Two Recipes to Try

I hate cleaning, but I love to cook. I've been tinkering with recipes lately to make them as low-point as possible while remaining true to the original recipe's taste. I have a couple that I'd like to share with you tonight.

The downside to spending so much time in the kitchen is that I tend to taste a lot because I don't like to measure and I never follow recipes. Since I've been measuring everything (thanks to Weight Watchers), I've really cut back on my tasting in the last several weeks. I couldn't resist tasting this recipe that I whipped up for my son tonight.

Avocado & Tomato Salad
1 tomato, diced
1 avocado, diced
1 green onion, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons white balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon olive oil
Seasonings: A little salt, pepper, onion powder, & granulated garlic.

Mix everything in a bowl and enjoy!

This makes a lot and it's 9 points for the entire salad, so you be sure to share it or you'll be burning a lot of points on a side. Remember too that avocado is loaded with healthy fats so a little bit is very satisfying.

- - -

I've been making this sauce for years, but it originally calls for an entire stick of butter. Needless to say, I haven't made this sauce since starting Weight Watchers because the points value was through the roof. I came up with this decent version earlier in the week. This sauce pairs deliciously with light fish (cod, halibut, snapper) or chicken breasts.

Lemon Butter & Caper Sauce
2 glasses dry sauvignon blanc (I've also made this successfully with vermouth)
2 cups chicken broth
1 oz. lemon juice
2 teaspoons butter
2 Tablespoons capers, drained & rinsed

To begin making this sauce, I browned the outsides of previously cooked chicken breasts in a regular pan (NOT non-stick) so that I could get some browned bits for flavor building. The stove was set to Medium-High and the pan was dry - no oil or anything.

Remove chicken breasts to a covered plate, add wine to the pan, and turn stove to High. When liquid begins to boil, scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken broth, lemon juice, and capers to pan. Reduce sauce.

This makes a little more than 1/2 cup for 6 total points for all of the sauce. I have a little ladle and I get 6 ladlefulls of sauce at 1 point each. The flavor is fabulous and it really livens up plain ol' fish or chicken.


I hope you enjoy these recipes. Happy cooking!