Category Archives: recipe

Honey Fluff Recipe

Finally – the Original Honey Fluff Recipe!  This stuff is amazing!

I experimented with making homemade marshmallow fluff, because the ingredients are only egg whites, corn syrup and sugar on the jar.  It was really easy! Well, after making some – I wondered about a substitute for corn syrup and realized honey would work just as well.  You can use any type of honey you want, but I used Buckwheat, which has a strong flavor and aroma.

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 cup of liquid egg whites (or 3 egg whites)
  • 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar (probably optional)
  • 2/3 cup of granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup of water
  • 3/4 cup of honey (I used strong buckwheat honey)
  • 1 tsp vanilla

In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form.

While these are beating, put the sugar, water, and honey into a saucepan and bring to a boil.

Clip on a candy thermometer and cook until the firm ball stage (246 degrees F), about 5 minutes or so. Remove from heat.  Turn the beaters on low speed and sloooowwwllllyyy drizzle in the honey mixture into the egg whites.

Make sure you go really slow or you will cook the egg whites.  Once all of that is in, turn the speed to high and beat the mixture until light and fluffy – like marshmallow fluff! Probably 5-10 minutes is how long I did it for.

Makes a perfect frosting for cakes or on sandwiches.

Top oats with it:

Make S’mores with it.

I won’t tell if you just lick it off your finger! It’s life changing.

This has a wonderful honey aroma to it.  Nutritional stats are very similar to regular fluff, which is approximately 40 calories per 2 tbsp.

Recommended to refrigerate this.  If you don’t,the honey will start to separate out at the bottom.

Lifting and Team Challenge ride

Yay – my Broncos won last night and looked pretty good! Can’t wait for the real season to start. I biked to the gym today, where I decided on lifting only for a cardio break.

Operation endurance is still going:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell squats 3 sets of 10 with 45# bar Lower body
Dumbbell pullover 3 set of 12 with 20# DB Back
Chin ups 2 sets 2 Upper body
Decline sit ups 3 sets of 12 Core
1-leg deadlifts 3 sets of 12 with 15# DBs (30# total) Hammies and balance
Seated calf raise 3 sets of 10 at 110# Calves
Push ups 3 sets of 10 Chest
Lower Back extension 3 sets of 12 at 80# Low back
Front Raise 3 sets of 12 with 5# DBs (10# total) Shoulders
Cable pull down 3 sets of 15 at 30# Triceps

I tried chins again for the first time in a few months. I lost some strength there, which is annoying. I stopped doing them because I didn’t want to concentrate to much on them, plus I was getting a little bored doing them each workout.  Then lookie what happens 😀

Quick bike home. It’s going to be a hot one today! Not humid, though, which is always good in my book.

Are you tired of the oats yet? I have really been on a super kick lately. This blog should be called finding oats and broccoli…. (which ought to bring in a lot of readers).

This is the size banana that I use for my banana custard oats (I know there is a joke in there somewhere).

I don’t like using half a banana, so we just find the smallest ones possible.

I cannot tell you how great it feels to be back down to a single job’s worth of hours.   Yay!  I’ll have my new bike paid off next week, so that is a good thing.  I might just keep the 2 jobs as part time instead of moving to 1 only, as I am afraid that there won’t be enough work with one company (it’s feast or famine in my industry).  Plus job #1 has eased up a little on the constant berating of employees – or a lot of them left at any rate.  I’ll just play it by ear.

Lunchtime involved something different.  I made a protein crepe using egg white protein powder.  I am not that fond of it, but we must use it up.

  • 15 grams of egg white protein
  • 1 whole egg
  • 1/4 cup liquid egg whites
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp of whole wheat flour
  • stevia

Whizzed up in the magic bullet and cooked in a skillet.   Filled with blueberry sauce and a dollop of vanilla greek yogurt.

This was tasty, but a little on the tough side, thanks to the egg white protein.  I have tried this with brown rice PP and kind of had the same result.  I need to try it with whey and see what happens.  Definitely in the keeper file, though.

I now have the donate button for my charity ride if anyone wants to use it in the sidebar (or below).  😀  I’ll be getting the recipe book out to people this week.  It’s about a 50 page booklet!
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I am getting excited about the ride.  I just need to find out what the course is like.  I imagine hilly because it is in the Adirondacks, but I am prepared for that.  I did 100 miles this summer, so I know I can do 62 with hills. The only thing I won’t be prepared for is rain.  The ride is rain or shine, so I am going to have to suck it up and ride if it is bad weather LOL!

Snack time included one of these:

Plus some of this:

I am starting to have cereal snack issues again, so this box is going to go up high tonight.

Finished up with work by dinner time, which is so awesome!  It’s so great to know I don’t have to log back in after dinner and do more.  It’s also great to see a man cooking:

Although, truth be told he was cooking some shrimp for himself LOL!

I had a baked crab cake and finally some red pear!  They are back around now.  Red pears are my favorite.

Now I have a whole evening with no work to do, but a lot of other things to do.

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway of  “I’m With Fatty!”  Recipient will be chosen on Tuesday.

Back to squat basics

Monday, Monday! I decided on just a weight workout today and skip the cardio for a bit of rest. Biked to the gym and got right to the iron.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell squat 3 sets of 10 with 45# bar (lower than parallel) Lower body
Seated lat row 1 set of 4 at 85#

1 set of 6 at 70#

1 set of 8 at 55#

1 set of 10 at 40#

 Back
Stiff-legged deadlift 3 sets of 10 at 75# Lower body
Captain’s Chair 3 sets of 10 Abs
Incline barbell chest press 3 sets of 8 at 55# Chest
Seated calf raise 3 sets of 10 at 110# Calves
Lower Back Extension 3 sets of 10 at 100# Low back
Nosebreaker 3 sets of 10 with 30# bar Triceps
Front Raise 3 sets of 10 with 8# DBs (16# total) Shoulders

I did a video of myself with the squat and wasn’t all that happy with my depth, so I decided to back way off on the weight and make sure to go below parallel to work on form. I really want to be able to do full squats (aka ass-to-the-grass) with more weight, so back to basics!  I see many, many partial squats being done at the gym, and I don’t want to be in that category.  I may or may not show that video as an example of poor form. 😀

Biked home and made up a new oat dish – Apple Pie oats!

  • 40 grams of oats
  • 1/2 of a granny smith apple chopped small
  • 1 tsp of brown sugar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 cup of water
  • 1/4 cup of egg whites
  • 4 toasted pecans, crushed
  • 1 square of lowfat graham cracker

I added apple, cinnamon, and brown sugar to the cooking water with the oats when it came to a boil.  Cooked for a few minutes, then tempered in the egg whites.  Topped with the pecans and crushed graham cracker (for the ‘crust’ ).  Quite tasty, I have to say.  I think a tart, firm apple is best in this.  If I was feeling truly decadent, I guess a drizzle of caramel on this would be pretty awesome…. just sayin’

I also had some of these on the side.

I was asked about any supplements I take.  These are my dailies.  I do a multivitamin, a flax seed oil (don’t do fish oil), a vitamin C/B combo, and a vitamin D3.  Vitamin D3 is important for me living in a northern climate and my liberal use of sunscreen.  If I think about it in the winter, I add zinc.   I actualy probably could do without the multi as my diet has a good variety of whole foods, but I just want to cover my bases, particularly as I am progressing forward in years.

Work time ensued.  Busy, busy.  Yesterday not busy, today very busy.

Lunch break was so awesome!  I made a 1 egg/2 egg white omelet stuffed with some cabot reduced fat cheddar, sauteed broccoli and caramelized onions.

I found the secret for me and omelets is to pour the egg mixture into the pan and cover it to sort of steam the omelet so I don’t have to flip it.  Doesn’t it look purty?  Not sure if it is sad or not that I was excited at how this omelet turned out LOL.

I had to laugh at some of the interpretations of yesterday’s post title,  from bikini butt to not knowing what the heck it meant!  A bikini is not something I think I would ever get in for one, and I don’t often talk about my behind on the blog (other than to get it in gear), but I thought that particular issue of biking needed to be addressed.  The soreness seems to be a major sticking point for people getting started with biking, so I want to let you all know it does go away.

Snack time!  Latte and some dark chocolate.

Then I was hungry again an hour later, so I had some blueberries.

These are from the store and not the local ones and I can taste such a difference.  Oh well.

John was on the grill tonight and did up some ground pork burgers.  I like ground pork as it is not as dry as lower fat ground beef and still quite tasty.

I had mine with laughing cow and more caramelized onions (I have a batch in the freezer).  Good thing I am already married 😆

Still working tonight.  We have a weekend getaway planned, so I have to get as much extra work done as possible this week!  Gonna get a snack and back to work after posting this.

Question:  Do you ever get back to basics with something?

Easy apple cranberry topping

Okay – this was very tasty and really easy to make:

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium apple (your favorite), chopped
  • 1 tablespoon dried cranberries
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp butter
  • 1 tablespoon of water
  • 1 tsp cornstarch
  • 2+ tablespoons cold water

In a small skillet, melt the butter and brown sugar together over medium heat:

Add the apple, cranberries, and cinnamon.

Saute for a couple minutes, then add the 1 tablespoon of water and cover.  Cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of cold water.

Add to the skillet.

Stir constantly for about 30 seconds until the sauce becomes clear and tightens up.  You can add a little more water if it seems too dry.

Top waffles or pancakes with this!

Other ideas:

– Substitute some chopped fresh cranberries for more tartness when they are in season.

– Experiment with different types of apples

– Use raisins instead of cranberries

Calories for this dish will depend a little on the size of the apple.  On average, an apple is 60 calories for a medium, 1 tbsp of dried cranberries (10 g) is 30 calories, brown sugar 15 calories, butter 15 calories, cornstarch 10.  So you can figure about 130 calories or so for this batch.  I consider it one serving.

B&D Toaster Oven Review and Blueberry Cornbread Muffins

I received my Black and Decker Toaster Oven from CNS stores last week.

I have to say that it shipped really fast, so kudos to them! Pretty sleek.  This is also a convection oven, which is pretty cool.  We were doing the standard bread toasting in it at first, but I wanted to see how the convection works.  A couple really nice features on this toaster oven are the long timer option (60 minutes) plus an “always on” option.  Good for baking things that need a longer time.

Not impressed with the baking tray, as it seems flimsy:

Seeing as we are awash in blueberries and I wanted to test the convection properties of this oven, I decided to play around with a buttermilk blueberry corn muffin!

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tablespoons of sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of unsweetened applesauce
  • 1/3 cup cornmeal
  • 2/3 cup of whole wheat flour
  • 2 tsp of baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp of salt
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup of fresh blueberries

Spray a 6-cup muffin tin with nonstick spray (or use cupcake liners).  Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a medium size bowl, mix together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, applesauce, and sugar.

Add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients:

Mix until just barely combined and then fold in the blueberries.  It is really important not to over mix this.

Divide up into the 6 muffin cups:

They will be pretty full.  Pop into the oven – or into the toaster oven:

I could hear the convection fan cycle on and off while this baked.  Guess that means it works 😀

Bake these for 20 to 25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Voila!

One nice thing about the convection as that the tops didn’t burn like can happen in a regular toaster oven.

Muffin stats:

Calories: 115 per muffin (awesome!!)

Fat: 1.5 g

Carbs: 22.5 g

Fiber:  2.5 g

Protein: 4 g

Best served warm.  These are a nice dense muffin.  With the low calorie count, these make a great snack (or have 2 for breakfast 😀 )

** Disclaimer:  I was provided a gift certificate to review a product from CSN stores.  All opinions are my own, however.

Palak Chole (Chickpeas and Spinach)

Palak Chole or Chickpeas and Spinach.  This is a very easy recipe to whip up.  Do yourself a favor and  use low sodium canned items.   The ingredient list is mostly spices, so don’t let it scare you.  It happens to be vegan, too.  Can someone tell me if this is gluten free?  I think it is.


Serves 2-3
Ingredients:

  • 1 can of low sodium chickpeas, drained and rinsed (15 oz)
  • 2 cups of frozen spinach leaves, chopped (or 3 cups of fresh)
  • 1 can of sodium free diced tomatoes, drained
  • 1 green chile, chopped
  • 1/2 inch chunk of fresh ginger
  • 1 tablespoon of coconut oil
  • 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
  • 1 tablespoon of ground coriander
  • 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder
  • 1/4 tsp onion or garlic powder (not salt)
  • 1/2 tsp of turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp of black pepper
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • 1/4 tsp of garam masala

Blend together the tomatoes, ginger, and green chile to make a puree. Set aside.


In a sauce pan over medium heat, add the coconut oil. Put in a cumin seed to see if it pops. If it does, the oil is hot enough. Add the rest of the cumin seeds and stir for 30 seconds. They will all pop.   Slowly add in the tomato puree, being careful of splattering.

Then add the coriander, turmeric, salt, pepper, and chili powder. Cook this mixture over medium heat for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. It will reduce by about half.


Add the spinach, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Then add the chickpeas.

If the mixture is a little dry, add some of the water.  It will be drier if you use fresh spinach.   Cover and cook for 10 minutes, checking periodically to make sure there is enough water to make a sauce.  I used about 1/2 cup for mine.

If you like, you can mash some of the chick peas to make it thicker. Add in the garam masala and serve!


This is great with naan bread, or brown rice.  Yum!  It even got a thumbs up from John 😀

The whole batch is about 610 calories. Isn’t that awesome!  Split into 3 portions for a light meal or side dish, or divide it in 2 for a main dish.

Substitution notes:

– Fresh or frozen spinach will do.  I used frozen spinach leaves, not cooked spinach.  Water content will vary depending on what you use.  I did not thaw my spinach before adding.

– You could use 2 whole fresh tomatoes instead of canned if you’ve got them.

– You could use any oil if you don’t have coconut.

Enjoy!

Date Protein Balls – vegan

As promised, I am finally getting the protein date ball recipe up! Similar to my homemade larabar (Loribar) recipes:

These are quite easy to make.  I used medjool dates for this, so keep in mind they will vary a bit in moisture depending on the brand and type of dates you use.

Ingredients:

8 ounces of dates

2 oz of cashews or almonds (or any nut, really)

1 tablespoon of coconut oil

2 tablespoons dried unsweetened coconut

1 tsp cinnamon

30 grams of unflavored brown rice protein powder:

In a food processor, grind the cashews up to meal consistency.

Add the dates and pulse to chop, then spin until the mixture blends together:

You actually could form into balls at this point and have a basic Larabar.  Or continue on.  Add in the cinnamon and the protein powder:

Using your hands, knead the protein powder into the mixture as best as you can.  It will still be somewhat dry:

Add in the coconut oil (melted) and the coconut and knead will with your hands until everything is incorporated.  This takes a bit of time for the protein powder to hydrate with the oil.

Roll into ball size of choice, or press into a loaf pan lined with plastic wrap.  You need to use a lot of pressure to keep these formed, so I kind of press into ball shape.  In the loaf pan use something to help press the ‘batter’ in.  If using the loaf pan, lift out the batter and use a pizza cutter to cut into bars:

If you store these in the fridge, the coconut oil makes them nice and firm.  I could see dipping them in chocolate (did I say that??)

I am going to give a total for the entire batch, as you can determine how many pieces you get.  You can do probably about 2 to 3 dozen balls or so?

Batch total: 1102 calories, 49 g of fat, 146 g of carbs, 20 g of fiber, 39 g of protein.

I have to say that I love these!  Easy to pop, though – so be careful, since they are nutrient dense.  If you use a whey protein powder, you may not need as much coconut oil, so experiment away.  I use unflavored protein powder, as I really like the flavor of the dates by themselves, but let me know if you use a flavored one how it tastes!

The Great Veggie Experiment: Parsnips!

At the farmer’s market, we purchased some parsnips.  They look kind of like carrots, only more pale.  Actually, they are related to carrots, so that makes sense.  It is considered a winter vegetable because it actually needs to have some frost temperatures to fully develop the roots.  So it’s season is winter time and early spring.

Parsnips are often substituted for potatoes when they aren’t available.

Parsnips are rich in potassium and fiber!  Our first attempt at cooking was just simple pan sauteeing in coconut oil.  I was really pleased at how tasty the parsnips are!  They have a texture like a really firm potato and taste kind of like carrot, but not as sweet.  I also noted both times we cooked these that they caramelize really easily (ie burn).

We made this recipe last night:

Maple glazed parsnips:

  • 2 cups of chopped parsnips (2 or 3 medium size ones)
  • 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
  • 1.5 teaspoons of butter
  • 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts or pecans

You can either roast the parsnips in a 400 degree oven on a sprayed cookie sheet for 20-30 minutes, or you can pan saute with cooking spray.  Either way will do to cook the parsnips.

In a small fry pan, toast the walnuts until golden brown.  Add the butter and the maple syrup and stir to combine.  Mix with the parsnips and serve.  Serves 2 to 3.  Easy and really tasty!

GVE = success this time!  I am keeping parsnips in the rotation.

Carrot Cake Oatmeal and baby steps

Happy new week!  I am feeling a little better today.  I have come to the realization now that my leg is going to take a long time to get better. 😥   At least I am pretty much off the crutches, although moving at a snail’s pace.  I was able to stand long enough to take a full shower this morning, which was a big change.  My knee is still numb, though, which is really weird.

I had this idea for breakfast oats while reading Debby’s blog about putting zucchini in oats.  I thought – why not carrots??  So – I present to you Carrot Cake Oats!

  • 40 grams of oats
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup finely grated carrots
  • 10 grams chopped raisins
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/4 cup egg whites
  • 5 toasted pecans
  • 1 tbsp light cream cheese
  • 10 grams of powdered sugar (approx 1 tbsp)

Add the carrots, spice, and raisins to the water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil.   Add the oats and cook for several minutes until almost done.  Whisk in the egg whites and cook for another minute.  In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar until mixed.  Top the oats with the cream cheese mixture and crush the nuts on top.

This was soooo good!  I think I would leave out the brown sugar next time, as the carrots are sweet enough on their own (I used baby).  But that is just me.

Calories for this bowl are about 380, and that will depend on the cream cheese variety you use.  So, a little calorie dense, but good for a post workout brekkie (not that I worked out or anything today….)

Slow work morning, so I got some things done at my snail’s pace around here.  I walk with tiny little steps, but I am getting around!   Lunchtime was egg salad – haven’t had that in a while!

With a yummy anjou pear.  These are extra good this week.  Just like the strawberries.

I was feeling some chocolate, so I had some of a Hershey bar.

I then proceeded to have the rest of the bar, and some graham crackers and a few dates.  Plus a latte.  Got kind of snacky today!  Hello????  What is up with that?  Must be all that extra movement I am doing. 🙄

I was able to do a little upper body work today, like some wall pushups and tricep/bicep work with dumbbells.  Can’t keep me down for long!

Dinner time:

Breaded clam strips (baked), plus maple glazed parsnips.  I am officially a fan of parsnips now!  I’ll post the parsnip recipe tomorrow.  It’s quite good 😀

Without the exercise in my day, I have this extra slot of time.  It would be nice to go out and do things, but I get tired easily, or tired of being in the same position for too long, at any rate.  I think I was snacking a little bit out of feeling blue about how long this is taking me to heal up.

Know any good card games?

Sm’oats!

I slept in some today!  Yay!  I woke up around 7 am, which is pretty late for me.  Had a pre workout snack of half a sandwich thin spread with some Nuttzo.  That’s unsweetened nut butter that is crunchy with seeds!

It was almost 50 degrees, so I laced up and went down to the track to run.  No school this week, so I could run without feeling like a stalker.  While the track can be boring, I do like it because I can just go on autopilot and think.  No worries about traffic or crossing the street or getting too far from home.  Just me, my tunes, and the early sun.  I did 4 easy miles.  I really need to do speed work (note how I keep saying that…), but I am just kind of lazy about not doing it.

It started to cloud up as I finished up and now it is raining!  I have been thinking s’mores a lot lately, so I had to find some way to incorporate that into breakfast without going overload.  So I present the sm’oats!

  • 40 g of Multigrain hot cereal (130 cal)
  • 5 g of dark cocoa powder (10 cal)
  • 1 small banana mashed (90 cal)
  • 2 egg whites (30 cal)
  • 12 g of Fluff  (40 cal)
  • 1 square of crumbled graham cracker (35 cal)

I mixed the cereal and cocoa powder and added to boiling water with the mashed nana.  Cooked until almost done and tempered in the egg whites.  Then topped with fluff and graham cracker!  Total calories for the bowl is 335 calories.  I carefully measured everything, because it would be so easy to go overboard and pack on the calories.  That’s pretty much why I weigh things, because if I go by teaspoons and tablespoons, I get a bit generous and still call it the lower number.  Not sure who I think I’m fooling that way 😉

Lunch time included some more leftovers.

Stuffed shells – I hadn’t had those in years, but they were on the Easter menu and I forgot how good they were.  I don’t eat a lot of pasta anymore (being a volume eater and all), but I do like it.

And this was the tartest kiwi ever!  Dang I think they crossed the tree with a lemon or something.  Hope the other 2 aren’t quite so tart.

Update on the downward scale movement.  I lost a net of 1 pound in March.  The turtle is back!  I don’t know why I sometimes put myself at odds with myself by working heavier weights and then expecting the scale to go down.   Some of my snacking isn’t all that conducive, either LOL!  Working muscles harder and I get so hungry, so I eat.  I’ll just keep trucking along.  If I lost a pound a month for 6 months, I would be happy.

Snacky time!  John made me a protein latte, which I paired up with some dark chocolate.

Lattes, chocolate and rainy days are made for each other, don’t you think?

This morning, I pulled out what I thought was chicken to drop in the crockpot and found out it was pork.  I decided just to do that anyway.  I added some homemade salsa (from one of our customers) to the cooker and dropped in the pork loin.

Delicious!  Paired with the usual 😉

Tidbit:  On yesterday’s post, I mentioned doing lower weights and higher reps.  The reason for that is periodization.  I did 4 weeks with lower reps and heavier weights, now I am doing at least 1 week at higher reps and lower weights to help with endurance (slow twitch muscle fibers) to help with my bike riding.  Now that warm weather is here, likely to change up some routines!  It’s so hard to do all I want to do in a week of workouts.  I need to focus more on what I need to do to reach certain goals (i.e. 100 mile bike ride.)

John and I went out for a little together time tonight.  He wanted to go to the library, and you know I won’t turn that down or the coffee afterwards.

I was going t to get the 2nd Twilight book out.  I finished the first one.  I am not totally sure I liked it, but I can certainly see why they are popular.  All of the others were checked out, so I got a Stephen King short story book instead 😀

Snack while updating this post:

I love butter snap pretzels.  They are even better when paired with chocolate chips, although I restrained myself 😀

Have a great night!