I don’t know why it is, but when I was a kid, having breakfast food for dinner seemed like a treat. To my mom, it was probably just a night off from having to cook a substantial meal for us, but regardless, I loved having breakfast food for dinner. It wasn’t like she dropped a bowl of cereal in front of us. We would have pancakes, or eggs and bacon, that kind of breakfast food.

Sometimes I’ll do similar for my kids, but I’ve changed it up a bit. Tonight, we had crepes for dinner. More specifically, we had fresh berry crepes. Here’s the simple recipe I use to make the crepes:

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole-grain all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 Tbs melted butter
• 1/4 tsp salt

Combine the flour and 2 eggs, then slowly add the water, milk, melted butter, and salt.  Mix gently until evenly blended.  Heat a non-stick pan on med-high heat for about 2 minutes.  Spray pan with cooking spray, then pour some of the crepe batter onto the pan (about enough to cover a medium-size pan).   Cook for about 2 minutes then flip and let cook for about 1 more minute.  This recipe should make about 6 crepes.

Using the method above, I’ll cook each crepe individually.  I keep the oven on low and keep the crepes warm as I finishing cooking more or them.

I place one of the crepes on an empty plate and add a handful of blueberries and raspberries.  Next, I add a dollop of low-fat, organic vanilla yogurt.  After that, I wrap the crepe up, spray a little whip cream on top, and sprinkle a few random berries and a small amount of powdered-sugar to garnish.  Voila!  The crepe is ready to serve.

I usually get nothing but rave-reviews from my really picky kids.  Bon appetit!

It’s amazing how quickly I have fallen back into poor eating habits. The strange thing is that I prefer to eat healthy foods. So why then, is my belly suddenly growing at this horrifyingly rapid pace?! I think I know what my problem is. In fact I DO know what my problem is.

I am not an uncontrollable eater who feasts on junk food all day long. My problem is that I fail to plan ahead. The past four weeks have been VERY busy for me. I have been burning the candle at both ends – going to bed too late and getting up early as well. I rarely get more than five hours of sleep in a night. Studies have shown that sleep plays an big role in maintaining a healthy weight. Too much or too little sleep, and your waistline can pay the price for it.

Lately, when I wake up, I am so tired (due to a lack of sleep) that I am getting out of bed too late. I begin my frantic morning rush and eating is always an after-thought. In fact, I have rarely been eating anything before I leave the house. What I have been doing, is stopping at McDonald’s way too frequently mid-way to work (about the time my stomach is nagging me like crazy for some fuel). So I stop and do a quick breakfast in the car on the road. Too many calories that could have been avoided had I planned better. Perhaps I should have had my breakfast ready to go the night before, waiting for me in the fridge to grab and run.

After work, I again find myself starving and ready for some food. Many of the nights these past weeks, I have had functions or other commitments to attend directly from work. Again, I have not planned ahead for this and I find myself stopping for fast-food. It’s truly not that I prefer to eat this food, it’s just that it is fast and convenient. Unfortunately, it’s another caloric-blast that quickly finds its way to my midsection. It’s really not an eating problem for me, it’s a planning problem.

So, if I had to re-write Dieting For Dummies (from my perspective), I would make certain I included a chapter or two about planning ahead. It’s about being smart and looking at your schedule and remembering that we are human beings and we need a source of energy to keep going. Right now, I plan to look at my calendar to see what my next couple of days ahead look like. I need to remember that somewhere between all these commitments, I have to eat. I have a peach and yogurt waiting in a little bag in the fridge, if I can only remember to grab them in the morning…

I wanted to pass along a tip that may already be obvious to some of you.

For whatever reason, in the past, I have rarely been able to make it through a complete loaf of bread before it becomes moldy. Surprisingly often, mold sets in on the loaf within a week?! I used to keep the loaf in its original packaging on top of the refrigerator. After wasting countless loaves of bread, I no longer go this route.

Now, I will buy-in on buy-one-get-one-free bread sales and from the start, I keep the loaves in the freezer. I have found that doing so has a few benefits. First, as I stated, I am able to take advantage of good sale prices on bread. Second, I have used the bread after freezing for over a month, and haven’t noticed any significant loss of taste quality. Third, when I use the bread to pack my kids lunch, they have noticed that their sandwiches no longer get soggy or mushy by lunchtime.

To be clear, I keep the bread in the freezer until I use it. Each time I use the bread, I take a couple slices from the loaf in the freezer and use (I do not take the whole loaf out until used). If I want to use for a sandwich that I am making to eat immediately, I simply put the slices I need in the microwave and defrost for about 1 minute. Is the bread as fresh and soft as bread brought back from the store and not frozen? Probably not, but I truly haven’t noticed a loss in taste quality (and it usually stays pretty soft). Besides, for me, the benefits far outweigh the downsides.

Take care, Dave