Arman over at The Big Man’s World is pretty much the latest trend to set the HLB community on fire, right after pumpkin of course. He recently posed the question, “Do you try and balance out your breakfasts to hit all key macros?” to which I responded nope.
Despite my list loving and excel spreadsheet tracking ways, I can safely say I don’t count anything when it comes to food, not even macros. Most days I’m like Mac What? Do you mean Macklemore? If so, count me in because that’s my boy. He doesn’t know it, but we’re tight and have been ever since the Hubby discovered his musicality well before he became a hit on the radio. That’s right, I was ahead of the trend on that one.
When it comes to food though, I’m probably the furthest thing from the latest rage. I don’t count calories. I don’t count macros. I don’t track anything when it comes to my eats, well except that one time, which was a total pain in my non-existent white arse. So I politely told Arman no, or at least I hope I was polite. Sometimes I have a warped sense of what’s acceptable. Then I set about editing my pictures for today’s What I Ate Wednesday with macros and Macklemore prattling around my noodle, and I couldn’t help but laugh because my macros, at least on Monday, had nothing to do with balance. They were all about carbs.
It’s safe to say while I may be a girl who loves her fruits and veggies, I am also a woman her loves her carbs. I can always have a salad tomorrow and chances are, I probably will. It’ll make me equally as happy too.
Therefore, today I bring you my Monday eats or as I like to call it, The Carbalicious Edition. A potential second title for today’s post was The Sneaky Hidden Public Banana Edition, but that’s a little wordy even for me.
Special thanks, as always, goes to Jenn who despite giving birth a mere month ago, still finds time to host our weekly food party. Do me a favor and be sure to thank her, after you finish reading here first; I’m not that selfless.
Let’s begin.
My Monday morning breakfast was two of these delicious Banana Date Pecan Muffins. As an added bonus, there’s no sugar in these beauties, although it wouldn’t have been a deterrent for me if there had been. The dates make them sweet enough or maybe it’s just the extra love I poured into the batter, since I did send the Hubby back to school with half of them.
Second breakfast was a #publicbanana eaten in my office at my J.O.B. Every day baby, every day.
Third breakfast (yep, I went there) was a bowl of my very own Lemon Blueberry Granola topped with Greek yogurt. I’m partial to the Greek Gods brand, and I’m still working on the recipe for the granola. It’s good, but there are absolute pockets of greatness in there. Call me crazy (I’ve been called far worse) but I want those pockets to happen in every single bite.
Lunch was courtesy of Nature’s Bin, my mom and pop grocery story. They always have the coolest salads. Plus, their labels include the only thing which really matters to me: the ingredients. I heart them.
I washed down my chickpea salad with two small squares of dark chocolate. Bliss.
Sneaky hidden bananas made a reappearance in yet another late day snack: a slice of homemade Strawberry Banana bread. I popped my slice in the microwave for a couple of seconds and then slathered it with butter. Also sweet bliss.
My dinner for the day didn’t include any more bananas, but it did involve my new bestie: Carbs. I dined on a bowl of Tomato Basil Soup, alongside a grilled cheddar cheese sandwich on Onion Rye bread. Sometimes I like a little bread with my cheese.
There you have it: my lovely little carbalicious day. I don’t think the Atkins people will be calling me anytime soon to endorse their “lifestyle” plan.
As a side note, if carbs scare you, please have no fear. I did a great (of course, it was great) post about them back in the day. You can find it here, and while I know our bodies are all different and should be treated accordingly, it might bring you solace to know I’ve been the same weight, give or take a pound or two, for over a year now; carbs included.
Do you have moments where you crave carbs? Do you indulge that craving? What’s your favorite way to eat carbs.
Are you kidding??!!!! I love carbs. Here i am trying to search for more veggie recipies, i swore i was only going to make two types of desserts ( already picked peanut butter cookies and cheesecske swirl brownies). And what do i see when i read your blog?!!!! Beautiful, delicious, muffins. My “Good Will” has gone out the door, just wrote on my list the ingredients missing at Home ( pecans/ dates), And These muffins have Been added on my list of recipes to try this week. So…. No thanks, but thanks!!!!!! :p
These muffins are phenomenal. In fact, pretty much all of Kirsten’s muffins are phenomenal. I can’t wait to hear what you think of them.
You would be proud of my recent banana consumption…I can’t go a day without one! Sliced & frozen + mixed with peanut butter + splash of milk = perfection! I’m with you on carbs- my body thrives on them! I’ve done the whole low-carb/no carbs after 7 but I’m far happier now. Appearance wise, I think I look better now too- win win!
I am proud of your banana eating ways. You should join my IG movement. 🙂
Everytime I read cabolicious I think of Fergalicious and now I’m humming the black eyed peas… can you tell it’s going to be a weird morning?
While I still struggle with finding “balance” in my diet some days (or at least balancing my expectations with what I feel I “should” be doing) I’ve never been big about counting or tracking anything. I tracked my food for a month once (Dr.’s Orders) to see if it was causing the head problems (it wasn’t!) and it was a miserably tedious experience I don’t think I will ever repeat! I do have those weeks though where I feel like total “ick” and then I make a conscious effort to put more good stuff in.
Your eats look amazing as always, I particularly would like to be left alone with that grilled cheese… or you know a big bowl of that granola you’re always raving about 😉
I always put more “good stuff” in after I’ve been away on vacation or traveling. By the time I get home, all I want is fruits and green things.
That chickpea salad looks and sounds SO good!! And of course I love that it is vegan :).
Good stuff.
I really need to have a go at making my own granola! All of your eats look so good; I never used to enjoy carbs that much but now I love them – oats have gotta be my favourite carb, they’re so versatile too!
Making your own granola is so easy and tastes so good. A little bit also goes a long way so 30 minutes in the kitchen on Saturday basically makes my breakfasts for an entire week.
It’s currently raining and miserable outside, and I can’t even begin to tell you how good that tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich meal looks right about now. Can I come over for lunch? Or even dinner if you need a little more time to prepare? I’ll bring some bananas — they were on sale so I stocked up like a crazy person which means I’m basically overflowing with speckled goodness.
As for carbs… my body loves them, and so does my mind. I was silly and afraid of them back in the day, but I definitely thrive on a higher carb diet.
I’m a day late, but I still have soup in the fridge so come on over whenever you want. It’ll be ready, and I would happily take some speckled beauties off your hands for you.
Since carbs are basically your body’s main source of energy, thriving is exactly the right word.
That grilled cheese and tomato soup looks so, so good! I’ve got to plan to have that for dinner sometime soon.
It’s a classic. Simple, yet delicious.
Thank you thank you for the muffin link! It’s amazing the power of dates, and I’m slightly embarrassed to say that the giant Costco tub o’ dates is nearly empty, less than a month after we got it. In my defense, my mom visited for 2 weeks and did not walk past the tub (on the counter as you walk into the kitchen) without snagging a few. Ok a bunch. And my dad, my son, and even lil’ ol me did the same.
My girl? Not a date fan.
Luckily hockey starts up next week and with it trips to Costco each week if I want ’em.
I doled out your granola sparingly, evening bowls when I was a bit peckish, breakfasts after I’d been up a few hours (and not in the mood for the usual tomato sandwich on toasted sourdough that is my go-to breakfast until the first frost) . . . and yet the jar is empty. 🙁 . I will go to an earlier recipe for my first attempt, and perhaps by the time you’ve perfected the blueberry lemon I’ll be ready for it.
Now, a question for you–all this October Unprocessed hoopla I keep hearing about . . . hype or hope?
Granola is simple and yet so versatile. You should make some, and if not, I’ll meet you halfway for another batch. In return for canned tomatoes of course.
So… just to get this out of the way, your comment “It’s safe to say while I may be a girl who loves her fruits and veggies, I am also a woman her loves her carbs.” I’m 100% positive that you are correct in this because the connotation was that your carbs were bread (which looks super duper by the way), muffins (again, bookmarking!) and granola (hopefully you share this soon)… But fruits and veggies are carbs as well, just with a different connotation. Lol. Which I know you know and I’m not trying to point that out.
What I am eventually getting to is it reminds me of whenever my dad asks me a question about nutrition. Like, as in, he has no idea what a protein, carb or fat even is. When my mom says that he probably needs some protein with his meal he has no idea what she is talking about. Same with fat and carbs. One time he asked me “This banana is okay to eat because it’s high in protein, right?” Baha. Ya, it’s fine to eat, but that would be a no as far as the protein goes. Again, doesn’t really matter, I just found it hilarious.
I’m pretty sure it’s not as funny as when I started off this far-stretched comment; however it’s making me smile and laugh in memory all the same.
Oh, and the phrase that I see on Instagram all the time of #fitsmymacros or #macros drives me up the wall. As you said, it’s the ingredients that are important!
For me, it is all about the ingredients and you are 100% right with your comment. I was trying to figure out how to make that statement without involving some with carbs and to have it still be something I’m known for eating. I had some trouble, so I figured Ef it, I’ll say fruits and veggies anyway and see who notices.
You get a gold star, and I’d be more than happy to give you bonus points if you can rewrite that sentence without carbs and my food preferences in mind. It’s tough.
Maybe we should pretend it’s supposed to be tongue and cheek. 😉
Cheeks: those would be protein right…maybe some fat.
You are my third breakfast hero. There are never enough breakfasts in the day, and some days just call for a little extra–I went the 3x route as well. Greek yogurt and rice cakes first. I know, I know, rice cakes, but I put cinnamon all over the Greek yogurt so it came out as this amazing hint-of-sweet, hint-of-salty combo. Plus it was that or this awful granola-esque stuff my mom had. Rice cakes = 2 ingredients. That granola? I have NO idea. I think “something that vaguely once came from a plant” made it somewhere on the list. Like, the twelfth ingredient down or something. Wow, this was just going to be a brief three-breakfast list, but then I got carried away on a rice cake rant. Rice cake rant, that phrase has a nice ring to it. Where was I? Oh yeah, next came PB on toast, because, yes, carbs, and, no, rice cakes don’t cut it. Then I went deluxe for #3 with brazil nuts and dried figs. OH yes, fancy-land. Brought to you by: Staying in a house where I am clearly not paying for the food myself. Now that I’ve completely distracted myself, I’m pretty sure I meant to say something else about something else. Probably about that grilled cheese. And that you are my carb-hero, because macros are for weenies. Says this weenie who is continuing to do her best to TURN OFF the part where you think about carbs and calories. Food is food, eat if it’s good, don’t if it’s not.
Fancy land indeed. I want brazil nuts and figs. That sounds delicious.
I know counting macros can work for some people…I’m not one of them. Hell I wouldn’t even know where to start and it sounds like you’re not one of them either, so turn that voice off. Tell her (or him) to Shut up.
Rice cake rant does have a nice ring to it.
I’m not sure that I particularly love brazil nuts, but I know how fancy/expensive they are, so even if they’re not that great, they’re BRAZIL nuts. So you eat ’em and feel indulgent-in-a-good-way. Brazil nuts are the caviar of the nut world. Although that may be pignolis because I went to get a teeeeny package of those the other day and HOLY COW cash monies. I need to go into nut production, that’s where the money’s at. Plus, think of how many times a day you’d get to snort/giggle at all mention of nuts?
I now feel like “rice cake rant” needs to be some sort of weekly or biweekly post where you get to rant about something everyone considers “healthy” or “trendy” or whatever, like rice cakes, PB2, pumpkin (okay, it’s healthy, but it’s obnoxiously everywhere and BLAND…), etc…
Instead of Allie’s Dallies, you could do Rice Cake Rants. I love the concept; run with it.
I’m putting one together as we speak! Or, rather, as I comment and you return at a later time to peruse!
Love carbs! My favorite breakfast is carb loaded oatmeal. Perfect start to the day.
Yes oatmeal is super popular in the HLB community. I see it all the time with so many amazing toppings. Maybe one of these days I’ll have to jump on the oatmeal train.
Third breakfast all the way! And I find that counting macros (very VERY loosely) helps me eat more carbs because I used to be one of those awful, naive people who were terrified of carbs because (to quote the movie ‘Scott Pilgrim vs The World’) “bread makes you fat.” Which is absurd. But sometimes I have a hard time overriding bad habits/disordered eating, so when I record my macros I can be like “oh hell yeah- I can eat more bread, because I need more carbs anyway. Suck it disordered eating.” But I feel like I am definitely an odd case and I feel like most people I know who track get obsessive with it, but for some reason it helps me do the opposite. I think the key is to loosely track if you’re tracking at all. But, I think it’s fantastic if you have your shit together without having to record everything. I’m working towards that!
Hey no justification needed. To each their own. If loosely counting macros helps you, I say go for it. It’s just not something that interests me. Frankly, I didn’t even really know what it was until I joined the HLB community. Then macros were everywhere, and I was like what’s all this macro business. I learned my macro of choice, especially when you factor in my fruit and veggie consumption was carbs, and I thought it couldn’t hurt to let people know, even with my heavy carb consumption (maybe because of it), I’m actually at weight I want to be and have been for over a year now. Carbs are my friend. 🙂
I think I was more offended that you didn’t have that epic sounding bread recipe- I even asked my local bakery today if they had anything like it. They said ‘We have a sourdough loaf, put some onions in it.’…. how thoughtful.
Its so refreshing to see such a great view on it- Definitely will be checking out the carb post, whilst praying for the sun to come out tomorrow so I can put my green bananas in front of the light to make those muffins…they look so good! also anything slathered in butter = perfection.
Here’s the link to the breads and all their ingredients: http://www.breadsmithcleveland.com/ingredients.htm
You can stick your green bananas in a brown paper bag to help them ripen quicker although if I were a banana I’d much rather ripen in a sun patch.
No offense intended. I actually owe you a laugh because you gave me one. I had to chuckle at myself because practically my entire day was carbs. I guess now I know why I have so much energy to get things done. 🙂
Why can’t that bakery be here- the OPTIONS!
EXACTLY. I don’t count shiznit. And people harass me about it all the time. They cant’ wrap their brains around the fact that I’ve lost so much weight without counting. Nuts to that.
Bananas and dates sound awesome together!! I need to make those.
And now you’ve made me want some tomato soup. Think I’ll have to whip some up in the next week.
People harass you for not counting…for real? Wow, that’s crazy.
Bananas, dates, and NUTS. Can’t forget about those.
You know me, I’m a carbAHOLIC!! Bread…give me all the bread!! Seriously, don’t let me leave Cleveland without a loaf (or ten) of that granola bread! I read that post of Arman’s as well (and have duly noted that he is the biggest thing to hit blog world since baked donuts ;)) and couldn’t help but think back to all the days where I used to think I had to hit every macro just right for every meal…even if I didn’t want it! No bueno! Now? Now I’ve finally come to my senses! Wanna know what dinner was the other night at work? Roasted kabocha and zucchini with pesto! Ha!
I think you are going to freak out over the Breadsmith. It’s like a little slice of heaven.
Your dinner sounds fabulous and it definitely beats my bowl of cereal. Maybe I should have put pesto in my cereal. That would have been strange and BAD. I guess there is one thing pesto doesn’t improve upon.
I lurve me some carbs! That said, I do try to keep them in check. Even good carbs, in excess, can mess with blood sugars/insulin. I wish I could say “my favorite carbs a brown rice and sweet potatoes.” I like them and get plenty of them, but my most favorite way to carb-out is on some warm, yeasty bread slathered in something fatty, be it butter, cheese, buttery onions, oil dip… Me and a loaf of bread could be besties forever (provided I could convert my whole wardrobe to elastic waisted pants!)
You, me and some bread could get down. That might be my favorite way to enjoy carbs, although it is the less than ideal way. All good things in moderation right? Including moderation.
I’m glad you found something which works for you.
Oh, and as for tracking, I use “my fitness pal” app. It helps me see where I am at for cals and macros because sometimes I can be waaaay off in my guessing in either direction. I love that you can see daily totals OR see your weekly totals, because really I believe it is the big picture that counts, not each meal or day.
I put my workouts on this too, which is really motivating for me.
Way to go for showing the Atkins people who’s boss without them even showing up at your door :). When do you intend to start marketing your Carbalicious diet with the golden rule of leaving no sad little carb behind?
Admittedly, I’m not yet as relaxed about my diet as you but looking back I can tell I’ve made progress during the past year. Macros don’t matter nearly as much to me anymore. I “slipped up” tracking my meals again for several days a few months ago after I’d given up on it but that was enough to remind me it does no good. Carbs make me happy, planning my meals according to fat/carb/protein rations takes the fun out of eating. Let’s not even talk about the lack of satisfaction. Yes, we can plan, measure and freak out about macros but in the end only following our cravings works. I’m feeling best when eating more carbs. Whenever I’m foolish enough to try and work against that I’m not-so-gently reminded of that fact by low energy levels and a ravenous stomach. Nature did a good job at that.
Can you believe I’ve never had the [American] classic of grilled cheese and tomato soup? It’s not popular over here but I totally think I need to have it in my life sometime soon.
Progress is always a good thing. Progress is moving forward. Progress is a step on your path. Progress is the right direction.
It’s amazing what our bodies say when we take the time to listen them. After all those carbs, I wanted something green. It was my bodies way of asking for my hydration. I listened and then I ate carrot cake, and it was delicious.
You absolutely need to try the grilled cheese and tomato soup if warm bowls of comfort and ooey-gooey grilled cheese is your thing. It’s definitely my thing. 🙂
Hiii I jumped over from Heather’s blog.. then I got lost over on The Big Man’s World blog..then I came back to read your post and I’m glad I did! You are hilarious so it makes sense you and Heather would be pals! Carbs are definitely what’s for breakfast over here! Usually smothered with some PB!!
I’m glad you did too. I love to hear from new readers. This way I have more people to torment or whatever it is I do. I’m still trying to figure that part out.
Yes to PB. I will eat pretty much anything so long as it’s smothered in peanut butter.