We love you Berry Much

For Valentines this year I wanted to send out a healthy treat to our family.  I tried making fruit leather but cooked it on wax paper and it wouldn't come off of it.  It was too bad because it was really good from what I could taste of it. I made a little note to go with it that said "We love you Berry much" so I new I wanted to do something with berries in it.  I was really excited when I came accross these Cherry Almond Cookies from Sunday Baker.  I made these with dried cranberries instead of cherries and thought they were very good. The recipe only made about 10 cookies so I ended up making it again and doubling it.  Here is the doubled version which should made about 20 cookies.

Cranberry Almond Cookies

2/3 cup almonds (I used sliced)

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 1/3 cup dried cranberries

1 1/3 cup WHITE WHOLE WHEAT flour

4 Tbsp unsweetened applesauce

1/3 cup egg whites

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

dash of salt

Heat oven to 350 and spray a cookie sheet.

Pulse almonds and sugar in a food processor until the almonds are ground into a course texture.

  Put into seperate bowl.  Put dried cranberries into food processor and chop up a little. Pour the cranberries with the almond and sugar mixture. Then add the flour and salt if desired.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together.

Form the dough into 20 balls and cook on cookie sheet for atleast 20 minutes or until center of cookies are cooked through. 

There sre 3 WWPP.  I apoligize because I figured out the nutritional information on these and then it got deleted off my computer but I do  know for sure that if your serving is 20 cookies then they are 3 points plus each. 

Recent eats

Ripped in 30 is going great!  I am already down 2 pounds from monday and hoping to get down another pound by next monday.  This first week is not too tough for me but I know that it will get harder.  It is, after all, Jillian Michaels.  Here are a few things I have eaten this past week that are sort of remakes of what is on her meal plan.  I am still counting points and only trying things on her plan mostly for lunch or breakfast.

This was already a common breakfast for me.  I found some really good whole wheat english muffins recently (at winco).  The brand is Bubba's and have been eating them regularly for breakfast.  I put WW cheese wedges (1pt+) on them and got the idea to put egg whites on them from Jillian michaels meal plan.  Love the egg whites with it for sure!

 Tuna is by far my favorite thing in the whole entire world.  My midwife recommended that I not eat tuna while I was pregnant because of the mercury in it and so after I had my daughter it was the first thing I requested in the hospital.  I love a really good tuna salad as well.  I mixed the tuna with the Lighthouse poppyseed dressing that you see in the picture instead of mayo and just put it over the salad.  The dressing is really low fat and is only 2 pts for 2 tbsp.  I only put one tablespoon in the tuna. 

 This is just pinapple and apples mixed with half a cup of low fat cottage cheese.  It was a nice change for a breakfast for me

 I LOVE  HUMMUS.  I tried this particular brand at costco the other day while they were doing samples and craved it for days so last night I went and picked myself up some and could not wait to try it with some whole wheat pitas.  YUMMY!  I added in some grape tomotoes that I had leftover from a dinner the other night and it was so good. 

This is the Hummus I got.   5.99 for the big container which is a good deal I think!

Mid morning Blueberry Smoothie

Yesterday after having Chocolate Chip Scones for breakfast I found that I craved sweets all day long. While I am not sure if it was that or the fact that I was visited by my monthly gift =) this morning but I thought I would play it safe and stuck with a whole wheat english muffin for breakfast with a light cheese spread.  I used weight watchers  jalapeno cheese wedge. (1 pt+ per wedge).  Its one of my favorite things for breakfast lately.  MMmmm mmmm.

 Last night I was looking on pinterest  for some ways  to use up some blueberries I had on hand and found some good looking smoothie recipes.  So when I started to get a little hungry at about 10 I decided a smoothie would be perfect for little girl and I.  I just went off a few recipes I used last night and made my own.  It was a perfect way to get me through till lunch and so so delicious.  I never think to do blueberries in smoothies mostly because I don't enjoy blueberries plain but this had such good flavor and was so easy.

Blueberry Banana Smoothie

1 Cup Fresh Blueberries.  (You could use frozen too.)
1 Banana
6 oz light vanilla yogurt.  (I used weight watchers 2 pt yogurt)
1 tsp agave nectar.  (You can use honey too if you dont have agave)
2 cups ice

Mix all the ingredients in the blender and enjoy. 
Extra add ins you could do: Flax seed, oatmeal (I may try this next time), almond or vanilla extract. 

I separated it into 2 servings that came to about 1 1/4 cups.

Calories 154, carbs 35, Fat  0, Protein 4, fiber 4.5, WWPP 2.

WhoNu and Myfitness pal.

I have to share with you something I recently discovered

My husband saw these on a end cap as he was leaving work the other day and he thought I might like to try them.   I have seen them before but hadn't tried them  because I kind of doubted that they tasted all that great. They claim to be packed with vitamins. 

For some reason I thought of reduced fat oreos that I had years ago and that didn't sound very appealing. I was a little sceptical when Ron brought some home for me to try! but....
Guess what...They are so good!  I may even go as far as to say that they are better then Oreo cookies.  If not better, at least comparable and they are not necessarily low fat but you can have three cookies for 4 point+.  Not too bad if you ask me!  They even have four different flavors. Try them and if you get a sunday paper then check this past Sundays (1/22/2012) for coupons for them and you can get a discount! 

And you dont even have to feel bad about giving them to your children becasue they have a ton of vitamins =)