Monday, January 6, 2014

Meal Prep Monday - Cranberry Pear Baked Oatmeal and Chicken Nuggets

Happy Monday! I managed to squeeze in one last bit of holiday fun over the weekend at ICE! at the National Harbor, a giant indoor Christmas themed ice-sculpture exhibition. It was kind of neat, but not sure it was worth the price of admission. Oh and FYI, rooms full of ice are cold! Even with the venue issued puffy parka. But where else can you sit in a giant ice taxi? I told the bf we couldn't BOTH pretend-drive the taxi but he obviously didn't listen.



I'm really glad to be back to normal eating and meal prepping now the holidays are over. Y'all know I love to eat hard, but the amount of holiday feasting going on was a little much, even for me. And even though I'm all about eating the darn pie and haven't been weighing myself, I'm starting to feel a little uncomfortably...fluffy. So here's what I made for this week to help keep me detox with some healthy homemade food. At least until I start the going away festivities :)


Breakfast

After a brief muffin interlude,  I'm back to baked oatmeal. I continued with the fresh cranberry theme and added pear. Living on the edge!




Cranberry Pear Baked Oatmeal

Calories: 179 | Fat: 5 g | Cholest: 0 mg | Sodium: 85 mg | Carbs: 27 g | Fiber: 6 g | Sugars: 8 g | Protein: 8 g


1 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
2 tbsp chopped walnuts (divided in half)
2 tbsp raw pepitas (divided in half)
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ginder
1/2 tsp ground clove
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup fresh cranberries
1 large ripe pear, chopped
1 tbsp honey
3/4 cup egg whites
1 1/4 cup unsweeted vanilla almond milk


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all ingredients (including only half of the divided ingredients) in a large rectangular microwave and oven safe baking dish.
Microwave on high for 10 minutes, stirring halfway.
Sprinkle the rest of the walnuts and pepitas over the oatmeal mixture.
Bake for 15 minutes or until mixture is firm. Broil for the last minute or until the toppings are golden brown.
Makes 6 servings.



This oatmeal is filled with fruit and also has a good amount of protein, thanks to the egg whites. It's a little lower in calories and fat than usual because I had less nuts than I thought when I started. So I highly suggest eating this with a big serving of Greek yogurt, or nut butter, or both! Go crazy! If you're looking for a vegan version, check out my vegan cranberry baked oatmeal here.

Protein


My parents got me the Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast cookbook for Christmas and I'm excited to try out the recipes. For this week's protein, I made the "Fried" Panko Chicken Tenders. They're similar to the Skinnytaste Chicken Nuggets I made a few weeks ago but use low fat buttermilk to make the bread crumbs stick.



This recipe was just as tasty as Skinnytaste's, and using buttermilk was a little easier/less messy than olive oil. And it's still bf approved. I think chicken nuggets will forever be his favorite meal prep meal.

Sides

I've been in a little bit of a veggie rut lately. I love my broccoli and squash, but I wanted to try something new. So this week, I cooked two root vegetables I love to eat but have never cooked before: rutabaga and turnips.


Both vegetables turned out to be fairly easy and delicious. All I did was peel and chop them, sprinkle both with olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary, and roast at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Super tasty, and not intimidating at all. While I was roasting, I also baked some sweet potatoes.



Workouts

My Washington Sports Club LivingSocial deal expired, so I'll be focusing on getting my Run This Year miles in, some free YouTube videos, and playing in my last (*tear*) volleyball tournament with my team.



Wednesday: Skiing! 
Friday: Rest
Saturday: LAST Volleyball Tournament with my team :(
Sunday: 4-5 mile slow run/walk

Q: Any fun plans for the week? Ever pretended to drive a giant ice taxi?

4 comments:

  1. Yum those recipes look amazing! The ice sculpture event sounds great! We were suppose to go to something similar last week, but the weather was more conducive to staying at home, haha!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! Don't blame you, I'm a giant cold wimp :)

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  2. Those recipes look delicious! The ice sculpture thing looks fun (but cold!). I don't think we had one of those by me.

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