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.

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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.

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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.