The Final Guest Post Entry - Let's Wrap It Up!

Well here we are. The final entry of the Retro WW Guest Post Challenge. How fitting that we are wrapping up this fantastic journey with some delicious hot "wrap ups". Yum. Thanks to everyone who participated in this challenge. You are brave. You are beautiful. Um...You are a little wacky. But that's why I love ya! Please enjoy this last guest post by Jill, and go visit her at www.shrinkingjill.com!

First off, I’d like to thank Mimi for the chance to try one of the retro WW recipes!

My recipe was ‘Hot Wrap Ups’, and since I’m a big fan of lettuce wrap appetizers, the prospect of making the 1972 WW version was enticing:

HOT WRAP UPS

1 cup diced celery

1/2 cup fresh mushrooms, chopped

1/2 cup chicken bouillon

2 tbsp chopped chives

1/4 tsp garlic powder

dash white pepper

4 large lettuce leaves

pickle slices

capers

lime slices

parsley sprigs

Cook celery & mushrooms in bouillon for 5 minutes. Drain, reserving broth. Cool slightly. Combine celery & mushrooms with chives, garlic powder and white pepper. Soak lettuce leaves in boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain.

Spoon one fourth of the celery mixture into the center of each leaf. Roll up securely, folding the sides of the leaf over the filling. Secure with toothpicks, if needed. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Garnish with pickle slices on top, capers, sliced lime and parsley. Makes 2 servings, 1 point per serving.

This recipe was super-easy to make - about 15 minutes to prepare plus 10 minutes to bake - and I actually had most of the ingredients hanging around the house:

The only real challenge was getting the lettuce leaves to roll up neatly and keep the filling contained. Seriously, who boils lettuce? Fortunately I had a box of toothpicks at hand to save the day.

In my opinion, boiling the lettuce was a mistake - afterwards the leaves were very soggy and not too appetizing. But after assembling the dish and plating it with the suggested condiments it didn’t look too bad (just very monochromatic!)

So how did it taste? Well, it wasn’t necessarily bad, just really bland. The texture of the boiled and baked lettuce was not good. I tried this dish both with and without condiments and the capers were a nice addition - but when combined with the lime and pickle things got a bit ugly.

I think this recipe has potential, but next time I would use lightly steamed Napa cabbage leaves as a wrapper and would probably add some quinoa and ground bison or pork to the filling for a bit of protein and texture. A little onion wouldn’t hurt either! And the pickles and limes will definitely not make a repeat appearance.

Preparing the filling and just serving it with crisp lettuce (instead of baking it) might approximate the lettuce wrap appetizer at some of the big restaurant chains that always seem to have way more calories than they should!

Either way, it was fun making this recipe and getting a glimpse into Weight Watchers’ groovy past! Thanks Mimi!