I Like Weightwatchers' Recipes

Weekends are definitely harder. I've only managed 30 minutes out with the dog today, because this morning I had to supervise Little Starlet and two friends organizing themselves for a bake sale (the torture - I have to bake cake for it) on Friday in support of Pennies for Peace (www.penniesforpeace,org), so Hubby took Ruby and himself out without me.

Then Deep Thought arrived back from her soccer practice bearing chocolate chip cookies from Peet's Coffee. She had, for the very first time, taken herself off to Peet's after practice to buy a hot chocolate - how the babies grow - and her altruistic impulses insisted that she not return empty handed. Cookies were duly stowed for dessert after lunch.

For lunch we had tilapia with boiled potatoes, asparagus (which the children pretty much refused to eat) and home made hollandaise sauce, courtesy of the Weightwatchers website. I have always avoided making hollandaise sauce, despite it being a critical ingredient of Eggs Benedict, which is one of my favorite meals, as the story goes that it is very hard to make. Poppycock, I say, it turned out to be very easy. The Weightwatchers recipe was: 1/3 cup butter, 2 egg yolks, 2 tbsp water, dash of salt, lemon juice to taste. Whisk the egg and water together till frothy. Then put over a double burner and continue whisking. As the mixture begins to firm up, pour in the butter (already melted in the microwave) and whisk some more. Remove from the heat and whisk in the lemon juice and salt to taste. It worked really well and was worth only one point.

Then we had half a cookie each, which was five points. Yikes.

I think the main thing about the points system is the way it makes you size up your food choices. Will I get as much satisfaction from the 4oz pot of yoghurt for four points or the seven crisps (yes, I mean individual crisps)? For five points I can have two boiled eggs and a slice of toast - or half a cookie. Of course, you don't always want to be eating egg etc, and sometimes the craving for sweet is almost overwhelming. Tonight's experiment in snack food is going to be cottage cheese with strawberries, in a 100 calorie pot courtesy of Kraft.

Now all I have to decide is what's for dinner: cottage pie or baked potatoes?

Happy Independence Day

Today is the Fourth of July, so of course we had a barbecue. Our new outdoor kitchen is finished. We decided to use today as an excuse to get some people over and try out our new grills. I thought we'd try an ambitious menu, drawn from a new cook book: "Planet Barbecue" by Steven Raichlen.

The menu included:
- Santa Maria Tri-Tip (beef)= Californian recipe
- Ginger, Garlic and Honey Grilled Back Ribs (pork) = Cambodian recipe
- Grilled Tofu with Chile Peanut Sauce = Malaysian recipe
- Grilled Bananas = Colombian recipe
- Caramelized Grilled Pineapple = Brazilian recipe
- Rotisserie Onions = Brazilian recipe

And there were various other things, including a summer pudding made by Deep Thought. We were inspired by OEM saying she had made one a couple of days ago. We'd never made one before and were pretty pleased by how it turned out. Like OEM's, ours went onto the plate without falling apart! One of our young friends had also made dessert: decorated cupcakes laid out in the pattern of the US flag (see photo). There were many left over at the end of the meal, and I cruelly made her mother take them all home. Good for me!

The grilling was reasonably successful. The best dish of those listed above was the ribs. Hubby burned them a bit, but it didn't seem to matter too much. The beef was a bit tough, though not sure why. The tofu was fine, but was an incredible faff to make, with an ingredient list as long as your arm that would have been longer if I'd bothered to buy every item called for. I think Hubby learned that both grills get hotter than he expected - and certainly hotter than our old kettle grill, which was consigned to the recycling center yesterday - and so everything is even more inclined to burn than before.

We'll be grilling for 26 people next weekend, and I'm sure there will be even more men around willing to offer their expert advice. It really is a guy thing.

Dieting Manifesto

Over-Educated Mother and I have drawn up our ten point weight loss manifesto, and here it is:

1. Eat less food.
2. But eat everything we want to in moderation.
3. No deprivation allowed.
4. Eat slower and with more thought.
5. Don't think about food all the time: Menu plan at the start of the week.
6. Limit daily calorie intake to 2,200 in the first four weeks. Reduce to 2,000 daily in second four weeks; then 1,800 in last four weeks. See what happens.
7. Good breakfast is essential.
8. No more than one visit to a coffee shop per day.
9. Stick to a proper time table for meals: No late lunches or dinners. No snacks between snacks.
10. Exercise once a week at first rising to three times a week.