Amazing Black Rice Chicken Salad

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Amazing isn’t a strong enough word for how delicious this salad is!  I used black rice because I saw it at Costco one day and thought I would try it.  It’s cheaper than wild rice and is a change of pace from my usual brown rice.  It cooks up a deep purple color and the rinse water turned purple right away.  I’ll admit that the first time I opened the bag, it looked like I had bought 3 lbs of mouse turds.   But that’s the last time I will mention that.

This recipe is gluten free, dairy free, soy free, egg free.  🙂 And definitely fitness plan friendly.

The recipe is for one serving, but you can multiply it as many times as you like for additional servings.

Black Rice Chicken Salad

1/2 cup cooked black rice

2 oz cooked chicken, flaked

1/2 small avocado, cubed

1/2 oz chopped almonds

3 baby carrots, sliced

2 Tbs chopped celery

2 Tbs green onion, sliced

2 tbs chopped bell pepper (red would have been beautiful)

2 Tbs craisins

dash salt

1/2 tsp stevia blend

1 Tbs lime juice

Toast almonds either in a skillet or for 90 seconds in the microwave on high. Stir everything together and enjoy.  I ate mine right away, but I imagine it only gets better chilled.

1 recipe has 498 calories; 25 g fat (from the almonds and avocado);26 g protein; and 34 net carbs (11 grams of fiber!)  You can reduce the calories by halving the amount of almonds and avocado. Replace the volume with fresh copped veggies. This saves 187 calories and 11 g of fat.

P.S.  I’m still working hard at my Fit Yummy Mummy nutrition and exercise program–but while the busy holidays are upon us, I’ll just highlight the best of the new recipes I’m creating–instead of writing down everything I eat. I think I’ll go back to that eventually since it really does help.  I do tend to eat a lot of the things I enjoy most over and over.

 

Best Ever Protein Pancakes

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I’ve seen several recipes for these floating around pinterest and decided to try my own version.  They were amazing!  My protein pancakes are different because I used whole eggs, levening, and a little stevia for flavor. Also added a little almond milk to make it easier on my blender. It’s little known that the egg yolk contains almost as much protein as egg whites.  Yes, they have fat and cholesterol, but they also have folate and lots of other vitamins too.  A little fat in the diet is essential for healthy skin, hair, nails and balanced hormone production. And the lecithin in the egg white works with the cholesterol in the yolk to neutralize the negative effects. When God made eggs, He made the perfect food!

The small amount of leavening in this recipe makes the texture just like a regular pancake. My kids gobbled them up.  They even thought they were white flour pancakes–not bad for 100% whole grain.  For my gluten free friends, if you get gluten free rolled oats–these are perfect for you. I have to watch my dairy–lactose makes me miserable, but cottage cheese is cultured enough that it doesn’t bother me. If you have a dairy protein allergy or an egg allergy, then these aren’t for you.

 

Here’s the recipe:

In a blender or food processor combine:

1 cup rolled oats (or quick oats but not instant oats)

3 whole eggs

1 cup 1% cottage cheese

2-4 Tbs milk (I used almond milk) enough to get the blender flowing

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 Tbs stevia blend (I used stevia in the raw.)

Blend on high until a thick batter forms.  If your eggs were bigger than mine, your batter may be thin–but it will thicken upon standing.  Oats soak up a lot of liquid. Cook these on a griddle preheated to 350 degrees.  It makes 9 3-4 inch pancakes.  3 pancakes has 20 grams of protein and 243 calories.  Add 1/2 cup of applesauce or other fruit for a perfect 300 calorie breakfast.

 

Food Journal Week 2 Day 1

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Combine a super busy schedule with not writing my food down and you get a total nutrition fail. But that is behind me now. 🙂 The musical is over, soccer is soon to follow and we are carving out family time again.

Last night we started our November tradition of reading aloud Stories of the Pilgrims. I love this story and the kids do too! 15 pages a day will have us finish near Thanksgiving Day.

Pictures of the musical to follow later today. They are on my good camera and it’s dash to work time. For now, here’s my easy breakfast:

1 cup bran flakes, 1 Tbs sunflower seeds, 2Tbs craisins, 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

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Snack 1: 1 cup mountain high lowfat plain yogurt with 1/4 cup peanut flour, 1 Tbs stevia and 1tsp homemade vanilla extract stirred in. Topped with 1 chopped gayla apple. And a dallop of whipped topping.

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Right after the snack, I did the Fit Yummy Mummy workout of the month. November Tabatas A. I loved this one because there was no equipment involved and I could complete tthe whole thing. Yet it was still hard enough that my muscles felt super challenged.

Lunch: 2 cups each lettuce and spinach. 3 oz chicken breast, 2 Tbs craisins, 1 oz almonds and 2 Tbs raspberry viniagrette. I’m out of this dressing now and decided to try making my own so I can pronounce the ingredients. I’ll let you know how it goes.

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I was still starving a little later so had 2 slices of winter wheat artisan bread with Neufchatel cheese and strawberry jam. Then regretted it. It put me way over on my calories for the day. A hot cup of peppermint tea would have been a better chaser.
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Snack 2: 1 string cheese, 1/2 an apple, 1/2 cup black grapes and 1/2 oz almonds.

Dinner: 1 cup homemade lasagna soup with 100% whole grain noodles. 2 oz homemade bread from Healthy Bread in 5 minutes a day recipe.

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Totals: 1843 calories, 233g carbs, 99g protein, 40g fiber. If I want to burn fat tonight, I will need to add my intervals in before bed. My day is busy enough tomorrow that it would be nice to get them out of the way now. I plan to run stairs for 15 minutes after doing homework with the first grader.

Week 1 Results

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Whew! This is the week of the musical up at school. All four kids are in it and it’s a little crazy. I’ll pick up my food journal again after it is over, but if I have time to throw in a few recipes before then, I will.

I weighed this morning. I had been feeling a little discouraged. I was trying so hard to make good food choices and yet it felt like my body wasn’t changing much. So I stepped on the scale just to see where I was and I am 1.8 lbs down. For one week that is ok with me! It’s amazing how I felt like giving up until that moment and to see a little bit of progress was a real morale booster.

In response, I’m learning a new workout to do during nap time–it’s FYM’s workout of the month from club FYM. It looks super challenging, but I’m ready to kick it up a notch :).

This morning I had a bowl of bran flakes and almond milk with craisins and sunflower seeds. Snack was Greek Yogurt Pumpkin Mousse. Lunch will be some kind of salad with chicken. I’m out of apples and most other fresh fruit. I’ll be super happy for Thursday when our budget starts over and I can restock :). Only two days away.

BOT Day 6 Food Journal

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Yesterday was a terrible food day.  But all the cookies are gone now 🙂

This morning I made a new protein pumpkin pancake recipe that went over great with all the kids.

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I made them in the blender and it was thick for my old vitamix, but it worked. Add all the ingredients in the order listed blending well after each one. Then fry on a griddle turned down a little. Between 300 and 325 degrees.

1 cup lowfat cottage cheese
6 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp baking soda
2 Tbs honey or real maple syrup
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown rice (dry)

This made 21 pancakes and I had 3 with about 2 Tbs of light syrup. I’ll figure out the calories in a bit 🙂

First snack was a dairy free taco salad with hummus instead of ranch.

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Lunch and Snack (I just nibbled in the sewing studio while frantically sewing costumes): A huge protein bar and 2 oz of sun chips.

Dinner: 1 oz Almonds, 1 string cheese and 1 Apple. (Hoping for something better after our evening soccer games are done. I ran home just to unload the sewing stuff before coming here to the fields.)

BOT Back On Track Day 5 Food Journal

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Today has been harder for me. I started out ravenous at 5:30am and never felt full until 2:30 when I could only eat half my snack. This is about the time I want to give up trying to eat healthy, but I am determined to keep with it.

Breakfast: Veggie Omelet with winter wheat toast, cream cheese and jam

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First snack: 1 oz almonds, 1 cup fresh strawberries and a splurge of a spice cookie.

Lunch: Taco salad– lettuce, chicken breast, freeze dried corn, half an avocado, lots of salsa and a drizzle of ranch. Yum!

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And then another spice cookie. Oh dear.

Snack: Peanut butter powder, cocoa powder and stevia stirred into plain yogurt–not Greek, needed a thinner yogurt for all the powders. I could only eat half because it was so rich and then had a small Gayla apple.

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Dinner: 1 slice homemade pizza and 1 big salad

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Snack: Other half of mousse snack. I just got back from spending the evening in the costume room for the school musical. We made 4 mice costume and cut out a suit with tails. I’m exhuasted–so glad I’m not the director! I’ll spend the day there tomorrow to finish up, hopefully in time for cast pictures and a full dress rehearsal. Then we have a bake sale in the evening for church and hope to go ice skating as a family after that. I’ll have to plan carefully food for tomorrow so I can take stuff with me.

BOT Day 4 Food Journal

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I just got home from exercising with friends. We did Jillian again.

Breakfast was a spinach, mushroom, and onion 2 egg omelet. I chopped and sauteed extra veggies to make another one even faster tomorrow.

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Snack, pumpkin pie mousse: 3/4 cup Greek Yogurt, 1/3 cup pumpkin puree, 1 Tbs stevia, 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice and 1/4 cup whipped topping.

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Lunch: Leftovers from last night and 1/3 cup of egg salad made with light mayo and mustard with 4 poppy seed wafers.
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Not the best lunch, but the best I could do with all that is going on today.

Snack: 1 pure protein chocolate bar and 1 cup of fresh strawberries.

Dinner: Deluxe Deli Sandwich with nut bread, 2 oz of deli ham, tomato, avocado and spinach. Served with half an apple.

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Evening snack: 1 oz frozen almonds

Totals for the day: 1614 calories; 100 g protein

and 1 spice cookie, sigh.

BOT Day 2 Food Journal

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Breakfast:  7am Blueberry oat custard: 1 cup almond/coconut milk, 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1 packet stevia, 2 small eggs, 1/2 tsp almond extract, 1 cup wild (frozen) blueberries and a dallop of fit and active whipped topping.

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After I drop off kids at school, I get to exercise with my friend Pam and SIL Erica. (Update: We did Jillian’s 30 day shred, level 1. I haven’t converted them all over to FYM’s exercises yet, but am working on it :).)

I had trouble yesterday getting my updated dining room pictures to load from my phone. Trying again:

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You can see the new blue and gray colors. Today I will sand and paint trim, chair rail, and crown molding. Then hire my BIL to hang it if he has time.

Snack: Greek Yogurt chocolate mousse with 1 cup fresh strawberries. 6 oz fat free plain Greek Yogurt, 1 packet stevia, 1 Tbs cocoa powder (stir until smooth) then fold in 1/4 cup fit and active whipped topping.

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Lunch: Apple chicken tossed salad with zucchini chips. I tried the chips with a different recipe (lower temp 225 for longer time) and they never did get crisp, even after 1 1/2 hours. So I’m going to try again later at 350 and see what happens.

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Snack: 1 cup plain lowfat yogurt (Mountain High brand from Costco) 1/4 cup protein plus brand peanut flour, and 1 Tbs stevia. Stirred until smooth. Topped with 1 chopped Gayla apple.

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For dinner, we had cornbread topped cowboy casserole: 1 can of Aldi baked beans undrained, one can black beans, rinse and drained, 1 12 oz turkey keilbasa (fit and active brand from Aldi) halved and sliced. I stirred all this together and spread in the bottom of a 9 x 13 casserole. Actually, I just mixed it right in the dish. Then I mixed up a cornbread mix (from Aldi) according to package directions, spread over the top and baked at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. It was a hit.
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I ate 1/12 of the dish which was 212 calories and 12 grams of protein. I also added 1 cup of mixed peas and carrots; and 1 cup of homemade unsweetened applesauce (Taken from my freezer from last year’s harvest.)

So far for the day I’m at 1,618 calories at 98 grams of protein. If I need a snack later, I will choose something High Protein since I’m a little low for the day for my muscle building goals. I’m playing my calorie levels by ear and so far around 1600 feels pretty good.

Yesterday was rough. I had been used to 2500 calories a day or so and I was hungry a lot yesterday. Today I never felt hungry and just ate when the clock said it was time.

I’m mixing up a batch of homemade bread right now since I’m too busy with children to go to the store and we need to pack lunches tomorrow. I’m trying a new recipe: http://realfoodliving.com/recipes/award-winning-bread-2-loaf None of her recipes have ever disappointed so I have high expectations :).

Real Food Living: Award Winning 100% whole wheat bread

Oops, I just licked my finger and the spoon after measuring the honey in the bread, old habits die hard.  But to stay honest I have to write it down.

BOT Day 1

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BOT is something I learned from Fit Yummy Mummy and Stands for “Back On Track.” My food choices have been all over the place. I’ll have a few days of good choices and a few days of bad that undo everything I worked for. My lack of consistency has kept me from reaching my fitness goals, so I decided a little extra accountability might help. For 7 days I won’t eat anything unless I write it down here.

Breakfast: 6 oz of Fage plain fat free Greek Yogurt (Costco) sweetened with 1 packet of truvia and topped with 3 oz of fresh sliced strawberries (Aldi) sprinkled with a little more stevia.

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Planning ahead: Check in later for updates and more pictures.

Snack 1 at 9:30 is to be a spinach, peanut and banana smoothie. Lunch is a chicken, apple, mixed green salad.

Today at 10 two of my sister’s in law are coming to help me paint my dining room. Here’s a before shot:

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EWWW!

I hope to faux leather the floor to last 5-7 years until we can afford wood look tile. But that is a week long project–one step at a time. I’ll have other things to share with you as I carve out time–like our cool Dinosaur party this weekend.

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Smoothie: 1 cup almond/coconut milk, 1 scoop designer whey, 2 Tbs peanut flour, 4 cups spinach, and 1 frozen banana.

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Apple chicken salad: 1/4 can chicken breast (Aldi), 4 cups torn mixed greens, 1 chopped apple, 2 Tbs sunflower seeds, 2 Tbs craisins, 2 Tbs raspberry vinagrette.

Progress! The blue is done. Will paint gray below after lunch.
Afternoon snack, around 3pm. 1 fit and active pumpkin yogurt with 1/4 cup fit and active whipped topping. 1 banana and 1 protein bar.

Dinner: 5:30–another chicken and apple salad–love these! and 1/2 cup each fresh broccoli and baby carrots with 2 Tbs hummus

It’s 8:00 and I’m typing my food into my fitness pal to see if I can have a snack. I’m super hungry which is a good sign that if I choose carefully tonight I could burn some fat :). Heidi just brought the presidential debates up on Youtube streaming live. We still don’t have regular TV reception so I’m glad youtube is providing this service.

Munchies are getting the best of me, so I have zucchini chips baking in the oven. I underestimated how long these need to cook. They take over an hour to crisp up..I’ll be super ready. Thankfully they have very few calories. I’m at 1632 calories and 111 grams of protein for the day.

Run for Life 5K

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Thank you for all your support. The Women’s Clinic met their financial goal of $20,000 and even exceeded it by a little. I finished in just over 33 minutes a personal best. My team won first place for fund raising thanks to the readers here. Four of our members won first place time slots in their age divisions.

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Heidi, Me, and Kelly Marshall in front of the Independence Courthouse just after our run. Note to self: Do not run with a water bottle. It's heavy and they have people along the sides who will feel bad if you don't take the water that they volunteered their morning just to be able to hand you.

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Heidi and Me before the run. Trying not to feel nervous.

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Heidi, her cousin Haley and two of their friends from church just after the run.

Wish I took more pictures!!!!  I enjoyed the experience a lot and am looking to see the which next 5k (local) that I can work into my schedule. Then maybe a 10k, half marathon or something bigger–like an obstacle or mud run?

Things I did right this year:

Dressed in layers that I could take off and attach to my body while still running.

Trained 3 days a week on hilly terrain with days of rest between.  For training I used a Gym Boss timer with 1 minute running and 1 minute walking.  As I increased in fitness I increased my running speed during that interval.

Ate a great breakfast to run on: Smoothie with  1 cup almond milk, 1 scoop designer whey protein, 1 Tbs cocoa powder, 1/2 banana (frozen) and 5 frozen strawberries.

Wore sunscreen.

Took my cellphone for photos.

Left my purse at home with just my id, $20, and single car key in a zip pocket in my running pants.  Pinned my cellphone pocket shut so it couldn’t bounce out while I ran. It was 55 degrees at the start of the race. I wore Walmart brand full length black boot-cut running pants in a performance knit with a zippered id pocket.  Perfect.  On top I had a 3/4 length cotton shirt, the official race t-shirt over that and a zippered hoodie over that.  At the first mile marker I was ready to lose the jacket.  Other than that, I was right climate wise.

Took melatonin the night before so I would get a good night’s rest.

Prepared the night before with the race route, clothes laid out, hair plan (to keep it out of my eyes), weather watch, food plan, and showered the night before so there was very little to do the morning of.

And carefully selected good running shoes and ran with them several times before race day to break them in.

Things to do next time:  No water with me (too much to carry), and take extra safety pins in case team members need their bibs pinned on.  (another team member saved us this year–thanks Janelle Bird!)