Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken

Shredded chicken is my fave. I have a thing against cubed meats (blech), so shredded does it for me. This isn't a WW recipe. I bought it before I joined WW. I tried to figure out the PointsPlus value... I believe it is 10 points for one hoagie bun + chicken meat.

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken (6 servings)
Amount Per Serving  Calories: 578 | Total Fat: 14g | Cholesterol: 54mg 


Ingredients:

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 bottle (17.5 fl oz) of Frank's Buffalo Sauce
1/2 (1 oz) package dry Ranch dressing mix
2 tbsp butter
Hoagie buns

Directions: 

Place the chicken breasts into a slow cooker, and pour in 3/4 of the wing sauce and the ranch dressing mix. Cover, and cook on Low for 6 to 7 hours. 

                                                                            (Before)


Once the chicken has cooked, add the butter, and shred the meat finely with two forks. Pile the meat onto the hoagie rolls, and splash with the remaining buffalo wing sauce to serve. 

                            (All that was left after we dug in. I have to remember to take pics before we eat.)

 Oh, and your house will smell like heaven.

Slow Cooker Chili

I made chili for a get together with some fab friends the other night. I wasn't sure how it would turn out since it seemed like a slightly boring recipe, but it was good! It isn't a Weight Watchers recipe, but it doesn't seem to be too bad for you since I used lean ground beef and beans are 'superfoods' according to WW. My friend Dori's cornbread, however, was probably tres fattening, but MAN was it good. (Go Dori, it's your birthday!)

The picture isn't the best since I forgot to take a pic of the warm chili before we ate it all up. ;p  This chili is straight from the fridge. Picture hot smoking tendrils wafting up from it.

Ingredients:
2 lbs lean ground beef
2 cans kidney beans (I used 1 light and 1 dark)
1 8oz can tomato sauce
2 minced garlic cloves
2 medium onions, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Dash of cinnamon (and in my case cinnamon sugar since that's all I had in the ol' pantry)
Shredded cheese (Whatever kind you like. I used a Mexican blend.)

Instructions:
Brown and drain ground beef.
Add beef and all other ingredients (except cheese) to slow cooker.
Cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4 hours.
Serve with cheese sprinkled on top.

WW Baked Ziti

(7 points per serving)

I know I'm focusing a lot of entries on food and recipes, but it helps me stay focused on my weight loss goal. Eye on the prize 'n 'at!

This was really good, but I don't know where they got their cooking time of 20-30 minutes. It was barely warm and the cheese was not brown and bubbly by then. I nuked it to get it piping hot, but next time I make it, it will stay in the oven for 30 additional minutes.

Ingredients:
PAM cooking spray
1 lb rigatoni
3/4 lb part-skim ricotta cheese
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese
4 c marinara sauce
1/2 lb shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/4 c basil, cut into ribbons

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat bottom and sides of a lasagna pan with cooking spray.
  
• Cook pasta according to package directions; rinse with cool water and drain.
  
• While pasta is cooking, in a medium bowl, combine ricotta cheese, red pepper flakes, 3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese and 1/3 cup marinara sauce.
  
• To assemble ziti, spoon 1 cup sauce on bottom of prepared pan; top with half of pasta in an even layer. Evenly spread pasta with ricotta mixture; cover with 1.5 c sauce. Top with remaining pasta and spoon remaining sauce over top; sprinkle with mozzarella and remaining tablespoon Parmesan. Bake until cheese melts and is browned, about 20 to 30 minutes. Allow ziti to sit for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing into 12 pieces. Yields 1 piece per serving.

WW Chicken Fried Rice

Three for three. This recipe is soooo good. And there is more than enough for leftovers. I cooked it in a wok because making stir fry in a skillet seemed odd.

Weight Watchers Chicken Fried Rice - 4 PointsPlus per serving (1 cup)


Ingredients for 6 servings:
PAM cooking spray
12 oz boneless chicken breast cut into 1/2 inch pieces (It says 'cubes', but I hate cubed meat)
4 egg whites (I kept one yolk in there for flavor. Oops.)
1/2 c scallions, chopped (green and white parts)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 c carrots, diced (I suggest not accidentally buying baby carrots like I did. Dicing baby carrots is tough, so I sort of peeled them and used the little peel pieces.)
2 c brown rice (I didn't use brown since Mike doesn't love it, so I calculated my points using white rice)
1/2 c frozen peas, thawed
3 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
+ I added a couple of squirts of Sriracha sauce for heat
+ I added mushrooms since Mike loves 'em

Instructions:

• Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and set pan over medium-high heat. Add egg whites and cook, until scrambled, stirring frequently, about 3 to 5 minutes; remove from pan and set aside.
• Offheat, recoat skillet with cooking spray and place back over medium-high heat. Add chicken pieces until thoroughly cooked. Remove from pan and set aside.
• Add scallions and garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Add chicken and carrots; sauté until chicken is golden brown and cooked through, about 5 minutes.Add chicken back into pan.
• Stir in reserved cooked egg whites, cooked brown rice, peas and soy sauce; cook until heated through, stirring once or twice, about 1 minute. Yields about 1 cup per serving.

So, I followed the recipe loosely, but I had enough Points left for the day to play with it a little bit to make it taste the way we wanted. Yum!

Quick Spaghetti Bolognese

Another Weight Watchers recipe. Deelish!

Quick Spaghetti Bolognese - 11 points per serving

Ingredients:
Pam cooking spray
1 lb lean ground beef
28oz can diced tomatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp fresh basil
1 tsp dried oregano
Salt & pepper (dash of each)

Instructions:
Spray a large non-stick frying pan with PAM and place over medium heat.

Add ground beef to pan and cook for 5 minutes or until browned, breaking up clumps with a wooden spoon.

Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until onion is soft.


Stir in tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Add oregano and basil and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes to allow flavors to blend and sauce to thicken. Spoon sauce over hot spaghetti and serve.

Yummy Pizza!

Tried a Weight Watchers recipe last night. Have to admit that I tweaked it though. I used a Boboli thin wheat pre-made pizza crust. So, I'm not sure of the Points value other than to say that it's probably below 6 per slice. And I added more cheese (oops),  but I AM sure that it was GOOOOOOOD. So good that I kept on saying to Mike while we were eating it, "So good, right?!"  Yeah, he got tired of that. But it was!

Here's the recipe the way that I did it:

 Weight Watchers Pizza Margherita- Molly Style

Ingredients
3 roma tomatoes, sliced thin
1 c FF Mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp freshly chopped basil
2 tbsp dried oregano
Pinch of hot pepper flakes
1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 Boboli, thin wheat crust

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 450
2) Top pizza crust with tomatoes, basil, hot pepper flakes, oregano, and cheese
3) Now sprinkle with olive oil and add a dash of black pepper to the top of it all
4) Bake on pizza stone about 10-12 mins or until cheese is melted

Easy peasy. Enjoy!

Random tip of the day

Used dryer sheets polish chrome (i.e. sink faucets.)

True story!

Happy 2011!

First order of bidness this year: Shed 2 stones (as the Brits say). It needs to be done. Weapon of choice: Weight Watchers.

I'm going to go to meetings. I shall don the sticky name tag and draw Thanksgiving dinner on a paper plate. It didn't work the first time I tried, but the new system that they've come up with seems do-able. Plus... it needs.to.be.done. My clothes have quit. My back is peeved. So, despite being COMPLETELY annoyed by newly-svelte Jennifer Hudson belting out "It's a NEW DAWN! It's a NEW DAY!" every 25 seconds on the TV, I'm in.

Additional weapons to be utilized: Fancy new elliptical, Wii Fit, awesome cooking blogs (i.e. http://www.skinnytaste.com/)

Wish me luck! And willpower! And about 99% more energy than I have right now.