Shrimp & Asparagus in a Garlic Herb Cream Sauce

I love shrimp & asparagus and if it comes with a creamy sauce...Oh Baby!!!

Tonight for dinner was sweet shrimp, crisp asparagus & pasta in a garlic herb cream sauce...YUMMY!  My family loves shrimp and since it's low in calories I usually add more than the original recipe calls for so adjust as you wish...

Shrimp & Asparagus with Pasta
in a Garlic Cream Sauce
Serves 6

12 oz thin spaghetti (I used Ronzoni's Garden Pasta)
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp Garlic Herb Alouette (try to find light)
2 lbs shrimp, peeled & cleaned
3 cups asparagus, lightly steamed (I used a steamer bag)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp garlic
1 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup fresh basil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Cook pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water.  Drain pasta and stir in Alouette then stir in basil, S&P

When pasta is cooking heat oil in a large skillet and add garlic, sautee for about 1 minutes but don't let garlic burn.  Add in shrimp and cook for about 5 minutes.  Add in broth and asparagus and heat for a few minutes and then turn off till pasta is ready.  

Combine the shrimp mixture & pasta mixture and serve.

Serves 6
WW points plus: 10
Calories: 406
Fat: 10
Carbs: 41
Fiber: 4
Protein: 41



VERDICT: this was really good and your points may change is you use whole wheat/high fiber pasta and light alouette (I couldn't find it). 
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Slow Cooker Tuesday: Shredded Korean Beef Tacos

So there is nothing I love more than a walking into my house after work to a wonderful smelling home!!! Today was no exception...it's Crock Pot Tuesday and today we went for Taco Tuesday...


Korean Beef Tacos
Serves 10+ 





3-4 lb chuck roast (trimmed of all visible fat)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
lots of garlic
1/2 onion, diced
fresh ginger root
2 tbsp seasoned rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil

In a large crockpot cover it with a Reynolds Crock Pot Liner (makes for super easy clean up) and place your roast in it.  Add the remaining ingredients on top and cook on low for about 8 to 10 hours depending on your cooker.

Shred the beef with 2 forks and serve with fixings..I used flour tortillas & cabbage

VERDICT: everyone was asking for me to make this again but it won't be an every day thing as it's high in points for me.  It's sweet and stands along on it's own without the need for extra fixings...


Nutritional info (based on my ingredients)Calories: 430
Fat: 14
Carbs: 2
Protein: 61
Fiber: 0
Weight Watcher's PP: 9 (not including your fixings)

Simple & Point Friendly Pizza

So do you love pizza but hate how many points just 1 slice is.  Does everyone in your house want a different type of pizza, someone doesn't like mushrooms, someone wants plain cheese, someone wants vegetarian...well the solution in our house is Tortilla Pizzas...it's not only fast and easy it's point friendly and flexible.


Here are some of our favorite stuff to put on tortilla pizzas...

Flat Out Wraps (3 points)
Smart & Delicious Low Carb Tortillas (2 points)

Olives
Mushrooms
Boar's Head Pepperoni (1oz = 4 points)
Trader Joe's Pizza Sauce (1/4 cup = 1 point)
Artichoke Hearts (free) (these were marinated ones that were 1/3 cup = 3 points)
Part Skim Mozzarella Cheese (1/4 cup = 3 points)


So as you can see you can get what you want and stay low in points.  On my pizza I had a Smart & Delicious tortilla, 1/4 cup pizza sauce, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, olives, mushrooms, 1/2 a servings of artichoke hearts & 1/2 oz of pepperoni all for a total of  10 points and 1 pizza filled me up.

The tortilla turns out very similar to the skinny crust pizza that is out there and you get a lot more food and not feeling guilty if you eat the whole thing and everyone is happy in the house.  So next time you want pizza but don't want all the points try a tortilla pizza and experiment with all the stuff you can put on it but just remember to count your points.
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Vegetable Soup- 5 points

So what do you do when you have a lot of veggies and the weather is turning cold...you make vegetable soup...this was a quick throw together and very filling and yummy!



Vegetable Soup
Serves 6 large servings
5 WW points plus




1/4 cup olive oil
3+ crushed garlic cloves
9oz of diced zucchini (about 3)
8oz diced carrots (about 3)
8oz diced leeks (about 1)
6oz diced celery (about 2)
6oz green beans cut in bite size pieces
4 cups organic vegetable broth
1 large can crushed tomatoes
S&P
3oz whole wheat macarroni


In a large pot add olive oil, garlic, zucchini, carrots, leeks & celery and cook for about 15 minutes.


Add in broth, tomatoes & zucchini and simmer for 30 minutes.  


Add in the pasta and the S&P to taste and let sit for 10 minutes.


This is so good and you can add what you want or what you have on hand.  It's yummy and filling.
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Asian Vegetable Pasta & Snow Peas w/ Mushrooms

So tonight you get 2 recipes...Oh yummy...for dinner was Asian Vegetable Pasta (found the recipe in the Comfort Food Diet cookbook, not sure why it's called asian but I think it's more thai to me), grilled chicken tenderloins & snow peas & mushrooms (a recipe I found a while ago on allrecipes.com).  The kids loved it and it was a large servings.  Lots of veggies and nothing like a peanut noodles...YUMMY!!!



Asian Vegetable Pasta
Serves 5

Ingredients:8 oz high fiber pasta (I love Trader Joe's high fiber pasta)
1 lb fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
3/4 cup julienned carrots (I used my mandolin slicer and got my finger, be careful)
1/3 cup reduced fat peanut butter
3 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
3 Tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 Tbsp brown sugar

Directions:
In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 4 minutes, add asparagus; cook for 2 minutes. Stir in carrots; cook for 1 minute or until pasta is tender. Drain and keep warm.

In a small saucepan, combine the peanut butter, vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Pour over pasta mixture; toss to coat.
 
Nutritional Information:Calories: 313
Fat: 9
Carbs: 47
Protein: 12
Fiber: 6
WW Points Plus: 8
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Snow Peas w/Mushrooms
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 TBSP sesame seeds

2 Tsp sesame oil9 oz snow peas
10 oz fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 tsp teriyaki sauce

Directions:
In a medium skillet over medium heat, cook the sesame seeds about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until lightly browned. Remove from heat, and set aside.

Heat oil in the skillet over medium high heat. Stir in snow peas and mushrooms, and cook 3 to 4 minutes, until tender.

Transfer snow peas and mushrooms to a medium bowl. Toss with sesame seeds and teriyaki sauce, and serve warm.

Nutritional Info:
Calories: 93
Fat: 3
Carbs: 11
Protein: 5
Fiber: 3
WW Points Plus: 2

Verdict~ Okay what kid doesn't like peanut butter and pasta.  This was so good and the snow peas side dish is a recipe I found a while ago and my family just loves it and it makes ordinary veggies much more interesting.

NOTE: I have a spreadsheet I have created to calculate my nutritional informaion based on the ingredients I use and so far it has matched up points wise with my e-Tools.
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It's Crockpot Tuesday...Beef & Spinach Pasta 8 points

Okay so life is about to get really crazy for me.  Today I started school again (accounting major) and I told my husband I have dubbed Tuesday to be crockpot day for a while.  You see I now get off work at 4:00 (I leave work in the middle of the day to go to class and then go back to work) and by the time I get all the 3 from school/after school care and get home it's almost 5:00 and my son has to be at boy scouts by 7:00 so dinner has to be done by 6:00 at the latest (don't forget about homework and what not).  So to make my life easier I am going to be using my crockpot at least once a week now...So here is what we did today...



Beef & Spinach Noodle Bake (in the crockpot)
Serves 9

1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef (I used 7%)
1 diced up onion
1 clove of garlic (I used a lot more since we like garlic)
1 15oz can of tomato sauce (next time I will use 2 cans)
1 can petite diced tomatoes (you can use regular diced, I like petite)
1 tbsp italian seasoning
S&P
10 oz frozen spinach, defrosted
16 oz shape pasta of choice (I used the Trader Joe's High Fiber penne I had in the pantry)
1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cup 2% shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:
In the morning cook your ground beef with your onions and garlic.  Put the mixture in your crockpot (don't forget your Reynolds Slow Cooker Liner they are a lifesaver and my friend and save me lots of scrubbing, no this is not a paid advertisement LOL) with your tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and seasonings.  Cook on low for 6 hours (I use my x-mas light timer for my crockpot as I am usually gone for more than 6 hours and I don't want to overcook).

45 minutes prior to dinner cook your pasta (or if you are me cook it in the morning, drain and keep it in the pot until you are ready to add it and then just re-run it under water to separate). 

30 minutes prior to dinner being done add in your drained spinach (remember to squeeze it dry really well, a old rag does wonders with this step) pasta and cheese.  Cook for 30 minutes more and serve hot.

VERDICT: Now i have never done this in the slow cooker, it is a basic throw together I have done in the oven but I like it this way...next time I will change a few things...1) I will add another can of tomato sauce as it was a little bit dry with all that pasta and adding a can of sauce bumps it only up from 7.4 to 7.7 and 2) I will maybe decrease the pasta to 12oz or so...these were really big servings but my family is not complaining.

Calories: 372
Fat: 10
Fiber: 6
Weight Watchers Momentum Points: 7.5 (or 8 if you round)

Dreaming of Lemon Chicken...

So I love lemon chicken but I hate that when you order it from a Chinese restaurant it's deep fried and loaded with greasy calories and I usually end up with a total stomach ache because I ate all that plus fried rice.

So here's a good sub for that greasy craving.



Stir Fry Lemon Chicken
Serves 6

2 lbs chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
1 1/2 cups sliced carrots
3 cups snow peas
1 cup bell peppers, sliced
1 bundle of green onions, diced
3/4 cup fat free reduced sodium chicken broth
2 lemons
4 tsp reduced sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp pepper 

1. zest lemon and save 1 tsp for later (I used a little more)
2.  juice lemons, mix in broth, soy sauce, pepper & cornstarch, mix and set aside
3. spray a large skillet with cooking spray and sautee chicken until done.  Transfer to a plate
4. respray skillet, add in bell peppers & sliced carrots and saute for about 5 minutes (I usually add a little bit of water to steam/saute)
5. add snow peas, green onions, zest and garlic and saute a few more minutes until you can smell that lovely sell.
6. re-mix the sauce and add into the veggies until sauce thickens.
7. add chicken and rewarm and cook until done.  Serve with rice

VERDICT: this was good, my family loved it and it had a nice little tang to it.  There is quite a bit of prep for this but once it's all done putting it all together is easy.  I served this with rice that I added a bunch of herbs to and a little bit of butter in my rice cooker and roasted asparagus (add extra points of course)...

Calories: 214
Fat: 2
Fiber: 3
Momentum Points: 4