Tag Archives: breakfast

Soft Tortilla Bowl

11 Feb

I’m a bit delayed with this one but I finally got around to trying the Soft Tortilla bowls by Old El Paso. I’ve been wanting to try them for a while now but I don’t really make tacos so couldn’t justify randomly buying them.

I figured now was as good a time as any to buy the fixings for tacos soooooo I bought the bowls. I however have yet to buy the meat…so I still haven’t made tacos. *rolls eyes*

What I did do though was re-purpose them for breakfast, cause who doesn’t like a fun breakfast?

egg-taco-bowl

Because it is me I bought the whole grain bowls, hey, it lets me pretend I am making healthier choices. Don’t judge, that’s just mean. 😉

I scrambled an egg and two egg whites, tossed in some dill because, well…because I was making the eggs for me and I like dill in my eggs…that’s about how deep I get when making choices in the kitchen lol

The bowl is supposed to go in the microwave for 10 seconds according to the package, so obviously I did that. No reason not to, right?

Once it was done in the microwave I put some shredded cheese along the bottom, put the scrambled eggs in, topped with the rest of the cheese (I used 20 grams total of cheese, and yes, I weighed it out) then just for fun topped with 1 tablespoon of salsa.

Gotta say, I was quite happy with the results. Tasty. Protein and carb and dairy and I guess even veg since I had salsa on there…all good things! And better than it being all good things, it was all tasty things. Mmm!

Only thing is those bowls are small. They are mini sized so not like I couldn’t tell from the packaging they are small lol That’ll probably be okay when I actually make them as tacos because I’ll eat two but no way I am eating enough scrambled egg to fill two of those bowls, that is just too much egg. I have an egg limit and that would take me past it lol

If I hadn’t put some cheese on the bottom of the bowl I am fairly certain the heat and moisture from the scrambled eggs would have destroyed the structural integrity of the bowl and it would have been quite the messy meal. So whatever you fill yours with, I suggest putting something as a barrier along the bottom, whether it is cheese, or lettuce, or whatever your little taste buds desire. Unless of course you want it to fall apart when you pick it up and have all your fillings spill all over your plate, and your hand, and possibly your shirt…sure hope that isn’t your favourite shirt you are wearing! 😉

I am hoping to make some bbq shredded chicken in the next day or so and try that in the bowls. Or just buy some ground meat and make taco meat, then eat taco bowls like how they are meant to be used. Ya know, like normal people…

I can’t remember how long the package said they are good for once they are opened, I do remember that they need to be put in to a container of some sort (mine are currently in a Disney tupperware – in case you were wondering) and do not need to be refrigerated which if you think about it is a bit um…concerning? I mean yeah ok, they are sorta like bread, and bread doesn’t have to be refrigerated, but these aren’t really bread, and they last longer than bread would, so what is in them that has them lasting so long? I figure I don’t reeeeeally want to know so I am ignoring that little quirk. 😉

I’d classify the tortilla bowls as a good buy. They can be used for a lot of different things, you get 8 in a package, they aren’t freakishly expensive, and they taste good. Well ok, to be fair they themselves don’t have much of a taste, they are more the vessel for your other, tastier foods, but they are perfect little vessels and do a good job, which is all I ask of them.

Oh, and just an fyi, if you are on WW, one bowl is 2 SP, so yay! for a new, point friendly food. 🙂

 

Advertisement

Tags: , , , , ,

Chia Seeds

3 Jun

I’ve been wanting to make those overnight oatmeal recipes in a jar for ages now but all the recipes for them seem to contain Chia Seeds and I (1) had no idea what that was, (2) figured they were ridiculously priced as all weird fad foods seem to be and (3) wasn’t willing to shell out a lot of money for something that I might hate…I learned that lesson the hard way with Flax Seed, ugh.

But then I came across this…

2016-05-26 08.53.12

Yoghurt mixed with oats and chia seeds, oh and raspberry, can’t go wrong with raspberry! 🙂 It is over priced considering the size, almost $4 for that little thing, but I thought it was a safer way to try chia seeds than buying an entire bag and being stuck with them if I hated them. Turns out this little yoghurt thing is freakin delicious! It has yoghurt but isn’t the texture of yoghurt due to the chia seeds and oats, it is thicker, and while you don’t need to chew the oats or chia seeds you still feel like you actually ate something substantial vs slurped down some simple yoghurt. But still, too much money for me to want to buy them all the time, shrug.

Which of course means I am trying to make my own…and so far have failed miserably lol I can’t get quite the same consistency in mine but that isn’t to say my concoction is bad.

In the evening I combine:

  • 1/3 Cup almond milk
  • 1/4 Cup Greek Yoghurt
  • 1/4 Cup oats
  • 2 tsp chia seeds
  • 2 tsp honey
  • dash of cinnamon
  • fresh or frozen fruit

All but the fruit gets put in to a jam jar or tupperware or whatever you have, mix it all up, then throw the fruit in. I toss in some frozen fruit because well, that is what I buy, lol, but you can use fresh also. Put the lid on and toss it in the fridge. By morning the chia seeds and oats are soft, it has thickened up a bit and magically turned in to something tasty that looks like this…

Granted, not the prettiest colour but whatever, get over it, it tastes good and is decently healthy lol 😛

When I started researching chia seeds the very first article I clicked on started out with blasting in large font about how chia seeds are a super food whiiiich instantly turned me off. Any food that gets paraded out as a “super food” and the next “it” thing to be eaten I automatically want nothing to do with. What can I say, I am a bit odd like that, but despite that annoying article I persevered and found some good reasons to try the little guys out.

(1)  A 1 ounce (28 grams or 2 tablespoons) serving of chia seeds contains

  • 11 grams of Fiber
  • 4 grams of Protein
  • 9 grams of Fat (5 of which are Omega 3’s)
  • 137 calories
  • there is also a decent percentage of your daily Calcium, Manganese, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Zinc, Vitamin B3, Potassium, Vitamin B1 and Vitamin B2

(2) Chia seeds are high in antioxidants

(3) Almost all the carbs in Chia seeds are from fibre making Chia seeds a low carb friend

(4) Chia seeds are high in quality protein

(5) Chia seeds are high in many nutrients that are important for bone health

(6) This is something I can’t find scientific research for but many sites claim Chia seeds will aid in weight loss because they expand when exposed to liquid so they help keep you fuller longer thereby decreasing your desire to snack or have your next meal early. I have noticed when I have my little concoction for brekkie at work I’m usually good until lunch time and skipping that mid morning snack comes in handy during a busy day at work. Weight loss though, I can’t say that has happened since I added them to my meal plan, shrug.

Because I liked the little yoghurt cup thing I bought a bag of Chia Seeds from Superstore, all the options they had are organic, which is annoying as I try to avoid foods labelled organic but oh well. One bag cost me $7 which was less than what I was expecting and I am eating them often enough I don’t feel the bag was a wasted food investment. I am considering upping the amount of chia seeds in my yoghurt concoction to get more of the health benefits since I currently only put in 2 teaspoons and 2 tablespoons seems to be the standard daily portion. I think that will mean upping the other ingredients so as to not have it be too thick, not sure though, so I’ll do some experimenting with that and see what happens.

If you are thinking of trying chia seeds, well, ultimately the decision is up to you but I’d say go for it, it can’t do any harm and just might do you some good. Just don’t be like the idiot who swallowed a spoonful of them then drank some water and ended up choking because the seeds expanded so quickly they blocked his esophagus. Seriously, what is with some people? *rolls eyes* And before you freak out about me being soooo callous, the guy is fine, docs saved him.

 

 

One of the sites I got my nutritional information about the Chia Seeds from:

https://authoritynutrition.com/11-proven-health-benefits-of-chia-seeds/

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Some Recipes To Try

14 Feb

I was reading a food article the other day and found three recipes I want to try, I probably never will lol I have an unfortunate habit of collecting recipes and never using them, but in case any of you also like to collect recipes, or actually ya know, try out recipes, I thought I’d share them. 🙂

They all require a slow cooker, consider yourself warned! lol

 

(1) Eggs In Purgatory

Eggs-in-purgatory

Serves 6

1 tbsp olive oil 
1 large onion, diced (about 2 cups)
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
796-ml can diced tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
6 eggs
2 tbsp chopped parsley
6 thick slices bread, toasted (optional)
Instructions:
  •  Heat a medium frying pan over medium. Add oil, then onion. Cook until onion starts to soften, about 3 min. Stir in jalapeno, garlic, paprika, cumin and salt. Cook 1 more min. Transfer to slow cooker insert along with tomatoes and tomato paste. Cover and cook for 8 hours on low.
  • Make 6 wells in tomato mixture with the back of a spoon. Crack 1 egg into each well. Cover and increase heat to high. Continue cooking until eggs are done as you like, 15 to 25 more min. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve over toasted bread.
Nutritional Information:
Calories 145
Protein 8 g
Carbohydrates 12 g
Fat 8 g
Fibre 3 g
Sodium 432 mg
Excellent source of Vitamin B12
(2) Cheese and Mushroom Strata
Cheese-and-mushroom-strata
Serves 6
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
227-g pkg sliced cremini mushrooms
5 thick slices day-old Italian or sandwich bread, cut into 1-in. pieces (about 5 cups)
2 cups grated gruyere or Jarlsberg cheese
8 eggs
2 1/2 cups milk
2 tbsp finely chopped thyme
1 tbsp Dijon
1/4 tsp salt
Instructions:
  • Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium- high. Add oil, then mushrooms. Cook until mushrooms are soft and liquid has evaporated, 5 to 6 min.
  • Line bottom and sides of slow cooker insert with 1 large piece of foil. Lightly spray with oil. Cover bottom of insert with one third of bread. Evenly scatter half of mushrooms over bread. Sprinkle with one third of cheese. Repeat with half of remaining bread, remaining mushrooms and half of remaining cheese. Top with remaining bread.
  • Beat eggs with milk, thyme, Dijon and salt in a large bowl. Pour over bread. Season with fresh pepper. Gently press down bread to soak up more egg mixture. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover and cook 8 hours on low.
  • Open lid and let stand for 15 min. Use oven mitts to lift the foil holding strata out of the slow cooker. Transfer to a serving dish. Serve with Simple Salad.

Nutritional Information:

Calories 191
Protein 14 g
Carbohydrates 20 g
Fat 5 g
Fibre 1 g
Sodium 638 mg
Good source of Zinc
(3) Gingery Chicken Congee
Gingery-chicken-congee
Serves 6
Ingredients:
4 cups water
900-ml container chicken broth
3/4 cup jasmine rice, rinsed
6 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, trimmed and cut into 1-in. pieces
2 tbsp minced ginger, plus more for garnish
1 tbsp dark sesame oil
2 green onions, thinly sliced
tamari or soy sauce, optional
crispy shallots, optional
Instructions:
  • Combine water with broth, rice, chicken and ginger in slow cooker insert. Cover and cook 8 hours on low.
  • Scoop out and discard any brown foam around edges of congee, then stir in sesame oil and green onions. Season with fresh pepper. Garnish with additional minced ginger, tamari and crispy shallots.

Nutritional Information:

Calories 191
Protein 14 g
Carbohydrates 20 g
Fat 5 g
Fibre 1 g
Sodium 638 mg
Good source of Zinc
All of these recipes are from www.chatelaine.com under the Recipe Tab, they are all considered breakfast recipes but I don’t see why you couldn’t eat them as any other meal, food is interchangeable right? 😉

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Dinner For Breakfast

24 Jan

This is actually about a breakfast I had a couple of days ago, I just didn’t want to publish two posts on one day so I put off publishing it until today lol 😛

Normally on my days off I make a toasted sandwich as my first meal of the day. Since I usually sleep in on my days off my first meal of the day is a combination of breakfast and lunch. The toasted sandwich is one of my favourite things to make and to eat, you can customize it so easily to suit whatever mood you are in and it takes a freakishly short amount of time to make – something that is crucial to me!

One of the main ingredients of my toasted sandwich is turkey bacon, it is imperative that my toasted sandwich have turkey bacon in it cause (1) I need to squeeze in protein wherever I can get it (2) I love how it tastes (3) without it my sandwich would just be egg, cheese and condiments and (4) I like it.

Well yeah, Wednesday I got up, stumbled in to the kitchen and realized I forgot to take the turkey bacon out of the freezer and plunk it in to the fridge on Tuesday so no turkey bacon for me. I know I could have taken a knife to it and hacked some of the turkey bacon off and used that but doing that messes with my sense of order so no, that wasn’t happening lol.

I was at a loss for what to make when I decided I’d have dinner for breakfast. I figure, people treat themselves every now and then and have breakfast for dinner, why can’t I reverse that? Out came some breaded chicken and on a whim I added some yam fries to that and boom! Dinner for breakfast!

2015-01-21 14.02.27

The chicken is a breaded cutlet from M&M Meat Shops, so tasty! The yam fries were something I picked up as a treat when grocery shopping one day, lucky for me they cook in the oven for the same length of time and at the same temperature as the chicken. The yellow stuff is honey mustard sauce. I dipped both the chicken and the yam fries in that lol 😛

Not gonna lie, it was too much food for a first meal, ugh. I felt really gross after eating it, just too full and icky feeling. I guess I am used to the toasted sandwich sized meal I normally have and swapping out was not appreciated by my tummy. I didn’t think it was that big of a meal when I was putting it on the plate but hey, my stomach doesn’t lie about these things so I guess my eyeballs were wrong, oops!

Even though it was too large of a meal it still tasted really good, as I knew it would since I have had it for dinner before lol Sadly, two yam fries committed suicide and jumped off my plate, one on to the floor and one into the sink so they didn’t fulfill their destiny of being eaten and instead were thrown in the garbage, what a waste, sigh. But probably good for my waist line! lol 😉

I definitely like having breakfast for dinner more, mostly because that usually means pancakes and who doesn’t love pancakes? But this was ok…though I made sure I put the turkey bacon in the fridge so I could go back to my toasted sandwich the next day!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Chicken For Breakfast?

21 Mar

I write this while sitting on a uber comfy living room chair, laptop on my lap (shocking place for it huh? lol) with my left arm pinned to my body by my roomie’s cat…oh, and don’t go thinking my right arm is free to do as it pleases, there is a paw resting on my arm with claws lightly touching my skin – those claws start to actually sink into my skin whenever the cat decides he needs a little scratch behind his ears or a cuddle…I’m pretty sure he’s training me…and what’s sad is it’s working!

Last week I went in to my bedroom, turned on the light and started looking in my dresser for a shirt when I glanced over at my bed and saw the cat laying along the edge of my pillow, head raised glaring at me since obviously my entering my room had disturbed him…wanna know what I did/said? I apologized! Yup, that’s right, first words outta my mouth were “oh I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were sleeping” then I gave him a little cuddle. I’m pretty sure he smirked at me and then cracked a whip. *shakes head*

What do these stories have to do with my weight loss? Absolutely nothing, lol, just thought you’d enjoy them. 😉

To the food! I am trying to increase the amount of protein I eat per day since it’s an area I have always sucked at. It’s not that I don’t like meat, I am definitely not a vegetarian, it’s just, well, I don’t like cooking meat – it’s icky, and I always think I am going to poison myself lol. With all the exercise I am doing now I really need to make sure I get enough protein per day to keep building my muscles and supply my body with energy so this means I have to actually cook and eat more meat, sigh.

At first I was eating fish steaks, bought from M&M’s Meat Shop, they are individually packaged, wild salmon, have a variety of sauce flavours, so easy to cook even I can do it, yummy, cheap and healthy…so all around an excellent choice! 🙂 However, you can’t eat fish everyday, one reason is tastebud boredom and the other is…um, hmm…I’m sure there is another reason, an actual foodie reason, something about mercury or fat or something…I dunno, I don’t feel like googling right now, so let’s stick with tastebud boredom, you can’t eat the same thing everyday, you’d get bored super fast and find yourself cheating on your eating plan!

To switch it up I bought chicken, I buy the boxes of frozen chicken breasts that are already flavoured so all I hafta do is throw em in the oven, wait about 40 minutes and boom! Meat! Cooked meat! It’s like a freakin miracle everytime I cook it lol 😉 They also come in a variety of flavours, are healthy, not quite as cheap but I buy em when they are on sale so that helps and easy to cook. 🙂

Normally I eat my chicken or fish for dinner, cause well, that’s what society taught me is normal…we eat toast or cereal or oatmeal or coffee or something else similar for brekkie, a sandwich or something fast food like for lunch, some form of meat with veggies and potatoes or rice for dinner, and something sweet for  dessert…I mean, that is how we roll in North America, right? But who says we have to follow those rules? Why can’t people eat soup for brekkie, or a sandwich? And don’t we all love having pancakes for dinner every now and then? It’s like we’re ok with shifting some foods around and considering it a treat but not others…weird huh?

Since I no longer eat any of those foods I listed for the standard brekkie options I have had to change how I eat. My breakfast now is a protein shake and half a piece of fruit (today it was an apple) then an hour later I usually have an egg, 2 slices of turkey bacon, 2 slices of tomato and the other half of the fruit. Can I tell you how bored I was getting with that? Not only bored but kinda grossed out by eating turkey bacon every freakin day. I used to have turkey bacon maaaaybe twice a month, it was a treat, something to have on a weekend when I slept in and was making brunch but now, having it daily, it’s starting to become more and more a food I want to avoid – which is not good when it’s an easy way to get some morning protein, eek! So today I switched things around – ooooh I’m so daring! 😉 teehee

I had my protein shake and half an apple and while I was getting that all ready I put a Cajun flavored chicken breast in the oven, yeah, Cajun for breakfast was a little odd but it was either that or BBQ lol. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to actually eat it when the time came, I’m ridiculously picky about my first meal of the day, I have an over sensitive stomach 😛 but it was actually good. I had half the chicken breast, one egg, and some cheese (I melted the cheese on the chicken to try to counter act some of the spicyness – fyi, it didn’t really work)

I was quite happy with my chicken breakfast and even happier when at dinner time all I had to do was heat up the other half of the chicken breast instead of wait the full 40 minutes for it to cook. 🙂 lol

I hit a record high (for me) amount of protein for the day, I managed to get 122.3 grams. Now yes, a big part of that is because I have two protein shakes a day but I am also making food choices that provide me with natural protein. So the chicken, the egg, I had some peanut butter on a celery stick for a snack, some pistachios, cottage cheese…things like that, they all add up. No worries, I also have veggies and fruit during the day but today’s post is about protein lol.

I don’t know that I’ll want half a chicken breast for breakfast everyday, if I do that I’m sure I’ll start looking at the chicken breast the same way I’m starting to look at the turkey bacon so I’m going to have to start of thinking of alternatives…crap, more work! 😛 I miss the days of eating a bowl of cereal or having some toast, breakfast used to be the easiest meal of the day, and my favourite, now it’s the most finicky and my least favourite, so weird how these things can change on us huh?  😛

Tags: , , , , ,

%d bloggers like this: