The "Skinny" on Our Winter Solstice Party

     I did it!  I successfully baked 3 Desserts and made 2 Appetizers (with the help of my Husband), for our 3rd Annual Winter Solstice Party.  My Desserts and Appetizers were a hit!  This making so many items for one party is new for me!  I feel so Domesticated now! :-)  You wanna know the best part (in my opinion) about the food I prepared?  Everything I served was "Points Friendly"!  If someone wanted to try 1 serving of each of the 5 items served, they would have only needed to use 8 Weight Watchers Points!  We also served Skinny Sticks and Ranch Veggie Straws which are also "Points Friendly", and we served a fruit platter (which I forgot to take a picture of) with watermelon, cantaloupe and red and green grapes.  For beverages, we had a choice of water, soda, diet soda, moscato, and Stella Artois bottles of beer. 

 

I wanted to share my "Skinny" and WW Points Friendly recipe finds with you all. 

All food pics were taken by me.

 

Appetizer #1
Skinny, Pizza Flavored Pigs in a Blanket
Recipe taken from SkinnyKitchen.com
WW Points Plus per piece:  1
I doubled this recipe.

 

Ingredients for Pigs in a Blanket:
1 (8-oz) can Pillsbury Reduced-Fat Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Rolls
1 package Hebrew National 97% fat-free hotdogs, cut int 4 pieces each (you’ll have 1 leftover)
¼ cup pizza or pasta sauce, from a jar, see shopping tips
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated
Garlic powder


Ingredients for dipping: Optional
⅔ cup pizza sauce or pasta sauce

Instructions
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Coat a cookie sheet with cooking spray.
2. Unroll dough; separate into 8 triangles. Cut each triangle into 3 smaller triangles. Don’t worry if the shape of the triangle looks more like a box. It will still roll up nicely. Spread each triangle with ½ teaspoon pizza sauce and sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon Parmesan. Place 1 mini hot dog on the shortest side of each triangle; Roll up to opposite point. Fold in any dough sticking out.  Place, point side down on cookie sheet. Sprinkle each with a little garlic powder over the top. Repeat steps to make 24 total.
3. Bake for 15 to 16 minutes or until deep golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet onto a serving plate.
4. Serve with pizza sauce on the side, if desired.
Makes 24 total

 

Appetizer #2
TGI Friday’s Mozzarella Sticks Made Skinny
Recipe taken from SkinnyKitchen.com
WW Points Plus for 2 pieces:  2
I doubled this recipe.

Ingredients for Mozzarella Sticks:
12 light string cheese sticks, I used Weight Watchers Smoked Flavor String cheese or any brand of light low-moisture part skim mozzarella cheese sticks
1 large egg, I like Egg-Land’s Best
2 tablespoons flour
⅔  cup panko crumbs, see shopping tip
¾ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon salt
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
Cooking spray, I like olive oil cooking spray

Ingredients for Dipping:
¾ cup pizza sauce or marinara sauce, I used Classico Pizza Sauce

Instructions
1. Cut each cheese stick in half to create 24 pieces. Place cheese pieces on a plate and freeze for at least 1 hour until frozen. These can be stored for several days in the freezer until ready to use. Wrap them in plastic wrap, once frozen.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and coat with cooking spray. Set aside.
3. In small bowl, beat the egg. Place flour in another small bowl. In a third small bowl, add panko bread crumbs, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix well.
4. To assemble mozzarella sticks: Dip frozen sticks in flour, shaking off excess, then into egg, then finally coat with panko crumbs. Repeat steps to coat all of them.
5. Place all coated sticks on baking sheet.  Spray the tops with cooking spray.
6. Bake for 5 minutes, turn over and spray with a little more cooking spray. Bake an additional 4-5 minutes until heated but NOT melted. In fact, be sure to keep an eye on them so they don’t melt!
7. Remove from oven and place on a plate.  Serve with pizza sauce on the side.  Refrigerate any leftovers. They will keep for several days. To reheat, either zap in microwave for a few seconds or place on a baking sheet and heat in a 400 degree oven until warm but not melted.

Makes 24 pieces (each serving 2 pieces and 1 tablespoon sauce) These 2 pieces are equal to 1 string cheese stick!

Dessert #1
Mini Cherry Pies
Recipe taken from DessertYum.com
WW Points Plus per mini pie:  1
I doubled this recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Nasoya Won Ton Wraps - 12 ounce package.
2. Light Pie Filling & Topping - 20 ounce can.
3. Light Cool Whip (optional)

Sit Won Ton Wraps in Muffin Tins

Evenly distribute Pie Filling into the 12 tins

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes (I baked mine for more like 17 minutes)

Top with light cool whip

Makes 12 Mini Cherry Pies

Dessert #2
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bars
Recipe taken from Iowafarmgrown.com
WW Points Plus per bar:  2

1 box angel food cake mix (1 step kind)
1 15 oz can pumpkin
3/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 8 oz package reduced fat or fat-free cream cheese

Add in a few tablespoons of water with the cream cheese to thin it out a little bit. (tip: leave the cream cheese on the counter to soften. I mixed the cream cheese and water with my hand mixer.)
In a separate bowl, mix the cake mix, pumpkin, water and cinnamon together until it is smooth and well mixed.

Spray a 9 x 13 Pyrex dish with Pam, and add HALF of the cake/pumpkin mix. Smooth it out with a rubber spatula. Drizzle half of the cream cheese over the top and take a small spatula to smooth it over the top. Add remaining cake/pumpkin mix and the remaining cream cheese making layers.
Finally, take a butter knife and stick it into the mix swirling it back and forth in the cake by making figure “8’s” to blend it.

Bake for 35 minutes at 375 degrees OR until a toothpick comes out clean.

Makes 24 bars.

Dessert #3
Skinny Funfetti Cupcakes
Recipe taken from sixsistersstuff.com
WW Points Plus per Cupcake:  2

 

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

1 pkg. Pillsbury Funfetti Cake Mix (just the powder, not the recipe on the box)

1 (12 ounce) can Sprite Zero

Frosting:

1 (8 ounce) container Fat Free Cool Whip

1 (1.5 ounce) pkg. Fat Free Vanilla Jello Instant Pudding (just the powder, not the recipe on the box)

Directions:

 

Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 24 cupcake tins with paper liners.  In a large bowl, combine cake mix and Sprite together.  Continue to mix until the batter is smooth without any lumps.  Pour approximately 1/4 cup of batter into every cupcake wrapper.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Let cool before frosting.

Frosting:

In a mixing bowl, add Cool Whip and pudding.  Mix with a whisk by hand or an electric hand mixer until smooth.  Spread over cooled cupcakes.  Makes enough frosting for 24 cupcakes.

HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE!!!! :-)

The Winter Solstice Party Peeps