A Little Nutty 228.5

A little nutty, a little fruity-- what more could you ask for? I came across this "breakfast blend" trail mix a couple of weeks ago! It's so incredibly yummy and satisfies my morning snack.. and 240 calories (for a HUGE bag) it continues the nut/ fruit theme for the morning and further boosts the metabolism with a touch of protein.

The store has 4 of 5 different varieties of these breakfast trail mixes-- I've only tried this variety-- but have toyed with the idea of the tropical fruit and berry blend. This pack has dried applies, granola, walnuts, almonds and cranberries, yogurt covered rasins-- very delish (even if I do say so myself) the one thing I wasn't crazy about is the box shows the calories but doesn't do a great job of indicating there are 2 servings per bag-- if you're going to give me a little pouch-- just count it as one serving! (pet peeve)

Anyway this helps me continue my great start to the day-- 6 bags for nearly $4-- not bad.

Smooth out the Start of your Day 229.5

As promised here is the first of a few "diet" foods I find utterly delicious. Every morning for the past 4 weeks or so I've been having a smoothie for breakfast. I've been using Yoplait Smoothie blends-- I especially like the strawberry, mango and pineapple -- The directions call for the entire bag and 1 cup of skim milk (this is 2 servings). Since I'm a single gal I only make half the bag and put 1 cup of Light Vanilla soy milk (I've been switching around brands but find that the Silk brand *with the vanilla taste* to be the best)-- by using a whole cup of soy milk I'm making my smoothie thin enough to drink directly from the cup -- and to be honest if you only used half a cup of milk or *given liquid* you can barely get it to come out of the blender. Now for an added diet boost I've been putting a shot of Acai Berry juice (I use Genesis-- a little pricey around $7.00/ bottle-- BUT I'm still on my first bottle and I've been making these for a month) it-- all in all this works out to be exactly 16oz and around 200 calories.

Now my brother is also on a diet and he actually buys the individual frozen fruits-- he's trying to stick with fruits high in anti-oxidants such as blueberries -- he'll blend about 4 fruits (all in 4 oz increments *he actually bought a digital scale to weigh it out*-- he also uses soy milk and a shot of Acai or pomegranate juice-- his is less expensive to make overall (and since it's twice the size of mine ends up being 400 calories)-- I found that I like the yoplait for the chunks of yogurt they have in there already-- it just takes less effort and in my opinion tastes better. -- honestly the yoplait smoothie is not that expensive. The 2 serving bag runs about $2.60-- soy milk runs around $3.00 so for a daily cost it's about $1.75.

What's great about a smoothie in the morning is it's less mess, I can drink it while I'm getting ready for work.. takes literally 1 minute to prepare-- AND boosts my metabolism with the fruit. Next post will be what my AM snack is.. and it's super yummy! Stay tuned. :o)

OH update on the biggest loser-- even though I've "Gained" 1.4 pounds this week (which honestly I think is water weight) I'm still in 1st place! that's 1st place 3 weeks in a row! Yay!

Yummy in my Tummy --243

Introducing my new obsession--- Organic low fat strawberry yogurt-- with fresh frozen fruit (still slightly frozen-- including strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries) and topped off with a tiny bit of "Just Bunches" cereal...

I've been eating this for breakfast the past week-- if you'll also noticed I've dropped a lot of weight in the last week-- I'm not sure if this is related to being sick (since I wasn't working out) or... by adding something like this which is only about 200 calories for breakfast-- ASIDE from being extra yummy it's super healthy and filling!

After spending 4 bucks a pack on fresh raspberries and blackberries I decided to give the frozen fruit a try-- and to be perfectly honest I get a huge back for 3.25 and the berries all actually have a lot more flavor to them than the fresh fruit (the frozen fruit is pure frozen-- no sugar added). This turned out to be a much cheaper and better tasting alternative. The yogurt runs about $3.00 (comes in a 4 cup tub)-- so the whole meal ends up being super economical when you consider I get about 6 - 8 meals out of the yogurt and fruit!