One Smart Cookie

Phew! I feel like I have a hundred things to say in today’s post! I better get to breakfast first before it gets lost in the melee! I shook things up in the ole bowl this morning. I had about a 1/3 of a cup of All Bran Buds left in a bag that was just sucking up precious pantry space so I used them up. Here ya go!



-1 cup water
-1/4 cup Quaker oats
-approx 1/3 cup of All Bran Buds
-half a mashed banana
-1/4 cup blueberries
-cinnamon
-1 tsp pumpkin flavored coffee powder
-sprinkle of cinnamon sugar



I was worried that this combo wouldn’t keep me full as long as a normal bowl of oats, but it did the trick. It’s nice to switch things up sometimes, isn’t it?!

I ate some pineapple-green tea infused yogurt for a snack last night. This yogurt has such a great kick to it!



Ms. Bender dropped me a line last night to let me know that when she tries to leave a comment on my blog, it disappears. Is anyone else having this problem? If so, please email me (kristaskravings@gmail.com) and let me know. I am trying to figure out what the issue is so I can correct this inconvenient blip…..I HATE thinking that I may be missing comments! I thoroughly enjoy reading what everyone has to say!

Speaking of comments, if you ask a question in my comment section, please check back in as I will respond there. I find that easier on me time wise than emailing everybody. I don’t want anybody thinking that I’m being snobby and ignoring your inquiries!

At 11am, I felt like a little something so I ate an apple that’s been patiently waiting on my desk the past 3 days to be consumed.



Tasty little devil! I must try harder to not forget about my apples as snacks!

I’m without a vehicle today, but that’s okay because it is gorgeous outside and I (my knee) needed to take a break from the treadmill so I took the opportunity to go for a 45 min walk. I wound through a new subdivision and drooled at all the beautiful houses and then made my way down a path and to my favorite trail. It was so peaceful and serene down there and....I didn’t like that! I don’t like traveling on trails alone because I become VERY nervous that something might happen to me. I know, I watch too much crime TV, but these things do happen! I told myself to stop being such a baby and just bit the bullet and went and I was nervous the whole (15mins) time. Yes, I suck, but I was sure glad to be back on the sidewalk! It’s OK, you can laugh at me! I covered about 2.5 miles in 40ish minutes.

Lunch was a mish mosh of stuff because when I was preparing it last night I really didn’t feel like anything. I got some yogurt cheese going before bed so I took that with some pineapple coconut jam and granola to mix in.



Here's the jam that I used. It's from my favorite country store, Knapp's.



I adore yogurt cheese! It’s a perfect Greek yogurt substitute...so creamy and smooth. I also packed grapes and a raspberry pumpkin muffin.




Every year after Halloween, the school my kids attend holds a “candy drive”. The idea is that the kids bring in their unwanted candy and it’s all donated to a charity called “Canadian Food For Children”. The candy is sent to several developing countries to help stimulate the metabolisms of starving children. They have been doing this for over 10 years now. This morning I had the kids go through all their stuff and pull out what they don’t like and then I went through the bags and removed some more things like suckers, gumballs & rockets. They were very generous and I’m sure they won’t miss a few more things from their mountain of a candy stash!

I’ve always known that my DD is one smart cookie, but I was reminded last night while having a fun little conversation with her. We were talking about dinner and how I used the crockpot roast to make the sauce. I explained to her that for the cost of an $8.00 roast, we were getting 5 meals...Tuesday’s dinner, hubby’s roast beef sandwich lunch, pasta sauce for Wednesday’s dinner, an extra container of sauce for the freezer and hubby’s leftover pasta lunch. She looked over at the container meant for the freezer with big eyes and said, “we could add broth to that sauce and make soup or some beans and make chili!” And that is how my 9 year old daughter looks at things! I looked at the container and saw sauce, she looked at it and saw MUCH more! I should learn from her to think outside the box more often! Little did she know that her comment was behind tonight’s dinner creation (read
on)...!

We were able to pick up our van tonight. The brakes lines needed to be replaced. I saw the ones they took out and they looked rough. Yowza! Good thing we had that looked at before the snow hit.

Dinner tonight was soup and sandwiches. I pulled out a container of lentil & rice pilaf from the freezer and popped it I the microwave to defrost a bit. I combined it with 4 cups of chicken stock and voila...soup's on! (This was where DD's creativity came in.) I also made a tofu grilled cheese for myself with a laughing cow cheese wedge. Mmm, Mmm, good!



Of course there's a serving left for my lunch tomorrow. Had you any doubts?! My sweet end was a chocolate/peanut curves bar. Nailed my chocolate craving and kept me out of the Halloween candy!

This evening will be dedicated to reading and then CSI later on. Tomorrow will be a busy day at work and at play so I plan to take advantage of the down time tonight. Hope you all enjoy the night!

Bye for now!

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!!

Summer's Back...For Now

I woke up to a gorgeous day this morning! And it was starting to get light by 6:30am! Nice to see that again. The temp reached 18* Celsius today! Yipee! I’m most definitely NOT a cold weather person and dread the winter every year. I made a simple bowl of yummy today;

-1 cup water
-1/2 Flax Seed Porridge
-1/2 mashed banana
-cinnamon & vanilla sugar



Have I mentioned lately how much I love my breakfast? Hehe! I had 2 pictures, but accidentally deleted one! DUH!

Check out the coolest toilet paper ever! It's Pink!



I saw this at Zellers last night and had to have it! Both my boys wrinkled their noses at it! Oh, well!

While cruising through my blog reading last night I found this wicked looking recipe featured as a guest post by Meg on Carrots N’ Cake for muffins made with Barney Butter in them. I whipped the recipe off the printer and went straight down to the kitchen to bake some! Now, seeing as I can’t find this famous Barney Butter in Canada, I subbed in Peanut Butter & Co. Cinnamon Raisin Swirl peanut butter. I also used all WW flour and a ¼ cup egg beaters in place of the egg.



These turned out fabulous! Light and fluffy and, most importantly, full of flavor! If you’re a nut butter fan, you must try this recipe. I brought 3 in to work with me for my co-workers and all 3 had raves reviews! Thanks, Meg & Tina!!!

I had a nice, sweaty run today. I wasn’t really up to it and started off a bit slow, but 10 minutes in I got an energy burst and ramped the speed right up for the next 20 minutes. I did a 2 min warm up walk, 30 min run, 3 min cool down walk. I hit the 3 mile mark at 31:25. Faster than yesterday, but not as fast as Saturday!

Lunch today was one of my favorite panini’s from Lean Cuisine…..chicken, spinach & mushroom. These sandwiches are to die for!



I also crunched on some carrot sticks. Sometimes I find the bigger carrots can be a bit bitter, but these guys were nice and sweet.



I ate some really good raspberries, too! My grocery store had pints on sale 3 for $5! I plan to revamp one of my recipes to use up some of the berries before they go bad. Stay tuned for that!



Tuesday = swim night around our house which also happens to = crock pot night! For tonight’s dinner I put an outside round roast with a slew of spices in there and set it on low for 8 hours.



I served it with a side of couscous and peas and a glob of spicy mustard for dipping...



And my sweet end was indeed sweet....and absolutely mouth watering! I cut the last piece of pumpkin baked oatmeal horizontally and spread a tablespoon of cinnamon swirl PB on it. OMG! Divine pleasure for my taste buds!



On the Halloween candy front, I managed to stay away from it for the most part today. I still ate a few mini chocolate bars and some gummy bears, but nothing like my weekend consumption! I'm off to organize for the morning so that I can be free to watch The Biggest Loser later on.

Bye for now!!

Getting Brave With My Oats

I was up and at it pretty early this morning because DS had a Dr’s appointment and both the kids were scheduled for their flu shot. The time change came in handy for me because my body thought it was an hour later than it really was. That’s a plus! I made a quick, but tasty breakfast this morning. It was really creamy so it felt more like I was eating dessert!

-1/2 cup water
-1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze
-1/3 cup oat bran
-cinnamon
-2 Tbsp fruit & nut trail mix



This bowl was really enjoyable and I savored every bite. Another plus was that it was a grand rib-sticker! I wasn’t really even that hungry when I ate lunch at 1:30! Sorry the picture is a tad dark...not enough lighting.

There’s a little café called “Choco Latte” in the plaza were the kids doctor’s office is and my brother told me that they make the best Chai tea latte’s, not Williams Pub. Of course I had to go in and buy one to try! As soon as I took the lid off and realized there was no foam on top, I knew it wouldn’t be as good.



While it was pretty tasty and I had no trouble at all drinking it up, I have to disagree with my brother. I still say William’s Pub ALL the way!! The café itself was quite cute and they had some delicious looking treats, so next time I’m there I’ll try something else. The kids were thrilled because I let them each have a small chocolate milk. Takes so little effort to make their day!

I’m always kind of happy to see the weekend end because once Monday rolls around I feel like my schedule gets back on track. I was especially happy to wake up to Monday today because I left all the candy behind when I walked out the door. If I don’t see it (or have it) I can’t be tempted to eat it! I purposely packed lots of fruits and veggies today. My body is definitely craving the good stuff after a weekend of more junk food than I’m used to! I drank 2 of these suckers today. This one has the Yogi Vanilla Hazelnut tea in it and the second one had green tea in it. Need to flush the bad stuff out!



Seeing as my belly was being rebellious today, I kept the speed a little slower on the treadmill (3 miles in 33:35 with 2 mins of walking at the start) but ramped up the incline. I upped it 3% every 5 minutes to a total of 15%. I worked up a pretty good sweat and burned just as many calories!

Lunch was leftover tofu and veggies that I chopped up and doused with some soy sauce.



Pretty appetizing and filling to boot. Actually, maybe a little too filling seeing as I wasn’t very hungry when I ate it...my pants were kinda tight this afternoon! I didn't end up eating my carrot sticks or raspberries!

For months now I’ve been reading about savory oats on blogs but I have not been brave enough to try it. Well, I decided that tonight was the night! Monday night = dance night and the fridge was full of leftovers for my hubby so I figured I might as well give it a shot. Here’s what I did;

Savory Oats

-1 cup water
-1/2 cup Old Wessex 5-Grain cereal
-S & P
-chopped up carrots & broccoli
-1/4 cup light ricotta
-1/3 cup egg whites (prepared in microwave)
-2 Tbsp mild peach/pineapple salsa

*Bring water, S & P, carrots & broccoli to a boil
*Stir in cereal
*When mixture has thickened up, stir in ricotta & salsa
*Top with egg white



I admit, I was VERY skeptical! The idea alone was a little gaggy to me, but I charged full steam ahead with it and....I LIKED it! It's definitely not something I could eat in the a.m., but as for dinner occasionally...you bet! I think the ricotta made it! The tangy-ness of the cheese really appealed to me. I'm glad I finally bit the bullet and tried this dish.

I had some plain fat free yogurt with a scoop of pineapple coconut jam on top.



It looks like a sunny side up egg! After I picked DD up from dance I stopped at the pharmacy to fill DS's prescription and found this little coffee flavoring kit.



Of course, it came home with me. These babies will be great additions to my breakfast's!

I’m gonna steal an idea now that I’ve seen cruising around blogland. I’ve seen it so much that I’m not really sure who I’m stealing it from! Here’s the idea…..to all of you out there who read my blog, please post a comment letting me know what your favorite meal of the day is! I’m curious to see how many readers I have compared to the number of comments I usually get. Please join the fun and speak up so that I know you’re out there! I can’t wait to see how many responses I get!

Bye for now!

Gotta love the Extra Hour!

I actually remembered to flip the clocks back before I went to bed last night. Usually, we totally forget about it! So of course I was awake very early this morning! It was nice to be able to just lounge around in bed for a while before getting up. What a nice weekend luxury!

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my oats this morning and ended up just throwing random things in the pot. It turned out fabulous!



-1 cup water
-1/2 cup Flax Seed Porridge
-1/2 a mashed banana
-1/2 tsp cocoa powder
-dash of coconut extract
-cinnamon
-drizzle of agave
-a pinch of Mini Wheat crumbs



Holy smokes….it was one hefty bowl! The consistency turned out just to my liking, a little on the dry side. It was quite dense so it took me a bit to eat which was a good thing because it slowed me down.

My snack for last night was some pumpkin baked oatmeal and a small bowl of grapes (and 2 mini chocolate bars. Yes, I’m hanging my head!)



We spent the morning out at the farm. It sure didn’t take too long for all those beautiful leaves to fall to the ground! The forest looks so barren now. Everyone was pretty happy that the trampoline was taken apart last weekend because there was quite a chilly wind out there today!

We stopped at our favorite country store, Knapp’s, on the way home for some goodies. We picked up a bumbleberry pie...



And some Yogi tea, honey garlic sausage for the hubby and kids dinner tonight and some of the most incredible jam I have ever tasted...pineapple coconut!



I knew I wanted to incorporate the jam into my lunch so I made French toast with 2 pieces of Weight Watcher’s WW bread, a 1/3 cup egg whites, cinnamon & vanilla. I used the jam in place of syrup. I also scrambled up some more egg whites for on the side. All served up with a big ole mug of vanilla hazelnut tea.



After lunch I drove over to Wal Mart because I wanted to buy a WII & WII fit for myself and they were advertising the units as being on sale. When I got there and inquired about it, I was told that they were sold out. HUH? I asked if they were already sold out from the Friday flyer and the sales guy said yes that they had only 6 consoles come in!! WHAT?! I hate that! Why advertise something at a marked down price and then only get 6 in the store? I was not a happy camper! I came home and ran 3 miles (time: 28:05) to blow off some steam. Man, I was really looking forward to trying some of the yoga today! I guess I can look at it as the money is still in the bank! I did purchase this 19oz cup though, which came in handy for a monster green tea after my run & shower!



Dinner was early tonight because DS had hockey at 6pm. While I was preparing the food, I nibbled on a few grapes.



I made some baked tofu, roasted parsnips & carrots and steamed veggies.



After hockey was over, my hubby had to run to the grocery store to pick up some protein powder. I found a few items while wandering through the store...



Dark chocolate hot chocolate, cinnamon & raisin swirl PB and cranberries. Once home I had a pear & goat cheese tart and I plan on one of those dark hot chocolates while watching the Amazing Race!



Hope everyone had a fantastic day!!

Bye for now!

A Clean(er) Eating Day & Co-Worker Cookie Recipe

After yesterday’s chocolate over indulgence, I decided that I really needed to eat cleaner, healthier food today because I am suffering a serious food hangover today! I slept in until almost 9am (holy moly) and wasn’t even hungry when I did get up. UGH! I seriously can’t remember the last time I ate a chocolate bar all to myself, but I think I must’ve had almost 2 over the course of yesterday. My system is most definitely NOT use to that anymore. I did get
on the treadmill for a 45 minute run last night (2 min warm up walk, 35 min run, 3 min cool down walk) for a grand total of 4 miles. For that, I am proud!

On to breakfast. I made a nice, simple bowl of oats this morning and it was just what I needed!

-1 cup water
-1/2 cup Old Wessex 5-Grain cereal
-1 tsp pumpkin spice coffee powder
-1/4 cup Enjoy Life Foods cranapple granola



SO satisfying! After breakfast, I caught up on my blog reading while sipping a bottle of water. Looking back, at this point I was avoiding my Saturday chores like the plague! Procrastinating worked in my favor this time because by the time I got downstairs, my hubby had already started on the vacuuming! Yipee! That freed me up to do the other chores.

Early in the afternoon I took DD to see High School Musical 3. Very well done. It was my favorite of the three, and yes, I’ve seen 1 & 2 many, many times! The show started at 12:35 and I wasn’t ready for lunch before we left so I packed it to go and smuggled it in the theatre in my purse! I made an Ezekiel 4:9 English muffin with a Laughing Cow cheese wedge and some apricot jam.



I also packed some carrots sticks and two little treat bags.



After the movie we hit the store to do the groceries. The place was packed and by the time we were done, I was exhausted and just wanted to get home to relax with a cup of tea. And yes, when I came home I savored 3 mini chocolate bars.



I’ve put everything away so that when I settle I to watch TV later, they’re out of sight. Thank goodness I can take or leave the chips and candy. Man, I’d be in trouble if ALL of it appealed to me!

Dinner tonight was the second half of my stuffed squash from the other day.



Still good and VERY filling! Must be all that fiber!

No sweet end tonight. I was too full. If I start to hear the treat bag call me later, I plan on munching on a piece of pumpkin baked oatmeal.

After many request for my co-workers cookie recipe, I finally got it! This shows the ingredients for the original recipe which came out of a Tosca Reno cookbook and D's ingredients for a slimmed down version. Both are great and very filling! One of these cookies and a yogurt or fruit would be filling enough for me for lunch! Enjoy!

Original and Calorie reduced version of

Grandmothers Favorite Oatmeal Cookies



Ingredients

2 2/3 cups unsalted olive-oil margarine
2 cups packed brown sugar
3 lrg omega eggs
3 tbsp honey
1 tbsp vanilla
1 ½ tsp sea salt
8 cups old fashioned rolled oats
4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup dark raisins
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts


Calorie Reduced

2 2/3 cups unsalted olive oil margarine
2 cups sucanat
1 lrg omega egg and 1/3 cup egg whites
1 tbsp vanilla
3 tbsp honey
1 ½ tsp sea salt
8 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour plus
3 cups whole Wheat flour
2 cups natural dried fruit, nut & seed mix



Preheat over to 350*. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Cream the margarine and sugar together in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in the eggs, honey, vanilla and sea salt until smooth and creamy. Using large wooden spatula or hands; work in the flour and oats until well combined. Add raisin/nuts until evenly distributed. Let batter sit for apprx. 15 minutes before rolling into desired cookie size. Press flat with hands and place on cookie sheet and bake 15 minutes or until as brown as you desire. Will make minimum of 35 large 3” cookies.
Nutritional information per cookie:

Original: 471 calories, 6g protein, 27g fat and 52g carbs

Reduced: 285 calories, 4g protein, 18g fat and 35g carbs

**Note about these cookies: Can be used as a natural granola bar replacement . They are very filling and satisfying, will hold off the hunger cravings for hours. For an added fiber fill up you can sprinkle flaxseeds, wheat germ or bran into cookie mixture and it will not take away from the natural taste. ( I would add 1 more tbsp of honey if you are adding more fibre).**


Overall, I had a MUCH better day where food is concerned. Chocolate was definitely a conscious treat today as opposed to just stuffing it in my yapper. And that, my friends, makes all the difference to me on whether or not I'm going to feel "guilty" about it.

I'm off to watch some tube and finish reading my book. It's shaping up to be a relaxing night!

Bye for now!