Diet Friendly | TidyMom

Cannellini Tuna Salad

3 May posted by TidyMom

Cannellini tuna salad

It’s May already? Where does the time go? Do you know I actually wrote 2012 by mistake the other day! hah.

Since the warmer months are quickly approaching, I’m trying to eat healthier and lighter.

I’ve had a fling with beans lately; the Caramelized Black Bean butter was a yummy treat I plan to make often! I had the Black Bean soup at Panera the other day…..Oh. MY. was it good!! If anyone has that recipe, PLEASE send it over! Then I made this tasty Cannellini Bean and Tuna Salad for lunch the other day.

I was discussing ‘beans’ with Bridget and she pushed me over the edge with this combo, to my surprise I really enjoyed it and was a nice light alternative to the usual tuna salad with mayo. (Bridget suggested a little sour cream, but I didn’t have any, so I came up with a recipe with what I had on hand)

I paired canned tuna and cannellini beans to make a super-simple, satisfying lunch severed over a bed of spinach, or tuck into a whole wheat pita for another variation.

Recipe: Cannellini Tuna Salad

Ingredients

1 (16 ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (I prefer Bush’s Beans)
1 (12 ounce) can tuna in water, drained
1 tablespoon capers, rinsed and pat dry
1 tablespoon olive oil
1-2 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
kosher salt and cracked pepper, to taste
handful of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
2 cups fresh spinach

Instructions

In a medium bowl, mix cannellini beans, tuna and capers. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. Gently fold in cherry tomatoes and half of the parsley. Season with kosher salt and black pepper to taste.
Serve immediately on bed of spinach. Garnish with remaining parsley. (Can be served cold, just refrigerate tuna salad and place on spinach when ready to serve)

Preparation time: 5 minute(s)

Cooking time: 1 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 2

More Bean Recipes

The Bodacious Bean

Roasted Corn and Black Bean Soup

Black Bean Brownies

White Bean Chicken Chili

If you have a bean recipe you’d like to share, feel free to leave the blog link in the comments or on the TidyMom Facebook Page

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Filed Under: Diet Friendly, Main Dish, Recipes, Tidy Mom
Tagged With: beans, Bush's Beans, salad, tuna

{Low Cal}Three Cheese Chicken Penne Bake

21 Feb posted by TidyMom

42 Comments

If you’re trying to watch your weight, you probably stay away from pasta dishes. Pasta isn’t exactly “diet friendly” with all of it’s calories, and a recipe like Three Cheese Chicken Penne Bake doesn’t exactly sound “low cal“.

But my family loves pasta dishes, and they’re usually a quick and easy dish to get on the table, which I like!

So I was excited when I found this pasta recipe with only 460 Calories per serving! It was a big hit with my family, and I just giggled that I had a healthy pasta dish to serve them and they were clueless they were helping me stay on track watching my weight.

Three Cheese Chicken Penne Pasta Bake

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Diet Friendly, Main Dish, Recipes, Tidy Mom
Tagged With: chicken, I'm a, pasta, Weight Watchers

Big, Soft, Almost Fat-Free Chocolate Cookies (Weight Watchers 2 points)

14 Feb posted by TidyMom

32 Comments

As Valentine’s Day is a day of decadence, it’s hard to resist all the Valentines Day temptations that we are seeing all over. Did you know it’s easy to swap ingredients to make a favorite recipe healthier with just a few tips:

Replace half the fat of any cookie recipe with an equivalent amount of unsweetened applesauce or mashed-up, ripe banana. If you do so, always double the amount of vanilla or other spices in the recipe.
Always cream the butter or shortening for at least 2 minutes in the mixer at medium speed. More tender cookies have more air beaten into the batter. But once you add the flour, never beat the batter, only stir with a wooden spoon, just until moistened and incorporated. You don’t want the glutens to get stiff.
If a recipe calls for two whole eggs, use 1 whole egg and 2 egg whites; if it calls for 3 whole eggs, use 1 whole egg and 3 egg whites.
Replace walnuts, pecans, and hazelnuts with almonds, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, or unsalted sunflower seeds.
If you replace buttermilk or sour cream with low-fat buttermilk or fat-free sour cream, use cake flour rather than all-purpose flour for more tender cookies.

You can still get your sweet fix today (or any day) with out blowing your diet!!
Instead of chocolate & strawberry cupcakes, Cherry Sweetheart cake, or Butter Cookies ………try Big, Soft, Almost Fat-Free Chocolate Cookies! You can have chocolate cookies and still stay on your plan!

Almost Fat Free Chocolate Cookies

I plugged this recipe into the Weight Watchers Kitchen Companion app on my iPad and found they were only 2 points each on the new PointsPlus™ program!

The Kitchen Companion app makes it a breeze to follow a recipe on the iPad while I cook/bake. I can check off ingredients as I go (not that I’ve ever forgotten an ingredient, ehmmm), and even set a timer right in the app.

Don’t you just love that handy dandy rack I got for the iPad?….I’ll be sharing more about that soon!

The recipe calls for rounded tablespoonfuls, normally I wouldn’t bother measuring, but since I wanted to be sure to get the correct size for my 2 points, I used a measuring spoon to drop each cookie on the pan. (Besides, I had to show off my adorable new apron I got from a certain roommate I shared a room with recently)

The recipe says you should get about 24 cookies, I got 30.

Recipe: Big, Soft, Almost Fat Free Chocolate Cookies

Summary: You can have chocolate cookies and still stay on Weight Watchers new PointsPlus Plan!

Ingredients

1 oz unsweetened baking chocolate square
4 egg whites
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup white all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp table salt

Instructions

Preheat oven 350. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Place the chocolate square in a small bowl and microwave on High 15 seconds, stir, then continue microwaving in 10 second increments until mostly melted. Remove from the microwave and continue stirring until completely melted. Set aside.
With an electric mixer on high, beat the egg whites in a large bowl until foamy, about 30 seconds. Beat in both sugars and vanilla until creamy (about 1 minute). Beat in the melted chocolate. Remove the beaters and stir in the flour, whole-wheat flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt all at once with a wooden spoon, just until moistened.
Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet. Bake until puffed, about 15 minutes. Cool cookies on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then cool completely on a rack. Cool the baking sheet for 5 minutes before baking additional batches.

Quick notes

Store in an air-tight container for up to 5 days.

Cooking time: 15 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 24

ENJOY your Valentines Day with out the guilt!

Recipe Girl has a yummy Weight Watchers Sugar Cookie Recipe to help you survive the day too!!

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*Disclosure: No compensation was received for this post. I am a Weight Watchers Insider for the new Weight Watchers PointsPlus program and have received complimentary online access to Weight Watchers, an IPad with the Weight Watchers Kitchen Companion App downloaded, and other tools. My opinions and love of chocolate are all my own.