Weight Watchers Recipe Review: Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies

Alien glop? Or mounds of meringue marvelousness?

Despite Teeny's best efforts, I made it into the kitchen for some meringue makin' this morning. They turned out very well. Perhaps too well. I kept hanging around the kitchen waiting for them to be done (two hours is a very long time).

Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies
1 point per cookie, makes 24

• 4 large egg whites
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, semi-sweet
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 200ºF and cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form; gently fold in chocolate and vanilla.

Drop mixture by heaping tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet about 1 inch apart, making 24 cookies.

Bake until lightly golden and no longer sticky on the surface, about 1 hour. Turn oven off and let cookies sit in oven for 1 hour. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely. Yields 2 cookies per serving.

Source: http://www.weightwatchers.ca/food/rcp/index.aspx?recipeid=129171

Recommended?
Sorta. It was easy to make and yielded 24 cookies just like it said. I did make one small modification and that was to use parchment paper instead of cooking spray. Parchment paper releases cookies like a dream. Much simpler and cleaner, too.

As far as taste, they're crisp and chewy with a nice hit of real chocolate. Yum. However, as far as meringue recipes go, I'm sure there's lower point ones out there. If I make them again, I'll make smaller cookies to trick my brain into thinking I'm eating more per serving.

Second Post-Baby Weigh-in

Ye gads. I knew going into this that babies eat up your day. What they didn't tell me is that they eat up two or three days at a time! Though I'm posting this on Tuesday, I've back dated it to when the actual weigh-in was.

Speaking of which...

I'm down 0.2 lbs. That's about the same amount as Teeny spits up. I kid, I kid. She isn't a spitter-upper. She just projectile pees. But that's another story.

It was nice to see some familiar faces at the meeting. Fewer than I thought there'd be, but then again it has been a year since last I went. One of the gals I'm familiar with made goal and she looks fabulous. We also discussed ideas to jazz up protein (chicken, beef, etc.) to avoid getting in a food rut. I came away with some good tips and will hopefully have more to share later when I try them.

Lastly, I'm thinking of splitting these weigh-ins from the first go round. This time feels different because I already made the grade. I'm simply getting back to where I was. Two separate journeys you know? But whether or not I split them depends on my time. Or lack thereof.

*glances at Teeny Trim*

Ah, the joys of motherhood :)

A year in the life of Tiny Trim

As I mentioned before, a lot has happened in the last year or so. To make this a less painful read, here's a recap in point-form:

• I achieved all my 2008 goals except one (the step class; I couldn't find one)
• I have gallstones
• My grandmother passed away
  
• Needle biopsies hurt like a sunnuva
• I don't have thyroid cancer
• I do have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis
• I haven't exercised in a coon's age (how old are coons anyways? answer.)
• Baby stroller fit puts the boots to my sad flabby body
• More happened, didn't it? Surely it did. Must blame pregnancy brain. Oh wait...I already had the baby...dangit...
  

First Post-Baby Weigh-in

It's only taken me a week and a half to post this but here it is. Teeny Trim has this amazing ability to add days (and weeks) to the most simplest of tasks :)

At any rate, I finally made it to my Weight Watchers centre yesterday to get officially weighed. As you can see, I'm about 21 lbs away from goal. Considering how my first trimester went, I'm actually pretty proud that this is all I have to lose. In fact, I've been back on plan since mid-July and have lost about 5 lbs already. Not too shabby!

Because I'm nursing, I've discovered that I get a schwack of extra points and also need to increase my servings of milk, oil, veggies, and protein. With all that extra food, I'm super stuffed by the end of the day. I love losing weight this way.

My long absence has also brought changes to the Weight Watchers plan as well. There's a new system to learn - this new-fangled-thingamajig Momentum Plan. I noticed it when I started tracking again in eTools and of course I received new materials when I went for my weigh-in. I really like the focus on the filling foods. I gravitate towards those anyways, but it's nice to have extra reinforcement.

So what's my plan of attack now? Going by my new start weight, my 10% goal (roughly 15 lbs) seems rather far away. Therefore, I'm going to go at this in 5 lb increments with a small reward at each stage. I'm also going to put on the enthusiasm of a newbie. Read my materials back to front, try new recipes, and so on. Miss Teeny might have other ideas for her mama, but that's the plan!