"People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be."

BREAKFAST

Another oatmeal pancake has made its way into my week, a chocolate pancake at that. Yum. I am slightly obsessed. 

Pancake:  

1/3 cup oats

1/2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa 

1/4-1/3 cup egg whites, the kind from the carton

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Cinnamon to taste

Topping:

1/4 cup vanilla yogurt, which I will use less of next time...it was smothered

4 whole raw pecans

1/2 banana

Last night I stumbled upon Eat Me Delicious where I have discovered a great selection of decadent baked goods I want to whip together, but I will save myself the suffering and wait until a party occurs to stuff my face make these lovely goods as a treat for everyone to enjoy. Peanut butter squares with milk chocolate and oats, marshmallow crunch brownie bars, and oreo crunch brownies. OH MY! The blog is based on vegetarian cooking and baked goods most of which look delicious. Although I am not vegetarian, I do not eat a lot of meat and enjoy exploring recipes that are vegetarian and vegan.

LUNCH

Again, this is "dinner" as my lunch. 

Italian sausage is delicious, probably because it's not exactly good for you. We don't have this very often at my house and I love it when we do. When I was younger I despised Italian sausage, was I crazy? Italian sausage packs a mass amount of flavor alone. It looks kind of gross cooking though? Oh well!

Simple salad with tbsp. balsamic vinagrette dressing. Only 5 calories! 

1/2 baked sweet potato with 2 tbsp. Chi Chi's salsa.

And of course, Italian sausage.

This evening I will be tackling my disaster of a room. Boy have I been a bit lazy these past couple of weeks or what! I blame it on this Pennsylvania weather. The highs for this week are in the low-mid twenties with snow every day. Is it Spring yet? Better yet, is it summer?

VEGAN COOKIES

Alright, so I didn't very much done tonight aside from a good ab exercise and cookie baking. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com and within the hour I was baking them. Instead of eggs and butter I used apple sauce and although it gives the cookies a drier and tougher texture than a normal cookie, it's healthier and still tastes great. Next time I will be using more apple sauce though so they aren't as dry. I had two of these, one fresh out of the oven before my workout and one after. Tomorrow's breakfast? Cookies! A note: My mother actually liked these! Considering they weren't made as a normal cookie I was very surprised by this.

1 cup oats

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

3/4 cup apple sauce (preferably unsweetened)

1/2 cup raisins of choice

1/2 cup walnuts or other nut of choice

Makes: 24 small cookies

Preheat oven to 350. Spray baking sheet with vegetable spray.

Mix ingredients in medium bowl. 

Drop rounded teaspoon fulls onto baking sheet. 

Bake for 10-14 minutes.

Allow cookies to cool slightly before removing from pan.

DINNER

Sammie:

Arnold Thin

Morning Star veggie chick'n patty

Lettuce, onion

Sauce:

1 tbsp. fat-free miracle whip

Unknown amount of hot sauce

Chili powder

Red pepper flakes

Side of carrots and celery

"Do-so" is more important than "say-so."

I'm starting this blog in hopes to inspire and get ideas from others on healthy living. I also think that a visual food journal will be more helpful in my journey. While searching on Self.com I came across a food blog written by their nutritionist and will be using similar ideas in my own blog. Each day I will track my food intake along with pictures if possible. Not only is this blog about food intake, it's about over-all health--fitness and emotional well being included.

BRUNCH

 

Scrambled eggs: 

1/2 cup Egg Beaters, chopped broccoli, onion, tomato, and ground black pepper

1 slice Sara Lee Whole Wheat toasted bread

1/2 macintosh apple sliced

1 tall glass water flavored with sugar free Great Value cranberry drink mix 

Estimate calories: 194

DINNER

Not a very good picture, sorry.

1/2 oven roasted chicken breast with seasoning (Half of portion shown)

About 1 cup roasted vegetables with seasoning

1 tall glass of cranberry flavored water 

Estimated calories: 302

DESSERT

(Not pictured) 1 large home made chocolate chip cookie

Estimated calories: 196

SNACKS 

(Not pictured) I had a little slip while seeing A Christmas Carol tonight and had half of a snickers bar. 

Estimated calories: 140 

1/2 apple from brunch sprinkled with cinnamon

Estimated calories: 54

OVER-ALL CALORIC INTAKE: 879

Tomorrow I plan on taking the half of portion of chicken I didn't finish from dinner and make a chicken salad. Yum, yum. I will try to stray away from the sweets tomorrow, but they really are my down fall!