Everything I've learned about health & fitness, I learned in the last 6 months

I have to say, I've learned a lot about health and fitness in the last 6 months and its not what you think....

Well, let's start from the beginning, I've learned a lot about myself in the last year but mostly in the last 6 months. In the last 6 months, what I've learned the most has to do with how I feel about fitness and exercising and diet. I've pretty much been eating whatever I want over the last 6 months, and I must say, it's been quite marvelous, indeed. And let me just clarify what "whatever I want" means...yes I have been eating pizza, chicken wings, burgers and fries, but I've also been eating pasta free zucchini lasagna (recipe coming soon!), chicken with roasted broccoli, and smoothies. The reality of it is, I love eating healthy, but I also love eating shit food sometimes and I've learned to not feel bad about it. Let me repeat, I like eating shit food and I DON'T FEEL BAD ABOUT IT! The second I realized that, it's like a little light bulb went off in my head. I mean, who am I really feeling bad for? Not me!

I feel like everyone is so consumed with trying to keep up with this "image" of being thin and fit. Who said you have to maintain a certain image? That's crazy! We have vision boards in our home and the main image on mine was a picture of a bikini fitness model. I took that down a couple months ago. I've finally realized exactly what I want to look like. Are you ready? ME! I just want to look like me. So I'm owning that shit, dammit! I also realized that previously, all the killing myself in the gym and doing my best to eat as clean as possible wasn't for me. It was because I felt like I had. Don't get me wrong, I love exercising. But I don't like feeling obligated to do it and feeling bad when I just didn't feel like it. So I stopped feeling obligated and I stopped feeling bad. Now, have I put on weight? Yup. But it's all good. I'll just buy bigger jeans ;)

Now, I haven't stopped exercising though. But I have stopped going to the gym and feeling obligated to be in the gym 4-5 days a week, which, by the way, is really hard to feel motivated to do when you're a nurse. It's an exhausting career, to say the least. But I am totally ok with doing yoga in my living room via Netflix and going for a run. Besides, yoga pants are really comfy. Also, I love me some wine. So I've stopped feeling like I need to limit the amount of alcohol I drink because of the calories. 

The other major, and I mean MAJOR, thing I've come to accept is my body type. Your DNA dictates how your body looks and the results you will get from exercising. That was definitely a tough pill to swallow because you can't change your DNA. I mean I love all the junk in the trunk I've got but getting really muscular, ripped legs just isn't happening. And I've been woking out for years, some years more so than others. I've done pretty much everything I could do to get those results, with no avail, shy of living on a competition diet (which is definitely not realistic or healthy for your body for an extended period of time). And I'm a realist. So I live realistically now-a-days and I'm totally fine with it. I have cellulite. It is what it is. Nobody's perfect. Don't get me wrong, I haven't become a lazy bum that lives on the couch eating day old cold pizza and drinking wine all day, every day. Just some days :)

In the end, do whatever works for you. If you love being a gym rat and eating as clean as possible, do it and own it. If you're overweight and happy with it, own it. But whatever you choose to do, healthy or not, do it for yourself and screw societies image of what you should or shouldn't look like. Ok, that was pretty cheesy, but it's true nonetheless. 

Pat's (Vegan) Black & Raspy Muffins

This new recipe comes from one of my big brothers, Patrick. In addition to these muffins being vegan, they're lactose and dairy free! This is because my SIL is lactose intolerant and, well, it's just not fair making muffins your wife can't eat. Needless to say, cooking is a huge thing in our family and one of our favorite past times. The second is eating said food. Pat also has an AMAZING Raspberry Cheesecake with an Oreo crust recipe that I may be able to pry from his hands. We'll see. Anyways, prior to me posting the recipe to these I have to mention that I have not made these muffins yet, so I have no idea how they taste. But I have a lot of Pat's other baked goods and....they're delicious! So I think it's safe to assume, these will be too. But you guys be the judge and let me know what you think! I'll pass it on...

Pat's (Vegan) Black & Raspy Muffins

1⁄2 cup of vegan margarine 

1 cup raw sugar

1-1 1⁄4 pureed banana

8 oz. pureed blackberries 

1 tsp. vanilla

3⁄4 tsp. baking soda

1⁄4 tsp. salt

2 cups whole wheat flour 

1⁄2 cup almond milk

8 oz. raspberries (halved) 

Raw sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 375°. Grease or line 18 standard muffin cups (or 12 large muffin cups). In a large bowl, mix butter on high until creamy. Mix in sugar. Reduce mixer speed to medium, and add pureed banana. Reduce mixer speed again to low-medium, and mix in pureed blackberries and vanilla. Mix in baking soda and salt. Fold in half of the whole wheat flour and then half of the almond milk, then repeat with the other halves. Last, fold in the raspberries. Spoon into muffin cups and sprinkle with raw sugar immediately. Bake for 15- 20 minutes (closer to 15 for standard muffins and closer to 20 for large muffins), or until they start to turn golden brown and spring back when touched. 

There you go folks! This recipe is straight from my email. I did not alter it in any way. Except fix typos...Enjoy!

Photo by: Patrick Ryan

Paleo Banana Bread

Before I start I have to say that the base of this recipe is coconut flour and if you're not use to eating it, well....it takes some getting use to. Needless to say, it doesn't always go over well. BUT, it's really good for you and loaded with fiber. The problem with coconut flour is it's very dry...and a little pricey. So the way to get around that in this recipe is to use VERY ripe bananas. I'm talking about the pretty much black ones that are on the verge of being spoiled. The more ripe they are, the more moist they are and it compensates for the dryness of the coconut flour. With that said, the taste is the same as a typical banana bread, which means it's just as yummy! 

Another recipe I jacked off Pinterest and did it my own way.

Paleo Banana Bread

⅔ c Coconut Flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

3 ripe bananas, mashed

6 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a small bowl, set aside. Mash bananas in a large bowl (I used a potato masher), and add remaining wet ingredients. Mix well. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until well blended. Pour mix into a greased bread pan and place in the oven for 45-50 mins. 

Dry ingredients

Mashed bananas

Wet ingredients with bananas

Now a yummy way to jazz this recipe up is to add a teaspoon of pumpkin spice seasoning or put a mix of turbinado and cinnamon on top of the mix prior to placing it in the oven for a really sweet crunch! This recipe wasn't a big hit in my house but only because of the coconut flour and, the other downside to it, it's grittiness. Obviously, you could sub out coconut flour for almond flour, since I really have done a good job of making coconut flour sound that appetizing. BUT then it wouldn't be Paleo! Hope you guys enjoy this one!

Cabbage and Chicken Soup

I know it's been forever since I've posted on here but I'M BACK! And I've changed the name of the blog too because this name is more fun and more cooler! One of my coworkers made a delicious cabbage and chicken soup (that I sampled) that is the inspiration for this recipe. What's cool about this recipe is, you can add whatever veggies you'd like. She added okra to her's, which I really liked, but totally forgot to buy. Anyways, this recipe make a lot of soup and it's really good.

Cabbage and Chicken Soup

1 package of organic chicken breast cutlets (about 3-4 cutlets)

1/2 of a small head of green cabbage

1/2 of a small vidalia onion

1 small bag of frozen corn

4 carrots peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces

1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes (I used Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes)

1 vegan bouillon cube (I used Rapunzel vegan vegetable bouillon)

Salt, black pepper and garlic powder to taste

A dash of cayenne powder

Preheat oven on broil. Season chicken to your liking and place chicken in oven to cook. This shouldn't take more than about 10 minutes MAX as these are cutlets and they aren't very thick. I seasoned my chicken with Borsari seasoned salt that I get from Whole Foods.

Cut up veggies and place in a big ass pot. Empty can of tomatoes into said big ass pot. Then fill can up with water and empty water into big ass pot as well. Throw in your bouillon cube and seasonings and put stove on medium heat. While this chicken is cooking, place lid on the pot and let it simmer.

Cut cooked chicken breasts into cubes and throw in big ass pot with everything else, when finished cooking. Leave stove on medium heat for approximately 20 minutes and then reduce to low and let simmer an additional 25 minutes or until veggies are to your desired tenderness. I like my veggies with a little crunch, so 45 minutes was exactly right for me. Longer, obviously, will yield softer veggies. 

The great thing about this soup is...you can do whatever you want with it! Thank you Terry for inspiring me and I hope you guys enjoy this one!

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

So I'm just gonna get straight to the point here: THESE ARE AMAZING!!!! Ok, now that I got that out, we can get started. Another recipe I found on Pinterest, but jazzed up! This is also a simple recipe and is gluten free as well. Let's get to it:

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/2 cups of almond flour

1/2 tsp of baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 tbsp cinnamon

1/2 cup chocolate chips (or raw cacao nibs, if you can get them)

1/2 cup grape seed oil

1/2 cup agave

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. First, mix all the dry ingredients. I used Ghiradelli 60% Cacao chips because they actually didn't have any raw cacao nips at Fresh Market. Still just as good though. Second, mix all the wet ingredients. Then pour the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients and mix everything together. I don't have a mixer so I just did this by hand, it's really not that difficult anyways and it all mixes together pretty quick.

Spoon dough onto a greased or lined cookie sheet. I used a teaspoon, and I'm glad I did as they expanded, tremendously, during baking.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 mins. Let cool first, then remove from the sheet, it'll be easier.

Again, these are so freaking DELICIOUS!! Try these yourself and let me know what you think. I understand that if you do not have a gmail account you cannot reply or comment on my blog, but since I post these on Facebook and Pinterest, feel free to comment there and let me know. Enjoy and thanks for being healthy!!

Balsamic Parsnips

So these are a great side to, well...ANYTHING. They're easy to make and they just so happen to be yummy, as well! So if you don't know what a parsnip looks like, it looks like this...

So basically, they look like white carrots. They're softer than carrots and have a totally different flavor, they're kinda sweet. But they're great! This recipe is simple, so let's get to it:

Balsamic Parsnips

4 parsnips, peeled

1/2 tbsp agave

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp thyme


Preheat the oven to 425. Mix all the ingredients except the parsnips in a bowl. Then cut the parsnips in half then in quarters. The thicker the pieces, the longer they take to cook. Toss the cut parsnips in the balsamic mixture and coat well.

Lay the parsnips on a lined or greased cookie sheet, in a single layer. Place in the oven for 20 mins. Turning about halfway through, 10 mins into it. Remove from the oven when the time is up and enjoy!

Thanks for being healthy!

Smashed Partatoes

Soooo what we initially paired this with last night for dinner, honestly, wasn't really a good combo. And it's not because anything I made didn't taste good. I just think that the flavors involved in this and the flavors of the crab cakes and shrimp we made last night were clashing. But I paired this recipe with today with my Sweet Baby Ray's Burgers (see previous post), and what a combo!

I know you're probably like,"This dumbass misspelled potatoes, what an idiot!" Yeah, I totally didn't. I mean, potatoes obviously isn't spelled like that but for what's in this recipe, the spelling is fitting and correct. Parsnips + Potatoes= Partatoes. The combo of the two is actually really good and love the aroma of parsnips as they're cooking. And even if you've never had parsnips before, the flavors of EVERYTHING else that's involved in the recipe, including the potatoes, covers up the taste of them. Just in case you were worried about not liking the way they taste.

I used Yukon Gold potatoes for this because they're softer, so they cook faster, and I like the darker yellow color they have. Parsnips are softer too so they cook in the same amount of time as the potatoes. Ready Freddy?

Smashed Partatoes

3 medium Yukon Gold Potatoes, unpeeled

4 large organic parsnips, peeled

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp onion powder

Sea salt and pepper to taste

After peeling the parsnips and NOT peeling the potatoes, chop them up into large chunks. Takes less time to cook. Boil the partato combo on high for approximately 30-40 mins or until soft and easy to split with a fork. Drain partatoes and throw them back in the empty pot. Smash them up a little with a potato masher, then add the remaining ingredients. Depending on how smooth you like your partatoes. I like mine lumpy. After you've reached the desired lumpiness, mix with a spoon to ensure all the seasonings and butter spread evenly throughout.

Notice I didn't use any milk? That's ANOTHER great reason to use the Yukon Gold. Since they're softer, they're more moist as well. So no need for the milk, and the extra calories.

If you wanted to use fresh garlic, that would be a great idea. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Thanks for being healthy!

Sweet Baby Ray's Burgers

So I just made these and they're AHMAZING!!! This is actually totally my own recipe and not one I tweaked, like I usually do. This is actually the first time I've used the 95% lean grass fed ground beef, and it definitely will not be the last! It tastes so much better and cleaner! I'm in love ::sigh::

I really love cooking on my days off. I just like to look in my spice cabinet, look in the freezer, look back in the spice cabinet, look in the fridge and then I decide what I'm cooking and what's going in it. This method generally works out well, in case you were wondering. This method worked out very well for this recipe as well.

I'm really not a fan of consuming things with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) in it (mostly because my brother is allergic to corn), for obvious reasons, but I love me some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce. I can't help it. It's delicious. And its so good that I'm afraid to try an all natural brand with no HFCS in it and then it's gonna suck and I'll just end up pissed. So, after much thought. It's decided. I'm sticking with the Ray's. I found 1 burger to be plenty when I ate these, but that may be because I ate it with my Smashed Partatoes (that's the next recipe btw), so everything was quite filling. Let's get this party started:

Sweet Baby Ray's Burgers

1lb 95% lean grass fed ground beef

1/4 cup of Sweet Baby Ray's Original BBQ sauce

2 tbsp minced garlic

1/4 cup minced onions

Pinch of black pepper (eyeball it)

Pinch of Borsari seasoned salt (again, eyeball it)

In a medium bowl add all the ingredients, including the beef, and mix throughly. I used my hand to mix it, it just works better. I actually put this back in the fridge for like 2 hours, only because I made this mixture ahead of time and wasn't ready to cook it yet. But there's no reason why you can't cook these immediately after combining everything.

Form patties to the size of your liking. I made decent sized patties, so 1 lb yielded 4 burgers. I cooked these stove top, cuz I'm afraid of using the grill (long story). But I'm sure they'd be sooooo much better on the grill. I cooked these about 7 minutes on each side total, over medium heat. I turned them a few times so as to brown evenly. You can cook them less or more depending on your desired "doneness."

Did I mention these came out amazing?!? Seriously though. Amazing. I also fried some plantains to eat with this. I did put about 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil in the pan for the burgers, but no oil for the plantains. You really don't necessarily need it if you have a good non-stick pan.

I hope you enjoy these as much as we did!! Thanks for being healthy!!

Pumpkin Spice Banana Muffins

Yet again, another recipe I took off Pinterest, but didn't really like some of the ingredients, so I jazzed it up!! These are easy and yummy for anytime. Another gluten free and dairy recipe, for all my friends and family members that cannot eat those things. Which is why I post so many gluten and dairy free recipes. Plus, I like not feeling all bloated and stuff after eating gluten ;-) Here we go!

Pumpkin Spice Banana Muffins

1/2 cup almond flour/meal

1/4 tsp baking SODA (not powder)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp pumpkin spice seasoning

6 packets of Stevia

4 eggs

1/3 cup almond milk

1 banana

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tin or use paper muffin cups to line pan. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl first. In a food processor or blender, blend eggs, milk and banana. Blend well. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well. Fill muffin cups approximately 3/4 full and bake for 20-25 mins.

This should yield 12 muffins. Now, the muffin pan I have has slightly larger cups so this recipe yielded 9 muffins for me. Either way, they're YUMMY! And at only 81 calories a serving, eat 'em up!! Ohh these would be super yummy with a scoop of almond milk ice cream on top or a spread of some raspberry preserves (seedless, of course). Add whatever you'd like to them and thanks for being healthy!

Breakfast Cookies

These are so YUMMMYYYY!!! And you can eat them for breakfast!! What's better than cookies for breakfast?! These are super hearty and are basically like eating your morning bowl of oatmeal, but in cookie form that you can just grab and go. You can play with these a little by adding in nuts, or different fruits. You can add the protein, or not. It's up to you. I have made these with and without the protein and they taste great either way, honestly. So, here we go:

Breakfast Cookies

3 ripe bananas, mashed

2 cups of rolled oats

1/3 cup of unsweetened apple sauce

1/4 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1 tsp of cinnamon

1/2 cup of Craisins

1/4 cup of nuts (sliced almonds, chopped walnuts, etc.), optional

1 scoop of protein powder (optional)

After mashing the bananas, add the remaining ingredients into the bowl with the bananas and mix. Let sit for about 5 minutes to allow the oats to soak up the liquid. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spoon cookie mixture onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. 

Now, these are not your typical cookies. They will be soft, and a little rubbery, to be honest, because there is no flour and they're very moist. If you don't like Craisins, you can do raisins instead. Also, if you decide to add 1 scoop of protein powder, then you need to double to amount of almond milk to 1/2 cup. Also, you can add some Stevia, Truvia, or Splenda to sweeten it. I really don't think it needs it though, but it's up to you. These are so good in the morning and you can just throw it in the microwave for about 20 seconds and you're good to go. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. Thanks for being healthy!  

Rosemary Lemon Chicken Kabob

I COMPLETELY forgot about this recipe I made one night. And it was so good too! Super easy to make (as usual) and full of flavor! I love the flavor of the lemon with the rosemary and the chicken. Super light as well ;) Let's get to it!

Rosemary Lemon Chicken Kabob

4 boneless skinless chicken breast (I really don't use anything else)

1/4 cup of lemon juice

2 TBSP of extra virgin olive oil

2 pinches of dried rosemary or fresh

2 gloves of minced garlic

Dash of black pepper

Dash of Borsari Seasoned Salt (or sea salt is fine too)

Skewers

Onions and bell peppers, chopped into chunks 

Mix all the ingredients, except the chicken, in a bowel. You may want to use a whisk so the oil and lemon juice blend completely. Cut the chicken into chunks and toss in the lemon juice mixture. You can also toss the veggies in the marinade as well, if you want. Place chicken and veggies on skewers, in whatever fashion you desire and grill. If you have some pineapple, you can slice that and grill that too. It's really good grilled. It brings out the sweetness! I didn't eat any sides with this one, BUT this would pair well with a salad or maybe some sauteed green beans. Either way, it's yummy! I hope you guys enjoy this as much as we did. Thanks for being healthy!

Healthy Snacks & Desserts

Now for the good stuff!! I get bored easily with food and really try not to eat the same thing all the time, so I take great pleasure in finding new and different HEALTHY snacks. I'm not really a sweets person either but every now and then, I gotta have something. And short of driving over to Menchie's or any other self-serve frozen yogurt place, I like eating my own sweets that are better for me. We'll start with the snacks!

I love me some potato chips! But regular potato chips are way to fattening and greasy. So my go-to chips for snacking are the Kettle brand Baked Chips. They still have that awesome kettle cooked crunch, but without all the grease and not nearly all the fat. And for 120 calories for 20 chips, I'll take it! All the flavors are good, but the Salt and Vinegar and the Barbeque are my faves!! Check out all their baked flavors: http://www.kettlebrand.com/our_products/baked_chips/?pid=19#/our_products/baked_chips/?pid=19. You can get them at Whole Foods and Target. Haven't seen them in Publix, sorry.

Another food I like to snack on is rice cakes! But not the flavorful kind. I like the plain jane, salt free rice cakes. But not by themselves (cuz that's really not appetizing), I like to lather them bad boys up with some all natural peanut butter or (my favorite) Dark Chocolate Almond Butter! Publix makes their own peanut butter. Also, you can make your own peanut and almond butter at Whole Foods and Fresh Market. And if you keep them refrigerated, the oil doesn't separate, by the way. I really love the almond butter and it's super smooth. It's also great paired with apples. Just an FYI, all natural peanut butter, or almond butter, should really only have 1-2 ingredients in it. And the first one should be peanuts or almonds. There shouldn't be sugar in it. That's not all natural. Peanut butter should be just mashed up peanuts. Keep that in mind.

A new snack that you can make at home is roasted chickpeas. Found the recipe on Pinterest (of course) and its super simple.

Roasted Chickpeas

2 cans of low sodium chickpeas

1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon (or whatever seasoning you'd like)

2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Rinse the chickpeas well and place them on paper towel lined cookie sheet and dry them thoroughly. Once dried, place them in a bowel and add the olive oil and cinnamon (or whatever seasoning you want). Toss them chickpeas to thoroughly coat. Once coated place them on a cookie sheet in a single layer and bake for 45 mins. Stirring once. Now, if you're gonna use a spicy seasoning, you're probably not gonna want to use 1 1/2 tsp, unless you want it extra spicy. These are awesome because they're nice and crunchy and chickpeas are LOADED with fiber! 1/2 cup is a serving, so eat 'em up!

Now for the sweets! I'm not a huge fan of cookies, but I really love these:

They're gluten free, dairy free, AND nut free. But they aren't flavor free ;) These cookies are crunchy but they taste delicious. Totally not what you'd expect from something gluten free. They also come in sugar and chocolate chip flavors. Again, I get these at Whole Foods. Not sure if they sell them at Publix, cuz I've never checked. But they're awesome, nonetheless. They were created by a doctor. Check out the website for other locations to buy them: http://www.drlucys.com/.

As far as ice cream goes, I recently fell in love with almond milk ice cream. The So Delicious brand is AMAZING! They also make these little ice cream sandwiches that are only 90 calories and they're just the perfect amount of junk food.

This is great because it's dairy free for all those lactose intolerant peeps out there. It's also soy free for those that stay away from that as well. Plus, almonds pack all those good fats. You can't burn the bad fat without the good fats folks! I hope you enjoy these snacks and desserts as much as I do. There are tons more out there, but these are my faves. All you have to do is look. Thanks for snacking healthy!
 

Balsamic Chickpea Salad

I know it's been a while but I finally had the time to add this one! Made this one while on vacation a couple weeks ago and my brother Ty loved it! This salad is loaded with fiber and best served chilled. Plus, it's got a nice little kick to it!

Balsamic Chickpea Salad

1 can of low sodium chickpea's

1/2 of a seedless cucumber, skinned and cut into cubes

1/2 of an orange bell pepper, cut into cubes

5 grape tomatoes, sliced and seeded

1/8 cup of extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp of rice wine vinegar

1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar

1/4 tsp of cumin

1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper

 

After cutting the bell peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes, place everything in a bowl, including the seasonings, olive oil, chickpea's and vinegar's, and stir. This is good served immediately, but it's better served after being chilled for an hour or two. 

Now, you don't have to use an orange bell pepper, you can use whatever color bell pepper you have or want, but it gives the salad a nice color. I just like this because of all the fiber from the chickpeas! Plus, there's some protein in there too! Hope you guys enjoy this as much as my brother and I did! Thanks for being healthy!

Honey Garlic Chicken

So this one, I actually don't have a picture of, as I am out of town, but really wanted to share this with you guys. But the next time I make it, I will take a pic. Again, another recipe I got off Pinterest and tweaked. This one is a little more complicated, but I swapped out regular flour for almond flour.

Honey Garlic Chicken

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in half

1/2 cup of almond flour/meal

4 tsp of black pepper

2 tsp of salt-free garlic and herb seasoning

Honey Garlic sauce

1/2 cup of low/reduced sodium Tamari (gluten free soy sauce)

1/2 cup raw wildflower honey

2 tbsp minced garlic

2 tsp of black pepper

In a bowl, mix the almond flour, black pepper, and garlic and herb seasoning. After cutting the chicken breasts in half (or buying the thin cut breasts), place the breasts in the almond flour mix, coating each side well. Broil the chicken for approximately 8-10 mins on each side.

While the chicken is cooking, in a small sauce pan, over medium heat, add all the ingredients listed for the sauce and stir until the honey thins out and blends. Remove from heat. When the chicken is finished cooking, place the chicken in a bowl and pour the sauce over the chicken breasts. You're probably going to want to turn the chicken breasts and pour more over the other side. I wouldn't suggest you just dump the entire sauce on the chicken, as it does not need a lot and you will have excess.

What I really like about this recipe is the nice kick the chicken gets from all the black pepper. And it's very tasty. This was boyfriend approved! This pairs very nicely with the Mango Cucumber salad I posted previously. Just saying. Thanks for being healthy!

Skinny Protein Pancakes

Another recipe I got off Pinterest (get use to it, there's more to come), that was already healthy but I tweaked it a little. These pancakes are simple and have only 7 ingredients. Not to mention, they're freaking DELICIOUS!! As well as low carb. Those of you that have had whole wheat pancakes, these taste very similar, but without all the carbs. Just don't smother them in butter and pancake syrup, ok?

Skinny Protein Pancakes

1/2 cup uncooked rolled or whole oats

2 egg whites

1/2 cup vanilla almond milk

1/2 banana

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (McCormick has no high fructose corn syrup)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 scoop protein powder

Combine all the ingredients listed above in a blender and blend on high until well blended, approx. 15-20 secs. Cook over medium heat until you see a few little bubbles appear, then flip and repeat. This recipe yields about 5-6 pancakes. The recipe I made this morning yielded 5. Needless to say, I ate them all...The original recipe for this does not include the protein or the almond milk, but it's so much better with it. Even if you don't consume protein powder, eliminate it from the recipe and just use the other 6 ingredients. The protein powder adds sweetness to it, so if you choose not to use it, you may want to add some agave nectar or honey to sweeten the deal.

I use Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Natural 100% Whey, because it is all natural and does not have any artificial sweeteners in it. It's pretty fantastic actually. And it's the best tasting protein powder I've had. You could also make this a gluten free meal by using almond flour instead of oats, and eliminating the protein powder.  If you choose to use almond flour, there's no need to put this mix in the blender.

Pair these with some egg whites and extra lean turkey bacon, and you're good to go! Oh and here are the nutrition facts per pancake. Thanks for being healthy!

Skinny Protein Pancakes Nutrition:

• Calories: 86
• Fat: 1 g
• Sodium: 72.3 mg
• Carb: 10.5 g
• Sugar: 3.8 g
• Protein: 8.5 g

Again, this is PER PANCAKE. Please keep that in consideration, because you probably won't eat just 2 of these ;) 

Mango Cucumber Salad

I made this one day after getting a similar recipe from Whole Foods. It's super easy and it's yummy! This posts gonna be short and sweet:
Mango Cucumber Salad

3 slightly under ripe mangoes

1 seedless cucumber, peeled

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

2-3 tbsp of lime juice

Pinch of black pepper

Cut the mangoes and cucumber, after peeling, into chunks and place in a bowl. Chop the cilantro and add to mango cucumber mix. Add lime juice and black pepper and stir salad. Serve and enjoy! This salad is also amazing with pineapple instead of mango. This is a great side to seafood btw. Thanks for eating healthy!

Dark Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins

So I found this recipe on Pinterest, where I find many recipes, and it was already healthy so there really isn't much I tweaked about it. The only things I did to make it mine is, I added cinnamon to the recipe and used 60% Cacao dark chocolate chips (Ghiradelli) instead of using mini milk chocolate chips. Gotta get my antioxidant's! This recipe is courtesy of greenlitebites.com.

Dark Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins

• 3 cups Old Fashion of Rolled Oats
• 3 mashed bananas
• 1 cup vanilla Almond milk (I use Silk Pure Almond milk)
• 2 eggs (I use cage free brown eggs)
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (I used the McCormick brand because it has no High Fructose Corn Syrup in it)
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 tbsp 60% Cacao dark chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli)

 Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease the inside of the muffin cups, or you could use the paper cupcake cups. Mix together all of the ingredients, adding the chocolate chips last. Place the mixture in the cups, filling them and 1/2-2/3 of the way full. Bake for 20-30 minutes. Remove from the oven, cool and enjoy! It should make a dozen muffins with no problem. What I love about this recipe is, it's dairy free and there's no sugar added!! You could even make it gluten-free by using gluten-free oats instead. Those of you that are use to eating really sweet things, may think they are bland. But they get sweetness from the chocolate chips as well. Also, you could swap out chocolate chips for blueberries.

She actually has the nutrition information listed on her website, BUT she makes 15 muffins, so her nutrition information is for 15. I did some math and came up with the nutrition information for the recipe that makes 12. Now this is approximate.


Servings: 12. Amount per serving: 1 muffin
Calories: 143
Fat: 3.75g
Carbs: 26g
Sugar: 7.5g
Protein: 5g


I hope you enjoy this as much as I am right now! Thanks for being healthy!

PIZZA!

I love pizza! But it's just so damn fattening. So I had to find a better way to turn a not-so-good for you food, into a lower fat and calorie food. I started making these from the suggestion of a coworker (Melissa), who turned me on to Ezekiel tortillas, which I use as the crust. I tweaked it to whatever toppings I wanted.

Ezekiel tortillas can be found in the FREEZER SECTION of Whole Foods or Publix. And I emphasize FREEZER because, not only does it say on the package to store in the refrigerator or freezer, it lasts a hell of a lot longer. They come in 2 different sizes. The smaller ones are the perfect size for those of you that have kids who love pizza. They're made with sprouted organic grains, which is awesome. And they're thin. Love them! Check out all of the Ezekiel products and gluten-free products they offer: http://www.foodforlife.com/.

Pizza time!

1 Ezekiel sprouted grain tortilla (whichever size you choose)
2 tbsp Muir Glen Organic tomato sauce (I suggest a low sodium sauce)
1/4 cup Mozzarella style Almond cheese (I use Lisanatti brand from Whole Foods)
Whatever toppings you want. I like Hormel Turkey Pepperoni because it has 70% less fat than regular pepperoni, onions and green bell peppers.

Preheat oven to 420 degrees. Spread the tomato sauce in a thin layer on the tortilla. Sprinkle the almond cheese on top of the sauce and place toppings over it. Veggies are ALWAYS a good idea ;) Place pizza in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Cut and serve!

I am a big fan of Lisanatti Mozzarella style Almond cheese (another suggestion from Melissa, thanks!) because it's lactose free, which is perfect for all those lactose intolerant people out there. You could also use the Kraft Natural Shredded Mozzarella, as that is also lactose free. I know some of you are reading this and are still saying to yourself,"Almond cheese? WTF?" But with the almond cheese you get all those good fats that you get from eating almonds. It tastes just like regular cheese (some of you are like,"Yeah right...") and it melts. Does it melt EXACTLY like regular mozzarella? No. But it sure is close enough. You could even mix half almond cheese and half Kraft natural mozzarella if you wanted to.

I do want to suggest that if you use veggies, that you use fresh veggies, because canned or bottled veggies, tend to be high in sodium. As with pretty much most canned and bottled items. Anyways, I hope you enjoy these little pizzas as much as I do. And if you make them for the kiddos, let me know if they like them...which they will...cuz they're awesome. Thanks for being healthy! 

P.S. this makes a GREAT late night snack ;)

Lo-cal Boozing

I am all about eating healthy, but that doesn't mean I don't eat junk food sometimes or don't drink alcohol. And there's tons of calories in alcohol. But I have come up with lower calorie ways to get your drink on, without adding too many more calories into your diet. Because those who know me, know I like my alcohol. It's so much easier to control what you consume, when you make it yourself. That goes for drinking alcohol as well. So let's get started!

I recently discovered this lovely and refreshing drink while grocery shopping at Whole Foods one day. This sparkling water is amazing and the best part is, it has nothing in it! No calories, no fat, no sugar, no CARBS!! And it's organic! It's just flavored carbonated water, so it has just a hint of flavor. And lemon is not the only flavor it comes in. It also comes in cucumber (my fav), mint, and blueberry. I've only had the cucumber and lemon flavors, so those are all I can vouch for. Unlike other sparkling waters, ex. Pellegrino, there's not a butt load of sodium in it, because it has zero sodium. This water is great paired with vodka. Especially the lemon flavor with citron vodka. And 2 ounces of vodka has only 128 calories, which is the amount typically put in a mixed drink when purchased at a bar. You can check out the company website if you'd like: http://www.rwknudsenfamily.com/products/sparkling-essence/organic-cucumber-new/. 

Another great mixer that can be used that has nothing in it is club soda. And club soda can be used in place of tonic, with certain alcohol (ex. vodka), because tonic actually has 124 calories in a 12 fl oz can. Which would be fine if you were drinking that by itself. But add that to the 128 calories per 2 fl oz in vodka, and now your over 300 EMPTY calories. You could use diet tonic water instead, which saves the calories and sugar, but I'm not a huge fan of artificial sweeteners lately. I actually have 4 cans of diet tonic water in my fridge I'm seriously debating opening and pouring down the sink, but Patrick drinks Gin and tonic, so I digress. Anyway, club soda + vodka (which I keep using as an example because it has fewer calories) + lime or lemon juice/wedges and you've got a good drink my friends. And the calories are solely coming from the booze. 

In general, clear liquors have fewer calories and such than the darker ones, or so I was once told anyways. But every now I then I like me some Captain Morgan!   

And what goes great with Captain? COKE! But definitely not regular Coca-Cola or Pepsi. Way too much sugar in that crap! I don't even know the last time I drank a regular soda. And again, since I have been TRYING to stay away from artificial sweeteners, when possible, a great substitution for regular coke is the Zevia brand cola. Which can be purchased at Whole Foods. The Zevia brand of sodas are sweetened with Stevia instead of sugar, or high fructose corn syrup, which has no calories. Zevia cola has no calories or fat in it. Again, not adding any additional empty calories or fat to the already 120 empty calories per 2 fl oz of Captain Morgan, you're already going to be consuming. You can check out the Zevia website at: www.zevia.com. 

Another way to keep the calories low when drinking alcohol is to drink any of the Skinnygirl brand products. Now I have NOT had any of these products, BUT I have had a few women tell me they have tried, specifically the Skinnygirl Margarita, and that it was very good. You can check out their many Skinnygirl options at: http://www.skinnygirlcocktails.com/the-cocktails/ready-to-serve-cocktails.

But my absolute favorite drink, whether I'm out or at home is a lemon drop martini. So I found a healthier way to make it. 2 fl oz of vodka (I like Grey Goose Citron), 2 tbsp of lemon juice, 1 packet of Truvia sweetener. You really have to shake this one up good to dissolve the Truvia, but Truvia has nothing in it because it comes from the Stevia plant, which is awesome! So once again, I'm not adding anything to the calories that are already coming from the alcohol. Obviously, if you're out and order this drink, it's not going to be anywhere near as healthy. So, it's better to just make this one at home.

But the best way to keep the calories low is to drink in moderation! Which I'm still working on. When you get to 4 or 5 drinks deep, you're looking at somewhere around 1000 EMPTY calories (which is so easy to do when you're out at a bar or club dancing freely drunk-Gulity!). Just in case you didn't realize that, by the way. I only really mentioned the things I actually drink here, because I can't vouch any other alcohol or mixer combination, except the Skinnygirl brand. But for those of you that drink other mixed drinks, hopefully, I inspired you to come up with lower calorie ways to enjoy your favorites.

Oh and for the wine drinkers out there, like myself, white wine typically has 121 calories per 5 fl oz and red wine typically has 125 calories per 5 fl oz. Just had to add that last one in. Didn't want the wine drinkers to feel left out! Thanks for boozing healthy!