Southwestern Sloppy Joes

I combined a Weight Watchers recipe with tips from Rachel Ray on open faced sandwiches and burgers to create my own version of the Southwestern Sloppy Joes.  These were VERY tasty!!  This will be another meal that we will definitely do again in our family!  This is 9 points with the cheese sauce, but is a hearty serving.  You could omit the cheese sauce and save 3 points…or just serve with a side salad with lite dressing! :-)

Southwestern Sloppy Joes
adapted from the Best of Weight Watchers Magazines, Vol. 1 Cookbook

• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 (11 oz) can mexican-style corn, rinsed and drained
• 1 1/2 cups chunky salsa (the heat level you prefer)
• 1/2 tablespoon Splenda brown sugar
• Orowheat Sandwich Thins (4 buns)
• 1/2 lb 2% velveeta, cubed
• 1 can rotel diced tomatoes with green chiles

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Heat the oil and add the onion, garlic, and jalapeno. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add the chili powder and oregano and cook one minute more. Add the turkey and corn and cook until meat is cooked through and no longer pink. Stir in the salsa and sugar and cook, stirring occasionally until slightly thickened.

While the meat is cooking put the diced velveeta and rotel in a microwave safe bowl and heat in the microwave until cheese is melted (stirring about halfway through).

Spoon sloppy joe mixture over the open sandwich and then spoon cheese on top of that and serve.  Makes 4 servings.

Tostadas

My mom was up for the weekend and we decided to make tostadas for dinner on Saturday night!!  These were super super yummy!!  Two tostadas were VERY filling and only 7 points!!!  WHOO HOO!!

You have got to give these a try!

Ingredients

10 whole wheat tortillas (we used Mission Carb Balance Whole Wheat Tortillas)

1 can fat free refried beans

shredded lettuce

2 tomatoes, diced

3 avocados, diced

fat free sour cream

fat free cheese, shredded

1 lb ground turkey

1 pkg taco seasoning

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray.  Spray both sides of each tortilla with cooking spray and place on the baking sheet.  Bake for 5 minutes.  Flip the tortillas and bake for another 5 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Tortillas will continue to crisp as they cool.  While they are still warm spray with I can’t believe it’s not butter spray and sprinkle some salt on them.

Brown your ground turkey and then prepare with the taco seasoning, according to package directions.

Put your refried beans in a microwave safe bowl and mircowave for approx 2 minutes, or until beans are warmed well.

Build your tostadas with beans, meat, lettuce, tomatoes, a spoonful of avocado chunks, a handful of cheese, and a spoonful of sour cream. You can even add some salsa for no extra points.

Each serving includes 2 prepared tostadas!

Enjoy!

Parmesan Turkey Meatloaf

I am really becoming a lover of ground turkey!  It cooks up very nice and it has a good flavor (make sure when you are shopping for ground turkey though that you make sure you buy the LEAN ground turkey…if you are not careful you can get ground turkey that has just as much fat as ground beef…then you are not doing yourself any good!)

I got this recipe from my Weight Watchers cookbook!  It was very good!!!  There was so much flavor in this meatloaf!  And at 4 points a serving you can’t beat it!!  I paired it with Green Giant Garden Vegetable Medley.  People if you haven’t discovered these easy good sides you really need to give them a try.  This particular one was only 70 calories, 0.5 grams of fat, and 1 gram of fiber per serving (that is only 1 WW point!!).  They have many different varieties…we have tried several…and they are full of flavor and very simple to prepare.  All you do is take the bag out of the freezer and put it in the microwave for 8 minutes!!

So this entire meal was only 5 points!!  OMG – you could have 2 pieces of meatloaf and still have a meal under 10 points!

Here is the recipe for the meatloaf:

Makes 8 Servings

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 ¼ lbs ground skinless turkey
• 4 slices whole-wheat bread, made into fine crumbs
• ½ cup fat-free milk
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• 3 tablespoons ketchup
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon dried basil
• ¼ teaspoon dried thyme leaves, crumbled
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350o F; spray an 8x5” loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. In a small non-stick skillet, heat the oil. Sauté the onion until tender, 4-5 minutes.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the onion, turkey, bread crumbs, milk, egg white, ketchup, cheese, garlic powder, basil, thyme and pepper; blend well. Shape into a loaf and transfer to the pan. Bake until browned and cooked through, 50-60 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.

Frito Chili Cheese Wrap

Sonic came up with the most wonderful idea a while back – take the yummy comfort junk food – frito pie – and wrap it up in a tortilla – YUM!!  But when you find out that one of those wraps is 674 calories and 38.5 grams of fat (16 ww points) you realize that you might as well just eat a tub of lard!!!

But there is no reason to be depressed!!!  There is a healthy alternative that will give you all of the flavor of Sonic’s wrap but with only a fraction of the calories and fat (in fact one of these buritos is only about 5 ww points)!!  I once again found this at hungry-girl.com!!!  Below is the recipe that I made (I used a couple of her alternatives due to not being able to find items in the store.)

NOTE:  I discovered something about chili when making this recipe!! I bought the Hormel 98% fat free turkey chili for this recipe!  It is suprisingly very good!!  I seriously could not tell the difference between it and “normal” chili!  I was curious how healthy this could be since it did taste so good.  I had a can of Wolf Brand meat chili and I thought I would compare the nutritional value between the two.  1 serving of the Wolf Brand chili has an astounding 400 calories and 27 grams of fat and is 9 ww points!!!  The turkey chili, on the other hand, has 210 calories and only 3 grams of fat and is only 3 ww points!!  Friends – I have found a new chili!  I don’t think I will ever eat that other chili again!

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup low-fat turkey or veggie chili (I used Hormel’s 98% fat free turkey chili)
• 1 low carb, high fiber large burito size tortilla (I used the whole wheat tortillas from Target – aim for a tortilla with calorie count between 80 and 110 calories per serving)
• 2 tbsp. shredded fat-free cheddar cheese
• 10 Fritos original corn chips (or 1/2 package of Fritos 100 calorie pack original corn chips)
• Optional: 2 tbsp. diced onion

Directions:

1. Place chili in a microwave-safe bowl, cover, and heat for 45 - 60 seconds, until hot. Set aside.
2. Lay tortilla flat on a microwave-safe plate, and warm in the microwave for about 10 seconds. Spoon chili down the center of the tortilla. Cover the chili with cheese, and then top with Fritos. If you like, sprinkle with onion.
3. Wrap tortilla up like a burrito, folding the sides in first, and then rolling it up from the bottom. (Or serve it wrap-style, with one end left open.) Place burrito seam-side down on the plate, and microwave for 30 seconds.

This meal seriously made me so happy!!  I felt like I was having a junk food meal but did not need to feel any guilt for eating it!!  You have got to try it!

Cheddar Turkey Burgers with Oven Fries

I have been thinking about starting this blog for a while now.  I am having more and more people ask me for recipes of foods I cook, especially since I started my diet.  When I saw how delicious these burgers looked and how crispy these fries really were coming out of the oven I instantly thought to take a picture of it and then take the time today to set up the blog!

I hope that you enjoy these recipes. 

Cheddar Turkey Burgers

*This was adapted from the WW Monterey Jack Turkey burgers.  I didn’t have any monterey jack cheese but found it works well with cheddar cheese as well!

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey breast
1 med chopped onion
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs ketchup
1/4 tsp each of black pepper and garlic powder
1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese                                                                 4 strips of turkey bacon

Mix all that up and make into 4 patties.  Grill on tabletop grill 6 to 7 minutes on each side until turkey is fully cooked.  You can put the bacon strips on the grill when you turn the burgers or cook them in the microwave.

I served these on the Orowheat Sandwich Thins (these are a new favorite in our house!  The entire bun is only 100 calories and is super yummy and high fiber which is a Weight Watchers PLUS!!

Since I changed the recipe from monterey jack cheese to cheddar cheese I can’t give the nutritional information.  If monterey jack cheese is used for the recipe the WW points is 3 points per patty.  With the cheddar cheese as far as I know you are about at the same points.   A burger like we had on the sandwich thin with 1 strip of bacon, tomato slice and a tad of light mayo was about 6 points.

Oven “Fries” – WW

Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/4 lbs baking potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch strips

1/2 teaspoon sugar    

4 teaspoons oil   

1 teaspoon paprika             

3/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a non-stick baking sheet w/ non-stick cooking spray.

In a lg. bowl, combine potatoes, 1/4 teaspoons of the salt and all of sugar w/ cold water to cover. Soak 15 min, drain and blot dry.

In another lg. bowl, toss potatoes w/ oil and paprika. Place in a single layer on the baking sheet.

Bake, turning potatoes over as they brown, until cooked through and crisp. (Could take anywhere from 25-45 min., depending on how you cut your potatoes and your oven. My fries only took about 25 minute I checked on my potatoes and turned them about every 5 minute or so. You will see them browning and hear them sizzling.) Sprinkle w/ the remaining 1/2 teaspoons of salt.

Per serving (1/4 of potatoes): 159 Cal, 5 g Fat, 1 g Sat Fat, 0 g Trans Fat, 0 mg Chol, 442 mg Sod, 28 g Carb, 3 g Fib, 2 g Prot, 7 mg Calc.  WW Points – 3  (taken from the New Complete Weight Watchers Cookbook)

If you have any comments on these recipes or the blog in general please feel free to leave a comment.