August 15, 2011

Smells like fall

I woke up this morning and opened the windows. To my delight, it totally felt like fall outside. I LOVE fall. The weather has been gorgeous lately, and it makes me in such a happy mood. I decided to make Pumpkin Oats for breakfast and eat it from my leaf bowl.
It tasted like pumpkin pie. You can find a trillion recipes for oats like this online, but here is how I made it this morning:
28 g. oats (about 1/3 cup)
1/3 cup skim milk (I would have used almond milk, but I'm trying to save money, so we don't have any)
1/3 cup water
1 1/2 tsp. brown sugar
10 g. raisins
dash of salt
dash of maple extract
a whole lotta cinnamon (about 1/2 tsp)
dash of pumpkin pie spice (about 1/8 tsp)
1/3 cup canned pumpkin

Combine all (except pumpkin) in a small pot on the stove and bring just to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer while stirring for a couple of minutes. Stir in the pumpkin and heat through.
Calories: 215  Fat: 2 g. Fiber: 7 g. Carbs: 46 g. Protein: 9 g.

I was trying to keep the calorie count down, but if you have some to spare, then I would double the raisins and add chopped walnuts. Yum!



Last night, the boys were playing outside when I saw Eli limping home, crying. I brought him in the house and he said his feet hurt so badly that he couldn't walk. This scared me, because Eli would sell his soul to be able to stay outside for one more hour--he NEVER comes home until I threaten to punish him for not listening to me. He was barefoot, and carrying his socks and shoes. When I got him inside, I looked at his feet, and they looked TERRIBLE.

They were extremely pale (almost white) and they looked extremely waterlogged. I felt his shoes, and they were dry. His feet felt dry, too. But the only way to describe them was that they looked waterlogged.  I was afraid he somehow got a chemical burn or something, so I took him in the bathtub and washed his feet. I was debating whether I should take him to the ER because I'd never seen anything like it. I figured I'd put lotion on them and dry cotton socks to see if that helped before I took him in. Almost immediately, they started to look better.

This picture is after I started taking care of them, so it doesn't show the extent to how bad it was... but it gives you an idea:
See how the color is so pale? And this was AFTER I worked on them a bit.

His skin was hard and dry, and the wrinkles wouldn't smooth out
Eli is only 5 years old, so his feet aren't supposed to look like this! But his socks were wet, so I think that he actually did get waterlogged. This morning, they were back to normal. I know it's a weird thing to freak out about, but I'd truly never seen anything like that before.



I had a dream last night about Weight Watchers, and it kind of made me want to try an experiment. Just for a week or so, I would weigh and measure everything I eat like normal, but I would write down the calories, the WW Points, and the PointsPlus values... just to see how it all compares. Either that, or count calories for a week, count Points for a week, and count PointsPlus for a week and do the comparison that way. I even got out my WW materials--and then I saw something that made me realize yet another reason that I dislike the program.

On the back of one of the booklets, there is a section that applauds a member for earning a "Bravo" sticker. This one particular member earned her sticker because of the following:
"At a restaurant, I ate my salad, waited for the breadsticks to get cold, and then sampled one-third of a breadstick and was satisfied!"
Are you fucking serious?!  She earns a "Bravo" sticker for letting breadsticks get cold so they wouldn't taste good?  Eating a third of a cold breadstick does NOT sound like fun (or success!) to me. Why not work a whole, WARM breadstick into your plan, count it, and enjoy it?!!



I'm really in the mood to bake something with pumpkin right now. Anyone have a GOOD pumpkin bread recipe that doesn't have a trillion calories per slice? Oh, and that does NOT contain Splenda or any other artificial sweeteners. And no, 1/24th of a loaf is NOT considered a "slice" in my book. I get about 10 slices per loaf ;)


17 comments:

  1. i had a weird dream that involved your family last night, i wrote about it on OD.
    -Lessoff

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  2. You are SO LUCKY that fall is headed your way already!! I'm really, really jealous. We're still on a streak of 105 afternoons and 80+ mornings. This morning it was supposed to only be 75 and I thought maybe I'd get to go walking but by 8 it was already 80 with a heat index of 96 and absolutely no cloud cover. :( I can't wait for fall to start!!! I love fall!

    The best pumpkin bread recipe I know is actually for pumpkin bread muffins, so each one is the size of a cupcake and easier to eat less of. Having said that, I have no idea what the calories are because I haven't made them since I was counting calories. Still, I'll give you the recipe and you can determine if this is okay for you. I absolutely adore these:

    Pumpkin Muffins

    3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
    3 cups sugar
    2 teaspoons baking soda
    1 teaspoon salt
    3 teaspoons cinnamon
    1 teaspoon nutmeg
    1/2 teaspoon ginger
    1/4 teaspoon ground cloves OR allspice
    4 eggs
    1 can (15 oz.) solid-pack pumpkin
    1/2 cup vegetable oil OR 1/2 cup softened, partially melted butter
    a couple pinches of grated orange rind

    In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, spices, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, beat the eggs, pumpkin, and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

    Spoon into twenty-four greased or lined muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. (May need 23-25 min. more.) Check with toothpick inserted in muffins comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.

    **
    Okay so those are probably not super low cal, but they are dryer than pumpkin bread normally is and are more satisfying I think. And I think I want to make these soon...

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  3. Wow-I have never seen that before either, poor kid!

    I just read a blog post (of course I can't remember who now) comparing counting & weight watchers. She said whilst she was successful on WW, she much preferred counting because it was far more accurate.

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  4. That sounds great!! Will have to try :)

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  5. Those feet are scary! It shows the importance of keeping the feet from being in wet shoes all day long, doesn't it?

    For those pumpkin oats - whisk in a couple of liquid egg whites at the end of cooking. They get huge and puffy for only 30 more calories (plus the extra protein).

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  6. I don' care for the whole sticker thing that WW does, but surprisingly I have seen members who respond strongly to it.

    About the cold breadstick....it wouldn't be my strategy for success. Like you, I'd would eat it hot and just count it. But the cold breadstick strategy apparently worked for that lady. It's all about each individual finding the strategies that help him/her stay on the path.

    I assume that what WW is trying to get clients to do is acknowledge and celebrate their non scale victories, which is important for long term success.

    Now you have me craving pumpkin bread! :)

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  7. The recipe I found on allrecipes for Pumpkin Zucchini bread, with the applesauce subsitution, came in at 99 calories a slice, when you cut each loaf into 16 slices, so 200 calories for 1/8th of a loaf isn't bad, right? (That's without the walnuts. My family doesn't like nuts in baked products. That's fine- saves me money AND calories!)

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  8. Poor Eli! I've never heard of that or seen anything like it so I would be scared too!

    Your pumpkin oats recipe sounds really good! I made the baked ziti you posted today for lunch and my boyfriend went CRAZY over it! Ricotta is his favorite. I will definitely be making that more often! I get really excited when you post new recipes and that one was just so simple that I just had to try it out! Thanks Katie!

    - Amanda

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  9. I would've freaked out about the feet too! Poor kid.

    WI autumn lover here - hey neighbor! LOVE the bowl, it's not too early to pull out the decor - seriously saw some turned leaves this weekend, yay! - and the pumpkin oats - very creative use of extracts - yum, impressively low cal count on that, love it :)

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  10. Poor kiddo! My son is a hockey player and gets athlete's foot - very nasty! Nothing like that though. It does look like they just got wrinkled from being wet ...

    BTW - I made your baked ziti tonight and it was a big hit!
    What do you do with the leftover canned pumpkin? Make oatmeal every day? Can you freeze the rest?

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  11. I looooooooove fall! Unfortunately where I live now, we don't really get fall. It goes from too damn hot to too damn cold in a matter of a couple weeks! I really love when you post recipes! You should definitely share more of your low-cal go to dinners and lunches with us! I sure hope your son is ok. I feel bad for the little guy!

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  12. i love your recipes katie! thank you for sharing them. have you ever been to the website www.skinnytaste.com - tons of low calorie recipes, but with all the taste.

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  13. chrissy792August 16, 2011

    Your poor little guy! I have always hated my feet being wet! I always bring a ton of socks to amusement parks! I hope he is feeling better today!

    That oatmeal looks amazing.....I love anything with pumpkin in it! I will be trying it soon! Thanks for posting so many receipes they always look delicious and it's nice to have some yummy lowfat ideas to make! I'm not much of a cook so I need receipes because I'm not creative enough to come up with ideas on my own!

    I would also love it if you did the comparison one week! I would be interested in seeing what the results are! I know a couple people who have lost a lot of weight on weight watchers however none of them kept it off! It is supposed to be a lifestyle change however like anything if you don't stick with it then the weight will come back! That's why I like counting calories because I'm in a routine with it and it is a lot easier for me to figure out! I guess that different things work for different people though!

    Anyway, I hope you have a good week and thanks for another yummy receipe!

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  14. When he was little, my son's feet would do that if I bought him shoes that didn't breathe well enough.

    His feet would look like that after he took off his socks and the skin would literally peel off his feet when it dried. He would cry because it hurt him. :*(
    For my son I had to resort to buying him more expensive shoes(like running shoes that are meant to help your feet stay cool) and no generic ones that have a lot of plastic or "man-made" materials. What a budget buster...but definitely worth it!

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  15. I had that foot thing happen once. I was at Cedar Point and got caught in a downpour. My shoes dried out but my socks stayed wet and encased in gym shoes all day. By the end of the night they looked just like that. Ick.

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  16. My 5 year old son had that happen a couple of weeks ago and I freaked out too! I had never seen anything like it.

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  17. Made the Pumpkin Oats it was great I didn't have any raisins so I added a spoon of Fat Free Reddi Wip instead --Yummy :-)

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