This Mama Cooks! On a Diet

Protein Potato Salad with Asparagus Spears and Nectarine Slices

This salad is a meal in itself and perfect for summer since asparagus and nectarines (or peaches) are in season. The recipe comes from Nancy S. Hughes book, The 1500-Calorie-a-Day Cookbook, which was sent to me by the senior editor at Diets in Review.com as a thank you for my guest post, Frozen Fruit Popsicles Make Snacking Healthy Fun.

The cookbook features nutritious meals at around 350 calories per serving, 150 calorie snacks and 150 calorie decadent desserts. I’m sure I’ll be dipping into The 1500-Calorie-a-Day Cookbook a lot.

Here’s a salad that provides a walloping 16 grams of protein and only 7 Weight Watchers POINTS per serving.

Protein Potato Salad with Asparagus Spears and Nectarine Slices
Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. (2 cups) diced extra lean ham
• 8 cups of water
• 1 1/2 lbs. (6 cups) red potatoes, scrubbed & cut into 1/2 in cubes
• 1/2 cup lite mayonnaise
• 2 tsp prepared mustard or to taste
• 1 1/2 medium celery stalks, chopped fine (1 1/2 cups)
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped fine (1/2 cup)
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 pound fresh asparagus
• 2 medium nectarines or peaches, pitted and sliced

Directions:

1. Place a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until hot and coat it with cooking spray.
2. Add the ham and cook 3-4 minutes or until it begins to brown, stirring occasionally. Remove from Dutch oven and place in a large bowl. Set aside.
3. Add the water to any pan residue in the Dutch oven and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the potatoes, return to a boil, and continue to boil for 5 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
4. Meanwhile, combine mayonnaise, mustard, celery and onion in the large bowl with the ham. Stir until well blended and set aside.
5. While potatoes are cooking, steam or microwave asparagus. Cool under cold water and blot dry. Set aside.
6. Drain potatoes in a colander and run under cold water until cool. Shake off excess water and add to the ham mixture.
7. Stir gently yet thoroughly until well blended and top with black pepper.

Each serving is 1 1/2 cup salad, served with with 4 ounces asparagus as a salad bed and  1/2 nectarine slices.

Nutritional information:

Salad: calories 300; total fat 12g; protein 13g; carbohydrates 35g; fiber 4g; cholesterol 35mg; sodium 930mg

Asparagus: calories 20; total fat 0g; protein 2g; carbohydrates 4g; fiber 2g; cholesterol 0mg; sodium 0mg

Nectarines: calories 35; total fat 0g; protein 1g; carbohydrates 8g; fiber 1g; cholesterol 0mg; sodium 0mg

Weight Watchers POINTS = 7

Summer salads: Holly Clegg's Marinated Shrimp Edamame Salad

Summer has finally arrived in Colorado, meaning it’s hot and the AC and fans are most of the day. In this heat, the last thing I want to do is cook. Actually, I want to lie down next to one of the vents and read books all day. (I’m not good in the heat.) So finding easy to make, healthy salads – and sharing them with you - is my mission this week. 

My first choice comes from Holly Clegg. I’m a big fan of her freezer meal bible, Holly Clegg's Trim & Terrific Freezer Friendly Meals. She personally sent me a few of her cookbooks, including her latest KIDS COOKING for Mommies, which encourages parents and children to cook together. Love it, but I wish it had pictures and an index, too.

However, the book that really intrigued me was Holly Clegg's Trim & Terrific Gulf Coast Favorites. I lust after Cajun and southern cooking – but don’t like it’s high fat content. (Justin Wilson anyone? Love him! Only he could make pork stuffed pork.) Instead, Holly uses her usual culinary magic to create every day dishes that are healthy and delicious. Each recipe comes with full nutritional info including diabetic exchanges. Trim & Terrific Gulf Coast Favorites also features vegetarian and freezer friendly make-ahead recipes and menus.

Shrimp and edamame are always in my freezer and wasabi paste is always in the fridge, so this salad is first on my list after I get more cherry tomatoes from Costco. The ones I bought last week have magically disappeared. (Burp.)

Fruit on a stick? Try grilled #strawberries and kiwis

I was part of the #strawberries tweet up last night with Dave Grotto that was hosted by the California Strawberry Commission.

I asked Dave if he had ever grilled strawberries, since grilled fruit seems to be a trend this summer in all the food magazines. He tweeted that he had just enjoyed grilled watermelon and strawberries for breakfast that morning. Hmmm, sounds kind of good, in a weird sort of way.

So I went online to the California Strawberry Commission recipe page, did a search on “grilled,” and lo and behold, look what I found – a strawberry kabob recipe!

Weight Watchers food on a stick: Curry-Marinated Chicken Kebabs

O.K., is it “kebab” or “kabob”? According to Wikipedia, it can be “kebap, kabab, kebob, kabob, kibob, kebhav, kephav.” The history of the dish is rather interesting, so take a peek at the entire entry for “Kebab” when you have a sec.

My husband is a huge fan of the German-style döner kebab, which he ate a lot of when he lived in Berlin as a student. Basically, it’s fast, greasy, delicious and cheap take out food you eat around 4 a.m. on your way home after a hard night of drinking.

But let’s turn our attention healthy Weight Watchers kebabs (their preferred spelling) instead. This dish comes from their cookbook, Weight Watchers Grill It! 150 Flex & Core Plan Recipes.

What I especially like about this dish is that it’s inexpensive to make and instead of more traditional kebab veggies like tomatoes and zucchini, it uses apples.

Tofu on a stick? You betcha! Try Grilled Tofu Kabobs

Tofu kabobs? Who said that only meat eaters could enjoy grilled food?

Tofu Kabobs are perfect for when your vegetarian friends come over for a barbeque. (Double check to make sure the Adobo sauce is vegetarian. If not, make a seperate skewer and use teriyaki sauce.) It’s also something you meat eaters should try since nutritionally tofu is:

• A great source of protein. One half-cup serving (approximately 4 ounces) of raw firm tofu contains 10.1 grams of protein. By comparison, 1/2 cup of milk contains 5.1 grams of protein, one whole egg contains 6 grams, and 4 ounces of ground beef contains about 26 grams.
• Low in calories. One half-cup serving of raw firm tofu contains 94 calories. By comparison, 4 ounces of ground beef contains 331 calories, and 1/2 cup of 2% milk has 60 calories.
• Low in fat. One half-cup serving of raw firm tofu contains 5 grams of fat, and low fat tofu contains 1.5 grams of fat per serving. 4 oz of beef has 15 grams of fat, while one whole egg contains 5.5 grams of fat.
• A good source of calcium. One half-cup serving of firm tofu contains about 227 mg of calcium or nearly 22% of the Recommended Daily Allowance. Check the label since calcium amounts vary by brand.

This recipe comes from those sweet people at the National Honey Board, the ones who sent me a flight of honey to review.

Food on a stick week: Grilled Shrimp and Scallop Kabobs

Last week I was tweeting with my friend Michelle Lamar, also known as White Trash Mom, that food on a stick like the kind you get at carnivals and country fairs is the ultimate in white trash cuisine.

Well, food on a stick doesn’t have to be fried and unhealthy. It can be fun, low in Weight Watchers POINTS, and nutritious. So this week, I’ll be sharing some delicious “food on a stick” ideas with you.

Our first food on a stick recipe with shrimp, scallops and vegetables, comes from eatbetteramerica.com, a handy online source for healthy recipes (complete with nutritional info) from the folks at General Mills in partnership with Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition and Rodale.

A berry good recipe roundup at FoodieView blog

Nothing says summer than berries. If you agree, check out my latest post at the FoodieView blog, Recipe Roundup: A Berry Wonderful Summer.

Just a warning: only a few of the recipes over at FoodieView are low in Weight Watchers POINTS. There are a few exceptions luckily! Here are a couple of the better ones including my Weight Watchers POINTS breakdown:

Allen at Eating Out Loud's Raspberry Soufflé
Makes 6 servings

Ingredients;

• 1 teaspoon butter for greasing ramekins (.5 POINT or substitute with a cooking spray)
• 6 oz fresh raspberries (.5 POINT)
• 1/4 cup, plus 2 teaspoons sugar (12.5 POINTS)
• 4 egg whites (1 POINTS)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F (200C).
2. Butter the insides of six 1/2 cup ramekins.
3. Puree raspberries in a blender or food processor, then strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds. (Allen says this is a MUST!)
4. Add 2 teaspoons sugar to the strained puree and set aside.
5. In a mixer, beat four egg whites until they begin to thicken. Continue to beat the whites while you slowly add 1/4 cup sugar. Mix until egg whites form stiff peaks and are glossy.
6. Add 1/3 of the egg whites to the puree and slowly fold in. Continue by adding the remaining egg whites, folding in until no white streaks remain.
7. Spoon the soufflé batter into the ramekins, filling to the top and leveling off with the back of a spatula.
8. Place filled ramekins on a baking sheet and bake on a rack positioned in the bottom 1/3 of the oven.
9. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the soufflé rises 1/2″ above the rim.
10. Serve immediately with a sprinkle of powdered sugar!

Weight Watchers POINTS per serving = 3

Pomegranate health benefits and POM smoothies

According to the POM Wonderful website, pomegranate juice:

• is higher in antioxidants than red wine and that antioxidants may help protect the body from free radical damage
• may be helpful in slowing or to prevent the development of cancer
• promotes heart health, prostate health, and proper erectile function

All good stuff for your health, but we wouldn’t be eating pomegranates if they weren’t so tasty. Luckily, POM Wonderful makes it easy to enjoy the juice without the mess of dealing with the seeds.

So when POM asked me to review their product (and sent a sample case of eight small 8 oz. bottles), I was happy to oblige since I was already a customer. In the past year, I bought their juice to make:

• Pomegranate-Cranberry Sauce
• Stephanie Izard’s Pomegranate Pancake Syrup
• Basil Pomegranate Lemonade

A pomegranate juice smoothie

But now the challenge was to make a pomegranate smoothie that fit in with the Weight Watchers Momentum plan and was high in fiber and protein to keep me full until the next meal.

My first concoction was a blend of juice, yogurt and ice cubes, which turned out too watery. Then I thought it would work better if the juice was already frozen, similar to the frozen berries I use to make smoothies. Here’s the result:

Got milk and avocadoes? Then make an Avocado-Mango Smoothie

Did you know that kids don’t drink enough milk to prevent fractures? That nine out of 10 teenage girls fail to get enough of the calcium they need? And 50% of women over 50 suffer from osteoporosis?

That’s why it’s so important to get your entire family to drink milk and eat dairy products like yogurt. You can learn more about osteoporosis prevention in my post at This Mama Cooks! Reviews, Got milk this summer?

Smoothie recipes

Looking over the whymilk.com website, I noticed several delicious smoothie recipes including this one using avocado. Did you know avocadoes contain:

81 micrograms of the carotenoid lutein, which some studies suggest may help maintain healthy eyes

nearly 20 vitamins, minerals and beneficial plant compounds that can contribute to the nutrient quality of your diet

76 milligrams beta-sitosterol, which a natural plant sterol which may help maintain healthy cholesterol levels

Plus they’re delicious! (For more on avocadoes, check out avocado.org.)

Honey week: healthy honey snacks for kids

The National Honey Board has many kid-inspired healthy honey snacks. The Honey Banana Pops is a fun one to make with the kids this summer. Plus, you can roll the bananas in everything from chopped dried fruit to graham cracker crumbs. Honey Care to Take a Dip is a healthy recipe using honey, orange juice, yogurt and fruit.

Here is one of my favorites honey inspired recipes both in its original kid-friendly form and with a more Weight Watchers friendly version for us folks watching our calories.

Peanut Butter & Honey Silly Sushi Roll-ups
Makes 2 servings

Ingredients:

• 4 slices whole wheat bread
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/2 cup pure honey
• 2 Tablespoons nuts, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup strawberries, finely diced
• 4 skewers, optional
• Additional fresh fruit, such as kiwi, strawberries, grapes or pineapple (optional)

Directions:

1. Trim crusts from bread and gently press slices or flatten with a rolling pin.
2. Spread each slice with 2 Tablespoons peanut butter and 2 Tablespoons honey.
3. Sprinkle 2 bread slices with 1 Tablespoon nuts each.
4. Sprinkle remaining slices with strawberries.
5. Cut each slice in half.
6. Firmly roll up each slice and serve, or thread the roll-ups and fruit onto skewers and serve as kabobs.

If your child is allergic to peanut butter, just leave it and the nuts out and add a little more honey.