#10. Create 10 WeightWatchers-friendly versions of favorite dishes. (2/10)

As Tom mentioned before, I'm a proud member of WeightWatchers, and my favorite thing about it is that you can lose weight without having to give up the foods you love. The biggest thing I've learned is how to enjoy these foods in moderation, but another thing I've discovered is that a lot of "normal" recipes out there have a ton of extra, high-point stuff that's completely unnecessary. The WW website has a great collection of recipes that are low in points without sacrificing any flavor, and a lot of them still use real ingredients (like sugar instead of artificial sweeteners), which I love. So I set this goal for myself in hopes of being able to replace some of my go-to recipes with some that are a little bit healthier.

Tom and I like to cook breakfast together on Saturday mornings, and this past Saturday we decided to make pumpkin pancakes. (I mean, really...is there any better breakfast to have this time of year?) I had a recipe for them, but decided to give the WW version a try, and it was a big success!

Other pumpkin pancakes = 9 points, without toppings

WeightWatchers' pumpkin spice pancakes = 5 points, including powdered sugar

These were SO good. I thought they tasted just like other pumpkin pancakes I'd had, but with a lot fewer points. The biggest difference between these two is the fat content. Other recipes call for a lot of oil to keep the pancakes moist, but it's really not necessary with pumpkin pancakes because the pumpkin accomplishes that. Any fat that's in the WW pancakes comes from the very small amount of melted butter in the batter. This does not include any extra butter you might want to slather on top, which you can do free of guilt because you're not spending as many points on the pancakes. :)

Recipe #2 was an apple crisp we made for community group last night.

Standard apple crisp = 11 points

WeightWatchers' apple cider crisp = 6 points, not including ice cream

The difference here? The amount of sugar. Instead of piling on the granulated sugar, the WW version uses a little bit of sugar plus some apple cider, which still has natural sugar, but not as much, and it really lets the sweetness of the apples shine through. I think it went over pretty well with the group, too (i.e. not much left over). Later that evening, Tom told me he'd felt like he was getting away with something, because it was so good but so comparatively low in calories. I think both of these recipes are winners!