The husband came home with a small sausage link and a fresh zucchini. Combined with crushed tomatoes, seasonings, whole wheat spaghetti and Asiago – dinner came together.
We always make our own marinara sauces. I just don’t like what they put in the jars very much – they leave a gross aftertaste in my mouth (which I’m guessing is in the form of onion!?). Our sauce was a can of crushed tomatoes, caraway seeds, oregano, garlic, red pepper flakes and S+P.
I have to say, this dinner was quite disappointing for a volume eater. While the sausage tasted good, I would have preferred a turkey or chicken sausage so I could have twice the meat! Just a measly 2 ounces of this pork sausage was 200 kcal and 18 grams of fat. If you LOVE sausage, it might be worth it, but I thought it tasted just like other ground meats and would have preferred to get more stretch out of my portion.
From above –
Dinner was about 500 kcal, 10 grams of fiber and 22 grams of protein.
This isn’t including the 3 big swigs of the husband’s beer I had!
Snack
I wanted something creamy for snack today and since you know our fridge is empty, I had limited options. But of course there’s always pumpkin!!
I heated some up with some pumpkin pie spice and a tsp of brown sugar. Then I filled in the edges with vanilla hemp milk and topped it all with some Kashi GoLean.
Divine!
With hot tea and 2 rosemary quackers!
We’re off to watch the Duke game and possibly visit our neighbor, who seems to be throwing a bit of an ACC Tourney party!
Gemma says
Do you buy organic sausage and if so do you have any brands to suggest?
neat idea with the cereal and pumpkin…I should try it!
eliza says
kath your pumpkin cake recipe is fabulous! i’ve started making it on a plate and it cooks much better. add a little bit of soymilk (or hemp as you do) and some chocolate chips (before cooking so they melt) and oh my! what a perfect dessert.
Aimee H. says
Kath, I swear you have opened my eyes with your canned pureed pumpkin. I have all my friends trying it too! I love your idea for a snack today.
goalie30 says
I’m not giving up on Kath’s blog, I still love it, but I wonder if any of the other bloggers in here know of or are blogging about an athlete’s diet or know of another RD’s blog on diet kind of like eatlikeme at self.
re: husbands/boyfriends/significant others grocery shopping
good luck! my husband MIGHT go pick up lunch meat for himself if he runs out mid-week; otherwise I go on the weekends myself. I don’t mind though, it’s quiet time for me, and I like shopping and picking out healthy things each week. I like finding new things and getting good bargains/deals too!
kay says
That’s one of my favorite cereals! I don’t know why but I tend to eat the little sticks first…
How much pumpkin did you have in that bowl? I may try it for breakfast tomorrow!
I mentioned on this blog before that I didn’t care for canned pumpkin too much due to tasting like metal (from the can) but after trying it a few times, I am really starting to like it. I found that if I leave it in the fridge ovenight in a glass container the flavor is much better. I tried the pumpkin oatmeal for the first time this morning and liked it very much! Thank you for all the ideas that you post on your blog!
Do you guys always eat the same meals when at home? Sometimes, my husband and I will have different foods. Especially for breakfast (me: oatmeal, him: eggs, etc.).
Romina says
Good old spaghetti. Can’t go wrong!
That snack looks like it was very satisfying and filling. =)
ChocolateCoveredVegan says
Ooh, I’m going to have to steal that snack idea… hope you don’t mind ;o).
Betsy says
i still have that pumpkin in my fridge (maybe it’s time to toss it????), i’ll have to try your snack tomorrow!!
congrats on being on spring break by the way! jealous…as always 😉
LolaFunk says
I finally have my blog up and running, yayy!
Caroline says
Hi Kath! I hope you enjoy your break…mine is sadly ending after this weekend. BTW, your snack looks like something I would eat–I often eat GoLean and pumpkin with plain yogurt for breakfast (in parfait form). Like Kay, I always eat the twigs first too!
PS YAY for Duke’s win tonight!
Ally says
I’ve never thought of adding a touch of milk to pumpkin, I bet almond milk would taste delicious with pumpkin!
The Duke game was blacked out on my television for some reason…
Susa says
Looks good (even to a vegetarian ;O) )
You could “stretch” the meat by adding in TVP (textured veg protein).
~Ally-absolutely :O)
I love pumpkin so much (I only discovered it a few months ago) and have eaten it so much that my palms and soles of my feet are yellow :O/
~Kay- do you add spices? For me cinnamon, a bit of cloves and nutmeg and vanilla/orange/almond extract are a must. I also put in some stevia.
~Goalie: I’d be interested in that too.
Re. athlete’s diet-I recently read Brendan Brazier’s book “Thrive Diet” and while I don’t agree with all his ideas I did change my diet up a bit and it has made a big difference as far as my recovery from training goes.
Are you a vegetarian?
Katie says
I could SOOO go for some of this tonight. It’s funny too b/c my husband and I *always* throw zuchinni in our pasta sauce. Yum!!
Kath says
Gemma,
Unfortunately I don’t think this sausage was organic, but I bet the healthy grocery stores like WF and EF have some.
Eliza,
I never thought of making it on a plate, but sounds great!
kay ,
It was about 3/4 cup of pumpkin. I’m glad you like it now!! We don’t always eat the same meals – especially lunches. But we usually do the same dinners. Breakfasts depends. Sometimes he makes eggy things or does different variations with his oatmeal (like add avocado and hot sauce).
Kath
goalie30 says
Susa, no I am not a vegetarian, but I do like vegetarian dishes and tofu. I do eat Boca sandwiches for lunch sometimes, and have no problem not eating meat. I prefer turkey/chicken and I don’t mind ground beef, but I don’t routinely order a steak or even cook it for myself. I like fish a lot, so I often order fish when I go out, or put tuna in my salad/sandwiches. I could easily eat a more vegetarian diet, but then I’d have to cook two meals, one for me and one for the husband!
melissa-little runner says
I’m so glad you like the Quakers! I made very sure there was no onion in them. But they do have a very strong flavor, so I was nervous. Anyways, enjoy the weekend!
NC says
Susa,
Don’t worry about turning yellow, it’s called hypercarotenemia and it’s harmless. When I was a baby, my mom would make my baby food and I looooved sweet potatoes! I ended up turning a lovely shade of marigold. (I had another bout when I was 13 and subsisted on carrots.) Orange is still my favorite color. 🙂
Also, what is your sport?! I am currently writing a paper on overtraining for exercise physiology and it is SUCH an interesting phenomenon…
Goalie,
I think you mentioned you played sports at the collegiate level, and I know you are a PA. I would be really interested in any thoughts you had about the Overtraining Syndrome…?
caitlin (in FL) says
good morning everyone! i hope everyone has a nice saturday. 🙂
Michelle says
Just thought I would throw in a little…GO TIGERS…for today 🙂 Boo Blue Devils…
NC says
oh and KATH~~
I’ve been wanting to send you an article for a while now, but I can’t figure out how to attach it!! I thought it would be of interest to you because it is about beans. and Winthrop University (I assume it’s the same one… but it says SC?). oh yea… and dessert.
NC says
haha Michelle,
do you go to Clemson?? I go to WF!! 🙂 We lost @ Clemson in OT, back in Jan (but beat Duke @ home!).
We got knocked out of the tourney in the first round on Thurs. I will forever be a Blue Devil fan tho, so… go DUKE!!!!
Michelle says
Actually I went to grad school at Clemson and grew up there 🙂 My blood runneth ORANGE!!
NC says
Kath, have you ever tried any of the vegetarian sausage products (Yves, Lightlife, Morningstar, and Boca all make them). That would def stretch your cals, and I don’t think I’d be able to taste the difference in a sauce… but then again, I don’t have a super-sensitive palate.
Also, I’m sorry if you’ve answered this before, but I’ve been wondering about your vehement onion aversion because it seems like a recurrent theme– eww– haha. Do you hate all forms/applications of onion or onion flavor? Have you always? Is it the smell or aftertaste? Conditioned taste aversion? You don’t also dislike garlic tho, is that correct? It just seems like onion (and garlic) forms the basis of a LOT of recipes, and that it would be hard to avoid sometimes, and I was wondering you you adjusted for that. Do you just omit it?? Do you add something else? Would you be able to eat something, say at a friend’s house, or at a nice restaurant, that was def prepared with onions? Sorry for all the questions! I am not a huge onion fan either; I don’t cook with them myself, but I can tolerate them in a dish if they are cooked (caramelized), and not the main flavor… and I was just wondering how you handled it.
eliza says
do you know how to store fresh rosemary?
also kath when you were in weight loss mode did you stick to your NET calories exactly everyday? i find that i am a little over some days and a little under others. if i work out a lot i am sometimes netting only 800 calories, but usually after a day where i netted a few hundred over (if i didn;t work out). is this inconsistency bad for weight loss?
NC says
haha I bleed black & gold. 🙂
Susa says
~NC: People have asked me what I cooked or whether I put on self tanner and forgot to wash my hands, because I am so yellow. The upside is that the rest of me just has a healthy color ;O)
I just like to lift weights. Before I had my current trainer I grossly overdid it and really overtrained.
What helped me (I am still doing 3 full body workouts and 3 cardio sessions-just like before) was periodizing of training. Every 5th week is a light and easy week to allow for recovery. THe other ones are moderate and heavy weeks-never the same.
I also added more Yoga which helped.
Thanks for reading! :O)
Is the paper for your school? Mind me asking what you do?
Kath says
NC,
I tried the soy sausage once and wasn’t bold over, but I do want to try it again (and another brand!). Thanks for the suggestion.
As for onions, the biggest problem with them is that I will taste them for 24 hours after eating them. If I liked the taste, it wouldn’t be so bad (chocolate for 24 hours!?) but I hate the grassy strong taste in the first place, so it’s just a horrible 24 hours! I like the taste of cooked garlic OK, but I don’t care for it raw at all (for the same reason). I can also smell them on other people’s breath from a mile away. The husband doesn’t eat them raw either (although he doesn’t particularly like them raw). Cooked onions are a little bit more tolerable, but there are still very few foods I can eat and not be bothered (soups are usually OK). It’s really not a huge problem in my life – we just omit them from our recipes (or subs. garlic or celery) and when I go to restaurants I just ask about the dish first or ask for it to be prepared without. Hope that answered your questions!
eliza ,
I think you can just store rosemary in a bag in the fridge – maybe wrapped in a little paper towel?
As for NET calories during my weight loss, I was pretty close to NET most normal days, but you are absolutely right about it being about balance. If you’re over some and under some, it’s the line through the middle that counts.
Kath