Guilt Free Banana Cream Pie

Banana Cream Pieis one of those desserts that I have always favored and oddly enough it’s usually in the late summer/fall time that I enjoy it.  While grocery shopping my boyfriend picked up a box of banana cream pie mix while in the produce department.  I used that package many, many years ago, but I’ve grown to enjoy my version of banana cream pie a lot more. We decided that I’d make my version and we’d see if he liked it.

A few days later, I picked up the ingredients and made the pie a few hours before dinner so it could sit in the fridge and get nice and cold. Turns out it was a hit!  I simply love this pie, not only because it’s point comfortable, but because it’s so easy to make and you really don’t miss the full fat version.  Of course, if you wanted whipped cream you could add a few dollops of fat free or light cool whip to the top to seal the deal. But I personally enjoy it just like this.

Granted this is not really a “recipe” but I wanted to share a very point friendly dessert I like to make.

Serves 8. 4 points plus valus.

Ingredients:

• Keebler Reduced Fat Ready Crust Graham Cracker Crust
• Jell-O Sugar Free Banana Cream Pudding
• 2 cups fat free milk
• 1 banana, sliced

Slice banana and layer sliced banana along the bottom of the graham cracker crust.

In a medium bowl whisk together Jell-O Pudding and milk. Blend for roughly 5 minutes until the jell-o has thickened and there are no more clumps.

Pour the pudding over the bananas.  Place into the refrigerator for a minimum of 1-hour to chill down completely.

Dinner: Country style pork ribs, potato and salad

This is a delicious dinner I had this weekend. Yes, that’s a marvelous thing about Weight Watchers – I can eat homemade barbecue without guilt and it’s deliciously fabulous.

Country style pork ribs were on sale at a local grocery store, so I picked up a pack. Since I was going to be gone for the better half of the day, I asked my mother if she wouldn’t mind making some ribs (she makes the best ribs, BTW). She agreed, so she whipped up a batch – typically she boils them with vinegar, water and an onion and then bakes them off in the oven with some barbecue sauce. Usually it’s a homemade sauce, but she decided to use Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce.

I requested that she leave my ribs aside (after baking for a few minutes) for me to pull the meat off the bone, separate the fat and mix with barbecue sauce. I ended up getting two meals out of it.

What I had for dinner was 3 oz country style pork ribs (off the bone) w/ sweet baby rays bbq sauce (7 ppv), 5 oz potato (3ppv) & side salad w/ 1 tbsp light italian (0 ppv). It was a delicious 10 points plus and worth every point!

QUESTION:

Do you like having barbecue for dinner?

Minute Maid Light 15 Calories Light Mango Passion Fruit Drink

I had picked up the pink lemonade version and since it was so good, I decided to try out the Minute Maid Light 15 Calories Light Mango Passion Fruit Drink. I adore mango passion fruit mixes (yogurt, juice, etc.) so I was hoping this wouldn’t let me down.

I do want to mention you have to shake this bad boy up. It has a bit of “settlement” on the bottom when it’s been sitting in the fridge untouched.  Shake it up and you’re good to go. The juice is absolutely delicious.  It is sweetened with aspartame which may be a determent for some.  The artificial sweetener isn’t a no-go for me, so I did enjoy this. It’s probably one of the best guilt-free juices I have had.  It’s a perfect blend of mango and passion fruit.  The only thing that could make this better would be a tropical beach, warm water and a little umbrella in my icy beverage.

A serving is 1 cup (8 fl. oz) which calculates out to be 0 points plus.  You can have up to 1 ½ cups (12 fl. oz) for 0 points plus, but if you’d like 2 cups (16 fl. oz) it would be 1 points plus.  Certainly a great bang for your buck!

QUESTION:

Have you tried any of the Minute Maid light drinks?

Dinner @ Remington’s Restaurant (Warwick, RI)

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My boyfriend and I went away during the beginning of April to celebrate our 2 year anniversary.  Since neither of us had ever been to Rhode Island, we didn’t really know what we were going to do (outside of hit up Dave & Busters and go to the Casino).  We wanted to go out for dinner for our anniversary, so after doing some online searching I found a pretty nice restaurant which had a fairly decent menu.  My boyfriend is a pickeier eater and since I am a Weight Watchers member I look for foods that aren’t going to totally make me feel sickly after eating.  The greatest part was the restaurant wasn’t too far from the hotel we were staying at and their menu had a few choices for my boyfriend and at least one that was a total “must have” for me.

I’ve mentioned countless times how I am such a lover of the Restaurant.com website.  Not only because it allows for me to save money, but it also allows me to try restaurants I perhaps wouldn’t otherwise because I am getting a discount.   The website typically sells gift certificates such as $10 for a $25 gift certificate (but please note most gift certificates come with stipulations so make sure you read the fine print – most are like spend $35 if you have a $25 gift certificate, etc.).  Another thing I love about Restaurant.com is that once you have an account, you get e-mails pretty frequently notifying you of sales such as $2 for $10 gift certificates, or $5/7 for $25, etc.

Okay, enough bragging about the website I purchased a $25 gift certificate for $2 which allowed my boyfriend and I to save some money on our anniversary dinner (saving us $23 off dinner right off the bat) – which is useful, particularly when going away because a penny saved is a penny to be spent elsewhere!

I ordered the Savory Herb Grilled Chicken Breast which according to the menu was “Light and healthy with grilled Zucchini, Summer Squash, Roma Tomato, and Asparagus

served with Roasted Red Pepper Caponata“.  I was surprised with the presentation but what surprised me most was the flavor.  This was one of the most delicious chicken dishes I have ordered out from a restaurant in a very long time.  The red pepper caponata was very unique it was slightly sweetened with raisins.  The whole dish was fabulous and I only wish all local restaurants in my area sold a dish such as this one.  At dinner I ate half my meal.  It was very filling, very flavorful and delish.

Not pictured (my camera ate the photograph) is my boyfriends meal – he ordered the Steak “Frites” which was a Grilled New York Sirloin Steak served with Maitre D’ Butter (which he quickly removed) and French Fries.

QUESTION:

Do you preplan your meals before going out?

Spotted & Haul: Arctic Zero Ice Cream

As a Weight Watchers member and fellow Instagrammer I have heard a lot about a guilt-free ice cream on the market.  I know,  I know, at first I was all “don’t believe the hype” because I’ve learned in the past, many companies hype their products up and down the road get slapped with lawsuits for providing false information on their nutrition information. Now, I’m not saying Arctic Zero is doing this, but I’m just addressing why I at first raised a brow to it.

For 150 calories per PINT (yes, the whole thing) it is only 150 calories = 3 Weight Watchers Points Plus.  Now for many of us, a pint of ice cream looks as though it’s a serving, particularly when you have a spoon in it and you are watching mindless television.  Typically if that pint of ice cream is Ben and Jerry’s you’ve got a whole other problem on your hands (and behind!?).  So, while shopping at Whole Foods a few weeks ago I spotted a few of the Arctic Zero ice cream pints on the shelf and decided to give 2 of them a try.  They didn’t have all the flavors available (I really wanted the cookies and cream) but I picked out 2 out of the 4 available that I could see myself enjoying and/or adding to a smoothie.

I picked up the Chocolate Peanut Butter and the Vanilla Maple flavors.  They have mixed reviews from all who’ve tried (some enjoy, some don’t).  But I’ll decide once I do give these a shot.

QUESTION:

Have you tried any of the Arctic Zero products?

VitaPizza – Meatless Pepperoni Supreme

Firstly, I want to say I had been looking for these VitaPizzas forEVER! Incase you’re not aware – VitaTop makes VitaPizza while they also make I want to say VitaWich.  Basically VitaTops are a healthier alternative to a muffin top and brownies, VitaPizza is a healthier swing on a personal pizza and VitaWich is a healthier alternative on breakfast sandwiches.  I’ve had VitaTops and I’m not a huge lover of them – but I do find their corn muffin top if my fav (since I love corn muffin anything).  VitaWiches were meh, not my thing … so all that was left was VitaPizza.  I spotted this at my local Shaws Supermarket (and recently just spotted it at Stop & Shop for SO much cheaper that I picked another one up).

As a lover of pizza – and all kinds, I will say this does the job of providing you a healthier alternative to pizza for less calories and Weight Watchers Pointsplus values BUT it’s not the most amazing thing I’ve ever eaten.  I did cook mine a little longer than recommended to crisp up the crust a lot more.  It’s a little blander tasting, so I did add some garlic powder and sriracha to my pizza which boosted up the flavoring and made it a lot more palatable BUT it is very filling.

For 5 points plus I feel you can’t go wrong.  I mean is it something I would purposefully hunt down again? Probably not – but when I know it may be a tough week and I’m going to WANT pizza it may be nice to have in the freezer – hence why I bought another one.

QUESTION:

Have you tried any of the Vita products?