Jar of oatmeal

Today I felt like I had gotten punched in the head when it was time to wake up. I still kind of feel like that - put together the 93 degree heat yesterday with my intense sunburn and I feel like every ounce of strength has been sucked from my body. This sucks because today starts summer shape up by Gina over at the Fitnessista. My workouts have been totally crappy lately so I am looking forward to doing some different stuff to break out of this rut. I tried her spring abs workout Saturday AM and it was intense! Nice and short and intense. I hate hanging around the gym forever! Unless I am avoiding something - like work - then I will stay all day.

But seeing as my dissertation is due to my committee in EXACTLY ONE MONTH I don't have time to avoid writing.... crap I should stop blogging about breakfast and get my life together.

Anyway - I love the idea of oats in a jar. Kath does them a lot - and given my extreme love of peanut butter they definitely help me get out of bed in the morning.



Monday Oats
Almost empty reduced fat peanut butter jar
1/4 cup rolled oats
1 tsp chia seeds
1/2 large banana chopped
shake cinnamon
shake splenda
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/3 cup fat free plain greek yogurt

Mix everything together in the jar and leave it overnight. Easy enough, right?

Umm yum. So filling. So good. Serve with a side of 5 cups of coffee for hallucinogenic purposes. (Weird science - give me that PhD instead).

Ok I'm going to digest, write some dissertation crap, and head to the gym for Summer WO number 1. Yay!

Oatmeal magic

My overnight oatmeal hit the spot the other day- but for whatever reason the temperature here in NC dropped to the 60's - and it's been a little chilly. As a result, I decided to try the same recipe in a warm form (just no chias)

I heated up 1/2 a cup of unsweetened almond milk, and added 1/4 cup rolled oats. After a minute or so of stirring I added a tiny, tiny banana to the mix and a shake of cinnamon. I stirred in about 1/3 of a cup of greek yogurt at the end. I wasn't sure how the greek yogurt would taste- but it made the oatmeal super creamy and delicious.

I topped it with some granola and peanut butter and again was full until 2pm... at which point I went and grabbed a whole foods salad (addiction). When I came back to work I found that my first manuscript had finally been published. Yay! I also received feedback from my advisor that wasn't so bad (about a week's worth of work and 3 whole weeks to complete it) and an itinerary for my post doc interview next week. I was having a sweet day obviously.

For cinco de mayo, my husband and I grabbed some coronas and brought over some nachos to our friends' house (the new parents). I didn't get a picture of the blue corn chips topped with leftover three-bean chili, but I can tell you that I topped it all with MANGO GUACAMOLE which is honestly the best I've ever tasted. I had a mango in the fridge all week and it was obviously destined for this guacamole. Check out the recipe on How Sweet it is and try it, you'll be glad you did.

Another day working from home today - yay!

Oatmeal and Enchiladas

I have been having a smoothie every day for breakfast for about... I don't know... 7 months? I felt a need for change after seeing a post of Kath Eats Real Food describing THESE overnight oats. They sounded so good I went and threw some together right that second to have the next morning. I was also tempted by the thought of granola on top of oatmeal - so I threw together some of my favorite granola from a recipe given to me by a friend at work. Check out the recipe on her blog HERE. It's seriously so good and simple to put together! I had a serious addiction to this granola for a long time and was afraid to make it again for fear I would eat every last bit. But it's survived two days so far so I think we're safe.

These oats are based of the recipe above, here's what I threw together:
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 small (and I mean tiny) banana
1 tsp chia seeds
1/3 cup 0% greek yogurt
1 shake of cinnamon

Mix together and leave overnight. Wake up and sprinkle on a Tbsp of granola and a tsp of reduced fat peanut butter. Um yum. I had to take a break while eating this because it was so filling. I lasted until 2pm (seriously) without the thought of food. The entire french press was filled with Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee helped also.

I then proofread all 180 pages of my dissertation and sent the first draft off to my advisor to see how much of it he hates. I then took the day off to get some crap done as I haven't had time to do much else other than write.

After a day full of running errands, I stopped home to make some butternut squash enchiladas. My good friend just had a gorgeous baby girl and I asked her what meal she wanted the most. She requested these enchiladas after I had made them for some friends and they kept bragging about how good they were to her. So I threw them together, set two aside for the husband and I and then dropped over for some baby time.

Of course my husband texted me 70 times while I was over with the new parents. All dinner related texts of course. He even threatened to eat without me! Yeah right! That would mean he would have to turn the oven on and warm the enchiladas and resign himself to the fact that there were only 2 and he would surely starve.


I came home and threw together a random chili that I will use to make nachos for cinco de mayo this evening! Of course he had not started eating or dinner prep without me!

Lazy and Productive Sunday = Snacks, Lunch and Breakfast

Today the husband and I woke up late (9:30 is the equivalent of 11:00 to my husband) and we headed out for a lazy breakfast before hitting up the the grocery store. While at breakfast, I checked my schedule to find it ridiculously light. Mind you, I do have FINAL edits of a manuscript I have been working on for months as long as the task of finishing up a lecture on opiates (yay!). For the past few weeks I have been SWAMPED- doing all of these things amongst running a study for 10-15 hours/day. For whatever reason I am never prepared for the busy weeks, so as a consolation, I decided to be overly prepared for the coming week by preparing breakfast, lunch and snacks! HOLY CRAP!

Too bad I won't be busy - but perhaps I can spend a ton of time at the gym to create the illusion of business. I am in a weight gain/loss competition with my husband to see who can gain/lose the most amount of weight before Xmas. He is trying to gain (tough life) and I am trying to lose. The most amount of poundage gain/lost entitles the winner to a free dinner. I am all over this.

Breakfast:
Chocolate-Covered Katie has been whipping up some mini baked oatmeals ("boatmeals") this week - and I figured I had to be able to make these minis into a full pan (I also wanted to use my new cute little Le Cruset pan.) This will be 6 servings for me because of our friendly competition (I may resort to using Ex-Lax in his meals as we get down to the wire).

Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal:
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
2 Tbsp Maple syrup
1 Tbsp splenda
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup coconut milk creamer

Mix it all together and bake 15 minutes at 375. I dusted the top with cinnamon to be fancy. I tasted a spoonful already and it was GREAT. I am excited about breakfast this week. Add a light smoothie and I am good to go (and not gain).



Lunch:
My mom calls this "garbage soup" because you are essentially cleaning out all the veggies in your fridge.

Garbage soup: There is nothing to this: chop up all of your veggies, add it to some veggie stock (I had just made some) or broth, 1 can tomato sauce, 1 Tbsp chiles in adobo (is you like spicy things like me) and some seasonings. Simmer and that's it. Divide into little lunch-sized containers.

This batch contained: broccoli, summer squash, beet greens ( I was roasting beets for salads), onion, bell pepper, garlic, thai chile peppers, basil, herbs de provence, salt, pepper.... and I guess that's it. I will be eating this with salad all this week (I want to WIN)!!!




Snacks:

I recently happened upon Oh She Glows which is a cute little blog with gorgeous food/great pictures/a story of abandoning academia and opening a bakery (sigh). I was reading some past posts and saw these cookie bites - which were described as not sugary at all- PERFECT for me and my weight loss glory title. They came together in 5 minutes flat, baked for 14 and tasted great right out of the oven. A few of these after lunch will help my sweet tooth a TON.



I also bought a ton of summer squash for hummus dipping, some apples to slather with peanut butter for my 5PM pre-yoga/spinning/swimmming/pilates/metabolic effect sustenance, and those cheater bags of 94% fat free popcorn that we all learned in weight watchers is only 1 point for the entire 3 cups! Sign me up.

Blueberry Oatmeal!

Just a quick post describing the awesome breakfast I had this morning. I wolfed it down so quickly I barely remembered to breathe. The original recipe can be found HERE on Chocolate Covered Katie.

My oats this morning:
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup almond milk
1/4 cup silken tofu
1 tsp cinnamon
2 packets splenda
1/2 cup frozen blueberries.

Soak oats and milk overnight. In the morning, cook for about 2 minutes in the microwave. Pour all but blueberries in blender and blend. Microwave frozen blueberries for about 1.5 minutes and add in at the end. Stir up and you are done. It tasted like blueberry cobbler. SO GOOD.

Pumpkin Oatmeal... my life is now complete

The other day I remade some banana peanut butter oatmeal, and I happened to add some cinnamon. It reminded me of banana bread, one of my favorite foods. Then I took a trip down gustatory memory lane to the time when I tried to add pumpkin puree to my very favorite banana bread of all time and it ended up COLLAPSING and I was very sad. Then suddenly I decided that I needed to try to make pumpkin oatmeal.

I had a test run yesterday that tasted all right, but today I NAILED IT. This oatmeal was so good I could barely stand it. Thank you CCK, for introducing me to blended oatmeal. This was the best breakfast of my entire life.

Pumpkin oatmeal:
1/4 cup oats
1/2 cup plain almond milk
1/4 cup silken tofu
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/8 cup So Delicious Coconut Creamer
1 shake of cinnamon
1 shake of pumpkin pie spice
1 packet splenda*

Cook oatmeal and milk in microwave for 3 minutes. Add it all to blender (I used my new magic bullet) and blend. I heated mine up in the microwave for a minute so it was nice and warm for fall. Oh. My. God. Try it. You must. Now.




*SPLENDA - yes I use it. Sucralose i is manufactured by the selective chlorination of sucrose (table sugar), which converts three of the hydroxyl groups to chlorides. Basically it's chlorine attached to a sugar ring. Since our bodies cannot process chlorine, the chlorine and sugar passes through the digestive system unaltered, therefore not allowing our bodies to drive calroies from it. I figure there is Chlorine everywhere - water, the POOL, and I am always swallowing it anyhow- so how much could it hurt. Right? It's a personal thing!

Banana Peanut Butter Oatmeal

I shouldn't be blogging as I am going home to NY and am being picked up in 30 minutes... but I can't help it. My breakfast is so awesome. I finally broke down and got a new blender, and decided on the Magic Bullet. SCORE. That meant I could finally have blended oatmeal again. Today: Banana peanut butter

1 frozen banana- melted in microwave for 4 minutes (CCK's melted banana trick)
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup water
1 rounded tsp Peanut butter

Cook oatmeal and water 4 minutes in microwave. Melt banana 4 minutes in microwave. Combine with peanut butter and splash of almond milk in your magic bullet. HEAVEN

Miso-glazed tofu and soba noodles

I am avoiding work again in a desperate attempt to control my blood pressure. Every time I get a morning email from my advisor with silly comments on something I have written.... I just know I cannot interact with others nicely.



So, let me talk about my dinner last night instead. Miso glazed tofu, and soba noodles with swiss chard.


The tofu was glazed with miso sauce - a recipe from the Moosewood Simple Suppers cookbook. I made it for some salmon the husband was having (see I won't cook meat, but I will make a glaze for it, I am very nice).

Miso glaze-
2 Tbsp miso
1.5 Tbsp mirin
1.5 tsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar or cider vinegar

I had made this awhile ago, so I froze it and it kept perfectly. I set the oven to 450, put the glaze over the tofu (use tin foil, it burns), and baked until it smelled like burning.

The soba noodles are actually a remnant from my weight watchers days. It calls for spinach, but the chard looked great. Use a ton of greens- they shrink down to NOTHING.

8 oz uncooked soba noodles 8 cups swiss chard (or spinach) 2 Tbsp soy sauce 2 tsp honey 2 scallions, sliced 1 tsp sesame oil 1 garlic clove (I had none, so I just used some ginger) Boil noodles- drain. Saute garlic (or ginger) in the sesame oil - add chard, cook. Add scallions, cook a minute or so. Add the liquid ingredients. Toss together noodles with chard mixture- and it's done. I just gone done with my second cup of coffee and my favorite strawberry oatmeal. (I added more strawberries, so it looks prettier today).
Now I will address comments. While listening to an NPR show on the neurobiological implications of stress. How awesome.

The most INSANE oatmeal of all time.

I am back home from my whirlwind weekend in New York. Leaving home always sucks - I miss my family, my friends, the weather, my parent's pool, and the free food! The one thing I don't miss is cooking my own stuff. My first day home my mom had croissants. I love criossants, but I can never eat them because my whole life is a diet. I usually have smoothies or oatmeal for breakfast - or sometimes only coffee. Before I left - I discovered the wondrous oatmeals of Chocolate-Covered Katie. Oh my goodness. Tofu, fruit, cooked oatmeal and creamer blended together for breakfast into a mousse-style dessert? Oh my goodness, again.

I had just bought two quarts of strawberries when I saw this post. The recipe calls for Bulgur, of which I had none, so I used oatmeal, and her trick for cooking the oats. I could NOT wait to get home and make this awesome oatmeal again. Sometimes you just have to be late for work to enjoy some good breakfast.
My messy bowl that I ate at my computer!