The Journey Begins

Good Morning,

Today I start my diet adventure in earnest, and so far it is going pretty darn good, but I did discovered a typo in my crepe recipe :   

It should read 1 2/3 C 1% evaporated milk.  What I actually used was 1 cup water and 2/3 cup evaporated milk . Your batter should be the consistency of cream.

Another change I did was Instead of the ricotta cheese today, I  made the filling with Greek style plain yogurt, the Epicure Summer Berry Fruit Dip and fresh orange juice.  It tasted great!!

I did this because last night I had a fairly hearty dinner and it contained cheese, so not wanting to repeat the caloric count for cheese I did this substitution.


Berry Stuffed Crepes With Summer Berry Fruit Dip Ricotta 

1 c mixed berries 2 tsp packed brown sugar
1 tsp lemon juice 1 large egg
2/3 c 1%milk evaporated milk(1 2/3 C) 2 tsp granulated sugar 
1 tsp unsalted butter melted 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c flour (all-purpose)                       1/2 c whole-wheat flour
2 tbsp Epicures Summer Berry Fruit Dip
1/3 reduced fat ricotta cheese

Gently toss berries in brown sugar with lemon juice  set aside.

To make crepes beat the egg, evaporated milk, granulated sugar, butter and salt in a large bowl. Whisk in the flour until smooth.

Spray nonstick skillet with nonstick spray, over medium heat.  When a drop of water sizzles, pour in a heaping 2 tbsp of batter, tilting the skillet to coat the bottom evenly with the batter.

Cook until set, aprox 30 seconds.  

Turn and cook slightly on other side about 10 seconds.  Slide
crepe onto a sheet of wax paper. 

Repeat with the remaining batter to make a total of 8 crepes.
Stack them with a layer of wax paper between each.   
You can freeze them at this point if not using them all. 

Spread about 2 tsp of ricotta in middle of crepe and top with 2 tablespoons of berries; roll up each crepe.  Serves 4

Per serving 2 crepes filled: 238 cal, 4 g fat, 2 g sat fat, 0 g trans fat, 64 mg chol, 240 mg sod, 39 g carb, 4 g fiber, 11 g prot, 199 g calc. Point value 4

The family enjoyed them as well, did not feel like they were
eating diet food.

Because it is the holiday weekend, we decided we were going to
eat something fun and more summer B-B-Q like. So I made the 
Middle Eastern Turkey Burgers tonight. They turned out great!!

I also created a new side dish. I love zucchini sticks, but they are
usually fried. So not exactly something I want to be eating on my
first day of dieting. So I decided I would try baking them in the
oven.

I'd been to the farmers market earlier in the day and brought home
some baby zucchini. So this is what I did:

Baked Zucchini Sticks

• 1 small zucchini cut into sticks, first cut it in 1/4's then 1/8's
• then cut the strips into 1/3's.
• 1 egg beaten
• Panko crumbs mixed with 1/4 cup chicken shake and bake
• Epicure Herb and Garlic

Directions

• Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
• Mix Panko crumbs, shake and bake, and the herbs together 
• place on a plate or into pie pan
• Dip Zucchini Sticks into egg mixture
• Roll and press into crumbs
• Double dip again into egg mixture, then back into crumbs
• Bake until crispy on outside it will be aprox 20 min

Serve with yogurt Epicure Herb and Garlic dip.

Greek style plain yogurt mixed with whatever dip mix you choose.

Instead of Mayonnaise on the burger, I used 1 1/2 tsp homemade

bean dip. It was very tasty and I didn't miss the mayo.

Gary enjoying the same burger, doesn't he look deprived?

Middle Eastern Burger with baked zucchini sticks and Epicure

Chipster chips.

Each serving consisted of 5 zucchini sticks and 10 chips. They 

were a mix of plain potato and sweet potato. They crunch just like

regular chips but they don't have the calories.

1 full medium sweet potato prepared this way is 110 calories;
1 full medium russet potato is 150 calories.

According to the Lays potato chip site, Lays original Chips, 1

serving of 20 chips is 150 calories. Do you only eat 20 chips
when you sit down to eat chips?

I'm just about to sign off for the evening but I thought I'd share a 

couple more pictures with you. These are the fruits and veggies I

picked up today at the market. All the more reason to change my 

diet, don't they look beautiful? Going to be busy canning, but hey, 

it keeps me out of trouble, right?

Just one last note. Most of the recipes I use, I have adapted from 

recipes found in "Weight Watchers in 20 minutes" and some are

ones I have had in my collection for years with no known author.