I'm Moving

I've decided to move this blog to Wordpress for now. If I end up not liking it as much, I'll come back to Blogger, but for now you can find me at http://amandasgoodeats.wordpress.com. See you there!

Overnight Oats

Good morning! It has been so interesting having to keep a food diary for the past week and a half. It really helps me to balance out my meals and reminds me what else I need to eat that day. Not to mention it encourages me to add variety to my diet. Because I've been recording every meal, I'm now motivated to try to photograph and post here more often. We will see how that goes. :-)

This morning I had overnight swiss oats for breakfast. Last night I let soak in the fridge 1/2 cup oats with 1/2 cup soymilk, a couple tablespoons of walnuts, and some cinnamon. This morning I added about half a container of soy yogurt, 1/2 a banana, and a couple chopped Medjool dates.

It turned out to be so creamy and delicious! The dates really added the perfect chew and sweetness. I think other dried fruit like raisins or cranberries would have the same effect. Must remember that next time.

Breakfast Concoctions

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, and hence the one that I photograph most often. The only thing is that I keep taking pics in the morning but forget to upload them to my computer. So today I have a few to post.

At Whole Foods last week, I found these waffles and decided to give them a try.


Ever since I had to eliminate dairy from my diet, waffles and pancakes just haven't been the same to me. So this time, I tried to add a little more flavor excitement with yogurt, a pear, and walnuts. Sure enough, it hit the spot!


This is the yogurt I used - a new-to-me brand. Not bad! Next time I want to try their other flavors.


I finished it off with the rest of my pear and some walnuts.


Another day last week I had one of my new favorite oatmeal combinations: oats made on the stove with soy milk and cinnamon, topped with ground flax seeds, walnuts, banana, blueberries (SOUR ones, bleh), and almond butter. Trust me, there IS oatmeal under there!


And finally, another day I had overnight swiss oats with oatmeal, soymilk, soy yogurt, walnuts, and banana. For this bowl I don't think I added enough yogurt to drown out the uncooked oats taste, but it was still good. I added some agave nectar near the end to add some sweetness.

First Nutrition Appointment

On Monday this week I had my nutritionist appointment. It went well, and I really like the lady I met with, so that was good. My assignment for the next two weeks is to work on protein and healthy fats. She gave me some handouts and snack ideas, and I thought I'd post them here.

Protein: Chicken, fish, turkey, peanut butter sandwiches (for snacks), low fat string cheese, egg whites, hard boiled eggs, soy yogurt, Ensure - High Protein, tofu, legumes and beans.

Healthy fats: Olives, olive oil, avocado, flax seeds, nuts (walnuts and almonds).

Other ideas:

• Use Veganaise on sandwiches
• Peanut butter/almond butter - on bananas, carrots, crackers, waffles, English muffins
• Toffuti cream cheese on toast or bagels
• Dried fruit on yogurt or cereal
• Nuts in cereal, yogurt, salads, muffins
• Cheese on sandwiches, veggie burgers, salads, whole grain crackers
• Guacamole
  
• Smoothies with soy milk and fruit

My next appointment is in two weeks, and I'm keeping a detailed food diary for her until then. I don't have time to post everything on here, but maybe I will once in awhile. :-)

Gluten-Free Maple Oat Bread

Gluten-Free Maple Oat Bread

Makes 1 9 x 5” loaf

Ingredients:

1/2 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
3/4 cup sorghum flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 egg whites
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup maple syrup (the real kind, not Aunt Jemima!)
3 tbsp. packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups soy milk blended with 1 tbsp. vinegar
1 cup regular or quick rolled oats
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans or chopped dried cranberries (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray a 9 x 5” loaf pan with cooking oil. In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together until blended. In a medium bowl whisk the egg whites with the oil until smooth. Whisk in the maple syrup, brown sugar, and soured soy milk. Stir in the oats. (Add pecans or dried cranberries.)

Add wet ingredients to dry and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined. Pour into pan, smooth top, and bake until golden brown and a tester inserted into center of loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool on rack in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out of pan onto rack and cool completely before slicing.

Note: If you don’t need to make this gluten-free, you can use 1 ¾ cups all-purpose unbleached white flour instead of the white rice, tapioca, and sorghum flours. Or you can use 1 ¾ cups gluten-free all-purpose flour (such as Bob’s Red Mill brand, etc.) if you don’t have the three GF flours mentioned.

The loaf that I made came out very crumbly with the combo of flours I used, but I love the sweet taste that the sorghum flour adds, so I can deal with the crumbs. :-)

Yum! I love the flavor and texture of this bread.

Time for an Update

Well, it's been awhile, hasn't it? Being sick for two weeks certainly had something to do with that. And then there's the whole procrastination thing...

I had a doctor's appointment last week and apparently I've been losing too much weight recently, which is having certain negative effects on me. So next week I have an appointment to see a nutritionist. I've never seen one before, so hopefully that will go well.

But now what you've all been waiting for - food pics! I took some of these a looooong time ago, and only just uploaded them today.

A new oatmeal creation (new to me, anyway):


Contains stove top oats made with soy milk and cinnamon. On top is ground flax seeds, banana, blueberries, walnuts, and a spoonful of almond butter. Yum.

******

Awhile ago I tried a new recipe for overnight oats and loved how it came out. This was much more delicious than the last time I tried making this.


The night before I ate this, I put 1/2 cup oats to soak in the fridge with soy milk, cinnamon, and walnuts. In the morning I added banana, blueberries, and soy yogurt. This was sooooo deliciously creamy and good! A real winner.

******

And finally, I'll leave you with a picture of a loaf of gluten free maple oat bread I made recently.

Recipe to come soon!

Product Review - Almond Butter Balls!

Okay all you almond butter fanatics - this one's for you. Each month my family places an order with a food co-op located in Oregon. They have a lot of organic food including many dairy-free, gluten-free products that I can eat. In flipping through their catalog a couple months ago, I stumbled across these gems and just had to give them a try...

Here's my review in the style of Miss Em:

Almond Butter Balls

Package says: Betty Lou's Almond Nut Butter Balls with Antioxidants. Now with Green Tea and Grape Seed Extracts. Vegan. No Trans Fat. No Wheat, Corn, or Soy.

INGREDIENTS: Almonds, Fruitrim® (Fruit Juices, Natural Grain Dextrins), Oats, Brown Rice Syrup, Inulin (dietary fiber), Rice Protein Concentrate, Organic Brown Rice Crisp (Organic Brown Rice, Sea Salt, Organic Brown Rice Syrup), Rice Bran, Raisins, Sesame Seeds, Pure Vanilla, Sea Salt, Natural Almond Flavor, ActiVin® Grape Seed Extract (50 mg), TEAVIGO™ Green Tea Extract (25 mg), Mixed Tocopherols (Natural Vitamin E).

Nutrition Facts: 1 ball (40g), 170 calories, 8g Total Fat, 1g Saturated Fat, 90mg Sodium, 20g Total Carb., 4g Dietary Fiber, 8g Sugars, 5g Protein, Calcium 2%, Iron 4%.

Review: I love these things! They have a crunchy outside thanks to the coating of chopped almond pieces and a soft, moist, chewy inside. Sometimes I will find a raisin or two in the middle of one, but mostly they are just big balls of almond buttery goodness. I like to take these with me to work for mid-afternoon snacks. They're individually wrapped, and they came in a huge plastic storage jar.

What else can I say, except ... they're drool-worthy! In the next pic you can see what the middle looks like:

I found the Betty Lou's website today, and to my delight I see that they make a lot of other various nut butter ball flavors including High Protein Almond Butter, Peanut Butter, Spirulina Ginseng, Cashew Pecan, Fudgie Filbert, Chocolate Walnut, Coconut Macadamia. WOW! Those sound soooooo good!

Sadly I haven't seen these in stores anywhere, but here is the link to the website where you can buy them online.

Cashew Coconut Pudding

Last week our food order arrived from the co-op. This time I ordered raw cashews (among other things) so I could try some more recipes from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen.

A few days ago I made her recipe for cashew coconut pudding. It came out delish! I did soak the cashews for 8 hours before making it, because I'll do anything to make food easier on digestion. (Not to mention she recommends that step.)

The only sad thing is that in the process of making this, I think I killed our blender. :-( Boohoo! *sobs* The motor died on me, so I had to finish it in the food processor. Thankfully it was already almost done.

This is the second blender of ours I've managed to kill. We used to have a nice Kitchen Aid one, but I dropped that one on the floor, and it shattered into a million pieces. Now our replacement is gone too. Sigh.

I've been craving a homemade smoothie ever since. 

A Fueling Breakfast

This morning it was back to work for me after being gone for a couple weeks. I knew that I needed a fueling breakfast, so I made a big bowl of oatmeal with egg whites for protein.

This bowl includes oats, soymilk, ground flaxseed, currants (we're out of raisins), egg whites, and pecans. Yum!

Easy-to-Chew Meals

For breakfast today I had quinoa flakes made with banana. I've never tried them with banana before because when I tried making oatmeal with banana a couple months ago, I really didn't like the taste.

But oh what I have been missing! Quinoa flakes with banana tastes so good! And it smells divine while cooking. I'll have to try oatmeal with banana again sometime to see if I like it now.

For lunch I made a thick veggie omelet and had a piece of toast (GF) on the side. (After the pic I prettied the toast with raspberry jam.)

My omelet made with Eggbeaters included shredded rice cheeze, cut up zucchini, green bell pepper (from our garden!), tomato, and spinach. Not bad!

Tomorrow I go back to the dentist to have my stitches taken out.

Amy's Indian Mattar Tofu

Last night I had my first real meal - something soft and easy to chew: Amy's Indian Mattar Tofu (pardon the picture - this meal is not photogenic. )

I've had this frozen meal once before. It's not spicy, which is just how my tummy likes it. Last night it took me thirty minutes to get it down. My jaw was sore for at least two hours after I ate, but it was so nice to be able to eat vegetables again!!

I really like the Amy's products for their healthy, organic ingredients. I appreciate all the dairy-free and gluten-free variations they sell. I've tried Amy's DF & GF pizzas (so good!), tamale pies, tofu scramble, mac & cheeze, and tamale verde. My favorite so far is probably the Rice Crust Spinach Pizza (DF & GF).

If I had one complaint about the meals it would be that many of them have a watery taste after microwaving. But I doubt that can be helped, since they're frozen meals after all. The pizzas and mac & cheeze don't have this problem. I wonder if cooking the others in the oven would make a difference. Most of the time I'm not that patient. :-)

Later on in the evening I made smoothies for my parents and I. Yum. There's no picture though because I didn't feel like going upstairs to get my camera. Still low on energy. I'm working on that.

A Liquid Diet

Here's what I've been eating on my liquid diet:

My mom went back to Fraiche and got me a pint of their soy frozen yogurt! I love my mommy.

Jello

Soy chocolate pudding - surprisingly delicious. I've tried this brand of soy pudding in their vanilla flavor and found it too sickly sweet. But the chocolate flavor masks the sweetness, so I like it much better.

LOTS and LOTS of smoothies. I love smoothies.

Sweet corn soup

The good news is I have a big bruise on my face now, which means my mouth is almost healed. I took my last antibiotic last night, and the swelling has almost gone down.

All the groceries we got at Whole Foods last week are calling my name. Only a few more days...

Vanilla Coconut Shake

This morning my mommy made a smoothie for me out of my new cookbook, Ani's Raw Food Kitchen.

This is the vanilla coconut shake on page 50.

She halved the recipe for me, since it says it makes 4 servings, and I wasn't sure if I would like it or not.

The verdict? I liked the flavor of it that the pecans added, but the texture was a tad gritty. Possibly because we don't have a super powerful blender? I'm not sure. I think if I was able to chew then it would've been okay, but since I can't, it was a little hard to get it down just by swallowing.

It definitely needed the extra ice that we added to it. The mixture wasn't very thick, so next time we might also add a frozen banana to help it out.

P.S. See my green blankie? Smoothies always make me cold! Even though it's summer, we've been having an awful lot of cold foggy mornings lately.

Oatmeal with Granola Plank = Yum

This was the last real breakfast I had before going to the dentist:

Oatmeal made with oats, soymilk, and ground flaxseed topped with a banana and part of a maple almond crunch granola plank

It was dee-licious! Since these granola planks are becoming so popular with food bloggers lately, I decided I just had to try them.

They pleasantly surprised me. They weren't too crunchy as in hard-crunchy. Instead they were more chewy-crunchy. Definitely a keeper. Once my mouth heals I want to try them with yogurt, and maybe even on soy ice cream.

Whole Foods Loot

The day before I had my wisdom tooth taken out, my mom and I went on a fun shopping trip to Whole Foods. That just figures, doesn't it? We got a whole bunch of yummy things, and now I have to wait at least a week before having them!

Well, here's some of what we got:

 

This includes tapioca hamburger buns (GF), dried shredded coconut, raw carob cookies, a cupcake from the bakery, quinoa flakes, maple almond crunch granola planks, Power Flax bars (w/ cranberries & currants), blueberry oat bran muffins, tofu veggie burgers, oat groats, buckwheat groats, dates, soymilk, a vegan almond jam thumbprint cookie from the bakery, a thai wrap, 4 Clif Kids Z Bars (2 peanut butter, 2 honey graham), a Clif Nectar bar, a Kookie Karma bar (banana bread flavored), and 3 Amy's frozen meals (All American Veggie Burgers, Indian Mattar Tofu, and Asian Noodle Stir Fry).

Here's a picture of the cupcake I got:

 

The sign in the bakery counter said that this was a vegan cupcake, but when we got home I realized that the sticker on the box said it was something different. Great. So I tried a few bites, and the cupcake part was extremely dry and the frosting bothered my tummy, so I concluded it probably had dairy in it. We tossed it out. We don't usually get disappointments like that from Whole Foods. Surprising.

Not Again

[This is a cross post from my other blog.]

On Wednesday this week I had to have yet ANOTHER wisdom tooth removed. Owww! Did we not just do this?? (I would have said “didnt” at the beginning of that sentence but apparently the apostrophe key is not working on my keyboard. Great. Time to upgrade to Mac.)

Anyway, at the end of May my bottom left wisdom tooth became badly infected. Now here it is exactly two months later and the bottom right one got infected. Sigh. This time it took longer for the doctor to take it out because the tooth had 3 roots. Owww. Instead of pulling out the whole tooth like she did the other one, she had to break this one in pieces. My. Poor. Jaw. I kept repeating Psalm 139 in my head while it was happening and that really did help keep my mind off the pain.

So here I am again - recovering on the couch in the family room slurping soy yogurt, pudding, and Jamba Juice. Oiy. I cant (sorry no apostrophe!) open my mouth wide enough yet to get a spoon in there. Maybe tomorrow.

Happy Monday

Good morning and happy Monday! It's an especially happy Monday for me, because I don't have to work today! My schedule got switched around this week, so I don't have to go in till Thursday. Woohoo. I love starting a new week out this way.

This morning I got up at 6:15. My poor mommy has to go in for jury duty today, so she was up early too.

Yesterday we had some really cold, windy, yucky weather, and last night big dark clouds started rolling in, so it's back to wearing long sleeve shirts, lots of layers and sweatshirts for me. Boo. For breakfast I made a hot bowl of oat bran with brain fuel - aka ground flaxseed.

After I did my dishes, I decided to make a cup of tea and work on my Balancing the Sword Bible study downstairs on the couch. What a sweet time it was to sit at the feet of Jesus this morning and receive spiritual food from Him to strengthen me for the coming day. 

Later on in the morning I made a smoothie. We have a lot of fresh fruit in our house right now. All the peaches on our peach tree are ripe, and we filled up at the farmer's market yesterday.

Today's concoction included peaches, strawberries, banana, a plum, and soymilk. It turned out a lovely shade of pink:

Ta-ta for now. I'm off to get some writing done.

Raw Food Cooking

I bought a new cookbook at Borders this past week: Ani's Raw Food Kitchen by Ani Phyo. I have to say, I'm intrigued by the idea of eating more raw foods for health, energy, and mental clarity. I've noticed that I feel most inspired with writing ideas after I've eaten healthy foods. So I'm excited to try some of the recipes in my new book.

This morning I made her almond cinnamon oatmeal. The only thing is, we don't have oat groats, so I used regular rolled oats instead. Yes, that means the recipe wasn't completely raw (because rolled oats are cooked while processed), but oh well. At least I got the taste! And never fear - I plan on making a grocery list soon. :-)

Here's how it turned out:

The taste of it was very sweet. I substituted agave nectar for dates (because of course, we don't have any dates - I'll put them on the list!), and next time I don't think I'll use as much.

At first, I tried adding some soymilk to tone down the sweetness:

Then I tried it with a bit of almond butter (sorry, no pic). That worked better.

One thing I liked about this recipe was the cinnamon. I loooove lots of cinnamon in my oatmeal, and this definitely had an intense cinnamony flavor. Yum. I'll be making this again - hopefully next time with completely raw ingredients!

Horseback Riding Day

This morning my alarm went off at 5:45, and I think I turned it off in my sleep. I've been prone to do that once or twice in my life. At 6:09 my eyes opened again, and I realized what day it was. Horseback riding day!

My sister takes horseback riding lessons every Saturday, and usually I don't get to go watch because I have to work. But today the lesson was an hour earlier due to the heat, so I got to go! We had to leave at 6:50.

For breakfast I had a warmed up gluten-free bun with some raspberry jam on top. I was going to have it with apple butter, but found some disgusting mold in the jar, so jam it was. Sorry, no pic.

While my parents and I watched the lesson, I ate a Clif Nectar bar. I've never had one of these before, but saw them at the grocery store and decided to give them a try.


The verdict? I don't think I'll try this flavor again. For me the taste of the dates was too sweet. Normally I like a lot of cinnamon, but mixed with the dates it was just too overpowering. I will say that the bar definitely kept me full until we got home.

This is the horse my sister rides: Terra (short for Terracotta). She's so pretty!


We got back home from the equestrian academy at 9:30. I barely had time to whip up a bowl of oatmeal before heading to work.

Today's bowl featured: oats, soymilk, cinnamon, ground flaxseed, a cut up nectarine, blueberries, Bear Naked granola with freeze dried berries, and agave nectar. After I made it, I realized I forgot to add the pinch of salt that everyone says makes such a difference in flavor. There is always something I forget. Tomorrow.

All mixed up

Fraiche Yogurt!

Guess where I got to go last night! To the famous Fraiche frozen yogurt place in Palo Alto!


For those of you who haven't heard of it, Fraiche makes and sells their own homemade, organic yogurt and frozen yogurt. They also have a soy, lactose-free frozen yogurt, which is what I had last night. It was sooooo goood.

They offer a variety of toppings including fresh fruit, graham crackers, coconut, and shaved chocolate. I decided to get fresh mango and blueberries. Talk about to-die-for. The mango was so juicy. It was the perfect combo.


My mom and I went there around 8 PM, and the little place was jam-packed full of people. A bunch of college kids were working behind the counter, so things moved pretty quickly.

Because of the line, we did feel a bit rushed when it came to be our turn. Only after we ordered did we notice that they have an ollalie berry puree as a topping choice. I just might have to get that next time. My grandparents used to grow ollalie berries on their property, and I *love* them.

We also got two chocolate ones to take home to my dad and sister - one with coconut and one with graham crackers. They were pretty melted by the time we got home, especially since it was so hot outside, but the eaters thought they still tasted good. :-)


I can't wait to go back! Hopefully next time we'll be able to go at a less busy time.

Thursday Love

[Note: This is a cross-post from my main blog.]

It’s Thursday. *Hearts* Thursday is my favorite day of the week because that means I have two whole glorious free days at home before I have to go to work again. On Fridays I have the thought looming over my head that the next day will be a long day in the office, but Thursdays I feel free.

I woke up this morning in the middle of a dream when my alarm clock went off at 6. Ugh. My stack of books next to my bed reminded me that I am WAY behind in reading for book club, which is TONIGHT, so I guess I had better get up and get a move on. Devotions this morning was very convicting, and I’ll leave it at that.

After taking a shower I decided to turn on my computer and start writing next week’s post for my column on the HSB Front Porch. I did a little bit of work on it, and then went downstairs to have a nectarine. I ate it outside in the garden. There is just something about fresh, early morning air that makes me feel at peace. I watched the sun rise up over our house, then I went back in.

Next I did some more computer stuff. When I felt hungry again, I made oatmeal which included: oats, oat bran, soymilk, ground flaxseed, lots of cinnamon, 1 tsp. maple flavoring (smells just like old fashioned maple donughnuts, which I used to love, but can’t have anymore), and agave nectar. I heated up some Bing cherries and had those on top.

As I assembled breakfast, I thought about the long list of things on my to-do list for today. What to do first? I don’t know! I need to go dump my brain. Be back later.

A Not-Hungry Kind of Morning

This morning I woke up around 6ish and kept opening and closing my eyes, trying to rest, but not fall back asleep. Last night I stayed up later than usual reading in bed. Not good, but I knew I had to get up, so I did and did devotions.

I finally got out of bed at 6:25 to take a shower. But instead of going downstairs afterwards, I stayed in my room getting ready for the day and listening to a sermon mp3. I didn't feel hungry for breakfast.

See, if I eat too late at night after dinner, I'll wake up in the middle of the night with a tummy ache. That's what happened last night. Sigh. In the morning my stomach will still be bothering me, hence the not hungry feeling.

At 7:30 I finally went downstairs and had something easy on digestion: a peeled nectarine. (I peeled it after the photo.)

By about 8:45 I knew I should have a real breakfast, even though I still didn't feel hungry, so I made quinoa flakes. Only as it turned out, we were completely out of bowls. They were all in the dishwasher. After searching the cupboards, I finally found our Bunnykins bowls! My sisters and I used these china bowls when we were toddlers! Such memories...

I just might have to use it every morning from now on.

******

Here are some more food pics from yesterday that I just uploaded this morning:

Soy mint marble fudge ice cream with vegan chocolate pound cake (from Whole Foods)

Soy yogurt with fruit (bananas, blackberries, and grapes) and honey:

That's all for now!