Thursday, April 29, 2010

Oatmeal Raisin Yogurt Muffins

Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

Adapted from Dannon's Website

These muffins taste like oatmeal raisin cookies but are part of a delicious breakfast!

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 whole wheat flour
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins, plumped (soak in hot tap water for a few minutes, drain)
1 cup Dannon® Light 'n Fit® Vanilla nonfat yogurt
1/4 cup egg substitute
3 Tablespoons no sugar added applesauce

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Lightly coat 1/2 cup mufffin tins with cooking spray. (Paper liners tend to stick with to the finished product - not recommended here)
3. In bowl stir together flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and the raisins; in another bowl whisk together yogurt, egg and applesauce.
4. Stir the yogurt mixture into the flour mixture and stir the batter until it is just combined.
5. Divide the batter among 10 cavities and bake the muffins on the middle oven rack for 22-25 minutes.
Yields: 10 Servings

Finished muffins freeze well. Thaw and heat in microwave for approx 30 seconds.

Dips, Steaks, and Sandwich inspiration

The other night we had friends over for dinner and I wanted to put out something for an appetizer. I put out a bag of multi-grain corn chips and some salsa, but when one of our guests asked for dip, "you know, like white dip?" I had to improvise.

I always keep a packet of Lipton Onion Soup dry mix in the cupboard (it is great in mashed potatoes!) and we happened to have Fat Free sour cream in the fridge.
Instead of following the recipe for traditional Onion Dip I just took a few tablespoons of the Fat Free sour cream and a sprinkle of onion soup powder from the pouch! (Check out the sour cream info here: it is totally unnecessary to use full-fat for this dip!)Mix to taste and you have a light delicious dip for veggies or chips.

The next day, our nutrition guide called for a grilled flank steak. I could only buy a large flank steak that was good for 2 meals for 2 people so I had plenty of leftovers. I originally cooked the steak marinated with some good balsamic vinegar, garlic, and some herbs. For lunch the following day we had grilled vegetable foccacia and we had leftover foccacia as well. (Found a low-fat recipe online)

For dinner last night I found a delicious combination:
Steak-Dip Sandwich
1/4 loaf low-fat foccacia bread, sliced in half lengthwise
6-8 oz leftover flank steak, sliced thin
1.5 oz non-fat cheddar cheese
2 tbs non-fat onion dip
(Added grilled onion or veggies would be sweet too!)
I ate it open faced and heated in the toaster oven, but could be panini-fied too! (just lay off the extra oil)

With a large side salad (about 2 cups of greens, sliced tomato, cucumber, balsamic) it made for an awesome, healthy dinner!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Waffles for breakfast?

Today the P90X guide called for us to eat whole wheat waffles with peanut butter and banana for breakfast with a nice glass of skim milk. I love it! It is a great new breakfast idea.

We've had this breakfast for 4 weeks now (every Sunday) and have developed a great strategy for making this healthy.

For waffles we have now had 3 options:
Eggo Low Fat Whole Wheat Waffles and Van's Premium Waffles - 97% Fat Free were both pretty tasty and convenient out of the freezer. (We found Van's brand in the health food freezer... but the whole wheat was higher in fat than these)

However, when I forgot to buy more waffles for this week's breakfast, we needed to improvise. We found this awesome low fat, whole wheat, oatmeal waffle recipes!

"Fat Free" Whole Wheat Oatmeal Waffles

(recipe has a small amount of fat based on the small portion from the whole wheat flour)
1/4 cup egg substitute
3/4 cup skim milk
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
2 Tbsp wheat germ
2 tsp no sodium baking powder
1-1/2 tsp sugar substitute

Whisk together wet ingredients in a small bowl or large glass measuring cup (for convenience). Mix in dry ingredients. For a 9 inch round waffle iron, use about 1/2 cup measure for each waffle. Allow to cook until somewhat dark brown in order to cook all the way through. Makes about 4 waffles - good to share with 2 people. (I would like to try ground walnuts or a dash of cinnamon in the batter!)

Eating with a sliced banana and 2 tbs. of Skippy Super Chunk 25% Fat Free Peanut Butter topped off with skim milk = delicious morning start!

(Check out THIS LINK for a great whole wheat pancake recipe!)

Welcome to Our Blog

We are currently in the beginning of the 13th and final week of our P90X journey! Since we started this journey we have seen the snow disappear and the plants come to bloom just as we've seen the pounds come off and the tone and definition come to us. We started the program following strictly to the P90X nutrition guide, which was a great way to begin our fitness regimen. However, we quickly learned how to adapt recipes and became our own health food experts. We have done research and developed strategies that we hope to share with you. Stay tuned for recipes and thoughts about nutrition and health.