Tracking

One of the keys to success with Weight Watchers is tracking. Whether you do it on paper or use their mobile app, it’s something you need to do in order to succeed in this program.

Despite knowing this, I continuously do a bad job at tracking. I track my morning water and my breakfast and then I stop caring. That’s in regards to food though. If you took a look at my FitPoints tracker, I keep up with that as much as I can.

But exercise isn’t the only part of this equation.

When I started out on this journey last year and actually lost weight, I tracked like crazy. I need to start doing that again.

Just now, I went through and tracked most of my food for the day. I say most not all because I’m not sure yet what I’m going to serve with the tilapia tonight…

Besides tracking, a big problem of mine is portions. I do pretty good during the day.

Yesterday, for example, I had a protein smoothie for breakfast after I got home from the gym. For lunch, I ate half of a Subway salad that I put oil and vinegar on instead of ranch and southwest sauce. There were also cool ranch doritos present, but I only ate half a small bag.

And there was pie. It was Pi Day yesterday after all and I only had a small piece and I was celebrating the day with friends…I made a peanut butter pie with an Oreo crust.

Minus the pie, I did good during the day.

But yesterday evening, I made this breakfast casserole that I really like for something different. And I ate way too much of it. And then I ate some more as I was putting it away before bed.

Ya don’t see me unable to control myself around a salad!

I really need to work on controlling myself around all sorts of food. Yes, that casserole was fantabulous, but I didn’t need that big of a piece and I didn’t need seconds. I wasn’t still hungry.

The concept of hungry was actually the topic of discussion in the last WW meeting I was in. Internal hunger (actual, stomach growling hunger) vs external hunger (oh boy does that look good hunger).

I don’t have control over my external hunger and something need to change.

Cheesy Sausage and Potato Pie

At some point last month or the month before, one of the grocery stores I frequent had Johnsville ground Italian sausage on sale, so I decided that I wanted to try making something new. Did you know that the Johnsonville website has a bunch of great recipes?

I decided that I wanted to try this wonderful-looking savory pie.

Sometimes the bonus result of new recipes, a bonus for me at least, is the fact that I get to buy new cooking supplies! In this case, I needed a pie pan. I also got to work Pillsbury’s refrigerated pie crust for the first time.

This recipe is very easy, but the fact that it has to be baked for an hour means that I don’t consider it a good choice for a week night meal.

After lining the bottom of your pie pan with one pie crust and trimming the edges, you fill it with ground Italian sausage, frozen potatoes, shredded cheese, cream of potato soup, and some spices. Then, you carefully layer the other crust on top and trim it. Make sure to cut some slits into the top so that your pie doesn’t explode in the oven!

I used some onion powder in place of actual onion and accidently used a smaller can of soup than was called for. Otherwise, I stuck to their recipe.

Kevin and I both really enjoyed this. Not only was it tasty, but it was filling and huge, which meant we had the rare occurrence of leftovers. This pie is dense with plenty of sausage and potato goodness to each bite and a creaminess from the cheese and soup to tie it all in. Using a bigger can of soup might have added to the texture, but we didn’t really miss it.

The crust was great too. It was really easy to use and cooked up crunchy yet tender. I’d like to make a sweet pie with it at some point.

Cheesy Sausage and Potato Pie

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground Italian sausage (I used mild)
• 2 cups frozen, diced potatoes
• 1 cup green onion, sliced (or 1/2 tbs onion powder)
• 1 10.75 ounce can of cream of potato soup
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground sage
• 2 pie crusts, 9 inches

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Brown and drain sausage.
3. Mix all of the ingredients for your filling.
4. Place on pie shell inside of pie pan, pressing against sides and bottom. Trim off excess.
5. Add filling mixture and then place second crust on top. Trim off excess.
6. Press edges with a fork to seal and cut slits on top of the pie.
7. Bake for 1 hour and let stand 15 minutes before baking.

Chocolate Chess Pie

I made this last week—thought it would be the perfect way to celebrate spring break. This is the first time I’ve ever made a pie, so I wasn’t sure how well it would turn out, but I’m happy to report that it was delicious!

The recipe says that this make one 9-inch pie, but I somehow had enough filling to make two 9-inch pies. This could be because I didn’t arrange the crust properly, so it sank in the pan.

A note on the crust, I used Pillsbury’s refrigerated pie crust. Just follow the directions on the box to cook it before putting the filling in and cooking it some more.

Once your pie cools off, let it chill in the refrigerator before you eat it. I thought that it tasted better chilled.

This recipe came from food.com.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of sugar

5 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup evaporated milk

3 large eggs, room temperature

1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened (I actually used salted butter. I’m going to try it with unsalted at some point, and I’ll let you know if it makes a difference).

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 partially baked 9-inch pie crust

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine sugar, cocoa, flour, and salt.

Blend in milk.

Beat in eggs 1 at a time.

Add butter and vanilla, beat until smooth.

Pour into prebaked pie shell.

Bake for 55-60 minutes.