Conference Week

So I've haven't been cooking a lot lately and have been eating mainly protein bars, fruit and cereal. However the other day I found mini hamburger patties at Trader Joe's. These are great as each patty is about an ounce each and you can easily count them. I have found several uses for them, but alas no pictures. =(

They are great on fancy rolls like ciabatta bread, french rolls, or pretzel bread. Be careful with pretzel bread as it is surprisingly high in fat for bread. I made a nice sandwich with three patties I had cooked in the frying pan (90% lean so no grease added). I put them in a ciabatta roll with an ounce of blue cheese, 1 teaspoon of Frank's hot sauce and an Anaheim pepper. It was spicy and yummie. A much better choice over a burger from a restaurant which I smell constantly from the three burger joint all upwind from me.

Pro Carb Fat Cal
1.0 Ounce Cheese Blue 6.1 g 0.7 g 8.1 g 100.1 Cal
1.0 Item Green Hot Chili Peppers 0.9 g 4.3 g 0.1 g 18.0 Cal
1.0 Tsp Hot Sauce 0.0 g 0.1 g 0.0 g 0.5 Cal
1.0 Item Roll White Soft Toasted 2.6 g 13.6 g 1.2 g 76.8 Cal
3.0 Ounces ZARTIC Ground Sirloin Beef, Water & Binder Product, Cooked 12.6 g 3.2 g 5.2 g 113.1 Cal
Total 22.2 g 21.9 g 14.6 g 308.5 Ca

I also like to use the leftovers with another staple lentils and rice. My co-worker and his wife introduced me to these little buggers. They are super easy to make as no soaking is needed and you can cook the two together in the same pot (yea! less dishes!). I make a bunch at once and they keep for several weeks in the fridge. So when you have leftovers these high protein beans can be warmed up in the microwave and served as a no hassle side.

For instance last night I put the rest of my mini-patties (4oz) and a nice portion of lentils and rice on a plate and after nine minutes in the microwave, a warm and healthy dinner arrived on my table.

Serving Item Pro Carb Fat Cal
4.0 Ounces Beef Ground 90% Lean Meat / 10% Fat Patty Broiled 29.6 g 0.0 g 13.3 g 246.1 Cal
90.0 Grams Lentils Boiled 8.1 g 18.1 g 0.3 g 104.4 Cal
2.0 Items Roll White Soft Toasted 5.2 g 27.2 g 2.4 g 153.5 C

Total: Pro: 42.9 Carb: 45.2 Fat: 16.0 Cal: 504

One thing that I like about the offices here in Cali is that there is a toaster oven in the conference room. This is a very handy thing. Warm sandwiches make a better lunch than cold ones. Try making your own meatloaf sandwiches in one.

For turkeyloaf:
mix one pound turkey, 1/2 cup steel cut oatmeal, one egg, a cup of chopped onions and form into a loaf pan; cover it with a can of fire roasted tomatoes; bake at 350 for 15min and 375 for ten.

Serving Item Pro Carb Fat Cal
1.0 Serving TurekyLoaf20100309 34.1 g 10.6 g 16.5 g 333.5 Ca

These will make a tasty dinner and leaves the perfect leftovers. I bought a loaf of pretzel bread from The Corner Bakery and had them cut it in half long ways for me. Mind you they were confused by this order and want to add something to my bread like butter or deli meat. I just keep saying no and eventually they did it and it was about $1.50 a loaf. I brought it with me to work along with a serving of turkeyloaf and slice of swiss cheese.

To make warm sandwich:
lay both pieces of bread on the toaster tray, on one side place meatloaf breaking into small pieces as needed, on top of that lay swiss cheese breaking into small pieces as needed; toast for 15min at 350 degrees; carefully place the side of bread together with meat and swiss in between and wrap in tinfoil.

Serving Item Pro Carb Fat Cal
1.0 Serving Corner Bakery Pretzel Demi 13.0 g 77.0 g 5.0 g 410.0 Cal
1.0 Item Orange 1.2 g 15.4 g 0.2 g 61.6 Cal
1.0 Serving TurekyLoaf20100309 34.1 g 10.6 g 16.5 g 333.5 Ca

Total: Pro: 48.3g Carb: 103 g Fat: 21.7g Cal: 805.1

Now you have a turkeyloaf sandwich which can be eaten at your desk without risking your keyboard. Variations include different bread, different load (beef, chicken, lamb) and the addition of veggies like peppers, onions, and such. Notice that this is a calorie heavy sandwich perhaps using a half serving of turkeyloaf is a better option but if you went light on dinner or know you have a big workout coming it would be ok.

Other than those items, I've been making more recipes from the Cook Yourself Thin cookbooks esp the desserts. These are tricky as you have to whip egg whites for most of the recipes. However as my arm gets stronger they get easier to make and are quite tasty. I'm think of turning the molten lava cakes into protein two-bite brownies as I haven't figured out how to get them to be liquid in the middle. I will keep you all posted.

Remember life is an experiment!