We, as busy Americans, love how easy it is to go to the drive-thru for food. I know I do! On the days that the kiddo has an afternoon activity, it is so easy to just say “aww we will just pick something up. We don’t do it THAT often…” But then it gets more and more often and suddenly you realize that the reason your child can sight read words like “bell, pizza, taco, and McDonald’s” is because you are going through the drive-thru WAY too often!! (You also know you shop too much when your child tells you that something is on sale when you tell her no she cannot have anything, but alas that is for another blog!!) Even when I try to eat healthy by ordering, say, a salad from Wendy’s, I have to ask myself how healthy is this? My favorite salad is the Baja Salad which comes with chili! This salad has a whopping 470 calories and that is in the half size portion. Now granted, I also get additional salad dressing because as much as I love salad, I hate the taste of lettuce (one of many eccentricities) so that adds additional calories. Now the good news is that this salad has 18 grams of protein!! Oh but it also has 31 grams of fat and carbs with 8 of those being sugar and 10 grams being saturated fat. You get my point. Obviously this is a better choice than the Bacon Deluxe Double which has 890 calories in just the sandwich, 56 grams of fat (24 saturated fat), and 42 grams of carbs. Even something as small of french fries pack a punch! (Medium fry from Wendy’s 420 calories, 21 grams of fat, 55 grams of carbs) When I started looking at the calories that I am consuming, I was amazed. I thought I was making better choices at the drive-thru and honestly compared to other menu items I am, but those calories/fat/carbs/etc add up!
My problem was with my thought process. It isn’t easy after working all day, running errands, or whatever to come home and cook a healthy mean. It IS easy to have someone else do all the work! However, we are paying for 
it via our waist sizes and with our health. I know that everyone knows this, it isn’t breaking news! However I know that I needed a wake up call. So I am done preaching, and now on to the segment better know as “Duh! I should have known that”! What if that someone who does all the work is you, but a past you? No I am not talking time travel (even though that would be AWESOME!) but rather having stuff in the fridge that is easy to grab and throw together. (I am going to work harder on this because I am notorious for forgetting to pull something out of the freezer!) One thing I am going to start doing is to have “grab and go” foods ready for those moments that I feel like I need to nibble. I am talking things like mini carrots, tomatoes, strawberries, etc, that will be washed and bagged into snack size portions. On those busy nights, I am going to work harder on planning ahead and having something in the slow cooker so dinner is ready when I get home. This has the added benefit of not heating up the house when it is 120 degrees outside!!
So that takes care of dinner. Lunches are usually a sandwich made in a tortilla. I also am going to start having things like egg salad and salad toppings ready to go in containers. I mentioned in an earlier post that we are going down a more whole food path. I cannot go vegan, well I could I chose not to, because my kiddo lives off cheese and won’t eat peanut butter. I want to make sure that we have protein options open to her and I have already blogged about my view on soy.
So then there is breakfast. I hate breakfast. I have this issue with eggs, which would be one of the few options we have for breakfast. I can cook them as long I don’t have to eat
Not my muffins!
them or see them again. This probably goes back to when I had first had my surgery and it was one of the few foods I could tolerate in my pureed food stage. Pancakes would be awesome, minus the fact we eat them with a ton of butter and they are all carbs and very little protein. (I have dumping syndrome if I don’t eat protein before a sugar source). Cereal is an option, but again sugar and a lack of protein. So we are going to try green smoothies, but these are not a quick fix meal. Then I remember a long lost recipe that my mother had for bran muffins. This recipe makes a huge batch of muffin mix that can be kept in the fridge for up to 6 weeks! So last night I made up the mix. This morning I woke up and made 6 muffins! It took all of 20 minutes which included preheating the oven, waking up enough to find the muffin wrappers and the muffin pan!! And tad-da breakfast that my kiddo would eat!!!
So I will leave you with the well guarded secret of my muffin success and the promise that tomorrow I will take a picture of my muffins…
Bran Refrigerated Muffin Mix
Combine 15 oz raisin bran cereal (I used plain bran cereal for less sugar), 5c of flour, 3c white sugar*, 5tsp baking soda, and 2 tsp salt in a large (LARGE!) bowl.
Beat 4 eggs well. Add 1 cup salad oil and 1 quart buttermilk. Mix well and then add to the dry ingredients. Mix well BUT ONLY UNTIL BLENDED.
Store in the refrigerator for up to 6 weeks. Bake in muffin tins at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes
*I replaced the white sugar with 2 cups of Agave syrup for a less processed product. I added this to the liquid ingredients instead of to the dry ingredients.
From Fat-u-lous to Fabulous!! 