I went to the store today and picked up some Meyer lemon cupcake mix. It only called for 2 eggs, a 1/2 cup of oil and a cup of milk. Being health conscious, I substituted 3 egg whites for the 2 whole eggs, 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce for the oil (an old trick) and I used 2% milk. I made 11 cupcakes, so splitting up the milk among them all resulted in each cupcake with less that 1 g of fat and no cholesterol. I also added 2 tablespoons of flaxseeds to the mix for extra fiber and for a tiny burst of omega-3's.
They baked up just fine, and the texture of the cupcakes was dense and moist. However, they sure are sticky. I wonder if the oil in the mix keeps the cake from sticking to the wrappers; it must, because taking one of these babies out of the wrapper means leaving a substantial bunch of cake behind that you later have to scrape off with your fingers or teeth. Not perfect.
The taste is fine; the sweet/sour juxtaposition is a little weird, but overall they taste fine. They would benefit from some plain vanilla frosting or a sweet sugary glaze, but only to cut down on the sourness. They do have, however, a weird aftertaste that I can't quite get out of my mouth.
I'd give the cupcakes a B-. The texture/sticking issue isn't so bad, and I can probably mitigate that in the future by adjusting my applesauce to oil ratio. The taste is the thing. They taste FINE, but they are kind of sour, and that aftertaste is just weird.
How do you try to lighten up your baking?
Oh, and btw, my current weight is 155. Back down to it baby! I ran 6.5 miles yesterday and logged almost 25 so far this week. We're getting back on the wagons!
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Where did I go?
Well, I haven't been a very good little diet blogger.
First, I've put on some of the weight I lost. I was so diligent, but the past couple weeks have crept up on me, as did some bad habits. I was drinking again. I did late-nite drive-thru a few more times than I'd like to admit. I stopped running altogether for a full week. When I weighed myself yesterday, I was back up to 158. Not terrible; to be honest I was expecting it to go higher. But definitely not the direction I want to go in.
Reading my old posts, I saw an arc occur. I was so gung-ho at the beginning. I was logging my points, working out, etc. Cooking a LOT. It was fun. But school picked up....work picked up...life picked up...excuses, excuses, excuses. It was easier to dine out than make food. I had visitors from out of town; I flew back to NJ for the weekend and got snowed in (hard to run when there's a foot of fresh snow on the ground, you didn't bring any running tights b/c you planned to have flown home two days ago, and the town doesn't clear the roads until halfway through the day.) OK so that was my ONE good excuse, and even that day I went for a long walk in the snow. But still. I washed down my walk with a Reuben sandwich with a full side of fries. I was totally off the rails.
I am going to try to get back on. I was avoiding the blog like I was avoiding my scale, because I knew it was going to force me to see the truth. Losing weight isn't a one-day shot. Its a whole life change I have to make. I'm getting older and my metabolism is slowing down. I really have to recognize that I'm not the same person I was before.
I'm making a few changes. One, I cancelled my WW account and signed back up with a free online calorie counter. WW was great for the first three months, and I got a lot of great tools that I can adapt to the free site. Saves me a bunch of cash and between that site and a Google weight tracker (also free) I can essentially get the same features of WW without spending a dime.
Two, I signed up for an earlier half marathon. I need NEED to make myself run now, because instead of having a half marathon in September to train for, I now also have one on May 3rd. GULP. That is less than 2 months from now so I cannot put it off any longer.
Third, I gave up fast food for Lent. Yes, Ash Wednesday was like a week and a half ago, and I didn't give anything up at the time. But last night as I polished off a Del Taco quesadilla at 1 am, I realized this had to stop, and I had to make a hard and fast rule with myself that this was just not going to be an option anymore. So. NO MORE FAST FOOD. If I'm hungry late at night, I can come home and roast up a chicken leg or make a roast beef and avocado wrap on my 0-point tortillas. Or air-popped popcorn, or carrots and celery with homemade hummus, or sliced and salted radishes and a piece of toast. NO. MORE. FAST. FOOD.
So here we go again today. New year's resolution take 2. And a recipe, to boot, starring chicken legs. I am always on the lookout for cheap chicken; my dog is actually ALLERGIC to DOG FOOD (they don't tell you this stuff at the animal shelter sometimes, or maybe they just don't realize it) and so I make her food by hand using raw chicken and vegetables. Her usual dinner is a raw, whole chicken leg or thigh (yes she can eat the bones if they're raw, NEVER give a dog cooked bones, but raw is fine...just think of what they eat in the wild if they had to hunt their own food) and some ground carrots.
I found a giant "family pack" of chicken legs at Vons the other night marked down to $0.99 a lb, which came out to a little less than $7.00 for about 7 lbs of chicken legs. And that is a LOT of chicken legs. Therefore, in addition to feeding the dog for the next few weeks, I'm enjoying a little dark meat. Guilt-free, too: a skinless chicken leg is equal to 1 WW point (for comparison, a full breast is between 3 and 4 lbs - its just more chicken by the ounce, and not all that different fat-wise from dark meat. I'd rather eat one chicken leg and enjoy it a lot than cut myself a small sliver of dried up chicken breast....but that's just me. I like flavor.)
Roast Chicken Legs
Chicken legs - skin on
Salt
Pepper
Favorite spice (I used a spice called "Redneck Pepper" that a dear friend sent me for Christmas...its got a weird name, but its pretty kicky)
This is so simple it hurts. Preheat oven to 350. Arrange chicken legs on a baking tray. If you want to make your life even EASIER, put a slide of foil on the tray before putting the chicken on. No mess! Put the chicken legs in the oven and allow to roast until cooked through. Turn over once while cooking to ensure evenness. Allow to rest for about 5 minutes before eating - the bone is going to be hot and it helps keep the juices in the chicken. Remove skin only immediately before eating. Or eat the skin, whatever. Life's short, and chicken legs are small. I give it to my dog, who loves it, and who could probably handle the extra fat better than I can.
Enjoy and thank you for reading :)
Miles run today: 4.8
Miles run this week: 7.8
First, I've put on some of the weight I lost. I was so diligent, but the past couple weeks have crept up on me, as did some bad habits. I was drinking again. I did late-nite drive-thru a few more times than I'd like to admit. I stopped running altogether for a full week. When I weighed myself yesterday, I was back up to 158. Not terrible; to be honest I was expecting it to go higher. But definitely not the direction I want to go in.
Reading my old posts, I saw an arc occur. I was so gung-ho at the beginning. I was logging my points, working out, etc. Cooking a LOT. It was fun. But school picked up....work picked up...life picked up...excuses, excuses, excuses. It was easier to dine out than make food. I had visitors from out of town; I flew back to NJ for the weekend and got snowed in (hard to run when there's a foot of fresh snow on the ground, you didn't bring any running tights b/c you planned to have flown home two days ago, and the town doesn't clear the roads until halfway through the day.) OK so that was my ONE good excuse, and even that day I went for a long walk in the snow. But still. I washed down my walk with a Reuben sandwich with a full side of fries. I was totally off the rails.
I am going to try to get back on. I was avoiding the blog like I was avoiding my scale, because I knew it was going to force me to see the truth. Losing weight isn't a one-day shot. Its a whole life change I have to make. I'm getting older and my metabolism is slowing down. I really have to recognize that I'm not the same person I was before.
I'm making a few changes. One, I cancelled my WW account and signed back up with a free online calorie counter. WW was great for the first three months, and I got a lot of great tools that I can adapt to the free site. Saves me a bunch of cash and between that site and a Google weight tracker (also free) I can essentially get the same features of WW without spending a dime.
Two, I signed up for an earlier half marathon. I need NEED to make myself run now, because instead of having a half marathon in September to train for, I now also have one on May 3rd. GULP. That is less than 2 months from now so I cannot put it off any longer.
Third, I gave up fast food for Lent. Yes, Ash Wednesday was like a week and a half ago, and I didn't give anything up at the time. But last night as I polished off a Del Taco quesadilla at 1 am, I realized this had to stop, and I had to make a hard and fast rule with myself that this was just not going to be an option anymore. So. NO MORE FAST FOOD. If I'm hungry late at night, I can come home and roast up a chicken leg or make a roast beef and avocado wrap on my 0-point tortillas. Or air-popped popcorn, or carrots and celery with homemade hummus, or sliced and salted radishes and a piece of toast. NO. MORE. FAST. FOOD.
So here we go again today. New year's resolution take 2. And a recipe, to boot, starring chicken legs. I am always on the lookout for cheap chicken; my dog is actually ALLERGIC to DOG FOOD (they don't tell you this stuff at the animal shelter sometimes, or maybe they just don't realize it) and so I make her food by hand using raw chicken and vegetables. Her usual dinner is a raw, whole chicken leg or thigh (yes she can eat the bones if they're raw, NEVER give a dog cooked bones, but raw is fine...just think of what they eat in the wild if they had to hunt their own food) and some ground carrots.
I found a giant "family pack" of chicken legs at Vons the other night marked down to $0.99 a lb, which came out to a little less than $7.00 for about 7 lbs of chicken legs. And that is a LOT of chicken legs. Therefore, in addition to feeding the dog for the next few weeks, I'm enjoying a little dark meat. Guilt-free, too: a skinless chicken leg is equal to 1 WW point (for comparison, a full breast is between 3 and 4 lbs - its just more chicken by the ounce, and not all that different fat-wise from dark meat. I'd rather eat one chicken leg and enjoy it a lot than cut myself a small sliver of dried up chicken breast....but that's just me. I like flavor.)
Roast Chicken Legs
Chicken legs - skin on
Salt
Pepper
Favorite spice (I used a spice called "Redneck Pepper" that a dear friend sent me for Christmas...its got a weird name, but its pretty kicky)
This is so simple it hurts. Preheat oven to 350. Arrange chicken legs on a baking tray. If you want to make your life even EASIER, put a slide of foil on the tray before putting the chicken on. No mess! Put the chicken legs in the oven and allow to roast until cooked through. Turn over once while cooking to ensure evenness. Allow to rest for about 5 minutes before eating - the bone is going to be hot and it helps keep the juices in the chicken. Remove skin only immediately before eating. Or eat the skin, whatever. Life's short, and chicken legs are small. I give it to my dog, who loves it, and who could probably handle the extra fat better than I can.
Enjoy and thank you for reading :)
Miles run today: 4.8
Miles run this week: 7.8
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