Weight Watchers Update and This Week's CSA.

I've been doing Weight Watchers for 4 weeks now, and I am down 9 pounds.

Celebratory Turtle says "Yay!"

I lost 7 pounds in the first 2 weeks and 2 more pounds in the last 2 weeks.  At this rate, I'll reach my goal weight by September 3rd!  And I have ZERO complaints about reaching my goal weight by September 3rd!!

Of course, if I kicked myself into high gear, I could reach my goal weight BEFORE September 3rd without even having to go overboard.  With Weight Watchers, depending on your body stats and how much weight you're wanting to lose, you're assigned a "points" limit per day of how much food you should eat in order to obtain your goal.  You're also given an allowance of bonus points per week to use however you want.  You can spread those bonus points out over the week or save them up for the weekend or particular event (that's 12 glasses of wine, people!).  You can also earn points for activities (such as manual labor or working out) that you can trade in for food points.

I pretty much use Pinterest for all of my recipes, but they do have cookbooks.

My personal daily points limit is 26, with a bonus 49 points per week.

I've sure I've mentioned all of that before, but I bring it up again to explain how I could kick things into high gear if I felt I should.  I currently use ALL of my points each week....the 26 per day along with the extra 49 points allotted.  I also trade in ALL of my activity (running) points for food points.  I'm allowed to do exactly that with my points, so it's not a big deal.  And I'm still losing weight.  But if I didn't use all of my bonus points, and if I didn't trade in my activity points for extra food/beverage, I'd lose a little more per week.  And maybe if I feel like I'm hitting a rut, I'll do just that.

I just got back from picking up my weekly CSA basket (week #2!) - yay!  I totally expected for it to be basically the same basket with a few tweaks.....I was wrong!  Besides ONE item, this basket contained a whole new set of loot!  This week's basket contained mustard greens, leaf spinach, tomatoes, brussel sprouts, zucchini, cucumbers, sweet potatoes and strawberries. 

CSA Week 2!

There are a few extra things sitting there, too.  The top left bag is a bag of broccoli florets.  Their broccoli was so good last week that I bought some more to bring home.  I also joined their herd share program (YAY!) so I'll be bringing home a gallon of delicious raw cow's milk each week.  I went ahead and paid for an extra half gallon this week as well, since I have a feeling I may need to add on and extra half share (a half gallon) or even an extra full share (a second full gallon) if this family goes through it like I think they will.  The last thing I'm sure you've noticed is the desserts in the bottom left.  Remember how delicious I said that brownie was last week?  Well.....there's one of them right there.  And it looks just as it did last week - like a plain 'ole brownie with nothing special going on.  But it is DELISH.  I also bought a peach lavender tart from the booth, because.....well.....peach lavender tart.  It's not for me, it's for Lucas.  Though I'll definitely have a bite or two.  Same with the brownie for the kiddos, since they didn't get to tag along for today's market visit.  OH...I actually looked at the booth this time and found out that the desserts were made by The Farmer's Daughter.  It's located on Hixson Pike, so to all of my Hixson friends, if you didn't know about this place already, it may be somewhere to try.  They're open for breakfast, brunch and lunch everyday except Monday.

Sidenote:  I feel like when I was in college (the first time), The Farmer's Daughter was a meat and three kind of place off of 11th Street......where the servers were large and their servings were even larger.  Am I thinking of a totally different place??

I'm also pretty certain that I'm not going to be needing to do ANY shopping for vegetables outside of the Fall Creek Farms booth at the market.  They have EVERYTHING that you could get in season right now.  My CSA basket was just the tip of the iceberg.  And if there was anything in my basket that I hated, I was wecome to trade it for something else.  I was almost tempted to trade my brussel sprouts for some Swiss chard, but I didn't.  We have enough greens around here for now, so I'll find a delicious way to cook those sprouts.  :)

That doesn't look very Weight Watchers-y, but it definitely looks good!

My brother's ex-wife's ex-sister-in-law (yeah....have fun with that!) made all of us some brussel sprouts for Thanksgiving a few years back that were TO DIE FOR.  They were roasted, I just don't know exactly how.  I really wish I could get a hold of that recipe.  Do you think it would be weird to ask my ex-sister-in-law for her ex-sister-in-law's recipe?  Hmmm..........just maybe a bit weird.  Of course, we could take the time to exchange the recipe and also settle some previous "he-said-she-said" beef.  So it's really a win-win.  At least in my book. But I doubt I'll ever get my hands on that recipe, so I guess I'll just have to find a new one!

I already know what I'm going to do with the zucchini - I'm going to make some zero point zucchini chips to dip into some salsa (also zero points).  Though I do also love me some sauteed zucchini and zucchini fries as well!  The cucumbers and last week's tomatoes will go into a cucumber/tomato/avocado/cottage cheese salad my mom and I eat fairly often, and this week's tomatoes will be sliced as a side item or put into a side salad.  I've still got red leaf lettuce for salad greens, so I'll have to find something creative to do with the spinach (though not cream it, because that's what I did with my kale!).  And I'll have to check Pinterest for what to do with my mustard greens (besides simply sauteing them, though I do love me some sauteed greens).

Mustard greens with onion and bacon.  I like it.

Lots of people aren't greens people, and I certainly didn't use to be.  I used to turn my nose up at a simple sauteed spinach.  Or even a heavily creamed spinach (which is basically like eating a side of spinach dip).  But somewhere in the last 5-10 years, I changed my mind.  And it actually started with collard greens (that change of heart was actually closer to 20 years ago when one of my old Bi-Lo managers shared the plate of food that his wife brought in on Thanksgiving Day, since the grocery stores were typically open until 4:00 and I always worked holidays).  I didn't become a greens fan back then, but I DID discover that I loved his wife's collard greens, which made me think twice about despising ugly, cooked greens.  In recent years, I've found my love of other cooked greens.....spinach, kale, mustard, Swiss chard, etc....and I get excited to cook with them.  I love to saute them, I love to toss them into soups, and I love to find recipes where the greens are paired with things I would have never thought of.  So I am not disappointed that it is greens season!

I should also mention that almost every recipe I've pinned for my CSA basket produce has been a Weight Watchers recipe, so I don't have to feel guilty about what I cook.  The only one so far that hasn't been a Weight Watchers recipe is the Turnips Au Gratin, which calls for heavy cream and Gruyere cheese.  However, I purchased Half n' Half (instead of heavy cream) and Lowfat Swiss (instead of Gruyere) to make it with, so we'll see how it goes.  I'm 2 days behind on making it due to a storm and a power outage, but I'll be making it in the morning. 

Hopefully my dish will look a little something like this.

I'm also making Bacon Snow Peas and Butter Roasted Radishes.   Tomorrow is going to be a good day for trying new things!