These are a Few of My Favorite Things

Being on Weight Watchers wasn't easy, at first. But, the minute I adopted it as my new lifestyle, it got to be pretty simple. I could now pretty much figure out the Point value of any food in the known universe. And, as I go through my day, I check off the healthy guidelines in my head. So, I don't even think of myself on Weight Watchers any more, but just that I live a healthier life. Somehow, it feels like admitting defeat when I admit to someone that I'm on Weight Watchers. It sounds so "diety" if that's a word. It's the way I plan to eat for the rest of my life and it's working.

Since I started this new life last October, I've come to love a few things that are extremely WW friendly. They're almost always in my house, so I thought I'd start a list here for those of you who are following along!

• Aldi frozen fruit bars or Edy's frozen fruit bars. Yum.
• No sugar added vanilla nonfat frozen yogurt. Not the kind with artificial sweetener. Read your labels.
• Werther's Original Hard Candy. Great for those craving times. You can have 3 for one point and it seems as if you had something much more decadent.
• Fresh fruit and veggies. So many of them are zero or very low points. Great for snacks and filling out meals. I serve at least 2 vegetables with dinner and always have fruit for snacks and desserts.
• Homemade pudding pops. Make fat free pudding and freeze in pops.
• Litehouse light salad dressings. The Blue Cheese and Ranch are my favorites.
• Salad spritzers, for those days when you don't even have enough points for salad dressing!
• Corn flakes. You can have a heck of a big bowl of cornflakes for breakfast or for a snack for very low points. Top them with honey if you've got the points. They also make a great breading for Tilapia or chicken, simply crush, dip, and bake.
• Crumpets. Oh, thank you to you delightful British inventors of this chewy, English muffin combined with pancake combined with yummy goodness breakfast treat. Top with your favorite no sugar added jam or splurge with some peanut butter. The fat free ones are only a point a piece!
• Kashi Multi Grain crackers.
• Laughing Cow Light Cheese. Great on the crackers (above) or tossed with pasta.
• Homemade pitas or in a pinch, purchased ones.
• WW bagels.
• 100 calorie pudding packs.
• Imitation crab sticks. Sometimes you just need a little protein and these fit the bill.
• Fat free hot dogs. Top with Monastery Mustard Divinely Original I order from Monastery Greetings at least twice a year. This mustard is fantastic. Spicy and gives fat free hot dogs the zing they need.
• Village Hearth Light Hamburger and Hot Dog Buns and 12 grain bread!
• Ronzoni pasta
• Couscous
• Brown Rice
• Wild Rice
• Vegetarian Baked Beans
• Canned black beans--toss with seasoned ground turkey for a great taco filling.
• Pickles: pickled beets, dills, etc.
• Low fat cottage cheese. Great protein packed snack plus dairy serving.
• PB2, powdered peanut butter available from Bell Plantation. Mix with water or oil for a VERY WW friendly peanut butter substitute. I've used it to bake with and love the results. While it doesn't quite fill my peanut butter craving when it's on a Code Red level, it is quite good. If you need to get an oil serving in, mix one of your oils with the powder. Seems kind of silly to do this, but it does taste great this way and it keeps you in charge of the oil content.
• Fat Free Cool Whip: One serving is zero points. Zero. I like to freeze a servings between two graham crackers for a low point "ice cream" sandwich.
• Salsa Lisa Salsa. Simply the best. Thanks Lisa. I love this company and am so glad I got to see it manufactured.
• PB Loco. A company housed in the same building as Salsa Lisa. These attorneys know how to make the peanut butter! It's great for a splurge, but small amounts of their gourmet peanut butters do go a long way, so I find it to be a very WW friendly food. Try their savory peanut butters. The curry one is excellent in Thai noodles.
• Hostess 100 calorie chocolate cupcakes. One point, fills the chocolate craving. I have to have these in my freezer (they are much better frozen!) at all times. I like to stock up on them at bakery thrift stores as they're kind of pricey at regular grocery stores.
• Thomas' Light English Muffins. I think they say they're multi grain. They're good. Village Hearth has a version too that is even more WW friendly than the Thomas' ones.
• Baked Tostitos Scoops with Salsa Lisa, of course!
• Kashi waffles. Yum.
• Fiber One Bars. Chocolate. Fix. Now.
• Egg Beaters of Better N Eggs
• Real Maple Syrup. If you're going to have pancakes or waffles, a little bit of the REAL thing is much better than a lot of sugar free, imitation crap that's out there. Plus, I don't do artificial sweeteners.
• Steel cut oats. I love Bob's Red Mill brand. Excellent. But, not so great on hot summer mornings.
• Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch. I know, definitely not a highly nutritious food and probably full of all kinds of things that are so not good for me, but sometimes I've got to have some crunch.
• Animal Crackers.
• Fruit leather.
• 100 calorie Home Style Microwave Popcorn

That's just a starter list, I plan to add to it from time to time and as the season changes. I made this list mostly for me, just to give me a record of favorite foods to fall back on when I get bored or uninspired. I make most of what we eat from scratch and have been able to find all kinds of WW friendly recipes either on their Website or on member websites. Experimenting with recipes and substituting more WW friendly ingredients has been highly successful.

Summer is an easy season to be watching what you eat. Our Farmer's Market abounds with fresh, healthy vegetables, fruits, meats, honey, maple syrup, and other great food finds. Winter can be more challenging, but I intend to freeze a lot of fresh produce this summer. As my garden harvests begin, I hope that I can put away food bit by bit.

Simple searches on the Internet come up with countless recipes that claim to be healthy. You must enter the recipe into the recipe builder to get the correct Point count. It doesn't take long and you must do the work to really learn this new lifestyle.