Cauliflower Watercress Soup

Cold winter nights call for hot soup. We were hit with a snow storm yesterday, and we're expecting another tonight. After shoveling myself out of my parking spot and coming in from the cold last night, this soup hit the spot. It's healthy and light, with a creamy texture from the cauliflower that's perfect served with a crispy whole grain piece of bread and a drizzle of olive oil on top, yet it's light enough to serve with a sandwich or a first course.

This recipe was inspired from someone who tweeted me the idea to add watercress to my Dad's cauliflower soup. Such a great way to incorporate watercress into soup which is considered a superfood. It's rich in fiber, anti-oxidants, vitamin C, beta-carotene, folate, potassium, calcium, phosphorous and iron and adds a bright green color to this soup.


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Three Cheese Tortellini and Mushroom Soup

I'm working on my manuscript edits this week for my upcoming cookbook, so I thought I would share this delicious soup from the archives!

This is one delicious bowl of soup! Warm and satisfying, with tortellini in every bite. Top this with some fresh shaved Parmigiano Reggiano and you'll experience a wonderful unami taste sensation.

Soup is the perfect one pot meal. Vegetarians can swap out the chicken broth for vegetable broth (also perfect for Meatless Mondays). Using the rind from the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is optional, but if you have it I recommend using it, it adds so much depth and flavor.

And a little nutritional tidbit about mushrooms, courtesy of registered dietician, Heather K Jones. This veggie has achieved superfood status and with good reason. It’s loaded with important vitamins and minerals, including heart-protecting copper, B vitamins and antioxidants. These fabulous fungus come in a lot of different varieties and are very versatile. 

Heather has generously offered to provide nutritional tidbits on lots of the fruits and vegetables I use in my future recipes. Call me a geek, but I love knowing what I'm eating is not only delicious, but is benefiting my health as well.

I'm sure most of you know I am currently working on my first cookbook, but I'm not sure if you all know that Heather K Jones is working with me on this book. Heather is a great asset to Skinnytaste and has written and contributed to many books for Self, Prevention, Good Housekeeping, and more. She is my go-to person when I have a nutritional question and has posted some great articles on Skinny Bits including The Skinny On Sweeteners. 

For those of you who don't like mushrooms, you can certainly swap them for a vegetable you like, or try this Spinach Tortellini en Brodo recipe. Enjoy!


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Light and Easy Cauliflower Gratin

Thanksgiving is at my Mom's house this year. She makes the turkey, stuffing, gravy and mashed potatoes and we all bring the rest. I always bring a vegetable or two and some appetizers, my cousin brings dessert and my sister in law usually brings a salad.

Last year I made a cauliflower gratin that was a lot more complicated than this, but I wanted to test out an easier version knowing many of you will be looking for easy sides. This is super simple, all done in the oven so you don't need to dirty extra pots and pans. You can double this in a 9 x 12 baking dish if you want to feed more people. I used light Havarti cheese because I love the taste, but you can use Swiss, cheddar or whatever you wish. Each serving is under 100 calories or 2 points plus if you're doing WW.

And BTW, the serving spoon in the photo above and fork below is from Such A Time Designs. Beautiful, affordable silver plated one-of-a-kind hand stamped flatware that makes great gifts. This week I am running a giveaway on Skinny Bits – $100 worth of store credit to use on her Etsy shop. If you're interested click here for details.

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Mini Sweet Potato Meringue Pies

Petite sweet potato pies lightly sweetened with a ripe banana, a touch of brown sugar and spices, then topped with a light meringue topping – perfect for the Holidays!

My Mom hosts Thanksgiving every year, she wouldn't have it any other way! I usually bring a side dish and an appetizer and my cousin Nina usually brings dessert. My cousin Nina has a baking blog called Ambrosia and she often shares some of her delicious treats with us (those parker house rolls on her blog are dangerous!). She's not just a great baker, she's also very talented in photography, writing, and she just graduated from Columbia University so I put her up to the challenge of creating her first guest post for me and she really came through! Please welcome her and visit her blog if you love to bake.

Hi, everyone!  My name is Nina, and I'm the blogger behind Ambrosia, a site full of everything you could imagine about creating simple and delicious baked recipes.  I'm very excited to be sharing this recipe for mini sweet potato meringue pies. Creating this recipe was something very new to me.  I'm no stranger to coming up with creative pie, cookie, and cupcake recipes, but this recipe was a bit different.  My blog features traditional style recipes, full of butter, cream, and sugar, so the recipes I share tend to be on the indulgent side.  However, this doesn't mean that I'm always thinking about rich foods; on the contrary, I actually care a lot, more than some people know, about eating healthy whole foods.  I love being active and over the past several years have grown to love all kinds of exercise, and eating a lot of healthy foods is definitely one of my priorities to help keep my cake and ice cream obsession in check.  Fortunately for me, my cousin Gina has been a great resource for coming up with healthy meals!  I actually prepared a lot of her recipes while I was living away from home during college, and love it when she asks for taste testers for her new recipes.  Who knew that eating healthy could be so easy, and delicious?!

I was pretty excited when Gina asked me to help her come with a perfect dessert for Thanksgiving.  There was a catch though: I had to stick to a specific number of points per serving!  Yikes!  I was up for the challenge though, and immediately knew that I wanted to make pie.  Pie is one of my absolute favorite things to make, so I knew that that I wanted to make a skinny pie dessert, and sweet potato pie seemed like a great way to go.  To make the pie filling light, I used a trick I saw on many sweet potato casserole recipes.  Adding a ripe banana to the sweet potato puree is the secret to keeping this sweet potato pie filling light.  Since the banana adds natural sweetness to the sweet potato, it means that you need hardly any additional sugar at all!  Rolling out a store-bought pie crust a little bit thinner helps keep the points low, and also makes life a little bit easier.  Meringue is naturally fat free, so it was a great way to add a little more sweetness without increasing the points per serving, as well as adding some marshmallow flavor to the sweet potato filling, because who doesn't love that flavor combination?  I thought making mini pies would be great for Thanksgiving, because they not only help with portion control, but also looks cute and festive.  You can make the pies the day before, top them with the meringue just before serving, and all that's left is arranging them on a pretty platter and digging in.  At only 4 points plus per serving, these will go fast!  Hope you enjoy!

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Cheesy Baked Pumpkin Pasta

Whole wheat pasta baked in the oven with a quick pumpkin sauce made with bacon, shallots, pecorino cheese and a touch of rosemary then topped with mozzarella cheese. This is such a great Fall dish and my husband loved how it turned out!

I'm really excited to share this pasta dish, because I finally found a brand of whole wheat pasta that me and my family actually likes. Even my husband couldn't believe it was whole wheat and thought they had to be lying. The brand is Delallo, and I honestly can't say enough good things about them.

It's definitely more of a high end pasta in price, but for me good pasta is worth paying more for. Not only is their pasta 100% whole grain, it's also organic and cut with bronze plates which is always my favorite kind of pasta. But what really gets me excited is they sell their whole wheat pasta in every pasta shape you can think of, from standard spaghetti, linguini and penne, to the more exotic shapes like orecchiette, gemelli and fusilli bucati just to name a few. I found a few of those shapes in my local supermarket, but you can also buy them on their website.

Back to this pasta dish, I wanted to make this quick so I opted for canned pumpkin. But you can make your own homemade pumpkin puree which in my opinion always tastes best! You could also use butternut squash in place of pumpkin if you wish and if you're eating gluten free you can certainly use brown rice pasta.

Canned pumpkin really has no taste, so I added flavor my sauteeing some bacon and shallots, then I added a little fresh rosemary and Pecorino Romano to mimick a pumpkin pasta gnocchi dish I love ordering out, then thinned it out with some chicken broth. My husband just happened to walk in the door when it was ready, and I love getting his opinion because he's brutally honest – and he loved it and even went back for seconds.

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Farro and Sausage Stuffed Roasted Acorn Squash

This simple savory stuffed acorn squash is easy to make and filled with the wonderful flavors of Fall.  The stuffing is made with farro, chicken sausage, mushrooms, celery, onions and sage – you'll love this!

It doesn't get easier than this: simply halve and hollow out acorn squash, then season with salt and roast in the oven. Nothing like warming up the kitchen on a blistery night with baked squash in the oven. While that bakes make the stuffing on the stove, then when the squash is ready fill it with the stuffing and serve – the results are a soft, flavorful squash filled with savory goodness! 

In the Fall I love preparing squash, whether it’s butternut, pumpkin, spaghetti, or acorn and I’m always looking for great new ways to prepare it. I recently had a stuffed acorn squash at a restaurant that was pretty good, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking it would taste so much better with this farro stuffing, which I LOVE! This stuffing is an adaptation of this brown rice and sausage stuffing, which you could of course use instead of farro. I've also made it with barley and it was wonderful.

Farro is my favorite new grain – I love it's chewy, nutty texture which holds up perfectly in this stuffing, but farro does contain gluten so if you want to make this gluten-free, swap it out for brown rice. This is perfect for a weeknight meal, but would also make a nice addition to your Thanksgiving table. Simply eat with a spoon to scoop out all the wonderful squash with the stuffing in every bite – enjoy!
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Butternut Squash and Black Bean Enchiladas

Butternut squash, black beans, tomatoes, cilantro and spices are simmered in a skillet with green chilies and jalapeno, then wrapped in tortillas and baked in the oven with enchilada sauce and cheese – these vegetarian enchiladas are delicious and perfect for meatless Mondays, or any day of the week!

Yup, I'm pretty enchilada obsessed and this meatless version did not dissappoint. Because of my love affair with enchiladas, I always make my own enchilada sauce and keep it frozen; you can use the recipe from my skinny chicken enchiladas but if you're pressed for time store bought enchilada sauce would be fine. Canned beans are inexpensive so this is a great meal if you're on a budget. I served this with fiesta lime rice, but you can also have this with cilantro lime cauliflower "rice" to keep the carbs low.

Butternut squash has so many health benefits; it's low in fat, loaded with fiber, rich in antioxidants, vitamin C and beta-carotene, just to name a few. Combine that with black beans which are super high in fiber and protein and you have one healthy dish which is not only satisfying, it tastes great too. Enjoy!

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Candy Corn Fruit Parfaits

A delicious Halloween treat that's light and easy to make. If you need an idea for a healthier Halloween dessert at your next party – look no further!

Confession: I strongly dislike candy corns. As a kid I was always disappointed to find them in my trick or treat bag. But candy corns are such great inspiration for Halloween treats and decorations, I just had to share this.

You basically layer orange and yellow fruit in clear cups and top with whipped cream. I used mandarin oranges and pineapple because I love the combination, but you can also use mangos, melon, oranges – whatever. These cute little jars I found in Homegoods are perfect to use as cups, but you can use clear disposable plastic cups if you are having a party.

For a whipped topping that is lighter than the average whipped cream yet not full of "fake" ingredients I've been making this light whipped topping by whipping my cream and folding in Greek yogurt. Cuts the fat down and tastes delicious!

If you prefer to use whipped topping, go for it or if you want to have this for breakfast I say just top it with vanilla yogurt. But for dessert – I wouldn't change a thing! Hope you try this, you will LOVE it!!


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50 Pumpkin Recipes

For the pumpkin obsessed – here's a list of 50 pumpkin recipes from Skinnytaste and around the web that will delight your taste buds. Pumpkin for breakfast, pumpkin treats – everything from savory and sweet – enjoy!


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Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pecan Pancakes

Whole wheat buttermilk pancakes made with white whole wheat flour, pumpkin puree, pure maple syrup,  pumpkin spice and pecans – a perfect lazy Sunday morning breakfast.

I'm not a big breakfast person, usually a green smoothie, a simple hard boiled egg or some overnight oats in a jar is all I need to keep me fueled until lunch. But on Sundays, we wake up a little later and have more time to make a more extravagant breakfast. My kids love pancakes so I often treat them to Sunday pancakes. Now that pumpkin season is here, I've been making these nutty pumpkin muffins – they are so good no one knows I use whole wheat flour in place of white flour. Happy Sunday!

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Whole Grain Apple Nut Muffins

Whole grain apple muffins made with fresh apple, applesauce, walnuts plus a combination of bran flour, white whole wheat and almond meal with a granola topping.

It's apple season and I picked up some gala apples at the farmer's market last week to make a great big batch of crock pot applesauce. Last year I used that applesauce to make an applesauce nut bread which I love, and it inspired me to experiment with almond meal, wheat bran and flax to come up with these delicious muffins. I love how moist they turned out, and I saved the extra in my refrigerator to eat for the week – they stayed moist for days!

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Butternut Squash and Spinach Lasagna Rolls

Lasagna rolls stuffed with spinach and cheese, then topped with a creamy butternut parmesan sauce and baked in the oven with even more cheese – trust me, you want these in your life!

Last year I fell in love with creamy butternut squash as a pasta sauce and have had this on my mind ever since. Now that the Fall is here it was the perfect time to play around with this idea.

They turned out as good as I could have imagined, even my teen daughter who is pretty picky loved these! And, they are meatless so they're perfect for meatless mondays. Use gluten free noodles to make them gluten free or whole wheat for added whole grain. Enjoy!

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Skinny Pumpkin Spiced Snickerdoodles

These cookies should really come with a warning label, because they are so good and hard to stop at just one! A snickerdoodle is a type of sugar cookie made with cream of tartar and rolled in cinnamon sugar. This pumpkin spice version was inspired by my Skinny Snickerdoodles. I wanted to see what would happen if I coated them with pumpkin spice instead – pumpkin spice heaven!

They are lighter than traditional Snickerdoodles, made with white whole wheat flour, but they taste every bit as sinful. I notices some people commented on the original skickerdoodle recipe that the dough was too dry, and yes, the dough will be dry. I've made them several times with success; using wet hands to form them into balls is a must and will help moisten the dough. Next time I make these, I may add a little more pumpkin spice to the dough to make them extra pumpkin-licious!

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Skinny Mini Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

These mini pumpkin spiced muffins are made light with pumpkin puree and egg whites and loaded with chocolate chips in every bite!

I don't know about you, but I'm so ready for Fall... cozy sweaters, boots and jeans, changing leaves, apple picking and of course pumpkin! Even if it's still warm out, these mini pumpkin muffins will get you in the Fall spirit and they are perfect for breakfast with a Skinny Pumpkin Latte or to put into your kid's lunch box for a healthy, homemade snack.

You can make them in a regular sized muffin tin if you prefer, you should get around 14 larger muffins and the nutritional info should remain the same. And if you want more pumpkin recipes, I have TONS, check out my Skinny Pumpkin Recipes in the Index or follow my Skinny Pumpkin Madness Pinterest Board.

Enjoy!!

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Loaded Baked Sweet Potato

Baked sweet potato loaded with zesty black beans, melted cheese, salsa with a dollop of cream. What can be better than a 20 minute meal!

Today's recipe is a guest post from The Picky Eater. I met Anjali in San Francisco last year; she's a sweet blogger who I instantly connected with, she is also a vegetarian and shared this delicious (yes, I tested this myself and loved it!) recipe with us, perfect for meatless Monday!

Hi Everyone! My name is Anjali Shah and I blog over at The Picky Eater, where I write about healthy recipes and easy-to-make family meals. I test all of my recipes on my “fast food loving husband,” who, prior to meeting me, ate a diet of frozen pizzas and Taco Bell, so any recipe that makes it on to my blog is “husband approved”!

I’m so excited to be a guest blogger today on Gina’s site! Ever since I met her at the Foodbuzz Conference last year and saw the amazing photographs and wonderful recipes on her blog, I’ve been a fan – and I’m so honored to be a part of this blog and meet all of you.

One of my favorite things to do in the kitchen is to makeover comfort foods into healthy versions that taste amazing, are full of flavor and feel just like the original.

Today I’d like to share one of my favorite recipes – my Loaded Baked Potato Makeover. My healthy swaps include: sweet potatoes instead of russet, “loaded” toppings like black beans and veggies sautéed with spices, and a dollop of cream (which is my favorite swap – 0% Greek Yogurt for sour cream!) The husband usually can’t tell the difference, especially when I spice up the yogurt with some taco seasoning.

This meal is delicious and takes only 20 minutes to make, which is why I love making it after a long day at work – I know I’ll have something yummy in my stomach in the same amount of time it would take to pick up takeout. The husband loved it too, and it has since become a staple weeknight meal in our house. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

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Autumn Penne Pasta with Sauteed Brussels Sprouts In A Light Ragu

I'm busy working on my cookbook, so I thought since I'm making this tonight, I would revive it from the archives. Trust me it's good, and if you don't believe me read the comments!

A hearty pasta dish for a crisp Autumn day. Pasta is tossed with sauteed brussels sprouts and a quick meat ragu made light by using lean ground turkey and just enough hot Italian pork sausage to enhance the flavor of the sauce.

I know what some of you are thinking, brussels sprouts???

Trust me on this, prepared right, they are delicious!

My husband almost didn't allow me to add them to his portion claiming how much he dislikes them. He put his fork in my bowl of sauteed brussels sprouts and quickly changed his mind. He claimed I cheated by adding all that garlic to them. Well whatever works : )

In fact, all throughout the meal, he raved about what a great dish this turned out to be. Serve this with Pecorino Romano sprinkled on top and spoonful of part-skim ricotta on top, yum!!

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Pasta with Butternut Sauce, Spicy Sausage and Baby Spinach

Spicy chicken sausage is the perfect compliment to this creamy pasta dish made with butternut squash, baby spinach, parmesan and a touch of sage. It's filling and comforting on a chilly winter night.

Since making Spaghetti with Creamy Butternut Leek Sauce a few weeks back, I am officially hooked. I love how the butternut squash feels like a decadent creamy sauce without the need for heavy cream. And with the addition of parmesan and hot sausage, the end result is savory and delicious.

I am also loving Giada's new line of organic pastas sold at Target. I'm picky with my pasta and love the taste and texture of this pasta when cooked al dente. I always go for unusual pasta shapes, here I used a shape called casarecce... love!

As part of the Target Inner Circle, I got to meet Giada in person a few weeks ago at Fun and Fit in the City. Isn't she beautiful!

L-R, My daughter Karina, Me, Giada, My girlfriend Raquel

She was so sweet in person, I also got an autographed cookbook and a goody bag full of her new food products sold at Target. My favorites were of course the organic pastas. I tried a few shapes, but plan on going back to Target to try the whole wheat.

A few more things: This week I teemed up with 11 other bloggers to host a HUGE HOLIDAY giveaway... Two winners, one will win an iMac Computer! A second winner will win a $500 gift card. Hey, you never know! You gotta be in it to win it... click here for a chance to win!

And most importantly: Starting today I am making a commitment to run at least 1 mile a day until New Years. You in? It's part of the 2012 Holiday Running Streak from Runner's World. The way I see it, why wait till New Years? Let's start now, with all the baking and indulging that goes on during the Holidays, this is the perfect way to find a balance. I ran a mile this morning, I'll be running again tomorrow... if you prefer to walk, that's fine too, I would love it if you joined me. It could be inside, outside, morning, lunch time, evening... whenever you can squeeze it in. Tell me you're in, it will help keep me motivated!

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Turkey Pot Pie Soup

Leftover turkey is delicious in turkey pot pie, so I thought why not use it to make turkey pot pie soup?

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and didn't do too much damage to your waistline.

I spent Thanksgiving at my Mom's house, she wouldn't have it any other way. She makes Thanksgiving look effortless, but we all brought some dishes along to contribute. I made a cauliflower gratin which turned out great, I'll be posting that soon.

And what to do with your leftover turkey? A turkey pot pie soup is comforting and a great way to use your leftover turkey. I made my own turkey stock from the turkey bones and some vegetables, but you can use canned, or even chicken broth. I took some extra pie crust I had and cut out shapes with a cookie cutter, then baked them to make little pie crust croutons, completely optional but I loved it.

Some other suggestions for Thanksgiving leftovers, Baked Turkey Croquettes are a great way to use up mashed potatoes and turkey, Leftover Turkey Noodle Soup of course is always a classic, Leftover Parmesan Mashed Potato Patties are delicious and simple, and why not at a Latin flair to your leftover turkey and make Skinny Turkey Cuban Sandwiches.

Have a great weekend!
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Mini Pecan Phyllo Tarts

These bite sized pecan tarts are the perfect "skinny" replacement for pecan pie this holiday season! They are so easy to make, and really good!

Traditional pecan pie can set you back about 480 calories! These mini tarts, are only 68 calories each, even if you eat two you are still ahead of the game! I found this neat Thanksgiving calorie counter that totals your calories and tells you how many miles you need to walk to burn them off.

Luckily I've lightened up so many Thanksgiving favorites, you can see them all here: Lightened Up Thanksgiving Recipe Index from cranberry sauce, stuffing, pumpkin pie and lots of leftover ideas.

I'm in a bit of a panic that Thanksgiving is next week! Losing power for two weeks really set me back and quite honestly, after a few days of dealing with long gas lines, no power, no traffic lights, no supermarkets, no school, no gym, I really started to lose track of time (I think I need a vacation).

Pecan pie has been requested quite a bit, so when I stumbled on these mini pecan tarts, I thought I would try them with some minor tweaks.

I  loved how they turned out and they are so stinking easy, even a beginner baker can make them. If you're in charge of dessert this Thanksgiving, give these a try, you can double the recipe to make 30.

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Baked Oatmeal with Pumpkin and Bananas

Baked oatmeal with ripe bananas, pumpkin and pecans is the perfect way to start your morning!

When this first came out of the oven, I wasn't so sure...but after my first bite I knew I had a winner!

Ever think about how perfect a banana is? My favorite way to eat them is when they are bright yellow, with no brown spots. I always throw a banana in my bag for a quick snack on the go, or after a work-out, but does that mean when they get all dark brown they are bad?

No way! I never throw bananas out... ever! Once they go start to get brown spots, I use them for smoothies, baked oatmeal, banana nut pancakes, banana nut cookies, muffins, banana bread and more. The riper they are, the sweeter they become and if I know I don't plan on using them right away, I freeze them for banana ice cream (recipe coming tomorrow).

This year I was thrilled to attend Dole's first ever Banana Summit, held in Anaheim California at Disney's California Adventure Resort. I'm a bit behind covering the summit thanks to Hurricane Sandy that knocked out my power for 12 days, but I finally got my power back and was finally able to use my oven. Hurray! 

What is a "Banana Summit" you ask? Pretty much what it sounds like, a few days with wonderful blogger friends where we literally ate, drank and experienced bananas in every way possible.

And since I'm bananas for bananas (corny, I know) I was happy to be a part of this wonderful group of people. And getting to spend a day at Disneyland made me feel like a kid again. Why Disney? Disney collaborates with many companies and one of them happens to be Dole. At the famous Enchanted Tiki Room inside the Magic Kingdom I tried my first "Dole Whip" which was as good as I heard it was. And sitting inside the Enchanted Tiki Room brought me back to my childhood trip there.

If you have ripe bananas laying around, give this baked oatmeal a try. It's so good, it almost tastes like a banana-pumpkin nut bread. In fact, I told my toddler it was cake, and she ate it (cold).

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