day one of the Great Experiment

I was feeling motivated today!  I did ten thousand loads of laundry and nearly hung things up, washed almost all of the dishes, thought about doing my homework, and successfully made these three things:

- vegan pumpkin muffins -

I like these muffins because they are absurdly easy to make, and they include flax seed meal, which is chock full of good stuff. They were a big hit in our apartment, but I'm not sure why.  Sure, they taste like pumpkin pie, but texturally they're a bit...gummy? Sticky? Something like that.  It's probably because the only thing gluing the muffins together is the pumpkin itself.  Also, I'm not convinced that white sugar is vegan, which doesn't bother me but may bother others.  Nevertheless, at 170 calories a pop, I'm going to be eating a lot of these squashy, spicy little morsels. 

2 tbs flax seed meal

6 tbs water

1 1/4 cups sugar

15 oz pumpkin puree

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (I'll be trying this again with whole wheat)

1/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour (didn't have any, so I used the regular stuff - the next batch!)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease muffin tin (I used baking spray with canola oil and flour).  In a fairly large bowl, whisk together the flax seed meal and the water. Add the pumpkin puree and the sugar and whisk till smooth.  Sift together the remaining ingredients (I like to do this onto a paper plate, so I can fold the plate into a taco for easy dry ingredient distribution).  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until incorporated.  Pour batter into muffin tins, and bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Consume strangely delicious gummy pumpkin stuff.

**UPDATE** I forgot the baking powder in the first batch.  The second batch was much more muffin-like! 

- broiled mahi-mahi with amazing peach salsa -

This dinner was SO GOOD.  Paul and I seriously ate the crap out of this meal.  The fish was tender and flaky, and the salsa was so good I wanted to festoon myself in its sweet-spicy glory. We ate it with brown rice, which is never a bad thing. The mahi-mahi is 25 calories/ounce, plus a little extra from the marinade (most of which was tossed after the soak, but may not be next time) - mine was 5 ounces, and I called it 150 calories. The brown rice is 32 calories an ounce, and i had 3 ounces (which is waaay more than it seems) for 96 calories.  The peach salsa is 11 calories an ounce, and I had 4 delicious ounces.  So, the meal came out to 290 calories.

1/3 cup of orange juice

2 tbs of your favorite oil (I used olive oil)

2 tbs lime juice

2 tsp lime zest

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes

4 6 oz mahi-mahi fillets

for the salsa -

2 cups chopped fresh peaches

1/4 cup chopped sweet red pepper (the little ones that look dangerously like jalapenos)

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1 jalapeno, seeded and minced

1 tbs fresh cilantro, minced

2 tsp lime juice

1/4 tsp salt

for the brown rice -

1 cup brown rice

2 1/4 cups water

Whisk the first set of ingredients together, and pour into a large resealable bag.  Add the fillets, being sure to slather both sides of each fillet thoroughly, before placing the bag in the fridge.  Marinate as long as you like (mine marinated for 3 hours).  In a bowl, combine the salsa ingredients; cover and refrigerate until serving.

Half an hour before serving, combine brown rice and water in a pot. Raise the stove to high until water is boiling; then, cover the pot and lower the heat to a simmer for 30 minutes without stirring (at which point it will be done).  While the rice cooks, set the oven to broil.  Arrange the fillets on a lightly oiled baking sheet (next time I think I'll create individual foil boats so I can pour in a little extra marinade). when the rice is 8 minutes from doneness, put the fish in the oven.  They should be done within 8 minutes, so everything can be eaten hot! Plate up, and dig in.

- banana smoothie -

Obviously since I'd been so good at dinner, I needed a yummy dessert! This guiltless smoothie hit the spot at 155 calories. 

5 oz banana

4 oz or 1/2 cup almond milk

3-6 ice cubes (I used 5) 

Toss it all in the blender and blend until light and frothy and creamy and delicious.  Pour into a tall glass, and indulge.

Today, Derby. Tomorrow, the World!!

Or at least, the kitchen.  I just got back from Roller Derby tryouts (I got in! So did everybody else, but still...) and I was famished.  As per usual, I called my wonderful hubby Paul, and asked him to pick me up a burrito.  Therein lies my problem.

Now, I have nothing against the burrito - juicy, meaty, guacamole-y goodness definitely has its place in the world.  In fact, it's right near the top.  And this burrito has only 475 calories, which is a godsend in my diet world. The problem is that I didn't MAKE the burrito.  I haven't made a meal for just the two of us (I'm referring to the hubster) since...well, I don't like to think about it.  This year that is all going to change.

This is the beginning of a tumultuous, love-hate relationship with the dreaded kitchen.  I'm on the lookout for delicious, savory, filling meals, and scrumptious, luscious desserts.  With 200-400 calorie servings.  I'm not talking one tablespoon servings, either.  Full-on, push-the-plate-away "I can't eat another bite!" servings.

<--that's me.

Let the games begin (tomorrow).