May 2009

I wanted to have some fun with my food today, but I also wanted to keep it healthy, too. Unfortunately, I only got to 2 out of 3 of the big meals that I had planned, but they were yummy. I’m still full as I write this, so I’m going to save the 3rd fun meal for tomorrow. I’m ending the day with just 1298 calories — yikes!

I was feeling very ambitious today and wanted to take full advantage of my energetic mood, especially after the past few days of discomfort with Aunt Flo. I did 2 hours of walking and it felt great. I also did upper body strength training and 20 mins of intervals on my recumbent bike. I’m sure I’m going to be hurting tomorrow! My leg is feeling better, just a little tight but not nearly as painful as it was.

Before my first walk, I had a slightly bigger-than-usual pre-workout snack/mini meal. I wanted to make sure I had enough energy to get through everything I was planning to do. We went grocery shopping yesterday, so I’m overflowing with delectable choices; my creative juices were flowing like crazy today! I tried a new sandwich made of avocado, plum tomato and cottage cheese on 2 slices Trader Joe’s sodium free whole wheat bread (140 cal):

38g very ripe avocado (65 cal) that I mashed on the lightly toasted bread, then topped with 1 sliced plum tomato (15 cal), 114g Friendship full-fat cottage cheese (110 cal) and a little black pepper. On the side: 124g FABULOUS red grapes (85 cal)

Mmm, they were so crisp and juicy — LOVED them!

Yum! The only thing I would have changed was toasting the bread more than I did. It was top-heavy, so the soft bread made it hard to eat, but it tasted delicious. Out of everything on it, I could taste the avocado the most. For just 415 calories — 330 cal just for the sandwich — this kept me full through my first walk, but shortly after, I needed a snack, so I had a chocolate brownie Clif Zbar (120 cal) with a little Naturally More peanut butter on it:

I wasn’t planning on the PB until after I took my first bite, so I didn’t include it in the pic or even measure the PB. It was very little, so I put it down for 30 cal. Super tasty snack for 150 cal that got me through the rest of my workout ++ a BIG glass of water.

Then I went downstairs to do 60 minutes walking/step board in my homemade obstacle course, ST and then finished off with 20 mins of intervals on the bike while I watched a Smurfs DVD. I was growing tired of my iPod playlist and the DVD really made the time go by. When I got done, I was SOAKED in sweat. So I came upstairs to drink 16oz of water, then I took a shower.

After I was fresh and clean, I headed to the kitchen to make chocolate chip protein pancakes!!!

These were so incredibly easy to make.

• 50g Quaker old fashioned rolled oats (188 cal)
• 1/4 cup Egg Beaters egg whites (25 cal)
• 1/2 cup Polly-O fat free ricotta cheese (100 cal)
• 2 packets Truvia zero calorie sweetener
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (6 cal)
• 14g Nestle mini chocolate chips (70 cal)
• Pam olive oil cooking spray (20 cal)

1. Add oats, egg whites, ricotta, sweetener and vanilla extract to blender; blend well
2. Transfer to a bowl or cup, add in chocolate chips and stir with spoon
3. Spray nonstick skillet with cooking spray, preheat pan before adding in batter
4. Flip when lightly browned

1 serving, 409 calories, 31g protein

Note: They will not get big and fluffy like wheat pancakes because there’s no baking powder/soda in the recipe and it’s pointless to add it because oats do not have gluten that makes them rise like wheat and other glutenous grains.

When they were done, I added 32g Organic Naturally More peanut butter (170 cal, 9g protein) and popped them in the microwave for 15 seconds to melt the PB. On the side I had a very ripe banana (110 cal) and 1 cup Calorie Countdown fat free “milk” (45 cal, 8g protein). The very filling, delicious, post-workout pancake palooza comes to just 733 calories and 49g protein! After I ate the banana, I was full halfway through the pancakes, but I ate them all anyway. The “milk” and glass of water put me over the top, but with < 1300 calories for the day, it was a much needed over-stuffing. It would be unfair to put my body through almost 3 hours of intense activity and then tell it that it’s only getting a few hundred calories for the day. I’m SURE it would revolt the next day. In fact, I’m certain that I will wake up ravenous tomorrow morning. I should have a snack on standby for when I wake up or if I wake up in the middle of the night. Hopefully I don’t dream I’m eating a giant marshmallow and wake up to a half eaten pillow.

There’s a flower growing in the middle of our lawn by a big rock. It wasn’t there last year, it just sprouted up in the past few days. Hubby took my new camera (which I never use for some reason ) outside to take pics of it while I was cooking. He took some great pics of it! It rained all day so the raindrops add a lot of artistic charm to our strange little floral visitor.

We don’t know what kind it is… does anyone know? It’s beautiful, hope it’s not some kind of exotic man-eating carnivorous plant. LOL

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I was feeling so lousy yesterday that I didn’t put any effort into what I ate. True to her evilness, Aunt Flo had me craving carbs, carbs and more carbs. I could have resisted, but I didn’t. So I just ate whatever I wanted but I did stay under my calories, so that’s better than nothing I guess. My plan was to have a pre-workout mini meal and then go for a walk, but what actually happened was:

Me raiding the box of Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds while I was boiling 2oz Dreamfields spaghetti

I refilled it again, so I had like 2 servings of HBOO with whole milk while I was waiting for my spaghetti to cook. *hand to forehead* I ended up eating 2 more half coffee cups of HBOO later on. It tasted so good and I’m sure it was psychological, but I actually did feel a little better after I ate it lol. The whole milk tasted SOOO rich and creamy, yumm. It was like eating a dessert. Well, I guess it could be a dessert. Ah well, could have been worse!

After eating those sweet, crunchy bites of yumminess, I wasn’t that much in the mood for my sketties, but I ate it anyway because I was still a little hungry. 2oz Dreamfields spaghetti (190 cal) with 1/2 cup Franceso Rinaldi no salt added tomato sauce (70 cal). This would have been a great mini meal for just 260 calories, but nooooooo, I just had to open the box of cereal first. *sigh*

Other than my cereal refills, this was all I ate yesterday. Oh, and 1 piece of bread with cheese. Then we went to sleep early. As much pain as Aunt Flo brings me, I don’t feel bad about seeking a little comfort a couple days a month. Seriously. I’m convinced that she brings me way more pain than the average chick. I’m pretty much incapacitated for the first day or 2, even after loading up on Advil. Blah. It sucks.

Ok, I’m done whining… for now…

I woke up feeling better today but still bloated, uncomfortable, and all that good stuff. So, I decided to wage war on puffiness with an all out sweat fest. But first, I had a pre-workout feast:

• 4oz ground turkey breast burger (120 cal) on 1 Martin’s 100% whole wheat potato roll (80 cal) with a little Heinz no salt added ketchup and spicy mustard (15 cal)
• 1 medium-ish banana (110 cal)
• A piece of celery (3 cal) with 12g Naturally More peanut butter (64 cal)
• 1 Chocolate Peppermint Stick Luna bar (180 cal)

= 572 calories

Lots of fun to eat! I dipped my banana in the PB stuffed celery a few times lol. This kept me going all through my workout. About an hour later, I walked for 60 minutes, did upper body strength training and then did 20 minutes on my recumbent bike. I was drenched in sweat by the time I was done! It felt sooo good. Then I came upstairs, had a granola bar and took a shower. A little while later, I started making dinner, which was more complicated than I anticipated.

Stuffed shells with a small side salad:

I’ve had these jumbo shells in the pantry for awhile, and being I had some Polly-O fat free ricotta that was about to expire, I figured this gloomy, rainy day would be a good time to make them. The package said, “Boil for 12 minutes”, typical pasta, right? Wrong. After 12 minutes, they were still hard as rocks!! So, I let them boil for another 6 minutes, I checked again and STILL hard. OMG! It took 45 minutes for them to cook. I kid you not! I couldn’t believe it.

Overall, they were worth the wait, but to be honest, halfway through the process I was considering scrapping them and boiling some Ziti. hahaha

They were made with:

• 2oz jumbo shell pasta shapes (210 cal)
• 1/2 cup POlly-O fat free ricotta cheese (100 cal)
• 1 teaspoon EVOO (40 cal)
• 2oz Price Chopper low fat mozzarella cheese (120 cal)
• 1/2 cup Franceso Rinaldi no salt added tomato sauce (70 cal)

1 serving, 540 calories – or – 2 servings, 270 calories each

My preparation:

1. Boil jumbo shells (start a week ahead of time )
2. Add the mozzarella to food processor with 1 tsp EVOO + Italian herbs (You can shred manually too, just mix the EVOO/herbs in a bowl with the cheese or omit all together. I add the EVOO to very low fat cheese to keep it from drying out in the oven.)
3. In a small bowl, mix the ricotta with about 1/3 of the mozzarella; set aside
4. Drain the shells well, then stuff each one with the ricotta/mozzarella mixture and put them inside 15 oz single-serving oven dish or other small oven dish. Or if you are multiplying this recipe, whatever size tray you want.
5. Top the stuffed shells with tomato sauce and then sprinkle the rest of mozzarella on top
6. Preheat oven to 425F, then bake for 16 minutes (Put baking sheet in case it spills over)

Much to my dismay, all of the lettuce in the fridge went bad except for the remainder of my baby arugula. I just bought it 3 days ago! Grrrrrrrr. So my salad was smaller than I wanted, but still tasty with a plum tomato, red onion, red wine vinegar and 1 TBSP Bolthouse Farms Caesar Parmigiano dressing (40 cal)

The stuffed shells with the side salad come to about 615 calories. At least the stuffed shells turned out DELICIOUS. I would have been really irritated if they tasted bad after all of that work LOL. Yay!

I don’t think I won the war with my puffiness. Despite sweating out the equivalent of a small child earlier, I feel EXTREMELY puffy right now. Did Mother Nature not get my memo?! I distinctively requested NO EXTRA PUFFIES this month! lol Hopefully I’ll wake up feeling deflated after a good night’s sleep or it’s just going to be a rough week. I’ll persevere though, I always do.

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During the first couple days of Aunt Flo’s stay, I like to keep my eats simple because I honestly do not feel like doing too much of anything, at least for my first meal of the day. The yucky feeling usually gets better as the day goes on, but my body’s distress makes me crave comfort in the form of carbs. I tried to behave myself, but the tray of Nanaimo Bars kept calling my name!

I was hungry when I woke up but not starving. Hubby was really hungry though, so we picked out pocket sandwiches from the freezer. Mine was a Kashi Veggie Medley (280 cal, 570mg sodium, 10g protein):

This is the first time I had one. It’s been sitting in my freezer since the winter, but it was still delicious and only took 2 mins to cook in the microwave.

Dustin had a ham and cheese Hot Pocket and we both had watermelon and 1oz Shop Rite no salt added Swiss cheese (100 cal) on the side.

I loved the pocket sandwich! It was quite big, too. Yummy! The pocket sandwich + cheese + melon = ~430-450 calories total. A little high in sodium, but not too bad.

In between “brunch” and dinner, I snacked on trail mix and the devil Nanaimo Bars. I also walked for about 35 minutes. My leg actually felt a lot better today. I’m thinking it’s sciatica, which I have random flareups of but they usually don’t last this long. My theory is that when I’m retaining even more water than usual, I get nerve pains in random places throughout my body, especially in my legs where gravity affects my water weight the most. *shrugs* I don’t know.

Last week on Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten made salmon and noodles with Asian flavors. Her ingredients were sodium-intense, so I borrowed her basic ideas; salmon and noodles, but made my own sauces and changed the ingredients.

I started with the sauce for the noodles. I refer to pasta as noodles when they are part of an Asian-flavored dish. hehe

Sesame Peanut Sauce

• 2 TBSP sesame oil (240 cal)
• 2 TBSP rice wine vinegar (5 cal)
• 2 TBSP PB2 powdered peanut butter (12g) (54 cal)
• 1 TBSP pineapple Polaner All Fruit fruit spread (40 cal)
• 1 chopped garlic clove (5 cal)
• Freshly grated ginger root
• Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
• Sesame seeds (optional)
• Salt (optional, I didn’t add any)

2 servings, 172 calories each

1. Add all ingredients in bowl, whisk together
2. Set aside. You can add other flavors such as soy sauce, green onion, etc., if you’d like.
3. Boil 3oz spaghetti or rice noodles. I used 3oz Dreamfields spaghetti (285 cal).

I wanted to use whole wheat angel hair, but I didn’t realize we were out. So, I used Dreamfields instead and saved some carbs. I have several boxes of Dreamfields pastas, which have only 5 grams of digestible carbs per serving and taste exactly like regular pasta. http://www.dreamfieldsfoods.com

While the spaghetti boiled, I steamed baby carrots and sugar snaps peas in the microwave and reheated some leftover asparagus from the night before. I sliced the baby carrots into small round pieces but in hindsight I wish I did longer strips instead. When the broiler was super hot, I popped the salmon under it. I rubbed each fillet with 1/2 teaspoon EVOO (20 cal), then towards the end I brushed on a simple glaze that I made with:

1 TBSP pineapple Polaner All Fruit (40 cal)
1 TBSP orange marmalade Polaner All Fruit (40 cal)
1 chopped garlic clove (5 cal)

Hint: Pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to make it easier to spread or drizzle over the salmon.

When the noodles were done, I drained them and mixed them with the sesame peanut sauce and the veggies, then plated it with my salmon. I gave hubby at least 2/3 of the noodles and the bigger piece of salmon, so it wasn’t an exact 50/50 split.

The salmon was a little overcooked. I tend to make salmon well-done even though its best rare to medium. I definitely need to perfect my salmon skills. I LOVED the sauce on the noodles though! Hubby didn’t care for it, but I was crazy about it. He said it was “sour-ish.” Then again, Dustin doesn’t really like Asian flavors as much as I do. At least he liked the salmon, which he usually doesn’t like either lol. He’s pretty fussy sometimes!!

Well, Aunt Flo is being a pain… litterally. I’m going to workout and take a shower. Hopefully she will settle down so I can eat.

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We would like to express our gratitude to all of those who have served in the past and are currently serving in our country’s military. Both of my grandfathers were in the army, and even though I didn’t get the chance to know either of them before they died, I am grateful for their parts in keeping our country safe and free. Our humble thanks to all servicemen and women and their families.

We had a big Memorial Day cookout on Sunday night. Just traditional burgers and chicken legs, with a couple side salads that I whipped up rather easily.

From left to right: A hamburger made with 93% lean beef on a whole wheat bun with red onion, broccoli & ham salad w/ cheddar and blue cheese, tri-color pasta and veggie salad with smoked fresh mozzarella and a skinless chicken leg with Annie’s Natural’s BBQ sauce

The pasta and veggie salad was made with:

• Trader Joe’s tri-color pasta ribbons
• Steamed asparagus
• Grape tomatoes, cut in thirds
• Peas
• Smoked fresh mozzarella
• EVOO and balsamic vinaigrette

1. I boiled the tri-color pasta (I used about 3/4 of the bag) while I steamed the asparagus and cut up the grape tomatoes
2. I made the vinaigrette with just 1/4 cup EVOO, 2 TBSP balsamic vinegar, and 1 chopped garlic clove (salt and pepper optional)
3. I defrosted about a cup of frozen peas in the fridge earlier, then when everything was done, I combined everything, plus the smoked mozzarella that I cut into small cubes

It made a very large bowl, so I’d say it was anywhere from 6-10 servings.

The broccoli salad was super simple. I blanched a head of broccoli, the florets only; drained it and then put the bowl on top of ice to stop the cooking. Then in a large bowl I combined:

• The broccoli
• About 3oz Jennie-O turkey ham that I cut into small cubes
• 1oz Cabot 50% reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup Hellmann’s olive oil mayo
• Bolthouse Farms blue cheese dressing

I figured I’d have a Pepsi, but I had Fiji as backup, thankfully. I had about 3 sips of the Pepsi and poured the rest out. It tasted too sweet to me. I was never much of a soda drinker to be honest. My extra weight came from extra portions!

Everything was delicious though! I loooooooved the salads that I made, the burger was juicy and the chicken leg was perfectly grilled by mom the grillmaster. Dustin and I had a lighter lunch in anticipation of this grilled feast. I had a salad with leftover turkey salad, he had a turkey leg. This was the last meal we had for the day, but I’m sure that it was more than enough calories, plus the Nanaimo Bars that we had for dessert! Aunt Flo arrived today, just in time for those! Coincidence?! I think NOT!

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