A Southern Autumn Affair

So somehow I made it through the ENTIRE afternoon with only the rest of my fruit for a snack!!! I guess having more calories than normal filled me up. I did think about food a few times, but I never had a snack. I used to plan my whole day – all my snacks and the times I’d eat them – but I actually think that encouraged eating because it was “snack time” and not because I was hungry. Of course my excuse was that I planned it so I wouldn’t get hungry (and overeat) so I can see how both arguments make sense. But I think I’m eating – and obsessing – less about food when I don’t have a snack coming up in the next hour. I did have a meeting come up at 4pm when I was thinking about having a yogurt, so that did serve as an excellent distraction to a boredom eater.

Dinner tonight was a Southern Feast!!

On the menu:

• Pork chop, chopped and sauteed in collard greens with mushrooms and a bit of bacon
• Oven-fried buttermilk Okra
• “Pumpkin Pie”
• Small glass of Sauvignon Blanc

So you’d think this meal would have hundreds of calories – but here’s the recap:

Pork and collard greens (I had 3 oz of pork and there was 1/2 a slice of bacon in the recipe – no oil)

Okra. It’s dredged in egg, buttermilk (low-fat), seasoning and cornmeal, and baked for 30 minutes. About 150 calories for 1/4 of the recipe, which is shown on the white plate closest to the camera. I ended up eating about 1/3 of the recipe though, because it was SOOOO good!!!

And some WINE!

The meal was surprisingly satisfying. This is only my second time having collard greens despite growing up in Carolina (the first being two weeks ago!). It’s so good and has more chew than spinach.

I decided I should have a Calorie King-famous “Diva Pancake” for breakfast since they’ve been the talk of the site recently. For those of you who are unfamiliar:

Diva Pancakes a.k.a. Nekkid Pancake:

• 1/4 cup dry oatmeal
• 1 egg or 1/4 cup egg whites
• Pinch of baking powder
• Seasonings + additives to taste (common ones are dried cherries, chocolate chips, frozen blueberries, etc.)

1) Make batter the night before and set in fridge.
2) Heat skillet, dump on batter and form into large circle (some do this naked, then get dressed, then flip it, then finish getting dressed – or something like that to get the alternative name)
3) When pancake slides around in pan when you shake it, it’s time to flip.

So for my version, I eyed the leftover pumpkin and thought I’d give it a try. So I added about 2 tbsp pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg to produce the following:

I’ll show you the result tomorrow!!!

So I had a little bit of pumpkin left so I decided to make Pumpkin Pie for dessert tonight. (I didn’t really need dessert – nor was I craving it – but I decided to have it since pumpkin is a superfood!)

Pumpkin Pie:

• About 1/3 cup pumpkin
• 3 ginger snap cookies (10 calories each)
• Like 10 raisins
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• Spices

It was really good and probably only about 50 calories!! (I ate it in a tupperware so it’s not that pretty. But notice the cute Crate and Barrel spoon!)

So I went with Option C today. I didn’t really think about calories. I just ate. And ate as healthy as I could (minus the wine!). So now I’m going to do a rough estimate to see how I did…

Appx dinner calories:
Pork – 150
Collards + Shrooms – 50
Bacon (1/2) – 20
Okra – 200 (a high estimate)
Wine – 100
= 525

Add that to the 1200 or so from before and I’m around 1725. Dessert makes roughly 1800. Perfect! Especially with -500 through workout and walk.

See you all in the AM for my pancake!

Shout outs to my new readers:

• The Vets (glad I inspired you Brady! Meredith, you’re right about the aperitif – I never knew that!)
• Brenda from CK
• Meggers from CK
• Elle from CK
• Mizzle
• Becca
• The Husband
• My mom, occasionally but she’s not doing a good motherly job of keeping up considering how much she’s on the internet!

AND DAMMIT THERE WAS JUST A ROACH IN HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!