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Polish recipes served up with tidbits of folklore, customs, and history

WW Points

Cheesy Zucchini Boats

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cheesy zucchini boats

We’re past “National Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbors Porch Day,” but the squash is still abundant this time of year.  Let’s take advantage of it since we’re all looking for ways to incorporate more veggies in our menus. Tonight we tried a recipe that’s a keeper! This cheesy zucchini has just enough cheese to give the zucchini great flavor. Zucchini is great for that. Without a strong flavor, it takes on the taste of whatever you cook with it. In this case, cheese and garlic, YUM! Besides great taste, with multicolored veg and a a geometric appearance, it makes for a beautiful presentation.

I’ve run the recipe for cheesy zucchini through the recipe analyzer tool on calorie count part of about.com. I love the recipe analyzer feature (found under tools) and use it often. How about you? Are you a label reader? What do you use to analyze a recipe?

You’ll find my results from the calorie count website below. With 7.7 g of carbohydrate, cheesy zucchini boats is one the high side for weight loss on a low carb diet, but it is a good source of potassium which is often lacking on low carb plans. It gives you a nutritional analysis of your recipe just as if you were buying this in a package at the store. Sometimes the results are surprising. Sometimes it’s good news. Sometimes it makes me think twice about preparing something.

I used the recipe analyzer to find out how healthy Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Chocolate Tweed Angel Food Cake is. Great new! I made the mistake of doing the same with Paula Deen’s Coconut Cake. The news was not so encouraging! The news for cheesy zucchini boats is better than Paula’s cake, so give it a try.

Smacznego!

cheesy zucchini nutritional info (2)

4 WW points

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cheesy zucchini

Cheesy Zucchini Boats

  • Prep Time: 10 mins
  • Cook Time: 30 mins
  • Total Time: 40 mins
  • Yield: 4
  • Category: Side dish
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Description

A flavorful vegetarian dish, perfect for summer!

Ingredients

  • 2 zucchini squash
  • olive oil
  • salt & pepper
  • thyme, parsley & chives (or other favorite herbs)
  • 4 – 5 cherry tomatoes, sliced
  • 1/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C)
  2. Wash the zucchini, and cut off the stem end
  3. Slice in half lengthwise, and place in a baking dish
  4. Brush with olive oil
  5. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and herbs
  6. Place sliced tomatoes on top and sprinkle with grated cheeses
  7. Bake for about 30 minutes, until squash is tender and cheeses are melted

 

Cheesy Zucchini Boats

 

Lime Zest Ricotta Creme

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I haven’t used ricotta cheese much, so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this dessert.  It’s light, refreshing, creamy, and not too much of a diet buster.


 

Adapted from: The South Beach Diet by Arthur Agatston, MD

Ingredients

15 oz. part-skim ricotta cheese
3 packets artificial sweetened
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
zest of one lime


Directions

Combine all ingredients.  Divide into servings dishes.   If desired, reserve a small amount to pipe on top with a star tip.  Garnish with additional lime zest (optional). Chill until ready to serve. If I’m the only one eating this, I mix it all up; put it back in the ricotta cheese container, and just dish out a 1/3 (approx. 1/2 c.) at a time.

Makes 3 servings

Variations: substitute lemon zest for lime, omit zest all together for a vanilla version.

Nutrition Facts: 180 calories, 12 g. fat, 8 g. carb, protein 12 g, 4 WW points

Chocolate Tweed Angel Food Cake

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Heavenly Cake Baker – Submission #3 Thanks, Marie, for selecting my chocolate tweed angel food cake to feature this week. What an honor considering the HCB company I’m keeping.
 Chocolate tweed angel food cake
Let me begin by saying my husband loves angel food cake, but I don’t.  So the poor guy has had angel food cake only once or twice in the last 30 years.  When I saw chocolate tweed angel food cake on the baking schedule, it seemed like an opportunity to make amends.  I had to make it early in January because he would be away closer to the posting date.  Because everyone was still in that post-holiday, swearing off sweets mode, we decided to forgo the whipped cream frosting.
I used cake flour.  It wasn’t until the next day that I realized the recommended Wondra flour is what I use for sauces and that I did, in fact, have some in the cupboard.
 
I let my egg whites sit out for some time, but I got impatient and didn’t let them come completely to room temperature, so I think I lost a bit of potential volume by rushing it.

I used my long offset spatula to run around the outside and bottom of the pan, and I thought the tip about using a wooden skewer to loosen the cake from the core was genius!

I entered the ingredients on the Weight Watchers recipe analyzer and found that 1/16 of the cake (still a generous serving) is 2 points, and for my Atkins friends I entered the details on calorie count to be able to say that one slice has 1.5g carbohydrate.  (If you noticed the bellini in my photos, I’m wondering if I’ll have any credibility with all of this diet talk.)

I had to borrow a tube pan to make this cake (thanks, Sandi), but now that I enjoy angel food cake, I will need one of my own.  This is one I will definitely make again, and next time, it will get the whipped cream treatment! My diet-minded family and friends had this to say about the Chocolate Tweed Angel Food Cake:

  • Ed: I really love angel food cake, but the touch of chocolate made this a light and fluffy dream cake!
  • Mike: Chocolaty and fluffy
  • Kim: Yummy; it tastes way too sinful to be low-carb
  • Sandi: It took angel food to a whole new place
  • Jeanne:    Like you, angel food cake is not my favorite kind (I’m partial to chocolate and gooey), but this one is the best that I’ve eaten.  The grated chocolate not only gives it a more interesting flavor, but the texture is also better than the average angel food–don’t know if it’s a different technique or the addition of the grated chocolate, but it just has a better feel in the mouth.  There aren’t many “guilt-free” desserts out there, but this one is almost health-food.  I enjoyed it, and thought it was well worth the calories.

I’m happy to find out that Rose has published the recipe for Chocolate Tweed Angel Food Cake on NPR’s website, so I can make an exception  to the HCB rules this time and share this recipe with you.  I’ve copied and pasted it below.  But if you’d like to have more than just this recipe, you can buy the book on Amazon like I did.

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Chocolate Tweed Angel Food Cake

  • Author: Rose Levy Beranbaum
  • Yield: 14 - 16
  • Category: Dessert
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Description

Finely grated baking chocolate makes this cake world class! Naturally low carb 1.5 g per slice and only 2 WW points!

Ingredients

  • 1-1/2 cups, divided superfine sugar
  • 3/4 cup cake flour, lightly spooned and leveled off (or 1 cup, sifted into the cup and leveled off)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 16 large egg whites, at room temperature, or 2 cups
  • 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
  • 4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 2 ounces fine-quality unsweetened or 99% cacao chocolate, chilled, finely grated, refrigerated
  • SPECIAL EQUIPMENT: One ungreased 10-inch (16 cups) two-piece metal tube pan or 1 long-necked glass wine or soda bottle, or a large inverted metal funnel that will fit into the opening at the top of the pan. (Have this ready before baking and weight it by filling it with sugar or marbles to keep it from tipping.)

Instructions

  1. PREHEAT THE OVEN: Twenty minutes or more before baking, set an oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C.
  2. PREPARE THE SUGAR, FLOUR, AND SALT: In a small bowl, whisk together half the sugar, the flour, and salt until evenly combined. Sift the remaining sugar onto a piece of wax paper.
  3. BEAT THE EGG WHITES INTO A STIFF MERINGUE: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk beater, beat the egg whites on medium speed until foamy. With the mixer off, add the cream of tartar. Raise the speed to medium-high and beat until soft peaks form when the beater is raised. Gradually beat in the sifted sugar and continue beating on medium-high speed until very stiff peaks form when the beater is raised slowly. Beat in the vanilla until combined.
  4. MAKE THE BATTER: Dust (lightly sprinkle) the flour mixture over the beaten whites, 1/4 cup at a time (if using cake flour, sift it over the whites). With a large balloon whisk, slotted skimmer, or large silicone spatula, fold in the flour mixture quickly but gently. It is not necessary to incorporate every speck until the last addition. Fold in the grated chocolate until evenly incorporated. Using a long narrow spatula or silicone spatula, spread a thin layer of batter onto the sides of the prepared pan to ensure smooth sides. Empty the rest of the batter into the pan. In a 16-cup pan, it will be 1/2-inch from the top of the rim. Run a small metal spatula or knife through the batter to prevent air pockets and smooth the surface evenly.
  5. BAKE THE CAKE: Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown, a wire cake tester inserted between the tube and the side comes out clean, and the cake springs back when lightly pressed in the center. (A wooden toothpick will still have a few moist crumbs clinging to it.) During baking, the center will rise about 2 inches above the pan, but it will sink to almost level with the pan when done. The surface will have deep cracks, like a souffle.
  6. COOL AND UNMOLD THE CAKE: Invert the pan immediately, placing the tube opening over the neck of the bottle to suspend it well above the countertop. Cool completely in the pan, about 1-1/2 hours. Loosen the sides of the pan with a long narrow spatula and remove the center core of the pan. Dislodge the cake from the bottom and center core with a metal spatula or thin sharp knife. (A wire cake tester or wooden skewer works well around the core. To keep the sides attractive, press the spatula firmly against the sides of the pan, moving the spatula up and down as you go around it.) Invert the cake onto a flat plate covered with plastic wrap that has been coated lightly with nonstick cooking spray and reinvert it onto a serving plate. Allow the cake to sit for 1 hour, or until the top is no longer tacky. Then cover it with a cake dome or wrap it airtight. It keeps for 3 days at room temperature and for 10 days refrigerated. Freezing toughens the texture. The cake is also lovely decorated simply with a light sprinkling of cocoa or lacy drizzles of melted chocolate. Do not serve this cake with sauce as it would fall apart.
Chocolate Tweed Angel Food Cake 5

 

Turkey Fajita Salad

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sauteed peppers, sauteed onions, turkey taco meat

Turkey Fajita Salad came into my kitchen lineup when Weight Watcher’s convinced me that I needed to eat more extra lean ground turkey and less ground beef.    We often pick up a multi-pack of ground turkey at Costco – popping all but one package in the freezer.  Once a week or so, we’ll prepare this recipe.  With just the two of us, the four servings give us two meals.  I originally thought of it as a taco salad because of the seasoning, but I think with the grilled veggies, fajita a more accurate description.

This fajita salad is also the one I wanted to start my week of salads (an effort to counteract the preponderance of carbohydrates around a church office in December. The spicy meat and yummy grilled vegetable make this so much more than just a salad. I’ll admit that sometimes a plate of green sounds kind of boring. This is so far from boring that feels more like a yummy main dish rather than a good for you salad.

Ingredients

1 package extra lean ground turkey (approx. 1.25 lb)
2 T. taco seasoning (or one package)
2 bell peppers (any color, red is my favorite)
2 onions
canola oil spray
kosher salt
1/2 c. light sour cream
1 1/3 c. low fat cheddar cheese
salsa
salad greens

Directions

  • Season turkey with taco seasoning, brown and set aside.
  • Julienne peppers and onions.
  • Saute separately or together, as desired until tender and caramelized.
  • Spray the veggies while they’re cooking with canola oil as needed, season with kosher salt.
  • Fill plates with greens.
  • Top with turkey, cheese, peppers, onions, sour cream and salsa.

Serves 4

Note: WW Points – 10 per serving.  This seems like a lot for one meal, but it’s about the same as a bacon ranch salad from McDonald’s with grilled chicken and it seems so much more substantial. It’s so full of flavor and interesting textures; I hope you’ll try it and love it as much as I do.

Cheese Soufflé

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My first soufflé!  OMG!  It was amazing.  When it came out of the oven, the crusty top was tilted and a good 3 or 4 inches above the top of the dish.  After snapping a few photos during the process, the battery in my camera chose that minute, the grand finale, to die.  Silly me, rather than immediately grab my cell phone to get a photo, I took the battery out and put it in the charger before that Plan B occurred to me.  It lost a bit of volume during that 5 minutes, but the texture was still light and fluffy.

This is another “recipe for one,” but you could make multiple individual soufflés by increasing the ingredients.  Any straight-sided, oven-safe dish with 2 cup capacity will work for a single serving.  To make a large one to serve many, you will need to increase the baking time.

Variations: you may add 3 T. of finely chopped cooked green vegetables, sautéed mushrooms, or minced ham, in which case reduce the 1/3 c. of cheese to 1 T. 

Source: Judith Jones, O Magazine, October 2009

Ingredients

2 1/2 t. butter
1 T. grated Parmesan 
1 T. flour
1/3 c. milk
large pinch of salt
small pinch of paprika
1 egg yolk
2 egg whites
1/3 c. grated cheese such as Cheddar or Swiss, tightly packed


Directions

Smear 1/2 t. softened butter around inside of a soufflé dish, and sprinkle grated Parmesan over it.    (I only had shredded Parmesan, so I put it in the food processor for a couple of minutes).  Preheat oven to 425.

Melt 2 t. butter in a small saucepan, and stir in flour.  Let cook over low heat for a minute, then remove from heat.  Pour in milk (I used skim), whisking vigorously, and return to medium-low heat to simmer for a minute, stirring constantly as the sauce thickens.  (I didn’t notice a lot of thickening).  Season with salt and paprika (I used a generous sprinkle of paprika, after all, paprika is my new favorite potato chip flavor).  Remove from heat, and whisk in egg yolk.

Put egg whites in a very clean bowl and beat until they form soft peaks.  Add a dollop egg whites to saucepan, and mix in along with about half of grated cheese (I used Sargento Reduced Fat Sharp Cheddar).  Fold in remaining egg whites and cheese; transfer everything to the prepared dish.  Place dish on a baking sheet, and set it in the middle of the oven.

Turn heat down to 375, and bake 18 minutes, until soufflé  has risen and top is lightly browned.  (I took mine out after 18 minutes, and I was afraid that it might not be done.  I don’t like undercooked eggs, but it wasn’t a problem.  The fluffy eggs were definitely set and no longer wet.  I think it might have been the appearance of the melted cheese that made me think it wasn’t quite done. Trust the timer.)

As prepared with skim milk and reduced fat cheddar cheese, 12 WW points per serving.

Turkey – Pumpkin Chili

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It seems like pumpkin is turning up in everything this time of year.  When I read about the health benefits of pumpkin, the antioxidants and fiber, and see that a cup of pumpkin puree has only 1 Weight Watchers point, it’s no wonder.  I’ll be looking for more ways to work it into my diet.

Ingredients

1.2 lb. extra lean ground turkey
2 T. taco seasoning, (or one packet)
1 1/2 t. kosher salt
1 onion, diced
3 large cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 green bell peppers, diced
3/4 c. diced green chili
1 jalepeno, seeded & deveined, finely diced
28 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
15 oz. can black beans, undrained
15 oz. can pinto beans, undrained
15 oz. can red kidney beans, undrained
15 oz. can pumpkin puree
4 c. chicken broth
1/4 t. cinnamon
salt, to taste

For a more stew-like chili, stir 1/2 c. corn starch into 1 c. cold water.  Add to chili after cooking 1 hour and simmer until thick.

Directions

Season ground turkey with taco seasoning, and kosher salt; brown in a large dutch oven.   Add remaining ingredients (except cornstarch and water).  Simmer 1 hour.  If desired add cornstarch & water.

Yields 24-1 cup servings, 2 WW Points per cup

Mediterrain Style Skillet Vegetables

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Because some vegetables need to cook longer than others, I tend to  slice and  dice as the previous ingredients are cooking.  I’ve also prepared this with  diced prosciutto (add with the garlic), diced tomatoes (add with the squash), and grated Parmesan cheese (add at the end of cooking).

 

Ingredients 

3 T. olive oil
1 c. carrots, thinly sliced
5 bell peppers, julienned (I used 2 red, 3 green)
1 large yellow onion, julienned
5 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 small head green cabbage, cored, thinly sliced, and parboiled
2 zucchini, halved lengthwise, then halved across, thinly slice each quarter lengthwise
2 yellow summer squash, sliced in same manner as the zucchini
2 c. Barilla whole grain pasta (I used medium shells), cooked as directed
kosher salt
black pepper
cayenne pepper

Directions 

Over medium to medium-high heat, add oil to a very large frying pan.  Add carrots; stirring occasionally.  While carrots are cooking, slice bell peppers then add to frying pan.  Season with salt, stirring as needed.  While the mix is cooking, slice onion and prepare cabbage.  Add to frying pan and season with salt, and continue to stir.   Prepare garlic and squash, add to pan and season with salt, stir.  Cook pasta; drain; add to frying pan, combining with vegetables.  Season with black and cayenne peppers to taste.

Yields 10-1 cup servings, 1.8 WW points each (adding prosciutto or Parmesan cheese will increase this value.)

Stuffed Peppers

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A friend, who is also on Weight Watchers, is having dinner with us tonight. I was trying to come up with an entree that wouldn’t use up all of our weekly points, and this fit the bill.

Ingredients
1/2 c. white rice, cooked & cooled
1 1/2 lb lean ground turkey
3/4 c. onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 egg, beaten
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
3 red bell peppers, halved lengthwise, seeds & veins removed
1 3/4 c. homemade tomato sauce (details below)

For the homemade tomato sauce I simmered 1 3/4 cups canned whole tomatoes (because that was what I had in the freezer), with a clove of garlic, a sprig of basil, salt and pepper. Pureed with an immersion blender. You could certainly use a prepared tomato or spaghetti sauce, but the WW point value would change slightly.

Directions
Gently combine first 7 ingredients with 1/2 of the tomato sauce. Fill the pepper halves and place in a baking dish. Top with remaining tomato sauce. (Can be prepared ahead and refrigerated at this point. Add 20 minutes to baking time if refrigerating.) Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

PS – They were actually better the second day as leftovers.

6 Servings, 6 WW points each

Spanish Green Beans

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During my husband’s Air Force career, we had the good fortune to live in Spain for 4 years, and we fell in love with Spanish food. Every evening, the aroma of something frying in garlic and olive oil from the kitchens below would waft up the stairwell to our 10th floor apartment, and it was fantástico. This is one of many Spanish dishes that we fix regularly. It’s great reheated too!

Ingredients
Adapted from The Foods and Wines of Spain by Penelope Casas

2 lbs. fresh green beans
2 T. vinegar
2 T. olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 c. onion, diced
3 oz. prosciutto, diced
salt & pepper

Directions
Snap the ends off the beans. Blanch in boiling water and vinegar for 5 minutes. Drain the beans thoroughly. Add olive oil and beans to a large frying pan, on medium-high heat. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring. Lower heat, add garlic, onion, and prosciutto. Cook for 5 minutes, continuing to stir occasionally. Cover and cook 10 – 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The beans should still have a little crunch to them. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Makes 6 generous servings, 2 WW points each