Overnight Oats- Elizabeth’s Edition

I had never tried overnight oats before this past weekend. I always read blog posts about people eating “overnight oats”, so it was on my list of things to try. Though I was a little apprehensive about the chia seeds, not really sure what they were, I have to say this is one of my new favorite breakfasts. I can make it ahead of time and have a jar in the fridge to take with me to work for breakfast/lunch. The chia seeds make the consistency very thick, so I like to add coffee creamer or milk in the morning. You can also add crunchy toppings like granola, nuts, dried fruits, or may favorite- crushed graham crackers. I made up my own recipe since the ingredients are basic and you can tailor the amounts to your desire. So this is how I like it:

 

Ingredients:

1 cup oats

1 6oz container greek yogurt

1 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp chia seeds

1/2 cup milk

additional toppings

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together and separate into two jars. Refrigerate overnight or for a few hours. Top with additional milk and toppings of your choice.

*Makes two servings

Calories per serving: 300

 

 

 

 

  

Make-Ahead Egg Sandwiches

I have been making breakfast recipes this week that I can store or freeze for a quick on-the-go healthy breakfast when I start work. Today I made healthier versions of Egg McMuffin sandwiches that you can freeze and just reheat in the microwave on a hectic morning. I used egg whites instead of whole eggs and 100% whole wheat english muffins. I had to use american cheese slices today because that was all we had in the fridge, but usually I would use cheddar cheese slices because I feel like that is less processed and tastes better, in my opinion. I topped them off with a slice of ham instead of bacon. I calculated that it is about 235 calories for one sandwich. Not bad at all! Here is the Recipe:

Make-Ahead Egg Sandwiches

Recipe adapted from The Yummy Life

Ingredients:

6 whole wheat english muffins

18 Tablespoons egg whites

6 slices cheddar cheese

6 slices ham

salt

pepper

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

2. Toast all english muffins either in a toaster or under a broiler.

3. Spray 6 ramekins with non-stick cooking spray.

 

4. Measure 3 tablespoons of egg whites into each ramekin and season with salt and pepper.

5. Bake the egg whites in the oven for 25-30 minutes.

6. Build 6 sandwiches by layering the egg white, cheese, and ham onto english muffin.

7. Wrap in parchment paper and freeze.

To eat, just reheat sandwich and enjoy!

Homemade Granola

At home I miss the yogurt and granola that was offered at the cafeteria at school. Now that I am home, I can cook again- YAY! So I decided to make my own healthy granola to eat with plain Greek yogurt. The recipe I used has all-natural ingredients and tastes great!

Adapted from Today’s Mama

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/3 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup raw almonds, chopped
• 1/2 cup raw pecans, chopped
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the first set of ingredients in a large bowl. Then add the oats, almonds, and pecans. Mix well and spread out on a greased cookie sheet. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, mixing every 10 minutes to prevent burning. Once baked and cooled, mix in cranberries or other dried fruit of your choice and chocolate chips. Store in a closed container.

Of course there are lots of possibilities of nuts, dried fruits, and other mix-ins to make this recipe your own. I just used what we had on hand in the pantry, but other options would be: chopped walnuts, dried cherries, banana chips, raisins, shredded coconut, or substituting maple syrup for the orange juice.

WIAW + Whole Foods Discovery

I will start off with some WIAWs from the past week:

Egg white omelet with chicken, olives, spinach, and cheese with side of fruit

First time I have had the banana flavored Chobani. Sooo good for an afternoon snack.

Casual breakfast between classes this morning. I brought what looks like mush to go from the cafeteria along with some fruit and bought a hot french vanilla coffee while I did some work on the computer. The mush is actually yogurt mixed with granola, raisins, and chopped walnuts. It turned out to be what I would think overnight oats are like (though, I haven’t ever made those) because the granola absorbed the yogurt and became soft.

A couple runs outside on my Nike app. Today I ran three miles in under 29 minutes (the pic on the right). I think that is my record 3-mile time so far!

I also ordered a new water bottle because my old one kept getting mold in the nozzle and it was getting gross and annoying to clean, so I splurged and went for this purple filtered water bottle. Fancy huh? I find that I drink a lot more water when I have a fun new cup or bottle, which is what I did all day today. So. Much. Water. But, it is so good for you! Yay for being hydrated!

Finally, I am going to talk about Whole Foods. I know that in the food blogging world this store/healthy food heaven is mentioned a lot, but sadly I had never actually eaten from their cafe until tonight. I have to say, I now understand the excitement over this place. I ate roasted squash, steamed carrots, Brunswick stew, and mac & cheese. We have a Whole Foods literally right off of campus, so now that I have discovered the hot food and salad bars, it is going to take some self control not to blow all of my money there. It is so sad that Whole Foods doesn’t accept college food points. Oh the struggles of living in the real world and having to use real money.

40 Days and 40 Nights

Well, this is embarrassing…or just ironic….

Of course, the day after I post about my tips for staying healthy in the winter, feeling all high and mighty on my soap box as others around me are fending off colds and flu, I wake up with a sore throat. I despise sore throats, it just makes me feel miserable and all I want to do all day is eat in order to soothe the raw feeling in the back of my head. I tried everything from gargling with salt water and Listerine, to throat lozenges, to sore throat relief spray, but nothing actually made me feel normal. I also think I had a fever at some point and I just in general was not feeling well. So, needless to say, I have not been working out and I have not been conscientious about what I eat. However, I feel exponentially better now and it just so happens that it is exactly 4o days until Spring Break.

Now we get to the title of this post. The number 40 is mentioned frequently in the Bible. In most of the instances, the number 40 relates to some kind of testing or probation. The most well-known mention of 40 is when Jesus is tempted by the devil for 40 days and 40 nights. I am going to take on my own test, or temptation experiment for the next 40 days, counting down until my spring break trip to the beach (yes, I will be wearing a bathing suit and be with college boys and girls, scary thought right now). I will not eat sweets, or sugar in general, and do some sort of workout every single day. My challenge is no comparison to what Jesus went through, and it is inevitable that I will fail in some way, since we are all innate sinners, but, I am hoping to find some inspiration or motivation to keep moving forward with getting healthy through what I will call my “40 Days and 40 Nights Challenge”.

Since I have this picture of fruit from breakfast at the cafeteria this week, just though I’d say that fruit will not count as sugar, just thought I’d throw that out there.

Miscellaneous Musings

Today’s post has no topic or focus, just a bunch of pictures with mini stories to go along with them. So here we go…

This is what I “stole” from the cafeteria at breakfast this morning. Yummy fruit to snack on when I get hungry later in the day! It is kind of a thing for freshmen to take Tupperware into the cafeteria to store food for later because our meal plan makes lunches really expensive, so some people (like me) try to save food points this way. I also eat less in the middle of the day anyway, so sometimes I just need a pick-me-up snack to keep me going.

I got a package! One thing that EVERY college kid enjoys is getting a package or mail at school (remember this people, care packages never get old!) This one was actually from my self, ha ha. I had ordered some new running clothes from the new Old Navy active line, thanks to Julie at Peanut Butter Fingers who drew my attention to the awesome sale they were having. This is what I got:

A blue sports bra

A pink tank top

A grey and pink jacket (with thumb holes!) and also some black running leggings (not pictured).

They all seem to fit great, except maybe I should have ordered the petit size in the leggings because they are really long and bunch up around my ankles since I am only about 5’ 2”. I can’t wait to get outside and try them on a run, if only it would stop raining. It has been like a flood here. On the bright side, there is a chance we will get snow tonight! I am really excited to possibly see the campus covered in white!

Eating and Running

This morning for breakfast between classes I had about 1 cup of oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar and coffee. Then for lunch I had a fairly large salad with lots of veggies, beans, and a few mozzarella balls with homemade honey mustard dressing (picture below). I know the dressing is probably very fattening and caloric, but I thought it was okay as long as the rest of the salad was fresh and light.

I had a great day today, getting back midterm grades that I was pleased with and the weather was PERFECT for a run this afternoon. I tried to be artsy taking a lot of pictures with my iphone along the trail around campus, but I am no photographer. I really would like to learn photography and I am thinking of taking a class one semester or just getting one of my friends who know a little to teach me. Here are my attempts:

You have to admit though, the weather was beautiful today!

Morning Off

Omelette breakfast

This morning I didn’t have Chem lab since it is the first week, so I slept in late, went to the gym (which wasn’t crowded like the last time I tried to workout) where I ran 2.25 miles on the treadmill and then had a late breakfast of an egg white omelette with olives and blue cheese, fruit, and coffee to go. I have to say that I was disappointed in the omelette. It was dry and too salty with both the olives and blue cheese. Next time I think I will try one with veggies and regular cheddar cheese. It was partly my fault because I went so late that they ran out of the good toppings like tomato and mushrooms. Now I think I will go check out the library for the first time and maybe get some homework done. Cheers!

What’s left of my coffee

Four Days Until…

College!!! That’s right, I move in on Tuesday, so that means I have been busy packing lately.

I started the day off with a yummy mushroom and cheese omelette and a cup of Joe. I made the omelette with one egg and just the whites of another, fresh mushroom pieces and a slice of sharp cheddar. This was only 170 calories and it kept me full for hours of packing. I am just about ready for college!

Do you think it’s too much? Haha

I have decided to try to cut out most carbs, especially sugar, because last time I followed an Atkins Diet sort of thing, I lost 5 pounds, but then I stopped. I think the best part of it is that I am pretty addicted to sugar, so this forces me to avoid sweets. Last time I felt more energized and slept better too, and I didn’t even miss the sugar! I not going to be super restrictive this time because I am trying to make a lifestyle change, not a short-term crash diet. My slogan: everything in MODERATION.

I am now ending the day walking on the treadmill while watching Mr. Popper’s Penguins. Have you seen that movie? It’s kinda cute so far.