Eat Like a King

Don't you love after you go grocery shopping and you have these amazing three course meals because your fridge and pantry are fully stocked? That happened for dinner last night.

So we started off with the buffalo tempeh (directions at the bottom of this post), which is a new addiction if mine. The tempeh is so filling and I found a very low-cal buffalo sauce from Target's Archer Farms brand. Next, we had a pizza crust in the pantry, so I topped it with some pizza sauce, mozzarella and avocado. We devoured the entire thing! Then, dessert. Oh, dessert. I got the original idea for our dessert here, but I made quite a few of my own modifications. 

Baked Pineapple

(6 points for half the recipe, 7 if you add whipped cream as a topping)

-1 pineapple

-1/2 cup coconut flakes

-1/2 cup macadamia nuts

-4 tablespoons Malibu Coconut Rum

1. Cut up the pineapple and put it in a foil lined baking pan (I am not patient enough to cut the pineapple and use its shell to bake in like the original post. This isn't as pretty, but it does the job)

2. Pour 2 tablespoons of Malibu over the pineapple

3. Top with coconut and macadamia nuts

4. Pour 2 more tablespoons of Malibu over the whole mixture

5. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, or until the macadamia nuts start to brown. Enjoy it while it's still hot

 See how the macadamia nuts turned nice and golden in the oven

I topped mine with a dollop of light whipped cream

The only problem? Trying to run 8 miles after eating half a pineapple. Oh, the citric acid was terrible, so there were some walking breaks, but I still completed 8 miles! Walk or run, miles are miles.

I tried another new recipe for breakfast this morning, and once I work out all the kinks, I think it will be a regular staple for weekend breakfast. As usual, I made some adaptations from the original post, so here's my take:

Oatmeal Pancakes 

(5 points for 2 pancakes)

-1/2 cup rolled oats

-2 egg whites

-1 ripe banana

-1 tsp of cinnamon

-1 tsp of vanilla extract

-mixed berries (or whatever you would like to put in yours)

1. Mash up the banana really well then add the rolled oats and give it a stir

2. Add the egg whites (or egg substitute if you have it) if you don't know how to separate the yolks from the white, just crack the egg and half and pass the yolk back and forth between the two halves over your mixing bowl and the whites will roll off into the bowl (I tried to take a picture, but it was hard since the hubs is at work and it's just me). Give it all a stir

3. Add the cinnamon, extract and whatever other stuff you'd like to be inside. I used mixed berries, but you could add chocolate chips, chunks of banana, nuts, just realize it will change the point value

4. Pour half the mixture into a greased up pan (I forgot to grease it on my first one) and cook for about 3-5 minutes on each side

They really don't need anything like syrup or butter because all the ingredients make them pretty sweet. They were a perfect day starter.

This is me trying to show you how to separate the whites from the yolks, but one hand had to hold the camera

Side-note, here is my homemade vanilla extract that has been sitting since Nov. 2011. To make it, all you have to do it add vanilla beans (you can get them from Walmart) and vodka and just let it sit. Every so often give it a shake

I used my handy-dandy pancake flipper for these beauties and just gave it a flip after 4ish minutes

See the burn marks? Remember I said I forgot to grease the pan for the first pancake? Yea. The second one turned out great though!