Carrot Bread

Maybe it's all of the talk on the Internet about baking bread and yeast shortages, but I have been in the mood to bake lately.  

I made M& M brownies for my birthday.

I made Challah bread for Easter.

But still, I wanted to bake.  Then I remembered reading this post about carrot bread.  Now I love a good carrot muffin, but rarely get to have one since most have nuts in them.  And, with a severe walnut allergy, I end up having to avoid them.  I also really like zucchini bread, and figured that this would be similar (it is).  However, I didn't really like the recipe that Carly linked to. 

So I decided to make my own recipe.

Let me just tell you that this bread is amazing!  It's like if a carrot muffin divorced the nuts and remarried a zucchini bread and they had baked good offspring.  That's the only way I know to describe it.  But it is amazing!

Carrot Bread

Ingredients

1 cup finely shredded carrots

2 eggs

4 ounces unsweetened applesauce (I used one of the individual serving containers)

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions

Combine the eggs, sugar and applesauce.  Combine the dry ingredients and add to the egg mixture.  Fold in the carrots and pour into a greased loaf pan.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour.  Cool in pan for 5- 10 minutes, then remove to cooling rack to finish cooling.

Buddha Bowl

One of my favorite no recipe, recipes is Buddha Bowls. Basically a Buddha Bowl is a meal comprised of a whole bunch of ingredients thrown together with a sauce added.  If you look on Pinterest, you will find a whole lot of recipes for them, which you can of course follow, but they are really easy to make with whatever you have on hand.  This makes them great for now, when so many are eating out of their pantry.

I think that traditionally Buddha Bowls were vegetarian, but I have added chicken to mine in the past.  Traditionally, they are also served cold, but for this one, I did heat my rice, onion, and mushrooms.

The other great thing about these are that they can be meal prepped.  I stored the ingredients in different containers depending on whether they were going to be reheated or not.  The week that I made these ones, I also didn't feel like making my own sauce, so I used a store bought one.  If you want to try your hand at making one, my favorite Buddha bowl sauce is this one by Davida over at The Healthy Maven.

If you want to recreate the bowl that I made, I sauteed a sweet onion and some Baby Bella mushrooms and roasted some frozen broccoli.  I added them to some brown rice and this is what I reheated each day.  The rest of the bowl was some baby spinach, diced cucumbers,  and matchstick carrots.  Finally I added a soft boiled egg.

What I'm Eating Lately: Beef Stew

Happy Monday!  Today is the day that we finally get the remodel started on our house.  Te contractor should be here soon to demo the bathroom and we're meeting with the designer at 1 to begin work on the kitchen.  Since we have no clue what the next 2 to 3 weeks is going to bring, and just how dirty our house is going to get, I wanted to have a warm, comforting meal yesterday for dinner.

I love beef stew - when it's made sans tomatoes.  I especially hate beef stew that is made with vegetable juice cocktail, and it hates me back :)  So we created a recipe that was easy, and had no tomatoes.  I also don't like overly fatty stew, so we make sure to use a lean cut of meat.  Yesterday we used some sort of round, it was marked as lean stew meat, and we could easily see that there wasn't much fat on it.

First we tossed the beef cubes in some seasoned flour and browned them in a bit of olive oil.  Towards the end, we added in some chunks of sweet onion.


Once everything was nice and browned we added the broth and the seasonings, brought everything to a boil and then turned down the heat to a simmer, covered it, and let it simmer for an hour.  Now, I have to mention our secret ingredient to the stew.  To give the stew a bit more depth of flavor, we added cumin to it.  It didn't give it heat, just a smoky, earthiness, that we really like.

Once the hour was up we added the carrots and potatoes and then a slurry of cornstarch and water.  We actually ended up doing that twice, I think because our meat to broth ratio was a bit high on the broth side.  After it came back up to a boil, we turned down the heat and simmered it, uncovered for 30 minutes.

Beef Stew
1 pound lean stew meat
2 tablespoon flour seasoned with salt and pepper
1 medium sweet onion, chunked
2 teaspoons minced garlic (I'm lazy and buy the pre-minced kind)
4 cups low sodium beef broth
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 pound of carrots chunked
6 small to medium red potatoes cut in half

A Green and White Salad

I'm not quite sure what I was thinking when I bought the veg for this week's salad.  I'm not quite sure that I was thinking at all :)  Maybe it was the fact that I was trying to hurry.  Or maybe it was that I was exhausted since we had just gotten back from a trip and had no groceries in the house.  Regardless of the why or the how, I ended up with a green and white salad.

Usually when I make salads, I like to keep it somewhat colorful, even if it's just adding in some orange carrots.  But this week, everything is green and white - zucchini, cucumber, mushrooms, green pepper.


Maybe it was the salad dressing choice that inspired me, but I decided to do the zucchini as zoodles.  The dressing that I'm using this week is an Asian one, and I do like to eat my salads with chopsticks, so the noodles kind of make sense. At least in my mind they do :)

This salad also goes to show you that you don't need lettuce in a salad to have a fun and yummy one.

What I'm Eating - Grilled Veggie Wrap

On the weekends I usually cook something that I can bring to lunch for the week - or at least 4 days worth.  This week I've bringing in the components to make a veggie wrap.

Sabra Honey Mustard

For me, honey and mustard is one of the most perfect savory combinations.  So when I saw a commercial recently for Sabra Spreads and saw that they had a honey mustard version, I knew that I had to try it.







Last weekend I grilled (okay my husband grilled) up some zucchini planks, some green pepper wedges and a couple of portabella mushrooms.  Once they were grilled and cooled, I divided them into four containers.  I also had some leftover sauteed onions that I added.  That, along with the hummas spread and some great wraps became a grilled veggie wrap.

I've really been loving these low carb wraps lately.  They're only 90 calories and really tasty and not super stiff.

I waited to assemble until I was at work and ready to eat - it's a texture thing - and they turned out really well.

Capsule Menus and PB&J Overnight Oats

A while back, Shannon Ables from The Simply Luxurious Life, did a post on a Capsule Menu.  While at first I dismissed it, the more that I thought about it, the more that I realized that I did, in fact, already do something very similar.

The idea behind a capsule menu, much like a capsule wardrobe, is to simplify cooking and eating our meals to allow the process to be less stressful, and to lessen the temptation to eat out simply because we haven’t come up with anything to eat.

As a general rule, I eat the same thing for lunch all week long.  I cook something on the weekend that serves as my lunch for the week.  It is divided into containers as soon as it is done cooking so that all I have to do in the morning is grab and go.  While that may seem strange to some, it helps me to get out the door quicker, it helps to control my calorie intake, and it saves me money.

Just as I limit what I’m going to eat for lunch for the week, I also limit my breakfast choices.  I always have packets of instant oatmeal on hand, as well as cereal that I have with Almond Milk.  Lately, however, I have been making overnight oats.

Overnight oats are quick and they are filling.  Now, you do have to be careful, as some can pack a huge amount of calories, so be mindful about what you are putting in. 

Overnight oats work will with y latest obsession too – peanut butter.  I recently discovered PB2 and

my cooking will never be the same.  It’s basically dehydrated or powdered peanut butter.  Not only doesn’t it have the calories of regular peanut butter, it is extremely easy to work with in recipes like overnight oats.

To make my PB&J overnight oats I combine regular oats, PB2 and almond milk, cover and refrigerate overnight.  Then in the morning I add either some jam or some fresh fruit.

PB&J Overnight Oats

½ cup rolled oats

2 Tablespoons PB2

½ cup unsweetened Almond Milk

Jam, Jelly or fresh fruit

1.  Combine oats and PB2 and stir to combine.
2.  Add in Almond Milk and stir until all of the oats are moistened
3.  Cover and refrigerate overnight
4.  To serve top with fruit or jam

Notes: I like to set out my oatmeal about an hour before I’m planning on eating them so that they aren’t too cold.

Food and Weight loss

I think that the biggest change in my life in recent years has been my weight loss.  In all honesty, it’s probably even bigger than the breast cancer, because it’s now a constant part of my life and has necessitated the most lifestyle changes.  Losing the weight has meant completely changing the way that I approach food.

Right now I still focus on counting calories.  Maybe someday I’ll be able to get away from that, but for right now it is what works.  Now keep in mind, I don’t count them obsessively, and I also don’t fret about counting them if we’re at a party or something.

For me food currently falls into 4 categories: eat a lot of, okay in moderation, good for an occasional splurge, not worth it.

Things like vegetables fall into the eat a lot of category – though not all veg.  I do tend to eat a lot of veggies and the key to remember with them is to limit the butter and oil.  A cup of broccoli that’s been steamed is going to be a lot different than a cup of broccoli that was sautéed in butter.  These are also the foods that I reach for the most throughout the day.  They form the basis of my meals, and are what I reach for as a snack.  Low calorie rice cakes and popcorn are also in this category.  As are seaweed snacks.

Foods that I tend to eat, but watch how much I eat, are things like starches and meats and some sweets.  One of the decisions that I made early on was that I wasn’t going to cut out any food group.  I don’t eat a lot of carbs, but I eat carbs.  I eat meat or fish every day.  I also have cheese and ice cream.  The key is moderation and choosing the best of something.  Take steak for example.  If I want steak (and hey, it’s what’s for dinner tonight), I choose sirloin as it is leaner and still really darn tasty, and I make sure to have a small piece – 5 or 6 ounces.  I will have ice cream a couple of nights a week as a snack, but I make sure to get good quality ice cream (or frozen yogurt) and only have a scoop.

Then there are the foods that are good for an occasional splurge.  There is a local chain of donut shops that make the most incredible decadent donuts.  This is not something that I’m going to eat on a regular basis, but I did have two for my birthday J 

Finally the foods that are just not worth it.  This is going to be different for everyone.  For me, the first thing that pops into mind is pizza – greasy, take-out pizza, that is comforting while you eat it, but makes you feel so yucky afterwards.  Now don’t get me wrong, good quality pizza, is a worthwhile splurge, but it has to be really good.  A fast food hamburger wouldn’t be worth it for me, but a burger at an amazing burger restaurant would be.

How do you look at food?  Do you count calories, avoid certain foods?  Let me know in the comments below.