This week at Weight Watchers was a recipe swap. Since only me (the leader) and one member brought in recipes (I gave the rest of them a pass since the meeting was at 7:30am after all), I decided to shift the topic towards rethinking kitchen staples. The whole idea behind the meeting was to think about why changing things up in your diet is important, and here is what we came up with as a group:
- It keeps us from getting bored.
- It adds variety.
- It refocuses us, because when we eat the same things all the time we feel safe with them.
- It allows us to eat seasonally and buy what is fresh at the market.
And something else I wanted to add but didn’t – it keeps our bodies guessing. I think sometimes our bodies get really accustomed to what we eat if we tend to eat the same things over and over, so you sort of surprise it when you introduce it to new foods and can push yourself out of a rut.
After covering the basics of why it’s important to change up the diet, we talked about some staples that we all have in our kitchen and ways to rethink them.
First up, hummus.
- Discoveries: Trader Joe’s makes a tahini-free hummus that has just 1 pt. as does Cedar’s brand
- Uses: On sandwiches, in tuna salad with a little greek yogurt, in egg salad, with hot dogs in a tortilla.
Next up, beans.
- Sprinkle on salads.
- Mash up with salsa and cumin and melt cheddar over the mixture on an English muffin or pita.
- Make your own bean dips/spreads.
- Add to stirfries.
- Mix with corn, canned tomatoes with jalapenos, and red bell peppers, cover with sliced polenta, top with cheese and bake for a casserole. Yum.
Last one discussed, frozen veggies.
- Stirfries with chicken or tofu
- Egg scrambles
- Fried Rice or another grain
- Soups
- Frozen spinach for smoothies
Some other random things that came out:
- Roast eggplant rounds and store in the fridge to use for the “bread” on sandwiches.
- This recipe yields pesto that is 2 pts+ for 1/4 of a cup. You could freeze it into 2 tbsp portions in an ice cube tray for just 1 pt+ a pop.’
- Health Salad is one of my favorite recipes and the one I brought for the swap.
- Cooking Light, Real Simple, WeightWatchers.com, and SkinnyTaste.com are some favorite sources for WW-friendly recipes.
- When you don’t tell people you are making a healthy or Weight Watcher friendly recipe, they won’t know – they’ll just think it’s delicious!
Tell me – what’s one staple you always keep on hand in your kitchen and what is your go-to use for it?
