Weight Watcher Wednesday

Last Friday I attended my first Weight Watcher's meeting. I was pleasantly surprised. There were probably 20 people there with a wide range of ages from college age to elderly. The leader was friendly, informative and perky. The information shared was helpful and encouraging. That day a woman, probably in her late 60's, met her goal weight by losing almost 90 pounds. 

I also joined the online site and am tracking my food online. There is an iPhone and iPad app for tracking that makes eating out easy. 

I have decided to use Wednesday's as a Weight Watcher highlight. I will share my favorite food and recipe blogs that are Weight Watcher friendly and or share a recipe I have tried or one of my old tried and true that I have lightened up and calculated the WW points. 

This week I am breaking down a recipe I have already blogged about and am now calculating the points. Balsamic Tomato Slices is a really low point recipe with a hearty flavor.

Balsamic Tomato Slices

Ingredients:

2 large beefy tomatoes

Balsamic Vinegar

1 bag of Spinach

2 Tablespoons fresh minced garlic

Dash or two of olive oil

1 2-cup bag of shredded Italian Cheese

Fresh ground salt and pepper

Slice two tomatoes in to thick slices and place on cookie sheets. Drizzle Balsamic Vinegar on each of the slices. Let marinate for 1 hour. Bake tomatoes on 350 degrees for 7 minutes.

Add olive oil to a large skillet. Warm on medium-high heat. Add garlic and stir until the garlic is mixed well with the oil.  Remove the long stems from the spinach and add the entire bag to the garlic oil. Saute until spinach is lightly cooked.

Remove tomatoes from oven. Evenly divide the spinach on to the top of the tomato slices. Grind salt and pepper on the tomatoes and spinach. Add cheese to the top. I used about 2/3 of the bag of cheese. 

Broil for about 2 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Serve immediately.

The only points that have to be counted for is the cheese and the small amount of oil used to saute the spinach. Everything else counts as free points. That is a recipe worth making. I have concluded the Balsamic Tomato Slices are 1 point per slice if 1/8 of a cup of cheese is used and the oil used is 1 TBSP for the bag of spinach. The two large tomatoes should make 12 slices.