apples....delicious, but dangerous

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When we bought the house last year, we didn't realize we had apple trees in the back yard. I remember seeing "fruit trees" in the listing, but didn't think to ask about it. Last fall we discovered we have two apple trees behind the garage. We had no idea what kind of apples they were and we didn't try them. Thinking back, I don't even remember seeing apples all over the ground. I'm sure there were--I doubt the trees waited until this year to produce.

Anyway, we have lots of apples this year and they've started to drop from the trees. I decided to taste one, but since I haven't eaten many apples in my lifetime, I couldn't figure out what kind it was. I knew it wasn't Fuji, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, or Granny Smith; I know those varieties well.  I scoured the internet trying to figure out what kind of apples I have. I posted a picture on Facebook, too. It's been determined that I have Macintosh apples.

Now that I know what the variety, I've become a little...enamored...with the fact that I own apple trees and they actually produce edible fruit that tastes good and won't kill me.  I know, I didn't grow them myself. But I didn't kill them either (I'm a notorious plant killer). So, I have a lot of pride in the fact that I own apples trees, they're alive, and producing fruit.  And I love that I basically have breakfast, lunch, and dinner sitting right outside my back door, if I'm so inclined.

Everyday I go outside and scour the ground for good apples, since the ones still on the trees aren't ripe enough yet. (I'd love to know how I'm going to pick them all, since the trees are really tall.) I get home from work, drop my bags on the top of the recycling bin, and go out back to grab some apples. As I pick them up I check for bruises, holes, spots, and any kind of split.  If one has a few spots or a bruise, I just polish it on my shirt and take a few bites off the good side--I have to make sure they're ripe, of course. ;)  Then I toss it into the field for the deer to eat. I usually do this to at least five apples. By the time I'm done, I'm not hungry for dinner anymore.

The only thing I don't like is that the apples seem to drop fast. The other night I picked up six buckets full of apples that had dropped to the ground. They were either rotted, damaged, or half eaten (the deer like to munch on them).  I tossed them all into the field behind the house; I'm sure some animal will eat them.  Then I went back there the next night and it was as if I hadn't picked them all up the night before.

And these things drop without warning, too. It was like dodging bullets trying to pick up the apples while standing under the trees; one needs a hard hat for this job.  I bent over to grab one off the ground and then one hit me on the back.  I thought Bob had thrown one at me, but he hadn't. An apple fell from the tree I was under. Scary, because it could have hit me in the head. At one point, one started falling and it took ar lest six others with it. Luckily I wasn't standing in that spot anymore. When it comes time to harvest I think I need to invest in a hard hat or a bike helmet!

last night's dinner: mini pizza with goat cheese and tomatoes

Last night's dinner was a mini pizza made with a tortilla and topped with goat cheese and grape tomatoes.  I added a little Italian seasoning and some fresh ground pepper and tossed it in the toaster oven.

Fast, easy, and delicious.  Not too high in calories, either.  What's not to love about that?!  (Not to mention the WARM goat cheese!)

I'm thinking this same combination would work for a rice cake, also.  Maybe add a slice of ham.  I think I'll be trying that tomorrow.

rice cake du jour: cream cheese, turkey, and cranberry sauce

Another delicious suggestion from snoskred, although I don't think she uses cream cheese on this one.  But it was too late by the time I remembered. It was still yummy though.  Next time, however, I will be a little more picky about the turkey I use.  I used bistro-style turkey breast from the deli and it was the watery kind.  It was good, but I think the drier turkey breast would taste better.

I used some neufchatel cheese, a slice of deli turkey, and some whole berry cranberry sauce.

rice cake du jour: cream cheese, ham, and egg

Here's another rice cake meal I made--I could really get into this as a habit.  Serious deliciousness!

Thanks to suggestions from a fellow blogger, snoskred, I have new rice cake toppings to try.  This is one of hers and it's so delicious!  Thank you!!

I spread on some neufchatel cheese (low fat version of cream cheese), a little less than an ounce; a slice of ham from the deli, about 3/4 ounce; a sliced hard-boiled egg (I couldn't fit the whole thing so I ate half and put half on the cake); and some salt and ground pepper.

When I first heard this suggestion I'll admit I was skeptical, but it's really delicious.

correction: what kind of cherry tree is this?

It turns out that what I have in my yard are not five cherry trees, as stated in this post:  what kind of cherry tree is this?.  I have five crab apple trees.  I'm disappointed, but I've read that crab apples can be used for pies and jam.  I think next year we need to plant a few cherry trees out back.

breakfast of champions

I'm headed to the store and don't feeling like cooking this morning, so I'm having my last protein bar and a bottle of water. It travels well. Plus I get 30g of protein to start the day.

my new pepper grinder

Isn't it pretty?  It's my new pepper mill.

It's not the best picture. but you can see the grinder settings above the black band at the top.

I've been wanting a pepper grinder for a long time, but I haven't bought one because they're ridiculously expensive and I have no idea why.  When I lived at home, my parents had an old pepper mill (and they still have it!) made out of wood.  I always loved using it for some reason.  I think I liked to be copy my dad; he loves pepper.  Plus, it's just a cool thing to use.

Awhile back I bought the little bunny-shaped one that sticks on the side of the range hood, and it works just fine.  And it's a bunny.  C'mon.  I posted about wanting a better one, but didn't have the money to spend at the time, nor did I want to spend $30.00+ on a non-essential item. 

My cousin recently visited and what did she bring me?  A new pepper mill!  I like the little bunny, but this one is better.  It's from OXO Good Grips.  It grinds nice and smooth, and you actually get a decent amount of pepper out of it.  It's like a peppery snowfall coming down on my food.  It has five settings:  I can grind it really course for more peppery bite, or I can grind it really fine, or somewhere in between. I also like that it's not flimsy or too bulky. What I also like is that the grinder is on top so when you put it down it's upright and doesn't leave pepper all over the counter.

A big thanks to my favorite cousin!!

(When I post something on my blog that I want, it has a habit of showing up when she visits. I wonder what I should post about next?  Hmmm....maybe kittens.)

Dannon Light & Fit Greek Chocolate on Top

Dannon recently came out with a new take on Greek yogurt:  Greek yogurt with chocolate sauce on top. 

It doesn't have any more sugar than the regular Light & Fit Greek I usually buy, although it has about 20 more calories.  It was only $1.00 so I grabbed a few:  cherry, strawberry, and banana.  It looked delicious.  And what can be bad about yogurt with chocolate on top, right?

I tried the cherry flavor.  I opened it up and it just looked like a pool of chocolate.  I guess I was expecting the chocolate sauce to be a little thicker, but it wasn't.  It was similar to Hershey's syrup.  I was going to mix it all up, but decided to try it as-is.

It didn't taste like Hershey's syrup. At all. I didn't really get any chocolate flavor from it.  I was expecting a chocolate covered cherry flavor, but that's not what I got.  I can't even describe what it tasted like other than to say the whole thing was just really sweet and overpowering.

This is not something I would buy again.  I have two more containers, but I'm dreading eating them.   I will, though, since I spent the money and it was inedible.

One other thing I don't like is that you only get 5 ounces in the container versus 5.3 ounces with the regular Light & Fit Greek.  Not a big difference, but it's a little annoying.

today's dinner

Yes, I ate a rice cake with almond butter for dinner.  It's MY dinner, right?

I'm on a rice cake kick now. They're low in calories, not too high in carbs, and you can put just about anything on them.

This time I went for Trader Joe's almond butter (I love Trader Joe's) and some cinnamon.  I occasionally make a protein shake with almond butter and cinnamon, so I figured it would be just as good on a rice cake.  And it is!  The only issue is that almond butter can be a bit runny sometimes. It wanted to run right off the rice cake so I had to eat it fast.

Any suggestions for toppings?  I already got a few from my last post, but I'd love to have more.

my new snack: rice cakes with nut butter

As I've said in the past, I've been looking for new snacks.  Life in terms of eating can sometimes get a little boring after weight loss surgery.  Not because we can't eat anything, but because we tend to gravitate towards the things we know sit well in our new stomachs, or things we know have a lot of protein, or things that are just easy to throw together into a minuscule container; it gets to be too much effort sometimes to keep it interesting.  Luckily I don't have an issue with foods bothering me; I'm just lazy.

I went grocery shopping last weekend and came across these nut butter packets from Wild Friends. They're one serving and there were lots of interesting flavors.  And I couldn't ignore the "10 for $10.00" sign.  You know what that means:  they're only $1.00 each. (You're sneaky Big Chain Grocery Store!) Yes, I'm a sucker for the "10 for $10.00" sign.  I grabbed Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter and Chocolate Almond Butter with Sunflower Seeds.

I decided to get some rice cakes on which to spread the nut butters:  Quaker Lightly Salted.  I haven't had rice cakes in years, so I figured it was worth trying them again. (Years ago there weren't a lot of flavor options.)

The packet says to make sure you "knead and squeeze" before opening.  It's because these are natural nut butters, not the jarred big brand stuff.  I did as I was told.  The Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter was just fine and wasn't liquid-y.  The almond butter, however, was a mix of thick liquid and thick nut butter.  It was a bit uneven to spread, but not messy.

Both of these nut butters were yummy.  They tasted just like the packet says.  The Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter was a nice mix of all three flavors, but I would say there wasn't as strong of a chocolate flavor as I was hoping for. Still delicious and rich, though.  The Chocolate Almond Butter with Sunflower Seeds was delicious also.  Again, I was hoping for more chocolate flavor, but it was still present.

This is the Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter.

I added some unsweetened coconut, which added another 35 calories.  Yummy!

This is the Chocolate Almond Butter with Sunflower Seeds.  It's a little runny, but not too bad.  It doesn't look as appetizing, because I made it at work today.  I forgot to take a picture before I started eating it. Oops!

This made for a very satisfying snack, both in terms of flavor and richness, and satiety.  But it clocked in at about 225 calories, which is a lot when a post-op's standard calorie intake is about 1,000 calories a day.  The rice cakes have only 35 calories, but these nut butters are not low calorie, obviously.  Peanut butter never is.  They're low in sugar, though, and have a nice amount of protein - 6g for the packet!

I would most definitely buy these nut butters again, but I would have to be very careful since they're so high in calories and taste so damn good!