Hearty Foods

I put a lot of love into my foods yesterday. It all started with heart-shaped sodium-free pancakes topped with fresh strawberries and Fifty50 fructose syrup…

Sodium-free Pancakes

• 1/2 cup (60g) all purpose flour (210 cal) — you can use whole wheat flour if you like
• 1 large egg (75 cal)
• 1/2 teaspoon sodium-free baking powder (use regular if you don’t have it)
• 2oz skim milk (20 cal)
• 2 teaspoons (9g) sugar (30 cal)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (6 cal)
• Cooking spray (15 cal)

1 serving, 356 calories

1. Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl (I used a wooden spoon)
2. Preheat nonstick frying pan; spray with cooking spray or use butter
3. Spray heart-shaped mold with cooking spray or coat with butter (I used a cookie cutter for my shape); pour batter into mold about halfway
4. Flip when golden brown

You’re probably wondering why the edges of my pancakes look like they were chewed off. Well, some of the batter oozed out a little, probably from me prematurely playing with it, and it made a thin crust around the pancakes that I peeled off.

They didn’t taste light and fluffy like regular pancakes, but they tasted really good! With the strawberries (20 cal), 2 TBSP of Fifty50 fructose maple syrup (35 cal) and 1 cup skim milk (90 cal), this was a yummy breakfast for only 501 calories. I think the whole egg made them a little denser, plus I probably should have used a whole teaspoon of baking powder instead of half. I’ll experiment next time and see how it goes.

After seeing Beer Bread around the blogosphere, Zesty Cook convinced me to try it. My mom is the baker in the family, so I passed the recipe along to her. The result:

A lovely loaf of beeriness. Note: I adjusted the baking powder per his suggestion and put the butter IN in the batter instead of on top. I had a piece hot out of the oven, it was pretty good! We used 12oz of Heineken because that’s all we had. It’s very, very sweet and then has a beer aftertaste. I decided to have it with a grilled cheese sandwich and leftover Trader Joe’s tomato soup:

• Grilled cheese with 1 slice Sargento reduced fat Swiss cheese (60 cal), 1 slice Sargento reduced fat provolone cheese (50 cal), and 30g avocado (50 cal) on 2 slices beer bread
• 1.5 cups Trader Joe’s low sodium creamy tomato soup (135 cal)

The avocado kept trying to fall out of the sandwich, but I pushed it back in. This was a really good grilled cheese + soup combo, BUT I think next time I will leave the avocado out because it was a little too rich. Otherwise, I loved it! There’s nothing like a warm, ooey gooey grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup on a chilly winter day. Although, I like it just as much in the middle of August. Oh, by the way, I didn’t use any butter or cooking spray when grilling the sandwich because the bread already has so much butter in it and it worked out perfectly.

For dinner, I made a big salad topped with squid salad that my mom made earlier in the day:

With a piece of sourdough bread and buttah

• Bed of mixed greens drizzled with EVOO + red wine vinegar
• Topped with a plum tomato, Linsday low sodium black olives, squid salad, and about a TBSP of grated pecorino romano cheese

If you’ve never had squid, I highly recommend trying it! It’s very high in protein, low in calories and rather inexpensive @ around $6/lb. My favorite way to eat it is in a cold salad form; boiled until very firm, then tossed with EVOO, red wine vinegar and parlsey. Deeeeeeeeeeelish! I like it well-done and super chewy, when it’s too slimy and mushy, blek!

So while most of the country is getting ready to watch the Superbowl, Dustin and I are going out! We’re not football fans, and honestly, the only things I find remotely entertaining about the Superbowl are the commercials and the halftime show. LOL And of course, the food! We love going out on Superbowl Sunday because most others are watching the game, so it’s like having the town to yourself, providing you avoid bars and such. lol We’re blasphemers, I know, but we’re nerds before anything, so you have to understand.

Time to take a shower and get going!!

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Tagged as: beer bread, grilled cheese, pancakes, salad, squid, tomato soup