Today is another day…

So glad, that so many people are voting on their favorite recipes, keep up the voting and tomorrow or Tuesday your favorite for week 2 will be posted!So today, I have a lot of homework to do, so I figured  I would blog this morning, not about the food that I am cooking today, but about my new healthy lifestyle.

Living healthy was a personal choice that I had to make, I know that in the about me section of my blog, I go over the fact that I was pre-diabetic and that I was obese, but those things weren’t what changed my lifestyle. It was months after I found out that I was pre-diabetic that I even made a change to my eating. I wasn’t concerned, and when I was concerned about it, I just brushed it off. I figured that I was always going to be big, just like some people were always going to be small. I thought that it was just another element of “Stephanie” and boy was I wrong. Looking back I know that I wasn’t willing to change for a long time. I didn’t want to go to the gym, I was sure that everyone would laugh at me. I didn’t want to eat healthy because I didn’t want the questions associated with my weight to be brought up. I didn’t want to go through weight loss by myself, I didn’t want to be without support. I also didn’t want to ask any questions, I thought that people would relate my lack of knowledge towards nutrition as the key point to my weight issue. I also didn’t want to think, deal with, or talk about why I was comfortable being overweight.

That all changed one Saturday morning. I can’t really tell you what happened, because honestly I don’t even know. I woke up one Saturday morning, my parents had left to go out already, and my sister was still sleeping, but I was awake and felt like I was on an intense mission. I had talked to my mom briefly a few months earlier about eating healthier and I blew her off, I really had no wish to hear what she wanted to talk to me about, but that Saturday all of that changed. That Saturday morning mission felt so clear to me, I felt like I NEEDED and WANTED to change my lifestyle, and more than all that, my attitude towards it all changed. I sat down at the computer that morning and began thinking of every fast food, restaurant chain that I would frequent and began printing out pages and pages and pages of nutritional information. I didn’t know if I would be able to cook healthy food for myself, let alone know even how to cook, but I knew that I could change things by ordering differently. I printed off nutritional information for all my favorites, Red Robin, Coldstone, Islands, Jack-in-the-Box, Macaroni Grill, everywhere that had nutritional information, I printed it. After a few hours into the printing, my parents came home, and my mom was astonished by all the information. She then told me that there was a book that had all that information in it, The Official 2008 Calorie King book. I told my mom that I needed to do this, and I asked for her help, she helped me by getting me a few books, the Calorie King book, and the original Eat This! Not That! book. Those books, I practically memorized, I was in love with finally having the information, and I felt deceived. I mean, I could have told you that a Sourdough Jack from Jack-in-the-Box was bad, but I couldn’t have imagined that if it really added up to 680 calories, 46 grams of fat and 1.5 grams of trans fat per burger, why we still allowed places to sell them. I know that might sound extreme, but I used to eat about 2 a day!

After I let my anger towards my ignorance and lack of knowledge that I previously had slip, I felt like a very intense fire burning within me. I felt like, I had been cheated, not only out of my money, I mean I was paying for crappy food and having to pay even more emotionally for the heart ache that I experienced through my school years and now I was being swindled out of my cash for the expensive clothes that I needed to fit my larger frame. I began tracking strictly what I ate, and stuck to an eating plan of 2000 calories and 60 grams of fat per day. I started by substituting a little at a time, I began by not getting mayonnaise on my Subway sandwich, then I started leaving off the cheese, then I made it a 6 inch, I then said bye-bye to the oil and I eventually swapped my iceberg lettuce for spinach. It was a process for everything that I ate, but I kept thinking, it’s better than before. It has taken me almost 2 years to make these changes, it wasn’t an instant cold turkey thing. I needed to gradually swap out different things or else I knew that I was going to be unhappy. I suggest to anyone that is trying to lose weight that they do the same thing, cutting everything out from the beginning is going to make you feel unsatisfied with the choice of becoming a healthier eater.

I tell you all of this to tell you that even with all the knowledge I have, I slip. This past week I went to dinner with Dan and his parents to celebrate my soon-to-be Mother in law’s birthday. She picked Souplantation, and I was sure that I wasn’t going to have an issue. In fact on the way there I was coaching my fiancée on what things are great choices and which ones aren’t so great. We got there and we started out with the salad, I avoided all the premixed with mayo stuff and made myself the largest green salad with every veggie you can think of, I topped it with a little red wine vinegar and we were on our way to a great meal. I got the huge salad in hopes of trying to fill up a little bit before being shipwrecked in the land of breads, pastas and soups. I enjoyed my salad, but I was still hungry so I went for a soup. They had a turkey chili that looked awesome so I gave it a shot and grabbed a piece of squaw bread to go with. I then headed back and enjoyed my chili and needless to say, I was still hungry, I decided to go back again and this time grabbed a bowl of turkey with whole wheat noodle soup and a bran muffin. After enjoying my now second bowl of soup, I was still feeling like I barely ate, so I went back for my third bowl of soup, this time a hearty vegetarian and barely stew and a piece of sourdough toast. By this third bowl of soup and third trip to the dreaded bread counter I had started to finally feel like I had eaten, but right at the end of our time I got a little hungry again. I went to the bread counter and grabbed the last small bran muffin and then we were on our way. I was feeling over satisfied at this point, I hadn’t let my food sit, and I was really unsure of all that I had really eaten. I went home and forgot about it, but I finally examined the menu a couple days later, when I realized that I had eaten 500 calories worth of bread! My soup, wasn’t too bad, only about 100 calories for each small bowl, adding up to 300 but those 2 slices of bread and 2 tiny muffins really did me in. My salad, I don’t count the calories for, overall probably about 100 calories, but honestly I don’t count and my soups 300 calories, but for more than half my meal to be spent my measly bread I was floored. I felt like once again I had been bamboozled and I have done this for a while. I felt like I hadn’t just let me down, but I had let others down, but I am writing this to let you know that I mess up too. It’s not something to beat yourself up over and if you have ever struggled with food addiction it doesn’t ever just go away. It’s a constant thing that you will always need to be aware of. Just remember on days when you might go a little overboard that tomorrow is another day (as Scarlett O’Hara would say) and don’t let it get to you. It doesn’t mean that you should stop on your journey to be healthy, it just means that you hit a speed bump in the process.

Well, I am off to homework land, but I will be cooking Texas Sheet Cake tonight in honor of my good friend, Cami and will be making a dump cake for my beautiful sister-in-law, Elaina’s birthday tonight, so tomorrow we will talk more about recipes.

Until, I’m in the kitchen again…

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Happy Birthday to Miss Cami…

So the lasagna yesterday night was awesome, everyone was amazed by the huge slices and the heartiness of the dinner. The lasagna was good but it was a little different from a normal lasagna, because of all the veggies that are in it, but we all agreed that was what made it tasty. Even though the lasagna was different than the normal stuff; it was amazing! In fact my future brother, John, thanked me for making the new version, I would have to say that I think it was his favorite recipe.

After our awesome lasagna we headed out to Yogurtland, for my favorite chocolate dipped strawberry fix. I enjoyed a mix of dark chocolate, strawberry, and cookies and cream loaded up with fresh strawberries, a few little yogurt chips and some almonds. It was awesome, and my beautiful niece enjoyed some strawberries too. It was nice to be with my family and just relax over our light dessert. After our dessert, we headed back home and were on our way to bed. We woke up after sleeping for an extra long amount of time, we went to bed at 12 and woke up at the ripe time of 10. It was nice being able to sleep in, especially because the last couple of days I’ve had to wake up on the earlier side. We woke up and it was time for breakfast, I had asked Sarah to think of what she might want for breakfast in the morning and we went through ideas and came up with making breakfast burritos.

I started getting ready to make our breakfast, and I had made breakfast burritos another time before, but it had been awhile. I wasn’t sure exactly how to season the fresh salsa, so I just started throwing things together. I used Eggbeaters, 1/8 of a small avocado, a low carb high fiber tortilla, a 1/2 ounce of regular cheddar cheese, onions, garlic, and my salsa made of Rotel tomatoes and jalapeno, onions, chipotle peppers, and cilantro. I started out by spraying my pan with non-stick cooking spray and sautéed my onions and garlic together until the onions went clear. I then added my Eggbeaters and began scrambling. During the Eggbeaters scrambling, I prepared my salsa, by using half the small can of Rotel tomatoes, chopped a quarter of the onion and added it in, I then added 1 chipotle pepper and 1 tablespoon of adobe sauce (the sauce that is inside the can with the chipotle peppers), I also added 2 tablespoons of fresh cilantro and the juice of half a lime. After preparing my salsa, I browned my tortillas, and added my cheese to my scrambled eggs. I then waited for my cheese to melt and then added my Eggbeaters, avocado and salsa inside my tortilla. We both thought that the breakfast burritos turned out great, and it smelled so good that my mom and dad wanted breakfast burritos too. Sarah thought that the breakfast burritos were great too, but thought that it was a little spicy, just a warning to all consumers that the chiptole peppers are awesome, but the heat level can be a little inconsistent. A breakfast burrito from a lot of folk’s favorite fast food place, Del Taco comes in at 400 calories, 18 grams of fat and 1 gram of fiber. My breakfast burrito rendition came to 263 calories, 11.6 grams of fat, and 17.55 grams of fiber. Fiber is awesome, for a couple of reasons, it will keep you full longer than simple carbohydrates and eating the right amount of fiber is actually a prevention method for colon cancer, which is always great. As you may have noticed I will be adding fiber to my counts now, my friend, Trini asked that I include the fiber amounts, so hopefully others will find it helpful as well. If there are other counts that anyone would like to see, just let me know!

After breakfast, my best friend and I hung out for a while and went walking around for a while. We love just hanging out at local malls and shopping centers while we walk and talk. After walking and talking for a while we went out to lunch. We went to a little restaurant called Pacific Fish Grill, that my fiancée, Dan and I like to visit and Sarah and I have gone to before. Dan and I love all seafood, but Sarah isn’t as much of a fan, but Pacific Fish Grill is awesome because they also provide chicken and beef options for my “landitarian” friend. We decided to get the grilled chicken kabob, with grilled zucchini and a side salad with a side of dressing. The kabob was awesome, and the grilled zucchini is always good. Although the nutritional information wasn’t available we just stuck to what we know is going to be the best for us. That is the important part to eating out without nutritional information, just make sure what you are ordering, if you are in need of more tips check out my “No Cooking” blog.

After lunch we walked around for a bit longer, but then we decided to head back to my house, since I was going to have to get ready for work in just about an hour. When I got home, I talked to my mom about dinner and I let her know that I wouldn’t be able to make dinner, but was going to make dessert when I got home. My plan originally for dessert was in honor to my close friend, Cami, whose birthday is today, and I was going to make a Texas Sheet Cake. When Cami lived close by to me, I used to love going over to her house and just being able to hang out with her, and we enjoyed eating a lot of food together. She is my second mom, and we did a lot together. She lives about 7 hours away from me now, so I haven’t been able to see her in months, but my whole family loves Cami, and we agreed that we needed to celebrate her birthday down here. Cami was the first person that I ever knew that talked about Texas Sheet Cake, and she told me that was one of her favorite cakes, so I figured it would be proper for her birthday celebration.

 Anyways, after my conversation with my mom, I headed out to work. I got to work, and had a great night with my co-workers, but had to end up working later than I originally thought. I had talked to my mom on my lunch, and her and my dad were so awesome that they brought me my dinner, of salmon, whole grains, salad, and cauliflower. The recipe for the salmon that my mom had, was from the book, More Diabetic Meals in 30 Minutes or Less. The salmon, which my mom said that I could share the recipe for was awesome. The fish is done in a garlic, shallot and ginger splash, and it was awesome and so flavorful. If anyone would like this recipe, just let me know and I will post it up. Well because I had to work a little later than I originally expected no Texas Sheet Cake tonight, but if anyone has a good recipe let me know, because it’s coming tomorrow.

Well, until I’m in the kitchen again…

Happy Birthday Cami

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Time to vote week 2…

Okay everyone it’s time to vote again for the recipe that you think is the best. You have until Monday morning to vote, and the recipe with the most votes with be revealed either Monday or Tuesday, so let your voice be heard!

This week I made

Not Your Average Joe Lasagna

Smokey and Sweet Sloppy Joes

Extra Moist Banana Bread

Lightened Up Ham & Egg Breakfast Sandwich

Light and Tasty Chicken Quesadilla

Shepherd’s Pie with Buttermilk-Chive Mashed Potato Crust

Spicy Huevos Rancheros

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Not A Doomsday Here Cookies

Mom’s Cranberry & Orange Scones

Tasty Patty Melt

Better Almond Layer Cake

French Toast with Vanilla Rum & Caramelized Bananas

Yummy Mahi-Mahi Grilled Fish Tacos

Since the beginning of this blog on January 19, 2010 I have  completed 25 recipes, 20 better modifications and 5 regular recipes, only 340 recipes left to go! As always  if you have a favorite recipe that you would like me to modify, just let me know! Thanks and enjoy voting!

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Waiting for dinner to be done in the oven…

Today was much busier than I originally thought it was going to be, I feel like I have been running around all day till right now. After blogging this morning while my mom was at her doctor’s appointment I went and picked her up. We had already planned on going out to L.A. together accompanied by my best friend. We picked up Sarah on the way to L.A. where my mom was planning on meeting up with a friend of hers. My mom had referred her friend to a doctor who does plastic surgery on people who have lost a significant amount of weight. Due to the extreme amount of weight that my mom had lost, she had to have several different surgeries done to eliminate excess hanging skin. My mom’s friend has also lost a significant amount of weight and is now needing to consult with a plastic surgeon about getting her excess skin removed. While my mom and her friend were at the appointment, Sarah and I headed down to Santa Monica pier, which is only a ten minute drive from the hospital where my mom was at.

We got to the pier, parked grabbed a couple small sugar-free Mocha Ice Blended drinks at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf – I got to tell you I can’t get enough of these drinks. They are so rich and chocolately, you would never know that they were sugar-free, another awesome part about Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is that you never have to ask for the drink to be fat-free, because they only use fat-free milk. Our small Mochas come in at only 110 calories and no fat, which in my opinion is a pretty sweet deal. Anyways after our quick stop at Coffee Bean we started towards the pier. We had to park a little bit away all of the close parking was taken so we went hiking to the pier. We got there, and it was time to turn around. As soon as we stepped onto the wood planks of the pier, my mom called letting us know that the appointment was done. The walk was gorgeous though, and it was nice to get out and do some walking and talking. We got back to pick up my mom and we headed on out to lunch.

We decided to head over to Samurai Sam’s for lunch, if you have never eaten at one before you have to! The food is so good, they offer a bunch of different options, like brown rice, chicken breast, salmon and all veggies. We all got the low-carb bowl, which can come with either chicken breast or salmon. The low carb bowls also come with veggies or rice, they are a really great option, and I love them. I tell my mom every time that we go to L.A. that we have to eat there, and the surprising part is that I really don’t even like Chinese food. For the small low carb, chicken breast bowl with brown rice the counts add up to 480 calories and 5 grams of fat. To eliminate a few more calories think about maybe getting rid of the rice and just having veggies. With having veggies instead of rice you eliminate 230 calories and 2 grams of fat, which is what I did today. Just a reminder most Chinese food places don’t offer chicken breast for their teriyaki chicken so it is refreshing to see that Samurai Sam’s does. For a regular chicken thigh bowl with white rice as opposed to the one with brown rice, the difference is pretty amazing. The white rice version will cost an additional 70 calories and 5 grams of fat.

After our fabulous lunch it was time to head back to the home front, along the way we hit traffic of course and ended up being on the lovely freeways of Southern California for just about 3 hours just to get home. We arrived home and headed out to the Stater Brothers just down the street from my house for everything that we needed for dinner. We were all still in the mood for the lasagna that never got made, so we decided that it was time. We picked up and few groceries for dinner, and some everyday items. People must have thought we were crazy, going to every single item that we needed and looking at the nutritional information to make sure that we got the best one. We even had a couple people comment to our excessive label looking, and we just had to remember that it is always important to know exactly what you are eating. After gathering everything for dinner it was time to come back and start getting things ready.

I found the original recipe for this lasagna on http://www.allrecipes.com and it was listed as a very tasty classic recipe. As I was looking at the recipe I was amazed by what went into this truly intense Italian comfort food. Sausage, ground beef, ricotta, parmesan, and mozzarella cheeses and 3 eggs, I knew that this recipe would need to be modified and I thought that I would be able to do it. I started out by replacing the plain sausage with chicken and turkey sausage with artichokes and garlic, I then swapped the ground beef for ground turkey and eliminated the tablespoon of olive oil. The full-fat ricotta and full-fat mozzarella cheeses were replaced with low-fat versions of the original, and the mozzarella cheese amount was also cut practically in half. I also changed out the eggs with Eggbeaters and then it was time to cook. I also added to the recipe an assortment of veggies to bulk up the lasagna and to give us more fiber. I added bell pepper, carrot, zucchini, butternut squash, and spinach, which all sounded so good. I also changed out the tomato sauce and a few spices, for spices, garlic and fire-roasted tomato and garlic low-sugar spaghetti sauce. The original recipe comes in at 635 calories and 40.7 grams of fat, per slice! I almost couldn’t believe it when I read the numbers, I mean really is pasta, a little meat, cheese and sauce worth over half your day in fat? My reduced version, comes in at a startling 364.8 calories and 13.7 grams of fat, that to me is one good exchange.

My lasagna is just about to come out of the oven, and I’m not gonna lie, I can’t wait, it smells amazing and with a side salad, sounds very satisfying! Hopefully everything turns out great, but until then, I’ll be back when I’m in the kitchen again…

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Sitting at a starbucks, looking through cookbooks and posting…

So last night I posted my last blog, before cooking dinner. I had thought about making baked ziti or lasagna for dinner last night, I haven’t had either in a very long time, and it was like they were calling to me. It was only right before I posted on my blog that I decided to change my dinner option from one of these Italian goodies to sloppy joes. I decided on the change, because it takes a while to make either of the Italian dinners, and I ended up getting home later than I originally first thought, so I went to my default.

Every Thursday night my family hosts a Bible study at our home, it’s an awesome time to get together with our family and close friends. We fellowship, worship, have our study and of course eat. My main keys for cooking on Bible study nights is that it will be food that everyone enjoys that won’t take me all day to make. The sloppy joe recipe is one that I modified in October of 2009 for a Halloween get together that my family and I were going to. I found the original recipe in a Cooking Light magazine and thought the recipe sounded good, but could be easily modified. After trying it out it was an instant favorite. Whenever I make it, it is always really simple and everyone likes it, I only had one time where I had an instant of not so good times with it.

My good friend, Jacob, can’t handle anything very spicy, I wouldn’t say that he is a wimp with heat, but my mom would. My family likes everything spicy, especially my mom, and if you aren’t close to her spicy level, you are automatically a wimp in her mind of the “scale of spiciness”. My fiancée has even fallen to the wimp level on the spicy scale before, as I have mentioned before, Dan is a great cook but his lifelong goal is for my mom to think that he has made something spicy, this has yet to become even a remote possibility. Anyways, back to Jacob and the sloppy joes, I had a few friends over for a movie day, and I said that I would make lunch. My friends had the choice between chicken fajita tacos and sloppy joes, and the majority was for the sloppy joes. I thought it would go over really well, because it always had. I made the sloppy joes, and they are supposed to have a slightly spicy smokey taste from some chipotle peppers, but nothing very noticable at all. Well when I made them for my friends, I just happened to get some very spicy chipotle peppers, my friend Jacob seemed like he was going to die. The heat was way to overwhelming for him, but I remember as he was trying to put out the fire in his mouth, that he would love to keep eating it because it was good, but he felt like his body was on fire. I still feel bad over that instance. I can assure you that this is the only time that this has happened, and I recommend just to spice up the recipe to taste.

I kept the original recipe mostly, but added in just a couple of flavor adjustments, such as garlic and a little bit of brown sugar. I also switched out the bun from regular size, to the 100 calorie buns, to help cut out a few calories. The original recipe comes in at 273 calories and 6 grams of fat, my rendition adds up to 247 calories and 6 grams of fat as well. If you are interested in cutting out some more fat from the recipe I would recommend using 99% lean ground turkey breast, but I think that the 96% lean ground beef adds good flavor and really tastes awesome. For dessert, I was racking my mind, and decided to look at allrecipes.com for some banana recipe ideas, and came across a recipe for Maple Banana Walnut Bread. The bread sounded good and I was hoping that I was going to be able to change the original.

The  biggest thing that I was worried about modifying was the 4 egg yolks that the recipe called for, but I think I just ended up over analyzing it. My friend, Cat, had just asked me about some ideas for modifying a recipe that contained some egg yolks, and I found that for every 2 egg yolks, 1 whole egg or 1 egg white would suffice. I decided to try the egg white idea, and I think that it was an okay adjustment, but it could definitely work. I think that I will need to try this recipe again, but instead just using Eggbeaters in substitute for the egg yolks. For the original recipe, it calls for 2 cups of whole wheat flour, I used 1 cup wheat and 1 cup oat, because that was my last cup of wheat, or else I would have just used the wheat flour. I subbed out the oil for applesauce, swapped the full sugar maple syrup for a sugar free version, and subbed the four egg yolks and four egg whites, with just six egg whites. I used fat free milk, as opposed to 2% milk and only used half the walnuts that were indicated in the recipe. The result was a very moist, lightly sweetened banana bread – which I found to actually be a good thing, since the original recipe according to the reviews normally came out very dry. I also liked that it was only lightly sweetened and not so much like cake, but was really like a bread. I think that it would work great in bread pudding, my best friend’s suggestion, or would be great to use for french toast. Either way the bread went together really fast, and was a great way to use up a couple of extra bananas. The original recipe ends up being, for 1/15 of the bread, 215 calories and 11.8 grams of fat. In my opinion no piece of bread is worth that, especially not for a little 1/15 of a loaf, maybe that is just me. My banana bread modification recipe came out to be, 103.2 calories and 2.14 grams of fat, for the same size slice. Even thought this recipe might need a little more modification till it is all the way done, I still think that it ended up doing what I needed it to do, which was use up a couple of bad bananas.

Well, today is the start of a new day, had my Starbucks breakfast, and now I am off to pick up my mom from her appointment, so until I am in the kitchen again…

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Trying to figure out what to do with a couple of bananas…

Well, home from work and I am ready to start completely back to work on Monday morning.

This morning when I got up, since I had cereal for the last couple of days it was time for something different, especially because I just talked about a bunch of great breakfast options, so I made myself a breakfast sandwich. When I was first off of work, I was making them a lot, but it had been awhile since my last one, and I just love them. They are pretty simple to make, and I am always amazed by how good they taste, and how quick they really are. I start out by substituting the whole egg for 1/4 cup of Eggbeaters and swap out the 1 ounce of full fat cheese to either 1/2 ounce of the rich stuff or a full ounce of my favorite reduced fat kind (cheddar and provolone are awesome). For my meat, I normally use canadian bacon, the awesome part about canadian bacon is that it is roughly about 70 – 90 calories for either 2 or 3 slices depending on the brand. I normally go with 2 because I like the extra kick of protein. For my english muffin, I stay away from the white stuff, and head for the whole wheat, double fiber or 100 calorie ones, which are all equally tasty. A regular Egg, Ham and Cheese english muffin sandwich normally comes in at 351 calories and 17.3 grams of fat per serving. My rendition of this classic sandwich, which used a whole wheat english muffin, a 1/2 ounce of full fat cheese, and 2 slices of ham along with my Eggbeaters,  adds up to only 323 calories and 10 grams of fat, with the 100 calorie english muffins I would have lowered my totals by 56 calories and 0.8 grams of fat. After breakfast, it was time for work, I grabbed my packed lunch and headed on my way.

For my lunch break, I just decided to bring a roast beef sandwich, with carrots, a yogurt and some Kashi crackers and a light cheese, it was all very good and definitely hit the spot. I hope I’m not alone when I say that I struggle if food is just laid out before me. I always try to find the best option and go for that but sometimes that can be hard. My advice, portion control. We had some snacks today at my job and I decided to grab some snacks before my lunch and after my lunch, because like I have said many times before. I am a huge snack advocate. For my morning snack I grabbed some trail mix, made with almonds, cashews and dried fruit, even though nuts are naturally high in fat, that isn’t always a bad thing. Nuts are the perfect, portion controlled snack when you are starving. The mono and poly unsaturated fats help to satiate you and stops your hunger that you might be experiencing. The snack bag wasn’t huge and contained two servings in the bag, I did eat both servings over the day and it cost me 344 calories and 24 grams of fat, but I really wasn’t hungry for a long time afterwards, and some times that is the key. I can eat handfuls of baked chips, and they will never fill me up like a few nuts always will. For my mid-afternoon snack we had quite a few things to pick from, everything from Cracker Jack to Cheeze-its to pretzels. I decided to go with the pretzels and go with a limited amount, which was helpful in feeling like I was eating with everyone else, but I wasn’t compromising. 

Now it comes to dinner, and I decided that tonight needed to be a sloppy joe night. Honestly I never have a problem finding any night to be a good time for a sloppy joe. Anyways, I should probably go and work on that along with my banana dessert. I say dessert, because I still have no idea what I want to make with a couple bad bananas…

Until I’m in the kitchen again…

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No cooking today?? How can this be??

So today was my first day not really cooking since I started this blog, honestly pouring a bowl of cereal and making a sandwich to take for lunch hardly counts as cooking to me. So instead of filling all of you in on what I didn’t cook, I figured I would see if anyone had any specific questions for me and answer some that I have gotten, and give you some tips on eating out.

My good friend Tara and I have known each other for quite a while, and we have both always been a little on the heavier side. Well when I started to lose weight, I hadn’t seen Tara in a while, and when we finally saw each other again after about a year, she was full of questions for me, and I always love answering people’s questions. Her first question was regarding breakfast, she was asking me about certain cereals and what I thought might keep her fuller longer than her current cereal. I am going to list names of brands that I love, not because I am getting paid, or else I wouldn’t be working, but because I believe in the products that they offer consumers. I think a great cereal should be calorie dense, meaning you get the most bang for your calorie buck, should be low in fat, should be low in sugar and should be high in fiber and hopefully protein. My favorite cereals that hit these marks on the head are Kashi Go Lean Crunch and Crisp, although not the lowest in fat their high fiber and protein content help out in my own opinion, I also enjoy Multi-Grain Cherrios, they are a little lighter cereal and a little easier than the Kashi cereals to eat in a hurry, the grains boost the fiber content and they taste really good. I also enjoy Special K, the red berries and blueberry kind are my favorites, I love the light sweetness that they have. For hot cereals my favorite is Coach’s Oats, which is steel cut oatmeal and it tastes great with a little Splenda, almonds and dried cranberries. I also enjoy a good bowl of Quaker Weight Control Oatmeal, the banana bread flavor is awesome, and instead of adding a lot of artificial sweeteners, they just reduce the sugar, making them very tasty . I normally like to accompany all of my cereals with a little something, whether it be a low fat cheese wheel, a piece of light bread with a little natural peanut butter on top, or a yogurt. I prefer the Sara Lee Premium Delightful 100% Whole Wheat bread, it is only 45 calories and 0.5 grams of fat per slice, and it is fabulous toasted! As far as yogurt goes, there are only two kinds for me, fat-free Greek style yogurt, this type of yogurt has a very creamy thick texture and a very tangy taste – I don’t like the plain kind but I’ve tried pomegranate, strawberry and blueberry flavors and all are fabulous – Greek yogurt is also great because it has a much higher amount of protein than regular yogurt and is typically low in sugar. My favorite regular yogurt is Dannon Light and Fit, it has only 80 calories a carton and 0 grams of fat, I am addicted, I eat at least one a day if not more. I know that this is a lot of yogurt talk, and you probably won’t believe me but before I never touched yogurt, I hated it, but that just goes to show how much can change. Hopefully this answers Tara’s question about breakfast.

I get asked a lot, how many calories a day I eat and how many calories I think other people should eat. This is really a number that I would have to know a person’s weight to determine. For myself, I weigh 150 pounds, and I am no longer planning on losing weight. In this maintenance stage of my weight, I can consume up to 2300 calories a day, this is around what my resting metabolic rate, this is just a rough estimate though, it is based on my gender, my age, my activity level and my weight. I normally try to keep my daily calories between 1600 and 1800, knowing that some things aren’t always counted or remembered. To get your own resting metabolic rate, just go here and get a rough estimate http://www.shapeup.org/interactive/rmr1.php and remember be completely honest, it’s only you that you are hurting if you aren’t.

When it comes to eating out, a few basic keys to remember are

1) Ask if there is nutritional information available, and look for your best option, but remember that appetizer, that beginning salad, that creamy soup and that bread basket all count. 

2) Look up nutritional information before going out

3) Avoid restaurants that will give you difficulty, because I had been such a big burger and fry freak I try to avoid Red Robin like the plague, not because I don’t like them, but because I don’t need to be tempted by a hot plate of oil.

4) When in doubt, ask! Don’t just assume that it is chicken breast, or there will be no butter on the veggie, think the opposite and ask, just in case.

5) Order salads with dressing on the side, but after getting the side of dressing don’t just pour it on. One of my good friends, Jamie works at a restaurant and he was telling me that the sides of sauce contain about double the amount of sauce that you would normally get on the salad originally. When getting salad dressing on the side, dip the tongs of the fork in and then grab some of the salad, same taste, less calories and fat.

6) Research your restaurants, and endorse the ones that provide you with the information to live healthy, if the place is stingy with their nutrition info, I don’t give them my business.

7) Just because it is a sandwich, a wrap, a soup or a salad don’t think that it is automatically healthy – most of the time this is rarely true.

8) Always leave a good tip, I ask a ton of questions when I go out to dinner, and if I have a waiter or waitress that is really helpful and cooperative with helping me make a healthy choice, I thank them with a good tip. One time I was eating out at the Yardhouse with my fiancee, and I decided to get the Seared Ahi Tuna Sandwich, but I did want a lot of things modified, the waiter caught on to all my modifications and offered some of his own suggestions.

9) Be aware that some restaurants will try to “pull the sheep over your eyes” and only provide the saturated fat for the dish, and saturated fat doesn’t clue you in on whether or not it is good for you.

10) Remember that serving size at restaurants is huge, don’t feel like you have to be the garbage disposal that finishes it all. If it helps, ask for a box to be brought with your meal or after you are done, cover that delicious pasta in a few packets of sugar, than you won’t be tempted to snack on foods even after you are full. 

My favorite restaurants that I think provide some of the most through information are, Chili’s – they have a great light menu, Mimi’s, great for substitutions, also an awesome light menu, just do your best with that bread basket, Olive Garden, although their healthier choices are limited and they do provide all those breadsticks which cost around 150 calories a piece, Applebee’s, they have a fair amount of choices, for a pretty low calorie cost, Red Lobster, I love their fresh fish menu, but those Cheddar Bay Biscuits = Evil, beware, and Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, great fish, chicken and beef and pretty low in fat and calories. My favorite fast food is, Subway, I love being able to get my sandwich exactly how I want it every time, Chick-fil-a, you can’t beat their grilled chicken sandwich for fat and calories, and they have awesome options, Wendy’s, their chicken sandwich, chili, baked potato are all awesome, and not for a bad price and McDonald’s, ironically, you would think that McDonald’s would be a lot lower on the list but they actually do much better than some of their other counterparts, one of the best breakfasts that you can get is the Egg McMuffin, I love the fruit and yogurt parfait and it makes a great side options and their chicken sandwich is also awesome.

Well, I hope this helps, because I might not be the only one that doesn’t have time to cook everyday, and knowledge really is power when battling so many restaurants. 

Until I’m in the kitchen again…

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First day back…back into bad habits?

Yesterday was my first day back to work, and it was about time. I work a seasonal job and was off of work for about a month, but yesterday was the first day back and I was ready to answer the very early wake-up call

I started my day at 4:50 in the morning when my first alarm went off. To be honest, I don’t normally do good with alarms, you see I have this bad habit, when the alarm goes off instead of hitting snooze I hit off, this is why I have 3 alarms. I have an alarm that goes off every 5 minutes, because otherwise I doubt I would ever wake up. Anyways, after getting out of bed right after 5, I went to grab a quick shower and begin getting ready. The complicated part is that when I go back to work, I have very little time to get ready for the day, so most of the time I don’t make myself a very complex breakfast, but I ALWAYS eat something. I have a large variety of “quick breakfasts” that i go between, but these are some of my favorites: high fiber, low sugar cereals, toast with 1 tsp natural peanut butter, weight control oatmeal, yogurt, fresh fruit, Eggbeaters, ham and reduced fat cheese in a low fat, low calorie, high fiber tortilla, or even a high fiber or whole wheat English muffin toasted with one half peanut butter, one half ham and light cheese. There is no excuse for not grabbing breakfast, I know that time might seem like a reason, but give these quick breakfasts a shot, what do you have to lose? Prior to losing weight my favorite excuse  was that I wasn’t hungry, the truth was that I thought if I ate a lot (this meant breakfast in my opinion), I would gain a lot. This is SOOO not true, it is true that the simplest solution to weight management is “Calories in, calories out”, but when you don’t eat breakfast, you send your body into starvation mood, causing your body to hold onto all the fat and carb stores that you are trying to lose. Your body holds on to them, because it thinks without them that you will die, when you deny your body food. Take it from me, eat breakfast!!

Anyways, enough on my breakfast rant, after getting out of the shower, I poured myself a bowl or the Kashi Go Lunch Crisp, and had a yogurt to accompany my meal, overall calories coming in at 280 calories. I also brought an extra scone with me for a quick snack just in case. When I went to work, I slipped right back into the regular work routine even after being gone for a month, and it was gratefully a very stress free day, which I always appreciate. After work I left to go pick up my mom from school, and hopefully get some lunch soon, because I was starting to get really hungry at this point. After picking my mom up, we headed home, and I couldn’t help it I was so hungry that all I thought about was what I wanted for lunch. I decided that a quesadilla sounded the best. I am known for making a pretty bomb quesadilla, I have made them for my friends and family before and all of them seem to really enjoy them. Instead of the traditional quesadilla stuffing I trade out full fat cheese for half reduced fat, half fat free cheese and stuff the rest of the inside of my high fiber, low cal tortilla with a zesty mixture of chicken, reduced fat sour cream and salsa. It always turns out so good, and it is practically foolproof. The outside of the quesadilla is always just a bit crispy and the inside is melted and gooey. Most quesadillas are loaded with a bunch of cheese, sauce and high in fat meats, that are really not needed. For my chicken rendition of  this favorite mexican food dish it adds up calorie wise to 212 calories and 6.1 grams of fat, for one loaded quesadilla. For a homemade quesadilla, with regular cheese, regular sour cream, chicken thigh meat, and a flour tortilla prepared the same way the results are crazy, this quesadilla comes in at 550 calories and 28.6 grams of fat, for the same size quesadilla. Which one would you pick?? I have to be honest, the things that make the biggest difference is the cheese and the tortilla, I recommend getting wheat tortillas but if that isn’t your style, although I soon hope to persuade you, go with the lowest in fat flour tortilla that you can find. When it comes to cheese, before I made the rendition of my Grandfather’s cheese bread I had never had fat free cheddar cheese, and honestly with the reduced fat mixed in, you would never know, I dare you to give it a shot! You will be amazed at the results! I know that these quesadilla numbers sound a little startling especially the latter, but look at what some popular restaurant places numbers, most fast food Chicken quesadillas come in between 520 – 600 calories and 26 -30 grams of fat, but the ones that you really need to be aware of are the ones at big restaurants these can range from 700 calories and up and 40 grams of fat and up! Remember knowledge is power!

After lunch I began working on my homework, but wanted to try to figure out an idea for dinner so that by the time I was done studding I could go straight to dinner. I picked a recipe for out of the most recent edition of Clean Eating magazine – the Shepherd’s Pie with Buttermilk Chive Mashed Potato Crust. The recipe sounded easy, and so filling. I only modified a couple of things to this recipe, based on convenience - I used lean ground beef instead of turkey, because I already had some pre-browned in my fridge from an earlier meal. I also replaced the regular buttermilk with reduced fat buttermilk. The lean ground beef was a 1/2 pound 93% lean ground beef and the other 1/2 pound was 96% lean ground beef. The original recipe serves 6 huge portions, which is nice when you are hungry, and for that huge portion the original only clocks in at 160 calories and 4 grams of fat per serving. My rendition of the Shepherd’s Pie ended up adding up to: 231 calories and 6.3 grams of fat, which still isn’t bad. My meal ended up coming out a little higher because ground beef has a higher fat and is more calorie dense than extra-lean ground turkey which they used in the recipe. Sometimes conveinence is good, and sometimes it costs a little in the end, but overall still a healthy meal for my family, which is the most important out of all the factors!!

I found this small article that relates to my earlier rant on eating breakfast, so I thought that you might enjoy looking it over

You Skip, You Gain
Why skipping meals is such a bad idea!

By Cheryl Forberg, RD, The Biggest Loser nutritionist

Contestants arriving at The Biggest Loser ranch for the first time are often surprised to learn that one of the reasons they’ve gained so much weight is because they’ve had a habit of skipping meals. It sounds counterintuitive, but skipping meals can actually contribute to weight gain, not loss.

Metabolism journal documented a meal-skipping study at the National Institute on Aging. They found that people who skipped meals during the day and had all of their calories at one nightly meal exhibited unhealthy changes in their metabolism, similar to unhealthy blood sugar levelsobserved in diabetics. The non-meal skippers on the other hand, consumed the same number of calories each day, but the calories were distributed throughout the day at 3 regular meal intervals. The non-meal skippers maintained healthy blood sugar levels.

Another problem with skipping meals is that by the time meal time rolls around, you’re so hungry, it’s easy to eat too much and very often choose the wrong things. Who wants to nibble on carrot sticks when you’re starving? Fat has more than twice as many calories as protein and carbohydrate. It satisfies hunger very quickly and often plays a big role in unhealthy meal choices made by meal skippers.

Also, I am looking for a good recipe for bananas, anything will do, but if anyone has any ideas, or if you have a recipe that you would like to see if I can make over, let me know! Sorry if my blog seems all over the place, I feel my eyelids drooping, I am definitely not a night person

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The long lost blog…

Here is my post from yesterday, found the spot where it did save, so all of that time wasn’t lost! YAY! Enjoy!

Today I woke up just a little early to a very loud noise outside of my window, even though 30 minutes before my mom had entered into my room to take my dog out, I couldn’t wrap my mind around why. I discovered the reason just thirty minutes after the original wake-up. A man was standing right outside my second story window blasting water at my window and all around it, apparently today was the first day that my family’s side of our complex building was to be painted. I couldn’t sleep much longer due to the very loud water shooting at my window, but boy did I try. After reluctantly getting out of bed, I hoped on the computer for a bit and did  some quick updating before I was ready for breakfast. I wanted to make something great because it would be a while till I was able to make myself a great breakfast, you see I wake up normally between 4 and 5 in the morning for work, and since I was going to be starting back, I wanted a last good meal. My “Cook this, not that!” cookbook had been good to me lately, so I cracked it open for a breakfast idea and ran across the idea for Huevos Rancheros. I have never tried Huevos Rancheros before, but had heard from many people that it was one of their favorite breakfast meals, so I figured I would give it a shot. I substituted out a few things from the already lightened version, and was pleased with the results. The light recipe in my cookbook is a rendition of IHOP’s Huevos Rancheros – I was amazed to find that the original contains 1,150 calories and 19 grams of saturated fat (total fat grams was not available), the light version in my cookbook comes in at 480 calories and 15 grams of fat, but my new version clocks in at 332 calories and 1.7 grams of fat. I was able to make mine a bit lighter by substituting out the eggs for Eggbeaters, and using fat free refried beans mixed with black beans, for a very rich but very low in fat taste. My version saves 818 calories off the IHOP version and 148 calories off the already lightened version. By the way, the meal was so filling, normally I accompany my breakfast with a yogurt, but I was so full that a yogurt would have been to much, and all that fiber kept me full till lunch rolled around at three that afternoon.

After breakfast, I was finishing getting ready for the day when my best friend, Sarah dropped by we decided that today would be a great day to see a movie, and went out to go see “The Blindside” which was fabulous by the way. Our friend, Shelly had told us that it was a very uplifting great story, and she sure was right, the movie really made my day. It’s a movie were you end up thinking what motives am I living my life for, is it for me, or for God. Anyways, on to food, we decided to hit one of my fiancee’s favorite restaurant and went by Mimi’s Cafe – Sarah loves it for the Naked French Onion Soup, Dan, my fiancee, loves it for the beef dip and I love it for the Chicken and Fruit salad. Mimi’s we have all found is a great place to eat out with friends and family, and it is awesome that they have a ton of different options to choose from. Sarah’s favorite soup clocks in at a 101 calories and 5 grams of fat, Dan’s beef dip comes in at a striking 521 calories and 15 grams of fat and my salad with the non-fat balsamic vinaigrette comes in at 543 calories and 9 grams of fat. My salad also comes with any muffin, I always pick blueberry because it is the lowest in fat, and just save half for later or for someone else, my Blueberry Muffin for half adds up to: 219 calories and 2 grams of fat. This is a little bit of a more calorie dense meal then what I normally do, adding up to 762 calories and 11 grams of fat, but let me tell you what I used to get. My favorite meal at Mimi’s prior to this last year was for starters the French Onion Soup, followed by a Honey Bran Muffin, with at least 3 sides of butter, and a Bleu Cheese and Walnut Salad, my meal racked up to 991 calories and 51 grams of fat, that is only 9 calories away from half a day!! My best friend, Sarah used to tell me every time that we ate there before that it was weird to see me order something so “healthy” now I just laugh. My “healthy salad” had only 397 calories in it, which wasn’t bad, but the 29 grams of fat – is a little excessive. Anyways, Mimi’s is great because they will provide you with all nutritional information for all of their food, including their seasonal items, they also have a lighter menu called “Fresh and Fit”. I recommend looking their items up prior to your visit, because I believe that they only provide saturated fat in store.

After our relaxing lunch, we headed back to my house and hung out for a while longer before it was time for Sarah to go to work. I had been thinking about different ideas but nothing had come to mind, so I started flipping through cookbooks. I found in a Betty Crocker cookbook the recipe for “Spicy Jamaican Chicken and Potatoes”, I’m not normally a fan of Jamaican spices, but I figured what they heck, and I am so glad that I did. My fiancee had come over about an hour before it was time to start making dinner, and for those who don’t know, he is a fabulous cook, we are definitely like the yin and yang of the kitchen, I prefer baking, he prefers cooking and together we fit.  He decided that he would assist me with dinner, since I had already received a special request from my sister and my mom for scones, and then I also had to make dessert. Dan put together the spices for the Jamaican jerk chicken and I modified the recipe. Honestly the recipe was fairly easy, it uses a whole chicken and 2 tablespoons of oil, the Jamaican seasoning and potatoes. I modified and said that instead of baking, we would grill, it seals in the juices better on lean meats, and that we would sub out a whole chicken for chicken breast and use no oil, because we have cooking spray and non-stick cookware. The original recipe totals in at 310 calories and 16 grams of fat per serving. My rendition comes in at 308 calories and 1.8 grams of fat per serving. The jerk chicken turned out perfect by the way, really tender inside and just slightly crisp on the outside, very very good.

While Dan was making dinner I was busy making Scones from the “Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook” and Doomsday cookies from my “Chicken Soup for the Soul Cookbook” that my soon to be mother-in-law bought me. Both recipes turned out well, but one was definitely a bigger pain in the butt than the other. The scones I thought were going to be fairly easy to modify, but they weren’t as easy as they appeared. I was able to still make them, but it took some definite work to get there. The scone dough was very sticky, which I wasn’t expecting at all, and it was hard to handle without an excess amount of flour, I will have to make them again so I can figure out maybe some good modifications to make them easier to work with. The scones still turned out though, and it was a special request from my mom and sister, I think I could honestly say that if we had to pick between doughnuts and scones it would be scones all around for us. We just love that slightly dry outside and soft buttery inside and of course they are always just slightly sweet but never overdoing it. My mom was desperate to have a cranberry orange scone, so I did the best I could and even though they were hard to handle, they came out well – both calorie and taste wise. The original scone recipe adds up calorie wise to 209 calories and 9 grams of fat. My rendition of these scones included subbing the butter for half light butter, half applesauce, swapping sugar for Splenda, getting rid of all white flour and using half white half oat flour, replacing the egg with Eggbeaters and swapping out half-and-half for the fat free version. The results were: 119 calories and 1.6 grams of fat for my cranberry orange version, compare that to Starbucks, which costs us all (every time we eat them) a crazy 450 calories a piece and 17 grams of fat! You could have almost 4 of my scones for the cost in calories of one of theirs!! Anyways, my mom enjoyed the scones, and I hope next time I will enjoy making them .

For dessert last night we had Doomsday cookies, and I can see why they are called that. They are delicious! The original recipe in my opinion goes a little overboard in everything they add in them, but I thought my version turned out fabulous, and more than one person called them “The best cookie you have ever made!” I made a lot of substitutions and swaps so get those pencils out, cause here they are: I swapped out the 1 1/4 cup of oil for 1 cup applesauce and 1/4 cup light butter, for the 1 3/4 cup of brown sugar, I used 1 cup Splenda brown sugar blend instead, the egg was replaced with Eggbeaters, and the wheat flour for oat flour, the 6 ounces of regular size chocolate chips, I swapped for 3 ounces of mini chocolate chips, I also added half the nuts as well, instead of 1/2 cup I added only 1/4 cup, the results from all this subbing were well worth it. The original recipe would have cost me and my family calorie wise 218.7 calories and 13 grams of fat per cookie, and they aren’t that big, that to me is a little bit of a rip off, I want a little more bang for my buck. My version of the same size cookie clocks in at only 100.6 calories and 3 grams of fat. Not too bad for a days work I say, and not too bad at all for my best cookie ever

Until I’m in the kitchen again…

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Bummer…

So, I was halfway through typing up this blog, when my computer froze and everything I had written was gone, it is a little too late to start it up again tonight, considering that i have to be up at 5 tomorrow morning! Anyways, the blog will be coming tomorrow, sorry guys!

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