Eggplant with Honey and Ginger

I really enjoy Monica Bhide’s recipes, and have posted a couple here before. I’m also lucky enough to run into her occasionally at events, and even interviewed her for a story this week. So I’ll put in another plug to pick up her book; I’ve yet to go wrong on a recipe from it, and the charming stories she’s written for it make it a great read as well.

Becky made this eggplant dish earlier in the week, which put it in my head to try out. When I both got eggplants in the CSA and found a few stragglers in the garden, I was sold. Such a great mix of sweet and spicy (though this isn’t the most WW-friendly veggie dish you’ll come across – even with cutting down on oil as I did, it’s about 3 points per serving).

Recipe Variation: Pork w/ Mustard Sauce

I made one of John’s favorite go-to Weight Watchers recipe tonight. But we’ve had a lot of chicken lately, so I substituted pork chops instead. A bit less juicy, but I enjoyed the variation.

I used 1 pound of pork chop meat (cut off the bone) for this recipe. Everything else remains the same.

WW Points: 5 (4 servings)

Easy Marinade for Grilled Chicken

I’m planning to make Greek salad with grilled chicken for lunches later in the week, and decided to make the chicken tonight while I was free. This is a super easy marinade that packs a lot of flavor. I’ll toss this with romaine lettuce, feta, grape tomatoes, red onion, black olives and dressing for lunch.

Bittman’s Curried Shrimp

Good, simple dish out of “How To Cook Everything”. Flavor profile reminded me a lot of aloo gobi. I cut down the oil a little and used the minimum amount of shrimp suggested. Serve over rice or in our case, leftover couscous (I ended up having to make rice anyway for leftovers since we have a ton more).

Recipe Variation: Mandy’s Chicken In Lemon Wine Sauce

My sister’s chicken picatta is one of those recipes that have always been in the repertoire. It’s super simple, though not quite a classic picatta recipe (there are no capers, etc.).

I figured it had to be WW-friendly, but it’s also a recipe I never really bothered measuring before. This time I did, and my hunch was right! This is good over pasta, though I had it over couscous tonight, which was particularly tasty, with a side of steamed snow peas.

Looking For: Healthy Snack Ideas

This is my typical WW routine, when all goes as planned: small breakfast, sensible lunch, small 4 p.m. snack, sensible dinner. When I was being more hardcore, the snack end of things was always toughest for me: I just had trouble thinking of a variety of healthy snack items to have on hand for work. Breakfast was tough at first, until I started eating small portions of leftovers and other more non-traditional items.

These are some of my standard snack options:

crackers and chicken broth

hummus and carrot (or pita)

cheese and apple

roast chickpeas

half a can of soup (or leftover homemade soup)

berries (sometimes w/ yogurt)

nuts

pickles

olives

guacamole and baked chips

cucumber and tomato.

As you can see, they tend to be on the savory side, which I prefer. I’ve thought of a few other items to try (canned tuna w/ no mayo dressing, black bean salad) but would love suggestions of any standby snacks. Keep ’em coming.

Pickles: Need Advice

So as you know, I made pickles for the first time recently. Tried some this morning. They’re kind of weirdly soft. Any thoughts? I didn’t use “pickling cucumbers” specifically – is that to blame? Would love some advice on this.

Back on the WW Bandwagon (plus a breakfast recipe)

Ok, so it’s almost 4 months since the wedding and I’m up a whopping 9 pounds from my wedding weight, between honeymoon, ridiculous birthday meals, work events, travel, not really tracking my points, etc. Not tooooo worried about it (though you know I’m eating poorly when I’m up this much even though I’m now running regularly). But considering this is the week of my 5K race (Sunday!), it feels like a good time to recommit to Weight Watchers. Plus John’s getting back into healthy mode as well, so hopefully we’ll support each other.

Anyway, for our last hurrah, I made tacos for John’s bday dinner yesterday (his request), and went all out – guacamole, pickled onions, salsa con queso, black beans and Spanish rice on the side. For breakfast this morning, I combined 1/3 black beans and 1/3 cup Spanish rice. It was delicious, filling (I’m not hungry for lunch yet, even after running 3.1 miles this morning!) and only 2 WW points. I highly recommend this as a semi-unconventional breakfast.

Now, to do as well for the rest of my meals this week…

Marinated Radishes with Sorrel

We had sorrel. We had radishes. Saw a recipe online and figured it’d be a great side dish. My proportions, however, were very different given my limited amount of both ingredients.

Almost Vegetarian Pasta Primavera

Loved this dish; made it up on the fly. And it’s quite Weight Watchers-friendly, despite tiny additions of high-calorie ingredients. The flavors all came together in a really complex way.