Peanut Butter Oat Cake - Crossover!

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Have you ever visited Chocolate Covered Katies website? She makes some fabulous stuff. Pre-THM I made many lovely things from her blog. Since THM I have found that many of her recipes are so close to being on plan, that with minimal changes, they can work for us! I especially LOVE that she's vegan, that makes the EGG FREE part especially easy!

I wanted a yummy treat for my husband today, he has been recovering from an illness and lost a few pounds and could stand the extra calories. I found this lovely little peanut butter cake recipe on her site and with a few changes, it is now a delicious THM crossover! I also made her frosting that is linked in her post. So easy!! (Sadly I am allergic to peanuts, so this isn't for me, however I think any nut or seed butter would work great in here!)

You can find the original recipe here: Frosted Peanut Butter Snack Cake

These are my changes

* I used oat flour for the flour called for, same measurements
* 1/2 cup of sweet blend was plenty to sub for the 1 cup of sweetener she calls for. If you use any other sweetener, I would recommend using the full cup.
* I used a single serving size cup of apple sauce in place of the yogurt. This keeps this one dairy free as well!

I made it in a 9x13 cake pan and it came out a little thin, but still great. Husband and daughter were VERY happy with it! Their review was that it was delicious and they would definitely want it again!

I might try using a square cake pan next time and see if that results in a little deeper cake. Either way, we are happy and this cake will be made regularly around here.

Thank you Chocolate Covered Katie for your hard work and great recipes!

With Joy ~ Tina

Spaghetti! One of my go to meals....easy S Super allergen friendly!

 Spaghetti Squash - a GREAT Fuel Pull Noodle!

 Brown Rice Noodles - These can be used on THM in side serving portions on occasion, be careful, they will still spike your blood sugar!

Not Naughty Rice! This is a fun little addition to my meals! I will chat more about this below....

Albeit a little loved looking, my crockpot is one of my favorite kitchen appliances. She's not pretty, but she sure is useful!

 

Chicken Italian Sausage, these ones are in links from Trader Joes, Isernios is also a great brand, it's an S food.

Mixing it up!

When I first started THM I often thought, "I know why these sisters are so skinny, they are constantly on their feet cooking and cleaning!" :)  There really is a learning curve, and there really are great tricks to minimize that cooking/cleaning time. I am a BIG advocate of cooking in bulk, preparing and using handy tools like my crockpot!

So, this post isn't a ground breaker with some amazing new recipe, this is just an encouragement hat you don't need a lot of time, nor do you HAVE to have fancy ingredients for a great on plan meal. You can do this if you have food allergies. This is a very simple meal, tastes great and can come together with a few minutes of prep time. This is for my drive through Sue sisters!! <3

When I have a very busy day spaghetti is a go to meal for me. I always try to keep the staples for this meal on plan. I always keep my pantry stocked with on plan sauce in a jar, noodles, and spaghetti squash stays good for a very long time. I happened to have "not naughty noodles" here, but they are certainly not needed. I use them to bulk up my portion, I don't feed them to my whole family.

In the morning when I get up, I pull out my crockpot and pour the sauces into the crockpot. If you have a good dry red wine around I would add a splash, it gives the flavor a lovely depth. I then slice up my chicken Italian sausages, this is a favorite since they are precooked and I don't have to cook something. If I don't have them on hand, cooking up a pound of ground beef or Italian sausage will also do, it's just a little more work. I turn the crockpot on low and away I go!

If it's a VERY busy day, I will pull out my second and larger crockpot and put a couple of inches of water in it. I then place my spaghetti squash in and turn to low, OH! Be sure to pierce it a couple of times. It will be ready when you are ready for dinner. If you have time otherwise and don't use a second crockpot, put the oven to 450 and let bake for about 40 minutes. I slice mine in half and clean it out first, placing cut side down on a cookie sheet.

Now truthfully, you could stop here. You now have a veggie and a complete S meal. You could add a salad to round it out nicely and a bagged salad would accompany this quick meal nicely.

If you have very hungry people in your home and need noodles too, I will often set a pot of water on the stove in the morning so all I have to do is turn it on to cook the noodles when I fly in the door.

Brown rice noodles are an on plan option on occasion in side serving portions. If you use a lean meat in your sauce this could be an E. Any other meat would make it a crossover with the noodles. For me, if I want noodles, I serve up my portion and add a lot of spaghetti squash. It makes me feel as if I have a bowl full of food and not missing out. It's a great little trick.

ORRRRRR, if you happen to have not naughty noodles or not naughty rice on hand, you can just rinse and use that! Which is what I did tonight. I would have taken a picture to show you my finished meal, but my family all agreed that it's not as pretty with the rice....so I will leave that to your imagination. It was DELICIOUS!

**Please note, this post contains affiliate links! Any purchase made through them helps support my blog and my family. Thank you for blessing us with your purchase!**

With Joy ~ Tina

My Trim Healthy Man

**Please note, this post contains affiliate links! Any purchase made through them helps support my blog and my family. Thank you for blessing us with your purchase!**

This is my Trim Healthy Man :)
I love him <3

He's a hard working man and eats a lot more than I do. He can also handle crossovers, and to be honest, I don't think he is really aware of what an S, E or Crossover is. He just eats what I make and he loves both the food and how he feels! He works in the trades so his food options are a bit more limited in that he doesn't have access to refrigeration or heating. Everything I make has to be able to go into his lunchbox and be easy to eat on the go. I notice a lot of ladies looking for quick meals or snacks as well as ideas for their THMen.

On my blog I try to have everything allergy friendly, especially egg free, since I feel that is a huge challenge on THM. However, this post I will be listing the foods my husband eats on the go at work. His only allergy is wheat...lucky duck. He also eats more S meals and snacks than anything else, we have learned that too many carbs and he gets achiness in his body. So while he has E's on a regular basis, he feels optimal on more S meals.

Here is a list of things I pack on a regular basis for my husbands lunches:

• hard boiled eggs
• BIM sandwiches (deli meat, tuna, chicken salad, egg salad)
• oat flour pancakes made into PB&J sandwiches
• cucumbers or bell peppers and hummus
• frozen berries with greek yogurt and sweetener in a plastic container
• mixed nuts
• fresh fruit
• applesauce cups
• cheese sticks (string cheese)
• MIM
• Oven MIM recipe for multiple muffins
• scones
• chocolate chip cookies
• chocolate cupcakes
• Salad in a jar (taco salads, chef salads)
• Lettuce wrap sandwiches
• olives
• dill pickles
• chocolate nut slab pieces
• 86% dark chocolate chunks
• peanut butter  or almond butter on celery sticks
• carrot sticks
• zucchini sliced thin with peeler and rolled up with lean deli meat
• Vitamin Water Zero
• Zevia Pop
• Oven Flax Crackers
• Kombucha

As an example, this is what is packed right now for his meals tomorrow, he needs breakfast, snack and lunch while he's gone. He has 2 hard boiled eggs, yogurt with blueberries and sweetener, a bag of mixed nuts, a banana,  a lean chicken breast sandwich on MIM, applesauce cup and a muffin in a mug.

My hubby just recently purchased one of these EBags lunch totes. The insides zip out and can be replaced if needed as well as for making easy cleanup! He really likes the multiple pockets and handy features!




My husband has been on plan for almost a year now. I had been on plan before him, and while he would enjoy some of my foods, he wasn't really interested in committing to the plan for himself. He was having some medical issues, rising cholesterol numbers, thyroid issue, blood sugar numbers increasing and a few other little issues were starting to show up in his blood work. As I mentioned, he also struggled with chronic body pains and tendonitis. He was not very over weight (maybe 10 pounds), but he was showing signs that he needed to do something to regain his best health possible. He decided to give the plan a go, which was an easy transition since I was already on plan and it was working great for me.

I didn't even take the time to explain things to him. He just knew to eat what I made, stay away from sugar when he was away from home and he already cannot have bread so that was easy. He also knows to look for high protein options if he's out and looking for something to eat.

Within 3 months of being on plan his cholesterol returned to a normal range, he lost the 10 pounds, his blood sugar dropped to normal as well. We were thrilled! The doctor was thrilled! Not only was his blood work showing the great improvement, but he physically felt so much better! The achiness reduced greatly, with some help from the doctor and the change in diet, the tendonitis cleared up. He was able to feel great again without the help of ibuprofen! He was fully sold out on this plan and doesn't even want to stray from it. He enjoys the occasional treat off plan, but for the most part, he feels so good, his blood work is so excellent that he works hard to stay on plan at all times. AMAZING! We are praising God for his health today and for this wonderful plan.

What

E meal - Sloppy Joes, in the crockpot (Can also be S or CO)

**Please note, this post contains affiliate links! Any purchase made through them helps support my blog and my family. Thank you for blessing us with your purchase!**

Oooooohhhhh...myyyyyy..this was really delicious. Who doesn't like Sloppy Joes? They are always a hit in my home. What a wonderful, warm and filling dinner. Comfort food. This is a wonderful sweet and spicy adaptation of a recipe I received years ago from menu mailer.
I also love getting up in the morning and throwing everything in the crockpot and letting it work all day while I get other things done. Especially on a busy homeschool day spent running errands and visiting friends. Come home to a house that smells heavenly.

For this meal, I decided to put this over white baked sweet potatoes (orange would also work). They make a great compliment to the flavors in the sloppy joes sauce. On the side I made a large side salad and topped it with a quick and easy "honey" mustard dressing. The Trim Hip Honey Mustard in the book would work great for this meal.

Other ideas you could use in this meal:

S - don't worry about rinsing the beef and pour over spaghetti squash, make bread in a mug and have a true sloppy joe sandwich  or sautee zucchini or cabbage and pour meat on top.

CO - use a fattier ground beef, a nice grass fed with all that healthy fat, use the sweet potato and you have a crossover. You could add a sprinkle of cheese on top if you would like.

Crockpot Sloppy Joes
Serves 6
1.5 pound extra lean ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove chopped
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped

1/2 cup tomato sauce (be sure it has no added sugar)
1/4 cup on plan ketchup
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons THM sweet blend (2 T truvia or other erythritol stevia blend)
1 teaspoon black strap molasses
2 Tablespoons mustard
2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons chili powder

Brown ground beef with onions, garlic and celery, add in bell pepper about half way through. Rinse to make as lean as possible for an E meal.

Add the remainder of the ingredients to the crockpot and stir well. When ground beef mixture is finished, add to the crockpot and stir well.

Cook on High for 3-4 hours or on low 6-8.

I cook this dish in my 3 quart crockpot, mines plain white, but isn't this one so cute!!




If you have a second crockpot you can put your sweet potatoes in there all day or about an hour before dinner is ready, pop them in your oven at 375, be sure to prick them with a fork. They should take about an hour. A fork should pierce easily when done.

With joy ~ Tina