An Elvis Favorite

Hi again! It's been a beautiful day and the husband and I continued our date day since the daughters were still with the grampies. I started off with a leisurely breakfast of PB2 -Banana Cream of Wheat . For this, I used:

• 3 tbsp. whole grain Cream of Wheat
• 1 1/4c. water
• 1/2 banana
• 2 tbsp. PB2

I made this according to package directions for the stovetop method. After adding the Cream of Wheat to the boiling water, I added the banana, broken into pieces and whisked until the cereal was cooked. I garnished with sliced banana and PB2 drizzled over the top. It was a yummy 3 POINT breakfast...

After breakfast, the husband and I went on a woodsy 40 minute hike. There was some rough terrain and some steep hills; my legs were burning! We stopped at the top of one of the hills for a silly sun-in-our-eyes picture...

We stopped at the produce store after our hike, then headed home for lunch. I was looking forward to trying out these new chips that Kate from CookingwithKate turned me onto...

I really liked the bbq flavor! One serving is 120 cal., 4 gr. fat and 1 fiber which comes to 3 POINTS. I don't like to spend quite that much on chips, so I just had a bit less for it to be 2 POINTS. Along with these chips, I made a Philly Cheesesteak with a side of Fiber One Vanilla Yogurt topped with strawberries and blueberries. Whoa, this was a filling 9 POINT lunch...

I was pretty stuffed with all that. My goal this week is to eat a little more during regular meals and forego the afternoon snack. I figured this big lunch would hold me til dinner, but believe it or not, I was getting growly by 4:30 p.m. I tried to keep busy so as not to think about it, but I found myself munching on a few of the dinner-making items (i.e. CHEESE!)

The daughters were home for dinner and I decided on a quick fake- out dinnner, chicken parmesan. For the fake-out part, I used these instead of making my own chicken cutlets...

These Perdue Breaded Tenderloins are 170 cal. and 7 gr. fat for a 3 oz. serving (4 POINTS). They are tasty and a real piece of chicken instead of the "chopped and formed" stuff. I topped them with a couple of tbsp. sauce and 1 oz. lite mozzarella. I had a side of green beans with oil and garlic to round out this yummy 6 POINT dinner...

More peanut butter and banana was in the works for dessert. I topped a Banana Fudge Vitatop with 2 tbsp. PB2...

Mmmmm. Peanut butter and banana is such a great combo! Elvis would be proud!

Hope everyone had a nice Monday! Everyone is back to work/school tomorrow, so it's back to the grind. So glad to have these little "mini vacations" with the husband and daughters. Time goes too fast...

Don't Forget About "Wheat"

It seems many people eat oatmeal for breakfast, but there's a new guy in town -Cream of Wheat! You may remember this from childhood days; I had this a lot growing up. The daughters like it too, which is nice. I always buy the instant packet variety, but now Cream of Wheat has revamped itself to include more whole grain (which means more fiber) and it's available boxed with a 2 1/2 min. cook time. I cook mine in the micro, so it's still basically "instant" for me! For 3 tbsp. (which doesn't sound like much, but it is a huge serving) it is 100 cal., 0.5 gr. fat and 4 gr. fiber(*if made with water)...





Now, what do you do to make this taste good, you say? You make Warm Pumpkin Pie Cream of Wheat! I adapted this recipe from The Biggest Loser Cookbook...

• 3 tbsp. Cream of Wheat (use the amount of water needed for your choice of preparation -stovetop or micro)
• dash of salt
• 2 packets of Splenda
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 c. pumpkin puree
• 1 small rectangle of graham cracker

Cook Cream of Wheat according to package directions. You can add the spices before cooking. Stir in pumpkin puree at the end and top with crushed graham cracker.

*You can enhance this to your own taste. The original recipe called for the addition of ginger and cloves, but I'm not a lover of too much spice. So, play with this to come up with the flavors that remind you of pumpkin pie. A little vanilla extract would probably be good , also. Next time...

This big serving was a 2 pt. breakfast! This might be kickin oats to the curb... ;)