Monday, June 18, 2012

Apple Cinnamon Cottage Cheese

      Today I celebrate second chances or "do overs." I've regained some of my weight due to being lazy in my food preparation and too busy in my gardening area. Those fast food joints just kept calling me and pulling me into the parking lot or drive-thru just like a magnet. For some reason I can't eat healthy and be into gardening at the same time. I work so hard outside I think I'm burning more calories than am actually doing. So my mind says feed me  but probably in reality I'm just more dehydrated and don't want to take the time to fix something.

      This is such a simple recipe it seems silly to post, but coming up with simple things and putting them together is a big problem for people who need to loose weight. I know a lot of people do not like cottage cheese but this doesn't taste like simple cottage cheese. It has more apple in it than cottage cheese so with every bite you get your favorite apple and a hint of cinnamon.

     
     Cottage cheese has many benefits. One cup has only 160 calories, 22 grams of protein, 16 grams of carbs and no fat. Cottage cheese is really cheese with the difference being the cheese is curdled and drained rather than being aged and processed. The end result is the cheese- high in protein or casein because most of the whey is drained out. Casein digest more slowly than other proteins which makes it a good food to consume at anytime of the day. Breakfast time it will last longer than cereal and probably eggs. At night as a bed time snack it provides the muscles with a steady stream of amino acids.

I bought 3 containers this size of cottage cheese for my week of breakfast. I use one cup so each container is only 2.5 servings. At Walmart the cost was 2.64/ container. I use the fat free and it is hard to find sometimes in generic brands but if you can find it use it. This is the fastest way to measure it without dirtying a measuring cup. On the container serving size always includes grams. Mine said 125 grams/ one half cup. I needed one cup so I used 250grams. Check your brand for how much to use.


     This is a Gala apple I got from Sam's and a large bag is 6.98 for about nine apples. This apple slicer I got from Williams Sonoma. It is somewhat pricey but it works really well and has 2 different thickness slices you can choose from. The bottom also is white plastic and if you place the bottom on it after you slice it the apple comes apart better. It is called dial- a- slice apple divider and sells for 19.95. This is one of my favorite and most useful kitchen gadgets. Cut your apple and then I dice each piece into about 3 cubes.


     Place the apples on top and stir together. See it is almost double the amount of food and very filling. No limits on the size of the apple you can use. This is just the type I like.


Then I grind lots of cinnamon on top. This is what really makes the meal good and I continue to grind cinnamon on top as I stir and eat it. I found this at Harris teeter for less than 5.00 about 6 months ago and I still have > half a bottle. If you can find a cheaper cinnamon grinder let me know.

 This meal as pictured is only 3 WW points so it leaves room for a couple of good snacks later in the day. You could also use it as a snack and adjust the amount of cottage cheese for how many points you want to spend. Also on your healthy checks you can check off 2 milks with this recipe and 1 fruit/ vegetable serving.

No comments:

Post a Comment