Small Recap

I haven't posted in awhile. I need to find a new recipe to make to share with everyone. My plans to make one this weekend, didn't pan out. I did the Relay for Life and was super tired before I went to the potluck/shower thingy for my friend. I just ended up bring fruit and dip from the store.

On Friday I weighed in and I was up 0.8. Boo. but I know it is a result of lax activity and food choices. I am doing much better so far this week and hope to continue. I want to see the scale move in the right direction. To do this I know what I need to do, it is just keeping myself on track.

On a brighter note, I exceeded my activity minutes goal for the 30 Challenge I joined on the WW 20's Board. I ended up with 280/250 minutes. I was like to beat that again this week.

I also found a new hobby, hair bow making. Lol! I know it sounds a little weird or lame, but it really distracts me to have something else non-food related to do in the evenings. I am making them for my friends daughter, because in our small town baby hair accessories are non existent.

Anyways, off to work for me. It is baked ham and scalloped potato day at work (I work at a childcare centre). So I am going to try my hardest not to over do it. It is hard sometimes...but I am feeling pretty motivated today! I will post some pictures of Relay for Life and my hair bows later.

~ Eryn

P.S.- I am going to find a recipe to share with everyone soon, I promise! :)

Hmmm...

I don't know what to title this. I just thought I would update my blog since I haven't in awhile. I weighed in last Friday and I was down 0.4lbs. I am finding that this time on Weight Watchers I am losing a lot slower. I am hoping that means that it will stay off for good. I am also hoping that I am out of that darn plateau I was in and am back to losing consistently. I have been lacking in the activity department this week. I am on an earlier shift and finding it harder to walk. I have also been lacking energy. Excuses I know.

I promise I will post a recipe later on in the week. I am going to try a new dip from Skinny Taste for a potluck I am going to on Saturday. My internet has been down, so it has been hard to post. Hope everyone is having a good week.

~Eryn

Peanut Butter Cookies

Here is the peanut butter cookie recipe. I got the recipe from one of the YouTube channels I watch. I think the points were based on the old system, so they were called 1 point peanut butter cookies. When I added the nutritional info provided, they came out to 2P+. You could probably cut them thinner or make them smaller to make them 1 P+. But regardless they are good.

Peanut Butter Cookies
Servings: 24 • Size: 1 Cookie • Points+: 2
Calories: 61 • Fat: 1.7g • Protein: 1.4g • Carbs: 10.1g • Fibre: 0.2g

What You Need

- 1 cup all-purpose flour

- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/8 teaspoon salt

- 3 tablespoons reduced-calorie margarine (stick-variety) or 3 tablespoons light butter

- 4 tablespoons reduced-fat peanut butter

- 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

- 1/4 cup sugar

- 1 large egg white

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- Cooking spray

Directions:

- Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl, set aside.

- Combine margarine and peanut butter in another mixing bowl, beating on medium speed until blended and smooth. Gradually add both sugars and beat until blended. Add egg white and vanilla and beat until smooth. While beating on low speed, gradually add flour mixture and mix until just blended.

- Transfer dough to a large piece of plastic wrap and roll into an 8-inch log. Wrap log in plastic wrap and freeze for 2 hours. (Note: You can make the cookie dough up to 3 days in advance and freeze until ready to bake.).

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat 2 large baking sheets with cooking spray. Remove cookie dough from freezer and slice crosswise into 1/3 inch-thick slices; place slices 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake until golden around edges, about 8 to10 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

**These cookies are really yummy. They are not a soft cookie though, very crunchy. I think you could most likely cook them less for more chewy cookies. Beware of the dough, it is so delicious, I think Matt ate like 1/4 of the log before I was able to cook them. Definitely a make again for cookie cravings.

I am starting a new 30 Challenge with some of the ladies on the WW 20's board. I am looking forward to it. I am thinking my reward for the end of the challenge will be the OPI or China Glaze Crackle polish, that stuff is cool. Either that or a hair cut. I only need to lose around 4.5 pounds to reach my 10% Goal. I would really like to do that by the end of the challenge. I know it seems like a small goal, but I have been losing slowly, so I want to set myself up for success instead of failure.

As Always,
~Enjoy! Eryn

Weigh In

I thought I would start posting my weigh ins, since I do want to incorporate more of my daily life into my blog.

Today was the day that I weighed in for the week. I have been in a plateau for the past four weeks, so I have been stepping up my exercise this week. I managed to earn 41 activity points, which I think is the most I have earned since start Weight Watchers Online. Anyways back to the point, at my weigh in today I was super excited to see that I lost 1.6 lbs! It may not be tons, but I am finding that during this weight loss journey, it is a lot easier for for me to lose slowly and keep it off for good. It's not just about the destination, but all the roads and detours that you have to take to get there.

I will post a new recipe this weekend, as I have a peanut butter cookie recipe that is non-dieter approved, lol! Happy May 2-4 to all my Canadian readers! I am looking forward to a well deserved long weekend! :)

~Eryn

Bagels- Yes I Made Bagels!

I know I haven't posted anything in awhile, I was just caught up in life. I was reading the Awesome 20's board on the WW site and I saw that one of the girls there had posted about making bagels. She posted the recipe, and I copied it as something to try out. I was intimidated to try this, but they were much easier to make then I thought they would be! Here is the recipe:

Bagels

• 4-5 cups flour (I used white all purpose, because that is what I had)
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp yeast
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 1 1/2 cup warm water
• pinch of salt

Proof the yeast (mix water, sugar and yeast in a bowl and allow to foam and rise up a bit). Add flour 1 cup at a time until you can't add anymore. Turn dough out onto lightly floured counter top and kneed in a little more flour. Knead the dough for 5 minutes until smooth. Use the oil to coat a large bowl, put the dough in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside for about 15 minutes.

While waiting for the dough to rise, boil a large pot of water. Once boiling add a pinch of salt to the water. Pre-heat the oven to 450F. After 15 minutes, take the dough out of the bowl and cut into pieces. Form into bagels by rolling out dough and putting the ends together. Drop formed bagels into boiling water. Boil for 30 seconds, turning once. Remove from water. Once all bagels are done, this is the time to add seeds or other flavourings. Use a pastry brush and brush a little milk on the tops of the bagels. This will help them brown nicely. Bake until golden, approximately 10 minutes for small bagels and 15 minutes for large.

16 4" bagels work out to 3P+ each. ** These turned out yummy! I am excited to eat bagels, as I haven't had them in awhile. They may not be beautiful, but they are good. Even Matt liked them. :)

Enjoy~ Eryn

Muffin Mix Oatmeal Apple and Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins

Yes I made these muffins from a mix. Does that make me lazy, no I think that it makes me a time saver. I live in a tiny town, like 8500 or so people. The closest large town, Winnipeg MB or Thunder Bay ON are both 4 hours away. Anyways the point is that ingredients for baking are kind of "extras" in my one income household.

I was wanting to use up some apples, so I doctored a mix. The mix I used was "No Name Oatmeal Muffin Mix."

Oatmeal Apple or Blueberry Muffins
Serving: 12 • Size: 1/12 of recipe • Points+: 4
Calories: 160 • Fat: 4g • Protien: 2g • Carbs: 29g • Fibre: 1g

Oatmeal Apple
What You Need

• Oatmeal Muffin Mix (the large 900g bag)
  
• Apples- I used about 1 1/2 cups of Gala Apples (it was like 3 medium apples. You could also use whatever apple you like to bake with.)
  
• 3 tbsp apple sauce- to replace the one egg my mix called for
  
• 1 cup water- this is just what my mix called for
  
• dash cinnamon
  

Make It
I preheated the oven to 400F. I then put 1/2 the bag of dry mix into a large bowl. I peeled and chopped (small) my apples and added them to the dry mix. I stirred the apples to coat them in the mix. I then added remaining ingredients- water, applesauce and cinnamon to the bowl. I stirred until just mixed and no dry mix was left at the bottom.

I used an ungreased 12 muffin tray and put muffin liners in each slot. I separated the dough into 12 muffins and put them in the oven.I baked them for about 45 minutes. They took longer then the 25 minutes that it stated on the bag because of the fruit I added.

Oatmeal Blueberry
What You Need

• Oatmeal Muffin Mix (the large 900g bag)
  
• Frozen Blueberries- 1 cup would do, but my boyfriend likes blueberries so he added a lot more, closer to 2 cups! Also I used Wild blueberries, so if you use domestic (which are bigger) then you won't need as much. Honestly add as much blueberries as you like. LOL!
  
• 1 egg- what my mix called for
  
• 1 cup water- this is just what my mix called for
  

Make It
I preheated the oven to 400F. I then put 1/2 the bag of dry mix into a large bowl. I added the frozen blueberries to the dry mix. I stirred this to coat the blueberries in the mix. I then added remaining ingredients- water and egg to the bowl. I stirred until just mixed and no dry mix was left at the bottom.

I used an ungreased 12 muffin tray and put muffin liners in each slot. I separated the dough into 12 muffins and put them in the oven. I baked them for about 40 minutes. They took longer then the 25 minutes that it stated on the bag because of the fruit I added.

Enjoy~ Eryn

Crustless Broccoli Quiche

Hope everyone is having a great week so far. I have been trying my best to stay on plan, I have also been trying to get some more activity. So far I have gotten in activity 3 out of the 5 days in my WW week so far. I have been enjoying my Biggest Loser 30 Day Jump Start DVD. There are like 6 different workouts that are 10 minutes each, so it is easy to fit at least 2 in a night.

Anyways I have a few recipes to post about. Tonight I will share the quiche I made tonight for lunches the rest of the week. I was craving quiche (random I know) so started searching online. I got the recipe from the Kraft Canada Website. Here is the link: http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/crustless-broccoli-quiche-88588.aspx. The recipe went as follows:


Crustless Broccoli Quiche
Source: Kraft Canada
Serving: 6 • Size: 1/6 of recipe • Points+: 4
Calories: 150 • Fat: 7 • Protien: 12g • Carbs: 11g • Fibre: 1g

What You Need

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups skim milk
• 1 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• 3 slices whole wheat bread, crusts removed, cubed
• 3 cups broccoli florets, cooked, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 3/4 cup Kraft Double Cheddar Light Shredded Cheese

Make It
Heat oven to 350 F.

Beat eggs, milk and mustard with whisk until well blended. Add bread; mix lightly. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Pour into a 9-inch square baking dish.

Bake 45 minutes or until centre is set and top is lightly browned. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting to serve.

**I think you could add almost any vegetables to this and it would be good. Adding ham, bacon or sausage would be good as well. Just make sure to adjust the points accordingly if doing so.

This is definitely a make again recipe. I cut mine a little larger for 6 P+ per serving. This would also be a good thing to make head and freeze.

Enjoy~ Eryn