Roasted Veggie Soup

Yum! Super easy. This really doesn't need to be measured per se, unless you are counting calories.

1 sweet potato (350 grams)
150 grams frozen cauliflower
85 grams frozen carrots
2 cups vegetable broth
cooking spray, salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 400.
Peel and chunk the sweet potato. Place all veggies on a cookie sheet and spritz with cooking spray. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Roast the veggies until they are tender and have a golden brown tinge to the edges. Like this:

Then put the veggies in a blender, add the vegetable broth and puree until smooth. Voila! You have soup. This made about 3 cups of soup for me.

Served with a dollop of Fage yogurt.

Today's Menu

Pretty good on plan day.

Brekkie:
Protein pancakes with blueberries
Cafe au lait

Lunch:
Tuna sandwich on Smart Life wrap
Cucumbers
Banana

Snack:
16 oz skim milk latte

Dinner:
3 oz turkey breast
1 cup steamed broccoli

Snack:
Chocolate mint Luna bar

Today's Menu

Breakfast:
Pumpkin Oatmeal
Cafe au lait

Lunch:
Morningstar Veggie Corn Dog
Cucumber slices
Soy crisps

Snack:
2% latte
2 tsp dark chocolate chips

Dinner:
4 oz turkey breast
strawberries
steamed broccoli

Snack:
Fage 0%
strawberries
honey

Pumpkin Oatmeal

Rich and creamy tasting, and packed with lots of good, healthy stuff!
Pumpkin Oatmeal

Ingredients:

1/2 cup milk (I use 2%)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup (40 grams) rolled oats
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
5 grams protein powder
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
10 grams Craisins, chopped
drizzle of honey

Prepare the oats on the stove top using the milk and water. I added the protein powder with the oatmeal and spices and let them cook together. No lumps, so that was good. When the oats were done cooking, I turned off the heat and stirred in the pumpkin to let it warm through.
Put it into my bowl (which I thought might be too small!), sprinkled with chopped craisins and drizzled with honey.
Yum! This is not a sweet breakfast, so those of you that like that might want to add splenda, stevia or whatever sweetener you use.

Stats with my ingredients.
Calories: 308
Fat: 6
Carbs: 50
Fiber: 10
Protein: 16

Roasted curried cauliflower

This is a super easy side dish to make, and is a nice change from steamed veggies.


Frozen cauliflower (however much you want to make)
Olive oil spray
Curry powder.
S&P (optional)

I used a toaster oven, since had a small amount, but a regular oven is fine. Preheat to 400 degrees.
Spritz the frozen cauliflower with the oil spray. Dust on the curry powder and salt & pepper (if your curry blend doesn't contain). Spread in a single layer on a pan and bake until the edges of the cauliflower brown, stirring halfway through. These little crispy bits give it a great flavor. It will take anywhere from 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the pieces.

I could see cooking up a big batch of this, and then pureeing it with broth to make a curried cauliflower soup!

Today's Menu

Breakfast:

Protein pancakes with blueberries
Cafe au lait (made with 1 cup 2% milk and coffee)


Lunch:
Tuna sandwich (small can of tuna, arnold sandwich thin, light mayo)
2 clementines

Snack:
2% milk latte

Dinner:
5 oz chicken breast pan fried in 1 tsp coconut oil
Steamed broccoli
1/2 banana

Snack:
NS pretzels
tea

Daily stats:
Calories 1279
Fat: 36 g
Carbs: 134 g
Fiber: 26 g
Protein: 111 g

Cottage cheese muffins

Another super versatile recipe.
I tweaked the recipe found at 101 cookbooks (get a cloth to wipe up the drool if you click here).
Makes 4 muffins

1/2 cup cottage cheese (I used 1%)
1 ounce parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1/8 cup wheat flour
1/4 cup almonds flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2-3 sun-dried tomatoes finely chopped (mine were dried that I rehydrated in water)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 400F degrees.
I used 4 large silicone muffin cups for this recipe. You could easily make these minis, but just adjust the baking time.

Reserve a couple tablespoons of the grated cheese. Mix all the other ingredients in a bowl until thoroughly incorporated. Divide evenly into the muffin cups. Sprinkle the remaining parmesan cheese on top of the muffins.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

These are very moist and flavorful. They are almost like mini souffles in taste. I can see doing these with a bit of bacon in place of the tomatoes, or using a combo like rosemary and thyme for herbs. Yum!


Stats using my ingredients:
Per muffin: 143 calories, 6 grams of fat, 13 grams carbs, 2 grams fiber, 10 grams protein.

Toasted cottage cheese sandwich

This was an interesting lunch. I wanted a change from tuna, so I blended together 1 teaspoon of honey, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, and a dash of cinnamon in my bullet blender.

I spread this on an Arnold sandwich thin and popped it under the broiler. I think I could have broiled it longer. It had a good flavor. I think this spread would actually be good cold with apples or something.

Sweet Potato Soup

This soup was very tasty. I used a 450 gram sweet potato, it was pretty big and made a couple cups of soup.

Sweet potato soup

* 2 large sweet potato(es)
* 2 cup canned chicken broth, divided
* 1 Tbsp reduced-calorie margarine
* 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
* 1/4 tsp ground ginger
* 1 cup fat-free evaporated milk
* 1 Tbsp chopped pecans

Instructions

* Pell, then cook the sweet potatoes in a microwave or pressure cooker until soft.

* Combine sweet potatoes and 3/4 cup of broth in a blender or food processor; blend or process until smooth, about 1 minute. Set potato mixture aside.

* Melt margarine in a medium-size saucepan; stir in flour and ginger, and then add milk. Cook, stirring, until slightly thickened and bubbly, about 5 minutes. Cook 1 minute more and then stir in sweet potato mixture and remaining 1 1/4 cups of broth. Cook, stirring, until heated through, about 5 minutes more. Pour into 4 serving bowls and sprinkle each with 3/4 teaspoon of pecans. Yields about 1 cup per serving.