Pudding Pops!

I've never mentioned it before on this blog, but I have been signed up for SparkPeople for a while. I don't use it very often, but I do get recipes emailed to me every day. Most of them get put in the circular file of my email account (haha), but some make it into the "SparkPeople Recipes Folder" that I have. :)

One of the recipes that made it to the "SparkPeople Recipes Folder" is their recipe for Frozen Pudding Pops. As you can imagine, I am all about sweet frozen treats (see also Diet...Ice Cream??), so the recipe's promise of a low-fat frozen snack that you can actually make yourself sounded like a fun 'challenge.' Soooooo I picked up a packet of Trader Joe's Instant Chocolate Pudding (sigh, here I go again promoting TJ's, but really I haven't been to P&S in forever!) on my last grocery run. But any sort of pudding mix will do- next time I may try a Jell-O pudding mix. ;)

Anywho, according to the recipe, just make the pudding according to directions, then put the pudding into either a popsicle mold or just paper cups with popsicle sticks. Since I'm attempting to be more conscious of buying things I can reuse versus just throw away, I was hopeful of finding a popsicle mold, but wasn't sure where I would find one. Let me tell you, today was my lucky day! I was at the Dollar Tree picking up cleaning supplies (including some Totally Awesome Laundry Detergent which I'm linking to because I probably wouldn't have believed that this was in fact the brand name either....but I digress) and I thought to myself that I should check into buying some paper cups and popsicle sticks. I was perusing the aisles when I actually found a popsicle mold! Score one for me....

So I mixed up the batch of pudding- it probably took about 12 minutes altogether before the pudding was set, and 10 of those minutes were waiting. I put the pudding into my spiffy new popsicle mold and then rummaged around in my freezer to find some space to set the mold so it wasn't tipping over or anything. The jury is out on how they will taste frozen, but the pudding itself was quite tasty :)

Caloric breakdown:

Per the pudding box, serving size is 1/2 cup prepared with 4 servings. I made the whole box, so I'll quadruple the calories. 1 serving = 110 calories, 5 calories from fat, with 1g fat and 0g saturated fat, 23g carbohydrate with 19g of sugar. Calories for the whole box = 440. The recipe called for 2 cups of milk, and 2 cups of skim milk has 160 calories. Total calories for the pudding mix = 600. I figure I used about 1/3 of the total to make my pudding pops, so 200 calories for all of the pops, and there were 8 pops made, so 25 calories each. Not bad...not bad. :)

Low Fat Diet Fun!

Lately, we've taken to doing a lot of our shopping at Trader Joe's (I really should be getting royalties from there for all the promotions I do on my blog) because it's usually just as cost-effective (and sometimes more so) and a lot of their food is tastier and more fun to eat. :)

Today's exciting food option is the Low Fat Chocolatey Cats Cookies. A fun, tasty and cute snack!

(original image found here)

I really like these cookies, though I haven't tried the vanilla or ginger kind yet (though I expect I will pick some up on my next TJ's run).

The run-down:

15 cookies, 110 calories, 15 calories from fat (1.5 g of fat, 1g saturated fat), 24g of carbohydrates (1g dietary fiber and 9g sugar).

Oh, and did I mention they are cute? The only problem I have had so far is that my cat seems to think they are kitty treats. I would think that would be some pretty twisted kitty treats if the kitty treats were kitty-shaped....

One of the best ethnic foods...ever.

One of my very favorite ethnic foods to eat is Indian food. There is nothing better, in my opinion, than a tasty serving of Chicken Tikka Masala or Chicken Makhani (aka Butter Chicken!), with some fresh naan (even better is garlic naan!) and basmati rice. Man, I'm salivating just thinking about it.

The problem (if there is one) with Indian food is that it is usually impossible for me to go out for Indian food and not have to waddle out of the restaurant. Really, I should just bring a set of wheels so I can roll myself out. In addition to the tasty main course, the side of naan and unlimited basmati rice, the meals often begin with papadum, and then tasty appetizers, often which include samosas and pakora- cheese, chicken and/or shrimp.

Like I said...Indian food is delicious. And filling. And extremely bad for your diet. And bring a set of wheels so you can roll yourself out afterwards.

However, I have found an option for those days when you want Indian food, but not all the calories. Or for those days when going out for Indian food isn't really feasible (aka the days of 1/2 hour lunches!).

Once again, Trader Joe's comes to the rescue (they really should pay me since I promote them all the time!!)!! :) They have a delightful frozen Chicken Tikka Masala. I've had it twice now, and it really does taste pretty good. Not quite the same, but it's a pretty decent option. Also, there are portion controls. :)

Photo originally found here.

There are between 3-6 pieces of chicken. The first time I had it, I had 6 smallish pieces of chicken, the second time there were 3 huge chunks of chicken. So roughly the same amount of chicken, just portioned differently. It also comes with a side of basmati rice. And it can be heated in the microwave in just over 5 minutes!

Photo found here.

For those counting calories: 300 calories per serving, with 110 calories coming from the 12g of fat (5g saturated fat). From a weight watchers perspective, about 7 points. Given that many of the SmartOnes/Lean Cuisine/Healthy Choice frozen entrees are between 5-8 points, this pretty much falls into the same category for frozen entrees. There is also a lot of rice, so it's more filling than it would initially appear to be.

So while it is not nearly on the same level as Indian Food Bliss that can be found at an Indian restaurant, it is much healthier (and portioned!), and cheaper, too. :)

Lauren's Organic Chicken Noodle Soup (+recipe)

A few days ago I attempted to post my chicken noodle soup recipe, but blogger was making me mad and was putting the picture wherever it felt like putting it! So I finally gave up, but then it posted anyway...yeah, it was fun times with blogger! :)

Anyway....so my husband had the flu last week so I decided that I wanted to make chicken noodle soup from (mostly) scratch because there is nothing better than chicken noodle soup when you're sick.

I didn't really use a recipe, aside from the basic concepts of chicken noodle soup: chicken, chicken broth, carrots, celery and salt/pepper.

However, I made two little adjustments and I think that the finished product was even more tasty. Not quite to the level of taco chicken soup I made a few years ago with leftover taco chicken and homemade (yes, you read that right HOMEMADE noodles), but it was still quite tasty.

Adjustment number 1: Use organic!

Adjustment number 2: Curt's Cooking Spice!

And now, Lauren's Organic Chicken Noodle Soup. Apologies in advance as this is the first recipe I've ever written. :)

Five 14oz cans of Swanson's Chicken Broth.

1.5-2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used Trader Joe's).

2-2.5 cups uncooked Trader Joe's Organic Fusilli Pasta.

3-4 large organic carrots

5-6 large organic celery hearts

sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste (can use just regular salt & pepper too, but it won't taste as good!) :)

Curt's Cookie Spice to taste.

Bring medium sized pot of water to boil and add chicken. Boil chicken for 20 minutes. You may have to boil the chicken half at a time. Remove chicken from water and shred with two forks. General chicken shredding instructions here.

Slice up carrots and celery as desired. Set aside.

Add chicken broth to a large pot and simmer until chicken is fully shredded. After chicken is shredded, add the chicken to the broth and continue to simmer. I also added about 14oz of water to the broth even though it said "do not add water." It gave more broth, but I didn't find it to be any less flavorful.

Bring medium sized pot of water to boil and add noodles. Cook noodles about half-way, drain.

Add noodles and vegetables to chicken and chicken broth, turn up the heat. Add salt, pepper and Curt's to taste.

Once spices are added as desired, cover pot, and turn heat on high for 5-7 minutes.

Turn heat back down to simmer, uncover and eat.

As one can imagine, this soup was not very high in calories or fat (a little high in sodium though).

Chicken broth = 10 calories per half can, 20 calories per can x 5 cans = 100 calories.

Carrots = according to this website, 100g of carrots have 43-48 calories. I had a hard time figuring out how many carrots is 100g...I'm guessing that the 3 carrots I used would be about 150 calories?

Celery = according to this website, 110g of celery has 18 calories. I'll go out on a limb and guess that I had about 60 calories of celery.

Fusilli Pasta = per the bag, 3/4 of a cup has 210 calories. I'm going to guess I used about 2 cups, so that's approx 500 calories or so of pasta.

Chicken breast = I had a hard time finding a definitive calorie count for chicken breasts, and the package is long gone. Generally, 8oz of chicken breast = 250 calories. I used about 32 oz of chicken breast so roughly 1000 calories.

Salt, Pepper and Curt's = 0 calories.

So for the whole, huge pot of chicken noodle soup, we're looking at 1800 calories. This sucker had about 8 servings in it, so per serving we are looking at 225 calories per bowl. Not bad!

There are different ways to add fewer calories. Add more veggies, less chicken. Add less pasta, or take a whole wheat pasta with fewer calories and more fiber. Use egg noodles, they are bigger and take up more space, so you can use less. You could also substitute rice for pasta. The possibilities are endless!

My next quest is to try and reproduce that taco chicken soup- probably won't make the noodles from scratch again though.

Note to Self

When actively trying to maintain target weight, it is a poor idea to walk to CVS, buy two bags of Easter candy and eat a small percentage of about half of majority of both bags over the course of three days. Just sayin'.

On a note of actually sticking to a plan of eating healthy, Trader Joe's (oh, how I ♥ you) has a "light" version of string cheese. It has 60 calories per, um, piece (what is the unit of measurement for string cheese?) and approximately 1 WW point. Since I reside in that great dairy state (happy cows don't come from California that's for damn sure) of Wisconsin, I loves me some CHEESE! And as it seems that all cheese that is good is also full of calories and fat and is generally just not so good for you, the fact that Trader Joe's has a decently relatively VERY tasty lower-fat/lower-calorie (unit of measurement) string cheese...well, that just merits even more love to the Trader Joe's (I am sincerely sorry to those who do not have Trader Joe's near them). It's no Union Star Cheese Factory, but it'll do.

Diet....Ice Cream?

In my last post, I blogged about what diet sodas I love and mourned the lack of diet ice cream. However, in the interest of full disclosure, that's not completely true. Over the last year or so (ESPECIALLY during the summer months, ah, summer, what is that?), I have looked over the freezer section of my local Pick N Save in hopes of some sort of ice cream that would allow me to eat ice cream, while not breaking my diet too badly. Or at all.

I would be lying if I said that it was all ice cream- it's not, but there are some very tasty alternatives to ice cream that are just as good or maybe, in the eyes of some, better than ice cream. While I don't have a list of 10 as of yet, I've got a few tasty options in the ice cream variety. And this is coming from someone who lives in the city where custard is king!

But I digress, there's nothing diet about eating Red Velvet Custard.....

Lauren's Favorite Diet Frozen Treats (okay, so it doesn't have a ring to it, oh well).

• Skinny Cow Chocolate Truffle Bars. Yum. Yum. Yum. YUM. Chocolate ice cream with chocolate drizzled over it. And it doesn't taste low fat. Or low flavor. Or low anything. It tastes fatty, ice creamy, chocolate-y and delicious-y. And at 100 calories for one bar with only 25 calories from fat? It doesn't get much better than this. Around here, it's usually about $5 a box for 6 bars, so it initially seems pricey, but then you realize it's less than $1 per bar. I have also had the Skinny Cow French Vanilla Truffle Bars, and while they are good, I don't like them as much. But other people I've talked to like them better. All a matter of preference. Aaaaaaaand if you're counting Weight Watchers points, only 2 WW points per bar.
• Skinny Cow Mint Ice Cream Sandwich. Again...YUM. Does not taste a bit like diet ice cream. Again, about $5 for a pack with 6 ice cream sandwiches, so more economic than walking to Dairy Queen (even though you burn calories by walking there) anyway. 140 calories per sandwich, and only 15 calories from fat...and only 2 WW points. I feel like this should be too good to be true....but it's not.
• Skinny Cow Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich. See above, but substitute vanilla for mint.
• Edy's Fruit Bars. It's like a fruit-filled heaven that is frozen and on a stick. Okay, that might be a bit over the top, but I don't tend to like fruit....except these fruit bars. My very favorite is the strawberry. Only 80 calories per bar, and no fat. That's right, no fat. Yay! Pick N Save puts them on sale every few weeks at 2 for $6 (but they'll sell you 1 box for $3 too), which puts them at 50 cents a bar.
• Trader Joe's Frozen Fruit bars. These are pretty much identical to Edy's Fruit Bars, but they only come in a few flavors (strawberry, lime and one other that I can't remember). It's 1.99 for a 4 pack all the time. I couldn't find any nutritional info online, but from what I remember, they are pretty much identical to the Edy's in all ways. Might be a touch bigger though and IIRC, I think there were a few more frozen strawberries in them. If you've got a Trader Joe's near you, I would definitely check them out. They also have 100-calorie chocolate bars! :)
• Edy's Slow-Churned Ice Cream. A long list of flavors of yummy ice cream including ice cream with 1/3 the calories and 1/2 the fat. It does taste a bit diet-y, but it is still very very good. And if the other options just aren't up your alley and you want some ice cream, damnit, then I would definitely recommend the Slow-Churned. In fact, right now, you can even get Girl Scouts Thin Mint ice cream. Yummmmmmmmmmmm.

So there you have it. Some good, diet-friendly frozen treats. This list will probably be updated as I add more flavor favorites, but for now, I'd suggest starting with the Skinny Cow and going from there. Happy Dieting!

Diet Soda...

So unfortunately, there is nothing that I seem to like more than soda (except for chocolate, ice cream, potato chips, etc etc). I know, it's not good for me, blah blah blah, but it is just...well....so tasty!

So along the way of my diet (which is now coming up on almost a year! hooray me!), I've come across a number of relatively tasty DIET sodas. Yes, I used to run screaming away from the dreaded word DIET before the word soda. My irrational fear of diet soda probably is due to the fact that we actually used to have this crap in our house while I was growing up- it really doesn't get worse than Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi. *shudders* Not only is it diet, but it's caffeine free, which totally misses the point of Pepsi in the first place. I'm sure if you added some brown food-coloring to seltzer water, it might actually have more flavor.

But I digress. And since I have wanted to continue drinking soda while dieting, I've had to come up with some calorie free or low calorie options...and that often includes diet soda.

And without further ado, Lauren's Favorite Diet Sodas! (while they are numbered, there is not really an order of preference).

1. Diet Coke. Ah yes, the classic. Who doesn't drink Diet Coke? I will be the first to admit that this has been an acquired taste for me. I love Coke, so switching from Coke to Diet Coke was a bit of a struggle. I have now learned to love Diet Coke, just not as much as Coke. While I am not a big fan of lime, I have heard rave reviews of Diet Coke with Lime, so if you like lime, I would definitely check that one out.

2. Diet Dr Pepper. Unlike with Diet Coke, I did not have any problems drinking Diet Dr. Pepper. That could be, however, because I never really drank regular Dr. Pepper, so there wasn't an obvious taste difference here. However, I don't think Diet Dr. Pepper tastes all that "diet-y" anyway.

3. Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry. Even better than Diet Dr. Pepper. Good cherry flavor, not the overpowering taste of Nutrisweet...definitely tastes more like regular cherry cola...however, I never really drink Dr. Pepper Cherry...so again...

4. Coke Zero. Coke Zero markets itself as having real coke taste, zero calories. It definitely has a much closer taste to regular Coke than Diet Coke, but still not quite there. I much prefer Coke Zero over Diet Coke. A slight peeve of mine for this is that it is not as widely available in restaurants. The only restaurant I can find it at regularly is Five Guys...and really, if you're eating a huge burger and an order of fries, I think calories from your soda is frankly the last of your caloric concerns. :)

5. Sprite Zero. I must say that this one tastes more like regular Sprite than Coke Zero tastes like regular Coke. I absolutely love Sprite Zero.

6. Diet Sunkist Lemonade. This one is not 0 calories like all of the others so far, but for 10 calories per can, I can totally make this a regular in my fridge.

7. Diet Cherry 7Up with Antioxidant. I admit, this one made me a little hesitant at first. Who cares if soda has antioxidant? Clearly, if I was concerned about my health I wouldn't be drinking soda in the first place (hahaha). If you like cherry but not so much cola, cherry 7Up is a pretty good choice. My main peeve with this soda is it seems to be exceptionally carbonated. For real. I usually can only drink one of these a day.

8. Diet 7Up. Still not as diet-y and far far less carbonation than Diet 7Up Cherry....

9. Mr. Pibb Zero. I have a very difficult time locating this both locally (I've seen it in Pick N Save like twice) and on the web. It's like it doesn't really exist! Okay, it really does exist, and if you can find a 12 pack, I highly recommend trying it if you like Dr. Pepper, or if you like Mr. Pibb. I think Mr. Pibb used to be better than Pibb Xtra, but I'll take what I can get.

10. Sprecher Lo-Cal Root Beer. Oh, if only all of the other Sprecher sodas came in a lo-cal variety!! I would actually recommend ANY of the Sprecher sodas, but sadly, none of the others are diet-friendly (all of the other sodas range between 4-6 weight watchers points...for 1 soda). Kudos to Sprecher for making such a yummy diet option.

Sodas that did not make the cut:

Diet Pepsi anything. I hate Diet Pepsi with a fiery passion. Again, I believe it goes back to having Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi in my house....

Caffeine Free Diet Anything. Ew, just ew.

Cherry Coke Zero. They try, but IMO, fail.

Vanilla Coke Zero. Just, ew.

Diet Mountain Dew...

Any other suggestions for sodas that should make the cut, or sodas that definitely do NOT make the cut??

Now if only they could come up with a good, diet ice cream.

Sub sandwiches....not as good as we think...

So, I really like eating subs. However, subs really aren't as good for us as we like to think. I mean, it's just a sandwich, right? What can possibly be so bad for me if it's just a sandwich? I'm better off eating that than a burger and fries!

Well, yes and no. Since we tend to be under the assumption that subs are good for us, we don't often watch what we eat on our subs.

Take a regular Jimmy John's #4 Turkey Tom. Basically- it's about 7inches of french bread, turkey, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, sprouts and mayo. That doesn't sound too bad, does it? Well, according to the Nutrition link on the Jimmy John's website, that sub equals 615 calories and almost 30g of fat. According to Dottie's Weight Loss Zone (one of my favorite sites to check WW points value), a Turkey Tom has about 13.5 WW points, but Dottie's doesn't include cheese on that. So, a Turkey Tom actually is closer to about 15 points. Yikes. So much for healthy.

But subs are so good, and with a few adjustments, the same sub with Dijon mustard and no cheese is 335 calories and about 1.5g of fat. Dottie's lists this sub as having 8.5 points instead of 15. The key to eating subs is to eliminate the cheese and mayo. Both of those add tons of calories and fat, and make the sub a lot worse for you than it should be.

Another good rule of thumb for subs is to load up on veggies as they are good additions and make you feel more full. Also, beware of bread. A lot of sub places offer fancy breads, but most likely those fancy breads just add more calories. If there is a wheat bread option, that is usually the best, otherwise a plain white bread is good too.

So, as with everything else, eating sub sandwiches just requires a bit of knowing what to choose and what not to choose. :)

Epic Fail Week

So, I failed at dieting this week...but that's alright. I've got a good excuse- I have a cold and sore throat. So, my diet has included quite a bit of ice cream. Not good for the diet, but good for the sore throat. Oh well.

With any luck, I'll have a real, diet-related post in the near future...once I kick this damn cold, anyway.

New Year!

Okay, so I really pretty much just stopped blogging about my weight loss "adventure" a few months back. But now, I have been wanting to blog again and I figure that can be part of my "new year's resolutions."

So, I more or less accomplished my weight loss goal (I'm now hovering between 134-136, depending on the time of day and time of month). Hooray for me! I did not hit my goal at the allotted time (mid-November) because from about mid-October to mid-November I was so busy and away from my house a lot so I more or less just made it my goal for that month to Not. Gain. Any. Weight. Back. I pretty much succeeded. I didn't "officially" weigh in before I left for Mexico, but I was around 138. Sweet.

After getting back from Mexico, I more or less dropped those extra 2-4 pounds.

Now, I am faced with the difficult task of maintaining my current weight, as well as assisting my husband in his diet.

I am going to make it my goal to post in my weight loss blog once a week! This doesn't count- so I've got until Saturday night to write another post. :)