Today was another good day on the program. No hunger. Good energy. The only hiccup was that my husband came home early from a business trip with some kind of nasty flu bug. Made for a hectic day between taking care of him, trying to get work done and cooking/prepping photos for the blog and my Facebook page.
Due to time constraints, I’m just going to give you one helpful hint today:
Today’s Helpful Hint: In order to maintain variety with the meals you prepared in advance, think of ways to change them up a bit to prevent getting bored with eating the same thing a few days in a row. For example, for both lunch and dinner today, I converted pre-made meals into soups that had a completely different taste. And because they looked different and had a different “mouth feel”, it didn’t seem like we were eating the same food at all!
Here are the recipes for the meals I had today:
Breakfast: Banana-Date Oatmeal with Blueberries & Slivered Almonds
This is an easy meal to whip up before you walk out the door. Between the bananas, blueberries and the dates, there is plenty of sweetness in this dish, so no added sugar is necessary. And the slivered almonds add a nice crunch.
Ingredients (serves 1)
½ cup rolled oats
1 cup water
½ banana – sliced
½ cup blueberries – fresh or frozen
1 date – finely chopped
1 tablespoon slivered almonds
½ cup almond or soy milk
Directions
1. Place the oatmeal and water in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat to medium. Keep stirring to prevent burning. Cook until desired doneness. I cooked mine for about 4 – 5 minutes.
2. Place oatmeal in a serving bowl and top with remaining ingredients.
3. Serve hot with soy or almond milk, if desired.
Lunch: Mixed Herb & Lettuce Salad Soup
This is not salad AND soup. It’s salad that’s been MADE INTO soup. I know that sounds weird, but it tastes really good. I posted the recipe in this post earlier today, along with the reason I did it.
Mid-Afternoon Snack: Honey Gold Melon
This melon was left on our window ledge to ripen, and man, did it ever! My husband said it was “Amy sweet” – meaning that it was way too sickeningly sweet for him. I like my fruit super-duper sweet and this beauty didn’t disappoint! I had one quarter of the melon, which was about 1 cup diced.
Dinner: Pureed Vegetable & Bean Soup with Smoked Paprika & Cayenne, and Steam-fried Shitake Mushrooms & Broccoli
This is another example of taking one of your pre-made dishes and turning it into something completely different. I used the Vegetable & Bean soup I had for dinner yesterday, and turned it into a completely different looking and tasting dish. Here’s how I did it.
Ingredients (serves 1)
2 cup of Vegetable & Bean Soup
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon cayenne (or less if you don’t like the heat)
basil leaves & chive garish
Directions
Place the ingredients in a high-speed blender and mixed until completely pureed. Then gently warm in a sauce pan. To serve, garish with basil and chives.
Steam-fried Shitake Mushrooms & Broccoli
I also whipped up this side dish of shitake mushrooms and broccoli. Here’s the recipe.
Ingredients:
3 ounces broccoli florets
1 ounce shitake mushrooms – sliced
dash of onion powder
dash of garlic powder
freshly ground black pepper
pinch of salt
Directions:
Place the mushrooms in a non-stick pan with 2 tablespoons of water, the onion and garlic powder, and the salt and pepper. Steam-fry over medium heat until all the water is absorbed, about 4 minutes. Then place 2 tablespoons of water in the pan along with the broccoli. Leave heat on medium, but cover with a lid. Let cook for about 3 – 4 minutes until broccoli is bright green, or longer if you like the broccoli more cooked. Serve with a tiny sprinkle of salt and another dash of pepper.
That’s it for today. Check back tomorrow night for a recap of Day Three. I’ll work on more helpful hints as well!
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