Jogging My Memory

Today has been a great day:

I had a yummy breakfast: 2 Kashi GoLean Waffles with 1 Tbs. real Maple Syrup, and one fried egg.

Then I did some strength training and day 2 of Angela’s Whittle My Middle Challenge. Here’s the breakdown (I used 5 lb weights for all 3 sets)

• 3 x 12 Dumbbell Curls
• 3 x 12 Plie Dumbbell Squats
• 3 x 12 Bent Over Dumbbell Rows
• 3 x 24 Lunges with Dumbbells
• 3 x 12 Dumbbell Shoulder Press
• 3 x 12 Calf Raises with Dumbbells
• 3 x 12 Tricep Kickbacks
• 3 x 12 Stiff-Legged Dumbbell Deadlifts
• 3 x 10 Push Ups
• 3 x 12 Leg Lifts (Each Leg)

And the Abs:

• Plank with Straight Arms: 1:20  min
• Side Plank with Straight Arms: 0:45 min each side
• Plank Rotations with Straight Arms: 1:45 min
• Plank with Bent Arms: 1:05
• Bridge: 1:00

My abs were definitely sore today from the first day of Whittle My Middle and are now even more sore. Go abs!

I lazed around for a little bit, then I drove to a park nearby and went for a 22 min. run to get some cardio in. The trails at the park were extremely uneven and not very enjoyable to run on, so I was more than happy to stop.

After the quick run, I went to Trader Joe’s to get some more fruit and a few other things I forgot yesterday – should have made a list the first time.

I ate lunch when I got home: a nice big salad with romaine, green peppers, onions, mushrooms, TJ’s LowFat Parmesan Ranch Dressing, TJ’s croutons, and TJ’s cheddar cheese grated.

For an afternoon snack I tried another Newman’s Own Organics product: Cinnamon Sugar Soy Crisps, and ate 5 oz of grapes.

The Soy Crisps had a really subtle cinnamon sugar flavor, but a great crunch, and they have protein in them, which is huge for me, because I am almost always under in my protein intake. They make a great low calorie and sweet snack, and they come in other flavors, such as BBQ that I also have to review.

Dinner was some awesome roasted vegetables: yellow squash, red onions, cremini mushrooms, and green peppers coated with 1/2 Tbs. olive oil, lemon pepper, sea salt, and garlic powder. I ate them along with 1/3 block of tofu seasoned with lemon pepper, sea salt, and garlic powder. I ate the tofu with some ketchup – it was really good!

The rest of the day was dedicated to baking with a new product I received to review.

Xagave was kind enough to send me a bottle of Xagave and their cookbook.

Xagave is an all-natural sugar replacement made from the agave plant. Xagave is a blend of two agave plant varieties Agave Salmiana (white agave) and Agave Tequilana (blue agave).

What really made me want to try Xagave is the ability to substitute it for sugar in any kind of recipe. The cookbook contains a very helpful Sugar Exchange Table, which also compares the amount of calories saved using Xagave rather than sugar.

When I was browsing through the cookbook, two recipes stood out at me as things I wanted to try using Xagave to see if I could tell a noticeable difference: brownies and pumpkin bread.

I decided to try out the Double Chocolate Bitter Brownies first.

I got all my ingredients out a few hours ahead of time, because I was so excited!

I followed the recipe in the Xagave cookbook, except that I used Earth Balance Buttery Spread instead of butter, and I used regular whole wheat flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour. I also made this my first time using parchment paper. I always hate trying to scrape the last bits of brownie out of the pan, so I picked up some parchment paper at Target last night to try out.

The brownies turned out beautifully.

The parchment paper worked wonders!

I cut the pan into 9 brownies (about 230 calories each) and froze all but one, which I saved for my dessert.

I decided to eat my brownie with some Trader Joe’s Soy Creamy Vanilla Ice Cream, and a serving of White Chocolate Chips.

I could tell a difference between these and other brownies, mostly because of the texture from the whole wheat flour. Otherwise, the flavor was richer and more dark chocolately than other brownies, which I enjoyed because I prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate. I will definitely be making these again!

Next I got to work on the recipe for Pumpkin Bread.

I made a few more substitutions in this recipe: I halved it, so that it only made one loaf; I omitted the ginger (because I didn’t have any on hand); I used 1/2 cup pumpkin in place of the oil; and I used regular whole wheat flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour. I also used the parchment paper in the loaf pan, instead of greasing the whole thing.

The pumpkin bread baked for 75 minutes at 325° and smelled absolutely amazing!

Again the parchment paper was amazing. I cut the loaf into 11 slices (about 180 calories/slice), and froze half of them. I’m loving this freezing business.

I ate a slice of the Pumpkin Bread with a little extra cinnamon on top with my dinner.

Again, it had a slightly different texture than my last loaf of Pumpkin Bread, because I used the whole wheat flour, however, it wasn’t unpleasant, and just something to adjust to. I’ve never used whole wheat pastry flour as was suggested for both recipes, but I have a suspicion that it would have a texture more similar to that of brownies or pumpkin bread made with white flour. Other than the texture, there was no other noticeable difference between this pumpkin bread and others I have made. Another Xagave baking success!

Now for the super exciting part, you also have an opportunity to try this product, because Xagave has offered to send one lucky reader the same package they sent me: the 18 oz bottle of Xagave and the Xagave cookbook!

Now for the giveaway rules:

• You can earn a total of 2 entries:
• Entry # 1: Leave a comment below telling me one recipe you would like to make using Xagave.
• Entry # 2: For bloggers, link back to the giveaway in one or your posts, and leave a second comment with a link to your post. For non-bloggers, tell a friend about the giveaway (who doesn’t want free Xagave!) and leave a second comment telling me who you told about the giveaway.
• You have until Wednesday November 19, 2009 at 5 pm Pacific Time (that’s 8pm for all you Eastern Time folks) to enter the giveaway.
• On Wednesday evening, November 19, 2009, I will pick a winner using the Random Integer Generator and post the winner that night, so keep an eye out!

Hope you had a great Saturday – don’t forget to get those giveaway entries in, so you can win some Xagave!

Tags: baking, Cinnamon Sugar Soy Crisps, Double Chocolate Bitter Brownies, giveaway, Newman's Own Organics, Pumpkin Bread, review, Roasted Veggies, running, salad, strength training, tofu, waffles, White Chocolate Chips, Whittle My Middle Challenge, Xagave