Planning Ahead by Portion Control as a Weight Loss Aide

(Be sure to read to the bottom to catch how to bake a 2 minute, single-serving goodie in the microwave.)

I’ve just started taking this advice to heart.
I find if I have a whole bag, box, pan or FULL plate of something available to me, I tend to eat it ALL. I tend to eat whatever I have easy access to.

Here are some examples:

• Grapes– wash and snip them into smaller bunches and even put some into the freezer for a delsih snack
• Nuts – measure out a serving and put into a baggie. Put all this individual serving baggies into one large ziplock bag.
• Cookies and chips – again, divide into individual-serving sizes and put into baggies.
• Whole meals – if I’ve cooked more than one serving, I take out some plates and put one serving size of everything on that plate. I sometimes use the plates with compartments from a frozen dinner. Wrap it up and into the freezer or fridge it goes. Then I sit down to eat my meal.

You get the idea. 🙂

Make sure to divide into ONE serving portions. I use my measuring cups each time.

Last week I learned how to divide up a cake mix into single serving sizes before the cake is baked. Maybe you’ve already tried this. The recipe is Cake in a Mug. And you bake it for 2 minutes in the microwave.

Here’s the recipe for Cake in a Mug.

1.     Find a mug that holds 1  1/2 cups water and is microwavable safe.

2.     Assemble the ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1 (18.25 oz) cake mix – any flavor
• 1 (3.4 oz) instant pudding mix – any flavor that complements cake
• 2  2/3 Cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 Cup powdered drink mix – any flavor that complements cake

3.     Whisk together until well-blended the dry cake mix and the dry pudding mix in a  large bowl.

4.    Divide this dry mixture into 8 baggies. This will be about 1/2 Cup for each baggie.
5.    In another bowl whisk together until well-blended the powdered sugar and dry drink mix.
6.     Divide this dry mixture into 8 baggies. This will be about 1/3 Cup per baggie. This is the glaze mixture.

Instructions to cook one cake:

• Gather the following: 1 egg, 1 Tbsp. water, 1 Tbsp. oil, baggie of cake mixture.
• Generously spray the inside of mug with cooking spray.
• Empty one baggie of dry cake mixture into mug.
• Add the egg, water and oil and stir for 15 seconds. Make sure no dry mix pockets exist.
• Bake in microwave for 2 minutes on full power.

Make Glaze while cake is cooking.
Mix well one baggie of powdered drink mixture with 1  1/2 tsp. water in small bowl.
Pour on top of cake in the mug after it comes out of the microwave. It is best eaten warm.

Be careful – the mug might still be hot.

To be honest – I didn’t make up any packages of glaze since I didn’t have any powdered drink mix. Instead I put several Tbsp. of powdered sugar in a small bowl and stirred in some orange juice until it was a glaze consistency.

I’ve lost 22 pounds by using this idea and daily drinking lots of water. Works for me.

For more ideas, go to Shannon’s Works-For-Me-Wednesday.