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?

Breakfast Boost

If you've been reading back in my Recipes page (remember the blog features display better in web view- too much is lost via mobile until I learn how to build apps!), you'll see that I love filling breakfasts. I'm a big believer in the adage that eating breakfast provides a solid foundation to your day. If you start the day feeling full and positive, you're much less likely to cheat, and much more likely to be motivated to stay on track. Diet? What diet?

I used to love the old Nutrisystem Pancake Mix for making breakfast sandwiches, but sadly it's been discontinued (I've been experimenting with Kodiak and Flourish and a couple of other mixes though, and I'll update you when I have a good substitute!). But I was eyeing those Buttermilk Waffles in my freezer and thinking they might be fun to play around with.

I'll admit that I kind of gave myself the sideeye for ordering any; after all, Eggo Fibre Plus waffles are cheap and easy to obtain, have similar nutritional stats, and come in a variety of flavours. In addition, for some reason I can't fathom, Nutrisystem has made the Buttermilk Waffles one of their items that does not go on sale during the big a la carte sales, so they're nearly always regular price of $3.25 USD. Since I can buy an entire box of Eggos on sale for $1.50 CDN when they're on sale with a coupon, this seems like an awful splurge. But I did want to at least try them once! If you have the Uniquely Yours auto delivery plan, you can get them at the same price as any other entrée. One of the convenient things of auto delivery, along with making sure you don't have to remember to order your meals, is that every entrée is interchangeable within your order. You don't have to worry about which entrees go on sale and which don't, or if you want to splurge on the more expensive ones. Just pick what you like, and it's all one price. If you're looking to save money though, like most of us are, the most frugal way to order your frozen meals from Nutrisystem is to put all the items which are normally excluded from sales into your auto delivery, then order additional food a la carte when the sale reaches 50%- then you get the best of both worlds. Don't forget you can use your Costco gift cards to pay for your a la carte order, too, as well as using Ebates to get 7.5% cash back on a la carte or your first auto delivery order!

But, I digress- back to breakfast!

Buttermilk Waffles (Frozen Breakfast):

As soon as I took these out of the package, the aroma of vanilla struck me. Those waffles smelled amazing! I dropped them into the toaster and started to work on the rest of my breakfast sandwich.

I don't always like to have a morning snack- much of the time, I prefer simply to have a larger breakfast. Because of my health issues, I frequently have a shorter day than your average person, so it works for me to condense the meals into fewer sittings. And yes, I'm still losing! You can see my ticker on the top of the page!

So for the breakfast sandwich, I fried an egg in some Pam spray, then topped it with two slices of Ready Crisp bacon, and then melted a slice of FF processed cheese on top. While I'm not the biggest fan of processed cheese, it works so well on egg sandwiches!

If you're in a hurry and need breakfast in seconds, you're still in luck. Burnbrae Farms makes an egg patty that fits perfectly on the waffles and fits Powerfuel stats.

They also make crustless quiches with vegetables and such added, at various amounts of calories. They're all delicious and it's something I keep in my freezer for days when I don't have time to cook my own egg.

The Ready Crisp bacon is also a timesaver- it's real pork bacon and tastes greasy and fatty just like the real thing- but it's only 30 calories per slice. It takes 10 seconds in the microwave to cook! You could have 3 slices for one PF with 90 calories and 6g protein, but I prefer to combine it with a slice of FF cheese and have only 2 slices of bacon for my second PF. Yes, it's totally fine and on program to put two foods together to make up one add in, as long as it meets all the requirements!

The breakdown for this delicious but easy sandwich with a whopping 21g of protein is one Nutrisystem breakfast entrée, one Powerfuel for the egg patty, and I use up my morning snack Powerfuel for the cheese and bacon. I like the flavour much better than either of Nutrisystem's breakfast sandwiches, and it doesn't have to take any longer to make.

What's your favourite way to eat the waffles?