This brings up a question I’ve been pondering. I’ve been trying to figure out points for a bunch of recipes I’ve got, and I’ve always been told that when you cook with alcohol, the alcohol cooks off. Since the calories in wine, sherry, etc. come from the alcohol, how many points are you supposed to count for those things? It’s just something that never came up when I was doing the online WW program, and so I never asked anyone.
I don’t know the answer to that but Alton Brown says the alcohol never completely cooks off. He is very clear about that since some can not ingest alcohol. I believe everything he says.
Well, I just did some Googling around and found a little info on Hormel’s site (of all places), which they credit to the USDA. Scroll to the end:
http://www.hormel.com/templates/knowledge/knowledge.asp?catitemid=57&id=579
So I guess how many points you count depends on how long you cook your item.
My wife is on WW, and we’ve been eating WW recipes almost exclusively for over a year. We have a ton of cookbooks, and she gets the recipes from their web site - but warning, some seem to have bugs in them - treat them as beta recipes.
When I get home I’ll post some of the ones we like the best. After each week, we write down the ones that work for us.
Her biggest complaint is that they take a lot of prep time. She works at home, so its not a problem, but if both of you come home at 7, it could be a pain. You’ve got to like peppers and veggies to make these work, but since we both do, no problem.
We’ve found the percentage of recipes that work in WW cookbooks is higher than in most cookbooks. They’re pretty good.
I do too, but it’s still a little misleading. After simmering for an hour, there’s only 25% of the alcohol left. So, if you started with a table wine (you wouldn’t cook with anything you wouldn’t drink, riiiight? :dubious: ), you started with less than 14% alcohol. So in half a cup, you’d have roughly 1/2 ounce of actual alcohol. After simmering an hour, you’d have 4 milliliters of alcohol in your whole pot of food. If you’re eating a cup or two of the final food, that’s a minute, minute amount of alcohol - if it’s an 8 quart soup, you’ve got 0.05% alcohol, or 0.1 proof.
Yes, if you’re cooking for someone who medically or religiously may absolutely have not any alcohol, it’s a concern. These people should also not be eating bananas or oranges or drinking fruits juices or eating leftover grains, due to the natural fermentation of their sugars. A glass of orange juice is actually 1 proof (0.5% alcohol) - ten times that of our hypothetical soup.
If you’re cooking for an addict who might be set off by the taste or smell of the wine, that’s another concern.
But while technically you can’t boil off ALL of the alcohol, you can get enough out to satisfy all but the most rabid MADDer.
But as for the calorie question, I don’t know. Wines are more than water and alcohol, so my guess is that some calories remain, but I don’t know how much or how to calculate that.
When you put the number in the points generator, though, it’s figuring it out from the raw materials, not the after-cooking.
And that’s pretty much the key to the whole program. Once you get used to eating a certain way on WW, it gets easier as time goes by.
One of the major advantages to WW is that it teaches you not to deprive yourself. The key is portion control. Yeah, I know, measuring stuff can get to be a real PITA, but after a while, you just get a feel for how much is enough.
Mrs. Know has been on WW for three months now and has lost 30 lbs (on 28 points). When I cook, I usually don’t use WW recipes, and yet she’s managed to still lose the weight by managing her portions. And you’d be surprised at how simple it is. For instance, last week I made a rice side dish. She told me to give her 1 cup of it. I got the measure, filled it, and plated it. Imagine my surprise at just how much 1 cup is! I’ve put on a few pounds over the past year, so now I’m considering doing WW myself–and I love to eat!
Also, you make no mention of vegetables. A lot of vegetables have no points at all, and are very filling.
BTW, Mrs. Know also exercises 2-3 times a week. This also gives you flexibility in what you can eat.
And she says that if you’re still having problems with the program, you might want to consider going to the meetings for a little extra support.
Good luck, Zsofia . We’re rooting for you!
Pure alcohol has 7kcal per gram. Whereas carbohydrates and protein are 4kcal per gram and fat is 9kal per gram.
For example, according www.fitday.com, 8oz of white wine has 160 calories (0g of fat, 1.89g of carbohydrate, 0.24g of protein and 21.95g of alcohol). So virtually all of the calories are from the alcohol itself. But if you simmer for one hour and only 25% of the alcohol remains, then you’re down to 38kcal of alcohol, instead of 154kcal. If the 8oz of wine is spread over four servings, that’s less than 10kcal of alcohol per person that’s in the final dish.
I’m a big fan of vegetables. I’m such a big fan that I love to dip them in all sorts of things! 
I’m trying to find lower fat ways to do the vegetables I like - there’s plenty of ideas for, like, broccoli and cauliflower, but those are veggies that I only like with serious fat on top of them. I like red bell peppers as a snack, but I’m going to have to explore a lot of ideas on how to do other stuff without the goat cheese and the butter and stuff. I mean, I do a fantastic roasted green bean thing with sundried tomatoes and goat cheese - I could do less olive oil on it, but I’m sure the cheese isn’t so great for you. I do a real Southern butter bean and spicy sausage thing that I might have to try with less fatty sausage, but that’s going to take some experimenting. I think my rosemary potatoes are okay as they are if I did less olive oil, but artichokes without hollandaise aren’t really worth it. I enjoy salads with homemade balsalmic dressing, but I’m probably overdressing them.
You like to dip vegetables? Try this:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_32686,00.html
And before you say “Yuk!”, ponder this: I don’t like yogurt or cucumbers! This stuff is mucho delicioso! Also good on pita sandwiches made with grilled chicken.
Speaking of grilled chicken, try marinating boneless chicken breast in Dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar. Very low in fat but very high in MMMMMMM!
Your butter bean and sausage thing sounds great. Try it with turkey sausage (available in your local Megamart–Turkey Store brand is terrific!).
Check out the Food Network website. I’m pretty sure they still have shows that show you how to slim down high-fat recipes–and all their recipes work like a charm for us!
Bon Appetit!
Stupid coding!
Here’s the link:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_32686,00.html
Zsofia, don’t forget that you have an extra 35 points per week to do with whatever you wish. You can eat 25 per day, or you can binge on Friday night (remembering that if you weigh daily, it’ll be high for Saturday and possibly Sunday as well). A friend and her husband go out for dinner every Friday night and use ALL of their flex points at that time.
I usually don’t use my Flex points, relying on my activity points if I want more. I’m allowed 24 in a day (I’m 187 down from 260) and I never go hungry.
As mentioned above by want2know, it really does become second nature after awhile. I can figure out points based on the info given me without my slider, and I’m very rarely wrong (although it happens). I’ve also got the portion sizes down pat and very rarely measure anything anymore.
It really, really works. Even without the meetings - after a month I quit going to them because I started wanting to punch the whiners.
I feel a little bit better - yesterday since I had mostly the 0 point soup for lunch I ordered our usual pizza - I only ate two pieces instead of four, and I only had one glass of Coke, but I still only had to use two flex points and felt quite satisfied. (In fact, because I didn’t eat my whole half of the pizza my tummy didn’t hurt later.) I actually picked up piece 3 before I remembered and put it down, though.
I hate to burn my flex points carelessly, because I never know when my parents are going to call me up and say, “Let’s go out to dinner!” And if we’re going to Mo Mo’s or Al’s Upstairs I’ll be damned if I can’t have what I want, within reason.
Here is one of my favorite diet recipes (modified from one off allrecipes.com):
1 small head red cabbage, chopped into small peices
1 can tidbit pinapple, drained (or about a cup of chopped fresh)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup almond slivers or crushed walnuts
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
mixed with
1/4 cup splenda
and poured over everything else.
It’s really good, kind of sweet. I don’t have a clue about how many points, but it can’t be much. It makes a lot.
Another staple of mine is Laughing Cow light spreadable cheese wedges, both the swiss and the herb cheese. These only have 35 calories per wedge. For an awesome sandwich that only has about 200 calories, get two slices of light bread (40 cal/slice), your favorite turkey or chicken lunch meat, and a tomato (sliced and sprinkled with balsalmic vinegar) and spinach if you have it. Spread the cheese on both slices of bread, spray a nonstick pan with olive oil pam, assemble sandwich and grill until hot and crispy. This is really, really good, I promise.
Weight watchers is too complicated for me, personally. I just count calories, try to eat at least 3 servings of fruit and vegies daily, and exercise.
Here are some Weight Watchers recipes from the 1970s that most WWs love. Check out the subtle photography.
Those 70’s cards are… um… great. I know back in the day you had to make your own damned ketchup in WW; if it hadn’t come a long way I promise you I wouldn’t be on it.
Something that’s been bothering me is all that constructed diet food - doesn’t it bother anybody else that instead of nice natural butter you’re eating low fat processed plastic margarine? That to eat something like you’re used to eating you have to get away from the natural foods you were trying to eat? How do you all deal with that? (I mean, I know you can do a lot by just avoiding naturally fatty foods, but it seems if you want to eat anything with dairy in it, for example, you’re stuck with a bunch of frankenfoods.)
Yes. In previous weight loss attempts I always ate the diet “frankenfoods” fat free this, sugar free that. Those foods never satisfied me, I was always restless, hungry, bingy and unhappy. I switched to a whole foods lifestyle two years ago, lost 70 lbs and have never felt better or been happier about what I eat. Except for some convenience foods that just make my lifestyle easier (bread, tortillas, veggie burger-type products), I try to eat as many whole foods as possible.
As far as butter goes, I just don’t use it. I never liked it and don’t bake, so it’s a non issue in my life (I haven’t had any in the house for 2 years). I cook with olive oil, usually. If I were going to use butter, I would DEFINITELY use butter and not margarine.
It doesn’t really bother me, as when I moved here I noticed a difference in the flavour of the butter. Same with the beef. At home (Alberta), our cows are fed differently, and the butter is sweeter. I can do without.
I can’t believe it’s not butter has a low-fat that doesn’t suck. I have sorta just stopped using any sort of spreads.
Sure, but there’s no happy answer here. “Real” dairy is high-fat and not good for you except in very small amounts. The answer for those for whom it’s real food or nothing is “nothing”:
[QUOTE=Ginger]
I can do without. . . .I have sorta just stopped using any sort of spreads.
[QUOTE]
I’m with Gingy. “Low fat butter” is IMO like “sugar free candy” – it defeats the whole purpose of the food in the first place, and why bother? But the beauty of WW is that if you have to have butter you can; you just have to write it down and accommodate the points in other ways. I thought I needed to butter every bread product I ate, but once I was on the program a while and realized just how those essentially empty calories were adding up, I pretty much cut butter out of my diet. I don’t really miss it now.
The problem with using fat-free and low-fat spreads while cooking is that they are often made with gelatin. As such, they just don’t melt right. If I’m going to saute something, I’ll do it using canola oil (usually spray). Sometimes, olive oil.
On a sandwich, I’ll use a La Vache Qui Rit (the cow who laughs) light cheese wedge. They have a nice herby/garlic flavour, and one wedge is one point. That takes care of dry bread and adds a ton of flavour; it also negates the need for a two-point slice of cheese on my sandwich. I like ‘em in a whole wheat wrap or pita with sliced cucumber and sprouts (making my very filling lunch clock in at a whoppin’ 3 points).
DUH. Laughing Cow, as Renee posted. :smack:
Sorry, dirty foreigner that I am.