6 Points

Today I joined Weight Watchers - decided I just didn't have the will power to go it alone. So this morning at breakfast I decided to go out with a bang - didn't realized until after the meeting just what a bang it was! I weighed in - not going to post that - sorry, kids - and my friend and I stayed for the meeting and the intro afterwards. The woman that ran the meeting was really nice - and during the intro after the meeting she was telling us to go through our pantry and fridge and look at the food and read the labels - that there might be food we want to throw out. Yeah - I was afraid of that - so last night - I sat and ate an entire carton of Ben and Jerry's ice cream - didn't want it to go to waste!
When I got home - I did just as Kate said and went through my pantry and calculated the points everything would be. I was very distressed to find out that one serving of my beloved peanut butter is 5 points (that's 2 Tblspns). I went shopping today and bought the reduced fat peanut butter thinking that would be better - it's still 4 points - and I don't think the savings on 1 point is worth it - have you ever tried it - doesn't spread at all! I also found the 1 point bread at Costco - so I have a loaf to eat now and a loaf in the freezer. I know - for those of you that don't know anything about WW - this probably doesn't make a lot of sense - but based on my weight and other factors, I have 29 points each day for food. Which brings me to the next part of my story... the points.
So I have 29 points and the cool thing about the WW is being able to track your food online and having the computer figure out all the points for you. So I entered what I had for breakfast this morning - 21.5 points! I couldn't believe it! What was I thinking? That left just 7.5 points for the rest of the day (not counting the 35 flex points for the week- just in case you can't make it during the day with your allotment - which I almost had to use today). So I was sitting at the compter this early afternoon checking things out on the WW website and trying to figure out what I was going to have for dinner with so few points left. And I was just getting hungry - but I hadn't been shopping yet and didn't really have much to eat in the house - thank goodness for carrots! They're 0 points. Went shopping - stocked up on fruits and veggies and whole wheat pasta and the ingredients for my 6 point dinner. That's right - 6 points for chicken and rice and a cucumber and orange salad (see the picture above). When I saw the picture in the cookbook, I thought it looked pretty good - although when I read the ingredients of the salad - I wasn't too sure. Cucumber, orange slices, red bell pepper and black olives in an orange/lime/garlic marinade. It was YUMMY! I made enough for dinner on Monday - can't wait.
I also made 3 point per serving brownies for a BBQ that I'm going to tomorrow evening. Made them from scratch - which I very rarely do. I might have to make more to freeze and bring out every once in a while. I haven't tried them yet (didn't have enough points left in the day - dang it) - although I did lick the batter off the wisk when I was done mixing them - I decided there shouldn't be any points for that - that's my story and I'm sticking to it!