Skinny yogurt banana bread - Oven or Instant Pot

If you are looking for a moist banana bread, look no further! This might be a light recipe but don't let that fool you into thinking it is anything short of delicious. It makes a good breakfast or a nice dessert.

Adding Greek yogurt not only helps to make this bread extra moist, it adds protein and doesn't give you the sour taste that using sour cream would.

It's also a great way to use up bananas that are past their prime. You can use bananas that have been frozen but you need to thaw them first. I usually zap them in the microwave for 15-20 seconds and they are thawed enough to mash them up

You can make this in your oven or Instant Pot electric pressure cooker. I first made this in my Instant Pot because we had finished the loaf I had made in the oven and I was craving more but my loaf pan was in the dishwasher which was running. It's nice to have options!

Ingredients ready to go

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 cup of butter, softened
2 large eggs
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 of unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 cup of low fat, plain Greek yogurt
3 overripe bananas
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
cooking spray

If you want a little different variety you can try adding 1 tsp of cinnamon or 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder.

Cooking equipment:
Electric mixer
For baking in the oven you need a loaf baking pan or for the Instant Pot a 7" round cake pan. I use a 3" deep Fat Daddio pan in my 6 quart Instant Pot.

Oven directions:

Batter all mixed up

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mash up bananas in large mixing bowl using a potato masher or large fork. Add all ingredients to mixing bowl and beat on med-low speed until all are fully incorporated, about 3-5 minutes. You may need to use a spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl to get the flour fully mixed in.

Grease the loaf pan with cooking spray and pour in the batter. Bake for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and the top is lightly browned. Allow to cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

Instant Pot directions:

Place 1 cup of water into the bottom of your Instant Pot. 

Mash up bananas in large mixing bowl using a potato masher or large fork. Add all ingredients to mixing bowl and beat on med-low speed until all are fully incorporated, about 3-5 minutes. You may need to use a spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl to get the flour fully mixed in.

In the Instant Pot

Grease the 7" round cake pan with cooking spray and pour in the batter. Cover the cake pan with foil and using your trivet, lower it into your Instant Pot. Put your lid on and seal the vent. Press

the cake setting and set for 55 minutes. If you don't have a cake setting you can use high pressure. When the cooking cycle completes, quick release the pressure. Allow to cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

I calculated this recipe at 150 calories per slice (recipe makes 10 slices) compared to a whopping 420 calories for a slice of Starbucks' banana bread. Wow!

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The easiest, healthy, instant pot marinara sauce

This is the easiest recipe for homemade marinara you will ever find and thanks to the instant pot electric pressure cooker, it's also the fastest. I may never buy marinara sauce again.

This recipe also doesn't have any added sugar! By my calculation, the whole recipe is 3 points on the Weight Watchers Freestyle program. The 3 points come from the olive oil used to saute the onions and garlic but you could use cooking spray instead for a zero point recipe.

Ingredients:
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 of a small onion, diced
4 cloves of fresh garlic, peeled (or you can substitute 4 tsp of chopped refrigerated garlic)
32 oz crushed tomatoes
15 oz tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
2 Tb dried basil
2 Tb Italian seasoning
1 tsp salt

Equipment:
Instant pot or other electric pressure cooker, I use a 6 quart duo.
Garlic press, if you don't have a garlic press you can dice your garlic before you begin.

Turn your instant pot on the saute setting, low temperature and add the olive oil and onions to the bottom. After the onion cooks 2-3 minutes, add your garlic. I use my garlic press and press it directly into the pot. Saute the garlic and onion and additional 2-3 minutes.

Add all remaining ingredients to the pot, using the half cup of water to rinse the remaining tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes from the cans into the pot. Lock the lid in place on the top of your instant pot and turn the vent to sealing. Press cancel on the pot to end the saute setting and then set the pot to the pressure cook, high setting and set the timer for 10 minutes. Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes and allow the pressure to naturally release for at least 15 minutes.

After the natural release is finished you can quick release any remaining pressure, carefully.

I have not tried to double this recipe in the 6 qt or made this in a mini 3 qt instant pot, I have intentionally not filled the pot full to avoid spraying sauce out of the valve.

I have used this recipe as a marina sauce for pasta and also as a pizza sauce for 2-ingredient dough pizza.

This blog is not affiliated with Weight Watchers in any way. This post main contain affiliate links, if you make a purchase using one of these links this blog may receive a small commission. Thank you for your support.

Berry cobbler - 2 WW points

When it's 2 smart points, I always have room for dessert.

This berry cobbler uses a variation of the fabulous 2-ingredient dough where you add an egg which gives you a fluffier dough. This dough topping isn't as buttery as a typical cobbler topping because, well, it doesn't contain any butter but it works pretty well for a lighter version of this summer dessert staple.

Fruit with sweetener and flour

This was one of my baking experiments using my new monk fruit sweetener. This is actually a blend of monk fruit & erythritol, which gives it the same sweetness as sugar so you can use it to bake at a 1:1 ratio, which is convenient! You can use another sugar replacement or real sugar if you prefer, but this will impact the point count of the recipe.

You can use any kind of fruit you would like, either fresh or frozen. I used mixed frozen berries and added some extra blueberries because I didn't have quite enough. For the 4 cups of fruit needed, I used more than whole 16 oz bag of frozen fruit. If you use frozen fruit, you need to thaw it first.

Ingredients

cooking spray

Fruit, all mixed up!

Filling:
4 cups of fruit, chopped, thawed if necessary
1/4 cup of flour (doesn't need to be self-rising, but can be)
4 tsp Lakanto Monkfruit sweetner

Topping:
1 cup self-rising flour
1 egg
1/4 cup of Lakanto Monkfruit sweetner
1/2 cup of Greek yogurt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray a 10in square baking dish with cooking spray. Mix fruit with 1/4 cup of flour and 4 tsp of Lakanto Monkfruit sweetner. Spread the mixture on the bottom of the baking dish.

Using a dough hook, blend all of the topping ingredients. If you don't have a dough hook, you can use a wooden spoon. Spread small amounts of the dough on top of the fruit mix, using your hands to flatten the dough. The dough doesn't need to fully cover the fruit.

Bake for 23-28 minutes until the dough has lightly browned on the top.

This recipe is 2 points for a serving on Weight Watchers Freestyle, one serving is 1/9 of the recipe. I normally like to cut the pan into servings but this is a little liquid-y for that, one serving was about 3/4 cup.

This blog is not affiliated with Weight Watchers in any way. Points were calculated in August 2018 on the Weight Watchers Freestyle program. This post main contain affiliate links, if you make a purchase using one of these links this blog may receive a small commission. Thank you for your support.

9 ways to use powdered peanut butter

Aldi's brand - SimplyNature

I'm still kind of in awe of powdered peanut butter. It is amazing to me that it has so few calories but still basically tastes the same as regular peanut butter. I found this magical substance, "astronaut peanut butter" as I like to call it, when I started Weight Watchers. It was quickly apparent that there wasn't room for full-fat peanut butter in my daily point plan.

There are bunch of different brands available including PB2, PBFit, PB Trimmed and TruNut and these come in a variety of flavors including chocolate, honey and salted caramel. I posted a taste test of all of the ones I have tried and will update it when I have tried more types!

If you have bought some but aren't sure to how to use it, here are all the uses I have come up with so far:

1) As peanut butter

Peanut butter toast and fruit dip!

This is the most obvious way but really, when mixed with water you will barely notice the difference.
I prefer PBFit for "regular" peanut butter use. I put it on toast, in wraps and dip fruit in it.

2) For baking
You can replace up to half of flour in recipes with powdered peanut butter! This will make your recipes healthier by adding extra protein. It is also fewer Weight Watchers points than flour. You can try this in my black bean brownies, where I added it instead of flour to make them more cake-y. You probably can't replace all of the flour in regular recipes with the powered PB so you might need to experiment a little bit; I have had success replacing up to half of the flour without having to make other changes.

3) In smoothies

Drizzled on a banana crepe

Instead of using protein powder, you can add peanut butter powder to your smoothies to add extra protein. It can also make them peanut buttery, which is great with certain fruits like bananas. Blended fruit does have points on Weight Watchers, so keep that in mind.

4) As a dessert drizzle
Instead of indulging in something like chocolate sauce, you make a drizzle to put on top of your favorite dessert such as ice cream. To use it like this you want to mix it with water as normal but add a little more water until it's a thinner sauce consistency. I would start with an extra tsp of water and add 1/2 tsp increments after than until it's how you want it. Chocolate flavored versions are really good for this.

5) Add flavor to plain yogurt

Peanut sauce

Plain yogurt can be really boring, a little peanut butter powder can help to jazz it up. I would add about 2 Tb for 1/2 cup of yogurt. Try this with the chocolate, salted caramel or vanilla flavors for more variety.

6) Make peanut sauce
Especially if you are doing Weight Watchers, you need something to jazz up your daily chicken breast. Peanut sauce turns your boring chicken into chicken sate! Doesn't that sound exotic? Here is a recipe for you to experiment with.

7) Use it in high-protein peanut butter pancakes
This was one of the first ways I used powdered peanut butter. I bought some Krusteaz high-protein pancake mix and used some PBFit with it to make 2-point peanut butter pancakes.

8) Make these frozen PB pops
You can try out these frozen almond milk popsicle with this recipe from PBFit.

9) In oatmeal

After my original list of 8 ideas, I have since discovered that peanut butter powder is delicious in oatmeal. It's funny because I wouldn't think to put peanut butter in oatmeal normally but a little of the PB power (I just add a little extra of the water/milk/almond milk I'm using for my oatmeal and stir it in) is amazing. I also suggest adding a few mini chocolate chips and cinnamon. It's basically dessert oatmeal.

This blog is not affiliated with Weight Watchers in any way. Points were calculated in July 2017 on the Weight Watchers Freestyle program. This post may contain affiliate links, if you make a purchase using one of these links this blog may receive a small commission. Thank you for your support.

Chicken Shawarma - grill or Instant Pot

This recipe came about because after doing Weight Watchers for a while, I was bored with all the ways I normally make chicken. My go-to chicken marinade has been a balsamic & soy sauce concoction that my husband turned me on to but after months of eating so much chicken we were bored with it and needed to try something new.

With that in mind, I decided to try chicken shawarma and making a homemade tzatziki sauce.

I hadn't made tzatziki before but all of the store-bought tzatziki I had tried was disgusting. It was nothing like the delicious yogurt sauce our amazing local Mediterranean Deli had! So I thought I would give it a try and it was surprisingly easy and delicious. I see a lot of tzatziki sauce in my future.

To get a good flavor, I suggest to marinate the chicken at least 4 hours but you can do overnight or 24 hours if you have the time. The longer you marinate, the better the flavor!

Ingredients
3 large chicken breasts (about 2.5 lbs)
1 cup of fat free chicken broth (for Instant Pot only)

Marinade
3 Tb olive oil
Juice of one lemon, freshly squeezed
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 tsp table salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika, smoked or Hungarian recomended
1/2 tsp chili powder
fresh ground pepper to taste
2 pinches of ground cinnamon

Tzatziki sauce
1 cup of plain, fat free Greek yogurt
1 Persian cucumber or 1/3 of a regular cucumber
Juice of half a lemon, freshly squeezed
1/2 tsp table salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 tsp of dill weed (or to taste)

Directions:
Slice the chicken breasts into long strips, I got approximately 10-11 strips from the 3 breasts. Place the strips of chicken a Tupperware container or gallon sized Ziploc bag. Using a garlic press, mince the fresh garlic and add to the chicken. Add the remaining marinade ingredients to the container, toss the chicken to coat thoroughly and allow the chicken to marinate for at least 4 hours. Overnight or 24 hours is recommended.

For the Instant Pot:
Place 1 cup of fat free chicken broth in the bottom of the IP. Place the trivet in the bottom of the pot and place the chicken strips on top of the trivet. Lock the lid in place and close the vent. Set the IP to high pressure, 10 minutes. When the cooking cycle completes, quick release the pressure and serve.

For the grill:

Mixed tzatziki, yum!

On a heated grill, grill the chicken strips until the internal temperature reaches a minimum of 165 degrees, approximately 10 minutes per side and serve.

For the Tzatziki sauce:
Finely dice or grate the cucumber and add to a small bowl. Add all of the remaining ingredients and stir thoroughly.


I like 1/4 tsp of dill to 1 cup of tzatziki but you might need to experiment a little to see how much you like. Dill has a strong flavor, so tread lightly! My husband happens to love dill and he always adds more to his sauce, you might like more too!

The grilled version had a nice char on it and was very crispy but I when it was reheated it was little drier also. The IP version was more moist and juicy. If you wanted it to have the char, you could broil it for a few minutes or sear it after it's cooked but it's really good straight from the Instant Pot!

For Weight Watchers, I count 1 point for each strip of chicken for the olive oil in the marinade. The Tzatziki is zero points!

This blog is not affiliated with Weight Watchers in any way. Points were calculated in July 2018 on the Weight Watchers Freestyle program. This post main contain affiliate links, if you make a purchase using one of these links this blog may receive a small commission. Thank you for your support.

Black bean peanut butter brownies - 1 point on WW

These might be the world's healthiest brownies. No flour, lots of protein and no artificial sugar and only two points on Weight Watchers Freestyle. They are lightly sweet and would pair great with some light ice cream!

When I told my husband I was going to make black bean brownies he was very skeptical. I had to convince him this was a real thing that people do! At least people on Weight Watchers who still want to eat brownies.

When I got ready to make these, I thought, "hmmm....maybe I should put some peanut butter powder in them? and make peanut butter brownies." so I rolled with the impulse. Why not? If you are not familiar with peanut butter powder, it's a low fat peanut butter that has the oil removed, such as PBFit or PB2.

I think this was a good edition and helps make the batter a little thicker and the brownies more cake-like since in recipes peanut butter powder acts sort of flour-like. I used regular peanut butter powder but you could also use the chocolate flavor and make it more chocolatey.

If you don't have an powdered peanut butter you can use protein powder, regular peanut butter (if
you're doing Weight Watchers this will add points) or skip it.

You will need a large food processor to make this recipe. You'll want to mash the black beans up thoroughly.  I used an 8-cup Hamilton Beach food processor.

Ingredients:
1 can of black beans
3 eggs
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
6 Tb powdered peanut butter
3 Tb unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
2 pinches of salt
cooking spray

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 10 inch square pan well with cooking spray. Drain and rinse black beans well in a small colander. Put black beans and all other ingredients in an 8-cup food processor and pulse for 3-4 minutes until the black beans are well-ground.

Pour batter into baking pan and back in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cut into 16 servings the recipe is 1 point per serving. If they are not sweet enough for you, you can add another 1/4 cup of brown sugar, which raises the point count to 2 points per serving.

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase from one of these links this blog may receive a small commission, thank you for your support. This blog is not affiliated with Weight Watchers in any way. Points were calculated in June 2018 using the WW freestyle program.

Cheesy crock-pot chicken - 3 pts on WW

My husband and I absolutely love crock-pot chicken made with cream cheese. It's really simple to throw in a crock pot in the morning and it's a versatile filling, we eat it:

• over rice (this was more common pre-Weight Watchers, but it's also the best!)
• over cauliflower rice
• over egg noodles
• as a taco/burrito filling
• in a wrap
• with black beans

This dish is so cheesy and decadent I did not even check the points on it when I first joined Weight Watchers, thinking they would be way too high. However with a few simple swaps I was shocked that it was only 3 points a serving! That is dividing the recipe into 4 servings, which is a very large serving.

To make this magic happen for 3 points, you need to use fat free cream cheese. While I try to avoid the fat free products that have fillers, I make an exception for this meal because sometimes I just need something quick and easy. If you change to light cream cheese, the recipe is 7pts/serving. 

This recipe is even easier because you can use frozen chicken without thawing it first. I have also left it for up to 9 hours and it was fine but it does burn on the sides a little bit. I spray it with cooking spray really good or use a crock-pot liner. 

Ingredients:

3 boneless skinless chicken breast (about 2.5lbs, fresh or frozen)

8oz fat free cream cheese

1 can of light cream of chicken soup (I use the Aldi fit & active brand)

1 packet Italian dressing seasoning mix

cooking spray

Cooking equipment:

5 or 6 quart crock-pot or slow cooker

Directions:

Spray sides of crock-pot with cooking spray and put chicken in the bottom of the crock-pot. Sprinkle full packet of Italian dressing seasoning on top of the chicken and add the cream of chicken soup and block of cream cheese.

Cook on low for 8 hours. Shred the chicken and mix with the cheesy sauce and serve as desired.

Crock-pot chicken over cauliflower rice (3pt) with some chips on the side (4pt)

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase from one of these links this blog may receive a small commission, thank you for your support. This blog is not affiliated with Weight Watchers in any way. Points were calculated in June 2018 using the WW freestyle program.