One of my favorite breakfast foods are eggs, primarily either fried or hard boiled. They’re a staple for keto dieters and currently 0 points on the Weight Watchers Freestyle plan. Of course I love them smothered in cheese, peppers, onions, and bacon. But a lot of times I stick to a low down dirty secret for making flavorful eggs.
Popcorn seasoning.
My favorite is pictured above, Kernel Season’s Bacon Cheddar, but the White Cheddar, Nacho Cheese, and Cheesy Jalapeno lend perfectly to eggs as well. I’m also a huge fan of the Garlic Parmesan on roasted vegetables.
Yes, it does add sodium. Though I’ve never compared, I can’t imagine it’s more than the addition of real bacon and eggs plus there’s a lot less calories involved.
Another hot tip? You can sprinkle it in your egg salad or deviled eggs for added flavor.
I’m a big fan of alfalfa sprouts. There’s something about the texture and the way salad dressing clings to it. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find containers of sprouts in any of my local grocery stores for almost two years now. I saw on Pinterest that sprouts can be grown indoors in glass jars fairly easily. I thought I’d give it a try but then discovered a step up — this great two-tier sprout on Amazon.
It didn’t come with the seeds, so I purchased those separately. I soaked the seeds overnight and then created a layer of seeds on each tray. I placed it next to my AeroGarden in the kitchen so it would reap the benefits of some of the light. Each day I rinsed them once or twice. In six days the sprouts were ready! Huzzah! They were perfectly wonderful and fresh. I think I’m going to rotate so I’ll have a new stash every 3 days or so.
For me, each tray has about half the sprouts needed for a lunch size salad. The one pictured above is romaine, cucumber, tomato, broccoli slaw, sprouts, Sunkist Tuna Creations Ranch, reduced fat cheddar cheese, and just a little bit of blue cheese dressing. It was a perfect veggie and protein combo with lots of crunch!
I went to see my bariatric surgeon and he asked about my exercise routine. I told him I wasn’t getting much in because I’d been working a lot and had a new job with an hour long commute that was cutting into my time.
That was over 2 years and 30 pounds ago.
A lot has happened since then, aside from the weight gain. I finally left my long hours and commute to Lancaster behind and am back where I belong in Berks county. My daughter (now 5) has started kindergarten. She’s on the autism spectrum, so it’s a struggle because she has some trouble paying attention, following directions, etc. In the “perfect parent” era I have to cope with the eye rolls and stares in public because people tend to immediately think I’m a jerk parent raising a disobedient kid. She’s a super happy-go-lucky kid, so lots of times I just roll with it.
I’m pretty sure my pouch has “stretched” now that I’m nearly 5 years into this bariatric surgery business. Too many times trying to squeeze in a few extra pieces of sushi, perhaps. I don’t run anymore. I’m tired a lot. Not “I want to sleep” tired, more of a “I don’t want to move from the couch” tired. Pretty bad since there’s an elliptical right next to the couch. Most walking I get when I’m playing Pokemon Go at the park or museum, though I’ve started taking lunch walks in downtown Reading. I’m trying to avoid those walks ending at Salsa Burrito.
Here I am back at blogging in hopes of rekindling my health. Exercise is obviously a hurdle, but less of one. My big issues are after-work snacking and dinner. I’m still good with meal planning for dinner, but cooking for myself plus my boyfriend and kid is where the struggle is. I’m happy eating a salad or chicken and quinoa, but the “meal” expectations are tough. Too much pasta and Rice-a-Roni wind up on the plate.
My plan is to work through small goals. Expecting to go from 0 to beast mode is setting yourself up for failure.
Today’s goal: 15 minutes of some kind of exercise.
This month’s goal: Don’t pumpkin spice myself to diabeetus.
I wanted something sweet before bed. Before bed is my worst time. I’m always afraid of waking up hungry in the middle of the night or, worse yet, waking up in the morning and being SUPER hungry for the rest of the day. My bariatric surgeon once told me if I can account for a snack at this time, it’s fine. For me, it might even be a good time to eat carbs because then it won’t trigger more carb cravings since I’ll be asleep. Obviously not a solid piece of advice for everyone, but for my situation, it’s fine.
Tonight is no different than any other night except that Halloween just passed and I’m trying to offset a few Reese’s and some Hershey Cookie n Creme bars. I told myself I was absolutely done eating for the day, and nearly grabbed a cup of hot cocoa to settle down with. Then I thought of something way better.
I recently purchased a carton of almond/cashew hybrid milk. I don’t drink regular milk anymore because I’ve gotten pretty lactose intolerant since my surgery, which took me a stupidly long amount of time to figure out. I spiced it up with some cookies and creme Milk Magic. Truth be told, I’m usually a bigger fan of MilkSplash and I put it in all kinds of things. Almond milk, oatmeal, smoothies, protein shakes. But Milk Magic was on sale recently, so that’s what I used.
It was creamy and super sweet and only cost me 25 calories. I feel pretty satisfied with my choice. I’ve never tried making hot almond milk, but that may be next on the list.
This weekend I made White Chicken Chili for the first time. Chili is always a challenge for me to keep “recipes” on because it’s never the same from one time to the next. A lot of it depends on what I have stocked and what’s been on sale recently. Leftovers are usually saved in pint or quart freezer bags and frozen flat for easy thawing. I’m usually more of a ground-turkey taco chili fan, but I needed a change of pace and had a few recipes for chicken and turkey chili pinned. They all looked way too involved, so I improvised. Here’s what I came up with
1.5 pounds of boneless skinless chicken
3 chicken bouillon cubes
1 can cannellini (white) beans
1 cup frozen corn
1 packet McCormick White Chicken Chili mix
2 Tablespoons half and half
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
some minced onion
Cook the chicken in the slow cooker with 1 cup of broth (made with 1 of the cubes) until done. Then add the rest of the ingredients on low for 2-4 hours depending on your slow cooker temperature. Easy! Makes about 8 servings for about 210 calories and 4 grams of fat per servings.
In starting this blog, I feel I have to make a necessary “who I am, where I’ve been” post. People talk a lot about the “journey” I’ve had with bariatric surgery. If you don’t want to read on about said journey, you can watch my video here and there’s also a few supplemental videos here and here.
I’m not sure about the whole journey concept. People ask me to tell them my journey, and it feels weird because while I recognize I’ve accomplished some great things, it still feels like I have a pretty boring, normal life. It’s difficult managing wanting to showcase my accomplishments but knowing I need to stay humble. Sometimes I brag, and I’m aware of it, but considering where I’ve come from I have to occasionally let it slide.
Let’s talk about where I’ve come from. First off, I spent 5 years in high school because I failed almost all my classes freshman year (there was some crazy life events going on) and summer school wasn’t an option. So aside from being a size 22 teenager, I had the joy of all my classmates likely thinking I was an idiot and feeling like the world in general expected very little of me. I had a bout of depression in my early 20s, used to self-mutilate, and dropped out of community college to get myself straightened out. My weight fluctuated a lot, I was a yo-yo dieter and went anywhere from a size 18 to a 32 throughout my adult life.
On the left – pregnant. On the right – in follow up for plastic surgery
Eventually I went back to college for a medical coding certificate, got married, had a kid, had gastric sleeve surgery, lost a ton of weight, had plastic surgery, and got divorced. Now I look great, have a healthy lifestyle, and work in a leadership role making a very comfortable salary. I have a few published articles, have spoken at local and national business conferences, and have appeared on the cover of a magazine. All totally normal, boring stuff.
I’m also one of those obnoxious people that’s always taking photos of my food — particularly my packed lunches. I used to watch a completely obsessive amount of anime, so I know a little bit about Japanese culture (I have the kanji “yume” tattooed on my back) and always loved Japanese bento boxes. Through Pinterest I learned about making different cute little bento-esque lunches and started posting them on Facebook along with a menagerie of other things I prepared. A lot of people asked me for recipes or where I got my ideas. So I’ve finally caved and started a blog.
Being that I’m from Berks County, I thought that in addition to the normal healthy eating/lifestyle posts I could also include a local flare with PA Dutch recipe swaps, survival guides for establishments in northeastern PA, and some of my local favorite food items. That and more to come! I’m going to try and keep this as easy and budget-friendly as I can, so get you coupon scissors ready.
Bariatric Berks 