Outsmart the Supermarket

Here’s the situation: It’s 7pm, you had a long day, you are starving, there’s nothing prepared yet for dinner and you’re out of milk. You stop by the Supermarket on the way home.

The place is crowded; all the quick fixes (roasted chicken for example) have sold out, you went in to get milk, you come out with $75 worth of groceries, some of it (or a lot of it!!) foods that you would normally avoid buying, but today they seemed just too tempting to pass up.

Sounds familiar? Sure does to me!

This week we’ll talk about why those situations happen, and what we can do to avoid them. If you go grocery shopping before we meet again, look around and see if you can identify helpers, and traps within your favorite grocery store. We want to hear all about your discoveries!

Tool of the week

Computer out of reach? Cell phone out of battery? HA AH! A book never goes out of power, now does it?

The Complete Food Companion has a generic list of food and a list of food by brand that helps you find the point value of anything you are eating very quickly!

The Dining Out Companion is the same thing but for restaurants. It has all the main chains in the US and Canada. That one lives in the dashboard of my car!

Let me know if you need the Companion, I will bring some extras!

What’s going on?

The Lose for Good Campaign is still going strong! We are losing it! Literally!!

Keep coming to the meetings and add your weight loss to our super total. Remember that Weight Watchers is giving $1 to Share our Strength for every pound we lose up to 1 MILLION.

You are doing absolutely wonderfully well, keep going!!

Food drives:

For the travelers (JCCSF and Century Club) and the At Work meetings. I will be bringing my super Matrix around all week to carry donations back to the centers this week.

Please make sure not to put in any glass bottles, and if you could use a box if you have more than 2 items, that would be helpful also!

If you can’t bring your goodies to the meetings, stop by a center or donate to your favorite charity. It’s all about sharing the goods!

In the Kitchen

This recipe is from a Weight Watchers cookbook from a few years ago called Simply Bueno. I haven’t made if for a while, but I came across it yesterday and will surely do it again soon. It’s delicious and so easy!

I use plain non-fat yogurt instead of half & half just because fat free half & half sounds spooky to me. If you like it use it!

Here it is:

Spiced-up Pumpkin Soup

6 servings, 2 pts/serving

Ingredients

2 limes

2 tsp olive oil

1 large Spanish onion, chopped

2 tsp ground cumin (roast and grind yourself, so much better!)

½ tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp cayenne (I put more)

5 cup vegetable broth

2 cans (15 oz) solid-pack pumpkin puree (not pie filling!!)

½ cup unsweetened apple sauce

1 TBSP sugar

¾ tsp salt

3 TBSP fat free half & half (I use fat free plain yogurt)

Zest one of the limes, then squeeze enough juice from the limes to equal 2 TBSP. Set zest and juice aside.

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until golden about 6 minutes. Add cumin, cinnamon, and cayenne; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Remove the mixture from the heat and let cool about 5 minutes.

Transfer the onion mixture to a food processor and add 1 cup of the broth; puree. Return to the Dutch oven; add the remaining 4 cups of broth, the pumpkin, the apple sauce, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, about 2 minutes. Stir in the reserved lime juice.

Ladle the soup into 6 bowls. Drizzle each with ½ TBSP half & half (or yogurt) and swirl lightly with the tip of a knife. Sprinkle with the reserved lime zest.

That soup is truly delicious and keeps well for a few days!

At Work corner

Supplies are getting low my friends! If there is anything you need, let me know and I’ll bring it. If you don’t email me, I don’t know you need it.

That’s what we talked about last week, if you don’t ask, you don’t get!! ;o)

Have a successful week!

Never be afraid to email me if you need. I am there for you!

If you can’t make your regular meeting, check out my meeting schedule and stop by somewhere. We have a good Momentum going, keep it going! Together we can do anything!

Melanie Bourgeois

Leader

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plan.”

~ Robert Louis Stevenson