Weight Watchers Recipes

Carbonara is a traditional Italian pasta sauce. The Carbonara recipe is usually made from cream, eggs, parmesan cheese (sometimes with Pecorino Romano cheese), and pancetta (or some other type of bacon).

Even though one serving of Spaghetti alla Carbonara is 8 points, that doesn’t mean you cannot enjoy this wonderful meal once in a while.

Weight Watchers Spaghetti alla Carbonara recipe
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients
8 ounces uncooked spaghetti
1 cup chopped cooked ham
1/3 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese or parmesan cheese (1-1/2 ounces)
1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon fresh coarse ground black pepper

Preparation
1. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat.
2. Drain the pasta in a colander over a bowl, reserving 1/2 cup liquid.
3. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.
4. Add the ham, and cook for 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
5. Add pasta, and stir well.
6. Combine cheese and the next 4 ingredients (cheese through garlic), stirring with a whisk.
7. Add the reserved pasta liquid to egg mixture, stirring with a whisk.
8. Pour egg mixture over pasta mixture; stir well.
9. Cook over low heat 5 minutes or until sauce thickens, stirring constantly (do not boil).
10. Sprinkle with pepper.

WW POINTS per serving: 8
Nutritional information per serving: 389 calories, 12.9g fat, 1.9g fiber

Today I found a great site that has video cooking instructions. It is called It’s your turn to cook!. Be sure to check it out as it has some really nice recipes with clear instructions.

I borrowed the baked apples recipe from them and calculated the nutritional information and Weight Watchers points for you. Enjoy!

Weight Watchers Baked Apples recipe
Makes 5 servings (5 apples)

Ingredients
5 apples
5 cinnamon sticks
1/2 cup sugar

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut the apple tops and take out seeds with knife or spoon.
3. Add cinnamon sticks, fill the apples up with sugar and place tops back on.
4. Put apples in the oven and cook until brown for 30 minutes to an hour (depending on the size of the apples).
5. Fun variation: Flambé! Pour sweet liquor over apples after taking them out of the oven, and fire it up!

WW POINTS per serving: 2
Nutritional information per serving: 159 calories, 0.4g fat, 3.8g fiber

I have searched hard for a Caesar Salad recipe that isn’t over 300 calories or 30 fat grams (most are), but I have finally found this one. It only has 3 points per serving.

Weight Watchers Caesar Salad recipe
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients
1/4 cup oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 egg yolk
fresh gound pepper
anchovy paste (If you don’t put anchovies in the salad)
1 head romaine lettuce
parmesan cheese
croutons

Preparation
1. Mix first 7 ingredients together for dressing.
2. Put lettuce in bowl.
3. Make sure leaves are dry so the dressing sticks to them.
4. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and croutons and add dressing over top just before serving.
5. Add grilled chicken strips to make a meal.

WW POINTS per serving: 3
Nutritional information per serving: 109 calories, 10.1g fat, 2.2g fiber

These delicious double chocolate chunk cookies are crispy on the outside and chewy in the centre!

They’re also easy to prepare. You can use dark or white chocolate - either way, they are yummy!

Weight Watchers Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies recipe
Makes 36 cookies

Ingredients
1 cup softened butter or margarine
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (250 g) package chocolate, coarsely chopped

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in vanilla.
4. Blend in egg and cocoa, then flour, baking soda and salt, beating until a stiff dough is formed.
5. Stir in chocolate chunks.
6. Spoon rounded tablespoonsful of dough 5cm apart on ungreased baking sheet.
7. Bake for 8-12 minutes until set.
8. Cool on tray for two minutes, then transfer to wire racks.

WW POINTS per cookie: 3
Nutritional information per cookie: 142 calories, 9.6g fat, 1.7g fiber

In order to calculate the Weight Watchers points that a recipe has, you need to know the number of calories, the amount of fat and the amount of fiber that recipe has.

The formula for calculating Weight Watchers points is:

Points = (Calories/50) + (Fat Grams/12) - (Fiber Grams/5)

So let’s say we have a recipe that has 258 calories, 6.3 grams of fat and 2.7 grams of fiber per portion.

points = (258/50) + (6.3/12) - (2.7/5)
points = 5.6 + 0.525 - 0.54
points = 5.585

Our recipe would have 5.5 points per serving. See? It wasn’t that hard!

Now you can either calculate points for your own recipes, or use some delicious recipes from my blog - they have points already calculated for you!

Bon appetit!

Update: In order to make calculating points easier, I’ve included a points calculator on the sidebar. Just insert the values for the calories, fat and fiber grams and press “Calculate” - you’ll instantly get the points value for that particular recipe!