Recipe Monday... and so much more

Wow... the week is over. I'm talking about last week. What a week it was. I think I was up past 1am every day last week. When you're waking up at 7:30ish to start your day that's just not enough sleep. That said Munchkins party was a HUGE success. She's thrilled, that was our goal. So I'm happy. Here are some pics from her big day. Once I have them uploaded, I'll share the link for her party on catchmyparty.com too.

The weekend was filled with the party then a snow storm and then throw into that a middle of the night bath for poor Mr. Berkley who got sick through the night (the whole house smelt like poop, and my parents were visiting, so not good.) I finally had him cleaned up and I heard coughing, then thought it didn't sound right. Sure enough littlest munchkins was throwing up. so I spent the morning tending to him. Needless to say I was exhausted and don't feel so well myself today. Just trying to rest and get focused.

So... this is week 4 of carb cycling. That means carb week. I'm following Chris Powell's carb cycling plan using the Vemma Bode app. My husband and I both like it. It works with our lives and we're seeing results. That said, I'm looking for more. I wanted to join an online group or forum or something, only to find out that Chris Powell's site closed and a new EWL (Extreme Weight Loss) site would be launching in the fall of 2015. But what about now? My journey starts NOW. So I turned to pinterest as I do for most things and started reading about Jamie Eason. Her plan I think would tie in really well with the carb cycling we're doing. It's all about eating clean which we're doing and her focus is on building muscle to burn fat. So I'm going to put the running on hold and start her 12 week progam while using the Vemma Bode carb cycling plan. It won't change much, other than my workouts.

I'm also making changes to my frequency of posting. Meal plans still need to be completed. So that's a given. It will be posted between Friday and Mondays. Recipes will be posted as I try them and no longer fixed to a day so I'll be changing the label for that. Results will continue on Thursday and I'm keeping motivation Tuesday because I need that. I'll make adjustments as needed, but need to make this work with my busy schedule (and current lack of a laptop... typing a long post on my tablet just isn't as fun as it may seem.)

So meal plan...

Friday (High Carb)

Breakfast - Orange juice protein smoothie
Snack - Pepperoni sticks, cauliflower and almonds

Lunch - Turkey chili with zuchini noodles
Supper - pita chips with hummus and veggies
Snack - Yogurt with peanut butter and a banana

Saturday (High carb)

Breakfast - Orange juice smoothie
Lunch - (I didn't eat... I KNOW bad!)

Snack - 1 fruit kabob and a small slice of cake

Supper - Chicken stir fry with brown rice - I had another small slice of cake for dessert
Snack - I didn't eat a snack

Sunday (High carb)

Breakfast - Didn't eat
Lunch - Orange juice protein smoothie

Snack - fruit

Supper - Roasted veggies with organic pasta sauce, baked chicken and 1 cup of whole wheat spaghetti
Snack -  Didn't eat a snack

Monday (High carb)

Breakfast - Orange juice protein smoothie

Lunch - Protein waffles (Recipe below - SO good!)

Protein waffles
2 eggs
1 banana
1/2 scoop protein powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp wow butter
Blend in blender
Pour into waffle iron, this recipe can make 3 small waffles

Snack - Turkey pepperoni with sliced cantaloupe
Supper - Chicken Fajitas

Snack - coffee protein smoothie  

Tuesday (High carb)

Breakfast - Coffee protein smoothie 

Snack - Protein waffles

Lunch - Chicken stir fry with brown rice

Supper -  Roasted veggies with organic pasta sauce, baked chicken and 1 cup of whole wheat spaghetti
Snack - yogurt with high fibre cereal

Wednesday (High carb)

Breakfast - Coffee protein smoothie 
Lunch - Pita chips, hummus and veggies

Snack - Fruit protein smoothie

Supper -  sweet & sour meatballs with rice
Snack - yogurt with wowbutter

Thursday (Reward day)

Breakfast - Orange juice protein smoothie
Snack - chicken salad

Lunch - turkey pepperoni stick, veggies and hummus
Supper -  Calzones
Snack - Yogurt with wowbutter

Recipe Monday

So this past week I tried a few different recipes for the first time.

Balsamic Brussel Sprouts

These were delicious. We (the little munchkins and I) love roasted brussel sprouts so these were great. 2 thumbs up!

Cauliflower Rice

I've been waiting to try this for so long! Honestly, I think I may have overcooked it. I had it with a stir fry and it was ok, but any bite that was majority "rice" I found to be mushy. I'll be trying this again for sure. So we'll say 1 thumb up, 1 thumb down.

Chicken Fajita soup

I had this for supper tonight. It was quite good. I added some black beans, probably a little more canned tomatoes than it called for, and I made the portions a little larger. Next time I would probably add more taco seasoning. That said I'd give this one 2 thumbs up.

Skinny Meatballs

This is for supper Wednesday night. I made them yesterday though, so of course I tried one. They're quite tasty actually and I can't wait to try them with the sauce on Wednesday. Paul liked them too. So I'll give these 2 thumbs up.

Low Carb Protein Powder Muffins

I made these for a quick snack that I can grab on the go. I was actually surprised at how well they turned out. Are they like a normal muffin, no. Do I love them? Don't think so. But for a quick snack packed with protein, they're good. We don't let the munchkins have anything with protein powder, so they didn't try, and I don't think I could get Paul to try these. I'll give these 1 thumb up, 1 thumb down.

Homemade Pita Bread

 

Part of this journey has been avoiding store bought preservative filled 'junk'. I'm home through the day so I might have an hour or two to make something myself instead of buy it from a store where I have no idea what might have been put in it, or where it was made or even when it was made. I like making fresh healthy meals for my family and having control over what we eat. I had some chicken breasts I needed to use and decided I would make greek pitas. Chicken cooked in greek spices and sliced up placed in pitas with a little spinach, feta and homemade tzatziki. Yes. Yum. Well I didn't have any pitas so I wondered how difficult it might be to make some. Oh my goodness gracious, if I knew it was as easy as it was I would have been making these YEARS ago. Not to mention they were DELICIOUS.

I followed this recipe and instructions. I did make a few substitutions though... I used 1 cup of spelt flour and 2 cups of unbleached white. The rest I did the same. I didn't have a pizza stone so I inverted a pan as it suggested. My first pita didn't puff up. The rest did relatively well. I'm not sure what the secret is to getting them to puff, but overall they were so yummy I would have enjoyed them as flatbread anyways!

Homemade Pita bread

Daily Smoothie

If I'm not having oatmeal you can bet your bottom dollar that I'm having this smoothie. In fact, we (the munchkins and I) probably have this 4 of 7 days a week!

Mango Strawberry Smoothie

1 cup frozen Mangos
8 frozen strawberries
1 whole banana
1/2 cup fat free plain greek yogurt
1 cup skim milk
1 cup baby spinach (optional - the color doesn't go over well with the Munchkins, but the taste doesn't change!)

Put everything in blend and blend until smooth. It makes us 2 tall glasses and a little bit leftover for the littlest munchkin, who eats his from a spoon.

Oh and FYI... a good blender is pretty much imperative for smoothie making. I had been using a blender I had for a few years now and it died from daily use. I decided to just cheap out and go get a blender that was on sale for $20. I literally made 2 smoothies with it before it died. Yes it might have been a dud. But I finally decided to 'invest' in a good blender. Holy smokes it's worth every penny. I got the Ninja....

http://www.ninjakitchen.com/

YUMMY no-bake granola bars

I've been struggling with snacks and my dietician on BLC suggested I have a granola bar with a fruit for my afternoon snack. I'm not a fan of store bought granola bars but my Sister in law has gotten me hooked to making my own bars. I researched a bunch of different sites, and a bunch of different recipes and think I found a winner. It's actually  my own concoction. I then plugged the info into sparkpeople's sparkrecipe nutrition calculator and they're only 107 calories. Mind you they aren't huge, but neither are the lunchbox granola bars you get in stores, that are packed full of unnatural crap. 

So here's the recipe:

No Bake Granola Bars

2 cups Whole Grain Crispy Rice Cereal
1.5 cups Quick Oats
1 cup Millet Puffs
3/4 cup Pumpkin Seeds (I didn't end up using sunflower seeds, but you could mix in both just make sure it's a combined 3/4 cups)
1/2 cup Carob Chips
1/2 cup Honey
1/2 cup Almond Butter
1/4 cup Sucanat (not pictured)

Directions:

Mix honey, almond butter and sucanat in a glass measuring cup. Microwave for 1 minute and stir. Set aside.

Mix all remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Once they're all mixed. Line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper.

Heat the honey mixture in microwave for 1 more minute. Mix well. Pour half over dry ingredients. Mix well, then pour remaining. I find this helps to get all of the mixture combined. Once everything seems 'wet', dump in pan. Press down with spoon or metal spatula. This sets fairly quickly so you will need to move fast. Make sure you press down well.

Let it set in fridge for about 1 hour. Cut into rectangles. (10 x 3) Oh and Pumpkin LOVES them! She said she can't wait for tomorrow till she can have another! :)

Servings: 30
1 bar = 1 serving

Nutritional Information courtesy of Spark People.