Tropical Fish

I was looking around on the Weight Watchers website for different recipes again, and I came across a recipe called Tropical Chicken. It was a delicious sounding marinade that they used for both chicken and sweet potatoes. I thought it would be great on fish as well, so I decided to try it out. My fish of choice this particular night was orange roughy.

Tropical Fish (4 servings at 2 points a piece)

3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1.5 Tbsp ginger root, fresh, minced
3 Tbsp apricot preserves
3 Tbsp soy sauce
12 oz Orange Roughy

Preheat grill.

In a large bowl, whisk together lime juice, ginger, preserves and soy sauce. Add fish to the marinade, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours, turning fish occasionally.

Grill fish until cooked through, about 2 to 3 minutes per side.

If you want to grill sweet potatoes using the marinade as well, just make a double batch of the marinade and reserve half of it. Use 2 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed and sliced into 1/4-inch thick rounds. Grill the sweet potato slices until tender, about 8 minutes, brushing with the reserved marinade as they cook. A cup of sweet potatoes is the serving size.

The marinade smelled terrific and made my whole house smell great. I really like the sweet and tangy taste the marinade gave to the fish. You could also use this marinade on chicken, pork, or any other thicker fish.

Breaded Turkey Cutlets

The husband and I both enjoy these breaded turkey cutlets muy mucho. We both used to be fans of fried foods and this is a great, healthy, and very flavorfull alternative.

Breaded Turkey Cutlets (4 servings at 6 points a piece)

Ingredients

1 pound Turkey Breast Cutlets
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cup fat free grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tsp olive oil

Instructions
Place the bread crumbs, cheese, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper into a bowl and mix together. Dip the turkey cutlets into the mixture until coated. Coat a frying pan with 2 tsp of olive oil and let the pan get hot. Place the cutlets into the pan and cook on medium heat. Depending on the thickness of the cutlets it takes about 3-4 minutes on each side. The cutlets should turn a nice golden brown.

The smell of these cutlets frying up is just wonderful, and I really like the crisipy texture. The husband really enjoys these as well. I usually serve these with steamed veggies; this time I had steamed broccoli and cooked baby carrots.

Speedway Pasta Salad

I was perusing Betty Crocker's website again and found a delightful sounding pasta salad. The husband and I are big fans of pasta salads, so when I saw this one I was really excited to try it. Of course there are several things about the original recipe that the husband doesn't like, so a few changes had to be made. You can find the original recipe at the Betty Crocker website. Here is the recipe with my changes:

Speedway Pasta Salad (6 servings at 3 point a piece)

1 package (16 ounces) wagon wheel pasta or rotini pasta
1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
1 cup fat free Italian dressing
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil leaves or 1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1 tablespoon fresh dried oregano leaves or 1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
5 roma (plum) tomatoes, coarsely chopped (1 1/2 cups)
1 large peeled or unpeeled cucumber, coarsely chopped (1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup chopped carrots

1 . Cook and drain pasta as directed on package. Rinse with cold water; drain.
2 . Mix tomato sauce, dressing, basil, and oregano in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and toss.
3 . Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours or until chilled, but no longer than 48 hours.

I really enjoyed the tomato sauce mixed in with the Italian dressing; it was a really nice touch. The salad overall turned out great and very refreshing, the way a pasta salad should :)

Black Beans and Rice

The husband and I really enjoy blackbeans. We also really enjoy rice. So why not put them together? Zattarans makes a black bean and rice dish that I make occassionally, but we really think it's way too salty. So instead, here is my take on black beans and rice.

Black Beans and Rice (4 servings at 4 points a piece)

Ingredients

2 cups minute rice
2 cups chicken broth
1 can (15.5 oz) black beans (rinsed and drained)
1 can (15.5 oz) diced tomatoes (drained)
1/4 cup onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tblsp cumin
1/2 tblsp chili powder

Directions
Cook the minute rice in the chicken broth. While the rice is cooking, spray a small pan with nonfat cooking spray and then saute the garlic, onions, green pepper. Then add the chili powder and cumin to the pepper, garlic, and onion mix. Once the mixture is cooked, stir it into the rice along with the black beans, tomatoes, salt, and pepper.

I served this with cooked polenta. I just used the tube polenta from the grocery store and pan fried it with a little nonfat cooking spray. I put my slices right on top of the black beans and rice and it was quite delicious.

Parmesan Popovers

I thought these would be a nice addition to a grilled chicken salad. At one point a piece, you really can't go wrong with these. I saw Giada De Laurentiis making these on her show a few days ago, and thought it would be super easy to make point friendly. Turns out it was.

Parmesan Popovers (12 servings at 1 point a piece)

Ingredients

3/4 cups egg beaters
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 cup skim milk
3/4 cup fat free grated Parmesan (about 5 ounces)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a blender, combine eggs, flour, salt, pepper, and herbs, milk, and cheese. Blend on medium speed. Spray a mini-muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling each cup 3/4 full. Bake until puffed and golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove popovers from muffin tin and cool on a wire rack.

You can find the original recipe at the Food Network site. Right when they came out of the oven they were all puffed and golden brown. As they cooled they deflated a bit, but that was okay because they were still tasty. The husband said they tasted like a breakfast casserole, and looked like mini soufflés :)

Peanut Butter Cookie Trials and Tribulations

I found a pretty neat sounding peanut butter cookie recipe on the weight watchers boards the other day. It goes something like this.

Peanut Butter Cookies (28 servings at 1 point a serving)

3/4 peanut butter
1 14 oz can fat free sweetened condensed milk
2 cups reduce fat bisquick
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup sugar (or splenda)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, beat condensed milk and peanut butter until smooth. Add baking mix and vanilla extract, mix well. Shape into 1 inch balls. Roll in sugar (or Splenda). Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Flatten with fork, criss-cross. Bake 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Do not over bake. Allow to cool for 1 minute on baking sheets, then transfer to wire rack to cool. A serving is 1 cookie.

I liked how few ingredients the recipe called for, and the fact that I already had all of the ingredients I needed. Of course whenever I cook or bake anything I want to make it husband friendly (a.k.a. lactose free), so in this recipe the condensed milk wasn't going to cut it.

I decided to try Lactaid milk instead. I think I used too much though, and had to add a lot more bisquick to the mix. This led to my cookies being kinda doughy, but they were still tasty none-the-less. But unfortunately, they only lasted about a day, because they got kinda gooey on the bottom. I'm not really sure what happened there.

Since the first attempt didn't turn out as well as expected, I decided to have another go at it. My next go around I used less milk (only 1/4 cup this time), which helped the doughy-ness, but this time the cookies ended up a little hard and pretty crumbly. So with two failed attempts, I think I'm giving up on this recipe. I think I'll keep searching for a different peanut butter cookie recipe instead.

Menu (6/22/06)

Here is my latest menu!

Sun: Grilled chicken salad with parmesan herb popovers
Mon: Polenta with balck bean and tomato rice
Tues: Fried turkey cutlets with steamed broccoli
Wed: Speedway Pasta Salad w/ tropical fish
Thurs: Leftover pasta salad w/ hot dogs
Fri: Grilled chicken with summer vegetable curry
Sat: Leftover grilled chicken with mixed vegetables.

Sun: Lemon pepper tilapia w/ steamed cauliflower and baked potatoes
Mon: Egg salad sandwiches
Tues: Fourth of July Picnic
Wed: Stuffed peppers with steamed veggies
Thurs: Southwestern pasta
Fri: soft foods (I'm having wisdom teeth removed for the second time, oh joy!)
Sat: soft foods

Bean Salad

I was perusing around for some summery recipes and came across this delicious sounding Black Bean Chili Salad. I was all set to make it, but when I went to the store I couldn't find any jicama. I was also worried about the husband not being able to digest the jicama, so I ended up making a mixed bean salad instead.

Here is the recipe for the salad that I was initially going to make:


Black Bean Chili Salad (approx. 8 servings at 2 points each, 1/2 cup is a serving size)

Chili Vinaigrette Dressing (See Below)
1 cup Green Giant® Niblets® frozen whole kernel corn, rinsed to thaw and drained
1 cup diced jicama (5 ounces)
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped (3/4 cup)
2 medium green onions, sliced (2 tablespoons)
2 cans (15 ounces each) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 . Make Chili Vinaigrette Dressing in large glass or plastic bowl.
2 . Stir in remaining ingredients

Chili Vinaigrette Dressing

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped

1 . Mix all ingredients.

When calculating the points for this recipe I omitted the corn. I also omitted 1 tblsp of vegetable oil in the dressing.

However, here is the recipe for what I made instead:

Mixed Bean Salad (approx. 8 servings)

Chili Vinaigrette Dressing
1 can black beans (15 oz)
1 can great northern beans (15 oz)
1 can kidney beans (15 oz)
1 medium tomato
1/4 diced onion

1 . Make Chili Vinaigrette Dressing in large glass or plastic bowl.
2 . Stir in remaining ingredients

This recipe came out to be 3 points per 1/2 cup serving. I let the salad chill in the fridge, and it was very refreshing. And the husband seemed to enjoy it a lot too. It turned out to be a good alternative since I ended up not having everything I needed for the original recipe.

Mahi Mahi

You may have noticed on my menu that I mentioned something about grilled tuna. Well good ol' Kroger didn't have tuna, so I went with mahi mahi.

This is one of the simplest and easiest ways to cook fish. I marinated the fish in fat free italian dressing for about 30 minutes or so. Then I grilled the fish using my grill pan. Wa-La! You have dinner.

Doing this is so easy, and absolutely delicious! And it's a great way to get a good dinner on the table quick. I planned this one for a Sunday so I wouldn't have to put too much effort into it. Sunday's tend to be my lazy days :)

Upside Down Pizza Bake

I came across this recipe a while ago, but unfortunately I really don't remember where I found it. I was drawn to this recipe because I thought it sounded pretty neat, and also because the husband loves ANYTHING and EVERYTHING pizza.

Upside Down Pizza Bake (4 servings at 5 points each)

Ingredients

10 oz ground turkey
1/2 c onion
1/2 c flour
1 c tomato sauce
1/4 c green pepper; chopped
1/2 ts basil
1/2 ts oregano
3 oz nonfat mozzarella cheese (shredded)
1 egg
1/2 c 1% low-fat milk
1/2 ts salt
1 tb parmesan cheese

Instructions

In skillet, saute onions in water. Add turkey and cook until tender. Sprinkle meat with 1 tbsp. flour, stir, and cook one minute. Add tomato sauce, bell pepper, and seasonings and bring to boil. Reduce heat and cook 1 minute. Spray loaf pan with Pam and add turkey mixture. Sprinkle with the mozzarella. In a small bowl beat egg, remaining 1/2 c. flour, milk and salt. Pour batter over turkey. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake 25 minutes.

The night I made this we had one of the Husband's best friends over for dinner. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and the serving size was HUGE. The crust part had an interesting texture. At first I wasn't sure about it, but then I decided that I really like it. It didn't take long to put this together and I think this is something that kids would really like as well.

Mixed Berry Trifle

Obviously I've been spending a lot of time at the Betty Crocker recipe site lately, because today's inspiration yet again comes from that site. That Betty sure does know her stuff!

This recipe caught my eye because 1) it looked very pretty, 2) I was pretty sure that it would taste great, and 3) it looked like a great summer dessert. Here is the original recipe:

1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® white cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 egg whites
1 pint (2 cups) blueberries
1 pint (2 cups) raspberries1pintnt (2 cups) strawberries, halved
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup raspberry-flavored liqueur or cranberry-raspberry juice
1 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 . Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom only of 13x9-inch pan with shortening. Make cake mix as directed on box using water, oil and egg whites. Pour into pan.

2 . Bake 28 to 33 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen cake. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

3 . While cake is cooling, in medium bowl, gently mix berries, granulated sugar and raspberry liqueur.

4 . In chilled large bowl, beat whipping cream and powdered sugar with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form.

5 . Cut or tear cake into 1-inch pieces. In 3-quart glass trifle bowl, arrange half of the pieces. Spoon half of the berry mixture over cake; top with half of the whipped cream. Repeat layers. Cover; refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. Garnish with additional berries if desired.

I decided to make up my own version using angel food cake and other reduced calorie items. Now here is my recipe:

I call it a mixed berry trifle because, unfortunately, I could not find araspberriesies. You can use any mixtures of berries you want, or you could even just go with a single type of berry.

Mixed Berry Trifle (8 servings at 4 points a piece)

1 pre-made angel food cake
1 tub fat free cool whip
2 cups blueberries
2 cups strawberries
1/3 cup splenda
1/4 diet cranberry apple juice

Mix the berries, splenda, and juice in a small bowl. Chop up angel food cake into bite size pieces. Place half of the cake on the bottom of a serving dish. Place half of the berry mix on top of the angel food cake. Spread half of the cool whon toptop of the berries. Now spread the other half of the cake on top of the cool whip. Then place the remaining mixture of berries on top of the cake. Finally spread the remainder of the cool whip on top of the berries.

I let this chill in the fridge for about a half an hour. The husband couldn't take it anymore and finally dug in :) Overall I thought this was a great dish. The berries had a really nice, slightly sweet flavor to them. My houseguest at the moment said this looked like a Fourth of July dessert. I absolutely agree and I think I'm going to fix this again on the Fourth.

I don't have one of those fancy shmancy trifle bowls, but my dish worked just fine. I would recommend something clear so you can see all of those pretty colors and layers.

Chicken Nuggets

Once upon a time I used to fry chicken like it was ain't no thing. I had a little mini fryer and I loved to make fried chicken, whether it be whole breasts, strips, or nuggets. Now that I'm doing the healthy thing, I don't even own a fryer anymore. I do occasionally make fake fried chicken (which is quite tasty), but I haven't done so in a while so, I was really looking forward to these nuggets. I used the Ultimate Chicken Fingers recipe from the Betty Crocker website to make my chicken nuggets.

Ultimate Chicken Fingers (serves 4)

2/3 cup Bisquick Heart Smart™ mix
1/2 cup grated reduced-fat Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt or garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch strips
1/4 cup fat-free egg product
3 tablespoons 40% vegetable oil spread, melted

1 . Heat oven to 450°F. Line cookie sheet with foil; spray with cooking spray.

2 . In 1-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag, stir together Bisquick® mix, cheese, salt and paprika. Dip half the chicken strips into egg product; place in bag of Bisquick mixture. Seal bag; shake to coat. Place chicken on cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining chicken. Drizzle vegetable oil spread over chicken.

3 . Bake 12 to 14 minutes, turning after 6 minutes with pancake turner, until no longer pink in center.

In this recipe I just cut the chicken into strips as directed and then I cut them into nuggets. I used the Reduced Fat Bisquick instead of the heart smart type. I didn't use the the vegetable oil spread on my nuggets either. With my omissions I calculated this recipe to be 6 points a serving. For me that ended up being about 10 nuggets per serving.

Bean Roll Up

One morning, while getting ready for work, I asked the husband what he wanted for lunch. He said he wanted a peanut butter and apple butter sandwich. So I go into the kitchen to make his sandwich, and to throw something together for myself as well. I decide to put some refried beans on a tortilla and make a bean roll up. The husband comes into the kitchen, looks at my lunch, and with this surprised/confused look on his face asks, "what's that?" I tell him it's a bean roll up to which he replies, "Well I wish I would have known that you were making that!" So the next day the husband had a bean roll up in his lunch too :)

These roll ups are something new I started making for lunch. I spread a serving of fat free refried beans onto a tortilla and then roll it up. I like to cut it into smaller segments to make it easier to munch. This quick and simple thing makes a very delicious and filling lunch.

I think it would also be great for kids' lunches, appetizers at parties, or a quick snack. You can easily dress it up a bit by adding some salsa or maybe some shredded cheese or both. And you could even heat it up a bit if you wanted it to, but I prefer mine cold.

Tex Mex Turkey Oven Sandwich

I was looking around for recipes on the interweb the other day and came across a recipe for an oven turkey sandwich. In this recipe they use seasoned ground turkey and vegetables with poultry seasoning and topped it with a sour cream cheesy mess. I thought it was an interesting idea, and decided to come up with my own version.

Tex Mex Turkey Oven Sandwich (Serves 6 at 6 points a piece)

Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground turkey
15 1/2 oz diced tomatoes (drained)
15 1/2 oz canned kidney beans (rinsed and drained)
1/4 cup onion(s) 1/4 cup green pepper(s)
1/4 cup sweet red pepper(s)
1 clove garlic clove(s)
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
4 oz Kraft 2% Milk Reduced Fat Natural Cheese Mild Cheddar Cheese
3 pitas ( I use the Kangaroo pitas from Kroger, they are 2 points a piece)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Brown meat, then add peppers, onion, and garlic. Cook for about three minutes or so or until the vegetables are tender. Once the vegetables are tender add the tomatoes, beans, chili powder, and cumin. Cook until heated through. Split pitas and place on a cooking sheet. Spread meat mixture on top of the pitas and top with cheese. Cook in oven for about 10 minutes.

I was pleasantly surprised at how this turned out. The pitas got very crispy and crunchy. The topping was pleasing to the eye and still very tasty. The fun thing about something like this is you can change the flavors to whatever you want. I think it might be fun to use ground turkey, carrots, onions, celery and poultry seasoning. That would have an extremely different taste to it. You can also put the topping on a slice of bread if you didn't want to use a pita. The possibilities are endless :)

Mini Chocolate-Chip Cookies

I found this Mini Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe on the Weight Watchers website, and have made it a few times now. I like these little cookies a lot. They are very satisfying when you are looking for something a little sweet and a little chocolatey. It also doesn't hurt that two of these little guys are only 1 point.

Mini Chocolate-Chip Cookies (24 servings at 1 point a serving)

2 Tbsp butter, softened
2 tsp canola oil
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp table salt
1 large egg white(s)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
3 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips, about 1/2 cup

Preheat oven to 375ºF. In a medium bowl, cream butter, oil and brown sugar together. Add vanilla, salt, and egg white, and mix together thoroughly. Mix together flour and baking soda. Add chocolate chips and stir to distribute evenly. Drop rounded half-teaspoons of dough onto a nonstick baking sheet. Bake cookies for 4 to 6 minutes, then cool on a wire rack. Yields 2 cookies per serving.

I wanted to take a picture of all of the cookies to show everyone, but we had some friends over and before I knew it, I was down to one lonesome cookie :)

Tuna Pitas with Cucumber

After scrolling through several of my old posts, I realize that I have a thing for tuna. I L-O-V-E it. It is also very versatile, and can be used in many different ways. One such way that I really like is in tuna pitas. Tuna pitas are a great lunch or quick dinner, and they just so happen to be my lunch today.

What I typically do is I make my standby tuna salad. Then I add some chopped cucumber. Finally I stuff it in my pita. The whole thing is 3 points and very filling. I especially enjoy these in the summer time. I think it would be good with some sliced tomatoes as well; but unfortunately for me, I didn't have any on hand this morning. That's alright though, it is still delicious :)

Grocery Shopping Time

It's that time again...time for another menu!

Sun: Fend for selves
Mon: Ground turkey on pitas with steamed veggies
Tues: Leftovers
Wed: Chicken nuggets with steamed broccoli and cooked carrots
Thurs: Upside down pizza bake
Fri: Leftovers
Sat: Grilled Tuna Steaks w/ Black Bean Salad

Sun: Fried Polenta w/ Black bean salad
Mon: Pizza w/ salad
Tues: Pizza w/ salad
Wed: Garlic Lime Chicken with refried bean rolls and steamed veggies
Thurs: Leftovers
Fri: rehearsal Dinner
Sat: Wedding

I'm also going to try to make an angel food torte and peanut butter cookies this time around.

As always if there is a recipe that would like or if you have any questions about my menu, please let me know :)

Slop Slop E Joe

Did you know that the Manwich sloppy joe sauce has only 30 cal. per serving? I didn't until fairly recently.

I have always thought that sloppy joes were just horrible for you, so I never even thought to make them. The husband mentioned something about wanting sloppy joes and how we could just use ground turkey. I was skeptical at first, but then we checked out a can of Manwich and were pleasantly surprised. It's nice to enjoy some sloppy joes again, it makes me feel like a kid.

Sloppy Joes (7 servings at 3 points a serving)

Cook ground turkey. Add sauce until heated through.

I love how easy it is. I usually serve my sloppy joes on light buns. I have a friend staying with us right now and she ate her sloppy joe over a slice of whole wheat bread. That's a good idea too!

French Toast

French toast is one of the first things I ever made when I was a little girl. At first I just did the plain ol' milk and eggs. Eventually I realized you could really add to it with a little bit of vanilla and cinnamon. Then later on I realized that I could make it even better with a little bit of nutmeg.

I think one of the best things about making french toast is the delightful smell. It just fills your kitchen. I also think it makes a great anytime meal. Breakfast, lunch, or dinner, it just works whenever :)

French Toast (3 servings, 2 points a serving)

1/2 cup Egg Beaters
1/4 serving lactaid milk
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
6 slices reduced-calorie bread

In a small bowl whisk together the egg beaters, milk, cinnamon, vanilla, and nutmeg. Spray a small frying pan with no calorie cooking spray. Dip slices of bread into the mixture and then cook on medium until a nice golden brown on each side. A serving size is 2 slices.

I used to top my french toast with BOTH powdered sugar and syrup. What was I thinking?!? Now I top it with Cozy Cottage's fat free maple syrup. One quarter cup of this stuff has just 25 calories and no fat! And it tastes great!

Chicken Bruschetta Bake

This is one of the first WW recipes that I found and tried. It is also one of my favorites.

Chicken Bruschetta Bake (6 servings at 6 points a piece)

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes undrained
2 cloves minced garlic
1 pkg (6 oz) Stove Top Stuffing for chicken
1/2 cup water
1-1/2 lb (4) chicken breasts
1 tsp dried basil leaves
1 cup part skim mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place tomatoes with liquid in bowl. Add garlic, stuffing mix and water; stir just until stuffing mix is moistened. Set aside. Place chicken in 13x9 baking dish; sprinkle with basil and cheese. Top with stuffing mixture. Bake 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

I don't use Stove Top Stuffing because it has dairy in it. That was a shock to me too. I usually just get an off brand, but the points stay the same.

This dish is really easy to put together. So easy that the husband has made this before when I had to work late one evening. I like how the stuffing gets a little crispy and the cheese so melty over the chicken. It's an all-around great dish. Serve with a salad and you have a complete, healthy dinner :)

Island Breeze

Since it's a Friday, I thought it would be a good day to talk about cocktails. I like to enjoy the occasional cocktail every now and then, but what I don't enjoy is how point intense some of them can be. Instead, I usually settle for a glass of wine or a light beer, but sometimes I really do miss those mixed drinks.

So I recently decided to try one of the new reduced-calorie Island Breezes by Bacardi. I went with the Mixed Berry flavor and mixed it with Diet Ocean Spray's Cranberry Spray. In total, the drink was only 53 calories making it 1 point. It was delightful, and I loved the fact that it was only one point. I also think it would be nice to mix it with a cola or a lemon lime soda, so I'll have to try that next. Oh, and mixing it with the Cranberry Spray and orange juice sounds good too! The possibilities seem endless :)

Island Breeze comes in Coconut and Key Lime flavors as well. I think once I finish up my bottle of Mixed Berry, I'd like to try the Coconut. I used to be a big fan of Coconut rum and pineapple juice. Maybe I could concoct something similar. And if you have trouble coming up with cocktail ideas on your own, the Island Breeze website has several light cocktail recipes to help get you started with the mixing.

Tuna Paninis

I was watching Everyday Italian again. I'm starting to think I'm addicted to the show, but how can you not be? The food always looks delicious and Giada is just so cute!

The other day she did a show on late night meals, and she made a tuna panini on focaccia bread. I thought it was a great idea, and decided to make that for dinner last night. I mixed together a quick tuna salad which simply consisted of one 6oz packet of tuna and 2 tablespoons of fat free mayo. That makes two servings for one point a piece. I wasn't able to find any focaccia bread, so I settled instead for a delicious ciabatta loaf fresh from Giant Eagle. I just used two small slices of the ciabatta, and slathered on the tuna salad. I topped the tuna with a sprinkle of mozzarella, and then brushed a little bit of olive oil on each side of the bread. I cooked them on medium in a small pan and used another pan to flatten the sandwiches. I basically used the same method of cooking that I did for the turkey paninis.

I thought that the slightly warm tuna with the melted cheese was great, and the husband seemed to really enjoy it as well. The bread worked out quite well and toasted nicely. I think I'm going to try to come up with another sandwich that I can use the ciabatta bread for.