On the Menu This Week
Greek Style Cheeseburgers
Vegetarian Black Bean Chili
Roasted Cornish Hens with Quinoa and Broccoli
Creamed Spinach
Ingredients
- 2 (10-ounce) packages frozen spinach, thawed
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 2 small shallots, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
- 4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups 1 percent milk
- 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons fat free evaporated milk
- Pinch ground nutmeg
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Squeeze all of the water from the spinach. Now Squeeze it again! In a large pan, heat the oil over a medium heat. Add the shallots and cook, stirring, until softened, about 2 minutes. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the milk and broth and cook, scraping up any bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a simmer and cook for 2 minutes. Add the spinach and simmer until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the evaporated milk and nutmeg and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Per Serving: (4 servings)
2 points
Calories 130
Total Fat 4 g
Sat Fat 1 g
Protein 10g
Carb 17g
Fiber 4g
Cholesterol 5 mg
Sodium 170 mg
Adapted from Ellie Krieger
This creamed spinach doesn't taste light, I promise! It really lives up to full fat creamed spinach
My Plan
I did WeightWatchers once before in 2004-2005. I lost 50 pounds. I gained some back going through my divorce but the good news is I kept off 20 of them until I restarted WeightWatchers in January 2009.
For the first time, I have found a plan that was easy to stick to. Something just felt right this time. Before embarking on WeightWatchers I re-read some books I had found helpful in the middle of my last journey. The books are listed under "Weight Loss" Books on the side bar, and a blog post about them will follow soon. These books helped get me mentally prepared to lose weight and they are the reason I think I am finding losing to be less of a struggle. I am not letting myself get discouraged by small gains and I am seeing far more consistent results.
WeightWatchers gives you a points target based on weight and basic daily activity level. Every food has a points value based on calories, fiber and fat. Then its like a checkbook you start with your daily balance, subtract for foods eaten and add for activity done which can earn you points. Exercise=More Food. Each food point is roughly 50 calories and each activity point is worth roughly 100, I use a heart-rate monitor to calculate my activity points earned.
You also get 35 weekly points to use as you want anytime during the week. For me the most successful both mentally and on the scale is to use most of those points on Saturday night for a splurge and to then stick to my daily points fairly closely the rest of the week. It helps me to know my favourite foods are only a week away if I want them. People can manage the plan however they want but for me this is the most successful. When I'm working out a lot I try to eat some of those activity points as well. Ironically I get much smaller losses the weeks I don't eat those points on Saturday, maybe it shakes up my metabolism, who knows I just know it works
Finally my last key to my plan is attending meetings. It helps keep me accountable and on track.
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