Weight Watchers zero points vegetable soup

It being Fall, I figured it's time to start breaking out the soup recipes. My friend Sandy told me about this one from Weight Watchers: http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/2006/01/day-285-weight-watchers-zero-points.html

She added celery and a can of diced tomatoes and said it's totally filling. I've been dying to try it, so here goes!

RECIPE

Hands-on time: 20 minutes
Time to table: 1 1/4 hour
Makes 9 cups

6 cups broth (today I used Light Vegetable Stock)

Cooking spray
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 large onion, diced
4 teaspoons garlic (from a jar or substitute four cloves minced garlic)
1/2 cabbage, chopped (or use a bag of slaw, the biggest chunks you can find vs the fine, don't skip the cabbage for it somehow makes the soup)
1/2 pound frozen green beans
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 large zucchini, diced

Bring the broth to a boil in the microwave. (This is a time-saving tip that can be skipped if there's no hurry.)

Spray a Dutch oven with cooking spray and heat on MEDIUM HIGH. Add the carrots, onion and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the zucchini and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to MEDIUM and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the beans are tender. Add the zucchini and cook until the zucchini are tender. Serve and enjoy!

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per Cup: 61 Cal (3% from Fat, 24% from Protein, 73% from Carb); 4 g Protein; 0 g Tot Fat; 0 g Sat Fat; 13 g Carb; 3 g Fiber; NetCarb10; NetCarb10; 52 mg Calcium; 1 mg Iron; 701 mg Sodium; 0 mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers ... hmmm ... 1 point

NUTRITION NOTES This soup is low-cal, low-carb, high-fiber and no-fat.

Pineapple Carrot cupcakes

Attempt #2. I'm still on the hunt for that delicious recipe that my high school home ec. teacher gave out. Here's a recipe I tried tonight for pineapple carrot cupcakes. Figure cupcakes are so much cuter to eat!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/carrot-cupcakes-with-white-chocolate-cream-cheese-icing/detail.aspx

pre-icing. Serious quality control issues!

For some reason, some cupcakes totally rose and some didn't. I skipped the walnuts and white chocolate icing since my sister is allergic to nuts and I didn't have any white chocolate on hand.

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/8 cups white sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup crushed pineapple
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 muffin cups.

Beat together the eggs, white sugar, and brown sugar in a bowl, and mix in the oil and vanilla. Fold in carrots and pineapple. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Mix flour mixture into the carrot mixture until evenly moist. Transfer to the prepared muffin cups. 

Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks before topping with the icing. 

I used this recipe for the cream cheese icing. Holy moly, did it ever use a lot of cream cheese. (Handy tip: go to the States to buy the cream cheese. Sooooo much cheaper! It was $6.45 for a 3 lb or 48oz brick. Yeah. I know. You can pick your jaw up off the floor now.)

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use. 

final product

I think the cupcakes are ok. Nica keeps sneaking into the kitchen to eat them so he must think they're pretty good. Wait... he just told me he gives them a 9 out of 10. Personally, I think I'm closer to 7.5 or 8. We'll see what the family says at Thanksgiving tomorrow!

Japanese Cucumber salad

The other day I decided to have a Japanese themed night. In addition to sushi, I thought it'd be nice to have a nice light salad so I attempted to make sunomono. Now, my friend Vania had given me a recipe (handed to her from her nutritionist friend Tina) and of course I filed it away, didn't document it and lo and behold, couldn't find it when I needed it. I googled "sunomono recipe" and ended up using this: http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-sunomono but it wasn't what I was looking for.

Anyway, I still have to try Tina's recipe, but here it is (now documented electronically so I can find it when I need it!)

Japanese Cucumber Salad:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 Tbsp sugar
- dissolve sugar over heat
- pour over cucumbers and chill
Don't forget to boil some vermicelli and wakame and if you're looking for a final kick, a slice of lemon and some prawns.

Easy Pasta recipe

When I finally found a seller for a pasta roller on craigslist, he parted with his pasta recipe as well. So far, it's been the best one I've tried! It's super simple too. Here it is:
- 2 cups flour
- pinch of salt
- 1 egg
- max 1/2 cup water
- 1 tablespoon of oil.

Mix it all up (i.e. put flour and salt on table, make a well, put in egg and oil, mix with flour and then add water as needed. , put it through the pasta roller and voila!

Recently my brother was attempting to make his own pasta and I was trying to find this recipe (it was only written on a post it and buried in the depths of all our moving boxes). Now that I've found it, it's going electronic so I don't lose it again!