The Best Caesar Salad Dressing Ever

My husband and I absolutely love Caesar salad. I have tried several different dressing recipes over the years, but I always come back to this one. I have been making it for years. It's simple, using few ingredients, and it's delicious!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbls lemon juice
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 tbls mayo 

Simply whisk together the above ingredients.

(Yields about 4 servings.)

Toss with romaine lettuce, croutons, and Parmesan cheese, fresh is best. You can also add grilled chicken breast for a simple meal.

Creamy Chicken Noodle Tomato Bisque Casserole

Please pardon my well used casserole dish.

I love playing around with food and trying out new combinations of some of my favorites. This recipe was born out of one of those experiments.  It's really simple and in my opinion very tasty.  It also received the seal of approval from my son, who is a very picky critic.

I'm following Weight Watchers and this dish has a little bit higher point count than I normally eat. But, I'm willing to use a few extra points now and then to have a creamy, cheesy, comfort food.

Ingredients:

• 1 - 12.5 oz. can of chicken breast meat, drained
• 1 - can of condensed Campbell's Tomato Bisque Soup
• 1/4 cup water
• 4 oz. of cream cheese
• 3 cups of egg noodles, cooked and drained
• 1/2 cup colby jack cheese, shredded 
• cyan pepper, to taste
• Morton's Nature's Season Seasoning Blend, to taste

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Cook and drain egg noodles.
• Drain chicken and place in a bowl, breaking it up with a fork.
• Season the chicken with cyan pepper and season salt to taste.
• Add the soup mix, water, chicken, and cream cheese to the noodles.
• Cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly, until cream cheese is completely melted and everything is blended.
• Pour mixture into a medium casserole dish and cover with shredded cheese.
• Place in preheated oven and cook about 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and starting to brown.

This will yield 4 generous size servings, 12 points per serving.  Pair this with some fresh steamed vegetables and this makes a great meal.  (If you steam those vegetables with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray and some season salt or Cajun seasoning, they will be 0 points.)  YUMMY! 

Zero Point Ice Cream

This is one of my favorite treats at the moment.  You can make it in a lot of different variations. There is a version that adds cocoa powder and peanut butter, which sounds really yummy.  But, I prefer to use frozen fruit (no sugar added) to keep it point free.

You will need:

• food processor
• frozen banana (You will need to prepare this beforehand.  Peel and slice a banana into circles, place it on a small plate in a single layer and freeze; overnight is best.)
• about 1/2 cup of your favorite frozen fruit (no sugar added)
• about 1 tablespoon milk

I made this batch using frozen peaches.  I think
this has been my favorite flavor so far.

Directions:

• Place banana in the food processor and blend until finely chopped.
• Add your favorite frozen fruit, cutting up larger pieces.
• Blend until fruit is chopped and blended with banana.
• Add about 1 tablespoon of milk.
• Blend until creamy.

Play with it!  I keep several bananas frozen and ready, along with two to three different kinds of frozen fruit. This insures that I have a quick easy treat available whenever I get a craving.

I made this batch with frozen blueberries!  YUMMY!

Veggie Stir Fry - My Zero Point Lunch

Currently, my favorite thing to fix for an easy, zero point lunch or even dinner is what I call a Veggie Stir Fry.  I can't give you exact measurements on this; I just use whatever I have on hand and throw it together.

I keep fresh or frozen (mostly frozen) vegetables on hand at all times.  The best thing about buying frozen, is that they will keep longer.  If you are going to buy frozen, just be sure there are no sauces added to them.

Now, all you need are some seasonings and a saute pan.

These are some of the seasonings I like to use: seasoned pepper, hot sauce, soy sauce, lime juice, sea salt, garlic, and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray.  I change it up sometimes and use a Cajun seasoning. You could use whatever seasonings are your favorite and any kind of cooking spray (most non-stick cooking sprays do not add any points).  In my opinion, the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter has the best flavor.

Coat a saute pan with cooking spray and start adding your veggies.  If I'm using onions and garlic, I like to add them first.  For this particular meal I used a mixture of garlic, onions, bell peppers, broccoli, and cauliflower.  As it starts to cook, add seasonings to taste and more cooking spray as needed.  Cook until veggies are as tender as you like.  I generally cook mine for about five minutes on medium heat.

This is a super easy meal and it is so delicious, for 0 points!  

Zero Point Cabbage Soup

I have to be honest with you, the first time I heard about the Weight Watchers zero point Cabbage Soup I was skeptical about whether I would like it or not.  So, I did some research and found a recipe that sounded pretty good. Of course, I had to tweak it a bit, but I have to say, it turned out very tasty.

So, here's is my version of the recipe.

Zero Point Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

• 3 cups nonfat beef broth
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 small sweet onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped carrots
• 2 cups chopped cabbage
• 1/2 cup green beans
• 1/2 cup chopped zucchini 
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• salt & pepper
• non-stick cooking spray (I used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray)

Directions:

1. Spray pot with non-stick cooking spray.  Add onions, carrots and garlic and saute for 5 minutes.
2. Add broth, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, cabbage, green beans, zucchini, oregano, salt and pepper.
3. Simmer for about 15 minutes.  

Makes about 6-8 servings.  (1 Cup)

Chicken & Corn Chowder

This is another recipe I just threw together with ingredients I had on hand.  It turned out really yummy!  I plugged the ingredients into the recipe app on Fitness Pal and a one cup serving comes out to 219 calories and only 19 carbs.  I will definitely be making it again in the future.

Ingredients:

• 1 - 12 oz. Bag Frozen Sweet Corn
• 1 - 15 oz. Can Sweet White Corn
• 2 - 12.5 oz. Canned Chicken Breast, Drained
• 4 Cups Chicken Broth
• 1 Block Cream Cheese
• 1 Packet Taco Seasoning
• 1 Packet Dry Ranch Dip/Dressing Mix
• 1/2 tsp. Ground Red Pepper

Directions:

• Place all ingredients in crock pot on high.  Cook for at least 4 hours.  Stir occasionally to break up and blend cream cheese.

Pepperoni Pizza Spaghetti Squash

I came up with this recipe last night.  I had originally planned to make a spaghetti squash pizza crust from a recipe I found on Pinterest, but it was going to require more time than I had.

Ingredients:

• 1 spaghetti squash, cooked
• 1 jar pizza sauce
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• about 24 (more or less) pepperonis, quartered 

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Spray a 9 x 13 dish/pan with cooking spray.
• Remove the squash from it's skin and spread in the bottom of dish/pan.
• Sprinkle a handful of cheese over squash.
• Sprinkle on half the pepperonis.
• Pour pizza sauce over the pepperonis.
• Sprinkle the rest of the pepperonis over the pizza sauce.
• Top with the rest of the cheese.
• Place a few whole pepperonis on top to finish off.
• Cook for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and starts to brown a bit.

This received the seal of approval from my guys so  I guess it was a success!