Recipe Review: Wholewheat Buttermilk Biscuits

I finally baked up a batch of Weight Watcher's Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits to have with my homemade freezer jam. Don't they look tasty? Pictures can be deceiving though. While tasty enough when straight out of the oven and smothered in blueberry-lemon jam, they get drier and harder the longer they sit.

I made the recipe using buttermilk (strangely, the recipe first calls for yogurt then buttermilk as a substitute) and found that the amount given was too much; the dough was overly wet. I had to add extra flour to make it rollable. This likely added to the toughness of the finished product.

I also noticed that the recipe was lacking salt. Now I'm no Martha Stewart when it comes to baking, but even I had to raise an eyebrow at the omission. As every biscuit recipe I've ever tried has salt added to it, I decided to add about 1/2 a teaspoon. If I make these again, I'll play with the amount and perhaps add a tich of baking soda as well.

Recommended if you have extra whole wheat flour, time to kill, and don't mind hardtack.

Thursday’s Thought

If you can dream it, you can do it.” – Walt Disney

Review: Kellogg's All Bran Bars - Chocolate Chip

I've been hearing about this new flavour of Kellogg's All Bran Bars (Chocolate Chip), and finally had the opportunity to pick up a package. Having the same NI as the other bars (Calories: 130, Fat: 6g, Fibre: 4g), it has the added bonus of chocolate chips. It's literally like a good-for-you chocolate chip cookie. A dry, fiber-filled cookie, but hey, healthy sometimes has its tradeoffs.

Recommended with a glass of milk for dunking or a cup of hot tea.

Organizing recipes

I've recently become a reader of Simple Mom, and stumbled across an excellent article on how to more effectively organize your recipe bookmarks. Essentially, you use the bookmarking website, Delicious, to create your own "cookbook" of recipe links. You can add tags to them as well as share out the link to friends and family. Read Simple Mom's article for more information and step-by-step instructions.

I haven't made one myself, but wanted to pass it along to my own readers because I'm really excited about it. Once I get back from vacation, I'll be making my own Delicious cookbook and will post a link.

New Find: Wasa Fiber Rye

If you like crispbread (Mr. Trim calls it "cardboard")(Mr. Trim does not like crispbread), check out this new product from Wasa: Fiber Rye. It's extremely points friendly (Calories: 30, Fat: .5, Fibre: 2g) and great to have with soup, salad, or with your favourite topping.

If you're not a fan of crispbread (see Mr. Trim above as an example), you might find it dry and well...like cardboard. Personally, I love it. My mom used to serve it to us topped with sprouts and deli meat; it was a great easy snack. I still do that (recent recall of Maple Leaf meats notwithstanding), and I also like to spread it with Laughing Cow cheese or almond butter.

All in all, a great cracker to turn to if you're low on points for the day. Just be careful, the points do round up the more you have.

On my way

In about seven hours, I'll be at the airport on my way to Disneyland! Normally this would mean a vacation for the blog, too. However, I have a TrimBot that will be posting articles every day at 7:00 a.m. PST. With the exception of Thursday's Thought, it's a food-themed week with product and recipe reviews as well as an online cookbook tool.

Have a great week everyone, and I'll see you next Saturday!

Eighty-first Weigh-in

I'm up .4 lbs this week. It would have been a loss I'm sure, if it weren't for the wedding the night before.

*shifty eyes*

Okay, so maaaaaaybe I had a bit too much smoked fish. Just a bit. Okay, a lot. But hey, it was worth it.

The meeting was about setting your ultimate goal and likening it to the athletes of the recently ended Olympics. It takes a lot of practice, hard work, and dedication for them to reach and compete in the Olympics. This is most eloquently explained by one of our Canadian Olympic athletes, Kyle Hamilton of the Men's 8 Rowing Team...

Gold medals are awarded in the summer, but they’re earned in the winter.”

Just like weight loss, practice makes perfect. And like athletes, we should also not let setbacks affect the outcome. During the Olympics, I was struck many times by stories of athletes who battled through personal injury and sickness, as well as deaths in their family. Despite all this, they battled through to the end. A fantastic example of dedication to the end goal. And inspiring, too!

If they can overcome the most crippling of obstacles, we too, can overcome the little ones. The ice cream at midnight, well-meaning food-pushers, emotional setbacks, and yes, even the sneaky buffet of smoked fish at weddings. If we have our sights set on the ultimate goal - whether weight- or health-related - we can overcome anything.