All, Sorry - work has kept me crazy and have not been able to write. Doing reasonably ok, been plateaued, but let's be honest, I have not really exercised, and if I didn't drink so much wine, I could lose faster :-) However, I went on my cruise early in April, and lost a half pound! I made very good choices, which you can do now on a ship. Plus you know, when you've been eating WW for a while, you really can't eat too much rich food without getting a stomach ache. So I want to keep it up, therefore I am trying this week to start going back to the gym that I have been paying for, for years, but because of work or commitments with DD, never went. Well I just can't lose without the exercise to go with it. Hope I can stick with it this time! Last night I made a fagiole soup that was in a pamphlet they gave us. And I bought the wrong beans, not soup beans but pinto beans, which are like refried beans in consistency. I had also bought the 'flat out bread' they talked about in last week's meeting. Ever tried it? It's great. So I put the beans in, one slice of lacy swiss cheese, and lots of salsa. Heated in microwave, and yum!!!! A low point burrito! Below is a link to the flat out web page. I'll try to write more often! It is helpful to chat to you guys! Here is a link that might be useful: Flat Out Bread

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

I forgot about this one until jsut now.... hope no one minds a late entry! Bacon Mushroom Swiss Meatloaf "This meatloaf is full of flavor, and a delicious twist on an old favorite. Bacon, onions, mushrooms, and Swiss cheese are added to ground beef and baked to perfection." INGREDIENTS: 12 ounces chopped raw bacon 1 large white onion, chopped 8 oz mushrooms, chopped 1 1/2 pounds extra-lean ground beef 1 egg 1/4 cup sour cream 6 ounces shredded Swiss cheese, divided 1/2 cup Pepperidge farm stuffing mix DIRECTIONS: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 2. Place bacon in a skillet and cook over medium heat until the pieces are browned. Remove with a slotted spoon to paper towels. Discard all but 1 teaspoon of bacon grease. Stir in onions and mushrooms, and cook until soft. Remove from heat. 3. In a large bowl, stir together beef, egg, pepper and sour cream. Stir in the onion and mushrooms. Mix in about 4 ounces of Swiss cheese, and all but 1 tablespoon of bacon. Stir in stuffing mix, and mix until well blended. Shape into a loaf, and place in a meatloaf pan. 4. Bake in a preheated oven for 1 hour. Drain fat, and sprinkle with remaining cheese and bacon. Return to oven, and bake until cheese is melted, about 5 minutes.

Forgot to add, as I recall the color was a little lighter but not distasteful. Otherwise, texture was the same. You really wouldn't know. It's a meatloaf, and turkey is meat. You could do just turkey. I might be tempted to add a bit more seasoning in that case but you have nothing to lose (no pun intended) to give it a try. I don't really have a lot of defined "healthy" recipes to share. I don't really track how healthy they are. I've been working on revising things a bit. Put more veggies in the diet, cut down on salt, lower fat, things like that. I get a kick out of people talking about making "healthier" mashed potatoes by cutting down on butter, salt, milk/cream, cream cheese, etc. I've done that for years. I like plain potatoes, and the gravy has more than enough salt for me. So in a way I guess I've been ahead of my time. Congrats on the weight loss and good luck in the future. Here is a link that might be useful: Thanksgiving