Canada, Greece, Repeat.

Around the world and back again in three short meals 🙂  Geesh, I need a vacation…  Luckily, only two weeks til my Char-Char-cation!!!  (Charlotte/Charleston/Vacation 😉 )

Breakfast #1 = Canada

Canadian Bacon Eggins! Last night, I decided to whip up some eggins and use some of the Canadian Bacon I picked up at Trader Joe’s over the weekend.

I sprayed a muffin tin down with cooking spray, and plopped one piece of the Canadian bacon in each of 6 muffin tins.

Then I mixed together 9 egg whites, splash of water, S&P, red pepper flakes, franks red hot and poured it evenly into the 6 muffin tins. (Word to the wise – if you use a container with a spout it makes life A LOT easier 🙂 )

I cooked them for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

I had three of these little guys for breakfast with a dollop of ketchup.

Stats for 3 Canadian Bacon Eggins & ketchup: 147 calories, 6g carbs, 1g fat, 26g protein, 0g fiber

 

Breakfast #2 = Greece

1/2 cup Trader Joe’s nonfat vanilla greek yogurt with 1/4 cup each strawberries and blueberries.

Trader Joe’s greek yogurt was so tasty.  It’s not overly sweet, which I really liked.  I think I could have ate about 3 more servings of this 🙂

Stats: 133 calories, 23g carbs, 0g fat, 9g protein, 2g fiber

 

Lunch = Repeat

Leftovers from last night’s Chicken Couscous Salad!

So tasstttyyyy…

 

Last night’s smoothie

Since lunch was a repeat, I thought I’d showcase the lovely little smoothie I made last night. Everyday, I have a mid afternoon snack and a late night snack, each of which are around 100 calories. They are usually something simple like an apple or a bowl of low-cal cereal and almond milk, and don’t typically make it into the blog.

Last night, I was feeling up for a smoothie so I put the following into the blender:

  • 1/4 cup Oikos nonfat plain yogurt
  • 1 packet Truvia (Stevia)
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened Almond Breeze Vanilla Almond Milk
  • 1/4 cup each of frozen fresh blueberries, strawberries, and black raspberries

All blended up:

This lil guy was quite tasty, and he is quite the looker too 😉 !

Stats on the berry smoothie: 92 calories, 18g carbs, 1g fat, 6g protein, 4g fiber

 

Get those comments on the PB2 Giveaway page!  Pssst… you don’t have to create a blog to get a wordpress account!

Also, check out this Chobani Greek Yogurt Giveaway courtesy of Hillary at Foodie on the Run!!!

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Chicken Couscous Salad Salad

Dinner tonight was Chicken Couscous Salad Salad (the food so good they name it twice, right? 😉 )

I stumbled upon this Cooking Light recipe a while back and it sounded really tasty, but I wanted to try and make it a little healthier.  Luckily, I had a great find at the grocery store!  Rice Select Tri-Color Couscous with Sundried Tomato and Spinach, which has about 70 less calories per serving than the whole wheat couscous I compared it to. 

I decided to make up 2 servings of the salad so I’d have something for lunch tomorrow, so I cooked up 1/2 cup of the couscous in 1/2 cup free range chicken broth.  Once the couscous was finished, I fluffed it work a fork and dumped in a bowl to cool down. 

Meanwhile, I got to choppin.  Here’s what I decided to throw into the salad:

That’s:

  • 4 ounces chicken breast (which I cooked up last night with McCormick’s Montreal Chicken Seasoning)
  • 1/2 cup chopped green onion
  • 1 roma tomato
  • 1/2 a chopped cucumber
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley

 

For the dressing, I mixed up the following:

  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp black pepper
  • 1 clove garlic minced

Tossed everything together and put in the fridge to chill out while I cleaned up my kitchen.  I’m one of those people who just makes an absurd amount of messes while cooking… Good thing I like to clean 🙂

This recipe made two big servings of yummyness:

This was really tasty!  I love vinegars, so I especially liked the dressing.  I think I’ll actually try some out on a salad later in the week.  Another great thing about this couscous recipe is you could throw pretty much any vegetable into the mix and it would taste great!  Two thumbs up!

Stats on the chicken couscous salad:  277 calories, 40g carbs, 4g fat, 17g protein, 4g fiber

 Don’t forget to check out the PB2 giveaway!!!

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Grilled Brussel Sprouts

Today, I decided to try out brussel sprouts on the grill.  Using this recipe from food network as my guide, I microwaved 5 brussel sprouts for 3 minutes.  Then topped with a tiny bit of olive oil, S&P, minced garlic, tiny bit of cayenne pepper, and some paprika.

I stuck the sprouts on a skewer and put them on the george foreman grill for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, I assembled a turkey wrap sandwich consisting of 1 lite Flatout italian wrap, 3 ounces turkey breast, tomato, onion, banana pepper, a 1/2 tsp fat free italian dressing, and a few drops of Frank’s Red Hot.

After the sprouts had cooked for five minutes, I flipped them to the other side, threw the wrap on the grill, and cooked for another five minutes. 

Lunch is served!

Stats on the wrap, sprouts, and grapes:  306 calories, 39g carbs, 7g fat, 27g protein, 14g fiber

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Saturday is for the Chirpy

Hello friends!

Good news!  I woke up this morning, and I literally had a smile on my face 😀  The sun was shining and the birds were chirping (which some people find annoying but I happen to love)…   Come to think of it, that is odd for me considering I have a phobia of birds… 

After my rough start to the day yesterday, we thought the best cure would be Gionino’s pizza and their amazing hot sauce for dinner last night (we will take any excuse for the G, really):

After dinner, I walked 2.5 miles at about a 4 mile per hour pace.  I’m not 100% sure the walking is helping me to rebuild the strength in my knee, but it doesn’t seem to be hurting so I’m going to keep on keeping on!

For breakfast #1 today I decided to make up some eggs.  I swear my body goes through egg withdrawal if I am sans-eggs for more than a couple days!  I chopped up a small potato into bite size pieces, then microwaved for 4 minutes flipping the little guys over half way through. 

Then I threw them into a hot pan to crisp up on both sides.  Once the potatoes were crispy, I added the following mixture: 4 egg whites, some Frank’s red hot, S&P, red pepper flakes, and  a splash of water.  

Served em up with a dollop of ketchup 🙂

Stats on breakfast #1:  215 calories, 36g carbs, 9g fat, 17g protein, 3g fiber

After the eggs, I completed Day #1, Week #2 of my interval training plan which consisted of 5 intervals of 3 minutes walking and 3 minutes running.  No knee pain!  Boo ya!  I got to the 2.5 mile marker in 27 minutes. 

Breakfast #2 today was some overnight oats 😀

Last night I threw the following into a bowl then popped it into the fridge:

  • 1/2 cup uncooked quick oats
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened almond breeze vanilla almond milk
  • 1 tsp JIF peanut butter
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • sprinkling of cinnamon

This morning, I topped the oats off with some fresh strawberries.  Mmmm mmmm gooooood 🙂

Stats on breakfast #2:  233 calories, 36g carbs, 8g fat, 7g protein, 6g fiber

You know what I really love about overnight oats (besides the delicious creamy coolness)?  It’s like a little surprise for yourself.  You take 1 minute of time for yourself the night before, and the next morning you have this little bundle of joy just waiting for you! 

Speaking of preparing, I haven’t been doing a very good job of planning my meals out for the week in advance.  During tax season, I am amazing at this (not to brag or anything 😉 ) and not only do I shop for the meals on Sunday, but I also cook EVERYTHING for the week on Sunday.  Lately, it feels like I’ve been going to the grocery store several times a week, instead of one large trip over the weekend.  So, this week I’m going to do my best to sit down and plan everything out.  Speaking of planning… I need to plan out what to make for dinner tonight!

Headed to the yard for hours of glorious yard work 🙂

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Ooey Gooey Love

This week is just F-L-Y-I-N-G by.  Can’t believe tomorrow is Friday already!      

Breakfast #1      

This morning I was craving something warm and peanut-buttery for breakfast.  I pulled a Mama lupe low carb tortilla out of the freezer to let it thaw out.  Then I topped it with 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s Crunchy Almond Butter and some sliced strawberries.       

      

I wrapped it up into a little burrito and put on the george foreman grill until it was hot and the shell was crispy.  Then I wrapped the little guy up in foil and stuck him in my purse.      

      

I got to work about 20 minutes later, and the wrap was still nice and hot and gooey.      

ooey gooey love

 

This was just delicious.  So simple, and so delicious!    

Side note:  If you are obsessed with freezing things like me, before you freeze the tortillas put a piece of parchment paper or wax paper between each one.  That way you can easily grab 1 tortilla from the freezer at a time (and they won’t all be frozen into one tortilla blob).      

Stats on Breakfast #1:  172 calories, 13g carbs, 12g fat, 9g protein, 7g fiber      

       

Breakfast #2      

OO!  That’s right, Overnight Oats!      

I typically use quick oats when I make overnight oats, but this time I tried them with Bob’s Red Mill Thick Rolled Oats instead.  Last night I threw the following into a bowl in the fridge:      

  • 1/2 cup Bob’s red mill thick oats (uncooked)
  • 1/2 cup Almond breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • cinnamon

This morning, I topped the oats with strawberries and blueberries:      

       

The rolled oats have a different consistency than quick oats.  They really keep their oat texture and are somewhat chewy:      

      

These were sooooo yummmy.  If I had to choose, I’d pick quick oats over rolled oats, but I’d be happy to eat either one 🙂      

Stats on breakfast #2:  258 Calories, 45g carbs, 6g fat, 8g Protein, 8g Fiber      

       

Lunch      

Healthified Tuna Salad Lettuce Wrap!  This was one of those times were I just kept adding things to the bowl until I found something tasty:      

  • 1 can tuna
  • s&P, rpf, celery seed, dill weed
  • 3 tbsp greek oikos
  • 1 big squirt wasabi mustard
  • couple drops lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup chopped white onion
  • 1 chopped pickle (that’s how my dad makes it!)

I made a lettuce wrap out of the tuna salad and also had some cucumber salad on the side, which was leftover from last night’s gyro dinner.       

      

Stats on lunch:  211 calories, 19g carbs, 2g fat, 29g protein, 6g fiber      

       

For dessert, I had a little unsweetened applesauce with some cinnamon.  When I say little, I mean about 2 spoonfuls.. 🙂  (Leftovers from the big fat flop protein cakes I made)      

      

Good news!  I think my phone is almost fully recovered! 🙂     

DAY #3 OF INTERVAL TRAINING TONIGHT!  LET’S HOPE FOR NO KNEE PAIN!

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