Hola, all!

The ice knocked out our cable and internet last night – which meant it was a blog-free morning for me! I still took pictures, natch.

For breakfast I sliced up a large banana into a bowl of Cheerios with some ice-cold, unsweetened vanilla breeze almond milk.

I tend to buy small-ish bananas, but the last time I went grocery shopping there were only large ones left to choose from. Since they’re bigger then the ones I normally eat, I decided to weigh my banana today to see how many calories were in it. (reenactment photo – I weighed it this morning without the peel!)

There’s a little less than 1 calorie per gram of banana, and my banana was 113 grams. Total: 101 calories. I was really surprised, actually! I thought there would have been way more in there.

Bananas are a good example of nutrient-dense fruit, as they have high levels of nutrients compared to the number of calories they contain. Ie you get more bang for your buck. I like getting more bang for my buck, so I’m going to keep eating bananas, and now, I might be buying bigger ones!

For lunch I packed a Greek Burger drizzled with olive-oil based vinaigrette and a Deli Thin to plop it onto. These burgers are so flavorful and packed with nutrient dense spinach!

Feta cheese doesn’t really “melt”, per se, but it did get semi gooey and luscious when I cooked the burgers on the flat top a couple nights ago and reheated again for lunch. Seriously TDF.

These deli thins are awesome too – super soft, dense and absolutely NOT “100 calorie” tasting. Even Ben loved them and he doesn’t like to mess around with “bread alternatives”. He likes his bread thick, crusty and French, just like… (insert dirty joke here.)

I also packed a Fat-Free Blueberry Cheesecake Yogurt. Omg, so good!

So last night (before the Internet was knocked out) I was trolling around my Google reader, clicked on a post by One Frugal Foodie, and hopped over to her site to check out her new layout. My eyes were immediately drawn to a blueberry concoction in the header that made my mouth water! She told me it was a Blueberry Dutch Baby and I was thinking about it all day. Besides the blueberry topping, she also recommends topping the Dutch Baby with cinnamon apples. It was this idea that I used as inspiration to make tonight’s dinner: Cinnamon Apple French Toast!

First, I started on the cinnamon apples. I peeled 1 Pink Lady Apple and chopped it up into 1/2 inch cubes. I put the apples in a saucepan and added:

• 2 Tablespoons water
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1/2 tablespoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• cinnamon
• pinch of salt

I let the apples sauté on medium-low for 5-6 minutes, or until they were soft.

Then I started on the French Toast!

For 4 pieces of French Toast, I whisked together:

• 2 eggs + 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze
• vanilla extract
• cinnamon

Dunk bread slices into mixture, covering on both sides, and cook in a skillet on the stovetop until golden brown on both sides.

Top French toast with cinnamon apples, a sprinkling of powdered sugar and DIG.IN.!!

Calling this “good” is like calling Cindy Crawford “pretty” – it just doesn’t do it justice. This was extraordinary!! Those apples are so incredible! Sweet, soft and cinnamony.

On top of it being so delicious – by adding the apple, I made my French Toast more nutrient dense, too. I got the added fiber and vitamins from the fruit, without adding a lot of calories. Ding, ding, ding!

Whew! I will be remembering that dish for awhile. Yum-O.  

Oh, I took some more Ice, Ice, Baby photos for you. Look at how thick this ice is around these branches.

And this poor tree just couldn’t take the weight of the weather – she’s drooping and sagging like…(insert second dirty joke here.)

The sad thing is that the ice will probably kill it all the way down to the roots. My parents had a birch tree like this one that never recovered after being encased in ice a few years back. We had to cut it down to a stump, and my Dad wanted to carve a bear into it with a chainsaw, kiiind of like this.

The family, of course, forbid it. True story.

At any rate – it’s time to finish up phase 3 of my cookie making process tonight: decorating! I’ll give you a peek in the morning.

Good night!

~~~~~

What’s your pancake/french toast/waffle topping?

I’m totally digging the fruit – it’s so flavorful without a ton of extra sugar or calories that usually comes with syrup or whip cream!