Mmm...my favorites!

As promised, here are a few of my favorite meals/snacks. If you didn't get a chance to post this past week, please feel free to do so now, a week from now, whenever! I'm always excited to get new recipes.

Alright, for breakfast I eat oatmeal at least 5 days a week. It's so yummy! I usually add a little bit of milk and cinnamon, and then pour in about a cup of frozen blueberries. Delicious! I've also substituted banana or nectarine, and I've sometimes added a little drizzle of honey, too. You can add raisins, nuts, dates, prunes, the list goes on! On the mornings I don't have oatmeal, I usually eat a bowl of plain Cheerios or Bran Flakes. I also really like the Kashi cereals! Again, I always mix some kind of fresh fruit into my cereal.

For lunch, I usually have either a salad or sandwich. When it comes to salads, the possibilities are endless! My favorite are salads topped with plenty of fresh veggies. I've also created a more "Mexican" flavored salad. I fry up some peppers and onions, and some chili powder and lime juice, and then put that on my lettuce. I usually add some black beans or grilled chicken, and then use salsa as my dressing. Simple, but good.

For snack, I love yogurt! Mix fresh fruit, nuts, or Grape Nuts in to make a yummy snack. Otherwise, I usually just eat a piece of fruit or munch on some veggies.

For dinner, I usually eat another salad and then pick what I want for a protein and a carbohydrate.

But here are a few good recipes I've used. When I first started changing my lifestyle, I thought it was going to be really hard to find healthy recipes that actually tasted good. Not true! These are just a few yummy recipes that I've found. I made these Blueberry Bran Muffins a few months ago, and my family loved them! And, this is the salsa recipe I was raving about a few weeks ago.

Blueberry Bran Mini Muffins

1 ½ cups unprocessed wheat bran or oat bran
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
¾ cup of 1 percent milk or unflavored soy milk
1/3 cup of honey
1 ripe medium banana, mashed with a fork
1 large egg
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blueberries


Preheat over to 400 F. Lightly coat 24 nonstick miniature muffin cups with cooking oil spray.
In a medium bowl, combine the bran, flour, flax seed, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside. In another medium bowl or in a blender, combine the milk, honey, banana, egg, olive oil, and vanilla until smooth. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour in one-third of the liquid mixture. Using a spoon, stir until smooth.

Add the remaining liquid mixture and stir just until combined. Add the blueberries and stir again, but do not over mix. Spoon 2 tablespoons of batter into each prepared muffin cup. Bake about 8 minutes, or until the tops spring back when pressed gently in the centers. Do not over bake. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from the cups. Serve warm or cool completely on the rack.

Nutrient Analysis per muffin:
76 calories; 3 g protein; 14 g carbohydrates; 2 g total fat; 1 g polyunsaturated fat; 1 g monounsaturated fat; 9 mg cholesterol; 2 g fiber; 85 mg sodium


Stephanie's Salsa (well, actually it's Stephanie's neighbor's salsa :-) )

8-9 tomatoes
1 white onion
2 tomatillas ( they look like green tomatos)
6-7 jalapeno
1 bulb of garlic
1 bunch of cilantro
3-4 limes
salt

Dice tomatoes, onion, tomatillas, garlic, and jalapenos (take seeds out of at least half of the jalapenos). Cut up cilantro and add leaves. Add lime juice and salt to taste. Enjoy!

One thing that was tough for me to give up was pizza, but I've created my own pizza, and I like it even better! I use an Ezekiel 4:9 Pita Bread, then put my own lower-calorie spaghetti sauce on top. Then I load it up with peppers, onion, and mushrooms and sprinkle some fat-free mozzarella cheese on top. I bake it in the oven for about 10-15 minutes until it's nice and crisp.

I'd love to post more, but I'm out of time for tonight. Happy baking! ~Bekah