Beer Battered Cauliflower Tots

We are finally getting a taste of true fall temperatures this weekend – its 7:00 a.m. in Chicagoland and its 37 degrees right now!  Now if only Tony would let me sleep with the window open, I’d be a happy camper.

Our dog Ed is loving these temps – he breathes so much better.  We walked for 20 minutes before I had to leave for work – so much to smell! (and so many leaves I need to suck up this weekend).

I had breakfast burritos yesterday – two flour tortillas.  On the inside were two scrambled eggs and baby spinach and I split one slice of buffalo wing cheese between the two burritos, then nuked them and wrapped them up.  So spicy and delicious!  Breakfast comes in a t424 calories, 23 fat, 7 carbs, 2.7 fiber and 25 protein.

I decided to do the stair climber for my workout yesterday.  I did 30 minutes – 10 minutes facing forward, and then 10 minutes side stepping both right and left.  I took a 30 second pause in between each 10 minute set – I was sweating buckets!

I wanted to send a picture to Tony to show him how sweaty I was, and I somehow took this REALLY creepy picture of myself – I almost look like a scary clown!  If any young children are behind you right now, please tell them to look away so I don’t scare them!   I did 93 floor and 1.95 miles in 30 minutes.   I did a 15 minute cool down on the treadmill.

So with all the leftover brown rice and black beans, I ended up making a soup out of it.  This soup was good, but not great.  I think I need to add some tomato sauce or something.  I just added 4 cups of chicken broth, lime zest, 1/4 cup buffalo sauce and 8 ounces of cooked chicken to the pot and simmered for about 10 minutes.

As luck would have it, I had pickled jalapenos in the fridge at work – this made it extra spicy.  My guess is lunch comes in at 438 calories, (I had 1/2 an ounce of tortilla chips on the side) 6 fat, 64 carbs, 7.9 fiber and 29 protein.

I had a small portion of a sirloin roast that I defrosted.  I had the idea of making steak sandwiches for dinner, but I was trying to think of what we had on hand for a side dish.  I didn’t have any potatoes, I didn’t think rice would go well with it, and then I remembered that I had a cauliflower in the fridge!

Beer Battered Cauliflower Tots

Makes 4 servings:  233 calories, 5 fat, 3 carbs, 3.4 fiber and 5.8 protein

• 1/2 a head of cauliflower, cut into bite size pieces
• 12 ounce light beer
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Put whole cauliflower in microwave and cook on “fresh vegetable” setting.  Mine took about 5-6 minutes.  When cool enough to handle, cut in half, then cut into bite size pieces.

In a large bowl, mix the beer, flour, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper, getting rid of any lumps.  With your deep fryer (I promise Kiki that my deep fryer will be going down in the basement this weekend!) set at 350, coat each piece of cauliflower in the batter, then fry for 2-3 minutes.

For the steak sandwich, after I cut the roast thin, I salt and peppered it, and over high heat in my cast iron skillet just cooked it super fast – only a couple minutes.  Each of our sandwiches were 1.5 ounce french bread bun, 3/4 ounce provolone cheese, 3 ounces of steak and then one serving of the cauliflower tots on the side.  I ended up dipping my tots in a tablespoon of fat free ranch. 

See the food scale?  I do use one every day, otherwise my portions get way out of line.

My dinner plate comes in at 553 calories, 14 fat, 60 carbs, 4.9 fiber and 33 protein.

My co-worker Janice (hi Janice!) brought me some wasabi roasted edamame.  She likes them raw but didn’t like the taste of these.  Turns out I love them!  And I had a 1/4 cup snack of them for only 130 calories and 7 grams of fiber!  Thanks!  And yes, that is Frank’s hot sauce next to the wasabi edamame.

Stats for the Day:

• 1545 calories, 47 cat, 141 carbs, 22.5 fiber and 102 protein
• 37% of calories from carbs, 28% from fat and 35% from protein
• 20 minute walk before work (giving myself .5 miles to even it out!)
• 30 minute 1.95 stair climber, 15 minute cool down
• average blood sugar 157

I want to give a shout out to two of my favorite bloggers who are running the Chicago marathon this weekend.

Amanda lives in Chicago, and this is her 3rd marathon!   You can read her latest post about her preparing for this weekend.  She’s also a WW who lost 90 pounds!

And Heather, who lives in the Cleveland area, but her sister lives in Chicago.  She’s a marathon running bad ass.  She has the cutest son “C” and her husband just wrote a guest blog about how it is to be the husband of a marathon runner.

I plan on taping it on Sunday and maybe I’ll see you guys on t.v.  You know, while I am still in my pajamas drinking coffee and eating banana muffins!  Good luck ladies!!  I think the weather is going to be awesome for you guys.

Wow, Friday already – this week went by quick for me.  Let’s hope the day goes just as fast.  Make it a great day!