Two recipes

Recipe 1: Skirt on a Bike's Big Bowl
This is also taken from the Eng*ine 2 Diet. I have modified it for myself and my own tastes. I like it because it does not require cooking, is quick, healthful, and filled with fiber and slow-burning complex carbs.

In your favorite bowl add:
1/2 cup raw oats
1/4 cup Uncles Sam's flaxseed flakes
2 Tbls. Grape Nuts
1 Tbls. ground flaxseed
1 cup chopped fresh fruit (I have used raspberries and blackberries all summer. Bananas, peaches, etc also taste great!)
3/4 cup non dairy milk (or dairy if you can drink it)

Enjoy! (This littel cereal alone will keep you, how shall we say, regular)


Recipe 2: Slow-cook Tuscan Sausage and Bean Soup

I found this in a Weight W*atchers recipe book last year and it is so easy and so tasty that I thought I would share it. I use my crockpot to cook this in so that all I have to do is assemble in the AM and when I come home at night my hot dinner is waiting for me. I especially like this in the fall and winter.

Makes 6 servings

12 ounces turkey kielbasa cut in 1/4 inch thick rounds (I went to Hy-Vee and bought italian sausage and used that and it was awesome. To cut the fat, I boiled it first and drained the fat off before adding to the crockpot. If you don't cook the raw sausage first, make sure to put it in the bottom of the crockpot so that it cooks by evening. Venison might be really good here too).

2 cloves garlic
1 onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped
I celery stalk
1/2 medium bunch kale, chopped (about 4 cups)
3 cups fat-free low-sodium chicken broth
1 (15.5 ounce) can great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15.5 ounce) can kideny beans, rinsed and drained
1 (14.5) ounce can Italian seasoned diced tomatoes
1/2 cup dry red wine or water (the alcohol cooks off but the flavor remains)
1 teaspoon dried basil

Put everything together in the crockpot, stir it up (unless cooking raw meat which needs to remain near the bottom near the heat source--in that case, first stir up all other ingrediants and pour over meat in the slow cooker).
Cook 8-10 hours on low

Per serving (1/12 cuprs): 241 cals, 5 g. fat, 5 g. sat fat, 0 grams trans fat, 37 mg chol, 1,258 mg sodium, 31 g. carb, 8 g. fiber, 19 g. protein, 158 mg. calcium.

Miles: 7
Stuff I saw: A red fox crossing into the woods as I cycled into my complex last night! That is the same area the groundhog hangs out.