Banana Nut Topped Yogurt

My early morning class cancelled!  You got to love when you get an added break in the day! I used my time to go on a longer than usual morning run for a Wednesday (6 miles outside)...and put together a new breakfast creation!

 The ingredients: 
 1 cup dannon plain non-fat plain yogurt
 1 Gnu Banana Walnut bar (amazing)
 1 Tbsp peanut butter
 1 pinch chia seeds
 1/2 banana sliced

yum. yum.yum :) 

 The Nutrition facts: 

 Calories: 366

 Carbs: 63 g

 Fat: 10 g

 Protein: 19

 Fiber: 15

 Sodium: 238

When I want to find the nutrition facts for the meals I make I use myfittnesspal It's easy to search products, create recipes, and save meals! As a nutrition student in class we use diet analysis software which is great because it draws up various nutrient reports and comparisons but the food data base is smaller since its not constantly being updated the way an online program is! Do you use any other programs to track your meals or recipes?!? Also, if you check out right of my blog I am now using RECIPAGE! its an awesome new recipe system where you can easily look up all the recipes I add to my blog! If you go to http://www.recipage.com you can create your own account even if you don't blog and keep track of all your favorite recipes! 

Well...time to get my learn on! Happy hump day  

Love,
 Amy 

National Nutrition Month "Bulletin Boarding" & Kashi Dinners!

I feel like It was just 5 minutes ago I was rushing out the door to my monday morning class and I'm already back in my apartment sitting down for dinner. Today was one of thoes "Go, hurry, don't stop" kind of days.

I felt good to check a lot of things off my To-Do list!

Favorite daily accomplishment:

 I'm a Diet Analysis Intern for the Health Center at UMD and my partner Alex and I completed all the piece to our National Nutrition Month Bulletin Board Display! Just in time too because March is National Nutrition month and Thursday will be the first day of March!

The theme of our board was Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics slogan " Get Your Plate In Shape"

This is the figure in the middle of the sun that might be hard to make out from my picture!

Seven Tips For Getting your Plate in Shape This March: 


1. Fill 1/2 your plate with fruits and veggies
2. Make at least 1/2 of your grains whole grains
3. Switch to low fat or fat free milk
4. Enjoy your food but eat less
5. Be physically active your way
6.Vary your protein choices
7. Cut back on sodium and empty calories from solid fats and added sugars

For more National Nutrition Month fun,resources, and education you can visit www.eatright.org

After two long classes, a lab, and "Bulletin Boarding" my new verb, I got back to my apartment kind of  late and pretty tired. I was definitely not in the mood to cook since all my creative juices were spent on the "Bulletin Boarding" so I went my freezer for my go to dinner: Kashi's Mayan Harvest Bake! While freezer meals can never replace a well cooked meal. Kashi's entree's are a  nutritious substitute on a busy night.

 The mayan harvest bake is plantains, black beans, sweet potatoes, kale, kashi 7 whole grain pilaf & polenta spicy Ancho Sauce.

I was scared to try it at first but I love it! The plantains always have a rich flavor and the ingredients are always high quality with Kashi!

Carrot Cake BULGUR Wheat...My New Discovery

I did it again...The nutrition nerd in me just keeps popping out. I celebrated the another long productive week with a trip to an organic market I hadn't been to before. This time I chose Roots Market in Olney, MD close to my parents home.

This market was slightly bigger than MOMs and conveniently separated their dairy based products from their soy based products I'm not vegan but if I was it'd be very convenient ;)

I wandered around the store for a bit trying their free samples of freshly ground nut butters and I had a cup of warm lavender tea (see how this can be relaxing?!). Finally,  I found the whole grain bins. (wish I had a picture but felt kinda funny taking it with all the people around).  I usually like to try something new when I have these kind of adventures, usually I chose something fun like dark chocolate or fresh ground cashew butter but this time I grabbed about 1 lbs of bulgur. (Not the bulgurs "unfun" for a nutrition nerd like me BUT I'm not quite sure what my motivation was). 

I spent the whole way home trying to figure out what I was going to do with 1 lbs of bulgur. 

The first thing I did was research it!

Bulgur, I found out... is a whole wheat grain that has been cleaned and pre-cooked so it's a quick easy side dish or meal. The gain is found a lot in middle eastern cuisine and can be served with dinner  or as a hot breakfast cereal. According to Livestrong.com 1 serving of Bulgur (1 cup cooked) is ~150 calories, 5.6 g protein, 8.2 g of fiber, and less than 1 g of sugar! Basically a superfood in my book! 

Now that I knew what bulgur was...It was time to decide what to do with it! I found many salad and dinner dishes that incorporated the grain that looked delish. BUT if you haven't noticed a theme in the blog already I'm a breakfast person so I obviously opted for hot cereal. I've been wanting to make a carrot cake flavored dish so here's what I came up with: 

AMAZING! 

Carrot-Cake Bulgur Wheat

Ingredients: 

1/4 cup uncooked bulgur

1/2 cup water 

1/4 cup shredded carrot 

1Tbsp raisins 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

1 packet splenda 

1/2 tsp cinnamon 

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Toppings:  

1 Tbsp cottage cheese 

1Tbsp peanut butter 

1 pinch flax seed

And a drizzle of honey. 

The buglur cooks quickly, I brought the  1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup bulgar to a boil and then turned the stove burner on low. I kept a close eye on the grains stirring constantly to avoid burning them! I added in my ingredients, threw on my toppings and breakfast was served in about 8 minutes :)