Low Fat Cooking in the Crockpot

I love to cook in my crockpot (I think we’re supposed to call them “slow cookers” now). The hard part is that not a lot of crockpot meals fit my Weight Watchers points. One of my favorite cookbooks, however, is nothing but healthy and low fat recipes that you can make in your crockpot. It’s called Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly. They have a whole line of slow cooker cookbooks, but this is the one with the great low fat recipes.

What I do is go through and pick out a handful of recipes and run them through the Weight Watchers point counter. Then I write the point totals into the book so that the next time I cook, I don’t have to look them up again. I also write in any alterations that I have made.

Tonight we are having Taco Soup. It’s a lot like chili except a little more soup-like in consistency and includes a ranch dressing packet, which gives it an extra kick. It’s 5 points a serving and everyone in my family loves it. We also make the Chicken Soft Tacos regularly as well as the Chicken and Dumplings. The key is just testing things out and then leaving notes in your margins so you know what to go back to later. With hundreds of recipes, you will be cooking new healthy and light recipes in your crockpot for your family for months to come!

You can pick up Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly at Amazon or most book sellers.

Family Loves Funky Monkey Snacks

Last week my daughter had a birthday party to attend at a place called Monkey Joes. As we were dropping her off, I saw a stand for Funky Monkey fruit snacks. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remembered Hungry Girl talking about them, but I had never tried them.

My 9-year-old and I picked 5 different flavors, but they were a little pricey. Each serving bag was about $2.50. I figured it was worth it to try them just to see what we thought about them.

My 9-year-old is picky when it comes to fruits and vegetables. Even though I make the kids eat a fruit and a veggie at every meal, she just truly doesn’t like a lot of them. I was skeptical that she would like Funky Monkey because it is essentially nothing but freeze dried fruit (no sugar!). She opened a bag of the Applemon in the car as we were running errands. To my surprise, she loved them! The next day, we opened up all of the flavors and everyone in the family tried them. They were all a hit (although I liked the bananas and no one else did). I did a little research and found that each bag is a single serving size but the equivalent of 3 of the USDA’s recommended 2-4 servings of fruit.

Funky Monkey is a perfect snack. It would travel well or could be packed in a lunchbox. I’m planning on switching out sugary after-school snacks with Funky Monkey packages now. Luckily for me, some of the flavors are only one point on Weight Watchers. So I will be having some each day, too!

The Funky Monkey website says that you can buy them at Kroger, but I couldn’t find them. I ended up ordering them on Amazon for much less than they cost at Monkey Joes. A 12 pack is under $22 and it is eligible for Super Saver shipping. You can buy variety packs or single flavor packs. We’re partial to the Applemon and Carnival Mix at our house. Try them all and let me know what you think.

Edited: If you live near Indianapolis, they now have them at Marsh!

Healthy Meals in the Crockpot

As a Work at Home Mom, for some reason I always feel like a total failure when I can’t have dinner on the table for my family by 6pm. Never mind that I am working all day while balancing getting the kids off to school, running to the school for PTO meetings, and getting homework and snacks when the kids get home from school. Plus the normal phone ringing, door knocking, and errands that sometimes happen. Why do I beat myself up? Whatever the reason, my saving grace comes in the form of a cookbook.

Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly is a way for me to make sure that dinner is ready for my family AND healthy. In fact, I’ve even written Weight Watchers point values into the margins of many of the recipes. At the start of the week, I pick at least 2 crockpot recipes for the week and buy the ingredients. Then I throw everything into the crockpot in the morning after the kids leave for school. By 6pm, a healthy dinner is awaiting my family.

Some of our favorite recipes are Chicken and Dumplings, Taco Soup, and Chicken Fajitas. All of them are 6 Weight Watchers points or less per serving. This week I’m trying baked apples to pair with tuna noodle casserole one night.

Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly is available at Amazon for only about $10. With over 500 low fat crockpot recipes, you can try something new every day for a long time!