Wheat Berry Salad

Quite some time back, I stopped at Valley Natural Foods in Burnsville, on my way to pick up Sara from daycare and I happened upon a delish little salad.  The salad had wheat berries in it, along with some other fun stuff like craisins and onions and other veggies.  I have been trying for a while to find a recipe that would come close to that salad and I think I have found it!

Ingredients:

4 cups of H2O
1/2 cup of dry wheat berries (you can find them in the natural foods section of your grocery store, I found mine at Cub)
1 cup of frozen shelled edamame, thawed (I found this in the frozen section where they keep natural foods)
1 cup of chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup of finely diced onion
1/2 cup of craisins
3 Tbsp of Olive Oil
2 Tbsp of Red Wine Vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Combine the water and wheat berries in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil and then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 55-60 minutes or until tender.  Place them in a fine mesh strainer and run under cold water to cool quickly.  Combine the what berries with the remaining ingredients, up to the olive oil.  Combine the oil and vinegar and add your salt and pepper, whisk or stir to combine and the pour it over your salad.


You really could modify this recipe to your liking and add in other veggies, such as any kind of bean (black, cannelini etc), shredded carrots, green onions instead of red... you could also use different vinegars or seasonings or herbs, just make it whatever flavor you like!


This recipe serves 6 people at 3/4 of a cup per serving.  For those of us doing Weight Watchers, the Point Plus value is 5+.


I hope you enjoy this salad!

Shrimp and Avocado Salad with Frico Chips

In my house, one of the TV channels that I frequent is the Food Network Channel.  I LOVE watching the Food Network, I have even gotten my 6 year old to watch with me!  I also frequent their website looking for recipes...www.foodnetwork.com


One Saturday morning, as I sat downstairs with Sara playing PrincessOpoly, I decided to see what was on Food Network.  Ironically, it was a show about Giada De Laurentiis and how she was chosen to prepare the food for the polo match when Prince William and Princess Kate were in the U.S. earlier this year and how she loved pretending to be a princess when she was a little girl.  


One of the menu items was a marinated shrimp dish that looked divine!  I knew I had to make it.

The dish may look like a lot of work, but it wasn't at all.


The Ingredients ~

Frico Chips:

• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiana-Reggiano cheese

Zucchini:

• 1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise
• 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Shrimp:

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Zest of 1 large lemon
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Raw shrimp, peeled and deveined (we used about 1/2 bag of the frozen raw shrimp)

Dressing:

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon agave or honey
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 medium avocado, peeled seeded and diced into 1/2-inch pieces

Directions

For the frico chips: Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Line a baking sheet with a silicon mat or parchment paper. Place eight 1-tablespoon mounds of cheese on the mat and gently tap down until flat. Bake until golden and bubbly, 8 to 10 minutes. Let the frico chips cool until firm, about 5 minutes.

Place a grill pan over medium-high heat or preheat a gas or charcoal grill. (We did ours outside on the grill)

For the zucchini: Brush the zucchini halves with the oil and season with the salt. Grill until tender, 4 to 5 minutes each side. When cool enough to handle, cut the zucchini into 1/2-inch cubes.

For the shrimp: In a medium bowl, mix together the oil, soy sauce, garlic, zest, parsley, chives, salt and pepper. Add the shrimp and toss until coated. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Grill until pink and cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes each side. Chop into 1/2-inch pieces.

For the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, lemon juice, agave, mustard, salt and pepper until smooth.

In a medium bowl, combine the zucchini, shrimp, dressing and avocado. Gently toss until all the ingredients are coated.

We served our salad on top of a bed of shredded lettuce.  Put about 1 cup of shredded lettuce in each bowl or plate, top with the shrimp salad mixture and then place a Frico chip on top.

This was sooo good!  I will definitely make this again.

Chicken Apple Brie Melt

Last week my husband, Duke, and I enjoyed a stay cation and we decided to treat it as if we were out of town, which meant lots of opportunities to eat out!!!


One of our stops during our stay cation was the Mall of America, where I enjoyed a chicken apple brie sandwich at Crave Restaurant.  It was sooo good, but I knew it probably wasn't exactly Weight Watchers friendly; actually everything is WW friendly as long as you record your points, but this sandwich was probably more points than what I had allotted.


I decided I needed to try to replicate this delicious sandwich!


At a recent outing to my local grocery store, I noticed that they had WW Chicken Burgers in the frozen foods section and they were on sale so I picked some up.  I was also trying to figure out what kind of bread to serve my concoction on and went back and forth before deciding on a package of Fold Its.


All said and done, my version of the Chicken Apple Brie sandwich only added up to about 7 points (depending on how much brie cheese you use).

Recipe:
1 Flatouts Fold It bread
1 grilled chicken burger (seasoned to your liking)
1 small chunk of brie cheese
1/3 of a Granny Smith apple cut into matchsticks
Small handful of Spinach leaves
Balsamic Glaze (recipe below)

• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons honey

**Cook in a saucepan over medium high heat until reduced down to about a 1/4 cup, approximately 3-5 minutes.

To construct your sandwich, you will take the brie cheese and spread it over the bottom half of your bread, place your grilled chicken burger on top of the cheese, top with a small handful of the spinach leaves, place the apples on top of the spinach and then top with the balsamic glaze.


Enjoy!!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

What goes best with a rainy day??? Something yummy from the oven!!! 

I decided as I was driving home in torrential rain today that I needed some homemade chocolate chip cookies.  I recently came across yet another Skinny Taste recipe from my favorite site, www.skinnytaste.com,  and this time it was for "skinny" chocolate chip cookies. 

This may be the easiest and most delicious healthy chocolate chip cookie I have ever tasted. 

 THERE IS NO BUTTER IN THIS COOKIE!!!! 

Before you write this cookie off, make it just once and you will be hooked!

*Start by pre-heating the oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium size bowl, combine the following ingredients with a whisk:

*1/3 cup granulated sugar

*1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

*1 egg white

*2 tbsp no sugar added applesauce

*1 tsp vanilla extract

In a small bowl combine the following and stir to mix:

*1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

*1/2 cup all purpose flour

*1/2 tsp baking soda

*1/8 tsp salt

Combine your dry ingredients in with your wet ingredients a little at a time.  I find that it works best to use a fork to combine as it will get pretty thick.

Stir in a 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips: 



You will want to use a very well greased cookie sheet because of the fact that these cookies don't contain butter they will stick if the pan is not well greased.  I like using my Silpat liner, which should also be sprayed to avoid sticking.

Bake your cookies for 8-10 minutes, although I found I had to bake mine for about 12 minutes.  It is best to leave them on the cookie sheet then for about 2-3 minutes before trying to remove the, or they may not be quite as round!

We also made these into little ice cream sandwiches, which was also great!



Summer BBQ Salad

I am somewhat of a carb junkie, I love bread, pasta, chips, you name it.  So naturally I would have a liking to places that serve bread and pasta, such as Noodles and Company.  I have been a fan of Noodles since they opened several years ago so when they introduced their new summer salads last summer I was skeptical that they would be any good, why would a pasta restaurant do salads?  Several people at work suggested that I try the Backyard Barbecue Salad so I did and all I can say is Wow, it was good.
When I decided several weeks ago to go back on Weight Watchers to get back down to my goal weight I knew that Noodles probably wasn't a place I would frequent, but I was still craving that salad.
Much to my delight, I found a recipe for a BBQ salad on Emeals.  Emeals is a great menu planning website in which you can choose from several different food options and then you get a weekly menu, along with a shopping list; you can check them out here http://emeals.com/.

You start with a really good hearty lettuce, I like butter lettuce so when my local grocery store introduced their new line of lettuce I picked some up. 

One of the great additions to this salad is fresh corn, cooked and then sliced off of the cob.  One of the best ways to cook corn on the cob (in my opinion) is in the 'storage size' of the Baggie brand of bags.  You peel the corn and place up to three ears of corn in the bag, twist the bag shut and tuck the twisted part under the corn and then microwave for approximately 1 minute and 45 seconds per ear of corn.  It comes out perfect every time.  You will want to let the ear of corn cool off before slicing it so I placed it in a bowl of cold water.

You will then arrange on the salad the cut corn, diced tomatoes, red onion and any kind of cooked chicken, I used the Perdue brand of grilled chicken strips but you could also used chicken nuggets, breaded chicken breasts or whatever you prefer.

The dressing is so simple but truly makes the salad come together; you combine approximately 1/2 cup of your choice of BBQ sauce and a 1/4 cup of Ranch dressing.  You could use whatever Ranch dressing is your favorite, we make the Ranch from the powdered pouch but you could also use pre-made.

I like to believe that if you did this salad and the Noodles salad side by side in a taste test, you wouldn't know the difference.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

I remember as a kid when my dad would give us a fresh stalk of red rhubarb and a bowl of sugar and we would dip that red rhubarb right in the sugar and eat the whole stalk! Fast forward a few years and I was equally excited when I received a bag of fresh rhubarb from my parents; however, now that I am trying to be healthier I decided to search for a lower sugar version than just a bowl of sugar and my search brought me to one of my favorite websites, http://www.skinnytaste.com; for those not familiar with this website, it is the best thing since a bowl of sugar and stalk of rhubarb!

My search brought me to a delicious Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp.

Start by combining the following ingredients in a 2 qt baking dish:

• 1 lb of Strawberries with the hulls removed and quartered
• 1 lb of Rhubarb cut into bite size pieces

Then you will add to the above and stir to combine:

• The zest and juice from half of one orange
• 1/4 cup of honey or agave nectar (I used honey)
• 1 Tbsp of Cornstarch sprinkled on top 

For the "crisp" on top, you will combine the following in a small bowl:

• 1 cup of Quick Cook Oats
• 1/2 cup of white whole wheat flour (I used 100% whole wheat as that is what I had on hand)
• 1/2 cup of light, unpacked, brown sugar
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/4 cup of melted butter

You will sprinkle the mixture over your fruit and then bake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes.

It would be great by itself (as I was taste testing when it came out of the oven nice and hot) or you could serve it cooled off with a little dollop of whipped cream!  Enjoy~