Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Crepes for Weight Watchers

Makes 12-15 crepes
WW Pts+: Appx 1 per crepe

Crepes are easy to make and a great way to create a main dish or dessert great for any dieter and low on Weight Watchers points.  You don't need a special pan and probably have all the ingredients on hand.

Here's my recipe for basic dessert crepes:

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup flour (any type)
1 cup skim milk
1 T sugar
 1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch salt

Directions:
  • Mix ingredients with whisk.
  • Heat small skillet that has been sprayed with Olive Oil spray to medium heat (spray before the first few crepes...you probably won't need to after that)
  • Add scant 1/4 cup batter to pan and swirl until it covers bottom of pan.
  • Cook until the top of crepe is no longer moist and starting to curl
  • Lift edge of crepe with fork or spatula and place crepe on plate (cook only one side)
  • Continue until batter is gone.




Filling:
Fill crepe with pudding, whipped topping, fruit, ice cream, etc.

My favorite filling is a spoonful of fat free Strawberry yogurt spread down the middle, slices of strawberries, blueberries and banana, topped with a generous spoon of fat free whipped topping.
This filling adds less than 1 pt to the crepe.  Without the yogurt the filling is zero pts!

Notes:
  • I use whole wheat flour, but you can use any type of flour you prefer.  You could try 1/2 white and 1/2 wheat to add more fiber to your diet. 
  • Be sure to refrigerate your crepes right away and eat within a few days as they will spoil. They're so easy to make, you can make 1/2 batch if you don't think you'll eat them up fast enough.
  • For dinner crepes, omit the sugar and vanilla.
 Enjoy fellow Weight Watchers!!


Crockpot Potato Soup for Weight Watchers

Here's a recipe that I am making almost weekly now.  It is a very filling 4 points!

Image courtesy of Joy Schantz
Crockpot Potato Soup

Makes 10 cup servings
WW Pts+: 4 per cup

Ingredients:
1 26-30 ounce bag frozen hash browns (plain)
2 14 ounce cans non-fat chicken broth
1 10-3/4 can 98% fat free cream of chicken soup
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 tsp pepper
1 - 8 ounce pkg lowfat (1/3 less fat) cream cheese
1 cup fat free milk

Directions:
  • Add first 5 ingredients to crock pot and cook on high for an hour and a half or until bubbly.
  • Stir and then add cream cheese, cut into cubes,  and cook another hour 1/2 or until cheese can be stirred into mixture.
  • Add milk and cook 10 - 15 minutes longer. (Crockpot should be almost full. If not, add more milk
Optional: Garnish with chopped green onion and bacon bits. (Add 1 pt for garnish)
Variation: Use frozen Country potatoes or Potatoes O'Brien in place of the hash browns.

Enjoy!

Nutrition Info per cup serving:
 
Calories 177



Fat 5.4 g
Sat. Fat  3.5 g
Carbs 24.5 g
Fiber 1.6 g
Sugars 1.6 g
Protein 5.7 g
Sodium  308 mg

NOTE to Weight Watchers:  I have amended the point value for this recipe and added nutritional information based on the comments.  My original point value was calculated via the WW recipe builder on the Weight Watcher site....but when the ingredients are entered into the recipe builder in Myfitnesspal and then entered into the iBites point calculator this is the result.  Interesting that it was lower in points using WW tools...right? Go figure.  I still feel a cup of this soup is worth the new 4 points!



What's Your BMI?

Image courtesy of Cohdra/morguefile.com
Most Diets, including Weight Watchers encourages tracking, which I enjoy.  I love the online tools on the Weight Watcher's site that I use faithfully to determine the points values of my food choices, as well as their tracker for logging in my food intake and exercise.  I do wish they had a few other tools: a Body Mass Index or BMI calculator for one.

I consider it important to know what your height/weight relationship means in terms of the amount of fat you are carrying around. Besides not fitting into cute clothes, too much fat equals health problems.

In searching for a BMI calculator, I found a good site that is filled with helpful tools, which includes a BMI calculator and even a Pointsplus calculator tool! In calculating my BMI today, I have a 28.7 BMI, which means I am still overweight (no shock here).  It indicates that for my age and height, my BMI should be between 18.5 and 25.  I am setting a goal of hitting that 25 BMI by the end of the year (which equates to 30 pounds).

What's your BMI? 

Here's the link: BMI calculator

Portion Control

I think one of the most important things you learn on the Weight Watcher's diet is portion control.  Every meal and snack now, I measure before I eat.  I scoop my rice with a measuring cup.  I count out 53 pretzels sticks for a snack.  I've known this is important for a while, but for some reason, I find it easier to put this rule into play on the Weight Watchers plan.

Here's an article I wrote a while back that makes for good reading when you need a reminder, not just about eating healthy, but also about eating a sensible portion. Fellow Weight Watchers, just say NO to supersizing!

"Portion Control - How Much Food is Enough"
Image courtesy of ebru/wikimedia commons
Americans have gotten out-of-control with their eating habits, and lack of portion control is a key contributor to gaining weight.No doubt, food choice contributes to obesity in this country, but just as bad is the mindset that “more is better” when eating out or serving a family dinner.

Does Eating "Supersized" Equal Obesity?
The movie, “Supersize Me” released in 2004, highlighted the insanity and toxicity of fast food eating and the portions involved. In the movie, Morgan Spurlock personally tests the effect of eating fast food for thirty days and gains 24 pounds!

Wholehealtheducation.com’s article, “Stress Causing Americans to Supersize” by Georgianna Donadio, Ph.D, points to this movie as a pop culture example of the issues of everyday gorging on food. She tells us that a study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, outlined how food portions grew in fast food chains, restaurants and even homes from 1977 to 1996, citing stress as the key motivator. (Continue reading "Portion Control - How Much Food is Enough?)

Where to Start?

Image By CarrieBee (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

It's hard to know exactly where to start a blog about losing weight, but I guess the answer is with TODAY!

After signing up online for the new Weight Watchers Plus Program, I am now heading into my third month of weight loss. I'd never been on Weight Watchers before, believe it or not. My grown daughter and I joined at the same time, which has made it much more fun and a big help in getting started.

I'm on Facebook a lot.  I'm part of a Facebook group that has been set up for a while that is interested in losing weight and staying fit, so we post our workouts and diets, etc. Back in January, I posted that I'd joined Weight Watchers and since then, I've been posting how many pounds I've lost each week. Eventually, my best friend, Sharon, and her husband joined.  Then my niece, JoAnne, joined.  And just this week my songwriting friend, Deanna, joined too!  I guess my success in losing 16 pounds over the past two months has inspired them to try Weight Watchers out too!

We've been sharing experiences and recipes in our Facebook group, so I'll be sharing any tips I discover now on this blog.  I hope our discoveries and tips help you too!


My Patio Container Garden - a fun way to get some exercise!

Disclosure: As an Amazon associate I may earn from qualifying purchases mentioned in this article.  My stacking compost system I started my ...