Hi, Turtles,

The brownie recipe is from "Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts". I put all of my recipes in MasterCook and print them out when I make them so I don't get spills, etc. all over my cookbooks. Some of them are out of print and some are expensive to replace.

* Exported from MasterCook *

Michael's Fudge Brownies

Recipe By: Alice Medrich
Servings: 16 Serving Size: 1 brownie
Points: 3 per brownie

Ingredients:
1 cup unbleached flour -- sifted
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1/2 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder or instant coffee powder
1 teaspoon hot water

Oven: 350 F

1. Dissolve espresso powder in hot water.

2. Spray an 8" square pan with vegetable oil spray.

3. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Off the heat, stir in the sugar until combined (texture will remain sandy). Add the egg, egg whites, vanilla, and dissolved espresso powder. Beat with a wooden spoon about 40 strokes, scraping the sides of the pan as necessary. Add the dry ingredients and beat for another 40 strokes, or just until completely mixed. If an electric mixer is used, be careful not to overmix, but be sure it's blended well.

4. Scrape mixture into prepared pan. Spread evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out a little gooey, but not drippy wet. Be careful not to cook them too long or you don't get that great fudgy texture. Cool on a rack. Cut into 16 squares. Enjoy.

Dutch process cocoa: Dutch process cocoa is richer and darker and many of the low-fat baked goods recipes I have use it. It's been treated with alkali to neutralize some of the natural acidity of cocoa. The difference in acidity reacts differently with the ingredients, particularly baking soda and baking powder, in baked goods. So, if you substitute, you don't get the same results.

Enjoy the brownies. Your husband will not know they are not the regular brownies unless you tell him. He'll think you're being totally bad when you eat one. They're not huge, but they're so rich that one is very satisfying. I eat mine slowly to savor all the chocolate flavor!

Things are going very well. I've stayed OP even though I've eaten over my planned points by a point the last couple of days because I had unused banked points available.

Have a great day, turtles. Hope to hear soon from those of you who haven't been posting lately.

Happy turtlin'!

Lin
272/236/down

Thanks, Lin -- 3 points is do-able, and the recipie looks great. I love coffee in things. Wonder what it would be like to substitute apple sauce for the butter?

I'm up a half pound this week. Not a surprise after those two 40-point days. But with reverse banking, I ended the week ahead. I've been back within my points for the past four days or so, and have worked out twice. (I'm sore today!)

Lin, looks like you and I are keeping this thread alive at the moment. At least we're in good company.

--Lauren
(274/216/down)

Hi,
I'm hoping to join you. I joined WW about a year ago and have lost 24 pounds. In October I lost 6 1/2 pounds and thought I had this thing licked only to find that was the last weight loss I'd have even though I've been OP. This week I lost another pound, so there is hope. With me, I think an awful lot of this is hormonal. But I really am looking to give and get support because I need some and also like to reciprocate.
Good luck to us all.

Itryharder, welcome! I think there must be something in the air. In more than three months, I've lost 5 pounds -- most of it recently. I was on a long plateau, though apparently not as long as yours. Any ideas why you might be plateauing? I'm discovering that I no longer have any wiggle room -- if I go over points at all, I won't lose. I'm wondering if bumping up my exercise might help -- instead of aiming for 4 times a week, I may start aiming for 5.

Anyway, glad to see you here!

--Lauren

Lauren,
Thanks for such a nice warm welcome. I have tried everything the whole time staying OP.The week I added exercise I gained .6 of a pound. I really am not complaining. I think that this may just be the TIME for me to lose, so I'll be real careful not to blow it by going over my points. Also, since it's Lent I'll be eating more tuna and fish when I can. My wonderful WW leader suggested "unit foods". Something you can't get more of. Like a chicken cutlet. Weigh it, eat it and it's gone. So I've been doing that and also I've been trying more protein--starting with an egg in the morning. I am also back to my veggie soup which bulks up my lunch without points.
I'll let you know how things work out, but I am optimistic again.
Good luck to you. We're still lighter than when we started and that's a VERY good thing.

Hi all! I apologize for not writing; I haven't had time to read anything until tonight. I won't be able to write much as my wrist and shoulder are killing me from work (ergonomics it isn't!).

Not much is happening right now. I had a big weight of 4# and I've been struggling with going to the gym.

Lauren, I had been thinking of you. I had decided to give up sweets for Lent. No candy, etc. I've also been reducing my caffeine (so I can increase my water). It's been tough. I have come home and fallen asleep immediately after playing with the dog.

Work is good; home is good although my cats have been acting up -- I've been struggling with the weight and the program.

Itryharder, welcome! I love your name. It is my goal to try harder too. Right now I'm concentrating on the water and not eating in between meals. And the candy. I should say that I occasionally binge but more likely I have 2-3 tiny Tootsie Rolls a day. Nothing major but on the other hand....

It is TOM and perhaps that accounts for my weight gain but let's be honest. I am not trying hard enough. I am grateful to have kept off about 50# so far but still! I worry.

Lin, it sounds like you are doing great and keeping busy. Lauren, congrats on the virgin fat territory! Yippee! And Beth, good work on the group. I too am looking forward to Mousie's account of the wedding. She deserves much happiness!

Well, goodnight folks and I will write in. I should be getting my new keyboard at work soon and maybe that will help with the arm/shoulder pain.

Take care,

Lori W.

Mousie,
Best wishes on your upcoming wedding. Have fun and really enjoy the day.
Everybody--joining this thread must be good luck because I am back to losing again.
Now I have to keep my head clear and not celebrate a little weight loss with fattening foods. My challenge right now is to stay OP and do the right thing for myself.
Good luck to everyone and let's do this!

Hi, Turtles,

Welcome, Itryharder. You ought to fit right in here. We all try harder.

Congrats on your renewed weight loss. And don't let the gain get you down. It's fairly common to gain a bit or to plateau when you add exercise to your program.

Lori, it's so good to hear from you. I've been thinking about you a lot lately. I'm glad to hear that even if you're struggling, you're not giving up. Good luck with your Lenten resolution.

I hope the new keyboard helps you. Make sure they don't install it too low. When you type, your arm should be level from your elbow, through your wrist, to your fingers. Keep your wrists up, as if you're playig the piano. Remember, the wrist rest is for when you're resting from typing. And sit with the best posture you can. I had a similar problem with my last job. I do a lot of typing at home, too. So, I read up on the subject and those were the tips that helped me the most. Those tips and my ergonomic keyboard.

Lauren, regarding the trick of substituting applesauce for the butter. My instincts suggest that pear puree or that prune puree that Sunsweet sells as a fat substitute for baking might be better choices. Those purees would not affect the flavor as much as applesauce can. Regardless of which puree you used, I wouldn't replace more than half of the butter.

Two reasons. One--getting rid of the fat affects the chemistry and the texture. I don't think it would turn out the way it is supposed to. But I haven't tried it with this recipe, so I'm going on my cooking instincts. Two--with the exceptions of fruit, veggies, and most savory breads and grain dishes, I find smaller portions of low-fat food much more satisfying than huge portions of non-fat foods.

You've got me curious, though. Because Alice Medrich is such a respected pastry chef and these recipes are already so low in fat, I never thought about trying to reduce it even more. But, I think my family will be getting brownies again in a week or so because I'd like to try your suggestion. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I'm still OP this week. I'm really becoming a fan of 0-2 point per serving soups. I've been more satisfied with my meals. And my family was disappointed last night when I ate a leftover soup made from veggies they don't like very much. They wanted soup, too. I've been going nuts for years trying to figure out how to get them to eat more veggies and it looks like soup is the answer.

Talk to you all later.

Happy turtlin'!

Lin
272/236/down

Lin,
Isn't soup a kicker? I can't believe how it can bulk up a meal for so few points. The mistake I've made in the past is to let it be the whole meal instead of an intro to other foods.
Good turtling!

Hi, everyone. Lin and ITryHarder, you've convinced me to add more soup into my life. It really does help fill me up if I start with soup. This time of year, we do eat a LOT of soup (beans, beans, and more beans). Lin, this summer I'll look forward to hearing about how we can make cold soups.

I made a delicious veggie pizza this weekend. I bought some single-serving crusts for 5 points each. They were seasoned with Italian seasonings. Then I smeared them with roasted red pepper sauce (maybe a point) and mushrooms and green peppers that had been lightly sauteed in olive oil with Italian seasonings. I added thinly sliced tomatoes and crushed garlic (the kind that comes out of a jar). Toasted the whole thing for 6 minutes at 350 degrees, and voila! A large serving of 7-point pizza. Very tasty. You could add a little cheese without doing too much damage, I'm sure. I've also had this with chicken sausage, which is excellent.

I also went back through my journals from August to now, just to see how my weight loss went. Boy, was I surprised. In August I lost a lot, probably because I had just re-committed myself to the program and thus lost a lot of water. But in September, October, and November, I just lost a couple pounds each month. December I lost nothing due to holiday overeating.

The big surprise: In January and February, when I thought my weight was almost stagnant, I actually lost 3 and 4 pounds respectively, my best losses since August. The difference? I started exercising in early January.

So here's what I figured out: By weighing myself so often, I've really lost perspective on how well I'm actually doing. I'm tired of making myself nuts. Like Lin, I'm finally convinced that I need to do the sane thing and just weigh myself once a month. I'm too slow a loser to benefit from anything more often than that.

And I was very inspired to do my workout this morning!

Onward and downward,

Lauren
(274/216/down)

Hi, Turtles,

I'm having trouble posting today. Well, I guess I'm going to have to switch all of my bookmarks to IE 5. Netscape 6 has a major bug. It ignores password logins, etc. I can't log in to my Yahoo! email and when I logged in here, it kept asking me to login again.

I created a really simple Cream of Any Veggie Soup recipe. If you want it, ask and I'll post it. I use a lot of other soups, but this one is so quick that it's perfect when I'm making a more complicated main dish.

I'm still OP. I have to redo my menu plan because circumstances prevented me from cooking my planned meal last night and I had planned to eat leftovers for lunch. Not a real problem. I have a leftover green bean salad. If I drain the liquid off, and saute the veggies, they'd probably be great in an omelette.

I officially weighed myself yesterday. I prefer to weigh in on Sundays, so I decided to do the first Sunday after TOM as my official weigh in day. I'm down 8 pounds since last month, to 233. I expect it to slow down, though, because that's the kind of loss I have after a long time of maintaining or even gaining a little.

That's why I'm trying to develop a pattern of losing for a while, then maintaining, then losing some more. I figure that I'll eventually get to a weight I want to permenantly maintain.

I discovered that there is a good side to my absolute hatred of housework. I did an hour of cleaning today and I worked up a sweat. It definitely fit the definition of moderate activity. I think I really get going because I want to be done with it. But it takes a while because I'm really thorough.

Happy turtlin'!

Lin
272/233/lower

Lin
It is so smart to look back and see what has REALLY been happening instead of what we think has been happening.
I am down more than 25 pounds over this past year. That's real good. I have done this without ever once banging my head against the wall in frustration. Okay, so I had a few tears and panic when I was OP and my weight went UP, but that's only human.
Overall, my weight loss is better. My attitude is great and I truly feel like I am on my way to changing the way I perceive food. I am leading a healthier lifestyle. That's pretty good!
Good luck to all of us.

Lin,
Congrats on an incredibly great weight loss. And yes, I'd love to know an easy recipe for cream of anything soup!

Hi, Turtles,

I checked the preferences in Netscape 6 and for some reason, the browser had set all of my sites to "don't accept cookies from this site." The problem is, that the only way the computer knows you're logged in is if it accepts a cookie. What's really odd is that the general cookie prefs were set to accept all cookies. (I go through and delete the obnoxious ones myself.) Anyway, I'm testing again to see if I can post. It let me into my Yahoo! mailbox.

Itryharder--I love your attitude. One of the hardest lessons I've learned is that attitude is everything! Many times the same situation looked at from different perspectives can be either a positive one or a negative one. That's one of the things I remind myself to look at when my motivation gets stalled.

I'll post the recipe tomorrow. The easiest way is to put it in MasterCook and paste it to the thread. I make it without following a written recipe, so I have to write it out.


And--Thanks so much for the congratulatory message. Those always mean a lot to me.

Happy Turtlin'!

Lin
272/233/lower

Just checking in on this snowy day to say hello to all of us Slow Turtles. I'm going to make some soup and look at the weather and stay OP all day! It's a promise.

235/207/155(or thereabouts)