Weight Loss Wednesday and a recipe with photos (ippp)

I am trying to better balance motherhood and working full-time outside the home. My hubby carries so much of the load, with being the first one home from work and just being his wonderful self, that I wanted to figure out how to help. Enter my crockpot. I have been scouring for recipes that will work for the family and my weight watchers diet.

Recently I did a crockpot recipe search on pinterest and found this website. And decided to try this recipe for Sue’s birthday dinner.

Here is the ingredient list I came up with:

1 jar reduced fat pasta sauce
8 ozs. italian style shredded cheese mix
1 pound lasagna noodles
3 cups fat free cottage cheese
1 lb cooked, 93% lean ground beef
1 can mushrooms stems and pieces

Brown meet with spices in a frying pan, drain fat, stir in pasta sauce, simmer for a few minutes (don’t rinse or throw away pasta sauce jar).

Put some meat mixture on the bottom of your crockpot, then a layer of noodles (they will have to be broken up to fit in), then a layer of cottage cheese, mushrooms, and a layer of cheese, repeat. The original recipe calls for adding fun veggies, broccoli, spinach, etc., but I forgot or didn’t have them on hand.

taken with my phone camera 🙂

Cook in crockpot for 4.5-5 hours on high. About 30 minutes before it is done, cook up a few extra noodles on the stove, layer those on top of lasagna at the end of cooking to tie it all together.

It makes a lot. About 8 servings, and comes out to 10-11 weight watchers points plus per serving.

I liked it, hubby liked it (has been taking the leftovers to work) and the babies even liked it! It is higher in points values than I normally eat for dinner, but I budgeted through the day so I could have some for my sweet girls’ birthday dinner.

They are, after all, why I am working so hard on my health; my weight, my exercise and my cholesterol. I want them to grow up knowing good choices are a natural part of life. That exercise is something to plan, look forward to and enjoy. I am looking forward to those results for myself, but as I watch my girls, I get drive to continue when I might quit otherwise.

But, I am going to take a bit of Alicia’s advice, and remember, the laundry, dirty dishes, messy rooms, will always be there, so I will take the time I need right now to exercise and make wise eating choices.

*Weight watchers update, I lost another 1.2 lbs, for a 3 week total of 4.8 lbs.