Poblano Mac and Cheese

The american southwest really has the best peppers.  You walk into a grocery store and instead of just one little bin of peppers you see a virtual rainbow row of them.  So many different types.  When we were driving across New Mexico we fell in love with the hatch green chili.  They roast them and dice them up and sell you these bins full of them for like $5.  Bliss.  We also came to love the deep green Poblano chili.  It's not exactly sweet, not spicy, just full of rich flavor.  (Cooking with them can be a pain because you have to get that think skin off for them to be truly delicate.)

Adding poblanos to the creamy melted cheese goodness of mac and cheese elevates your humble comfort food to something truly special.  Figuring out how to make this dish as healthy as possible is what makes me a genius.  Yes, I'm very humble.  But seriously, this one is very yummy.

First you need to prepare the peppers (2-3 large poblanos) - One way to do that is to put them under the broil of the oven for a few minutes on each side (not that peppers have sides, per se, but you get the idea) until they are charred.  Then, and this seems dangerous, slip them into a ziploc bag and seal it up.  Let them be all sauna-y in the bag for maybe 10-15 minutes and then take them out and peel as best you can.  It doesn't have to be perfect.  Set them aside once peeled.

Next you want to boil the pasta - I have been using those large curly-cues but any shape will do.  About 2 C dry pasta makes for 5 C cooked pasta.  Cook, drain,  and rinse the pasta with cold water.

While your pasta is cooking make a simple béchamel sauce.  This is the white milk sauce on those tasty croque monsieur sandwiches you get in France.  The simplest method is to melt 2T butter in a saucepan and then add 2T flour.  Cook that over medium heat until it seems like a paste.  Then add 1C of milk.  If you were in France and not on a diet you'd use whole milk, but I use not-fat milk and believe it or not it sets just fine.  It will seem very watery when you add the milk, but whisk it every so often and raise the heat a bit and in a few minutes you will have a bubbling creamy milk sauce.  It won't taste like much. (If you are making béchamel for real, you'd add some nutmeg.)  Add 1/2C of reduced fat mexican blend shredded cheese and a pinch of salt and even some chipotle if you like.  Set aside.

Now, mix your pasta and chopped poblanos into the béchamel.  Sprinkle a little more cheese on top and throw it into the oven until it's good and hot.  A serving is 1C.

9 weight watchers points per serving - 5 pasta, 2 béchamel, 2 cheese

Turkey and corn salsa tortillas

One of the lessons weight watchers likes to pound into your head is the idea of power foods.  The latest variation of how the 'points' work is that all fruit and vegetables are free to eat.  Some starchy veg still has costs associated, but your basic fruit and veg is free to eat as much as you please.  The premise is of course that no one sits down and overeats on apples.  Potato chips and chocolate, yes, apples and celery, no.  It's not rocket science here - you don't overeat apples and celery because the fiber and water and nutrients do indeed make you feel full.  WW tries to get you to eat more fruit and veg at every meal so you need / want / use less of the other stuff - namely carbs and fats and even too much protein.

This meal epitomizes that premise.  If I told you I made turkey enchiladas for lunch, without a picture, you'd make a picture in you mind of cheesy, greasy, rice and beans and turkey in thick lard based tortillas - probably with a side of freshly fried-in-oil tortilla chips and hot queso dip.  I'm not saying that isn't as close to foodie heaven as it gets, I'm just saying there exists a far lighter version that doesn't put you in a food coma on your way to buy bigger trousers.

For this meal I bought a lovely turkey breast at Sprouts.  I often forget to buy Turkey.  I don't know why it isn't part of the usual rotation of proteins at home.  Is this some sort of chicken conspiracy?  I marinated the turkey with a squeeze of lime and powdered chipotle and grilled it on my grill pan and then set it aside.  Because I am going to be baking the tortilla wraps, I usually take it off the grill when it is still a bit pink so it doesn't dry out completely.  I don't know if half cooking something and then setting it aside is technically bad for you or not, but that's what I do.

I made a 'salsa' of corn (frozen corn quickly heated in the microwave), apple, tomatoes, jalapeño, cilantro, sweet onion, another squeeze of lime, and a couple spoonfuls of Trader Joes Serrano salsa for some more kick.  An entire bowl of this costs a mere 2 points for the half cup of corn - and since I made this for 2 people that's just 1 point each.

I then rolled up a large serving (maybe 1/4 C) of my salsa with a few strips of the grilled turkey breast into jalapeño tortillas.  I sprayed a glass baking tray with Pam and placed the rolled tortillas in the tray.  I put these in the oven on 400 until the tortillas were turning brown and crackling.  You don't have to heat them up - everything is cooked - but it makes it more delightful giving you a little crunch from the tortillas.  Whatever is left in that huge bowl of salsa serve on the side.

Be careful when you buy tortillas.  A really authentic tortilla, while yummy as hell, contains a huge amount of fat and carb.  Even ones that say 'carb balance' can be high.  There is huge variation out there, so read all the labels and choose what's best for you.  We recently found carb balance tortillas under the Market Pantry label at Target that are only 2 points each (5 points for 2).

10 Weight watchers points - 3 turkey breast, 6 tortillas, 1 corn in the salsa

Banana Nut Muffins

I feel like this is becoming a blog about how I cook to either annoy or appease my husband and less a blog about trying to cook healthy.  That being said, this is another post about how I might be annoying my husband with food.  You see he despises banana and I (the picky eater) love banana, so I can't understand why he won't eat it.  I keep trying to sneak it into our repertoire.  A couple of weeks ago I sliced 3 little coin shaped pieces off my banana into his enormous bowl of strawberries and blueberries. When he got to the offending slimy fruit he literally put his food down and ran up the stairs to my office to voice his displeasure.  I heard about it the entire day.  His facebook friends heard about it the entire day.  I won't be repeating that lesson.

I will however be looking for ways of cooking with banana complementing it with things like the fresh red walnuts we get at the La Jolla Farmer's Market.  mmm Walnuts.  mmmm.

I wanted to find a really low calorie banana nut muffin and when I started my search I found ones that were low fat but had tons of flour, or ones that were low carb, but had tons of oil.  So I made up my own recipe.  It doesn't produce the lightest fluffiest sweetest variation, but it is a really dense moist and low calorie option.

1 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 bananas
1/8 C brown sugar
1/4 C lite sour cream
10 walnut halves

Mix it all up - spread into 9 cupcake / muffin servings.  I used paper liners, but a spray of Pam could work too. Medium hot oven, lets call it 375 for 15-20 minutes (until they are ready- a bit brown - I can't remember how long I cooked them).

Andy ate 2 warm out of the oven.  Without butter.   Then he ate 2 more the next day **cold**  halfway through our hike on the beach.   Who doesn't like bananas now?

3 weight watchers points per muffin