Apple Martinis

3 ounces vodka
3 ounces Apple Pucker
5 ounces apple juice

Combine all ingredients in martini shaker with ice. Shake, pour, and serve!

Veggie Pizza

Pillsbury.com has tons of great recipes - I combined a few to come up with this crowd-pleasing veggie pizza. My former coworkers requested it for every work function!

2 cans reduced-fat crescent rolls
1 tub reduced-fat garden vegetable cream cheese
2 Tbsp. skim milk
assorted veggies - whatever you like! (My favorites are broccoli, carrots, and red peppers)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Spray jelly roll pan with non-stick cooking spray. Separate crescent rolls into 4 rectangles and lay across pan, and press out. Bake for 13-17 minutes, or until dough is golden brown. Let cool.

Mix cream cheese and milk. Spread over cooled crust and top with vegetables. Cut into 12 slices.

WW Info:
4 Points per slice

Bacon Bleu Burgers

This is a recipe I learned from Sandra Lee, then just picked and chose what we like on our burgers:

1 lb. 95/5 ground beef
1 Tbsp. Montreal Grill Seasoning
1/4 cup bacon bits
1/4 cup bleu cheese

Combine all ingredients in medium glass bowl. Form into 4 patties, and place on hot grill. Cook until brown all the way through (no pink burgers - remember, salmonella is NOT your friend).

These are delicious topped with extra bleu cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, and your other favorite burger toppings. I've also combined equal parts of light butter and bleu cheese to make a fantastic spread for on top. Just remember to add the points for any extras if you're on the WW plan!

WW Info:
5 points per burger

Buffalo Chicken Lasagna

This is an amazing Weight Watchers recipe I originally got from Aimee's Adventures. I made a few variations for the recipe below, but it's still incredible.


12 whole wheat lasagna noodles
1 cup of skinless breast meat from a rotisserie chicken (you could also use canned chicken for this if that's what you have on-hand - a can or two drained should work nicely)
3 cups Ragu 6-Cheese pasta sauce
1 cup buffalo wing sauce
1.5 cups water
15 oz. skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup Egg Beaters
*9 slices 2% pepperjack cheese (I only had regular, so I used 6 slices instead)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Shred chicken in bowl, and mix with pasta sauce, wing sauce, and water. Combine ricotta cheese and egg substitute in another small bowl.

Spray 9x13 pan with Pam. Spread 1 cup of sauce/chicken mixture in the bottom of pan. Arrange 4 uncooked noodles over the sauce. Spread more sauce, then a layer of ricotta/egg mixture. Add another layer of sauce, then noodles, etc., and end with a layer of sauce. Cover and bake 70 minutes. Uncover and add cheese, then bake another 15 minutes uncovered. Let stand 10-15 minutes.


*For less heat, you could use cheddar cheese, or a mixture of cheddar and bleu. You could also tame it by serving ranch and/or bleu cheese dressing on the side for dipping as needed. Just remember to up your Points values accordingly!

WW Points: 6 for 1/8 of the pan

Maple-mustard Glazed Chicken with Applesauce

I saw this recipe on Rachael Ray one day, and I couldn't resist it. The way the applesauce made the house smell was incredible.

Applesauce:
4 Golden Delicious apples, cored and chopped
1 cup apple juice
1 large handful of golden raisins (1/2 - 3/4 cup)
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Combine the ingredients in a crock pot and cook over low heat until soft, around 4 hours.

Maple-mustard Glazed Chicken
2 Tbsp EVOO
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
2 Tbsp spicy brown Dijon mustard
Dash salt and pepper

Heat EVOO in a large skillet over medium high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper and add to skillet.

When almost cooked, pour maple syrup around edge of pan, add mustard, and stir. When sauce is reduced, dip cooked chicken in the syrup-mustard mixture to create a glaze. Top with applesauce.

I served this with broccoli macaroni and cheese, but the this mac and cheese doesn't warrant a post. Next time I make it, it will be better and I'll blog about it then. :-)

Buffalo Chicken Dip

There's a reason this is affectionately known as "Crack Dip!"



After hearing so many nesties rave about buffalo chicken dip, I couldn't resist making it one night. I based my recipe off of this one from Now That's What's Cooking and gave it a little bit of a semi-homemade flair. It's UNBELIEVABLE!!!

1 large can of chicken (use more if you have it, or rotisserie - this just happens to be what was in the cupboard!) :-)
8 oz. Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce
8 oz. lite ranch dressing
8 oz. crumbled bleu cheese
8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
16 oz. cream cheese

Preheat oven to 325.

Combine all ingredients, and bake for 40 minutes. Enjoy with celery, pretzels, tostito chips (baked or otherwise), whatever you like.

Sangria

Determined to ignore the snow falling outside, I made sangria for DH and I last night. Fabulous! We finished the first pitcher and I made a second one for today, letting the fruit soak in the wine overnight.

I used this recipe from About.com as a base, then just modified it a bit:

1 bottle of wine (I used both merlot and white merlot, and I think I like a lighter variety best)
1 orange
1 lemon
1 apple
2 shots rum
2 Tbsp sugar
2 cups of diet ginger ale

Pour the wine into a pitcher. Cut lemon and orange into wedges and squeeze into wine, then toss fruit in. Cut apple into wedges and add to pitcher. Stir in sugar and rum, and refrigerate. Stir in ginger ale right before serving.

Sangria is better the colder it gets, so either start with chilled wine, add some ice, or be prepared to wait impatiently!