Weight Watchers Friendly Meals

Saturday at my Weight Watchers meeting, my leader, Renee, mentioned some good, low-point summer recipes. During the conversation I asked her and the group if they were familiar with the Weight Watchers recipe magazine that comes out twice a year. They weren't. I recommended the current issue, which has several really good recipes in it. Over the past few months, I've made several recipes from other issues of this magazine: lemon-parsley chicken, spinach stuffed trout, Thai chicken in peanut sauce, and schnitzel with noodles. My favorite Sunday breakfast is another Weight Watcher friendly meal, good at any time of the day. Check out those links for recipes.

I usually buy the Weight Watchers recipe magazine at the Publix; I find it on the magazine stand next to the cash register. Weight Watchers usually publishes the magazine in the fall and spring.

I made a couple of those recipes Saturday night: Lemon Basil Shrimp with Fettuccine. At only 5 points per serving, this is an easy recipe to make, but it looks like I cooked all day. And the great thing about this recipe was that I already had most of the ingredients in my pantry. Here's how I made it:

Ingredients:
2 tsp. olive oil
1 1/4 cups vertically sliced onion
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 pound peeled and deveined medium shrimp
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano, undrained
1 1/2 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
1 tsp. grated lemon rind
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 (9 ounce) pkg. fettuccine
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Boil fettuccine (don't add any fat to the water) and drain. While it's cooking, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic to pan; saute 3 minutes or until tender. Increase heat to high; add wine. Cook 1 to 2 minutes or until wine reduces by half. Add shrimp, tomatoes, and next 4 ingredients; cook 5 minutes or until shrimp are done. Add cooked fettuccine to shrimp mixture; toss gently to coat. To serve, sprinkle evenly with Parmesan cheese. Serves 6.

I served the lemon basil shrimp with sauteed summer squash with basil and tomatoes. As I reviewed this recipe, I realized it's the way I cook my squash all the time, just with grape tomatoes and Asagio cheese added. It's only one point per serving:

Ingredients:
2 tsp olive oil
2 small zucchini, sliced
1 large yellow squash, sliced (I used more than that)
1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup grape tomatoes
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup (1 ounce) shredded Asagio cheese
2 tbsp. chopped fresh basil

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add zucchini, squash, and onion; saute 6 minutes. Add garlic; saute 4 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add tomatoes, salt and pepper to pan; saute 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Stir in cheese and basil. Serves 6.

All these fresh herbs and pasta make me want to go to Italy to try some honest to goodness real Italian food. So I'm hopping on a plane Tuesday, and I'll be there for 10 days, visiting Salerno, Amalfi, Siena, Florence, Pompeii, and Rome. I'll have while I'm gone. I'm sure the dishes I make won't qualify for the 3 cooking classesWeight Watchers cookbook, but they ought to be good. So I'll blog about them (and post photos) in June.

Ciao!

Mother's Day

This is my mother.









This is my mother with me (This photo was taken a long, long time ago).











My mother's accomplishments are many:

• She's an award-winning journalist.
• She wrote, published and marketed her own book.
• She's completed instruction to be a travel agent.
• She's also a medical transcriptionist.
  
• She's rafted through the Grand Canyon and through Yellowstone National Park.
• She's traveled to Great Britain, Europe, the Caribbean, and Indonesia.
  
• She makes and sells jewelry.
• Through the Bibb County Extension Service, she is a master gardener.
  
• She knits and crochets.
• She's a former editor of Women's Wear Daily and attended fashion shows with Dolly Parton and Spike Lee (even though at the time, she didn't know who Spike Lee was).
  
• She's a friend to cats.
• She's traced her family tree back so many generations I've lost count.
  

Pretty cool, huh? And those are just the things I know about. In recognition of all those accomplishments, I set about writing a blog posting to honor my mom on Mother's Day, but I'm not always good at writing off the cuff. She's much better at that than I am. After several failed attempts, I thought, "What better way to honor my mom than to violate her copyright and re-publish something much better that she wrote?" Hearing no objections, I present a column that she wrote just a few years ago for The Macon Telegraph (My own comments appear in brackets):

Six Thousand and Counting

In honor of Mother's Day, I decided to count up the day's I've been a mother. [She's a much braver soul than I am.]

The total is so staggering, I'm going to spend the rest of the day recuperating in bed. [Okay, not as brave as I thought].

Eighteen years, times 365 days, plus the extra months and odd days since my firstborn arrived [She's talking about my sister there], comes to 6,622 days of nonstop motherhood [I've only made it to an even 5,900].

I mention this only in order to establish my credentials. I am an Experienced Mother [Whereas I am only a moderately-experienced mother].

Unfortunately, experience doesn't count for much since each new day of motherhood brings astounding discoveries [You too?].

Mothers make more discoveries every day than Christopher Columbus in a lifetime [Well, he only gets credit for one big one].

If I try hard, close my eyes and really concentrate, I can remember what if felt like not to be a mother. The last time I wasn't a mother, I was 24 and ever so naive. It was an uncluttered, uncomplicated time [even though it didn't seem so uncomplicated then].

Now I am vastly wiser, and on this Mother's Day, I would like to share with my young readers--those who aren't mother's yet--some of the discoveries one makes during 6,622 days of motherhood.

Listen my children, and attend [I think she's talking to you, Lucy and Elizabeth].

• When you're in the hospital following childbirth, the nurses periodically bring the baby to your room. It's just adorable, wrapped in its little blanket and cooing softly. Look at that fuzzy round head. Look at those big, blue eyes, that rosebud mouth. Oh, how sweet. [Wasn't I precious?]
  
  It's after you get the baby home that you discover the truth about new babies. No one has told you that they can yell nonstop for hours no matter how much you feed them, rock them, walk them and croon inanities into their soft little ears [For the record, that wasn't me. That was Harley.]. And no one has told you that a baby, for all its tiny size and limited diet, can make worse smells than all Farmer Brown's Poland China pigs [Definitely Harley].
  
  Suddenly, you realize why the nurses smiled so happily as you and baby departed the maternity floor.
  
  
• Baby is 2. By this time, you've been spit up on, thrown up on, wet on and insulted in more odorous ways dozens of times. Now baby is toddling and has a full set of sharp little teeth. It's time for new discoveries.
  
  Baby loves to pull things off tables--like your china and crystal--and watch them smash on the floor [I thought Harley was 16 when he did that]. Baby puts rows of little tooth marks on the coffee table, the piano, and on you [I don't remember biting the piano, but I do remember carving Harley's initials in it.]. Baby eats bugs. She uses the manicure scissors to style her hair and trim the cat [Okay, in my defense, that hair cut was not much worse than the one Mrs. Womack always gave me at the barber shop, and mine was much cheaper!].
  
  
• Baby is 5, and you discover how adept she is with those little, dimpled hands. Baby finds daddy's toolbox and saws off two of her bedposts one day during naptime [Truly, I think that was really one of Mom's bad dreams]. Baby removes the windshield wipers from your car [But that did happen, and again, in my defense, Dad was really proud of me.] and all the knobs from the television set. She fluff-dries the cat in the clothes dryer.
  
  
• Now she is 6. Baby goes to school, and you discovers she isn't a genius after all. She hates homework, can't count and prints her letters backwards. At this point she's a tomboy--into tree-climbing and trampolines and is learning to ride a bicycle. You discover the emergency room and get to know its staff on a first name basis [I ran over a dead frog with my skateboard and broke my arm.]
  
  
• Baby is 8. She's freckle-faced, snaggle-toothed, and she wants a pony. Her room is full of stuffed animals, and she brings home stray kittens [That apple didn't fall far from the tree, did it?].
  
  One day she tells you she's built a tree house, and you're so proud--until you discover that she's used the slats from her bed and the center leaf from your dining room table, all hammered into your best magnolia tree with ten-penny nails [Now that claim is just pure fiction. But I guess it could happen in some American household].
  
  
• Now she's 12, and she's discovered boys and the telephone. She giggles a lot. She experiments with makeup and wants a bikini. You spend your time keeping track of where she is and who she's with. One day you look in the mirror and discover your first gray hairs and fine lines around your eyes--a direct result of constant vigilance [Many men consider those fine wrinkles of experience quite attractive. Shouldn't Mom thank me?]
  
  
• She's 16 and drives too fast. She calls boys "men." You make the shattering discovery that she has a curvy figure [Unfortunately, that was not me. There was never a curve on my lanky teenaged body. Sabra got all the good genes]. You regard all the boys as The Enemy, wait up for her to come in at night, and you pray a lot. More gray hairs, and the lines aren't so fine anymore.
  
  
• She's 18, and she has a job. She buys her own clothes and makeup and still brings home stray kittens. She's going to college [where the RA at the dorm wasn't so crazy about that kitten thing]. She's in love, and she asks for a later curfew. You discover that you're a very nervous person.
  

One other thing they don't tell you about motherhood is that these 6,622 days pass very quickly. In retrospect, it's hard to believe how fast it's all happened.

Happy Mother's Day!

BC LaCrosse

Now I know why they call this game LaCrosse. Whenever someone asks about the game, the explanation begins with, "It's a cross between..."

I've heard several comparisons:

• It's a cross between soccer and hockey.
• It's a cross between rugby and soccer--with nets.
• It's a cross between soccer, hockey, and polo.

If you ask me, I think it's a cross between jousting, football and ultimate fighting champions matches. This is the first game I've ever watched where players are allowed to hit each other with poles. No wonder they wear so much thick padding and helmets. This game's rougher than football.

And my son plays it. There he is: number 16.

This year was the first year BC had a LaCrosse team, and although their season had its highs and lows, in the end the Cadets found themselves at the state championship (Apparently, with this sport, it's kosher to LaCrosse boundaries as well, because Savannah's Cadets were fighting to be state champions of South Carolina. Go figure.). So last night, Stephen and I drove LaCrosse Chatham County to Pooler, Georgia to witness the Cadets butt heads (literally) with Hammond High School.

The Cadets fought hard (especially Bobby Crider and Matt Johnson, who got caught in LaCrosse-fire a couple of times), and Cadet fans got a little LaCrosse with some of the refs' bad calls. Ultimately, Hammond won. Still, the Cadets ended the night in good spirits, pleased with their initial season and ready to prepare for next year.

While they're practicing, I'm going to learn more about the rules of this game.

My Favorite Part About "The Sound of Music" (St. Peter's Production)

Maria: Mother Abbess, I have returned to the convent. I couldn't stay with the Von Trapps anymore. I love the children, but I couldn't face the captain. And I felt like I wasn't meeting my commitment to God. I think I can serve Him better as a nun.

Mother Abbess: Why did you come back?

The Hills are Alive...

When we learned the fifth grade was producing a performance of The Sound of Music, Lawson immediately told us that he hoped he'd be in charge of props. Lawson's a man of very few words, so we were surprised to learn he had a speaking role in the play: Uncle Max. We were especially surprised because he told us about his speaking part yesterday.

Thank goodness Mrs. Fonseca didn't need me to make a costume!

So tonight at 7:00, Stephen and I took JoJo and PopPop to the parish center to see Lawson's big debut. He did an excellent job. He spoke his lines clearly. Then he sat on stage and minded his own business. No one can ever accuse Lawson of being a ham.

Still, I smell a Tony!

Yea, Lawson!

A Few Dishes I've Made Lately

I ended the Remler Menu just in time. The month of April always kicks my behind, with the end of the academic year upon me, students needing advisement, and my kids' extracurricular activities coming to a head. I always take a breather when May 1st comes around.

But I did cook some good meals in April. At least, I think they were good dishes. Lawson didn't always agree, but I've learned that I'm seldom going to please him at the dinner table.

One dinner I made was beef stronganoff, my mom's recipe. I love that creamy, oniony, beefy flavor. I used to make it all the time right after Stephen and I married. But then he said he didn't really like it, so I stopped making it. But then a few weeks ago, fifteen years later, I thought, Why should I never have beef stroganoff again, just because Stephen doesn't like it? I eat steak and grits all the time when he cooks them. So off I went to the Publix to get the necessary ingredients. My mistake was that I tried to make it a little healthier than usual, so I used fat free sour cream instead of the regular kind. The sauce isn't as creamy that way. The texture was just a wee bit pasty. I won't do that again. I thought Lawson would like beef stroganoff because it has mushrooms in it, but he took one bite and asked if he could have cereal for dinner (to which I replied no because we don't play that game at our house). Davis ate his with no comment. That's how he rolls. Stephen ate his too, and I was surprised when he said, "I enjoyed dinner." Now he says he likes beef stroganoff. Maybe his taste buds have changed.

Another dinner I made recently was a thai chicken in peanut sauce dish I got in the most recent Weight Watchers recipe magazine I bought at the Publix (Weight Watchers comes out with this magazine twice a year, and I love it). It includes lo mein noodles, broccoli, baby corn, snow peas, water chestnuts and sugar snap peas with cut up chicken breast stir fried and served in a peanut sauce. The recipe calls for two tablespoons of low fat peanut butter, but again, to make it even healthier, I used my now favorite peanut butter product: PB2.

Made in Tifton, Georgia, at Bell Plantation, PB2 is dehydrated peanut butter. The makers remove all the oil and sell it in powder form. When I want a peanut butter sandwich, I simply mix the PB2 with water. It tastes exactly like peanut butter, but it has none of the fat! It's great! And I can use it in any recipe that calls for regular peanut butter. It tastes exactly the same. Unfortunately, PB2 is not sold in stores in my area, but I can order it directly from Bell Plantation. To save money, though, I usually buy it at my Weight Watchers meetings. My WW leader will order a case, to save money on shipping, and then I buy a jar or two from her. I strongly recommend PB2, whether you're trying to lose weight or just want to eat a healthier diet.

Another recipe from the Weight Watchers magazine was chicken schnitzel. Because Lawson is playing the role of Max in The Sound of Music tonight and tomorrow night, I thought schnitzel would be appropriate. I served it with--you guessed it--noodles (as well as peas and asparagus). Stephen and the boys liked it a lot, so we'll be having that for dinner again. I guess you can say it's now one of our favorite things! Ha!

Because I wrote about three dishes in one blog posting, I did not include the recipes. But I'll be happy to share them with you if you'd like. Just leave a comment and I'll get back to you.

Two Reasons I Shop at Publix

1. Me: (Reaching over a box to grab a package of toilet paper) Pardon me. I didn't mean to get in your way.

Stockman: Oh, no ma'am. Pardon me for getting in your way. A customer is never in the way.

2. Signs written in standard English.

Nuff said.