Cocoa Coconut Banana

This little guy is a cocoa covered banana with coconut. It doesn't look as pretty as the original, but oh well! It's a fun little treat that I found on the eatingwell website.

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/cocoa_nut_bananas.html

I did it a little different, because I didn't want four of them, and I'm a little confused by what's considered a serving from that website. Is one serving one of the bananas?

Anyway, I also bought those little small baby bananas instead of larger bananas, because those always go rotten too fast for me.

So, here's my recipe, based off the eating well recipe:

1 baby banana
1 tbls coconut
1 tsp cocoa powder

Roll your banana in the cocoa powder, then top with coconut.

How easy is that?! As far as calorie counts go, the mini bananas did not have nutritional info listed, but 1 tbls of coconut (and I did use sweetened) is 35 calories, and 1 tsp of cocoa is 10 calories. It didn't satisfy my chocolate craving like I was hoping though, but it is a fun snack. Snack, not dessert.

S'Mores Oatmeal

This recipe is from the Hungry Girl 300 Recipes Under 300 Calories cookbook.

The only thing I changed was to make it a full cup of oats, which adds an extra 75 calories to the recipe. That brings the calorie count to 374 calories, but made enough oatmeal for another serving, so 187 calories per serving. I don't know how it changes everything else (fat, sodium, etc) but you could add it up based on whatever type of oatmeal you use.

Per Serving (entire recipe): 299 Calories, 9g fat, 512mg sodium, 47.5g carbs, 6.5g fiber, 13g sugars, 8.5g protein
Ingredients:
½ cup old-fashioned oats
1 25-cal packet hot cocoa mix
Dash salt
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze
2 tsp mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
2 Tbsp mini-marshmallows
¼ sheet (1 cracker) low-fat honey graham crackers, crushed

Directions:
Combine oats, cocoa mix, and salt in a nonstick pot on the stove. Add Almond Breeze and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer.
Cook for 12-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until very thick and creamy.
Remove pot from heat, add 1tsp chocolate chips and stir until melted.
Transfer to a bowl and top with marshmallows, graham cracker, and remaining chocolate chips.

For those of you that don't know, almond breeze can be found in Kroger in the organic foods section, right across from the bread. It was kinda high, $7 for a carton, but I'll be able to make a ton of this oatmeal for one carton.

And that's it! I now have another serving tucked away in its container for another day of breakfast.

Chocolate Mousse Dessert

I did some grocery shopping last night to kick off my eating better food plan. After a pretty painful payment at the check-out, I headed home to try out my first recipe.

Shane and I had gotten done with dinner, when a familiar feeling hit me: I want something sweet!

Armed with my newly purchased groceries, I set out making a super simple recipe from the Hungry Girl blog. I love the chocolate mousse shooters from Applebee's, but who knew those little shot glasses packed a 460 calorie punch?!

This is copied straight from the Hungry Girl blog, so I want to make sure I give credit where credit is due.

Double Chocolate Mousse Attack

Ingredients:

60 calorie chocolate pudding cup
2 chocolate mousse Jell-O Mousse Temptations
1 pack of 100 calorie Oreo wafers
1/2 cup fat free reddi-whip

Crush up the chocolate wafers. Put about a teaspoon of wafers into the bottom of two glasses/bowls. (This recipe makes two servings). Spoon a container of mousse each into the glass or bowl. Half of a pudding cup goes on top of each mousse serving. Sprinkle the rest of the wafers on top. Finally, top with reddi-whip.

The verdict: Very yummy! I mixed my mousse and pudding together to get more of a creamier texture, but it was delicious.

http://www.hungry-girl.com/newsletters/raw/1525

Really? Another Diet Blog?

Well, sorta.

My name is Megan, and I struggle with my weight. Why? I love food. Sweets are my downfall. And bread. And sodas. And pasta.

I'm essentially one of those people that want to lose weight but didn't really want to give up the things I like to eat.

And so, I'm not going to give anything up. I'm just going to change my idea of a "diet." I have no intention of munching on carrot sticks to lose weight. Heck no. Those plans always fail for me. I can't deprive myself of what I like to eat, or I will fail in losing weight.

There are a couple other reasons why dieting always fails for me. First, I like convenience. I want to be able to grab something out of my frig (or McDonald's) and head to work. This has led me to make some really bad food decisions (Donuts and coffee three mornings in a row? Yep. I've been there). Second, I have a really hard time eating vegetables. I'm not a vegetable person, and the ones I do like, are the ones I shouldn't eat as much, like white potatoes (because french fries totally counts as a vegetable), or corn with lots of butter.

Now that you know how I fail, I'm going to tell you how I plan to succeed.

1) FAIL: Sweets

Plan: Eat sweets that make me feel like I'm getting something really yummy.

I hate low calorie sweets that try to pass themselves off as a decadent dessert. IT'S NOT THE SAME. And you know it's not the same! We try to eat them to feel like we're getting something sweet, only to finish up the snack feeling let down that it wasn't as good as digging into a pint of Ben and Jerry's. I'm going to work really hard (aka, search Google) to find desserts that satisfy my need for something sweet without making me feel like I just had a low calorie dessert.

2) FAIL: Convenience Foods

Plan: Find healthier options for food that I can stock my frig with, and have for those grab-and-go days that happen every day for me.

I never get up early. It just doesn't happen. I sleep in until the last minute. That plan of making an egg-white omelette in the morning for breakfast never happens because I don't get up early enough to make it happen. Or I eat the pizza and fries of a school lunch because I forgot to pack my lunch. So my new plan is to make up healthy lunches and breakfasts on Sunday that are literally grab and go. Each serving will go in its own container (how many times have you let leftovers go to waste because you didn't feel like digging out another container and dishing it out? ::raises hand::).

3) FAIL: Vegetables

Plan: Hmmm. . .

I don't have a plan for this one yet. I've been reading blogs about pureeing veggies and sneaking them in food, but I just don't have time for that. I don't have kids, but on top of being a teacher (which, as teachers know, is definitely more than and 8-3 job), I attend grad school full time, work the after school program two days a week, and have a small side business where I make cricut crafts. I don't like broccoli unless it's covered in creamy cheese. I don't like carrots unless I douse them in ranch. So, this is my work in progress. Feel free to leave suggestions.

So what's this blog going to be about? Who knows really. Mostly about food that I'm eating to help me lose weight. Maybe about my exercise plan some (which is still a work in progress). Probably also some accountability about what I'm eating.

If you have any suggestions, lay them on me. Want me to try out a recipe, or find something specific to help a craving of your own? Bring it on. I love to cook, I love to grocery shop, so we'll figure this out.