Dessert.

I had something I REALLY liked as a dessert to share with you readers! I use dailyburn.com for nutrition info.

stir together in a small bowl---

*1/2 cup plain 0% Chobani greek yogurt: 70 cal, 0g fat, 4.5 carbs, 11.5g protein

*1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or to taste): 6 cal, 0 fat, .3 carb, 0 protein

*3/4 packet of truvia: 0 cal, 0g fat, 2.3g carbs, 0g protein

Top with---

*1/2 cup raspberries: 31 cal, 0.4g fat, 7.3g carbs, 0.7g protein!!

Thats just 107.5 calories for a satisfying dessert that has filling protein and fiber to boot!

I wanted to wait and take a picture, but I ate it instead!

Must-Haves

My healthy eating must-haves are as follows:

1) Chobani 0% Plain Greek Yogurt: Its awesome and extremely versatile and delicious in a million ways. It has over twice the protein of regular yogurt, less sugar, and more fiber. Did I mention its awesome? I eat it by itself or with cereal or mix in sugar free jello powder or freeze it or use it to make taziki sauce or as a sour cream /mayo substitute in recipes or as a....... SEE? the possibilities are endless. Its the perfect dairy product.

2) Oatmeal: I like to throw in blueberries, cinnamon, and 3/4 of a Truvia packet as I cook it. Whole grain? Check. Protein? Check. Fiber? Check.

3) Tomatoes: I eat these like they are going out of style.

4) Flax seeds: I usually just toss them in to whatever dinner entree I am making or sprinkle some on my sandwich. I just put them into my Greek burgers today, though I thought the texture was a little weird for a burger. But who can say no to the highest plant source of Omega 3 fatty acids?? not to mention the phytochemicals and B vitamins and.... really!! I could keep going.

Favorite Breakfast

As you could have guessed, I have started to lose weight. I started working nights at the hospital and started to gain a few more pounds. Not only am I losing my "night shift weight," (I have almost lost those pounds completely!) I am going to lose what I need to lose to be awesomely healthy.

Anyway, I think I am going to start to blog about my weight loss journey and see where is gets me.

Goal:  -42 lbs (yeah. 42!!!! wow. i know.)
Where I'm at now:    -7.6 lbs.

So. I shall tell you about my 2 favorite breakfasts.
1) Oatmeal+berries+3/4 Truvia packet, along side 1 egg+ 1 egg white
2) Whole wheat toast (or whole wheat waffle) + reduced fat peanut butter + banana + honey,
     all stacked together like this:

and that's what I'm talking about.

PIZZA!

I am dedicating this post to pizza. I admit pizza is fabulously delicious in practically all its forms. (I find that the crazy-person's grease-lovers pizza is not so nice!) Pizza an excellent food. It deserves its own blog post. You can get a good dose of carbs, veggies, fruit (tomatoes! duh!), and protein all in one punch. These nutrients can be drowned in a lot of fat (especially the saturated kind!!) and unneeded calories. So as much as I LOVE my homemade pizza dough-homemade pizza sauce creations doused with all sorts of cheese and all other goodness, I wanted to provide you (and myself) with easy, healthy, yummy alternatives for when you don't want to go all-out on your calorie and saturated fat intake.

So. I have two favorite low cal pizza recipes so far, and this is one of them:

Friends, meet the ultra-healthy, ultra low-calorie delicious pizza knock-off. Its a variation of an English Muffin Mini-Pizza, except it kicks all the other ones in the butt.
Here is your ingredient/calorie/directions breakdown:

• 4 sprays canola oil: 8 cals
• 100 Calorie English Muffin: 100 cals. duh.
• 2 big ol' tomato slices: 8 cals
• Italian-type seasonings: garlic powder, basil, oregano black pepper: zero cals
• low-fat cheddar cheese
• low-fat mozzarella cheese
• I only used 1/8 cup of shredded cheese combined: 17 cals
• onion slice: 3 cals
• green pepper slice: 3 cals
• 3 slices turkey pepperoni, chopped into tiny bits: 12 cals

Spray the front and back of each muffin half with canola oil cooking spray. Then pile your tomatoes, seasonings, cheese, veggies, and pepperoni. Cook in a 500 degree oven for 6 minutes. I like to give any mini pizzas a 30 second blast of BROIL tacked on to the end of the cooking time. Enjoy!

The nutritive qualities this creation possesses, according to dailyburn.com, where I entered in all the ingredients appropriately:

151 calories. 2.7 grams of fat. 28.2 grams of carbohydrates. 9 grams of protein. 5.2 grams of fiber. 100% yummy.

**add 1 tablespoon of Ragu pizza sauce (not that it needs it, really!) to each half and get:

     176 calories. 3.2 grams of fat. 30.5 grams of carbohydrates 9.5 grams protein. 5.7 grams of fiber.