I had hoped to post a recipe for a PB2 granola that doesn’t taste like ass and is low in points, but that my friends, hasn’t happened yet. But I had a parfait on my breakfast menu, and darn it, it’s just not the same without granola. Why does granola have to have so many points?! I had Kashi Go Lean in my desk drawer at work, but I still wanted granola, so I splurged (point wise not $$ wise) and picked up a box of Nature Valley oat and honey granola bars. Two bars is 7 points, and while that seems like a lot (most granolas are 7-10 points per half cup!) the Oikos brand granola I bought was only 2 points, and I made a blueberry/cranberry one point fruit sauce, so 10 points for breakfast. This was surprisingly filling even though it was so delicious I ate it in less than 10 minutes.
It was near 50 degrees in Chicago, even if a bit overcast and rainy. I’ll take it. Today’s high will be about 20 degrees colder. I spent 30 minutes eating my lunch and 30 minutes walking outside. Since I mostly meal planned out of my freezer, I didn’t realize how much beef I had in the freezer, so the night before last I cooked off a 3 ounce piece to have for a steak salad. I think I’ve talked about this salad dressing before (Randi and Rhonda told me it’s a Kroger brand) so it should be readily available. Two tablespoons is 2 smart points. And I do have veggies in this salad, they just all fell to the bottom of bowl. Three points for the beef, 2 points for the dressing a 1 for the drizzle of shredded Parmesan cheese.
If you live in a big town, you may have Divvy bikes – or bikes that you share. As I was walking past and saw all of these bikes ready to go, I thought it might be a good idea to maybe get a membership to switch it up this summer? They are all over the loop area, and the lakefront. It’s $99 a year for a membership – but only for the first 30 minutes – then you have to pay $1.50 for an extra half hour. But here’s my thought – what if you ride one bike for 30 minutes, put it back, and then just get another one for another 30 minutes?! Worth looking into at the very least.
So far I’ve enjoyed spacing out my weekly chores over the week, instead of doing it all on one day over the weekend. Last night I had to get my tax stuff together, I registered my new insurance card online and at Walgreen’s, got gas, did a short Sam’s Club run before they closed at 8:30 (weird time to close!) and even purged a garbage bag of clothes from my closet to give to Goodwill. So much adulting last night!
I am not sure I mentioned it before, but I’ve drastically reduced my t.v. watching. Tony had the t.v. on 24/7 and I am more of a music person. But that’s not to say I didn’t have my share of shows that I would DVR. But every year I go through my AT&T bill and see what can be cut, and I realized the two channels I watch the most – HGTV and Food Network cost me $50 a month – the cheapest t.v. package that included those two channels cost me $69 a month. Basic cable costs only $19. Huh. I suddenly realized how many times did I actually see a show I hadn’t seen before? So many re-runs. Was I really getting $600 a years worth of entertainment from those two shows? When put in that context, the answer was a big fat Hell No! So now Friday night is usually my Netflix night and I can watch This is Us on my AppleTV on demand.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I made a delicious FIVE point dinner, and you’ll see why I did that in just a minute. Not a shocker – more beef! This time a 5 ounce New York strip. This recipe is so simple it shouldn’t even be a recipe, but I am going to type it out anyway 
You’re welcome!
Gah, I cannot wait to have natural light again at dinner time. This picture doesn’t do it justice, but this was a whole lot of goodness. Perfectly cooked steak, crisp green beans and that hint of horseradish in the pan sauce was amazeballs.
So you want to know why I had such a point friendly dinner?
Guess who got Enlightened Ice Cream in the mail?!! That would be this girl. And the funny thing is, I am not much of an ice cream person. Hold up. Let’s just say when I grocery shop it’s rare for me to throw any ice cream in my basket. But this stuff?! It’s delicious. Low sugar, high fiber and most of them are 3 smart points per half cup, and that’s plenty for anyone’s sweet tooth. I had 7 points after dinner and had 1/2 a cup of the frozen hot chocolate (amazing!) and a bite of the peanut butter, mint chocolate chip and oatmeal, and each one is amazing in it’s own right. There is no “artificial” taste to them, they just taste like really good ice cream. Mom, next time you come over you’ll have to try some! I just called my dessert 7 points to make my day 30/30. #bluedotstreakcontinues!
Time to get my stuff together – I haven’t put my food together for breakfast or lunch yet, but it won’t take too long. I hope to make the potato and chick pea curry dish for dinner tonight if everything works out to plan.
Question of the Day: Love or Hate Indian Food?!
Make it a great day!
My friends Jeannette and Robin are avid WW members. They both lost over 100lbs and reached lifetime. They love Halo top. They told me to leave it out for 15 min to soften up before eating.
Hey Randi! I can only find Halo Top at Whole Foods which isn’t close to me at all – thank goodness! The Enlightened is the same way – they suggest on the top container to let it sit out for a bit for best flavor, and it is so good – hard to stop at 1/2 a cup!
Big cities here have that bike concept too but for tourists. Because almost everyone in Holland owns a bike (me too). Biking is safe here too, many many bike paths.
I don’t watch TV that much, R. always puts it on too when he gets home but when he is late I often don’t put it on. I only follow some shows that I record and for the rest I watch Netflix when I want too.
Is Chef’s Table on the US Netflix too (we have less shows than you, has to do with licences). I haven’t watched it yet but think it will be very interesting.
And I hear so many good things about This is us but unfortunately not on Dutch TV yet.
I’ve seen “commuter bikes” for about $150 that fold up small so you can take them on the train. I’ve thought about maybe getting one of those so I can bike 2 miles to the train station, then bike around at lunch when it gets nicer out.
I have Netflix and LOVE Chef’s Table – so fascinating to see all that goes in a high end restaurant kitchen.
Keep a look out for This is Us – hopefully it gets to you – so good. It makes me cry, laugh, and cry again all in one episode!
Our freezer is jam packed with beef too. I LOVE Indian food, just last night I was pursuing some recipes to make.
I think your daughter would like the dish I made tonight – I may have to use it as a side dish to a steak next time though! 😀
I did not like Indian food when I was growing up. Now I know it was McCormick’s curry powder that I didn’t like. That was basically the only brand of curry powder that was available when I was a kid.
Now I choose dishes that are more centered around garam masala seasonings. My favorites are dal tadka, palak or saag paneer, and chicken tikka masala or tandoori chicken.
For the times I use curry powder, I use Sharwood’s brand.
Chicken tikka masala was the first Indian dish I made at home, and I kicked myself for not trying that dish sooner – the depth of flavor you get with all the Indian spices is amazeballs. I am not sure I’ve ever had true tandoori chicken – sounds delicious!
I love Indian food and I make it at home as well as eating it out. I really love the flavor that curry brings and even use it in some non-Indian dishes.
I buy ice cream all the time for Mr. Helen because he literally eats a dish every single night after dinner. I tend to be on/off again with it and have actually had ice cream that I do like get freezer burned. Honestly more than having it at home, I’d rather go out to a good dairy – we have a couple around here – and get some really good ice cream. One scoop and done!
We have a frozen yogurt place that has sugar free yogurt that’s delicious – but it can get pricey with all the toppings – I just add all the fresh fruit I can and I agree, once you eat it, it’s gone!
I haven’t tried any “diet” ice cream since Arctic Zero which was AWFUL. It was also expensive, and I read that they also lied about the calories in it. I’ve seen the Halo Top but haven’t tried it. I suppose I expect a repeat of the one I just mentioned.
Love Indian food. I can do an Indian buffet without going overboard. I fill half my plate with salad, then fill the other half with reasonable portions of my favorites. Yum. 🙂
OMG, don’t even get me started on Arctic Zero – not even sure how that is still on the shelf because it tasted like zero – as in nothing. Now I have had Halo Top and it’s delicious, but very pricey – $6 a pint! But it does taste like the real deal – but I can only find it at Whole Foods and the closest one to me is 45 minutes away – not worth it.
I’ve never been to an Indian buffet – but I bet that would be delicious!
“But here’s my thought – what if you ride one bike for 30 minutes, put it back, and then just get another one for another 30 minutes?! Worth looking into at the very least.” — I think this works! I am pretty sure when I read up on our Nice Ride Bikes in Mpls, that they actually encouraged it. But that was a couple of years ago and I still haven’t done it. I also don’t think you have to have a membership here, but maybe you get a better rate if you do? Which reminds me… When we were in Montreal, we’d see trailers of bikes being hauled all of the time! Biking was very popular there, but I think some of the stops were more popular to take a bike than leave one!
We cut down to basic cable for two years. I will tell you, as much as I missed the Food Network, it’s not like we ever ran out of anything to watch or were just flipping through channels like the old days. 🙂 Netflix is so nice and we still had on-demand for the basic channels, too. Rob recently “surprised” me with the decision to switch back. He was missing ESPN and FoxSports North which is the only channel you can watch the MN Wild. We were finding that if either of us wanted to go out to watch a game somewhere, we’d spend $60 at the sports bar anyway! So I guess he has a point in our situation.
P.S. Our steaks turned out wonderfully the other night. Rob kept raving that he couldn’t believe that we had good steaks at home. (We were given the meat by a friend that works in a butcher shop.) May have to try the pan sauce next!
I love your long comments Carrie! I am definitely going to ask around my office to see if anyone has a yearly membership and a. if it works if you just switch to a new bike every 30 minutes and b. did they actually use it!
So far I have not missed all the channels I had at all. I can go all during the week without even turning the t.v. on. It used to drive me nuts that Tony and I would watch t.v. all evening, then shut everything down, turn the lights out, and the first thing he did when we got in the bedroom was turn the t.v. on. He couldn’t fall asleep without the t.v. on.
Hooray for awesome steaks at home! I need to road trip up your way this summer for a short weekend – you guys can show me all your cool restaurant and beer places 😀
I LOVE Indian food! It is my FAVORITE!!! With all the different flavors and variety, I could eat it everyday. I too am not a big fan of ice cream. It only makes it in the buggy at the request of a family member or if I’ve made a homemade pie or something that screams I go great with ice cream. So jealous of all your “big city” conveniences and multitude of restaurants. Our public transportation in our city is almost non existent. Even our neighboring “big” city area public transport is lacking. Oh well, we make the most of what we have. I would love to cut our cable bill. I watch very little TV.
Well if you ever make it to Chicago, we’ll have to hit up some authentic Indian restaurants – the ones that bring like dozens of small plates to the table, fresh naan – so good!
Funny how if we do the shopping only the stuff we like makes it in the basket – unless it’s specifically requested. 😀
Where I live there is no public transportation, which took a long time for Hannah to get used to when we first moved to the “sticks.” She was used to walking everywhere, but now its a ten minute drive to get anywhere.
I love that show, This is Us, too! I watch it on Hulu. Chris and I got rid of our cable last summer. I came home from work to a $165 cable bill, so I unplugged everything, boxed it up and returned it all. We now pay $40 for high-speed internet and we have Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime…as well as some other stations on our Roku. I thought I would really miss college football, especially living in an SEC town…but, NOPE…I haven’t missed it once.
OMG, Lisa – all the feels with that show! I love how the story line goes back to when they were little and then toggles back to today.
I’ll have to IM you to see how the restaurant planning is going!
Hi Biz–I order the food shows I want to watch (Chopped and Top Chef) through Amazon–it sounds like you have smart tv, so that might work for you. You can watch some of them on food network.com, but that doesn’t work as well for me. A LOT cheaper than cable tv!
What?! I didn’t know that Debby! Thanks for the heads up 😀
Have you looked into Playstation Vue or SlingTV instead of cable? I cut the cord on cable, and since I have good internet service, I have tried both of those. The Vue is only $29 a month for me and I get HGTV and Food Network, among other channels.
Thanks Jessica – I’ve actually never heard of either of those, but definitely worth checking out! 😀
Indian Food: Every time I have been to an Indian restaurant I have left hungry and just yucked out. It isn’t for me I suppose. BUT WAIT — there’s an indian inspired lentil packet you can get at Costco called Madras and it is SOOOOOOOOOOOO yummmmmmm. I could eat that thing every day all day. Try it sometime. Halo Top is a good one for me — when it’s on sale — it doesn’t make me crave or trigger me like say Ben and Jerry’s would. I’m perfectly fine with the serving size and done. Still looking for Enlightened.
I see some people buy Halo Top 2/$6 – I’d buy a dozen at that price! 😀
Two places I would never ride a bike-Chicago and Florida ?. I live in a small town in New York and here you’re supposed to ride your bike in the road with traffic. I still usually ride on the sidewalk!
My son-in-law is Indian and his father makes fabulous Indian food so yes, love it!
Nice score on the ice cream. I’ve heard of Halo Top but never that brand. I’m not much of an ice cream eater either. I’d rather have Fritos !
Good job on your blue dots!
That’s why we would get along so well if we were neighbors – we’d share all the salty shit! 😀
It’s been so long that I can’t remember what it was, but I think Helen calculated the calories in my hippie granola a while back – I wonder what the points in that recipe would be? I can’t imagine it is too high…?
I forgot about your hippie granola! I’ll check it out ??????
Hi Biz, Thanks again for the fun post :). Wonderful tip on the ice cream, I’m going to stop at the store on the way home tonight and pick some up for dessert.
It’s really good! Halo Top is another one that everyone raves about but I can only find it at Whole Foods and it’s $6 a pint ? have a great day!
I am totally going to go stalk the local store that sells that ice cream!! Thanks for saying that it doesn’t have that fake taste. Hate buying something to have it taste yucky! Have a great day!
Maybe it’s because I am diabetic but I get all sorts of stuff that has low or no sugar but tastes like ass. I only review the stuff that I would actually eat on a regular basis ???