The way our house is situated, we still have ice and snow on our back deck and I am kind of sick of looking at it. It’s dirty, there are leaves from last fall intermingled in between the ice. But when we have temps in the teens, I don’t see that going anywhere anytime soon. Um, this doesn’t feel like spring!
I made another Green Monster, although I added blueberries to this one, so it’s not very green. However, when I added everything together: 1 cup soy milk, 1 container Chobani blood orange yogurt, 1/2 frozen banana, 3/4 cup frozen mixed fruit and 3/4 cup of blueberries – this giant smoothie comes in at 555 calories and wait for it, wait for it . . . 95 grams of carbs! Of course, I didn’t figure that out until I drank it all. It was delicious, but I didn’t give myself enough insulin and my blood sugar was 355 later in the morning. I’ll have to research some lower carb smoothie options. I still love the idea – its such a great way to get in a ton of fruit and veggies.
I have noticed since I have gotten my fit bit, I do try to squeeze in any extra steps I can during the day. When I went to the gym, I parked in the farthest corner!
I ended up doing 40 minutes on the treadmill at a 7.0 incline and 3.8 mph. All while watching the Chew which was all about chicken. They went to a place called The Country Cat that made boneless fried chicken and it looked amazeballs. It’s in Portland, a place that I really want to visit someday. Has anyone ever been to this place? It doesn’t help to watch food shows while working out – I just get more hungry!
No picture of lunch – it was more lasagna soup and I added a bunch more spinach to it, so the color of it looked like baby puke, but it tasted good!
I’ve always loved Nature Valley granola bars. I love a crunchy granola bar vs. a chewy one. Of course I went to my new go to to find recipes – Pinterest! I adapted this recipe. I ended up adding sesame seeds, dried cranberries and unsweetened coconut to my bars.
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Check out your Dollar General for mixed nuts – that can cost $2.25 – less than half the price I would have paid for it a grocery store. Make sure you really press down the mixture in your pan – I used my bench scraper.
I waited just 10 minutes before cutting these – otherwise it’s one giant granola bar!
OMG. These are so good! They are crunchy, toasting the oats gives it a whole new flavor – I’ll never not toast my oats before making granola bars again. #winning!
While I was making my Italian meatballs for my lasagna soup over the weekend, I had some leftover Italian sausage – not really enough to do anything with, but I had an idea to form them in the shape of a burger. I knew I had leftover brisket thinly sliced in the freezer so I did my adaptation of Chicago classic – an Italian beef combo.
Since the beef was sliced so thin, all I did was heat 1 cup of beef broth with 1 tablespoon of Italian season. Once the broth came to a boil, I took it off the heat and added the beef just to warm up – I didn’t want to cook it because I wanted it still tender. I ended up pan frying the sausage patties, and I melted an ounce of mozzarella on the bottom of my hamburger bun. Then assembly time! Italian sausage patty on the bottom, the beef on top, then I took half a ladle of the au jus and poured that over the top of mine. The only thing missing for me was hot giardiniera! I made due with a spicy pickle spear.
Tony wasn’t a fan of the sausage patty, so he picked that off, but the meat was incredibly tender. I still have two more bags of the sliced beef too!
I have nothing really on our agenda today – we meet up with my daughter-in-laws family tonight for dinner. One project I need to do is to get rid of some of the pictures I have on my computer dating back to October – that should free up some computer space. It’s rainy and 36 – maybe I’ll just stay in my pjs all day!
I got my 10,000 steps too!
Make it a great day!
Enough already with this winter! I’ve officially become my grandmother, complaining about the weather all the time! But seriously I’m sitting at my dining room table with a space heater 6 inches away from me.
My husband loves the same kind of granola bars. Yours look delicious.
Enjoy your PJ day off!!
Yep, I keep complaining about it too – we are supposed to hit mid 50s on Sunday – cannot wait! Hang in there!
Those bars look DELICIOUS! I hope you enjoy your day off and I’m doing my BEST to pack as much sunshine from FL to bring home!!!
I hope so Courtney! Safe travels home! 😀
Your granola bars look delicious. I do have some recipes for them but never made them. I am going to try my first ever green smoothie this weekend. I don’t really like veggies in my smoothie but my veggie box had fresh spinach in it and otherwise I won’t eat all of it (use the rest in a salad).
Believe me Fran, you won’t taste the spinach at all! I can’t convince Tony otherwise though!
I’m type 2 and drink a smoothie with: 2.5 cups unsweetened soy milk, 1 c. Frozen raspberries, 1 Tbsp. Almond butter and 1 scoop of vegan protein powder. I don’t know how many carbs are in it but 2 hours from the time I start drinking it (which is when I test) my blood sugar is only 93 on average. Maybe you just need more protein to balance out all those carbs? Good luck!
Thanks for the idea about the protein powder – I think that’s the key – and great numbers by the way after eating a smoothie!
Hi Biz. Hope you are having a great day. Smoothies….usually when I make them for JP and I…don’t add milk just use water and yogurt and frozen fruit for JP. For my smoothies, I add the spinach. Never checked the blood sugars after a smoothie, only know they hold me over till the next meal. I really need to make a habit of doing them more often. JP has one every day, you would think when I make his, I would make one for myself, but I don’t. Oh well.
You are really doing good on your steps. That beef sandwich looks really good and the granola also. Have a wonderful dinner with your DIL’s family.
Gosh….I am just learning how to add pictures to this new computer, deleting and/or moving them will be yet another challenge in a couple of months. Have a good one.
They are super filling aren’t they? Yep, I think I’ll stick with unsweetened almond milk and more veggies than fruit. Hope your computer learning is going well!
Those are my all time favorite granola bars, I may have try my hand at making some of my own!
I miss smoothies so much, but the carb count sends my #’s sky high.
Yea for PJ day! I hope your enjoy the time off. You do deserve it.
Just when I had given up granola…( I use to add it to my yogurt for a little crunch and texture) you had to go and make some good looking stuff to tempt me with. As luck has it I do not have the ingredients so hopefully I will resist.
I’m with Tony on this one. I would have taken the sausage off too. Too many different meat flavors for me:)
I’ve always wanted to try making my own but I stop myself because granola is so high in calories. If I can find a way to make it and keep it low, I would!
Mmmmmmmmmm, those granola bars look awesome. I agree, crunchy all the way! 🙂
I love making homemade granola bars…they are so much better than bought!
Enjoy your day off – you deserve it!! And, with the rain and cold I would stay in PJs (or at least sweats) all day, too.
Yep, I think this is a pj day! 😀
Enjoy your day off! And I’m with you on the cold temps…WTF, spring???
Safe travels to Utah Shelley!
Your dinner looks amazing, when I saw it last night on Instagram I got an instant craving for it! ha I’m with you and soooo over this winter, I’m ready for some warm spring days. Hope you have a great day off 🙂
Thanks Sam! We should have temps in the 50s by Sunday – cannot wait!
Hi Biz – enjoy your day off! It’ll be a good day to stay in your pj’s. Maybe one way to reduce carbs in your smoothie would be to use plain yogurt instead of the fruit flavored? I don’t buy the flavored so I’m not exactly sure what the carbs are, but looking at my plain right now – 1cup = 9g carbs. I want to try the granola bars but I’m afraid I won’t control myself and eat too many bars – or maybe just one giant bar! 🙂
Yep – that’s a good idea. I also think I’ll go back to unsweetened almond milk – its only 30 calories a cup vs. 80 calories with the soy milk.
These are crack bars Lynne!
That was going to be my suggestion, soy milk has a ton of added sugar to make it palatable so I was gong to recommend unsweetened almond milk. Just be sure to watch what you pick up, last week we went shopping and I ended up grabbing a 60-cal almond milk by mistake. Not that it was bad, but more calories than I wanted.
I skip yogurt in my smoothies because I don’t like that tanginess. Bleh! I go with 8 oz almond milk, frozen fruit (1/2 banana, or some peaches or cherries), sometimes 1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder for a chocolate version, a scoop of Amazing Grass original superfood powder, and a handful of spinach if I’ve got it.