Another Freebie!

Nutrisystem has just released another free code that's available to anyone! Add the Sports Water Bottle (you'll find it under Lifestyle) to your auto delivery or a la carte order (remember that you will pay shipping unless you put it on auto delivery, have the Advantage membership, or already had shelf stable items in your a la carte order!).

Then enter the code NUMIGIFT and have it sent to you for free!

Dessert for Breakfast

If you aren't new to the program, you probably know that Nutrisystem dessert and breakfast entrees can be used interchangeably. So you really can have cookies for breakfast if that's something you want, and still add any additional portions that you get on your individual Nutrisystem program.

But sometimes, maybe you want something that is over the top decadent. Something that makes you feel like you've gone to a restaurant and had something fancy. And in this case, something fancy that you can whip up in less than five minutes.

This breakfast fits perfectly into the Nutrisystem guidelines, is loaded with protein and fiber, and tastes amazing. You're welcome!

Breakfast Banana Split (Flex Meals):

1 medium ripe banana, split in half lengthwise
1 serving of your favourite flavour of fat free Greek yogurt (80-120 calories, 5+g of protein)
2 tbsp chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, peanuts, almonds, or mixed- whatever you like!)
1/4 cup your favourite mixed berries for garnish (optional)

Place your banana halves into a long dish, and mound the Greek yogurt down the middle (for creativity points, use 1/3 serving each of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry Greek yogurt!). Sprinkle the chopped nuts evenly on top, and garnish with the berries if desired. It's that simple!

Once again, let your creativity guide you. The garnish is an extra, so if you feel like something a little different, go for it! How about 1 tbsp. mini dark chocolate chips, or 1 tbsp. unsweetened coconut? As long as you keep it under 35 calories, feel free to use whatever you would like for the extra. Or if you are happy with just the nuts, no need to use an extra at all.

This counts as a complete flex breakfast, or a breakfast entree plus a Powerfuel. The banana is your SmartCarb, the Greek yogurt is one Powerfuel, and the chopped nuts are a second Powerfuel. If you use a garnish, remember to count it as an extra.

What are your favourite banana split toppings?

Blank Canvas

Sometimes I think that people don't give the Nutrisystem shelf stable items enough credit. I do agree that the frozen foods are generally pretty good, but I find that when I choose them, I am mostly just heating and eating. I might add some vegetables or some seasoning, but that's about it.

The shelf stable items are so much easier to jazz up! It's easy to turn one meal into several different meals, depending on what you're in the mood for and how much work you want to put into it. So on the days where I am tired and don't feel like much, I tend to gravitate towards my frozen items. On the days where I am feeling creative, I go rummaging through my shelf stable pantry.

The Nutrisystem White Cheddar Mac & Cheese is probably my favourite entrée. I've always thought that NS does the shelf stable macaroni dishes particularly well, and I still very much miss the dinner shelf stable orange macaroni & cheese and macaroni & cheese with beef. They tasted just like KD, and were far superior to the current Mac & Cheese with Turkey Sausage, which I think sadly has gotten ruined in the last reformulation. Nutrisystem, bring back the dry cup dinner mac n cheese, please!

But I digress. The lunch cup is not only super tasty all on its own, but because the flavour is mild, it's so easy to treat it as a blank canvas for whatever you feel in the mood for that day. I need to remember to snap pics for the blog, because I must have made a dozen recipes with it this year and I haven't shared any yet!

If you're a seafood lover, you'll enjoy this version. You can swap out the crab for tuna, lobster, or whatever lean protein is appealing to you that day. Then bulk it up with some veggies, add your favourite spices, and this simple macaroni & cheese can be so many different things!

Crabby Mac & Cheese (Lunch/Dinner):

1 pkg Nutrisystem White Cheddar Mac & Cheese
3oz crab meat
mushrooms, onions, bell pepper, diced
Old Bay seasoning, garlic, black pepper to taste

Add a little water to a small deep saucepan and sautee your vegetables until they start to soften. Boil a kettle of water. Remove the cheddar sauce packet from the cup, and fill the mac n cheese to the fill line. Stir the cup to mix, then pour the water and uncooked noodles in with the veggies and turn heat to medium high. As the noodles start to absorb the water, stir in the cheese powder and spices. When your noodles are done, the dish is ready to serve.

I prepared the dish like this so that the sauce would spread evenly over the veggies too. If you use a lot of veggies, you may want to use one triangle of Laughing Cow white cheddar to make some extra cheese sauce.

The best part of this dish is its versatility. Since lunch is 1 Powerfuel + 1 SmartCarb, and dinner is 2 Powerfuels + 1 SmartCarb, you can eat this dish at dinnertime and just count it as your dinner entrée plus veggies (and an extra if you use the Laughing Cow). If you want it at lunch, count it as lunch entrée plus a Powerfuel plus veggies (and the optional extra).

What is your favourite way to eat the White Cheddar Mac & Cheese?

Italian Flavours

It's funny how my food cravings tend to run in cycles- am I the only one? I've been finding over the last few days that I am really craving Italian food. Fortunately, Nutrisystem makes it easy to satisfy this craving!

Normally when I am picking a pasta dinner, the Rotini & Meatballs is my go-to. The Penne Bolognese didn't exist in 2010 when I first started Nutrisystem, and so I just ordered what I remembered. Today, I finally gave the Penne a try and really enjoyed it! I think with the meat actually in the sauce instead of being in meatballs, it helps stretch the sauce further over the veggies that I added. Either way- dinner was quick, simple, totally on plan and so filling!

Penne Bolognese with Meat Sauce (Dinner):

1 pkg Nutrisystem Penne Bolognese with Meat Sauce
1/2 cup cottage cheese (optional)
1/2 cup no sodium tomato sauce (up to 35 calories) (optional)
your favourite pasta veggies, diced
Italian seasoning

I started by taking out my mandolin, and chopping up zucchini, cremini mushrooms, onion, and yellow bell pepper. I sautéed them in the tomato sauce until they were softening, and added the Italian seasoning. Then I added the NS Penne, and continued cooking over medium heat until it was warm throughout. Right before I was about to plate it, I added the cottage cheese to give the sauce that rich cheesy flavour.

This meal counts as a Nutrisystem dinner entrée plus veggies. If you choose to use the cottage cheese, it counts as a Powerfuel (and is well worth saving one!). The tomato sauce counts as an extra. If you don't want to use an extra for it, canned crushed tomatoes with no sodium would be free.

Definitely beats my pasta cravings and with a whopping 35g of protein, I know I won't be hungry for a while!

Fairs & Festivals

I know my writing here at Stomach Rumblings comes in peaks and valleys. My health hasn't been great lately, so I haven't been up to posting. I have such a long list of recipes that are Nutrisystem compliant that I want to make and share with you all, and I'll do my best to keep plowing through it!

In case it isn't totally obvious, I love being creative and playing with food. One of the factors that I believe will make you successful on the program is finding ways to have your favourite foods in a healthier way. It's not that we have to decide that some foods are going to be forever forbidden to us; weight loss isn't just a diet phase and then it's over- we then have the harder task of maintaining that loss. It's not realistic to assume you'll never eat French fries or cheesecake again, and if we go back to eating the way we used to, we're going to go back to the size we used to be.

So while it's nice to have the real thing for a treat sometimes, I think that learning to find a way to satisfy the same craving with fewer calories will really help during the maintenance phase- not to mention keeping us happy and satisfied during the weight loss phase!

I love wandering around at local fairs and festivals, but I always feel a little bit of anxiety when I do because every other booth is selling something that smells wonderful. And of course there's nothing wrong with having a treat once in a while, but in my neck of the woods there is a fair nearly every weekend and indulging that often just won't work out for me.

So how can we solve this problem? Why, by finding ways to make a festival treat fit right into our Nutrisystem plan. I saw this delicious breakfast at one of our local fairs and put some time into making a version that tasted just as delicious without the four figure calories. You can either eat it before you go so that you know you've had your treat and you are full, or you can wrap it up and eat it there when you get that craving. It will be a little less crisp, but I don't think the flavour will disappoint at all!

Food Truck Breakfast Waffle (Flex Meals):

1 package Nutrisystem Buttermilk Waffles (or substitute 2 waffles that each meet SmartCarb standards of 80-120 calories and 1 or more grams of fiber)
1 large egg
2 slices of cooked Canadian bacon (or substitute with 1/2 Powerfuel of your preference of ham or turkey bacon)
2 tbsp. shredded cheddar cheese (approximately 14 grams)
2 large slices tomato
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
1 1/2 tsp fat free mayonnaise
3/4 tsp sugar free maple syrup
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard (coarse grain is best)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a baking tray with cooking spray. Lay the waffles out on the baking tray. Whisk together the egg and pepper, and pour evenly over the waffles, filling each cavity.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until egg is set.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, mustard, and maple syrup and stir until blended. Set aside.

Top each waffle with a slice of tomato and bacon, and half the cheese. Return to the oven for about 1 minute or until the cheese melts. Drizzle with the maple-mustard mayo and enjoy!

Please note that this recipe makes two servings of one waffle each.

So the breakdown for this is a little more complicated, but stay with me :)  Nutrisystem Dietary Services has said it's fine to use 1 Buttermilk Waffle as a SmartCarb serving, and at 80 calories and 1.5g of fiber, you'll see they fit perfectly into that range. So we have the waffle as our SmartCarb, and then our Powerfuel is the combination of 1/2 egg, 1 slice Canadian bacon, and 1 tbsp. cheddar cheese for a total of 108 calories). The tomato is a free veggie, and the maple mustard mayo comes in at 9 calories so it is a free food.

If that seems like too much work to calculate, you can evaluate it as a flex meal and see that it has 196 calories, 8g fat, 14g of carbs, 1.5g fiber, and 14g of protein. It's a perfect flex breakfast entrée, and that means you can still add whatever is required on your Nutrisystem program to complete your meal. On the Women's regular program, that means you still get an extra Powerfuel in addition!

And they call this a diet?

Bar Food

I can't be the only person who loved to go to the bar and eat greasy food with a cold beer, right? But of course, the average bar appetizer has four figures of calories, not to mention more than a day's worth of fat and sodium! So, while it's a nice treat, it wouldn't be a thing to do often.

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to have a delicious, gooey meal, completely guilt free? You can even save your extras and have this on your patio with a light alcoholic beverage if you feel like a splurge! I don't think anyone would guess that this meal is totally on the Nutrisystem program- I still can't believe it is, and I'm eating it right now!

Cactus Cut Potato Nachos (Dinner):

1 pkg Nutrisystem BBQ Seasoned Chicken
1 small white potato
1 oz shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup diced onion
2 tbsp. plain greek yogurt with 1 tsp dry Ranch powder
spices- chipotle pepper, garlic/roasted pepper seasoning, seasoning salt (optional)

This recipe requires a little more prep work than the average dinner, but it is SO worth it. First, slice your potato into extremely thin slices with a mandolin. Put them in a bowl of water and soak them for an hour.

In an hour, come back and pat the potato slices dry with a paper towel. Spray the slices with cooking spray, and sprinkle them with spices to taste. Preheat your air fryer to 400 degrees, and bake the potato slices for 12 minutes or until brown and crispy.

In the meantime, spray a frying pan with a little cooking spray, and cook your onion and bell pepper until they start to soften. Add the package of Nutrisystem BBQ Seasoned Chicken, and continue to cook until all ingredients are heated through and well mixed.

Layer your potato slices on a plate, and top with the chicken and vegetable mixture. Sprinkle the cheese on top, and microwave for 30 seconds or until cheese is melted. Top with the plain greek yogurt and enjoy!

Count this as your Nutrisystem dinner entrée (the potato is the SmartCarb serving that you add to complete the entrée- it does not count as a separate SmartCarb serving), plus a Powerfuel for the cheese, 2 vegetable servings, and an extra for the Greek yogurt dip (or use just 1 tbsp. and call it a free food!).

I'd love to hear some feedback on this one- I think it's going to become one of my new favourite dinners!

Discontinued Items

Just a quick post to remind everyone to check your order. Nutrisystem has just announced that they are discontinuing several items, so if you have these on your order, you will not receive them.

The four items being discontinued are: Golden Pound Cake, Chocolate Cake, Fudge Brownie, and Chicken Fajita Melt.

I enjoyed them all, so I'll be disappointed to see them go, but I hope this means that Nutrisystem will announce some new menu items soon.

If you do not change your order, Nutrisystem has announced that you will receive the following substitutions if they are unable to fill your order:

Golden Pound Cake -> Snickerdoodle Cookie
Chocolate Cake -> Chocolate Chunk Cookie
Fudge Brownie -> Chocolate Brownie Bar
Chicken Fajita Melt -> BBQ Chicken Melt

Will you be sad to see these items go? Are there discontinued items from the past that you miss?