In addition to your daily points values, you also get a weekly allowance of points that you can use for whatever. You can save them all up for that big bbq on Saturday with mom's pretzel jello salad, or you can use a little everyday, and have an extra piece of chicken with each dinner or a truffle each night for dessert.
We like it because I can still cook my normal yummy meals, but we just eat less of them at one sitting. We've been saving a bit of money too, because we actually have leftovers after dinner that we can eat the next day for lunch!
So, why I thought a Weight Watchers cookbook was needed or wanted in this scenario I don't know. All I know is that I spotted a WW cookbook at my in-law's house, flipped it open to the dessert section and fell in love. Now I know that I fell in love with the names of the recipes, not the recipes themselves.
I took the cookbook home and got to baking/cooking right away.
I think I've set a personal record for being persistant with an awful cookbook. With each crummy dish I made, I didn't give up hope that the next one would be better, less diety, less stupid substitutiony. (I'm sorry for the made-up words.) Oh how I wish I had given up.
Raspberry Brownies
Fail. What an utter disappointment.
Roasted Red Pepper Dip
FAIL. Yuck! Yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck! I dreamed of Trader Joes creamy red pepper dip, and what I got instead was a bitter tasting watery mess.
Guacamole
FAIL!! You cannot, I repeat, CANNOT, ever, never in your lifetime, substitute spinach for avacado. I'm on my knees as I plead with you, not literally, but I am desperate, PLEASE appreciate the goodness and nutritious fat of avacados and never make a stupid substitution choice like I did in obedience to the awful book! The taste will forever haunt me!
Chinese "Fried" Rice
Ok, not an utter failure. This was actually quite decent. Brent and I had it as our "new meal of the week." But what I served with it ruined any morsel of desire to ever make this again.
Chinese Stir-Fried Vegetables
EEWWWWW!! Triple, quadruple failure. Disgusting. Stomach wrenching. Nose putter-offer. So bad I couldn't even stomach a bite. NEVER put bamboo shoots in home cooking!
If it restores me in your mind in any way to a just-above-awful eyer of good recipes (as opposed to far, far below awful), I will mention that the stir-fried vegetables didn't actually sound good to me. I only made them because I needed something to go with the fried rice. Never will I use that logic again.
The take home message: NEVER COOK OUT OF A WEIGHT WATCHERS COOKBOOK.
And if you do, dump what you make in a nuclear waste facility, making sure NONE of it ever gets past your lips!
FYI, to make the vegetable fiasco up to ourselves, we went and got ice cream scoops of Ben & Jerry's after we swallowed what we could of the fried rice. That's when I learned that Chocolate Therapy ice cream really is therapy.
ReplyDeleteLol...you DO persist when you shouldn't! Now go to PW and cook a tried-and-true recipe for dinner :)
ReplyDeleteYou are a really good describer of techniques. I've always wondered how the WW point system worked. Don't you HATE taking the time and trouble to follow a recipe when it means you are methodically using your own hands to poison yourself? It makes me feel betrayed.
ReplyDeleteI have to ask, with the bamboo shoots..did you rinse them fully and completely before using them? As in, soaking them in water, (not what they come canned in!!) but soaking them in water, changing out that water about 3 times, and then vigorously hand rinsing each shoot before cooking? If not, then yes, bamboo shoots in home cooking are awful. They can have a metallic-y taste to them. Ugh. I have a recipe that calls for them, and when handled just right, it's good. But if not.... >_< Eeew...
ReplyDeleteI didn't soak the bamboo shoots! I didn't know I was supposed to! If I ever again muster up the courage to cook with bamboo shoots, I'll be sure to prepare them that way. :)
ReplyDelete