Fervent Foodie

Saturday = QT with the yard

June 12, 2010 1 Comment

Happy Saturday!

Early this morning I got a call from my dad saying he was on his way over to help me trim my trees in my backyard. So I quickly dove into the breakfast cookie I made yesterday. I think if you approach eating a breakfast cookie with the expectation that it will have the texture of an actual cookie you will be disappointed. I took two bites and put it back in the fridge–the moist texture just wasn’t doing it for me.

I quickly threw together an eggwich (1 egg (yolk poked), multi grain english muffin, squirt o’ ketchup). As the eggwich was wrapping up, I decided to give the breakfast cookie a second go. I cleared my head of thoughts of chocolately cookies and approached it with an open mind. This actually worked! The breakfast cookie is moist and slightly chewy–and I think you could really play around with the things you mix in to make it an A+ breakfast. I think I might actually pop the rest of the cookie into the oven later — just to see if it would get me the texture of an actual cookie 😉

Breakfast sammy:

Eggwich Stats:185 calories, 29g carbs, 6g fat, 10g protein, 5g fiber

Breakfast cookie stats (stats are for whole cookie — I only ate 1/3): 303 calories, 31g carbs, 12g fat, 22g protien 8g fiber

Back to the yard — I don’t know what happened this year, but my yard hit a major growth spurt. It seemed over the course of one weekend all the plants and trees in my yard just exploded with new growth. The trees in the backyard were so overgrown that they were actually laying on the house. I couldn’t even see out the kitchen window! Slowly but surely, I’m getting the yard into shape for cookout season.

After a couple of hours of work in the yard I was famished. My doctor tells me I am hypoglycemic, which basically means I have low blood sugar. There really isn’t anything you can do for low blood sugar–other than regulate your food intake and make sure you eat frequent nutritious meals.

Up until this year, I never really took the time to plan out my meals and snacks for the day. I would hardly eat anything in the mornings so that I could over indulge at lunch. If I hit a lull where my blood sugar bottomed out, I’d chug a can of coke to get it to spike back up quickly. Obviously, this is not the right approach and it was not good for my body.

Now I make sure to take the time to plan out what I am going to eat each day. I usually sit down the night before and enter everything into MyFitnessPal to make sure I’m not over or underdoing anything. Though I don’t always stick to the plan to a T, I at least have healthy foods on hand to keep me energized and my blood sugar stable throughout the day.

I don’t always do as good of a job eating regularly on the weekends. When I’m out and about, food sometimes gets pushed to the wayside. This is especially true when I am working on the yard.

By the time I stopped to eat today I was shaking so bad I could barely hold the camera! I quickly threw together a wrap using some leftover turkey and ham, tomato, onion, banana peppers, hot sauce, and 1/2 a Joseph’s lavash bread.

Yes, I even had to take a bite before taking the picture!

I think I’ll try out the turkey burger recipe I posted earlier in the week for dinner. I’m really craving a big juicy burger and some fries right now. We’ll see what I can whip up 🙂

Recipes

Ten Cheese Pizza

June 11, 2010 2 Comments

Usually on Friday nights, my BF (AKA man candy) and I order up some Gionino’s pizza with hot sauce. This week, however, we’ve got big plans for dinner Sunday night ( 😉 😉 Tim), so we decided to go the healthy route tonight.

The BF follows a strict diet and workout plan, which I have declared the “Road-to-Ultimate Fitness.” He eats the same meals every day. Day in and day out. I would never succeed on the road to ultimate fitness. I love food far too much, and get bored far too easily to do such a thing.

Although the plan was to eat healthy tonight, there were no pizza sacrifices on my behalf! I whipped up a flat bread pizza using a Joseph’s Middle eastern Bakery Lavash bread, some Classico Fire Roasted Tomato & Garlic sauce, leftover grilled chicken, thinly sliced tomato and onion, and a random assortment of cheeses that have accumulated in my fridge.

It’s real easy to go over board on the cheese – so I made sure to measure everything out. 1 tbsp Kraft Italian Style Five cheese blend, 1 tbsp Athenos Reduced Fat Feta, 1 tbsp Digorno Shredded Three Cheese, and 2 tbsp fat free ricotta. That’s ten — count ’em — ten cheeses 😀

Some people hate ricotta cheese but I adore it. I feel it adds a layer of delicious decadence to any meal. (Which reminds me — I’ve been wanting to try out this recipe for Lemon Ricotta Cookies)

So back to the main event–THE PIZZA. I seasoned the pizza up with some garlic salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and some dried parsley and baked at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Served up with some leftover cucumber salad.

For a person whose favorite part of a pizza is the crust, I was extremely happy with how this turned out! The flavors of the cheeses and seasonings were perfection! Only item to modify for next time will be to put the Lavash in the oven for a few minutes before topping it — that will give it time to crisp up so the sauce doesn’t make it soggy in the middle.

Stats for the whole lavash pizza (and I was only able to eat 2/3 of it): 431 calories, 35g carbs, 13g fat, 48g protein, 10g fiber

I do want to make side note of my afternoon snack — I had an afternoon meeting so I grabbed a Peanut Butter Cookie Luna bar to take with me. I’ve heard mixed reviews on this specific flavor, but I thought it was downright tasty! Though, it did remind me more of a peanut butter rice crispie treat than a cookie, but I’m content with that!

After the pizza eatin’, I decided to mix up a breakfast cookie. I follow a few different food blogs, and I kept seeing this “breakfast cookie” popping up so I decided to look into it. According to her website, Fitnessista is the brains behind the breakfast cookie. I’m pumped to give this one a go!

My cookie consisted of oats, optimum nutrition chocolate whey, Trader Joe’s crunchy Almond butter, skim milk, some mashed up blackberries, and little brown sugar.

Recipes, What I ate

I got eggs on the brain

June 11, 2010 6 Comments

TGIF!

It’s Friday, and I’ve got eggs on the brain! I think my body was upset with me for not taking the time to make eggs yesterday–so I decided to have them for breakfast AND lunch to make it up to myself!

This morning, I took a look in the fridge to see what I could throw into an omelet. I decided to go with 1 egg, 3 egg whites, splash o’ skim milk, chopped up red and yellow peppers, black beans, salsa, and spinach. Kind of an odd combo… but throw some hott sauce on there and you’ve got a Mexicomelet!

This was very yummy and very filling. I should have topped it off with salsa, green onion, and a small dollop of sour cream (duh!) but that didnt dawn on me until I was half through devouring it. Next time!

B#1 Stats: 206 calories, 20g carbs, 6g fat, 23g protein, 9g fiber

For breakfast #2 I SLAMMED a Dannon Blueberry Greek Yogurt with some blackberries and 1/2 a 100 cal pack of Emerald’s cocoa roast almonds crushed on top.

Greek yogurt is just amazing. How did I live without it?? This was my first time trying the cocoa roast almonds–and I’m a big fan. Went perfectly in the yogurt.

B#1 Stats: 175 calories, 17g carbs, 4g fat, 18g protein, 3g fiber

Today’s lunch menu: EGGS.

When I was young, my mom used to take me to a restaurant called the Sandwich Board. Their egg salad sandwich had about 13 eggs and 2 pounds of bean sprouts on it, and I absolutely loved it! So today for lunch I decided to make my own egg salad sandwich.

I had light mayo in the fridge, but I really wasn’t feeling it. So, I decided to try and make a healthified egg salad consisting of 1 egg, 3 egg whites, 1 tbsp fat free sour cream, 1 tbsp mustard, green onion, salt, pepper, and dill weed served up with sprouts, tomato, and red onion in 1/2 a Joseph’s Low Carb Pita.

This was a quite tasty first stab at healthy egg salad. Note for next time: double up on the seasonings, less sour cream, more mustard (as if it wasn’t yellow enough already).

Egg Salad Pita Stats: 225 calories, 20g carbs, 6g fat, 23g protein, 5g fiber

On the side I had a dill pickle spear and some cucumber salad (cucumber, red onion, dill weed, and white vinegar).

On the agenda this weekend are the following:

Give the elliptical a go (and hope my knee holds up)
Flat bread pizza using Joseph’s lavash bread
Make a breakfast cookie (been dying to try these — it’s like a food blogger phenomena)
Make a lightbox
Post a bunch of clothes I don’t wear on ebay and hope for high bidders 😉
Make a barley breakfast bowl
Finish watching season #1 of Will & Grace, start on season #2 😀

What I ate

Veggies–It’s what’s for dinner.

June 10, 2010 1 Comment

Earlier in the week, I came across a recipe for Grilled Black Bean and Rice Stuffed Peppers and decided to try them out for dinner tonight. I omitted the oil and used brown rice, but otherwise followed the recipe and seasoned to taste.

My pepper:

I went with a yellow pepper instead of green. I’ve always thought that green peppers get this weird toxic taste about them when they are cooked. I love raw green peppers but can’t stand em cooked. Odd huh?

You would think the best part of these peppers would be the pepper itself — but you’d be wrong! It’s the cilantro and lime combo! I forgot how much I L-O-V-E that combination (could be because it SCREAMS chipotle). All I needed was a big dollop of gauc on top. Mmmm.

Overall – two thumbs up on the peppers. Next time I think I’ll make some sort of salsa or guac to go along side it.

Stats on my pepper: 296 Calories, 62 Carbs, 3 Fat, 11 Protein, 11 Fiber (that’s a lot of carbs… wonder if they make low-carb beans and rice?)

First attempt at roasting veggies went ok (emphasis on ok). I think I actually overroasted them, but despite that fact they were still super tasty. I’ll have to play around with my roasting methods!

Ramblings

Who doesn’t love a big package?

June 10, 2010 No Comments

Netrition order arrived!!! Yay for flat-rate UPS shipping!!!

Breakdown of the goods:

Mama Lupe’s Low-Carb Tortillas
Dixie Diner Carb Counters Soy Rocks plus Flax Bars (1 Crunchy Apple, 1 Crunchy Caramel Chocolate, 1 Crunchy Chocolate)
Nutritious Living Hi-Lo Cereal, Maple Pecan
Joseph’s Middle East Bakery Reduced Carb/Flax, Oat Bran & Whole Wheat Pita Bread
Joseph’s Middle East Bakery Reduced Carb/Flax, Oat Bran & Whole Wheat Lavash Bread
Bell Plantation Chocolate PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter

Can’t wait to try out all these goodies!

The Jewelry Party went really well! I always feel really happy and empowered when I get together with a group of women. Through my job, I get the opportunity to work with Akron’s Knowledgeable Network of Women, but outside of work I don’t have a ton of women-only time these days. While the Jewelry party was fun, I wish there was something I could do to get a group of women together without the enticement of having to buy a product.

Here’s some pics of the grub:

Separately, it may sound odd but I felt kinda guilty for getting free jewelry based on my friends’ purchases. Yes it offset the cost of the food and drinks, but that’s the sort of thing I like doing for friends without expecting anything in return. Maybe I’m just weird — but regardless I don’t think I’ll have any sort of jewelry/tupperware/purse/candle etc parties in the future, but I’ll definitely have to think of another type of get together for my lady friends.

I was so exhausted from the party that I didn’t spend a ton of time on my meals today. At least I’m going to get to try out a new recipe for dinner tonight 😀

B1 – After my success with the Luna Bar earlier this week, I was pumped to try a new breakfast bar so I decided to go with the Dixie Diner Carb Counters Soy Rocks plus Flax Bars in Crunchy Chocolate….

I took approximately 1.5 bites before tossing the rest in the trash! I felt like I was eating a chocolate scented tire.

🙁 Two thumbs down Dixie Diner… Two thumbs down.

B2 = Oats and fruits!

L: I decided to use up some of the party leftovers and make a lavash sandwich with the new lavash bread I ordered from netrition– a lavawich if you will 😉 . You may be asking, what the heck is lavash? Well my friends, It’s basically a really thin flat bread. I loaded it up with some turkey/ham, and a ton of sprouts, tomatoes, onions, and half a laughing cow french onion wedge.

Check out the height on this sucker:

The bread doesn’t have much taste to it (which is actually good–most low carb products have a funky after taste). I think what I like most about this bread is the sheer size of it. My sandwich was on half of the lavash–but I think I’ll try making a monster flat bread pizza with it this weekend.

Stats on the Lavash: 1/2 of one lavash has 50 calories, 7g carbs, 3g dietary fiber, 5g protein

Man… can’t wait for the weekend to get here! Goal this weekend is to not spend any money — which is good because I could really use a low-key R&R couple of days!

Dinner plan this evening is to try out the stuffed peppers I posted earlier in the week and make some roasted broccoli. I’m really getting sick of frozen steamed veggies, that is for darn sure!