Graduation Day At Last!!!!

At times it seemed as if this day would never come, but after four and a half years, last Saturday I graduated with my degree in Nutritional Sciences from OU.  I was very fortunate to have my family at the ceremony.  Friends I had not spent much time with since starting classes, joined us at the after party.  I failed to take pictures at the party, but here are a few from graduation.

The graduate

My class

Alison and I (we carpooled and studied together)

My husband and kids

My in-laws were added in

My hubby

My parents and sisters

Miss Abbie and me

My family

Two Weeks of a Vegetarian Lifestyle

Well, my DH was feeling sluggish and requested a two week vegetarian diet and then slide into a flexitarian lifestyle.  This all started on Friday with black bean soup and caprese sandwiches.  It was wonderful!  Saturday we started the day with cinnamon-apple stuffed french toast and for dinner grilled portobello mushroom burgers with a lovely salad with grilled peaches, blueberries, raspberries, granola, toasted almonds & goat cheese with a lite raspberry vinegrette.  Sunday we started with a frittata with summer vegetables and dinner was baked ziti with summer vegetables.  Last night, I served black bean burrito bake, yellow rice and rotel with tostitoes.  So far it has been enjoyable.  I have been keeping up with articles about vegetarian deficiences and using variety to maintain proper nutrition.  The whole family seem happy with their meals.  Our son has noticed an increase in energy but I have been lacking in energy.  It has taken a lot of time to research in order to have recipes to make but I am happy for the new recipes.

Fast Food/Fat Food

Well, I am in my 4th (or 6th if you include summer school) semester of college with only one more semester of gen. eds. before I am eligible to attend for the Nutritional Science program. I start my application process later this semester.

This semester one of the classes I am taking is Intro to Nutrition. All I can say is that I am loving it!!! Our current assignment is to plan a days weight loss menu at a fast food restaurant that is also heart healthy. This means that the food item must have less than 30% total fat, 10% saturated fat and for the day, no more than 300 mg of cholesterol.

I texted family and friends to tell me what FF places they would like to know about. I have a list of 7 restaurants and will rate them below.

Arby's only had 3 food items that met the requirements and none of them were breakfast items so for breakfast I listed an applesauce from the kids menu.

Sonic scored even lower. There were only 2 items on the breakfast menu that could be considered at first glance because they were the only 2 that didn't have OVER 3oomg of cholesterol. When I calculated fat percentages those were knocked off also. So Sonic had 2 food items, the veggie burger and apple slices. Oh, you could also have the fat-free caramel dip for your apples.

I was unable to do a menu for Braum's because their nutritional facts are not on their website and I saw some problems with the sites that did list some of their items.

Taco Bueno does not list their cholesterol facts so they must have something to hide.

What a Burger was very limited also. They had a total of 5 food items that met heart healthy guidelines. This included cinnamon rolls, pancakes with or without bacon and 2 salad options but they fail to list dressing on their sight. So to be safe you would have to eat the Grilled Chicken Salad and side salad without dressing.

My 2 favorites were McDonalds and Chick Fil A. They were very good and you didn't feel like you were going to starve to stay within the calorie constraints. So below was what I selected from each.

McDonalds

Breakfast calories total fat sat.fat chol.

Fruit and Yogurt Parfait 160 2 1 5

Coffee 0 0 0 0

Lunch

Prem. SW Salad w/ gr. chick 290 8 2.5 70

Apple Dippers 35 0 0 0

Newman's LF Ses. Ging. Dress. 90 2.5 0 0

Snack

Straw/Ban. Smoothie 12oz. 210 .5 0 5

Dinner

Prem. Gr. Chick. Clas. Sand. 350 9 2 65

Side Salad 20 0 0 0

Newman's LF Ses. Ging. Dress. 90 2.5 0 0

Dessert

Kiddie cone 45 1 .5 5

Total 1290 25.5 6 150

Chick Fil A

Breakfast

Yogurt parfait w/ granola 290 6 2 10

Mixed fruit blend 45 0 0 0

Lunch

Chargrilled Chick Cool Wrap 410 12 4 55

Fruit Cup 70 0 0 0

Dinner

Chargrilled Chick. Sand. 290 4 1 55

Hearty Breast of Chick Soup 140 4 1 25

Total 1245 26 8 145

I think these are great options. McDonalds did give a bit more variety but I would do both of these. So now we know we can eat heart healthy at a fast food restaurant.