Apple Muffins

I love the flavor of apples and cinnamon.  Whether its just a fresh apple with a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar, homemade applesauce, or baked goods.  I baked an apple into a batch of my cinnamon sugar donuts the other night, and it was a great addition.

My mom makes this recipe as an apple raisin bread.  Equally as good.  However, I don't really care for raisins. I also prefer to use muffin tins versus a bread pan.  You tend to get more servings (which ultimately lowers the points+ value ;) )  So I took her recipe, made a few alterations, and came out with these delectable muffins.  They can be served as a breakfast or as a dessert.  If you want to make it as a bread, it would work out the same way.  You can also substitute one of the cups of apple for a cup of raisins.

Apple Muffins
recipe adapted from Mom's Apple Raisin Bread recipe

makes 24 servings
2 points+ per serving

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 T vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup natural applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups diced apples

Preheat oven  to 375 degrees.  Line 2 muffin tins with 24 muffin liners, or coat with a nonstick cooking spray.

Mix dry ingredients.  Add in all the remaining ingredients except for the apples. Mix thoroughly.  The batter will be thick.  Stir in the apples.

Scoop a spoonful of batter into each muffin tin.  Bake for 18 minutes, until a toothpick placed in the center of the muffin comes out clean.

Enjoy :)

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

I've never really liked white potatoes.  Even as a baby, my parents couldn't feed me mashed potatoes.  I was a teenage before I started eating French Fries, and now I will eat home fries or roasted potatoes, but only if they they are loaded with garlic and salt, and even then I dip them in ketchup.  I'm actually afraid of mashed potatoes.  I can't explain it, but they creep me out.  I know... it's weird. 

The way my mom got around this was with sweet potatoes.  I love them.  I would refer to them as orange potatoes growing up. Whenever she made baked potatoes, she would throw one of these in for me. Or she would steam them and then bake them with maple syrup.  Delicious, but not WW friendly in the slightest.  While I'm not a fan of the fact that sweet potatoes have points, I still love them, and we usually have them on the menu a few times a month.   

Roasted Sweet Potatoes
recipe adapted from Sweet Potato Fries

Makes 2 Serving

6 points+ per serving

Contains 1 oil and 1 veggie GHG per serving

Ingredients: 

1 pound sweet potatoes, cut into small pieces

2 tsp olive oil

2 T grated parmesan cheese 

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp paprika

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a cookie sheet with foil, and coat with nonstick cooking spray.

Pour olive oil over potatoes, and stir to get them coated.  Add the cheese, also making sure to coat the potatoes.  Add the garlic powder, paprika and cayenne pepper.  Note that the paprika and cayenne pepper can produce quite a kick, but we like it that way.

Pour potatoes onto cookie sheet, and cook for 20 minutes.  Flip potatoes, and cook for an additional 15 minutes.  They may need more (or less) time depending on the size of the pieces, and the desired softness. Just keep an eye on them. Ours cook for about 35 minutes total. 

Tips for next time:  This is a favorite for both of us.  We've played with the seasoning, and this is just how we like it!

WW Recipe Builder

I have a love/hate relationship with the WW recipe builder.  

Sometimes it's great, and using it can totally work out better for me.  I love seeing that changing a dessert recipe to 20 servings instead of 18 will cut the points value down by 1.  I also love being able to be creative with substitutions and seeing how I can change the points around to be in my favor.

But I hate how sometimes things come out to be more points than the individual parts.  I know that it tracks the nutritional value of fruits and veggies, and adds that in.  I also know that WW rounds the points values, so sometimes a serving is really 1.3 points, which is why 2 servings gets rounded up to 3.  Both things make sense.  But when you are working with just 26 points a day, every point counts. 

I play with the system a little bit sometimes.  For instance, if a majority of the recipe is made up of zero points value foods, then I will only count the ones that are points.  Or if I'm adding something to bulk up a meal, such as throwing 2 cups of broccoli into a casserole, I won't count the broccoli.

One of the the things that I try to do to avoid this problem is to make what I can as single serve portions.  For a lot of things I end up making 3 servings, 1 for me, and 2 for Dan.  I don't want the points for my serving to go up because I'm making all 3.  So I'll make the recipe 3 separate times.  That way I can track my 1 serving, and only add the ingredients to the tracker, rather than building a recipe.

Because of this, many of my recipes are only 1 serving.  You can easily make multiple servings at once, I just find it easier for tracking purposes to track my portions on my own.   It doesn't actually take extra time in the kitchen.  While the oven is preheating, I'll make my one portion.  I'll throw that on one portion of the cookie sheet, and then in the same bowl I'll prep Dan's 2 servings together.  With the help of a skillfully folded piece of aluminum foil, our portions are kept separate, and then easily transferred to our plates. 

Donuts!

I love to bake.  I would bake treats every day of the week if I could.  Dan gets mad if I bake too much, because he says he can't control himself around my baked goods.

Dan had a few points left, so I asked if he wanted me to bake him donuts.  They are a quick go to dessert.  I use this recipe from Emily Bites,  but we leave off the frosting.  It comes to just 2 points+ per donut, for a delectable baked chocolate treat!

I was on a roll, so I decided to see what other recipes I could bake.  I looked through my pinterest, to see what other donut recipes I had pinned.  I found one, but looking at the ingredients, I realized that I could make that quite a bit more WW friendly.  Cutting back on some of the ingredients, and adapting some subsitutions, and I came out with a treat of my own.

Cinnamon Sugar Baked Donuts

recipe adapted from King Arthur's Baked Doughnuts

makes 6 servings

2 points+ per donut

Ingredients:

1/2 cup white whole wheat pastry flour

2 T sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

2 T nonfat vanilla yogurt

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp canola oil

2 T natural applesauce

2 T skim milk

cinnamon
sweet and low (or other desired sweetener)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray donut pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, mix dry ingredients until fully blended.  Add remaining ingredients until thoroughly mixed.

Using a spoon, spread the mixture evenly over 6 donuts cavities.  I did this by putting two spoonfuls in each cavity, and then spreading it evenly across the whole thing, careful to leave the space in the middle.  

Bake for 7-8 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool for several minutes before removing from the pan.

Combine sweet and low and cinnamon to taste.  I used 8 packets of sweetener, and 1 tsp cinnamon.  Dip both sides each donut in the mixture, and enjoy!

Tips for next time:  Maybe cut up a small apple to mix in.  They were deliciously moist, and there is definitely room to add some different flavors.  Banana or more vanilla could work as well!

Egg Beaters Frittata

My WW leader loves Egg Beaters.  She talks about all the different things you can do with them all the time.  I've never been a big egg person, so using this as a substitute doesn't bother me.  Up until recently, I just made scrambled eggs with them.  I'd throw in some cheese, and it was a low point breakfast.  Then I started getting a little more creative. I'd saute some veggies and mix them in.  Then I started putting the whole thing in half a lavash.  It made a breakfast wrap for only one extra point.

I decided to do some investigation, and see what other things I can make, using this easy egg substitute.  I found myself on the Egg Beaters website, where there are a ton of different categories of recipes.   I'm definitely going to try some of the other recipes.  I love trying new things for breakfasts, either quick things to grab during the week, or more intricate things when I have more time on the weekends.

I've heard about putting omelets/eggs in the oven before, to finish cooking through a dish.  I didn't realize how much volume it would add to the meal!  The dish was easily twice as thick and fluffy than had I cooked it on the stovetop alone.  It's definitely something I'm going to have to try again.

Egg Beaters Frittata
idea based on Chicken Broccoli Frittata

makes 2 servings
5 points+ each
Contains 1 veggie and 1 oil GHG per serving

Ingredients:
2 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
1/3 cup diced tomato
1/3 cup diced onion
1 cup broccoli florets, cut into small pieces
1.5 oz cooked turkey bacon
salt, to taste
1 cup Egg Beaters original
1/2 cup FF cheddar cheese

Preheat broiler to high.

Heat oven safe skillet, and pour in oil.  Once the skillet is hot, put in garlic.  Personally, I like my garlic a little chunkier than minced, so I tend to cut it into bigger pieces.  If you would prefer minced, go for it.  Cook garlic for about a minute, until it starts to get a golden color.

When the garlic is ready, mix in the rest of the veggies.  I covered mine for a minute so that the broccoli could cook a little faster.  Cook the veggies for 2-3 minutes, then toss in the bacon and cook for another minute.  At this point you can add any salt, or seasoning that you want to try.  Pour in the Egg Beaters, and cover.  Cook for about 9 minutes, on low heat, until the frittata begins to set.

Sprinkle the cheese on top, and put your pan under the broiler.  Cook for about 2-3 minutes, until eggs are completely cooked.

Tips for next time:  I think adding peppers into it will add a lot of flavor.  I also think I would cut back on the amount of broccoli, as while it was good, it was overpowering in some bites.  I might also cook some of the cheese inside, and put some on top, rather than all of it on the top.  Another thing was that I didn't spray the whole pan.  While the olive oil adds great flavor, I definitely need to use nonstick spray across the sides to prevent sticking.

All in all, both Dan and I really like the recipe.  It was a great, low-point, filling breakfast!

My recipe box

I moved in with my boyfriend about a month ago, and it's nice having my own kitchen.  I've always lived with family or roommates, and always had to share my space.  While technically I share with Dan, he's completely ok with the kitchen being my domain.

Both Dan and I are members of weight watchers.  We both strive to lead healthier lives, and that starts in the kitchen.  I love finding new recipes to try out, and working with them to make them weight watchers friendly.  I cook almost every night, and am a big fan of baking when I have the time.  I'm not very creative, so I don't come up with much of my own, but I needed a place to sort out my thoughts and ideas.

Pinterest was one idea.  I could pin all my ideas and go to find any recipes that I had found, and now wanted to try.  I started on Pinterest last year before it became a huge thing, and then it exploded with popularity.    However, the idea that I could (and would) use it as a regular source got very overwhelming, very fast.  I pinned too much!  While I have a lot of ideas there that I want to try, its not very easy to locate the things that I have already done and want to repeat.  I tried having a notebook with all my recipes written out, but that was a pain to try to maintain, and then to locate what I was looking for.  So that prompted the idea of a blog.  Here I can keep track of the recipes that I have made, any substitutions or edits, and what we liked or didn't like about the recipe.  It's my virtual recipe box!