Good, tasty Weight Watchers recipes

Cafe Society
1

Well, I’ve started Weight Watchers, the at home plan. And it sucks. I only get 20 points a day, man! 20 points is nothing! That’s, like, dinner!

I do enjoy cooking and cook a lot, so I’ve been looking at these Weight Watchers cookbooks, and, I mean, they try hard to give you a big variety of food from a lot of different cuisines and things, but that’s what South Beach looked like and most of those recipes were, frankly, gross, when I was trying that. Maybe I just picked the wrong ones.

Here’s the thing, though - I think lowfat yogurt is gross. I think margarine is nasty. I’ve always been of the “let’s just have less of the good stuff” school. Looking at my materials, it looks like “less of the good stuff” is my 20 points right there. What do you guys make? (And I need responses from foodies here, not people who just eat to fuel up.) I need good food, for lunch or dinner.

PS - I don’t like shrimp or any molluscs, and I don’t like pork that isn’t bacon or barbeque. These cookbooks are full of pork and lamb and shrimp, things I just don’t care for. Also, I’m not a huge fan of “big hunk of meat” - honestly, I’d be happy with vegetarian entrees or things that just use the meat as seasoning.

Also, does anybody have a good rule of thumb as to how many points you’ve eaten when you don’t eat the whole thing? I don’t eat pizza crusts, for example. I often don’t eat my whole dinner. Actually, often when I make, like, Moroccan braised beef, I end up leaving most of the beef - I like the flavor it gives, I don’t really need the meat and to be honest, meat can be a little gross - you never know when you’re going to bite into something you’re going to want to spit out.

Also, any advice on determining the points of recipes you always make? I mean, I get how to use my points calculator, but it seems a little harder with, say, my braised beef - it’s stew meat, lots of other stuff, raisins, tomatoes, um, other stuff, over couscous.

2

Let me introduce you to Dotti’s Weight Loss Zone. Dotti uses Weight Watchers and has a great selection of recipes and points values for all kinds of food, including fast food restaurants.

The best way I’ve found to keep points down is to load up on veggies. If I have a bacon, lettuce and tomato sammich, for instance, I’ll load up on the lettuce and tomatoes and use reduced fat mayo and bread.

I also quite enjoy WW 1-point snacks. They have cinammon, lemon and chocolate snacks that are quity tasty for 1 point.

Good luck losing the pounds!

3

I’m only just now starting Weight Watchers, but this taco soup has been one of my favorites for a while now, pre-Weight Watchers. It’s 2-3 points a cup. It’s really yummy, stores well (so you can make a batch and munch all week) and doesn’t taste like diet food.

4

It’s a bit of a PITA, but only way to really do this accurately is to add up the points of all the ingredients as you throw them in, and then divide the grand total by the number of servings to arrive at the points-per-serving. Similarly, if you leave some meat on your plate, you estimate the point value of what you left and deduct it from the total for that serving.

If you like to cook, you might want to try experimenting on your own with making your own dishes lower fat. Things that might “taste gross” on their own (like low-fat cheese, or fat-free yogurt) can be okay when they are used in sauces or incorporated into dishes. For example, you probably can figure out how to make a better meatloaf (one more to your taste) on your own than by following a WW meatloaf recipe. Switch to a leaner cut of meat, throw in more of the veggies you like, add more spices, use egg white instead of whole egg, etc.

WW is all about making choices you can live with. If you don’t like dishes made with low-fat foods, you may not like a lot of WW recipes, because they are intentionally made as similar to the high-fat version as they can be, so that people don’t feel deprived, like they’re eating “diet” food (watercress and a plain broiled chicken breast). Eating “real” Beef Stroganoff (as opposed to the version made with skim milk and fat free sour cream) is okay, but you’re going to get to eat a lot less of it, so you may find it harder to stick to your points goal without feeling hungry. But does “low fat” Beef Stroganoff taste like the real thing, as rich and delicious? Of course not. You may strongly prefer real cheese (and who doesn’t?) bu the fact of the matter is that you probably cannot eat a healthy diet daily (much less a weight loss one) and each much real cheese. So the question is whether you’re willing to learn to like low-fat cheese, or whether you’re going to be willing to go without. I would only suggest that you consider training your palate to like at least some lower-fat selections, even if only mixed in dishes. I imagine a person who insisted on real cheese, chocolate, soda, or none, would find the program – or any program – very hard to do.

Good luck!

5

Stir fry is great, WW-wise. You can control how much meat goes in, and what you serve it over. There are plenty of no- or one-point per seving sauces out there, too.

Do you know the formula for points? It’s (# of calories/50)+(grams of fat/12)-(grams of fiber/5 [ maximum grams of fiber is 4]).

6

Check out the magazine Cooking Light. You can find it in any major grocery store, and it has tons of very good, tasty recipes that are WW friendly.

As for point calculations, whenever I set out to make a recipe, I combine all the Calories, Fat, and Fiber amounts of the ingredients together (per serving) and throw it in the calculator for a Grand Total. Then, I keep a spreadsheet of my recipes with the point amounts so that if I ever make it again, I don’t have to redo all the tabulating & calculating–I’ve got the number right there. This also helps so if I know if I can’t go above X amount of points a certain night, I know what I can and can’t make easily ahead of time.

7

Also, as someone who likes to cook, there’s a lot you can do just employing your own common sense. You can cook a chicken breast 600 ways, and if you’re not putting anything on it that’s bad (make a chicken-stock-and-wine sauce instead of a cream sauce), and you’re not cooking it in a way that adds fat (sautee it in a non-stick pan with Pam instead of frying it), you know you’re probably okay.

There are a ba-zillion low-fat chicken and fish recipes on the Internet, even if they’re not WW recipes. So long as nutritional information is given, you can calculate the points yourself. Dont’ fee like you’re limited to WW recipes when they are not to your taste; you’re not. You have to eat what you like, or you won’t stick with the program.

8

I just found out that my favorite Thai curry is 19 points for one lousy cup. I could cry.

However, the baked falafel sandwiches on the WW website right now (the pages anyone can see, I’m not paying just to get on their site) got a thumbs up from me and the boyfriend. Not bad at all. The sauce, on the other hand, sucked the goat ass and we had to make up our own, but that’s life.

9

Do you want to post your curry recipe and see if we can whittle it down a few points? Jodi’s right, it won’t taste exactly the same, but eating the same is what got you where you are!
(Just post the ingredients and a short description of the cooking method - whole recipes are often copyrighted and we’re not allowed to post them verbatim.)

10

Maaaaaan, 20 points is a TON. [/WW veteran]

A couple of good sources for recipes are http://www.oduamy.com/recipes_type.html, News, Politics, Sports, Mail & Latest Headlines - AOL.com, and http://www.healthdiscovery.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=4

Good luck to you!

One of my favourites is a chicken stir-fry, where the chicken is marinated in Fat-Free Italian dressing; add a bunch of vegetables and go to town. I use a lot of shredded cabbage in it and it is really, really filling but very low point.

11

Actually, AFIAK recipes aren’t copyrightable - in other words, a list of ingredients and an order to cook 'em in isn’t copyrightable, although other matter associated with recipes is. I’d be happy to be corrected, though.

Evidently, I got where I am now by eating musselman curry. Who knew? This is my Moroccan braised beef, though:

2.5 lbs boneless chuck, cubed (I use whatever stew meat they have)
olive oil once around the pan
2 cups chopped onions
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup dry Sherry
2 cups beef broth
1 14 1/2-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
1 1/2 cups golden raisins
served over some random amount of couscous
I don’t think it’s that bad at all, but then all these things that I’ve been thinking aren’t that bad are turning out to be TERRIBLE. If I can’t make this stuff, my boyfriend is going to throw a revolt and probably set my points calculator on fire. It’s his favorite. :slight_smile:

12

That’s 12.5 points worth of raisins! Could you cut that amount in half? And how many servings is that recipe for? It looks like it’s for 8-10 people.

13

No, it’s not bad, but there is room for trimming, if you want.

The immediate changes I’d try (and bear in mind that your first attempt will probably be a disappointment, until you learn what you can lose and what’s just not negotiable) would be to replace the oil with a spray of nonfat cooking spray in a nonstick skillet (120 calories) use 1/2 cup red wine (saving roughly 85 calories) and 1/4 cup Sherry (another 75 calories), and reduce the raisins to 1 cup (saving 400+calories). Use water to replace the missing liquid. If that tastes flat, try adding a tablesppon of red wine vinegar and/or sherry vinegar. And, of course, switching to whole wheat couscous, while not a calorie buster, is a healthier food choice. Are there other veggies you could add to stretch it? Pea pods, perhaps, or red, green or yellow sliced bell peppers?

14

Well, we eat on it for a few days. I don’t know how many servings exactly, we just glop it out. That’s the thing that’s going to be a tough adjustment - thinking a lot more about portion size and exactly how much I eat. We probably get 6-8 servings out of it but should do less.

The raisins are the best part. They swell up in the liquid and get so tasty. :frowning:

15

Wa-a-a-a-y back when I was a WW leader :eek: , I got suckered into one of those “for the low, low price of xxx, we’ll send you a packet of tasty recipes” deals. When I finally figured out how much it was costing me to assemble this cookbook, I cancelled the subscription. But, let me tell you, the recipes are WONDERFUL! Not a dog in the bunch that I tried.

Some of my favorites:
Pork, black bean, and red pepper stew (you don’t like pork, but this would work just as well with chicken or beef)
Corn, chicken and black bean chowder
Moroccan chicken stew (very similar in concept to the beef recipe you posted)

If any of these sounds good, let me know and I can e-mail you the recipes.

I second the vote for Cooking Light. Very easy to figure out the points from their recipes.

16

20 points? You must be small already. I think I started out at 28. Easiest way to make your points stretch? Exercise. Make sure you get those extra exercise points. My favorite recipe on the WW site is the one named hearty turkey chili. 8 points per serving IIRC. It’s the chili recipe we use even when there is no dieting going on.

17

Hey Zsofia, I sent you an email with some recipes. It’s coming from a hotmail account, if you need to check your spam filters.

18

Yeah, I’m only at 140, but 30 pounds of that has been in one year and 10 in one MONTH, so I realized I need to stop this train before it pulls into the station and can’t pull itself out again. Also, at first I gained some weight and grew out of my awesome expensive pants, and then I gained some weight and grew out of the awesome expensive pants I bought when I got this job, and then I gained some weight and grew out of the mid-range pants I bought as fat pants, and now I shop at Chico’s with the ladies of a certain age and I’m starting to really like this elastic waist thing. It’s getting a lot more expensive to gain weight than to lose it, as far as I can tell. The pain in the ass of it is, I’m not allowed more than 20 points (I mean, aside from activity points and flex points) but I’m not supposed to eat less than that either.

I’m concerned that this whole thing is making me think more about food, because you have to kind of obsess about it so much - how many points is that? Do I have that many points? If I eat that what can I have for dinner? What if I put it in a wrap? What if I make it with low fat mayo? What if what if what if aaargh munch munch munch munch. I think I understand where the Cookie Monster is coming from now. I assume when you get more familiar with the program that it becomes a lot more automatic.

freckafree, I’d love to have those recipes. I really wish that the WW cookbooks I’ve gotten had some interactive social software element - before the diet thing I relied on epicurious.com and allrecipes.com because you can see if it’s really any good or not - read the reviews, make your own decision. Personally I never make anything on allrecipes unless it has at least, say, 50 reviews, and I prefer three digits. Nothing sucks like trying a new recipe not knowing if it’s good, and even though it seem like a good idea on the page it’s just nasty when it comes time to eat it. Those three digit recipes are reliable. I’ve gotten out of the cookbook habit, I guess.

19

Oh, in case that seemed a little unhealthy in attitude, let me assure you that while not short, I’m very slight of frame. For years my natural weight was just very low - between my roaring metabolism and my bird bones, I kept really steady at about a hundred pounds ever since I quit growing. In high school and college I kept trying to gain ten pounds. Never could do it. Then suddenly, mid 20’s… and it doesn’t help that I’ve only gained between my waist and my knees, mostly. (Well, and a cup size or so, damn it. Bras are expensive!)

A few weeks ago a lady at work asked me when it was due. I looked down and had to agree, yeah, I can see where she arrived at that conclusion.

20

If you’re looking for reviews, check out the Cooking Light BB - http://community.cookinglight.com . They do review CL recipes, as well as non-CL (but you can avoid those).

For WW cookbooks, I would check out Take Out Tonight & Versatile Vegetarian. Lots of good reviews for the first, and my favorite Mac&Cheese recipe comes from the second.

Susan