One Point Marinara Sauce

You will love this one point marinara sauce!!

One of the things that I love about the WW app – is that there is something called WW Connect – think of it as a mini-Facebook for WW members.  I love how it will pick out random posts of people to “trend” – let’s say that an online member reached goal, and when they entered the weight online, only got a “you weigh xyz.”  No pomp and circumstance like you would at a meeting.  But that post will trend, and then suddenly 3000 people will be cheering that person on.  Love that kind of support!

But now that we are starting a brand new year, it’s hard to read some of these posts.

• “I feel useless.”
• “I fell out of control.”
• “I am on day 2 and all I want to do is eat a loaf of bread.”
• “I’ll probably always be big.”

The majority of people on WW are women – I would guess 90% are women?  At least based on any WW meeting I’ve ever been to.  It got me thinking.  Why do we have to self-sabotage ourselves so much?  What’s the point?  Would you ever go up to another woman and tell her she’s useless and out of control?  Nope – so why do we do it to ourselves?  I follow many WW peeps on Instagram and a couple of them have come so close to goal, only to have a binge and be a few farther pounds away from goal.  Almost as if the “goal” was the finish line, and once met, what comes next?

The rest of your life, that’s what!   Getting to goal is just part of the journey, not the destination, and if I can help anyone out there (including myself!) on keeping that in the back of our minds, I think we will enjoy this journey of life a lot more.  And to help me visualize myself getting to goal, I’ve already started putting together in my head my goal video from where I am to where I will be.  My brother Charlie doesn’t know it yet, but he’s going to help me when the time comes – thanks Charlie! 😀

Yesterday I made my mock Starbuck’s protein plate and it was delish.  We have a stash of condiments in our work fridge, and I found an individual pack of no sugar added strawberry jam (0 points!) which was a nice topping to the Muesli bread.  This whole plate is 8 smart points:   egg (2)  Muesli bread (3)  ½ ounce almonds (2)  Light string cheese (1)  Fruit (0)

I had every intention of going to the gym at lunch, until I remembered that I switched into my yoga pants before WI last Thursday, got back to the office and got busy, and ended up wearing them home.  (I’ve got clothes packed today).  And even though it’s was raining slightly at lunch, got my walking shoes and walked for 30 minutes.  Hannah and Jacob got me this new small Totes umbrella and it’s amazeballs – it didn’t flip inside out even though it was rainy and it was dry by the time I made it back to my desk – weird!

In my day long meal prep on Monday, I made a batch of my veggie marinara, and I don’t think I’ve posted this recipe before, and if I did – Google couldn’t find it.  Kinda sad that my recipes are so unorganized that I need Google to find them!

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One Point Marinara

Yield: 8 servings approximately 3/4 cup

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

I love this basic pasta sauce not only for pasta but for pizza sauce too.

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Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 15 ounce cans diced tomatoes
• 1 cup carrots
• 1 cup celery
• 1 cup red peppers
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red peppers
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Heat a stock pot over medium high heat. Add the olive oil and add the carrots, celery, red pepper and cook for about 5 minutes, until slightly softened. Add remaining ingredients, reduce heat to simmer, and cook for about 30 minutes.

Use a stick blender or blender to puree. Use your judgment on the vegetable broth – sometimes I use all of it, sometimes only half – depends on what consistency you like. This is 8 servings (very generous 3/4 cup?)

Notes

This is 1 point per serving. Click this link to track to the WW tracker.

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Instagram

I had mine over spaghetti squash with Italian sausage – lunch came in at 6 smart points.   But I hit a wall at about 4 p.m. – I was really hungry and forgot to pack my Premiere Protein shakes for my desk, so had to eat a 6 point granola bar that was in my bag.  It was interesting to see the comparison between a tiny granola bar and that giant plate of food above equal the same amount of points.  

I am working for an attorney on a different floor, and by the time I left the office, I already had 11k steps!  I had this recipe pinned on Pinterest for dinner last night.  I actually realized that my dinner was actually inspired by that recipe, because I switched things up a bit.  I am going to tweak my recipe a bit more before posting, but I am close.  It was delicious and this plate came in at 10 smart points.

I had the kitchen cleaned by 7:45 so I hit up the gym.  I did another two miles on the treadmill and then did 20 minutes of upper body and 5 minutes of abs.  I wish I had looked to see how close I was to 20k!

So here’s how I got that all done last night: came home, made dinner from scratch, cleaned the kitchen, went to the gym, came home and put my food together for today AND wrote this blog post.  I didn’t watch a second of t.v.  Turns out there is plenty of time if you don’t spend 2-3 hours watching t.v. at night to get stuff done!

If you don’t follow weatherford5 on Instagram – go do it now.  This guy doesn’t stop – he is a spokesman, t.v. personality, former football player, husband and father to 4 kids.   He always does these motivational screen shots, and I keep the ones that speak to me.  I like this one and I have it hanging by my desk as a constant reminder . . . that I control both my attitude and effort!

Alright, lets kick some Wednesday ass – make it a great day!

If you are looking for another pasta dish, check out my cajun shrimp pasta!