Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal

Yesterday was Day 3 of the “Cleanse” and I was up and out the door again in the dark.  The key for me is not to snooze – because once I hit the snooze, I could literally be back asleep in less than 10 seconds and before I know it an hour has gone by.  Another chili morning – there was frost on the ground!

I like how the clouds in the back almost look like mountains.

I just looked up my leg exercise on my iPhone and went to town.  It was legs and when I first looked down it said “we are just going to work our legs today – it’s a cardio rest day.”  Huh.  I didn’t remember seeing that before.

• Leg extensions: 2 warm-up sets with lighter weight for 30 reps
• Wide stance barbell squat: 2 lighter sets of 15 reps, 2 heavier sets to failure
• Leg press: 4 sets of 8 reps
• Walking Barbell Lunges: 3 sets of 20 reps
• Barbell Step-ups: 3 sets of 10 reps
• Plié Dumbbell squat: 3 sets of 15 reps
• Standing calf raise: 3 sets of 20 reps, last set to failure
• Donkey calf raise or Leg press calf raise: 3 sets of 20 reps, last set to failure

Yep, that set above took me 40 minutes to complete.  For the lunges I did one lunge to the right, then one to the left and that was 1 rep – after 60 total reps my legs were on fire!  I almost have camel toe in this picture below – you’re welcome.

I’ve had a taste for oatmeal lately, and when I saw Abbe’s recipe for baked pumpkin oatmeal, I was sold.  I adapted it with what I had on hand, and ditched the extra fruit on top to lower the carbs.  Thanks for the inspiration Abbe!

Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

• makes 2 servings: 304 calories, 14 fat, 37 carbs, 8.3 fiber, 9.4 protein

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup oats
• 3/4 cup pumpkin
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons sugar free pancake syrup
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1.25 cups unsweetened almond milk

Heat oven to 350.  Mix all ingredients together, put in a small casserole dish and bake for 45 minutes, or until the edges start to pull away from the dish.

I was hungry when I got back from the gym, so I wish I had a better picture, but this is a keeper – swear to God it tastes like the inside of a pumpkin pie.  Since this is high in carbs, I alternated between eating a bite of the oatmeal, then a bit of vanilla Chobani so that I didn’t have a blood sugar spike.  So good!  Not only that, this piece below has a whopping 292% of your daily Vitamin A and 39% of your daily Calcium.

No work interruptions yesterday, so I was able to hit the pool at lunch for a nice, medium paced 30 minute swim.  I have to tell you, by 10:30 my legs were sore from the strength, and the pool stretched it all out.  Don’t let the sunny skies fool you – I think our high yesterday was 43 degrees!

Lunch was leftover black bean and barley chili that I had in the freezer.  Normally I would have sprinkled the chili with cheddar cheese, and used homemade tortilla chips for dipping.  I pretended my cut cucumbers were chips – ha, almost worked!

I bought a 100% whole wheat Boboli crust when Hannah and I went to the Entenmann’s outlet store a while back.  When I was talking to Tony about dinner he said “when the hell are we going to have the Boboli and finally have some decent pizza around here?”  Ha!  First off, I never thought he would go for a whole wheat pizza crust, but I ran with it.  See the two lines crossed through it?  It was double marked down and only .99 cents.

Except fuck.  I am not eating cheese on this cleanse.  How am I going to eat pizza without cheese?

My side?  Italian sausage, broccoli, red pepper and baby spinach.  Tony’s side?  Italian sausage, green olive and THREE, count them THREE kinds of cheese!  I am so proud of myself that I didn’t taste a shred of that cheese while making it.

I finally decided to add hummus on my side! Just a couple tablespoons – this is the brand I buy – .99 cents a can and only 35 calories for 2 tablespoons.

The verdict?  Amazeballs.  This hummus has a lemony note to it and it was absolutely delicious.  I had 3/4 of one half of this pizza – 416 calories, 49 carbs, 19 protein, 17 fat and 9.6 fiber. 

Tony loves to text me weird shit throughout the day – here is an example of our banter.  I can’t show what he started this string off with – he’s a dirty bird and our parents read the blog.

And while I was waiting for my lunch to heat up, I jumped on Facebook and couldn’t believe my eyes!

Tony put that sandwich on Facebook and said:  “After being forced to give up my first sandwich love ( peanut butter and banana) this is now my nirvana….the perfect BLT!”

I had to comment and ask if we had a budding food blogger in the house??  To which he replied:

If I took the sandwich outside and put multi-colored leaves and acorns around it, I would be a food blogger. I just took a picture of a samich on the counter.

Ha Ha Ha!!  I guess he’s seen me take probably 20,000 + pictures in the last five years?   I love you Tony!

Stats for the Day:

• 1621 calories, 152 carbs, 102 protein, 73 fat and 32 fiber
• 39% of calories from fat, 24% from protein and 36% from carbs
• 40 minutes KILLER legs, 5 minute stretching before work
• 30 minute swim at lunch

Alright, off to the gym – today calls for arms/abs/cardio – and I have the correct workout, thank you very much.

Make it a great day!