Tater Tot Spinach Breakfast Cups

Wow, it’s been a while since I posted a recipe on here!  I found a recipe for Sweet Potato Florentine Breakfast Cups last weekend and had every intention of making them as written, but then I could not find sweet potato tots to save my life.  So, I went with generic store brand potato “coins.”  The bag I got was 30 ounces so I took out 20 ounces, stuck them in a ziploc and let them sit in the fridge for a couple days to thaw before I got around to making them.  I also tweaked the recipe a bit to make it fit in my mini-meals with the 7 day carb cycle.  And I am not a huge fan of frozen spinach – ew.

Yesterday morning for my first meal I first nuked the muffins for 45 seconds, then put them under my broiler under high to crisp them back up – so delicious!  Here’s the nutrition label for 3 (which I originally thought I’d have 3 for a serving, but decided I wanted fruit as the extra carbs).

I love that three of these gives you 126% of your daily Vitamin A!  Yep, it’s a bit high in cholesterol because of the eggs, so you could easily use all egg whites.  So delicious.  Up above is all the rest of my meals for the day:  Meal 2: turkey romaine roll ups with mustard, cucumbers, cottage cheese and pear.  Meal No. 3:   Ground sirloin taco salad.  Meal No. 4:  Chobani parfait with 1/3 cup low fat granola and apple drizzled with about 20 calories worth of chocolate syrup – totally worth it!  And then when I got back from running club I ended up making a grilled sirloin pizza burger with homemade marinara for Meal No. 5.

All in all my day totals:  1551 calories, 62 fat, 123 carbs, 19.5 fiber and 109 protein.  Wondering from all my RD friends how nutritionally balanced you thought may day was? Nicole?   EA?

So while yesterday was going to be my low carb day, my friend and DIABETIC registered dietician doesn’t recommend eating less than 125 carbs a day, even for diabetics.  So coming in at 123 for the day is still considered low carb for me.  I ended up not taking any insulin with my salad because there weren’t that many carbs and I had my running club after work.  When I tested it before meal #4, it was only 157 so I ended up not taking any insulin with the Chobani parfait and that gave me enough fuel to get my run in after work.

The running club doesn’t start until 6:30 and it’s near my office, so I walked for 35 minutes at the gym and did about 15 minutes of stretching before heading out.  The path behind the store is absolutely gorgeous – just a quick jog through a housing subdivision before we get to this running path by a pond.  This weeks C25k was walk 3 minutes run 3 minutes.  Obviously it takes me a bit of time to get into the swing of things – you’ll see that my first mile was 14:29 and my second mile was 12:39!  Also, that picture of the runner at the finish line is this giant poster at Dick Pond – I imagined that’s what I looked like when I finished my run yesterday – ha!

Since I didn’t work out at lunch I went to pick up lunch for my bosses and I ended up swinging by Goodwill because I forgot my hat – it was sunny out yesterday and I don’t want to burn my lips or face again – even with 50 spf lip balm!  I also found this totally cute Nine West purse – it’s short and wide and when I open it up I can see everything.  My purse now is long and narrow and by god everything falls to the bottom and it drives me insane trying to find anything.  It’s almost brand new and only cost $4.99.  And I shocked the shit out of Hannah because it wasn’t black!  That’s Hannah being my hand bag model.

So I got my steps in yesterday!  I’ve always made the minimum of 10k while starting this 7 day carb cycle, but with my walk in the office, the grocery store, Goodwill, the treadmill walk after work and my running club, I basically killed it on the steps.

I know I’ve been promising you my beef recap, and I will!  It’s just that going through 528 pictures that I took over three days (obsessed much?!) and making sure I get all the information out correctly is going to take time so I plan on writing those posts over the weekend and will publish them next week.  It will be worth the wait!

Also, since I’ve already mentioned Nicole twice in this blog post, what’s one more?  She’s having her SIXTH annual chili cookoff contest on her blog.  She’s a HUGE Illini fan and she and her husband love chili for football game days.  She’ll accept the first 7 recipes to make and taste test, and whichever chili they feel is the best wins a $200 Visa Giftcard!  What are you waiting for?  Go check out the details here.  One chili recipe that I’ve always wanted to make and don’t think I have is a white chicken chili with green chiles.  If I have time (and make it before you guys enter yours!) I may try that out this weekend.

Alright, off to eat my first meal of the day and I have my gym bag packed and my food packed for the day and my gallon of water ready to go.  Make it a great day!