How to make cottage cheese a staple in your house!

Ingredients

Directions

Combine eggs, cottage cheese, vegetable oil, oats, baking soda and salt in a blender. Blend for about 6 seconds. The batter should be lumpy.

Spoon onto a griddle heated to 350 degrees. Turn when bubbles form and the bottom is golden brown.

Makes about 12 4 inch cakes and serves 2 to 3 people.

I ate my pancakes with Raspberry Peach Champagne Jam and I rolled them up like crepes since they?re so eggy. Yum-o!

They aren?t too fluffy, but the longer the batter sits before pouring onto the griddle the more poofy the cakes will get.

The topping for these cakes should be fruit preserves or fruit and powdered sugar. The cakes are pretty sour from the cottage cheese, I really liked this tart jam on top.

Yum!

Since I started running I?ve been trying many new things to help my body. I want to prevent injury, make sure I?m getting all the right nutrition and I want to hopefully slim down by about 5 pounds.

This isn?t because I want to be thinner or because summer is coming. It?s because I think being even just a little bit lighter will help my ankle get through recovery better. Running and being active puts a lot of stress on legs and feet. I?m sure my ankle will adjust to running farther distances, and make my first half marathon experience much better.

One of the main changes I?ve made is switching over to eating 5-6 mini meals a day. I?ve had a few comments and questions on how to start eating this way when living such a busy life. Here?s a few of my tips.

1) Calories!

I know counting calories is blah! I don?t recommend tracking calories. But I do count calories to make sure I eat enough and not too much. I have a tendency to make my mini meals too big and my mini snacks too small. When my snacks are too small, this way of eating does not work for me.

I found a site online that told me I need 2100 calories a day to maintain. Then I subtracted that number by 300 because I want to be slimming down a little. This left me at 1800 calories a day. Then I divided that number by how many mini meals I need a day, 6. This means my goal for each meal is 300 calories.

Having the goal just helps me eat enough and not too much. I can count the calories in my head and once I know my mini meal is perfect I forget it. I don?t track on a piece of paper and I never add up my entire day. 

2) Plan

All of a sudden I was needing to have snacks with me in the mornings and afternoons so I planned out my meals for most of this week. 

3) Be Flexible

I did have a time frame I planned on eating my mini meals. I wake up around 7am and eat around 7:30 so I knew I?d need snack at 10am then lunch at 12:30 or 1pm. Snack at 4pm and dinner between 6 or 7. I need to eat within every 4 hrs to keep my metabolism up and hunger at bay. But sometimes eating when I planned didn?t work out because I was in a class or a meeting. I just pushed back my mini meal and ate it when I had time, then I ate my next meal a little later.

Life happens, being flexible is key to making any life style change. 

4) 1 Large Meal

I combine 2 of my mini meals every day into 1 large meal. This is usually at dinner but I had a day where it became breakfast. Having a large dinner helps me stay full in the evening and the concept of a large meal allowance makes eating out or on the fly so much easier. I?m busy and a few times I couldn?t account for the amount of time I?d be gone so I was left with an unplanned meal. Having a large meal made staying on the mini meal plan much more successful.

5) Meals vs. Snacks

The first two days I ate mini meals I felt like I was eating snack foods all day long, I felt unsatisfied because I didn?t think I was eating ?meals?. After that I made more of an effort to eat meal food at meals and snack food at snacks.

6) Time

The idea behind eating 5 to 6 times a day is to keep athletes more full because they are steadily burning more calories throughout the day. Eating this way also keeps your metabolism running at a higher rate. Everyone want?s a little of that!

It?s important to eat every 2 to 3 hours to get all the benefits of the mini meal plan. Not eating for 4 or more hours can cause intense cravings, unmanageable hunger and can lead to a 12 % drop in metabolic rate. Wear a watch and try to get those mini meals in. Just remember to be flexible!

I hope these tips help. Mini meals are really working for me this time. I tried once before and I didn?t eat enough which caused the whole plan to crumble. I feel more energized and less hungry throughout the day now. Plus I love all things mini! Have a great Sunday morning