K is for Kale

I have recently grown to love kale.  There are soooooo many health benefits to kale! Here's the list of vitamins and minerals in 1 cup of raw kale:

Vitamin A - 133%
Calcium - 10%
Vitamin C - 134%
Iron - 5%
Vitamin B-6 - 10%
Magnesium - 7%



Plus, there's only 33 calories and almost 3 grams of protein.  

To most people oatmeal is a breakfast food.  Probably because when people think oatmeal, they think sweet, and packed full of sugar.  In my eyes, it's just like every other grain.  Hell, if you can make rice into pudding, then you can make oatmeal for dinner!  When I told Ken and Kaylee about my dinner plan they both wrinkled their noses and were not too happy about it.  [Funny thing is, the dinner I made them ended up messing up.  If they hadn't been grossed out by my idea they would have had a lovely dinner]  

I personally used Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Hot Cereal.  Any oatmeal will work though.  This recipe is super simple and is quite customizable to your taste.

Kale Oatmeal




Ingredients
1 medium onion, diced
8 oz mushrooms, chopped
4 cups kale
4 servings of oatmeal 
enough vegetable broth to make your oatmeal (according to package directions)

Directions

1. Saute onions and mushrooms
2. Add vegetable stock and kale, simmer 20 minutes until the kale is soft
3. Prepare the oatmeal according to package directions
4. Stir kale mixture into oatmeal or spoon oatmeal into bowls then top with vegetables.

How do you feel about oatmeal?  Is it a breakfast only food or can you replace dinner grains with it? 

Take 2.....Just as Delicious as the First

Doesn't that look yummy? Like a big piece of french toast.  

A normal slice of bread pudding has around 300 calories and 10 grams of fat depending on the flavorings.What if I told you that the bread pudding I made tonite had Under 100 calories and .7 grams of fat?  That's cutting out 66% of the calories and 90% of the fat!  

It was still creamy, rich and a bit crunchy.  Reminiscent of french toast.  After the success of the savory one on Sunday I decided to give a sweet one a go.  You can top this one with additional berries, syrup, powdered sugar, melted jam/jelly,   chocolate syrup, or even melted peanut butter.  This could also double as a dessert, just top it with some whipped cream.

Mixed Berry Bread Pudding
20 servings (2 personally filled me up)
Calories: 86
Fat: 0.7 grams
Carbs: 15.9 grams
Sugar: 5.7 grams
Protein: 6.23 grams

Ingredients
1 loaf reduced calorie wheat bread
1.5 c egg substitute (6 eggs)
4 c skim milk
2 T sugar 
1 c sliced strawberries
1 c blackberries
.25 c blueberries
1 c raspberries

Directions 

1. Cube bread
2. Whisk together egg substitute, milk and sugar
3. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with pan spray
4. Put half of the bread in the dish
5. Sprinkle half of the berries on top of the bread.  Do another layer of bread then finish off with the berries
6. Pour milk mix ontop and make sure that all the bread is wet
7. Put in the fridge for atleast an hour or overnight (I actually did it last nite)
8. Take out of the fridge 30 minutes before you plan on baking it (this will prevent the dish from shattering in the oven)
9. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes (60 minutes covered 15 minutes uncovered).  If the top isn't brown enough for you then turn on your broiler and broil until brown (I put my broiler on high and leave the pan on the lower rack)

 I think this is going to be a new revolving recipe in the house.  There are so many variations I want to try to this.  Cocoa powder, different fruits, the possibilities are endless!  

What do you think would be good in a bread pudding?  

Veggies Invade My Breakfast

I took a big risk on this recipe.  This was either going to be a dinner that the girls would love or hate.  Luckily they loved it.  I edited a recipe for bread pudding and made it lighter and healthier. I threw a bunch of leftovers in it.  According to Kaylee it tasted like veggie burgers.  Which I could totally understand.  It kind of does have a burger-y type taste.  Kaylee is one of the main reasons I made this.  She's been bugging me for bread pudding for a while now.  I decided to start off with a savory one.  She loves stuffing and this is basically a stuffing with milk instead of vegetable broth.  This type of recipe is really versatile.  You can throw in whatever you have on hand.  Squash?  SURE!  Mushrooms?  Onions?  Spinach?  Yes, yes and yes. 

Almost Fat Free Strata
Serves 5 (Mine was cut into 15 pieces so that's 3 pieces per person each slice has 75 calories and 0.3 grams of fat )
Calories: 222
Fat: 0.8 gram
Protein: 23.5 grams

10 slices of reduced calorie whole wheat bread, cubed
1 medium onion, diced (about 1 cup)
6 medium mushroom diced, (2 cups)
10 baby carrots, sliced paper thin
1/2 of a butternut squash
1 1/4 c egg substitute (approx 6 eggs)
1 1/2 c skim milk
1 cup fat free mozzarella
1/4 c fat free feta
1/2 c lima beans
1/4 cup soy crumbles

Directions

1. Sautee mushrooms, onions, and carrots until soft.  At the end add the squash, soy crumbles and lima beans until warm, cool slightly
2. In a separate bowl whisk together egg substitute, milk, and cheeses.
3. Spray a 13 x 9 pan and put the bread half the bread evenly along the bottom
4. Spread vegetable mixture, and ontop of that the rest of the bread
5. Pour egg, milk and cheese over the bread and vegetables.  Press down to make sure that all the bread soaks up some liquid.  Put in the fridge for atleast 2 hours.  
6. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. 

What vegetables would/do you put in your strata?

Pannuts and Puffins and Huevos Rancheros

OH MY!

Pannut -- (noun) Pancake batter baked in a donut maker

Puffin -- (noun) Pancake batter baked in a muffin tin

Huevos Rancheros -- (noun) a super yummy breakfast dish


This month I had originally made a menu made up completely of breakfast foods.  I realized after making it that the hubby wouldn't be too happy with it so, I just added a few extra BFD (breakfast for dinner) meals to the menu on nights he works.  Saturday was one of our added BFD nites.  When I asked the girls if they had any suggestions Mantha instantly piped up with "Donuts!  But not the normal kind, a healthy version."  So I set to work figuring it out.  I remembered seeing a recipe for Bisquick muffins before and then I realized that I could make donuts out of a pancake batter.  

Perfect dinner for a girl who won her first soccer game today right?  Yep that's right, Kaylee's team won their very first game of the season 2-0!  

Don't these look yummy?  And even though they aren't fat free the calories aren't through the roof.  You could make them healthier by substituting the whole eggs for either egg whites or egg substitute.  If you can find fat free pancake batter these can easily be made fat free.  (Krusteaz and a few other companies make a fat free mix)

 Sunny decided she needed to make her presence known in my last photo.  That one is the Dark Chocolate Dream filled Puffin.  Puffins are on the top and the Pannuts are on  the left. 

Puffin and Pannut Recipe

Ingredients
2 cups Bisquick
2 eggs
1 cup skim milk
1 T sugar
juice of 1/2 an orange
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Mix together Bisquick, sugar, and baking powder.
2. Whisk in wet ingrediets (eggs, milk, orange juice and vanilla)
3. For Puffin preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a muffin pan.  Fill each cup 2/3 full and bake for 25 minutes until golden brown.
4. For Pannuts preheat and spray you doughnut maker (I have a Sunbeam donut maker and I love it)  fill each cavity and bake for about 5-7 minutes.  Repeat until batter is gone.

If you want to add mix-ins into your puffins or pannuts then feel free and have fun.  I used craisins, blueberries, strawberries, cinnamon sugar, peanut butter, and Peanut Butter & Co Dark Chocolate Dream.  The possibilities are endless!  

Tonite was another BFD nite.  This time it was Huevos Rancheros.  I combined a few recipes to get a perfect one.

The top photo is my fat free one (I only used half a tortilla in order to save a few calories), and the other two are the girls with a normal sunny side up egg.  Don't they look good?  Kaylee wasn't a big fan of it but Mantha and I loved it.  


Huevos Rancheros

Ingredients
4 fat free tortillas
2 onions, minced
2 tomatoes, minced
Pickled Jalapenos (to taste), chopped fine
1-2 cups egg substitute (equivalent to 4-8 eggs) [you can use either the yellow kind or all whites]
1/2 cup shredded lettuce
1/2 cup shredded fat free cheese
1 can of black beans (I only had kidney so that's what I used)

Directions

1. Spray and heat a medium skillet on high.  Saute onions until slightly soft (about 2 minutes) add in tomatoes and jalapenos and cook for a bit longer.  If you need to add a bit of water to the pan to keep things from sticking.  Set aside when done.
2. In a separate bowl put the beans and mash with a fork.  If they are too gummy you can add a bit of water.
3. Spray a skillet with non-stick spray and heat each side of the tortillas one at a time until brown and bubbly
4. Cook the eggs.  (Standard Huevos Rancheros is done with sunny side up eggs so, if you aren't watching you fat, feel free to use normal eggs)
5. To put them together place a tortilla on the plate, spread beans on the tortillas, add eggs, then top with the salsa.  

The tomatoes and onions can be substituted for jarred salsa.  I actually used both.  

I made extra eggs so the girls could make themselves burritos also.

That Swagger...

Wow, we've already finished a whole month of 2013!  It seems like time has just flown by!  I am honestly excited for this year.  I have so many plans and big dreams for this year.  It pumps me up to see what the rest of the year holds in store.

Today I noticed something as I was walking out of the gym.  I walk differently.  No, it's not because my legs feel like jelly (even though they do half the time.)  It's a swagger.  

I very rarely have a swagger.  It's completely an "I'm-awesome-and-I-bet-you-can't-do-what-I-just-did" confident swagger.  It feels great to have visible confidence.  I'm the girl that normally walks with her head down, doesn't make eye contact and rarely starts a conversation with a stranger.

But, after the gym, I'm a big dog (in my own head.)  I will answer any question, and look you dead in the eye.  The best thing that comes with my swagger??  I feel damn sexy.

You want to know what makes me feel not sexy after a workout?  The reason I have a waddle rather than a swagger?  Waffles.  Yes, waffles.  Syrup is my major kryptonite.  I love it.  Honestly, I put it on everything.  It sweetens my morning oatmeal.  Before I discovered Stevia I used syrup to sweeten my coffee.  Half the reason I make breakfast for dinner is because of syrup. 

I made 4 different kinds of waffles tonite.  Plain, pumpkin, blueberry, peanut butter, and chocolate chip.  All of them were fat free and they were all delicious.  The girls know that I will always make them 1...just 1 chocolate chip waffle (or pancake.)  That's all I will ever make.

I adapted this recipe from  Vegan Waffle Party
If you want to make it a bit healthier then switch some of the white flour for whole wheat.  You can make it a 50/50 split if you'd like 2 1/2 whole wheat and 2 1/2 white flour.

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 4 cups white flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 c vanilla yogurt
• 4 1/2 cups fat free soy milk
• 6 T sugar free maple syrup

Directions

1. Mix whole wheat flour, white flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a mixing bowl.
2. In a separate bowl mix yogurt, soy milk, and syrup
3. Mix wet ingredients into dry
4. Heat your waffle iron, spray with pan spray and cook waffles according to manufacturers directions.

Variations

Pumpkin

Measure out about 1 cup of batter and stir in 1/4 cup of pureed pumpkin, a dash of pumpkin pie spice and a tablespoon of syrup

Chocolate chip

Sprinkle a small handful of chocolate chips onto the batter when you get it in waffle iron.

Blueberry

Mix in 1/4 cup of blueberries per 1 cup of batter

Peanut butter

Measure out 1/2 cup of batter and stir in one tablespoon of PB2.

Each plain waffle has about 175 calories.  Not bad unless you're like me and eat 3.5 in one sitting!! 

What do you like to add to your waffles? 

Triple F...Fat Free Frittata

Tonite's dinner was quick and simple.  I looked in the fridge and couldn't find anything to make a full "meal".  [I've never been good at that.  Mr. Amazing can look into the fridge and find 40 different meals, I see nothing...]  I did see 4 containers of egg substitute and the new oven-safe skillet that Baye gave Mr. Amazing for Christmas (so he could "cook good food" for her) 

I have been wanting to try making a frittata for forever and I finally had to tool to make it.  But, I had 6 people to feed.  A 12 inch skillet wouldn't be big enough.  I searched online and found out how to make a frittata in a casserole dish.  (Why couldn't I have found it MONTHS ago??)

It was perfect.  I served it with baked potatoes and Green Goddess muffins from Happy Herbivore.  I added a grated zucchini and substituted the applesauce for mashed carrots.  They were awesome.  Next time I'll remember to get a photo before they all disappear. 

Fat Free Frittata

Ingredients
3 cup egg substitute (I used a combination of egg whites and egg substitute)
24 oz mushrooms, sliced and sauteed with 1 T minced garlic
1 medium onion, diced and sauteed with 1 T minced garlic
Splash of skim milk
1/2 cup of shredded fat free cheddar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Line a 9x13 casserole dish with parchement and spray it with non-stick spray
3. Put the mushrooms in the bottom, completely covering the bottom of the pan
4. Scatter the onions around on top, and then sprinkle 1/4 cup of cheddar on top of that
5. Pour the egg into the casserole dish 
6. Top with remaining cheese
7. Bake for 45-50 minutes until the egg is set

Next time I make it  I'll try to remember to get a good picture of it.  So next time you look in your fridge and only find a bunch of eggs and some veggies, make it into a frittata!

Sunday Post

(Don't you love my post title?  I couldn't think of anything witty, smart or even post related for the title.  So this is what my frazzled, 6 AM, essay writing brain came up with)

Is there any meal that you could eat 3x a day every day?

For me that meal is breakfast.  (The picture gave it away didn't it?)  I love it.  I love all breakfast foods (except grits...YUCK!) Okay, I can't lie, I love 95.7% of all breakfast foods.  I know that there are probably other ones that are gross that I can't think of at the moment.  I could honestly eat  breakfast foods 5 day a week, 3 meals a day.  I'm quirky though.  I don't like a big breakfast in the morning. All I want at breakfast time is something simple like oatmeal, or cereal and fruit.

The girls and I eat BFD (Breakfast For Dinner) at least a few times a month.  There's actually part of me that is considering doing a Christmas BFD.  But the family's a bit traditional when it comes to holiday dinners so that idea is going to be saved for a different day. 

I actually broke out the waffle iron last nite.  I VERY VERY rarely use it.  It cost me $7 at Target.  I put in a good word with Kay that if she wants waffles more often a new waffle iron would be a good thing for me to find under the Christmas tree.   

I made pumpkin waffles (which were a HUGE hit), blueberry waffles and chocolate chip waffles.  Because of my scatterbrainedness I completely forgot to get pictures.  Heck, if I wasn't so passionate about breakfast this post possibly wouldn't have happened (and I'm avoiding writing a paper.) 

Here's the pumpkin waffle recipe:Organic Gardening
And the blueberry: 8th Continent Blueberry Waffle Recipe  
[Note:  I actually used this recipe for both the blueberry and the chocolate chip ones.  Before I added the blueberries I split the batter in half and added blueberries in one and chocolate chips in the other.] 

Try them and tell me what you think!  Tomorrow I'll bring you a photo collage on what I eat at Mongolian Barbecue restaurants.  

DIY Workout Shirt

First off, I made an awesome dinner!  It was an omelet (the girls wanted breakfast for dinner.)  I added in sautéed mushrooms, onions, green peppers and leftover salmon.  It was AMAZING!

Now back to my regularly scheduled blog post LOL

I’m crafty!...Kinda.  I actually am rather bad at crafts.  I’m an amazing photographer (not that you can tell by my recent photos, but, just wait until I get my DSLR fixed) but, not crafty.  My crafts look like Kay or Mo did them.  Kind of embarrassing but true. 

                Today started off great.  When I stepped on the scale I was 1.4 pounds lighter.  I actually ate blueberries instead of the sweets that were cluttering my counters.  At 6 this morning I got bored and decided to make this,

I got the instructions from Vita Dolce

It’s really simple. 

11)       Fold shirt in ½ {make sure to match up the seams}

22)      Cut off sleeves and neck

33)      Cut off the bottom (I didn’t dye mine so I shortened it)

44)      Use a strip you cut off the sleeve to tie the back together.

And you’re done!!  Quick, simple and easy. 

I actually bought the shirt at Goodwill planning on making this shirt from The Clumsy Coquette.  I ended up completely messing up the original shirt so I searched for an easier one. 

You should try it and tell me how well yours went.  Hopefully better than mine.