A Weight Watchers Dinner — lots of yummy pics!

This is my first REAL recipe/cooking post … Why? Because I NEVER cook. (Neither does TH) – we usually eat out or eat leftovers from our parent’s and things like that. We aren’t lazy, we are just really tired at the end of the day.

I have to drive 1.5 hrs to and from work, and by the time I get in, it’s 7-7:30 and who wants to cook?

TH and I have been doing Weight Watchers for a few weeks now – so far so good… I’ve been maintaining these past 2 weeks, b/c I haven’t really been following.  We decided to both get back on track today, so I went out and bought groceries JUST for the recipes I’d be making tonight.

On the menu were Creole-Style Stuffed Mushrooms and Creamy Cheese Rotini with Garlic and Oil.

Stuffed mushrooms are a favorite of TH. Me, I HATE mushrooms and won’t eat them, but I always wanted to make them for him since he loves them so much

INGREDIENTS
1 spray(s) olive oil cooking spray
1 pound(s) button mushrooms, about 24 large mushrooms
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup(s) onion(s), chopped
1/4 cup(s) sweet red pepper(s), chopped
10 oz chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained
2 1/2 slice(s) whole-wheat bread, chopped into bread crumbs
1 tsp Creole seasoning, or Cajun seasoning
1/4 tsp ground turmeric

I had to improvise with my measurements a little bit.
I bought 1 package of  the store brand mushrooms and it contained 14 (not 24) and they weren’t all large.
Instead of using frozen spinach, I bought fresh spinach and took out a big handful to use.
Instead of 2.5 slices of wheat bread, I used 2.

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Then it says to lightly coat a jelly roll pan with cooking spray. I have no idea what a Jelly Roll pan is, so I used a cookie sheet.

I then washed the mushrooms.

(I don’t even know if these are GOOD mushrooms…are they supposed to be brown??)

Then I de-stemmed them. I tried to use just my hands at first, then the mushrooms started falling apart (b/c I’m so darn strong), so I wound up using a spoon to scoop out some of the insides.

This is one of the MAIN reasons I can’t stand mushrooms, they freak me out!
See the pic below that shows the little thingies that are like slits. EWWWWW EWWWWW EWWWW!!!!!

Then, I chopped up the stems that I took out of the mushrooms, the sweet red pepper (abt 1/2 of one), onion (abt 1/4 of one), and the spinach.

Then, I attempted to chop up the wheat bread. Since I JUST bought it, it was fresh and soft. So chopping didn’t work too well. I tried my best then broke up the pieces with my fingers.
Next, I measured out the Creole Seasoning and the Ground Tumeric

I added the oil to a pan and sautéed the spinach, pepper, mush stems and onion for about 5 minutes.
(or until tender)

Then I removed the pan from the heat and stirred in the bread ‘crumbs’ and the Creole/Tumeric seasoning.
It looked soooo yummy and I would’ve tried some, but then I remembered that there were little bits of mushroom stems in the mixture. uhhh. lol

I really had NO clue how all this stuff was going to fit in the tiny mushrooms that I had…
I wound up not using all of the mixture and over stuffed them on purpose.

I put the stuffed mushrooms on the sprayed cookie sheet
(it’s brown b/c I burned cookies once….or twice)

I popped these babies in the oven for 15 minutes.
and then…
TA DAAAAAAAAA!

SUCCESS!!
TH loved them, and instead of eating 1 serving (2 mushrooms = 0 points) he ate ALL of them!!!!

I will definitely be making these again, and the great thing is you can prestuff them and put them in the fridge – then take them out and bake them later in the day

For our 2nd Course, we had Creamy Cheese Rotini with Garlic and Oil

INGREDIENTS
1/2 pound(s) uncooked whole-wheat pasta, rotini variety
1 1/2 cup(s) fat-free ricotta cheese
1 cup(s) shredded fat-free mozzarella cheese
4 tsp olive oil, extra-virgin
6 medium garlic clove(s), thinly sliced
3 medium plum tomato(es), chopped
1/2 cup(s) basil, fresh, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground

This recipe was super easy — Again, I modified some things.
I used 15oz of Part-Skim Ricotta Cheese (big taste difference)
Also used Part-Skim Shredded Mozz, b/c I couldn’t find ANY brand that sold it F/F
I chopped all 3 plum tomatoes and prob used the equivalent of 1.5
Instead of fresh basil (couldn’t find any today) — I used chopped/dried Basil seasoning to taste.
I also did not use the table salt. I used other seasonings.

Cook 1/2 lb (abt 1/2 box) of the pasta
Chop the tomatoes. Put aside. / Mix the mozz and ricotta / put aside.
Slice garlic, saute in oil until it browns or starts smelling yummy
As you’ll see below, you only need to cook the garlic for abt 1 minute, any longer and it starts to burn. No joke!

Then add the already cooked pasta to the oil — toss to coat.
The oil was so freakin’ hot that I had to remove the pot from the stove, then add the pasta.
Even when I did that the pasta was COOKING and starting to stick, so I screamed for TH to hurry up and bring me the cheese mixture (hoping it would cool things down) and I quickly stirred that into the pot too.
(Which is why there are no pics of the in between steps. LOL)
Then I added the tomatoes.

After stirring like a mad woman in mid-air — literally — I put the pot back on a non-hot stove thingy and added in some fresh cracked black pepper to taste.
Then added some of the Italian Herb seasoning below (BEST STUFF EVER!!! I use this to season the filling for calzones that we make. ONLY this seasoning)

Didn’t add salt — but it definitely would help, b/c this dish is pretty tasteless without any seasoning.
The dish was definitely creamy and cheesy — It’s filling too.
This recipe makes 4 servings at 7 points each.