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I am switching blog sites, because I am tired of battling blogger. Tumblr will make it easier to make more frequent updates. Thanks for bearing with me!

Breakfast Calorie Breakdown

I went to my dietician yesterday. She mentioned that breakfast needs to be around 300 calories. Doesn't seem like much, does it? So I'm slowly going through what I eat in order to get the largest amount of food with the smallest calories. I know I could eat all raw veggies for breakfast and be able to eat a ton of it, but I was looking for some more traditional and fun. Like eggs! Yum!

So today, I had 3 medium eggs and two pieces of Healthy Life sugar free toast (this bread is fantastic!). With a little unsweetened soy milk added to the egg mixture, this equaled out to about 285 calories. I'm not one for dry toast. I was raised on margarine slathered white toast. I was already near my 300 calories for breakfast, but for just a tablespoon of bestlife buttery spread on each piece (which is not enough), I was adding in 120 calories to my breakfast!

So I went through my fridge and saw the Laughing cow cheese wedges I had recently purchased. I had a bit of regular but also the light mozzarella sun-dried tomato basil. For an entire wedge of the light tomato basil cheese, it's 35 calories. I put half of the wedge on each piece of toast and realized it was a generous amount. I was able to put more on my toast with more flavor, AND I saved 85 calories! So my entire breakfast turned out to be 320 calories. Not too shabby!

Let's look at the numbers between 1 wedge of Laughing Cow and 2 tbsp. of Bestlife.

Did you notice something between the numbers? You get more with the laughing cow cheese wedge, and 10 grams less fat. You also get some protein.

Am I knocking Bestlife? Absolutely not. Otherwise, I wouldn't have it in my kitchen. Bestlife is available at a great price at Wal-Mart, it's actually completely plant-based, so great for vegans, and it has NO hydrogenated fats. It's a fantastic product. This just shows how you can save some calories for your breakfast toast.

Scalloped Chicken and Vegetables

I have pulled out my crockpot to begin using it again. It's so much easier on a busy school day to throw some ingredients in and wait for a cooked dinner when we get home. This is especially important for us on Mondays since he gets home earliest at 5:30, and I have a class at 6:00. There is a very small window for us to be able to have dinner. So it only makes sense to have a hot dinner waiting on us so we can eat when it is convenient for our separate schedules.

Tonight I decided to make scalloped chicken and veggies. The original recipe calls for half-and-half and potatoes. Instead, I used cauliflower and unsweetened soy milk. Why soy milk? Check this post.

Scalloped Chicken and Vegetables
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 green bell pepper
1/2 cauliflower head
5 oz vidalia onion
1 can 98% fat free cream of celery soup
1 can soymilk
8 oz sharp cheddar cheese
1/8 cup potato starch

1. Layer chopped vegetables and cheese in crockpot.
2. Sear chicken breasts in pan.
3. Place chicken breasts in crockpot.
4. Mix soy milk, potato starch, and cream of celery soup together, then pour over chicken breasts.
5. Place lid on crockpot and turn on high for 1 hour.
6. Turn on low for 3-4 hours before serving.
7. If the cauliflower is not tender, cook for an additional hour.

Here are the per serving figures:

Milk vs Soy Milk

Looking at nutrition labels can always reveal something shocking, but it's better if you have a number to compare it to. However, when you are diabetic, the less sugar you consume, the better. So what do you think is in your milk?

Normally I wouldn't have thought twice about what was in milk, but I checked the label since it's a habit, and I hadn't drank real milk in years. I noticed a really high sugar content. It makes sense since milk is made from a cow, and it is for making a little cow, a big cow.

Regular milk has 10-12 grams of sugar per cup. Regular soy milk has 6 grams of sugar per cup. Unsweetened soy milk has 1 gram of sugar per cup. It's pretty obvious which one is better for you, but let's look at the stats.

Lunch!

Today I wanted a low-calorie, easy lunch. Especially since my dinner tonight will not be so low-calorie! I made a spinach and cottage cheese salad. Not to complicated which was the point, and it was quite filling and tasty!

Spinach Cottage Cheese Salad

1 oz spinach
4 oz cottage cheese
black pepper to taste

Put in a bowl and eat!

Here are the nutrition facts: