Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Dessert Time ~ sharing a few of my favorite recipes!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am "the" dessert queen! I figured that I would share a few of my favorite WW sweet recipes...they are ones that I've seen around for years, so anyone who has done WW before will probably have them. Others may not, and it is for them that I am posting them!

Soo...without further ado, here are a few of my favorite re-vamped sweet recipes that help me through the times when I absolutely *have* to have something sweet!



Diet Coke Cake
points depend on your cake mix...most are 4pts for 1/12 of recipe.

1 cake mix
1 can diet drink
1 egg white or 1/4c egg substitute

Mix the cake mix, diet drink and egg together with electric mixer. Pour into Pam-sprayed cake pan (9x13, cupcakes, bundt). Cook at 325 until done. My 9x13 took only 20 minutes. You will have to watch it closely the first time you make it...it cookes much quicker than a regular cake. Allow to cool completely before cutting. You can frost with ff cool whip if you like, or a light glaze of powdered sugar and water.



Possible combinations:

chocolate cake and Diet Coke or Diet Dr. Pepper
yellow cake and Diet Sierra Mist or Diet Peach Diet Rite
orange cake and Diet Sierra Mist
strawberry cake and Diet Strawberry Diet Rite

The possibilities are endless!





Ice Cream Sandwiches
1 point each


1 whole reduced fat graham cracker, broken into 2 pieces
2 tbsp fat free cool whip

Sandwich the cool whip between the graham crackers. Wrap in saran wrap and place in the freezer.


Crustless Strawberry Pie
6 servings, 1 point each



4 cups sliced strawberries
2 cups water
1 small box (4 servings) Jell-O sugar free cook and serve pudding
1 small box (4 servings) sugar-free strawberry Jell-O

Mix water and pudding in large bowl.
Place in microwave for about 6 minutes until mixture comes to a bowl, stirring with wire whisk after 3 minutes.
Remove and add jello, set aside to cool. Place sliced strawberries in a 9" pie dish. Pour cooled pudding mixture over top of strawberries. Refrigerate until firm - about two hours. Cut into 6 slices. Top each slice with 2 Tbsp. fat free cool whip.



Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti
1 point each, makes 4 1/2 dozen


2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
2 large eggs
2 large egg whites
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1 teaspoon vanilla or chocolate extract
1 teaspoon instant coffee powder
1/2 cup toasted and skinned hazelnuts

Glaze:

1 large egg white beaten with 1 teaspoon water

Preheat oven to 350º.

Lightly coat large baking sheet with cooking spray.
In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt, until blended. Stir in chocolate chips.
In a medium bowl, whisk together whole eggs, egg whites, zest, extract, and coffee powder, until powder dissolves. Add to flour mixture along with nuts. With wooden spoon, work wet ingredients into dry ingredients until combined (dough will be sticky).
Divide dough in half.
With lightly floured hands and on lightly floured surface, roll one half of dough into 14 inch long rope, then transfer to prepared baking sheet.
Flatten rope to 1 3/4 inch width.
Roll remaining dough into another 14 inch rope, place 3 to 4 inches away from first rope, and then flatten.
Brush ropes with glaze.
Bake in 350º oven until firm to the touch, 24 to 26 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Leave oven on. Slide loaves onto cutting board.
With serrated knife, cut loaves diagonally into 1/2 inch thick slices.
Discard ends.
Place slices, cut sides down, back on baking sheet (they can touch).
Bake until dry, another 15 minutes, turning biscotti over after 7 minutes.
Let cool completely on wire rack.
Store in airtight container at room temperature for up to several days.

It's me. :)

First of all, I want to thank everyone for the emails and PM's I got about my last post...I appreciate it more than you know. I think I just need to grow a thicker skin...but when someone calls your child a brat, it's hard to just sit back and laugh.

As most can tell, I have had a rough few weeks...I am proud to say that I am back on track though. :) I went to my WW meeting last Saturday but didn't weigh in...it was easier to not know how much I gained this time, LOL...I am working on my 3rd day eating right and am definitely feeling better. I am fighting the cravings, which is not easy, but I'm doing it. I am going to WI this Saturday...I still expect a gain, but it won't be nearly as bad as it woulda been had I weighed in last week.

When I started WW the first time WAAAAAAY back when, I read about the BCB (BootCampBuddies)...it was a WW support group that was militant on their plans...24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. No excuses. It was too much for me back then...but after lurking and reading for a while I decided yesterday to join them. I think that's the kind of thing I need...a kick in the butt when I mess up instead of "oh, you can start again tomorrow, it's ok"...so we'll see how that works.

I am going to get dh to take some "before" pics of me...they won't see the light of day until I get a good one to compare to, but at least they can sit in my camera.

Hope everyone has a great day!!!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Sad. :(

This has nothing to do with weight loss, but I needed to "talk" something out.

I hope that everyone who reads this knows that anything you type on the internet has the possibility of being read by everyone in the world, including the person/people that you wrote it about. In this day and age, I don't understand WHY someone would post a blog or story about someone online and assume that the person it was about won't see it/read it.

I just ran upon something that someone very close to me wrote about the way I raise my children, and I feel like someone punched me in the stomach. Fine, you don't agree with the way I do things, that's your prerogative...but that doesn't give you the right to make me out to be a bad mother. There are plenty of things I can say about plenty of mothers that I don't agree with (including the person who criticized me), but I won't do that, because it's none of my business. I know I'm not perfect and feel that unless you are, you have no right talking about the way I do things. I wish this person felt the same way, because I am very hurt and feel betrayed by someone I thought I could trust.

Struggle, Struggle, Struggle

I'm at that point. The one where I always give up and go back to eating like I was and gain back 150% of the weight I already lost. You would think that with doing a 5K I would be eating really well and be working toward my next goal.

I'm not.

I have been eating crap again, but am not going to keep going. I've said all along that this is the time I would get this weight off for good and I'll be damned if I'm gonna go back on that.

It's going to be back to basics for me.

(1) Drink water. Lots of water. Nothing but water.
(2) Figure points for favorite recipes.
(3) JOURNAL JOURNAL JOURNAL!!!!

Not journaling has been my problem this time around. As long as I've been doing WW I should have lost twice what I have, but I have only been doing it half-assed. If I seriously get into it and try, I could lose a lot more than I currently have been.

I have a pair of pants I want to fit into as a short term goal. I am going to take a pic of me (attempting to) wear them today, and again every few weeks until they fit...then will find something else to focus on. Once they fit I will post pics, and not before, LOL!

I am getting up and going to WW Saturday morning to get more motivation and get these pounds moving again.

:)

Saturday, June 13, 2009

This Fat Chick did a 5K!

Photobucket

That's right, I managed to drag myself 3.1 miles. I wondered several times if I was going to make it, but I just kept on keeping on and finished! I was one of the last 5 to finish, but you know what, it didn't matter! I FREAKIN FINISHED IT! My sister (DeathMetalMommy ~ her blog is linked to the right) finished around 45 minutes...my mother was about 50 minutes, and I brought up the rear at one hour and some odd seconds.

A friend of mine was the paramedic riding along with the racers/walkers/crawlers/limpers...he kept checking in with me. I think they were more worried about the fat chick making it than the 92 year old man who was behind me, LOL...to be honest, though, so was I!! A group of about 9 friends from WW showed up and walked together...they were all much faster than I was, but wonderful people that they are, they circled back around to where I was after they finished and walked me in to the finish line. It felt so good...though I think most of that was that it was OVER, LOL!

I am definitely going to keep doing these...I felt such a sense of accomplishment afterward, and I am so proud of myself.

Some of the girls are talking about doing the Clocktower Run in August. We'll see about that!!!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Is that ME?

I caught a glimpse yesterday of a different me...not the lumpy, dumpy, unattractive person I have felt like for so long, but like the beautiful, self-confident person I am becoming.

When I look in the mirror, I am always prettier than I am in pictures. That's just how it works...I don't know what a camera does to me, but it definitely makes me unattractive, LOL! Yesterday though, as I put my makeup on, I realized that, while I still have a LONG way to go, my face is thinner. Instead of all the chins and fat, I saw my big blue eyes and a hint of cheekbones. It was a bit of a shock and made me put down the makeup brush and look at myself.

My face isn't the only change...I also noticed this week that I am getting my shape back...a shape other than round blob! My waist is smaller and I am taking on more of an hourglass shape. For "normal" people, this is no big deal and probably seems a bit stupid, but for people who are overweight or obese, you know this is a huge thing.

It's amazing to me that I can see these difference with only 19 pounds gone...what will another 19 pounds gone bring???

Life is good.