Food, Diet, Exercise…but not from experts, just those who have lost 100lbs combined.
We’ve gravitated to the Weight Watcher chocolate snacks. They taste amazing and are just enough to get us by without sacrificing too much. This 1000% looks like a Weight Watchers advertisement but finding a sweet treat that doesn’t break the bank can be a bit taxing. They often have sales and free shipping so it’s easy. Below are some of our staples.
This isn’t a totally zero point food, but it’s very low in points and calories. Compare to any shelf variety jam and you’ll see how low this is and you know everything that’s in it!
It’s important to use frozen fruit as the moisture is needed to prevent sticking and give the fruit room to breakdown. Feel free to substitute any frozen fruit you’d like. I make this for Father Foodie with frozen cherries.
Ingredients:
Combine frozen strawberries, maple syrup and salt in the instapot. Close the steam valve and pressure cook on manual for 1 minute.
When cooking cycle is done let the pressure naturally release for 10 minutes then release.
Press cancel to stop the cooking cycle and turn on sauté. Add chia seeds and stir often to prevent sticking. I use this time to break the strawberries up more.
Once slightly thickened press cancel and transfer to 16 oz jar with a lid. It will thicken more as it cools in the refrigerator. Jam should keep for 2 weeks.
1 Tablespoon is 0 points
2 Tablespoons are 1 point
21 calories per serving
Recipe from: The Fresh and Easy Instapot Cookbook by Megan Gilmore
Salad dressings can be very hard to navigate. Dressings are a lot of oil, fats, and sugar generally so finding the right one can be a little difficult. There’s a reason so many restaurant salads are 800-1000 calories, it’s the cheese and the dressing. Here are a few that make it a little easier for less points or calories.
You’re going to love this, put it all in the instapot. Cook on manual for 20 minutes then slow release for 10 minutes. Release steam, stir and serve.
This is a heavy duty blog…it’s long. Grab an apple and a big glass of water before you start reading. This is how I marathon a weeks worth of meals in a couple of hours…
Meal prepping and planning can be a HUGE aid in success of sticking to a diet. You remove the guesswork and effort of meals daily. You’re less likely to make decisions you may regret and stick to the plan you laid out for yourself. Also, how nice is it to come home after a long day and just eat without cooking?
Sunday after lunch is my meal prep time for the majority of food we’re going to eat for the week. I try to plan out what we’re going to eat to stay on track, do the grocery shopping ahead of time (not straying from the list) and then get to cooking right after Sunday lunch. Here’s a quick run through of how this works for me to keep every device busy without too many things going at once. This is where you’ll see the incredible use of the instapot and the extra insert showcased.
I usually start with the ancho chicken soup in the instapot. I have the recipe pretty much memorized. So it’s a dump and go recipe where it comes together easily and can cook quickly.
Preheat the oven to 350 and it’s time to start the frittata. Breakdown the cauliflower or broccoli, mushrooms and onion for my frittata and put it all in the microwave steam bowl to cook for 5-6 minutes. While those cook I start breaking and mixing the 15 eggs. Drain the cooking fluid from the veggies and assemble the frittata. This goes in the oven for 55-60 minutes.
This is the point where the extra instapot insert comes in. The other soup is usually still cooking and not ready for release, which can take several minutes to complete. So with the insert close by to the pot I start assembling the next soup or beans to cook. This means I can pull one insert out and drop the other in, put the lid back on and set the timer quickly. No downtime for the instapot and no transferring to storage bowls. The silicone lids mean these pots can also just go right into the fridge once cooled down as well.
At this point I move on to making zucchini noodles for my lunch. I have an electric spiralizer and it makes QUICK work of 4-5 pounds of fresh zucchini. I lay the spirals out on silicone baking mats on sheet pans to freeze before I transfer to my lunch containers and gallon bags for storage. I’ll proportion and bag these a few hours later since they need to freeze and it doesn’t take very long to do.
By now, I’ve probably traded soups in the instapot and have the second one well on its way. Always set the hot one on a trivet to help it start cooling down for storage. I’ve also taken the frittata out to start cooling down.
Once zucchini noodles are made and in the freezer I move on to portioning my lunch protein out for the week. I don’t have to do this every week as the large bags of precooked chicken from Costco last a few weeks. Our favorite precooked chicken at the moment is Tyson Blackened Chicken Strips. They have a great flavor and are zero points! In our area they have big bags at Costco and I’ve heard they’re also available at HEB.
At this point the second soup is wrapping up. I’ll take it out of the instapot to cool. The only thing left to do is breakdown any fruit (watermelons, cantaloupe, etc) and divide the frittata into containers for the fridge.
When we’re not in quarantine and working from home this is time that I take to wash, divide, and bag my fruit for work for at least 2 days, I like to make sure it stays fresh so there will be a little fruit prep mid week. Washed fruit molds and gets gross so quickly.
I eat breakfast and lunch at work so I like when I can just grab and go in the morning. Everything is already in a container, or bag, and ready for my lunch bag with zero effort on my way out the door.
Father Foodie and Sister Slim 