Turkey, Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Shells

My friend made this amazing recipe up!  It actually made me motivated to try stuffing shells with all sorts of different things!  Points plus wise, it's 2 points for 1 shell, but 5 for 2 shells, so that means every 2 shells is 5 points.  3 shells is 7 points, 4 shells is 10, and so on.  But I guarantee you will at least eat 4 of these delicious shells!  The points plus value does not include the french bread (we LOVE bread), but depending on the kind you get, ours was 4 points for 4 1/4" of bread!

I rate it 5 out of 5 stars!  And I'm not just saying that because she's my friend!

Turkey, Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Shells

Makes 36 shells

Points plus value: see above paragraph

Ingredients:

1 lb. lean ground turkey

1-10 oz package frozen spinach, defrosted and water squeezed out

1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

3/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, divided

1/2 cup Egg Beaters

1/4 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs

36 jumbo shells

1 1/2 cups part skim milk shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

2 cups Newman's Own Vodka pasta sauce, divided

Directions:

1. Cook shells according to package.

2. Meanwhile, brown ground turkey in a non-stick saucepan.  Transfer to large bowl.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3. Add spinach, parsley, bread crumbs, Egg Beaters, 1/2 cup Parmesan, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cup Vodka pasta sauce.  Mix thoroughly.

4. Rinse shells in cold water once done cooking.  Stuff shells and spread remaining 1 1/2 cups of Vodka sauce over shells and sprinkle with remaining 1 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees until cheese melts, about 15 min.

Baingan Bharta (Eggplant Curry)

I went out to Indian food a few weeks ago and took the time to look up ahead of time to see what would be low(er) points to eat. I found Baingan Bharta.  I never had it before, but when I did, I fell in love!  So, I decided to try to make my own and it's a good vegetarian dish for lent anyway.  I got the recipe from allrecipes.com (by Yakuta).  I found that it is very similar, but not exactly like an Indian restaurant.  I needed the rice to make it an adequately filling meal, although I definitely could have eaten more!

I rate it 4.5 out of 5 stars

Baigan Bharta (Eggplant Curry)
Makes 4 servings
9 WW points plus per serving (only 4 without the rice)

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 medium onion, thinly sliced (I diced mine)

1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste (I could only find this at an Indian grocery store)

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 tomato, diced

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 fresh jalapeno chile pepper, finely chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 bunch cilantro, finely chopped

4 cups of white rice (cooked)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
2. Place eggplant on a medium baking sheet. Bake 20 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until tender. Remove from heat, cool, peel, and chop into small pieces.
3. Cook rice according to package.
4. While rice is cooking, heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Mix in cumin seeds and onion. Cook and stir until onion is tender.
5. Mix ginger garlic paste, curry powder, and tomato into the saucepan, and cook about 1 minute. Stir in yogurt. Mix in eggplant and jalapeno pepper, and season with salt. Cover, and cook 10 minutes over high heat. Remove cover, reduce heat to low, and continue cooking about 5 minutes. Place over 1 cup rice and garnish with cilantro to serve.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

My friend and I get together every week and take turns cooking dinner.  She's a vegetarian and I was running out of ideas.  I happened to find this one on About.com (by Fiona Hayes to be exact).  I found that the stuffing tasted delicious by itself, but when I ate it with the red pepper, it didn't seem as flavorful, almost like the pepper watered down the taste of the stuffing.  I plan on making this again, but minus the peppers!

I rate it 3 out of 5 stars

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
Makes 4 servings
Only 3 WW points plus per serving!

Ingredients:

2 large red or yellow bell peppers, halved lengthwise, stem intact

2 tsp canola oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 medium carrots, diced

1 1/2 cups diced cremini mushrooms

1 cup cooked quinoa

1/2 cup fat-free, low-sodium vegetable broth

1 cup chopped baby spinach

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Steam or simmer bell peppers in a large pot for 5 minutes until slightly soft (I just cooked mine in the microwave in a glass dish with a little water in the bottom).

2. Heat oil in medium skillet and gently sauté onions, garlic and carrots on medium-low heat until softened.
3. Add mushrooms and cook until soft.
4. Stir in cooked quinoa. Add broth, spinach and parsley and cook for 2 minutes.
5. Scoop one fourth of the quinoa mixture into each bell pepper half, packing firmly.
6. Place peppers in a baking dish. Cover the bottom of the dish with 1/2 cup of water. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, until filling is hot.

Sausage with Broccoli Rabe and Penne

This is one of my favorite dishes to get in a restaurant, but they normally use full fat sausage and probably much more oil than I do!  They also use more pasta, but I realized I don't need much pasta to be satisfied.  I made this recipe up, so no need to give credit to anyone other than myself ;)  I originally thought I could eat half of this recipe (yes, my eyes are bigger than my stomach, haha), but I was full after eating only a quarter.  This was nice because it made it less points!  I simply stopped eating when I was full, a very important WW rule!

I rate it 4 out of 5 stars.

Sausage with Broccoli Rabe and Penne
Makes 4 servings
5 WW points plus per serving

Ingredients:
1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 cup beef broth
1 bunch (about 1 lb) broccoli rabe
1 onion, sliced and halved
4 cloves garlic, chopped
3 lean turkey or chicken sausage (I used sweet Italian flavor- BJ's Wholesale Brand- but use any kind that equals 10 points for this alone)
2 oz. whole wheat penne (I used Barilla- 5 pts.), cooked and set aside
red pepper flakes

Directions:
1. In small saucepan, cook sausage.  Slice and set aside.*
2. Wash the broccoli rabe, chop (excluding bottom stems- about bottom 1.5-2") and set aside.
3. Heat EVOO in large nonstick fry pan (that has a cover).  Saute onions and garlic, uncovered, until soft.  Add water or a little bit of the beef broth to prevent burning.
4. Add broccoli rabe and broth to pan.  Cover and let cook 2-3 minutes to reduce volume of broccoli rabe.  Stir to coat rabe with broth.  Cook uncovered an additional 1-2 minutes.  Drain excess broth.  Add red pepper flakes (I added about 1/4 tsp. but it depends on how spicy you like it) and saute 1-2 min.
5. Add pasta and sausage, toss to coat and heat throughout.  Serve hot! 
If you have an extra additional point or 2, sprinkle with low fat parmesan cheese!

*Step 1 can be done with another step simultaneously to save time if so desired.  I actually cooked my sausage the day before.  I like to cook it in the microwave, slice it and then put it in the saucepan to make it a little more crispy, cooking each side until lightly brown. 

Creamy Broccoli Soup

My sister-in-law and I get Real Simple magazine.  She made this recipe and told me it was amazing and then also proceeded to make it for our family for dinner.  I took a few bites and fell in love.  It is so good!  The original recipe calls for 1 potato, but we used to 2 to make it creamier (my potatoes totaled 13 oz.) and I didn't use a russet potato since I had other white potatoes already.  I may have actually used more broccoli than the recipe calls for too since I just bought a bunch and didn't bother measuring 7 cups...but on WW, vegetables are free, so I figured it didn't matter too much!  Just the consistency may be different from batch to batch.  So without further adieu:

I rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

Creamy Broccoli Soup
Makes 4 servings
7 WW points plus per serving

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. olive oil (I used EVOO)
1 medium onion, chopped
1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper (optional, but I used it)
2 c. low-sodium vegetable broth
1 bunch broccoli florets roughly chopped and stems peeled (yea, I certainly did NOT do that, haha), and sliced, about 7 cups
2 russet potatoes (about 13 oz), peeled and cut into 1/2" pieces
kosher salt and black pepper
2 oz. (1/2 c.) sharp cheddar cheese, grated- I used 2% shredded instead
Bagel chips, for serving
My WW calculations includes 6 bagel chips (15g) and it was the Old London Garlic and Herb variation.

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add the onion and red pepper (if using) and cook, stirring occasionally until the onion is soft, 4-6 min.
2. Add the broth, broccoli, potato, 2 cups water, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. black pepper to the saucepan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until the vegetables are very tender, 18-20 min (mine took a little longer).
3. In a blender, working in batches, puree the soup until smooth, adjusting the consistency with water as necessary.  (Alternatively, use a handheld immersion blender in the saucepan).  Top with the cheddar cheese and bagel chips, if desired, before serving.

Southwest Black Bean Soup

Yea, my very first blog!  I joined Weight Watchers on Tuesday with a friend of mine and I'm really excited to try new recipes and take all the old ones I have and find out how many points they are!  As a way to motivate myself and share with all my fellow WW'ers (as well as the entire web of people, haha), I decided to start a blog!  I hope you enjoy the recipes!

It's still mighty cold here in CT, so I am on a bit of a soup kick.  Here is one of my favorite soups from www.eatbetteramerica.com.  Jalapenos can burn your skin, so I always make sure to pick up some disposable plastic cloves before cutting them.

I rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

Southwest Black Bean Soup
Makes 4 servings
5 WW points plus per serving

Picture from www.eathealthyamerica.com


Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. Olive or canola oil                   

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped  

2-15 oz. cans black beans, rinsed, drained        

2 tsp. ground cumin

1-2 jalapeno chiles, seeded, finely chopped (I used 1)
1-14.5 oz can Muir Glen® organic diced or fire roasted diced tomatoes, undrained (I personally think the fire roasted make the recipe)
2 Tbsp. chopped freshed cilantro
1 cup reduced sodium chicken broth or 1-14.75 can veg. broth (I tend to use veggie)

Plain yogurt or reduced-fat sour cream, lime wedges if desired (this was NOT included in the WW points, mainly because I don't really like sour cream)

Directions:
1. In 4-quart saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and chiles; cook 3 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender.

2. Stir in beans, tomatoes, broth and cumin. Heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Using a potato masher, mash beans until soup reaches desired consistency. Stir in cilantro. Top individual servings with yogurt; serve with lime wedges if desired.

I like my soup thicker, so I tend to mash it more than what they show in the picture.