Holy moly, look what awaited me when I got home this evening.
Practically a lifetime supply of coconut products from Turtle Mountain! Seriously, people - I die. Words cannot describe how exciting this is to me. My ice cream addiction (and will power to moderate it) is in for a major workout.
It doesn't stop there! The other box was full of
coconut milk and and
yogurts.
I've got a lov-e-ly bunch of coconuts, deedle-ee-dee...
For the moment, I'm pretending this shipment never happened. FOCUS, Diana.
I was disproportionately excited for my oats this morning, but they didn't quite deliver the deliciousness I expected. Still good, but I already know how I'm going to change the mix for Friday's breakfast.
Oat mixture:
Toppings:
Oh well, live and learn. I'm not going to beat myself up that much - I don't think I've had the same exact combination of ingredients in my oatmeal twice, so the margin of error is necessarily high. I will keep telling myself that. :)
Lunch, however, was a big-arse hit! I brought another container of Rachel'scottage cheese with me to work, this time the Sun Dried Tomato Pesto flavor...
And dumped it on top of a mighty and glorious salad...
...the likes of which have never passed my lips before.
Behold:
Yes, it was a very matchy-matchy salad, but I like themes so I decided to roll with the sun-dried tomato thing and pull out all the stops in terms of related salad ingredients. It was really delicious too! I've never done cottage cheese as a salad protein/topper, but it actually worked well because it basically replaced both any cheese and dressing that I would have added otherwise. Score two for Rachel's!
Once I started feeling snacky, I brought out some strawberries and dug into my bar bag for inspiration. Today's pick: GnuPeanut Butter Bar.
I really liked this bar! It tastes closer to real, whole foods than many snack bars on the market, and that's because it's made of pretty good stuff. This flavor was both sweet and peanutty, though not overwhelming or cloying in either respect. Plus all the fiber kept me from getting hangry before dinner time.
Speaking of which, I have no picture or report on dinner because I just reheated leftover Hurry Curry Cauliflower Stew.
In light of last night's spectacular failure of a protein cake for dessert, I picked myself up, dusted myself off and started all over again. Much better tonight, though still kinda odd, but let's be honest: no dessert made solely of protein powder is ever going to be "decadent," or even "good" by most people's definition. But I am not most people and with that caveat, I submit for your consideration a protein cookie.
I have seen a number of variations on the protein pancake around the blogosphere, but I'm going to call this a cookie due to the texture and the fact that I ate it with my hands. This is simply one packet (equivalent to one scoop, perhaps?) of Jay Robb chocolate whey protein powder with 1/2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder and 3 tbsp water stirred in. I heated a skillet over medium and poured the batter in, let it cook for maybe a minute on one side, flipped and let it cook until set through. I reconstituted 1 tbsp of PB2 and spread that on top for some much needed moisture.
This was actually kind of tasty, and the stevia was barely noticeable to me. I'm wondering if maybe the times that I've reacted poorly to it were when the stevia was not "cooked" in some way. Heat seems to mellow the effect for me. Anyway, this preparation of protein powder made it pretty darn firm, and biting into it was not unlike biting into a spongey-type cookie. I'll play with it some more and see if I can't get it to be a little more delicious.
So... pistachios anyone? WTF, nut growers - get your salmonella under control or I'mma go postal.
Practically a lifetime supply of coconut products from Turtle Mountain! Seriously, people - I die. Words cannot describe how exciting this is to me. My ice cream addiction (and will power to moderate it) is in for a major workout.
I was disproportionately excited for my oats this morning, but they didn't quite deliver the deliciousness I expected. Still good, but I already know how I'm going to change the mix for Friday's breakfast.
Toppings:
Oh well, live and learn. I'm not going to beat myself up that much - I don't think I've had the same exact combination of ingredients in my oatmeal twice, so the margin of error is necessarily high. I will keep telling myself that. :)
Lunch, however, was a big-arse hit! I brought another container of Rachel'scottage cheese with me to work, this time the Sun Dried Tomato Pesto flavor...
...the likes of which have never passed my lips before.
Behold:
Yes, it was a very matchy-matchy salad, but I like themes so I decided to roll with the sun-dried tomato thing and pull out all the stops in terms of related salad ingredients. It was really delicious too! I've never done cottage cheese as a salad protein/topper, but it actually worked well because it basically replaced both any cheese and dressing that I would have added otherwise. Score two for Rachel's!
Once I started feeling snacky, I brought out some strawberries and dug into my bar bag for inspiration. Today's pick: GnuPeanut Butter Bar.
I really liked this bar! It tastes closer to real, whole foods than many snack bars on the market, and that's because it's made of pretty good stuff. This flavor was both sweet and peanutty, though not overwhelming or cloying in either respect. Plus all the fiber kept me from getting hangry before dinner time.
Speaking of which, I have no picture or report on dinner because I just reheated leftover Hurry Curry Cauliflower Stew.
In light of last night's spectacular failure of a protein cake for dessert, I picked myself up, dusted myself off and started all over again. Much better tonight, though still kinda odd, but let's be honest: no dessert made solely of protein powder is ever going to be "decadent," or even "good" by most people's definition. But I am not most people and with that caveat, I submit for your consideration a protein cookie.
I have seen a number of variations on the protein pancake around the blogosphere, but I'm going to call this a cookie due to the texture and the fact that I ate it with my hands. This is simply one packet (equivalent to one scoop, perhaps?) of Jay Robb chocolate whey protein powder with 1/2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder and 3 tbsp water stirred in. I heated a skillet over medium and poured the batter in, let it cook for maybe a minute on one side, flipped and let it cook until set through. I reconstituted 1 tbsp of PB2 and spread that on top for some much needed moisture.
This was actually kind of tasty, and the stevia was barely noticeable to me. I'm wondering if maybe the times that I've reacted poorly to it were when the stevia was not "cooked" in some way. Heat seems to mellow the effect for me. Anyway, this preparation of protein powder made it pretty darn firm, and biting into it was not unlike biting into a spongey-type cookie. I'll play with it some more and see if I can't get it to be a little more delicious.
So... pistachios anyone? WTF, nut growers - get your salmonella under control or I'mma go postal.