New Year, New Plans!

Hello all!
I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Years.  Things were mostly quiet in our house.  Lots of fun times and memories made.  Life has sped up again now that it's the new year.  LOTS of appointments and things to keep our family busy (sometimes it feels TOO busy).  With a wedding in just a few months three of us decided to join Weight Watchers and see if we can't lose weight, feel better, and be more healthy this year.  Since I'm the main cook I was signed up as well so it would be easier for me to calculate and prepare the meals without having to constantly ask what something was worth.  We've been at it for 2 days and its been interesting to say the least.  The good news is that a number of the dishes I was making are okay points-wise.  There are also some I'm tweaking to bring the points value down so we can still eat it.

My plan is to try and blog about this journey as we go.  I will try to include recipes we've tried, tricks we have learned, and things I'm struggling with.  So far its been a challenge to try and cook dinner while measuring and inputting every single ingredient into the app (which is fabulous by the way- more on that another time) so we can have an accurate point value.  I'm hoping this will get easier as time goes on and I build up the repertoire of recipes already input so I can just track it.

Two of the biggest things so far we've been working on is PORTION CONTROL, and learning that many of the ingredients you wouldn't think are the worst have a really high point value.  For instance, a package of Kirkland Organic ground beef (1.34 lbs) is a whopping 39 points.  Now, that is divided amongst a big number of us but it gives you pause.  Tonight instead of using all ground beef in a recipe I substituted half of the amount I needed for ground turkey breast which is 0 points.  The flavor and texture were still good but it brought the point value down significantly.  In regards to portion control, we are MEASURING EVERYTHING.  We've found this really makes you stop and think about things and not just take a random helping for a meal or go into the pantry and get a snack.  You really have to plan and think about what you can have.

We've already discovered a really tasty recipe on the app that gives us that little bit of sweet we crave but without going overboard.  I'm including the recipe its so good.

Weight Watchers Chocolate and Pear Quesadilla (5 points- with the tortillas we could find)
1 serving

Ingredients:
1/2 tsp unsalted butter
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp mini semisweet chocolate chips
3 thin slices raw red (or green) anjou pear(s)
1 Mission Carb Balance Soft taco whole wheat tortilla

Instructions:

-Melt the butter in a small nonstick skillet over medium/medium-high heat.  Sprinkle cinnamon over tortilla and then rub it in.  Put the tortilla cinnamon-side down into the skillet.  Sprinkle chocolate over 1/2 the tortilla and top with pear slices.  Fold top half of tortilla over filling.  Cook, turning once, until lightly browned (2 minutes or so).  Slice in half and serve.

Hope you enjoy, and I look forward to sharing this journey with you all.  I will try to blog at least once a week with our progress, tips, tricks we've picked up, and recipes we've found or adapted. Wish us luck!