Weight Watchers Bubble Up Enchiladas

It's amazing what happens when you threaten them with no dessert! It has been such a struggle to get two finicky 9 year olds to try new things. Last night I told them if they didn't at least try it they couldn't have dessert. After a little (a lot) of whining they finally tried it...and liked it! Maybe this no dessert thing could come in handy with some chores too!

Weight Watchers Bubble Up Enchiladas

1 pound lean ground turkey

10 oz enchilada sauce

8 oz tomato sauce

1 1/4 cup reduced fat Mexican style cheese

8 low fat biscuits (regular size)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown turkey and drain if needed. Mix in enchilada sauce. Cut the refrigerated biscuits into fourths and stir them into the meat mixture. Pour into greased casserole dish and bake for 25 minutes. Take out of oven and sprinkle cheese on top. Bake an additional 10 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

6 servings - 390 calories

This was a pretty big serving. I did 8 servings at 293 calories - which allowed me to save room for corn cakes!

Lily's Leopard Lounger

What dog doesn't need a leopard print chaise lounge?? I wonder if Petco makes this in adult size? The girls want the matching bed and sofa so Lily has a complete set.

Source: petco.com via Beth on Pinterest

Chopped Cranberry Pecan Salad

I love, love, love chopped salads! I had never been able to create one at home that was as good as the ones in a restaurant...until I found this helpful video on youtube that shows you how to properly chop lettuce. Even the girls loved this one!

Ingredients:

6 cups chopped romaine lettuce

2 medium pears, chopped

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup chopped pecans

8 slices pre-cooked bacon, crumbled

4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled

6 Tbs Poppy seed Salad Dressing

6 Tbs Light Balsamic Vinaigrette

Instructions:

Combine the lettuce, pears, cranberries, pecans, bacon and feta cheese. Drizzle generously with poppy seed dressing, followed by some of the balsamic vinaigrette. (I would estimate that I used about a cup of dressing: 70 percent poppy seed dressing and 30 percent balsamic vinaigrette) If you prefer your salad to have more dressing, feel free to experiment with the combination.

6 servings - 430 calories (Spark Recipes Calculator)

Barbecue Chicken Pizza

I'll never forget my first time trying barbecue chicken pizza...Las Vegas, California Pizza Kitchen at The Golden Nugget. This wasn't quite the same without the wonderful sounds of slot machines in the background but it was still pretty good!

Barbecue Chicken Pizza

1 prepared pizza crust

1 whole boneless, skinless chicken breast

½ cup barbecue sauce

8 oz. mozzarella cheese

chopped cilantro

olive oil

salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Salt chicken breast on both sides, then place in a baking dish. Pour BBQ sauce over the breasts and turn them over to coat on the other side. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until chicken is done. Remove from oven and dice. Set aside.

Increase oven temperature to 425 degrees. Stretch out pizza crust. Lay it on a pan drizzled with olive oil. Drizzle a little olive oil on the crust, then sprinkle on a little salt.

Spoon a couple of tablespoons of extra BBQ sauce on the crust and spread it evenly. Top sauce with the mozzarella and then sprinkle on the diced chicken.

Add a little salt, then bake for 15 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and toppings are bubbly.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle on plenty of chopped cilantro. Cut into squares and serve immediately.

8 servings - 330 calories (calculated on the Spark Recipe calculator)

Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry Muffins are one of my favorites! These are so much better than the usual mix I always make and that my mom used to make me (minus the blueberries because I swore I didn't like them - apparently my girls have inherited that from me). Of course the leopard muffin cups that I found at Michaels only made them that much better. :)

Ingredients:

Muffins

2 cups of fresh blueberries
1 1/8 cups plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon water
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Streusel Topping
3 T white sugar
3 T brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
5 T melted butter

Combine streusel ingredients together until it is about the size of peas and set aside.

Make sure oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees.

Prepare muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray or baking liners.

Bring 1 cup blueberries, water and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat while mashing the berries with a potato masher or fork and stirring frequently for about 6 minutes. Berries will break down and mixture will be reduced by about half. Transfer to small bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.

Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in large bowl. Whisk remaining sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick and well combined. Gradually mix in butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla. Using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining cup blueberries into flour mixture until just moistened. Batter will be very lumpy with spots of dry flour; do not over mix.

Completely fill muffin cups and mound slightly. Spoon teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into center of each mound of batter. Using a skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter using figure-eight motion. Sprinkle streusel evenly over muffins.

Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

Makes 12 servings - 390 calories (according to the wonderful recipe calorie calculator)

Black Forest Pie

I would like to retract my previous post of "best pie ever" now that I have discovered the best pie in the world (at least until I make the next one). I actually had withdrawals when this one was gone though.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup cocoa powder

2 Tbsp. flour

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter

1/3 cup milk (I used fat free)

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 can (21 oz.) cherry pie filling, divided

1 unbaked 9-inch pastry shell

2 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, coarsely grated

1 tub (8 oz.) Low Fat Cool Whip Whipped Topping, thawed, divided

PREHEAT oven to 350°F.

Combine sugar, cocoa and flour in medium saucepan.

Add butter and milk. Bring to boil on medium heat, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat. Stir small amount of hot mixture into eggs; return to hot mixture.

Add half of the cherry pie filling; stir until well blended. Pour into crust.

BAKE 35 to 45 min. or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 1 hour.

ADD half of grated chocolate to 2 cups of the whipped topping; stir gently until well blended.

Spread over pie; top with remaining cherry pie filling and the remaining whipped topping. Top with remaining half of grated chocolate. Refrigerate at least one hour before serving. Store leftover pie in refrigerator.

12 servings - 283 Calories

Recipe Calorie Calculator

I have gotten really behind on my blogging - mainly because I had such a bad string of pinterest ideas. I should probably make one of my posts a list of all of the really bad pins to spare y'all what I have gone through the last 2 weeks, like orange chicken. :l But there have been some really good ones too. I was just being lazy on calculating the calories. But last night I saw a comment on one of the recipes that may have changed my life forever!! I don't know why I never to thought to google this and maybe I'm the only one who didn't know about this but Spark Recipes has an awesome Recipe Calculator to calculate the calories per serving in your recipes! Now I have no excuse for not keeping up with my Livestrong app.