Asian Turkey Meatballs With Lime Sesame Dipping Sauce
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes

Servings: 4 • Size: 3 meatballs • Old Points: 6 pts • Points+: 7 pts
Calories: 229.1 • Fat: 11.1 g • Carbs: 8.5 g • Protein: 24.3 g

• 1/4 cup panko crumbs
• 1-1/4 lbs 93% lean ground turkey
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp ginger, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 scallions, chopped
• 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 2 tsp sesame oil

Dipping Sauce

• 4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 chopped fresh scallion

Preheat oven to 500°F.

Mix ground turkey, panko, egg, salt, scallions, cilantro, 1 tbsp soy sauce, and 2 tsp oil and mix with your hands until combined well. Shape 1/4 cup meat mixture into a ball and transfer to a baking dish. Repeat with remaining mixture. Bake until cooked through, about 15 minutes.
For the dipping sauce mix together lime juice, water, soy sauce, and remaining 2 teaspoons of oil in a bowl. Add scallions.

Transfer meatballs to a serving dish. Stir sauce, then drizzle meatballs with 1 tablespoon sauce.

Serve meatballs with remaining sauce, about 1 tbsp per person. Chances are you won't use all the dipping sauce.

Makes 12 meatballs.

Smokey Cheese Ball

INGREDIENTS
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese
2 cups shredded smoked cheese (cheddar, Swiss, or Gouda)
1/2 cup margarine or butter
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons steak sauce
1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted
Assorted crackers
DIRECTIONS
1. Combine cheeses and margarine or butter in a medium mixing bowl; bring to room temperature. Add milk and steak sauce; beat until fluffy. Cover and chill for 4 to 24 hours.
Shape mixture into a ball. Roll in nuts. To travel to a picnic or pot-luck, cover and transport in an insulated cooler with ice packs. Serve with crackers. Makes 3-1/2 cups (56, 1-tablespoon servings).

Mini Puffs with Goat Cheese and Herbs

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, cut up
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1/2 of an 8-ounce container cream cheese with chive and onion
3 ounces soft goat cheese (chevre)
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon snipped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons snipped fresh dill or basil
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a baking sheet; set aside. For pastry, in a medium saucepan, combine the water, milk, butter, salt, and nutmeg. Bring to boiling. Add flour all at once, stirring vigorously. Cook and stir until mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat. Cool for 5 minutes. Add two of the eggs, one at a time, beating well with a wooden spoon after each addition until smooth. Spoon batter into a pastry bag fitted with a round tip with a 1/2-inch opening.

2. Pipe twenty-four 1-inch mounds (or spoon batter with a rounded measuring teaspoon) 1 inch apart onto prepared baking sheet. Lightly beat the remaining egg and brush over tops of pastry mounds. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden. Transfer to a wire rack and cool.

3. Slice puffs in half horizontally with a serrated knife. For filling, in a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, goat cheese, and milk; beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add parsley, dill or basil, and pepper and mix well. Use a pastry bag to pipe filling into the bottom half of each puff (or spread each bottom half with a rounded teaspoon of the mixture). Replace tops. Serve immediately or cover and chill for up to 2 hours. Makes 20 to 24 puffs.

4. Make Ahead: Prepare as directed through Step 2. Place baked puffs in a freezer container. Seal, label, and freeze for up to 2 weeks. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Continue as directed in Step 3.

Red Potato Salad

INGREDIENTS
12 cups cubed red potatoes
1 cup chopped green bell pepper (about 1 medium)
1/2 cup minced red onion
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS
Cook potatoes, covered in boiling water, 10 minutes, or until tender; drain well and cool.
In a large bowl, combine potatoes, bell pepper and onion.
In a small bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Pour over potato mixture, tossing gently to coat. Cover and refrigerate.

Back Again!

Well it's been a while. I'm still continuing on my weight loss path although with a little less enthusiasm as I have been incredibly busy for the last couple of months. Its hard to find time to eat right when you're stressing about work or busy coughing up a long. Stupid pollen! However, my total weight loss is up to 25 lbs! Still got a long way to go, but I'm getting back to Curves tonight after a two week absence and I vow to start counting my points again this week.

A few things that I am super excited about that are coming up over the next few weeks are the opening of the Sex and the City movie and my mom's 50th birthday party. Allison's coming to town on the night SATC opens so we can see it together. I'm hoping to find a great low-cal recipe for Cosmos and when I do, I'll post it. I've already found some great SATC themed drinks, but they were all major calorie splurges. Hungry Girl probably has some options. Just gotta make sure my shaker top is nice and tight so I can sneak my cocktail into the theater!

As far as my mom's birthday party goes, the diet is out the window! I am planning for other people of course. :-D She wants a casual backyard afternoon BBQ. For like 50 people!!! We're looking at getting fruit, veggies, and fried chicken trays from Publix. Kaki is ordering oysters to serve bbq'ed and raw. Those will be yummy! My mom has found a great looking recipe for salsa. We'll probably do a cheeseball and crackers. Now I thought maybe we should just stick to finger foods, but Mom said she'd like to make it more of a meal and do bbq, potato salad, and slaw like stuff.

Then of course there will be cake! That's what I'm in charge of. I'm still debating whether to order one of make it myself. I have this vision of a simple two-tiered cake with a big shiny 50 on top. I tried a practice cake to see if I even had close to the skills to make a two-tiered cake last night. I'm afraid I don't. Kaki thinks that that I could do it, but I'm worried that I'll screw it up in the end and I'll spend the whole day of the party working on it and not be able to help with the other stuff. I guess I have about a little while to decide. I just don't want her to end up with a boring sheet cake from Bilo. Blah!

So to conclude this extra long recap post that I swore I'd never write, the next few posts will be all about recipes I find for the party. Not about weight loss. So it's a little break from Anne Gets Skinny to Anne Plans a Party. My favorite thing to do :) My mom is so gonna hate me after this.

Baked Potato Skins with Creamy Spinach and Turkey Bacon

These look really good. I've had this recipe for a while but forgot about it. Won't forget about it much longer. Gonna make it Thursday night. Can't wait!

Points: 2
Servings: 6

INGREDIENTS
3 medium potatoes, baked, sliced in half, and cooled
1 spray cooking spray
20 oz chopped frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
4 oz light cream cheese
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
3 slices crisp turkey bacon, crumbled

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Scoop out flesh of potatoes, leaving about 1/4 of potato flesh in potato. (Reserve remaining potato flesh for another use such as mashed potatoes.)
Place potato halves on baking sheet and coat with cooking spray.
Bake until lightly browned, about 15 min.
While potato skins bake, combine spinach, cream cheese, salt, and pepper in medium bowl until well blended.
Remove skins from oven and spoon 3 tablespoons of spinach mixture into each skin; bake until warmed through, about 5 more min.
Remove skins from oven and top with about 1 tbs. crumble bacon.
Yields 1 potato half per serving.

Note: To easily dry spinach, place thawed spinach in a clean kitchen towel and squeeze out the liquid over the sink, as though you were ringing out a wet towel.

Green Stuff

Well I forgot to make this for St. Patty's Day. But I'll eat pistachio any time of the year so who cares!

Servings: 4
Points: 2

INGREDIENTS
1 package ff pistachio pudding mix
2 cups ff vanilla yogurt
1-20 oz can crushed pineapple (in its own juice)
1 c. ff cool whip

DIRECTIONS
Mix all ingredients. Chill and serve.