Food and Exercise log: 1-8-15

The ONLY thing I enjoy about waking up at 4:45AM on a day that is registering temps of -30 wind-chills??? An empty gym!

 4:45 AM: NO Explode and oatmeal protein bar (homemade, see my recipe HERE)

 Today was chest-triceps day with a short HIIT session on the stair climber.
 Chest press warm-up: 50# 3 sets of 15 reps
 Chest cable fly: 20# each side 3 sets of 12 reps, one set to failure
chest cable crossover, lower chest: 15# each side, 3 sets 12 reps t
ricep rope: 25#, 3 sets of 12, one to failure
close grip bench press: 40#, 3 sets, 12 reps
Overhead tricep press with 25# weight:  3 sets of 12
Then the stair-beast for 20 minutes of running 1 minute and walking 1 minute up the stairs

Today's meals:

Meal 1: 6:30AM
3 egg whites, 1 corn tortilla, veggies (green pepper, spinach, onion) 1oz of 2% milk cheddar, 1 tbs of organic salsa

Meal 2:  PB2 and pretzels

Meal 3:  1/4 cup (uncooked measurement) quinoa, 6 oz of chicken breast grilled, 2 tbs of pesto sauce (I used and like the sauce from Aldi's!), and 2 cups of spinach

Meal 4:  Green peppers, hummus, and a bag of Quest protein chips

Meal 5:  Hamburger made with 96% lean beef (4 oz) on a sandwich thin, 1 oz of goat cheese, and 2 cups of mixed veggies.

Meal 6:  Fruit and casien shake

HOLD THE PHONE!!! Has it been more than 3 years since my last post?!

So much has changed over the last three years and I am ready to once again channel my inner healthy cooking goddess! First to catch you up quickly, shortly after my last post I divorced and moved and I am happy as can be, have a new great love in my life, Daniel, and the kids are my everything! On that note, I am happy to report that I have maintained my weight loss these last 5+ years and I look forward to making some changes in my body over the next few months as I focus more on nutrition to tighten things up for the summer and a possible late winter vacation. I hope you are all still following me! I look forward to your feedback on some of my new recipes coming soon!

Tortilla Basa and some clean tips

I do most of my meal prep on Sundays. When I tell people this, I think that they picture me in the kitchen for hours and hours making 7 days worth of meals. In reality, this process takes about 2 hours. Here is how to do it;

1. Make your grocery list and stick to it. Most of your shopping should take place around the perimeter of the store and not down the aisles, which saves lots of time!

2. Part of my prep process is cleaning and chopping veggies for the week. Label your storage bags and keep in the refrigerator what you will use for the next 2 days. Freeze the rest. Most vegetables freeze very nicely.

3. Cook enough meat (protein) to last you 2-3 days. Keep single or double servings of protein in freezer bags readily accessible for the remainder of the week. An electric grill (like the George Foreman) is great for cooking meat quickly.

4. Like oatmeal? Skip the processed/flavored crap and go for the Steel Cut Oats. Make enough for a few days in the crock pot on Sunday. Add fresh or frozen fruit and a package of Truvia to each serving before you heat it up.

5. I usually make one tray of protein bars to last for the week. Keep them refrigerated!

6. Pick 1 or 2 starches for the week and make enough on Sunday. I cook quinoa in bulk and also cook 1 pound of pasta at a time. Divide it into single servings to quickly grab and go.

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Tortilla Basa

Preheat oven to 400
4oz basa fillet
1/2 tsp Williams-Sonoma Chili Lime seasoning (Or Mrs. Dash of your choice)

Cook basa for 10 minutes or until it flakes. Cube it and add it to the following;

In a fry pan;
1/4 cup red onion
1/4 cup of cooked black beans
1 tbs of lime juice
1/4 cup red salsa
1 tsp of Cholula hot sauce
1/4 cup of sweet peppers (I use a frozen, prechopped tri color blend from Trader joes)
1/8 cup chopped jalepenos
1 corn tortilla, cut into strips

Cook on stove top over medium heat for about 7 minutes. Plate and eat.

I should mention that the veggies were prepped on Sunday and the fish was cooked on Sunday. All I needed to do today was throw it in the pan and heat it through for 7 minutes. Quick, healthy lunch!

Key Lime Cheesecake protein bars

I really made an effort to change the consistency of my bars with this recipe. I wanted to make them less dry and cake-like and more like a dessert. It worked, but I did need to use Splenda Brown Sugar blend.



Preheat oven to 350

Crust:
8 sugar free wholegrain graham crackers crushed fine(found in health food stores)
1/8 cup of melted vegan butter (or regular butter)

press into the bottom of an ungreased glass baking dish, 9x13

Mix all dry ingredients;
3/4 cup of steel cut oat flour
1/4 cup of oat fiber
1/2 cup of Splenda brown sugar blend
8 packets of Truvia
1 package sugar free/fat free lime gelatin
1 package of sugar free/fat free cheesecake pudding
2 scoops of Optimum Nutrition Vanilla Whey protein (or other brand, I like how this bakes though)
teaspoon of salt

Mix in the following;
1/4 cup of egg whites
1/4 cup of fat free cream cheese
1 cup unsweetened organic applesauce
1/2 cup of water
1/4 cup of lime juice
zest from 1/2 of a lime

(Blend with a mixer to avoid clumps of cream cheese.

Pour over crust, bake in oven for 22 minutes. Let cool before serving, garnish with lime. Makes 12 servings with the following macro nutrients;

Calories; 133.22
fat; 3.0
carbs; 14.3
Fiber; 2.25
protein; 6.76

Strawberry Banana Split Protein Bars

Hello, and welcome to this installment of "It's too damn good to be healthy for you".

Today, I bring you these tasty delights that are sure to cure your sweet tooth and feed your muscles.

Last night, my sweet tooth screamed at me and said "give me what I want bitch". Little does that tooth know I tricked the shit out of it.



Preheat oven to 350

mix the following:

1 cup of ground steel cut oat flour
1/4 cup of wheat bran
2 scoops of vanilla protein powder
4 egg whites
6 packets of Stevia or Truvia
1/4 tsp of baking soda
1/2 cup of water
1 cup of unsweetened organic applesauce
1 package of sugar free/fat free Strawberry Banana gelatin (I used Jello brand)
10-15 strawberries sliced (I suppose you can add a banana sliced too, I didn't)

Bake the mixture in coated mini loaf pan for about 10 minutes. You can also use a 9x13 baking dish. Remove from oven and drizzle with a few tablespoons of this stuff....


This is calorie free, fat free, sugar free, everything free (well, actually there is about 60mg of sodium)strawberry syrup. I found this at Jewel near the chocolate syrup. I also bought caramel and chocolate flavors.....can't wait to try those out....Anyway....

Place back into the oven for another 15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool. Then enjoy. Makes 8 mini loafs or 16 squares in a 9x13 (2 squares per serving).

Calories: 86
Fat: 1 gram
Carbs: 10 grams
Protein: 9 grams

Fighter Diet Pizza, it's not Lou Malnattis, but hey....

The Fighter Diet intrigues me. I have yet to buy any of Pauline's ebooks but I have been Google-ing the concept and tried her "famous" fighter diet pizza last week. She doesn't measure ANYTHING so I had to wing it and the first attempt was a total bust. Second attempt was better, and my third is bound to be even better.

I am stealing the excerpt from her blog and posting it below, then with my comments to follow.

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Warning! This “recipe” doesn’t have any info on how much of each ingredient. It doesn’t matter from a calorie point of view, but it does matter when to get the right consistency. Consistency is a trial and error.



Keep in mind that a real pizza with flour is the real deal. No fake pizza will be able to match it unless it’s too good to be true;-) This pizza won’t make your body fat, just full!!!

This is what I do to get my wonderful carbo-fake Fitness pizza:

Mix dry yeast, a lot of oat fiber (I THINK I took 2 cups total for ME and it became a big pizza), 4 tbsp-ish (I THINK it was about that, I didn’t measure up) pulverized psyllium husk, tons of mrs dash’s and a hint of himalayan salt.

Add warm water and mix til it’s a quite loose dough, looking a bit like thick pancake dough. Put it in the microwave in a big glass bowl, full effect 6 minutes.

Spray a coat of fat-spray on aluminum sheet. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Press out the dough to a firm sheet with a spoon. Bake for 6 minutes.

Add tomato sauce, fresh basil, mushrooms (I like dried and soaked), chopped onion and finally Lifetime fat free mozarella cheese. I use the whole block which gives me about 290 calories and 63 grams of protein. Bake until cheese has melt and starts to burn a bit in the edges.

Voila!!!!


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Okay, through my trial and error, I figured that 1/4 cup Psyllium, 1/4 cup of Wheat Germ, and 1/2 cup of Oat bran gave a good crust consistency. To season, I used cayenne pepper, a twist of sea salt, dried basil and oregano. I also needed to bake for about 10 minutes. I also only used 1/2 cup of Kraft fat free cheese to her, what I think is, 2 cups.

End result, a decent pizza fix. I will be making it again.

WTF Chocolate Protein Brownies

Why the WTF? Because I can't believe these are good for me. I developed a sweet tooth last night and before I touched any of the kids junk food, I decided to *try* my hand at making a healthy, protein-rich, low glycemic, brownie. One word:

Winning.

I will be making these for parties and I promise that no one will know that what they are eating is actually good for them. My son liked them. 'Nuff said. I may add a swirl of natural almond or peanut butter to the next batch in order to add some healthy fats, or better yet, some raw chopped almonds.

Preheat oven to 350

1 cup of steel cut oat flour (steel cut oats ground to flour consistency)
1 cup of unsweetened natural organic applesauce
4 packets of Stevia
1 package of sugar free/fat free Jello pudding
2 scoops of chocolate protein powder (I like Platinum Hydrowhey)
4 egg whites
1/2 cup of water
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1.5 oz of dark chocolate (at least 70% dark)
I use Trader Joe's small dark chocolate bar (72%) and I took a hammer to it while
still in the wrapper to break it up into small chunks

Mix all the stuff together with a spoon until well blended.

Pour into a 9x13 glass baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray and bake for 15 minutes.

Let cool completely before cutting/serving. Note: This wait will be difficult.

Makes 8 servings:
190 Calories
2.6 Grams of Fat
1.5 Saturated Fat
25 carbs
3.25 grams of fiber
13.25 grams of protein

Oh, and you're welcome!