A recipe Challenge - Curried pumpkin spice baked oatmeal

B Healthy with B has an October food challenge, to create a meal(s) using 7 ingredients prechosen ingredients. I love a good challenge and fitting things into my meal plan so off I went!

My ingredients:
30 grams quick oats
22 grams yam
57 grams pumpkin puree (I used fresh not canned)
25 grams apple, peeled
20 grams fresh cranberries, chopped
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp red curry powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
sweetener of choice (I like raw stevia or agave but I think brown sugar would really be perfect for this)
dash cinnamon
water

What I did
mixed pumpkin and yams with the spices (except the cinnamon!) then added in the cranberries, apples & oats. Mix well then add in water (I would say more than 1/4c less than 1/2c as the pumpkin is watery). Sprinkle the top with cinnamon and bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes and it will come out of the pan very nicely. I use a glass bread pan but really any small dish will do the trick. This is a small serving (which fits my personal meal plan) but can easily be doubled or tripled for more volume.

What it looks like:

How it tastes:
It's almost like a gingerbread cookie with fruit in it. My original dish I added allspice and cloves (1/8tsp each) for extra spice since I do not use sugar and limit the other sweeteners. I think if I do this again with those 2 added spices I may also add a sprinkle of ginger powder. If you try this with the added spices I think a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar on top would be divine!

This would be day 21

But I am so over it. I LOVED loved Paleo the first 2 weeks, I felt great plenty of energy and the meal planning was a breeze. Then week 3 came along and suddenly I was very lethargic, crabby, STARVING, and afraid to workout b/c I didn't feel like what I was eating was nearly enough food. My body was missing carbs in a bad bad way. Friday I said I can't take this anymore and I ate a bowl of baked oatmeal. It was the best bowl of oatmeal I had had. Over the last 3 days I added more grains/carbs back in and my energy perked back up and I began feeling great again, like I did on week 1 of the whole30. I got in a great workout today and can't say I plan to look back.

While I was doing this diet I stumbled upon the 17 day diet. It's actually not 17 days but each cycle is 17 days until you get to cycle 4 which is maintenance. I could see following this plan starting on a rest week since cycle 1 is calorie restricted but what I live is that it doesn't take away my greek yogurt or protein shakes and I can enjoy oatmeal after the 1st cycle.

So could I see doing paleo as an everyday lifestyle diet? Not a chance. Could I see doing the whole30 as a way to kick off a diet, bust through a plateau, and/or detox? Most definitely.

1 week in and feeling fine!

Here we are at day 7 of Paleo and Day 5 of Insanity: The Asylum and I feel GREAT! I could see moving to a paleo diet as a lifestyle change although I do think I'd add back in my daily coffee or latte and probably my greek yogurt too although I have not missed them as much as I thought I would. Sugar has been the easiest to give up and I only miss dairy when I am making something cheesey for the kids.

My energy levels have been insane! I spent time in the kitchen Sunday cooking all of my weeks breakfasts and stuff for my husband as well. Lunches are easier to prep but we did precook all the meat needed. I am actually surprised that while it seems like a lot of meat it's less than I was eating before as the portions are smaller.

Asylum has been an adventure. I lack a good amount of coordination needed for speed/agility but loved the strength and back to core workout. Vertical plyo, while it sounded scary wasn't so bad. I did have to modify some due to my knees but otherwise I kept up pretty well. I will say I detest jump roping and I do not find it to be an "active rest" type of activity lol I can't wait to try out gameday and overtime in another week :D

Day 3 of Paleo

My initial thoughts on this "diet" is "wow this is so much easier than I thought it would be" and it's true! Now I admit I forked over $10 for a paleo book that has a 30day meal plan to make life a little easier and it's been well worth it! Day 1 I was a little tired, lacking some energy that I would normally get from coffee or carbs. Day 2 I had a huge increase in energy which was a good thing since it was 3rd grade filed trip day and I was running after 3 girls and my boy. I even did push ups during breaks, ha! It's now day 3 and I practically leaped out of bed. Got up and cooked my breakfast and drank some water then it was off to my first Asylum workout.

Now here I sit bouncing off the walls practically and wanting to get out and do . . .something, anything! I wonder this day will lead me too. So, so far I am really enjoying this diet and can see sticking to it, maybe not as strictly after the 30 days but definitely close to it.

letting it all hang loose

So the past few days I've been light on my exercise and eating however I want. I will admit it is a bit liberating not counting every calorie that enters my mouth. I don't feel any worse for just taking some time off, although I have kept busy with the massive spring cleaning this weekend. Despite all of that I decided to step on the scale and. . . I am down a lb in just a few days. I can't decide if I am happy or upset by it since I had been eating and working out to gain mass.

I am really excited to see what the Paleo plan will do for my body. It's been a very long 17 months trying to tweak everything to get my body to respond the way I want it to. I already eat fairly close to paleo, this will just be taking it a few steps further.

So today I am going to put away my measuring tapes, my bathroom scale and my food scale. I am going to enjoy my last 2 mornings of oatmeal breakfasts and coffee filled with half n half and sugar. I am going to throw caution to the wind and chow down on a big juicy bacon cheeseburger on wheat bun and munch on potato chips while I drink down an ice cold beer. I am going to clean my kitchen and prep my veggies & fruits and lay out my meal plan so when I wake up Wed I will be ready to start the month with a bang :)

The Whole30

My really cool friend, Sarah Brown, introduced me to the whole 30. I guess it's a paleo diet? It sounds interesting and hey it's summer which means I have access to lots of yummy fresh local produce! I am always looking for ways to eat better, live better, so I am jumping in! I will start on June 1 as I just prefer to start things on the 1st, makes it easier on my poor little brain!

I am still going with my P90X as well, following an altered plan for building mass which also means I have increased my food intake. I admit I am nervous about possible fat gain but so far (I'm only on week 2 of the new plan) it seems to be all right and I swear I am seeing a bit of definition in my thighs. For anyone else interested in this schedule check out Get Ripped At Home, they even have a sample meal plan which I use as a guide. One thing I do that is not listed is on my light cardio/off days I eat far less. Weight days I aim for 2300 calories and light/off days I aim for 1500-1600. Since the whole30 commands no calorie counting and no jumping on the scale (I'll have to get my husband to hide ours!) this should get realllly interesting!

High Five Friday

My mentor and new bff loves to theme her days. I think that's kind of cool, but I admit to being a smitten fan girl ;) My favorite of course is Awesomeday, known to the general public as Wednesday. Friday of course also has a theme and it's High Five's all around! Heck it even has a theme song courtesy of one Rebecca Black. Now her singing might not be so great and the lyrics are kind of lame but damnit the tune is catchy and I constantly find myself singing "Friday, Friday, gettin down on Friday" and other lyrics. It does not help that there are some amazing artists out there doing covers of this song, I mean damn talk about taking it to the next level right?

Ok so along with this whole high five friday thing she also asks 5 questions. This is something I generally suck at so I may need a little google-fu help to come up with good questions ;)

What are your plans for the weekend?
Mine have had to change a little due to a family emergency and my husband flying out last minute tonight to MO however the general plan is to take 1 rest day and do some spring cleaning in the house, finish knitting a contest sock, and run a 5k, oh and the usual grocery shopping ::groan::

What was your last workout?
Husband and I just killed P90X legs and back and ab ripper X. I still have some step ups to do tonight and should probably get on that as soon as I am done here.

Do you have a favorite after workout meal or supplement?
Totally depends on the day and workout. If I am just doing cardio then I load up on P90X recovery formula (mmm that stuff is NUMMY!!). On weight lifting days it's either straight to dinner or I'll have a protein shake with 1/2 a fruit and 1/4 c oats blended with vanilla almond milk.

What is your favorite television show?
I have a few but I find it hard to keep up on shows as I only watch during a small timeframe while the kids are at school. I have my guilty pleasures like Nikita, HellCats, One Tree Hill & The Vampire Diaries and some more not so guilty pleasures such as Castle, Dr Who, Survivor, Lie to Me, Body of Evidence, The Big Bang Theory & HIMYM. And then I have my classics like Buffy, Firefly, Angel, That 70's show & Roseanne. Man it sounds like I watch a lot of tv but really only 2 maybe 3 hours a day and I am always knitting while watching.

What is a dream you have or something you'd like to accomplish in your life?
Oh gosh I have so many, but isn't that the wonderful thing about dreams and goals? I want to finish getting certified as a childbirth educator first and foremost and then delve into becoming a certified pre/post natal fitness instructor and nutritionist, I would like to continue to move up in my hooping skills and eventually open a women's only gym in Charleston with my sister, my cousin and a friend. I think the gym is the ultimate goal right now and it would have so many fabulous things going on with it. I am super excited to be able to get to that point in our lives where we can fund it and run it together.