Restaurant review: Applebee's new Weight Watchers menu items & maintenance week 2 weight in

Last week, I was thrilled to find out that I had won an Applebee's $25 gift card on a giveaway on the blog Weight Watchers Wannabe. The point of the giveaway was to introduce Applebee's 3 new Weight Watchers Points Plus entree choices. So, when my son volunteered to run the lights, sound and video for his school prom tonight it seemed like a perfect time to make use of that gift card and enjoy a date night with my husband while our child was occupied for the evening. I chose the Grilled Jalapeno-Lime Shrimp (Weight Watchers PointsPlus value: 8). The Applebee's website describes it as: "a hearty portion of grilled chipotle lime shrimp and black bean corn salsa tossed with lime juice and chopped cilantro, served on a mix of grilled zucchini, marinated tomatoes, onions & red peppers with steamed white rice."

The shrimp was very good, especially the veggies, beans and corn salsa which was very flavorful. My only disagreement with the description is the phrase "a hearty portion"- I understand that portion control is a vital part of Weight Watchers, but there really wasn't a whole lot of food in this meal. I enjoyed the meal very much, but the fact is that I could have easily eaten two servings before I felt like I'd had a full meal. However, for 8 points it's a good deal in both price and points cost. My husband got the Cabernet Mushroom Sirloin (Weight Watchers PointsPlus value: 12). This is a Applebee’s 7 oz. grilled House Sirloin with sautéed Portobello mushrooms & onions in a Napa Valley Cabernet sauce with steamed herbed potatoes and garlic broccoli.

Same story here- the food itself was excellent, but my husband was still hungry once he'd eaten everything on his plate. As he said, that portion size was not intended for a full grown man such as himself. We ate at a little after 5 and by 6:30 we were both ready to eat again. In summary, the new Applebee's menu choices are very good, but be aware that they are not the most filling meals. I came home and enjoyed a yogurt/banana smoothie and some fresh fruit afterwards and I'm good. (My husband is planning a full additional meal, however- he's still quite hungry! Then again, he's also 6 foot 1 and 280 lbs so he can really consume some food!) :) The update on week 2 of maintenance at WW is that I'm up 1.2 pounds, for a total gain of 2.6 pounds since I started maintenance. However, this particular gain was earned- there were dietary transgressions this past week. Gloriously chocolaty transgressions at that, so I'm ok with the gain. For the week coming up I've lowered my daily points allowance back to my pre-goal range of 26 until I can get back to my goal weight. Then, I'll bump it back up 2 or 3 points to make a more focussed attempt at maintenance. :)