Strawberry Short Stack

Per Serving (entire recipe, 2 pancakes with filling): 8 Points+
289 calories, 1.75g fat, 471mg sodium, 60.5g carbs, 7.5g fiber, 7g sugars, 14g protein

The recipe: "300 under 300", pages 74 - 75

or http://www.hungry-girl.com/newsletters/raw/1455

Since strawberries are in season, I've been looking for Hungry Girl recipes with strawberries in them.  I found this one for breakfast, and made it over the weekend.  Very good!  There is something satisfying about making a recipe for pancakes that has exactly enough pancake batter for two pancakes.  No temptation to go back for seconds, and you get a delicious breakfast all for yourself. 

These pancakes had strawberry preserves in the batter itself, as well as fresh strawberries in between the two pancakes.  The strawberries between the pancakes were mixed with Cool Whip - mmm!  I thought the pancakes could have had a little more of a strawberry flavor to them, but with the fresh strawberries, that made up for it.  They were nice and large, though, making for a pretty satisfying breakfast.  I added the optional Reddi-wip along with a drizzle of sugar-free syrup to mine.  Very good, and I was thankful that I didn't have a whole batch of pancakes to tempt me to eat more.

On the same weblink for the strawberry recipe is a recipe for smores pancakes.  Guess I know what I'll be making for breakfast next weekend!

Caramel Swirl Cream Puffs

Per Serving (1 "puff"): 3 Points+
121 calories, 3.5g fat, 266mg sodium, 22g carbs, 0g fiber, 6.5g sugars, 1.5g protein

The recipe: "Hungry Girl 1-2-3", pages 224 - 225

WARNING!  If you have any problem whatsoever with self control, it will be impossible for you to eat just one of these!  OMG, these are one of the best desserts I have made - ever.  They taste just like a chocolate caramel eclair.  So good!  The pastry part was perfectly fluffy and reminded me exactly of the pastry part of an eclair.  The chocolate part was the texture of the cream in an eclair, and for an added bonus, there was caramel drizzled on top and then swirled into the cream.

The only problem is, they are a little too good, and not diety (is that a word?) enough.  I completely blew my calorie intake for two days because of these little cream puffs.  My husband and my son do not have a big enough sweet tooth, and ate just two of these.  That means that I ate 10 - yes, 10 - in the span of only two days.  That's 600 calories extra each day!  Part of the problem was that I made these on Saturday, so I had all weekend to graze on these cream puffs.  The other problem was that I knew they wouldn't stay good for very long, and that the puff part would eventually get soggy.  I should have just frozen them.  I don't know what I was thinking!

Anyway, these are delicious, but do NOT make these unless you can freeze them and have extremely strong willpower not to eat more than one or two a day.  Or, make them for a party where everyone will gobble them up for you. 

Mom-Style Creamy Chicken 'n Veggies

Per Serving (entire recipe): 7 Points+
307 calories, 4g fat, 881mg sodium, 26g carbs, 5.25g fiber, 10.5g sugars, 40g protein

The recipe: "Hungry Girl 1-2-3", pages 146 - 147

I've been eyeballing this recipe for a while, but was hesitant to make it after the disaster I had with the Hungry Chick Shepherd's Pie.  Mainly because the veggies used are frozen, and I still have nightmares about the frozen veggies used in that gross shepherd's pie (rereading the post, I was way nicer about the recipe than I should have been!).  Finally, I made this recipe, and I was glad I did.  It was so creamy and delicious!

Because the chicken and veggies were baked in a foil pack, it made the veggies come out soft and tender - even the cauliflower.  Often when I use frozen veggies they turn out kind of gross and you can tell they were previously frozen, but these didn't taste frozen at all.

Everything was very creamy, and definitely reminded me of comfort food.  And the serving size was HUGE!  Believe it or not, there is a nice-size chicken cutlet underneath all of those veggies in the photo.  I was very happy with the meal, and was glad I had made four of these foil-packs.  My husband and I both had the extra servings for lunch the next day.  For the points, this was a very filling and delicious meal. 

PB & J Oatmeal Heaven

Per Serving (entire recipe): 7 Points+
285 calories, 10.25g fat, 417mg sodium, 42g carbs, 6.75g fiber, 5g sugars, 9g protein

The recipe: "300 under 300", page 52

Well, this was the first "growing oatmeal" bowl that I was truly disappointed with.  I was hoping that this one would be a better peanut butter option than the PB & Chocolate Oatmeal Blitz I recently reviewed (which was good, just not very peanut buttery).  It even smelled delicious while I was cooking the oatmeal, and reminded me of a peanut butter & jelly sandwich.  I had high hopes for this recipe, but was left disappointed when I went to eat it.

It was again not very peanut buttery, and tasted mostly like strawberry-flavored oatmeal.  As a matter of fact, the only peanut butter in the recipe was two teaspoons that were mixed with Almond Breeze and drizzled on top of the oatmeal.  As a result, only some bites had any peanut butter taste at all, while the majority tasted like strawberries.  Even the strawberry taste seemed a little diluted for some reason - even though the strawberries I used were nice and sweet.

So, I am left still looking for a yummy peanut buttery Hungry Girl dish that is low in fat and calories.   I will keep trying, because I am sure it is out there somewhere!

Oh well.  Fortunately, there are plenty of other oatmeal recipes of hers that I did enjoy, so I will just be sticking to those instead.

Pizza-fied Chicken

Per Serving (entire recipe): 6 Points+
282 calories, 5.75g fat, 868mg sodium, 10g carbs, 2g fiber, 4.5g sugars, 44g protein

The recipe: "Hungry Girl 1-2-3", pages 30 - 31
or http://www.hungry-girl.com/show/you-wanna-pizza-me-pizza-fied-chicken-recipe

An interesting concept - chicken topped like a pizza.  I figured it would just taste like chicken with sauce and veggies, but it actually did remind me of pizza.  Before I even told my husband what it was, he said, "It tastes like the chicken is topped with pizza.  Cool!".  

I really liked how the chicken was seasoned in this recipe.  Just a little garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper - simple, but very delicious.  The same seasonings were added to the crushed tomatoes for the sauce, so they went well together. 

I also liked how the veggies really bulked up the chicken and made it into a nice, filling meal.  And for only six points+ this meal was a calorie bargain.  Pair it with a salad and you will definitely be nice and full.  If you like pizza and you like chicken, you will definitely like this recipe.