Yesterday I was wide awake at 6:30 in the morning. What? That gave me an hour and 40 minutes before I had to leave for work – so much time for activities!
For breakfast, I made a Green Monster – this time with two overflowing cups of spinach so it was nice and green. This one had 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 a banana, 1 cup frozen mixed fruit, a teaspoon of honey and mango Chobani yogurt.
I ended up making a batch of my granola clusters for my one boss. Then I decided to try out making a macaroni and cheese with unsweetened almond milk. If you haven’t tried almond milk yet, I urge you to try it. I have been subbing it in for any recipe that calls for milk – and at 30 calories a cup you really get a lot of bang for the buck.
This was pretty quick to come together because I already had leftover pasta.
Broccoli, Ham and Cheddar Mac N Cheese
- makes 4 servings
- 415 calories, 27 fat, 17 carbs, 25 protein, 2 fiber, 1005 sodium
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 3 cups unsweetened almond milk
- 6 ounces lean ham, diced
- 2 cups cooked broccoli, chopped
- 2 cups loose shredded cheese
- 4 ounces (2 cups) cooked pasta of your choice
- salt and pepper to taste
- pinch of crushed red pepper
Melt butter in a stock pot. Add flour and cook for 1 minute. Slowly add the almond milk stirring until thickened. This is the longest process – maybe took me about 7 minutes total? Remove from heat and stir in the ham, broccoli cheese and pasta. I never even baked this again since I was taking it to work – but if I were to make it at home (which would never happen because Tony hates macaroni and cheese – even home made!) I would sprinkle with some panko bread crumbs and put it under the broiler.
For my workout I found something on Pinterest I thought would switch things up. My plan was to wear my bathing suit under my workout clothes, do the workout, then swim.
This is the workout I did. It took me 16 minutes to complete before the run.
There was only a teeny tiny problem with my plan. I couldn’t do the run with my bathing suit. Um, let’s just say that there wasn’t enough support for the twins! So I ended up walking for 10 minutes on a 10% incline at 3.5 mph.
And them I swam for 15 minutes. I liked that it switched up and I didn’t feel bored at all!
Then it was time to eat the mac n cheese! This got thumbs up from my two bosses.
I had an orange and grapes on the side.
Last night we had one of Tony’s favorite dinners, which is funny because there really isn’t any “cooking” involved. Red beans and rice with smoked sausage! So easy. If you haven’t bought a rice cooker, go out and get one – it cooks any kind of grain just as long as you use the correct proportion of water to the grain.
Our package of Zataran’s called for 3 1/4 cups water added to the mix. Dump the package of red beans and rice in the bottom of the rice cooker. Add water.
Then throw in the sliced smoked sausage. This is already cooked sausage, fyi.
Mix well with a fork so there aren’t any clumps.
This took about 35-40 minutes to cook. Just set it and forget it! It gets super bubbly at the end and the sausage is all plump. (That’s what she said!)
I of course served mine over a bed of chopped baby spinach. And I may have doused this in hot sauce after the picture was taken. 
Delish! And of course Tony had to be a smart ass and tell me it was nice to have a decent meal for once! Funny Tony!
Alright, here is my question of the day since most of you are much better cooks than I am. I had a thought. I have a pound of leftover beef roast, and I had an idea to make meatballs out of it – put the beef in a food processor with bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and egg, garlic, Italian seasoning and pulse. Then just pan fry them on top of the stove to get a crust. Do you think that would work??
In my head it works out, but let me know your thoughts!
Stats for the Day
- 46 minute workout at lunch
- 1439 calories
- 59 fat
- 174 carbs
- 19 fiber
- 63 protein
- 49% of calories from carbs, 27% from fat and 14% from protein
- 2900 mg sodium!
I need to start evening out my stats – while I am fine around 1500 calories, I need to increase the fiber and protein. It would be less insulin too! 
Alright, just about to take a broccoli quiche out of the oven and I need to check on my sautéed apples. Everyone cooks before going to work, right?!
Make it a great day!
Ham and broccoli mac and cheese sounds so good! A little veggie, a little meat, a little cheese – I like it!
When I have leftover roast I simmer it with a little beef broth and taco seasoning and shred it up and use it to make shredded beef tacos OR enchiladas OR quesadillas. Yummmm!!
Your workout sounds fun! I’m working on mixing things up again….
Happy Friday!
Marianne – Every sunday I post a weekly meal plan for my family on my blog if you are interested at all! You can search through old ones as well under “C’s picks’ http://www.a-life-from-scratch.com
Biz, you look great! I never thought of making red beans and rice like that – how easy and delicious. My husband would love it!
Thanks Courtney – hope Marianne checks out your meal planning page! 😀
Thanks for the link, i shall check it out. We’ll see if I actually get around to making a plan!
That mac & cheese would be a boyfriend approved meal. I’m still trying to figure out how to cook for 2 people, and keep in mind that the other person eats bigger portions that I would make for myself. I almost think I need to make a weekly meal plan! Ack!
Yep, definitely check out Courtney’s meal plan – it’s a great way to ease into it!