Skinny Empanadas

If you are on Weight Watchers connect, there are several members who somehow are trending every.single.day – I don’t understand why a handful of people always get the same recogniztion day after day, when I see other people who are killing it and get no attention at all.  Such is social media, right?

A member called “Mudhustler” has a recipe for a Big Ass Waffle that’s been floating around for a while.  I think I tried it once, but couldn’t find the evidence to see if I liked it, so I made it again – it’s 1/4 cup protein Kodiak pancake mix, one scoop of protein powder (he uses Quest, I used Premier Protein, egg whites, a bit of water and that’s it. 

After I took the first bite, I realized I didn’t like it that much.  It was too dense, and I much prefer my recipe for pancakes/waffles and will stick to that. 

I was all set to clock out to meet my sister and our friend Jenny to walk at lunch, but right when I was about to leave, my boss had a quick letter that had to go out, so I let them go ahead.  Thirty minutes later I got my walking shoes on – no way I was going to let a sunny, 35+ degree day go by without getting outside for a walk.

Such a gorgeous day!!  I could have walked for hours.  When I was crossing the bridge back to my office, I looked down and saw all the ice – don’t worry, I won’t jump!

The chicken marsala meatballs I made the night before last?  They are basically chicken and mushroom meatballs, so I turned a serving of them into a pasta bowl – 1/2 cup egg noodles (3), sauce (1), 7 meatballs (1) and an ounce of Trader Joe’s lite mozzarella.  Lordy, look at that picture!  I was trying to get all artsy with the meatball on the fork with the melty cheese, and it basically looks like I gave my bowl to a two year old to eat.  While the photo skillz are lacking in the picture below, this was pure comfort food in a bowl for 5 points.

 I am sure everyone has heard of the two ingredient dough by now – equal parts flour and Greek yogurt.  I also add water, yeast and salt to mine – you can click here for my version. 

I made the dough last night, using 1/4 of the dough to make empanadas – the rest of the dough will be saved for party pizza Friday – so the dough will be on day 3 when I make it which makes it even more delicious.

I didn’t have self-rising flour, so my version using regular flour is 6 points per half cup of flour.  I divided that dough into six portions, or one point per portion.

Funny thing about using Greek yogurt now that it’s zero points on the Freestyle plan.  I used to buy a big tub of it thinking “I’ll make parfaits for days!” and then never use it and throw it out two weeks later.  I bought a big container at Sam’s Club over the weekend and used the last of it last night – not without sharing it with the dogs though – they go crazy over Chobani!

You can use anything you want in the filling.  I just rolled out each piece of dough (be careful not to roll out too thin because it will rip when you try to crimp the empanada – not that I know that personally, I heard that from a friend!).

I made three empanadas, and only ate two they were so filling.  I used all free items – cooked chicken breast, spinach, fat free refried beans and green salsa, and added 1 ounce of lite mozzarella cheese among the three.  So all three were 4 points total, but I deep fried them, so I added 2 points for the oil, even though I know for a fact that two teaspoons of oil were not absorbed in the frying process.  Pinky swear.  Oh, and don’t worry, I redid the first one, because who can eat an empanada without cheese?!

Just fold the dough over the filling, and using your fingers, crimp the edges.   

I fried them in my deep fryer at 350 degrees for 5 minutes.  I did drain on a paper towel, but these were not greasy at all.  The verdict?  Amazeballs.  The dough was light, flaky yet chewy – they totally reminded me of those pizza puffs that you got in high school at the local beef stand.  So good!  I love how versatile this dough is – the sky is the limit!

And with some of the leftover dough?  I made Hannah mini cinnamon sugar munchkins for 2 points – stay tuned for that one!

There is still time to enter my giveaway this week of my brothers AUTOGRAPHED book – check it out!

I am hoping that I don’t have to work late tonight because The Chopping Block is having a New Year, New Year open house which is free.  You can get the details here – if I can go, I plan to put a bunch of stuff on my Instagram story – what?  You aren’t following me there?  Why not?  (mybizzykitchen there too!)  

And if you’ve made it all the way down here – can you show me some comment love on my last Chopping Block post?  I’d appreciate it!

Happy Wednesday my friends – make it a great day!