Eggface 2013 - The Blog Year in Review

Some of my favorite posts, recipes, menus, ideas and tips from the past year. My 7th year post weight loss surgery.

January: Challenge Mean! and I Promise Jar (must do better this year)

February: Be an advocate - 5 easy ways and A day in my pouch (a particularly yummy day)

March: St. Patrick's Day Weight Loss Surgery Friendly Menu and A day in my pouch (aka it's hard to blog when your electric company blows up your computer) 

April: Build Your Own Salad Bar Night and A day in my pouch (a family visit)

May: Flying High and Low and Gift ideas for the weight loss surgery post-op

June: Fun at the Fair and Conference Attendance Tips

July: 7 Protein Packed Grab and Go Breakfast Ideas and Fitbloggin and Birthday in Oregon

August: #YWM2013 Your Weight Matters Convention Wrap-Up and A day in my pouch (aka surviving the heat wave from hell)

September: Happy National Pancake Day! and How September 11th Changed My Life

October: ObesityHelp Conference - My Session and Healthy Protein Packed Recipes to Celebrate World Vegetarian Day 

November: Life After Weight Loss Surgery Q & A and A day in my pouch (a particularly yummy day)

December: Weight Loss Surgery Wisdom from a Friend ♥ RIP Lei

2012 Blasts from the Past
2011 Blasts from the Past
2010 Blasts from the Past

Thank you for joining me on this journey! It is comforting knowing I am never alone. Happy New Year! May your 2014 be filled with good health and lots of laughter.

Post Weight Loss Surgery Menus: A day in my pouch

A day in my pouch is a series of blog posts (I try and post them every few days) to show what a typical daily menu looks like in my post weight loss surgery world.

Breakfast: Came home from the Farmer's Market and made a Scrambled Egg with a little Avocado chopped on top. The market was a little smaller this morning. I'm guessing some of the farmer's are Christmas visiting or thought we might be. I got everything I needed though... some onions, garlic, a few apples, avocados, a cauliflower (destined for Cauliflower Pie this week), celery and a leek (for Split Pea Soup this week with my frozen leftover ham.)

It's my 1/2 year birthday (good excuse) so I treated myself to a magnet for my fridge collage from a local photographer that sells his work at the market. All scenes from my town...  grapes, hot air balloons, some of the local historic sites, our state flower the poppy. Check it out. It makes me smile every day.

Lunch: For lunch I made a Caprese Salad of sorts. Tomatoes, Fresh Mozzarella, a little Basil with a few Marinated Artichoke Hearts. It sort of made it's own dressing when they mixed with tomatoes, no added dressing needed.

Dinner: Those of you that have read my blog for any length of time know I don't eat noodles or pasta but have found some veggie alternatives that I love. Tonight I made another of my favorite noodle replacements. Bean sprouts.

Shelly's Asian "Spaghetti" and Meatballs

12 Cocktail Beef Meatballs (Turkey or Pork would be fine too)
2-3 Tablespoons Asian Marinade (your preference, I love Mr. Yoshida's also from Costco, here's a view of the bottle)
1 1/2 pounds Bean Sprouts
2-3 Green Onions, sliced on the bias

Sauteed bean sprouts till tender in a sprinkle of olive oil about 10 minutes. I tossed in a few green onions in the last minute or so. Meanwhile simmer the meatballs (I used the Costco frozen mini beef meatballs) till tender in the marinade, stirring occasionally to coat all sides. Top bean sprout "spaghetti" with meatballs.

Snacks: Stopped at Starbucks after the market for a Sugar Free Vanilla Soy Latte (it was 50% off all espresso drinks, if you haven't downloaded the Starbucks App do it, every few days I get some offer or another) and in a little bit I'm going to have one of those Sugar Free Chocolate dipped cookies I made for Christmas, I have 2 left.

More Days in my pouch.

Drum roll...

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Post Weight Loss Surgery Menus: A day in my pouch

A day in my pouch is a series of blog posts (I try and post them every few days) to show what a typical daily menu looks like in my post weight loss surgery world. I'm 1/2 Sicilian. We celebrate the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve, lots of seafood and not much meat. Growing up the menu was more traditional... Dried Salt Cod (Baccala) you have to soak in water for days. I prefer a bunch of "tidbits" especially post weight loss surgery, a variety of little bites versus big platters of food. My menu yesterday was heavy on the seafood not quite seven. I think we ended up with five...

Breakfast: Last year I won a recipe contest Silk Milk sponsored with this "Candy Cane Protein Shake" one of my favorites this time of year.

Lunch: I made some Bacon Deviled Eggs (basically this recipe but stuffed back in the eggs instead of made into a salad), Smoked Salmon Stuffed Celery (1/2 Salmon Cream Cheese, 1/2 Greek Yogurt, sprinkle of Dill), and my Red and Green Shrimp Cocktail (red: Spicy Cocktail Sauce - Cocktail Sauce and Salsa, green: Guacamole)

Dinner: Trader Joe's Bacon Wrapped Scallops and some Mini Crab Cakes I picked up at Costco the other day. I made a dipping sauce to go with: Lemon Dill Greek Yogurt Dip (3 oz. Greek Yogurt, heaping teaspoon dried Dill, a squeeze of Lemon, Salt and Pepper) Both were delicious.

and this Crab, Artichoke and Spinach Dip.

Shelly's Crab Artichoke and Spinach Dip

1 package Creamed Spinach (I used a Birds Eye® Steamfresh® Chef's Favorites Lightly Sauced, 11 oz.)
6 oz. can Crab Meat, drained
1/2 cup Marinated Artichoke Hearts, drained
2 Tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup (plus a Tablespoon for the top) Italian Blend Cheese, Shredded
a few twists of Black Pepper

Cook Creamed Spinach according to package instructions. Drain crab and add. Chop artichokes and tomatoes into bite sized pieces and add to cooked spinach. Add cheese (plus a little for sprinkling on top) and pepper and mix till combined. Bake at 450 for 20 minutes.

Our tree:

Snacks: Cookies and Cocoa that I shared with Santa ;) Sugar Free Torani Belgian Cookie flavored NSA Hot Cocoa packet and 2 Aunt Gussies Sugar Free Spelt Cookies which I jazzed up a bit by dipping them in melted cappuccino flavored Sugar-Free Chocolate Bar.

Don't you love my little Homemade (Mum made) Knitted Christmas Tree Bottle Topper!? I need one for every holiday.  I have Thanksgiving. What's next... New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day. The day was filled with music. I had the Finale of "The Sing Off" DVR'd so we watched that and yay! My favorite group won!

I took a walk and looked at Christmas lights, burned a few of those cookie calories off and LOL I did post these Christmas Cookie Rules on my Facebook page so I'm going with those ;)

Hope everyone is having a lovely holiday filled with laughter and loved ones. If you know someone that might be feeling lonely or have lost someone they love recently give them a call or an email. It's amazing what a few kind words can do to brighten a person's day.

Today's plan... we are going to get some coffee and people watch at Starbuck's (my brother topped off my gold card thanks Rob) and then I have a Spiral Ham to cook. It's the smallest I could find and it's still huge so I'm going to cut a chunk off and cube it for some Split Pea or Lentil Soup or maybe a Casserole next week.

More Days in my pouch.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Weight bias in health care is UNACCEPTABLE

Watching this Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity video gave me flashbacks :(  

Weight bias in health care is UNACCEPTABLE. I'd like every health care professional in America to watch this and if they don't "get it" consider a new profession.



How many of us have faced (are facing) this kind of bias and stigmatization and then avoid Dr's like the plague missing out on follow-up appointments, preventive health services and exams, cancer screenings, pelvic exams, mammograms. It is scary, sad and wrong. Dr.'s offices should be a safe zone.

P.S. Membership in the Obesity Action Coalition makes a great gift to yourself.

Jumping off soap box now, now back to your regularly scheduled holiday merriment.

Christmas Crafts and Healthy Snacks

Tonight we finished up a few more homemade ornaments. We always make a few DIY ornaments and gifts it's our tradition. Something about the holidays brings out the crafty in me. I get demon possessed by Martha Stewart.

We listened to my Christmas music Spotify playlist and laughed a lot. I made a little Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip with some Veggies and Sliced Apple dippers and a batch of Cranberry Orange Protein Mini Muffins to eat while we worked. Well, actually we waited till we were done crafting to eat, didn't want sticky fingers messing up our creations. A fun evening.

Shelly's Powdered Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip

3 oz. Greek Yogurt
2 heaping Tablespoons Chike PB Powdered Peanut Butter
1 Tablespoon Sugar Free Vanilla Torani Syrup (any flavor would be great)

Mix together till well combined. I used the new Chike PB Powdered Peanut Butter (it's 85% less fat then regular Peanut Butter but you could use that as well) Dipper ideas: Sliced Apples, Pears, Celery, Cinnamon Soy Crisps, Dried Apple Chips, Carrots, Fruit Skewers, Cucumber, Strawberries, Banana Chunks.

 

Shelly's Cranberry Orange Protein Mini Muffins

1 Egg, beaten
3 Tablespoons Milk
2 Tablespoons Sugar Free Vanilla Torani Syrup
1 Tablespoon Canola Oil
3 Tablespoons Multigrain Pancake Mix (I use this)
2 Tablespoons Cranberry Sauce (leftovers are great)
1 teaspoon Sugar Free Orange Jello powder, dry
1 scoop (50cc-ish) Vanilla Protein Powder
Pinch salt

Mix egg, milk, syrup, oil and cranberry sauce and combine thoroughly. In a separate bowl, mix pancake mix, jello, protein powder and salt. Tip dry into wet and stir till combined. Pour batter into a non stick mini muffin pan that has been sprayed with Pam.

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes until knife comes out clean. Slice open and serve with a smear of SF Marmalade. Soooo good. These make a great on-the-go breakfast or I take a couple in a snack sized Ziploc baggie and bring them whenever I go for coffee... while my friends are getting something full of calories, fat, sugar and carbs from the bakery case I get to enjoy too. They would also be a great Christmas morning snack while you are opening your loot.

In the light of day I need to take a few pictures of our tree and decorations. It's looking quite festive here. I also did a little menu planning today. We'll be doing our all seafood menu on Christmas Eve (Feast of the 7 Fishes) another tradition... thinking Bacon-wrapped BBQ'd Scallop Skewers, those Red & Green Shrimp Cocktails I make, California Roll Salad, some Crab Legs... still planning. We won't do 7 fish dishes probably but even still there are obviously leftovers which makes Christmas Day a breeze.

Hope everyone is having a good time prepping and planning their holiday celebrations (those that celebrate) and remembering to enjoy the little things.

Eggface Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chike Giveaway

Holidays are hard so many opportunities to indulge in sweets and goodies I'm not about denying yourself but I am about finding healthier alternatives whenever possible. If you are a peanut butter and chocolate combination lover here's your alternative to those Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Christmas Trees.

Chike Nutrition (nice folks and super supportive of our weight loss surgery community activities) have a new product out Chike PB, it's powdered peanut butter, basically it's defatted peanuts, think flour or powder texture. You can mix it with water and turn it into a lower fat (85% less fat) spreadable product, add it to protein shakes and smoothies for extra protein and peanut flavor, mix in Greek yogurt to eat as is or dip apple slices, use it in baking and recipes, the possibilities are endless.

Chike let me have a taste test the other day and I thought I would share the wealth. Let's sneak another fun giveaway in before Christmas!

 

The Prize: a tub of Chike Chocolate Bliss Meal Replacement, a 20 oz. Blenderbottle Shaker and a jar of the brand new Chike PB Powdered Peanut Butter.

If you are the lucky winner you will have almost all the components you need to make this delicious Peanut Butter Cup Protein Shake.

How to Enter: 1.) LIKE The World According to Eggface and Chike Nutrition's Facebook Pages 2.) COME BACK HERE and LEAVE A COMMENT on this blog posting (include a name and some email address where I can contact you if you are the winner) Scroll down to # of comments below to leave yours. That's it, easy peasy.

***Want an extra chance to win?***

* Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway: Enter the @Eggface @iLikeChike Peanut Butter & Chocolate Christmas Giveaway http://tinyurl.com/mkujyg8 #health #recipes #protein

and/or

* Follow me on Pinterest and pin at least one of your favorite Eggface recipes or an Eggface recipe you'd like to try to one of your Pinterest boards.

Contest Period Ends: Wednesday, December 25, midnight (pacific), sometime Thursday, December 26th. I'll draw a name using a random number generator and announce the winner here on the blog! I will also email the winner at the address provided. You'll have one week (7 days) to respond to my email or another winner will be chosen. Remember winners MUST be a Facebook follower (aka have LIKED) both of the pages listed above. One COMMENT ENTRY per person. Blog comments are moderated so there may be a slight delay (up to a few hours) in seeing your comment/entry post. Giveaway is open to anyone in the contiguous United States (48 contiguous only, sorry it's a legal and $ thing.)

Good Luck!

Post Weight Loss Surgery Menus: A day in my pouch

A day in my pouch is a series of blog posts (I try and post them every few days) to show what a typical daily menu looks like in my post weight loss surgery world. My menu yesterday...

Breakfast: Pineapple Cottage Cheese (storebought, Fresh & Easy brand) and Mango Spears.

Lunch: I'm on a chili kick lately. This is the second pot in the past week. My Le Creuset is getting a workout. I know chili purists will say the beans need to go but I love beans (added protein too.)

Shelly's Red and Green Pot of Chili

1/2 pound Ground Beef (or Turkey), browned, drained
1 Yellow Onion, diced
2 teaspoons Ground Cumin
2 teaspoons Sweet Paprika
1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
15 oz. can Pinto Beans, rinsed and drained
7 oz. can Mild Green Chilis, seeded and diced
1/2 cup Salsa (any heat level, I prefer a smoky Roasted Mild/Medium)
28 oz. can Whole Tomatoes with liquid, chopped
Salt to taste

Saute ground beef (or turkey) till no pink is seen. Drain any fats and set aside. Saute onion till golden. Add seasonings and cook 1 minute. Add remaining ingredients including meat. Cook on medium-low, covered for an hour. Chili is one of those foods that taste even better the next day. Make it on a Sunday night to make a busy Monday easier.

Serve with a dollop of Greek Yogurt, diced Avocado, a sprinkle of Cheese, a few sprigs of Cilantro, Hot Sauce to taste.

It was nice to have the chili already prepared because I spent most of the afternoon online at the Post Office mailing my holiday cards (sorry to my family in the UK they might be late) and the latest blog giveaway winner's prize (wanted to get it to them before Christmas.)

Dinner: Yesterday Mum and I went to Red Lobster. I brought home 1/2 my meal and turned these leftovers...

into this...

Shelly's Salmon Quesadilla

1 Mission Carb Balance Whole Wheat Fajita Size Tortilla
1-2 oz. Cooked Salmon, broken up
A few Cooked Veggies
1 Tablespoon Garlic and Herb Cheese (like a Rondele or Alouette)
1 Tablespoon Shredded Monterrey Jack

Spread a little butter over one side of each tortilla (or spray pan with Pam.) Spread garlic herb cheese on the other side of the tortilla. Place tortilla buttered side down in pan. Lay cooked salmon and veggies on top of garlic herb cheese. Sprinkle shredded Jack cheese on top. Fold in half. Saute till golden flipping once.

I love repurposing leftovers and turning one meal into 2 or 3 or more.

More Strategies for Eating Out

Snacks: Too much coffee as usual and I taste tested a new product from Chike PB Powdered Peanut Butter in this shake. It's defatted peanuts, think flour or powder texture. You can mix it with water and turn it into a lower fat (85% less fat) spreadable product or do what I did and add it to a shake for some extra protein and peanut flavor. They must be using super high quality peanuts because the flavor is awesome. If you love peanut butter but don't want to see the scale numbers moving up get yourself a jar of this.

Shelly's Chike PB Cup Protein Shake

8 oz. Milk (or Water)
1 scoop Chike Chocolate Bliss
2 Tablespoons Chike PB Powdered Peanut Butter
a few Ice Cubes

Blend on high. I topped my shake with some Homemade No Sugar Added Whipped Cream and a dusting of Chike PB. If you are craving one of those Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Christmas Trees make yourself this instead.

Chike was kind enough to send me a couple of jars of their new Chike PB so I think I'll share the wealth with you guys. Check back this week for a fun giveaway.

More Days in my pouch.

Drum roll...

Thank you all for entering the Eggface Healthy Holidays Christmas Stocking Giveaway
 

The random generator has selected:

Melissa White
MelW1986@xxxxxxx.com

Congratulations and Happy Holidays Melissa! You are the winner of the stocking filled with healthy goodies including Chike High Protein Iced Coffee, Sugar Free Torani Syrup, Silk Milk, Celebrate Vitamins and more. You have mail!

Not a winner this time... no worries another awesome Eggface Giveaway is starting very soon be sure to follow along on the Blog, Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest for the latest eggciting announcements!

It's National Ice Cream Day

It's National Ice Cream Day, I know in December?! I think I might have made National Ice Cream Day a hot one in August. I'm going to celebrate anyway with a bowl of protein ice cream but I'm going to eat it in sweats and a hoodie, under a blanket with the heat on and with a Hot Hands (love these suckers) in my pocket.

Shelly's Chocolate Crunch Protein Ice Cream

1 cup Vanilla Soy Milk (or 2% or above Regular Milk)
2 scoops (50cc-ish) Chocolate Protein Powder
2 Tablespoons Sugar Free Torani Syrup (any flavor will do)

The Crunch: a dusting of hunk of smashed to smithereens Protein Bar. I put about 1/4 of a bar in a snack-sized Ziploc and smash it with the bottom of a Sugar-Free Torani bottle. Nice way to get the aggression out ;)

Mix together milk, protein, and syrup.Whiz it on super turbo high in the blender, you want airy. Pour into ice cream maker. Follow your machine's instructions for freezing. You can eat it right away it is soft serve-ish but I like to put it in the freezer to set for an hour.

I made a double batch. I'm glad I did it's delicious. Cold but delicious.

Other Eggface Protein Ice Cream flavors

Protein Ice Cream 101

Post Weight Loss Surgery Menus: A day in my pouch

A day in my pouch is a series of blog posts (I try and post them every few days) to show what a typical daily menu looks like in my post weight loss surgery world. My menu yesterday...

Breakfast: Scrambled Egg Bowl with leftover Ham and sprinkle of Cheese

Lunch: I made a Herb and Onion Chicken Salad with some leftover Rotisserie Chicken (about 1 cup), 1/4 of a diced Red Onion, 1/2 diced Cucumber, 1 T. Parsley, 1 T. Mint, 2 diced Green Onions, a dollop of Greek Yogurt (easy way to cut calories is to replace Mayo in all salads with Greek Yogurt.)

I served it on a bed of greens with some sliced tomato and a few cucumber slices (my crackers.)

Dinner: I made sort of a breading-less Eggplant Parmesan. I had 2 eggplants I needed to use. I sliced them into rounds, sprinkled them with olive oil and kosher salt and roasted them for 40 minutes (turning once) in a 425 oven. I took the roasted slices sprinkled them with Parmesan and sauteed them lightly till the Parmesan made a light crust. Served them with a dollop of Rao's Sauce (only jarred sauce I use) and sprinkled them with mozzarella and some fresh feta (ricotta salata would be great too) cheese.

Snacks: A pit stop at Starbucks in the late afternoon for a Sugar-Free Vanilla Soy Latte. I'm not happy with the new trend I am seeing in the Starbucks in my area. They are replacing the traditional tables and chairs with tall bar-stool seating. It's totally unfriendly for elderly and the disabled. My pre weight loss surgery self would have had difficulty in them as well. We now have only 2 tables my Mum can sit at in our local Bux. My tweet to Bux...

Hey @Starbucks What's with the new trend of elderly and disabled unfriendly barstool seating? You are a #coffee shop not a nightclub.
— Eggface (@Eggface) 

I had to add the snarky nightclub comment. The thing about that seating at nightclubs is most people are liquored up and not feeling the pain in their legs ;)

Later at home, I watched some DVR'd shows and ate a piece of this yummy creation...

I was in the mood for something sweet so I came up with this Chocolate Pudding "Pie" using Big Train Low Carb Brownie Mix as the base. The regular recipe calls for a stick of butter (ummm no) I experimented a bit and came up with a higher protein and waaaaay lower in cals and fat alternative. It's more cake like then brownie texture, really yummy. This stretches the mix too (only uses 1/2 the bag.) The pie stores in the fridge several days unless your family knows it's there then it'll be gone. Non-ops will never know it's not a decadent dessert.

Shelly's Healthified Chocolate Pudding Pie

Base
1 Egg, beaten
1/2 cup Cottage Cheese (2% small curd)
5 1/2 oz. Big Train Low Carb Chocolate Chip Brownie Mix (it's 1/2 the bag)
2-3 Tablespoon Chopped Walnuts

Filling
1 3/4 (less 1 Tablespoon) cups Cold Milk
1 Tablespoon Sugar Free S'mores Torani Syrup (or any flavor Sugar Free Torani Syrup)
1 Box (1.4 oz, the small one) Instant Sugar Free/Fat Free Jello Pudding Mix - Chocolate Fudge Flavor

8-10 Fresh Raspberries

Beat egg. Whiz cottage cheese till smooth in a mini food processor or blender. Add both to brownie mix and stir till blended.

Spray a 11 x 7 Pyrex dish with Pam non-stick spray. Spread mixture evenly in dish. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Cool completely.

Prepare filling. I use a Blender Bottle. Add all ingredients and shake for 2 minutes. Pour filling onto cooled base. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Cut into 8-10 pieces. Top each slice with a fresh raspberry.

A perfect ending to a tasty day.