Have you meet the Hunger Monster?

Thought this picture was funny, I might have to buy to put on the fridge.

Have you ever had one of those days while dieting? "Those days," could mean different things to everyone but for me 'those days' are days when you are doing great eating according to plan you are almost done with the day, just a few hours left and bam you screw up. Well yesterday was one of those days. I ate my  baked banana oatmeal for breakfast, yummo! Had some egg salad mushroom cups for lunch which I will share in a few and then 5 o'clock came around and hunger set in bumbumbum (cue the scary music.) Hunger when on a diet is scary, will  you allow the hunger to massacre your entire day of good eating or will you defeat the evil  hunger monster and save your day? I know I should write a movie, sounds like a good plot doesn't it. Well yesterday I allowed the hunger monster to not necessarily massacre the whole day of good eating but he certainly left a scar. So what did I allow the hunger monster to scar me with? About 10 -15 baked multi-grain chips. Damage was about 150 calories. Yes, not awful, will I gain from it? Probably not but I was mad at myself for being so weak in the eyes of the hunger monster because I have been so strong the last 3 1/2 weeks. But I have a choice, beat myself over it or figure our where I went wrong so that next time I will be prepared to defeat him.

So where did I go wrong, how did I become weak yesterday? First off, I failed miserably when it came to drinking my water, I don't think I even got in 50 ounces when I normally try for about 100. Water is your friend when you feel hungry. Second mistake, I went to the grocery store around 5 o'clock and being in a grocery store when you are hungry is a huge no no, it is like kryptonite to Superman, it weakens your powers. Thirdly, I should have had some vegetables packed and along for the ride.

Next time I stare down the face of the hunger monster he better watch out, I will have my water gun locked and loaded. I will not go looking for him when I am weak and if I do, I will have my side kick "Vegi-man" by my side. Watch our hunger monster because the next time we meet and we will, you are going down!

Ok, so we all screw up sometimes, that doesn't mean my whole day was awful. Here is what I had for lunch which was very good and good for you. Very easy to make essentially it is egg salad stuffed into mushroom cups. I don't think I need to tell you how to make egg salad, everyone makes it slightly differently but I will tell you what I put into mine to act as a filler because one egg and one tbsp of mayonnaise doesn't go very far. I chopped up some onion and some cucumber to act as a filler in my salad. I also wanted to add some dill pickle to the salad but didn't want all the salt that came with it so I chose to sprinkle in a little dill weed into the salad along with some black pepper, I would have added mustard too but we were all out. It was a good lunch that was light and refreshing. Definitely something you could take a long for lunch at work or even on a picnic when it gets a little warmer. 

So off I go to face another day. Remember you have the power to defeat the hunger monster if he shows up in your neck of the woods today. 

Baked Banana Oatmeal

This is a good one!! For all of you who work and need to get breakfast in a hurry, this is a great baked oatmeal that can be made on your day off and then eaten through out the week. If you divide it into 6 equal portions, your breakfast is covered for the week. That is unless your family likes it, in that case it won't last that long, not that I am speaking from experience of anything.

So first off let me give credit where credit is due. I found this recipe on a great blog called Budget Bytes and while the recipe looks fabulous it wasn't quite P.I.N.K approved so I set to work PINKifying it. Here is what I came up with.

Baked Banana Oatmeal


2 1/2 cups Old fashion oats
2 cups almond or coconut milk
2 eggs
2 under ripe bananas
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla extract
Stevia to your liking of sweetness

So before we get to making the oatmeal, let's talk a bit about how PINK friendly this is. So the blueprint for PINK Primary tells you, you can eat 1 serving of a low calorie protein and 1 serving of a  slow carb or a slow fruit for breakfast. Here is how I work it out in my mind. My oats are my serving of a slow carb and one serving is a half a cup to which I am putting in 5 servings of oats but getting 6 servings out of the dish so adding in the banana I feel is okay for me to get in that other serving of a slow fruit plus some. I know that I am over on the slow fruit but I hardly eat mine at lunch so I feel fine with it. The same goes with the protein, the milk counts as a protein along with the eggs but 1 cup of milk is a serving of milk and 1 egg is a serving so technically this recipe has 4 servings of protein but again will make six servings.

Argue with me if you want that I am not following the PINK eating method to a T. For me I feel it is fine, make your decision based on your needs. Also on PINK we don't count calories but I am always interested and keep a little mental running tally of what I eat through out the day, albeit imperfect I know. So here is how I figured out the calories/nutritional content. Keep in mind the recipe list the total ingredients, the tool I used takes the total calories divides it by the number of servings to come up with the calories listed. No 2 1/2 cups of oats is not 125 calories, it is more like 750 calories but divided by 6 is 125, you get how I came to the calories? If anyone is interested I use the calorie count website, under new recipes you can put your ingredients and it will analyze it for you. Pretty cool huh?

(per serving)

Cals

Gr.

2 1/2 cups old

 fashioned oats

125

A

2

cups

 unsweetened

 vanilla almond breeze

13

A

2

eggs

21

B+

2

bananas

35

A

1/2 

tsp

baking powder

0

B+

1/2 

tspbaking soda

0

1/2

tsp

cinnamon

0

A-

 

1/2

tsp pumpkin pie spice

0

B+

1

tsp

 vanilla extract

2

B

1

stevia

0

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 169 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories  198 Calories from Fat  46

% Daily Value*

Total Fat  5.1g 8%

Saturated Fat  0.9g 5%

Trans Fat  0.0g

Cholesterol  62mg 21%

Sodium  185mg 8%

Total Carbohydrates  32.8g 11%

Dietary Fiber  4.8g 19%

Sugars  5.0g

Protein  6.8g

Vitamin A 5% • Vitamin C 6% Calcium 10% • Iron 12%

Nutrition Grade B-

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

How to make baked oatmeal

Mash your bananas

Add your egg, vanilla extract, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt to the mashed banana and stir to incorporate.

Whisk in your almond or coconut milk, I used unsweetened almond milk.

Add your oats and stir to incorporate.

Pour into a glass 8 x 8 pan that has been sprayed with a little oil

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Divide your baked oatmeal up into 6 equal servings and know that you are set for the week when it comes to breakfast.

Strawberry Chia Jam (sugar free)

I woke up this morning and decided to have have scrambled egg whites with assorted vegetables, (onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, zuchini, and bell peppers) with a slice of sprouted grain bread. I toasted the bread and when it came out of the toaster I thought, what am I going to put on my toast, butter, peanut butter and jam were all out, they are no no's in the primary phase of P.I.N.K So I set out to make a quick strawberry jam. I ended up just smashing a couple strawberries with a bit of stevia and spreading it on my toast. It tasted good but that "jam" was a little watery.

As I ate my toast, I kept thinking about ways in which I could thicken the strawberries to make it more jam like. I remembered reading about chia seeds a while back and how they were a natural thickener that were considered a super food, 1 tbsp contains 1/4 of your daily fiber, and they are jam packed with omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. What is odd about them is that they absorb 7 to 8 times their weight in water and the seeds turn sort of gelatinous when they soak in water for about 30 minutes. I thought it might be the perfect thickening agent for my "jam" and while doing my grocery shopping today I picked some up and was pleased with the outcome of my jam. By the way, one of the main ways people used this seed is added to smoothies or mixed into oatmeal, I may try adding some to my PINK drink tomorrow because they are so packed with fiber, it should help me feel fuller longer. We will see and I will let you know what I think.

Strawberry Chia Jam
1 cup strawberries
1/2 cup water
stevia (optional, to taste)
1 to 2 tbsps. of chia seeds

Preparation

Put the strawberries, water, and stevia into a blender and puree but leave some chunks, this is a jam after all, not a jelly. I pureed mine a little to much.

Sprinkle the chia seeds onto the strawberry puree and stir to combine.

Let the strawberry and chia seed mixture sit for about 30 minutes so that they seeds absorb some of the liquid and thicken.

Store the "jam" in a container in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.

Enjoy!!  

Quinoa Primavera adapted for P.I.N.K

Have you tired quinoa? I hadn't either until the other day when a friend of mine "pinned" a recipe for quinoa primavera on Pinterest that looked really good. Have you tried Pinterest? It is like a virtual bulletin board where you can catalog anything you see on the web and want to be able to find again, it is so cool but be careful if you try it, it can be addictive.  Back to the quinoa. The original recipe with can be found here called for a few things that aren't PINK approved like the cream cheese, butter or the parmesan cheese so I decided to take them out and scale down the size of the recipe so that it only made 2 servings since I was only cooking for myself that night, the rest of the family was enjoying take out Chinese and I chose not to indulge.

Quinoa is an ancient grain used by native Indians and was considered a sacred food with Incas. It is actually not a grain however, it is considered a seed that is high in protein and delivers many other nutrients. The flavor when cooked is a little nutty but the texture is sort of creamy with a little crunch. Quinoa is an approved slow carbohydrate during the primary phase of the P.I.N.K Method and 1/2 cup cooked is considered a serving. Enough with background, let's get to the recipe because it was really good!

Quinoa Primavera
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa (when cooked this will end being about 1 cup or enough for two servings)
2 cup chicken broth, (should be homemade but I will admit I used an organic low sodium stock)
1 1/2 cup of chopped assorted vegetables (I used onions, carrots, zucchini, broccoli and cauliflower)
1 tbsp of olive oil

Start by cooking the quinoa in the chicken broth just as you would rice. When it is done, it will soften and the grain will pop open slightly. It will take about 15 to 20 minutes.

While the quinoa is cooking, chop your vegetables into small pieces and saute in the olive oil.

When the quinoa is cooked add it to your sauteed vegetables and stir to combine.

This ready to eat...add your serving of protein and a side of vegetables and your meal is done. I had chicken sauteed with a little balsamic vinegar and some spices, it was really good. Let me know if you try this and how you liked it. I know I loved quinoa and I am going to try it next for breakfast as a hot cereal.