Hey everyone!
Last week and this week, the meeting topic covered the good health guidelines that we are supposed to adhere to for the long haul and to make this plan sustainable in the long run. As you know, getting in your fruits and vegetables is an important one of these guidelines. I attached the PDF again this week. We attempted to plant a vegetable garden this summer, but most of the plants never produced due to the heat we had. We did, however, have a zucchini plant that wouldn’t give up. We got a few fruit off the plant over the summer, and we kind of forgot about it for awhile. This past Saturday it finally dried up enough so that I could walk outside in the backyard without sloshing too much. I wanted to see what (if anything) was left in the remains of the vegetable garden from this summer. I literally jumped back when I saw this humongous zucchini staring back at me.
Mr. Boy (Adam, the 2 ½ year old) is shown below holding the 5 lb 5 oz zucchini that we grew. What the HECK was I going to do with this monster?!?!?! I started Googling. I found a recipe for zucchini lasagna that I was willing to try. The recipe is below in the recipe section. It had 7 points per serving, and was absolutely fabulous. Bad thing? I only used up ½ of the monster in the casserole! I still have half of the zucchini in my fridge.
I found another recipe that will hopefully use up the remainder. I found a good lightened zucchini bread recipe that I also am including in today’s issue. I made the zucchini bread last night and it came out fantastic! Even though the majority of the flour used was whole wheat flour, it was surprisingly light. It made two nice loaves. I think you all will enjoy it.
ll I have to show for it is a .4 pound loss. It’s too bad that this particular challenge isn’t taking inches lost into consideration because during the time period of the challenge, I lost 5 inches. This time, chest, hips and waist were the big losers here.
My coach has been doing some things to help shake things up a bit for me to help get the scale moving again. I am also taking a closer look at my journaling to ensure accuracy there. I walked both Saturday and Sunday last week in Flower Mound and put in over 6 miles this weekend. My times over the weekend were pretty consistent with the times from the Jogging for Johnson race that we did on October 17th.
In other news, I have submitted my blog to both dentonrc.com and to the Dallas Examiner. What a great way to get the word out. No news back yet, but that’s okay! I’ll keep you guys informed. I have had some really good feedback from my readers, and I’d LOVE to be able to reach more people.
The meeting this week dealt with the second group Weight Watchers’ Good Health Guidelines. This was the second a two-part meeting, so we handled the second half of them this week, more specifically the ones dealing with liquids, healthy oils, multivitamins, activity and sugar & alcohol. The first attachment this week goes into this at length. The basic guidelines are as follows:
- Liquids – shoot for at least 6-8oz glasses daily. All liquids (except for alcohol!) count toward this number.
- Healthy oils – 2 teaspoons daily of either olive, canola, sunflower, safflower or flax oil. Note that a fish oil supplement does NOT COUNT toward this. Use in it’s liquid form. Add to salads, sauté in it, add to a smoothie if you have to. It’s really not a lot and these oils have significant health benefits, including keeping your hair, nails & skin healthy!
- Multivitamins – take one. That’s the general guideline!
- Sugars & Alcohols – limit these. Alcohol guidelines are 1 drink for females and 2 for males, if you do enjoy the occasional alcoholic beverage.
The attachments this week are as follows:
- Guidelines to Good Health deals with the meeting topic for this week and next week. There are recipes in there as well!
- Busting the top 4 cardio machine myths. This one is worth a read
A closing quote--
“Take care of your body.
It’s the only place
you have to live.”
-Johh Rohn
RECIPES:
Zucchini Lasagna using the killer zucchini from my garden!!!
Yield: 8 servings at a POINTS® Value of 7 per serving
Ok....this recipe came about when faced with the prospect of just having to pull a ripe five pound zucchini out of the garden. I found a recipe online when searching for ideas on how to use this monster. I modified this recipe to make it more point friendly, and for lasagna, it is pretty respectable with regard to Points! Below is an actual photo of the finished product. It was absolutely delicious!
Ingredients:
3 pounds large zucchini, scrubbed and sliced into planks, about 1/8" thick.
1 jar Barilla Marinara sauce, or tomato sauce of your liking. I happen to think this is a superb product!
1 cup bread crumbs
1- 15 oz container of lowfat ricotta cheese (HEB or Kroger is great!)
4 eggs, lightly beaten (or equivalent in Egg Beaters)
2 Tablespoons parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon each dried oregano, basil
Salt & pepper to taste
1 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
8 oz shredded part skim mozzarella cheese
Directions:
Slice zucchini into long thin slices, approx 1/8". Cook in boiling water just until limp, about 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels.
Combine ricotta, eggs, parsley, seasoning and half of the parmesan cheese and half of the bread crumbs in a bowl. Set aside.
In a 9x13 pan, spoon a thin layer of tomato sauce. Sprinkle with a quarter of the bread crumbs. Arrange layer of zucchini over this. Spoon half of the reserved ricotta mixture on top of the zucchini. Sprinkle with half the mozzarella cheese. Arrange the rest of the zucchini over this, layer more tomato sauce and the rest of the bread crumbs and top with remaining ricotta mixture. Top with remaining mozzarella and parmesan.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 1 hour or until top is brown. Let stand 20 minutes before cutting.
Zucchini Bread
Desserts
Yield: 2 loaves @ 10 slices with a POINTS® Value of 3 per slice
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 60 minutes
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients:
Butter-flavor cooking spray
2 cup(s) whole wheat flour
2/3 cup(s) all-purpose flour
1 tsp table salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
3 large egg white(s)
1 large egg(s)
1 cup(s) sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup(s) canola oil
2/3 cup(s) unsweetened applesauce
2 cup(s) zucchini, peeled, grated, and drained*
1/2 cup(s) chopped walnuts
1/2 cup(s) raisins, finely chopped
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat two 8- X 4-inch loaf pans with cooking spray; set aside.
In a large bowl, sift together whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon; set aside.
Using an electric mixer, in a large mixing bowl, beat egg whites until frothy. Add egg, sugar, vanilla extract, oil and applesauce, and beat until thoroughly combined; beat in zucchini.
Add sifted ingredients to egg mixture and mix well; fold in nuts and raisins. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake in middle of oven until a toothpick inserted in center of bread comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes. Slice each bread into 10 pieces and serve warm or at room temperature. Yields 1 slice per serving.
Notes:
* You’ll need about 1 1/2 medium zucchinis (about 3/4 lb) to yield 2 cups shredded zucchini.
This zucchini bread is delicious as is or toasted and spread with reduced-fat cream cheese (could affect POINTS values). For a different twist, swap the raisins for dried cranberries and the walnuts for pecans.
This bread freezes well. Wrap tightly in aluminum foil and then place in a sealable freezer bag.
