Behold the humble cottage cheese....

Behold the humble cottage cheese
However served, it's sure to please.
Used in a meal or for a snack..
As a weight loss food - keeps me on track.

Okay, so my poetry is not the greatest. But I do want to pay homage to the lowly, simple cottage cheese. Seems to me you can dress it up and take it anywhere! It has taken me a while to learn to appreciate it, but I have learned to like it in a variety of ways, and it's now a staple in my fridge.

Here are seven easy ways to enjoy cottage cheese as a light meal or snack. In each case, I use Fat Free C.C. to calculate the points value.

• 2/3 cup C.C. with a cut up apple and sprinkled with Splenda and cinnamon (3 Weightwatcher points)
• 2/3 cup C.C. with a 5 oz. can of fruit salad or diced fruit (4 WeightWatcher points)
• 2/3 cup on a 7 oz. baked potato - topped with green onions and salt and pepper or salsa   (5 WW points including the potato)  
• Cheater Cheesecake - 1 cup C.C., 2 pkg. Splenda, 2 tsp. cocoa powder and a splash of vanilla (4 WW points)
• In a Lazy Single Serving Sweet Kugel - 1/2 c. CC mixed into 1/2 c. cooked egg noodles. Add a pkg. of Splenda and a sprinkle of cinnamon. (4 WW points)  If you use a full cup of noodles, it would be 6 WW points.
• Another variation of a savoury noodle combo - 1/2 c. CC mixed into 1/2 c. cooked noodles. Mix in a chopped green onion, salt, pepper and 2 oz. tuna. (6 WW points)
• Lazy Perogies - 1/2 c.CC, 1/2 c. cooked noodles, sauted onions, 1 cup cooked potato - mashed (6 WW points)

I would consider the last three items on the above list a lunch or dinner because of the high points value. When eaten with a salad ( 0 points) and a fruit serving (1 point), you get a full meal deal!

It seems to me that Cottage Cheese is darn near to being a perfect food. It qualifies as a serving of dairy on the WW program. (I am not a milk lover, so it's hard for me to get my required dairy servings into my daily fare.)
Body Builders love it because it's a non meat source of protein. It's high in bone healthy calcium and low in calories and fat. It's a filling food that staves off hunger for a good period of time. And it's low in carbohydrates, so great for diabetic diets.
Now, if only I could convince my diabetic DH that he likes cottage cheese. I do try to include it in a number of hot dairy main courses that I prepare, and he willingly eats those. Today I snuck 1/4 c. into our breakfast egg white scramble and he ate it and liked it, so maybe in time he'll learn to appreciate it in it's more natural state!