I make overnight oats with chocolate chips
60g oats
120g yogurt
50g milk
20g chocolate chips
20g blueberries
About 400 calories depending on specific ingredients. I use dark chocolate, my wife like milk chocolate chips.

My overnight oat recipe is pretty basic:

0.5 cup old fashioned oats
0.5 cup milk
1 tbsp flax seed
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp peanut butter
a dash of cinnamon and tumeric

I also cheat a little and throw it in the microwave in the morning to heat it a little. Sometimes if I don't throw in peanut butter I'll add chopped almonds, blueberries, or raisins.

I came across a crock pot steel cut oats recipe a while back that is very good.

And I figured out last week how to make a single serving no bake cookie in the microwave, though I'm still fiddling with the oatmeal. All i have is whole oats, and for no bakes, you really need the quick ones, but I hate to buy a box just for cookies lol I've tried processing the whole oats in a blender to cut them down, but may just have to bite the bullet and get a box of quick oats.

The thing I've recently found that I'm surprised I like is Quaker Instant Butter Grits. and only 150 calories for a bowl! Wish I could find a plain cream of wheat instant bowl like that - I eat breakfast at work, so things I can easily make in a microwave are a given, but where I live, the only instant cream of wheat I can find are sweetened.

Anywho - I'm thinking of buying a container of grits and seeing if I like the non-instant kind as well.

Oh, and this week, I heard of and tried making chaffles - egg, cheese, and the recipe I used called for 1/4 tsp baking powder, mixed well and poured into a waffle maker for 5-7 minutes. I was surprised at how good they were! I put bacon in mine and ate them plain, but I am wondering how to make em with sour cream instead of cheese and with cinnamon and syrup.....

This is from healthline.com:

What are grits?

Grits are a popular Southern American dish made from crushed or ground corn.

They’re most commonly served as a breakfast or side dish and usually made from a variety of corn called dent corn, which has a softer, starchy kernel (1).

The crushed corn granules are typically cooked in either hot water, milk, or broth until they reach a thick yet creamy consistency that is similar to porridge.

Grits are often paired with flavorful ingredients, such as butter, sugar, syrups, cheeses, and meats like bacon, shrimp, and catfish.

You can purchase several varieties of grits, including:

Stone-ground. These are made from whole, dried corn kernels that are coarsely ground in a mill. This type is harder to find in grocery stores because it has a short shelf life and takes 30–60 minutes to cook on the stove.
Hominy. These are made from corn kernels soaked in an alkali solution to soften the tough pericarp (outer shell or hull). The pericarp is rinsed, then removed, and the corn kernels undergo further processing to make hominy.
Quick and regular. These types undergo processing, which involves removing the pericarp and germ (nutrient-rich embryo), so they have a longer shelf life. Regular versions are medium ground while quick are finely ground (2).
Instant. This precooked, dehydrated version has had both the pericarp and germ removed. They’re widely available in grocery stores.

Instant is the kind I've been eating, but I think I'm going to try the quick and regular and see how that tastes.

I think of grits as the USA's version of polenta...….sweet or savory, creamy or solid, oh, the poor-man's go to staple. Humble and delicious for sure.

@maiomaio71 I may have to give it try eventually, after I make all the other stuff I want to try (I AM trying to watch calories, here, and finding all these wonderful looking recipes isn't helping me at all lol) The one and only time I ever really worked with phylo dough, I had bought the frozen stuff from the grocery store, and I hated it with a passion. But I also know homemade stuff can be worlds different, so I may try it.

My mother bought me a pasta roller for Christmas, and I've discovered the joys of homemade pasta recently, too I've made ravioli so far and loved it, and also make a half batch of spaghetti and a half batch of fettuccini. I love the stuff, though I find its chewier than store-bought. It seems to me to be more filling, too, so even though a serving is still small, it seems to last a whole lot longer than the equivalent in store bought. I dried the spaghetti and fettuccini by hanging the pasta strands from wooden spoons spaced out on the tiered light in my dining room lol The next batch I plan to make is lasagna noodles for my sister's birthday dinner, but I'm playing with my basic recipe to see if I can get the calorie count down. It called for 1 egg and 2 egg yolks per cup of flour, but I've seen all kinds of recipes, so I'm going to see what comes if I drop the egg yolks and just use 1 egg per cup of flour.


Grits would be similar to Polenta, but i think the difference is the type of corn used. Grits is made from hominy, which is corn that has been treated with alkali (what I've read says this is to loosen the hull and soften the kernel, and it also releases the corn's niacin) before its ground up, cornmeal has no such treatment, so this is the difference between grits and cornmeal. Grits can be yellow or white, though white is what I've typically seen.

From what I read, Polenta is not treated, but is slightly different than American cornmeal because its made from a different kind of corn called flint that is harder. Sounds like Polenta can be served like a porridge as grits is, or it can be cooled down and sliced up, then fried.

I've never had polenta, but the Bob Evans chains of restaurants used to sell something called cornmeal mush years ago, that would have been very similar, as it was a dense cornmeal product that was formed into a loaf, then sliced and fried.

I have been cooking with radishes! For almost my entire life I thought of a red radish as something I sliced up and put on top of a salad.

But mid December I was looking for recipes for roasted vegetables. And came across one that stated to slice up and roast radishes with turnips, parsnips, carrots, onions. And I was like well I have some why not. I was amazed they turned out nice and tender, a bit of zip. So now I often use them when roasting/baking in the often.

Today I am doing a slow cooker Chili, and have chopped up some radishes along with the onions, and celery.

Later in week, making a huge pot of Vege soup on stop, think will throw some radishes in with that as well.

its my Sunday to cook this coming Sunday, and I had bought a cajun brining mix on the sale rack at Lowe's and plan to use that on a whole chicken. When thinking about what to serve with it, I was thinking mashed potatoes, but wondering if I could slip in cauliflower in with the potatoes to lower the calorie and carb count and not have my parents notice..... lol

You know how sometimes we just have to be saved from ourselves? I fall under that category at times. I have never liked coconut in anything ever. Which in turn kept me from trying coconut flour, coconut milk, coconut cream, and coconut oil.
All of which for low carb which I do follow.
Being a diabetic for 20 years. Part of my mission this time is not just weight, it is to be healthy which means getting all my diabetes truly into controlled state. I am in the diabetes groups as well.

So I decided to be brave and bought a carton of better half creamer a combination of almond milk, and coconut milk. Non Dairy 15 calories for 2 T. and comes in different flavors. I bought in hazlenut. It was great.
I have also used coconut oil, coconut cream in some recipes as well. The coconut was not overwhelming at all.

rutabaga french fries - not a bad substitute, though next time I slice them by hand and not with the mandolin. Sprayed a little cooking spray on them, tossed with french fry seasoning, and then put them in the air fryer.

Yet another way to cook rutagaba that I like! Too bad my attempt this summer at growing them failed

bmeadows380 wrote: »

and I'm trying something for dessert tonight. I've been on this kick for sugar free jello, which is a really low calorie dessert, but I was looking for something other than basic strawberry or raspberry. I remembered from a few years ago where I saw you could make your own with kool-aid packets and unflavored gelatin, so I'm attempting tropical punch with splenda to sweetened.

And better yet? when I built the recipe, I got 4 servings to be 39 calories per serving and 4g protein! I didn't know unflavored gelatin was such a good source of protein!

You can also use sugar free unsweetened soda to make jello....Shasta soft drinks use to make great jello....try Mountain Dew!.....I am enjoying your posts!

so the kool-aid jello was a success, though it took longer to set so I didn't get any last night after all. I used 2 packages of unflavored gelatin, 1 package of kool-aid, 1 cup of splenda, 1 cup of cold water, and 2 1/2 cups of hot water. You make this backwards from a typical jello mix, though - you sprinkle the gelatin over cold water first and stir in the kool-aid and sweetener (I used granulated splenda that measures 1:1 so adjust as needed for what you are using), then stir in the boiling water.

Mine set very well; the above set up to close to jiggler thickness, so if you prefer your jello a little softer, add another 1/2 cup of water, either cold or hot.

I'll eat half today and half tomorrow, but I'll try it with the sprite next week and see how it goes.

@conniewilkins56 Question: if I'm using sprite or ginger-ale, do you think I still need to add sweetener, and if I do, cut it back by how much?