06/14

Go to lunch…Black Bean Salad

I’m all about the quick meals.  For two reasons mainly…I usually don’t start thinking about what to eat until I get hungry and I hate making a big mess that I’m going to have to clean up later.  One of my absolute favorite lunches (or dinners) is a black bean salad.  It’s super simple and tastes great!

(my lovely iPhone shot)

Ingredients:

1/2-3/4 cup of black beans (drained & rinsed)

8-10 grape tomatoes

chopped onion

avocado (optional)

EVOO

Balsamic vinegar

lime juice

salt

Throw the first 4 ingredients together, drizzle a tiny bit of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), a couple splashes of balsamic vinegar and several splashes of lime juice.  Then salt to taste.

It’s seriously, that simple!  I LOVE it!  The tang of the lime juice gets balanced out by the balsamic vinegar, but by adding a splash or two more of lime juice, you get a nice citrus-y taste that isn’t too tangy.

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01/25

Seriously Good Protein Pancakes (and LiveFit – day 10!)

A week or so ago I tried to make some protein pancakes…you might remember this post, saying the only way to get them down was to smother them in greek yogurt & peanut butter.  Yeah, they were way to egg-y for me.  Not one to be discouraged, I found this recipe and decided to give it a whirl.  I changed it slightly, but I was pleasantly surprised at how they turned out.  They were actually really good and weren’t overly egg-y!

Ingredients:

1 cup old fashioned oats (uncooked, non-instant)

3/4 cup liquid egg whites

1 – 4oz cup fat-free cottage cheese

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

3 packets sugar substitute

Blend all ingredients together in a blender and then cook like you would a regular pancake!  It makes 4 pretty large pancakes or several smaller ones.

See how fluffy they are!

Nutrients (whole recipe) — 475 Calories; 66 Carbs; 6g Fat; 41g Protein; 9g Sugar

I’m not giving up trying other recipes since this one is a little high in carbs, but it is yummy, so it will be a favorite until I find a better one.  😉

LiveFit Update — day 10, legs & calves

Leg day again!  Exercises were the same as last week, but due to an issue with squats, I added an exercise or two to make up for it.  I didn’t go as heavy on my leg presses and was able to complete all three sets of 12 without stopping, but the last reps were tough.  I went to squats next and during my first set, my inner right thigh, close to my pelvic bone, was hurting every time I squatted and it wasn’t a good pain so I decided it was best not to complete the exercise.  I added in the outer thigh machine for 3 sets of 12 and also did 10 min on the stairmill.  I was ticked off that I couldn’t get my squats done this week.  Maybe my body will cooperate next week.  😐

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01/12

Margarita Protein Bars

It’s been almost a week, but I’m back with the protein bar recipe I said I would post.  This was my first attempt at Jamie Eason’s protein bars.  It was the easiest ingredient wise and sounded the yummiest.  You can find the original recipe here, but I substituted a few things so that’s how I’m going to post the recipe.  There’s a link at the bottom to download a pdf version.  🙂

Overall I think this bar turned out pretty good.  It was SWEET, which I love.  I had an egg-y layer on the bottom and I don’t know if I should have cooked it longer or the egg settled to the bottom or what.  It didn’t taste bad though.  It was just a little gooey-er than I expected.  They were tasty so I must have done something right!  I think the consistency might depend on the kind of protein powder you use.  I used the Designer Whey this time, but I might use Jay Robb next time and see how they turn out.

Ingredients:

1 cup oat flour
2 scoops vanilla whey protein
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 qt mix Crystal Light – Margarita flavor
4 egg whites (3/4 cup of egg white substitute)
1/2 cup Splenda
8 oz unsweetened applesauce
4 oz water

We’ll start by addressing the ingredients.  As far as the oat flour goes, you can buy oat flour at the grocery, but I just made my own by grinding up whole oats.  Here’s what it looks like all ground up.

The original recipe called for Lemon Crystal Light, preferably the Pure one that isn’t made with aspartame, but I had just purchased the Margarita flavor so I decided to use what I had.  Jamie also recommends limiting your use of Splenda, but I’ve heard that Stevia doesn’t bake well and Xylitol is hard to find, so I went with Splenda.  Unfortunately, my bars have more calories, carbs and sugars than they SHOULD because in a haste at the grocery I ended up picking up the Splenda Sugar Blend instead of the pure Splenda.  Oy.  Oh well, again, I just went with what I had.

Here are the ingredients I used that day…

Directions:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Mix oat flour, vanilla whey protein, salt, baking soda and crystal light, in large bowl.
  • Mix egg whites, Splenda, applesauce and water in a bowl.

  • Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix together.
  • Spray 8×8 glass pyrex dish with non-stick butter spray.

Instead of spraying with a non-stick spray, I used my coconut oil.  Better for you, but it did add a couple (literally a couple) calories to each bar.

  • Pour ingredients into dish.

  • Bake 30 minutes.

Now, the original recipe said to bake for 23 minutes, but mine was still soupy in the middle at 23 minutes.  I think all in all, I did 31 min and then left it in the oven while the oven cooled down for another 5-10.  Remember, this was my first protein bar attempt so I’ve yet to perfect the timing. 😉

Finished product…

Calories: 77 per bar (16 bars total)

Carbs: 9g

Fat: 1g

Sugar: 5g

Protein: 4.5g

I’m not impressed with my per bar stats, but the counts will be different if you use Xylitol or regular Splenda instead of the blend, plus, I had to guess on my oat flour because I didn’t measure it out before grinding it up.  When I grind some up again, I’ll get an exact calorie count.  This is pretty close for now I think.

I’m always looking for new, yummy, clean(ish) recipes so if you have a favorite, do share!!  🙂

Download a pdf version of the recipe…Margarita Protein Bars

***Edited to Add:  I made them again last night and this time I made them with lower sugar applesauce (Musselman’s Unsweetened Natural) and the zero calorie Splenda.  Plus, because they were so watery last time I omitted the water.  The results?  Definitely less gooey, but bordering on dry.  They weren’t as super sweet and they were more cake-like.  No egg-y layer on the bottom either.  Also, they were completely cooked in 25 min.  Next time I think I will add just a touch more Splenda and 2-3 tbsp of water.  Maybe then I will finally get that magic formula for perfection.  They’re definitely still edible though.  I might sprinkle them with some Stevia in the Raw and then they would be like traditional lemon bars.  ;)***

Nutrition stats for the re-make:  64 cal – 7g carbs – 1g fat – 1g sugar – 4.5g protein

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12/13

Recipe: Healthi(er) Banana Pudding Shake

This recipe was born one night when I was really wanting one of Chic-fil-a’s banana pudding milkshakes, but was trying to be good.  😉

1 tbsp vanilla protein (or you could do fat-free vanilla pudding mix)

1 cup almond milk

Low fat vanilla yogurt

1/2-whole frozen banana

2 nilla wafers

handful of ice cubes

Blend together until desired consistency!

~200 calories

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11/22

Almond Dream Yogurt

K, so I guess I’ll start with a recipe I started using a week or so ago.  I got the idea off of Facebook, I think.  I’m a member of several groups so unfortunately I don’t remember who exactly mentioned it, but someone said they mixed greek yogurt, protein powder & some peanut butter.  So, I gave it a try and this was my creation.

(6/2012) Edited to add…I’ve been making this yogurt a lot lately and have changed the proportions slightly.  The new ingredients/measurements will be in bold.

The ingredients…

1 individual container of Fage 0% Greek yogurt (6 oz) – Now using only 4 oz*
1/2 scoop of protein powder
1/2 tbsp of almond butter – 1 Tbsp*
a couple drops of vanilla extract
1/2 tsp honey – omitted*
2 packets Truvia – 1 packet*
Sprinkle of cinnamon on top

You mix it all together and in the end you have a super delicious, protein packed breakfast or snack!  Add some fruit or granola topping for added nutrients.  You can see in the picture that I added banana to mine.

Nutrition Stats (without the banana):

Calories 213, Carbs 20g, Fat 5g, Protein 29g, Sugar 12g, Sodium 133mg

*If you chose to make this recipe with my updated changes marked in bold with a *, the new nutrition stats are as follows:

Calories 223, Carbs 13g, Fat 9g, Protein 28g, Sugar 7g, Sodium 153mg

A couple of extras you might be wondering about…

There are a few different types of protein and there are many different brands.  I usually use Jay Robb’s Whey Protein blend because it uses Stevia to sweeten it and it is fairly clean (clean = not a lot of junk put into it).  I ran out of Jay Robb though and picked this one up quick one day.  You can use whatever protein powder you have on hand.  If you don’t use protein powder, I haven’t tried it, but I’m sure this would be just as tasty without the protein powder.  The protein just gives it a nutritional boost for those of us that want to add it in.

Here’s an article from LiveStrong about why you might want to use a protein powder supplement, Why Use Protein Powder.  Here’s another article from LiveStrong on who should use it.  Like any supplement you need to do your research and talk to your doctor if you have any questions.

I used almond butter because the nutritional stats for almonds seem to be more favorable as opposed to peanut butter, but you can certainly substitute some natural pb in place of the almond butter.

Hope you enjoy!  Let me know what you think!  Oh, a little warning, I like my stuff SWEET so if you’re not such a sweets person, you may want to start with just one packet of sweetener and then do a taste test.  🙂

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