Sweet potato and oatmeal “cake”

One thing about being on a diet is that you start to crave the crap you can’t have. My diet right now is pretty sparse on starchy carbs and fat. I can get over the lack of fat pretty easily just by adding flavor to my foods. You see a lot of fitness nuts going gaga over Mrs. Dash seasonings…and believe me, when you can’t have salt or oil a little Mrs. Dash extra spicy and garlic herb goes a long way. The starchy thing however is another story. The carbs in my diet pretty much come from veggies (asparagus, green beans, broccoli) and brown rice, sweet potato, oatmeal and grits. There’s NO white flour anywhere in my meal plan even all of the “flourless cake/cookie/pancake” recipes that you find on gluten-free websites are so full of sugar (from white sugar, agave nectar, maple syrup) that they are out for my current diet situation.

So last night I was sitting up and thinking about when I make sweet potato pie (the full monty with butter, sugar and delicious buttery flour-y crust) I usually will have made a little too much pie filling and will bake it off in a pyrex dish. Even though it lacks flour (I don’t use flour in my sweet potato pie filling) it still rises and has a soft cake or spoon bread like consistency. In a word: Delicious.

So I thought, sweet potatoes are in the meal plan, so are eggs, cinnamon, and nutmeg…that’s almost like sweet potato pie filling…(well not at all…but desperate times call for suspension of reality). So I whipped up a quick “spoon bread” or soft cake using all legal meal plan ingredients just so that I can have a little taste of comfort food. I ate a serving of this for breakfast this morning along side 2 egg whites. Felt like cheating but it wasn’t.

Again, I’m not a chef…I’m just sharing the results of a culinary experiment 🙂

What you will need:

1 orange fleshed sweet potato (pick one with pointy ends – these are usually sweeter – that’s about 300g or so)

2 packets of PureVia sweetener

1/4 cup of Bob’s Redmill gluten-free oats

1 pinch of cinnamon (or to taste)

1 pinch of ground nutmeg (or to taste)

non-stick lo-calorie baking spray or well seasoned cast iron skillet

4 egg whites

1 whole egg

Fork

2 Medium sized bowls

Small pyrex dish or well seasoned cast iron skillet

Directions:

1 – Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 – Microwave sweet potato for 6 minutes turning every 2 minutes until soft on all sides

3- Mash sweet potato with fork in medium sized bowl

4- Add nutmeg, cinnamon, and truvia sweetener and mix well. Taste here to make sure you have your desired level of spice and sweetness.

5- In a separate bowl, whip 4 egg whites and 1 whole egg until fluffy (like you’re scrambling eggs). You can use the same fork that you mashed your tater with, save yourself some dishes)

6- Add egg mixture to sweet potato and mix until smooth.

7- Add 1/4 cup of oatmeal and mix well (The batter should be smooth and wet like cake batter – not dough-y).

8- Lightly coat a pyrex dish with non-stick baking spray and add sweet potato mix to dish. Spread evenly

9- bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees or until set.

Serves 3. Nutrition facts: Calories/serving: 174 :: Carbs: 29 (5g of fiber):: Fat: 3 :: Protein: 10

 

Because of the consistency of the batter, I’m thinking I might also be able to make these into pancakes for the morning time. I’ve been meaning to try out walden farms 0 calorie syrups and I think this might be just the vehicle for that…more to come on that 🙂

Egg white frittata

I eat 6 egg whites for breakfast every day….every damn day!

I have never been a really big fan of eggs. The breakfast food I gravitate towards is typically sweet, and fatty (like pancakes and bacon). Anyway, on my new meal plan sweet and fatty is out and high protein is in – hey, these things are generally bad for you in high quantities anyway so I’m not complaining too much. Yea…so the breakfast scene is me in the morning after cardio scrambling up egg whites…every damn day. You can see how this could get boring…and boring is not really a sustainable thing on a diet.

Before I started my meal plan I tweeted about how I was not too thrilled about having to eat this many egg whites every morning. A twitter follower replied with the suggestion that I make meringues. While I haven’t made any meringues yet (but I am actively looking for a sugar, fat free recipe) I did take this person’s advice and look into ways to spice up the egg white sittuation.

Enter today’s frittata. It’s actually the first frittata I’ve ever made and I’m not a chef (so take that into account when following my recipe or instructions).

What you’ll need:
Small pan ( I used my one serving cast iron skillet)
Non stick low calorie cooking spray
Spatula
6 egg whites ( or equivalent amount of liquid egg white substitute)
30grams of onion
1 clove of garlic
Garlic-herb mrs dash (about 2 shakes)
4oz of cooked and drained ground turkey meat
1tsp of ground fennel seed (or more or less for taste)
1 pinch of salt (more or less for taste)
45 grams of frozen asparagus cuts (thawed – can use any other veggie)

Cooking instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
1- spray your small pan with non stick cooking spray. If your cast iron pan is well seasoned you may be able too skip this step.

2- sauté onion, garlic, asparagus over medium heat until onions are translucent.

3- add ground turkey and sauté until heated through. Reduce to low heat.

4- crack eggs and isolate the whites (toss the yolks or save them for another purpose).

5- gently whisk egg whites with seasonings (salt, fennel seed, mrs dash) until it begins to froth and add whisked mixture to cast iron skillet on top of other ingredients

6- stir mix once on low heat and cook for about 2-3 minutes on stove top until sides start to set ( do not continue to stir or you will have scrambled egg whites)

7- when sides have set, place skillet in oven and bake for 5-7 minutes until top is set.

8- when the top is set (no longer liquid) remove the frittata from the oven and allow it to cool on the I stove top away from direct heat for about 5 minutes then remove it from the pan and eat!

The frittata should have a fluffy texture (similar to an omelette) and should have some crunchy crusty bits on the underside and sides.

If you follow the recipe I’ve written out recipe the macronutrient breakdown is approximately:

Carbs: 7 grams
Protein: 44 grams
Fats: 8 grams
Calories: 294 cal

The awesome thing about a frittata is that you can add whatever ingredients you want. For example frittatas often have cheese, various veggies, tomatoes, sausages, or bacon. I kept my frittata low fat and low carb by limiting the additions to a lean meat and veggies. You can do whatever you wish that fits your tastes and your nutrition goals.

I’d love to hear how you are spicing up your egg white breakfasts, or if you have a recipe for a low carb meringues.

Enjoy!