Monday Madness

This weekend was good and bad.  I got a run in on Friday night, but that was it.  I am a bit disappointed in myself for not getting more in and need to kick myself in high gear.  My back has also been a bit sore.  I did feel like I made good food decisions, and I went to my meeting Saturday morning.  I have two items on the Monday to blog about, a non-scale victory and a change to Weight Watchers.

Non-scale Victory
This is partyly my victory and partly my daughters victory.  I try very hard to teach my daughter healthy eating habbits, while still letting her be a kid.  We do not let her drink soda, rarely does she get candy, and occasionally she gets juice.  We are lucky, she does not like chocolate, chooses broccoli as her side at restaurants, and likes to have a V8 in her school lunch!  Saturday night got a bit crazy, so we ended up with Jack in the Box for dinner, I got her chicken strips as her meal.  On Sunday, we were going grocery shopping, which always means she gets a free cookie at the bakery.  Keep in mind, she if 5.  On the way there we hear "you know dad, I don't think I want a cookie, they are not healthy, so I think I will wait and get a cookie next time".  Talk about a proud moment for a mother!!!  I was so happy I had helped teach her something and healthy eating was something she understood. 

Weight Watchers Changes:
Yesterday Weight Watchers made a drastic change to their program.  You can find an article here: USA Today  I don't have my meeting until Saturday so will not get the official explanation until then.  I have heard fruit is mostly 0 pts! I think I can live with that!  I have also heard some great 1pt foods are more now, so that will definitely be an adjustment.  I am looking forward to learning more about the new program and just might have to sign up for the e-tools again to get the hang of the new points. 

Friday Food Finds, a day late

With the excitement of Thanksgiving and working Black Friday at a popular toy selling chain store, Friday Food Finds got away from me. Well, here it is.

One of the things that doing Weight Watchers has brought me to do, is cook dinner. I try to cook a nice meal at least 5/7 days a week. The problem I run in to is finding foods that my "steak and potato" loving husband will eat. I sneak veggies in like you would for a kid, or make myself a single serving of something. I have been playing around with some different crock pot recipes to find some we both like. I love being able to play with my kids while dinner is cooking. So, Tuesday night I made Barbecue Glazed Turkey Meatloaf in the crock pot. I got the recipe off of the Weight Watchers website. We all thought it was super yummy!!

4 points per serving
Ingredients
1 1/4 pound(s) uncooked ground turkey breast, Skinless
1/3 cup(s) dried bread crumbs, seasoned
1/4 cup(s) low-fat shredded cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup(s) onion(s), minced
1 large egg(s), lightly beaten
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
2 Tbsp ketchup
2 tsp packed light brown sugar
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Heinz Spicy Brown Mustard, or other brand

Instructions
Fold a 24-inch length of foil in half lengthwise. Fit into the bottom and up the sides of a 5–6-quart slow cooker insert.


Put the turkey, bread crumbs, cheese, onion, egg, oregano, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl; mix with hands until well combined. Shape the mixture into a loaf and place on the foil in the slow cooker.


Cover the slow cooker and cook until the meatloaf juices run clear or an instant read thermometer inserted in the center of the meatloaf registers 165°F, 3–4 hours on high or 6–8 hours on low.


Combine the ketchup, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard in a small bowl. Spoon the mixture over the meatloaf, spreading it smooth. Cover the slow cooker and cook until the glaze is heated through, about 30 minutes longer. With the help of the foil, lift the meatloaf from the slow cooker and transfer to a platter. Discard foil and cut the meatloaf into 6 slices. Yields 1 slice meatloaf per serving.

Notes

We line the slow cooker insert with foil—a little trick to help you lift out the finished meatloaf. And, because foods cooked in a slow cooker tend to look pale, we coat the loaf with a colorful barbecue-sauce glaze.

I planned on cooking it on low for the 6-8 hours, but forgot to turn on the crock pot! I did it on high, checking the temp at 3 hours. It was done! I served it with mashed potatoes and steamed zucchini with sweat onions.

I had enough points to have 2 servings of the meat. It was 7 1/2 points for the 2 servings. The barbecue sauce was so good, that I have the recipe on my fridge! It will go great as a dip with baked chicken fingers or sweat potato fries!

Happy Thanksgiving - Don't Gobble 'til you Wobble!!

That has always been something that my WW leader has engraved in my head and is something I try to live by on Thanksgiving morning.  I did get a short excercise DVD in last night, not what I wanted, but it was something.  I hope to get something in today before I eat.  I thought about just running with my daughter in the snow, but we'll see.  I may just walk up and down our stairs for a bit, just to get something in. 

I have done many things to plan for my Thanksgiving dinner over the last few years.  In 2008 I hosted Thanksgiving and prepared the entire meal based on the Weight Watchers magazine.  In 2007 I got in 30 minutes on the elliptical.  This year I am doing more to manage what I eat during the day.  I had an egg white omlette for breakfast and plan to limit the snacking and extra food.  How do I plan to do that you may ask ... Well, my plan now is to be spending a lot of time with my daughter, and not letting myself have time to snack. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all of your out there! And remember, today is just one day, and tomorrow is a new day! You can always press that reset button tomorrow!

Perisimmons (A New Fruit Discovery)

(Picture from FatFree Vegan Kitchen website)

This is a Perisimmon.  Have you seen one before!  I had never seen or heard of one until we got our box from Full Circle Farm last week.  Luckily, our box comes with some great recipes!  It had a recipe for a Festive Fall Fruit Salad.  I made a few changes to work with what we had in the house, but it turned out great!  I think I have a new favorite fruit!  My daughter loved it and had three servings of the fruit salad!

Here is the recipe that came in the box:

Ingredients:
2-3 Perisimmons, peeled, cut into chunks
2 large pears, cut into chunks
1/2 lb of grapes, halved
1 C celeriac (celery root), peeled, shredded
2/3 cup walnuts or peacans, chopped
1 lemon, juiced
2t lemon zest
2T honey
1T red wine vinegar or champagne vinegar
salt

Steps:
In a large bowl combine lemon juice, lemon zest, honey, a pinch of salt and vinegar.  Add perisimmons and pears and toss until coated.  Add grapes and celeriac.  Add more honey or more vinegar.  Cover and refrigerate for one hour.  Remove and stir in walnuts, spoon over a bed of arugula or serve alone.

The front side of the recipe card also makes suggestions of using agave nectar instead of honey, adding celery root, apples, or slices of Satsumas.  It also suggestions adding crushed lavender flowers or mint and minced rosemary.

This is what I did with what I had available:

Ingredients:
2 perisimmons, cut into chuncks (I accidentally over looked the part about peeling them, but they were still okay)
2 pears cut into chunks
2 Satsumas peeled and split into pieces
2t Lemon juice
2T honey
1T red wine vinegar
Salt (I just shook salt shaker a couple of times)

I did end up adding a bit more honey and a bit more red wine vinegar.  I just served it alone as a side to our dinner.  I have leftovers and can't wait for it at lunch tomorrow! 

Here are a couple of recipes I came across as I was researching for this blog post:

Another Great Idea!

And Another

My New Favorite Website for WW Friendly Recipes!!!

My life just got 100x better when I came across this website last week: Skinny Taste

WOW! She has some amazing recipes and I can't wait to try lots of them!  For Thanksgiving I am making her Pumpkin Butter to go with small pieces of bread for a snack tray!  She has the WW Points with her recipes too, which makes it even better!   As I try some of her recipes I will let you know that is where they come from. 

Monday Madness

I know what you are thinking, it is Tuesday!  I am a day late on my Monday Madness post, and that is due to the madness Monday brought me! 

The weekend wasn't all that bad, but I did not weigh in.  I instead went on a road trip with my parents and daughter to Oregon for another Linfield football game!  My point of frusturation now comes from the cold weather that has made it difficult to work out.  I have not run since Thursday, and don't know that I will be able to before Friday.  It is snowy and cold here, and I don't really want to drive to the city fitness facility.  My goal is to try and do some Wii Fit tonight after dinner.  We'll see.

Otherwise, this week I did not have the same weekend weight hangover I have had in the past! I feel like I made good decisions!

Guest Blogger: Friday Food Finds - Microwaved Baked Potato

Happy Friday!! 

Remember Here when I shared about my sister and her Weight Watchers journey.  The other day I was talking with my sister and she mentioned a soup she found and how much she liked it.  That got me thinking, as a somewhat newbie to Weight Watchers she was at a different stage.  She was enjoying the discovery stage of find new and exciting healthy food.  I occasionally find that new recipe or new product, but I really already went through that discovery stage.  I approached her and asked if she would like to be a guest blogger and share with my readers some of her finds.

Without further ado, I give you Friday Food Finds with Guest Blogger Rebecca!!   
__________________________________________________ 

When I know that I am going somewhere in the evening where there will be rich foods, I like to plan ahead by having a low point, filling lunch. (even more so when those rich foods are the night before weigh in!) So, for lunch today I did a baked potato, 1 cup of Progresso Light Vegetable soup and some pretzels. I know pretzels aren’t filling, but crunchy is my weak spot!

You may be thinking “I could never do a baked potato for lunch, it takes too long.” I thought the same thing until someone introduced me to microwaving them last week! A plain large baked potato is only 3 pts! (set point of 5) Doing them in the microwave is super easy and quick!

Step 1: This is the most important step. If you don’t do this, it will blow up in your microwave! (or so I’m told) Take a knife and cut 3-4 slits down into your potato.

Step 2: Microwave your potato for 3-4 minutes. If it is on the smaller size, start with 3 minutes. The time needed in total will depend on the power of your microwave. I just put the potato directly on the microwave tray. If you are in an office with a shared microwave, you could put it on a paper towel for easy clean up.

Step 3: Check your potato: Take a fork and stab it into the potato. Lift it up. If it is done, the potato will easily slide off your fork. If it needs more time, I recommend doing 1 minute increments until it does slide from the fork.

Now for some toppings, because lets face it potatoes are boring! If you have the points for it, you could do some cut up turkey bacon (1-2 points depending on how much and brand), or even some fat-free sour cream (only ½ a point for 2 TBLS)!! Today I just did 1 TBLS of country crock margarine (1 point) and 2 TBLS of shredded cheese (1 point). There are so many low point options that you could use as toppings for your baked potato!!

I like to pair my potatoes with some nice hot soup! Progresso has some great soups that are 0 or 1 point per serving! Remember, there are 2 servings in a can! If you are taking it to work, I would suggest dividing the can into 2 tupperware containers that morning or the night before. The 0 point ones are still about 1.5 points for the whole can, so not too bad if you have the points for the whole can.

Enjoy your quick and filling baked potatoes!