Skinny Cinnamon Vanilla French Toast

Nothing says the weekend like the smell of vanilla and cinnamon in the air! These are so good! I made them this morning for my husband because I had some bread to use up, and I always have milk, eggs, cinnamon and vanilla extract on hand. He's a picky eater, but he gobbles these up quickly. They are made with light bread and milk instead of cream, which keeps them light. The cinnamon and vanilla give them great flavor, which makes up for the lack of cream and heavy bread and keeps you fitting into your jeans! Enjoy!

Skinny Cinnamon Vanilla French Toast

2 eggs
couple splashes of milk, 1% or skim (maybe a 1/4 of a cup...I eyeball it.)
couple heavy dashes of cinnamon (2 tsp or so)
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
4 pieces of Wheat or Multigrain bread, preferrably reduced calorie
Light syrup

Preheat flat top grill to 350 degrees. Whisk eggs together with milk, cinnamon, and vanilla. Dunk each slice of bread into the egg mixture, making sure to coat both sides. Do not let it soak, the bread will fall apart...just dunk it in enough to coat both sides. Place each piece on the grill, top with a tiny bit more of cinnamon if you like (I do). Cook for 3-4 minutes until golden on one side and no raw egg remains, flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from grill onto plate and top with light syrup (2 T or so). You can also top that off with some confectioner's sugar if you like, but that will obviously add calories.

Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I got this recipe from Cooking Light magazine and tweaked it slightly, as I didn't have dark chocolate on hand. They are so chewy and delicious, I love them! These are a lightened version of chocolate chunk cookies and the coconut adds an entirely different dimension. And at just 88 calories and 3.8 grams of fat (2 PointsPlus) per cookie, who can resist? Soooo good! Here's the recipe:

Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

1 c. sweetened coconut flakes
1 c. flour (all-purpose)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 c. brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/4 cup chocolate chunks, chopped into small pieces (you can use chocolate chips if you want, but I like the texture of the chunks).
Cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place coconut flakes on a baking sheet and toasted in oven for 5-7 minutes, stirring once to evenly toast (be careful so that it does not burn--all ovens are different!). Set aside to cool. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a med bowl, stir with whisk.

In another bowl, cream together sugar and butter (use a hand mixer to get it thoroughly mixed...this is an important part!). Add vanilla and egg, beat well to incorporate. Add flour mixture in 2-3 parts, mixing to incorporate before adding more of the flour mixture, being careful not to overmix. Stir in toasted coconut and chocolate pieces.

Drop cookies (I used a cooking dough scoop) by the tablespoon, making sure to keep them to even amounts. Bake cookies at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cookies will still be light in color, but bottoms will have browned. Remove from oven and cool. Makes 25 cookies.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

 I found this recipe on Food.com and changed just a few things to make it more "point friendly." It's surprisingly light and tasty! Mmmm....


Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 T. EVOO
1 cup carrots, diced
1 cup celery, diced
large onion, diced
1 T. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
A few cranks of freshly ground black pepper
4 (14 oz) cans chicken broth + 1/3 c. for shredded chicken
1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes
2 (15 oz.) cans tomatoes with green chiles (mild or medium work well).
2 (1 1/4 oz.) packets taco seasoning.
10 small corn tortillas
1 lb. chicken breasts
2/3 cup thick and chunky salsa
1/2 cup reduced-fat mexican cheese
1 cup 1% milk
corn tortilla chips, broken into small pieces

To make shredded chicken: Place chicken breasts in slow cooker. Add 1/3 c. chicken broth, 2/3 cup thick salsa, and taco seasoning packet. Cook on low for 6 hours, then shred easily with fork.

Saute carrots, celery, and onion in EVOO until tender. Add salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Add chicken broth and bring mixture to a boil. Add tomatoes, taco seasoning packet, and chicken.

Stack tortillas, one on top of the other. Cut stack in half, then slice thin strips (about 1/4 inch
wide). Add to broth mixture. Boil 20 minutes until tortillas are well incorporated, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low, add cheese. Simmer another 10 min. Add milk, continue to simmer another 10 min. Top with shredded cheese, cilantro, sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips.

Lemon Pie

This is one of my all-time favorite recipes! I love the tart flavor of lemon, especially the flavor from the zest in this pie. I adapted this from a Weight Watchers recipe. Once you try it, you'll be hooked! Here's the recipe:

Lemon Pie

6 whole reduced fat graham crackers (use cinnamon graham crackers for more flavor)
2 T. butter
1 (14 oz) can of fat-free sweetened condensed milk (use Bordens)
2 large or jumbo eggs
Juice of 2 lemons
zest of 3 small lemons (if you don't want it to be as tart, cut it down to 2 T....I like all 3 lemons zested!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use a food processor to process the graham crackers to crumbs, add butter and pulse a few times to combine butter with crumbs. Press crumbs evenly onto bottom of 9" pie pan, put pan in refrigerator while making the filling.

Combine condensed milk and eggs into a bowl, mix. Add lemon juice and zest, stir. Pour mixture into pan over crust. Bake for 15 minutes, cool. Serve pie chilled. You may freeze this for up to 2 weeks before serving. I actually like the texture of the pie better when frozen, so I keep mine in the freezer and let it thaw for a few minutes before eating a piece. Cut into 10 pieces, 4 WW pointsplus values/serving.

Tasty Grape Dessert

I'll admit, the picture doesn't look very good! Honestly though, grapes in a sugary cream cheese and yogurt sauce topped with sugar and nuts!! You need to try this recipe, I promise it's fabulous! I found this dessert on Gina's website, Skinnytaste.com. She has a great collection of WW friendly recipes and I've made a few in the last week. They have turned out very well. This one is extremely tasty and very light and clean. I did modify it a little because I found there were a few extra calories hidden that could be eliminated. Here it is, enjoy!

Tasty Grape Dessert

1 lb. green seedless grapes, washed and dried.
1 lb. red seedless grapes, washed and dried.
8 oz. fat free vanilla Chiobani greek yogurt (I had to use a container and a half of the individual ones).
4 oz. neufhatel cheese (1/3 less fat than cream cheese!)
1/4 c. sugar (probably could use less)
1 tsp. PURE vanilla extract (don't use imitation, it's gross).

To make topping:
2 T. brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Place yogurt, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in a med sized bowl; beat with mixer until no lumps remain. Stire in grapes and pour into a large serving dish (I used an 8x8" pan). Combine brown sugar and chopped pecans. Sprinkle over top of grapes and chill until ready to serve.

Deep Dish Pizza Casserole

This is another one of my husband's childhood favorites. My mother-in-law gave me the recipe and I've changed it up a bit to make it lighter. Try it, you won't regret it! NOTE: I think next time I would chop up some onion, green or red bell peppers, and mushrooms to the mixture to bulk up the veggies in the filling and lessen the points plus value.

Deep Dish Pizza Casserole

1 lb. of ground beef, 93% lean
1 (15 oz) can + 1/2 cup pizza sauce
1 (11-oz) tube of refrigerated thin crust pizza dough
1 1/2 c. shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/2 pkg. turkey pepperoni
1/3 to 1/2 c. green olives
1 (14 oz.) can of diced tomatoes (Diced tomatoes with green chiles like "Rotel" would be better...but I didn't have any on hand. Tomatoes help increase the volume of the filling without changing the taste).

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cook meat in a nonstick pan; drain. Return meat to skillet and add green olives, tomatoes, and 1/4 of the pkg of turkey pepperonis. Add pizza sauce and cook until heated through.

Spray a 9x13 inch pan with cooking spray. Place pizza crust dough into bottom of pan and half way up sides of pan. Place pan of pizza dough into oven and bake for 5 minutes to precook crust (crust will not bake thoroughly if you do not do this). Remove from oven and top bottom of pizza crust with meat mixture. Bake casserole, uncovered, at 425 for another 10-15 minutes until crust is golden and cheese is melted.

Serves 6= 10 WW PointsPlus if 8 servings, 8 points plus.

What's Cookin'?

Tonight I'm making some healthy recipes:
1. Chicken Tortilla Soup (low cal, low fat...4 WW PointsPlus)
2. Chicken n' Cheese Quesadillas...for later in the week
3. Pizza Casserole

I'll post 2 of them tonight!

A little side note: I'm cooking chicken in the crock pot today for supper. The chicken is doing double duty: it's cooking in chicken stock, salsa, and taco seasoning. This will 1. season the chicken for the quesadillas and 2. make a flavorful broth for the base of my chicken tortilla soup. I made 4 chicken breasts, 2 for the soup and 2 for the quesadillas. This makes 2 meals for the week soooooo much easier!!