Disciplined Fitness

Avocado & cucumber dip. I finally had a chance to make this from the Oxygen magazine. It tasted delicious. I had some cucumbers puréed and some finely chopped. I liked it so much that I made 4 more servings of it for my dinner every night.

(mine was the round container and the square one for my husband)

Avocado & cucumber dip. I finally had a chance to make this from the Oxygen magazine. It tasted delicious. I had some cucumbers puréed and some finely chopped. I liked it so much that I made 4 more servings of it for my dinner every night.

(mine was the round container and the square one for my husband)

I will be making this over the weekend from oxygen magazine. I can’t wait to have it over my rice and extra lean ground turkey with a little bit of chopped tomatoes

The spice of life :)

I was asked how to make sauces or add flavor to food that fits someones MDRs, I thought I would post my response so it could be more detailed.

Adding spice to enjoy your food:

I am working with a trainer right now.  My diet is a strict in the sense that I may eat a certain amount of protein, carbs, fat, veggies, fruit & dairy.  The food items are also approved, mostly it is to make sure it is whole and natural, & not processed (no crackers, ice cream and such).  My husband and I like flavor and spice in our food.  The great thing about that is most of those items have ZERO calories!  We love spices.  Some of our favorites are chili-garlic sauce (in the asian aisle), crushed garlic, garlic, pepper, and onion powder, basil and cilantro cubes from Trader Joe’s, ginger that comes in the tube (in the refrigerated section), bragg’s soy sauce, lime & lemon juice, cinnamon, vanilla, and the list could go on.  Honestly just throwing some of the chili-garlic sauce does wonders to any meal!!

How to adapt a recipe to suit your needs:

Most recipes I find, I need to change and take out some fat or sugar.  If the recipe calls for olive oil I usually omit this (unless I’m planning my fat for the meal to be olive oil).  I do not add sugar, I will add a little stevia or splenda if needed.  I replace cream or other fair products with cottage cheese or unsweetened almond milk.

How I calculate recipes:

The picture above is how I calculate the Peanut Thai sauce I use.  
I definitely use a scale!  So easy and requires little measuring cups and spoons to be used that then need to be cleaned.
First I weigh the bowl incase the scale turns off.
2. Add my fat (peanut butter in this case).  I usually plan to have 1/2 TBSP PB in my meals which is 8g.  I divide the total amount of PB by 8 to know how many total servings there is. (If I had other ingredients with calories I would determine before how many grams of each ingredient to add.
3.  Add other ingredients (brag g’s soy sauce, chili garlic paste, ginger, cilantro cube, 1 pkt. stevia, garlic powder, and lime juice)
4. Weigh everything together.  My total weight comes to 2000
5. Subtract weight of the bowl from the total.
6. Divide my net total of just the ingredients 1014g by the number of servings. 
7.  I then know that for every 40.6g of my sauce there is 8g of peanut butter in it.  I can keep a large jar of it in the refrigerator and I put a little note on it so I remember how much sauce to use.  I am also able to make enough for the whole family (who are not counting calories, protein, fat, etc.)
This may sound like a lot of work, and it does take more effort than just throwing in ingredients, but it literally only takes 1 more minutes to do this. 

My meals 2-5 for the next 2.5 days.
Meals include:
2. Turkey, rice, & cauliflower or green beans
4. Turkey, rice, & peanut sauce
3 & 5: Turkey, rice, veggie, and coconut curry sauce

Thai Peanut Butter Sauce

This is a spicy and sweet sauce that I love. I just made a big jar of it so I can portion it out easily for my meals an I don’t have to continually make it. I’ve been making it for so long that I dot have a recipe written done or exact measurements. If you make you, you can make it as sweet or spicy as you like.

Recipe:
Peanut butter (8g=1 serving)
Braggs or regular soy sauce
Garlic (powder and jarred)
Ginger (tube or powder)
Splenda (or brown sugar)
Chili garlic paste (in the asian section at the grocery store)
Cilantro (fresh or cube from trader joes)

That’s it. It takes me about 5min to make. The hardest part is stirring it in the jar.
For my meal I mix this concentrated amount with my chicken and rice, then add more Braggs soy sauce. I add the vegetables last so the flavors don’t get lost in one hunk of broccoli

Enjoy!

Recipe:

Day 6
Breakfast: oats, egg whites, almond butter, a little almond extract, and stevia. It reminds me of an almond cookie…. And yes I’m using children’s utensils :).

Snack, do mind if I do :). 0.5c BB, 1/2 banana, 8g almond butter

Pizza slice I had before bed last night. Tomorrow starts the kick off so I thought I should indulge in something. I was wishing we had chocolate or a cookie at home!

Meals all ready for the official Day 1 tomorrow.