A New Look & A New Recipe

I’m positive that if you’re reading this post you have noticed my FABULOUS new header! I have Zesty at www.zestycooks.com to thank for this piece of art! And if you love healthy french fries, you really need to check out this post!! And if you would like your very own original header, give Zesty a holler and he would be more than happy to help! It’s totally worth it, don’t you think??

I have a morning funny for you, only it’s a true story! Get this! A girl I work with was playing tennis on her WII Saturday night while her fiancé was at hockey when she hears banging on her apartment door. Because she was home alone, she didn’t answer at first. After about 5 mins of this she went to the peep hole and realized there were 3 cops standing there! After opening the door and answering some really odd questions about what she’d been up to the past hour and if she was home alone, the police told her that someone saw her through her window (playing the WII) and thought the was a domestic dispute happening! Boy, was she embarrassed! I guess when they left she closed her blinds up tight! What a story!

On to breakfast!



-1/2 cup water
-1/2 cup unsweetened almond breeze
-1/3 cup Bob’s Red Mill 10 Grain cereal
-1/4 cup blueberries
-1/3 cup pumpkin puree
-2 Tbsp trail mix
-cinnamon & vanilla sugar



This cereal equals comfort food to me all the way. It’s so warm, thick and fulfilling. And it’s good for me, to boot! Can’t go wrong with that!

I did some experimenting with a muffin recipe last night because it turned out that The Biggest Loser wasn’t on. I used my Banana Cranberry Pumpkincake as a base for this batch and it turned out awesome! Here’s the new muffin recipe!

Raspberry Pumpkin Muffins

-2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
-3/4 cup wheat germ
-1 tsp salt
-2 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-2 tsp cinnamon
-1/2 tsp nutmeg
-1 large ripe banana (very ripe)
-1 cup pumpkin puree
-3/4 cup eggbeaters (or 3 eggs)
-1/2 cup low fat ricotta
-1/2 cup packed brown sugar
-1/4 cup agave
-1/4 cup maple sugar
-2 cups raspberries (I used fresh)

*preheat oven to 350*
*combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl and make sure to blend well
*combine next 6 ingredients in a smaller bowl and blend well
*add wet to dry and mix until just combined
*fold in raspberries
*divide batter into 18 muffin cups (I used a 12 hole tin and a 6 hole tin)
*sprinkle maple sugar on top of each muffin
*Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 10 mins in pan.



I ran this through the Spark People recipe builder and came out with these stats:

120 cal
1.4g fat
4.5g fiber
4.8g protein

The "star" of the show!



You’ll find most of the changes I made in the wet ingredients and the type of fruit, of course. One thing I really like about these muffins is that they’re a good size for the calories in them. I like a nice big muffin!

I ate one for a snackie last night and another before my run on the ‘mill today. Speaking of my run…it was kinda….blah. I’ve had knee issues for more years than I’d like to count and my right one has been acting up the past few days. I had planned to take a break today, but I’m without a vehicle tomorrow, so I decided to just go for it. I kept a slow, but steady, pace (3 miles in 33:35) and did a 2 min warm up walk, 30 min run, 3 min cool down walk. One highlight was the weather! It’s so glorious outside that I cranked the window open and enjoyed a nice breeze while I ran. We broke a 30 yr temp record yesterday hitting 20* Celsius! Today was about the same! Magnificent weather for November……but I do believe we’ll pay for it sooner rather than later!

Lunch was leftover tofu and veggies tossed with some Tuscan salad dressing. We have SO much leftover food in the fridge! I find that every once in awhile, it gets that way at my house.



I suppose you could call this a “Warm Green Salad”. Yup…that’s about as creative as I get today! I had a busy afternoon! That combined with the fact that I leave at 4pm this week made it seem like the day just smoked on by! Love it!

I picked at a bowl of sweet grapes while preparing dinner. I figure if I'm gonna munch, it might as well be healthy!



I really didn’t have much of a plan for din-din tonight...only that I knew I wanted to use up all the leftovers in some sort of creative fashion. Here’s what I came up with! I chopped up an onion, large carrot, a rib of celery and about 2 cups mushrooms. I let that mixture cook down for about 20 mins. Then I cut up the rest of last night's roast into little cubes and added it to the pot.



In went a 28oz can stewed tomatoes, a small can of tomato paste, some spices and garlic.



I let that simmer while I boiled a pot of water for the pasta. The family had rotini and I had a package of Shiritaki Noodles...



I love this stuff, but I know a lot of people who can not stand it! You have to rinse them really well and cut them up a bit cuz they're really long but I find them to be a great pasta substitute. Here's my bowl topped with a little asiago cheese.



I tried a "cranberry/lemon zest" Honest Foods bar for my sweet end. Not too bad! I thought it was cran/lemon so as I was eating it I was thinking that it tasted more like lemon zest. Once I actually read the package, I realized why! It had a bit of a bitter after taste, but the texture was bang on.



We have a U of G student visiting tonight to introduce DD and I to a survey we agreed to take part in. I'll give the details tomorrow because I'm almost out of time!

Bye for now!!