Roasted Tomato Basil Soup with Parmesan Crisps

In a word, YUM. When I was growing up I always thought I hated tomato soup, because I’d only had the condensed, canned kind and I never liked it. Over the past few years, I realized that I actually love most homemade or restaurant-made tomato soups, and when I found this recipe on Annie’s Eats I couldn’t wait to try my hand at making my own. I used slightly less oil and salt than the original and when I saw she’d photographed the soup with Parmesan crisps (without including them in her post), I thought I’d try adding those to the recipe as well.  The Parmesan crisps turned out to be a fabulous idea. This soup has a delicious, comforting taste and uses fresh & healthy ingredients, without adding in cream like many other tomato soup recipes. The crispy Parmesan added texture and I think all the soup ingredients really stood out on their own while still blending together beautifully. This is a good, filling dish by itself, but would also be wonderful paired with half a grilled cheese sandwich for that classic comfort food pairing. Enjoy!

White Vegetable Lasagna

This does not taste like a light recipe. A couple weeks ago when I made The Best Lasagna Ever, I got a request to make a lightened up white lasagna (this one’s for you, Brooke!). Since my vegetarian sister was coming home to visit this past weekend and asked me to cook for her, I thought this was the perfect opportunity. When I was younger we used to have some catered holiday meals at my grandmother’s house and the dish I remember most from those was a vegetable alfredo lasagna. I wanted to re-create the same flavors using light ingredients and I think this was a huge success. My sister and I both agreed that this dish was cheesy, creamy and really flavorful and she couldn’t believe it was light (she even made me list out all the ingredients).

I’d seen Classico’s online ads for their new light alfredo sauce, and after considering creating my own, I decided to go with the jarred kind because lasagna takes enough prep time and creates enough pots to wash already! I also considered several different vegetable combinations before deciding on spinach, zucchini and carrots. I think those three vegetables worked together really well and gave me exactly the flavors and textures I was looking for, but if you wanted to use different ones (broccoli, mushrooms, etc) I’m sure they would taste good as well. This is an Emily Bites Original so I hope you like it!

Nutella Thumbprints

A little bit of Nutella goes a long way toward making these rich, decadent cookies. If you’re unfamiliar with Nutella, it’s a hazelnut spread made with cocoa and skim milk to create a creamy chocolatey, nutty taste. If you really love hazelnuts and you want to take these cookies a step further, the original recipe called for the cookies to be rolled in chopped hazelnuts before baking. I chose to save 1 p+ per cookie by omitting that step, but if you’d like to add them, follow the link to the original Cooking Light recipe for quantities. For 2 p+ I thought these were the perfect cookies to fend off a chocolate craving because the Nutella centers make them taste so rich that I could just eat one and feel satisfied.

Pepperoni Bites

I’ve seen variations of these on several different cooking blogs and I couldn’t wait to try my own lightened up version. These are absolutely delicious and they make a great appetizer – no one will guess they’re light! I thought these were really great on their own (they remind me of mini versions of the pepperoni rolls I ate in college, only way less greasy) but they also taste great dipped in pizza sauce, so serve them however you wish. In addition to being ultra-tasty, these present really well, which is always a bonus when serving them to company!

Mini Taco Bowls

These Mini Taco Bowls were as tasty as they were adorable, and two of them was a perfect sized dinner serving for me. I initially intended to make these with ground beef, but when I ran to the grocery store yesterday they were completely out of 95% lean ground beef (can you believe it?) so I bought ground turkey instead. These were good with the turkey but seeing as they work out to be the same number of points per 2-taco serving, next time I’ll make it with ground beef, because I prefer beef tacos. You can add any of your favorite taco toppings to these (light sour cream, guacamole, black olives, salsa etc). I wanted to keep them basic so you could easily customize them based on your preferences. I actually put a little fat free black bean dip on mine and they were amazing. The recipe could also easily be doubled to serve six. These are fun to serve and eat, so get creative and make them your own!

Bolognese Sauce

Gina from Skinny Taste is a light cooking genius. If you don’t already follow her recipe blog, I highly recommend it. I found this recipe on Gina’s site and it was so delicious I wanted to lick my bowl after finishing a serving. The pancetta, vegetables, seasoning and half-and-half in Bolognese really sets it apart from other meat sauces and gives it a rich, developed flavor. This recipe makes a lot of sauce but you can freeze some for later use. I will definitely make this again – so good!

The Best Lasagna Ever (really)

WOW. I’m swooning. My taste buds are jumping for joy. Someone get the smelling salts, I might faint. If you’re on Weight Watchers and you make this lasagna, it’s going to be one of those meals that makes you say “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I can eat things like this on my diet” (I know, I know, it’s a lifestyle change, not the d-word, but that didn’t have the same ring to it). Actually, I'm pretty sure anyone who makes this, regardless of dietary preference, is going to be overcome with joy from all the meaty, cheesy, saucy pasta goodness in this dish. I also think the green pepper and the hot Italian turkey sausage added a lot to the flavor profile. It’s lasagna, so of course there is some prep time involved (around 45 minutes, maybe?) but it’s worth every second.

I made a few changes to lighten up the original recipe I used, though I don’t think anyone tasting this would say it tastes “light.” I also changed the serving size from 12 servings to 9 large servings, because I wanted a big piece. If you want to make it 12 servings it's 7 P+ for each, but for 2 pts more, I think you should just go for it.

Meatloaf Muffins

Meatloaf with mashed potatoes is one of the ultimate comfort food meals. I’ve seen quite a few recipes for meatloaf muffins and I’ve been anxious to try them because not only do I really like meatloaf but I love anything that comes in “mini” or individual sizes. That’s also helpful for portion control! This recipe from Cooking Light (I only made a minor modification) was absolutely delicious. The ingredients blended together perfectly and the two-muffin serving size was very filling, especially served with green beans and mashed potatoes. Mmm. I felt literally comforted by this meal, and it was perfect on a cold winter night, so I definitely recommend it!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

I’ve had this on my list of recipes to make for quite a while, and with the Super Bowl approaching and pizza & wings on everyone’s minds, now seemed like the perfect time! I live in the Buffalo area and I grew up here, but deep fried chicken wings coated in butter and hot sauce and dipped in blue cheese dressing are surprisingly high in fat and calories (who knew? haha) so I try not to eat them too often. This pizza is a great way to have your pizza and wings, all in one and lightened up! I was a little nervous about using the Laughing Cow blue cheese wedges instead of traditional blue cheese, because being from Buffalo I didn’t want to mess these flavors up. I think it actually gave it a nice blue cheese flavor using far less fat, so I was pleased with the results! This pizza was delicious and had all crave-worthy flavors of Buffalo wings, only much lighter. I will definitely make this again!