The Whole Weight Watcher

The Whole Tomato Pie

noreply@blogger.com (WholeFoodie) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:48:00 +0000

There's a restaurant nearby that opened recently that I've been dying to try. It's called Tomato Pie Café. People have been raving about it. At a recent trip to a local market, I happened upon some end-of-season roma tomatoes, so I decided to make my own tomato pie to tide me over until I get a chance to try theirs.

After doing some research, I found two recipes I really liked. One is from Simply Recipes, and the other is from vanilla sugar blog. I like different things about each of them, so I decided to combine them.

Since it's fall now and I feel less like having a summery tomato pie, I used caramelized onions, removed the basil, sliced the tomatoes and sweetened them with a little sugar, and finished it off with a creamy swiss cheese topping.

The caramelized onions make the dish, in my opinion, and it got me thinking . . .

I need to try this with apples and cheddar!

Print recipe

Tomato Pie

Adapted from recipes by Simply Recipes and vanilla sugar blog

Weight Watchers points+: 10 (7 using light mayonnaise)

Ingredients

1 9-inch pie shell (homemade or store bought)

5-6 roma or plum tomatoes

1 large sweet onion

1 tsp. olive oil

1/2 tsp. butter

sprinkling of sugar

1 c. shredded swiss or gruyère cheese

3/4 c. mayonnaise

1 tsp. hot sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake pie shell until it's lightly golden. If it's store bought, 8 - 10 minutes. For homemade, bake longer. Do not overcook, because it will bake more when it's filled. Let cool.

Meanwhile, slice onions by cutting the onion in half, and then cutting them along the grain. Heat the olive oil and butter on medium to medium low. When the butter is melted, add the onions. Sauté, stirring frequently while scraping the bottom, for 30 minutes or until they turn a deep brown color (they will smell fantastic!). If they get too dry, add a little water occasionally.

While the onions are cooking, slice the tomatoes. Slice them thicker than you would for a sandwich, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch. You want them to be on the dry side, so soak up any excess liquid with a paper towel.

Next, combine the cheese, hot sauce, and mayonnaise. I like to stick close to whole ingredients, but you can use a light mayo if you choose.

To assemble, first add the caramelized onions layer to the bottom. Then add the tomatoes, layering them to fill the shell. Lightly sprinkle the sugar over the tomatoes as you add them to decrease the acidity. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Last, spread the cheese mixture over the top, covering the tomatoes. Bake for about 25 - 35 minutes or until cheese is browned.

Enjoy!

The Whole Enchilada

noreply@blogger.com (WholeFoodie) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 20:40:00 +0000

When I was growing up, my mother rarely made one-dish meals. My father was raised on dinners that revolved around four ingredients: meat, potatoes, and two vegetables. In fact, he would occasionally count the foods on his plate out loud, while pointing, "1, 2, 3 . . ." and recounting, "1, 2, 3 . . ." as my mom would scurry into the kitchen to retrieve a forgotten side dish left warming in the oven. This is how we ate, and to me, this was normal.

I found out years later, in college, that this meal-time behavior was not typical. Most of my friends were raised on sauce from a jar, veggies from the freezer, and meats from the deli. In fact, my interest in cooking was so foreign to many of my friends that they couldn't wrap their minds around why I would bother doing such a thing as making homemade pizza.

Around the same time, I also learned how to order takeout. Growing up, if we ever ordered out, it was Pizza Hut. It was topped with meat. And it was rare. At college, the takeout world was in the palm of my menu-filled hand, and, based on the choices in the cafeteria, it was often. College had foods I had never heard of: stromboli, cheese fries, California cheesesteaks, and deep-fried sticks of mozzarella. I ate them all. In just my freshman year.

By my junior year, I had put on 25 pounds and I was broke. But, I now had an apartment and a car. This meant that we grocery shopped. Occasionally. Ideally. Ok, in reality, it meant that my roommates and I ate out.

Since we were all on a budget, we ate frugally <read: looked for happy hours with free food>. Frequently, we would go to Chi Chi's mexican restaurant. The Chi Chi's chain is no longer in business, but when it was, we would go once a week for happy hour, happily eating our way through the steaming buffet of nachos, salsa, tacos, and enchiladas and drinking down the $4 raspberry margaritas. Those were the days.

Beyond the heartburn, I learned something from Chi Chi's. I realized that I loved spicy food, and I wanted to explore foods that weren't categorized into four sections of my plate labeled meat, potatoes, vegetable, vegetable.

Since college (which is now long ago and far away), I have cooked spicy foods from around the world: Spain, Africa, India, China, and more. I love it all -- cooking it and eating it. However, regardless of how many new, unusual recipes I try, I will always love enchiladas.

This is a simple recipe that I found on a site called SparkRecipes, based on a recipe by Specker_Reck. (SparkRecipes is a sister site to SparkPeople, which is a free online community dedicated to helping people live healthier lifestyles, including losing weight.) I've tried other recipes, but this one is my favorite. It's very basic. It's a little spicy, but if you like more heat, you can easily kick it up with more chili powder and/or jalapenos. I used white flour tortillas in mine, because we don't care for corn (which is more authentic) or whole wheat tortillas, but you can easily substitute whole wheat and you'll be all the healthier for it.

My father probably couldn't imagine eating dinner that had been rolled up in bread and baked under a coating of cheese. I owe a lot to that mentality of a traditional meat and potatoes meal. I learned how to prepare meat and fresh vegetables, and I how to coordinate cooking them so they appeared on the table at once. But no doubt, I learned a lot at college too, and I owe something to those Chi Chi's happy hours that introduced me to tortillas, cheese, and the spicy one-dish meal.

Print recipe

Chicken Enchiladas with Cream Cheese

Adapted from Specker_Reck's recipe on SparkRecipes.com

Weight Watchers points+: 10

Ingredients

4 flour tortillas (8 inch)

4 oz. whipped cream cheese

2 whole, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 can black beans (15 oz. can)
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp chili pepper
1 tsp dried onion flakes
1 can tomato sauce (15 oz. can)
3 tsp chili powder
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions
Broil chicken until cooked through, about 5 minutes on each side, depending on thickness. Let cool, then shred with a fork. Meanwhile, combine cream cheese, black beans, red pepper flakes, 1 tsp chili powder, and onion flakes. Add chicken until mixed. Next, warm the tortillas for about 20 seconds in the microwave, so they are more pliable. Spoon chicken mixture evenly onto tortillas. Roll each one and place, seam side down, in a 9x9-inch pan. Mix tomato sauce, remaining 2 tsp of chili powder, and one can water. Pour over enchiladas. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 35 minutes or until hot. Add a green salad on the side.

The Whole Snack

noreply@blogger.com (WholeFoodie) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:25:00 +0000

I joined Weight Watchers in February for the second time in my life. In my twenties, when I was still in a healthy weight zone, I joined to try to slim down my problem areas. Now, twenty years and two children later, I have almost 60 pounds to lose. So far, I'm down 14.

In our meeting yesterday, we discussed healthy and easy choices for snacks. It got me thinking about all the things I love to eat that are whole foods and, therefore, are healthier and fill you up a little longer. Also, a snack should be quick to grab or prepare (when I'm peckish, I want it now!), so these ideas have only two to three ingredients to put together.

Fruit:

Banana ice cream (Mash a banana with a sprinkling of brown sugar or cinnamon or cocoa)
Chocolate-dipped banana (and frozen), strawberries, cherries
Smoothie (blend together 6 oz. of yogurt, 1 banana, ice, and your favorite fruit)
Frozen grapes

Nuts and cheese:

Almonds and cherries
Cream cheese or goat cheese rolled in chopped/ground walnuts, almonds or pistachios
Cream cheese, goat cheese or neufchatel softened and rolled into a log or ball(s). Roll the cheese in chopped nuts and chill. Mix 2 oz. greek yogurt into the cheese for more flavor. Add vegetable soup mix and/or spinach for even more!

Veggies:

Pico de gallo (This is my favorite recipe. Nothing but healthy there.)
Guacamole (Add 1/2 mashed avocado to the recipe above. Good fat, but don't eat too much!)
Crudites with light ranch dressing...carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, radishes, cukes. Yum!

Other:

PB&Chocolate Spoons (1 tsp. of peanut butter dipped in melted chocolate and refrigerated)