All By Myself Meals

This past week was a bit of a hell week--Finals week.  So as a teacher, I spent many late nights grading finals, projects and binders so I could get all my grades in by the deadline.  I also started teaching at the Community College this week so I had very little time to do much of anything besides work.  So with little time, I would usually go to Fast Food restaurants for dinner.  Since I am trying to lose weight, that was no longer an option for me.  Instead I decided to try some Hungry Girl recipes with the ingredients I already had.

Cheesy Beefy Quesadilla - (Hungry Girl 200 under 200, Pg. 172, 196 calories, 4 weight watchers points) Since Diana and I had previously tried the Cheeseburger Quesadilla, I decided to try this recipe to see how to two compared.  The Cheeseburger Quesadilla tasted like it sounds--like a cheeseburger.  It didn't have a mexican food flare to it.  This recipe does.  It tastes like something you could order at Del Taco or Taco Bell.  (I actually used my Del Taco Mild seasoning for this one).  So if you like Mexican fast food, I highly recommend this recipe.  It's fast, easy to make, and filling.

Spicy Tortilla Pizza Mexicali - (Hungry Girl 200 under 200 Pg. 178, 196 calories, 3 weight watchers points) Since I had so many tortillas and Boca Burger patties leftover, this seemed like a viable option.  Again, another easy recipe.  I made this one in my toaster oven--which is becoming my standard way of baking these recipes.  It's not exactly the mexican pizza from taco bell but it is a close second and so much better for you.  I highly recommend this if you do like Mexican pizzas.  I personally left out the extra spices and used the Del Taco seasoning but you can season it however you like.

Green Tea Creme Swappuccino - (Hungry Girl 200 under 200, Pg. 194, 75 calories, 2 points) I have already made this drink several times.  I used to be a Starbuck regular and every time I would order a Green Tea Latte or Green Tea Frappacino.  Now that I know how many calories I used to consume, I stick to the Skinny Lattes.  But when I saw this recipe, I jumped for joy--I can have my Green Tea drinks once again.  I do recommend this recipe but don't expect it to tast exactly like the Starbucks version.  For me, the hardest part about this recipe is finding the Matcha Green Tea powder.  I did find it at Whole Foods but it is $34 for a small can.  Instead, I bought the liquid concentrate of the Matcha Green Tea at Ralphs.  You do have to add more than one tablespoon since you are not working with the powder.  The first time I did this, I just used one tablespoon and I barely tasted the Green Tea--it was more like a Vanilla shake.  A good vanilla shake but still a vanilla shake nonetheless.  So I made it again and added around 4 tablespoons.  So much better.  It's still not green like the Starbucks version but I don't care about the color, just the taste.  If I do eventually find a cheaper matcha green tea powder, I will report back with the results of the comparison between using the powder and the liquid.

Hungry Girl Weekend #2

This weekend we decided to have a theme--mexican recipes with American flavor.  We chose all of our recipes from the Hungry Girl 200 under 200 recipe book. 

We chose an appetizer--Holy Moly Guacamole; a meal--Cheeseburger Quesadilla; and a dessert--Strawberry Shortcake Bites.

Holy Moly Guacamole: (Hungry Girl 200 under 200, Pg. 112)  This tastes just like guacamole but it is only 78 calories per serving and 1 weight watchers point.  The secret ingredient--peas.  You still add an avocado but the majority of the mixture is peas.  I know because I mashed them up.  Diana and I vowed not to tell her husband Matt since he doesn't like vegetables.  He ate the guacamole.  I even tested it out on some other friends and they all loved it.  They couldn't believe I used peas.  So this is a definite score--a must have for parties and Wii Weekends.

Cheeseburger Quesadilla: (Hungry Girl 200 under 200, Pg. 182) Another amazing recipe where you would never guess the ingredients unless you were the one who made it.  It tasted like a cheeseburger wrapped in a tortilla.  I even added ketchup to further decieve my tastebuds.  A 186 calorie cheeseburger made without meat--Amazing!  I don't know about you but whenever I used to see the Boca Meatless burgers in the grocerer's freezer, I thought they looked scary.  What is a meatless burger?  I still don't really know but it tasted good.  So try this recipe and don't tell your friends, family, or significant others what you used.  See what they think?  See if you can decieve their tastebuds.

Strawberry Shortcake Bites: (Hungry Girl 200 under 200, Pg. 256)  This is an 88 calorie dessert that tastes like one of those strawberry ice cream/frozen yogurt bars.  The only thing that we would suggest is using mini muffin cups.  In the large muffin cup, the cool whip mixture engulfs the vanilla wafer that is supposed to serve as the crust.  So this one we still want to play around with and see what we can do to fix the recipe, to get it to stay on the vanilla wafer.  Overall, it is tasty, just gets messy when it starts to thaw.