Janice's Indian-Inspired Soup

5 large potatoes
5 large carrots
6 small stalks of celery
1 medium-large onion
1 cloves of garlic


Chop it all up. 
Boil in about 8 cups of beef broth (I think I used just slightly less). 
When veggies are very soft, stop boiling, blend it all until reasonably smooth. 
Pour back into pot and mix in 2 teaspoons each of cumin and curry, 1 teaspoon of turmeric, and 1 teaspoon of thyme.

Great when you're craving a low-cal version of Indian cuisine.

Serves 6. Each serving:

Calories: 86
Potassium: 415
Fat: 0
Carbs: 14
Fibre:2
Protein: 4

Baked Kale Chips

Three simple ingredients: kale, oil, salt.

I had never tried kale, except maybe mixed into a salad at a bistro, but recently, my colleague brought in some highly addictive tortilla chips purchased at Costco that include kale in the mix of "healthy" ingredients. Since I found them quite tasty, I got up the nerve to try a "crunchy granola" recipe: baked kale chips.

The verdict? Surprisingly edible - that mystery flavour I enjoyed in the tortilla chips has been identified, and am willing to try again some time. Admittedly, my spouse wasn't pleased with the smell of freshly baked kale, and refused to try any.

Buffalo Chicken Won Ton Bowls

Inspired by this recipe from Joyously Domestic. My won tons are filled with: shredded chicken, cottage cheese, diced tomatoes, and buffalo sauce.

After baking:
1 Weight Watchers Points Plus Values each.

After topping with cheese, ranch dressing, carrots and celery:
2 Weight Watchers Points Plus Values each.

Lemon Meringues

I've never made a meringue before. I've only eaten one or two. But did that stop me from trying a recipe that looked so easy and so low calorie? No, it did not! I saw the recipe on Jen's Favorite Cookies. The only thing I found to be a little confusing was that she didn't say how big you should make them - I'd compare it to a Hershey's Kiss or chocolate rosette. I also found mine started to lose the rosette look after a while... further investigation found the culprit: a lemon zest clog.

Admittedly, these did not photograph well... but hers looked great!

WARNING: the "dough" for these is incredibly sticky.

Nutrition information: serving of 6 pieces (from a batch of 300)
Calories: 14

Potassium: 5
Fat: 0
Carbohydrates: 3
Fibre: 0
Protein: 0
Weight Watchers Points Plus: 0

My rating: tasty and lemony, it was hard to stop after just a couple. I would only repeat this recipe if I was sharing it out with some friends. I ended up throwing quite a few away to prevent me from eating them.

Buffalo Chicken Salad

I love chicken. It's my favourite white meat. And it's a little à propos, because for most of my life, I have been somewhat chicken to experiment with food. A part of the reason for this blog is to chronicle my food life and to start trying more - more foods, more recipes, more ways of preparing.

I am simultaneously on a quest to eat a more healthy and balanced diet, so I'm hoping that you'll be seeing a lot more veggies and salads than I've traditionally eaten, accompanied by an occasional dessert or home baked bread recipe. I tend to use a combination of from-scratch and pre-made ingredients, depending on the amount of time I have to devote to the food. I have been using myfitnesspal.com to help figure out the nutrition information for the meals I prepare for several years, and find it very useful.

Today, I tried a recipe from skinnytaste.com for crockpot buffalo chicken wraps. However, I decided to turn this into a salad concoction to suit the ingredients I had in my fridge. I also had an issue where my crockpot is not working, so I cooked it in a covered pot instead. I present to you my very own buffalo chicken salad:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup buffalo crockpot chicken made with Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Sauce
3 cups baby romaine lettuce
1 handful of chopped carrots and celery
1-1/2 Tbsp Kraft fat free Rancher's Choice salad dressing

Nutrition information:
Calories: 209
Potassium: 173
Fat: 3
Carbohydrates: 15
Fibre: 2
Protein: 28
Weight Watchers Points Plus: 5 (4 if you only used 1 Tbsp of salad dressing)

The results: flavourful and fantastic. Definitely something I will make again!