Despite being extremely preoccupied with the latest addition to our family, I did manage to get food on the table a couple of nights this week! I haven’t had much time to read through the latest issue of Cooking Light, but this recipe did catch my eye and I put it on our weekly menu. I really liked the flavor of the turkey sausage and the cherry tomatoes were a great fresh addition to this dish. Photographing food with a puppy in the house is my latest challenge, he is into EVERYTHING!
Three-Cheese Baked Penne (from Cooking Light)
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups uncooked whole wheat penne (about 8 ounces tube-shaped pasta)
Cooking spray
2 (4-ounce) links sweet turkey Italian sausage
1 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
10 grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
1 garlic clove, minced
Dash of salt
1 (8-ounce) can garlic-and-herb tomato sauce
3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled goat cheese
1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain and keep warm.
3. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Remove casings from sausage. Add sausage to pan; cook 2 minutes, stirring to crumble. Add bell pepper and next 6 ingredients (through salt) to pan; sauté 6 minutes or until bell pepper is tender. Stir in tomato sauce. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Add pasta to pan, tossing gently to coat. Spoon pasta mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Stir in mozzarella and goat cheese; sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake at 350° for 7 minutes or until bubbly and top is browned.
Serves 6
WW pts per serving=7
May 2, 2008
I don’t think I cooked a single meal last week, I was in another cooking slump. Tyler thankfully stepped in to make dinner last night (don’t ask me what we ate Monday-Friday last week, it’s honestly a blur of cereal and take out). I had been in search of a healthier lasagna recipe for awhile. I love cheese and Italian food and I love big dishes of it that you can eat for days, makes for good lunches! This lasagna was very good, although I can’t say it was as flavorful as the last lasagna I made.
Hearty Lasagna (adapted from Cooking Light)
Ingredients:
1 pound 93% lean ground beef
Vegetable cooking spray
1 cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, divided
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes, undrained and chopped
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can Italian-style stewed tomatoes, undrained and chopped
1 (8-ounce) can no-salt-added tomato sauce
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cups nonfat cottage cheese
1/2 cup (1 ounce) finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1 (15-ounce) container nonfat ricotta cheese
1 egg white, lightly beaten
12 cooked lasagna noodles
2 cups (8 ounces) part skim mozzarella cheese
Fresh oregano sprigs (optional)
Preparation:
Cook meat in a large saucepan over medium heat until browned, stirring to crumble; drain and set aside. Wipe pan with a paper towel. Coat pan with cooking spray; add the onion and garlic, and sauté 5 minutes. Return meat to pan. Add 2 tablespoons parsley and next 7 ingredients; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes. Uncover; simmer 20 minutes. Remove from heat.
Combine remaining 2 tablespoons parsley, cottage cheese, and next 3 ingredients in a bowl; stir well, and set aside.
Spread 3/4 cup tomato mixture in bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 4 noodles over tomato mixture; top with half of cottage cheese mixture, 2 1/4 cups tomato mixture, and 2/3 cup provolone. Repeat layers, ending with noodles. Spread the remaining tomato mixture over noodles.
Cover; bake at 350° for 1 hour. Sprinkle with remaining provolone; bake, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with oregano, if desired.
1 serving = 1/12 of lasagna
WW pts per serving = approx. 5
April 13, 2008
My first issue of Cooking Light finally came this week! I was so excited to see my very own copy in the mailbox last weekend and quickly thumbed through it, then later sat down and bookmarked all the recipes I wanted to try. It is a fantastic issue, with a section about growing your own tomatoes and basil (two things I want to do this summer!) and a section about making your own pasta with K.C.’s own Lydia! I am trying to do a better job about bringing my lunch to work this week. I had been taking Lean Cuisines for the last couple of weeks, and although they are easy, pretty tasty, and easy to track w/WW, they aren’t that healthy with all that sodium and preservatives. So I chose this recipe so that I would have plenty of leftovers for lunches. Each serving is over a cup of salad which is more than enough! I really loved this recipe. It is easy on the dressing, and Tyler would prefer more so next time I might divide it and do double the dressing for him. I found the flavors that stood out the most were the red pepper, the goat cheese, and the arugula. This would be a great recipe to take to a summer picnic.
Chicken Orzo Salad with Goat Cheese (adapted from Cooking Light)
Ingredients:
2 cans fat free chicken broth
1 1/4 cups uncooked orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
3 cups chopped grilled chicken breast strips (such as Tyson)
1 1/2 cups trimmed arugula
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup prechopped red onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano (I used dried)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon extravirgin olive oil
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
6 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) crumbled goat cheese
Preparation:
1. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat; drain well. (I cooked mine in 2 cans of chicken broth instead of water for added flavor)
2. Combine pasta, chicken, and the next 6 ingredients (through oregano) in a large bowl; toss well.
3. Combine vinegar, oil, salt, and black pepper in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Drizzle vinegar mixture over pasta mixture; toss well to coat. Sprinkle with cheese.
Yield:6 servings (serving size: 1 1/3 cups salad and 1 tablespoon cheese)
WW points per serving = 6
March 25, 2008
I am frustrated this week, but trying to stay positive as well. I just wish I had a book of recipes that are tried and true, because I am sick of the duds! I got up early this morning and got the teriyaki pork in the slow cooker and came home to a blackened, burnt mess. I *thought* there wasn’t enough liquid in it this morning, but decided “Hey, this recipe came from an official WW cookbook, I’m sure they test these out and that the recipe won’t steer me wrong.” Mmmm no. There was a not enough liquid and I’m kicking myself for not throwing in a cup of water. So Chick-fil-a to the rescue!
Last night I made a Cooking Light recipe with much better results, although I am not in love with the pizza crust recipe. I prefer the one I used before. The CL one was just far too sticky. I liked the flavor combination of mushrooms, red onion, and gorgonzola. I got a little too generous with the gorgonzola though, and it ended up overpowering the other flavors. In this case I should have followed the recipe more closely! I can never win 
Ah well, practice makes perfect, and Chick-fil-a is right next door when we have a kitchen disaster on our hands.
Shiitake Mushroom and Gorgonzola Cheese Pizza (from Cooking Light)
Ingredients:
1/2 recipe Pizza Dough
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon cornmeal
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced button mushrooms
1 1/3 cups thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms
1 cup vertically sliced red onion
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons low-fat sour cream
1/2 cup (3 ounces) crumbled Gorgonzola or other blue cheese
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 450°.
Roll the dough into a 12-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Place the dough on a 12-inch pizza pan or a baking sheet coated with cooking spray and sprinkled with cornmeal. Crimp the edges of the dough with your fingers to form a rim.
Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and onion; sauté for 5 minutes. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook for 3 minutes or until the onion is very tender. Stir in the salt and pepper.
Spread the sour cream over pizza crust, leaving a 1-inch border. Top with mushroom mixture; sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 450° for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Cut into 8 wedges.
Serves 4, each serving is 2 slices
WW points per serving = 6
March 13, 2008
I saw this recipe on Cooking Light’s website the other day and decided to whip up a batch for my book club tonight. We read Eat, Pray, Love which got me craving some good Italian food and a yearlong trip around the world, but since I can’t really have either right now, these butterscotch bars will have to do I doubled the original recipe, figured I might as well if I was going to go ahead and make a mess in the kitchen! Oh, and I added chocolate chips, because I had a couple of almost empty bags of chips I needed to use up and who doesn’t love a bit of chocolate? These bars are VERY tasty, but it’s hard to eat just one 
Butterscotch Bars (from Cooking Light)
Ingredients
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter or stick margarine, softened
4 large egg whites
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray
1/2 cup butterscotch morsels
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.
Beat sugars and butter at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended. Add egg whites and vanilla; beat well. Lightly spoon the flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; stir well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; beat at low speed just until blended. Add half of the butterscotch and chocolate chips, mix well with a spatula.
Spread batter evenly into an 13 x 9 baking pan coated with cooking spray; sprinkle evenly with the other half of the morsels and chips. Bake at 350° for 28 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack.
Servings & WW Points:
If you cut them into 32 little bars they are 3 WW points per bar
I cut them into 20 bars at 5 WW points per bar.
March 5, 2008
This was a great, fast, Monday night recipe. There’s nothing I hate more on a Monday night than a complicated dinner, so this recipe fit the bill. It was recommended to me awhile back by another Cooking Light fan. We enjoyed this recipe, but definitely make sure to serve it with some lemon wedges on the side, I think it would be a little bland without the fresh squeezed lemon juice. I served this with garlic and herb whole wheat couscous and asparagus sauteed in EVOO and salt and pepper. Quick sides making this dinner prepped, cooked, and on the table in less than 3o minutes!
Baked Salmon with Dill (from Cooking Light)
Ingredients
4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets (about 1 inch thick)
Cooking spray
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 lemon wedges
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.
Place fish on a baking sheet lightly coated with cooking spray; lightly coat fish with cooking spray. Sprinkle fish with dill, salt, and pepper. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness. Serve with lemon wedges.
Serves 4 (1 fillet per serving)
WW points per serving: 7
March 4, 2008
Finally got around to making our pizza today! I was surprised I was able to find fresh, ripe, and tasty roma tomatoes in February but the produce gods smiled upon me I am already getting the itch for fresh summer produce and Saturday mornings at the farmer’s market, I have big plans for the summer! HyVee’s produce will have to tide me over until then. We deviated some from the original Cooking Light recipe, using a Boboli whole wheat crust (which wasn’t as good as I hoped it’d be, shoulda gone for the regular one!) and part-skim mozzarella cheese. The ripe tomatoes and fresh basil were key to the flavor of this pizza, it *almost* didn’t even need the cheese! (this from a cheese addict, so you know it was good!) Maybe next time I’m feeling ambitious I’ll make the crust from scratch.
Quick Pizza Margherita (original recipe from Cooking Light)
Ingredients
1 Whole Wheat Boboli thin pizza crust
Cooking spray
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 garlic clove, halved
3 large plum tomatoes, thinly sliced
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Preparation
Preheat oven to 400°.
Brush crust with 1/2 teaspoon oil. Rub crust with cut sides of garlic.Arrange tomato slices on crust, leaving a 1/2-inch border; sprinkle evenly with cheese. Bake at 400° for 12 minutes or until cheese melts and crust is golden.
Combine 1/2 teaspoon oil and vinegar, stirring with a whisk.
Sprinkle pizza evenly with sliced basil, salt, and pepper. Drizzle the vinegar mixture evenly over the pizza. Cut pizza into 8 pieces.
Serves 4: 2 slices per servings.
WW points per serving: 5
March 3, 2008
Chicken is a staple in our kitchen, but I get bored with it sometimes and honestly we haven’t had much chicken this month. We’ve had a lot of dishes with hot sausage or a nice plateful of salmon but I had so much frozen chicken in the freezer I knew it was time to thaw some out and try something new. Cooking Light again gave us a great recipe to work with. Tyler again lent his helping hand in the kitchen tonight. He prepped and stuffed the chicken while I put together the sides of asparagus with balsamic browned butter and whole wheat couscous. It was a very yummy dinner, I had to resist licking my plate! It’s also a budget conscious meal, Athenos feta cheese goes on sale very frequently at HyVee (and Super Target), so it’s a pretty inexpensive meal if you stock up on chicken when it’s under $2 a lb like we do. Sorry for the blurry photo tonight, I was shaky with hunger 
Feta-Stuffed Chicken (original recipe from Cooking Light)
Ingredients:
4 (4-ounce) skinned, boned chicken breast halves
1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup (1 ounce) crumbled feta cheese with basil and tomato
Vegetable cooking spray
1 1/2 teaspoons butter, melted
Preparation:Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; flatten to 1/4-inch thickness, using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Dredge chicken in breadcrumbs. Spoon 1 tablespoon of cheese onto each piece of chicken, and fold chicken in half. Place folded breast halves in an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Drizzle butter over chicken. Bake at 400° for 25 minutes or until done.
February 1, 2008
I was a little unsure when I first saw this recipe (recommended by another Cooking Light fan!) because the ingredient list is so basic. I’m glad I gave it a shot though, it is delicious and will definitely replace our old “go-to” baked ziti recipe. It fills a 9×13 pan, we’ll be eating it for lunch all week! So glad I don’t have to take a boring old turkey sandwich for lunch tomorrow!
Baked Pasta with Sausage, Tomatoes, and Cheese (from Cooking Light)
Ingredients:
1 (1-pound) package uncooked ziti (or any short tube-shaped pasta, I used rigatoni)
1 pound hot turkey Italian sausage (I buy the already ground Johnsonville sausage)
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 (14.5-ounce) cans petite-diced tomatoes, undrained
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
Cooking spray
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded fresh mozzarella cheese
1 cup (4 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain the pasta, and set aside.
Cook sausage, onion, and garlic in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Add the tomato paste, salt, pepper, and tomatoes, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Combine cooked pasta, sausage mixture, and basil. Place half of the pasta mixture in a 4-quart casserole coated with cooking spray. Top with half of mozzarella and half of Parmesan. Repeat layers. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until bubbly.
January 22, 2008
Well last night we did something crazy. We ate fish in our own house. That’s never happened before. We eat seafood when Tyler’s dad makes it, or sometimes if we’re feeling wild and crazy at a nice restaurant (had some great fish in Maine last summer!), but we’d never purchased or cooked seafood ourselves. I knew I wanted to tackle salmon first. I’m mildly allergic to some fish (though that doesn’t always stop me from eating it) but have never had a bad reaction to salmon. I found a recipe in my new Cooking Light cookbook (can you tell I love this cookbook yet?!) and picked up some salmon filets at the grocery store and away we go! Tyler actually did all the work, I just supervised and then ate it ;) I’m glad we’ve given seafood a try, I think we’ll be trying seafood recipes more often now that I’m not so intimidated!
Citrus Roasted Salmon (from Cooking Light)
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey
4 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (6-ounce) can thawed orange juice concentrate
4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets, skinned (1 inch thick)
Cooking spray
Orange wedges (optional)
Flat-leaf parsley sprigs (optional)
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400°.
Combine first 9 ingredients in a bowl; brush both sides of fish with the orange mixture. Reserve remaining orange mixture. Place fish on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.
Place remaining orange mixture in a small saucepan; bring to a boil, and cook until reduced to 1/2 cup (about 2 minutes). Serve with fish, and garnish with orange wedges and parsley, if desired.
January 18, 2008
