Another soup from the “Simple and Classic Home Cooking” Weight Watchers cookbook, and found on page 162 in the Soups section. This is a good version of the soup made famous in the 19th Century New York restaurant Delmonico’s, which at the time was also known and referred to as Coney Island Clam Chowder and/or Fulton Market Clam Chowder. (Reference)

Recipe Retool: A little culinary magic was performed on this recipe. This version with the 1-cup serving has only 103 calories, and 1.2 grams of fat according to the original recipe, our updates may alter these nutritional amounts slightly. We made a few updates from the original recipe; here are four ingredient updates we made:

We substituted the bacon, we used Maple wood smoked bacon in place of the originally called for lower-sodium bacon.

We also used fish stock in place of the originally called for lower-salt chicken stock.

The recipe called for ¼ teaspoon of pepper, we seasoned to taste with white pepper, and your mileage may vary.

The original recipe called for 1 Tsp dried thyme, we used 2 Tsp of fresh chopped thyme.

Other Considerations: Always thinking ahead for future use, and what I might have done in the restaurant kitchen, here are a couple of other ingredient updates that we considered, but dropped this time around due to other constraints, the tomatoes and clams:

Replace the canned tomatoes with fresh stewed plum concasse tomatoes. A simple concasse tomato is a process of quick blanching tomatoes that have been scored with an X at the bottom to loosen the skin, then cooled in an ice bath to stop the cooking process, peeled, seeded, and then diced or chunked. In addition, in this recipe that would require about 3 cups of concasse tomato.

The other update would be to get some fresh clams, like a couple dozen of them, clean and steam them in white wine, and then chopping them up for the 12 ounces required. Might even add the clam steaming liquid to the soup too! Now that would make a really tasty chowda!

This recipe yields approximately 10 1-cup (8-ounce) servings.

According to the Weight Watchers cookbook, this recipe has the following per serving nutritional values based on the original recipe: 2 points value, 103 calories, 17.7g carbohydrates, 1.2g fat (0.4g saturated fat), 1.7g fiber, 5.3g protein, 13mg cholesterol, 594mg sodium, 65mg calcium.

This soup preparation with reduced-fat low-salt ham comes in with only 252 calories per serving and just 2.2 grams of fat, this recipe is just as tasty as any split pea soup I have made or eaten. Split peas are so fun to cook with and they sure do make for a tasty soup too, here is a version that yields eight portions of tasty goodness. In addition, with the winter weather we have had the past few months, this is another perfect warm treat for a cold day or night.

Modified and adapted from the Weight Watchers magazine cookbook entitled “Simple and Classic Home Cooking”, found on page 162 in the Soups section. This recipe yields eight portions and each serving has the following from the original recipe nutritional amounts per serving: 4 points, 252 calories, 43.7g carbohydrates, 2.2g fat, 4.7g fiber, 16.6g protein, 4mg cholesterol, 326mg sodium, 66mg calcium.

Recipe Retool: One of the benefits of being a chef is being able to dissect a recipe and make it more of your own, based on years of experience, taste, and procedures. Working a little magic on this recipe yields a few small but certain changes that keep with the flavors and techniques that we are akin to enjoying. Some of the nutritional value amounts may vary a little from the original recipe due to our wizardry:

Since we use real butter, we replaced it in the original recipe calling for margarine.

The original recipe called for water, and we replaced it with chicken stock.

The original recipe also calls for salt; we omitted the additional salt since even a low-salt ham has enough sodium to extract into the soup.

In fact, the original recipe called for adding the ham at the end with the herbs and seasonings in step 3, we add the ham in our version in step 2 along with the chicken stock, split peas, and potato, thus extracting more of the salt and ham flavor into the soup during the one-hour or so of simmering.

There is nothing better that the aroma of fresh baked bread filling up your kitchen and house, especially yeast risen breads. These herbed crusty cloverleaf rolls are just what I am taking about as they filled up our house with that fresh baked bread aroma all day.  Walk out of the house for a few minutes and walk back in and the place smelled like an old French bakery indeed.

Fresh from the garden herbs such as rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano, and marjoram chopped and blended into the flour and dry ingredients makes this a wonderful herbed roll. One-quarter cup of fresh herbs, or if no fresh are available use 2 tablespoons of dried herbs.

This recipe is adapted from the National Home Gardening Club’s Garden Traditions Member Recipes book and found on page 69 in the “Breads” section. Doris Bjork of Newton, OK submitted the original recipe.

Yield: 18 rolls

Variation: Bread Sticks, during the forming in step 4, try twisting the dough into braided sticks for herbed bread sticks. Pulling off larger pieces of dough, roll them into strings about eight to ten inches long, then braid three of them together. Bake at the same temperature until golden brown and butter, and cool on a wire rack as in the final step with the rolls. Serve the bread sticks with a warm marinara sauce.

Tip 1: Typically, when working with yeast-raised dough’s there is always a fermentation time for the yeast. Yeast need fuel to grow, and the sugar and water gives them a great place to start their magic, dissolving the sugar in the water first, then adding the yeast gives them the energy they need to come alive. Once the yeast has foamed up and has a nice alcohol yeasty aroma, they are then ready to proceed with the next steps in adding ingredients.

Tip 2: There is typically a rising or proofing time for the dough, and some yeast dough recipes will include two proofing times before the final forming or baking. For the professional kitchen or bakery there will be proofing boxes or warming ovens, which are set at a very low temperature between 140° F and 170° F. Just enough warmth to give the yeast a perfect growing location in a draft free environment, but not too hot to bake, not too cold to stop the yeast from working it’s little magic. For the home kitchen, typically, you can set the oven to a low temperature of 170° F or less, this can be used for the proofing stages. Once it is time to bake, temporally remove the items from the oven and pre-heat to the desired baking temperature, and then return the dough to the oven to bake.

Inspired from Asian influences and ingredients, this recipe includes dark sesame oil, crushed red pepper, minced garlic, dry sherry, chopped fresh cilantro, and hoisin sauce. Served with a ½ cup of cooked brown rice, a serving comes in at only 303 calories, or a total Weight Watchers Points value of 7. This recipe has been adapted from the Weight Watchers magazine cookbook “Six O’Clock Solutions”, found on page 56 in the Easy Entertaining section. The recipe originally calls for sautéing the crushed red pepper and garlic first; I like to brown the pork first then add the crushed red pepper and garlic after, to prevent the garlic from burning. Also, since we like a lot of garlic I have doubled the original amount here, however, typically I will increase most garlic amounts in recipes by four times the original, personal taste preferences and your mileage may vary.

Pork tenderloin is one of my favorite cuts from the pig animal, so tender and moist, with just a little fat and silver skin that is trimmed and removed before cooking. The pork tenderloin lends itself to so many preparations from stir-fry, cutlets, medallions as in this recipe, and for stuffing as well, as in my Pork Tenderloin with Raisin Stuffing.

Weight Watchers nutritional values, per serving: 7 Points value, 303 calories, 27.1g protein, 7.9g fat, 29.1g carbohydrates, 1g fiber, 79mg Cholesterol, 2.6mg Iron, 195mg sodium, 34mg calcium.