Have I ever mentioned that I love Weight Watchers?!

I'm still doing really well this week. I have been making DELICIOUS smoothies lately! They're so thick you have to eat them with a spoon which makes it seem like even more of a treat, almost like ice cream. I've been using 1/2 cup of frozen fruit, (I use Yoplait Smoothie strawberry, mango, and pineapple but of course any frozen fruit will work) 1/2 cup of milk, and I add Weight Watchers Smoothie Mix (French Vanilla Flavor). I blend it all in my fake Magic Bullet and it's soooo delicious!! I might just be obsessed with it.

For dinner tonight I'm making my mom's lentil soup which I think is to die for! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

2c uncooked lentils

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 small onions

1 med. carrot

2 stalks celery

4c Fat Free Beef Broth

3 c water

2 Tbsp tomato paste

1.5 tsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp ground pepper

1 tsp paprika

pinch of thyme

salt to taste

1 bay leaf

Directions:

In a large pot, combine lentils, garlic, onion, celery, and carrots. Stir in beef broth, tomato paste, vinegar, paprika, pepper, bay leaf, and thyme. Cook until lentils are cooked. Puree soup in blender until smooth. Salt to taste.

** the original recipe called for hot italian sausage to be added but of course it's omitted for the points. I like spicy food so I will add spicy spices to the soup before it cooks for a nice kick.

The recipe yields about 8 servings at about 1c a serving for only 2 points a serving!!

I love this soup because it's healthy, filling, and it's flavorful. I like to make it in a big pot so I will have lots on hand. If I come home starving I can have dinner ready in a minute or it's a quick easy way to pack a lunch. I like to have it with pretzel thins but tonight I'm going to have it with a corn muffin VitaTop. (They were buy one get one free at Publix this week so Kyle and I really stocked up!)

I'm loving this positive attitude I'm having this week. It's so funny to me that it's coming after just a 0.2 weight loss but I think I'm really seeing how important it is that I eat healthy. At my meeting on Monday, Theresa and I were talking about our weight loss. I said I thought I had such a small weight loss because of eating too much and going in to my weekly points. Then she asked me if I got all of my healthy checks everyday. I didn't. She said she doesn't think it was a small weight loss because I went in to my weekly points, it's cause I didn't get all of my healthy checks. It really made me think. I don't know why it's not obvious to me but I know she's right. I ate weekly points cause I wasn't eating low point value foods. When I eat healthy, I automatically eat less points because I eat a lot of fruit and veggies. Funny how Weight Watchers actually works... :)