How to not lose weight...

So, if you want to make sure you don't lose weight, I have a couple of tips for you.

1) Eat out. A lot.
2) Have holidays.

I don't know the effects, if any, of my last few days yet (weigh in is Tuesday), but I can say I'm not really looking forward to weigh in. I hope I have lost something, though I doubt it will be as good as the last couple of weeks (3 lb. and 1.9 lb.). The reason, I ate out for dinner on Wednesday (pizza), lunch (Grilled KFC) and dinner (Arby's) on Thursday, had a Krispy Kreme at breakfast at work (normally I resist), ate out for lunch (Chinese) and dinner (La Gondola) on Friday, and for dinner (Don Panchito) yesterday. I didn't exactly evaluate what I ate for WW points either. And then, today is a holiday (Mother's Day), so I had wonderful french toast cooked for me for breakfast, and we're cooking out meat, meat, and more meat for dinner. I hope to stick with a small steak and shrimp though, so as not to totally blow it! :)

Tune in Tuesday to see what this has cost me. Yikes! Thankfully my life isn't usually this luxurious (aka: busy), so I usually do more home cooking and control the points accordingly!

Awesome Stuff and Healthy Donut Holes!

First, let me think about some things I've had none to very little of since I started WW on February 17th.

Real hamburger or beef products. I've been eating mostly 97% fat free turkey which is amazingly close to beefy tasting once it absorbs the flavors you're cooking with. I've also been tapping back to my vegetarian roots (was for 6 years) and eating veggie burgers. I was really craving a real burger yesterday and had a double quarter pounder without cheese from McDonalds. I saved my points for it, and put fat free cheese on it at home. It was so good! Next I want a diner burger, but think we'll just make those with turkey burger at home.

Real butter or margarine, full fat sour cream, mayo, and cream cheese. I am in LOVE with Parkay's butter spray, and am tolerating the ff mayo and sour cream. I used it to make taco dip last weekend and it was yummy! However, I am totally put off by the sweet flavor of ff mayo. Any ideas?

Full fat cheese. I am suprisingly pleased with the reduced fat and fat free version of cheese, as long as I'm not trying to eat it all by itself.

94% fat free popcorn. This is a staple. It is 1 point for the whole bag! And, the bonus is that it doesn't have the greasy finger problem like typical popcorn so it's fine to eat at work while you're typing and working with paperwork. Sometimes at home I make it extra special and spray the above mentioned butter spray on it and then put extra salt on it--yum! But, without the spray don't try to put extra salt or seasonings on it, it won't stick!

Real chips. I've been almost exclusively baked, and that's going better than I had hoped.

Sugar. Splenda for me! Lovin it! You can even order Unsweetened tea at McD and ask for Splenda Packets.

And another product I love is Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta. It has tons of fiber and is white, even though it is made of wheat. I'm not a big fan of wheat pasta, but this isn't wheaty and tastes exactly the same. 3 pt. for 1 c. Which is a lot when it's spread out on your plate. YUM!

Ranch Dressing. I detest reduced fat or fat free ranch because of that weird taste that is in all reduced dressings. Any good picks here? I've been eating it, but would honestly eat more salads if I found one I loved.

I'm eating tons more veggies and fruit than before too. Oh, and oatmeal and yogurt which I've grown to love and just was okay with before.

There are more, but these are the main things sticking out in my mind. These are all pleasing alternatives. Before I went WW I ate at McD for breakfast just about every day! Youch!

What are your awesome products you couldn't live without in your weight loss journey?


Okay, now for the recipe. I stumbled across this the other day on recipezaar.com (thank them for the picture) tweaked it just a bit and made it for breakfast today. They were YUMMY! More muffin looking than hole looking, but yum yum still. With the baking mix I used (I just had pancake mix on hand), it was .5 pt. each. Be sure to calculate it with your mix if you make them.

Healthy Donut Holes

Ingredients

• 1 cup + 2 T Bisquick reduced-fat baking mix or pancake mix
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 egg (or equivalent in egg substitute--which is what I used)
• 2/3 cup skim milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons (sugar substitute) for shaking
  
• 1/2 teaspoon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray a 12 hole mini muffin pan with butter flavored cooking spray.
3. In a medium bowl, combine baking mix, 1/4 cup Splenda and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.
4. Add egg, skim milk and vanilla extract.
5. Mix well to combine (my batter was runny).
6. Drop by spoonfuls into prepared muffin pan.
7. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes.
8. Remove balls from pan (I had to use a spoon to dig them out)
   
9. In a ziploc plastic bag, combine sugar coating ingredients and place warm donut balls in 2 or 3 at a time and shake to coat.

I doubled the recipe and it made 36 holes. I ate 12. Yipes! But, since I just had salad for lunch it worked. I look forward to having some leftovers with yogurt in the morning for breakfast on my way to work. Let me know if you try to make them!

Now, we just need Brooke to post her fabulous recipe for some awesomely healthy cupcakes. I made them for work the other day and got RAVE reviews. But, I can't take the credit--she gave me the recipe (and has a pic)!

Tips & 1 Point Biscuits

If you've read my facebook, you'll have already seen these. But, for others, I wanted to share them too, and cheat on having to think today. :)

--I was making 2 pt. packs of the bags of baked chips we had opened, and kept snacking, so had to end up giving myself 2 points. I had read somewhere to chew gum while cooking so you weren't tempted to do this. That would've been smart.

--For dinner recently we had spinach and asiago stuffed chicken sausages. We found these at Sam's Club. They're big sausages for only 3 points each, and really yummy! I don't remember exactly how much we paid for them, but there were three packages of 5. Sometimes I don't like a lot of spinach, but these really aren't too spinachy.

--Hostess 100 Calorie Cupcakes are only 1 point per pack! Holey Moley! I read this somewhere and had to check it out myself at Walmart. Yup! I've been craving a cupcake so this will be great--they have 4 flavors.

Here's the recipe for the biscuits. They're a little dense, but so worth it! Top them with some country gravy from the seasoning aisle (just mix with water--not too many points).

1 c. flour
1/2 c. skim milk
2 T. FF Mayo or Miracle Whip
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda

Mix and spoon into 6 muffin cups in a muffin tin. Bake at 375 for 12 minutes or until golden.

Until next time!