Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Ever since I received Habitall, a new all natural sweetener that is made from monk fruit, I wanted to make lemon poppy seed muffins.  You see, Tony can tell every time when I use artificial sweeteners in muffins.  I’ve been using Splenda for so long, I don’t really taste the difference anymore.

Much like Splenda, Habitall is measured cup for cup for sugar.

• makes 12 – each one is 161 calories, 5.9 fat, 21 carbs, 1.2 fiber and 4 protein

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons poppy seeds
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup Habitall
• 2 tablespoons lemon zest (zest from one large, or two small lemons)
• 1.25 cups soy vanilla milk

Heat oven to 350.  Mix the dry ingredients together.  In a separate bowl, mix the egg, zest and soy milk together.  Mix with dry ingredients just until all the flour is incorporated.   Divide mixture evenly between a 12 cup muffin pan and bake for 20 minutes, checking after 15 depending on your stove.

The verdict?  Tony and I were a bit taken aback by this recipe because even though I used 1/2 a cup of Habitall, these weren’t very sweet at all – almost tasted like a savory lemon poppy seed muffin, which I actually ended up really liking because I don’t like overly sweet muffins.  And I am still loving my Williams Sonoma muffin tin – I used a gift card, but the $30 price tag is so worth it.  Lifetime warranty, nothing sticks and the muffins always come out so pretty.

My breakfast – one muffin, egg white scramble with spinach and some fresh fruit.

The outdoor pool is open at my gym and even though it was a bit overcast, it was near 80 degrees so I thought I’d swim outside.  There were a couple day camps of kids, but the swim lanes are kind of off to the side.

Um, the water was fricken cold.  The lifeguard told me that when its not really hot outside the pool temperature is between 68 and 70 degrees.  When I went back to the indoor pool, it was like swimming in bath water.   I ended up swimming for 40 minutes.

Longtime readers know that Tony doesn’t really eat leftovers.  So when we do roasts, whole chickens, etc. on the grill, I usually have to get pretty creative using the leftover meat for me.

Enter Thai beef soup.  Holy shizz this was good. So simple too – ready in less than 10 minutes.

Thai Beef Soup

• serves one – 443 calories, 17 fat, 45 carbs, 4.3 fiber and 34 protein

Ingredients:

• 3 ounces leftover beef (I used the leftover brisket from Saturday night)
• 3 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1 large carrot, julienned
• 1 medium zucchini, julienned
• 2 ounces thin soba noodles (2 ounces dry = about 1 cup cooked)
• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 1 tablespoon sriracha
• cracked pepper to taste
• (I didn’t add any salt because the broth was enough)

In a stock pot, add chicken broth, carrot, succhini to a low rolling boil.  Add in soba noodles.  Mine are super thin, so they cook in just three minutes.  Remove from heat and add the beef, sprouts, sriracha and pepper.  Since I made this before work, I just let it cool on my stove for about 20 minutes before packing it up.

I have a julienne peeler which I love.  I got a three pack of 3 different vegetable peelers at Target a few years ago. 

The sauce was spicy, the beef since it was grilled gave an almost smoky flavor to the soup, and this was surprisingly very filling.

I had burgers on the menu last night and again, my green beans got a tad frozen in the back of the fridge so I made more green bean fries.  My batter this time was just 1/2 cup of seltzer mixed with 1/3 cup flour with salt and pepper.  You can add more flour for a thicker batter, but these were just perfect.

Since I use my deep fryer, these aren’t greasy, and took about 5 minutes total.  Knowing that I had Day 8 of Insanity to do later in the evening, I ended up eating only half of this plate. I thought if I was still hungry after the workout I could eat the other burger, but I didn’t end up doing that.

I survived Day 8 of Insanity, and have to say that I was able to do about 95% of it.  Still kicks my ass though – I am a sweaty mess after those 40 minutes.

I really like the stretching after the first warm-up and at the very end.  I think that’s why I am not as sore as I thought I would be.  I also take two ibuprofen before I go to bed too, so I think that helps.

So when I workout after dinner, I decide not to take any insulin with dinner because I don’t want to crash during the workout.  I did snack on 1 ounce of almonds mixed with 1 ounce of pretzels in the evening and before bed my blood sugar was 279, so I decided to give myself 4 units of fast acting insulin to bring it down a bit, then took my overnight insulin per usual.

Around 2 in the morning I woke up and I knew my blood sugar was low.  Rat farts.  It was 61 and falling so I ate a small banana and an orange and went back to bed.  This morning it was back up to 179.  Thank goodness I can fall back asleep really well though!

Stats for Monday

• 1741 calories, 78 fat, 184 carbs, 18 fiber and 87 protein
• 42% of calories from carbs, 41% from fat and 17% from protein
• 40 minute swim at lunch
• 40 minute Day 8 of Insanity
• no alcohol

Time to get this show on the road.  I have breakfast wontons on the menu this morning and smoked turkey sausage with cauliflower mac n cheese for lunch with sautéed apples. 

Make it a great day!