This Mama Cooks! On a Diet

Got milk and avocadoes? Then make an Avocado-Mango Smoothie

Did you know that kids don’t drink enough milk to prevent fractures? That nine out of 10 teenage girls fail to get enough of the calcium they need? And 50% of women over 50 suffer from osteoporosis?

That’s why it’s so important to get your entire family to drink milk and eat dairy products like yogurt. You can learn more about osteoporosis prevention in my post at This Mama Cooks! Reviews, Got milk this summer?

Smoothie recipes

Looking over the whymilk.com website, I noticed several delicious smoothie recipes including this one using avocado. Did you know avocadoes contain:

81 micrograms of the carotenoid lutein, which some studies suggest may help maintain healthy eyes

nearly 20 vitamins, minerals and beneficial plant compounds that can contribute to the nutrient quality of your diet

76 milligrams beta-sitosterol, which a natural plant sterol which may help maintain healthy cholesterol levels

Plus they’re delicious! (For more on avocadoes, check out avocado.org.)

Whole lotta ricotta: Weight Watcher's Spinach, Tomato and Feta Pizza and Tomato, Basil and Ricotta Frittata

After the wet noodle incident, I still have two small containers of part-skim ricotta. Looking over Weight Watchers’ online recipes, I found that most call for fat free ricotta (1 cup = 4 POINTS). So, I’ll have to add a POINT or two depending on the amount used since part-skim ricotta had double the POINTS of no fat (1 cup = 8 POINTS).

Here’s a recipe for a pizza that I know the kids will like, too. This seems like a quick and easy dish to make on a night when you don’t want to do a lot of cooking.

You can also can adjust it for individual tastes. (Don’t like tomatoes or spinach? Substitute other vegetables instead.) I’ll be using Healthy Grain Multi-Grain with Flax Flatout Flatbread instead of whole wheat pita, too.

Spinach, Tomato and Feta Pizza
Servings:  4

Ingredients:

• 4 large wheat pitas
• 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 10 oz chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained of excess water
• 1 large tomato, beefsteak, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
• 1 tsp dried oregano

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF.
2. Arrange pitas on a large baking sheet. Combine ricotta and garlic powder; spoon mixture over pitas, to within 1/2 inch of the edges. Top with spinach and tomato. Sprinkle with feta then oregano.
3. Bake until edges of pitas are golden, about 12 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Weight Watchers POINTS = 6 per pizza

Making healthy freezer meals help you plan ahead and stick to your diet

Planning your meals is an important part of any diet, especially Weight Watchers. Either you need to make sure that your pantry and refrigerator are filled with nutritious, low calorie and high fiber foods – beans, whole wheat pasta, skim milk, fruit and veggies, etc. Or you need to prepare meals in advance so you don’t come home starving after dinner and pig out on whatever you can find.

Once a month cooking and freezer meals

Freezer cooking or once-a-month cooking has been around a long time mostly for convenience and money saving reasons. But why not experiment with it and create healthier meals for you?

A good book to try is Holly Clegg's Trim & Terrific Freezer Friendly Meals because her meals are already healthy. If you use cookbooks like The Freezer Cooking Manual from 30 Day Gourmet: A Month of Meals Made Easy or Once-a-Month Cooking , you’ll have to adjust the recipes to lower the fat and calories and increase the fiber.

Wanting to try freezer cooking out, I hosted a power cooking Pampered Chef show at my home. Using chicken breasts, a few seasonings, and some freezer bags, we created several freezer meals that I could defrost and put into the crockpot.

The recipes were easy and easy to make because we put them together as a group. (The Glenwood Creek wine helped, too.) All the recipes were healthy, low calorie/low fat choices that went well with my Weight Watcher Momentum plan, too. Here’s a sample:

Fix-It and Enjoy-It! new Healthy Cookbook

I’ve been a fan of Phyllis Pellman Good's books since I discovered FIX-IT and FORGET-IT LIGHTLY: Healthy, Low-Fat Recipes for Your Slow Cooker. Not only are the recipes easy to make, but her book includes nutritional information, which comes in handy when trying to calculate Weight Watchers POINTS. It also recommends a crock pot size, which comes in very handy, too.

In her latest book, Fix-It And Enjoy-It Healthy Cookbook: 400 Great Stove-top and Oven Recipes, Phyllis worked with experts from the Mayo Clinic to find recipes that were tasty, easy to prepare and nutritious.

“I am delighted to have teamed up with Mayo Clinic, whose dietitians have analyzed all the recipes for their nutritional value,” she said. “Together, we’ve adapted the recipes to fit within Mayo Clinic's Healthy Weight Pyramid."

Each recipe includes prep time, cooking time, nutrient analysis, and number of Pyramid servings. Here’s a sample recipe.

Got too much squash? Try a Summer Squash "Lasagna" Bake

I was looking for a recipe to use up our large supplies squash and zucchini from the garden, and at the same time use up some of the ground venison we have in the freezer.

In the Taste of Home’s - The Ultimate Ground Beef Cookbook, I found a recipe that would do the trick - Zucchini Beef Bake by Christy Saniga. I revised it to make it healthier and more weight loss and diet friendly. I decided to go with summer (yellow) squash since we had more of that. Either should work.

Summer Squash “Lasagna” Bake
Gluten Free - Yield 10-12 servings

Ingredients:

• 8 cups of water
• 6 cups sliced summer (yellow) squash
• 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
• 2 medium onions
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 3 cups cooked rice
• 12 ounces tomato sauce (use leftover spaghetti sauce in a pinch)
• 1 8-ounce container of small-curd cottage cheese
• 3 egg whites, slightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh oregano or 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh basil or 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Cook rice according to directions on box or package.
2. In a medium sized pot, bring water to a boil. Add the summer squash. Return to a boil. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 3 minutes or just until tender.
3. Drain and immediately place squash in large bowl of cold water. Drain and pat dry.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
5. In a skillet, cook the ground meat, onion and garlic until the meat is no longer pink. Drain.
6. Stir in rice, tomato sauce, cottage cheese, egg whites, oregano, basil, and salt.
7. Arrange half the squash in a greased 13x9x2-inch baking dish. Top with meat mixture.
8. Arrange remaining zucchini over top and then sprinkle with shredded cheese.
9. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes or until bubbly and cheese is melted.

Make it even healthier

• Use lean ground turkey or ground venison. Meat substitute crumbles are an option for vegetarians.
• Instead of white rice use brown.
• Use low or non-fat small-curd cottage cheese.
• Use low-fat cheddar or Parmesean cheese. Reduce amount to one cup.
• Once the cheese bakes, it is easily peeled off the top, and you can always remove it for further calorie reduction.
• Add 1 cup shredded zucchini or carrots.

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Get your greens in with green pea soup

Paul and I went out to Sugarbeet for a Friday night date. We sat outside and watched the trains go by. (Sugarbeet is in an industrial area of town.) I had oysters on the half shell, a scallop ceviche, a pea soup with dill, and a raspberry lemonade cocktail (lemon juice, raspberry liquor, and a raspberry vodka) Fabulous!

Here's a recipe from Epicurious and Bon Appetit that comes close to the soup I had. Each portion is 4 Weight Watchers POINTS and seems very easy to make.

Split pea and green pea soup with fresh dill
Bon Appétit, December 2006

Makes 4 to 6 first-course servings.

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large leek (white and pale green parts only), chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup green split peas, rinsed
• 5 3/4 cups vegetable broth, divided
• 1 cup frozen petite green peas, thawed
• 5 tablespoons chopped fresh dill, divided

Directions:

1. Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add leek and bay leaf. Sauté until leek wilts, about 3 minutes.
2. Add split peas and stir to coat.
3. Add 5 1/4 cups broth; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low.
4. Cover and simmer until split peas are just tender, about 35 minutes.
5. Remove from heat. Transfer 1 cup soup solids, bay leaf, and remaining 1/2 cup broth to blender.
6. Add petite peas and 4 tablespoons dill. Puree until smooth.
7. Return puree to soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon dill.

Nutritional analysis per serving:

190 calories,
7.4 g fat
7.5 g dietary fiber
7.5 g protein

Weight Watchers POINTS per serving = 4

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The red soups of summer

Paul Simon may have sung, "Kodachrome, it gives us those nice bright colors.
Gives us the greens of summers. Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah!" But I think red is the color of summer, at least when it comes to these two low calorie, refreshing summer soups. Both are low in Weight Watchers POINTS, too!

Watermelon Soup with Floating Meringue
From Every Day with Rachael Ray (June-July 2008)
Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 14 cups seedless or seeded 1-inch watermelon chunks plus 4 cups small watermelon balls (from about 12 pounds watermelon)
• 1/4 cup sugar (use a no calorie substitute like Stevia)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 8 meringue cookies (Try this recipe for 1 POINT Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies if you want to make your cookies from scratch.)

Directions:

1. Using a blender, working in batches, liquify the watermelon chunks with the sugar and lemon juice. Transfer the soup into a large bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
2. To serve, pour 1 cup watermelon soup into each of 8 small bowls, divide the watermelon balls among the servings and top each with a meringue cookie.

Weight Watchers POINTS = 3 (2 cups of soup and the cookie)

Healthy freezer meals for busy dieters and their families

I recently attended a meal making cooking class with a group of friends. Basically, it was a Once a Month-Freezer Cooking session combined with a Prepare Your Own Meals store. Our hostess (this was in a private home with a very large kitchen) shopped for the food, chopped the veggies, browned the ground meat, and prepared the prep stations.

Our group made eight meals. There was one dish per station with two to four people working on putting together the meals. Using printed instructions, we measured out the ingredients, and put them into labeled freezer bags or aluminum casserole dishes. When then loaded our pre-made meals into coolers and placed them in the freezer when we got home.

For $95, I walked away with eight dishes. This may seem like a lot of money, but I only spent a couple of hours making them, and I didn't have to drive all over town to buy the ingredients. I didn't have to do the prep work or clean up. And I have healthy meals in the freezer for those nights when I'm too busy to cook or out of town. The time savings alone made it a bargain.

So now I'm trying to figure out how to do a similar party with friends and not do all the work as the hostess. I'm thinking that each person could shop and prepare the ingredients for one dish for X amount of people. Then we could get together, assemble the meals, and help each other with the clean up and cost.

An Update, Rethinking the Diet Plan and Some Crab

There's nothing like a little minor surgery and a new job to shake things up at home and throw off your weight loss efforts and blogging schedule.

Surgery

I had the surgery on my right knee on November 29 and spent the following weekend recovering from a pain killer and anesthesia hangover. Morphine isn't as much fun as people think. In fact, it made me puke in the hall of the recovery room, and on the way home in the car.

I was so out of it that I couldn't read anything more challenging that People magazine...not that I had a copy around the house. I should have stocked up on videos, but just watched bad TV instead. After a couple of days, the pain killers were making me hyper, itchy and up all night. Thank goodness for Benadryl.

Post-Op and PT

At my post-op appointment, I found out that I have arthritis which makes the cartilage under my knee look like - this was the phrase used by my surgeon - "shredded crab meat." I also had a meniscus tear, so the doctor removed it, and a small ACL tear he left alone.

A week later I started physical therapy two times per week. I have a great guy, Mike, who makes me bend and stretch my knee on my own at home. And then he bends and pushes it even more when I'm there. No wonder PT stands for pain and torture.

I've improved very quickly. I can even ride the stationary bike. After overdoing it the other day (one hour on the bike, one hour in line to see Santa, and walking all over the mall) Mike told me to do no more than 30 minutes on the bike a day plus my exercises. He says that for rehabilitative purposes, overdoing it is a bad idea.

So much for trying to get back on my exercise plan to lose weight.

Where Does the Time Go?

Right after my surgery I started a job as a community manager at a major women's social networking site. So between those 16 hours online and the four I have at PT (including driving time), there's now 20 hours I don't have to plan my food, exercise, read diet blogs for inspiration, eat healthfully, etc. Needless to say, it's been hard to keep up with the Extreme Fat Smash Diet.

Add in all the holiday hoopla (school concerts, shopping and more shopping, writing holiday newsletters, etc.) and it's been impossible to blog, too. So my apologies.

Still, even when I'm done with the PT and the holiday stuff (and all those parties and goodies that have been adding on the weight...sigh) I will be working four mornings a week, then immediately rushing off to take my daughter to school three of those days. It's almost impossible to keep on the Extreme Fat Smash Diet Plan, take breaks, and eat every few hours. I know it's a great idea and a good strategy for weight loss and healthy eating, it's just hard to fit into my life right now.

Reynolds Parchment Paper is not just for holiday cookies

Even though you're trying to lose weight - and all your friends know it - you've probably been invited to a cookie swap party. You know, a party where each participant brings cookies to swap with friends along with a copy of the cookie recipe.

I was invited to two cookie exchanges this month, and I couldn't attend either of them because of a my new job (I'm now a community manager at CafeMom.com), and because I was already going out three times that week to parties and a holiday concert. Like I had time to bake let alone go out two more times!

I really dodged a bullet there and was thankful not to blow my weight loss plan. But just in case you're invited to a cookie exchange - and promise only to indulge a little and to give the rest of the cookies to friends, family and coworkers - you may want to check out ReynoldsSimpleSecrets.com.

(You should also check out my 5 Ways to Avoid Temptation During Bake Sale Season post for some tips to get out of baking yourself or eating everything you make.)

Get a Free Cookie Swap Starter Kit from Reynolds

Reynolds Parchment Paper and cookie exchange hostess, Robin Olson have teamed up to give helpful tips and tricks for a successful cookie exchange this holiday season.

Here's the cool part. You can get a cookie swap starter kit complete with Reynolds parchment paper, recipe cards, invitations, a cookie tin, and tips and tricks for hosting your own cookie swap by signing up here. The nice folks at MS&L Digital sent me one and its worth getting.

Extreme Fat Smash Diet uses for parchment paper

But since you don't want to get side tracked on your weight loss journey, give the recipes and invites to a friend, put your arts and crafts supplies in the tin, and keep the parchment paper to make a delicious, low calorie - Pesto Snapper en Papillote (in paper). This would be a perfect meal on either Weight Watchers (only 4 POINTS per serving) or the Extreme Fat Smash Diet.

(Check out Reynold's other en Papillote recipes.)