Fiber Fool

A quick drive-by post today, just because my breakfast this morning was so amazingly good and summery I had to share before I forgot what I did :-)

Due to various issues, including skin troubles from the weight loss, I haven’t been making it to the gym for more than yoga lately so it has been a long time since I had my yogurt steeped oatmeal and chia seeds. I was also kind of tired of my chocolate and raspberry concoction so wasn’t thinking to do so even if I wasn’t going to the gym. And I got into the habit of enjoying a more leisurely breakfast with DH. But traffic is the pits this week due to a massive street closure in the heart of town and getting lunch this week has been a problem as well. So, sick of having less than 1/2 of my daily protein requirements in by the time I get home from work (and feeling that lack of protein to my very bone) I decided to throw together a jar last night to bring to work today. When I thought of the chocolate raspberry I almost groaned. Then I remembered there were 2 small peaches left from our Farmer’s Market visit on Saturday and the wheels in my head started to turn…

The result tastes like summer in a jar to me! It does take a little bit of pre-planning as everything but the fruit mixture really needs to steep overnight in thre fridge. But it does throw together pretty quickly. Then in the morning I just washed, sliced and dressed my peach and sat it atop the now thick “pudding” and brought it with to work. I think the 30 minutes or so the peach sat dressed atop the pudding helped it release some juices that made every bite taste peachy, even if there wasn’t a peach chunk in it, so I would recommend allowing for that time in the morning if you can.

Peachy Oatmeal and Chia Breakfast Pudding

Serves 1, but is easily built assembly line style as needed
Ingredients for Pudding

• 1/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1/3 cup 1% milk (or milk of choice)
• 1/3 cup 2% Greek yogurt*
• 1/2 serving of vanilla protein powder (I use Solgar which is unsweetened)
• 1 Tbl chia seeds, whole
• 1 tsp stevia or lower glycemic sweetener such as coconut sugar
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg, freshly ground
• 1/4 tsp cardamom, freshly ground
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of sea salt
• small splash of almond extract

Ingredients for Honey Lime Peach Topping

• 1 small peach, washed and cut into bite-size chunks
• 1 Tbl lime juice (or 1 packet of TrueLime)
• 1 tsp honey (or to taste)

Directions

1. Combine all pudding ingredients together in a pint jar (the wide mouth ones are easiest to eat from and clean) and stir until well mixed, making sure all dry ingredients are fully incorporated.
2. Cover and place jar in fridge to steep overnight, an absolute minimum of 4 hours is required, but 8 is better and it will last up to 3 days.
3. About 30-60 minutes before eating, wash and slice peach and dress with lime juice and honey and place on top of the oatmeal pudding.
4. Stir in peaches and juice just before eating and enjoy!

* If you opt to use a different yogurt you won’t have the consistency or protein balance here. You may need to adjust by using more yogurt and less milk or thickening with a bit more protein powder etc. I also don’t recommend going for fat-free products as fat is essential to processing many vitamins and minerals and aids in the body feeling fuller for longer by slowing the absorption (along with the protein) or the carbohydrates.

Nutritional Info: 354 calories; 7.4 g fat; 49 g carbohydrate; 8.5 g fiber; 24.8 g sugar; 26.3 g protein.

The carb may seem a tad high here, but it is almost all whole grain or fresh fruit (less than 6 g are from added “sugar”) and it is good to hit your body with carbs earlier in the day to jump start your metabolism. It also contains about 1/3 of your daily fiber (not always the easiest meal to get high in fiber with natural foods) and a good dose of protein which act to reduce your body’s spike in blood sugar and help you feel more satisfied for longer. Cinnamon is also said to help keep your blood sugar more even. All-in-all a satisfying and nutritious breakfast I think!

We have are lucky to have three different organizers of Farmer’s Markets, with the opportunity to go to one Wednesday afternoon (only if you don’t work a day job, sadly), Saturday morning, Saturday mid-day and Sunday mid-day. My favorite is the Saturday morning one in Old Town. Sadly, their hours do not mesh well with my yoga schedule so this last Saturday was the first and only market I’ve made it to this year :-( It is sad. But I’m hoping to make it more regularly until the end of the season. There are many reasons to enjoy it:

1. It is like a mini-festival/fair celebrating local goods and talents without the super huge crowds of other annual festivals in Old Town. And frankly, the market is more up my alley than most of those festivals anyway.

2. Super fresh produce, grown sustainably with much more flavor and nutrition than supermarket produce!

3. The ability to speak with the grower and/or harvester and learn about the varieties that are available each week and get cooking recommendations.

4. While most think of farmer’s markets as being about produce, there is a variety of wonderful locally made prepared foods at our market too. Nut butters (we just got a yummy almond espresso one this last week), hot sauces, salsas, pastas, baked goods, cheeses, wines, chocolate, and locally roasted coffees!

5. There are even some great non-food prepared items such as lotions, soaps, an amazing balm for sore muscles, emu oil and of course various craft items from jewelry to bags and aprons. I didn’t see any this week, but I have sometimes seen fiber and yarn available as well.

6. Music! It seems most weeks there is some musical group serrenading shoppers and darn it takes a lot to stand on an asphalt parking lot in the glaring sun at nearly a mile high and play your instrument with a smile on your face!

7. The local extension office is always there with lots of great info on food preparation and storage, including handing out schedules for canning, food drying and other similar types of classes that can be taken.

8. While we don’t have kids, I appreciate the booths directed specifically at them. Often there is facepainting and sometimes another booth with storytimes or little games for them to play.

9. The location and time. While the timing hasn’t worked horribly well with my liking to go to Yin yoga on Saturdays this summer, I do like that it is early morning. You can be done and off the asphalt before it gets super hot. It also gets us downtown where we can also patronize other local businesses, whether it is to enjoy a prepared coffee beverage or brunch somewhere or to finish our food shopping at the local Co-Op or pick up a few things at the ACE Hardware.

10. Going just feels like a celebration of community and makes me feel more integrated and invested in my local businesses.

Yikes! I can’t believe how crazy it has been around here. Last week was a whirlwind with a less than 24 hour stay at a hot springs resort for a family reunion that required 7+ hours of driving and resulted in only 45 minutes in the hot springs - all smack in the middle of the week. It kind of threw off the whole week, with Monday being jam packed with things that needed done before I left for work and at home. Then Thursday was catching up on everything else that landed on my desk while I was gone which overflowed into Friday. I didn’t even take any pictures on the trip. It was too short and DH kindly pointed out I’d just hide behind my camera if I brought the big one, which is quite likely true since it was his family and not mine. Once we were actually able to leave it was a good trip, although a bit much work for too little time.

This weekend though was all about resting and relaxing - at least after a trip to our fav coffeeshop which also serves fresh made juice from local and organic produce followed by a stop at the farmer’s market. I’ve been feeling horribly run down. I think it is part heat and part allergies or maybe a sinus infection trying to take over. So I’m pushing the fresh veggies and fruits like crazy. And Saturday even included a nap!

Before all that, I had a wonderful girly day with Amanda in Denver. She had a very rare all-day yard pass. We started off as one of the first 100 at Fancy Tiger Craft’s 6th anniversary celebration where we got goodie bags. We also had no trouble spending the $25 to get a free tee shirt. I got some fabric for two shirts and a vintage 1940’s dress (a pattern Amanda scored for me earlier this summer).

Then we wandered down the street a little bit to an interesting cafe that had been recommended to us - The Sputnik. I had the Vegan Power Stack - quinoa cakes with lots of veggies, including kale, zucchini and avocado. Amanda had a breakfast burrito that she said was quite good.

Then we wandered back towards Fancy Tiger and stopped into their old location which is now a coffee shop and got some iced lattes. I love their cold brew coffee set up and am kicking myself that I didn’t just order iced coffee! Next time!

The last stop on the trip was to hit The Pavillions and the new to us, H&M store which I think is coming up on it’s 1 year anniversary late this summer or in the fall sometime. I learned I need to go shopping with others more often. I still think like my 22/24W sized self and would look at things and say “I’m not small enough to pull that off yet” and Amanda would grab it and tell me I was trying it on, LOL! For the record, she was right! The striped number above? A fitted t-shirt dress that did end up coming home with me.

I also got this navy pencil skirt above for under $10! And, it’ll serve as a template for making my own. We discussed some styling ideas and I was so excited I had to play around with it as soon as I got home. Which is your favorite? I think a lime or mustard skinny belt would be nice too in place of the red and I have shoes for those. My mom was just asking me about web sites for accessories, especially belts. Do you have any suggestions?

Don’t think I’ve forgotten about the chai cake donuts. It is nearly all drafted and should get posted at some point this week.

Saturday there was a book fair in Old Town Square that we checked out. I spent under $3 and came home with 4 new novels to read! They were even running some writing workshops and other literary-type activities. The neatest thing though had to have been this large Scrabble board game going on. How cool is that?

With all of the last minute edits and graduate school red tape to jump through DH was saying completing his Masters had been kind of anti-climatic. So, when we popped our heads into the new cheese shop in town, The Welsh Rabbit, we ended up sitting down at the bar to split a flight of cheeses, a glass of Prosecco and some bread and crackers. It was a nice little impromptu celebration.

We chose such a broad palette of cheeses I can’t even say I walked out of there with a clear favorite. Though a local goat milk cheese certainly impressed me (Queso de Mano from Haystack Mountain, a favorite cheese producer of ours since our first summer together going to the farmer’s market), as did a not as local sheep milk cheese. We also got to try one of Drew’s long wished for cheeses - a clothbound cheddar and it was equally impressive. Next time we’ll stick to 3 or *maybe* 4 cheeses. 5 was a lot!

I don’t know if you heard, but the rain dances have worked. The monsoon hit and we had several days of afternoon and evening showers starting late last week. We totaled around 3 inches in the last week. It has been very much needed, though it came on a bit fast and there have been mud slides and such in the burn areas. The river is now running quite black I’m told (I haven’t wandered down there yet, but plan to do so over lunch). With all the wet, Sunday was mostly a lazy day, interrupted briefly with a grocery trip, after which I prepped a bunch of fruit and vegetables for quicker lunch packing during the week.

How was your weekend? Did you keep busy, or kick back and recover from the mid-week holiday?

Despite having made some on Saturday, I made more of these delicious whole grain chai cake donuts on Wednesday. It made it feel more like a holiday/weekend even though it was just one day and DH was still up to his eyeballs in thesis editing. It also allowed me to set aside the iPhone for photography and take real photos with the dSLR (aka the “big gun”).

Next week, when more people are back to reading blogs I’ll share my recipe for these doughnuts. In the meantime, if you don’t care about them being whole grain, you can pick yourself up a copy of Lara Ferroni’s Doughnuts book and have them this weekend.