Janet’s Chicken and Dressing

“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,” - Philippians 1:3 ESV

It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is only a few days away!! After our big move and with Jon in training, our Thanksgiving plans are super low-key. However, this is a BIG Thanksgiving for us. It will be our first Thanksgiving in Hong Kong. It will also be the twins first Thanksgiving. That’s right, our first Thanksgiving as a family of 7!!

We’ve been doing lots of fun things in preparation for Thanksgiving. In our homeschool, we’ve done several Thanksgiving projects. We made a Thanksgiving banner, painted Thanksgiving pictures, and we’re working on thankful books soon Thanksgiving we can share what we are thankful for this year. I also found some Thanksgiving and fall books at the Hong Kong Library that we have been reading.

One of the biggest decisions that I have to make this year will be what we are going to have for our Thanksgiving meal. I’m always looking for delicious recipes to make over the holidays. I can't tell you how many hours I spend scrolling through Pinterest for the perfect recipe.

Are you looking for a delicious new recipe to try for Thanksgiving? Look no further!! 

We lived in Texas for 11 years, in that time I was introduced to some of the most delicious food. One of my favorite dishes is chicken and dressing. However, I never learned how to make it before we left Texas. Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of other good foods that I learned how to make like corn casserole, BBQ ribs, canned peaches, homemade jam, chicken spaghetti, breakfast casserole, and more.

Just not chicken and dressing.

To my delight, my precious friend, Janet White made a YouTube video to share her amazing ‘Chicken and Dressing’ recipe with the world!! I’m so excited, because all I have to do is follow Janet’s step by step instructions and to know how to make your very own chicken and dressing at home.

Trust me this recipe will not disappoint!!

Blog Anniversary

Six years ago, I created my weight loss blog, Living a Changed Life. In the beginning, I created this website, for anyone who wanted to know about my weight loss story. It started out being about my weight loss journey and slowly grew. You do not have to spend much time on my blog before you find recipes, helpful tips, encouragement, honesty, low pointsplus food finds, and more!!

Berry Cobbler Ingredients

Thanks to Pinterest, my most popular recipe and blog post has been Recipe Review: Berry Cobbler. It is such a quick and easy recipe, which is what makes it one of my very favorites! If you haven't tried this Weight Watchers friendly recipe, you should.

My blog has seen a lot of changes over the years, but so have I! In the past six years, reached my weight loss goal, earned Lifetime status with Weight Watchers, become a Weight Watchers leader, run a half marathon, carried and gave birth to 2 almost 3 babies, and the list could go on and on. There have been both ups and downs, but I am here to say that the Lord has been more faithful to me than I could have ever imagined!

One of the hardest things for me, since becoming a Mommy, I have not felt like I have much to say about anything. Hence my lack of regular blogging. However, God is showing me that Living a Changed Life, is not just about my weight loss, but about all the changes that I might go through in different seasons of my life.

I am so thankful for the Lord's blessing over my blog. I cannot wait to see what this blog will look like in another six years.

Is It Worth It - Power Point Presentation

 

Back in April, I was one of the guest speakers at a local Weight Watchers event called, "Is It Worth It?". At the event I talked about how to transform your favorite family recipes into more Weight Watchers friendly choices. After all, that is what I do with my Recipe Reviews, here at Living a Changed Life. Let's go through the process together as I share some of my powerpoint slides with you.

First, you find a recipe that you like. It might be a family recipe or a recipe that you found on Pinterest. Either way, it is probably a recipe that isn't Weight Watchers friendly yet.

Next, I open up my Weight Watchers Recipe Builder in eTools, because this really is my secret weapon! I evaluate the original recipe, taking on item at a time. For Example: The recipe might call for whole milk, but you could substitute fat free milk instead.

Also, play around with the portion sizes, because more portions equal less pointsplus per serving.

While you are in Recipe Builder, don't forget to use the "Lighten It Up" tab. Weight Watchers gives you lots of great ideas about other ways to lighten up your recipes. For Example: Instead of using butter, you could use applesauce.

As you can see in the slide above, the original recipes was 6 pointsplus per serving. However, after it was transformed, it was only 4 pointsplus per serving!

Ultimately you must ask yourself, "Is it worth it for you to take the time to transform some of your favorite recipes?"

Recipe Review: Healthy Cookies

I enjoy eating bananas, but they always get too ripe before I am ready to eat them! Thanks to the tin foil solution, I haven't had that problem much any more. However, I still have a bunch of bananas in the freezer that I need to use. My husband prefers that I make Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, but recently I have been looking for a healthier ways to use those ripe bananas.

When I found these Healthy Cookies on Pinterest I thought that they were too good to be true. I was excited, because they did not have many ingredients and were low in pointsplus values.

I'm excited to share this new recipe review with you and hope that you enjoy it!

Ingredients: bananas, quick oats, and walnuts

Crush, mash, and mix all the ingredients together.

Place a tablespoon of each on cookie sheet.

The finished product!

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Healthy Cookies

Source: The Burlap Bag and Skinny Taste

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Servings:8

Serving Size: 2 cookies

Calories: 93

Fat: 3.5 g

Fiber: 2 g

Protein: 2 g

Old Points: 2 pt

Points+: 2 pts+

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Ingredients

2 medium ripe bananas, mashed

1 cup uncooked quick oats

  1/4 cup crushed walnuts

Instructions 

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Spray a non-stick cookie sheet with cooking spray.

Combine the mashed bananas and oats in a bowl. Fold in the walnuts and place a tablespoon of each on the cookie sheet.

Bake 15 minutes. Makes 16 cookies.

 *If you don't like nuts, add in chocolate chips or coconut instead. Just make sure you adjust the pointsplus values.

Meal Planning on a Budget

source

This evening, me and Jon are spending our date night going to the grocery store. Don't judge. We love spending time together, no matter what we are doing. Not to mention, it's easier to get groceries when it's just the two of us.

As you might know, Jon and I live on a very tight budget, because most of the money we make goes to pay off our student loans. Eating healthy and living on a budget are two hard things to do! However, we have learned to make sacrifices in other areas, so that we can live a healthier lifestyle.

The most important way that I have learned to stay on budget and eat healthy is meal planning. Not only does meal planning help us to stay on budget, but it helps me to know that I have healthy/on plan meals to enjoy throughout the week! When life gets busy and I do not take time to plan out our meals we always end up spending more money than we planned. The hour or two that it takes me to plan out our weekly meals is worth it!

Here are the steps that I go through each week to plan out our meals.

1. PRAY. Before you do anything else, make sure that you get on your knees before the Lord in prayer over your weekly menu. I always pray that God will bless our food, so we will have enough to use the next week. I pray that God will help me to make wise choices at the store and find things on sale, so that we can stay under budget. As God answers my prayers I thank Him for His goodness in our lives!!

2. Make a Weekly Menu. There are so many wonderful resources available to help you decide what you want to eat throughout the week! The three websites I use each week are Pinterest, Skinnytaste, and my own Living a Changed Life Recipe Collection. Take some time each week to look at these different websites to decide what you would like to make for dinner.

3. Make a Grocery List. Once I have decided what I want to eat throughout the week, I begin to create a grocery list. I list out all the ingredients from my recipes that I will need for the upcoming week. I also list out healthy snacks, food for lunches, and anything else I think we might need. Then I go throughout my house and see what I already have in the pantry. I cross off the items I already have at home, so that I am only buying exactly what I need for the next week.

4. Go Shopping and Stick to the List. There are so many wonderful new items at the store all the time. In order to stay on budget, I stick to the list. I'm telling you this is the best thing, but please know that this is such a hard thing for me to do! I am still working on it. For the most part, I stick to my list. However, there have been times where I have found new low pointsplus foods items that I did not have on my list, but buy any way to try.

5. Portion Out Your Food. As soon as I get home or the very next day, if I do my shopping at night. I portion out all of my meat, fruit, veggies, crackers, chips, and more into individual Ziploc bags. This helps me to not waste the food I buy and help it to avoid going bad in my fridge before I decide to eat it. Throughout the week it is easier for me to make wise choices, when my food is already cut, wash, and waiting for me in a little cute bag!

 I hope this information is helpful to you! Like I said, this is what works for us. However, if this will not work for you that's okay! Just try to find a way that will work for you.

Recipe Review: "Labor Inducing" Gingersnap Cookies

A while back I was asking my friends to give me some good ideas about how to induce my labor. One of my friends, Meagan, suggested that I try making these "Labor Inducing" Gingersnap Cookies. I found the recipe on Pinterest. I decided to put this recipe into the Weight Watchers recipe builder to see how many points+ per cookies. To my suprise these are only 1 points+ per cookie!

Even though these cookies did not induce my labor, I am glad that I found a great new low points+ treat!

The Ingredients

Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt and cayenne pepper in small mixing bowl.  Set dry ingredients aside.

Then blend margarine in large mixing bowl. Stir in brown sugar and granulated sugar slowly.

Add the molasses, then the egg whites. Finally, add the dry ingredients to your mix.

Roll dough into ¾ inch balls. Roll cookie balls in sugar to lightly coat each cookie.  Place balls on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes or until cookies are golden brown.

The final product!

Just 1 points+ per cookie!

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Labor Inducing Gingersnap Cookies

Source: Just Mommies

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Servings: 60 cookies

Serving Size: 1 cookie

Calories: 66

Fat: 1.6 g

Fiber: 0.2 g

Protein: 0.7 g

Old Points: 1 pt

Points+: 1 pts+

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Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

8 tablespoons (or 1 stick) margarine

1/2 cup granulated sugar (will also need extra sugar to roll cookie dough in)

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup molasses

2 egg whites

Instructions 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

 Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt and cayenne pepper in small mixing bowl. Set dry ingredients aside. 

Then blend margarine in large mixing bowl. Stir in brown sugar and granulated sugar slowly. Add the molasses, then the egg whites. Finally, add the dry ingredients to your mix. 

Roll dough into ¾ inch balls. Roll cookie balls in sugar to lightly coat each cookie. Place balls on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes or until cookies are golden brown.

Recipe Review: Soup or Sauce (S.O.S.) Mix

Today, I want to share with you another amazing recipe that I found on Pinterest!! I have seen this before, but I have never taken the time to calculate the pointsplus values for this recipe. I wish I had taken more of an interest in this recipe in the past, because it probably could have been saving me money for months.

I make a lot of recipes that require cream of chicken and/or cream of mushroom soup. I always use 98% Fat-Free Cream of Chicken soup, which is about 4 pointsplus for 1 can. I feel like I need to own stock in this product, because I purchase it so often!

I was excited to learn that the recipe below for this S.O.S. Mix is equal to 9 (10.5 oz) cans of cream soup and is only 3 pointsplus per serving!! This recipe is lower in pointsplus values than the 98% Fat-Free Cream of Chicken soup that I normally use. It is also homemade, so there are not any ingredients in this mixture that I did not put there myself.

The real test came when I used it in one of our favorite family recipes. I made Chicken and Rice with this S.O.S. mixture, instead of the cans of soup that I typically use, and it turned out great!! On top of all of that, with the SOS mixture one serving of Chicken and Rice was only 4 pointsplus per serving!

I am excited to continue to use this mixture!!

Ingredients

Combine all ingredients in a recloseable plastic bag or in a plastic container.

Shake all ingredients together until completely mixed.

This is your final product and it is equal to 9 (10.5 oz) cans of cream soup!

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Soup or Sauce (S.O.S.) Mix

Source: One Good Thing By Julliee 

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Servings: 9

Serving Size: 1/3 cup of dry S.O.S. mix 

Calories: 69

Fat: 0.3 g

Fiber: 0.2 g

Protein: 1.9 g

Old Points: 1 pts

Points+: 3 pts+

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Ingredients

2 cups powdered non-fat dry milk

3/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup instant chicken bouillon (regular or low sodium)

2 Tbsp dried onion flakes

2 tsp Italian seasoning (optional)

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a recloseable plastic bag, mixing well. Equal to 9 (10.5 oz) cans of cream soup.

To substitute for 1 can of cream soup

Combine 1/3 cup of dry mix with 1 1/4 cups of cold water. Whisk until well blended. Cook and stir on stove top or in microwave until thickened. Add thickened mixture to casseroles as you would a can of soup.

Store in closed plastic bag or air-tight container until ready to use. It does not have to be refrigerated.

Recipe Review: Egg and Cheese Breakfast Sandwiches

This recipe is another one the I found on Pinterest! I pinned it a long time ago, but I have never taken the time to make it. I thought that it would be too high in pointsplus values. This recipe ends up being about 6 pointsplus per sandwich. I thought that might be too high for breakfast, but it has actually done a great job of keeping me full until lunch time. You cannot beat that!

I think that the next time I make it I will try to find an english muffin that is less than 3 pointsplus per muffin. I have been enjoying these for breakfast all week and I cannot wait to make them again! They were not only easy to make, but they taste good too!

The ingredients

Just grab a muffin tin and spray each spot in the tin with cooking spray. Then crack an egg in each muffin area. Stick these in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes.

Given that I was making a bunch, I just sliced all of my muffins in half and laid them all out on a baking sheet. After about 10 minutes in the oven (you can toast these at the same time as your eggs are cooking).

Once everything has been cooked, you just have to piece it all together.

Take half of a muffin, add some cheese, add an egg, and apply the top half of the muffin. You could hit the sandwich with some pepper if you wanted or even some hot sauce!

After constructing my sandwiches, I stuck them on a baking sheet and put them all in the freezer, uncovered and unwrapped for about an hour.

Pull them all out after an hour or two and wrap them individually in plastic wrap or foil and then store them in a freezer safe plastic bag.

I ended up making 12 breakfast sandwiches that are ready for me to eat later on in the week!

I reheated mine in the microwave and it tasted great!!

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Egg and Cheese Breakfast Sandwiches

Adapted from: Macheesmo

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Servings: 12

Serving Size: 1 breakfast sandwich

Calories: 367.3

Fat: 10.3 g

Fiber: 7 g

Protein: 20.9 g

Old Points: 7 pts

Points+: 6 pts+

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Ingredients

12 large eggs

8 oz Weight Watchers Mexican Style Shredded Cheese

12 Thomas Hearty Grains English Muffins, 100% Whole Wheat

cooking spray

Instructions

Cooking the Eggs

Just grab a muffin tin and spray each spot in the tin with cooking spray. Then crack an egg in each muffin area. Stick these in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes.

Toasting English Muffins

Given that I was making a bunch, I just sliced all of my muffins in half and laid them all out on a baking sheet. After about 10 minutes in the oven (you can toast these at the same time as your eggs are cooking).

Making the Sandwich

Take half of a muffin, add some cheese, add an egg, and apply the top half of the muffin. You could hit the sandwich with some pepper if you wanted or even some hot sauce! I would never call this Fast Food, but its definitely a fast way to make food.

Now you have two options:

Eat Immediately 

If you wanted to eat these right away, just stick them back in the oven for 5 or 10 minutes until they are warmed through and the cheese is melted and delicious.

Store for Later

If you want to store these for later, stick all your sandwiches on a baking sheet and put them all in the freezer, uncovered and unwrapped. Leave them in there for about an hour. This will give them a chance to give off some moisture and also freeze a bit. If you were to wrap them up right away then there would be all kinds of liquid that would condense. But don't forget about them or they'll get freezer burned. Pull them all out after an hour or two and wrap them individually in plastic wrap or foil and then store them in a freezer safe plastic bag. They will keep for a few weeks without a problem.

*Tip for Heating (or Reheating)

Oven

From completely frozen to warm and melted, it’ll take about 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Microwave

I heated mine in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes. Be careful, because with the microwave the muffin can get soggy.

Recipe Review: White Chicken Enchiladas

I am a huge fan of Pinterest!! I always find and pin the most amazing recipes. However, most of the time these recipes are very high in pointsplus values. Instead of missing out on some of these incredible recipes, I tweak the recipe until it is more Weight Watchers friendly. I put these recipes into my Weight Watchers Recipe Builder in eTools and adjust them until they are much lower in pointsplus values.
For example, I found this recipe for White Chicken Enchiladas on Pinterest. If I were to make the original recipe as it is on Joyful Momma's Kitchen, each individual enchilada would be 8 pointsplus! I have heard that this recipe is good, but I cannot spend 8 pointsplus on one enchilada.

So, I decided to tweak this recipe to make it more Weight Watchers friendly. After I had finished tweaking this recipe it was only 5 pointsplus per enchilada, which is much more reasonable for dinner!

Most of the ingredients

Mix chicken and 1 cup cheese.

Roll up mixture in tortillas and place in pan.

In a sauce pan, melt butter, stir in flour and cook for 1 minute.

Add broth and whisk until smooth. Heat over medium heat until thick and bubbly.

Stir in sour cream and chilies. Do not bring to a boil, you do not want curdled sour cream.

Pour over enchiladas

Top with remaining cheese and bake for 22 minutes and then under high broil for 3 minutes to brown the cheese.

The final product!! Please note that I did not take time to broil the cheese.

This is a great recipe for white enchiladas that does not break the bank!

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White Chicken Enchiladas

Adapted: Joyful Momma's Kitchen

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Servings: 10

Serving Size: 1 enchilada

Calories: 230.8

Fat: 12.6 g

Fiber: 7.2 g

Protein: 22.7 g

Old Points: 5 pts

Points+: 5 pts+

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Ingredients

	10 tortilla La Tortilla Factory Smart & Delicious Gourmet Tortillas, Whole Wheat, Original 2 cups cooked boneless, skinless chicken breasts, shredded
	2 cups  Weight Watchers reduced fat Mexican style blend shredded cheese
	3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
	2 cups  fat-free chicken broth
	1 cup  fat-free sour cream
	4 oz canned green chili peppers
	3 Tbsp Land O Lakes® Unsalted Whipped Butter

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan

2. Mix chicken and 1 cup cheese. Roll up in tortillas and place in pan.

3. In a sauce pan, melt butter, stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add broth and whisk until smooth. Heat over medium heat until thick and bubbly.

4. Stir in sour cream and chilies. Do not bring to boil, you don't want curdled sour cream.

5. Pour over enchiladas and top with remaining cheese.

6. Bake 22 min and then under high broil for 3 min to brown the cheese.