Quiche, Quiche, and Questionable Chocolate Pudding

It's spring time here in Texas and the weather has been either beautiful or disgusting.  By beautiful, I mean sunny with the best breeze ever, and by disgusting, I mean wet and humid and basically a terrible hair day for me! Spring time always makes me crave light and fresh meals and one of my favorites is quiche.  When I was pregnant, after every check-up, Nick and I would go eat at La Madeline right across the street from my doctor's office.  I would devour their quiche florentine, it's amazing! I'm not sure how I only gained 15 lbs during that pregnancy (oh wait, 1st trimester sickness, yes I do).  I don't know anyone who can turn down eggs and cheese baked in a flaky, golden crust, and if I do, then we shouldn't be friends!

Well, we all know that flaky, golden crust is not supportive of weight loss goals so I set out to find some ways to mimic that taste without all of the fat and using fresh, clean, whole foods.  I found this recipe on Pinterest for a Three Cheese Zucchini Frittata from Kalyns Kitchen.  A frittata is basically a quiche without the cream and crust, so I was thinking it would hit the spot and it did.  I made this one Sunday morning for brunch and it was delicious.  Check out that golden top! Yum!

Yes, that is real bacon on my plate.  I used to only eat turkey bacon, but after realizing how turkey bacon is made, I stick to the real stuff now, in moderation.  I will expand upon this in a future post.

I couldn't get enough of my quiche fix, so we had it for dinner Monday night as well.  Poor Nick! This time I made a Crustless Asparagus Quiche from SkinnyMs and it was awesome! The little bites of feta cheese were amazing and I loved that it was packed with veggies.  The other awesome thing, the entire thing is 8 points.  8 points!!! I had half of this dish for 4 points, with yes, real bacon again. I ate this right after I got home from Zumba and was starving, so I forgot to take a pic of the quiche as a whole.  Here it is mid-bite and you can see the inside goodness!

Now, on to my clean eating fail for the week.  To say I love chocolate is an understatement.  It is my Kryptonite and I am always on the hunt to find healthy, clean recipes that include chocolate.  I used to eat those Jell-O sugar free puddings quite often before I was aware of ingredients that went into processed foods.  This week I decided to try my hand at a Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding recipe also from SkinnyMs. You have to put all the ingredients together and then refrigerate, then blend, blend, blend.  My pudding did not end up looking like the picture in the recipe, as you can see below, and I never got that smooth texture (I blended for like 30 minutes).  It also wasn't very sweet.  I added some honey to try to sweeten it up, but I didn't care for it.  I decided this snack was not worth my 6 WW points. Here the pudding is pre-mixing, after mixing before fridge, and after blending.

I do believe everything happens for a reason, even minuscule events like making a failed chia seed pudding. The reason behind this event? So I could discover dates! Oh my goodness, where have these amazing little things been all my life?  They are the "sweetener" for this recipe, but I would much rather have them alone. They are amazing and my new favorite snack.

Go make some quiche and have an awesome and clean week!

Back with Banana Ice Cream and Breakfast Sausage

Guess who's back, back again.  Kelly's back, tell a friend! Okay, okay, no more Eminem (for now).  It has been a while since my last post and that's primarily due to a crazy busy last couple of months.  That craziness has not only left me very little time to post on my blog, but it has also distracted me from eating as clean as I should be eating.  Don't get me wrong, I haven't fallen completely off the wagon.  For the most part, I have been eating clean and I have been working out a lot more than I was back in the fall.  (I have somehow taken 4 minutes off my mile since January-wha what!!)  But, there has been this pesky little enemy that has kept me from losing any weight and has caused me to get into a rut when it comes to my eating, I'm talkin' about the weekend! I love the weekend. I get to spend time with Nick and Livi and that typically means doing things outside of our daily routine, which also means the opportunity to try different foods and eat things that I know are not good for me.  Now our goal is to live by the 80/20 rule.  This means we eat clean and wholesome 80% of the time, and allow for special treats here and there.  However, when you are allowing yourself special treats every weekend, there is a problem.  It sets up a cycle where I have done fabulous all week and by Friday I am feeling great.  Great enough to go have chips and salsa at one of our favorite Mexican food restaurants, followed by an ice cream treat.  Then Saturday, of course, there is brunch followed by some more good eats.  By Sunday I'm feeling pretty frustrated and ready to start fresh, but I have essentially sabotaged my progress.  Now if you are not trying to lose weight, this may be a fine practice.  But I am trying to lose weight and this cycle is only causing me to maintain my weight and not lose.
So this weekend, Nick and I had a long talk about this cycle and we have a renewed commitment to eat clean and be consistent, primarily for this little cutie!

One of the things that often motivates me and keeps my good eating on track is experimenting with different foods and recipes.  To say I get bored easily is an understatement.  It's getting warmer here in Texas and one of my favorite warm weather treats is ice cream.  But we all know, ice cream can easily pack on the pounds and ever since I was pregnant with Livi, dairy hasn't been so kind to me.  So, I set out to find a way to create a clean and low-fat ice cream.  I had heard several times of using frozen bananas as an ice cream.  My Grandma used to put whole bananas in the freezer for us when we were little and when we would come in from playing outside, they were cold and delicious! I decided to give turning this childhood favorite into ice cream a go.  I sliced some bananas, froze them, and then threw them in the blender.  Sure enough, they turned into a creamy delight.

I added some Enjoy Life chocolate chips and it tasted pretty close to chocolate chip ice cream (with a banana flare of course!)  At only 2 Weight Watchers points per serving, I don't mind this at all.  And it is clearly Livi approved!

In planning for the week, I decided to tackle one food that I have kept as a staple for Livi, Owens pre-made breakfast sausage.  I'm not a morning person, so anything to make mornings quicker for us is a win.  We typically make Livi eggs and then pop in a pre-made breakfast sausage in the microwave, and with some fruit on her plate she is good to go.  The ingredients aren't the worst I have ever seen for a processed food, but they aren't the best (after all, what exactly are the "natural flavorings"?).

My goal this week was a clean breakfast sausage for Livi.  So I bought some organic ground pork, added some spices, formed into patties and cooked up some sausages.  Which one would you choose?

Now, they don't taste exactly like sausage, probably because I did not add salt or any other type of sodium product to the mix, but they taste pretty good.  Another bonus, the pack of pork cost me about $3.50 for a pound and cooked up 12 patties.  The box of Owens sausage I typically buy is about $3.50 for 8 pre-made patties.  Eating clean on a budget can be done!

I am excited about this renewed commitment and I will never give up on this journey because Livi deserves healthy parents and healthy food.  Sure there will be ups and downs, but that's life!

Here's to a clean and great week!