Ive been craving steak for a few days so I finally broke down and got a nice marinade going and started trying to think about what to make to accompany it. I needed a couple veggies and maybe a dessert. I started rummaging through my cupboard and a can of lite peaches kept coming to the front. Ah hell…last thing I really need is a sugary fatty dessert. So I started playing with a peach cobbler recipe and came up with this- and its fabulous! My kids LOVED it, they both ate their dinner and then had some of this as dessert and asked for seconds AND asked for it at snack.
Ingredients for Filling1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup juice from lite peaches- you may need to add a little water to make it a half cup
1 regular can lite sliced peaches - make this two for more peaches! I only had the single can and the peaches were pretty sparse, eventhough it tasted fantastic!
Cooking Directions for FillingCombine brown sugar, cornstarch, and pumpkin pie spice in a microwave safe caserole dish or 8×8 glass baking dish. Stir in water. Cook, uncovered, at HIGH power for 1 minute, stirring midway, until mixture has thickend. Add peaches; heat again, covered, at HIGH power for 3-4 minutes, until its bubbly.
Ingredients for Topping
1/4 cup skim milk
2/3 cup flour
1/3 cup quick oats
1/3 cup sugar * feel free to omit this!
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup fat free yogurt
Mix dry ingredients together. Add yogurt and milk at the same time and stir until just blended. Pour over the hot fruit and bake at 350 degrees until golden.
OPTIONAL:
Combine 2tsp sugar and and 1/2 tsp cinnamon and sprinkle over the cobbler before baking.
This turns out nice and light and fluffy. Its pretty sweet- any of the sugar could be omitted. The lite peaches I use are in pear juice, so it is very sweet already.
So this blog has been all about how I am trying to lose the weight I gained while pregnant- but surprise! Im pregnant! Im 6 and a half weeks along now and have continued eating low fat and healthy. My last two pregnancies I ate a ton of horrible food and even though I didnt gain a huge amount of weight during my pregnancies it was all fat! I ate tons of sugar sweetend lemonade and brownies with my first son and obscene amounts of pastries with my second, mostly chocolate or chocolate chip pop tarts. I am doing great with dealing with the crazy cravings. So far my cravings have been all been for pretty decent foods. My biggest craving is pudding- mainly tapioca pudding with chilled canned mandarine oranges. I make it with skim milk so it is very low fat but a good sources of calcium and vitamine C. My other big pudding craving is pistacio pudding with whipped topping, marshmallows and pineapple. So the marshmallows arent so great for me, but its so yummy!! I want to work hard this pregnancy to keep my weight gain to wieght that needs to be gained, not just a bunch of fat. Ive worked too hard to lose all of that fat to let myself eat crap and gain it back. I am being slightly more leinent on my fat intake since the baby needs it to develope but Im still being very watchful and eating lots f fat free or low fat products. I just let a few higher fat choices slide in once in a while. Like lean cuts of beef- more than 20% calories from fat but its important for me to get some red meat in my diet for the iron. When I took my pregnancy test I weight 156lbs, I hovered around 155lbs for a while and this morning I was up to 157. Im hoping to finish my first trimester at 159lbs or less.
My Dad and Step Mom sent me a great soup recipe the other day. Of course I had to go out and get the ingredients for it! It was based on a recipe for Weight Watchers 0 point soup.
4 cans fat free chicken broth
2 cans Italian stewed tomatoes
1 small can tomato sauce
14oz pureed squash
1 zucchini
6 carrots
3 stalks celery
half a sweet onion
1 can of corn- drained
1 cup of frozen peas
1 cup frozen green beans
1 cup uncooked pasta
salt, pepper, oregano, basil to taste
let everything simmer until just about cooked then throw in the pasta and let it simmer. The broth is really rich and yummy because of the tomato sauce and squash puree. I found the squash puree in the frozen veggie section at Safeway. It was beside the frozen spinach. Of course you can add more veggies or less if you chose, this is just a nice basic tastey soup! Yum!
When I first seriously tried to lose weight back years ago I read about Atkins. This was well before low carb diets became popular. I tried ‘dieting’- severely restricting my calories, as low as a few hundred calories a day. It sucked. So when I saw my friend losing a ton of weight while eating things like steak and butter I hopped on board. The first time I did it I did lose a few pounds. It was really restrictive and hard to stick with. I craved sugar like crazy even when I was in ketosis (a state where your body has burned ALL carbs and is now burning fat to keep you alive) I finally had to stop, it made me miserable and I did not feel healthy at all. My skin looked nasty and I just felt icky. After the birth of my second son I was desperate to lose some weight so I started back on low carb/high protein per the Atkins plan. I lost a few pounds but I was exhausted and I started losing my hair. I was really depressed and again my skin looked horrible. I started running while low carbing and I had such a hard time with having enough energy to get me through even a very modest work out. I looked around online to what other runners where eating and I found most were vehemently against low carb or high protein diets. Our bodies need fuel to get stronger and faster, that fuel comes from carbs. It took some getting used to, shifting my thoughts on eating carbs again but I have lost the bulk of my weight from eating a healthy diet including lots of carbs (about 40%), some protein (30%) and fat(30%). But Ive seen the fastest results with a low fat ‘high’ carb diet, when I keep my fat % under 10-20% the weight slips off a pound or two a week it seems now that Im off my plateau. The carbs I eat fuel my runs and the moderate protein helps rebuild my muscles. And one more perk is my skin looks great compared to how it looked when I was eating low carb and high protein.
I love McDonalds McGriddles. When they are fresh they are just mouth watering!! But they are really high in fat! A Cheese and egg McGriddle is 360 calories and has 16g of fat (40% calories from fat) a bacon egg and cheese is 460 calories and has 21 grams of fat, which is 41% calories from fat. Thats pretty steep. So I made my own-
two small low fat pancakes made with Krustease pancake mix (just add water) 1.5g of fat 158 calories
two egg whites -.1g of fat 34 calories
three thin slices of ham-cooked on the griddle-this is just lunch meat, 1g of fat per serving 60 calories
1 slice of fat free cheese-.2g of fat 31 calories
Lite syrup-1/8 cup (I dont measure, but thats pretty liberal)- 50 calories
total calories:333 calories- no thats not a huge calorie reduction but this is more food!! and only 2.8grams of fat!! That is 7.5% calories from fat!!! What a fantastic reduction from 40%! And its filling and satisfying. I know I can eat more than one McGriddle but eating more than one of these would absolutly stuff me far beyond comfort. A glass of V8 with this and YUM! A great way to start the day with lean protein (meat, cheese, eggs), carbs (pancakes,lite syrup) and just a smidge of fat.