Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Of all the things that my dad taught me about eating, the most healthy is Egg Thing. He never called it that. He used to have a name for it, but I can’t remember what it was called. I’ve called it Egg Thing for years, but I rarely made it for myself. It’s very filling and fairly low in calories, but the way my dad taught me to make it, well… it looks kind of gross.

So, after years of making it for myself, I’ve finally found a way to make Egg Thing appealing. It looks good, doesn’t it?

Here’s the recipe:

Egg Thing

Ingredients:

• One Egg
• 1 Tbsp. of mayonnaise
• 1 Tbsp. of mustard
• 1 Tbsp. of ketchup
• Non-stick cooking spray

Instructions:

• Using an egg separator, separate the yolk from the egg white. Set aside the yolk.
• Mix the mayonnaise, mustard and ketchup in with the egg whites.
• Spray your pan with non-stick cooking spray.
• Pour the mixture into pan and add the egg yolk on top of it.
• Cook for four minutes on medium heat.

Servings: 1 Calories: approximately 150 WW Points: 3

When my dad made Egg Thing, he would just crack the egg in the pan and squirt the condiments onto the egg, which was less than appealing. By mixing in the condiments with the egg white, it tastes the same and looks better.

By the way, don’t just mix them all together with the yolk. I tried the scrambled egg version of Egg Thing and it changed the egg texture so that it stuck to the pan, was too thin and difficult to eat. If you want easy, just squirt the stuff on the top of a normal egg.

My dad is one of the people in my life who actually TAUGHT me how to binge, but Egg Thing is one of those dishes that is relatively healthy and very filling. Try it and see if you like it!

Egg Thing is featured in the online fictional serial, Merriton, in the following episodes:

• Merriton » Elvis said you folks pulled in late last night.

• Merriton » God, tourists everywhere.

• Merriton » Celebratory Egg Thing

Sometimes getting all your fruits and vegetables eaten is a challenge and sometimes it’s easy and delicious. Take the recipe for microwave apples, for example.

Microwave Apples

• One apple (1 point)
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon (0 points)
• 1 packet of Splenda, Stevia, or Sweet N Low (if desired)

Total: 1 point

With a apple slicer, cut up an apple into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle the apple pieces with cinnamon and sweetener (if desired). Cook in the microwave on high for two to three minutes.

Your house will smell like freshly baked apple pie and you will think you just ate some fresh apple pie as well. I used to make this on my break at work and all the engineers would come out of their offices to see where the yummy apple dessert was.

My favorite apples to do this with are Honeycrisp. I don’t care for Red Delicious, but I’m sure they would work with this as well. I’ve done this with Granny Smith, but they are so sour, not even a packet of Stevia can make them taste like apple pie.

Try this recipe out and tell me what you think.

I’ve talked before about how much I love the rice cooker. I will cook several servings of brown rice or wild rice and then eat it in a variety of ways throughout the week. Here is another variation that I enjoy.

Rice and Cottage Cheese

• 1/2 cup of brown rice (3 points)
• 1/2 cup of fat free cottage cheese (2 points)
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of jalepeno peppers (0 points)

Total: 5 points

Mix the rice, cottage cheese and jalepeno peppers in a microwave-safe bowl and cook for one to two minutes on high. The cottage cheese will melt and create a cheesy, creamy rice that tastes a lot like risotto without the extra calories.

If you use 1/2 cup of jalepeno peppers, this with count as one vegetable serving and 1/2 of a dairy serving.

Try this recipe and tell me what you think.

I got this recipe last week at Weight Watchers. I have no idea where the member got the recipe, but she was SO excited to share it with all of us and I can understand why. It’s delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of fat-free milk – 100 calories – 2 points
• 6 ice cubes – 0 calories – 0 points
• 2 Tbsp of sugar-free fat-free pudding mix – approx. 15 calories – 0 points

Total: 115 calories – 2 points

Directions:

Put all of the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. The pudding gives the milk flavor and a little bit of creamy smoothness.

This recipe is a fast, 2 point dessert that REALLY fools me into thinking I’m eating a Wendy’s Frosty. I’ve also tried the white chocolate flavor, which has a malted milk and vanilla taste. There are so many pudding flavors to choose from, you could have a different milk shake every day of the week!

Yum!

The rice cooker has been a boon to eating healthy for me. Honestly, cooking rice on the stove top is difficult. Most times, I would end up with a sticky glue instead of fluffy rice. Brown rice and other whole grains are even harder. Now, I just cook up three to six servings of rice, divide them up into Ziploc bowls and put them into the refrigerator to eat in a myriad of ways.

Here is one of my favorites: Mexi-Rice

• 1/2 cup pre-cooked brown rice – 140 calories – 3 points
• 1/3 cup canned dark red kidney beans (drained) – 100 calories – 2 points
• 1 cup canned diced tomatoes – 25 calories – 0 points
• 1/4 teaspoon oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried onion
• Smidgen of dried chipotle peppers
• Optional additions: Two sprigs of fresh cilantro and/or a few drops of Tabasco sauce.

Total: 265 calories – 5 points

These are the ingredient sizes for one serving. It’s a HUGE serving, so you might want to cut everything in half if you have a small appetite.

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and microwave for 2 minutes. Mix together and add the fresh cilantro and Tabasco sauce for extra flavor.

If you are following the Weight Watchers Core Plan, this is also a Core Food. It counts as one serving of whole grains, one serving of lean protein and two servings of vegetables.

If you don’t own a rice cooker or know how to make brown rice on the stove, you can purchase pre-cooked packets of brown rice from Uncle Ben’s. It’s not quite as good as making it yourself, but it’s really easy.

If you try this recipe, please leave comments here about how you made it better. Considering how horrible a cook I am, I’m SURE there are ways to make it better!

Mike makes this dinner for me when I’m low on Points. It’s only 3 Points a serving (about 150 calories) and is really filling. Considering that it’s only rice and broccoli with some spices, it’s amazing how tasting it is. Here is his recipe:

Broccoli Rice:

• 1/2 cup Brown Rice
• 1/2 cup Frozen Broccoli
• 1/2 tsp Garam Masala
• 1/2 tsp Curry Powder

These are the ingredients for one serving. It’s usually much easier to make five servings and put them in the fridge or freezer for several meals. Mike puts the rice and broccoli in the rice cooker and then adds the spices after the rice is fully cooked.

The rice cooker is voodoo to me, but I love it. Mike is able to make healthy rice for me using no oil. He fought for the rice cooker when we first bought it, but if it were to break, I would now let him buy whichever one he wanted at whatever expense. I have been the beneficiary of so many yummy, healthy meals because of that device. Broccoli Rice is merely one of them.

If you go into any coffee shop and order a steamer with fat-free milk, they will understand what you’re talking about. If it’s not a Starbucks, they’ll roll their eyes and sneer at you, but they’ll understand.

A steamer is warm milk heated to a frothy goodness using the steam valve on the expresso machine with a shot or two of flavored syrup. Since there are many sugar-free syrups to choose from, you can enjoy a wide variety of steamers for the same calories as a glass of milk.

Since many diets recommend two servings of milk a day, this is an easy way to get in your milk in one fail swoop. One 16 ounce steamer counts as two servings of milk. If you make sure to order the sugar-free syrup, then it’s no more calories than the milk.

You don’t need to shell out two bucks at the coffee shop to get a steamer either. Sugar-free flavored syrups are usually available in the coffee aisle at grocery stores. The selection of syrups is smaller than a coffeehouse, but you’ll be able to create a steamer by microwaving your milk with a shot of syrup for only one minute and much less money.

Torani has a list of steamer recipes that sound delicious. These recipes aren’t specializing in the sugar-free flavors, so make sure you get sugar-free syrups in order to avoid extra calories.

• Torani: Recipe Gallery

Wednesday night, Mike and I had a dinner that we used to eat all the time, but we haven’t had recently. It tasted good and it was only 6 Points. I thought that I would share the recipe with you.

Tuna Mac & Cheese with Broccoli

• Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (you can use whatever brand you wish, but the calculated calories are based on Kraft)
• 4 Tablespoons of butter
• 1/4 Cup of Skim Milk
• 1/2 Bag of frozen broccoli
• 1 Can of tuna packed in water

Directions:

• Bring 6 cups of water to a boil. Add the macaroni and the broccoli to the boiling water.
• Cook until tender, drain water (do not rinse) and return the macaroni and broccoli to the pot.
• Add the butter and stir until melted.
• Add the milk, tuna fish and the cheese packet and stir.
• Divide into five servings and place the extra servings in the freezer.

Serves 5: 6 WW Points per serving: Calories 258; Fat 11.3; Fiber 0.6

Macaroni and Cheese is a highly processed food (that is NOT cheese), so this meal is a rarity for us, but it is very easy to make. You can substitute whatever vegetable you prefer for the broccoli. I suggest separating the servings and freezing the extra right away to prevent over eating. This meal is high in fat, so it’s easy to overdo it. I take the extra servings to work for lunches.