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~