WFMW ~ Cooking With Couscous

Cooking with couscous definitely works for me!  It's easy to fix and easy to make quick healthy recipes with it.  Never heard of couscous?  It looks like a small grain, but is actually pasta.  You can find it in your grocery store near the pasta or rice.  It cooks very quickly.  In general, if you just want some plain couscous with your meal (maybe w/ some butter) - you boil the water, then add in the couscous, remove from heat, cover, and it's ready in 5 minutes!  My family loves it!

Some couscous recipes I enjoy are:

Vegetable Couscous Salad

Tony's Breakfast Couscous

Caesar Couscous*

*This one is on my other blog.  You could make the recipe healthier by using a Light Caesar dressing and using less Parmesan cheese in it.

I have another easy healthy couscous side dish to share with you today!  It's from my old BHG New Dieter's Cook Book.  It's so easy to make for a side dish since I always keep the ingredients on hand!

Herbed Couscous

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup water

1 tablespoon snipped fresh parsley (or 1/2 tablespoon dried parsley)

1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crushed

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed

Dash pepper

2/3 cup couscous

In medium saucepan, combine all ingredients except couscous.  Bring to boiling; remove from heat.  Stir in couscous.  Let stand, covered, for 5 minutes.  Makes 4 servings.

Per serving: 108 cal., 3 g fat, no fiber info given, about 2 WW pts

The original recipe calls for sauteed fresh mushrooms to cook with the water and herbs at the beginning and adds in chopped tomato at the end.  Feel free to add those in - I just like to make this on the spur of the moment and not have to worry about having the veggies to add.  You could also add in whatever veggies you like!

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If you haven't had couscous, I hope you give it a try.  Do you already cook with it?  What are your favorite couscous recipes?

For more Works-For-Me-Wednesday tips, be sure to stop by We Are THAT Family!

Have a healthy day!

Lisa  :)

4 to 40 ~ Week 4 ~ Final Update

I had hoped to have a fabulous week for the end of this short challenge, but we came back from a trip, hubs was off work, son on Spring Break, etc. so it was hard to stay on track.  I am officially 40 today - woo hoo (if you're interested in a birthday giveaway, stop by my other blog but don't look at the chocolate surrounding you there - LOL)!

I did get to WW to weigh in.  Since I didn't weigh in there last time (just weighed myself), it was a gain though it was actually a loss for the week.  If I were to dwell on the negative, I would be upset about such a small loss over 4 weeks and be discouraged about getting anywhere close to my goal even by the end of the year!  But the good thing is that I DON'T like to dwell on the negative!  The positive side is that I did lose some weight over the 4 weeks, no matter how small the amount - I'm still going in the right direction!  And last year at this time, I gained 5 lbs after Spring Break and a trip to see my Dad - so this year is MUCH better!  In fact, I weigh less at age 40 than at age 39 so that is something!  :)

Here's how I did for the final week:

1.  Lose 5 lbs. - Lost 1.4 lbs this week; making a total of 1.2 lbs lost for the 4 weeks.
2.  Exercise 4x/week for 30+ min.  - Only 1x (hangs head in shame): 50 min. walking
3.  Drink 4 (12 oz) glasses water/day. - Did once.
4.  Go to bed @ 11:30pm on weekdays. - Made it 3 times!!
5.  Make 2 breakfast & 2 lunch recipes/week. - 1 breakfast recipe - WW Chocolate Chip-Orange Scones.

I'm not going to follow any sort of challenge this week - I'll just try to survive my birthday week without a big weight gain!  But I do want a new challenge to follow until Summer (after this week, it will be 6 weeks until the unofficial start of Summer - Memorial Day weekend and 9 weeks until it's officially Summer).  I'm willing to join up with somebody else's challenge or start my own.  What do you think?  Ideas?  Suggestions?

How was your week?  Are you back on track?  Did you make the goals you set for yourself during this 4 weeks?  We can do this!!  Take some time this week to think about what really motivates you.

Thanks for sticking with me!  You are helping hold me accountable and it does make a difference for me!  Hugs to all!

Have a healthy day!
Lisa  :)

Healthy Recipe Pic Updates

I do like to include pictures with my healthy recipes as much as possible, but I didn't do that when I started this blog.  It really does help you to see if it's a recipe you want to make!  I have recently updated some of the recipes with current pics, so I thought I'd share them.  Always good to be reminded of some yummy recipes you may have forgotten!

Summer Corn Salad

Fabulous Fruit Salad

Chocolate Chip-Orange Scones*

*I previously had a pic, but this latest batch turned out better so I took a new pic!  Just finished the last of those this morning - yum.

That's it for now.  I do make many of the recipes on this blog regularly, but forget to take pics!  As I remember, I'll show you the updates!  :)

Have a healthy day!

Lisa  :)

4 to 40 ~ Week 3

Only 1 week left until I'm 40!  Wow!  Though I met some of my goals last week, the scale did not reflect it.  :(  It really wasn't pretty.  I didn't have time to go to WW and weigh in there as we went out-of-town on Friday morning, but I put on my usual outfit and weighed myself (my scale is fairly close to what WW scale says) that morning (normally I weigh on Saturday) and I GAINED!  In fact, I gained a whole 2.8 lbs as near as I could tell - which completely wiped out 2 weeks of losing.  That is the sort of thing that really frustrates me, but all I can do is not let it discourage me and keep moving forward!

Here's how my week went:

1.  Lose 5 lbs. - Gained 2.8 lbs this week; making a total of .2 lb gain so far.  Grrrr.
2.  Exercise 4x/week for 30+ min.  - 4x!: 30 min. workout DVD (twice), 30 min. Wii Fit, 45 min. Wii Fit
3.  Drink 4 (12 oz) glasses water/day. - Did 4/day about twice.
4.  Go to bed @ 11:30pm on weekdays. - Made it twice!!
5.  Make 2 breakfast & 2 lunch recipes/week. - 1 breakfast recipe - the Blueberry-Corn Muffins and 2 lunch recipes: Bow Ties, Tuna & Veggies in Balsamic Vinaigrette and Asian Chicken Slaw.

I wasn't feeling well at the beginning of this week, but am OK now and trying to get back on track!  How was your week?  How was Easter?  Did you resist all the Easter candy?  I have to say - I've stayed away from the stores because I have a hard time resisting clearance-priced candy!

Let's have a great week!  We can do it!!

Have a healthy day!
Lisa  :)

Healthy Recipe: Blueberry-Corn Muffins

Yet another yummy WW recipe I tried!  I found this recipe in my WW Best-Ever Desserts cookbook.  These are just yummy muffins though - nobody would guess that they're all that healthy!  I had frozen blueberries to use up so I dumped them all in, even though it was more berries than the recipe called for.  I would suggest following their blueberry measurement though - there were too many berries in mine, making some of the muffins too goopy at the bottom!  :)

Blueberry-Corn Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
6 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 large egg
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (about 2 lemons)

1.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.

2.  Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, 5 tablespoons of the sugar, the baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.  Gently stir in the blueberries.  Whisk together the buttermilk, oil, egg, and lemon zest in a small bowl.  Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir just until the flour mixture is moistened.

3.  Fill the muffin cups evenly with the batter and sprinkle evenly with the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar.  Bake until the muffins spring back when lightly pressed, 15-20 minutes.  Let cool in the pan on a rack 5 minutes.  Remove the muffins from the pan and let cool on the rack about 15 minutes longer.  Serve warm.

Per serving (1 muffin): 158 cal, 4 g fat, 1 g fiber, 3 WW pts

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Try them for breakfast this week - yummy!! 

I'm linking this up to Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam - go check out all the yummy recipes!

Have a healthy day!

Lisa  :)