Summer Shape Up, Day 1

Ever since we got back from our epic vacations, I've been in a total food rut. I haven't had any inspiration in the kitchen, and after going out for all of our meals for 3 weeks straight, it was really hard for me to not grab Panera Bread on the way home or go to Chipotle with JW whenever we were feeling lazy.

Fortunately, Anne at fANNEtastic food and Gina at fitnessista are hosting the Summer Shape Up, and I've decided to participate! (at least, in the food part! I'll probably do something different with the fitness.)

It officially started yesterday, but I realized there was enough leeway to be able to catch up and not be too behind. So, last night I went grocery shopping and got just about everything I needed to fill our pantry. I must say, it's really exciting to see our pantry full of food! Usually it's pretty sad.

Yay! I love seeing it so stocked!

I’ll be doing the plan a little bit differently, since most of the recipes are for 4+ servings and it’ll most likely only be me for breakfast and lunch – so some days I’ll just have leftovers from the day before so I don’t waste anything. I'm thinking I'll probably be on Week 1 for about double the time.

I’ll also be counting calories as much as I can because that’s the only way that I can keep myself on track! This isn’t Anne’s suggestion, though.

The first recipe on the plan for breakfast was called Simple Baked Oatmeal. Click to see her original recipe and instructions! Mine came out like this:

What's inside (aka how I tweaked the recipe):

Dry:
1 cup uncooked, extra-thick whole grain rolled oats = 380 calories
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed = 209 calories
3 small chopped prunes = 60 calories
1/8 cup chopped almonds = 80 calories
1 Tbsp. cinnamon = 20 calories
1/2 tsp. baking powder = 0 calories

Wet:
3/4 cup skim milk = 68 calories
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce = 25 calories
1 chopped banana = 90 calories
1 Tbsp. oil = 120 calories
1/2 egg, beaten (since I halved everything else, I needed to half this as well! I just dumped the other egg half.) = 35 calories

Calorie Total: a whopping 1,087 calories. Yikes! So even though I halved the recipe, I still had to fourth it to make it a reasonably caloric breakfast.

1/4 of the recipe: 272 calories. I wanted to add some Fage Greek Yogurt on top, so plopped a 1/4 cup on top, adding 33 calories, to make this breakfast a total of 305 calories.

Not very pretty! It kind of fell apart while I was trying to get it out of its pan.

Flavor: Really sweet. Unfortunately, I decided to pair it with my Mocha coffee (sweetened with Truvia), so I think I just overdid it on the sweetness. Some tea would have been great with this. But I might try putting in even less brown sugar (1/8 of a cup maybe??) next time. To make this less caloric, don't add nuts!

Don't get me wrong, it sure was yummy! I know what I'll be having for breakfast for the next three days...