Happy Memorial Day!

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day. I hope everyone recognized the importance of this past weekend. It wasn't about the lake, hot dogs, or hamburgers. God bless all the soldiers who never returned home! God bless all the soldiers who did return home! God bless all our soldiers who are currently serving our country!

Thank you for giving my baby the opportunity to grow up in a free country!

Weight Watchers Wednesday on Thursday

Sorry I'm just getting Wednesday's post up but life has been crazy the past few days. Our childcare provider quit on Friday, effective immediately, so we've been scrambling trying to find someone to watch Molly.

One of the things I like about Weight Watchers has to be their snacks. You can buy their muffins, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and bread in the grocery store. I'm a lazy Weight Watchers person...I like for the points to already be calculated for me which is why I love Weight Watchers snacks. Not every grocery store carries WW snacks and if they do carry the snacks most of the time it's just a few and not the entire line. I've found most of our snacks at Kroger and Publix.

I love their blueberry muffins and the chocolate muffins for breakfast. Each muffin is 4 points.

I love their brownies as an afternoon snack. Each brownie is 3 points.

They have chocolate chip cookies (2 points) and oatmeal raisin cookies (2 points). They have little snack cakes that look like Twinkies (2 points). They also have little snack cakes that look like Zingers (2).

If you are a Weight Watchers member you can buy other foods from the website. I personally love the Pinch of Pepper Pretzel Thins (3 points). It's perfect for an afternoon snack.

I also love the Baked Apple Cinnamon oatmeal (3 points) and the Harvest Berry oatmeal (3 points).

I love all things coconut. Weight Watchers has a new smoothie called Creamy Coconut and it's amazing. It's only 2 points. They also have a new mini snack bar called Toasted Coconut Dream bar. It's only 2 points and tastes exactly like a Samoa Girl Scout cookie.

Weight Watchers makes snacking easy and smart.

Listen Up!

Molly has something to say...

Weight Watchers Wednesday

In an attempt to be a more consistent blogger I thought I would start a weekly series called Weight Watchers Wednesday. It will be about my journey on Weight Watchers, recipes, and anything else I can think of related to Weight Watchers.

I've done Weight Watchers before and did really well until I got pregnant. I have a 5 month old baby girl and lots of baby weight. I decided when I went back to work I would start Weight Watchers again. So, on April 9 I got back on the wagon. I've lost 12 pounds so far. I'm still a far cry from my goal weight of 135 pounds but at least I'm moving in the right direction.

I love Weight Watchers Points Plus. It's so easy. If I want a big fat cheeseburger or pizza or donuts I can have them. I just log their Points Plus value and then adjust what I eat the rest of the day. I don't feel deprived at all like I did on other diets.

I tend to cook more on Weight Watchers which is fine because I actually like cooking and I love baking. A lot of the recipes I use come from 2 websites, Weight Watchers and Gina's Skinny Taste Recipes . I love the Skinny Taste recipes because Gina includes all the nutritional information including the Points Plus values. It makes tracking my daily points so easy. I've posted her Low Fat Onion Rings and Taco Chili/Soup . Her website is my go to website for recipes.

Since I decided last night I would start this series I don't have any pictures to post of the recipes I've made lately. Instead, I'll post my new favorite recipe from Skinny Taste...Stuffed Pepper Soup .

Gina takes amazing pictures!

Stuffed Pepper Soup
Servings: 6 • Size: 1 1/3 cups soup, 1/2 cup rice • Points+: 7 pts

Ingredients:

• 3 cups cooked brown rice
• 1 lb 95% lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 1 cup finely diced onion
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 cans (14.5 oz each) cans petite diced tomatoes
• 1 3/4 cups tomato sauce
• 2 cups reduced sodium, fat-free chicken broth
• 1/2 tsp dried marjoram
• salt and fresh pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large pot, brown ground meat on high heat and season with salt. Drain fat if any, reduce heat to medium-low, then add peppers, onions and garlic. Cook about 5 minutes on low heat.

Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, chicken broth, marjoram and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes. Serve about 1 1/3 cups of soup in each bowl and top with 1/2 cup cooked brown rice.

Soup with rice (Keith doesn't like rice but he always eats rice with this soup)

What are your favorite Weight Watchers recipes?

Key Lime Pie



Picture is from Cooks Illustrated. I was so busy getting everything packed up to take to our neighbors
I forgot to take a picture.

 When our neighbors brought home their new baby this week I decided that I would make them a meal. I knew the new dad loved Key Lime Pie (so do I) so I thought I'd make him one.  I've tried lots of recipes but this recipe is by far my favorite because it includes lime zest. The recipe comes from Cooks Illustrated magazine which is the print version of my favorite cooking show America's Test Kitchen.   I used a pre-made graham cracker crust but you can always make it from scratch.

Ingredients

• 4 teaspoons grated key lime zest
• 1/2 cup lime juice from 3 to 4 key limes
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 graham cracker crust

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Whisk zest and yolks in medium bowl until tinted light green, about 2 minutes. Beat in milk, then juice; set aside at room temperature to thicken.
3. Pour lime filling into crust; bake until center is set, yet wiggly when jiggled, 15 to 17 minutes. Return pie to wire rack; cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until well chilled, at least 3 hours. (Can be covered with lightly oiled or oil-sprayed plastic wrap laid directly on filling and refrigerated up to 1 day.)

The thing I like about Cooks Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen is they test out a recipe and tell you what works and what doesn't work. According to them, bottled reconstituted lime juice gives the pie an “off” flavor. Always use fresh lime juice. If you can't find key limes use what you can find. It won't truly be a Key Lime Pie without key limes but the pie will taste better with fresh lime juice and not bottled juice. A true Key Lime Pie should never be green.

Spaghetti Pie

Our neighbors had a baby girl last week so I took them dinner Saturday. This was the first meal I've cooked in a week or so since we did some work in our kitchen. I decided I would make spaghetti pie, salad, bread, and key lime pie since the new dad loves key lime pie and the new mom loves spaghetti.

 This picture is from the Sargento website because I forgot to take one with my camera.

Spaghetti Pie

6 oz. spaghetti, cooked

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 eggs, well beaten

3/4 cup (3 oz.) parmesan cheese divided

1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese (you can use cottage cheese but I prefer ricotta)

1 cup pasta sauce

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook the spaghetti like you normally would and then toss the cooked spaghetti with the olive oil in a large bowl.

Stir in the eggs and 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese. Pour spaghetti mixture into greased 10-inch pie plate; form into a crust.

Spoon ricotta cheese (or cottage cheese) over spaghetti crust. Top with pasta sauce. Bake in preheated 350°F oven 25 minutes. Top with mozzarella cheese. Bake 5 minutes more or until cheese is melted. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese. Cool 10 minutes before cutting. (You cut/slice it like a pie)

I've been making this for years. I got the recipe from a former boss who found it on the Sargento website.

My First Mother's Day

Today is my first Mother's Day. I knew I would be excited but I didn't realize just how excited I would be on Sunday morning.

Saturday Molly and I went shopping for something for me to wear. I wanted a pink hat (I love hats...I get that from my mom. I wear hats to church. Hats aren't just for horse races). I wanted to wear pink on my first Mother's Day since I had a baby girl (plus, Molly was going to be wearing pink as well). While we were shopping we had several people stop us and tell me how beautiful Molly was and that she smiled with her eyes. It was strange to her people tell me "Happy Mother's Day".

I woke up before Keith and Molly and took my shower. I was so excited it was Mother's Day that as soon as I got out of the shower I went to Molly's room to get her. She was just waking up. I love being the one who gets to get her out of bed. I love to see her smile and get excited when I walk into her room and she sees me first thing. I love unwrapping her out of her swaddle and watching her stretch.

Molly gave me her gift which was a necklace from Tiffany and Company. Keith and Molly gave me another necklace that says "I Love You to the Moon and Back." I've been telling Molly that since the day she was born.

I received cards from Keith, Molly, my mom and dad, and my brother.

I love these two cards. The one on the left is from my mom but the baby on the card looks so much like Molly, especially the long eyelashes. The card on the right is my 1st Mother's Day card from Molly.


Today was a great and special day! I will never forget today! I'm so blessed to have such a happy, healthy, and beautiful baby! God has truly blessed me beyond my wildest dreams.

Molly also turned 5 months old today AND had cereal for the first time. I'll do a separate post for each of those things later this week.

Danny Thomas Stamp

I love getting snail mail. Who doesn't love walking out to your mailbox and finding a card or letter addressed to you? I also love the different stamps you can buy...from the generic to the customized I love them all.

The newest stamp out has Danny Thomas in the front and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in the background. What an incredible man with an incredible dream (or mission) that no child should die in the dawn of their life.

Children come to St. Jude to be treated for catastrophic diseases (not only cancer). Children are treated regardless of race, religion, or the family's ability to pay.

The stamp was issued in February in Memphis to celebrate St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's 50th anniversary.