BSI: Corn Bitelettes

This is a fun, easy, CORN-y recipe that I made up for this week’s BSI (Blogger Secret Ingredient)…  I’m trying to use up some orange juice that’s in the fridge, so I incorporated that as well.  It adds a really subtle sweetness that is mandatory for all good cornbread.  And the bitelettes are just too cute.

Corn Bitelettes with a Hint of Orange

19-corn-muffins

Ingredients (makes 27 bites)

  • 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 egg whites
  • 3/4 cups orange juice
  • 1/2 cup corn meal
  • 1/2 cup wheat bran (or flour)
  • 1/4 cup oat bran (or flour)
  • 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup frozen corn kernels

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 425F.
  2. Mix together the wet ingredients (olive oil, egg whites, OJ).  Mix together the dry ingredients (corn meal, wheat bran, oat bran, baking powder, salt).  Mix them together.  Add the corn! and mix well.
  3. Drop tablespoons of batter into mini-muffin cups.
  4. Bake for 18-19 minutes at 425F.

20-corn-muffins

Enjoy! I wish I had thought to put cheese on them.  That would have been perfect.  These are delicious and corny and oh-so-yum.  I hope you try them 🙂  Since I forgot to put cheese on top, slathered on some fresh whipped butter.  It was great.

Up! We Go

Bobby and I couldn’t see Up on Friday night (sold out) so we preordered tickets for yesterday afternoon instead.  It was adorable.  I like how Pixar’s movies can appeal to audiences of all ages… Sometimes I wonder how much of kiddie movies the kids actually understand.  We saw it in 3-D, which was cool.  After we saw it we walked around the mall (10 minutes of walking – check).

Last night we went over to our cousins’ house (they now live about a half a mile away) for dinner. They served Mabu Tofu (vegan), a chicken/bell pepper/onion stir-fry (delicious), sauteed bok choy, and white rice.  I had some of everything, even the rice.  I brought dessert – fruit salad and whipped cream (Reddi-wip, which is HFCS-free.).

17-fruit-saladreddiwip

This fruit salad was:

  • 1/2 cantaloupe
  • 1 apple
  • 3 kiwis
  • bunch of blueberries and raspberries
  • drizzle of honey (1 tablespoon?)
  • lemon juice (1 tablespoon?)

For my second dessert I made this:

18-green-oat-bran-whipped-cream

Heavenly.  (Oat bran, peanut butter, spinach, Reddi-wip.)  I had to repeat it for breakfast this morning.

Whole Life Challenge Update…

whole-life-challenge1

  1. Yoga – I did Sadie Nardini’s power half hour on Friday, but didn’t do any yoga yesterday.  I’ll try to catch up (again) today.
  2. Walking – I’ve been walking every day.  Yesterday was short (just in the mall) but I did manage to do a dance-y video from Netflix streaming.
  3. New Meals – Even though this was only a weekly goal, I’ve managed to have a new meal almost every day.  I’m really proud of myself for branching out.  (And eating like a normal person.)
  4. Organic – All of my greens have been organic.  I wish I could buy everything organic, but it’s too expensive at the moment.  I caved and bought a bunch of non-organic berries because I was craving them, and they’re a good snack (especially with whipped cream).
  5. Green Oat Bran – Every day, often twice a day.

Be back later with my BSI entry (orange corn bread)…  How was your weekend?  Did you do anything fun or new or interesting?

Delicious Soba with Onions & Umeboshi (Macrobiotic)

One of the only type of noodles that I love is soba noodles.  They’re Japanese buckwheat noodles and they’re delicious.  I like them cool/room temperature, and one of my favorite ways to eat them is Zaru Soba.  Bobby introduced them to me because his mom (an amazing cook/eater) loves them.

One Japanese food that I usually dislike is umeboshi (pickled plums).  They’re bitter and tart, and they ruined a salad that I once made (evil!).  I actually discovered these before I tried macrobiotics (again because of Bobby’s mom), but never really wanted to like them until I bought some myself and had to use them up.

umeboshi

But, I found a way to eat umeboshi plums that’s delicious!  If you puree them in a dressing they’re wonderful.

Delicious Soba with Onions & Umeboshi (Macrobiotic)

16-noodle-dish

Ingredients (serves 2)

  • 3 servings soba noodles
  • 1 medium white onion, sliced up
  • 6 garlic cloves (I’m a garlic lover… you don’t have to use this many), crushed and minced
  • a few teaspoons olive oil
  • optional; not macrobiotic (Bobby had this; I didn’t): leftover meat sauteed in sesame oil, sesame seeds, and chili powder; I used a hot dog and some leftover rotisserie chicken (he loved it)

Dressing (this will keep for a few days; you’ll probably have extra)

  • 2-3 teaspoons sesame seeds, toasted
  • 3 umeboshi plums (or 1 tablespoon umeboshi paste)
  • 2ish tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
  • juice from 1/4 lemon (1-2 tablespoons?)

Directions

  1. To make the dressing – toast the sesame seeds.  Heat a skillet/saute pan to high heat, and shake the seeds until they start to brown and smell delicious.  Put them in a food processor and pulse a few times.  (Alternatively, you could crush them with a mortar and pestle.)  Add the plums, shoyu, and lemon juice.  Blend some more.

    15-soba-dressing

    The dressing will actually be kind of thick, not watery.  I was originally going to add a sweetener, but it didn’t need it.

  2. Prep the soba noodles.  Boil water (unsalted) and add the noodles.  Reduce to a simmer (not a rolling boil as you would with pasta) and cook for 7-8 minutes.  Rinse immediately with cold water.  Continue to rinse until the noodles are smooth and the floury smell goes away (otherwise they get gummy as they cool).  Let the noodles cool.  (I used two different brands to use up one box which is why they’re different colors.)
  3. 13-soba-noodles

  4. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a skillet/saute pan.  Add the garlic; saute for 1 minute.  Add the onions and saute for another 2-3 minutes.
  5. 14-sauteed-onions-garlic

  6. Top the cold soba noodles with the onions and lots of dressing.

I had one serving and Bobby had 2; I added shirataki noodles to mine and he added meat to his.  The soba noodles were better than the shiratakis (never thought I would say that).  Inspiration for this recipe comes from Just Hungry.

Check out Shelby’s Neon Green Oats – she followed my recipe!

Don’t forget about the BSI – corn! (I need to get on this.  Don’t worry Sophia, I’m making something!)

Happy Friday!  I’m seeing Up! with Bobby tonight.  Have you seen it?  Good?

A Challenging Week

Today is the last day of my first week on the Whole Life Challenge – one week left.  I’ve learned a lot about myself by setting these goals, and I hope that I can use what I’ve learned to improve my whole life balance.

Check out how the other participants are doing:

Heather also made my apple pie!  Now my updates since Tuesday…

whole-life-challenge1

  1. Yoga – this part has been difficult.  Yesterday I did 20 minutes of Hatha Yoga #1 from yogadownload.  Tuesday I did yoga stretching (10 minutes).
  2. Walking – great with this.  Tuesday I got my 10+ minutes by wandering around window shopping.  Yesterday I went on the treadmill for about 54 minutes and did 3.81 miles.  A little bit of that was a slow jog (5.5 mph).  Today I’m going to try to walk to the supermarket.
  3. New Meals – This has been really good.  I had a new recipe for soba noodles (and shirataki) for dinner last night.  I will definitely be posting the recipe soon because Bobby’s comment was something like, “wow, just wow – this is… wow.  This is the best thing I’ve ever eaten.” (I put a sauteed hot dog on his, which might have helped.)
  4. 16-noodle-dish

  5. Organic – almost out of spinach.  Need to do a Costco run soon.  Bought organic romaine 2 days ago though!
  6. Green Oat Bran – this is my favorite part of the challenge.  Not only have I had green oat bran at least once a day, I got a new bowl at TJMaxx to have it in (there was a chip so it was only 30 cents – love it!).  I’ve been having a very simple combo of oat bran, nut butter, salt/vanilla, and spinach.  I’ve been using the fresh nut butters from Whole Foods, and I don’t really miss the sugary Mighty Maple.  Freshly ground is just so delicious.
  7. 12-new-bowl-green-oat-bran

Don’t forget about this week’s BSI over at Burp and Slurp~… it’s corn!

I also got this sweet bloggie friendship award from Sophia and Coco 🙂

brasupport_thumb

I want to pass this on to all my other blog friends who have been there for me.  You know who you are 🙂  Thank you for always being supportive.  What the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?  Or that you’ve done for someone?