Blended Spelt Berries

Got up for my new workouts today with New Rules of Lifting for Women.  Preworkout snack was a Chai Luna bar.  These are my very favorite Luna bar!

After I got back, I made some pumpkin spelt berries based on a technique by Chocolate Covered Katie.  I cooked the spelt berries yesterday, so this was a snap to make this morning.  Faster than oatmeal!

Into the large cup on my magic bullet blender:

1/4 cup spelt berries, cooked (this makes probably 1/2 to 3/4 cup cooked).

1 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 to 1/3 cup water

1/2 cup canned pumpkin.

 

Blended away and got a nice creamy bowl.  I popped the blender container into the microwave to heat it up before pouring into my bowl (love the bullet blender for this!).

This is really an interesting and different breakfast.  I think I might try making it with milk instead of water for extra creaminess, but I just wanted to save my milk for cafe au lait!

Relaxing Saturday

I decided to sleep in a little and go to the gym later today instead before breakfast.  Plus – we are riding bikes today, it’s going to be in the 60s!

Breakfast was pumpkin oats topped with chai marmalade and pecan butter.  Why did no one tell me pecan butter was sooooo good?  This was the easiest nut butter to make, I think because the nuts are already somewhat soft.  It’s a more runny butter, so it didn’t need any oil added to it.

Plus cafe au lait!

Decadent Oats

Breakfast was sooo good this morning.

I cooked the oats with 1/2 of a mashed banana and cinnamon. Topped with 2 tsp of natural peanut butter and some dark chocolate chips. The pb and chips melted into the oatmeal and created this wonderful sauce on top of the oats. YUM!!



With cafe au lait on the side.

Pumpkin Oats

Got up and went to the Y this morning. 1/2 hour on treadmill, then 1/2 hour on the recumbent bike. Nice workout and the last one for the week!

Decided I need to keep the protein in my oats, this week I left it out - but it's back today!


The mix:
1/2 cup oats cooked with 15 grams protein powder, 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice.
1/2 cup pumpkin stirred in when done and topped with a spoonful of homemade cranberry sauce and 10 grams of pecans. Yum!
It's about a 300 calorie bowl with all the toppings.

Hooray for pancakes!

Been out of eggs for most of the week, so I haven’t had these babies since Monday!

Did a 200 yard swim, then a 35 minute interval run, so I came back starving.

Paired with cafe au lait.  Yum!

Post Y brekkie

With my new work schedule of Sun-Thurs, today is my Saturday!  Got up early (as per usual) and went to the Y to workout.

We are out of eggs, so I had oats for breakfast!

Today’s bowl: 

40 grams oats

15 grams brown rice protein powder

pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp brown sugar

Topped with toasted coconut, a spoon of chai marmalade and spelt berries.

Bagel day!

Working backwards here:

Went grocery shopping after breakfast, so all stocked up on produce, yogurt and yummy stuff.

Lunch was Fage mixed with honey, strawberries and Grapenuts! I love the crunchy, sweet, creamy mix.

Breakfast at Panera Bread.  I decided on a different bagel today.  Chocolate chip!  It was really good.

Look at all those chips!

And hazelnut coffee.

No worries, I already did 30 minutes of aerobics today!

Banana oats

This bowl of oats was sooooo good this morning!  I was salivating while taking the picture.

The mix:

1/2 cup oats, 1 small banana (mashed), 1/4 cup pumpkin, cinnamon – all cooked together.

Topped with 2 tsp natural peanut butter and a dusting of unsweetened coconut.   Yum!!  About 300 calories for the bowl, which will last me all morning.

 

And never forget the cafe au lait!

Snowy Oatmeal

This was the view out my kitchen window today:


The perfect setting for this bowl of warm pumpkin oats.

1/2 cup oats
15 grams brown rice protein
1 tsp brown sugar
pumpkin pie spice
Topped with spelt berries and toasted almonds.

Pancakes 2 ways

We both had pancakes for breakfast. Mine were the standard ones I do every other day. These babies pack 31 grams of protein and 9 grams of fiber including the blueberries! Awesome!


John's pancakes were made from Arrowhead Mills Buckwheat pancake mix, to which he added cocoa powder, instant coffee, protein powder and sprinkled with toasted coconut. He said they needed more cocoa powder LOL!

Cottage cheese oats

Okay, new oatmeal recipe!
Normally I do protein powder in my oats, but I accidentally bought a large container of cottage cheese at the grocery store last week, so I am looking for ways to use it up without eating it plain (I have a texture issue with it). I have seen other people add it to oats, so I figured "Why not?".

The mix:
40 grams of oats (1/2 cup)
1 cup water
pumpkin pie spice
pinch salt
1/4 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup pumpkin
1 tbsp spelt berries
dollop of chai marmalade

I cooked the oats in the water, then when they were just about done, I added the cottage cheese. I didn't expect it to melt in, but it did and made the oats smooth and creamy. Then stirred in the pumpkin and topped with spelt berries and marmalade.

And, served with cafe au lait, as always.

Blintz breakfast

Totally new breakfast for me today. I found some cheese blintzes at the store in the frozen food section yesterday:


Here they are topped with my fabulousblueberry sauce



They are really good, and a nice change up. 2 grams of fat and 6 grams of protein in each blintz, with 80 calories each. Hope this brekkie lasts, as it is about 100 calories less than my usual breakfasts.

Banana coconut oats.

Yummy, yummy brekkie this morning!
1/2 cup of oats cooked with 1/2 of a mashed banana and cinnamon. After cooking, I topped it with 1 tbsp toasted coconut, 2 tsp of natty peanut butter and a sprinkling of spelt berries. I could hardly wait to eat it!

Fresh produce eats!

I love the first couple of days after grocery shopping!
Breakfast was pumpkin oats, minus protein powder - as we are out and it's on order (the brown rice powder). Topped with spelt berries and toasted pecans.

Mid morning snack on a break from training at my new job.

Lunch was more blueberries!! Plus a quick curry salad of cooked chicken breast, curry powder, light mayo and 8 red grapes chopped up. Served with Special K crackers.

Ricotta pancakes

Normally, my protein pancakes have cottage cheese in them. I'm out, so I decided to sub ricotta cheese instead.

1/4 cup part skim ricotta cheese
1/3 cup rolled oats
1 whole egg
13 grams protein powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
dash of cinnamon
dash of vanilla
Blend all ingredients together in a blender until smooth. Then cook as you would normal pancakes.



Topped with the standard blueberry sauce:
1 cup of frozen blueberries (I like Wymans wild blueberries)
1 tsp of cornstarch
1 tbsp of cold water.
Heat the frozen blueberries in a small saucepan over medium heat until hot and just simmering. There will be juice in the bottom of the pan. Don't boil them! In a small bowl mix the cold water and cornstarch. Add to the pan and stir until the mixture thickens up - about 30 seconds.



I think I prefer the cottage cheese, these pancakes were a little more dense and a touch drier. Very mild in taste, though. It does give me 40 more calories and 7 grams less of protein doing it this way than the normal way, but it was a fun experiment!

Sunny colors for lunch!

Even though today is cloudy, my lunch was very sunny, everything from the yellow side of the color spectrum! Egg salad on buttermilk wheat bread, plus some reduced fat cheese on the side. One egg doesn't give me enough protein, so I wanted to supplement. Plus I loves me some cheese! And the ever present clementines. I'll be sad when the season is over!



This morning's oats were the typical pumpkin oats, but I have a new fun topping: Chai Marmalade! From Bittersweet Herb Farm. It is really yummy.


Usually I have a tsp of brown sugar in my oats, but the marmalade was a nice change. It sort of melted on top and then I stirred it in. Topped with wheat berries and some toasted pecans.

Sunny breakfast

The sun is shining so bright this morning! Too bad it was minus 9 when I got up!! Eeek! Supposed to be in the 40s on Sunday, though. Come on Spring!

Today's oats were the usual pumpkin oats, but topped with peanut butter today:


Not sure I liked the peanut butter on the pumpkin oats all that much. I love it on the banana oats, but I needed some fat in this bowl, and didn't feel like pulling nuts out of the freezer - so I went with the pb. I am loving the wheat berries, though. Nummy! I'm so glad I found them!
Cafe au lait on the side!

Banana Oatmeal

I wanted a change up from my usual pumpkin oats. Hannaford had a sale on ripe bananas the other day - I got 2 pounds of bananas for 40 cents! So I just threw those into the freezer.

Decided to make oatmeal with one today:


40 grams of rolled oats (1/2 cup)
1/2 of a ripe banana
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup water
pinch of salt.
Boil the water and all all ingredients. Turn heat low medium low and cook, stirring to incorporate the banana. The ripe banana will kind of melt into the oatmeal.

Add-ins today:

13 grams protein powder
2 tbsp wheatberries
1 tsp natural peanut butter
5 dark chocolate chips, just for fun!

Total calories approx 350

Low fat, high protein muffins

Here is a versatile recipe concocted by John. These make big jumbo muffins, like the size you get at Dunkin Donuts! Only a lot less calories!


3/4 c. white flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. oat fiber (or replace this with more wheat flour)
2 scoops designer whey protein powder (natural)
3/4 c. sugar
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
optional: 1/2 t. cinnamon and 1/2 t. nutmeg

1 c. milk
1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
1/2 c. liquid egg whites (or 3 real egg whites)

Add in Options
1 c. blueberries, chocolate chips, or whatever your heart desires

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl, and mix liquid ingredients in a separate bowl. Pour liquids into dry and gently fold together until mostly mixed. Then fold in blueberries (or substitute). Spoon into 12 standard muffin cups or 6 jumbo muffin cups. Bake at 400 for 20 mins (std.) or 28 mins (jumbo) or until golden brown.

Nutritional info of basic muffin:

Cal: 260
Fat: 1 gram
Carbs: 37 grams
Fiber: 7 grams
Protein: 14 grams

Calculate for any Optional items. Adding the blueberries adds only about 20 calories per muffin! Compared to Dunkin Donuts reduced fat blueberry muffin at 400 calories!

* Note, the oat fiber only adds about 5 calories, so if you sub with wheat flour, adjust your calorie count for it.

Pumpkin Cream of Wheat - Giant Breakfast!

Today's breakfast ended up way bigger than I thought it would be! I decided on Cream of Wheat for a change. So, I took a cue from Monday's nutty nugget oatmeal and combined:

1/4 cup Nutty Nuggets (store brand GrapeNuts)
3 tablespoons slow cook Cream of Wheat
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp brown sugar
1 1/2 cups water

After cooking, I stirred in
13 grams of Designer Whey unflavored protein powder
1/2 cup canned pumpkin

Topped with:
9 grams of toasted pecans
dollop of homemade cranberry sauce.

The bowl was huge and incredibly filling. Served with my usual cafe au lait and brekkie weighed in at a little over 500 calories, which is a bit more than usual. Normally I do around 400-430.
Definitely was an interesting twist, as the cream of wheat is much creamier (duh) than the oatmeal. And I am liking the wheaty taste of the Nutty Nuggets.