Good Hearty Meals

Every meeting my leader mentions 'Mammy dinners'. When people join WW, we tend to forgo the 'Mammy dinners' in favour of seemingly healthier, low pointed foods. I was one of these people. I was also eating the same types of food day in day out. My meals were based around my 'treats'. I put treats in inverted commas because the word treat implies a single, one-off item. For me, treats meant three or four low point items consumed throughout the day. This could easily add up to 12/15 points alone. If you are one of these people, a little trick I learned was to write all treats in red pen on your tracker. This was you can clearly see how many points you are using on treats.

It has finally clicked that with me that weight loss is not a quick fix thing. It does not matter what plan you follow, you have to take it a week at a time. Some weeks you will be perfect and see a loss, others you may see a gain. In January I was panicking because I was running out of time to lose the weight before X, Y or Z. The truth is I want to lose the weight for me, for life. The reason I am saying all this is because this time around I have decided to listen to my new leader and focus on eating delicious, filling and healthy meals.

Since deciding to do this I am eating more red meat. Before I would have stuck religiously to plain chicken fillets. Beef is delicious and the juices add so much flavour to your meal. I had this gorgeous steak dinner for only 11 propoints. It consists of 150g lean sirlion steak fried in low fat butter (5 pps for beef, 1pp for butter),  100g potatoes, mashed with salt and drop of slimline milk (2 pps for potatoes, 1 pp for milk), roasted veg dripped in balsamic vinegar and sea salt (2 pps for parsnip). It was so filling and I did not feel bloated after it either. The gravy is made from the juices of the meat and a tbsp of Bistro granules which are zero propoints.

Slimbos with smoked salmon,
poached eggs and caeser mayo.

The new craze at the moment are Slimbos. They are thinner versions of ciabattas. They are great for open sandwich recipes. One is 3 pps and two are 5 pps. I have used them for Steak Sandwich, Smoked Salmon and Poached Egg Sandwich and Breakfast Butties. You can load up with side salads or roasted veg to make yourself a gorgeous meal.

The Hairy Dieters Recipe book has some fantastic recipes in it. Their recipes are low calorie versions of every day meals. I have made their Chicken and Ham Tangle Pie, Lamb Hoptpot, Italian Meatballs and many more. I will post some of the recipes along with the propoints over the next few weeks.

Chicken Stroganoff

My mum makes a gorgeous beef stroganoff which I love. However it is a very creamy dish. I have altered the recipe to make it more WW friendly. It is only 8 propoints and makes a great change from the typical spuds and meat dinners. I have posted the recipe in a separate post.

When new members join Weight Watchers, they believe they will be eating carrot sticks and lettuce for their meals. As I have shown, this does not have to be the case. You can have lovely home cooked meals if you so choose. It is about using your points wisely. If you eliminate the junk from your diet, you will have plenty of points for good hearty meals. You will probably find you will crave junk food less as you are more satisfied and less hungry.