21 Cray Cray TURKEY Leftovers Ideas!

Happy Day AFTER Thanksgiving!  You survived?  How did you do?  Now it is time to deal with Thanksgiving leftovers while getting back on track!  Please check out the pp friendly leftover TURKEY recipes below. Most are foodlove favs, just sub the meat for TURKEY! Let us know if you have any questions!!

Crock Pot TURKEY Stock

TURKEY Dumpling Soup

No Bean TURKEY & Sweet Potato Chili

Asian Lettuce Wraps with TURKEY

Good Earth TURKEY Sandwiches

TURKEY Lettuce and Tomato Sandwiches LT's

TURKEY Cranberry Quesadilla

TURKEY Cuban Sandwich

Brie TURKEY Wrap 

TURKEY, Apple & Blue Cheese Wrap

TURKEY & Feta Stuffed Peppers

Buffalo TURKEY Salad

Salsa Verde TURKEY Enchiladas 

Mini Pepper TURKEY Nachos

BBQ'ed TURKEY Pizza

Jerk TURKEY Salad w. Grilled Pineapple

Buffalo TURKEY Salad

TURKEY Pot Pie

TURKEY & Egg Frittata

TURKEY Eggs Benny

Sweet & Sour TURKEY Meatballs

XOXO Katie

Maple-Pumpkin Pie with Salted-Pecan Brittle

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We hope that you had a wonderful day of family, and that you were able to follow at least a FEW of the suggestions from yesterday's post! Here is a pie I made today that was hard, really really hard! I like a challenge but jeez is making candy hard. I had to redo the brittle at least twice, yikes! Anyways, the end result was great, once I actually read the direction. I am having some technical issues to follow this link from Better Homes & Gardens for this delish twist on pumpkin! Enjoy this indulgent sweet treat, because remember, staying on track with eating healthy means you can and should indulge sometime! 

XOXO Katie

Green Bean Casserole

THANKSGIVING WEEK CONTINUES! And it is finally time for the old holiday fav. Green Bean Casserole - Yum!  I could have chosen to make the unprocessed healthy version by making the mushroom cream sauce myself or even forgoing it all together and just serving blanched green beans in its place.  But THIS is the food that I love to indulge in, let's face it, just once a year!  I cut out fat and calories by using 98% fat free Campbell's cream of mushroom soup and only using 1/2 can of french fried green beans sprinkled over the top.  I think it came out great and really, I didn't miss the normal heavy sauce and soggy french fried beans mixed in! Be on the lookout tomorrow for a totally delish holiday-esqu twist on the traditional pumpkin pie!

Servings: 4

Serving Size: 1 cup

Points Plus: 3pp

Level of Difficulty: Easy

Prep Time: 10  minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Rating: 4 stars - Very Good

Ingredients

4 cups canned french style green beans, rinsed

1 t. sugar

12/ oz can of Campbells low fat condensed cream of mushroom soup, not mixed

2 t. Worcestershire sauce

1/2 t. garlic powder

1 t. kosher salt

1/2 cup uncooked french fried onions

Instructions 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Pour rinsed beans into a mixing bowl.

On your stovetop mix remaining ingredients until hot.  Pour mushroom mixture over beans.

Scoop bean mixture into a square pan and sprinkle the french fried onions over them. Throw em in the oven for about 25 minutes, until warm and bubbly!

Tip AKA SIX steps to waking up on Friday morning with no regrets ;)

1. Start your day with a work out!  Find a group workout class at a local community center in your hood and drag your family for a hard core Thanksgiving am workout.  Not only is this a great way to bond with the peeps you don't see every day, but it is a way to get mentally focused for the food challenges you will encounter throughout the day.

2. If you just have one stop on Thanksgiving (meaning you are not traveling to multiple dinners) plan to eat the other two meals of the day like normal.  Perhaps a lower pp breakfast (my fav is 1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese, 1 hard boiled egg, 1 cup baby tomatos and salsa for 4pp) and a salad for lunch.  Actually being HUNGRY (and not stuffed) when you sit down to Thanksgiving will help you to enjoy it more.

3. If you ARE making multiple stops, I fell bad for you. I joke, I joke.  If you are making multiple stops try eating JUST dinner at one or JUST dessert at the next.  What you want to try to avoid is eating 6 full plates of Thanksgiving foods.

4. Remember you have 49 extra points if you follow the Weight Watchers plan! I would say using them all on Thanksgiving is a pretty dang good way to use them!

5. Focus on the foods you only get on special occasions, just like green bean casserole.  Skip the foods you can eat all the time such as rolls and mashed potatoes.  Also, skip the foods you don't really like (sweet potatoes anyone?) and have more of the ones you love.

6. MOST IMPORTANT!!!  If you wake up on Friday morning still full from the day before and regretful, let it go and move on!  Think of the great weight loss things you have overcome, one bump in the road isn't the end.  Use Friday to get back on track before the weekend.

XOXO - Katie

Stuffing Cups

STUFFING! Cake isn't the only food that can be easily portioned by putting them into cup form.  Check out these delicious stuffing cups, originally inspired by Emily Bites with a few modifications.  With only 2pp each you can have as many as your heart desires, or save room for dessert!

Servings: 12 cups

Serving Size: 1 cup

Points Plus: 2pp

Level of Difficulty: Easy

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour and 10 minutes

Rating: 4 stars - Very Good

Ingredients

8 slices light whole wheat bread

1 T. light butter

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 medium onion, minced

1/2 cup celery, minced

3 oz. Craisins

2 large eggs, beaten

1 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup parsley, chopped

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

1 t. rubbed sage

1/2 t. dried thyme leaves, chopped

Cooking spray

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 275.  Cut bread into small cubes. Spread them onto a single layer on a cookie sheet.  Spritz with cooking spray and bake for 45 minutes.

Place 1 T. of butter into a skillet and melt over medium heat.  When melted add garlic, onion and celery and cook for about 5 minutes until tender.

In a large bowl mix bread crumbs, veggie mix, 2 eggs, broth, salt, pepper, sage and thyme.  Stir together until combined.

Spritz 12 muffin tins with cooking spray. Split the ingredients evenly between the 12 tins, a little more than 1/4 c. per tin.  Raise your oven temp to 375 and bake for about 25 minutes.  Watch them closely, mine gone a little brown :)

Tip:

I can't WAIT to try these again with a bit of variation!  You could try cornbread, sausage, apples, turkey, additional or substituted spices OR top with a tad of gravy.  Remember to adjust your points plus accordingly!

XOXO Katie

Fall Mixed Green Salad with Chipotle Vinaigrette

Welcome to THANKSGIVING WEEK on Food Love!

Yes, that's right.  This is the week of Thanksgiving and we will be posting some recipes and tips to help you stay on track!  We all have our Thanksgiving favs (mine is green bean casserole) and I know from experience you have to be able to be comfortable indulging in these holiday foods in order to stay in control.  The last thing you want is to skip that green bean casserole on Thanksgiving, and then lay in bed on Thursday night with the green bean casserole in your head saying 'EAT ME, EAT ME'! When you don't indulge you many times end up going out of control.  So, anyways, what better recipe to start Thanksgiving week than a delish and flavorful fall salad.  This salad is anything but boring, easy to put together and low in points - YAHOO!  

Servings: 8

Serving Size: about 1 1/2 cups

Points Plus: 3 points plus

Level of Difficulty:

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: n/a

Rating: 4 stars - Very Good

Ingredients

Dressing

3 T. olive oil

3 T. balsamic Vinegar

1-2 T. Chipotle

1 T. apple cider

1 t. dry parsley

Salad

1 package mixed greens

1 cup carrots

1/8 cup toasted almonds

1 oz goat cheese

1 apple, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup red onion, thinly sliced

This recipe is super EASY! Mix all dressing ingredients in a small bowl of THIS! If you have never tried chipotle peppers you should.  You can find them in your local market in the ethnic foods aisle. For this recipe, you only need to add the sauce.

Heat a tiny sauce pan on the stove and add the almonds.  Sautee them until they are toasted and light brown! Add all of the lettuce to a bowl and toss with the dressing.  Then, add the carrots, almonds, apple, onion and cheese.

Tip:

Do you know what a mandoline is?  Here is a pic!  You can use it to chop your onions into thinly sliced, beautiful circles! Not to mention you can use it for fruit, potatoes and anything else that you need to slice small.

XOXO Katie

Frosted Pumpkin Cookies

I have had this recipe saved to my Pinterest dessert board for quite awhile.  It comes from the Parent Pretty blog – check out the original recipe here.  I made a few modifications, most notably, I cut the recipe in half.  I wasn’t ready to have 5 dozen cookies staring me in the face and testing my self-control!  2 and 1/2 dozen seemed like a much more reasonable amount for me to make.

Servings: 2 ½ dozen (or 30) cookies

Size:  1 cookie

Points Plus: 4pp

Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time:  10-12 minutes per cookie sheet

Rating: 4 stars –  Very good

Ingredient List:

Cookies:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. ground nutmeg

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

½ 15 oz. can pumpkin

2 cups flour

Frosting:

¼ cup butter

¼ cup packed brown sugar

2 or 3 tsp. milk

½ tsp. vanilla

2 to 3 cups powdered sugar (depending on frosting thickness/consistency)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Using a mixer, beat the butter for 30 seconds.  Add in sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and beat until well combined.  Add the egg and vanilla, mix well.  Next, beat in the pumpkin.  Finally, add in the flour in multiple steps, not all at once.  On an ungreased cookie sheet, drop heaping teaspoons of cookie dough a few inches between each cookie.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Cool on a wire cooling rack.

To make the frosting, heat the butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan on the stove.  Make sure the mixture is well combined and smooth.  Transfer the butter/sugar into a bowl, whisk in the 2 tsp. milk and vanilla.  Beat in powdered sugar, add more until frosting is to your desired level of thickness vs. more of a glaze.   You may need to add additional milk to acheive the frosting thickness you prefer as well.  Once the cookies have completely cooled, spread frosting on top.

Tip:

I can't stress enough the importance of waiting until your cookies have cooled before you add the frosting to the tops.  I was impatient and my cookies although started out looking great (see picture above), but I quickly watched my frosting droop and melt off the top and setlle into small pools at the edges of each cookie. :(

XOXO Megan

Pumpkin Cheese Fondue

Pumpkin fondue?!?  What a delicious combination of spices, cheeses and of course PUMPKIN!  Fondue is a very fun appetizer to serve when entertaining!  This recipe has a new twist on the tradtional cheese fondue by incorporating pumpkin into it.  Check it out and see what you think.

Servings:  16

Size: 3 Tbsp. (total recipe makes about 3 cups) 

Points Plus: 2pp

Level of Difficulty:  Medium

Prep Time: 10 minutes (if you need to grate the cheese)

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Rating: 4 stars - Very Good

Ingredient List:

1 clove garlic, smashed

1 ¾ cup hard apple cider

¾ cup pumpkin puree

¼ tsp. dry mustard powder

¼ tsp. ground cayenne pepper

¼ tsp. homemade pumpkin pie spice

½ tsp. sea salt

2 Tbsp. flour

2 oz. grated cheddar cheese

1 oz. grated Gruyere cheese

3 oz. Brie cheese (remove the rind)

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Combine all ingredients listed above through the sea salt in a medium saucepan.  Whisk the mixture until well combined; cook over medium heat brining it just to a boil.  Immediately reduce the heat to low.  While the saucepan mixture is heating up, combine the flour with the three cheeses, tossing to coat evenly.  Add the cheeses to the pumpkin mixture in three separate batches, whisking constantly until the cheese in melted before you add the next batch.  Finally, whisk in the lemon juice and pour into a fondue pot that has already been warmed.

Serve the pumpkin cheese fondue with apple slices, cubed multi-grain bread or veggies.

Tip:

In order to stay in control, it would be best to serve this fondue with only apples and veggies and forgo the bread cubes so you are only using points for the fondue and not the dipping pieces.  Although bread is delicious, you can save points for other foods OR eat another serving of the fondue! :)

XOXO Megan

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cakes

These are DELICIOUS, indulgent little cakes!  I served these at a family brunch recently and they were very popular.  Adding in chocolate chips is a perfect pairing with pumpkin!  And mini chocolate chips are just so cute. :)

This recipe comes from Skinnytaste.  The original recipe has these made into mini-muffins which would make 28 mini muffins or 14 regular sized muffins if you wanted to try a different variation for less points (see all pp values listed below).

Servings:  6

Size:  1 mini bundt cake

Points Plus: 8pp

Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time:  25-28 minutes

Rating: 4 stars – Very Good

*PP value for 1 regular muffin would be 4pp, 1 mini muffin would be 2pp

Ingredient List:

½ cup whole wheat flour

¾ cup all purpose flour

¾ cup sugar

¾ tsp. baking soda

1 ¾ tsp. pumpkin pie spice

¼ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. salt

1 ½ cup canned pumpkin (equal to 1 15 oz. can)

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

2 egg whites

2 tsp. vanilla

2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray the mini bundt pan with cooking spray.  In a large bowl, combine the two types of flour, sugar, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and salt; mix well.  In a large bowl, combine the pumpkin, oil, egg and vanilla – beat until well combined, making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl.  Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture in multiple steps.  Do not over mix.  Fold in the mini chocolate chips with a spatula.  Using a spoon, drop spoonfuls of batter into each mini bundt mold.  Bake for 25-28 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let your mini bundt cakes cool before serving.

Tip:

An easy way to get your mini bundt cakes out of the pan is to flip your cooling rack upside down and place on top of the bundt pan.  Flip both the pan and rack upside down so the cooling rack is right side up (set on your counter) and the bundt pan is upside down. Your mini bundt cakes should pop right out of the pan and be perfectly placed to cool!

XOXO Megan

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice

Has this ever happened to you??  You start a recipe and realize you forgot to pick up one ingredient?  Or you realize you just used up the last bit of a spice that your recipe calls for? 

Well… this little recipe shows you how to make your own pumpkin pie spice!  Pumpkin pie spice is a delicious blend of fall flavors.  You might be surprised that your spice cupboard is already stocked with all the ingredients you need to make your own blend!

Servings:  Depends on your recipe needs

Size:  Total recipe makes about 5 Tbsp.

Points Plus: 0pp

Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time:  n/a

Rating: 3 stars – Good

Ingredient List:

3 Tbsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. ground ginger

2 tsp. nutmeg

1 ½ tsp. allspice

1 ½ tsp. ground cloves

Directions:

In a small bowl, mix together all ingredients until well combined.  Store your homemade spice blend in an air-tight container.  Keep on hand for delicious pumpkin recipes!

Tip:

Making your own spices is fun and easy!  There are lots of other options out there to try out –taco seasoning, chili powder, popcorn seasonings and other spices and rubs for chicken or beef.

Keep this recipe handy since it will be used in another pumpkin recipe later this week on the blog!

XOXO Megan

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes

We are excited to bring you PUMPKIN WEEK!!!

Fall, autumn weather always gets me in the mood for something pumpkin.  You are in luck this week as Katie and I bring you lots of delicious pumpkin recipes to try out and add to your fall recipe list.   

I love finding new ways to bake with pumpkin.  This is a modification from my original cherry cheesecake recipe, but with pumpkin instead of cherry pie filling.  Enjoy!!

Servings: 20
Size: 1 mini cheesecake
Points Plus: 3pp
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Rating: 3 stars – Good 

Ingredient List:

Gingersnap cookies

2 8 oz pacakges of reduced fat cream cheese

¾ cup white sugar

1 cup pumpkin, canned

2 eggs

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Pecan halves

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Line a regular muffin tin with paper or tin liners. Place one gingersnap at the bottom of each liner; this will act as the ‘crust’ for your cheesecakes. Cream together the cream cheese, sugar first until fluffy.  Add in the pumpkin, mix well.  Next add the eggs, one at a time, and the cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice.  Fill each muffin liner with the cheesecake mixture, about ¾ full.  Bake for 20-24 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack.  Top each mini cheesecake with a pecan half.  Refrigerate before serving.

Tip:

One piece of candy corn would also be a cute topping for each cheesecake.  Unfortunately, I made my batch of these the week after Halloween so all the shelves had been cleared of candy corn.  Pecan halves worked great as a substitution though!

XOXO Megan