Best Bowl of Oatbran & New Snackage

Posted on February 5, 2011 by kissmybroccoli

Good evening! Hope everybody is having a great weekend and staying warm! For those of you who live in areas that are enjoying 70+ degree temperatures…go take an icy shower and feel our pain!

I woke up this morning to another gray sky and yet more snow flurries. Is my enthusiasm coming through on this? Oh, please stop…I can’t contain myself! :-/

I picked a good morning to make a nice warm and creamy bowl of oat bran. HEAB’s post from yesterday included a little blurb about soaking grains before consuming and how it can benefit both digestion and absorption of gluten and other hard to digest foods. Great info! I never knew there was a real benefit to soaking grains other than for making overnight cereal! After seeing HEAB’s bowl of plump and delicious oatbran, I decided that was just what I was going to have for breakfast!

I soaked 1/2 cup of oatbran in 2 cups of water on the counter over night. This morning, I transferred the oatbran and soaking water to a pot, added a splash of vanilla and a good dash of cinnamon, and cooked it over medium heat for a couple of minutes until the water had absorbed. I topped my bowl with 1 chopped apple and some raisins that I had heated on the stove with more cinnamon. Also, taking a cue from HEAB herself, I decided to mix 1 tablespoon of butter in! Hello creamy, buttery, goodness! You have to try this!

I could NOT believe how voluminous this bowl of oatbran was! Check it out once it was all stirred up!

It almost overflowed the bowl! This was some seriously good eats!!

Speaking of good eats, I had two very delicious snacks today.

First up, Chocolate Covered Katie’s Raw Chocolate Fudge Cake with a little “twist” ala Heather!

I followed her recipe for a double batch of “Naughty Girl Butter” (recipe here) and added in about 1 teaspoon of freshly grated orange zest. I’m such a sucker for citrus and chocolate together!

I love coming up with new snack combinations. I have been seriously craving some popcorn lately. And…well you guys know about my little microwave dilemma so it’s not like I can rip open a pack of the good stuff and indulge in a little (near) instant gratification…or so I thought!

Heather’s Puffed Wheat “Popcorn”

  • 1 1/2 cups of puffed wheat cereal
  • 1 tablespoon butter (I used Land O LakesĀ whipped butter)
  • 1-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1. Melt butter in a sauce pan on the stove.
2. Stir in cereal until the puffs are covered in butter.
3. Sprinkle in nutritional yeast and stir to coat.

I ate my “popcorn” with a spoon so I wouldn’t miss out on any of that cheezy goodness but I wouldn’t judge you if you wanted to stick your face in the bowl!

Yum, yum, yum!

Have you come up with any good snacks lately? Share the love!

Posted in Breakfast, Snacks | Tagged , , , | 21 Comments

Feeling Up the Icebox

Posted on February 4, 2011 by kissmybroccoli

I mean FILLING!! šŸ˜‰

Hey hey everybody! I loved reading you guys’ comments about your foodie must haves! Let me just add oatmeal to my list! I just noticed that I’m running a bit I’m now starting to get nervous! Haha!

I figured since I finally came out about my relationship with my dear refrigerator (his name is Frio, by the way) yesterday, that tonight I would “take it to the next level” and officially introduce you to “him”.

This is what Frio looked like before I went grocery shopping today:

Haha! Just kidding! This is what he looked like after I cleaned him up!
So fresh and so clean, clean!

THIS is what my poor foodie stock was pre-shopping:

Check out my ginormous pummelo!

I was on a mission today…to be more spending conscious at the store and not just impulsively buy everything around the corner. So, I did a little planning!

Sale ads, grocery list, coupons…check, check, check!

I hit up 3 stores in 2 1/2 hours…it should NOT have taken me this long, but that’s what I get for starting at noon on a military payday weekend! Blarg!

Stop #1: SAMs Club

Organic spinach, ports, mini peps, steebies, peas, & cuties!
Yes, I did buy the 5lb bag of mandarins!
Anyone up for a bet if I’ll finish them all before they croak??

Stop #2: My own version ofĀ Hell Wal-Mart

2% cottage cheese, canned salmon,Ā prosciutto,Ā vanilla AM,
golden/reg raisins, canned tomatoes,
lemon ginger & decaf green (hiding) teas,
nanners, cauliflower (99 cents!), avocados (50 cents a piece!),
artichoke, organic zucchini, organic scallions, organic carrots,
2 tangelos, bloobs, 3 pink ladies, and organic cage-free eggs

Stop #3: Kroger

Peach Chobani (hiding), 2 Oikos Greek yogurts,
Yoplait Greek yogurt (never tried this brand before, but I had a coupon),
Ezekiel bread (no sugar!!), Lundberg brown rice cakes,
Lightlife Smart Ground, roasted red peps,
coconut agua, 2 bags unsweetened shredded coconut,
Baker’s unsweetened chocolate,
2 organic maters, and
Celestial Seasoning Mandarin Orange Spice (my fave!)

Reading Chelsea’s blog earlier this week about grocery budgeting, got me thinking about my own spending habits. I tried to be mindful of what I was putting in my…buggy. Yep, that’s what I call them! No, they are not “carts”!

My goal was to only spend $100. I figured a lot of the items will last me for 2 weeks or more and I’m hoping to see my monthly spending below $250 for the month. I know that sounds like a lot for one person, but for me, it works. I rarely ever go shopping or out to eat, so I allow myself to splurge on what I really love…FOOD!

I ended up spending $114.97 with $14.o9 in savings and the only non-food items I purchased were TP and toothpaste. I think I did pretty good, especially since I wasn’t really keeping a tally while I was shopping!

Now Frio is looking nice and full…JUST the way I like him!

I think we have a nice “give & take” relationship!

BEST part about grocery shopping…new snackage!

Brown rice cake topped with sunflower butter & sweet mini pepper

1/2 cup vanilla almond milk, 1/2 square Baker’s chocolate, &
2 HUGE steebies that were impressively juicy and sweet for being out of season!

How do you think I did? What do you choose to splurge on in life?

Posted in Shopping, Snacks | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 39 Comments

Foodie Commodities

Posted on February 3, 2011 by kissmybroccoli

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYBODY!!

Well, at least it is for me anyway! Hopefully there are a few of you out there that get tomorrow off too! Any snow bunnies out there? It seems like the winter blizzards are in full force this week! I’m just glad we didn’t see any of it here. Snow is SOOOO last year ya know! šŸ˜‰

Before I get into the day’s eats, let tell you that I have been trying to clean out my fridge all week. No, I’m not going on a trip (I wish), more like just trying to make itĀ the whole week without having to run to the store! Plus, I finally admitted to myself that there are some problems in my relationship…with my fridge that is…

1. I open like a bajillion containers of stuff at one time and am always having to reorganize the shelves so that everything fits! I currently have 5 different jars of jam open. None of which I can even eat now due to Sugar-Free Week!

2. I often forget about how much I have at home and buy “just one more thing.”

3. And lastly, I am a produce fiend! I like a lot of variety, but I buy more than enough fruits and veggies for one person to eat in a month and then when I get home from the store…well, refer to problem #1!

Ok, now on to the food!

For breakfast this morning, I decided to whip up a half batch of some of Alex’s One Size Fits All Pancakes after seeing HEAB’s extra fluffy/drool-worthy batch the other day.

I thought they turned out really well, especially since I ran out of almond milk halfway through the recipe and had to improvise with some watered down kefir! I also threw in a sad little banana that was on death’s doorstep!

You would never guess these fluffy little babies are gluten-free, sugar-free AND vegan! To make them even better, I topped my little banana cakes with something else a little fluffy!

Sugar-Free Apple Walnut Butter:

  • 1/4 cup walnuts
  • 1/4 cup natural applesauce
  • cinnamon
  • water to thin

Combine all ingredients into a food processor (or Magic Bullet) and process until smooth and creamy! Mmmm!

After breakfast, I threw a lunch together to take with me to work. Since I’m all out of my regular dinner leftovers, I decided to make myself a wrap. I don’t know why, but I always forget how much I love wraps!

Last time I went to SAMs, I bought a ginormous container of Sabra’s Spinach & Artichoke Hummus so I decided that since I’d been a good little girl this week and polished off both Mama Pea’s Zucchini AND TJ’s Tomato & Basil Hummuses (hummi?) that I would finally crack into the big mamba jamba!

TJ’s whole wheat tortilla (the ONLY bread substance I have in my house with no added sugar!), spinach and artichoke hummus, roasted red peppers, pea sprouts, and sliced cucumber (hiding under the sprouts).

I had this with some plantain chips and raw snap peas and it was
Abso-freakin-lutely delicious!

For dinner, the hummus made another appearance! Can you guess where it is?

This dinner was so not a recipe dinner. I just threw a whole bunch of stuff together and in 30 minutes called it a meal! Quick.Easy.Delicious!

Crunchy Chicken Strips: Chicken breast cut into strips coated in spinach and artichoke hummus and dipped in a mix of whole wheat bread crumbs and Italian seasoning. I dipped my strips in some warm sunflower butter…YUM!

Baked Smoked Paprika Potato Chips: 1 medium potato sliced into rounds, drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of garlic powder, black pepper, and smoked paprika

Roasted Beet, Cucumber, & Feta Salad: 1 large roasted beet (left-over from my beet experiment) and 1/2 large cucumber mixed in a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar, topped with crumbled feta cheese.

And with that meal, I am now officially out of everything!! Not really, I still have my jars of jam, but I seriously cannot be expected to live in a house without my necessities:

  • almond milk
  • Greek yogurt
  • eggs
  • spinach
  • portobellas
  • bananas

The ONLY thing that is keeping me from going completely over the edge of insanity is the fact that I do have a good amount of nut butter on hand…um, 5 to be exact! What? Only FOUR of them are open! Haha!

What foodie items can you not live without?
It’s only been 2 days since I finished up the spinach and I think I’m already starting to develop and eye twitch! šŸ˜‰ <- See?

Posted in Apps & Sides, Breakfast, Entree, Vegan, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 33 Comments