I got in a nice walk this afternoon (a little over an hour).  When I got back I had lunch.  This was an eggwhite scramble with random veggies, topped with ketchup.  That muffin is what I made for the BSI.

And of course:

For dinner I made this new kind of noodle (kelp noodles) and they were awful.  I also had butternut squash fries.  The noodles were actually so bad that I couldn’t finish them and just made a bunch more b-nut fries with ketchup.  I did eat out the fake meat and the veggies from the noodle dish (I’d put in a chopped up chunk of leftover tofurkey).

For dessert I made a fruit salad with 2 small fuyu persimmons, green and red grapes, and about 1/2 cup of lowfat ricotta cheese (inspired by Coco).  Thanks for the idea!

I might have something else later; I’m not sure yet.  Enjoy your night!

For this week’s Blogger Secret Ingredient, Amy @ Coffee Talk chose WALNUTS! A perfectly wintery ingredient – I knew just what to do with them… Muffin mix may be a bit of a cop out, but with the right alterations you can get some awesome baked goodies.

How To Pimp Muffin Mix

Step 1:  Buy muffin mix at local supermarket.  Sales are good.  Mine was $2 for this box of Fiber One Banana Nut mix.

Step 2:  Pick your mixins.  I like to pick 1 each from 2 categories: nuts and fruit.

Good fruits:

• apples, pears, bananas, peaches, etc…

Good nuts:

• WALNUTS, peanuts, almonds, cashews, etc…

Step 3:  Chop the fruit (2 pieces – I used 2 apples) in little bits.  Dump into a bowl.

Step 4:  Take about 1/4 – 1/2 cup of walnuts (depending on how nutty you want the muffins – I don’t use that many) and crumble them up.  Dump this in with the fruit.

Step 5:  Add the mix and follow their instructions, but increase the oven temp by 25F because of the fruit.  (Adding eggs, water, oil, etc…)

Step 6:  Spoon muffin mix into muffin tins.  I like to use a measuring cup for ease (1/4 cup size).  I pour in heaping 1/4 cups.

Step 7:  Top with more walnuts!  But be careful that they don’t get burned, which mine did.  Use a very low rack in the oven.

Step 8: Bake!

Step 9:  Lick the bowl.

Step 10:  Eat lots of muffins.

This recipe made 16 muffins (the original box was only supposed to make 12, but the apples bulked them up!).  The walnuts on top and in the batter made these incredibly delicious.  We’ve been eating them all day.

What’s your favorite pre-prepared food?  The only ones I ever really make are baked mixes, like for muffins or cornbread.

I’ve rediscovered my love for almond butter (not that it ever really went away).

Last night we stayed up late and I needed a snack, so I had banana and almond butter (1.5 T-ish) and slice of leftover tofurkey.  No pictures, but trust me – they were good snacks.

This morning I made a nice fruit salad:

This was 1 apple, 1 orange, 1 vanilla chobani, and a big spoonful of almond butter.

I was just in the kitchen baking for my Blogger Secret Ingredient entry… stay tuned for my tutorial on “How to Pimp Muffin Mix“.  Happy Sunday!

I didn’t snap pictures of everything I ate today, but here’s a gallery of what I did get in the early part of the day:

This was…

• 1/2 acorn squash with scrambled egg whites, cinnamon, and some vanilla Chobani
• 1/2 whole wheat wrap with olallieberry jam (not pictured)
• other 1/2 acorn squash with 3/4 cup lowfat ricotta cheese & cinnamon (partially eaten before I got the pic)
• apples (multiple – I don’t remember how many – 2 or 3?)
• other 1/2 whole wheat wrap with 1.5 T almond butter and 1/2 banana (unpictured)

For dinner we went to Garden Fresh, that wonderful vegetarian restaurant.  Bobby’s review of it is HERE.

I started off with the garden salad, which was delicious:

And then Bobby and I split the Vegetarian Duck with brown rice.  It was superb.  It was my favorite meal at Garden Fresh so far.  This is the whole dish, and my first plate.  Bobby also got scallion pancakes, but I didn’t try them… But I definitely enjoyed this veggie duck to the max – it was awesome.  I believe it was made of pressed shiitake mushroom and tofu skin.

After dinner we went to Borders and I got the Sex and the City Movie – the extended cut!  I adore this series and loved the movie when I saw it this summer.  We’re watching it now.

Dessert was 2 apples, sliced and sprinkled with some lemon juice and cinnamon.  There may be a Chobani (shared with Bobby) in my future as well!  I have him hooked now – he loves the blueberry.

For exercise today I walked to the library (3 new books!), and before dinner Bobby and I went for a short 30-minute walk.  I also did 20 minutes of yoga this morning.  It was Core Yoga #1 from yogadownload.com.  Definitely check out their mp3’s if you haven’t already.

Enjoy your Saturday night!  There’s still one more day left in the weekend and it feels so nice.  Four day weekends should come more often.