Think outside the mayo

Have you ever looked...I mean really looked...at how much fat is in mayonnaise?

 

1 tablespoon contains 10 grams of fat.  

10. 

The Super Bowl is coming up this weekend, and people all over the country will throw a whole cup of mayonnaise into their spinach dip without a second thought. One cup equals 16 tablespoons. So that's 160 grams of fat in that chip dip. "But it's got spinach in it, so it's healthy, right?"

I didn't mean for this to be an anti-spinach dip post. What I really meant was for it to be a "think bigger when it comes to dips and spreads" post.

When I went to The Spiral Diner the first time a few months ago, I had the Sweet Luv'us Hummus wrap, which used both hummus and mashed sweet potato as the spread on the wrap. It was tremendous! I've been meaning to try it out on my own, so last night I fixed veggie pitas as a side to my Spicy Black Bean Soup. 

On a whole-wheat pita I spread some hummus, about 2 tablespoons of mashed sweet potato (which I cooked in the microwave for 8 minutes and mashed up with a fork), red onion, bell pepper, avocado, kale, tomato. Sucker was jam-packed! And it was great. It left mayo in the dust, on the side of the road, begging for a ride. Who needs it?

For my son I used turkey, cheese, and sweet potato. He asked what it was, and then declared it "Good." 
Love that kid!

So toss out your mayo and replace it with a good old sweet potato. It may not mix well with spinach in a chip dip, but it won't have you consuming half your day's fat intake in one tablespoon of goo.

***********

So I've been trying to lay off the cereal a bit around here, and instead encourage the kids to eat oatmeal or eggs for breakfast. Today Drew came out of his room and asked if I could fix him "Eggs in a Hole." I enthusiastically affirmed his request, as nothing makes me as happy as making -- or eating -- Eggs in a Hole.

This recipe comes from The Pioneer Woman's first cook book, and it is so good and so easy. 

Now this isn't the most healthy breakfast in the world, but you could certainly do worse. Eggs, whole wheat toast, and a bit of butter.

Here's what you do. Heat up the skillet and throw a pat of butter on it. Take a couple slices of bread and use a small glass to cut circles out of the middle.

Put the bread (and the holes you've cut out) onto the skillet, and then crack the eggs into the hole, like so:

Cook the eggs/bread for a bit, then flip it. I like my eggs runny, especially with Egg in a Hole. The yellow squirts out and soaks in the buttered bread and good gosh...you've gotta fix this! Do so this weekend, then report back.

***********

Workout of the Day

P90X2 Chest, Shoulders & Triceps

 

I don't know about you guys, but my time is valuable. I can't seem to squeeze everything I need to do into one day, so efficiency is really important to me. This workout was less than 50 minutes and it absolutely crushed us. He moves so fast and the moves are super intense.

I think half the key to these videos are the pace at which they move. To do this kind of routine in a gym would take double the time, at least. We were throwing weight and medicine balls and stability balls around at breakneck speed, and my arms are still feeling it six hours later.

I know we're not even halfway done with it, but I'm going to go out on a limb and publicly state that P90X2 is an awesome program. I'm betting I won't go back on that.