a bean counter's food blog
Last weekend, I posted a super simple super quick recipe for the Ahmygawd Breakfast Sandwich.
Today, I made a repeat of that masterpiece with the addition of some Frank’s Red Hot:
I swear to you, this breakfast sandwich is eyes-roll-into-the-back-of-your-head delicious.
If you are a yolk lover like me (and a sausage lover for that matter) do yourself a favor and make this for breakfast. Immediately!
Stats on the life changer: 255 calories, 24g carbs, 10g fat, 20g protein, 3g fiber
All throughout my life, I’ve been a big eater.
Eating minimal food throughout the day so that I could engorge at dinner was commonplace for me for many years. Family members would tease me about always being the first person in the cookout buffet lines, and the first person to go back for round #2. I’ve been a foodie for as long as I can remember. I just love food. Yes, my world basically revolves around it. Yes, that may mean I have issues… but I’m ok with that 🙂
Over the past year, I’ve changed a lot of my old habits. Nowadays, I take the time to plan my meals out in advance so that I’m sure I’m giving my body the fuel it needs to chug along throughout the day. And I try as hard as I can to not over do it in one sitting. I HATE that sickly full feeling you get when you overeat. (Despite other changes I have made, I am still always the first in the buffet line… watch out, I throw elbows 😉 )
Never in my life have I even been called a person who is “not really into food,” until today that is. I was incorrectly classified today after I suggested a place with “healthy options” for lunch, and then proceeded to only eat 1/2 of my ginormous plate of food. I must say, I was a little taken aback. Dare I say, I scoffed in the commenter’s general direction. I LOVE FOOD. LOVE, I say, LOVE! I just try to incorporate as many healthy choices into my day as possible.
Does that make me anti-food? I think not!
Breakfast #1
I had a leftover link of Jennie-O Hot Turkey sausage from the weekend I wanted to use up, so I decided to make a double batch of scrambled eggs.
I mixed up 8 egg whites, S&P, red pepper flakes, and some water and got my scramble on. Once the curds started to form (least attractive word ever), I added some splashes of franks red hot to the eggs and dumped in the diced up turkey sausage.
I also roasted up some broccoli to go along side.
2 days’ breakfasts & minimal effort. Love it!
B#1 Stats (1 serving = 1/2 of recipe above): 174 calories, 8g carbs, 5g fat, 24g protein, 1g fiber
Breakfast #2
As I was preparing to make my overnight oats last night, I stood in front of an open cabinet pondering what I could possibly put in my oats to mix things up. Then a little voice inside me said.. you know you want the same exact oats you made for Monday. And guess what, that little voice was right. 🙂
Heaven.
B#2 Stats: 208 calories, 38g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 6g fiber
Lunch
Lunch today was courtesy of Aladdin’s Eatery. I went with the Jasmine’s Favorite Plate (plain)–which according to the Daily Plate only has 400 calories. I find that hard to believe, given that the plate of food they brought me was overfloweth with food. What do you guys think of that website? Reliable? Not reliable?
Anyway, the Jasmine’s Favorite is “a fresh mix of cooked beans, vegetables and rice seasoned with a blend of herbs and spices,” and it was DELICIOUS.
I wasn’t able to take a pic of everything, but here’s some of what was leftover:
It’s Monday! Woot.
😉 actually today has been a pretty decent Monday thus far. The office is super quiet since many of my coworkers opted to use our floating holiday today. I decided to bank mine and take my birthday off (next week) instead.
Hope you all have a fabulous fun/food/framily filled weekend!
The PB2 Giveaway ended last night!!! Read further for the lucky winner 😀
Breakfast #1
It’s been so hot these past few days, that I was craving something super cold for breakfast this morning. I decided a fruit smoothie would be the ticket to cooling things off. I threw the following into the blender:
Once I blended everything up, I opened the fridge to put the almond milk away and saw a lonely half-empty bag of spinach sitting on the shelf begging to be eaten.
I’ve read lots of posts on the “green monster” smoothies, especially on Julie’s blog, but I’ve never tried one myself… Until today that is!
I grabbed a handful of spinach and threw it into the blender and gave it a good pulse.
Yes, that is spinach you are seeing
The result:
One huge smoothie with “monster” flecks:
This was surprisingly tasty! You can’t specifically taste the spinach itself, but it gives the smoothy a hearty fullness. It also cuts on some of the sweetness of the fruit, so I was glad I used a whole packet of truvia. I think I’ve officially jumped on the green monster bandwagon 😀
If you’re intrigued — check out the Green Monster Movement.
Stats on the Green Monster: 197 calories, 37g carbs, 2g fat, 12g protein, 6g fiber
Breakfast #2
O…. O….. mmmmmm…. haven’t had overnight oats in a few days, so I went with the go-to OO Combo:
All stirred up:
Overnight oats… oh how I’ve missed you :-*
Stats on the oats: 208 calories, 38g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 6g fiber
Lunch
Keeping on with today’s cold theme, I thought I’d add a little crunch to my lunch with a nice salad. Last night, I threw together a monster salad that consisted of:
Topped it all off with 2 tbsp of fat free ranch dressing:
Stats on the Monster Salad: 295 calories, 28g carbs, 10g fat, 22g protein, 7g fiber
And the winner of the PB2 Giveaway ……………
Drumroll please……
Based on the random number generator, the lucky winner is:
Monique at She’s Going the Distance!!!
Thank you guys for taking the time to post on my blog! I really love seeing what you guys have to say, and as cheesy as it may sound (who doesn’t love a little cheese?) it really brightens my day 😀
Monique – please send your mailing address to: ferventfoodie@gmail.com
Everyone else – you can purchase PB2 online at www.netrition.com. Since it’s flat rate shipping, I’d recommend getting some Mama Lupe’s low-carb tortillas, Joseph’s low-carb pita, and some carba nada pasta 🙂
Today I had the pleasure of attending the Power of the Purse Luncheon sponsored by the United Way of Summit County. This luncheon celebrates the impact women have on giving in our area. We had a terrific speaker named Jessica Clements. Jessica was hit by a roadside bomb while serving for the US Army in Iraq. She was given a 2% chance to live due to the massive brain trama she suffered. Despite these terrible odds, Jessica was miraculously able to recover. She spoke on the importance of persevering, challenging yourself, and giving back. What an amazing and inspiring speaker!
Breakfast #1
Last night, I cooked up two of my lil eggins with the 1/2 of a link of Jennie-O’s hot turkey sausage I had leftover from the Jambalaya! (I apparently can’t type that word without using an “!” after it 🙂 )
The eggins consisted of 3 egg whites, S&P, Franks Red Hot, Red Pepper Flakes. I baked them up in a 350 degree oven for 27 minutes. I also had the other half of the english muffin that was leftover from yesterday’s egg love.
Despite looking slightly creepy, the sausage/egg combo was so yummy! 🙂
Stats on eggins & 1/2 english muffin: 193 calories, 18g carbs, 6g fat, 23g protein, 4g fiber
Breakfast #2
Chobani Blueberry greek yogurt with 1/2 a serving of Bear Naked Maple Granola
As much as I L-O-V-E greek yogurt, I am seriously looking forward to making up some overnight oats tonight. There are just so deliciously cold and creamy! And addicting!
Stats on yogurt + granola: 205 calories, 31g carbs, 2g fat, 16g protein, 2g fiber
Lunch
Good news / bad news on lunch.
Bad news = I didn’t make anything fun for lunch because of the luncheon, nor did i get any pics of what I ate! Bummer!
Good news = I jotted down a few inspirational quotes from the speaker at the luncheon:
Don’t give up the first time you do something and it turns out terrible.
Every day strive to be the best “me” you can be
I especially liked: Live for today. Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow may never come.
I’m trying a couple new recipes tonight! Pumped! (as always 😉 )
Ever since I saw the recipe for Cajun Jambalaya in the July 2010 issue of Clean Eating magazine, I’ve been dying to try it!
Luckily, I already had some leftover grilled chicken from last week and leftover turkey sausage from the “corn dog” I made over the weekend, so there wasn’t a ton of prep work for me to do. You could definitely use raw meats though–everything is chopped into bite size pieces so it cooks through pretty fast.
I can’t believe how ridiculously easy this was! Basically, I mixed the following list of items together in a bowl:
Then I layed out a big piece of foil, sprayed it down with olive oil cooking spray, and dumped everything onto the foil:
Then you just wrap it up like a Chipotle burrito — making sure that the edges are sealed tight so the liquid doesn’t leak out. Pop into a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes, and VOILA!
JAMBALAYA!
This was spiiiiiiicy! I loved it! And it made a TON of food. One note for next time — some of the rice that was sitting on the top of the pile got a little crunchy. I think this can be fixed by either soaking the rice in water before putting it in the mix, or by adding more liquid to the pouch.
I’m in love with this foil pouch cooking method!
Stats on the Jambalaya: 384 calories, 46g carbs, 8g fat, 30g protein, 5g fiber
