Things are getting all Weight-Watchery around here this week, and since I've been presented with a new eating challenge my creative cook juices have been really flowing! I went walking with a friend on Tuesday who is also on Weight Watchers and she gave me some great tips on how to totally MAX out the amount of food you can cram into your points. Fine by me ... if I didn't love to eat so much I probably wouldn't have to be on WW in the first place! Anyway, she told me that if you make regular oatmeal instead of instant, you get MORE. Also? You can add a tablespoon of brown sugar (1 point) and berries or other fruit. I made myself a bowl this morning and it was only 3.5 points (to give you a comparison, I also ate a 6 oz. container of Yoplait yogurt and that was 4 points. Probably not worth it!)!! The best part was that I was totally FULL after I finished and I didn't have to sacrifice any flavor whatsoever.
I used steel cut Irish oatmeal that I found at Trader Joe's. It takes about 30 mins to cook but MAN was it good! My husband has eaten the leftovers for lunch two days in a row now. It means I have to cook a new batch each morning but I don't mind sharing! :)
After the oatmeal was done, I added 4 tbs. of flax meal. This works out to 1 tb. per serving and added .5 pts. to the meal. It also added Omega-3, lignans, extra fiber and a subtle nutty flavor!!
When it was all mixed together I topped it with the brown sugar and a handful of rinsed blueberries and a handful of pared strawberries (I was curious about how much one of my "handfuls" would be and it was 1/4 cup exactly for each berry. Fun!). And then, I scarfed it all down because my baby was getting antsy!!
