Saturdays are Great!

Weekends are always good, even when you have to deliver a child to get on a bus at 5:45 a.m. At least I got to go back home and have coffee and relax.

This morning was our Weight Watchers meeting. I was down 1.8 pounds, which I was very happy with! The focus this week was on filling foods and trying to focus on filling foods. Maybe that was last week's challenge, but we talked a lot about it today. I liked what people had to say about really focusing on those filling foods in order to not be dealing with cravings, etc.

I was able to come home, and I took a really long nap! I guess I needed the sleep. It was a great day to snuggle under a warm comforter and snooze some time away! I tried to read, and I've got a couple of library books that I'm about to take back. One is a book of short stories. I've read two of them and they just aren't catching my interest. I'm still working into the other book to see if I get interested.

My neighbor and her husband are both going to Weight Watchers as well. We have been sharing some of the things that we cook. Thursday night she brought me some skillet lasagne that she had cooked out of a Weight Watchers cookbook - One Dish Meals, I think. It was yummy and I had all the ingredients, so that is what I made tonight. It's simmering on the stove right now, and smells good. Here's the recipe, which I tweaked. I don't think I ever follow a recipe exactly!

Skillet Lasagne - 10 servings, 6 WW Points Plus per serving

1.25 pounds ground turkey (93% lean)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 Tbsp minced garlic
4 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
4 tsp Italian seasoning
2 cups low-fat cottage cheese, pureed in food processor (in place of ricotta cheese)
2 14.5 oz cans of tomatoes - undrained
1 chopped bell pepper (recipe called for bottled roasted red peppers, which I had, but when I took them out of the refrigerator, they were not edible)
3 Tbsp pesto (I had homemade)
6 uncooked whole wheat lasagne noodles
1 Cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1. Cook turkey, onion and garlic in large skillet until browned. Add vinegar, seasoning, tomatoes, bell peppers and pesto. Bring to boil. Remove skillet from heat, transfer all meat to large bowl.
2. Using slotted spoon, put a little less than half the meat mixture back into the skilled. Layer cottage cheese on top of meat mixture.
3. Break lasagne noodles into pieces and layer pieces on top of cottage cheese.
4. Spoon remaining meat on top of noodles, being sure to cover all noodles. Be sure that all liquid is returned to skillet.
5. Return to heat and bring to boil; turn heat down, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes until noodles are soft and water has evaporated.
6. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and let stand for 5 minutes.

Friday!

Yes, it's Friday! Why do the short weeks seem so long? Tonight we are having veggie soup with rotisserie chicken, but I wanted to share our dinner last night. This is the second time we have made this pizza. The interesting thing about it is that the crust is made with riced cauliflower. I don't think that I will ever make "real" pizza crust again. This is so good, so easy and the teenagers love it! I didn't take photos last night but these are from our first run-through!

When I make this crust, I use a fresh cauliflower, chop it into smaller pieces and then "rice" it in the food processor. I do not pre-cook it at all, and just mix the egg and cheese with the cauliflower. The consistency has been somewhat wet each time. The cauliflower I use measures out to about 4 cups once it's riced, then I added 3 eggs and 3 cups low fat mozzarella cheese. Out of that mix, we make 3 pizzas. With 2 oz of chicken sausage, 4 tbsp of pesto and 1.5 oz of shredded mozzarella to top it, each pizza comes out to about 20 WW points-plus. Half for dinner and half for lunch the next day is a pretty good deal.



Definitely a keeper! Tonight I'll be making some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for the kiddo to take on a school trip tomorrow! TGIF!!!

Some Tuesdays Just Feel Like Mondays

While it is always nice to have a day off, it always throws me off for the week. I think that Tuesday is Monday, Wednesday is Thursday, well, you get the picture. That said, it also felt like a Monday, and I am glad it's over!

So, did you hear that Starbucks has a new size of coffee, the Trenta, for iced tea and coffee. Hmmm....I can make my own iced tea or iced coffee at home for far less than that. No thanks! Besides that, my iced coffee is soooo much better!

Beginnings

Beginnings are exciting. They are filled with promise of things yet to come. For some people, they are frightening, something to be feared. Not so for me. I love beginnings, new things.

So we had a three day weekend! It was wonderful, 3 days full of the promise of things to be done, things to be finished and things on the list to cross off.

We crossed off these things:

• Getting the outside Christmas decorations down and put away (this was thanks to two teenage boys who were very willing and helpful.)
• Laundry - (but isn't this every weekend?)
• Weight Watchers - I was down a pound! Yay me!
• Plastic for my bags organized and sorted by color. I was so excited to get it under some control and to have the plastic prepped for fusing and work.
• Various shapes cut from fused plastic for the new batch of bags
• I read the book, Dear John, by Nicholas Sparks. It was an easy and quick read, but not the most enjoyable of the books of his that I have read.

I also tried a couple new recipes:

G.L.O.P. (Get lots of protein) Courtesy of my friend, Pat.

• 19 oz. ground turkey (93% lean)
• 1 medium onion - chopped
• 2 Tbsp. chopped garlic (I used jarred)
  
• 28 oz. jarred salsa
• 1 1/2 C. low-fat cottage cheese (I used 2%)
• 1 C. cooked brown rice
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• few sprays non-stick spray

Coat a pan with nonstick spray and add the olive oil. Add garlic and onion and cook for about 3 minutes, until fragrant. Add ground turkey and cook until browned. If necessary, drain fat. Add salsa, brown rice and cottage cheese, and cook until warm and bubbling. Serve in lettuce, as lettuce wraps, in a tortilla, over rice, or howsoever you desire.

1/2 cup serving = 3 Weight Watchers Points Plus


I did not take a photo of this recipe, but it was wonderful!


I also made this:

Lentil and Rice "Casserole"

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 medium bell pepper, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. garlic, chopped
• 1 C. mushrooms, sliced
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• few sprays of pan spray
  
• 2 C. dried lentils, uncooked
  
• 1 C. brown rice, uncooked
• 6 - 8 C. water
• 1 Tbsp chicken bullion powder
• 3 Tbsp pesto sauce ( I used homemade)
• Salt and pepper to taste
  

Spray pan and add olive oil. Chop vegetables and cook in until translucent. Add lentils, rice, water, bullion powder and pesto sauce. Bring to a boil, add pesto, salt and pepper, then pour into large slow cooker. Cook on high 4 hours, adding water as necessary.

This made a huge pot of lentils - 10 cups! 1 C. serving size = 5 Weight Watchers points plus


I was also working on cleaning out the pantry. I had two large butternut squash that needed to be cooked, so I sliced them open, scooped out the squash and baked them until soft. I wasn't sure what to do with the squash and then my kids noted that it looked like pumpkin. I decided to make a crustless butternut squash pie.

"Crustless" Butternut Squash Pie

• 2 pounds cooked butternut squash, scooped out of the skin
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 C. uncooked brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 C fat free milk
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cloves, allspice, nutmeg

Mash squash and in mixer, add butter, sugar, spices and whip until combined. Add egg and milk mixture. Pour in sprayed pie plate. Cook at 450 for 15 minutes, then decrease oven to 350 and cook for 25 - 35 more minutes or until custard is set.

8 servings, Each serving = 4 Weight Watchers points plus

We are having this for breakfast!!





So my goal is to post at least twice for week, to update on any new and fun recipes we have tried, update on weight loss and fitness goals and share in general. Now, in order to go to bed, I believe I need to fold and put away a bunch of clothes! They may end up on the chair tonight! So, I guess that laundry wasn't totally finished!