the treadmill diaries

On Sunday, I woke up to find a dark, gloomy day. One where you know you have to find a bunch of indoor activities to keep you occupied. So, I did just that.

First on my list, a trip to Trader Joe’s to pick up a few ingredients and whole bunch of snacks that looked tempting while cruising the aisles. Since TJ’s is a bit of a drive for us, the hubby and I took our time strolling through the store to see what goodies were available. Three bags of stuff later…we were making the trek back home.

After putting away the groceries and having a quick lunch, it was time to get cooking. I decided to tackle two things:

• Alex’s Grain-Free Bread recipe that she featured on  – Spoonful of Sugar Free
• And an adapted version of Ellie Krieger‘s Sweet Potato-Pecan Casserole as a test-run to see if it should be included in my Big Turkey Day menu

Let’s start with the grain-free bread recipe and its ingredients: 1 c pumpkin canned, ½ c smooth almond butter, 1/3 c egg whites (a change from the original recipe), 3 Tbsp ground flax, 3 Tbsps of Chia Seed soaked in 6 Tbsp of water for 15min, a pinch of salt, 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice, 1.5 tsp bourbon vanilla extract (another variation from the original recipe), and ¼ c water.     

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (if you’re using one..I’m actually using my handy-dandy rice cooker that also has a bake function on it). Then, mix all the ingredients in a big bowl. Simple as that.

Take mixture and pour it into a baking pan (or in my case my rice cooker) and bake for 60-70 minutes. Remove from pan, allow to cool & set for about 10 minutes. Cut , serve & enjoy. It’s really that easy. Like Alex mentioned, it’s amazing how sweet and moist this bread is considering the ingredients. But, it all works – and works well. Yummy.

Now, let’s move on to the Sweet Potato-Pecan Casserole dish. You’ll need the following ingredients: 5 sweet potatoes sliced into 1 in pieces, 1/3c honey, ¼ c egg whites, 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice, 1 Tbsp Brown Sugar Splenda Blend, cooking spray and 2 Tbsp finely chopped pecans.

To get started, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel and slice your sweet potatoes. Then, steam over medium-high heat for about 20 minutes until fork tender.

Drain sweet potatoes and place in bowl. Mash and mix well with honey, egg and pumpkin pie spice. Then, pour into baking pan. Mix brown sugar blend and pecans together and then evenly top your casserole. (You can see I only topped half of the casserole with pecans because the hubby doesn’t like them).

Bake casserole for 40-50 minutes until done. Remove from heat, allow to cool, and cut into eight slices and serve. Considering that this recipe has only 160 calories, 4 g fat and 3 g of fiber (or 2 points) per slice, I was pleasantly surprised by how creamy and good it tastes. It’s definitely being added to my Thanksgiving menu this year.

After wrapping up the baking session, I was off to enjoy some blogging and to then settle in for a night of TV and relaxation.

What did you do this weekend?