Saturday, June 12, 2010

New Recipes Keep Life Interesting

Just surfing this morning and found some recipes...they look great...just in time for my shopping trip today :-)





High Protein Breakfast Recipes



-> Tomato Basil Omelet:

    Ingredients
    • 2 tbsp of diced canned tomatoes
    • 2 tbsp of juice from can
    • 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
    • 1 clove of garlic
    • 1 tbsp of fresh rosemary
    • 2 tbsp of olive oil
    • 5 egg whites plus 1 omega 3 egg
    • Salt and pepper to taste
    Cooking Instructions
      Preheat skillet to 250 F. To begin, mince the garlic and place aside. In the pan place the olive oil, heating up the rosemary for 30 seconds. Add tomatoes, garlic, and basil. Cook altogether for approximately 3 minutes, just until the tomatoes are soft and all the flavors are infused together. Next, in a blender, add the eggs and tomato juice and blend on high for approximately 5 seconds. Then, add to the skillet and allow to cook with a lid on, until top is fully cooked. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve warm when finished. Serves 2

-> Smoked Chipotle Cheese Omelet:

    Ingredients
    • 5 egg whites and one omega 3 egg
    • 1/2 cup of green peppers
    • 1/2 cup of white onions
    • 2 tbsp chopped parsley
    • 2 tsp of Smoked Chipotle Tabasco sauce
    • 1/2 clove of garlic
    • 1 tsp olive oil
    • 2 tbsp cheddar cheese
    • 2 tbsp of cottage cheese
    • 1 tsp parmesan cheese (optional)
    • Salt and pepper to taste
    Cooking Instructions
      Preheat non-stick skillet to 300 F. On a cutting board, chop the onions, pepper, and the garlic into small sizes. Chop the parsley up fine. Grate the cheddar cheese. Place everything aside. Next. take the eggs and place them into a blender (this works the same if you do it with a whisk or a fork). To the eggs add the chipotle sauce. Blend together for about 5 seconds. When the skillet is hot, with the olive oil cook the onions and peppers. Cook until brown and moist. Once brown, add the garlic and cook for a remaining 60 seconds. Then, place in the eggs and cover. Lower the heat to 200 F and let cook covered for about 10 minutes or until all liquid is dried. When the eggs appear cooked all the way through, on one side of the omelet place all the cheese. Flip the other side over top and cook for a remaining few minutes, just to heat and melt the cheese. Once the cheese has been melted, removed carefully and serve warm. Serves 2

-> Stuffed French Toast:

    Ingredients
    • 1 thick slice (about the width of 2 pieces) of 12 grain or whole wheat bread, thick enough to slice down the middle, from an un-cut loaf of bread
    • 1 tbsp of raisins
    • 1 tsp cinnamon
    • 1 tbsp raspberries, strawberries, or blueberries for garnish
    • 1/2 cup raw oats
    • 3 egg whites
    • 2 tbsp low fat skim milk
    • 125 grams of ultra low fat cottage cheese
    • 1 1/2 scoops of milk protein blend
    • 1 tsp of Splenda
    Cooking Instructions
      Preheat skillet to 300 F. Take the loaf of bread and cut a large slice, about the width of 2 slices. Set aside. In a blender, blend the cottage cheese and make it smooth in texture. Now, cottage cheese is relatively thick, so it will require you to stop the blender to feed more cheese through at a time. When finished, remove from the blender and in a separate mixing bowl, add protein powder and raisins to the cheese. Set aside. In a separate bowl, mix egg whites with 1 tsp of cinnamon and 2 tbsp of low fat skim milk. Set aside. Place the oats in a flat plate. Now, with the bread, slice a portion down the side, creating a pocket to be filled. Fill the bread with the cottage cheese mixture. Take the bread and dip into the egg mixture on both sides. Then, dip both sides into the oats. When ready, fry both sides until golden brown and the cottage cheese appears melted. This should take approximately 3 minutes each side. Serve with a slice of orange. Serves 1

-> Chai Blueberry Oatmeal:

    Ingredients Chai Blueberry Oatmeal
    • 1 1/4 cups of water
    • 1 chai tea bag
    • 1/2 cup old fashioned large flake oats
    • 2 tablespoons flax seeds (ground)
    • 1 tablespoon 100% pure honey
    • 1/4 cup low-fat milk
    • 1 scoop vanilla whey protein (equal to 25 g protein)
    • 1/4 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
    Cooking Instructions
      Bring 1 1/4 cups of water to a boil in a small pot on high heat. Remove from heat and steep a chai tea bag for 5 minutes. Remove bag and bring back to a boil. Add the oats. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until liquid is absorbed (approximately 7-10 minutes), stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in flax seeds and honey. Combine 1/4 cup of milk with whey protein in a separate bowl. Mix with a fork until protein is dissolved. For a smoother consistency, pour protein mixture into a blender or food processor and blend until protein is dissolved. Pour protein mixture and blueberries over oatmeal and serve. Serves 2

-> Protein Pancakes:

    Dry Ingredients
    • 1/2 cup ground flax seed
    • 1/4 tsp baking powder
    • 1/3 cup dry oats
    • 1/3 cup vanilla protein powder
    • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
    • 1/4 cup mixed nut meal (pistachio, almond, pecan, cashew ground up in a blender)
    • Mix dry ingredients together.
    Wet Ingredients
    • 2 whole omega 3 eggs
    • 4 oz egg whites
    • 3 tbsp cottage cheese
    • 2 tbsp olive oil
    • 1/3 cup frozen mixed berries
    • Mix wet ingredients through.
    Cooking Instructions
      Pour mixture into a personal sized pan and cook (covered) on medium for 4 minutes then flip, cook for another 4 and serve. Serves 1 or 2

Low Carb Desserts


-> Chocolate Cheesecake:

    Ingredients Chocolate Cheesecake
    • 250g fat free cottage cheese
    • 1/2 cup low fat chocolate milk
    • 4 scoops of low carb chocolate protein powder
    • 5 heaping tablespoons of organic peanut butter
    Cooking Instructions
      Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a blender, combine 250g cottage cheese and 1/2 cup low fat chocolate milk and blend until creamy and smooth. Remove from the blender and place into a mixing bowl. Next, add 4 scoops of protein powder and mix thoroughly. Finally, add in the 5 tbsp organic peanut butter, one scoop at a time, blending until smooth. In a small 4-inch ramekin, pour the mixture. Fill 1/2 of another deep oven pan with hot water and place the ramekin inside of the oven pan so that the water comes approximately 1/2 way up the outside of the ramekin containing the chocolate mixture. Place the whole thing into the oven and bake for 40-60 minutes. The dessert will be finished when it is slightly firm to the touch. When finished, pull from the oven and allow to cool for several hours. When cool to the touch, place in the fridge and cool over night. Serve cold or at room temperature. Serves: 4

Thursday, June 10, 2010

It's A Brand New Day :-)

Thursdays are my *late* days.

I am scheduled 10:30am-1:30pm.  It has been working out that Krissy and I have been able to switch shifts.  I love ending my work day at 10:30am, she isn't all that fond of getting up at 5am...so we switch.  A lot ;-)

With this funk I have been in I figured I needed some more sleep, so I let Krissy know yesterday i would be working my *regular* shift, just because I am beat.

So I get up, see the kids off to school and still feel ICKY.  What the heck is wrong with me?  But after having something to eat and chatting with the family, I feel much better.  Maybe it wasn't the sleep I needed.  Maybe I needed the contact with the family while we are all bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready for a brand new day....

....and the gallon of hot, black coffee helped too ;-)

So I did what I said I was going to do....pulled in the ol' food reigns.  I shed some water weight and lost that *puffy* feel and look.  The workouts are going great.  I can feel the difference when I mix things up, and that, too could have been part of my fatigue.

Procrastination puts me in a funk, too.  Last year my (great) neice (sister's granddaughter) told me she would be performing at the Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia this year.  HOW EXCITING!  She is part of her school's colorguard/flag team down in Torrance.  
I told her I would make her a stadium blanket to raffle for a fundraiser.  I did that for my daughter when she was raising money to go to Europe with her school Show Choir.  It is an awesome way to raise $$....students, parents and teachers love to show school pride and what better way to do it than with an original stadium blanket??

(Hmmmm.....trying to insert a picture here, but can't find it.....)

I have been procrastinating because the school colors do not excite me ....gold and brown.
...and I am having a heck of a time making the pattern in pcstitch....here is the graphic:


It will be cool...and it will go fast once the knitting begins...it is just BEGINNING...I am thinking I might just print the graphic on a piece of graph paper and be done.  That is how I use to make my patterns before the fancy computer software...LOL....I just need to KISS (Keep It Simple Silly).



I need to just STOP thinking and START doing!

So my goal today is to at least get this pattern PRINTED.
Off to work.

:-)

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Chasing the Blues Away


What day is it, Anway?

The past week has been rough.
I thought I was just a bit irritable the beginning of last week...but it most definitely turned into a full blown depression.  Tearful, moody...the whole ball of wax.

I told my husband I cannot figure out what the problem was, which depressed me even more.  I have been exercising, eating right, and getting sunshine.   Well, maybe not as much sunshine as I should :-(

BAH!

......maybe it is having a glass of wine here and a cold beer there that is effecting me.  On Phase III you can do that...but maybe it isn't a wise decision for me.

So I have decided to get back onto Phase I this week I need to reign in those calories and take the alcohol exchange out of the equationYesterday was Day 1, and I am already feeling a little bit better I got in bed a bit earlier, slept well and woke up hungry.  I also tend to have more energy when I get strict with my dietWe'll see.

As far as my Personal Boot Camp, things are going well.  My workouts are intense and I am feeling it.  This is a good thing :-)

Yesterday was PLYO day...if you have never done *jump training*, give it a try on your non-Curves day.  This is a great cardio workout and really bumps up the fat burn:







Today is my Curves day....and with the lingering depression I am not really looking forward to it, but I will do it ;-)

Ok...I gotta get something to eat before I jump on the bike and head to work.....SEND MEPOSITIVE VIBES!  I NEED THEM!!!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Personal Boot Camp Calendar

Phase III
Day  2
Phase III started yesterday...and what better day than Memorial Day ;-)

We didn't BBQ, but I did make 2 huge pans of enchiladas with salad,  chips, and Spanish rice.  My oldest son was here with a couple of his friends playing board games with Nathaniel and Isabella It was a nice afternoonNeedless to say, with all of that food I am out of my window, so I am back to Phase I to take it off.  It will take me a couple of days, but that is cool....I love Phase III. The last time I was on the end of Phase III it took  me TWO WEEKS to get out of my weight window! Nice!

Last week (or was it longer), I said I would post my own private Boot Camp CalendarI was having a hard time with this, because I knew that once I committed it to paper I was IN IT, and frankly, I just wasn't ready....

Do I feel *ready* today?
Not really :-(

I am feeling a little bored and a little overwhelmed.  As I was making up *fitness* calendar I realised I needed a *boot camp calendar* for MANY aspects of my life...have you ever done that?  
How do you deal with that?  

I am overwhelmed....and RESENTFUL.

Isn't that TERRIBLE??

UGH.

Oh...and I suppose it is fair to mention that it is soon to be "my time" of the Moon Cycle...so I always have these feelings...at different times....'cause  I am perimenopausal :  over forty, prone to acne AND hot flashes while trying to GUESS when the 1st day of your period will be....

Seriously.  WHO the h*** wouldn't feel a little resentful??
OK....it is getting late...here is my Bootcamp Calendar for JUNE:



I am wanting to ride my new bike to and from work, but I don't have a helmet :-(  I was rising to and from my friend's house all weekend, what FUN!  But she is just in the next neighborhood and there is a back way.  Maybe I will get a helmet this week....

So I have CurvesSmart on Monday/Wednesday/FridayPlyometrics (jump training) on Tuesdays and Yoga on ThursdaysI will sprinkle in the water tower walk on Rick's days off and Hoop a little each day, just because it makes me happy ;-)

More Moon Phase Moanings later...you can count on it!