October 2009

My mom is one of the greatest bakers ever. It was one of “those” weekends; wanted carby, comfort food and of course, mom delivered. I presented her with half a dozen recipes that I found online; some were successful, others, not so much.

The highlights of the weekend baked goods:

Cinnamon buns — I had a center ring out of one of them, which is the best part, in my opinion.

My favorite: Sodium free NY style bagels!!

I’ll share this recipe in my next post. She made 4 batch of these, the first ones didn’t turn out so nicely (but tasted great). By the 4th batch, she perfected the art of homemade NY style bagels — WITHOUT all of the sodium. She said they are incredibly easy to make, too. Only 4 ingredients, and while they are made with white flour, they are still homemade without preservatives or strange unpronounceable ingredients, so in my eyes, that makes them completely healthy and wholesome.

The high sodium content is why I don’t eat bagels more often, but now I can ejoy a bagel anytime I want, courtesy of mom’s golden oven!! YAY! By the way, they come out to 210 calories each.

Maybe next time I’ll ask her to make mini bagels, which would be around 105 calories each. Luckily, she enjoys baking as much as I enjoy eating her creations. hehe

I had one of the homemade bagels from the first batch and fell in love with it, despite it’s lumpy bumpy outward texture. By the 4th batch she got them to be much smoother. Only problem we have is, our oven doesn’t like to make things brown. It’s weird. *shrugs* The most recent batch was so incredibly soft and chewy, aaah, I want to eat them all LOL.

Hubby and I ate one from the first batch with just a slice of cheese, then popped it in the microwave. We thought it tasted a lot like a big soft pretzel, so we couldn’t wait to try them with mustard. Next time I had mine with 1 It’s All Good Chik’n cutlet (70 cal), 1 slice Borden American cheese (70 cal), and yellow mustard (5 cal) with a side of cantaloupe:

Delicious! They taste AWESOME with mustard. With my pumpkin cup of water, this bagel bite was only around 455 calories.

I’ve been on a “salad as my side dish” kick for the past several days. I love it. So low in calories and so good for you. I picked up a box of Morningstar Farms grilled meatless chik’n patties in Hannaford the other day. They are fairly high in sodium; 350mg each, but not too, too bad. I had one (80 cal) on an Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain roll (170 cal) with 1 TBSP Hick Lickin’ Good BBQ sauce (15 cal) and a pineapple ring (30 cal) the other day:

With my lovely side salad: ~2 cups mixed spring greens (10 cal), tomato slices (15 cal), red onion (20 cal), 1 teaspoon EVOO (40 cal), red wine vinegar (5 cal), and 14g goat cheese crumbles (35 cal). Fantastically filling Hawaiian style sandwich + tasty side for just 420 calories, 295 calories just for the sandwich.

I made a HUGE pot of low sodium tomato sauce and 96% lean beef meatballs with chopped prunes inside them on Friday. They were enjoyed with pasta, and then as a “Mini Meatball Sub” the next day. OMG, SO good!

I bought these Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain hot dog buns at Mother Earth’s last week. They are PERFECT for mini subs. I guess they are around 6″ or so, and make the perfect hearty vessel for meatballs. I put 3 medium meatballs inside with some sauce (around 150 cal?), with 1 slice Sargento reduced fat provolone cheese (50 cal); melted it in the microwave for a few seconds, then added a little more sauce on top (15 cal?). With my side salad, tossed in 1 tsp EVOO (40 cal) + 1 TBSP balsamic vinegar (10 cal), this was an amazing and FILLING meal for just around 525 calories, ~385 cal just for the mini sub.

YUM!!!

Thank you all for the kind comments and email you sent me. I really appreciate it. We miss our kitty a lot. All kitties go to kitty heaven though.

Dustin and I watched the Yankee vs. Angels game last night — We’re so excited for the World Series game 1 on Wednesday!! We’re going to have a WS party. GO YANKEES!!!!!!

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I posted this on some boards, so, I’m just going to cross-post it here so I don’t have to type it again…

We had to put our cat, Princess, to sleep in the middle of the night last night. She was overweight and had been losing weight for awhile, but, most of our cats go through those phases, so, we thought it was normal because she acted like her usual feisty self and ate normally. We figured moving to a new house, she was eating less, etc. Then about 48 hours ago, she stopped eating and drinking and started vomiting bile. So, we brought her to the vet yesterday evening and the vet said that her liver was enlarged, she’s dehydrated and she’s jaundice. We thought that she had some kind of parasite infestation, but, the vet said that it was a lot worse than that after she ran a blood test and almost everything was elevated.

The vet said that a lot of tests needed to be done to find out what’s wrong, but, she couldn’t do them there and we’d have to take her to another animal hospital about 40 miles away. It was already after 6:00PM, so, we were going to go first thing in the morning. Then my mother woke us up around midnight and said that Princess was barely moving or breathing. So, my husband and mother took her to the emergency vet about 20 miles away. When they got there, the vet said she was almost in a coma and the blood test results they showed him indicated that she wasn’t going to make it because her liver was not functioning. They also couldn’t do the tests that needed to be done and said we’d have to take her to an animal hospital in Paramus NJ, about 75 miles away, but she probably wouldn’t make it there and even if she did, it didn’t look good.

The vet said that this was likely something she was born with and that it would be hard to see coming because cats compensate for their pain up until the very end and there’s usually very little warning signs. He said that she would suffer for the rest of her limited time and that we should put her down to ease her pain. When they came back after 3:00AM, I never expected them to say that. I am devastated. She was only 8 and a half years old and I’ve had her since she was born. Our cats are part of our family, we love them dearly. We just buried her at my aunt’s house, next door to where she was born.

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You know when you procrastinate and one things leads to another and before you know it, it snowballs into something bigger than the original matter at hand? Well, that’s what I’ve been doing ALL week. I’ve been dreading getting the images off of my camera to do an update because there was literally hundreds to soft through and I just kept adding more and more on with each passing day almost every time I ate something lol. By the end of the night I was too tired and put it off until the next morning, but, you know how mornings can start out with good intentions and before you know it: time to sleep again! Arrrrrrrgh! So, I finally got all of the pics off today; edited them and now I’m doing an update.

Speaking of snow, we got our first snowfall of the season the other day! Our front yard…

It’s WAY too early for snow!! Farmer’s Almanac is predicting a harsh winter, I believe it. *sighs*

I’m going to do a picture and minimal text recap of the past week or else I’ll be here until next week writing this post.

Woke up on a chilly morning craving warm comfort foods in the form of grilled cheese and tomato soup. I made the grilled cheese with: 2 slices Trader Joe’s sodium free whole wheat bread (140 cal) with 1 slice Borden American cheese (70 cal) and 9g butter (75 cal) in the pan. On the side: 1 cup Health Valley no salt added tomato soup (100 cal)

Delish! And only 385 calories!! I’m definitely not a purist, sometimes I just crave not-so-healthy things like plastic American cheese, so I eat it! LOL I’m not ashamed to admit it!

Our chest freezer is starting to get a little cramped, so, I really need to start eating up some of the things I stashed away in there. I found this box of fish filets the other day:

They are just 90 calories each and 210mg sodium. So, I decided to boil a small potato (100 cal) and bake these fish filets for a sandwich, a decision that was probably influenced by the Long John Silver commercials I keep seeing lol! I used 2 of them (180 cal) on 1 Martin’s 100% whole wheat potato roll (100 cal) with a little tartar sauce (~50 cal) that I made with Hellmann’s olive oil mayo + sweet relish. I topped my boiled potato with 56g Fage Total 0% yogurt (35 cal) and had 1/2 cup Del Monte no salt added sweet peas (60 cal) with 7g whipped butter (50 cal) on the side:

It was SO GOOD!! Very, very filling — totally loooooooooooved it for around 575 calories, 330 calories just for the fish sandwich.

The next day I made another egg sandwich for breakfast with my new favorite meatless bologna. There was a bit of an EGGPLOSION in the microwave when I made my egg in there and then added the slice of Yves meatless bologna (20 cal) on. It made a popping sound and the bologna went flying up against the glass of the microwave ROFL!

Luckily, it still turned out yummy!

1 Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain English muffin (160 cal) with 1 large egg zapped in the microwave (75 cal) with 10g Laughing Cow lite Swiss cheese wedge (25 cal) and 1 slice Yves meatless deli bologna (20 cal). On the side: 56g Hood pineapple cottage cheese (55 cal), a small/medium banana (100 cal) and a cup of water in my pumpkin cup for 435 calories.

YUM!

I was on an egg kick and craving egg salad by the time lunch came around, so I made a small egg salad sandwich with 1 large hard boiled egg (75 cal), 1 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (50 cal) and black pepper, then put it on a Martin’s 100% whole wheat potato roll (100 cal). I also had a lovely Greek salad along with it:

Greek salad: Bed of mixed spring greens (15 cal), tomato (25 cal), red onion (15 cal), 3 kalamata olives (30 cal), 1oz goat cheese (70 cal), 1 teaspoon EVOO (40 cal) and ~2 TBSP red wine vinegar (10 cal)

AMAZING! I can’t seem to get enough leafy greens with EVOO + vinegar lately. Sooo delicious for around 430 calories, 225 cal just for the egg salad sandwich and around 205 cal for the salad.

Then for dessert I had one of these grape fruit rolls for 80 calories:

It’s actually a serving of fruit and brings back childhood memories of Fruit Roll-Ups!

Could not resist mom’s homemade lasagna on Saturday! I had a smallish piece with a great big side salad tossed in EVOO + red wine vinegar:

Sorry, no calorie info! Put me down for a LOT though! I had it several times this week lol.

On Sunday we went to PA to pick up our stuff from our apartment there that we haven’t been to in 6 or 7 months, so, we let it go. I packed us a simple sandwich lunch with deli meats from the small grocery store down the road:

Dustin had ham + cheese, I had store cooked roast beef on a club roll with mayo and leafy greens

With 14g of sour cream & onion dirty chips (75 cal) (these are a lot higher in sodium than most other chips, why?! lol)

I was craving cranberry juice, so I filled my Hello Kitty thermos with it.

All packed up with a small Milky Way (75 cal) for dessert! I’ve been dipping into the Halloween candy a wee bit too much. We already had to buy more because we ate a whole bag, but, we bought it weeks ago. We knew it wouldn’t last until Halloween, who were we kidding?! lol

This was 1 of only 2 meals we had for the day, it was a long, tiring day. At least we got home in time to watch cartoons on Fox. hehe

The next day I was back on my egg kick. My mom picked up some bagels at the store and they looked too good to not eat, so, I made my 1 egg salad again and put it on an onion bagel:

Along with my egg salad bagel, I tried 8oz of the Pomegranate Nectarine juice (120 cal) that POM Wonderful sent me. It’s TASTY!! I really liked it a lot. I still have the rest of the bottle and the kiwi to try, I can’t wait.

Yummm! No idea how many calories were in the bagel, but, I imagine a lot! It was pretty heavy: 4oz. Oh well, totally worth it. hehe

I haven’t been exercising, but stomach has been bothering me a lot the past week. Well, it bothers me all the time, but sometimes it’s even worse than others. Ugh, it’s water balance related and hard to explain. So, I haven’t been exercising, but I’m hoping to tomorrow morning, as long as tummy cooperates. We’ll see. I have a million things to do today and it’s lunch time, so I’m going to grab a bite or 10. *giggles*

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It has been soooo cold the past few days, but, the good news is that warm foods are in season! I’m not much of a coffee or tea drinker, but today I wanted a nice cup of tea…

I picked up a package of Yves meatless deli veggie bologna in Hannaford the other day, figuring I’d give it a try because I do like the taste of bologna, but the sodium is SO high, plus the nitrates, fat and other funky ingredients. So, this would be a good compromise; 4 slices only 80 calories, 480mg sodium and 2 slices is plenty for a sandwich. I didn’t know if it would actually taste like bologna, but it sure looked and felt just like it. And to my pleasant surprise, it tastes JUST like beef bologna. Amazing. It’s not something that I’d eat everyday, but I’ll definitely buy this often.

I decided to use a slice to enhance a breakfast sandwich and it was AWESOME! I defrosted 2 slices Trader Joe’s sodium free whole wheat bread (140 cal), then spread 10g Laughing Cow Light Swiss cheese wedge (25 cal) on both sides and added on: 2 large cage free organic eggs (150 cal) over-hard and 1 slice Yves veggie bologna (20 cal) that I fried in the pan with the eggs. Finally, I completed the sandwich with 8g Heinz no salt added ketchup (15 cal), bringing it to just 350 calories.

I had my tea with 2 packets of Truvia no cal sweetener and 2oz skim milk (25 cal)

With the tea and cooking spray, this DELICIOUS breakfast came to just 385 calories. I’ve been making my eggs a little sloppy lately — on purpose. I’ve been breaking the yolk as soon as I put it in the pan. I love runny yolks, but sometimes I want it a little drier.

I wanted to workout right away, but you know, one thing leads to another and before you know it, 2 or 3 hours goes by. By then I was hungry again and wanted to have a snack before I worked out. I decided on cheese and crackers upstairs, but by the times I got down to the kitchen, it evolved into rice cakes with Laughing Cow Light cheese and salsa.

1 package Paskesz 100% brown rice cakes (76 cal) topped with 1 Laughing Cow Light Swiss cheese wedge (50 cal) and 30g Trader Joe’s no salt added fire roasted tomato salsa (10 cal) — The rice cakes come 10 in a package, but, I ate the other 5 plain.

YUM! I love these rice cakes, I don’t know why I don’t eat them more often? They are fabulous. I love how they come in individually wrapped packages of 10 so that they don’t go stale. I buy them in the Kosher section of Shop Rite, I’m not sure if available nationwide or not.

Who eats salsa before they workout?! Well, I do. It didn’t upset my stomach at all, thankfully. I did 45 minutes (11.25 miles) on my recumbent bike and then took a shower directly afterward because I wasn’t terribly yet. By the time I got done showering and dressed, my appetite showed up for duty. What better time to have an indulgent, yet healthy, bowl jar of pumpkin oats?!

Inspired by the oatmeal queen herself: Kath!! I took mine a wee bit further than she normally does, I added a special topping: CREAM CHEESE!! I absolutely LOVE cream cheese on pumpkin bread or a pumpkin muffin, so, I wondered: how would it taste on pumpkin oats? The answer: AMAZING!!!! I’m almost go as far as to say as I liked it better than peanut butter. It was like eating it on a warm slice of pumpkin bread straight out of the oven. It made it all melty and ooey gooey, YUMMMM!

I started with a nearly empty jar of Naturally More peanut butter…

Then in a medium saucepan, I boiled 1 cup water and added in:

• 1/2 cup (40g) Quaker 100% rolled oats (150 cal)
• 1/2 cup Trader Joe’s 100% pure pumpkin (50 cal)
• 1 medium banana (110 cal)
• 2 packets Truvia no calorie sweetener
• A dash of pumpkin pie spice

Then I mixed and mashed, almost risotto-style, until the oats were cooked. I was worried that the huge pot of them wasn’t going to fit in the jar, but, it did… see?

The mug is just plain water, by the way.

Then my toppings:

• The rest of the jar of Naturally More peanut butter (~170 cal)
• 7g unsalted peanuts (40 cal)
• 5g roasted & salted pumpkin seeds (30 cal)
• 1 TBSP Philadelphia 1/3 less fat cream cheese (35 cal)

The whole jar came to around 595 calories, including toppings and PB, but, this was my post-workout meal and my “lunch,” so, that’s totally cool with me. A little calorie-dense for just a snack, but, perfect for a FILLING meal.

DEEEEEEEEEEE-LISH!! If you like pumpkin bread with cream cheese, you will LOVE cream cheese on your pumpkin oats. I highly recommend trying it. Honestly, I could have skipped the peanut butter component and been just as happy with just the cream cheese, but, we all need good fats + protein, especially post-WO. Try it and let me know if you liked the cream cheese!!

That ended up being my last meal of the day. I was just too tired and FULL to eat anything else. So, I naturally calorie cycled into a low day. I’m sure I’ll make up for that over the weekend. hehe

Off to eat breakfast? Lunch? Brunch!

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