Starting Weight Watchers (with Bonus Recipe!)

Brandon and I are starting a new adventure in eating next week: Weight Watchers! Brandon would like to lose some weight, and my own weight is finally stable enough (as Lucas is getting older and eating more solids) that I no longer need to constantly stuff my face in order to maintain a weight I'm comfortable with.

I'm pretty skeptical of most diets, but I like Weight Watchers because it's mainly a system of tracking what you eat and encouraging you to eat fruits and veggies, lean proteins, whole grains, and healthy fats. My mom has been an avid Weight Watcher pretty much my whole life and lost over 50 pounds back when I was in college/law school (yay Mom!). She has maintained the loss over years now, so I know it can work as a lifestyle change rather than a quick fix.

Much of the work of planning, shopping, and cooking will fall to me but I've been having fun coming up with healthy ideas for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners over this first week. Here are some of the foods we're going to eat this week:

Breakfasts:

Healthy Breakfast Cookies (I used this recipe that I found on Pinterest, with a couple minor substitutions)
Travel Omelettes (See my own recipe, below)

Lunches:

Cold pasta salad with tuna, edamame, and veggies
Grilled chicken and salad
Dinner leftovers

Dinners:

Marinated flank steak with potato/turnip mash and Brussels sprouts
Crockpot Dijon Chicken and roasted broccoli
Weight Watchers recipe beef nachos
Crockpot Veggie Beef soup
Lemon leek pasta with lobster meat (and probably salad as well)

I'm excited to start eating more healthy foods, both for myself and so I can feel good about feeding what we eat to Lucas as we transition him from purees to table food. Neither Brandon nor I enjoy eating many vegetables, so I'm going to do the best I can integrating more veggies into all of our daily meals.

These egg muffins are a good example! Or, as I have decided to call them, Travel Omelettes. They're a great quick breakfast for both of us. Brandon rushes out the door at 6:15 every morning, so this is something he can take with him, and it's an easy thing for me to microwave and eat without having to spend time in the kitchen preparing breakfast every morning. This time, I used bell pepper, onion, and spinach with Parmesan cheese and ham, but you can put in pretty much anything you want. Next time, I'm going to make a New Mexican version with green chile, cheddar, and bacon.

Elizabeth's Travel Omelettes

Ingredients:

10 eggs (the recipe I based mine from called for 12. I used 11 because of all the veggies I had in there, and still over-filled the compartments, so next time I will use one less.)
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cups chopped fresh spinach
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup ham, chopped (The meat is optional, unless your husband is from the Midwest, or you could substitute sausage or bacon)
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons seasoned salt
1/4 cup milk (I used skim, but you can use whatever you have in the house)
Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease 12-piece muffin tin using cooking spray.
2. Divide chopped ham between 12 compartments.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet. Sauté chopped onion and bell pepper for 5 minutes, until soft. Then add chopped spinach and cook for 2-3 minutes more, until wilted. Set aside until slightly cooled. Once cooled, divide veggies between compartments, placing on top of ham.
4. Place one tablespoon Parmesan cheese in each compartment, on top of veggies.
5. Whisk together 11-12 eggs, adding in seasoned salt and milk. Then use a measuring cup to pour the egg mixture over the ham/veggies/cheese. Do not fill each compartment all the way to the top, I did and it spilled over a little. Use a fork to mix the egg mixture into the other ingredients.
6. Bake for 35 minutes, or until they are puffed up and slightly browned. Cool and keep in fridge or freeze until ready to eat.

I'll report back next week on how our first week as Weight Watchers went!