Profound statement, I know. Since my last post, I have completed a massive task for work, moved to a new house, and begun the semester. I feel no particular pride in saying as much, I only do so to assuage the guilt I have felt over my inability to maintain the same careful habits of eating which I had begun several weeks prior.
And yet, despite my occasional stress-eating binge and dessert indulgence over the last three weeks, I must have learned something about portion control because when I finally got back to WW to weigh in this past Saturday, I was down on the scale. Must have been all those fit points from moving boxes around.
This post will primarily focus on the past week, my first honest attempt to get back on track and the recipes which helped me do so. However, I'll throw in a couple extra recipes and lessons learned along the way.
Breakfast
I can unfortunately give no new insight into breakfast. I made the choice to buy sandwich thins, greek yogurt and eggs at costco which means that for the next several weeks I will be alternating between yogurt with cereal and a soft boiled egg on a sandwich thin.
Lunch
Likewise, I've been sticking to the tried and true. Still a fan of the sandwich roll-ups with hummus and either kimchi or some protein rich deli meat.
Snacks
I bought a bag of Snikiddy "Eat Your Vegetables" chips (http://snikiddy.com/product/jalapeno-ranch-veggie-chips). These were about four points per serving. They were yummy, and it was fun to eat chips again since my weakness is chips, but I am going to be on the lookout for lower point options that satisfy the same craving.
Dinners
While, as I said above, I was all over the place over the last few weeks, I did make a few choices that I was proud of.
1. In a new house without a kitchen set up, the ability to actually cook is limited, and my entire household agreed to get take-out. While Pizza and Chinese were eaten over the last few weeks, I ended up gravitating (and getting others to gravitate with me) towards a local kabob joint. While all the fixin's on a kabob can add up, what I realized was that most kabobs are primarily meat and vegetables. That is a pretty WW friendly take-out meal. While I have no idea how many points I actually did consume in take-out, I believe in the future this will be my first place to go when cooking is an overwhelming concept.
2. We have a new roommate who wants to help out with the cooking. While this is so so so nice as it means I will be doing less work on a day to day basis, I was apprehensive about how to ask him to provide me with ingredient lists and portion sizes etc. I am still a bit insecure about my attempts to monitor my eating, and so it took a lot of courage, but I explained my situation to him and I've been able to figure out the point value of the meals I'm not making as well as those I do make.
And now, my new recipes:
Shrimp pasta pesto: http://diethood.com/pesto-zucchini-noodles-and-shrimp-recipe/
Originally, I had planned to follow this recipe very closely with my favorite quirky kitchen gadget, my spiralizer. However, I realized I needed to make food not just for Jake and I, but also for Benji (new roommate) and my mom (moving helper). So instead, I diced the zucchini and made some actual pasta (https://www.barilla.com/en/products/pasta/proteinplus/proteinplus-farfalle) I found this high-protien pasta in the grocery store, and I figured, "why not?" I mean it is definitely still pasta and the protein doesn't change that, but I feel better knowing there is more protein in my pasta. Even with the alterations, I got about 7 servings out of the pasta each worth 8 points. And that was a fairly satisfying meal.
Stuffed Bell peppers: http://www.primaverakitchen.com/ground-turkey-sweet-potato-stuffed-peppers/
These, folks, are not your average stuffed peppers. There is ground turkey and sweet potato and all around deliciousness in it. Really, actually this recipe was a keeper. All of the ingredients are low points, and the end result is still very satisfying. Each stuffed half of a bell pepper was 6 points.
Shepherd's pie: http://www.skinnytaste.com/shepards-pie-lightened-up/
I know, I don't think of shepherd's pie as exactly a healthy eating option either! However, this version managed to keep points down without affecting taste (and that isn't just me speaking, all of the hungry 20-something men who ate it said it was delicious and had seconds.) I really like the skinnytaste blog because it gives you points right there! 6 points for 1/6 of this recipe was a very satisfying amount of food.
Shredded Korean Pork: http://www.slenderkitchen.com/recipe/slow-cooker-sunday-shredded-korean-pork
Here is another blog I've found which gives me the smart points. Thank You! I followed this recipe pretty closely and was impressed with the results. 5 points for 1/8 of the recipe is plenty of meat. I ate it on a sandwich thin for an 8 pt dinner along with some salad on the side. I made the mistake with this recipe of referring to it throughout the day as "pulled pork" and when my husband (a man with an open mind about new food, but set-in-stone expectations about classic dishes) sat down to eat it, he took a bite and said "this isn't pulled pork!" No, it is not exactly a bbq pulled pork; it definitely has an Asian cuisine zing to it, but if you can hand ginger and garlic, give it a shot.
The BEST Chicken Marinade: http://www.momontimeout.com/2016/05/the-best-chicken-marinade-recipe/
Ok, despite the hubris in the title which had me inclined to be critical, this really was pretty good. I used chicken thighs instead of breasts and got about 14 thighs for the 3.5 lbs the recipe calls for. The marinade is high in oil and sugar. I think next time I make this, I'll decrease both and see how it turns out. As it was, it was yummy. Each thigh comes out to roughly 7 points.
I served a 5 pt per portion WW pasta salad on the side (pasta, tomatoes, basil, light may) and ended up with a 12 pt Sunday dinner.
Wrap Up
Well, that's it for this week, folks. I am continuing to try to stay on track now that a regular schedule has emerged for the semester. My cat has mostly stopped trying to hide in her new environment and so I figure if she can adjust to new surroundings I can give it a try as well. Off I go to menu plan for this week.
Sunday, September 4, 2016
Saturday, August 13, 2016
Hummus and Kimchi and Eggs, oh my!
Another week of recipes that kept me on track and tasted delicious
Breakfast:
One go to breakfast I have enjoyed in the past is a sandwich thin toasted, with mashed avocado (1/4) and a soft boiled egg divided over the two halves (7 smart points):
This week I went for a variation on that breakfast for the same number of points. I decided to use up some spinach and egg white mixture I had in the fridge this week and make egg muffins. I started with this basic recipe:
http://showmetheyummy.com/healthy-egg-muffin-cups/
Since I've never been a huge fan of red bell pepper, I used green instead. The spinach, mushrooms, onions and peppers cooking on the stove looked so yummy, I had to stop myself from just eating it by itself.
After resisting and mixing the veggies and the eggs together, I decided to use up a final 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella that I had in the fridge. This was by far the highest calorie part of the recipe and it added one point per egg muffin. If that isn't worth it to you, leave it out.
Now this recipe says to just grease the muffin tin. Maybe there is a magic muffin tin out there on which egg doesn't adhere like cement no matter how much you grease it...but I have not found such a muffin tin yet. I have instead learned to use liners. The eggs will still stick to the liner, but at least you don't have to scrub your muffin tin until your fingers bleed. The muffins also took longer to bake than 15 min, but I also wasn't watching how much veggies I had added to the egg mixture, so the tins were a lot fuller than they perhaps should have been. It took me closer to 25 minutes to get them cooked thoroughly.
The result: Two point yummy breakfast muffin
Breakfast:
One go to breakfast I have enjoyed in the past is a sandwich thin toasted, with mashed avocado (1/4) and a soft boiled egg divided over the two halves (7 smart points):
This week I went for a variation on that breakfast for the same number of points. I decided to use up some spinach and egg white mixture I had in the fridge this week and make egg muffins. I started with this basic recipe:
http://showmetheyummy.com/healthy-egg-muffin-cups/
Since I've never been a huge fan of red bell pepper, I used green instead. The spinach, mushrooms, onions and peppers cooking on the stove looked so yummy, I had to stop myself from just eating it by itself.
After resisting and mixing the veggies and the eggs together, I decided to use up a final 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella that I had in the fridge. This was by far the highest calorie part of the recipe and it added one point per egg muffin. If that isn't worth it to you, leave it out.
Now this recipe says to just grease the muffin tin. Maybe there is a magic muffin tin out there on which egg doesn't adhere like cement no matter how much you grease it...but I have not found such a muffin tin yet. I have instead learned to use liners. The eggs will still stick to the liner, but at least you don't have to scrub your muffin tin until your fingers bleed. The muffins also took longer to bake than 15 min, but I also wasn't watching how much veggies I had added to the egg mixture, so the tins were a lot fuller than they perhaps should have been. It took me closer to 25 minutes to get them cooked thoroughly.
The result: Two point yummy breakfast muffin
I ate these with a toasted sandwich thin (3 pts) and 1/4 avocado (2 pts). I mashed the avocado onto the sandwich thin, and then divided the egg muffin in half and ate half on each side of the sandwich thin. 7 smart points total.
I even sometimes ate this for lunch too because it was so delicious.
Lunch
When I wasn't eating breakfast for lunch, I tried out a suggestion I heard at last week's weight watcher's meeting:
1 sandwich roll-up (http://www.damascusbakery.com/our-products/plain-all-natural-roll-up/) 3 pts. I found them at Costco
2 Tbls Hummus (2 pts)
1/2 cup kimchi (0 pts)
I bought the kimchi at a farmer's market and it was excellent. Kimchi all week long was a real treat as it is just packed with flavor without costing any points. Total, this made for a 5 pt lunch which admittedly didn't hold me throughout the afternoon, but that was deliberate since I was practicing healthy snacking this week in an effort to break myself from the fear of snacks. Thus:
Snacks
I made a recipe I found on the weight watchers' website for Watermelon and Tomato Gazpacho. It is very similar to this Food Network Recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/tomato-and-watermelon-gazpacho-recipe.html
I used a bit of sherry plus red wine vinegar in place of the champagne vinegar (because I took one look at the cost of buying actual champagne/sherry vinegar and decided buying the much cheaper cooking sherry and adding vinegar just made more sense (plus google told me it would work). This was an excellent mid afternoon pick me up especially with how hot it has been this week. I took about a point per 1 1/2 cups.
For my other snack of the week, I mixed up a bowl of last week's breakfast (chobani yogurt, kashi go lean crisp, and blueberries), and then spread it out on a baking sheet and froze it. I made this twice this week and ate about half a recipe at a time for a cold and yummy snack for 4 points.
Dinners
I started the week with this recipe: http://diethood.com/sweet-potato-noodles-with-spinach/
I modified it slightly. I only used one large sweet potato, and I added a spiralized, small zucchini. I otherwise followed the recipe pretty closely and went very light on the parmesan cheese (only about 2 tsp). I divided the recipe in half and it was 8 pts, per half.
My next meal came from a food blog that a friend shared with me called Skinny Taste. I tried this Korean Chicken recipe: http://www.skinnytaste.com/korean-grilled-chicken-breast/
I especially liked it because I knew ahead of time even before I entered the recipe on Weight Watchers that one serving (1/4) of the recipe would be only 3 pts! I did have to make a few adjustments to the recipe like using sweetened applesauce (because it was what I had in the house and wanted to use it up), and so once I re calculated, it was 4 pts, but that was still a great start to a meal.
I added as a side, this asian slaw recipe: http://www.cookingclassy.com/2016/05/thai-slaw-peanut-dressing/. There may have been some mild cursing involved when at my local grocery store I discovered they were out of bags of chopped red cabbage. I ended up combining some regular cabbage with a bag of broccoli, kale, and brussel sprout salad which was the only thing closely resembling the slaw mix I wanted. So while I was widely off with the veggie comination, I stuck pretty close to the dressing recipe. It was a bit higher in the points/calories, but a 1/6 of the recipe was still only 4 points, so with the Korean BBQ, that brought it up to 8 pts. I added a cup of watermelon gazpacho for one more point and called it a meal:
Finally this week, I went back to fish tacos. Except this time feeling lazy (that is, too lazy to clean my George Foreman grill since making the delicious but messy Korean BBQ), I mixed up some curry, cumin, and turmeric on a skillet with some minced garlic and olive oil. Put 2 lbs of tilapia on top of it, let it cook flaking it and turning it for about 10 min. Then when it was almost done, I added a can of tomatoes and chiles and let it cook down until the juice from the tomatoes was almost gone. The entire pan was only 11 pts, and about 1/4 of that made for a very full taco. I ate that with the left over asian slaw and a medium flour tortilla for 10 pts.
These are the meals that kept me on track and enjoying life this week. This upcoming week promises to be more hectic yet with a move in our future. I'll let you know how it went in a week!
Saturday, August 6, 2016
Two Weeks of WW Menus
Wherein I describe the meals planned and consumed over the course of two weeks as I initially adjusted to a WW lifestyle.
Week 1
In which there was a great deal of greek yogurt, frozen fish and an excess of quinoa.
Breakfast:
Kashi Go Lean Crisp (3/4 cup)
Chobani Greek Yogurt Plain No Fat (1/2 Cup)
Black and blue berries (1 cup)
Total: 7 sp
Lunch:
Greens (variety and quantity are key)
Purdue Grilled Chicken Strips 1/2 cup (not necessarily a budget item, but I love how convenient they are)
Avocado Cilantro Dressing (2 tbls) OPA by litehouse brand
Salad Total: 3 sp
Gazpacho
I mixed up a big batch of this early in the week. Every time I make this I put different veggies in it depending on what I have on hand. Essentials are tomatoes and cucumbers and onions, but this time I also used zucchini. My liquids were a combination of red wine vinegar, worcestershire sauce, olive oil, and low sodium tomato juice. Except for the olive oil, these are all pretty low in points, so that 1/4 of the recipe is 4 sp. I add croutons as a garnish for another point.
With the salad and the Gazpacho together for lunch, I ate about 8 points every noon.
Dinner:
I had tilapia in the freezer. A lot of it. We are moving in a few weeks, and my thoughts have turned to the difficulty and potential annoyance of moving large quantities of frozen food. The tilapia had to go.
One short pinterest search later, and I had a plan. I started with these two recipes:
http://www.joyfulhealthyeats.com/grilled-tilapia-bowls-chipotle-avocado-crema/
and
http://www.cookingclassy.com/2015/02/grilled-fish-tacos-with-lime-cabbage-slaw/
Then I did a little mixing and matching. Using the spice combination/marinade from the fish taco recipe, I grilled up (thanks George Foreman) 8 fillets. Four of those I shredded for fish tacos. I had forgotten the red cabbage at the store (oops), so my taco consisted of a medium flour tortilla, 1/6 of the shredded fish, mango salsa from Costco, and 1/4 avocado. My husband consumed easily twice that much without blinking, but when the portioning is followed, each taco works out to about 8 sp. Here's the catch. I don't know how to count the points for marinades. The eight points includes all of the points of the oil in the marinade even though some of that marinade was discarded. This might actually be a lot lower in points, but to be safe, I calculated it as if all of the marinade was consumed.
The other four fillets, I saved for later that week when the taco meat was all gone. Then, using the guidelines of the fish bowl recipe, I made a large batch of quinoa...perhaps too large. Actually I know it was too large. For some reason knowing I would need 3 cups of cooked quinoa, I thought it would be great to make 3 cups of uncooked quinoa. That easily doubled in size. But at least I had enough quinoa.
The fish bowl was 3/4 cup quinoa plus tomatoes, corn, and black beans (1/4 cup each) (and of course the fish). I also whipped up the recommended avocado yogurt dressing, which honestly tasted more like yogurt than avocado. Tweaking of that recipe will be done if I ever make it again. This was approximately 9 sp all together.
For variety in between the fish recipes, I made a vegetable curry: http://laurencariscooks.com/vegetable/
The key to this was taking my time and cooking the spices in the oil first before adding onions and the rest. I used up all my leftover veggies from the week and also threw in a can of canned chicken for some protein. Kinda defeats the purpose of the vegan nature of the recipe, I guess. Coconut milk is a bit decadent, but when you load it up with vegetables, 1/6 of the recipe is 10 points. I ate it over some of that huge batch of quinoa, for a total of 15 pts for the meal.
With these three recipes, my husband and I got through most of our dinners for the week.
Week 2
In which there was still quinoa, a lot of it.
Breakfast:
Boringly enough, I didn't vary it. Stuck with my yogurt, berries and Kashi.
Lunch:
Found a recipe to help me overcome the quinoa overload: http://peasandcrayons.com/2016/01/greek-quinoa-bowls-recipe.html
Instead of bell peppers I used tomatoes and cucumbers (which was delicious!). I had about the equivalent of 1 cup uncooked quinoa left from last week (about 3 cups cooked). I used Lucerne, low fat feta cheese, and followed the website's dressing recommendation. 1/5 of this recipe was 8 pts. I added 1/4 avocado for each meal, making my lunch a total of 10 sp.
Dinner:
Went for some chicken this week instead of fish. Picked up a large pack of 10 thighs and started with these recipes:
http://www.cookingclassy.com/2015/08/balsamic-peach-chicken-skillet/
and
http://kristineskitchenblog.com/3-ingredient-slow-cooker-taco-chicken/
Didn't change much in either recipe (other than using thighs rather than breasts) and the results were amazing. I used four thighs for the balsamic peach chicken recipes. Who knew that peaches + caramelized onions + balsamic vinegar + tomatoes = heaven ? Oh, I guess the chicken was there too. But I think I would have been happy just eating the peaches, onions, and tomatoes. The best part was that a quarter of this recipe (1 thigh plus the extras) was only 7 sp. It tasted as good as 20. I added steamed asparagus as a side vegetable for 0 sp, and had a very satisfying meal.
The Chicken tacos were super easy. The results didn't blow me away, but it was a very satisfying meal. 1/6 of the meat was 4 pts. To this I added a medium flour tortilla for 3 pts.
These two recipes got us through most of the week days.
Off to a good start.
Week 1
In which there was a great deal of greek yogurt, frozen fish and an excess of quinoa.
Breakfast:
Kashi Go Lean Crisp (3/4 cup)
Chobani Greek Yogurt Plain No Fat (1/2 Cup)
Black and blue berries (1 cup)
Total: 7 sp
Lunch:
Greens (variety and quantity are key)
Purdue Grilled Chicken Strips 1/2 cup (not necessarily a budget item, but I love how convenient they are)
Avocado Cilantro Dressing (2 tbls) OPA by litehouse brand
Salad Total: 3 sp
Gazpacho
I mixed up a big batch of this early in the week. Every time I make this I put different veggies in it depending on what I have on hand. Essentials are tomatoes and cucumbers and onions, but this time I also used zucchini. My liquids were a combination of red wine vinegar, worcestershire sauce, olive oil, and low sodium tomato juice. Except for the olive oil, these are all pretty low in points, so that 1/4 of the recipe is 4 sp. I add croutons as a garnish for another point.
With the salad and the Gazpacho together for lunch, I ate about 8 points every noon.
Dinner:
I had tilapia in the freezer. A lot of it. We are moving in a few weeks, and my thoughts have turned to the difficulty and potential annoyance of moving large quantities of frozen food. The tilapia had to go.
One short pinterest search later, and I had a plan. I started with these two recipes:
http://www.joyfulhealthyeats.com/grilled-tilapia-bowls-chipotle-avocado-crema/
and
http://www.cookingclassy.com/2015/02/grilled-fish-tacos-with-lime-cabbage-slaw/
Then I did a little mixing and matching. Using the spice combination/marinade from the fish taco recipe, I grilled up (thanks George Foreman) 8 fillets. Four of those I shredded for fish tacos. I had forgotten the red cabbage at the store (oops), so my taco consisted of a medium flour tortilla, 1/6 of the shredded fish, mango salsa from Costco, and 1/4 avocado. My husband consumed easily twice that much without blinking, but when the portioning is followed, each taco works out to about 8 sp. Here's the catch. I don't know how to count the points for marinades. The eight points includes all of the points of the oil in the marinade even though some of that marinade was discarded. This might actually be a lot lower in points, but to be safe, I calculated it as if all of the marinade was consumed.
The other four fillets, I saved for later that week when the taco meat was all gone. Then, using the guidelines of the fish bowl recipe, I made a large batch of quinoa...perhaps too large. Actually I know it was too large. For some reason knowing I would need 3 cups of cooked quinoa, I thought it would be great to make 3 cups of uncooked quinoa. That easily doubled in size. But at least I had enough quinoa.
The fish bowl was 3/4 cup quinoa plus tomatoes, corn, and black beans (1/4 cup each) (and of course the fish). I also whipped up the recommended avocado yogurt dressing, which honestly tasted more like yogurt than avocado. Tweaking of that recipe will be done if I ever make it again. This was approximately 9 sp all together.
For variety in between the fish recipes, I made a vegetable curry: http://laurencariscooks.com/vegetable/
The key to this was taking my time and cooking the spices in the oil first before adding onions and the rest. I used up all my leftover veggies from the week and also threw in a can of canned chicken for some protein. Kinda defeats the purpose of the vegan nature of the recipe, I guess. Coconut milk is a bit decadent, but when you load it up with vegetables, 1/6 of the recipe is 10 points. I ate it over some of that huge batch of quinoa, for a total of 15 pts for the meal.
With these three recipes, my husband and I got through most of our dinners for the week.
Week 2
In which there was still quinoa, a lot of it.
Breakfast:
Boringly enough, I didn't vary it. Stuck with my yogurt, berries and Kashi.
Lunch:
Found a recipe to help me overcome the quinoa overload: http://peasandcrayons.com/2016/01/greek-quinoa-bowls-recipe.html
Instead of bell peppers I used tomatoes and cucumbers (which was delicious!). I had about the equivalent of 1 cup uncooked quinoa left from last week (about 3 cups cooked). I used Lucerne, low fat feta cheese, and followed the website's dressing recommendation. 1/5 of this recipe was 8 pts. I added 1/4 avocado for each meal, making my lunch a total of 10 sp.
Dinner:
Went for some chicken this week instead of fish. Picked up a large pack of 10 thighs and started with these recipes:
http://www.cookingclassy.com/2015/08/balsamic-peach-chicken-skillet/
and
http://kristineskitchenblog.com/3-ingredient-slow-cooker-taco-chicken/
Didn't change much in either recipe (other than using thighs rather than breasts) and the results were amazing. I used four thighs for the balsamic peach chicken recipes. Who knew that peaches + caramelized onions + balsamic vinegar + tomatoes = heaven ? Oh, I guess the chicken was there too. But I think I would have been happy just eating the peaches, onions, and tomatoes. The best part was that a quarter of this recipe (1 thigh plus the extras) was only 7 sp. It tasted as good as 20. I added steamed asparagus as a side vegetable for 0 sp, and had a very satisfying meal.
The Chicken tacos were super easy. The results didn't blow me away, but it was a very satisfying meal. 1/6 of the meat was 4 pts. To this I added a medium flour tortilla for 3 pts.
These two recipes got us through most of the week days.
Off to a good start.
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