Here is something I made yesterday from the WW site. If you haven't tried it; it is pretty tasty. "YoCheese To make it, take a fine mesh strainer or coffee filter and suspend it over a glass or tall bowl. Put in some plain yogurt (without gelatins) like Dannon or Stonybrook Farms. Let it sit in the fridge for a few hours, better yet overnight, and the whey will drain off. Youll have a cheese about the texture of spreadable cream cheese, and about ½ as much cheese as you started with in yogurt. The flavor is somewhere between cream cheese and sour cream. You can use it about anywhere youÂd use cream cheese or sour cream. It also really takes on flavors well, especially if it has a chance to sit for a while after mixing. For dips, I really like to mix in dry Hidden Valley or Taco Seasoning. For a sweet spread, stir in DaVinci's syrups or extracts and some Splenda. For a peanut butter spread mix in some pb and Splenda. IÂve read that the whey has some carbs in it, but I really donÂt know for sure how much. The info on the web says ff yocheese is 80 cal for ½ cup. I think it would depend somewhat on the yogurt you started with. I just figure 1 point for each ¼ cup yocheese I eat. YoCheese Recipe Ideas ~ Mix w/ ff/sf vanilla pudding mix and put it on apple slices and grapes. Like eating cheesecake! ~ Base for stuffed mushrooms. ~ Mix with scallions & spices for a jazzed up cheese spread. ~ I had it as stuffed mushrooms just this afternoon. Mixed it with some canned crab meat & some salt-free seasoning and put it in baby portabellos. Baked it at 400 for about 15 min. Drizzled them with balsamic vinegar before serving. It was excellent! ~ Just the yocheese and the FF/SF white chocolate pudding mix makes it taste exactly like cheesecake, in my opinion. ~ I mix it with some chopped fresh herbs and maybe a little minced garlic. You could mix into warm pasta, or would be great on a baked potato. Possibilities are endless- just throw any kind of good stuff in! ~ Mix with a little DaVinci's syrups or other flavoring and Splenda for a sweet spread that is awesome on bagels. ~ Mix with a little dry Hidden Valley or Taco seasoning for a celery stuffer or spread for wraps. ~ Use anywhere you'd use cream cheese or sour cream. Much more nutritious and flavorful! ~ Mix with honey and walnuts. ~ Topping for fruit salad. ~ Mix with savory herbs for a veggie dip. ~ Mix with nut butter as a stretcher. Ditto mayo, sour cream. ~ Layer with fruit of choice for a parfait. ~ Use as a base for salad dressing - fabulous base for 1000 island. ~ I make tzatziki sauce which is yocheese, olive oil, lemon juice, cucumber diced, garlic, and fresh dill. It is a Greek sauce for roasted meat, but I also use it as a salad dressing. " I used a 32 ounce container of FF Plain yogurt, Great Value brand from Wal-Mart. After it drained overnight I added 1 pkg. SF/FF White Chocolate Mix, dry to the YoCheese. I also added 1 T. Splenda and mixed all well. I spooned out 1/2 cup and poured some SF Raspberry DaVinci syrup on it and it was good. 1/2 cup = 2 points and I believe it is Core. Bev 214.6/183.5/165

Hi Cathy! C'mon and join our merry gang on the Daily Support weekly threads. There's a bunch of us there, different ages, different diets hugging and cheering each other on, being there when needed and generally just a merry ol' gang. I've done WW online and at meetings. I found the sight very informative and encouraging. A similar sight that is absolutely free is called Spark People - check that out too for more inspiration and ideas. I did not bother with online buddy stuff because I have a close friend doing her own diet thing and we account to each other and yak about diet, healthier lifestyle going forward (lifestyle - never really diet at all). And I have found this forum the most supportive overall because I feel like part of a family here. The last few years I've been using my weight watchers books and stuff myself at home and have made my own weight loss MS Excel spreadsheets for tracking on a graph (weekly weigh-in), daily point log and a spread sheet of my favourite foods and their respective points. I've got links to different sites on the web I like. But I'm used to the old points system, not the new one. Either way reporting in at WW online weekly helps you to stay the course. Please join our merry gang if you have not already on the Daily Support - we'd love to have you join us! Cheers and welcome! Peggy Here is a link that might be useful: SparkPeople

I found that counting points was one of the easiest things I've done. I lost most of the weight that I wanted to lose, but then we had Spring Break and I got off schedule. I haven't been able to make myself get back on the program since then. I've gained a few pounds back and they all seem to be in my stomach, and I hate that!!! I feel sluggish and I know it's because I'm eating the wrong foods. I keep coming here in hopes that I'll get back on the wagon again. So I'm looking for the motivation too! I had got down to 132 lbs. and wanted to be in the 120's. Now I'm 137½, at least I was last week. I still weigh every Wednesday morning. I'll weigh tomorrow and hope that I haven't gained any more. I forgot to mention that there is a chart that tells you how many points you should have a day. I think it's posted somewhere here at the forum. I know that if you are 150 or less that you are supposed to eat 20 points per day, plus you get 35 flex points a week to use (or not to use) whenever you need them. I'll see if I can find the weight chart for you and post the numbers here.

Kate, I lurk over here once in awhile, and happened to see your post. I do smoothies in several ways. Recently I've bought some little push-up containers for freezing and I'm making popsicles that are 'the bomb' - excuse the pun. I'll start with two recipes for popsicles that were given to me 30 years ago, and they easily converted to sugar-free, fat-free. The first is for fudgesicles. Mix a 3 oz box of instant sugar free chocolate pudding mix according to package directions, using nonfat milk. Then blend in a ?13 oz? can of nonfat evaporated milk (not the sweetened kind, just plain evap milk. If you're not watching your fat grams, regular evap milk makes a creamier fudgesicle, but these aint half bad.) Pour into molds and freeze. (If you're not on a diet, a cup or two of brewed flavored coffee and a can of that sweetened evap milk, frozen, is also yummy. But I digress......) The second is for dripless popsicles. It calls for a 3 oz box of any flavor Jell-o, mixed according to package directions. Do not chill. Instead, add a can of evap milk to make a "Dreamsicle", or 2 cups of mixed fruit, (mashed or pureed). Pour into molds and freeze. Now, for what I call a "milkshake", soften 2 tsp. of unflavored gelatin in about 1/2 cup water. Then place this in the microwave until the gelatin has melted and the mixture is kinda like eggwhite. This takes only 30 seconds or so. Into your blender, place whatever kind of fruit strikes your fancy. I like peach, banana or strawberry the best, or a mixture. Maybe about a cup. Add about half cup of water. If you want it like a smoothie you would not add dry milk, but I add 1/3 cup dry milk because I like it better that way. Start the blender, and while it is whirring, pour in the hot gelatin. Then start dropping ice into the blender until the mixture thickens and becomes smooth. Pour into a glass and eat it with a spoon. If your fruit is not sweet enough on its own, add some artificial sweetener or sugar. Smoothies can be made with all kinds of different fruits, and lot of times I just throw frozen fruit into the blender in lots of different combinations: plum and banana with some frozen apple juice concentrate. Canned pineapple and frozen strawberry with some frozen orange juice concentrate. Something tart with something sweet, you know? You can leave out the gelatin if you don't want to go to the trouble, but I like the smooth creaminess it gives to the finished product. You can make a very nice 'cheesecake' by using the gelatin, fat-free cream cheese, some dry milk powder and lemonade concentrate. Of course there's sugar in the lemonade concentrate. You can also make a 'chocolate shake' by using the gelatin mixture recipe, replacing the fruit with 1 cup water and another 1/3 cup of nonfat dry milk powder, and adding maybe a tablespoon of cocoa. I like to go to Allrecipes.com and I notice they're featuring a lot of smoothie recipes there. So if none of these appeal to you, try there. They have a search function you can use, just search on 'smoothie'. I'm not connected to them in any way, I just like the site. Oh, and BTW, lots of things can be frozen and eaten without thawing (besides cookies, but I'm digressing again...). Grapes are delicious frozen, as are blueberries, peaches and apple slices (dip the apple slices in salt water, drain and freeze, 1 tbsp to a gallon -- do the math for smaller quantities, you don't taste it and it keeps the apple from turning). Bananas can be frozen in the skin, but not for a very long tine. To eat, run water over the skin to thaw it a bit, score it down the length of the banana and pry up along one edge. It will peel right off, usually in one piece. The skin will have blackened but the banana inside is still yellow and creamy. My kids used to call frozen banana 'ice cream'. LOL You must eat it while it's frozen though because when it thaws it's not a pretty sight. Watermelon and cantaloupe make wonderful popsicles. The trick is to puree them first. Cantaloupe is wonderful blended into apricot jello for popsicles. I think they have watermelon flavor jello now but I haven't tried it. There are all kinds of possibilities for smoothies, and any smoothie can be made into a popsicle. If you're interested, I bought my popsicle push-up molds at organize.com (not affiliated with them either). They're called cool cones. I like them very much. They don't leak out the bottoms so when I freeze them I set them upright in the freezer and let the 'stems' hang down between the wires of the shelf until they're solid. I hope this helps! --Ilene