Sauteed Kale Salad - 8 points

This recipe comes compliments of my girlfriend, Olivia. I was feeling tired, she wanted a salad and the only green we had in the house was kale. I think I like kale more than she does, but even I can't eat it raw. I know people who love kale in their salad or in their smoothies, but there is something about the texture of the leaf raw that I can't deal with.

So, Olivia decided to saute the kale first, and do an otherwise cold salad. Inspired!

Here's what you'll need:
1 tbsp olive oil
As much kale as you'd like (0 points!)
Approx 1/2 cup cut strawberries
Approx 1/2 cup cut cherry tomatoes
1 tbsp cilantro
2 oz crumbled goat cheese
1/2 avocado
Approx 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar (to taste)

This is super simple. Heat the oil in the pan and add the kale. Cover the kale, because that will help steam it while sauteing it. If you've cooked with kale, you know that it cooks down to nothing, so use a LOT of kale. Stir occasionally.

Meanwhile, cut up your strawberries and cherry tomatoes to whatever size you like on your fork. I tend to cut mine in quarters. Score your avocado half. Grab a handful of cilantro and give it a rough chop. About a tablespoon should do. Cilantro is incredibly polarizing. I don't know anyone who would say "I could either take it or leave it." People either love it or despise it. I've been told it tastes like soap, but I'm in the "more the tastier" camp. I like lots and lots of cilantro! Use whatever amount works for you and whoever you're cooking for/with.

Then simply combine everything in a bowl, add the cheese in and drizzle your balsamic vinegar over the top. The bowl is about 2 servings. It's a delicious 8 point side dish, which may seem like a lot for a side dish, but that kale and avocado are so damn good for you. It's very filling and has a lot of those good fats, oils, and antioxidants.

I've also done this with 1 oz goat cheese and 1 oz gorgonzola. This adds one point to your total, and a nice flavor variation to the dish!

Vegetable Rice Pilaf - 3 points

I've been told by Pilaf Purists that there is one way to make rice pilaf and anything else might be tasty, but it's not rice pilaf. I understand how they feel. An apple-tini might be a tasty vodka cocktail and it might be in a martini glass, but it's not a martini. I almost feel so strongly that if I've had enough real martinis, I'll tell you that your glass of vodka and slice of lemon isn't a martini, either.

But I'm not a Pilaf Purist, and I've tasted a variety of rice pilaf dishes that that delighted me. This is my vegetable pilaf, which makes a delicious side dish that's really low in points!

Here's what you'll need:
1 cup brown rice
2 tbsp orzo
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup frozen corn
1/4 cup frozen string beans
1/4 cup frozen peas and carrots
1/3 tsp Smart Balance spread (or comparable butter spread)
Optional: 1 tsp minced garlic

First, the butter spread goes into the hot pot to soften. One of the key points of pilaf is to saute the rice and pasta before boiling it. Put the orzo in first and get a nice brown color on it. Once it's nicely toasted, add the rice, and just saute a little. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. If you'd like, for a little extra flavor, you can add a teaspoon of minced garlic in with the rice. You don't want to put the garlic in too early, or over too high a flame, otherwise it will burn. Putting it in right before the chicken broth keeps the flavor strong, as well.

From here, you simply cook it the same way you'd do rice. Once the broth boils, bring the heat down to a simmer and let it sit, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes. When the rice and pasta have absorbed most of the broth, add in the frozen vegetables. I did a combination of corn, string beans, and peas and carrots, mainly because that's what was in my freezer. The only element that will affect the points is the corn. You can add as much or as little of each as you like. You can put the veggies in still frozen while there's still some liquid in the pot, because the hot liquid and the steam will defrost and cook them up quickly.

I made mine as a side dish for a pork chop with mushroom sauce, coming to an 11 point meal in total (I had two servings of pilaf, because it was so good!) The pilaf itself comes to only 3 points per serving, which shouldn't add too much to your dinner as a whole.

Synthia Link's Mean Green Protein Machine - 5 points

This is going to be the first time I post a recipe directly from someone else. I will do this from time to time because when I see an amazing recipe and I want to know how many WW points are in it--especially when it turns out to be delicious and really low in points--I also want to share it with you.

Synthia Link is currently wowing Broadway audiences in Big Fish. She's also been featured in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. And as if that's not impressive enough, she also writes a flexitarian food blog, and does a much better job about updating hers than I do mine. This is a recipe I saw on her blog, Cookies to Kale. I made it for my girlfriend, who loves shrimp, broccoli, and goat cheese, and is developing an appreciation for quinoa. So this recipe sounded perfect!

I'm gonna post the ingredients right here, but Synthia is much better at explaining her own recipe, especially since I did not have everything I needed when I made it myself. So I'll post a link (a Synthia Link... see what I did there?) to her Mean Green Protein Machine recipe.

Here's what you'll need:
6 frozen or fresh shrimp
Roasted butternut squash
1 clove minced garlic
1-2 stalks chopped green onion
Broccoli, spinach and kale (as much or as little as you would like!)
1/3 cup black beans
1/4 cup quinoa
2 TBS goat cheese
1 TBS balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup milk of choice
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional: Fresh chopped rosemary

Here's what I love most about this recipe: spinach, broccoli, and kale all have 0 points! (I don't know if you can tell, but that's a capslock 0 for emphasis!) You can add as much of this as you want to the dish, which can stretch it as far as you'd like or need. More servings, fewer points. When I made it, I got about four servings out of it coming to 5 points per serving.

Here's what mine looked like:

If you like healthy food that has a fun twist--and let's face it, you're reading this, so you must--then you should definitely read Cookies to Kale, as well. Chances are, Synthia will make something else that will pique my interest and after I make it for my dinner, I'll tell you what the WW points are. So you'll definitely see more of her recipes here!

Sriracha Lime Hot Wings - 8 points

I've been so remiss in my posting! Life has been crazy busy, but that doesn't mean I haven't been cooking. I just haven't been posting, and I have so many wonderful WW friendly recipes for you! I'm gonna start back today with something really easy: my delicious Sriracha Lime Hot Wings and Drumsticks.

Here's what you'll need:
6-10 wings and/or drumsticks
3/4 cup Sriracha sauce
1/3-2/3 cup honey
juice of 1/2 lime

And that's it!

I did a lot of research trying to find a good hot wing recipe and this is the result of a lot of combining and simplifying. I didn't want to batter or fry my wings, because I'm looking to make these healthier. And I didn't want all the brown sugar and butter and all of that (though I've found brown sugar doesn't add too many points). I took a lot of ingredients out of the recipes I read, including flour, butter, ketchup, soy sauce, baking powder, and orange--though some orange zest or the juice from an orange would probably be nice without adding too many if any points.

Trust me, these few ingredients are all you need!

Get a big tupperware and combine all the sauce components together. And that's it.

Just kidding. But that's almost it. Put your wings and/or drumsticks into the tupperware, seal the lid on tight and shake it up. Then I like to put it in the fridge and make dinner or breakfast or whatever meal I'm on for the day while the wings marinate. It's really easy to make the wing sauce right before making a different dinner so that the chicken can marinate overnight. Sometimes I don't have the time or I don't think of it until right before, so I just let the chicken sit in the sauce for a few minutes, and that works, too. But it's better when they get to sit for a long time.

Once you're ready to cook, pre-heat the oven to 400° line a baking sheet, spray it down with a little canola oil, and put your chicken in the oven. I like to keep a brush handy to continue basting the chicken. Cook for 15-20 minutes, then flip the chicken, baste, and continue cooking for another 15-20 minutes. Give them a nice baste before you let them cool and then serve with whatever sauce you like.

I'm a huge fan of these because they're so easy and so delicious. Combining wings and drumsticks comes to about 8 points per serving (each serving being one wing and one drumstick). The drumsticks are much higher in points, so if you were to do only drumsticks it would be 12 points per serving. Just wings comes to 4 points per serving, which means a lot more wings per person!