I [Love] Brunch

We are 2 weeks and 1 day from leaving for our European adventure which means we're 1 month and 1 day away from our wedding. Travel + Wedding = Diet in High Gear. As a treat, and as a little motivation for myself, I'll be posting some of the meals I make over the next couple weeks to get my weight under control.

This morning was all about brunch. On the menu:
Broccoli, Egg White, & Cheese Omelet
Homemade French Bread
Fresh Strawberries

Doesn't this just look a little bit like heaven?!

It couldn't be easier to whip up with only a few simple ingredients and under 15 minutes.

What you need:

• Non-stick Cooking Spray
• 2 Egg Whites (1/3 c)
• 2 tbs Sharp Cheddar Cheese
• 1/2 c of broccoli
• 2 tbs onion, chopped
• 1 tsp garlic, minced

Directions:

Coat medium skillet/omelet pan with cooking spray. Over medium heat, saute onions, garlic, and broccoli until slightly tender, about 5 minutes. Pour egg white over veggies and continue to cook until whites begin to solidify and bottom starts to lightly brown. Flip omelet. Sprinkle cheese over 1/2 of the omelet. When the bottom starts to brown, fold omelet in half. Cook another 2-3 minutes and serve. Salt & pepper to taste. 

Serve with a side of homemade french bread (1 oz) with a tsp of yogurt butter, and freshly cut strawberries (4 medium berries). 

Total Nutrition (omelet, bread, & strawberries): 

Calories: 194

Fat: 3.5 g

Sat fat: 2.1 g

Cholesterol: 10 mg

Sodium: 438.5 mg

Carbs: 21.5 g

Fiber: 2.4 g

Sugars: 3.1 g

Protein: 19.4 g

Carne Asada Taco Tartlets

These little beauties are like little flaky cups of heaven. Savory, delicious and totally filling, these phyllo dough taco tartlets are a measly 92.75 calories per tartlet! Here's what we used:

4 Sheets of Trader Joe's Phyllo Dough - 120 calories
3 tomatillos, quartered - 32 calories
2/3 cup of chopped onions - 42 calories
10 cherry tomatoes, halved - 30 calories
2/3 cup of unsalted, fat free canned black beans - 159 calories
10 ounces of packaged Trader Joe's Carne Asada, cubed - 450 calories
1/2 cup of Kraft 4 Cheese Mexican Blend - 160 calories
1/4 cup of Old El Paso Taco Seasoning Mix - 120 calories

The Filling:
1. Do NOT open the Phyllo dough until you're ready to use it. Let it remain in the box and thaw until you've completed the filling.
2. In a pot of boiling water, boil the tomatillos for 5-7 minutes until tender. Drain.
3. In a large sauce pan which has been lightly coated in cooking spray, combine the beans, tomatillos, tomatoes and onions over medium heat until the tomatoes begin to fall apart (5-7 minutes). Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Add in the Carne Asada (DO NOT DRAIN THE LIQUID!) and cover. Cook for 9-12 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Remove the lid, add in the Taco Seasoning, and stir. Reduce heat to low and cook for an additional 10 minutes, or until the liquid has mostly evaporated.
6. Place cheese in a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the Carne Asada mixture, and stir.

The Phyllo:
BE SURE TO READ THE PACKAGE INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO HANDLE PHYLLO DOUGH! Phyllo is very delicate and may become very frustrating to handle. Take your time and be meticulous when it comes to following the instructions provided for you on your phyllo dough package.
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place four sheets, lightly coated in cooking spray, on a 12-muffin, 9x13 muffin tin.
3. With a pair of scissors, carefully cut the sheets into 12 equal rectangles.
4. Press the phyllo rectangles into the tins to create phyllo muffin liners.

Divide the Carne Asada mixture evenly among the 12 phyllo cups. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 16-18 minutes or until the tips of the phyllo cups begin to brown. And VOILA!

Now for the math:

120 cal of dough plus

32 cal of tomatillos plus

42 cal of onions plus

30 cal or tomatoes plus

159 cal of black beans plus

450 cal of carne asada plus

160 cal of cheese plus

120 cal of taco seasoning

=

1,113 calories divided by 12

=

92.75 calories per tartlet!

I had 4 of these babies for dinner for a very satisfying 371 calories.

ENJOY GUILT FREE!

(Almost) 100 Calorie Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Finding something sweet and satisfying without being calorically equivalent to most meals can be quite the challenge. Lauren from Laurealism posted this great, simple recipe which will be serving as a sweet, satisfying, and filling treat for breakfast this week.

What you need:
1 15 oz can of Libby's pureed pumpkin - 80 calories/cup, 3.5 cups/can, 280 calories/can
1 large egg - 72 calories
1 box of Betty Crocker super moist "Spice" cake - 160 calories/serving, serving=1/10 of package, 1600 calories per box.

Mix the 3 ingredients until smoothly blended. Spoon mixture into muffin tin that has been lightly coated in cooking spray (calories in cooking spray are negligible). This recipe will make 18 solid muffins. Bake at 325 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. And that's it!

And now, for the simple math.

280 calories of pumpkin plus

72 calories of egg plus

1600 calories of cake mix

=

1,952 calories for all 18 muffins OR 108.444 calories per muffin

Enjoy guilt free!

Our Inspiration

Ben & I are new to dieting. Not to say you would assume by looking at us that we would have ever  needed "to lose some weight". Quite the opposite actually. Ben has grown up playing anything and everything from football to soccer to volleyball to wrestling to rugby to blahblahblah and the list goes on. I also have always been on the active side. Not in quite that wide of a variety of activities, but I have spent many a long evening in the studio perfecting some form of dance or another. Needless to say, we both consider ourselves athletes in our own right.

It seems so irresponsible now to look back on my college years and think of all of the opportunities to better my body that I completely disregarded. Free gym membership. Free extra dance classes. Free personal training. All available to those with the title of "student". If I could give one bit of advice to the seniors who are completely unaware of what catastrophe may be lurking around the corner for your body it would be this: Despite what you think and how much you may think you are exercising, YOU WILL NO LONGER BE ABLE TO EAT WHATEVER YOU WANT. This realization hit Ben and I both pretty hard post graduation when our lifestyles had changed but our eating habits did not.

We took the steps toward recovery about half a year ago. After months of hard calorie cutting and some pretty frustrating steps on the scale, both Ben and I are sitting pretty on our ideal weights. Despite being pretty much where we want to be weight-wise, we still must be VERY conscious of what exactly we are putting into our mouths. This blog came into motion this past weekend when Ben and I visited family and friends in southern California. Let's be honest; it is incredibly difficult to be dieting around people who are not dieting (and also to not be a burden on those individuals who are feeding us). I feel like most people don't have a very good idea of exactly HOW bad somethings are for you. Here's where this blog comes in:

Ben and I have come up with some pretty tasty ways to enjoy ourselves while still maintaining our diet and calorie counts. We've also collected some great recipes that others have come up with. Our idea is to really make the calories and serving sizes as clear as possible. This is mostly for our sanity sake. If it benefits others along the way, even better. Ben is the quite the masterful cook so feel free to assume that any and all meals were created and assembled by him (unless otherwise specified). I am the queen of sweets. Any dessert or sugary treat is probably my doing. I will also do the majority of the writing as I am the more organized of the two of us.
I hope you enjoy and happy eating!