One of the other things my best friend shared with me was her Hungry Girl 300 Under 300 cookbook. I scanned the recipes and found quite a few I wanted to try, so I picked up a copy for myself when I got home. More on those as I make them, but one of the products she uses alot in that book is Almond Breeze Vanilla Unsweetened almond milk. I’d been thinking about trying Almond Milk anyway so I picked up a carton on my next shopping trip.
I haven’t used it in any recipes yet, but I used it to make hot chocolate tonight and I have to say it was really tasty. The almond milk was only 1 PTS+ so it’s lower than regular milk, and will hopefully be less harsh on my system since sometimes too much dairy can make me an unhappy camper. This weekend I’ll likely try it in some of the HG recipes, and will let you know how it goes. Can’t say I’d drink a glass of the stuff, but I don’t drink regular milk straight either so that’s no big loss. But it could be a nice addition of some nutrients to oatmeal, smoothies, and other recipes that call for milk.
Have you tried this porduct? How do you like to use it?
Despite being an ENORMOUS resort, the place I stayed in the Bahamas was lacking in good breakfast options. The one bright spot was a place called Jamba Juice. I’d heard of the chain before, which specializes in smoothies and other healthy concoctions. We went there one morning and I chose the “Berry Topper” which is a smoothie made of low-fat yogurt, strawberries, blueberries, and banana topped with granola and sliced banana. It was delicious!!
I knew it was probably not the lowest calorie option. Full nutritional information was actually right there, but I chose to look the other way and tell myself it was healthy. Well, it turns out that it was 12 PTS+ for the 16 oz smoothie that I had three different days last week. Now, I will say that I wasn’t snacking much at all while on this trip so it was OK to go a little higher for breakfast PTS+. But 12 is still a bit much. And I often added a protein boost which adds another point.
When I got home today I was determined to make a version of this delicious concoction that wasn’t quite so PTS+ heavy. And I think I succeeded. It’s actually not too different from something I’ve made many times before, but with a few minor tweaks (that add quite a few PTS+, so not to be taken lightly). Here’s what I did:
1 cup frozen organic strawberries (0 PTS+)
1 cup frozen wild maine blueberries (0 PTS+)
6 oz Chobani Greek vanilla yogurt (3 PTS+)
1/2 cup Kashi Go Lean Crunch (2 PTS+)
1 medium banana
I partially thaw the berries in the microwave for 1 minute on 50% power. I then add half the banana and the yogurt and blend with my immersion blender. I pour the smoothie mixture it into a glass and top it with the cereal and other half of the banana, sliced up. It tastes very similar to the one at Jamba Juice for less than half the PTS+, only 5 for mine. I’ve had this for breakfast all week and it hasn’t gotten old yet. Yum!
It’s chilly in Boston this morning so I thought I might break from my normal routine and have a small Dunkin Donuts hot chocolate. But before I did I checked the PTS (the old PTS – I haven’t switched to PointsPlus yet). Glad I did – that tiny little indulgence turns out to be 5 PTS! Not worth it. I’ll put on another sweater to stay warm. Information is power. (I also thought you could order DD hot cocoa with skim milk but you can’t. It comes pre-made from a machine so there is no customization possible).
Tonight was chilly – definitely not August weather. I had some warm chili at Uno’s (5 PTS) and a side salad with low-fat blueberry pomegranate dressing (3) for dinner but I was still really cold so I went to Starbucks at Barnes & Noble for a hot beverage. I really don’t like lattes, so I decided to order a hot chocolate. But it’s usually way too sweet, so I asked them how many pumps of chocolate syrup usually go into a medium. They said 4, so I said “use 2″. And guess what – it was MORE than sweet enough. I also got no whipped cream and used skim milk to minimize the calories (and get a milk serving in). It was exactly what I needed to warm up.
Now, calorie-wise it’s been harder to figure out than I anticipated. According to Starbucks’ Web site a Tall (12 oz) hot chocolate with skim milk and no whip is 190 calories and 2 g of fat. I know I had less than that because I had fewer pumps of syrup. Starbucks doesn’t list the calorie count of its syrups online but third-party sources estimate it at about 20 – 30 calories per pump. So 2 pumps fewer than the recipe should have saved me one PT. What I didn’t realize is that their hot chocolate actually has vanilla and mocha, so I’m not sure exactly how many pumps went in total. I do know that they have no sugar vanilla so next time I’ll ask for that. I’m also going to ask exactly what goes into it so I can make smarter choices, since this is something I hope to be able to enjoy periodically over time. In the future I’ll get the 8 oz, too, to save calories (I was really cold this time and didn’t think that would last long enough to warm me up).
So I recorded tonight’s splurge in my journal as 4 PTS and made a note to check with the staff at my local Starbucks later. I’m also going to go online and look at the calorie count for the food they have. I’m occasionally tempted to get something and stop b/c I assume it’s very high PTS. I’m sure it is, but with the info online I can know for sure.
I’ve been trying out some new magazines lately, and recently picked up the July/August 2010 issue of Natural Health Magazine. Some of the content was a bit too earthy-crunchy for me (I live in an apartment so no organic garden for me) but there were a few recipes that I liked. One was for a tropical breakfast smoothie that I thought might be of interest to a few of my readers that I know like smoothies. I tried to find it online so I could link to it but I couldn’t. So here’s the recipe:
1 cup frozen mango
1 cup frozen pineapple
1 cup frozen peaches
1.5 cups coconut water
1 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp light agave nectar
Put everything in a blender and process until creamy and smooth.
According to the nutrition info in the magazine this is 2 PTS when split into 4 servings (109/0.5/3). Not a bad deal! I might have to try this next time I hit the store to buy frozen fruit. I’ve been reading alot about coconut water lately, too, so perhaps this is a way to ease into trying it. If you try it let me know what you think.
I cut caffine out of my diet in 1998, but lately I’ve been (sadly) relying on it for a morning boost once in a while. The ultimate solution is to improve my sleep hygiene, but when caffine is a must it helps to know just how much you’re having. This helpful listing of common drinks/foods and their caffine content helped me confirm that a 12 oz can of Diet Coke (47 mgs) is a much milder choice than coffee (140+ mgs). It even has less caffine than headache medicine!
http://www.realsimple.com/health/mind-mood/emotional-health/easy-instant-energy-boosters-00000000035868/page3.html
I still would prefer not to consume caffine, but if I have to it helps to know exaclty what I’m getting.
As I’ve posted before, I don’t like seltzer very much (even flavored). But I tried Poland Spring Sparkling Water in Mandarin Orange flavor at a friend’s house a few weeks ago. It’s got a nice light flavor without tasting too much like seltzer. I just finished a bottle and it is nice and refreshing. Give it a shot if you’re looking for something new to drink this summer.
(Note – I bet it’s also a good way to cut the calories in OJ. Mix 1/2 cup OJ with this and it’s only 1 PT per 8 oz).
One of my readers who is new to WW was struggling to figure out how many PTS to count for a Dunkin Donuts medium iced coffee with cream. I used the DD Web site to help her come up with an estimate.
The Web site has the nutrition information for a medium iced coffee with skim milk and Splenda, which is 1 PT. That’s close, but this young woman orders her iced coffee with cream not milk (she’s working her way down to skim, but wants to know how to track the original).
The site doesn’t contain any information for a medium iced coffee with cream and Splenda, so we had to do a little approximating. The closest thing I found was a small iced coffee with cream. There’s no accounting for the Splenda/Equal, but that’s 0 PTS so we can ignore that in the calculation. The other issue is that this is a small, not a medium. More drink = more calories = more PTS.
A small is 16 oz while a medium is 24 oz, 1.5 times bigger. If we assume the proportion of cream and coffee stays the same in the medium we can multiply the calories and fat by 1.5 to get an approximate breakdown for the medium. That translates to 105 calories and 9 g of fat, which is 3 PTS.
In this case it would also work multiplying the PTS by 1.5 (2 * 1.5 = 3) but I prefer to multiply the base nutrition information when scaling portions up. Why? because it takes the 4 g fiber limit into account. It’s not an issue here because there’s no fiber in coffee, but it’s a better habit to get into. The PTS may come out a bit higher, but the goal isn’t to count things for as little as possible. If you overestimate a bit you’ll likely just lose weight faster.
Hope that helps all my DD readers. Living around Boston I know there are alot of you out there!!
In the past 48 hours I have discussed the issue of margaritas with two different friends who are trying to lose weight. I’m not a fan, but apparently I’m the only person on the planet who isn’t. I suggested they check out the SkinnyGirl(tm) Margarita recipe created by personal chef (and Real Housewife of NY) Bethenny Frankel. Here is a link to her site and the recipe:
http://www.bethenny.com/skinny_margarita.htm
(There is an “on the rocks” version and a frozen version.)
As a point of comparison, a regular margarita is 5 PTS per 4 oz. Assuming the average restaurant margarita is 8 – 16 oz that’s 10 – 20 PTS per drink! Ms. Frankel’s rocks version is about 3 PTS per drink (2.5 PTS for 2 oz tequila, 0.5 for the splash of orange liqueur).
If you like margaritas, you’re still going to need to save up some PTS for them and moderate your drinking. (Not a bad idea all around – It’s a GHG, and saves you from ending up with a lampshade on your head!) But if you alternate these with a glass of club soda or sparking water with lime over the course of an evening you can still have a good time and keep your weight loss efforts on track.
What about when you’re out? Ask if they can make you this version of a margarita instead. I bet the bartender would do it. It’s really just another form of a mixed drink. And with so many women watching their figures I bet they get asked for these often. Don’t be afraid – ask for what you want!
