healthy

A Clean Take on Eggs Benedict (aka Ma’am, Step Away from the Pancake)

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Last night was the annual Leighton Broadcasting Christmas Extravaganza! Woot!  With “AL Bucks” a plenty, everyone was in good spirits as we dined on Shrimp, Beef and Chicken then ended the evening with a Hypnotist and our own Money Machine.

When they announced the hypnotist, my husband immediately tried forcing my hand in the hair to volunteer me.  Of course, I resisted like a pair of too small spanx.  Then the hypnotist had us all stand up and “try her simple test”.  Stand up, concentrate on my voice, your hands are getting tighter and tighter together, blah blah blah.  So there I was standing with my hands GLUED together above my head and when she said “open your eyes”, I anticipated there would be a room full of hands in the air.  nope.  just one set of hands that I could see.  Mine.

Good Lord.  To which, with hands still above my head mind you, I groaned loudly “Great. Just Great”.  Everyone laughed and I was escorted to one of the 10 chairs up front.  Funniest part, I wasn’t laughing.  I was just praying that my “state of relaxation” wouldn’t take effect on my posture and have me flashing my bits to EVERYONE I work with.  I had been a part of a hypnotist show before and needless to say, your inhibitions go the way of the wind. You let it ALL hang out.  oy.  In the end, i don’t remember too much, just that I was laughing alot, I was craving ice cream and felt like I had just taken the best nap ever.  SCORE.

Even though I was sober all night, I still woke up this morning with the “We were out late last night and need a hangover breakfast”.  You know the greasy spoon kind.  Well, Charlie was already gone to get the car’s oil changed, so it was just Timothy and I.  Timothy’s favorite is pancakes.  So Pancakes it was.   As I cooked up a dozen or so pancakes (so I could freeze them for Timothy later), I started to nibble one.  Then it it hit me.  Pancakes, although tasty and kinda nourishing are not clean.  I have plenty of clean pancake recipes, but I wasn’t in the mood to make them.  So I gave myself a proverbial wooden spoon slap on the wrist and stepped away from the pancake.

Instead, i opted for a different breakfast staple…Eggs Benedict…only this time, I would make it clean and sans Hollandaise…so here you go!

2014-01-04 10.57.13Tuscan Benedict (A Cleaner Eggs Benedict)

  • 1 100% Whole Wheat English Muffin (I use Thomas brand )
  • 3 Whole Large Eggs
  • Tbl Chopped Green Onion
  • 1 Cup baby Spinach Rough Chopped
  • 3 small Campari Tomatoes or larger Cherry Tomatoes (sliced)
  • 2 Tsp Grated Parmesean Cheese
  • 1-2 Tbl Chopped Fresh Italian Flat leaf Parsley
  • 1 large Basil leaf chopped small
  • 1-2 Tbl Sabra Tuscan Garden Hummus
  • small drizzle of EVOO
  • Kosher Salt / Cracked Pepper

DIRECTIONS:

 

1.  Crack Three eggs into a Measuring Cup and whisk, add parmesean, a tiny pinch of salt and couple grinds of pepper, whisk again, set aside.

2.  Heat your skillet over Medium/Medium High Heat

3. Drizzle in EVOO, swirl the pan then add the tomatoes, green onions and spinach. Give Em a Stir and don’t let them burn.

4.  Even out the Spinach mixture on the bottom of the pan and pour in the eggs.  Turn heat down to med/Med-low.  Using a scraper/Spatula, stir it up a bit then let cook slowly, stiring occasionally until eggs are fully cooked.  I like my eggs to not be browned..that’s when they get dry, so usually when they are all solid I yank em off the stove.

5. Toast your english muffing to desired toastiness 🙂

6. Assemble!  Distribute the egg/spinach mixture over the Two Muffin halves.  Top with Chopped Parsley and Basil then add a dollop of Hummus.

Eat it. Enjoy it.

 

If you can’t find the tuscan hummus, I would most likely pick Roasted Red Pepper. They both have a tang to them, which is EXACTLY what I love about Hollandaise.  So this is a win win!

Enjoy!

Email me or comment with any questions! 🙂

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I Forgot My Lunchbox. (Insert Foot Stomping & Tantrum Here)

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So my lunchbox. Yeah, about that.  Totally forgot it today.  Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not the end of the world.  When you’ve been on point all week with your eats, however, it seems devastating.  You’ve told yourself all week that you’re making the right decisions and you’re excited about it.  Then you forget your lunchbox filled with Brown Rice, Steak, Homemade Beef Noodle Soup, Clementines, a Cliff bar, Mio and other essentials.  A nice Clean Lunchbox. Now what?

Jimmy Johns, Erbert & Gerberts, Subway, Green Mill, Chinese Takeout, Cupcakes in the breakroom, vending machines, soda, a granola bar smothered in chocolate someone left in the studio: that is what.

This is the part of the day when your stomach starts to talk back to everything you do, you start to feel light headed and all these food temptations that are NOT part of plan start to hover around you like a bad after school special on drugs and peer pressure.  C’mon Brookie, everyone’s doing it.

It’s almost infuriating.  Studies show that “habits” take days if not weeks to become the ‘norm’, but let’s be honest with ourselves here, once a Carb Fiend, ALWAYS a Carb Fiend.  Having been through the weight loss journey once already, I can affirm that although we lose taste for much of the ‘bad’ in the food world, are we really going to turn down a caramel roll fresh out of the oven with our coffee the next time we visit mom’s house?  The answer isn’t YES, it’s MAYBE.

Life is too short to deprive ourselves 100% of the time of the things we’ve grown to love.  It’s not about NEVER eating things we love, it’s about moderation and timing.  Eating a fast food lunch only 4 days into my new weight loss journey is much more detrimental to my emotional and physical success than it would be 3 months down the line.  I know for a fact that I will beat myself up over it and then battle the “give up and start again tomorrow” mentality.

I don’t know why I do it, but I procrastinate the success.  “Well, that wasn’t on plan.  I’ll start again tomorrow.”  Why tomorrow? Why not immediately following.  I know why.  I try to make it perfect.  After many conversations with Ben and my other support systems, I’ve come to the glaring conclusion:

IT’S NOT GOING TO BE PERFECT.  THAT’S PERFECTLY OK.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this new mantra doesn’t mean I’m going to eat a doughnut with my coffee every morning, but it does mean that I’m going to try and mentally prepare myself for slip ups and when they do happen focus on the moving on part, rather than dwelling.

Now, back to the matter at hand: lunch.  I’m about to pass out or break something if I don’t get this blood sugar up, so I’m contemplating taking my cookies out into the -7 F temp / -24 F wind chill of MinneSNOWta to go to the Pacific Wok just down the street.  I can at least get steamed veggies, chicken and brown rice…AND it’s on plan.  I guess I’ll be asking Santa for “Pacific Wok Delivery without the $50 minimum”.

***UPDATE***

yeah. I got Erbert & Gerberts.  Spartan on Wheat with Tomato Basil Soup…and are you sitting down?  A Diet Coke.  I may start a Diet Shaming Website that will rival that of every dog that ever ate the trash.

On a positive note, I didn’t harm anyone or passout.