For The Love Of Leftovers

This kitchen wallpaper removal/painting prep/nasty cold is not leaving me with much creativity in the food department.  The kitchen is a mess, so minimal “cooking” is going on.  So, I thought this is a good opportunity to stress the importance of “being prepared” with respect to staying the healthy eating course.  As the saying goes, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail”!

During the weight loss journey, I have heard many people (including myself) say that they didn’t have time to cook healthy foods or didn’t have the right ingredients in their pantry, fridge or freezer.    This lack of time and staples makes it all too easy to opt for takeout, especially when you’re getting in late from work, activities or when your kitchen is a huge mess!  It is so important to have a basic stock of pantry staples, so that you are able to throw something together at a moments notice.  I always keep some canned soups for quick lunches or dinners paired with salad or grilled cheese.  Also, cans of diced tomatoes make great quick pasta toppings;  just saute with garlic and extra virgin olive oil, pour over some whole wheat pasta and finish off with some grated parmesan.  Canned beans are a good option, too.  You can add some chick peas or cannellini beans to a pasta dish for an extra protein punch or just add them to your salad for more staying power.  Some of my fridge/freezer staples are bagged salads ( I make my own by cutting up romaine hearts and placing them in large zipper bags), tortillas, baby carrots, apples, cheese, eggs, yogurt, veggie burgers (homemade or store bought), soups, precooked taco meat (turkey or beef), chicken cutlets and frozen veggies, just to name a few.

But, I have to say that my saving grace many days and especially during this kitchen project has been having leftovers in my fridge and freezer.  I used to balk at leftovers.  Why eat the same thing over and over??  Unless, it’s brownies, of course.  However, there probably wouldn’t be much of those leftover!  Now, I look at leftovers in a whole new way.  Leftovers allow me to have a quick and healthy option with minimal effort or fuss.  Knowing that I had those meals and fridge/freezer items made it easy for me to make good choices during this tiring project;  just heat and eat!  Gotta give props to the microwave!!!   Having these options, besides being a real time-saver, allowed me to “plan” to stay on track.  Failure was not an option!  Love it when a plan comes together :)

Onto the food!  Warning:  prepare to bored out of your mind.  Not much creativity here, just necessary eats!

Thursday

Started the day off with a hearty bowl of leftover oat bran.  I have to say, I wasn’t quite sure how precooked oat bran would translate, but it was just fine with the addition of a little extra water to thin it out while reheating.  I morphed it into PB&J Oatbran with a bit of grape jam and PB2…

Lunch was a Cedarlane Beans, Rice and Cheese style Burrito with a side of POPchips and a peach…

After tons more wallpaper scraping, I decided I needed a break.  I couldn’t shake another Starbucks craving!  The crack is back!!!  This time, I went for a Pumpkin Spice Light Frappuccino…

OMG!  Loved it and a Grande is only 150 calories, .5 grams fat and 3 grams fiber.  Heeeelloooo!!

Scrape, scrape, tape, tape, paint the trim.  UGH!

Dinner was a Dominex Eggplant Burger topped with leftover Hot Artichoke-Cheese Dip and baby spinach on a deli flat, a side of carrots and a Chobani nonfat strawberry yogurt for dessert…

Wallpaper on…

Wallpaper off ---thank, gawd!!!

Now to choose a color….

Friday

I felt a lot better this morning!  Still stuffy, but no fever and head throb.  Since I was on the mend, I decided to make a quick run to the gym.  The Arc Trainer was calling my name!  Brought my breakfast to-go…

The Arc Trainer whipped me good for 30 minutes which was all I had time for since I had a late morning doctor’s appointment.  On the way to the appointment, I munched on a Blueberry Apricot Oat Bran Muffin (from the freezer)…

I went for a routine physical and all checks out, except for my hip which the doc thinks is bursitis and wants me to consult with a Sports Medicine doc for it.  Yikes!

I made it home for a “leftover” lunch before running out the door again to pick up paint and supplies.  I went with Chickpea Croquettes and the ever easy side of carrots and apple…

Later, a Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar was needed to help with the paint color choosing…

And dinner was leftover crock pot chicken with a side of sweet potato fries (pre-cut from Trader Joe’s)…

Thanks for hanging in there with this marathon post!!!  Hope you have a great weekend!  I’ll see you tomorrow for the “reveal” :)

ONE GOOD THING: Leftovers!!!!!!

A Snappy Day

Beautiful morning!  I got an earlier start , so I had time to make up a Banana Oat Smoothie before leaving the house.  This time, I decided to add a big handful of spinach to “green” it up!  I remember trying a “green monster” here and didn’t care for it so much, but this mix was really good!

Then, it was off  to the gym.  I did 50 minutes on the elliptical and 15 minutes of upper body weight work.  I’m surprised at how much I like doing the weights.  I feel so strong and like feeling my muscles doing their work!

I had lots of house stuff on the agenda today, so I came home and got to work.  Lunchtime rolled around quickly and I have been excited to try out a recipe for Chickpea Croquettes with Greek Salad Topping in the latest issue (Oct.)of Vegetarian Times Magazine…

The only “hard to find” ingredient in this recipe was chickpea flour.  Surprisingly, I was able to find it in the natural foods section of my local Giant Supermarket under the guise of garbanzo bean flour (which is the same thing – some say tomato, some say toemotoh - heehee)…

I prepared the greek salad topping first and swapped reduced-fat feta cheese for the vegan feta since I had it…

then, prepared the croquette batter…

and cooked them in a nonstick skillet for about 8 minutes total.  The result was nothing short of amazing!

Go get the October issue – it’s worth it just for these patties!!

Since I was in the house all day, I felt like eating.  Something about being all alone with this…

But, I kept it in it’s cage.  I felt very proud of myself for that because I must have gotten it out about 3 different times to drool over look at it :)  Instead, I satisfied my craving with 2 of  Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Crisps…

Dinner was simple.  Everyone around me is sneezing, snotting and sore.  The husband and daughters have colds and were feeling yucky, so I scrapped my original dinner plans and made them breakfast for dinner.  They were so snappy (that means snotty, sneezy happy)!  Yeah, I should probably check my temperature, too ;)  Anyhoo, I decided to not eat with their germy selves and waited til later to have a quick dinner, too.  Per the suggestion of my friend, Rosemary, I made a Lavash Bread pizza using Joseph’s Lavash Bread, some leftover marinara and light shredded cheese…

It was great and huge, but for very little calories compared to regular pizza.  One whole Lavash Bread is only 100 calories!  I paired it with some leftover Italian-style Squash.  Delish!

I’ll definitely be making that again!

I’m off to spray myself down with Lysol.  Have a great one!

ONE GOOD THING:  I resisted cake this afternoon!!  I consider this a miracle :)

Question of the Day:  What make you feel better when you’re sick?