You’ll never know unless you try it

Ok, so I’ve been afraid to try tofu for a long time. It just didn’t look good and it has a really negative image with regular meat-eating Midwest folks. I passed by it many times in the grocery store thinking I should try this, it’s really good for me. I’ve seen plenty of cooking shows about using it, stating you could make it taste like anything.

So when I came across this recipe for Tofu Parmigiana I thought this would be a good opportunity to try it once and for all. The recipe is fairly easy to make and a lot of the ingredients I already had from trying other recipes. I just had to buy the tofu pretty much.

I went with firm tofu over extra firm because I thought that extra firm was for the people who really like tofu. I don’t know if it made a difference in the recipe or not. While the flavor of this recipe is very good, I now know once and for all that I do not like tofu. This recipe has a lot of things I like. Pepper, Onions, Parmesan and Mozzarella cheese, marinara sauce, plenty of italian seasoning (I even added minced garlic after the fact to add flavor). I could definitely taste something good in the beginning of a bite. However it was quickly overwhelmed by the tofu. I found the tofu for the most part flavorless, except with a slight aftertaste of soybean (duh). The worst part was the texture. It was like a runny egg, but more firm (if that makes sense). I couldn’t get over it and ate most of my plate before throwing the rest away (including tomorrow’s leftovers).

It’s entirely possible that I just didn’t know how to make tofu right. But, even in this dish where tons of flavor surrounds the main ingredient, I couldn’t take it. I really went into this wanting to like it because it would be another meal I could add to my rotation that doesn’t have meat (veggie burgers being the only one so far). It provides me protein, very low in calories and fat so good on points. It would also allow me to make an italian dish regularly without being weighed down by the pasta that’s normally in most of what I make.

As I sit here, disappointed, I wonder if I should give tofu another chance. Should I try it in a restaurant so that I truly know if it tastes as intended? I think it’ll be a long time before I try it again, but I won’t say I’ll never eat it again.

 

Review: Veggie Burgers

For this past weekend I was in the mood for something I recently tried and enjoyed: Veggie Burgers. The stores where I live don’t sell them so I looked up a quick recipe on allrecipes.com.

This is a fairly easy recipe and did not require many modifications other than to use egg beaters instead. It bonds just as well a an egg because it is eggs.  I also used crushed saltine crackers instead of bread crumbs because I had those on hand.

I found this recipe to be easy to make and rememer in the future. Just combine all ingredients, make into patties, and cook. A word of advice, make sure to use the foil if you are grilling because until they cook the patties are not as firm as a burger.  Also make sure to properly grease the foil or the burger will not release right.

Taste-wise This recipe was good. Heavy taste of bean but I wanted that. I would add some more spice to it and make it hotter. Even though it has chili powder and chili sauce, I’d throw either more or some cayenne in there.  You have to get some extra flavor since you don’t get the beef fat flavor you would from a beef burger.

Since this is made almost entirely of veggies, this is very low in points.  The beans also contain tons of fiber so that will help to counteract any points you get from the bread crumbs.

Overall it was a success and I’ll definitely be making again when I’m in the mood for grilling but wan to skimp on points.

 

Suggested Recipe Box

This post is to ask for some suggested recipes that I can try.  They don’t necessarily need to be healthy (although I will try to make them better), just something that tastes good and you like.

Just post either a link to a recipe or the description of how to make your food in the comments and I’ll file them for use down the road.

Thanks

 

Grilled Mango

Here’s a quick thing you can add to your meals on the grill that will taste great and add 0 pts to your meal. I love grilled fruit and the most recent thing I’ve tried is mango. This is really easy to do, just peel the mango and slice into little ovals, place on the grill, and cook just enough to get a grill pattern on them. Be careful not to burn them as the sugars in the fruit will make that easier to do.

This is very quick to do and the flavor of the mango off the grill is great. I think it almost tastes like peach pie right from the oven. Peach pie without the calories and very little work, I’m in.

 

Bacon Guacamole Burger

I finally got around to making something I’ve wanted to try for awhile: Guacamole.  I never really liked guacamole but ever since joining weight watchers some foods I didn’t like I really like now.  I’ve never made it before and was planning on making Turkey Burgers so I decided to add to it and make it a guacamole burger.  Even better, a bacon guacamole burger.

What you’ll need:

Hamburger buns (I use Sara Lee wheat buns)

Ground Turkey (in this recipe I use pre-made patties from Jennie-O)

Turkey Bacon (I used 1 slice Oscar Meyer)

Here’s the guacamole recipe I used (quick and simple):  Best Guacamole

Also added a side of Green Giant Sugar Snap Peas (these are awesome, I eat them for lunch all the time).

Since the guacamole needs to refrigerate for an hour after being made, start on that first.  It’s a pretty simple recipe and only takes about 5 min. to do.  After chilling for an hour, begin to make the turkey patties.  In a separate skillet/grill cook up the turkey bacon.  You can also microwave the bacon if you want to save some time.  Also quickly microwave up the snap peas.  These are microwave steamable and they cook rather fast, about 2 min. depending on your microwave strength.

When the burgers are done to your liking, put them on the bun and add the bacon and guacamole.  You could also add some fresh tomato, lettuce, pickles, and onions to make this really good.  If you like cheese, you could add some fat free cheese or splurge and add the real stuff.  The fat free sliced cheese does not taste good enough to me to warrant including it on burgers.  I am fine with skipping it all together and usually add 0 pt items like ketchup, mustard, BBQ sauce, or pickles.  Also, since this burger already has guacamole on it I think that more than makes up for the taste you might be missing by sacrificing cheese.

Let’s see how this burger stacks up point-wise:

Bacon (1 slice) – 1 pt

Hamburger bun (1 bun) – 1.5 pts

Turkey Patty (1 patty) – 4 pts

Guacamole (about a tablespoon) – about 2 points

Total Point value (per burger) ~ 7-8 points (you should always total up the calories, fat, and fiber in the whole meal to get the most accurate measure)

Quick note about the guacamole: The only thing that contains points in the recipe is the olive oil.  While olive oil is the healthiest of oils, it is still oil and will cost you some.  A 2 point swing for something as good as guacamole is not bad.  It’s about equivalent to putting 1 slice of regular cheese.  Some might see this as a reason to just put cheese on the burger instead of guacamole but in my opinion the guacamole is a better choice because it contains vegetable ingredients that will contribute to a healthy lifestyle.  In the end it is your choice, but since putting cheese on this burger would require buying a package of sliced cheese, it also creates the temptation to put cheese on more meals to use up the package.  I look at cheese as something a serious weight watcher should learn to be able to control and perhaps even cut out entirely.

So there you have it.  Make a couple of these and serve with a side of snap peas (2 points a bag and look at all you get) and that will make a reasonable dinner meal that should leave you full.  Enjoy.

 

Pizza Me

This week one of my favorites: pizza. I’ve always love pizza but have had difficulty coming up with a weight watchers alternative that truly cuts the calories. While this recipe does not do a great job with point management, it’s pretty tasty.

Here us what you will need:

• 3 tbsp. Olive Oil (for sauce)
• One 3 oz. serving Grilled Chicken Strips
• 1 Whole Wheat prebaked Thin Pizza Crust
• 1/2 can Diced Tomatoes (I used a can but you could also but a fresh one and cut it up)
• 3/4 cup Kraft Mozzarella Cheese
• 1/4 cup Feta Cheese

This is a sauceless pizza, using olive oil instead. It is modeled after the Greek style pizzas with tomatoes, garlic, and chicken with feta.

Drop some olive oil on the crust and pit down a 1/4 cup cheese for base. Top with chicken and tomatoes. I then used 1/2 cup cheese and 1/4 feta for the cheese top but you could probably cut this down 1/4 cup of mozzerella.

Before putting into the oven I added my ingredients that I always put on homemade pizza that I think makes it taste awesome: garlic, basil, and oregano.

I cooked in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

When all was said an done, this added up to 7.5 points a slice.  That’s still pretty high.  In order to drop it down some more I’d recommend using less cheese.  You could also add some fresh spinach and take away the chicken for a vegetable pizza.  I’ll be revisiting this recipe and trying to tweak it so that I can get the point value even lower without sacrificing flavor.

So as you can see while pizza is not necessarily the most point friendly thing in the food kingdom, you can still find way to enjoy it every once in awhile.

 

Review: Egg Rolls

This week’s post is something I’ve always wanted to try but never got around to doing: making homemade egg rolls. For the recipe I used and slightly modified hungry girl’s egg roll recipe.  For those of you unfamiliar with HG, she provides recipes for people looking to eat their favorite foods healthier. It’s a great website and can be used as a resource on your weight loss journey.

Here are my ingredients:

Changes to the original include cutting the shrimp, scallions (because I couldn’t find them), sprouts, and celery. Otherwise the recipe was followed to a tee.

It wasn’t until the final egg roll that I figured out how to roll them.  The sides need to be smaller and it needs to roll more to get the true shape you get at the restaurant.  The first one I made looked more like a pop-tart than an egg roll.

I paired this with Lipton Chicken Fried Rice which I really like. It’s simple to make and I’ve paired it with stir-fry as well. It’s also not too bad on points at 5 per one cup serving. Regular chicken fried rice will run you much higher.

I found that the dry coleslaw mix was a quick way to build the base for the filling. You could make your own cabbage and it would probably come out better, but this works fine for me.

I was happy with how the egg rolls cooked up as they had nice color and crisp. It was comparable to the frying method but this way is much healthier.

The taste was lacking though. I think the lack of meat was the biggest factor. I will revisit this recipe and add either chicken or pork to this. Also using real soy sauce might have been better as the Low Sodium soy sauce seems to have a bad flavor to it.

To enhance the flavor I bought a great Thai chili sauce from the Asian food section of the store. This has negligible amounts of calories but creates a good mix of sweet and spice. It also tastes very similar to Buffalo Wild Wings Asian Zing so it would probably make some good Thai chicken wings as well.

Here’s the final product (A manageable 8 points total–5 pts rice, 3 pts egg rolls):

All in all the recipe was a success as I learned egg rolls aren’t nearly as hard to make as I thought. However this needs fine tuning it make it stack up to the real thing.  I also can’t help but notice that the plate needs some color to balance it out.  I would suggest adding Green Giant Sugar Snap Peas (the microwave-steam version) which weights in at 2 pts additional.

That’s all for now, happy eating.

 

Breakfast

For my first post I thought I’d start with the first meal of the day…breakfast. One of the first things a beginning dieter will miss is the traditional eggs and bacon breakfast. Fear not, with the right decisions you can eat this breakfast with all the flavor and way fewer calories.

On the plate today is a Spanish omelet, bacon, cereal, and a side of orange juice. So let’s look at the recipe.

2 cartons Egg Beaters Original
1/4 cup Fat Free Kraft Cheddar Cheese
3 strips Oscar Meyer Turkey Bacon
1/2 cup Fiber One Original Cereal
8 oz. Trop50
Walmart Southwest Salsa (2 tablespoon serving)

Start by cooking the eggs in a medium sized pan. Egg Beaters cook up fast so make sure to turn them soon so as not to burn the bottom. I add a little salt and pepper to the eggs during cooking but you could add after as well.  I added half the cheese to the middle of the omelet and half to the top after folding over. I added the salsa last and plated it.

Now move on to the bacon. Turkey Bacon is the latest big find I’ve made for healthy alternatives.  I was using Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage links for a while but now I’m on a bacon streak.  This turkey bacon taste exactly like bacon, is meatier than the pork version, and drastically cuts the fat and calories.  Put the bacon in the same pan as the eggs were cooked in and while cooking you can pour the orange juice and cereal. Don’t add the milk until you’re finished to prevent sogginess.

One brand you’ll hear me talk about a lot is Fiber One.  This is truly the Weight Watchers go to product.  They make so many different products from cereal, yogurt, snack bars, cottage cheese, and most recently pancakes.  Their products are loaded with fiber which will help your digestive system work more efficiently and will also bring down the points value of what you eat.  Fiber is your friend and there is no such thing as too much of it.  Not only does Fiber One pretty much beat out every other comparable food in fiber, but they also make delicious products.  The only downside to this is they charge a hefty price for this.  Fiber One cereal is the flagship product I recommend everyone looking to lose weight buy and eat religiously.  While it may look like the tree twigs you’ve been looking to avoid, it tastes very much like honey nut cheerios (slightly more grainy) and packs 57% of your daily fiber intake.  A 1/2 cup of this with skim milk is 1 point value, you will not find another cereal that can beat that.  If you’re someone who likes to eat cereal any time of day as a snack, this is a great product for you.

Trop50 is another product I’ve recently come on to.  I was very happy to find it.  I’ve missed drinking juice because the calories in it just makes the point values go up big time.  A regular glass of orange juice is typically 4 points which to me is a waste of calories.  An 8 oz glass of Trop50 is 2 points and tastes every bit as good as regular orange juice.  It was recently pointed out to me that this product only contains 42% juice so that’s most likely the reason for the calorie cut down, but to me getting a little bit of juice in the morning is worth the trade off.

Flip the bacon and when it’s done to your liking you can dab off the grease and add it to the plate (even if you like the extra grease, it’s about sacrifices). Add the milk to the cereal and now you’ve got a great, healthy breakfast to enjoy.

Let’s look at the stats on this meal:

Fiber One Cereal w/milk (1 point)

Spanish Omelet

• Egg Beaters (1 pt/carton = 2 pts)
• Cheddar Cheese (1 pt/serving = 1 pt)
• Salsa (2 tablespoon serving = 0 pts)

Turkey Bacon (1 pt/slice = 3 points)

Orange Juice (2 pt/serving)

Total Points Value: 9.5 pts

Now, let’s talk about what you get with this meal.  The cereal gives you 14g of fiber!  The milk with the cereal will give you some calcium and if you add banana to the cereal it’ll give you some potassium, flavor, and will add 0 pts to your meal.  The eggs provide protein (6g of it).  Coupled with the cheese(9g protein) you’re getting a total of 30% of your protein for the day.  The Bacon gives you protein as well (2g).  Lastly the Orange Juice gives you lots of important vitamins most notably Vitamin C.  This meal provides you with an excellent start to your day and will give you a great base to have a successful day of living on the system.  The Fiber will fill you up, the protein will give you energy throughout the day, and the other vitamins you receive will help boost your immune system and keep you living healthy.

There are also many variations you can do of this meal.  9.5 pts is actually a lot of points for many people to be using on breakfast.  You can easily cut out cheese or orange juice, have 2 slices of bacon instead of 3.  You could add a handful of grapes or blueberries to give you more fruit.  There are many options to cut down but 9.5 is not too bad for what you’re getting.  You could even have this meal as a replacement to supper (which the majority of people use as their big meal).

Hopefully this first post has given you the info you need to start doing breakfast the smart way.