Motivated by Cottage Cheese

What to make for dinner? I had 1/2 a container of 1% cottage cheese that I wanted to use, so I've been searching for recipes that incorporate cottage cheese into a diabetic and weightwatcher friendly entree.
Not finding quite what I wanted, I decided to improvise and made the following dish.

Rotini with Creamy Mushroom and Tomato Sauce

1 tbsp. Olive oil
1/2 c. Chopped onion
2 cloves crushed garlic
2/3 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2 28oz can President's Choice Blue Menu "No Salt Added" tomatoes
(plus reserved liquid)
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
Freshly ground pepper
2/3 c. 1 % cottage cheese
1/3 c. skim milk
4 cups cooked rotini - (Catelli Smart High Fibre)

Cook pasta separately, drain and set aside.

Saute onion, garlic and mushroom until soft.
Add tomato and liquid and cook together for 5 min.
In a blender, blend cottage cheese and milk together until smooth and creamy.
Add it to the simmering tomato liquid.
Add the pasta to the liquid and heat thoroughly.

Sprinkle with parmesan when serving.

The verdict: I liked it and would make it again.

I am counting 1 cup as 6 Weightwatcher points.

It's pretty low salt and low cholesterol, so should serve as a healthy diabetic friendly meal. Let's see what my DH thinks of it.

Soup of the Week

I believe that one of the secrets of my successful weight loss to date (besides journaling every morsel that goes into my mouth) are my "soups of the week." Today's is based on a vegetable soup mix from "Manischewitz" which can be found in the kosher section of the grocery store. I selected this one over the others because the salt content was so much less than the other varieties.
I started with the soup mix in 8 cups of boiling water, added a bay leaf, large chopped onion, garlic and some additional herbs and spices: thyme, dill, marjoram, Mrs. Dash, pepper (no salt because we have to limit DH's salt intake). After about 3/4 hour of the soup simmering, I added the following vegetables: 1 cup chopped carrots, a stalk of chopped celery,a cup of chopped cauliflower, a chopped parsnip, a bit of chopped broccoli stems, and about a cup of chopped cabbage. There's a little package of seasoning that is added in the last 10 minutes or so of cooking. Soup is done in about 2 hours. I got about 12 cups of very thick soup. If I divide it into 1-1/2 cup servings, I get 8 servings - and I will count it as 1.5 points per serving. I'll try freezing some of it to see how it holds up.

The verdict: Tastes good but needs salt. This I can add when I'm going to eat it.
Hopefully I can get DH to eat it too. He's not a soup lover, but this soup is high fiber, low salt and low calorie - just what his doctor ordered, so maybe I can convince him.

Getting Started

So how does one begin a blog? What motivates a person to blog?
I have to admit that I am the last one in my family to get involved in this social networking business - and I don't want to be left behind.
And what to blog about? Well - my life is not overly exciting. I work. I come home. I prepare meals. I feed my cats. I avoid housework. I go to Weightwatchers weekly trying to shed those nasty pounds that have snuck onto my body over the last 15 years. An ordinary life - but a good one.

What do I have to say that is worth sharing?

Well - a couple things. I've been attending Weightwatchers now for 14 weeks, and I am down 21.4 pounds, which I think is wonderful. I've lost my extra chins and my boobs now stick out more than my stomach did. This is good. I can now shop in the regular petites section of a department store. (Yes I'm overweight and undertall.)

And my husband's doctor has read him the riot act about diabetes control, so that's a new challenge we are facing. So I'm happy to start sharing my trials and tribulatons in coming up with interesting and palateable meals that address our issues.

So that's what I hope to do - and in the process to learn bout blogging and find out why it's such a popular phenomenon.

Happily Losin' It!