Musselman's big promotion this January to help fight breast cancer. They will officially announce the kick off of the program on the Brian Boitano Skating Spectacular, airing January 1st on NBC (4-6 pm EST).
To start the year off with a giving spirit, they are donating ten cents to the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) for every package of Musselman's Natural Apple Sauce purchased in the month of January. The NBCF is dedicated to raising awareness of breast cancer through education and by providing mammograms for those in need. They will soon have a link to a video featuring Peggy Fleming talking about her experience with breast cancer and sharing details about what Musselman's is doing to help others in need of support.
Musselman's provided me with a 48 oz Natural Apple Sauce in a pink ribbon package and a offered a few healthier recipes that are perfect for the winter season, such as Craig's Apple Pork Chops, Good Morning Muffins and Apple Sauce Meatloaf.
With the colder winter weather just around the corner, they wanted to help me get cozy and add a serving of fruit to some of the most popular comfort foods (made with our apple sauce!) that not only feeds your hunger, but can also help feed hope for those affected by breast cancer.
Check out this video if you will.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwjd7MCjj-Q
Baking and cooking with unsweented apple sauce is a GREAT sub for butter or oil. It makes things sweet without sugar and gives it a great consistancy.
YAY!!! MY MOM IS READING TODAY! Thanks so much Donna!
This morning I decided that I would put this apple sauce to the test and see just how warm it could make me! I have already baked, cooked, simmered, and eaten it alone several times so I wasn't surprised when I had it this morning in Oatmeal Pancake. Remember the Quinoa Bread that I made? The chunky apple sauce was the star of the recipe.
Pancake Breakfast Cookie ingrediants:
1/4 cup applesauce, sliced &blanched almonds, 2 egg whites, cinnamon, shredded coconut, PB, 1/4 cup milk, 1/2 cup quick oats. Cook it just like you would a pancake. You may have to add a little water to get it to a pancake batter like consistancy.
Applesauce in pancakes! I have never tried it–have you? I added the entire mini container–so I managed to get the apple flavor!
Also–I decided to blend two different types of oats together because I’m running out of quick oats [my weapon of choice for microwave pancakes] so I decided to mix it with organic oats–it turned out quite well, actually! I was afraid it might take longer to cook, but it didn’t! And it was much chewier too. This was amazing and so very glad that I made this! It was p-e-r-f-e-c-t with my cup of joe! Thanks Krista for continuing to be the best and allowing me to have some of the best apple sauce EVER!
So, there you have it. A warm and cozy breakfast. Can you believe that New's Years Eve is TOMORROW? Dude, my horoscope said that after the 26th life for me would SLOW down to a crawl. Not so Miss. Susan, I am holding on for dear life. I must say...2009 can go and I will not look back. This year (and I wont go into it until tomorrow) has been a VERY eventful one for me. I plan to re-cap the year (as best as I can without it being the longest post ever) and include my New Year's resolutions. DO you have any New Years Resolutions? I always try to make a list and this year....I am sticking to it.
Other snacks of the day include:
Cottage cheese with greek yogurt and grapes.
WARNING! This bowl looks HUGE but it is not. This is only a 1/2 cup of fat free cottage cheese with a couple of table spoons of greek yogurt (plain) and four grapes sliced in half. I put some fresh mint on top to make it extra special. It was the perfect mix of a slow digesting and fast digesting "meal" before lifting weights for 45 minutes. Today I am going to lift weights and focus on Shoulders. I am sad because my gym will be closed tomorrow AND New Years day. Looks like I will have to get in some cardio outside. So lifting is the best idea today. After getting back I am having a Vegan Boca Burger salad with avocado, onion, cucumber and mustard on Romain. It is great for right after the gym because I need a fast digesting protein to get to my muscles and soy protein is just the thing. I have pretty much cut the soy protein out of my diet but every once in a while I mix it up!
I was a bad blogger and didn't take a picture of my salad. This is kinda what it looked like minus avocado and onion. I also only ate one boca burger and sliced it up and put it on top. This is something that you need to go out and get. Even if you only eat the burger it is a great snack. Check this out! They have all kinds. Even "chicken" patties.
See! The thing that I LOVE about these are that they are low calorie. The vegan one has no dairy in it and non of them need to be refrigerated. What does that mean?
It means that you can take it with you and BAM! You have yourself a "meal" ready to go. Pair this with a apple and you have a perfect snack. I carry one with me sometimes and it is just fine. Hey, you gotta get your protein with EVERY snack and this is a on-the-go snack that fits perfectly in your purse. You may be surprised how much it tastes like a hamburger.Mom....Try this out next time. You will LOVE this. Get one of those Arnold Thins (the thin bread that we looked at Nannie's house) and make this!
This is so simple but look, you can add some things to it and end up with a GREAT hamburger that only has about 300 cals total! Most hamburgers would carry about 700 cals so this is a HUGE difference. 
Now, this is my idea of a "meal" this could easily be paired with a piece of fruit and the whole meal would be less than 400 cals. TRY THIS!
I am trying to get my mom on a healthy diet and it's a good thing that I am a food blogger. This way everyone can SEE exactly what I eat and how it looks (portion sizes). No reason why you can eat this. Just try it. You can find Boca Burgers at Kroger in the refrigerated section in the health food section. They come four to a box so if you get the Arnold sandwich thins and a tomato you have a lunch or dinner for four whole night! They were on sale last week at Kroger for 2.50 so for 5.00 dollars you can have 8 meals. I like the idea of pickles on the side. They are low calorie and you can eat two or three of them with no worries.
I am going out to my favorite restaurant with Karen. It is the end of the year and a little sangria and ceviche needs to be had. We will reminisce about the past year I am sure too. Hopefully I can get in a walk this evening by actually walking to the restaurant and back. I am sure Karen will be up for it. She is a walkin machine!
Ok, this post is getting long but I promised I would give you my routine for Monday-Friday. Here it is in it entirety. Sit back, this is going to be in detail and pretty long. Here we go.
7:45-wake up, dress, warm the car up and head out the door. I try to take a bit of something on the way out. ANYTHING. A couple almonds, a bite of a granola bar whatever. Just a bite to get me started so that I get my body going. This is NOT breakfast this is just to get my metabolism going.
8:30-Arrive at work and get COFFEE. I have about a cup and a half and get up and running for work.
9:30- I usually have oatmeal, with a few egg whites MIXED IN, half a banana (in the oats) and some stevia or truvia to sweeten. OR I have a low calorie English muffin toasted with half a banana and peanut butter. (this meal costs about 9.00 for 6 days of breakfast)
11:30-1/2 cup of Kroger fat free cottage cheese, and some berries (any kind) or a piece of fruit (this meal costs about 6.00 for 5 days worth of snacks)
1:00-weight lifting for 45 minutes OR walking for 60 minutes
2:30- Boneless Skinless Chicken breast and Romain with some veggies (like tomato, cucumber, onion and avocado). I buy a three pack of chicken breast and BAKE it with MRS.DASH. I cut the three chicken breasts IN HALF and only eat half a breast a day with my lunch.I always use either salsa or mustard for my dressing. I know, I know...Boring but hey...your waist line will thank you. You can have as many veggies and you want and really have a big salad, no need to skimp on the fiber!
5:00- Almonds, I usually eat some sort of nuts to hold me over before dinner. This is a great snack that you can have in your purse as well. Count out about 20-25 seriously....If you are like me you better count them out. I have been known to go through a whole pound of nuts in just two days.
5:30-walking for 60 minutes or if I want I will do a yoga video or aerobic video, whatever! If I lifted weights during lunch then I get in some sort of cardio at night. If I did cardio during lunch then I try to get in some weights at night. You have to see when works best for you. Just make sure that you eat before and right after. Before: yogurt would be best and after a apple, then about a hour later have your protein fiber filled salad or breakfast depending on the time.
7:00-I have a low sodium soup (you can get low sodium soups in the health food isle and they are in a BOX). Look so them. They have all types. What I do is I bake my chicken and I also bake some mixed veggies (like yellow squash, onion, broccoli, mushrooms, whatever you like). If I had a boca burger for lunch then I would chop up the half chicken breast add veggies and then pour 1 cup of soup in the bowl to make a stew. If you wanted to you could just go ahead and make a huge batch of soup for the week. You could use low sodium chicken or vegetable broth for the base and then add in ground turkey, chicken, tofu or fish. Try to taper your carbs through out the day. I try not to have any heavy carbs after 5:00. Carbs are for energy so you dont need as much energy at night when you are winding down. Acceptable carbs are sweet potato's, quinoa and BROWN RICE, whole wheat pasta. No white stuff please. If you wanted the boca burger for dinner on the Arnold thin...Go for it. Just make sure that Lunch and Dinner has some sort of steamed meat and two or three servings of veggies. Frozen veggies are fine. You get the idea...
9:00-I have a little snack before bed but not much. This is sometimes, sugar free chocolate pudding (I hate to tell you this is ok because it has splenda and high fructose corn syrup in it but I do have it SOMETIMES.) I would rather you buy a DARK chocolate bar and have two to three SMALL squares if you need that chocolate fix. I sometimes have celery with a tiny bit of peanut butter or hummus. Just make sure it is light and try not to eat two to three hours before you go to bed (especially you MOM!)
This is it guys! This my schedule. Let me know what you think. If you weigh more or are more active you may need to eat more. This is just what I eat. I wanted to leave you with a picture of the soup that I eat so that you can see what dinner looks like.
This is for you Mom so that you can see how to make a simple soup for dinner. Add a BIG bag of mixed frozen vegetables in a pot or crock pot.
Then add the WHOLE box to the vegetables OR you can add this if you don't want to buy the organic kind.
You can buy kroger brand or whatever just make sure it says LOW SODIUM and NO MSG. I even circled it for you. Then add your meat of choice and let it cook. You can add what ever kind you want and if you have no meat then BEANS will be fine. Kidney, garbonzo, black eyes or lima beans are fine.This is what you end up with.
Chuncky, harty, warm and good for you. I dont eat soup EVERY night but when it is cold out I do. I have other dinner items (you can scroll through my other posts).I will see you tomorrow and hope that you have a wonderful night.
Luv ya!
-Heather
