Portabella Mushroom Pizza

I love pizza. A lot. Especially when it's loaded down with tons of delicious veggies. But it is not the healthiest thing you can eat.

I started the 30 Day Shred yesterday. And if I'm going to be in excruciating pain for the next 30 days, I'm not going to ruin the results by eating a traditional pizza.

I was STUNNED by how good this was. I expected it to be tasty, but I wasn't expecting it to be as delicious as it was. It still had a bit of fat because of the cheese, but I'm guessing it's a minimal amount compared to traditional pizza. The pack of mushrooms I bought had two huge mushroom caps, so I can not wait to make another pizza later this week!


Portabella Mushroom Pizza
Ingredients

• One large mushroom cap
• one can of diced tomatoes; some of the liquid drained off
• sliced & diced veggies of your choice (I used green bell pepper and kalamata olives)
• Cheese of your choice
• olive oil
• salt & pepper

Directions

• Preheat the over to 350 degrees
• Pour the partially drained tomatoes into a saucepan. Turn on medium high heat and let these sit for a few minutes. They'll thicken up and the flavor will intensify. 
• Scoop the gills out of the mushroom. Be careful not to scoop through the mushroom. 
• Brush the mushroom with olive oil all over and sprinkle with salt & pepper.
• Spoon some of the tomatoes into the bottom of the mushroom.
• Top with toppings and then cover it all with cheese
• Bake for 15 minutes. Once this was done, I did turn on the broiler for a minute to get the cheese a little gooier. 

This was fantastic. I went with tomatoes instead of tomato sauce, because sauce usually tastes heavier, and I wanted these to taste really light.

I served this with a salad (yes, with more olives) and had a completely healthy, satisfying, meat free meal.

Black Bean Burgers (Recipe from The Daily Garnish)

The other day I was SO bored at work and was doing some back reading on some blogs I recently started following. I saw these vegan black bean burgers on Emily's blog (The Daily Garnish). I loved this recipe for a lot of reasons. I love black bean burgers and with the exception of the pepitas, I already had every ingredient for these on hand.

After reading some of reviews for this and based on my personal tastes, I did make a few changes. You can find her original recipe in the link above.



I may or may not have had a huge pile of tater tots with these =)

Black Bean Burgers

Ingredients

• 2 cans black beans (rinsed and drained)
• 2 medium sized carrots, grated
• 1/2 cup of dry rolled oats
• 1/4 cup of pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• 1 finely diced jalepeno
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 tsp of cumin
• 1 tsp of chili powder
• 1 tsp of onion powder 
• 1 tsp of garlic powder
• 1 tsp of cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp of sea salt
• 1/4 tsp of black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  
2. Grate the carrots in the food processor. Once grated, add the oats and the pepitas. Add 3/4 of the beans, all spices, and the olive oil.  Once all of this is in the food processor, let it go until well combined (the mixture is pretty much the consistency of hummus).
3. Spoon the mixture into a bowl and add the rest of the beans and the jalepeno. Fold them in and mix until evenly distributed.
4. With wet hands, form the mixture into large patties (I got 6 large patties out of this, and one little baby one I used for sampling =) ).
5. Place the patties on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour. Flip the burgers halfway through. 

Emily's original recipe called for a couple more spices, but I omitted those for my burgers. There was coriander, which I simply didn't have and cinnamon. I will never put cinnamon in a savory dish. Ever. I may be missing out on the greatest thing since feta or Nutella cheesecake, but I don't care. Cinnamon in a savory dish makes me think of Cincinnati style chili, which I loathe. My ex LOVED it. I tried it once at Skyline when we were in  Cincinnati together visiting his family. I took one bite and pretty much gagged. A few years later, I made him a whole pot of it, because I was that awesome of a girlfriend, and even when it came out of my own kitchen I still hated it. Anyways. That's the end of that little rant. I also doubled all of her seasonings. I like everything super spicy. Even doubling the seasonings and adding the jalepeno, these were still really mild.


Lastly, I baked mine at a higher temperature and for a longer period of time. She baked hers at 300 for 40 minutes, but based on some of the reviews, I upped the cooking time and temperature.

The mixture may not look appealing, but it is delicious!

They looked like cookies =)

They were a little crumbly on the outside, but the inside was soft, moist and so delicious. I love the Morning Star Spicy Black Bean burgers, but these are SO much better. And even if I would have had to buy the beans and the carrots (I keep a very well stocked spice cabinet), these would still have cost me less than $2.00 for all six of them. A box of the Morningstar ones costs about $4.00. I'm not vegan. Hell, I'm not even vegetarian, but these are delicious! I ate mine with some sliced pepper jack cheese, mixed baby greens and some salsa. These were spicy and delicious and the pepper jack and salsa just knocked them out of the park! I can't wait till Graham gets home so I can make these for him.

Three Weeks Soda Free!

I feel like I'm over the worst part of my soda addiction. I think I'll always have moments where I'm pulled to an ice cold Diet Mountain Dew, but I think I'll be able to fight that temptation and make a smarter choice.

I'm also making better choices fast food wise as well. I posted previously that I was giving up fast food. And while I haven't given it up completely, I have done a lot better. This week has been challenging, since our fridge at work is broken. Chick-Fil-A is my favorite fast food lunch. Even though it's the farthest from my office, and usually the priciest, it's still my top choice.

Well, since giving up sodas, I can get a much healtheir meal there for less money. The past two days it's been a Chargrilled sandwich (extra pickles of course), a small fruit cup & a large ice water (these 98 degree days are brutal!). This comes in at 360 calories and 4 grams of fat. This is good for any sandwich meal, in my opinion. But it's very good for a vast food meal. I'm sure the sodium is way too high and all that jazz, but 360 calories/4 grams of fat is amazing compared to my old favorite from Wendy's (spicy chicken sandwich-no mayo, medium fries and a diet coke) which weighs in at 900 calories/38 grams of fat.

Not to mention the price is better since I've gotten rid of soft drinks & tea. The chargrilled combo at Chick-Fil-A (Sandwich, fries & drink) was almost $7.00. Now, with just the sandwich, a fruit cup and a (free!) water, my lunch today was $5.65. Win/win!

Making this whole thing easier is low fat/low calorie sweet treats. Two weeks ago I discovered (and fell in love with) Skinny Cow Strawberry Shortcake ice cream sandwiches. These are SO, SO good! And only 150 calories and 2 grams of fat. I don't feel at all deprived at all by eating these instead of regular ice cream. I know low fat/low calorie stuff still has lots of other crap in them, but everything in moderation right?

Also, Fiber One has these new 90 calories brownies. I LOVE them! They're small, but they're chocolatey, light (so many low fat snacks are so heavy and taste fake) and I really, really love them. In fact, Christina over at Hungry Meets Healthy is doing a giveaway of some of the brownies and a prize pack from Fiber One.

All in all, I'm really proud of myself. I've been working out fairly regularly the past couple of weeks, eating better and I'm starting to feel better. The scale isn't showing much of a difference yet, but I know it will if I keep doing what I'm doing.

Update on the lifestyle change...

A little over a week ago, I blogged about how it was time for a serious lifestyle change. The past week hasn't been perfect (for example: last nights Nutella stuffed strawberries and too much biscotti) but it has been a HUGE improvement over how I've been living. I mean... if I'm going to stuff something with Nutella, aren't strawberries a better choice than chocolate chip cookies?

So deliciously addictive... and not at all healthy!

Slightly better, but still not healthy.

The biggest change: I've been soda free for a week! That's HUGE for me. January 1, 2007 I gave up soda for my New Years Resolution. I was soda free until October 2009. I quit it cold turkey back then, and I've spent the past few months trying to wean myself off of it. Well, I finally made myself realize that weaning myself off wasn't working and I quit cold turkey again. For the most part I haven't missed it at all. Today I do have a massive headache, but nothing a few Aleve won't fix (hopefully). Besides giving up soft drinks, I've been drinking water like there's not going to be any water tomorrow. I drink about three 32 ounce bottles of the stuff a day. WITHOUT adding any flavorings to it. And that is really big for me since I don't care for water.

Other than the water, the other thing I'm proud of is that I've only had fast food ONCE in the past week. I was craving Chick-Fil-A one day and got a chargrilled sandwich on my lunch break, but other than that, nothing. I didn't realize it until today, but that Chick-Fil-A sandwich is also the only meat I've eaten since last Friday. The meatless diet was an accident due to a LOT of leftover risotto, but I haven't missed it one bit. I'll never become a vegetarian, but I think I will try to start incorporating more meat free days & meals into my lifestyle.

I'm going home to Charlotte tomorrow, so I hope I can keep up the progress while I'm on "vacation". When I get back, I'm going to have to get in the gym more. This has been a busy week, so I've only worked out maybe twice, but next week there are no excuses. Four to five days a week... hold me accountable for that!

Time for a change...

Just a heads up to my readers (all two of you… =)), this post is going to be a long one. It’s going to bounce all over the place, but I need to get it out there if I’m really serious about making this kind of change.

I talk a LOT about trying to live a healthy lifestyle. But it’s mostly talk. Yes, I’ve started working out again, but working out four days a week and eating cupcakes, cheesecake cookie dough bars, and fast food every single day is not living a healthy lifestyle. Last night I was looking at my bank statement and I realized that since May 10, I have spent $53 on fast food. I was stunned, and to be honest, and a little nauseated by that number. I know for a fact that last week I had a biscuit from McDonalds for breakfast four days last week. And a medium beverage. Some days I would be “healthy” and get a Diet Coke instead of a sweet tea.

While I’m thinking of it, did McDonalds learn NOTHING from Supersize Me? I mean what is up with their drink policy? For $1.00 you can get ANY size of drink. I always order a medium but at the McDonalds by my house they automatically ring you up and give you a large, since it’s the same price (welcome to Arkansas, this is not something that they do in Charlotte). A large cup at McDonalds holds 32 ounces of whatever you’re putting in it. If it’s a day I picked Diet Coke, well yay. No calories. Just all the other awful crap in diet beverages. If it’s a day I picked Sweet Tea… oh my. 280 calories in that large sweet tea. Add to that the calories and fat from my biscuit (430 calories/27 grams of fat for the sausage biscuit, 410 calories/20 grams of fat for a chicken biscuit) and I feel morbidly obese already. So, over the past two weeks, I have spent $53 filling my body full of a LOT of sugar, fat, carbohydrates, and everything else on ONE meal a day.

Anyways. End of tangent number one. Back to my point. There were some days I’d eat McDonalds for breakfast. And more fast food for lunch. Some days I would pick a healthier option and eat a veggie sub from Subway or a char grilled chicken sandwich from Chick-Fil-A. But there were also days where I would get an Arby melt with cheddar, curly fries and a soda from Arby’s (1050 calories/52 grams of fat), or a #6 with no mayo from Wendy’s (900 calories/38 grams of fat) . So anytime I do that, I have exceeded my calorie count for the day by LUNCH. Than I would go home, eat dinner and at about 10:00pm, it’s time for my snack. Where I would binge on chips and dip, a bowl of cereal (and not a healthy cereal… we’re talking Apple Jacks here) or whatever I had baked. It’s no wonder I’m currently the size of a house. Well, maybe not a house. A condo… or a small duplex.

When I first moved here, I was depressed. I left behind my whole life and moved here where I had nothing but Graham. No job, no friends. Nothing. Now, in Charlotte I wasn’t exactly a social butterfly. I’ve never had a lot of friends, but I have really, really GREAT friends. Friends who were ALWAYS there for me, and I missed that. So, I got depressed. I got bored and lonely. So I would bake. I was baking either cupcakes or a cheesecake every week. I tried to deny my weight gain for as long as I could. I told my mom that I obviously hadn’t gained any weight because all of my jeans still fit. Yes, they fit because they never ever saw the inside of a dryer. And I still had to do some weird, frog stretching thing whenever I shimmied into them. When I was home in April, I could no longer deny it. I was shopping for a dress to wear to my wedding, and after 3 malls and NOTHING, I broke down in tears in the dressing room at Macy’s. Every time I took off my clothes and tried something on I felt worse and worse. Looking at myself naked was a disgusting, horrible experience. I ended up trying on larges and size 12’s. And I felt physically sick every time. That was my wake up call. It obviously didn’t wake me up too much considering my food choices of late, but it started something stirring inside me.


Pre Break-Up; March 2008 (size 12)




July 2008 (size 8)



April 2009 (size 8)

 

May 2010 (size 10)

April 2011 (size 12)

Now I’m awake. I need to do more than lose weight though. I need to change my lifestyle. I’ve lost massive amounts of weight before; I just always get lazy and let the weight come back. In 2008, my boyfriend of five years broke up with me. Over the phone. On the first day of my exams. I was stunned and heartbroken. Two months earlier we had gone on vacation together and had an amazing time. That weekend we talked about how we would redecorate his house when we moved in together after graduation. That week and the week after were so hard on me. I didn’t eat. I didn’t leave the house. I lay in bed and moped. My family asked how long I was going to be sad for, and I gave myself that time, and then I was up and trying to put my life back together. I started going to the Y regularly with my best friend, Brittany. That first night at the Y I weighted myself and discovered that I had lost ten pounds in my “mourning period”. I kept working out, but not eating right, and the weight continued to come off. By the end of that summer I had lost 30 pounds and had never looked better. In high school I was very thin. I was a size four and weighed about 125 pounds. That summer I got down to 135 and I was very comfortable in a size eight. But once school started back up (my last semester), the weight started to come back. It was slow & gradual, but it was there. The following summer the eights were getting snug. The summer after that, the eights had turned into tens. And this summer into twelve’s.
Losing weight is easy enough, if you’re motivated. But keeping it off is harder. It requires more than just crash diets (not that the post break-up weight loss was a crash diet. I physically couldn’t eat more than a bowl of soup a day) and sporadic work outs. It requires a lifestyle change. And that is what this HAS to become. I can’t keep feeling this way about myself and my body, because it is a vicious cycle. I get depressed, I eat. I realize I’m fat. That depresses me and I eat some more.

I think it will be easier to change my lifestyle living alone. I won’t have anyone else’s needs to consider but mine. Last night after looking at my bank statement and seeing an inspirational image on Pinterest, something just clicked and I got up, got dressed, grabbed my car keys and headed to the store. This lifestyle change had to start then and there.

The Life Changing Pinterest Image

One of the first things I had to do was make breakfast a priority. I love the MorningStar Spicy Black Bean burgers, so I decided to give some of their other options a try. I bought some of their spicy veggie sausage patties. I was hesitant, but I had a $1.00 off coupon, so I figured what the heck. This morning I ate one for breakfast, along with a scrambled egg and a cup of fat free, Fiber One yogurt. I know I still have a lot to learn about nutrition, but I figured this is a good start. The sausage was good. Not amazing, but I didn’t have those kinds of expectations. It was definitely spicy and tasted similar to sausage. But the best thing about it was the 70 calories and 3 grams of fat, as opposed to the Jimmy Dean reduced fat sausage we typically buy, which is 140 calories and 11 grams of fat.

I guess making changes like that are what it is going to take. It’s definitely going to be a process, but my breakfast this morning was an egg, a “sausage” and a cup of yogurt. It weighed in at a grand total of 190 calories, 7 grams of fat, 10 carbs and 4 grams of sugar.

I’ve never been this open about my weight before. It’s a very private, very sensitive issue for me. I lie whenever someone asks me what I weigh. Even if it’s stupid and private. When I went to get my military ID card after Graham and I got married, they had me type on a keypad what I weighed. I put in a number that is about 20 pounds less than the truth. I’m so humiliated by what the scale says I don’t even want to admit it to a machine. I’ll probably never reveal to anyone what I currently weigh. I don’t want to hear my mom gasp “Heather!” in that shocked, disapproving way she did when I admitted the truth about my weight pre-break up. The actual number will probably die a secret with me. It’s not just because I’m ashamed, but in the long run, the number on the scale isn’t an issue. The issue is the negative self image I currently have and the fact that my weight is one of the things keeping me from living the life that I want to live.

I’ve always wanted to run a marathon. Right now I’m so out of shape I can’t even run a mile. When we’re in North Carolina over the summers, Graham likes to spend a lot of time on the lake. I won’t wear a bathing suit in public. Shopping, an activity I LOVE has become a chore that I now dread, because nothing looks good on me anymore.

I know this is going to be something that isn’t going to happen over night. I am trying to jumpstart myself by watching carbs, calories AND fat over the next few weeks, and then I need to find a happy medium. I need to allow myself treats every once in a while and still maintain an active, healthy lifestyle. I need to recognize when I’m actually hungry, and when I’m just eating because I’m bored. I have a great goal to look to: Graham coming home in November and our New Years Eve wedding do-over.

(Okay. This sucks. A client just brought in fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. I’m already being met by temptation. And I’ve resisted the tray of donuts in the break room ALL day. I MUST resist the cookie… I looked up the nutritional information on this cookie. ONE cookie has 170 calories, 24 carbs and 8 grams of fat. All things in moderation, but I really feel I need to push the sweets away for at least a few weeks if I have any chance of doing this and successfully changing my life. I mean, how sad is it if I’m unable to say ‘no’ to a cookie? I looked up the nutritional information on this cookie. ONE cookie has 170 calories, 24 carbs and 8 grams of fat. All things in moderation, but I really feel I need to push the sweets away for at least a few weeks if I have any chance of doing this and successfully changing my life. I mean, how sad is it if I’m unable to say ‘no’ to a cookie?)

Have I mentioned I'm addicted to Pinterest?

Anyways. I hope I can find encouragement and inspiration in the blog world. I need all the help I can get!