Five-ingredient peach cobbler

Fresh peaches are on my "Top 10 reasons summer is better in the South" list.

All summer long, I have made a weekly trip to a nearby peach orchard to buy a 1/2 peck of peaches. I eat them as a snack (0 points!), put them in my overnight oatmeal and mix them in smoothies. 

But I must have been slacking on my daily peach-eating routine this week, because yesterday I found myself with four over-ripe peaches. 

Coincidentally, my dad and my brother were on their way to my house and I wanted to make something sweet to treat them. My dad loves fresh peaches more than anyone I know - he actually found the somewhat-unknown peach orchard.

A quick scan of Pinterest revealed an easy peach cobbler recipe I knew I could alter:

2 cups sliced peaches

3/4 cup 1% milk

3/4 cup flour

1/2 sugar

1/2 stick butter

Lots of cinnamon (my addition!)

Melt the butter in the bottom of an 8X8 pan. Mix sugar, flour and milk, and pour over the butter. Pour peaches on top. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon. Bake at 350-degrees for 45 minutes. 

I cut mine into nine servings for 2.8 Weight Watchers Points Plus each.

The boys didn't even make it into my house before exclaiming "what smells so good?!" I didn't tell them the cobbler was low in points. 

For them, it wouldn't have mattered anyways.

Stress cone

It's only Tuesday.

And yet it's already one of those weeks.

I came home from work tonight, fixed a healthy dinner for the family, topped it off with a piece of sugar-free and low-points chocolate cake, and journaled my food. A few hours later, the kids are in bed and I want a treat. Now. 

Yes, I know, we shouldn't reward ourselves with food. This fosters bad habits. Got it. But it's one of those weeks, and so maybe just this one time it will be ok. 

(See, even wannnabe Weight Watchers leaders have "off" days.)

The good news is there isn't much in my kitchen that can be classified as "bad."

I can choose from low-fat popcorn, baked chips and salsa, a bowl of Lucky Charms (my vice!) or frozen yogurt.

Here's what I selected:

A frozen yogurt cone - which feels so scandalous - cost me only 3.7 points (3.3 points for 1/2 cup of yogurt and 0.4 pints for the cone). And I cherished every single, tasty, creamy bite.

(And here's a message to my kids...)

Now, I'm ready to face Wednesday!

Just like Magnolia Bakery

During a long weekend trip to the Big Apple a few weeks ago, my mom and I happened upon the famous Magnolia Bakery.

Overwhelmed by the selection of gorgeous and sure-to-be scrumptious cupcakes, I wasn't worried about points. After all, we had already walked nearly nine miles in one day. Mom chose the featured cupcake for the day - hummingbird - while I struggled to make a decision, finally landing on a strawberry and cream cheese beauty. 

We trudged back to the hotel, where Mom promptly fell asleep. After a long shower, I settled in with a movie and decided to enjoy my sinful dessert. Who in the world knows how many points were in that little piece of heaven? Halfway through it though, the Catholic guilt set in and I tossed it in the trash. Note: this act of wastefulness didn't have anything to do with the taste - it was magnificent!

The next morning, Mom woke up and decided to have her hummingbird cupcake for breakfast. "It's kind of like a breakfast cinnamon cake," she told me, with a giant smile on her face. Unlike me, she didn't toss half of hers in the garbage bin, but she did let me have a morsel of a bite (which probably cost me five points). It was even better than the strawberry cupcake! 

This got me to thinking that there had to be a way to enjoy such a delicious treat without breaking the Weight Watchers daily bank. 

Enter Skinnytaste - in my opinion, one of the best Weight Watchers recipe blogs around. Gina, the blogger, had a slimmed-down version of a hummingbird cupcake. Last night, I got a baking wild hair and decided to see how these would compare to those at Magnolia. 

Three words: Make them now. 

Eat them for breakfast; eat them for a snack; or eat them because you've walked nine miles in New York City and owe yourself a treat. Just make them.

Oh, and bonus, you can make 22 of these for less than it cost me to purchase two cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery. 

And that's counting dollars, not points. 

It's like butter (finger)

My hubby has an insatiable sweet tooth.

You can imagine how well this goes with a Weight Watchers lifestyle.

Actually, it's not all that bad to manage. I'm just constantly on the lookout for tasty, low-Points Plus dessert recipes. The fact is, our recipe box is full of them!

Recently, though, I found a dessert on Pinterest that I just had to try. It's made with crushed Butterfinger, Angel Food cake, vanilla pudding and Cool Whip.

To quote Joey from FRIENDS, "What's not to love?"

Exactly.

What. Is. Not. To. Love? And for only four Points Plus per serving, I recommend you get to loving it now.