I love that all fruit is zero points...but sometimes eating the same fruit day in and day out gets really boring. With this guilt-free recipe, you can spice up your fruit with delicious zero point plus fruit dip.
Simply mix any flavor sugar free Crystal Light packet (as much as desired) into a Cool Whip Free container, and there you have it! It's absolutely delicious! I even like to mix lemonade Crystal Light packets into it and eat it as a dessert. It tastes just like lemon meringue pie!
Enjoy!
-M.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Okay I've been slacking...but it's finals week!...so here are a few recipes I've come up with
Pasta with Pink Sauce (seven points plus!)
What is this "pink sauce" I speak about? It's a mixture of alfredo and marinara sauce that makes for the perfect combination of creamy and tangy on any kind of pasta...I created this recipe after I had a craving for some Italian food but couldn't afford the points...
Ingredients
-2 Weight Watcher Swiss cheese wedges (with the Laughing Cow products in a store)...2 PP
-3/4 cup fat free half & half (you can use more or less depending on your prefered thickness)...0 PP
-4 oz. canned tomato sauce...0 PP
-Dash of garlic salt...0 PP
-Pinch of chopped onions...0 PP
-Parsley...0 PP
-2 oz. whole wheat pasta...5 PP
Simple heat the half & half over medium heat and add the cheese in small chunks. Allow the cheese to disintegrate into the half and half while stirring. Stir in tomato sauce a little at a time. Add salt, onion, and parsley as the sauce continues to heat, stirring the whole time. Pour over a bowl or plate of pasta and enjoy at seven point (and very filling) meal!
Buffalo Chicken Dip (3 w/o cheese 3.25 w/ cheese per serving)
Okay okay, I'm obsessed with buffalo chicken everything...but this dish was too wonderful not to share! There are four servings in this recipe and each serving is 3.25 points plus!
Ingredients
-1 block fat free cream cheese (softened)...8 PP
-5 oz. can chicken breast...2 PP
-1/4 cup fat free ranch...2 PP
-3 tbsp hot sauce (more or less for desired hotness!)...0 PP
-1/4 cup fat free cheddar cheese (optional)...1 PP
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix cream cheese with wooden spoon until creamy. Add chicken and ranch and stir until smooth. Add hot sauce last, more or less depending on how spicy you want to make the dip. Transfer dip into square casserole dish and disperse evenly. Sprinkle cheese on top of dip and put in oven for approximately ten minutes or until cheese is melted and dip is warm throughout. Enjoy! Try using a square casserole dish so that you can easily determine 1/4 of the dip for a serving of 3.25 points plus!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
six points plus buffalo chicken pizza?!
Well...sort of. I made this pizza-like meal for dinner last night and it was delicious. I crave buffalo chicken, and on weight watchers, you can't really have a Buffalo Chicken Wrap from Cheddar's, but you can make your own similar recipes!
Any time you see "PP," assume it means points plus...even if it sounds suggestive.
Ingredients:
1 wheat pita pocket (2 PP)
1/4 cup fat free or reduced fat mozarella cheese (1 PP)
1 tbsp light ranch dressing (1PP)
2 ounces cooked chicken (2 PP)
hot sauce...as much as desired (0PP)
Cook chicken in a lightly greased pan on the stove, then coat the chicken in desired amount of hot sauce while over heat. Remove from heat and do the following:
Open the pita pocket and rip along the edges so that you have two half moons. Lay it on an ungreased baking sheet and top with cheese and then chicken. Drizzle the ranch dressing over the top of it and bake on 350 for seven to ten minutes. You can basically eye it on the time...when the cheese melts and the pita is toasty, take it out! I paired my pizza with a bowl of 1 PP vegetable soup!
This meal is quick, easy, cheap, filling, and most importantly...SIX points plus! (seven if you count the soup...)
Any time you see "PP," assume it means points plus...even if it sounds suggestive.
Ingredients:
1 wheat pita pocket (2 PP)
1/4 cup fat free or reduced fat mozarella cheese (1 PP)
1 tbsp light ranch dressing (1PP)
2 ounces cooked chicken (2 PP)
hot sauce...as much as desired (0PP)
Cook chicken in a lightly greased pan on the stove, then coat the chicken in desired amount of hot sauce while over heat. Remove from heat and do the following:
Open the pita pocket and rip along the edges so that you have two half moons. Lay it on an ungreased baking sheet and top with cheese and then chicken. Drizzle the ranch dressing over the top of it and bake on 350 for seven to ten minutes. You can basically eye it on the time...when the cheese melts and the pita is toasty, take it out! I paired my pizza with a bowl of 1 PP vegetable soup!
This meal is quick, easy, cheap, filling, and most importantly...SIX points plus! (seven if you count the soup...)
Monday, April 25, 2011
The View From Week One
Okay, I just joined the local Weight Watchers group in my town. I live in a college town where I attend a large university. I'm twenty years old, and in pretty decent shape. I never really gained the freshman fifteen...but before I came to college, I did gain the I-went-though-a-breakup-my-senior-year-of-high-school twenty! So I have decided to turn my life around as a sophomore in college. I attended my first meeting last week and felt pretty damned awkward. It was a room full of middle-aged women who didn't seem very enthusiastic about the optional Weight Watchers weekly meeting.
After the meeting was over, I got my materials, including a booklet full of fun facts and information, a calculator to figure out how many points plus things are, and a weekly food tracker. Then I received a little tutorial on what to expect over the next pre-paid twelve weeks that I committed to. I have 31 points plus a day that I am allowed to eat, plus 49 extra points to be used any time during the week. Sounds easy enough.
During my first week, I discovered a ton of little secrets to help keep the points to a minimum:
1. Choose pita pockets over tortillas. Most tortillas, even the ones that claim to be healthy and whole wheat, are about three points, but wheat pita pockets are only two! (And they're more filling)
2. Go for the "lite." One tablespoon I Can't Believe It's Not Butter is two points plus, but one tablespoon of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Lite is only one point. It might not seem like that much, but if you're as hungry as I am by the middle of the day, you'll be happy that you saved that point.
3. Always nom on as much fruit as you can. Fruit is worth zero, yes ZERO points plus! It's probably my favorite thing about this program. I'm not a huge veggie person, but I could cut up and eat apples, cantaloupe, pears, pineapple, and grapes all day. It's easy when you're on the go as a student. You feel much better walking (or driving) to class eating an apple than you do eating a PopTart.
4. Write down EVERYTHING. If you're like me, you feel guilty if you think about what you're eating. So if you track every single thing you put in your mouth, you'll think about writing it down before you eat it. And then you'll think about how those five extra points from that Reeses Egg will be staring at you the next time you open your tracker, and you'll refrain from gobbling it down faster than you can say..."did this bitch just say gobble?"
5. When you're hungry, eat! When you're not, dont! Enough said. It sounds simple, but I am not only an emotional eater, but a bored eater. There's a silly picture in one of the booklets I got at my orientation nonsense that shows three animated balloons. One is shriveled up and sad because it's hungry. One is blown up and happy because it's the perfect amount of full. And one is about to burst and sick because it's over-stuffed. I think about how much my belly wants to be the happy balloon, and it makes me stop eating when I'm not hungry. I'm silly, I know.
6. Condiments, condiments, condiments! An easy way to lose points for the day is to slab mayonaise on something. Some people may be repulsed by mayo, but I love it. However, there are plenty other condiments out there waiting to snatch up a few of your daily points. So be careful! Opt for things like yellow mustard, hot sauce, or oil and vinegar for flavor on sandwiches.
I was careful this week and I lost seven pounds! Yepp, seven! yay! So now that I got an ego boost and some time on my hands, I decided to keep an online diary of my weightloss (and I'm sure gain at some points) journey! I will cater this to college students, posting cheap, college-friendly recipes that I conjure up thourhgout my weeks, but I encourage anyone to read and enjoy my posts! Weightloss is pretty much something we can all relate to.
See ya soon!
-M.
After the meeting was over, I got my materials, including a booklet full of fun facts and information, a calculator to figure out how many points plus things are, and a weekly food tracker. Then I received a little tutorial on what to expect over the next pre-paid twelve weeks that I committed to. I have 31 points plus a day that I am allowed to eat, plus 49 extra points to be used any time during the week. Sounds easy enough.
During my first week, I discovered a ton of little secrets to help keep the points to a minimum:
1. Choose pita pockets over tortillas. Most tortillas, even the ones that claim to be healthy and whole wheat, are about three points, but wheat pita pockets are only two! (And they're more filling)
2. Go for the "lite." One tablespoon I Can't Believe It's Not Butter is two points plus, but one tablespoon of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Lite is only one point. It might not seem like that much, but if you're as hungry as I am by the middle of the day, you'll be happy that you saved that point.
3. Always nom on as much fruit as you can. Fruit is worth zero, yes ZERO points plus! It's probably my favorite thing about this program. I'm not a huge veggie person, but I could cut up and eat apples, cantaloupe, pears, pineapple, and grapes all day. It's easy when you're on the go as a student. You feel much better walking (or driving) to class eating an apple than you do eating a PopTart.
4. Write down EVERYTHING. If you're like me, you feel guilty if you think about what you're eating. So if you track every single thing you put in your mouth, you'll think about writing it down before you eat it. And then you'll think about how those five extra points from that Reeses Egg will be staring at you the next time you open your tracker, and you'll refrain from gobbling it down faster than you can say..."did this bitch just say gobble?"
5. When you're hungry, eat! When you're not, dont! Enough said. It sounds simple, but I am not only an emotional eater, but a bored eater. There's a silly picture in one of the booklets I got at my orientation nonsense that shows three animated balloons. One is shriveled up and sad because it's hungry. One is blown up and happy because it's the perfect amount of full. And one is about to burst and sick because it's over-stuffed. I think about how much my belly wants to be the happy balloon, and it makes me stop eating when I'm not hungry. I'm silly, I know.
6. Condiments, condiments, condiments! An easy way to lose points for the day is to slab mayonaise on something. Some people may be repulsed by mayo, but I love it. However, there are plenty other condiments out there waiting to snatch up a few of your daily points. So be careful! Opt for things like yellow mustard, hot sauce, or oil and vinegar for flavor on sandwiches.
I was careful this week and I lost seven pounds! Yepp, seven! yay! So now that I got an ego boost and some time on my hands, I decided to keep an online diary of my weightloss (and I'm sure gain at some points) journey! I will cater this to college students, posting cheap, college-friendly recipes that I conjure up thourhgout my weeks, but I encourage anyone to read and enjoy my posts! Weightloss is pretty much something we can all relate to.
See ya soon!
-M.
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