Food In Bowls

The theme for the rest of the day seemed to be : Food in Bowls! Snack time was tricky. I had planned on eating an early dinner instead of having a snack because I was going to be at a birthday party with little daughter until 7:30 p.m. However, I was still full from lunch at this time. I didn't want to not eat something and wait until coming home because I knew I wouldn't make it. There was going to be pizza at the party and you know pizza and I are not good friends lately!! I decided I had to eat something, so I chose a Fiber One Strawberry Yogurt , put it in too big of a bowl, sliced some strawberries and topped it with a dollop of Cool Whip Free and a sprinkle of Fiber One Cereal...





Good decision. It held me over just enough that I didn't feel overly tempted to dig in to the pizza or the cake. But on the way home from the party, my stomach was growling. This had the potential for disaster. Often times I make it through a tempting party only to come home and eat the house down! I kept it under control tonight, though. I felt it was a little to late to have a regular dinner, so I thought some "dressed up" oatmeal sounded good. I don't love oatmeal, but I keep trying to! Well, tonight I liked it. I have been thinking about one of my favorite cookies that I make at holiday time called a Cranberry Hootycreek. Great name, huh! I found this recipe years ago and I love the flavors. It's basically an oatmeal cookie with dried cranberries, white chocolate and pecans. I thought these flavors would be awesome in oatmeal. Right on!! For my Cranberry Hootycreek Oatmeal I used...

• 1/2 c. old fashioned rolled oats
• 1 c. water
• 1/4 c. dried cranberries
• 15 grams white chocolate chips (this was about 2 tbsp.)
• 1 Kashi TLC Roasted Almond Crunch Granola Bar, crushed(substituted this since I didn't have any pecans)

Cook oats and water according to package directions. Stir in dried cranberries. Dress it up with white chocolate chips and crushed granola bar.


Oh my goodness....


What can I say? Unbelievable good. This came out to an 8 Point oatmeal!!! Yikes! I would not use that many Points for breakfast, but for a dinner and dessert combo, it was perfect! I didn't even look for a sweet or more munchies afterward! I guess miracles can happen...:)

Busy Day

Sorry I have been M.I.A. today. It started out as a rough morning, little daughter woke up at 4:30 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep! Needless to say, I was not thrilled. One positive thing is that I was on the elliptical by 5 :45 and got that out of the way. I remained grouchy all morning and therefore, did not get a picture of my breakfast. I had 1/2 c. greek yogurt with some sliced strawberries. Not exciting, but nothing was this morning!!



I was out the door running errands and Christmas shopping by 8:30 a.m. I didn't bring any snack with me, so I stopped home to eat lunch. I was starving!!! Four hours was too long for greek yogurt to hang out. I grabbed a quick sandwich of 2 oz. turkey, 1 laughing cow light cheese wedge, lettuce and tomato on an Arnold Sandwich Thin. I had grapes and a serving of pretzel sticks (30 grams - yup, I weigh it!) for something different. The pretzels were a good choice because they took a while to eat. I'll have to remember this "chip alternative"...







My snack this afternoon was a Fiber One Strawberry Yogurt and 1 bar of Kashi TLC Roasted Almond Crunch Granola Bar...

For dinner I made potato skins! These were so easy to make and tasted great. I used some small to medium potatoes and scrubbed them well, sprayed them with cooking spray and baked them in a 425 degree oven right on the rack for about 40 minutes. I sliced each potato in half and let cool for a bit. When cool enough to handle, I scooped out each potato, leaving a small bit of potato for each shell. (*I'm saving the scooped out potato for another recipe -maybe potato soup or mashed potatoes.) I seasoned the potato shells well with salt and pepper and placed them on a sprayed baking sheet and back in the oven for 10 minutes. They were pretty crispy at this point. I topped them with some cooked turkey bacon, 1 oz. shredded Cabot 75% reduced fat cheddar cheese and chopped green onion. I put them back in the oven for about 5 minutes until the cheese melted. These were so good! A great "bar food" fix. I had 4 skins for 6 pts. I had a side salad with cucumbers and Kraft Light Three Cheese Ranch Dressing...

I made quite a few extra potato skins without any toppings. I may try to freeze them or just keep them in the fridge and work on them this week. There are so many different combos to put on these skins other than cheese and bacon. Maybe a mexican-style skin with fat free refried beans, cheese and salsa or a breakfast skin with scrambled egg and cheese! Ooh, I think I'll try that tomorrow for breakfast!

I ended the night with more than a few Holiday Ginger Cookies. I don't know why I did that. I guess it's being tired and feeling stressed that drives the munching. The food police needs to pull me over... :(