Kitchen Fun

Hello OH Friends. I have been trying to pay attention to my food choices and slowly making changes. And my least fav tracking my food. I love tuna melts old style lots of mayo on big buns. Yesterday I swapped the big bun for an English muffin calorie count was 540 cals and 38 grams of fat. Which I thought was a bit high. I blamed the mayo. So today I mixed same ingredients with 2 tbls balsamic vinegar and 1/2 packet splenda instead of mayo. I plugged it into my fitness pal and today's tuna melt lunch 320 cals and 18g of fat. Much better I think and it actually tasted very good! Gotta keep paying attention and making simple switches to my favs. Next time I buy cheese I'll try the low fat old cheddar. Do you have any fav recipe swaps to share? Have a great day! Deb

Sounds like a step in the right direction by health-ifying your favourite foods/recipes. I read on one of the Ontario OH forum that someone found a high-protein bread at Metro...may be worth trying for your tuna melt.

I love egg sandwiches...salad, fried (non-stick pan w/Pam), or scrambled but instead of toast I have it on half of a Haddad high-protein pita...it's 50 calories for the pita with 5g of protein. And I sprinkle 1/8 cup low fat tex-mex cheese and a couple tablespoons of salsa (or ketchup in a pinch).

I'll also make tuna or chicken salad for my pitas...lots of chopped celery for crunch and I use calorie-wise Miracle Whip. Very tasty and satisfying. I have that for lunch at work or my latest "addiction" of sweet potato/butternut squash/carrot soup with ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. Or I'll switch it up with ginger, curry and cumin. Num num!

Tammy

Making changes to my favorite foods seriously helped a ton.  I never feel deprived and I have tweaked all kinds of things.  If you have time I highly suggest HungryGirl.com.  I get so many ideas from her site. 

Pumpkin pie: 

PER SERVING (1/8th of recipe, 1 slice): 144 calories, 0.5g fat, 110mg sodium, 30g carbs, 2g fiber, 26g sugars, 5g protein -- PointsPlus® value 4*

 

Prep: 15 minutes	Cook: 45 minutes
Chill: 2 hours or more

Ingredients

• One 15-oz. can pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling; the kind by Libby's is best)
• One 12-oz. can evaporated fat-free milk
• 1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters Original)
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar (or HG Alternative!)
• 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 2 sheets (8 crackers) low-fat cinnamon graham crackers, finely crushed
• Optional: Fat Free Reddi-wip, cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a deep-dish pie pan with nonstick spray. In a bowl, combine all ingredients except graham crackers and optional ingredients. Whisk thoroughly. Transfer to the pie pan.

Bake in the oven until partially firm, about 45 minutes. (It will firm up completely once chilled.)

Refrigerate until completely chilled and firm, at least 2 hours (the longer, the better).

Top evenly with crushed graham crackers. Serve and, if you like, top with Reddi-wip and cinnamon!

 

I love, love, love pumpkin anything so I have been living off of a pumpkin quinoa for breakfast since my surgery....a high dose of fiber along with protien...I will have to get that out of the cabinet when I get up  again :)

Ooh...thanks for the pumpkin recipes...I love pumpkin as well. I made some yummy mini-muffins with pumpkin and Bran Buds from the Bran Buds website. Pumpkin quinoa sounds good...how do you prepare that? Or maybe I'll find it on the hungry girl website...thanks for that tip as well.

How's the recovery going?

 

Actually pumpkin quinoa comes from a different site.  I cook it and put it in 4 containers in the fride.  I use a little sweetleaf instead of brown sugar...Splenda works as well and I do not use the pecans or cranberries.   I add a tiny box of raisins and 3 halves of walnuts to mine when I warm it .  Also when I warm it up I add water to it to make it more like runny oatmeal (just my preference):

 

Pumpkin Quinoa Breakfast 

• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup rinsed quinoa
• 1/3 cup pumpkin
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• Pinch of ground cloves
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries

Directions:

Combine milk, water and quinoa in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer 15 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Turn off heat; let stand covered 5 minutes. Stir in pumpkin, spices, and brown sugar. Transfer to four bowls and top with pecans and dried cranberries. Serve warm.

Serves 4

healing is going well.  I went to the store yesterday and am headed for a massage of the lymphnodes today.....after $70 in mederma, a couple massages and our several trips to Salt Lake the "extras" are starting to add up!  Good thing hubby loves me!!!

Love Quinoa and pumpkin! I made a quinoa, pumpkin pecan bake! Let me see if I can find my recipe and I will post it here!

That bake sounds awesome. Hope you can find and post the recipe. Deb

Found it! It is also gluten free!

 

This sweet and crunchy topped quinoa bake is the perfect way to start off the weekend.

Ingredients (2 servings)

Bake

• 2/3 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup quinoa – red or white would work
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• pinch ground nutmeg
• pinch ground ginger

Topping

• 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1.5 tbsp finely ground almond flour
• 1/4 cup pecans, chopped

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F and lightly oil a 4 cup casserole dish. [I used a small dab of coconut oil]
• In a small bowl combine all ingredients, minus the topping. Stir until fully mixed, then pour into prepared casserole dish.
• Cover and cook for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, combine all topping ingredients. After the 30 minutes are up, remove casserole from oven and sprinkle topping over top of the casserole.
• Return to the oven and cook uncovered for another 10-15 minutes, or until golden. [Mine was ready in 12 minutes]

 

Sounds delightful!!!

Thank you so much for the recipe. I can't wait to try it out.