Weight Watchers Recipes

It's official. I've been too scared to step on the scales since the holidays, but I do know that I'm starting weight watchers again! I had a really good experience with it and loved the results.  As I was pulling out my tracker and dining out companion, I found some recipes I thought I'd share! I'm using the old points system but one recipe is the PointsPlus value, just fyi.

Oatmeal-Raisin Bites.......makes 40 servings/PointsPlus value per serving: 2

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup whole-grain wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp table salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup raisins, chopped

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, combine oats, flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon; set aside. Using an electric mixer, cream butter and both sugars until incorporated. Add egg and vanilla; mix thoroughly. Add oat mixture and mix until just combined; fold in raisins.

Drop rounded teaspoons of batter onto 2 ungreased cookie sheets, about 1-inch apart each. Bake for 9-10 minutes for chewy cookies or 11-12 minutes for crispy cookies. Remove from oven and let cookies rest on cookie sheets for about 2 minutes; remove cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Yields 1 cookie per serving.


Sweet Potato Crunch..............Serves 8 (1/2 cup servings) POINTS value per serving: 2

4 each----Sweet Potatoes (8 to 9 oz each)
1 1/2 cups- Weight Watchers Vanilla Nonfat Yogurt
1/2 tsp----Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 1/2 tsps- Kosher salt
2/3 cup--Low fat granola
               Cooking spray, butter flavor

1. Place washed sweet potatoes in oven and bake at 350 for approx. 40-60 minutes, until they are soft to the touch. After the potatoes have cooled, remove the skin.
2. Place the sweet potato flesh in a mixing bowl. Add WW Vanilla Nonfat Yogurt, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Whip on medium speed until all of the yogurt is mixed into the potatoes.
3. Coat glass or ceramic baking dish (1 1/2 to 2 quarts) with cooking spray. Scoop potato mixture into the prepared baking dish.
4. Sprinkle granola evenly across the top of the potatoes and lightly coat with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for approx. 40-50 minutes. Remove from oven and serve.

Italian Turkey Burgers...............5 points value per serving/ Prep: 20 min/ Cook: 10 min/ Serves 4

1 spray cooking spray
1 lb lean ground turkey
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp fennel seed
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 sprays olive-oil cooking spray
4 reduced calorie hamburger rolls
2 small ripe tomatoes, yellow and/or red, thinly sliced
1 cup fresh basil leaves, torn or thinly shredded

Coat a grill or grill pan with cooking spray; preheat to medium-high.
In a large mixing bowl, combine turkey, onion, garlic, fennel seed, salt, and pepper; form four 1/2-inch-thick patties. Coat burgers and inside of rolls with olive-oil cooking spray.
Grill burgers for 5 minutes; flip and add rolls to grill. Grill open-face rolls util lightly charred, about 1-2 minutes; remove to serving plates. Grill burgers until cooked through, about 5 minutes more
To serve, top grilled rolls with tomato slice and burgers; garnish with basil. Yields 1 burger per serving. good idea: for an extra flavor hit, rub bread with a cut garlic clove as it comes off the grill.  and try burgers with arugula leaves instead of basil.

Sooo...even if you aren't interested in doing weight watchers...these are still really good, healthy recipes that sound fairly easy!