April Inspired

There is no easy/nice way to post this so I am just going to write it and hope that the message is not misconstrued.

April is a girl who writes a CR blog-- full of recipes, CR tips and other diet/personal stories-- much like this blog, but with the one exception that a ton of people read her blog!

I first found her blog when I enrolled in this study and wondered how people actually maintain a CR diet. I tried out her cauliflower soup recipe and while I did not love it- it was decent. I did not make it again though.

I still read her blog to keep up with the life of someone else who is restricted- but I will comment that none of her recipes have struck me as anything I would make. We all have our own tastes. In her defense, she does CRON (a CR diet where you eat all your vitamins/nutrients) because it makes being restricted easier for her. If you are going to embark on a CR diet you need to find a way to do it that will work for you- no one is going to have the same eating preferences- and it is a personal adventure on how to feel full/satisfied while eating less.

So recently I was reading her blog and was intrigued by one of her recipes: clam chowder. I recently went to BJs and bought a stack of canned clams and I am a bit "over" pasta with clam sauce right now- so this seemed like a great way to use the leftover clams.
I modified it a bit because TE recoils like I am killing him if I even mention "cream of mushroom soup!" Also I wanted to use a more natural product than canned condensed soup.
So here is what I did:

Liz's "April Inspired" Clam Chowder
~350cal/serving

2 bags/1 box of Frozen Corn Chowder, thawed
2 bags/1 box of Frozen Cream of Spinach Soup, thawed
2 cans of chopped clams (3.5oz ea)
1c frozen shelled edamame, thawed
6T shredded Parmesan cheese
Red pepper flakes to taste

Mix and aliquot into 3 containers for lunches! Microwave when ready to eat and enjoy!

It turns out that TE was so mortified watching me make this he did not eat it anyway (it does look gross- see below!) but I loved it!!



After this adventure into April's cooking- I was inspired to stuff something (if you look around April's blog she stuffs pretty much everything- peppers, cabbage, eggplant....). I was also reading Eating Well and they had an online recipe/article about stuffed mushrooms. That was all I needed! I was making stuffed mushrooms. I would say that this concoction was more inspired by EW, I will give additional credits to April, the queen of stuffing veggies.



Stuffed Mushroom Caps
~125 calories per cap

4 Portobella mushroom caps
1c Full fat cottage cheese
1 10oz package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed to remove water
Seasonings to taste (I used fresh thyme and red pepper- of course)
2 reduced fat string-cheese sticks

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray/tin foil.
2. Place mushroom caps, gill-side up, on the prepared pan. Sprinkle with salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Roast until tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, mash cottage cheese, spinach, and seasonings in a medium bowl.
4. When the mushrooms are tender, carefully pour out any liquid accumulated in the caps. Return the caps to the pan gill-side up. Mound a generous 1/2 cup cottage cheese filling into each cap and sprinkle with the "string-ed" cheese. Bake until hot, about 10 minutes.

*Served here with a Quorn Gruyere cutlet! Yum!

Nutritional Info:
Clam Chowder
1/3 Recipe

*Not perfect (vitamin wise) because CRON-O-Meter does not have the soups in it and I was too lazy to add them.
===========================================
Energy | 354.2 kcal 21%
Protein | 26.2 g 52%
Carbs | 25.2 g 19%
Fiber | 4.7 g 19%
Fat | 17.5 g 27%
Water | 304.8 g 11%

Vitamins (31%)
===========================================
Vitamin A | 1676.7 IU 72%
Folate | 163.8 µg 41%
B1 (Thiamine) | 0.4 mg 41%
B2 (Riboflavin) | 0.4 mg 34%
B3 (Niacin) | 2.9 mg 21%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid)| 0.4 mg 9%
B6 (Pyridoxine) | 0.1 mg 8%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) | 28.0 µg 1167%
Vitamin C | 32.6 mg 43%
Vitamin D | 0.0 IU 0%
Vitamin E | 0.2 mg 1%
Vitamin K | 0.3 µg 0%

Minerals (43%)
===========================================
Calcium | 322.5 mg 32%
Copper | 0.4 mg 46%
Iron | 11.5 mg 64%
Magnesium | 67.1 mg 22%
Manganese | 1.0 mg 56%
Phosphorus | 358.1 mg 51%
Potassium | 833.2 mg 18%
Selenium | 16.7 µg 30%
Sodium | 1140.4 mg 76%
Zinc | 2.6 mg 32%

Lipids (29%)
===========================================
Saturated | 4.7 g 23%
Omega-3 | 0.5 g 44%
Omega-6 | 3.7 g 34%
Cholesterol | 40.5 mg 13%
Stuffed Mushrooms
1/4 of recipe
Energy | 124.5 kcal 7%
Protein | 13.4 g 27%
Carbs | 9.4 g 7%
Fiber | 3.3 g 13%
Fat | 4.7 g 7%
Water | 189.0 g 7%

Vitamins (35%)
===========================================
Vitamin A | 8456.9 IU 362%
Folate | 128.8 µg 32%
B1 (Thiamine) | 0.1 mg 13%
B2 (Riboflavin) | 0.7 mg 62%
B3 (Niacin) | 4.2 mg 30%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid)| 1.6 mg 33%
B6 (Pyridoxine) | 0.2 mg 18%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) | 0.4 µg 15%
Vitamin C | 3.9 mg 5%
Vitamin D | 0.0 IU 0%
Vitamin E | 2.1 mg 14%
Vitamin K | 264.3 µg 294%

Minerals (27%)
===========================================
Calcium | 236.1 mg 24%
Copper | 0.5 mg 51%
Iron | 1.9 mg 11%
Magnesium | 69.5 mg 22%
Manganese | 0.6 mg 35%
Phosphorus | 283.3 mg 40%
Potassium | 716.9 mg 15%
Selenium | 20.3 µg 37%
Sodium | 323.3 mg 22%
Zinc | 1.4 mg 18%

Lipids (6%)
===========================================
Saturated | 2.2 g 11%
Omega-3 | 0.1 g 8%
Omega-6 | 0.2 g 1%
Cholesterol | 16.6 mg 6%