NCKAA: 17 Days Until Christmas

"Egg in the Middle of Toast"

1 slice bread*
1 egg
Spray butter
Cooking spray

1. Remove middle of toast. I usually make a smaller hole than this, but since this is part of my advent, I chose to go festive!

2. Spray both sides with butter, spray frying pan with cooking spray and put on medium heat.

3. Crack egg into hole.

4. When the egg is cooked enough (you should be able to slide the toast around the pan easily), flip! Cook until other side is done. If the bread isn't toasty, keep flipping, but don't cook it so long that the yolk cooks.

5. "Pop" the yolk and smear over the toast. Since you can't see the gingerbread man anymore (though deep inside we know he's there), I decided to serve his cut out as toast.

*I use Wonder Smart White Bread because it's 50 calories a slice and has the same amount of fiber as whole wheat bread. Adjust the nutritional information based on your bread. 

Nutritional Information: Calories: 125; Total Fat: 5.5g; Protein 8.2 grams; Carbs 11.6 g.

Growing up, "Egg in the Middle of Toast" was a household staple. Some people call it Toad in the Hole and other such things, but my family is pretty pragmatic and says it like it is.

This was a favorite breakfast for us all and I was bound and determined to make it healthy. It's not like it was hard, after all. I just swapped real butter for spray butter and went with a low-calorie bread. Lately, I've been missing home so having this for breakfast really hits the spot in many ways. 

NCKAA: 23 Days Until Christmas

Oatmeal with Pomegranate!

1/2 cup quick cook oats
1 1/2 cup water*
1/3 cup pomegranate seeds, divided

Heat water to almost boiling. Add all but 1 tablespoon of the pomegranate seeds.

When water boils, add oatmeal and cook 3-5 minutes.*

Top with remaining pomegranate seeds, let cool and enjoy!

* The box calls for 1 cup of water. However, I've found that if I add an extra half cup and cook the oatmeal longer than the recommended 1-2 minutes, I get more out of it without adding calories. Kevin thinks it's a bit watery so he sticks to the usual recipe. Feel free to do the same.

Nutritional Information: Calories: 176; Fat: 3.1g; Sodium: 1.2mg; Carbohydrates: 33.6; Protein: 5.4g; Fiber: 4.2g

This may seem like a simple recipe that doesn't have much to do with the holidays, but to me it isn't. My grandmother has an amazing pomegranate tree and every year would send us home with a dozens poms, at least! They are one of my favorite holiday treats. Little did I know until I was old enough to pay attention how expensive they are to buy at the store!

Now that I'm grown and living 500 miles from my grandmother's tree, they aren't free for me. So, when I buy a pomegranate (yes, just one!) I savor it. The particular pom I opened this morning is a good one - perfectly ripe, super juicy and yielded about a cup of seeds!

There are a couple of other recipes I might try, but to be honest, pomegranate seeds are one of my favorite snacks all by themselves. They take a lot of work (I tend to suck the seed then spit it out) so it tricks my body into thinking it's eating more than it is. When the study-time munchies hit, a pom just might be a lifesaver!

NCKAA: 24 Days Until Christmas

No, you didn't miss the 25 Days Until Christmas post ... I didn't write one. Yesterday was a sad day and didn't involve any cooking or culinary creativity. My dog passed away and I ate ice cream from McDonald's instead. Solace in food is bad, I know. But he loved ice cream!

Anyway, I owe you two recipes so I am going to divulge two ways to use Reduced Fat Crescent Rolls for breakfast.

Hungry Girl Monkey Bread

3 tbsp. No Calorie Sweetener (granulated), divided
2 tsp. cinnamon, divided
2 tbsp. light whipped butter or light buttery spread (like Brummel & Brown)
2 tbsp. sugar-free pancake syrup
2 tbsp. brown sugar (not packed)
1 package Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations Seamless Dough Sheet
1/2 tsp. baking powder

*If you don't have the dough sheet, use reduced fat crescent rolls and smoosh the edges together to create a "seamless" sheet. It doesn't matter how perfect it looks.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix 1 tbsp. Sweetener and 1 tsp. cinnamon in a large bowl or container. Set aside. Spray six cups of a muffin pan with nonstick spray, and set pan aside as well.

3. Place a small pot on the stove, but do not heat it. Add butter, syrup, brown sugar, 2 tbsp. sweetener, and 1 tsp. cinnamon. Leave this on the unheated stove, to be melted and mixed later.

4. Roll out the dough on a clean dry surface (smoosh if using rolls), and sprinkle evenly with baking powder. Gently smooth baking powder into the sheet with your fingers.
5. Cut dough sheet widthwise into six strips equal in size. Cut each strip into four squares. Using your hands, roll each square into a ball, for a total of 24 dough balls.

6. Place 12 dough balls in the bowl with the sweetener-cinnamon mixture. Lightly toss to coat, and then place them gently in the muffin pan, with four dough balls in each of three cups. No need to press the dough balls into the pan -- just let them fall naturally. Repeat with remaining dough balls, so that each of the six muffin cups contains four coated dough balls. Set aside.

7. Bring the small pot on the stove to medium heat. Stirring frequently, heat just until butter has melted and contents are mixed well. Evenly spoon the butter mixture over the dough balls.

Bake in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes, or until puffy and firm. Allow to cool slightly, and then plate and enjoy! There will be gooeyness in the bottom of the cups - I make sure to scoop that out and drizzle it on top of each "muffin."

Serves 6.
Nutritional Information: Calories: 154; Fat: 7.5g; Sodium: 369mg; Carbs: 21g; Fiber: 0.5g; Sugars: 6.5g; Protein: 2g

It's worth the hassle to make these (I know it looks complicated, but it really isn't!) because they look pretty impressive. But if you just don't wanna go through the steps, here is a similar recipe from my mom that is a Christmas morning tradition for us (The monkey bread, however, will soon be added to the list of traditional eats).


Tiny Cinnamon Rolls

1 8 ounce can refrigerated reduced fat crescent rolls
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Unroll crescent roll dough and put the pieces together to make one rectangle of dough.
Pinch the seams together to seal

Stir together the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over the dough rectangle –
leave one edge plain (so the dough will stick together after you roll it)

Roll up, starting with a long side. Go slowly and try to keep the roll from being too
loose. Press the edges to seal.

Cut the log into 12 slices and place in a lightly greased 8” cake pan – or into mini-muffin
pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes

Icing:
1/3 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 teaspoon milk (or more)
1 drip vanilla extract

Combine powdered sugar, milk and vanilla, stirring until smooth; drizzle over warm
cinnamon rolls.


I haven't calculated the nutrition stats for this, but the icing holds a lot of extra sugar, to be honest. It might be yummy to make this with the syrup from the Monkey Bread recipe!

Breakfast ideas ...

Ok, I am officially sick of oatmeal.

Well not really, but I eat it every day.

Check out my baked oatmeal recipe. I loved it so much, I took pictures and uploaded them to SparkPeople.com.  As good as it was (Each time you bit into a blueberry it melted in your mouth. It was DIVINE!!!), it's easier to make on the weekends since it bakes for 40 minutes.

While I put different fruits in it each morning ... and even cook it different ways sometimes, a little variety would be nice (though I'm excited to try my next new recipe: Crockpot Oatmeal.

So, I am looking for new breakfast ideas that will 1) satisfy my sweet tooth early in the morning 2) give me at least 5 grams of fiber and 3) give me protein. Sometimes I make turkey bacon, ham or an egg to satisfy my protein cravings, but I have really gotten sick of eggs lately and the bacon and ham are kinda messy.

This morning I made Cracked Wheat - a hot cereal with 7 g of fiber and 5 grams of protein in each serving. I added strawberries and cream (non-fat, non dairy, sugar-free vanilla creamer). Basically, it was like eating a crunchy oatmeal without the comforting taste of oats. But it has more fiber than oatmeal and I think I can figure out things to add to make it tastier.

They say variety adds spice to life. So tomorrow, I'm going to add Pumpkin Pie Spice to my variety. But I'm totally open to any ideas for different breakfast foods.

Eggcellent!

I have been baffled by the size of my appetite last week. It just didn't make sense.

I hadn't made any major changes to my routine so nothing explained my body's desire for more fuel.

So, I decided to look back at my food diary to see if there was a change there - and I found it: Breakfast.

A big part of the successful in this program for me can be found in breakfast. I never used to eat it - not regularly at all. However, since starting this life change, I eat breakfast everyday.

So, looking back over last week I noticed that I shifted from eating egg whites and protein for breakfast and was eating oatmeal and yogurts. I wasn't starting the day off full and, therefore, wasn't ending the day full.

Today: back to my egg white breakfasts. Think it's an egg-cellent idea? Check out some egg mug recipes that I use!