Tag Archives: recipe

Custard Oats primer

I cannot take credit for the custard oats idea  I read about them on Susan’s blog and Tay’s blog.

Basically, it’s just oats with an egg whisked in.  Takes about 5 minutes.  Pretty simple, eh?  This is my version. Yesterday’s oats were a pumpkin custard.

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup of liquid egg whites
  • 1/2 cup of canned pumpkin (from my precious stash)
  • 40 grams of rolled oats
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • pumpkin pie spice (a lot!)

In a small pot, bring 1 cup of water to a boil and add the oats, brown sugar, and spice:

Reduce heat and cook for a couple minutes.  This part always smells so good with the spices.  My arm starts to look pretty tasty at this point as I am waiting for the oats to cook…..

Then I add the pumpkin:

It takes a bit to mix this in, then I cook for a minute.  Sometimes it takes a little longer if the pumpkin came from the fridge.

Then comes the egg whites.  Drizzle very slowly while stirring fast with the other hand,as you want the egg whites incorporated and not in solid chunks:

Not only do these taste good, but you can work on coordination at the same time! Once they are all in, cook for another 30 seconds or so and you will see the oats puff up a bit and get creamy.

Pour into a bowl and top as you wish!  My favorites for the pumpkin oats are toasted pecans and cranberry sauce, but this will do:

See how creamy and fluffy these are?  It makes the bowl full, and as a volume eater, you know I love that!

Calories: The pumpkin oats without toppings:  235 calories

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I have also done these with a mashed banana instead of pumpkin.  Just add the well-mashed banana to the boiling water.  No sugar necessary with this one, as the banana gets absorbed into the oats and sweetens them.

Calories:  Banana oats without toppings: 260 with a small (6-7 inch) banana.

Running and food experiments

Ah Saturday. I get to sleep in just a bit since my gym doesn’t open until 8 am. I had a pre-run snack of dates and almond butter.

If you haven’t tried this combo, you must.  It’s delicious, particularly if you have the soft medjool dates.

Passing some time before leaving the house always means self-portraits!

Thank goodness for hats, or Medusa would be heading out to the gym 🙂

Hopped on the hamster wheel and busted out 5 miles.  It felt really good.  Do you ever have those days where you just feel in great shape?  I was feeling it today, and I loved it.  I am also feeling those harder chin ups from yesterday, too.  Soreness down my sides (in a good way).

I was craving some protein waffles for brekkie!  I don’t know why this same recipe tastes different as pancakes versus waffles.  Or maybe it is just in my mind.

I had a lovely package arrive from a secret bloggy valentine.  I don’t know who it is, though!  I have a last name, but that’s it.  It had some wonderful pampering stuff in there.

Thank you!!  Scented with coconut lime. You put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up – sing it with me!  I used this in the shower today.

I came up with a cool recipe for lunch today.  I had some rice pudding during the cruise.  Rice pudding has always been a favorite of mine, but I hardly ever make it  (not exactly sure why that is).  Anyway, we had some cooked brown rice in the fridge and I had an idea for a quick rice pudding:

  • 1 individual container of vanilla greek yogurt
  • 1/4 cup cooked brown rice
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 20 grams of chopped raisins (I had a mixed grape color type)

This was really good!  It had some of the yogurt tang, but the overall texture was good and packed with protein.  I think some ground pistachios would have completed it.  Next time I will mix it earlier to let it sit and meld for a while.

I had to work some today to make up for missed hours this week.  I will be going 8 straight days of work until next Friday, wahhh!  But it was worth it.

John and I took a break for some coffee at Cool Beans, and I was tempted by a treat:

Goodbye 5-mile run calorie burn :mrgreen:

Came home to find Pixie being lazy on the dishwasher.  She gets on top of it whenever we run it because it is warm.  I love her giant feet.

Dinner was another experiment.  I pan sauteed some broccoli in sesame oil, then added chopped cooked chicken breast and salt and pepper.  In a separate bowl, I mixed 2 Tbsp of balsamic vinegar with 1 tsp of honey and 1 tsp cornstarch and added it to the pan.

This was pretty good, but it needs some other flavoring.  Not sure what it would be, though. Maybe mustard?  Anyone have any balsamic vinegar tips?

The rest of the night will be made of some reading and resting.

On a sad note, I wanted to take a moment and ask you all to please send your thoughts to Steve, as he has lost his father suddenly.

Running and custard x2

Midweek time!  Sometimes I cannot believe how fast time goes by, can you?  Today was run day at the gym.  I have decided that I won’t do speed work on the days that I run longer and do that on lifting days with brief runs.  I think that will be easier on the legs.

So, I treadmilled (hey, I can make it a verb, right?) it for 6 miles today.  It’s funny how I remember last year when doing 5Ks – it felt so far to get to 3 miles, and now that is half way through today’s run and it was pretty easy (the first 3 miles, that is).  You can build up runing pretty fast when you work at it 😀  I have a long way to go to think about doing a 1/2 marathon.

Came home and made some custard oats.  I have seen these floating around the internet and decided to give them a try since I had egg whites on hand.  I was thinking the egg would scramble as soon as it hit the oats, but it didn’t!

  • 40 grams oats
  • 56 grams egg whites (1/4 cup)
  • cinnamon
  • 1 mashed banana

I mashed the banana and added it to the pot and brought 1 cup of water to a boil.  I added the oats and cinnamon, then whisked the egg whites in very slowly.  These kind of fluffed up and thickened like pudding:

Very nice.  The egg seemed to mute the banana flavor, but the banana was also not as ripe as I usually like them.  I do like the egg white better than protein powder in oats.

Speaking of protein powder, I will be doing a post on protein powders and how we use them in a day or so to kind of answer all the recent questions in one fell swoop.  😀

Lunch consisted of the last of the whole wheat crust pizza (I added feta) and a fabulous pear.

Worked fast again today, even with a latte break in there! (unpictured).  I love being able to finish by dinner time.  I had a hankering for a big stir fry for dinner, so I chopped up a carrot, a bunch of broccoli and some chicken and stirfried in a bit of coconut oil with teriyaki sauce and a couple tablespoons of hot sauce (yeah, baby!).

Yum.  That was a fun experiment with the fresh broccoli this week.  Bunch broccoli was on sale for $1 a pound, so I had gotten some.  Looks like broccoli is in season according to this chart that Steve pointed out today. Normally I buy frozen baby broccoli florets, as I prefer the florets only.

Played it old school tonight with a game of scrabble!

John always, always wins.  Always….. sigh.

We had an extra player, though:

Pixie was in charge of the letter tiles.  She wasn’t all that helpful 😛

I started the day with custard, so I decided to end the day with custard!  This is a quick and easy pumpkin custard snack:

  • 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
  • cinnamon
  • 1 tsp agave nectar (could use honey or brown sugar)
  • 1/4 cup egg whites.

Mix really well and put into a microwave safe dish or silicone muffin cup.  Cook for about 2 minutes in the microwave until it puffs up and is uniform in color.  Top as you would like – I used dried cranberries.  For a more pie-like dessert, put a gingersnap or a graham cracker on the bottom of the dish before cooking.

This post was all about the food today LOL.   Don’t forget the giveaway tomorrow!  The post will be up in the morning some time.

Question:  Favorite board game?

To bagel or not?

Woke up around 6 am this morning, hearing Pixie playing out in the hallway.  I think I dozed for a while and maybe slept more?  Not sure if the balance bar I had later on in the evening mattered or not as far as helping me sleep better.  Need to keep experimenting.

Regular readers know that Sunday is normally bagel day.  I had a bagel yesterday, so I was unsure if I was going to have one or not today.  We went out to Ridge St, where I decided on a bowl of oatmeal, since it was cloudy and snowy:

I definitely like the nana cooked into the oats rather than on top.

Then we hit up the grocery store.  Our fridge was pretty much cleared out of food!

That looks better.

Need to control the eating today.  All this fresh food makes me want to eat!  Especially with a slow work day.

Lunch break was a egg/egg white wrap with laughing cow cheese.  Lots of protein, lots of fiber (smart carb wrap), and lots of flavor!

I am going to try 1 new Indian recipe each week for January and here is this week’s try! Dinner experiment:  Lentil Dal.

I cooked up 2 servings of lentils in about 2 cups of water with 1/2 a cinnamon stick and a bay leaf until they were very soft.  Mashed those and transferred to a bowl.  In the same pot, I added 2 tsp of coconut oil and pan fried 1 tsp of mustard seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1/2 tsp turmeric,1/4 tsp chili powder, salt and pepper, and 1/4 of a finely minced onion.  Cooked those for a couple minutes and then added back the lentils and mixed thoroughly.  Served along side brown rice (which John cooked yesterday).  It was quite good.  I have more for tomorrow! 🙂

Regarding the google analytics from my keyword post earlier – to use this, just go to http://google.com/analytics and sign up for a google account (if you don’t have one).  Then add your website and give it a day to start tracking.  It’s pretty neat.

Tomorrow starts a new set of lifting moves tomorrow for the month of January, which I will be working on tonight.  Planned snack for later is a balance bar.  My new sleeping pill 😛

Pixie has been sleeping all day, guess she doesn’t care that she woke me up!  I woke her up for a picture and she looks totally annoyed:

Question: Do you eat Indian food?

Low-fat Gingerbread cookies

gcookie1217

These are so chewy and really spicy! You can cut back on the ginger if you want, but it really gives these cookies a punch.  Thanks to John for tweaking this recipe to up the protein and lower the fat!

Based on Ina Garten’s recipe

Ingredients

nocoupons

  • 1 cup AP flour
  • 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup whey protein powder*
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
  • 1/4 cup applesauce
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/3 cup unsulfured molasses
  • 1-1/4 cups  crystallized ginger chopped really fine (6 ounces – use less if you’re scared!)
  • Granulated sugar, for rolling the cookies

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

In a large bowl, sift together the flours, protein powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, and salt. * (If you don’t use protein powder, replace it with an equal amount of all-purpose flour, and use 2 egg whites in place of the water later in the recipe.  Also use egg whites if you use brown rice protein instead of whey.)

In an electric mixer, beat the brown sugar, applesauce, and molasses on medium speed for 5 minutes.

Turn the mixer to low and add the water, and beat for 1 minute.  Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula and beat for 1 more minute.  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix on medium speed for 2 more minutes.  Add the crystallized ginger and mix until combined.  The mixture will be wet.

Scoop up the dough with 2 spoons .  Roll each piece of dough into a 1 3/4-inch ball and then flatten lightly with your fingers.  Roll both sides of each dough ball in granulated sugar and place them on the cookie sheets.  Leave lots of room because they spread out a lot while baking.

Bake for  13 minutes.   The cookies will be crackled on the top and soft inside.  Cool the cookies for  1 to 2 minutes before transfering to wire racks to cool completely.

Store in a covered container in a single layer or between parchment sheets, as they are so moist they will stick together.

Chai Spice Granola

chainola

As promised, here is the recipe for my chai spice granola!  Again, this is lightly sweet.  I added Rice Krispies to this to help bulk up the granola without adding a lot of calories.  It stretches the portion size out that way.  That said, I do not have nutritionals on this yet 😀

All of the spice gives this a nice flavor.  You could try adding some black pepper, too, like would be in chai.  I was going to, but forgot.

* 2 tbsp of brown sugar
* 2 tbsp apple juice concentrate
* 2 tbsp water
* 2 tsp oil
* 2 tsp honey
* 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
* 1/2 tsp ground clove
* 1/2 tsp cardamom

* 2 cups rolled oats
* 1 cup rice krispies
* 1/4 cup slivered almonds

Preheat oven to 325 F. Mix together everything but the last 3 ingredients in a large bow. Add the rest and mix really well until all coated.

Spread on a cookie sheet and bake at 325 for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.  Remember that granolas crisp up once they are cooled, not in the oven, so don’t burn it!

Let cool and store in an airtight container.

You may also like:

Cranapple Spice Granola

Or Choco-protein Granola

5-miler and hello toes!

Some slick sidewalks, so I am pretty much sticking to treadmill running for now.  Last winter I just exercised at home as I did not belong to a gym.  We don’t own a treadmill, so my outdoor running was really weather and neighbor side-walk shoveling dependent.  Now with the gym, I can still keep up my running (even though the dreadmill is boring).  I did 5 miles today.  This is becoming my go-to mileage on an average day, which I am so pleased about!  I did 3 miles at a 5.5 mph pace, then 1 mile at 6 mph, 1/2 mile at 6.5 and then 1/2 mile at 6.  Sweaty, sweaty!

Came home and had my steel cut oats for breakfast that I talked about earlier today.

Then it was work, work, work.  I put my feet up for a while and noticed this:

socks1208

So many of my socks look like this, although I don’t normally end up with both at the same time with holes 🙂 . I don’t know what it is about my feet, but I go through shoes and socks like nobody’s business!

Lunch was inspired by Caitlin today:

lunch1208

Toasted quinoa on greek yogurt!  My yogurt has vanilla protein powder stirred in with strawberries.    My take on the quinoa was done a bit differently than hers:

  • 1/4 cup dry quinoa
  • 2 tsp agave nectar
  • cinnamon

In a small frying pan, toast the quinoa over medium high heat until light tan.  The quinoa will start to pop as it toasts.  Stir often so it doesn’t burn!  Then add in the cinnamon and agave nectar and keep stirring until the agave is absorbed.  (It will sizzle).  Just a couple minutes. It will kind of lump up in the pan a bit.  Remove from heat and let cool.  Then use as a topping.  Full of protein and crunch!  It kind of reminds me a bit of those chewy sesame candies – anyone know what I am talking about?

Ornament of the day:

ctacorn1207

This is a Charming Tail.  I started collecting these 5 or 6 years ago.  I don’t do too much collecting because we try to lead a somewhat clutter-free life (said as I look away from my desk….), but they are just so cute.  I haven’t bought any in a few years, though.  I have a little Squashville parade that I should take a picture of, too.

Break for a snack with my latte:

attune1208

Yum!

So, having more tenant issues.  One of them is gone now and the other one needs to find another roommate or he needs to move out as he cannot afford the place on his own.  I am letting him stay for a while to find a roommate because I don’t want to kick him out at Christmas and I can’t afford to not have someone in there.  Finding tenants at this time of year is tough. I really want to get rid of this house!   I hope to put it back on the market this spring, so if he can just hang on for a few months, that would be helpful.   Sigh….

More protein for dinner!  These clam strips are loaded with protein.

dinner1208

John has been prettying up my blog a little for the holidays!  I don’t have as much time as I would like to play around with it (just posting takes a lot of time!), so I let him fiddle.

Question:  Do you collect anything?

Football and Cranapple Spice Granola

Sunday morning at Panera!  I decided not to have the Gingerbread bagel, but go back to classic blueberry.  Nom, nom!

bagel1129

It was nice to chit chat with John and just have some down time.  We stopped off for groceries afterward.

Still have this sign up!

psign1129

Of course, they have no more of those mixes, either! They need to change their sign…

We’ll have to keep checking the little stores around to stock up.  😀

Fridge/freezer cleanout for lunch!  I had 1 waffle topped with the last Boca Burger and some laughing cow cheese.

lunch1129Plus 2 clementines!  These are so good.  You’ll be seeing lots of these this week!  I have decided I don’t care for the Boca Burgers anymore.  I used to eat them all the time, and as I moved away from processed foods and soy, those left, too.  I got a box for old time’s sake and didn’t care for them.

Work was really slow today.  I did not get a single file until 5 hours into my workday.That means having to take some PTO if I want to get paid for today!

However, that did mean some play time in the kitchen.  I made up a new batch of granola that I named Cranapple Spice:

gran1129

Ingredients:

  • 1/8 cup of maple syrup
  • 1/8 cup of of apple juice concentrate
  • 2 tsp sunflower (or other light) oil
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 2 cups rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup slivered almonds
  • 1/4 cup of dried cranberries, chopped

Preheat oven to 275 F.  In a bowl, mix together the apple juice concentrate, maple syrup, oil, salt, vanilla, and spice until thoroughly mixed.  Add in the oats and almonds and stir/mash really well until the oats are thoroughly coated.  It may not look like enough liquid, but it is.  Pour onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat.  Bake at 275 for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring the batch every 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and add the chopped dried cranberries.  Very lightly sweet and crunchy. Delicious!

Enjoy!

Lots of football watching today!

Question:  Do you have a food that no longer tastes good to you that you used to love?

Raspberry Turkey Salad Recipe

Here is a  recipe for turkey that you can have on Thanksgiving or after with those leftovers!

This recipe was graciously provided to me by Driscoll’s (you can print a 50 cent coupon there, too, on the bottom right corner).  All those strawberries you see on my site are usually Driscoll’s!

Raspberry Turkey Salad


rasp_turkey_salad5
Prep time: 10 min
Makes: 2 servings

1            package (6 ounces) Driscoll’s Raspberries, rinsed and divided
¼           cup balsamic vinegar
½           teaspoon sugar
¼           teaspoon black pepper, coarse and ground
4            ounces field greens
4            ounces sugar snap peas, trimmed and blanched
6            ounces turkey strips, cooked and sliced
2            ounces ricotta salata cheese, grated  (or sub parmesan cheese)

Purée 1/2 cup of the raspberries, balsamic vinegar, and sugar in a food processor or blender; strain. Stir in black pepper.

Combine field greens, remaining 1 cup raspberries, sugar snap peas and turkey in medium bowl.

Drizzle dressing over salad. Toss until evenly coated. Divide between two serving plates. Sprinkle with cheese.

Nutrition Per Serving: 302 calories, 7.73g total fat, 3.50g saturated fat, 31.97g protein, 23.74g carbohydrate, 78.36mg cholesterol, 8.20g fiber, 137mg sodium

Helpful Tip  – In addition to its fresh, soft form, ricotta is also sold in salted, baked and smoked. The pressed, salted and dried variety of the cheese is known as ricotta salata. A milky-white hard cheese used for grating or shaving, ricotta salata is sold in wheels, decorated by a delicate basket-weave pattern.

Bike ride video and be a good egg!

Are you a good egg? Click to pledge that you are and help the hungry!
I Pledge to Eat good. Do good everyday.

I did a switcheroo today like I did on Tuesday and worked out later in the day.   So, I started off with a combo I have been thinking of for a while – mocha oats!   Susan and I were on the same wavelength.

coffeeoats

  • 40 grams oats
  • 3/4 cup coffee
  • 1 small banana
  • 4 grams cocoa powder
  • 10 grams chopped toasted pecans

I used the coffee in place of the water.  This was very strong brewed coffee, too.  It was a very unusual flavor, I have to say.  I couldn’t taste the banana at all, just a bit of sweetness.  It was eye opening!

My wonderful husband bought me some memory for my camera!  I was talking about getting some because I can only take so many pictures and very short video with it.  And then he said not to buy any because he got me some.  Early Christmas gift for me!

memory

Isn’t technology amazing? 2 Gigabytes and the size of my fingernail.

Today was my hardest training day before taper week before the duathlon.  I did a 1.5 mile run, then 16 mile bike ride, then 2 mile run.

As promised, here is a little bit of my bike path. It’s like my own Blair Witch Project LOL!  I took so much video today, it was fun.  This is just one piece.

I am such a nerd LOL. I feel like a bit of a goof. I held the camera in one hand while riding. Actually surprisingly steady for that.


It was the most gorgeous day today.  So beautiful.  I kept stopping to take pictures:

fallpath3

sumac-1

Stunning, just stunning. I wish I really could capture this on camera.

After the bike ride and before the 2nd run, I had some of this!

zico

Zico, would you sponsor me, please?? 😀  I love this stuff.  It’s coming with me on duathlon day!

Pink picture of the day:

bands

This is a local laundromat. That color is on purpose LOL!

I felt really good when I finished. I did take more breaks riding that I should have, but I realized that I will be able to finish the duathlon. I know that now, and if I have to take a few breaks, it’s okay! I am getting excited and nervous about it. I can’t wait to see what kind of weather we will get next weekend. Mid October could be anything!

Question: Do you have fall photos to share? List the link, I would love to see!