Tropical Smoothie

For the past 3 months, I've been taking some Jazzercise classes.  If you lived in the 90's, I am sure you think you know what I am talking about.  I can assure you this is nothing like the Jazzercise of my teenage years.  This Jazzercise is a serious workout. It's like Zumba and Bootcamp classes merged together and had a really happy, calories burning baby.  I've burned up to 600 calories in an hour, and been so sore the next day I hoped I wouldn't need to use my arms for anything more than brushing my teeth.  I get super thirsty during and after theses classes, and you can only drink so much water before you feel like you are going to float away.  

I thought about drinking some coconut water to help with the hydration, but I am not really a fan of it.  However, I do like the hint of coconut flavor it gives to smoothies.  Pairing it with some pineapple and banana, seemed like a genius idea and so this smoothie was born!  I used Vanilla Shakeology, but I think the Vegan Tropical Strawberry or Regular Strawberry would probably work as well.  My favorite cocktail is a mix of Strawberry daiquiri and Pina Colada, and since this smoothie tastes like a Pina Colada, I am pretty confident in my strawberry suggestion.  In fact, next time I may add some strawberries!

Ingredients

1 packet Vanilla Shakeology

1/3 cup frozen banana (about half a small banana)

2/3 cup frozen pineapple

1 cup coconut water

Directions

Combine the ingredients in a blender.  Blend until smooth.  

For a sweeter smoothie, increase the amount of banana.  I found that 1/2 a frozen banana was a lot sweeter than I thought it would be.  I will probably use less banana, and more pineapple next time for a stronger pineapple flavor. 

21 Day Fix Conversion:

1 red, 1 purple

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Strawberry Banana Smoothie

When I was in college at SMU, a lot of my meals where eaten on campus.  When I lived in the dorm, I'd usually eat in the dining hall on the meal plan.  However, occasionally, I'd head over to the student center and use my Pony Bucks to get a smoothie, and sometimes a chicken caesar salad wrap.  Of course I had no idea how many calories I was ingesting in that meal, although the fact that the smoothie was made with frozen yogurt should have tipped me off.  Either I was too naive to know or the smoothie and the wrap was too good for me to care.  I care now though, which is why I am so excited about this Strawberry Banana Smoothie.

When I made it the other day, the first thing I did was message my college roommate on Facebook.  She had to know about this recipe, and I knew for a fact she had the ingredients on hand.  I buy strawberries and bananas in bulk when they'd go on sale and make up smoothie packs and keep them in the freezer.

Ingredients:
3-4 strawberries, frozen
1/2 banana, frozen
1 packet vanilla Shakeology
1 cup water
3-4 ice cubes (optional)

Directions:
Combine the water and Shakeology in a blender.  Add the frozen strawberries, banana, and ice.  Blend until smooth.

My mom isn't a huge fan of protein powders, and she really likes this one.  In fact, in the care the other day she finished mine off!

21 Day Fix Conversion:
1 red, 1 purple

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Birthday Dinner- Homemade Pizza

I love pizza.  If there was a food I could eat every day and never get sick of, it would be pizza.  I am not picky about my pizza either.  Even bad pizza (or in my case, gluten free crust) is still better than no pizza.  That being said, because of my pizza addiction, I try to limit my interaction with it.  You know how some people can eat an entire bag of potato chip or a pint of ice cream in one sitting and still carry on like nothing happened- I am like that with pizza.  So, I try to set a few ground rules for my pizza consumption:

1.  It must be the only time that day I have dairy that day (I am dairy sensitive).
2.  It either needs to be a single serving, or I have to split it with someone.
3.  It should have some sort of protein on it so I don't just have crust and cheese.
4.  I have to eat a salad before my pizza.

Now that we know my rules, lets talk about what kind of pizza. If I am really giving into a craving and having pizza delivered, I go for plain pepperoni.  If we are at a restaurant that happens to serve gluten free pizza, I get BBQ Chicken Pizza.  If I am making it at home, I make Meatzza and Cheezza!

Meatzza and Cheezza are copy cat recipes from my all time favorite pizza place in Houston, TX.  Now that we no longer live in TX, when I want this pizza, I have to make it myself.  I usually buy one package of gluten free pizza crust, and split it into 2 thin crust pizzas.  One gets the meat toppings, one gets the cheese toppings.  I know what you're thinking, I said their has to be protein on my pizza, and cheese pizza doesn't sound like it has protein.  Well it does!  One of the cheeses on Cheezza is ricotta cheese, which on the 21 Day Fix, counts as a protein.  Yippee!

Ingredients:
2 eleven inch pizza crusts, pre-baked if needed. (1 package store bought dough)
Mozzarella Cheese (about 2 cups)

Cheezza:
Gruyere Cheese
Ricotta Cheese
Parmesan Cheese
Pesto Sauce (extra points if you make homemade and throw in some spinach)

Meatzza:
Soprassata
Capicola
Pepperoni
Chili Flake
Tomato Sauce

Directions:
Spread one type of sauce in a thin layer on each crust.  Sprinkle a small about of mozzarella cheese over the sauce.  Place the rest of the toppings on the cheese, and then finish with more mozzarella cheese.  Be sure to distribute the ricotta evenly, in small amounts on the Cheezza.  Bake for 10 minutes in a 400 degree oven until the cheese is melted.

I hope you enjoy this pizza as much as I do.  I'd love to tell you I'd figured out the 21 Day Fix conversions for you, but I haven't.  Lets be real, if I am eating pizza, I am not overly worried about my diet at that moment in time.  However, I do try to purchase the cleanest ingredients I can (nitrate free meat), and I try to keep it balanced in the rest of my day (as I said before, this will be my dairy for the day, as well as my carbs).

Taco Stuffed Peppers

Cauliflower and I have been spending a lot of time together lately.  My family isn't as excited about all the experiments as I am, but I am holding out hope they will get on board.  I admit, some have been better than others, and maybe cauliflower breakfast casserole wasn't the best idea (I'm not giving up on that one just yet though).  I was a big fan of these Taco Stuffed Peppers.  They were super low in calories, but had serious taco flavor.  

I wish all food tasted like a taco. It would be so much easier to eat healthy, if everything was taco flavored but had the nutrition of a carrot.  Since I am one of those people who can gain five pounds but just looking at a cupcake, I have to constantly watch what I am eating.  I don't like to thinking of it as a diet, more of a "working with what I've got" way of eating.  Therefor, anytime I can squeeze some nutrition into a comfort food, I do.

This recipe can be a little labor intensive because there is a good amount of prep work, but a lot of it can be done in advance.  I riced a whole head of cauliflower and browned a double batch of turkey.  Then I just split it between two different recipes.  If you've got some down time earlier in the day, you could prep your filling, and then assemble the peppers before dinner.  Once the peppers are assembled, it takes about 20 minutes in the oven.  

Ingredients:

12 ounces ground Turkey (2 red)

3/4 cup plain greek yogurt (1 red)

1/2 head of cauliflower (2 green)

5 bell peppers (5 green)

1 onion (1 green)

1/3 cup of shredded cheese (1 blue)

1 TBSP olive oil (3 tsp)

2 TBSP taco seasoning (homemade or store bought)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Brown the ground turkey in a skillet with 1 TBSP olive oil.  Meanwhile chop the cauliflower in a food processor until it resembles rice.  Steam the cauliflower until tender.  

Cut each bell pepper in half, and place upside down on a cookie sheet.  Broil for a few minutes until the skin begins to blister.  Remove the pan from the oven, and allow the peppers to slightly cool while you assemble the filling.  

To assemble the filling, combine ground turkey with the riced cauliflower and onion.  Season with 2 TBSP taco seasoning and a 1/4 cup of water.  Taste, and add salt and pepper as needed.  Divide the filling between the pepper halves.  Top with a sprinkling of cheese and return to a 350 degree oven.  Bake approximately 20 minutes until the cheese melts and the peppers begin to soften slightly.  

To serve, top each pepper with a dollop of greek yogurt. Serves 3.  

21 Day Fix Conversion: 1 red, 2 2/3 green (add some shredded lettuce and pico de gallo, and you'd have 3 greens!), 1/3 blue, 1 tsp

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Baked Oatmeal

I should eat more oatmeal than I do.  I really like oatmeal, I'm just lazy in the mornings.  I usually just have a piece of toast with nut butter for breakfast with my morning coffee.  These baked oatmeal muffins are great because you can just heat them up before you head out the door in the morning.  The original recipe is here.  I have modified it to suit my tastes and worked out the 21 Day Fix Conversions below.  They also freeze great, so I make a lot at once, and then just defrost a few over night in the fridge. Or, if you have house guests, these would be fantastic as part of a continental breakfast or brunch!

Ingredients:

4 eggs (2 red)
4 cups unsweetened applesauce (4 purple)
2 medium bananas (1 purple)
10 cups*, Old Fashioned rolled oats- I prefer Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Oats
4 1/2 cups** Unsweetened Almond or Coconut milk
4 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal (optional, 2 orange)
1/2 cup raw honey
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 TBSP baking powder
2 teaspoons salt (do not skip the salt.  trust me.)

Directions:
Mash the bananas with the eggs, vanilla, applesauce, and honey together in a bowl. Once mashed, add the milk.  Stir in the oats, flaxseed meal, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt into the wet ingredients. Divide the oatmeal mixture among 36 muffin cups (I prefer to use silicone).  You may have to bake the muffins in batches.  Bake for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven until a toothpick in center comes out clean. Cool and store in an airtight container in the freezer.  Defrost overnight in the refrigerator before serving.

*For the purpose of the 21 Day Fix, Oatmeal is measured in a Yellow Container.  However, you should be measuring cooked oatmeal, not raw oatmeal.  Because this recipe uses raw oatmeal, we have to do a little math to find the 21 Day Fix conversion.  So, hear goes:  Oatmeal increases in volume when cooked, so 1/2 cup cooked oatmeal is roughly equal to 1/3 cup raw oatmeal.  So, one yellow container of cooked oatmeal would be 1/3 a cup raw oatmeal.  So, since we need 10 cups raw oatmeal to make a double batch of baked oatmeal, that will equal 30 yellow containers.  Wow.  That is a lot of yellow.  Good thing this serves 36 people. 

**On the 21 Day Fix, 8 ounces of milk counts as 1 yellow container.  Therefor, 4.5 cups of milk count as 4.5 yellow containers.  However, you should use a standard liquid measuring cup to measure the milk instead of the yellow container. 

21 Day Fix Conversion: 1/8 purple, approx. 1 yellow, 1/18 red, 1/18 orange (For the purpose of the meal plan, I wouldn't personally count this in my daily totals, but since there is a trivial amount of protein and seeds, I am giving you the totals).  To make a complete meal, I would drink a Chunky Monkey Shake with it, or at least plan on having a Shakeology snack mid morning.  

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Game On For Summer

If you are anything like me, this cold dreary weather means you've been stuck at home, in your sweat pants, trying not to occupy yourself with snacking.  All this ice and snow has made it really hard to get out of the house and be active.  That is why I am so excited to share what I am about to tell you!   

Together with some of my fitness friends, I have a 30-day program where we will utilize a mixed genre plan of online workouts to tone up, drop pounds and inches, and WERK – Keeping it FRESH, FUN and FIERCE! {because hello, you are the worth it!} The workouts will stream straight from your laptop, tablet or smartphone! They range in length and can be modified for ANY fitness level. You can do all of the workouts from the comfort of your home.  Plus I have some slammin' nutrition that will get you ready to bare it!

Are you planning a beach vacay this spring or summer? {YAY!}

Or oodles of time lounging by the pool? 

Do you want to look and feel amazingly confident {and fabulous} in your summer gear? 

Well then the time is NOW to get bikini, shorts and tank top ready! Lift, jump and plank your way there!


It is GAME ON FOR SUMMER! And I can help!

There will be a new workout and challenge each day. So if you are competitive at all {hello cool prizes!} this is YOUR program. Did I mention that you could win a gift card to Athleta or a Fitbit?? Yup.

Let me help you SIZZLE this Summer!

Do you want to join me???? Comment below "Game on"  or on my Facebook Page to let me know you are ready to do this!

Enroll Today!

Step Up Your Fitness

I was on vacation this weekend for my best friend's bridal portraits and bridal shower.  I flew to Dallas for what I thought would be a break from this winter weather, only to have the snow follow me.  It was cold, it was wet, and it made me miss summer.  Her bridal portraits (in the snow!) turned out amazing, but I can not wait for some warmer weather. You can imagine my excitement when I got home to some unexpected sunshine and to find out they had started putting in our pool! 

Of course, now that they are putting the pool in, I really need to get serious about eating clean and exercising more.  My friend Brandace with BBoldBStrong is running an awesome accountability group on Facebook that is perfect for anyone who want's to be healthier, but hate the gym. We all know we need to move more, but it is so hard to make yourself go to the gym (or at least it is for me)!  This group is going to utilize clean eating and walking.  That's it- eat well, walk, be healthy!  

How it Works:

Each member in the group will be encouraged to walk 10,000 steps a day. You will need some sort of pedometer (I plan on using my Fitbit), but any pedometer will work and they are readily available everywhere and can be super cheap. This is perfect for those new to exercise! If you are a hard-core gym members you can up the intensity by getting in your steps with running, running stairs, and of course your usual workouts as well. At the end of each week those members who reached 10,000 steps or more for at least 5 days that week can submit a photo proving their steps for that week. Then you'll will be entered into a drawing for a $50 Nike gift card! So not only do you get the motivation and support that comes from working out with a group, you get the incentive to buy some cute new workout clothes.  

What You'll Eat:

Everyone in this group will be utilizing the 21 Day Fix. If you follow this blog you've probably seen my 21 Day Fix conversions at the bottom of my posts.  I love the 21 Day fix for it's portion control containers and clean meal plan.  Shakeology is also a critical component to this program (as well as a fantastic source of protein on the 21 Day Fix), so if you haven't tried it, now would be a great time to give it a go.  Besides, the Beach Body folks have a bottom of the bag guarantee, so it's totally risk free.  

How to Sign Up:

Follow the link below to order your kit.  Then message me either on Facebook or in the comments section below and I will get you registered! The group starts March 16th, so order soon to get your kit in time! If the chance to get fit with a bunch of amazing people and a chance to win a $50 Nike gift card isn't enough incentive, the 21 Day Fix program is on sale until March 4th!

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If you have any questions about the programs, I'd be happy to answer them!  Be sure to follow me on Facebook for updates and new recipes!