Food Swaps That Save Serious Calories

Just a short post today with another Myfitnesspal article.

I think most of us know a lot of good food swaps but this short article lists some you might not know. 

I like having proportions to use as well. 

These small changes save big calories.

You can find that article here. 

Happy Cooking!

Skinnytaste Chicken and Mushrooms in Garlic White Wine Sauce

This is a recipe I tried off of skinnytaste.  Let's face it, skinnytaste, in my opinion, has the best health-conscious recipes around.

Her recipes are often a little more work but they're totally worth it.  

I'm not rewriting the recipe because you can find it here.  

Just know that it turned out very well and I would highly recommend it.  

Below is a picture of a T-shirt I found at Target in the boy's clothing section.  

You can probably see why I couldn't resist snapping a pic.  ;)

On The Border Salsa Con Queso

Just a quick post today to mention my new favorite product!

One of my meeting friends has a daughter that loves this On The Border Salsa Con Queso.

It's only 2 pts for 2 Tbsp and it is DELICIOUS!!!!!!

I absolutely loved this and felt that 2 Tbsp was enough to get a wonderful taste and feel satisfied. 

I baked a corn tortilla and then added turkey taco meat I mixed up, added lettuce, salsa and the salsa con queso sauce.

It was wonderful!  It felt like I was getting the full fatty deal without all the points.

I highly recommend this product!

What's In Your Cup?

Today I'm posting something I read on CONNECT that I loved.

I don't know who actually authored it but I thought it was a nice way to be mindful about what we're putting out into the world and what we're filling our own hearts with.

"You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you, making you spill your coffee everywhere.

Why did you spill the coffee?

You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup.

Had there been tea in the cup, you would've spilled tea.

The point is that whatever is inside the cup, is what will spill out.

Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you(which will happen), whatever is inside you will come out.

It's easy to fake it,... until you get rattled.

So, we have to ask ourselves, "What's in my cup?"

When life gets tough, what spills out?

Joy, gratefulness, peace and humility?

Or does anger, bitterness, peace, harsh words and reactions come out?

You choose!

Today let's work towards filling our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation, kindness, gentleness and love for others."


Now that's my kinda cup ;)

Blessings,

~Carrie

Weight Watcher Friendly Websites

I recently had a meeting member friend, Joyce, ask me about which websites I use.

I did a post about this a while back which you can find here.

In addition I'm going to add one I hadn't before.

That website is dailydoseofpepper.

I have the most familiarity with the recipes on skinnytaste and, in truth, I think they taste the best.

I'm also a sucker for packaging and her pictures are mouth-wateringly perfect.

Also keep in mind that many of the authors of these websites have cookbooks that you can buy or check out at your local library.

If they offer ebooks those would be even cheaper.

Sometimes we just get in a rut and need new inspiration to keep things fresh.

Check out these websites and I think it'll help you answer that age old question, "What's for dinner?".

Greek Yogurt Pancakes

This is another recipe I've been seeing all over CONNECT.  This is yet another reason to start using CONNECT if you haven't already.

This recipe is easy peasy and only 1 pt for the whole batch!

So here it is...

Ingredients

2 Tbsp Kodiack Power Cakes

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup of plain, non-fat Greek yogurt

Instructions

Mix all of your ingredients together.  Spray a non-stick skillet with cooking spray and turn the burner onto medium to medium high heat.  

Like you do with regular pancakes, watch them closely and turn them when bubbles start to rise to the top the the edges are firm enough to flip.

And, below is what happens when you're tired and you try to make the pancake too big, you attempt to flip it and it flops.... all over the pan.  Ugg...

This is just when you roll your eyes and laugh at yourself.  ;)

You could make 3 smaller sized pancakes.  I made one smaller and one too big sized pancake that, as previously stated, just made a big mess.  So my recommendation is to go for 3 small pancakes.

These turned out fantastic!  I thought this had a much more authentic pancake texture and flavor in comparison to the banana and egg pancakes that I previously posted.  

I will definitely make these again and highly suggest you try them for yourself!

Happy Cooking!

Chicken & Spinach Alfredo Bubble Up Casserole

Look!  Drippy Cheese! :)

I joined a CONNECT group that does different challenges each week.  This past week was a recipe swap.  We posted our favorite go-to recipes each day.  One of my friends posted a Ranch Bubble Up Casserole that looked good but since I don't like ranch flavor I changed things.

I have made a enchilada bubble up recipe from emilybites that was very good.  I also posted that one on my blog.  You can find it here.  

Today I was craving something creamy.  I looked through my fridge and freezer to see what I had and this is what I came up with.  

Ingredients

16 oz of frozen spinach

1 (15 oz) jar of Classico Light Asiago Romano Alfredo sauce(or other preferred light brand Alfredo)

1 (7.5 oz) can of buttermilk biscuits(I used Wal-Mart's Great Value brand)

1 (12.5 oz) can of chicken chunks

1/4 cup chicken broth

1 cup part skim mozzarella

1/2 tsp garlic powder

Salt & Pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Spray a 9 x 13 inch Pyrex dish with cooking spray and set aside.

Thaw your spinach and then, using your hands, wring out the excess water.

Mix together the spinach, Alfredo, broth, chicken, garlic powder, salt & pepper in a large bowl.

Cut each biscuit into four pieces and then gently toss with the mix to coat.

Place mix into your casserole dish and spread it out evenly.  

Bake for 25 minutes.  

Take it out of the oven and top it with the mozzarella cheese.  

Place back in the oven and cook for another 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted to your liking.

This serves 6 and comes out to 8 pts per serving.

This was delicious!  

The only downside for me is that it wasn't all that filling.  

So, word to the wise, eat a salad, a fruit and/or another vegetable with this.  

It just takes a lot to make this hungry girl feel full.  I could've easily eaten 3 servings.

It's definitely worth making again but next time I'll be more prepared with other sides.  

Happy Cooking!!!

Wendy's Large Cup of Chili. It's What's For Lunch!

Just a quick post today.

Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE our WW weekly meetings?

I do!

The topic this past week was dining out.  One of the members shared that one of her go-to meals when she was out and needed something was Wendy's large cup of chili.

It's only 4 pts!!!

So today, for just over $2, I made this my lunch.

And it was delicious!!!

It's cold outside and there's nothing like a warm bowl of chili to warm you up from the inside out.

So if you're on the go with no time to meal prep or cook you might consider this option.

Happy Munching!

The Heavy Burden of Shame

Recently I was talking with a friend about why I choose to do Weight Watchers and why I will always choose it.  

I remember the very first meeting I went to.  I felt so incredibly vulnerable, so afraid this was just going to be another thing I failed at.  

But what I found is that the leader and the members were incredibly kind and real.  They didn't judge me because they understood, they'd been there.  

And what I found is that one of the most powerful tools was speaking my truth.  

I carried so much shame about what I ate and how I looked.  It was awful.

But when I could sit in a meeting and admit that I'd eaten a whole pizza or a whole bag of chips, instead of hiding and feeling bad about myself, it was liberating.

What I found were nodding heads and gentle and encouraging smiles.  

And that was one of the best feelings in the whole world!

I felt so free when I left the meeting.  I cried in my car on the way home because I knew I'd found my home and my people.  

And that's why I keep going.  

It doesn't mean that I'm over making those kinds of mistakes anymore but it does mean I won't hold on to the shame.  

I'll tell my friends and release it.  

Do you remember my mentioning that I was saving my points up to have our annual Valentine's Day heart cake?

Well, I did save them.  The roads were icy so I couldn't rush the leftover cake to someone else and it sat here at my house.

And,... I ate HALF of the whole cake.  

And, I tracked it.  

And, the best part of all is that what I found is that the more I do this the less time I spend sitting in the shame.  

I move forward more quickly because this is the muscle I've been building.  

Through consistent practice over a long period of time I keep trying and practicing and little by little it's getting easier.  

Things like this may always happen for me but the game changer is how I will choose to respond to these events.  

And I choose to get back up.  

I choose not to sit in shame and let it swallow me up.

I choose me.

And I most sincerely hope that today and everyday ...

You choose you.

Because you're worth it, always have been and always will be.

~Carrie

Dining Out At Qdoba

Today I unfortunately woke up at 4:30 am, not even one hour before I normally get up.

While I should've just gotten out of bed I ended up falling back asleep, which only made me sleepier.  Ugg!  

Anyway, I have felt exhausted today.  I certainly didn't have the energy to cook or meal plan.

Even though I really, really didn't want to work out today, I did it anyway and even though I wanted to order whatever I felt like I didn't want to sabotage my hard work.

So I pulled out my handy dandy WW's app and looked up a few restaurants.  I have a few I've gone to over and over and have enjoyed success with that but I wanted to go somewhere that was new to me.

I had only been to Qdoba once years ago when it opened.  I wasn't on WW then but I had seen several people on CONNECT post about enjoying Qdoba for very few points.

My fellow meeting member and friend, Teresa, also mentioned that it was one of her favorites so I knew I had to try it.  

I met my mom for lunch and it was lovely.  I asked for a bowl of lettuce(0 pts) with black beans(0 pts), fajita vegetables(1 pt), part pico de gallo and part corn salsa(both 0 pts) and the grilled chicken(4 pts).   

I skipped the cheese and chips because I'd already read that those are point bombs.  Fortunately I don't really like sour cream or guacamole so I didn't have to worry about missing out there either.

This was delicious and fresh and I love that you get to have some control over what goes on your plate or in your bowl.  It's made to order.

Of course afterwards I was further reading through the app and realized that the shrimp is 0 pts.  Just be careful not to order the shrimp salad which is 23 pts!!!

I'm excited that I ventured out to try something new today.  I really loved that I didn't have to feel guilty about what I ate and that it didn't eat into my daily or weekly points as some restaurants might.

You see, I'm saving my points up for tomorrow when my son and I make our annual heart shaped cake to celebrate Valentine's Day.  

There's no way I'm going to miss that!  And, my son is even more excited this year than ever.  

So, consider Qdoba's as a possible stop if you don't feel like cooking tonight.  

I think you'll be glad  you did.

Do You See What I See?

Do you see what I see?

I was unloading my dishwasher today and I noticed a pattern.

Can you see it?

There are three times as many small plates as there are large plates.

What you probably can't see is that there are a multitude of regular sized teaspoons and only three large, tablespoon sized spoons.

Pre-WW I always ate off of large plates and I used the large spoons because I was only concerned with getting as much as I could as fast as I could.

I know we've all heard or read about the idea of using smaller plates and utensils but this really is quite significant.  

This was another one of my favorite parts of reading Mindless Eating:  Why We Eat More Than We Think.

Studies have been done to show that we do in fact eat a whole lot more if the container we're eating out of is large.  

That's why buying a big, family sized bag of chips is dangerous.  

If you buy and individual bag at least you'll be limited to one serving instead of ten or so.  

The positive here is that this one small change can be really significant.  

You may not see it all at once but gradually you'll notice your waistline slimming down because over the course of a full year the calorie reduction would still be significant if you changed nothing else.

I'm still amazed when I go antiquing and look at all the old glasses and dinnerware.  

They're so, so much smaller.  They're quite beautiful but they're also significantly smaller.

Most of them would really only hold one serving size.  Nowadays we'd look at that as a rip off.

But in reality that's all our bodies need.

The dinnerware got bigger and so did our waistlines.

The good news is that we can choose to make the dinnerware smaller again and so our dress size can once again normalize.  

It's really about taking our power back and not being manipulated by the food and restaurant industries.

In competition with each other over the years they've progressively increased the amount of food they give us with all-you-can-eat specials.

They've genetically and chemically enhanced our food to look pretty and to be addictive.

As we become conscious of what and how we eat we can get back to a more health-centered and loving way of eating real food.

It's something I'm still working on.

But it's worth it.

I'm worth it.

And so are you!