Filling family Feasts

Cooking meals that please the whole family can feel like a challenge at the best of times, so you’d be forgiven for wondering how you’ll fit in your weight-loss programme, too.

But with delicious suppers, such as cheesy pasta bake with butternut squash and sage, salmon fish fingers with wedges and even a healthy quick fruit crumble regularly appearing on your supper table, you can keep everyone happy — and make your healthy eating habits a natural part of family life.

‘There’s absolutely no need to be ostracized at the end of the supper table with your salad while all the others tuck into a different meal,’ says Julia Westgarth, head of programme at WW, formerly known as Weight Watchers.

‘The flexibility of the new myWW+ means there are countless fuss-free recipes to choose from so that everyone can sit down and enjoy the same delicious, nutritious meal — and you can stick to your weight-loss goals, whichever plan you are following.’

That’s why today, as we continue our brilliant WW series to help you make 2021 your healthiest and happiest for years, we’re sharing advice and tempting recipe suggestions to help you lose unwanted weight while sharing the health benefits with your loved ones. The dishes also make sure they’re satisfied at meal-times.

There are three colour plans to

choose from. To find out which best suits you, go to weightwatchers.com/uk/ personal assessment /1

If you’re on the Purple plan, for instance, many staple ingredients containing carbohydrates count as ZeroPoint foods — including potatoes, wholegrain pasta, brown rice and oats — making it particularly useful if you want to feed hungry partners or ravenous teenagers while staying on track yourself.

Or you could prepare a hearty, yet healthy, winter stew with a low SmartPoints value but add extra garlic bread, a fluffy baked potato or serve up extralarge portions for growing youngsters.

And, as non-starchy vegetables and most fruit are ZeroPoint foods on all three WW colour plans, why not use these for extra side dishes that will bulk out a meal and ensure everyone in the family is getting enough vitamins and minerals — all within your daily SmartPoints Budget?

Making some canny substitutions with ingredients will also enable you to rustle up indulgent family favourites that are also low in SmartPoints.

Today’s scrumptious chocolate brownies recipe uses calorie-controlled cooking spray, 0% fat natural Greek yoghurt and cocoa powder, all low in calories, to produce indulgent gooey brownies, that only take 10 minutes to prepare, 20 minutes to cook and will only set you back four SmartPoints each on Green and three on Blue or Purple.

You will find the new myWW+ app an invaluable friend as it is packed with recipes for hundreds of healthy family meals — some of which take only 30 minutes to prepare from fridge to fork.