But wait... there is nothing forbidden on the Weight Watchers Points Plus program. We just have to account for it, right?
Peanut Butter Mini M&Ms Blondies... doesn't the name just make you start to drool a little? When I saw this recipe and the pictures on Brittany's blog, Itty Bitty Bits of Balance, I went out and bought the mini M&Ms that same day. That was about a week ago.
But I waited until a couple of days ago to make them - why you might ask? Well, I have gained a few pounds. There, I said it. It started during our half marathon training... a couple of pounds crept on, and since that race, a couple more, until I am now at the point where I weigh 11 pounds more than my lightest fighting weight. And my resolve to get rid of it has peaked. So I know it is safe now for me to go ahead and make these blondies for The Captain, and I will be satisfied with a taste, and can leave them alone. If I had gone ahead and made them last week, I probably would have eaten the panful myself!
I halved the ingredients that Brittany uses in her recipe, and I used a 8 x 8 pan.
The original recipe calls for 1-1/2 cups of mini M&M's. 1 cup of that is used in the batter and the other 1/2 cup is sprinkled over the top before baking... to keep the P+ count down, I only used the ones in the batter and didn't add any more on the top.
Therefore in halving the ingredients, I used only 1/2 cup of the mini M&Ms.
I put the ingredients I used in my Fit Day software and calculated that the N.I. for the whole thing. It comes out at:
Calories 2752, Protein 52g; Carbohydrate 352g; Fat 129g; Fibre 15g.
That is not to scare you off, but just to give pause... and help you realize that you can cut this into as many pieces as you like to get it to the P+ values that suit you... to make it manageable for your own needs.
Let's do some math.
For each of 16 pieces:
Calories 172, Protein 3g; Carbohydrate 22g; Fat 8g; Fibre 1g.
Weight Watchers P+ = 5.
For each of 24 pieces:
Calories 115, Protein 2g; Carbohydrate 15g; Fat 5g; Fibre 1g.
Weight Watchers P+ = 3.
For each of 32 pieces:
Calories 86, Protein 2g; Carbohydrate 11g; Fat 4g; Fibre 0g.
Weight Watchers P+ = 3.
You can see with rounding, the WW calculator computes the 1/24th serving as the same number of Points Plus as the 1/32 serving... might as well eat the bigger one!
All of these are reasonable size portions... anything smaller would hardly be worth it!
Melt the butter and brown sugar over MEDIUM-LOW heat and then stir in peanut butter. I used chunky.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Add vanilla and egg to the cooled peanut butter mixture and combine... then stir it into the dry ingredients and mix well.
Add the mini M&Ms and mix well.
Spread the batter evenly in a prepared cake pan and bake about 25 minutes. I think they would have been better if I had baked them a couple of minutes less.
Leave to cool for about half an hour.. if you can! Then cut and enjoy!
The remainder can be frozen! Yeah, right.
Love that you remind us that treats are okay! It's such an important lesson. There should be no bad foods, just foods you don't eat as often.
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