Tag Archives: weight watchers points

Gansevoort 69 by the Highline

23 Apr

My friend, Debbie and I were wandering around by the entrance to the Highline looking for a bite to eat one beautiful Saturday afternoon. We saw Gansevoort 69 and it looked like a nice diner, so we decided to try it.  I was actually pretty surprised by the inside. It was very modern and looked like an upscale restaurant inside.

Debbie was torn between a few dishes, including the Mac & Cheese.  The waiter mentioned that they were just written up in AM New York as one of the best Mac & Cheeses in town.  Strangely enough, I have read one AM New York in the past 3 years and this was the one I had read.  No brainer… Debbie went for the Mac & Cheese.  She was nice enough to give me a bite and it was good, but nothing spectacular.

I went with the “Not Your Mama’s Bennie” which included 2 poached eggs (healthier because there is no oil used to cook them) with Canadian Bacon (the healthier bacon) on a homemade hashbrown.  I asked for the hollandaise on the side (and didn’t even touch it!), went with whole wheat bread, and made sure to eat every bite of the salad.  Simple changes!

Here’s a zoom in.

And a further zoom in… 

See that under the egg there?  Does that look like a hashbrown to anyone?  I mean MAYBE if it were warm and soft… but it was like potato sticks made into a nest.  Not bad, really, but not what I’d consider a “hashbrown.” Made it easier not to eat and spare me the point though. 🙂

Luckily, the egg was cooked PERFECTLY.  This was definitely the highlight of the meal as a perfectly cooked poached egg is surprisingly hard to come by.

Total points for 2 poached eggs, salad, 1 slice of whole wheat bread, 2 bites of “hashbrowns,” and Canadian bacon? 8 points!  Not too bad for a very filling brunch.

In the end, Gansevoort 69 was good, but nothing special.

Total Nom Points: 6 out of 10

My First Weight Watchers Oops: Ramen!

19 Apr

One day I had soup with some dumplings. I was impressed to see that the broth was “free” for points and the dumplings were surprisingly low in points.  The lunch was one of the best I found (points wise) in Chinatown.  So Ramen couldn’t be THAT bad, right? Oh so very wrong…

I saw the serving of the noodles was 5 points… so I thought maybe this whole thing (including half an egg and some grilled pork) couldn’t be more than 8 points.  Well… it was 5 points for a HALF cup.  I had about a cup and a half… 15 points on NOODLES.  That’s a mistake I won’t make again.  Nearly 20 points of my 24 for the day slurped up in one sitting.

Luckily there is a great alternative… SOBA! Buckwheat noodles are two points for one full cup.  That’s a no brainer right there!

So after all this I’m sure you’re wondering if my 20 point lunch was worth it? Absolutely not.  It was just… bland.  So bland that it’s not even worth looking up what random place we went for this bowl of flavorlessness. 

The most amazing recipe I’ve ever shared

5 Apr

I read about this mysterious “one ingredient ice cream” on TheKitchn.com and was shocked to learn that the one ingredient was… bananas.  How can you possibly make ice cream out of JUST bananas?  Well… turns out not only is it possible… it’s just about the most amazing thing I’ve ever made.  I am so enthralled with this that I bumped all my other posts to share it with you.  And the best part? It’s good for you!  Figure one banana per serving and I calculated it to be just 2 points (and less than 100 calories)!

The instructions were pretty easy sounding… take bananas… freeze (great way to keep bananas on the verge of over-ripening anyway)… put in food processor… blend until creamy.  My bananas probably should have defrosted a bit before I tried this, however, after some tenacity I got it to this state…

And that made me nervous.  How was this ever going to be CREAMY?  Wouldn’t it be chunky? Or gritty? Or… well… NOT ice cream?

Oh no… 5 minutes later it was downright creamy. 

And then I took my spoon and I dug right in.  Holy crap. This was even better than the moment I discovered Krispy Krack Kale.  Holy cow! 

I have since made it twice more… once with peanut butter (4 points with one tablespoon per banana) and once with peanut butter and chocolate chips (5 points with the same amount of peanut butter plus 1 tablespoon of chocolate chips per 2 bananas).  Use my new favorite, Better’n Peanut Butter, and you can get the PB and Banana combo for jut 3 points!

And then I decided that I couldn’t sit over my counter with a spoon in the food processor forever, so I pulled out the ice cream scooper for the real test…

It scooped beautifully.

Go make this.

Now.