Honey-Smoked Pork Tenderloin - 11 Smart Points and 7 Winning Points

This is a light and easy meal to make with a sweet, slightly smoky flavor.

Ingredients:

3 Tbs. butter
1 lb. 2" diameter pork tenderloin sliced 2"
4 medium carrots, sliced 1"
3 stalks celery, sliced 1"
1 small onion, sliced 1/8"
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. sage
3 Tbs. honey
2 Tbs. lemon juice
1 tsp. liquid smoke
1/2 tsp. minced fresh garlic


Instructions:

In 10" skillet, melt butter until sizzling, add pork and carrots.  Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until meat is browned (about 5 to 6 minutes).  Reduce heat to medium.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Cover, cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are crisply tender (10 to 12 minutes).

YIELD:  4 Servings

SERVING SIZE:  About 4 oz of pork and equal distribution of vegetables
POINTS:  7 Winning Points and 11 Smart Points

Skillet Pasta and Vegetables - 8 Weight Watchers Smart Points or 5.25 Winning Points

This dish is obviously quite good....that's a lot of cheese!   I lightened up this recipe by using light butter and reduced-calorie shredded Mozzarella, but next time I will use 1/4 cup of it per serving since there are only 4 servings total in this dish.  That will reduce the overall points, which I'll note the next time I make this. 

Ingredients:

4 oz. uncooked bow tie pasta
1/4 c. light butter
1 tsp. minced fresh garlic
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2" pieces
1 small eggplant, cut into 1/2" pieces
1 medium red onion, cut into eighths
1 tsp. basil leaves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1-1/2 c. (6 oz.) shredded reduced-fat Mozzarella cheese

Instructions:

Cook pasta according to package directions and drain.  In 10" skillet, melt butter until sizzling and stir in garlic.  Stir in remaining ingredients except pasta and cheese.  Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are crisply tender (about 4 to 6 minutes).  Stir in pasta.  Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until heated through (2 to 3 minutes).  Stir in cheese.  Serve immediately.

YIELDS:  4 servings
SERVING SIZE:  1/4 of dish
POINTS:  8 Smart Points or 5.25 WP

Lemon-Raspberry Ice Squares - 5.5 Weight Watchers Smart Points or 3 Winning Points

This dessert was a find by me for using up raspberries many years ago.  It can be lightened up further, as the points depend greatly on the sugar cookies, butter, and yogurt used.  I tend to use real ingredients.  Vegan yogurt might be a good option to try with light butter and fat-free yogurt for fewer points.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find some lower-calorie vanilla sugar cookies and there were a lot of points involved in the ones I chose, but I also only used about 7 of them compared to the 18 called for in the recipe.  

The image above is a slice of the entire recipe cut into 9 portions and it's sitting on a salad-sized plate, so it's a good size.  Cutting the entire batch in 18 portions would halve the points. The whipped cream topping is not included in the points for this recipe, as that depends on your choice for whipped topping. 

The lemon and raspberry go so well together.  Just make sure you let it sit at room temperature for at least 10 minutes to soften a tad because "Ice" squares are pretty hard to get through with forks and spoons otherwise.

Ingredients:

1 c. (about 18) crushed lemon-flavored sugar cookies
1/4 c. sugar
3 Tbs. butter
1 c. raspberry-flavored yogurt
1 c. low-fat buttermilk
1/3 c. sugar
2 c. frozen or fresh raspberries
sweetened whipped cream

Instructions:

In small bowl, stir together crushed cookies, 1/4 cup sugar and butter.  Press on bottom of 9" square baking pan and set aside.

In medium bowl, stir together remaining ingredients except raspberries and whipped cream.  Fold in raspberries. Pour yogurt mixture over cookie crust.  Cover and freeze until firm, about 3 to 4 hours.

To serve, let stand at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes.  Cut into 18 squares (or 9) and garnish with whipped cream.

You can also change up the flavor for this recipe.  Use blueberry-flavored yogurt and blueberries or strawberry-flavored yogurt with strawberries.  Heck, switch it all up and make it a combo deal, just remember the lemon flavor in the "crust" and choose complimentary flavors.

YIELDS:  18 servings
SERVING SIZE: 1/18
POINTS:  5.5 Smart Points or 3 Winning Points

YIELDS:  9 servings
SERVING SIZE: 1/9th
POINTS:  11 Smart Points or 6 Winning Points

Hearty Cheese, Turkey & Zucchini Supper Sandwiches for 10 Weight Watchers Smart Points and 6 Winning Points

Once again, my camera settings have changed and the coloring in the pics is slightly off, but that's life with my 11-year-old.

These open-faced turkey sandwiches are packed full of flavor because of the homemade chese sauce and the basil the zucchini cooked in.  I was a little hesitant about trying this one, but I am so glad we did.  So was Mr F.  He loved it.  One child ate it and liked it, one outright refused to even try it, and the other wasn't home, so no family rating on this one.

Because it's higher in points, go for low-point sides to accompany it.  A half of an English muffin would be half the points listed here and would make a nice lunch as well.

Because most of the butter that the zucchini is cooked in remains in the pan upon completion, I've taken the liberty of removing some of the points assigned to it in the recipe while allowing for some extra calories/points for the bit of butter on the zucchini.

You can probably lighten it up further by using light butter and low-fat cheese, but I already did this recipe using 1% milk and used whole-wheat English muffins.  Also...I didn't use all of the cheese sauce.  I just eyeballed it and estimate each received around 2 tablespoons of cheese sauce.


Ingredients:

Cheese Sauce Ingredients:

2 Tbs butter
1 Tbs. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 c. milk
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1 Tbs. chopped fresh chives

Sandwich Ingredients:

2 Tbs. butter
1 medium zucchini, sliced 1/4"
1 tsp. basil leaves
4 English muffins, split, toasted
8 (1-oz.) slices of cooked turkey


Instructions:

In a 2-qt. saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and stir in flour, salt, mustard, and pepper.  Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth and bubbly (1 min).  Add milk.  Continue cooking over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and comes to a full boil (4 to 5 mins).  Boil 1 minute.  Remove from heat.  Stir in cheese and chives until cheese is melted. Keep warm.

In 10" skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter and stir in zucchini and basil.  Cook over medium heat stirring occasionally until crisply tender (3 to 5 mins).  Place toasted English muffin halves on serving plate and top each half with 1 slice turkey, 1/8 zucchini mixture, and cheese sauce.

YIELDS:  4 servings
SERVING SIZE:  2 halves
POINTS:  10 Smart Points or 6 Winning Points

Springtime Ham and Asparagus Salad for Only 2 Weight Watchers Points

arranged to visually see each serving size via sections between asparagus spears

This salad is so low in points and light and refreshing that you can double up your servings for more of a meal salad.  It serves 6, so a single portion is more of a side salad and not as filling alone.

The homemade dressing has a strong lemon flavor, so if you're not a fan of lemon, try cutting the amount in the recipe back a bit.  I also added garlic powder to this batch but plan on trying it next time with actual minced garlic added to the dressing.

I also only applied one tablespoon of dressing per serving of salad with leftover dressing at the end, which means this actually fewer in point than I figured for the entire dressing recipe to begin with.

Single serving in large salad bowl

Salad Ingredients:

16 asparagus spears
4 c. torn lettuce
2 c. cubed 1/2" cooked ham
2 hard cooked eggs, quartered (I chose to slice them instead going for even eggs per serving)

Dressing Ingredients:

1/2 c. fat-free dairy sour cream
2 Tbs. chopped fresh parsley
1 Tbs. chopped fresh chives
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
2 Tbs. lemon juice
1 Tbs. low-fat mayonnaise


Instructions: 

In 10" skillet, place asparagus, add enough water to cover.  Cook over medium-high heat until water comes to a full boil.  Boil 1 to 2 minutes and drain.  Rinse immediately with cold water until fully cooled.  This stops the cooking process.  Don't overcook your asparagus. You want them crisply tender, not mushy.

Arrange ham, eggs, and asparagus spears on lettuce on either individual salad plates or platter.   

In small bowl, stir together all dressing ingredients.  Pour dressing over salad if all will be eaten upon serving.  If wanting to save your salad in the event you'll have leftovers, apply dressing to individual servings and store dressing in an airtight container.

YIELDS:  6 servings
SERVING SIZE:  1/6 of platter
POINTS:  2 WWWP or 2 SmartPoints

Spinach-Stuffed Steaks - 7 Weight Watchers Points and 9 Smart Points

These spinach-stuffed steaks turned out delicious.  The recipe calls for strip, T-bone, or Porterhouse steaks with bones in, but all I had were some boneless NY strip steaks cut about 1" thick.  This was so filling that I only ate half of a steak.  The recipe calls for 1.5 pounds total of steak, which this worked out to be as well.  Since cutting all four in half would be 8 servings, I got to halve the points as well.  I also served this with the garden-stuffed mushrooms recipe found here.

Individually, the components of this recipe are just kind of, well, meh, but when put altogether...just yummmm. 

Ingredients:

(2) 3/4-lb. steaks (strip, porterhouse, T-bone) with bones in (mine were boneless)
6 slices bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces
2 Tbs. butter

Stuffing Ingredients:

10-oz pkg frozen spinach, thawed, drained
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. minced fresh garlic

Sauce Ingredients:

1 Tbs. all-purpose flour
1 c. water
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. tomato paste
1/2 tsp. minced fresh garlic


Instructions: 

In small bowl, stir together all stuffing ingredients and set aside.

To prepare steaks, trim excess fat.  Split each steak from outer edges toward bone making a pocket.  Divide spinach mixture and fill each pocket.

In 10" skillet cook bacon and butter over medium-high heat until browned (5 mins).  Place steaks in same skillet and cook over medium heat, turning once, until desired doneness (7 to 9 mins for medium steaks).  Place meat on platter and keep warm while preparing sauce.

Pour off fat leaving bacon and brown particles in pan.  Reduce heat to medium and stir in flour.  Cook, stirring occasionally until mixture is smooth and bubbly (1 min.)  Stir in remaining sauce ingredients.  Continue cooking, stirring occasionally until thickened (4 to5 mins).  Serve over steaks.

YIELDS:  4 servings
SERVING SIZE: 6 oz of steak without filling
POINTS:  6.5 WWWP or 8.75 Smart Points (9 if rounding up)

Garden-Stuffed Mushrooms for 1.5 Weight Watchers Winning and Smart Points Each

These stuffed mushrooms make a good appetizer for the Weight Watchers conscious party goer...keep that in mind.

This recipe makes 16 stuffed mushrooms and for the Winning Points that I do, it comes out to 1.4375 points or 1.5 rounded up....so I'm going with 3 points even for every 2 mushrooms consumed.   For the newer Smart Points system, it works out to 1.5625 points per mushroom, but rounding up would be 2 points per mushroom.  That's quite a jump for a round up, so I'm leaving it up to you if you want to count these at 3 points for every 2 consumed as well or whether you would rather it be 2 points per mushroom and therefore 4 per every 2.  There are only 7 in the above picture because we started eating them before the spinach-stuffed steaks that were to accompany them were done cooking.  The recipe for the spinach-stuffed steaks can be found here.

The filling was quite easy to make.  I just put some herb-seasoned boxed stuffing mix into the food processor and pulsed it to break it down a little and proceeded from there.  Below is a picture of all of the stuffing ingredients ready to mix in a bowl.

Ingredients:

1/2 dried, crumbly style herb-seasoned stuffing, crushed
1/4 c. butter, melted
1/4 c. finely chopped carrot
1/4 c. finely chopped green pepper
pinch of pepper
2 Tbs. finely chopped onion
16 mushroom (2"), stems removed


Instructions:

Heat oven to 35 degrees.  In small bowl stir together all ingredients, except mushrooms.  Stuff each mushroom cap with 1 tablespoon filling.  Place in buttered 13" x 9" baking pan.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until tender.

YIELDS:  16 mushrooms
SERVING SIZE:  2 mushrooms
WINNING POINTS: 3 WWWP/2 mushrooms
SMART POINTS:  4 SP/2 mushrooms

Iced Banana Berry Salad for 6 Weight Watchers Points for Me and 8.5 SmartPoints for You

(Plated on a salad plate)

Since I had to figure out points from scratch on this one, I did both the old way for myself and the new point system Smart Points for you.  These are made about the size of a dessert one might eat if not dieting, so if the points seem high to you, just cut it in half and get a diet-sized dessert in.

This recipe is a result of finding ways to use up the hand-picked raspberries growing in my back yard when I feel up to braving the spiders who wish to claim them. Ugh.  Can you spot the spider that is so cleverly camouflaged in the below photo?

No?  How about now?

Well, I tried to get up close to him so you could see these crazy little crab-like spiders that have me doing the heebie-jeebie dance with arms flailing around the yard often much like Tom Hanks did in the movie The Money Pit with the bumblebee.  No joke. It's not pretty.  It's blurry, but you get my point.  Since I've had one attach a web to my hair one time and fly in the wind in front of my face...I no longer try to go deep into the berry patch to get the ones in the back.  The spiders can have them.  I think I need a beekeeping suit to go after those.  The crab spiders have now also received some new neighbors because I keep seeing this other kind of spider there now as well.

I used some tart pans that I had to create individual servings, but you can use a meatloaf-style pan as well and slice it into 8 even portions...16 if you want smaller servings.  The entire recipe works out to 51 Winning Points or 68 Smart Points, so you can figure out your own points based on how many servings you go with in total, and I left off the whipped cream topping in the points total because you can figure that out yourself since it depends on how much topping and which kind of whipped cream you go use.


Ingredients:

1/4 c. sugar
1 c. dairy sour cream (Fat-Free)
1 Tbs. grated lemon peel
2 Tbs. whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. (2 med.) sliced bananas

1 c. blueberries*
1 c. raspberries*

Garnishing Options:
mint leaves
raspberries
blueberries


Instructions:

In large bowl, stir together sugar, sour cream, lemon peel, and lemon juice.  In a chilled small mixing bowl, beat chilled whipping cream at high speed, scraping bowl often, until stiff peaks form (1 to 2 minutes).  By hand fold in whipping cream, vanilla, bananas, and berries into sour cream mixture.

Spoon into individual 1/2-c molds or a loaf pan BUT line whichever you go with with plastic wrap first so you can remove them when ready for serving.

Freeze for 6 hours or overnight.  Unmold on small salad plates.  If using a loaf pan, slice into 8 equal portions about 1" thick.   

If desired, garnish with mint leaves, raspberries, blueberries.

*You can substitute frozen berries for fresh berries.   

YIELDS: 8 servings
SERVING SIZE: 1 slice or tart
POINTS:  6 Winning Point or 8.5 (9 rounded up) Smart Points