Tag Archives: weight watchers

Hippie Pie

21 May

I affectionately refer to my dad as a hippie.  He loves to watch birds, attended the march on Washington for Nixon’s inauguration, and knows how to harvest weeds from the woods and eat them.  Need I say more?

This aforementioned pie is actually Japanese Knotweed Pie and I absolutely love it. 

It’s not quite as scary when you grow up with this, but trying to convince others to try a pie made with weeds harvested along a New Jersey highway is not an easy task.

So what exactly is Japanese Knotweed?

Facts about Japanese Knotweed (thank you Wikipedia and odd factoids learned in my childhood):
– It is not only delicious (similar to rhubarb), it is used in Chinese Medicine to produce resveratrol (same thing they extract from red grapes and they say is so good for you in red wine… used in Chinese medicine for anti-aging, may have some effect in lowering blood sugar in humans) and as a nutritional supplement to regulate bowel motility (and who doesn’t need some good ol’ bowel motility?)  
– The flowers are used in beekeeping for making honey
– It helps desensitize from allergies since it contains low doses of local polen

(Note: None of the above facts have been proven by anyone of any note)

Dad made it this season with berries, and I approve! It’s a base of basically whipped cream, condensed milk, and lemonade along with the knotweed in a graham cracker crust.  The recipe will remain a family secret (sorry folks) so you have to be in the right spot at the right time around April to get a bite.

Of course, being handed a pie this delicious a few weeks into Weight Watchers was not easy… but I ate it 2 points at a time (1/16th of the pie… not bad when you figure out that’s about half a normal slice).  Delish!

Can’t wait for next April!

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A Review of Weight Watchers Pre-packaged Food- Part 1

14 May

I have now officially been on Weight Watchers for 9 weeks.  I have lost a total of 14.2 pounds and honestly, my only regret is that I didn’t do this sooner.  Is it easy? Hell no. But it’s pretty damn simple.  I’m not hungry, I’m not craving, and I don’t feel like I’m missing out on that much.  Sure, I miss pigging out on super indulgent foods that I love, however, I have come to terms with the fact that pigging out really isn’t that much more satisfying that tasting it…  And if it’s really good, eating half of it. 

A lot of Weight Watchers is about trading.  Finding good substitutes for foods that “cost” fewer points.  There are some things that I think are worth trading out and some things that I would rather take the hit on the points.  First, there are the simple things, like trading out white carbs for brown (they keep you fuller longer and believe me… there IS brown rice that tastes GOOD), eating higher fiber yogurts, and eating some pre-packaged foods.  Now I know there is a lot of controversy about packaged foods.  And yes, some of these have ingredients that I can hardly pronounce. But in the end, I think the substitutions are mostly worthwhile, and they aren’t every day foods. (“Cookies are a sometimes food!”)

First, we’ll start with the worst. Hungry Girl has introduced me to some GREAT food substitutions.  Unfortunately, tofu noodles aren’t one of my favorite choices. 

Points for this is nearly zero.  So you want to eat them like you would pasta.

The problem is, these want so badly to be like pasta, but they’re just not!  It starts getting bad early on… I read before opening the bag the instructions to “reduce the authentic aroma.”  Yikes! They don’t lie… these kind of smell like fish.  YUCK.  I gave them a chance, however, and after par boiling the smell was hardly noticeable.

The problem is, the texture just isn’t right.  It reminds me of calamari.  And calamari is just fine, but it’s not pasta.

Sad.  Fail. 

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Next up we have two frozen meals from Healthy Choice.  The first is a new (I think) version called “Cafe Steamers” that steams pasta, meat, and veggies in a basket over the sauce that you later mix in.

It was quite delicious! Excellent flavor and veggies tasted super fresh.  Of course, the portion like all frozen diet meals was small, but I didn’t feel hungry afterwards.

The second Healthy Choice selection was an entree that included dessert.  This, again, had great flavor and it was a decent sized portion.  The berry crisp was decent (though I prefer their apple better).  The biggest problem I had was really about slight deception….

Look at the picture… now look at the veggies… See that? See the measily half a cauliflower piece and ONE carrot lying helplessly at the bottom of that photo? Not exactly the veggie mix I was expecting.  I guess broccoli is cheaper!

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Next up we’ll go into dessert.  These are by far some of the best trades!  I have lost 14 pounds and I have eaten dessert almost every single night.  How can you beat that?!

Weight Watchers brand makes these “Giant Vanilla Fudge Sundae Cones.”  The ice cream is a little bland, however, there is a secret portion of fudge in the very bottom of the cone that is DELICIOUS.  It feels so indulgent and it’s just two points!

Next up are the new Skinny Cow Single Serving Cups.  They are just the perfect portion and the one I tried had SO much flavor! WOW! And again… just 2 points!  I will be stocking up on these.  DELICIOUS!

Next up are the Smart Ones sundaes. (OO! Coupon on the site!) I have tried both the brownie and the cookie dough.  (Mint Chocolate Chip is in the freezer… I’ll let you know).  I thought the brownie was decent, but the cookie dough is SOOO good.  It’s a little chalky perhaps, but it has all the right flavors.  I like that they have a cookie crumble on the bottom and some great solid chocolate chips.  Mmm Mmm Mmm.

Last up in the “dessert” category is my new addiction.  Again, Hungry Girl turned me onto VitaTops.  They are vitamin, fiber filled chocolatey treats for 100 calories and low fat… that translates to ONE POINT!!  WOW! They are delicious and they come in many flavors.  Beyond chocolate, I’ve tried the Apple & Berries and it is SO good… great for breakfast!  My favorite so far is the Deep Chocolate.  You can get them from Fresh Direct, however, they ain’t cheap.  I ordered a sampler pack from the Vitalicious Website that included the brownies and the tops.   

I definitely prefer the tops.  (They are in the frozen section in your grocery.  They can be microwaved, but I actually prefer them frozen since the chocolate chips stay nice and crunchy).

Hungry Girl runs a lot of promos, so when I ordered again (YES! I love these things!) I got 24 tops for $29.99 and free shipping. WOO!  (Right now she is running another promotion where you get 5% off with code HUNGRYGIRL2010.) 

They are so filling and delicious! I can’t say enough good things about these…

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…Until we get to Better’n Peanut Butter.  OH BOY!

This.

Is.

The.

Best.

I am obsessed.  Normal peanut butter is 4 points per tablespoons. Reduced fat is 2 points per tablespoon.  Better’n? 1 Point per tablespoon!  That means I can have four times as much. Right?  

I thought it would be tough to match the taste of peanut butter but I have found I actually PREFER this.  Well named product.

It’s not quite as thick as regular peanut butter (more the consistency of thick hot fudge I’d say) but it’s not oily or wet like organic peanut butters.  It’s just absolutely delicious.

As if you couldn’t make it better… spread some Better’n on a VitaTop!

WOAH NILLY!

We have a winner!

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Beckett’s on Stone Street

10 May

A few years ago, Mike turned me on to Stone Street (in the Financial District), which is a small street made of… you guessed it… STONE!  But it’s a cute little cobblestone street with restaurants that put their tables out on the street. It’s quite adorable and a really nice area to eat in on a nice day.  Funny enough, we always have to walk in a few circles looking at our iPhones trying to find Stone Street, but it’s worth it.

This time around we chose Beckett’s. 

All of the tables outside are together for all the restaurants.

Mike went with the Yellowfin Tuna Melt with zested lemon, sharp white cheddar, on country white. 

Here is an up the skirt view of the melty goodness…

It was delicious. 

Now the reason I chose Beckett’s is because they had a delicious sounding salad.  And I was psyched to be able to eat a WHOLE HUGE PLATE of food and not kill my points.

It was their summer salad with grilled chicken, sliced strawberries, almonds, and goat cheese over arugula with balsamic vinaigrette.  Total point count? 9! Not too shabby for a huge plate with CHEESE!

Overall, both things we had were totally delicious, but also a bit simple.  The atmosphere is hard to beat there.  I’d recommend this place if you’re ever on Stone Street (though with Smorgas Chef across the street, it’s tough).

Total Nom Points: 6.5 out of 10

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