Food for a Happy and Healthy Hanukkah

There are two holidays that hold familiar favorites for me. Christmas is of course the obvious one; the other is Hanukkah. I have a number of friends and former coworkers who are Jewish; some of them are fabulous cooks who have brought in their extra Hanukkah treats.

My all-time favorite is Sheila's noodle kugel recipe. She doesn't make it regularly because it's somewhat fattening.

On Weight Watchers online site that there are some healthier Hanukkah recipes as well as a non-dairy kugel recipe made with coconut milk on About.com that I just might try.

Happy Hanukkah to Jeff, Sheila, Mara, Wendy, Stacey, Lance, Dale and Dorothy and their families!  

Healthier Eating Out at Applebee's?

One of the places I often try to con my friends into going when they want me to eat out with them is Applebee's. I get consistently good food there, and the menu offers some lower-calorie/healthier options.


The company just starting marking items on its menus that have fewer than than 550 calories; it also has some items that show the accompany Weight Watchers® Points values.

My favorite is the Weight Watchers® Steak & Portobellos, which at 7 WW Points and 330 calories; it's great-tasting and in just the right portion size. It is just a bit high in sodium, though (1,610 mg). The best bet of the Weight Watchers items in terms of both calories and sodium is Weight Watchers® Italian Chicken & Portobello Sandwich w/fresh fruit (320 calories, 730 mg sodium and 7 Weight Watchers® Points). I'll think I'll try that next time!

When going to Applebee's® (or anywhere else, for that matter), it's a good idea to download the nutritional information (if available), look at the options and choose two or three possiblities that are fairly good for both you and your waistline. Some people don't like this approach because they say it takes away the spontaneity of going out, but I like to know what I'm eating.  

Cereal Mixing Isn't Just for Kids

The Cascadian Farm Organic Dark Chocolate Almond Granola box looked oh, so innocent (how bad can it be, since it's organic?); however, I knew that unless I did something drastic, I was going to eat more than the measly 2/3-cup suggested serving.

Which led me to my favorite Weight Watchers diva: Lisa Lillen, a.k.a. "Hungry Girl." Lisa has written three cookbooks about her pursuit of satisfying, lower-point food. I learned from reading her first cookbook that cereal mixing is not just for pre-teens anymore. It's a way to eat a larger bowl of cereal for fewer Weight Watcher Points. I'd already done it once, with my all-time favorite EnviroKids Koala Crisp cereal (sweeter, chocolate-flavored rice puffs) and plain puffed brown rice. (The proportions were about half a bowl of each kind of cereal.)

I picked up the bite-sized, unsweetened wheat squares. (I think it was Post's, but it's hard for me to differentiate between different brands ... let's see, was that wheat, wheat or wheat?) Three-quarters of a cup of wheat squares went into the cereal bowl with 1/4-cup granola and Blue Diamond's Almond Breeze® Vanilla  non-dairy beverage (from the refrigerator case in the natural foods section). I usually get the unsweetened kind, but someone grabbed this one by accident. I won't complain since a) it was on sale and b) she was being nice by picking it up for me in the first place. Besides, it makes darned good café au laits and smoothies.

I mixed it together thoroughly and dug in. One cup of this mixture not only had the great flavor of the granola but it had a lot more bulk to it. I didn't need to eat again for nearly four hours! If I use unsweetened almond or soy milk another time, I'll probably add stevia to achieve a similar slightly-sweet taste.