Fervent Foodie

Fake-Out Dippy Egg(s) & a Giveaway Winner!

August 21, 2010 7 Comments

First off, breakfast!

I’m a big BIG fan of eggs for breakfast. I’m sure you have all heard the debates on whether or not the egg yolk is good for you. Well, I’m no nutrition expert (that is for sure), but I tend to follow the “all things in moderation” type of thinking. In any given week, I eat eggs for breakfast (on average) 4-5 days. In an effort to help out my cholesterol levels, I typically only eat 1 whole egg per breakfast along with a few egg whites (usually 3). This way I get my beloved eggs and my much needed protein without taking in too much cholesterol.

During the workweek, I often make up a large batch of scrambled eggs or baked eggins that I divide up into several containers and then pair with some sort of veggie. I love this grab-and-go breakfast during the week, but on the weekends I take the time to make the eggs fresh and how I actually prefer them: dippppppppppy.

Today, I made my dippy eggs fake out. First, I scrambled up three egg whites that I seasoned with S&P and red pepper flakes. When the egg whites were almost cooked through, I added a whole egg to the pan and seasoned with S&P:

I cooked the eggs for precisely the amount of time it takes my bread to toast (that is an exact unit of measurement 😉 ), then I flipped the whole egg over for just a few seconds until the top set up but the yolk was still ooey gooey.

Egg whites onto the plate:

Dippy egg on top and 12 Grain Bread along side:

Then I broke the yolk and let it ooze down over the scrambled egg whites:

Mmmmmm… I love a good egg yolk.

Using this “fake out” it’s like I’m getting a plate full of dippy eggs, but only the cholesterol and fat of 1 whole egg. YUM.

ADORA GIVEAWAY WINNER!!!

First thing, first, I copied all the comments into Excel because that is what any self respecting accountant would do 😉

Then I removed comments that didn’t count (ahem, Allison… 7 posts still only gets you 4 entries… haha)

Then I used Random.org’s true random number generator to select a winner….

And the lucky winner is:

Hallie at Healthy Twists!!!!!

Yay! Hallie, please email me your mailing address (ferventfoodie@gmail.com) and I will forward to Adora!

Keep an eye out for another giveaway next week! All I can say is I’m super excited :) And thank you everyone for checking out my blog. Each of your comments brightens my day!

Ramblings

7 reasons having lunch with your mom rocks

August 20, 2010 9 Comments

1.) She’s always super excited to join you for lunch

2.) Without you even asking, she packs you both a picnic lunch, which makes you feel like a kid again 😀

3.) Not only does she pack you lunch, but she packs you a delicious healthful oober tasty lunch

4.) She is super interested in hearing all about YOU. (did I mention this wrap was AMAZING?)

5.) She unintentionally slips in words of wisdom that you will carry with you through your years

6.) She lets you take her picture for your blog….. Moving on…

7.) She really is your #1 fan.

Here’s what’s on the agenda this weekend:

Friday night cookout with coworkers
Saturday possible cookout at my house
Sunday BF family cookout

In summary, there will be a lot of cooking out this weekend 😀

Recipes

Blueberry cheesecake bites & a GIVEAWAY!

August 19, 2010 57 Comments

Last week, I made yogurt cheese for the first time. Making yogurt cheese consists of lining a strainer with a paper towel, plopping some yogurt on top, and leaving it to chill out in the fridge overnight. Doesn’t get much easier than that folks.

I went with 1/4 cup Stonyfield Farms Fat Free French Vanilla Yogurt. Here’s the lil yogurt cheese:

Isn’t it cute???

To make the blueberry topping, I put 1/2 cup fresh blueberries + 1 packet Truvia + 1 tsp water into a food processor:

Then, I poured everything into a little pan and heated the mix on low heat until the sauce thickened up:

When the blueberries were cool, I took about 1/4 of the blueberry sauce and topped the yogurt cheesecake bite with it:

I put the cheesecake bite in the fridge while I got to cleaning my disaster kitchen…. Then I dove in to dessert:

HOLD THE TRAIN! The key component of any cheesecake is the crust! Crap! I didn’t have any graham crackers or nilla wafers (which both would have been excellent options), so I smashed up 1 tbsp of Honey Bunches of oats and put the cheesecake on top:

YUM. YUM. YUM. I’m not sure how to compute the calories on this lil guy since a lot of the yogurt is strained out and not used…. But when I include the total calories on the yogurt, this cheesecake bite is only 63 calories. I had a lot of blueberry sauce left over… Maybe I’ll use it on toast… better yet, waffles 🙂

GIVEAWAY TIME!

At the Healthy Living Summit this past weekend, I was lucky to get a whole bag of Adora Calcium & Vitamin D Supplements in Premium All-Natural Dark Chocolate!

What can be better than that?!?

Ummm… How about a whole bag of Dark Chocolate AND a whole bag of Milk Chocolate Adora discs?! adora_bags

The nice folks at Adora are going to give one of my readers just that!

You can enter to win up to four times by leaving one comment on this post for each of the following items:

1. Leave a comment saying “hi” or whatever is on your mind

2. Follow me on Twitter (you stalker, you 😉 ) My ID is Fervent_Foodie — if you already follow me, leave a comment here saying so

3. “Like” the Fervent Foodie Facebook page and leave a comment on this post letting me know you did so

4. Tweet! (or blog) about the giveaway, and leave a comment here letting me know you did

I’ll use a random number generator to select the winner, and Adora will ship the chocolate goodies directly to you! US mailing addresses only. Giveaway ends Friday August 20th at 11:59pm Eastern time 🙂

Giveaway, Recipes

Blueberry cheesecake bites & a GIVEAWAY!

August 19, 2010 57 Comments

Last week, I made yogurt cheese for the first time. Making yogurt cheese consists of lining a strainer with a paper towel, plopping some yogurt on top, and leaving it to chill out in the fridge overnight. Doesn’t get much easier than that folks.

I went with 1/4 cup Stonyfield Farms Fat Free French Vanilla Yogurt. Here’s the lil yogurt cheese:

Isn’t it cute???

To make the blueberry topping, I put 1/2 cup fresh blueberries + 1 packet Truvia + 1 tsp water into a food processor:

Then, I poured everything into a little pan and heated the mix on low heat until the sauce thickened up:

When the blueberries were cool, I took about 1/4 of the blueberry sauce and topped the yogurt cheesecake bite with it:

I put the cheesecake bite in the fridge while I got to cleaning my disaster kitchen…. Then I dove in to dessert:

HOLD THE TRAIN! The key component of any cheesecake is the crust! Crap! I didn’t have any graham crackers or nilla wafers (which both would have been excellent options), so I smashed up 1 tbsp of Honey Bunches of oats and put the cheesecake on top:

YUM. YUM. YUM. I’m not sure how to compute the calories on this lil guy since a lot of the yogurt is strained out and not used…. But when I include the total calories on the yogurt, this cheesecake bite is only 63 calories. I had a lot of blueberry sauce left over… Maybe I’ll use it on toast… better yet, waffles 🙂

GIVEAWAY TIME!

At the Healthy Living Summit this past weekend, I was lucky to get a whole bag of Adora Calcium & Vitamin D Supplements in Premium All-Natural Dark Chocolate!

What can be better than that?!?

Ummm… How about a whole bag of Dark Chocolate AND a whole bag of Milk Chocolate Adora discs?! adora_bags

The nice folks at Adora are going to give one of my readers just that!

You can enter to win up to four times by leaving one comment on this post for each of the following items:

1. Leave a comment saying “hi” or whatever is on your mind

2. Follow me on Twitter (you stalker, you 😉 ) My ID is Fervent_Foodie — if you already follow me, leave a comment here saying so

3. “Like” the Fervent Foodie Facebook page and leave a comment on this post letting me know you did so

4. Tweet! (or blog) about the giveaway, and leave a comment here letting me know you did

I’ll use a random number generator to select the winner, and Adora will ship the chocolate goodies directly to you! US mailing addresses only. Giveaway ends Friday August 20th at 11:59pm Eastern time 🙂

Fitness

I’m doing this for ME.

August 18, 2010 16 Comments

Last night, I set my morning alarm for 6am to give myself ample time to get an interval training session in. This morning, after hitting the snooze several times, I rolled out of bed at 6:40. All the while, I was mentally debating with myself. I’m too tired to run… I’ll do the elliptical after work… I’ve got sooo much work to do, I should just head into work early.. on and on.

I walked into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. Why was I trying to prevent myself from exercising? I stood in the bathroom for a good 5 minutes, and finally said (out loud) I am doing this for ME. Not for my job, not as my duty, not for any of you lovely readers out there or any of my friends and family. I am doing this for ME. That was the swift kick in the butt I needed. Out the door I went!

Stats on the 3 x 3 interval:

As you can see, I wasn’t able to do the last interval of running. I was feeling some stiffness/tension in my knee so I decided to walk it. Honestly, I’d be happy with myself even if I walked for the whole 30 minute straight. At least I got my toosh out the door!

Breakfast #1

During last night’s cooking bonanza, I cooked up 3 servings of scrambled eggs & roasted broccoli for B#1 Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

This batch consisted of 9 egg whites, 3 whole eggs, a splash of water, S&P, Red Pepper Flakes, and Frank’s Red Hot.

I divided the scrambled eggs and broccoli evenly into three containers, one of which I enjoyed at my desk this morning:

Stats on B#1: 163 Calories, 12g carbs, 5g fat, 19g protein, 2g fiber

Breakfast #2

At the Healthy Living Summit this past weekend, the conversation inevitably turned to overnight oats. Many of the ladies I talked to said they prefer to use whole oats over quick oats. When I told them I preferred quick oats because of the awesome creamy consistency, Andrea @ Can you stay for dinner asked if it was like Muesli. Whelp, I’ve never had muesli before so last night I picked some up at the grocery store!

The back of the package has a recipe for “Swiss Oats” which consisted of 1/4 cup muesli + 1/2 cup liquid (milk, water, etc). So I went with:

1/4 cup Muesli
1/2 cup Almond Breeze Unsweetened Almond Milk
1 tsp brown sugar
Sprinkling of cinnamon

This morning, I added 3 large strawberries + 1/3 cup blueberries to the mix:

This was pretty tasty! I do prefer my quick oats though.. but I definitely want to give the Muesli a shot warm instead of cold. Mmmm I can picture myself eating warm museli on a cold morning… speaking of which, who’s ready for Fall? I am!

Stats on B#2: 189 Calories, 37g carbs, 5g fat, 5g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

Also during the Tuesday-Night-Cookfest, I cooked up a burger for lunch today. The burger consisted of:

1/2 lb 95% lean ground beef
1/4 cup chopped red onion (I usually use white onion, but didn’t have any on hand)
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp black pepper

I put the burger on a pepperdige farm 7 grain deli flat, then topped it with ketchup, mustard, tomato, onion, banana pepper rings, and a big handful of alfafa sprouts. On the side, I had some cucumber salad (half a sliced cucumber + dried dill + white vinegar + water):

I don’t think I’ve ever put sprouts on a burger before… But you can’t deny that this looks AWESOME:

Stats on Lunch: 340 Calories, 35g carbs, 6g fat, 33g protein, 8g fiber

Snack Time!

Today, I tried out the Chai Spice Kardea all natural cholestorol management bar:

For some reason, chai always reminds me of pumpkins! I LOVE pumpkins, and I loved this bar. I just wish the flavors were a little STRONGER.

Speaking of things I’m doing for ME, I bought my ticket to FitBloggin today 🙂

QUESTION: Do you guys ever “mentally” debate with yourself over whether or not to work out? How do you get past it?