Raspberry Cucumber Salad

Cool.  Refreshing.  Tangy.  And for those keeping track?  Zero Smartpoints.

I'm admittedly not a huge salad person, but when I do have them, I like them to have fruit.  I love the sweetness it adds.

I actually used this as a mid morning snack, with a hardboiled egg for protein, and it was absolutely perfect and gave me that boost to get to lunch!

Raspberry Cucumber Salad
Serves 1
0 Smartpoints

1/2 cup raspberries
1 1/2 cups seedless cucumbers, chopped
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar

Combine and enjoy!

Blog Bites: The Gracious Pantry Slow Cooker Italian Chicken

Who wants a super easy chicken recipe that basically calls for dumping everything in a crockpot, is clean, and can provide meal prep for several days?

I'm going to assume you are all raising your hands.

This clean eating recipe from The Gracious Pantry is super easy and flavorful.  I did modify the dressing a bit, to reduce the points.  I made the whole recipe with 8 oz. uncooked chicken breast, 1 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 tsp. Dijon mustard, and 2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil, plus all of the spices.

It came out to 4 Smartpoints per chicken breast (honestly, it's probably less because a lot of the sauce is left in the crockpot, but I will count it!).

I served it over some bowties and spinach with garlic and olive oil for a 7 Smartpoint meal in all!

Check out the recipe!

Clean Eating Slow Cooker Italian Chicken

Fabulous Find: Weight Watchers Cafe Creations

Anyone who knows me knows I basically run on coffee (Hi Dunkin'!).  I drink really kind of an obnoxious amount.

That said, the switch to Smartpoints was not necessarily a favorable one for my coffee habit.  I can't even talk about my beloved Skinny Caramel Macchiato.

While I do online now, I initially signed up to go to meetings, and when I first got to the center, I saw this.

At zero Smartpoints, I knew I had to give this a try!  It's available in Vanilla Bean and Mucho Mocha.

My first impression?  SWEET.  Really sweet.  Like too sweet for a normal mug of coffee, at least for me.

However, I rarely drink small cups of coffee!  I found that putting one of these packets in a large coffee was really quite delicious.  Cut the sweetness, and gave just enough flavor and creaminess.

And like I said, I can't really argue with zero Smartpoints.

You can get them at centers, but I've also found them online.

Definitely give them a try if you are a coffee lover!

Fantastic Friday Four

A glimpse of what is making me smile this week!

This is Charlie.  This is my iRobot.  Charlie is not a fan.  He's on guard.

I saw this on Facebook and it's basically everything I've ever wanted.  I need to test this out obviously.

I found these on my trip to Burlington, Vermont and let me tell you, I don't know why I didn't think of it.  Genius.  And yes, I bought some!

Thanks to a gift card from Mom and Dad, I downloaded Inspiralized on my iPad.  Cannot WAIT to try out some of these recipes!

Happy Friday!

Crockpot Sausage and Tortellini Soup

Crockpots are literally the best kitchen tool ever.

Well, next to the avocado slicer.

I mean what is easier than throwing everything in a pot and plugging it in?  Plus, your home smells amazing for hours.

This soup is super hearty and delicious and healthy.  I don't like to repeat meals so soon after each other but this one?  I'm on my second week.  It's THAT good.

I adapted this from my latest cookbook of the week - Crockpot Family Favorites.  To make it healthier and a bit more point friendly, and more to my liking, I made several changes, including upping the veggies significantly, using lean turkey sausages, and using tomato sauce instead of diced tomatoes (totally a consistency thing for me).

The great thing about this soup is that it is totally customizable - whatever veggies you like or have on hand, throw them in!  You can also try different kinds of tortellini.  When I made this a second time, I used spinach and cheese tortellini and it was fabulous!

Crockpot Sausage and Tortellini Soup
6 servings (about 2 1/4 cups per serving) at 6 Smartpoints each

3 lean hot Italian turkey sausages, casings removed
3 lean sweet Italian turkey sausages, casings removed
6 cups low sodium, fat free chicken broth
1 29oz can tomato sauce
1 cup shredded carrots
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 package (9 oz) refrigerated tortellini
3 cups broccoli florets
1 1/2 cups chopped zucchini
2 1/2 cups spinach and kale mix

Cook sausages in a large skillet until cooked through.  Add cooked sausages, broth, tomato sauce, carrots, Italian seasoning, and pepper to Crockpot.  Cook on high for 3 hours.

After 3 hours, add broccoli and zucchini and cook for another hour.  Then, add in tortellini and spinach / kale mixture.  Cook for another 30-45 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

Blog Bites: Skinnytaste Ham, Veggie, and Egg Bake

I am a super big fan of all things Skinnytaste.  Her recipes are delicious and healthy and also really easy!

I whipped up this Veggie, Ham, Egg and Cheese bake and found it to be a GREAT midmorning nosh.  It's basically customizable to whatever veggies you have on hand, and I actually subbed Canadian bacon for the ham steak.  Really delicious!

Skinnytaste Veggie, Ham, Egg, and Cheese Bake

Fabulous Finds: Chobani Simply 100 Crunch

I LOVE the Chobani Flips.  Particularly the Key Lime Crumble.

However - LOTS of sugar.  And to top it off, on the new Smartpoints plan, not terribly point friendly.

Then I stumbled upon these beauties in the store.

(Ignore the rest of the lunchbox, for the life of me I couldn't find the original picture!)

So these are basically 100 calorie pack "flips" from Chobani.  I found three flavors -  one was a chocolate and strawberry combo, one was blueberry cookie, and one was mango.  I'm not a huge mango fan (unless it's in a daquiri) so I tried the strawberry and blueberry ones.

The strawberry "Crunch" was strawberry Greek yogurt with chocolate pieces, chocolate cookie pieces, and dried strawberry.  The blueberry - my favorite - was a blueberry Greek yogurt with oatmeal cookie pieces and dried blueberries.

These were a perfect mid-morning snack paired with some fruit, but would also be a great sweet treat at the end of the day.

And the best - 3 Smartpoints per serving!

Hoping they expand this line!  Keep an eye out!