Beta Carotene Boost

Yawn! I slept like a rock last night and woke up hungry. I was out of bananas so I decided to make pumpkin pie oats. Fortunately I had a can of organic pumpkin waiting for me in the pantry.

- 1/3 cup oats cooked with 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup milk & dash of salt

- stir in large spoonful pumpkin near the end of cooking

- mix in ground flax, pumpkin pie spice and a teaspoon of brown sugar

- top with a few sprinkles of CHEESECAKE and raw almonds

YUMMO! I came home to find a slice of cheesecake in the refrigerator so I decided to use a bit as an oat topping this morning. It melted into a cheesecake icing over the oats. I wasn't sure if I was eating breakfast or dessert -- it was THAT good.

I got to work until I suddenly realized poor Tango was waiting for me to pick him up at the vet's! After I had Tango home and settled I grabbed a quick lunch.

This is one of the few frozen meals I truly enjoy. I almost always top it with extra peas. I love peas.

While I was enjoying my lunch I got a call from my friend Leslee reminding me of our afternoon swim lesson. Whoops! I had totally forgotten about it. I really wasn't in the mood for a swim lesson but I went anyway. I swam for about an hour and a half at the UCF pool.

Shortly after I got home Chris arrived home from a business trip - yay! After catching up we decided to stay in for dinner and have a relaxing evening at home. I was hungry and I knew dinner would be a while so I made us an appetizer of six Mary's Gone Crackers topped with Laughing Cow Light cheese and a sliced honeycrisp apple. Here are our individual plates of crackers and the one apple we shared.

Dinner was filling and delicious. I sauteed...

- onion

- bell pepper

- grated carrot

- fresh corn

- tomatoes

- black beans

Then I mixed in some tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, salt & pepper. I used the veggie/bean mixture as a sweet potato topping, over which I added a scoop of low fat cottage cheese for a protein boost.

I'm so full! Between the pumpkin, sweet poato and carrot I got my share of beta carotene today. Now I'm off to digest.