Fab Grab Smoothie Option for Only 3 Weight Watcher Points

I would never pay Full price for this product because I am Frugal, but because they were on sale at my local grocery store for $1.79 each AND I had a coupon for $100 off of 2, I bought 14 of 'em to try out.  Each cost me just $1.29.  It is definitely a time-saver 'cuz there are no glasses or blenders to clean from making my own!

I had originally bought them for my picky daughter because they have some veggies in them and Greek yogurt protein in them, but after I Figured out the points, I knew this could be a Fab Grab item for when I am on the go.  In Fact, I may stop off at grocery stores to buy them with some single-serve apple juice when I'm on long drives and Find myself Feeling snacky, and for the kids too.  We have a long drive coming up soon, so I may try that out.

This particular Blue Power Dole Shaker boasts B6 and B12 and is labeled is a fruit and veggies smoothie with Greek yogurt, blueberry, banana, and red beet.  The back of the container indicates it is all natural fruits and veggies plus Greek yogurt with pre- and probiotics plus 100% DV of vitamins B6, B12, AND folic acid. It says there is 180 calories as prepared and 5 grams of protein.  It also happens to say that satisfaction is guaranteed. There is a little window on the back as well, the bottom of which is the Fill line for an extra thick consistency, and the top of which is the Fill line for a thick consistency.  One cup of apple juice took mine to the thick consistency, the top of that window. 

This particular Dole Shaker is only 3 Weight Watcher points for me, and that includes the 1 cup of apple juice.  It comes out to 1 point for the Shaker and 2 points for the juice.  I had this for a snack option today.  You can use a Few different juices to mix with them too.  The bottle says you can use apple, pineapple, or your Favorite juice. 

They come in many Flavors.  Here is a picture of those I chose to try out in the Future.

 (This is my garage Fridge, so don't judge!)

Update:  I just checked the Peach Mango flavored Shaker.  If the full cup of apple juice was added to it, it would be 4 points total. The Blue Power alone is 1 point, but this peach-mango alone is 2 points.  I'll update with the rest of the points values for the rest of the flavors I have shown.  It's just too cold to go out to the garage fridge this time of night. ;)

Spicy Cod Cakes with Chipotle Sauce for 7 Weight Watchers Points

I am not really a Fish Fan, but I love these spicy cod cakes.  The recipe, as I wrote it, called for regular, Full-Fat ingredients, but I lightened it up just a tad. Each patty is actually quite large.  That is one corner of a serving platter shown in the image above, as I included a couple of other Fish options for the rest of the Family to try. 

Cod Cake Ingredients:

12 oz. cod fillet (8 points)
1 egg (2 points)
2 Tablespoons Hellman's Light Mayo (0 points)
1/2 c. Panko breadcrumbs (2 points)
3 green onion (I use more) (0 points)
3 Tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil (12 points)

24 Recipe Total points for cakes divided by 4 patties comes out to 6 points per cod cake. 


Cod Cake Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Lightly coat a baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Season Fillets with salt and pepper to taste and place in pan.  Bake 12 to 15 minutes, or until Fish Flakes easily with a Fork.  REmove from oven and let cool completely.

Break Fillet(s) into small Flakes and place in a large bowl.  Add the egg, 2 tablespoons of the mayo, the panko and green onions.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and gently mix to combine.  Form into 4 large patties.

In a large nonstick skillet heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add patties and cook 5 minutes per side or until golden brown and cooked through (145 degrees F).


Chipotle Sauce Ingredients: 

1/2 c. light sour cream (4 points)
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro (0 points)
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, finely chopped wearing a glove (0 points)
2 Tablespoons of Hellman's Light Mayo (0 points)

4 points total sauce recipe points divided into four equal servings comes out to 1 point per serving. 


Chipotle Sauce Directions: 

In a small bowl, combine sour cream, cilantro, chipotle pepper, and 2 tablespoons of light mayo.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Divide evenly and top each of the 4 cod cakes with a dollop.

Serves: 4
Points: 7 Points per Serving


Nutritional Info.:  315 calories, 22 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 100 mg cholesterol, 230 mg sodium, 8 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 19 g protein.

A Few Fab Grabs by Quaker and Planters to Share

Yes, you can buy granola cereal in many forms, but this is a great grab-and-go option when you are on the run, pre-measured to boot.

I had some coupons for the Quaker Warm and Crunchy granola cereal (which you can eat cold by the way or even add to some plain nonfat vanilla yogurt) that allowed me to buy a bunch of boxes for $1.50 each when combined with a sale.  The Apple Cinnamon version of the Quaker Warm and Crunchy granola cereal is only 3 points per serving.

The Cranberry Almond version of the Quaker Warm and Crunchy granola cereal is only 4 Weight Watchers points for me.

 

When I look back at the 1.4-oz., 3-point packet of granola cereal I got on the NutriSystem plan, the Apple Cinnamon at 1.69 oz. and the Cranberry Almond at 1.76 oz. seems fair, as each provides a bit more per serving.

Another great Fab Grab is the NUT-rition bars Planters makes.  For example, this cranberry-almond-peanut bar is only 3 points for me.  Fits great in a purse! It is 1.23 ounces. 

 So there you go....three new Fab Grab Options for those busy moments when you don't want to cave and grab something Fast and totally crappy for you.

My Review of Kathy Smith's Secrets of a Great Body Upper Body Workout

I need to clarify that while Kathy has been around for decades, I am offering a review from the view of a 44-year-old Fat woman today.

I Find that many workout videos are overly-challenging for the bigger amongst us in that they aren't taking into consideration our bellies and the state of our endurance or strength.  Either that, or I'm just a wimp, but the thing is, if there were more encouraging workouts out there for Fat Folks, Fewer of us would throw in that towel, so to speak.

Having explained where I'm coming from, and having dug out my old VHS collection of Fitness tapes (Thank God I still have a working VHS player! Knock-knock.), I revisited Kathy and this particular workout today.

I have to rate this a 9 out of 10, with 10 being the highest.

Very minimal "equipment" was required, save a few household items, as shown below.  The towel is for a stretch, the cushion to lie upon for a Few moves, and the chair to sit upon and lean upon.  The hand weights are all you would need to buy if you don't have any.

It was easy for me to do all of the exercises she shares in this video.  (I only had to modify the crunch section due to my lower back.)

I could do all of the reps for all exercises except for the push ups.  I made it through all 12 of the first set of push ups, but only 3 of the second set.  You can see improvement in the number you can do with each subsequent run through as your strength increases.

She very clearly explains each and every exercise stressing you to Focus on the muscle group being targeted.

Great pace and around half an hour long.

YOU get to choose how much weight you wish to use and therefore get to determine that awful level of soreness that stops many in their tracks.  I like to build up strength slowly with a small burn when first starting any routine versus going all out and being unable to move for days.

I used 2- and 3-pound hand weights and still felt a burn.  Heck, my arms burned after her arm warm-up with the weight of my own arms.  lol

There were only two exercises I Found myself wishing she had explained a modification for.  They were both exercises that required you to sit as shown in the image below--with your chest in your lap.  The problem for us Fat Folks is that our bellies don't allow for that.  I just bent as much as I could with my legs not together as they do in the video (spread 'em) and tried to maintain my Focus on the muscles being worked.  That being a complaint, I still did it with this big ol' belly, and I bet you can too.

No offense meant to Kathy by asking earlier "Do you remember Kathy?" because she is still apparently active in the industry, and it's my bad that I didn't know that.

If you are interested in this workout, here you go via this link for a 26% off sale at $9.49 for a 3-DVD set (I paid way more than that for each VHS tape I have back in the '90s!).

I'll do and review the lower body workout tomorrow, but I know nothing about the third DVD they offer in this set shown at the link provided above.

I am in no way affiliated with Kathy Smith or the company link I provided for the cheapest price I could find.  I'm just offering an honest opinion of my personal experience from the perspective of a Fat girl in her Forties! ;)

Flashback Friday and Kickin it VHS style

Anybody remember Kathy?  I used to do her video workouts back in the '90s and am revisiting those tapes today.  If it was good enough then, it's good enough now!

Blueberry Muffins for 3 Weight Watchers Points

I made my kids a batch of blueberry muffins from a recipe my youngest brought home from school when they had a blueberry day.  A coworker's of Mr. F's owns a blueberry Farm, and I have about 8 pounds of blueberries yet to use up in my Freezer from last season.

I decided to Figure the points out when I remembered that blueberry muffins were an actual breakfast entree while on the NutriSystem plan (as I covered in this post).  Turns out the points value for me was 3 points per muffin.  Guess what?  They were 3 points on the NutriSystem plan too, so why not?  Mine were Fluffier, less dense, bigger, and tasted better with none of that "diet" taste.  I had a hard time swallowing their version and HAD to drink something to help it go down. lol

Here is what the muffins looked like on the NutriSystem plan (and that is a 1-cup measuring cup), and as you can see, I counted my Weight Watchers points while on their plan:

Their packaging says each muffin was 2 ounces. Each of my muffins weighed in at 1.8 to 2.0 ounces too.

As you have probably noticed by now, I prefer to use "normal" ingredients.  Faux sugar/sugar substitutes scare me (and give me heart palpitations), so I stick with normal, unmodified sugar, which is 15 calories per tablespoon with 0 grams of Fat and Fiber.  Because 1/2 cup of sugar (equal to 8 tablespoons) would be 120 calories, I assign the sugar in this recipe 8 points (1 point per Tbs.). Because this recipe makes a dozen muffins, there is less than a tablespoon of sugar in each muffin.  They may technically be less than 3 points each at 2.5 points.

Ingredients:

1 c. blueberries - 1 point
1/4 c. melted butter, - 12 points (I use Challenge organic butter, which is
           higher in points than Land O'Lakes)
1-3/4 c. unbleached all-purpose flour - 14 points
2-1/2 tsp. baking powder - 0 points
1/4 tsp. salt - 0 points
1/2 c. sugar - 0 points/Tbs, but I give 1 point per Tbs. at 120 calories, so
          8 points
1 egg - 2 points (could use egg white substitute and save a point)
1/2 c. 1% milk - 1 point

(38 points total divided by 12 muffins = 3.1666~)

Directions:

Combine the dry ingredients and add the melted butter. Add egg and milk and beat until smooth. Stir in the blueberries.  Divide evenly among muffins tins.  Bake 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Makes 12 muffins.
Serving Size: 1 muffin
Points: 3 points per muffin

A Biscuit AND Gravy for 7 Weight Watchers Points!

This is why I love Weight Watchers.  You don't have to deny yourself anything.  Biscuits and gravy is a Favorite of mine, which I usually only make and eat on holiday mornings and once during an annual vacation.

Because I had biscuits and gravy on Nutrisystem, albeit for 3 Weight Watcher points, I decided to see how many points I could make it from scratch with items I had on hand.  (See the NutriSystem version in my post here.)

Turns out that even while baking up some store-bought large homestyle biscuits, the biscuits themselves are 4 Weight Watchers points each.  That puts the biscuit alone at 1 point higher than the rehydrated NutriSystem biscuit and gravy entree in its entirety shown here, but because my breakfast smoothies ring in at 5 to 6 points and there would be none of that preservative crap happening, I kept going.

I pulled aside some sausage after browning an entire batch, added 2 tablespoons of Flour, and 1.5 cups of milk.  The gravy, made without any special weight- or health-modifying ingredients, clocked in at 9 points total.  There was enough gravy to divide into 3 even servings, which I weighed out and placed in storage containers.

I knew that the gravy would thicken upon standing and storing and that I would need to add a splash of milk upon reheating to thin it.  Because the gravy came out to 9 points, when divided by 3 servings, it comes out to 3 points per serving. I do not count the "splash."

So there it is, *A* biscuit and gravy (I would normally eat 2 in a serving) for only 7 Weight Watchers points.

I bet you or I could make it for less by tweaking some ingredients, but I'll wait to try that out for when my points range changes.  Let me know if you do it First!

As it stands, here are the ingredients and my directions:

Follow package direction for biscuits of choice and Figure points.

2 ounces of breakfast sausage drained on paper towel - 5 points
2 Tablespoons of unbleached all-purpose flour - 1 point
1.5 cups of 1% milk - 3 points
salt and pepper to taste

Cook sausage until slightly crispy in a frying pan breaking it apart into bits as it cooks.  Place 2 ounces of sausage onto a paper towel to drain and pat to remove grease.  Place the 2 ounces of sausage into a small saucepan.  Add 2 Tablespoons of flour to hot fully cooked sausage in small sauce pan and stir to coat sausage crumbles.  Stir in 1.5 cups of milk and stir over medium heat until boiling and thickened.  Divide gravy mixture evenly into 3 separate storage containers.  Add in a splash of milk while reheating your individual serving for consumption. Enjoy what most consider a lost treat while dieting, or at least what I consider a treat! It has to be the southern part of my heritage that makes me love it so, right? ;)

I will make up an entire 12-oz batch of sausage turning it into 15 individual servings.  I bake the biscuits and place them in the freezer on a cooled cookie sheet to freeze them individually.  I also place the individual containers with gravy into the freezer.  Once all are frozen, I place 1 biscuit and 1 batch of frozen gravy into a Food Saver baggie and seal.