Strawberry Almond Bowl...texturized



mmm...texture

 Hello Hello,

This morning I was craving a nice hearty bowl of delicious and nutritious...texture.  Yes, sometimes you want a little texture to your meal, and not something uniformly creamy.  I was thinking how I could do this with my regular cinnamon yogurt, fruit and almond bowl.

Here's what I came up. Instead of fully slicing my strawberries, I cut them in half and instead of using slivered or sliced almonds, I used whole almonds. I still had my yogurt with my cinnamon, but this tasted all the much better with the big chunks of fruit and whole almonds...mmm..yummy!

What did you guys have for breakfast?

Question of the day:  What is your favorite type of yogurt?

Recipe Alert: Peanut Butter and Banana Pudding w/ Chocolate Chips

Good Morning All,

I thought I'd start this morning off on a bit of a sweet note and post my recipe for Peanut Butter and Banana Pudding w/Chocolate Chips.  So, I've been doing a lot of experimenting with agar agar, which is a sea based gelling agent.  Most gelatin found in common foods such as Jello, are animal based.  As I go more and more into the world of a vegetarian, I've started to find replacements for even the little things.

Here is a pic of the agar agar I used:

Per the instructions I used 1TB of agar agar and put this in really hot water.  Then I let it sit for 10-15 minutes, until it was completely dissolved.  While this was dissolving, I gathered the rest of my ingredients:

1 ripe banana

2TB. of peanut butter

1/4 of a block of silken tofu

I then worked on the prep, which could not have been easier:

Place all ingredients in a blender (I used my Magic Bullet) and blend away till creamy.  Place this in a bowl.

Once the agar agar dissolved, I poured this into the bowl as well and stirred it in.  This gradually thickened and I topped with mini chocolate chips!

This pudding was very delicious.  The only thing I would change is maybe try to find another natural thickener.  Agar agar is great but does take a while to dissolve.

Dinner Last Night: Steak with Blue Cheese Dressing

Good Morning Everyone,

Last night I made it home just in time to do a Tae Bo Cardio workout and then make myself a quick dinner. Now, I've cut out a lot of red meat and chicken in my diet. I use to have at least one serving of red meat or chicken a day, be it for lunch or dinner. Now, I probably have this once a week. Last night, I was really, really craving a steak salad with blue cheese dressing. I went to the grocery store and bought some lean steak, salad, cucumbers, grape tomatoes and crumbled blue cheese. Now, I bought blue cheese crumbles vs. the actual blue cheese dressing because I noticed most of the blue cheese dressings had 15 grams of fat and over 200 calories...for just TWO tablespoons!! I was like, WHAT THE H?!?! Also, there were a ton of ingredients listed for the dressing! Instead, a quarter cup of blue cheese crumbles has 8 grams of fat and 100 calories! Hello....I would just make my own blue cheese dressings with actual blue cheese..like the way it's supposed to be!

So, I went home with my ingredients, cooked my perfect portion lean steak and started to assemble my salad. Then I made my delicious, low fat blue cheese dressing.

The deets:

2 TB. of blue cheese crumbles
2 TB. of non fat Greek Yogurt
2 TB. of white vinegar
2tsp. of reduced fat mayo
1tsp. of garlic powder
1tsp. of onion powder

Mix all the ingredients together for a creamy blue cheese dressing for a little less than 100 calories and you know all the ingredients going in!!!

I have an addiction...to peanut butter!!!!

to be continued...

Breakfast: Cinnamon Yogurt and Almond Cup

Breakfast today was a bowl full of Greek plain Greek yogurt, a ton of my favorite cinnamon, almonds and sliced banana.  A fresh, delicious, stick to your ribs kind of breakfast, to give me the energy I need to get through the day!

mmm...deliciousness in a mug

Question of the day:  What did you have for breakfast?

Finally Met Jillian Michaels...

Well, hello hello.  So, last night was quite an event.  Totally last minute, I decided to go to Jillian Michael's booking signing for her new book, "Unlimited".  The book signing was in Borders in Columbus Circle. Jillian was there and so were a few members of The Biggest Loser, past and present.  I didn't really recognize any of the present ones since I have not been watching this season.  I waited nearly four hours, standing in line for Jillian to autograph my book!  The reason why it took so long is she gets personal with everyone and with nearly 400 people there, this took a while.  What I should have done was gone to Borders and gotten a bracelet earlier (you can't get in without a bracelet).  The bracelet has your line number on it.  Since I decided to go last minute, my line number was pretty high :-\



Me and Jillian

As expected, when my turn finally came, Jillian was sweet and very tiny!  It was worth waiting in line!

Doing the Tuna and Spinach...

Lunch today was my delish tuna salad but instead of a side of steamed veggies, I had a spinach and cherry tomato salad, lightly dressed with Newman's Own Light Balsamic dressing.



mmmm...looks good!

Lunch is done and I'm already thinking about dinner. Let's see what I can come up with tonight.

Question of the day:  What's for dinner?