Something good and something bad!

Friday is weigh-in day and I didn't think I would have a good outcome because despite having a good week I had a bad day yesterday, party at work had me eating extravagantly all day.  However I still managed to lose 2 lbs! I am very happy to be past that 20 lb mark once and for all. 

The something bad is one of the naughty things I ate yesterday which was Brownie Goody Bars that I made.  I saw this recipe in my Betty Crocker newsletter that I get every week.  It sounded kind of weird a little to me but it had all these awards and accolades I assumed it must be worth it.  It had the nutrition info attached with but I didn't want to calculate until after I made them.  So I made them, I brought them to my work get together, they were awesome, extremely sweet so you can get by on a small one and when I got home and calculated 11 pts.  So not something you want to be eating everyday, well maybe you want to but you shouldn't.  Now I realize that not all of you reading this are struggling to lose weight, trust me it's a struggle, and even those of us that are it's important not to give up on the good things in life, but it is also very important to be smart about it and to count it.  I would recommend bringing these somewhere where you can share (I even made my coworkers take home most of the leftovers so I wouldn't be bringing a ton home!) I mean it's OK to have a little of these things but not a whole pan!
So here they are (with some friendly suggestions in italics):

Brownie Goody Bars

1

box (1 lb 2.4 oz) Betty Crocker® Original Supreme Premium brownie mix (Sorry Betty, I use Ghiradelli)

Water, vegetable oil and egg called for on brownie mix box

1

cup Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy vanilla frosting (from 16 oz container) (I used cream cheese instead of vanilla)

1/2

cup salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

2

cups crisp rice cereal

2/3

cup creamy peanut butter

1 1/3

cups (8 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease bottom only of 9-inch square pan with cooking spray or shortening. (For easier cutting, line pan with foil, then grease foil on bottom only of pan.)
2. Make and bake brownies as directed on box. Cool completely.
3. Frost brownies with frosting. Sprinkle with peanuts; refrigerate while making cereal mixture.
4. Measure cereal into medium bowl; set aside. In 1-quart saucepan, melt peanut butter and chocolate chips over low heat, stirring constantly. Pour over cereal in bowl, stirring until evenly coated. Spread over frosted brownies. Refrigerate 1 hour or until set before cutting. For bars, cut into 4 rows by 4 rows. Store tightly covered at room temperature or in refrigerator. (They were refrigerated overnight and all morning, so when we went to cut into them for lunch they were really hard! I then left them out on the counter and they softened back up later for people to have seconds or take home leftovers, I had made a double patch in a 9x13 for my work, so I would recommend taking them back out of the fridge for at least 30 min before serving!)

Then for breakfast I decided to make myself a little special breakfast, I like to celebrate those weight loss mornings.  I sort of made this one up so here goes...

Amanda's Apple Cinnamon Waffles a la mode

So I toasted an Eggo Whole Grain Low Fat waffle.  Then I diced up one small apple, sauteed it with 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 Tbsp brown sugar and 1 Tbsp whipped butter until caramelized and starting to soften.  Then I took the toasted waffle, added 3 Tbsp of Vanilla Greek Yogurt and topped with the caramelized apple.  It was special and sweet and decadent tasting.  The points are a little tricky, Weight Watcher's confuses me a little in this area.  They say eat all the fruits and veges you want for free but if you put a fruit or veges in a recipe they charge you for them.  This is a bit confusing.  If you typed these ingredients in to your point tracker separately it would be 6 pts however by adding them into a recipe builder it charged 2 pts for the apple for a total of 8 pts. I tend to err on the side of the bigger number to play it safe but I find this a little confusing.  Even at 8 pts it felt like a special dessert rather than a breakfast and it was filling and satisfying so I am good with that.  Anyways I thought I would pass this a long.  I know for me, breakfast is where I get easily stuck in a rut, no no not another bowl of cereal.  Any idea outside of my usual list of 5 standbys is a nice change of pace.  Hope you all have a great weekend! Amanda