray 13×9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray.

In large bowl, stir together ham, bell pepper, green onions and 1 cup of the cheese. Place 1/3 cup of the ham mixture down the center of each tortilla; roll up and place seam side down in baking dish.

In another large bowl, beat eggs, half-and-half, flour and salt. Pour over the tortillas. Cover; then bake or refrigerate overnight for a make-ahead breakfast/brunch.

To bake, heat oven to 350°F. Uncover dish; sprinkle the remaining 1 cup cheese over top. Cover baking dish; bake 35 minutes. Uncover; bake 10 minutes longer or until set and cheese is melted.

These breakfast burritos may be 9 points but they’re very filling. If you leave out the frozen hash browns it’s 7 points a piece. That’s about the same as my breakfast sandwich I like to eat every morning. These burritos are also easy to freeze too! All you have to do to freeze them is roll them up in some tin foil, put them on a sheet tray and stick them in the freezer. After a day, you can take out the sheet pan and place the burritos in a freezer bag. You’ll have breakfast or dinner ready in 2 minutes.

I tried making my own turkey sausage this time, and it didn’t really taste like the real thing at all. Next time, I’ll just buy some at the store. The seasonings just weren’t right. I’d also use some hot sauce next time.  Serve these with a side of fruit.

Recipe inspired by the Pioneer Woman

Servings: 8
Points Plus: 9 (7 without the potatoes)

Ingredients

6 large eggs
2 egg whites
1/4 cup of 1% milk
1/4 cup of reduced fat cheddar cheese
Lawry’s Seasoning Salt
thyme
1 pound of turkey sausage
10 oz of frozen hashbrown
2 teaspoons of light butter
8 Smart & Delicious tortillas

Directions:

1. In a non stick skillet, cook the hash browns with butter. Add in whatever seasonings you like to the potatoes. I used fresh thyme because that is what I had.

2. Add the sausage to the skillet with the potatoes and cook until the sausge is brown.

3. In a bowl whisk together the eggs, egg whites, cheese, milk and seasoning. (To taste)

4. Once the eggs have been cooked, spoon the cooked egg mixture in a burrito and fold in the sides of the burrito. Tuck the one side of the burrito under the egg mixture and roll the burrito up.

5. To freeze, wrap the burritos in tin foil. Stick them on a sheet tray and after a day place the burritos in a plastic bag. Should take about 2 minutes to heat them up in the microwave.