Meal Plan Monday

Since my last post was a bit of a downer, I decided to share with you a good day for me from last week. I am hoping to do this every Monday as a series: pick my favorite day of the week eatingwise and share it with you. I say hoping because, well, you know, I'm busy. So here is what my best day looked like last week:

Breakfast: This my friends, is what I refer to as a "bowl of goodness". I stole that name from a website I can't recall at this very moment, and probably could google to figure it out and give them credit, but I need to finish this post so I can get to bed. Anywho, a bowl of goodness for me always starts with oatmeal. Then I just throw in a bunch of yummy, healthy, reasonably sized portions of good stuff and mix it all up into a hot mess. (The picture above was taken pre-hot mess). This particular bowl consisted of a half cup of rolled oats cooked in half of a cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, half a cup water, and a teaspoon of homemade Indonesian vanilla extract we got from my mother-in-law for Christmas. Then I added two teaspoons of Better N' Peanut Butter (lower sodium and fat than regular peanut butter and still tastes great), a heaping tablespoon of nonfat vanilla greek yogurt, half a tablespoon of chia seeds (great source of fiber), 1/8 cup raisins, 1/4 cup blackberries, and half of a tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder. It was the bomb. I also had a cup of black coffee.

I normally have a snack mid-morning, but I was still really full from my bowl of goodness, so I ended up foregoing the snack. Then came lunch:

Lunch consisted of a curry chicken salad sandwich on toasted Ezekiel sprouted grain bread (a low glycemic product I love, but to me it only tastes good toasted). The chicken salad recipe I used was a hybrid made from two sources: the cookbook Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, and a "super foods" diet plan published in Self Magazine. I combined the two to make up my own recipe mainly because Skinny Bitch's recipe (like all of their recipes) is vegan (as in vegan mayonnaise and fake chicken).  I have no problem with vegan mayo on principle, but it's not for me. And Self Magazine's recipe wasn't very complex (i.e. not that flavorful). So here is my adapted/hybrid chicken salad recipe:

Chunky Curry Chicken Salad

2/3 cup chicken breast, cooked and chopped (if you are pressed for time, use the precooked stuff)
1 tbsp canola mayonnaise (I used Best Foods brand)
1 tbsp plain nonfat greek yogurt
1/2 tsp curry powder
Dash of ground black pepper to taste
1 to 2 tsp raw lemon juice to taste
1/2 stalk celery, chopped
1/4 cup red seedless grapes, halved or quarted depending on size

Combine the mayo, yogurt, spices, and lemon juice in a bowl. Fold in the chicken, grapes, and celery. In case you were wondering, according to Self Magazine, the curry and grapes are what qualifies this recipe as "super".  I also had a fuji apple and home brewed green tea with lemon juice with my sandwich. And yes, the sandwich is on a skull and crossbones plate. We have a full set.

Mid-Afternoon: I had a green smoothie which I made using my go to recipe, minus chia seeds since I had already had some with breakfast: 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1 tablespoon almond butter, half of a frozen banana, 1 cup spinach, and 1 scoop protein powder (I used Garden of Life Raw Organic Protein). I added the protein powder because I was going to my daughter's basketball game and knew I was going to end up eating a late dinner. The added protein helped me feel full until then. Sorry, no picture for the smoothie. BUT, I also had this:

Two squares of dark chocolate. I actually had this before the smoothie, around 2:30, when I got a hankering for something sweet. I had the smoothie around 4:00, right before I left for the basketball game.

Dinner: Again, no picture for this meal but that was mainly due to the fact that it was kind of late by the time I cooked it (about 7:00), and I didn't feel like waiting any longer to eat. I had "brinner" (breakfast for dinner). I scrambled three egg whites and one whole egg with a quarter cup of black beans (drained and rinsed) in a pan with Emeril's brand nonstick canola oil spray, and topped that with a third of an avocado chopped, and some Cholula hot sauce. Delicious! I finished the night with some chai tea. Black tea is warming, and I needed it. It's been so damn cold this winter!

The whole day clocked in at 1409 calories, 169 grams of carbs (my exact allowance for carbs), 47 grams of fat, 95 grams of protein (one gram over my daily goal), and 40 grams of fiber (23 grams over my daily goal!) Like I've mentioned, I just love it when my numbers add up. And extra protein and fiber is always a good thing in my world.

I didn't work out on this day, but if I had, I would have added in some more calories. I usually aim to eat back about half of the calories I burn when I work out. I got this idea from an article in an athletic magazine that reported most online calculators overestimate the number of calories burned through various activities. The article stated unless you wear a heart monitor, your total calories burned through may be a lot lower than you think. Since I don't have a heart monitor (yet-fingers crossed for my birthday), I use the "half formula", rather than eating back all of the calories I think I burned. Just the way I do it.

So there it is: my first addition of Meal Plan Monday. Hope you enjoyed it. What did you eat on your best day this week?