Filling & Healthy Porridge Oat Pancakes

I have had a longing for pancakes for days now. It's seeing all the pancake mixes and toppings filling the shelves of the supermarkets. Pancake Tuesday is on it's way and gosh do I love pancakes!

I am filled with lovely thoughts of stuffing myself with pancakes all day on Pancake Tuesday. The reality is I will probably have 3 or 4 and be stuffed! While I am saving myself for ''Real'' Pancakes on Pancake Tuesday I don't want to waste any of my weekly pro points on them right now. I have been making alternative filling & healthy pancakes to keep me satisfied for now.

Most of us know of and love the banana & egg pancakes that have been circling around for a while now. I had them yesterday. While they are quick, easy and a good substitute for pancake cravings, sometimes I am a little bothered about the banana taste that comes with them.

Today I decided to try out a different method and the results were very, very surprising! These pancakes tasted very much like the real deal and were very satisfying and filling. I will be opting for these pancakes instead of the banana ones so long as I am following the filling & healthy program.

Porridge Oat Pancakes.

Free on Filling & healthy
Makes 4 Pancakes.

4 scoops of Porridge Oats (I used the red scoop that comes with microwave porridge oats, this works out at 60g)
2 eggs.
A large dash of Skimmed Milk (I did not measure the milk, I added in a little at a time until i got the desired batter consistency for pancakes)
1tsp Vanilla Extract
1tsp Baking Powder
Fry Light

Pour all ingredients into a baking bowl and blend using a hand blender. Alternatively mix together with a spoon or whizz in the food processor.
Spray your frying pan with some Fry Light and heat the pan to a medium/high heat.
Using a serving spoon or ladle pour some of the batter onto the frying pan.
These pancakes cook very fast so keep an eye on them.
After a minute flip over to the other side and cook for a further minute.
Repeat with the remaining batter and serve with your favourite topping.


You can make these pancakes gluten free by using gluten free oats and baking powder.

Happy Valentines with Mini Maltesers cheesecakes!

Happy Valentines

Whether you have splurged and forgotten completely about weight watchers for today or you have planned valentines into your week. I hope you have enjoyed a wonderful valentines.

I myself planned it into my weeklies, I knew I wanted to splurge a bit so I made sure I had the weeklies left to do it. I lost 3lbs on Tuesdays weigh in, so I am most definitely back on track and 0.5lbs under my goal. I am doing a filling and healthy week. Being at goal and on maintenance I get 90 weekly pro points if doing filling & healthy.

My plan was to stick to filling & healthy foods for the whole day and then tonight I enjoyed my favourite chinese takeaway dish - Shredded Crispy chicken in Sweet Chili Sauce, which I have guessed to be 12 points for the half portion that I had. I made my own egg fried rice, which was free on filling and healthy, using boiled brown rice and one egg.

I had one small vegetable spring roll - 4pp, and a very small hand full of prawn crackers - 4pp

In total my valentines dinner cost me 20 pro points, not bad!

Then came dessert!..The most important part in my eyes.

I have been day dreaming and searching google for days for the perfect cheesecake inspiration. I wanted a cheesecake that could be at least a little part Filling & healthy.

This was the result of my endless research & daydreaming.

Mini Malteser Cheesecakes

5 Pro Points each on Filling & healthy

serves 4.

250g Quark
8 Weight Watchers Chocolate Digestives.
3 Tsp of Low Fat Spread, melted.
30g Icing Sugar.
2 Tsp Vanilla Extract.
8 Tbsp Hot Water
1, 12g Sachet of Powdered Gelatin.
1, 37g Bag of Maltesers.

In a food processor mix the biscuits until they resemble breadcrumbs, mix in the melted butter.
Spoon the crumb mixture between 4 mini pie dishes, use the back of a spoon the press the mixture down.
Pour the hot water into a jug and mix in the powdered gelatin until dissolved, set aside to cool.
In a food processor mix the quark, sugar and vanilla extract together until smooth & creamy, scarping down the sides as you go.
Mix in the gelatin a bit at a time.
Gently crush the Maltesers, setting aside 4 whole ones.
Fold in the crushed Maltesers to the quark mixture.
Spoon the Quark mixture between the 4 mini pie dishes.
Gently crush each remaining Malteser, one at a time, and sprinkle on each Mini Cheesecake.
Chill the Cheesecakes for 2 hrs, until set.

Serve & enjoy!

If you do not have mini pie dishes you could make this in glasses, cupcake cases, or make one large cheesecake in a cake tin.

Simple Start Potato Gratin

Tonight is Steak Night!

Sirloin or Fillet steak is free on Simple Start which is great news because I love steak, but steak makes me think of chips, delicious home made chips from the deep fat fryer oh and dont forget the creamy pepper sauce to pour all over it.

What came into my mind today while trying to decide what to accompany my steak with, was mothers garlic & cream potato gratin. Layers of thinly sliced potatoes smothered in cream and garlic and topped off with a layer of cheese that melts in the oven, It's heavenly. On weekends home from college my mother would often make it and I would sit down with my parents and savor every mouthful as we caught up on the past week, good memories.

Potato Gratin before baking in the oven.

But I cant have that tonight, it's not Simple Start Friendly! As much as I might have wanted to give in and make it, because after all the thinking about it I now had a longing for it, I didn't give in. Instead I thought about how I could make a Simple Start version that would curb the craving.

This is the result...

Simple Start Potato Gratin

Free on Simple Start/Filling & Healthy, without the cheese, or use the cheese as a treat like I did or take from your weekly 49 pro points.

5pp per serving.

Serves 4

750g Potatoes, finely sliced, I left the skin on but you can peel if preferred.
2 Garlic Cloves, crushed. (I used garlic puree)
Salt & Pepper
200ml Skimmed Milk
40g Low Fat Grated Cheddar Cheese.
Fry Lite

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
Spray an oven proof dish with Fry Lite
Layer the finely sliced Potatoes in the oven proof dish, Lightly seasoning with Salt & Pepper and Garlic on every second layer, repeat until all potatoes are used.
Pour the Skimmed Milk over until it reaches just below the top layer of potatoes.
Microwave the dish on high for 10 minutes,
Then cover with foil and bake in the oven for one hour,
Ten minutes before the end take off the foil and sprinkle the cheese on top.

My delicious steak dinner.

I am a lifer!

I have had a very eventful couple of weeks.

On the 18th of January we celebrated my sisters 30th birthday at my parents house with a chinese take away, birthday cake, chocolate biscuit cake and lots of alcohol. My sisters boyfriend asked me how I was going to deal with the weekend on Weight Watchers and my response was exactly this,

''This weekend never happened!''

So I ate like it never happened, I ate what I wanted, when I wanted. I'm talking 8 slices of birthday cake in one weekend!

What do you think happened when I faced the scale at weigh in on Tuesday?...nope you didn't guess right, I actually had a stay the same. 

What this news did for me was make me over confident. My own birthday was the next weekend and I had a tea party planned. My friend Mandi made me a beautiful cake and I probably had about 8 slices of that over my birthday weekend too. I continues to eat like it never happened. what I wanted, when I wanted. 

My Birthday Cake

What do you think happened when I faced the scales on the following Tuesday?...yep, this time I was up! 3lbs!

It all caught up with me big time. You would think that was enough to kick me back into tip top weight watching shape, but it wasn't. I had spiraled out of control. My motivation was non existant. I was supposed to be trying out Simple Start this week, what I did was my own special version, Simple Start meals followed by whatever I wanted.  I ate and I ate and I ate my way to this weeks weigh in where I faced the scales and another 2.5lb gain! 

I was so mad with myself, so disappointed. how could I do this. How could I, the Weight Watchers gold member and future leader who had adorned the cover of the Weight Watchers supplement in the RTE Guide (oh, I will tell you all about that soon!) fall of the wagon so badly?

Myself and Will enjoying my birthday.

I thought about it all night after weigh in and I realised that I am human, yes I am a gold member and future leader but I am firstly and foremost a Weight Watchers member, I have a problem with food and I will have that problem for ever. I am in this for life! In life there will be slip ups, there will be moments and occasions where we give in or choose to forget about counting pro points for a while. The important thing is to go back, to climb back on the Weight Watchers wagon and move on.

Which is exactly what I am doing this week. Since Tuesday I have been following Simple Start properly and I have been enjoying every second of it. I am full, I am satisfied and I feel great!

I came across a competition that my favourite retro brand Stop Staring are doing. You simple enter a picture of you wearing one of their dresses and one lucky person will win a dress from them. It got me looking back at pictures from after I got to goal. I purchased a very special Stop Staring dress to be my goal dress and I wore it to the unofficial Weight Watchers christmas party in Tullamore. I started to remember what buying that dress felt like and how much I loved Weight Watchers for changing my life. I know I will never slip back to the old me if I keep that in my mind.

I decided to enter the picture in the competition. 

My goal dress.

I would love all the help I could get to win this competition so if your feeling generous please follow this link and vote for me

http://bit.ly/1fFgdk2

Thank you all very much,

Sarah