Fresh Angel-Hair Pasta with Bacon and Peas

Weeknights call for superfast meals. Sometimes I get home from work and I just don't feel like dealing with making dinner. On those nights, fresh pasta helps get the food to the table faster. Even better, it's a little tastier.

Fresh Angel-Hair Pasta with Bacon and Peas is on the table in 20 minutes. It wasn't a really flavorful dish. It didn't have any spice, but it was creamy and the bacon provided a great smoky accent. To keep points lower, I used centercut bacon.

Fresh pasta is a little pricer than dried -- so I don't buy it much, but on those nights where I want to spend as little time cooking as possible, I reach for it first.

Nutritional Info (with regular bacon): 361 calories/9.2 grams of fat/4.2 grams of fiber

Chicken with Wild Mushrooms and Balsamic Cream Sauce

Sometimes I like meals that feel indulgent, yet fit into my daily points. In my opinion, anything made with cream feels indulgent. It's an ingredient I used to cook a lot with, but don't so much anymore. And without a light recipe written for me, I'm lost trying to make a creamy dish lighter. Most of the time, you can't just use skim milk, and fat free half and half is not a substitute for half and half when you're actually cooking with it.

I saw Chicken and Wild Mushrooms with Balsamic Cream Sauce on a 30-minute meals, and thought, I must make that. Turns out, it's more point friendly than I thought. The only change I had to make was to cut the oil down to 2 tsp for cooking the chicken rather than 2 tbsp. And I used half and half instead of cream -- considering they gave you a choice.

I served it over mashed potatoes, although, the NI I'll include has the pasta as the recipe is written.

It was fantastic. I loved it. It tasted like it was a fattening, rich dish, but at the same time, it didn't cost me a whole lot of points. I will definitely make this again.

Nutritional Info: 472 calories/12 grams of fat/4 grams of fiber

Broiled Flank Steak with Warm Tomato Topping

Red meat is traditionally a protein that diets urge you to avoid. And it's sort of true that you can eat whatever you want as long as it's within your points while on Weight Watchers (I don't necessarily agree with that, though), but as the veterans know and the newbies soon find out -- points aren't created equal and you don't necessarily want to spend a gazillion and half points on a giant strip steak.

Flank steak is a good if want a more point-friendly option. For 3 oz. of cooked meat, it's 180/9/0 as opposed to a NY strip steak that can run 680 calories for one steak. The things to remember about flank steak -- if served rare, it's impossibly chewy, and if it's not cut on the diagonal or overcooked, it's impossibly tough.

But when done right, it's great. And Cooking Light's Broiled Flank Steak with Warm Tomato Topping is a good example. It's broiled, and the tomato topping is made on the stove top, so it comes together easily and tastes fresh. I served it with whole wheat couscous.