-Stuart Rasch
That sounds like a wonderful combination to me! I've been trying to follow a Weight Watchers guided healthy eating lifestyle since September. I initially lost about 10 pounds over the first three months, and I was so happy. But, when I reached my goal weight, WW automatically raised my daily Points Plus value by 3 points. That doesn't sound like a lot, but where I had been avoiding using my "extra" points each week, I was not only consuming my extra 3 points per day, but also consuming all my 49 "extra" points each week. It did not take me long to put on half the weight I had lost *sigh*. I realized that I really couldn't eat much more than I ate the first few months if I even wanted to maintain my weight, which is what WW had raised my values to - maintenance level. Since then my weight has gone up and down by about 2 pounds every couple of weeks, and it is so frustrating! I work hard to try to eat healthy - I have the same breakfast every morning, I eat mainly raw vegetables with my Ranch Veggie Dip for lunch, and I try to limit myself to only one form of dessert a day...which is tragically difficult...and nearly impossible for someone who loves dessert as much as I do. So, that leads me to this little recipe. I am a huge fan of Pinterest (amandamelton83), so I searched out WW recipes with Points Plus values attached. I mostly searched for desserts, and I found a chocolate yogurt recipe that used my favorite: Fage Total 0% Greek Yogurt. I buy it by the quart...3 at a time. Yes, I love yogurt! At any rate, I tried the chocolate yogurt recipe, but it called for artificial sweetener, which I avoid, and even using slightly more real sugar than it called for the bitterness of the cocoa powder overpowered my tastebuds. Don't get me wrong, I like dark chocolate, but this was too much. Yesterday I had a brainstorm and came up with this recipe - now I didn't have any bananas on hand, but I use bananas as sweetener in yogurt all the time - I also use bananas as spread for toast, but that will be another post sometime - and I would have done that here if I'd had one. I may do a recipe version 2 once I have some bananas. I hope you love this as much as I do!
Choco-Nutter Yogurt Dip
Serves: 4
Weight Watchers Points Plus: 1
1 tb creamy peanut butter
2 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2-2/3 cup Fage Total 0%
This is what I did, my note follows
1. Place first 4 ingredients in a bowl and mix to a paste-like consistency.
2. Add yogurt. Stir to combine. Serve with fruit of your choice: bananas, strawberries, etc.
Do not, I repeat DO NOT make a paste with the first four ingredients! You will have lumps in your yogurt, unless you use a blender to mix it up. Instead...
1. Place yogurt in 2 cup capacity bowl (mine was 1 cup and much too small to stir).
2. Stir in sugar, vanilla, and peanut butter until well combined.
3. Stir in cocoa powder.
