Lightened-Up Texas Toast

Happy Independence Day, everyone! Sorry for the long hiatus between my last post and this one - work has been busy, and I've taken on some freelance work as well, so things have been a bit crazy. I hope everyone has something fun planned for the holiday today! Me? I'll be relaxing at my in-laws' house, spending time with good people and eating good BBQ'd food (today will probably NOT be a diet-friendly day, but what can you do).

Anyway, I wanted to share this SUPER SIMPLE recipe for Texas toast with you! I was trying to think of a clever line about Texas being American and that's why I decided to wait until July 4th to share this recipe, but the truth is, this recipe has nothing to do with Independence Day. It's just really easy and delicious and you should make it ASAP.

My husband found Texas toast in the supermarket a few years ago. It's basically thick garlic bread, toasted, and covered in melted cheese. It's amazing, but definitely not amazing for someone who is trying to count calories. So a few weeks ago, I was having grilled chicken for dinner, and I wanted something on the side. My husband, who for some reason (like most men I know) doesn't have to worry about his weight, was making the store-brand Texas toast with his dinner, and it looked REALLY good. So I opened my fridge and saw that I had some English muffins, and I decided to see what I could do.

I toasted an English muffin, then covered each part with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray. Zero-calorie butter spray can be your best friend in recipes. Personally, I don't think it's tasty enough on its own to have with nothing else (I'd never eat toast with butter spray and nothing else) but it's good when paired with something else. For example, toast with butter spray and jelly, toast with butter spray and cinnamon sugar, etc. And in this recipe, it works perfectly.

Next, I sprinkled (pretty generously) garlic powder on top of the spray. Then I took some part-skim mozzarella and spread it across the top of the garlic. Pop it in the oven at 375 for about 5 minutes until the cheese melts, and there you have it - easy, delicious, lightened-up Texas toast.

I made my husband try it - he approves! He'll probably continue to eat the "good stuff" from the supermarket because he can, but I'm happy he approves of my lighter version too.

That's it! Make this the next time you have chicken or pasta and let me know what you think!

Until next time!

Ingredients

• 2 Fiber One English muffins
• I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray (roughly 32 sprays)
• Garlic powder (to taste)
• 2 oz part-skim mozzarella cheese

Serving size: 2 pieces (half of recipe)
Weight Watchers PointsPlus value: 5

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Toast each English muffin to desired crispiness.
3. Spray each muffin half with butter spray. The recipe calls for ~32 sprays, or 8 per piece of toast, because I like mine extra buttery. Feel free to use more or less as desired. Sprinkle garlic powder over the top of each piece.
4. Distribute the cheese evenly among the pieces of toast. I've been using the mozzarella blocks lately, so I measure out 2 oz on my food scale and then slice it into small pieces and distribute them among the pieces. If you use shredded cheese, this will probably be easier to measure. Either way, each piece of toast gets about half an ounce of cheese.
5. Put the toast on a baking sheet and pop it in the oven for 5 minutes, or until the cheese looks melted but not burnt. (TIP: I like to put a piece of tin foil on my baking sheet to eliminate mess).
6. Let cool slightly, and enjoy!

Nutritional Information

Slimmed-Down Chicken Mozzarella Pasta

I wanted to post something extra delicious for my first recipe, and this is it. Chicken. Mozzarella. Pasta. With sun-dried tomatoes. And sauteed veggies. It's creamy, just the right amount of spicy, and filling.

Bear with me, my photography skills are somewhat lacking. And I was so excited to make this that I forgot to take pictures of the different steps along the way and only took a picture of the finished product. I'll try to do better next time, I promise.

I wish I could take full credit for this, but the original idea is from Julia's Album. Her Chicken Mozzarella Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes looked SO good that I knew I needed to make it. I plugged the recipe into the Weight Watchers recipe builder, and the stats weren't bad - 14 PointsPlus for 1/4 of the recipe. For something so thick and filling, that's not that bad. But I wanted to see if I could get that a bit lower. So, here's my slimmed-down version!

Ingredients

• No-stick cooking spray (like PAM)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3-4 oz sun-dried tomato halves (dry - not in oil)
• 1 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1/2 of a medium vidalia onion, thinly sliced
• 4 oz ziti pasta (about 1 1/3 cups), cooked according to package directions and drained
• 8 oz skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
• Salt (to taste), to season chicken
• Garlic powder (to taste), to season chicken
• Paprika (to taste), to season chicken
• 3/4 cup fat-free half and half
• 1/4 cup low-fat plain Greek yogurt (I used Fage Total 2%)
• 1 cup fat-free shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 tsp ground basil (or more to taste)
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (or more to taste)

Servings: 4 medium servings or 3 large servings (nutritional information provided below for 1/3 of recipe)

Weight Watchers PointsPlus value: 7 (if you split into 4 servings) or 10 (if you split into 3 servings)

Instructions

1. Spray a large pan or skillet with no-stick cooking spray and place over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, bell pepper, and onion. Stirring frequently (but not constantly), cook until garlic is fragrant and vegetables are soft. TIP: If veggies start to stick to the pan, give them a quick spray with no-stick spray and stir.
2. While the veggies are cooking, season the chicken with salt, garlic powder, and paprika.
3. Once cooked, remove the veggies from the pan and transfer to a plate (you'll add them back in later). Place the pan back on the stove. Lower the heat to medium and add the chicken. Cook for about a minute on each side, flipping frequently as to not burn. When chicken is fully cooked, remove the pan from the heat.
4. Add the cooked veggies to the pan with the chicken. Add the half and half, yogurt, and cheese. Return the pan to medium heat and stir to combine.
5. When the mixture starts to boil, lower the heat. Stir constantly until the cheese melts and a creamy sauce forms.Add the cooked pasta and stir to combine. TIP: If sauce is too thick, add water, 1 tsp at a time, until desired consistency is reached.
6. When the sauce is of the desired consistency, remove the pan from the heat. Season with basil and red pepper flakes and enjoy!

Since I'm just getting started, I'd love comments and/or feedback! If you have any questions about the recipe, or any suggestions on how I can make my posts better/more helpful, please let me know.


Until next time!

Nutritional information