Thursday, February 26, 2009

Hey look! There's FOOD in my food!


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!!

2 comments:

Morgan S. said...

Yum! I am going to start on revising my diet a bit and the oatmeal seems like a good place to start. Also.....I know Bob of Bob's Red Mill!!!! They are a client at our office and you should try the chocolate chip cookies they make! (They are probably about 10,000 WW points, so maybe not.) Anyway, they have a headquarters office nearby and it really is a big red barn and they serve breakfast! I haven't been yet (it is not near my house or office and hardeehar if you think we are packing the fam up and DRIVING out for breakfast) but those who have rave about it. Come to Portland - we can go see Bob!

M.E. said...

I know this is an older post, but I found it by Googling something else, and wanted to pass on some info:

At Whole Foods and possibly Trader Joe's, McCann's steel-cut oats are around $6 for a can, or were the last time I checked.

You can get much fresher steel-cut oats for a lot less money (less than one dollar per pound, IIRC) from the bulk food bins at Whole Foods. You don't get the fancy tin, but it's soooooo much cheaper, and you can just dump it into the fancy tin.

Another suggestion: replace a quarter of the recommended water for the amount you want to make with a good cider or apple juice. Consider adding about half of an apple in small (dice-size) chunks, and apple pie spice. A really nice, tangy apple spice oatmeal that isn't too sweet.