Frugal Fat Fighters: Weight Watchers Menu on the Cheap

First – check out this post to see a list of great WW-friendly “coupon foods”.  I'm working on a second post right now, as there are so many foods that I left out!

While this is perhaps not the most exciting menu, it does show you that you can eat healthy and cheaply!  Additionally – I tend to go heavier on breakfast than lunch, because I am NOT a “morning eater”….or at least I don't typically eat breakfast until 10:00am and then I eat a light lunch and a regular dinner.

Oh – and I lost 5.2 lbs last week on this menu!

Breakfasts: 

Fiber One Raisin Clusters with 2/3 c milk (Fiber One Cereal can be had for less than $1/box or $.15/serving; milk at state minimums), coffee with 1/3 c. milk (5 points)

Lt English Muffin (find them BOGO all the time); egg + 3 egg whites, scrambled (eggs are CHEAP); 1 T reduced-sugar jam, Black coffee w/Splenda. (5 points). 

Pumpkin Muffin (a very inexpensive recipe when you get the ingredients on sale), Fiber One Yogurt, Coffee with 1/2 cup milk (5 points) 

Lunches:

Fresh Express Salads (very generous with coupons and the non-deluxe versions can be had for $.50/bag when on sale when combined with a coupon), topped with Tuna Salad made with fat-free mayo (add some dijon mustard or chopped onion – or both – to the tuna salad to give it a “kick”) and drizzled with fat-free Catalina dressing (dressing can be had for $.50/bottle when on sale with a coupon…or free when it is a Catalina deal!). (4-5 points)

Fresh Express Salads (very generous with coupons and the non-deluxe versions can be had for $.50/bag when on sale when combined with a coupon), topped with Egg Salad made with fat-free mayo (add some chopped up dill pickes to the egg salad to give it a “kick”) and drizzled with fat-free Catalina dressing. (4-5 points)

Peanut Butter & Jelly and Progresso Zero-point soups:  make the PB&J on either a light english muffin, or 2 slices of reduced calorie bread.  1 TBSP peanut butter and 1 TBSP jam (use reduced sugar jam to get a bigger portion).  There are tons of coupon out there for Skippy, Jif & Peter Pan peanut butterwhich, when combined with regular sales can get you peanut butter for under $1/jar, after doubling.  Progresso soups go on sale all the time and coupons can be found everywhere) (4-6 points, depending on what bread you use)

Dinners

Whole Wheat Pasta tossed with canned Diced tomatoes, 4 oz (weight before cooking) chicken, broccoli (use Green Giant Valley Steamers – they've been free after coupon almost everywhere for the last few months) with a little drizzle of olive oil (7-8 points)

Salsa Chicken:  saute 5oz (uncooked) chicken in non-stick spray, add salsa (Chi-Chi's has the most coupons) to pan and allow to heat.  If you have the points, add some frozen corn (Green Giant Valley Steamers – free).  Serve over 3-points of brown rice, polenta, cous-cous or pasta.  Salad (full of zero-point veggies) with a few spritzes of Ken's Salad Spritzers (7-9 points, depending on if you add corn). 

Broccoli & Cheese Baked Potato:  this is my favorite “my husband is working late” dinner:  1 large  potato (3-point/7 oz cooked) (about $.25 when you can get a 5lb bag of potatoes on a half-price or BOGO sale), topped with an entire package of Green Giant Valley Steamers Broccoli & Cheese sauce (3 points).  In the rare instances that I am still hungry, I either also have a salad or Progresso zero-point soups!

Snacks:

Microwave popcorn:  3 points for the entire bag!  Jolly Time, Pop Secret and (occasionally) Orville Redenbacher are very generous with both the coupons and the store-sponsored Catalina deals.

Baby Carrots (usually available to $1.50/1lb bag) with Salsa:  these are saved for the days when I use up my snack points with important things….like Hershey's Kisses

Fiber One yogurts:  very generous with the coupons, only 1 point and count towards dairy requirement!

Boiled Egg:  only 2 points and you would be shocked at how far that little “shot” of protein can go towards fighting hunger