New Recipe #6 – Mini Cheese Balls

One of my goals in 2009 is to try at least 1 new recipe a week.  I have so many wonderful, healthy, lowfat/low-cal cookbooks, and I’m looking forward to trying out a bunch of new meals.

DRMK and her husband invited my parents and me over for an appetizer night tonight.  Because my weigh-in day is tomorrow morning, I knew I wanted to bring a healthy appetizer, just in case.  It’s all about choices, after all.

I saw this recipe in the December issue of Weight Watchers Magazine and knew I wanted to try it out.  I thought they would be a perfect appetizer to bring with me.

Mini Cheese Balls

Nutrition Info: (per serving = 1 cheese ball)  2 points! 107 calories, 2g fat, 6mg chol, 669mg sodium, 11g carb, 0g fiber, 11g protein, 158mg calcium.  (Depending on what you choose to roll the cheese balls in, the points will vary).

You’ll need the following ingredients:

3/4 cup 2% shredded sharp cheddar cheese
3/4 cup 2% cottage cheese
1 TBSP spicy brown mustard
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1  8-oz pkg. fat-free cream cheese
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1  9-oz pkg. dry vegetable soup/recipe mix *

Makes 8 servings.

Directions:

In a food processor, puree the cheddar, cottage cheese, mustard, and cayenne pepper.

Add the cream cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and soup mix and process until blended.

I realized I had made a mistake at this point.  I had bought a pkg of soup mix that was twice the size the recipe called for.  In the market, I knew that I was only supposed to use half the pkg, but when I got home and started making it, I completely forgot.  The result was a very pungent mixture, so I added another 1/2 cup of cottage cheese (I didn’t have any more cream cheese) to cut the taste.

Transfer cheese mixture into a medium bowl.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, you can assemble & roll the cheese balls.  You can roll them in anything you want, keeping in mind that anything that has calories will add points.  I chose to roll the balls in:

Paprika

Italian Parsley

Poppy Seeds

Toasted, Chopped Almonds

A mixture of parsley and almonds

From here the procedure gets very messy, so be prepared.

Measure the cheese mixture in a 1/4 cup spoonfuls

Place the mixture into the bowls and carefully roll into balls.  (Do not do what I did and think you can roll the balls in your hands and then place them into the bowl to roll around in the toppings.  All you will do is have a huge, gloppy mess on your hands – literally!)

Because I had to use more cottage cheese, I ended up with 12 servings.

10 to bring tonight:

I hope they taste as good as they look!

And 2 leftover for me:

I’m going to pair them with some assorted crackers, which I think will be a nice accompaniment.

I’ll post an update tomorrow morning to let you know how everyone liked them.

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Update: The mini cheese balls were a big hit!  Everyone commented that they loved them, and you really couldn’t tell they were low-cal at all.  I liked them so much that I’m going to make them again next week for my book club.  This time, though, I’ll make sure that I only use half the pkg of soup mix!