Indian Chicken with New Potatoes, Simplified

I love Indian Food, but with two small children who do not like spicy foods, we often avoid this cuisine at home.  When looking for a dinner option, I happened upon a recipe that did not seem spicy and had fairly common ingredients that I already had in my pantry.  I did make a few modifications for simplicity and wound up with a dish praised by those of all ages in my household. In the spirit of recording recipes that my family liked, I am preserving this one for future dinners.

Chicken and New Potatoes
Serves 6

1&1/4 lbs of chicken breast cut up (I used Tenders for simplicity)
1 clove of garlic chopped fine
1/2 tsp ground ginger (or fresh grated if you have it)
1 tsp ground corriander
1 medium onion chopped
3 TBSP vegetable oil
1 cup of hot water
1&1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp cumin
2 cans of new potatoes (cut into quarters if whole)
black pepper to taste

Put chicken into glass bowl or dish, rub all over with garlic, coriander, and ginger.  Set aside for an hour or two to marinate.  Heat 2TBSP of vegetable oil in a large frying pan and saute chopped onions for 5 minutes or until softened.  Add chicken and fry until brown.  Add water and salt to pan, bring to a boil, cover and simmer until chicken is tender.  Meanwhile, in another frying pan, heat 1 TBSP of oil.  Add new potatoes to this pan to fry.  Turn the potatoes occasionally so they don't stick the pan.   During the last few minutes of cooking, sprinkle cumin and black pepper on the potatoes and stir to coat evenly.  Combine the potatoes and the chicken mixture and serve.

In addition to being pretty simple and family friendly, it turns out that this dish is fairly low in calories.  The Weight Watchers Points Plus total on this recipe is 6 points plus per serving.

Yogurt Biscuits

If you are on the Weight Watchers Points Plus Plan, you may be hard up for very low point satisfying foods.
I have discovered one recipe that has been the perfect remedy for this problem, Yogurt Biscuits.
If you make them with Nonfat Yogurt they are one point a piece for 16 servings; with Lowfat Yogurt, split it into 18 servings and they will be 1 point a piece.  If you eat two, you might want to count it as 3 points total..
The great thing about these biscuits is that I can never overdo it, because my family gobbles these up before I can even come close to wrecking my point total.  If you are counting calories, this recipe is about 60 calories per biscuit.

One thing to keep in mind is that you need some forethought when making this recipe.  Do the first step before bed and wake up to an easy recipe for breakfast.

2 Cups of All Purpose Flour
1 Cup Plain Lowfat or Nonfat Yogurt
1 tsp Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
Spray Oil

Step 1:
If you have an electric mixer use it for this recipe, use the dough hook if you have one.
Take one cup of flour and mix it with the cup of plain yogurt until smooth.
Sprinkle the sugar on top of the mixture.
Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap.

Let the mixture sit for 4 hours or overnight.

Step 2:
Preheat the oven to 425°
Add the rest of the flour, the baking powder, the baking soda, and the salt to your mixture.  Mix until you have a dough.

Step 3: Spray a cookie sheet with Spray Oil.  Lay out a piece of wax paper or lightly flour a hard surface.  Turn out the dough onto the prepared surface and pat into a rectangle.  Cut into 16 - 18 rectangles.
Place rectangles on the cookie sheet about 1 inch apart.

Step 4:
Bake for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 400° and bake for 10 minutes more.
Serve hot.

One Lunch at Subway

The new Weight Watchers Points Plus system is a bit tough to get into if you have been in a long term relationship to the old system. Until I get used to the new values, I am stuck pounding out calculations on the little six dollar point calculator that WW sells, for every little thing. There is a dearth of information online about restaurants unless you have the weight watchers dining out guide. I was stuck running out to Subway the other day without the calculations. I did fine with a 6 inch Turkey sandwich and Broccoli Cheese soup, but I would have done even better with Chicken Noodle.

Here are a couple of Points Plus Values for some Subway lunches, in case you are stuck for calculations, too.

Ham Mini Sub 5 Points
Roast Beef Mini Sub 5 Points
Turkey Breast Mini Sub 5 Points
Veggie Delite Mini Sub 4 Points

6 Inch Turkey Sub with Veggies, Red Wine and no cheese 7 Points

6 Inch Black Forest Ham, no cheese 8 Points
6 Inch Roast Beef, No Cheese 8 Points
6 Inch Subway Club 8 Points
6 Inch Sweet Onion Terriaki 10 Points

Foot Long Veggie Delite 12 points
Foot Long Turkey 14 Points
Foot Long Turkey and Ham 15 Points

6 Inch Tuna, No Cheese 14 Points (the fat really jumps up on this one)

Want to add some cheese?
Provolone, Pepper Jack, or American are 1 point for two triangles.
Cheddar, Monterey Blend, or Swiss are 2 Points for two triangles.

Roasted Chicken Noodle Soup 2 Points
Tomato Garden Vegetable with Rotini 2 Points
Vegetable Beef Soup 3 Points
Broccoli Cheese Soup 5 points
Wild Rice with Chicken 6 Points

Here is a link to the Subway Nutrition site for more information.
http://www.subway.com/applications/nutritioninfo/index.aspx

Southern "Fried" Chicken (Without the Frying)

Tonight I got good reviews on a "fried" chicken recipe that I made at home.  Here's a secret, it wasn't really fried.  In fact, it was kind of healthy.  I built the recipe from one in my Weight Watchers Cookbook.  A few substitutions seemed to make this dish tastier than when I made it in the past, so I am archiving it here, for future dinners.  Sorry, no pictures; it is in our bellies, now.

Southern Oven "Fried" Chicken

1/2 Cup of Skim Milk
1 tsp Vinegar
3-4 drops of Franks Red Hot Sauce
1/2 cup of Total Cereal
1 TBSP Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 Graham Cracker
3 TBSP All Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Freshly Ground Pepper
1 1/2 to 2 Pounds of Skinless Chicken Breast, sliced into chicken finger sized pieces
4 tsp vegetable oil
Olive Oil Spray

Combine the Milk and Vinegar in a large shallow bowl.  Add the Red Hot Sauce and set aside. Do this before anything else so the Milk Mixture has time to curdle.


Preheat oven to 400°F.  Spray a large baking sheet with Olive Oil Spray.

Measure 1/2 Total Cereal; then crush it down.
Mix the crushed Total Flakes with the Parmesan Cheese and add Graham Cracker, crushing with a fork to make sure all the lumps are crushed out.  Add the flour, salt, and pepper.  Mix well. 

Dip the Chicken into the Milk Mixture, then dredge through the Crumb Mixture coating each piece well.
Place the coated chicken onto the baking sheet.

Drizzle the 4 tsp of Vegetable Oil onto each piece of chicken.  This will help crisp the chicken up in the oven.
Bake for 30 minutes; turn the chicken over and bake for 10-15 minutes more.

This recipe will serve 4 and is around 5 to 6 WW Points per serving.  

1 Point Chocolate Chip Muffins

Do not be afraid. Culinary experiments can have terrific results.  Today I went to make a sweet variation on the 1 point muffin I posted in November.  This recipe requires a substitution from granulated sugar to brown sugar.  I had made this recipe last week and my family could not keep their hands off of these muffins.  My three year olds adeptly climbed chairs and opened ziplock bags to nab the sweet treats whenever possible.   

I was ready to make another batch, but in the middle of my prep, I discovered that we were out of milk.  With the twins peacefully napping, going to the store was out.  * New Parents of Multiples, here is a helpful tip:  NEVER, ever wake the wee ones when they are sleeping, or you will pay a high price.  Certainly milk was no valid cause for disturbance.  A substution was needed and an option presented itself, yogurt.  What is yogurt anyway?  Mostly milk.  I figured a little water would thin the yogurt enough to make the recipe work.  And guess what, it worked like a charm.  Here is my recipe for 1 point Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Chocolate Chip Muffins:

Makes 24 Servings - 1 Point each


1-3/4 cups of flour

4 tsp brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 Cup Plain Lowfat Yogurt

1/2 Cup of Water

1 egg

4 tsp unsalted butter, melted

1/4 Cup of Chocolate Chips



1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Spray a 24 cup mini-muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray (I use a silicone pan with spray)

3. In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.

4. In a small bowl combine egg, yogurt, water, and melted butter. Pour over the flour mixture and stir, just until blended (do not overmix).

5. Fold in the Chocolate Chips.

6. Spoon the batter into the cups, making sure each muffin has a couple of chips.  Add more if you don't care about the calories.

7. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Comfort Food, Tuna Noodle Casserole

I have mixed luck with Tuna Casseroles.  Either the pasta isn't cooked right, the topping is weak, or there just isn't enough tuna.  Today, determined to cook a winner, I decided to take the best parts of several Tuna Noodle Casserole recipes and create a version of this traditional dish that was delicious yet not too fattening.  I used fresh vegetables to improve the nutrition in this dish.  The veggies not only added a health boost, but were also one of the tastiest components of the casserole.

This Tuna Noodle Casserole was yummy, however, the pasta was still a bit al dente for my taste.  The remedy is a different type of pasta like egg noodles, or to cook the pasta first, then add it to the mix.  I decided not to precook the pasta because I wanted to keep the process simple and have fewer dishes to wash.  If you want a better casserole, you'll precook the pasta and wash the dishes.  Anywhoooo, other than slightly hard shells, the casserole was pretty tasty.  Here is the recipe.

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Serves 6 people

Olive Oil Spray

1/2 Large Onion (or one small one)

1 Cup Chopped Carrots

1 Cup of Green Beans, either fresh or frozen ones that have been defrosted

3 Cups of Pasta (Egg Noodles, Shells, Macaroni, or any short cut pasta)

2 Cans of Tuna; drained and rinsed (I used 7oz cans)

1 Can of Fat Free Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 Can of Cream of Celery Soup

1 Cup of Milk

Dash of Freshly Ground Black Pepper

1/2 tsp Salt (Optional)

1 Cup Grated Sharp Cheddar

1 Cup of Panko Crumbs

1 Tbsp of Parmesan Cheese
Parsley Flakes

Spray a large pan with the Olive Oil Spray. 

Saute the onion, the carrots, and the green beans in the pan until the onions are soft and slightly browned. 

Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees.

Pour the vegetable mixture into a 9x13 casserole pan. 

Add the Pasta, the Tuna, the two cans of Soup, the Milk, the Pepper and Salt.
Mix these ingredients well with a spoon, so that the liquid fully covers all of the pasta.

Sprinkle the Cheddar Cheese evenly over the mixture.

Sprinkle the Panko Crumbs over the Cheddar.

Sprinkle the Parmesan over the Panko.
Sprinkle the Parsley Flakes over the top to make sparse flecks over the crumbs.

Bake at 350 Degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Enjoy your casserole! 

If anyone has the Weight Watchers Tools and wants to build out this recipe, I would be really interested in knowing how many points this has on their site.  I calculated it out on a nutrition site and ended up with these numbers...

For Serving 6 people with this recipe, per serving you get:
307.2 Calories
14 Grams of Fat
2.6 Grams of Fiber

I calculate that on my WW calculator to be about 7 Points a serving.

Getting Back on Track with 1 Point Muffins

October was an especially difficult month for me. I still had no job, freelance hopes were dashed, and I lost Father of Food. Needless to say, I ate.

October was also a time of celebration, the twins turned three, many little friends had birthday parties, and of course we celebrated the joy that is Halloween. Needless to say, I ate.

October also happened to be the month where, due to death, sickness, and poverty, I most often found myself without a break as full time Mommy of my three year old twins. Needless to say, I ate.

I have been exercising more than usual, but needless to say, I gained.

This week I started to turn back the flow of calories by going back to my old Weight Watchers habits and have begun again to count the points of what I eat.
Today I made one of my favorite low point snacks, 1 Point Muffins. Now I use the term "muffin" loosely, since the plain version of these is more like a biscuit. It is a great grab and go food and since you make it yourself, it doesn't cost a fortune.

This muffin recipe originated from the
1998 version of The Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook.
There is a new version of this book out,



however, I am not sure if it has this recipe and I know it doesn't have my 1 point version, so I will share it here to help all of you folks looking for a great low cal snack:

Plain Muffins:

Makes 24 Servings - 1 Point each

1-3/4 cups of flour
4 tsp granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Cup fat free milk
1 egg
4 tsp unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Spray a 24 cup mini-muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray (I use a silicone pan with spray)
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
4. In a small bowl combine egg, milk, and butter. Pour over the flour mixture and stir, just until blended (do not overmix).
5. Spoon the batter into the cups, only filling the cups until they are just to the top, not over the sides.
6. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Now I'm back on track with a 1 point snack. I just need to be careful not to eat all 24 muffins by myself.

Easy, Inexpensive, Low Point, Low Calorie, Healthy Meal

The slow cooked Chicken and Salsa recipe worked, I think...

I made a classic slow cook mistake, associated with my particular crockpot. I will try and upload a picture later, but if you look below in the last post, you may notice that the knob on my slow cooker is missing. We are still able to use the cooker, but the controls don't quite match up with the text on the pot. The dish looked great at the end of the day, however instead of switching it to warm while I waited for my husband to come home, I switched it to high by accident. An hour later, when I checked on it, the food was dried out and overcooked. The dish was still edible, but not as good as it might have been. As easy as it was, I will surely make it again and do better next time.

Here is the whole recipe as I made it:

Cut up some chicken,
put it in the slow cook pot
Cover with salsa (I used a fresh made type)
Add 3 cloves of peeled garlic
Cut up a yellow pepper and add it to the cooker
Stir.

Cook all day on low.

Serve over rice.

The Verdict: Very Easy, Low Calorie, Healthy Slow Cook Meal Number Three

It worked! Sure, it could have been better with more effort, but this dish worked as it was. There was approval every member of the family. What was it? Easy Slow Cooker Chicken Enchiladas.

Here is the recipe. Cut up about a pound of chicken. Put it in the slow cooker. Cover with enchilada sauce. Cook all day on low. When you are ready to eat, wrap some of the mixture in a tortilla. Cover with more of the mixture. That's it!

Here is the enchilada sauce I used. I got it at Costco, three for $5.39, I used one which is $1.79.

I got the chicken at Costco, too. 12 breasts for about $19, I used 2 which cost about $3.17.

The Tortillas I used were La Tortilla Factory Low Carb, High Fiber Tortillas 16 for $5.69 of which we used 6, which is $2.13

$7.09 cents for dinner for a family of 4. We even had a bit left over.

We did add rice and a couple of garlic cloves to our meal which may have added a dollar to the entire cost. This meal could have cost even less if I wasn't also watching my calories. Those La Tortilla Factory Tortillas are comparatively costly. Also, I used chicken breasts, when dark meat would have worked just as well and probably would have tasted better. It was another choice made for the calorie output.

Here is some nutritional information for this recipe as served(4 servings total):

Chicken breast 120 calories, 3 Weight Watchers Points

Enchilada Sauce 48 calories, 1 Weight Watchers Point

La Tortilla Factory Low Carb High Fiber Tortillas, 80 calories, 1 Weight Watchers Point (split 1 and 1/2 per person = 120 cals, 1.5 points)

288 calories per serving

5.5 Weight Watchers Points per serving

The verdict stands! Dinner for less than $2 a person, for less than 300 calories, for less than 6 Weight Watchers Points, for less than 10 minutes prep time, what more could a working Mother of Twins want? ...Maybe someone to clean up, this enchilada sauce is messy! Thank goodness for Husband of Food.

Very Easy, Low Calorie, Healthy Slow Cook Meals

Is this too good to be true? I learned of a couple of very easy slow cooker meals this weekend that seem unbelievable.

The first one. Are you ready? Get your crock pot out.
Add chicken and salsa.
If you're feeling adventurous, add some veggies to the pot.
Cook all day (on low).

That's it. Does it work? People swear by it. Someone said they learned about it from Ellen. That Ellen... she makes everything easy.

The second one.
Put chicken in the slow cooker and add Trader Joes Indian Simmer Sauce.
Cook all day.

Again, that's it. I can't wait to try this one.

The third one... well, I'm making it tonight.
We'll see how it comes out and then I'll give you the recipe.

5 Quick Low Calorie Meals from the Freezer

Anyone who has tried the Flex Plan on Weight Watchers knows the panic that happens at the end of a day or a week when all of the points seem to have been gobbled up and there is still a dinner to be had. Of course these are usually the days when one has no time to cook up a zero point soup and there is not a vegetable to be found in the house.

I've found a few great stand bys to keep in my freezer for when I want a quick low point meal. Have something like this on hand and your diet won't go out the window when time is tight and points are low.

Kroger Meals Made Simple - Shrimp Stir-Fry
3 Servings per package
140 Calories
.5 g Fat
3 g Fiber
2 Points

Dr. Preger's Veggie Burgers
1 Burger
110 Calories
4.5g Fat
5g Fiber
2 Points

Lean Cuisine
Roasted Turkey and Vegetables
1 meal
150 Calories
5g Fat
3g Fiber
3 Points

Trader Joe's Asian Style Chicken Stir Fry
8oz. Serving
190 Calories
1g Fat
4g Fiber
3 Points

Progresso Light Soups
OK, this is for the pantry, not the freezer, but it is a great option and there are 5flavors:
Italian-Style Vegetable
Vegetable&Noodle
Homestyle Vegetable & Rice
Savory Vegetable Barley
Southwestern Style Vegetable
1 Serving
60 Calories
4g Fiber
0 Points