Our week in a glance

Sundays.. the day that I can finally see the bottom of my sink and laundry hamper.

I don't know about you, but with my hectic week, Sundays are my catch up day. I always feel so spent by the end of the week that I just want to completely check out and VEG, but spending a few extra hours mapping out recipes, a shopping list, and then food prepping saves you countless calories, unnecessary dollars spent on odds and ends throughout the week, and frustration when you open the fridge on Thursday and think, "What the heck is there to eat?!"

First off, Brett and I use this template to compile our recipes for the week.

Generally, we tend to plan a dinner for each night that requires most of the prep, and for lunches and breakfasts we buy things like produce, eggs, tuna, bread, cheeses, basically things that are individual and grab and go. We visit websites like greatist.com and pinterest.com for most of our meal inspirations! Once we track our recipes on this sheet and list off the ingredients necessary, we update our shopping list using our app Anylist so we can even separate when in the grocery store and individually check things off of the list and it will sync instantly!

This week, we are eating the followings recipes. I wanted to share them with all of you because man, the few we have tried are SPECTACULAR. I would love to have you explore some of these dishes with me and let me know if you find anymore that you enjoy!

Breakfast

Cauliflower and Bacon Breakfast Hash (We used turkey bacon)

Dinner

Spinach Artichoke Spaghetti Squash

Chicken Pesto Sandwich (We put ours on Ezekiel Bread)

Eggplant Pizzas

Spinach Sweet Potato Quesadilla

Snacks
Peppermint Mocha Energy Bites


WARNING: We did NOT put crushed candy cane on the energy bites, and still felt tempted to eat them CONSTANTLY! Haha, at least they're healthy right? But if you choose to do the crushed candy cane, just be forewarned that they will be highly addictive! :)  ENJOY!

-CH

Fall - Season of chili, cornbread, and STRENGTH TRAINING!

Hello again, blogosphere! Ya miss me? I missed you. I promise. I have thought about you often. Almost every day, in fact.

BUT (you knew that was coming...) I was recently swept away in the hubbub of my first quarter of teaching music, which is always sprinkled with a variety of adventures like program and lesson planning, my first few regular season football games, AND trying to maintain some semblance of my role as a wife and keeper of the home! How do you guys do it all?

Seriously, I don't even have kids yet! Please, do share some secrets!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Enough of me and my excuses, I have a few gems to share with you today, and I hope you will give me a second chance at this whole blogging thing! I am on a mission to keep it updated at least weekly with more diet, nutrition, and fitness tips to keep things spicy for you as well! I will indulge a secret with you before I post about my healthy dinner... Last night was a cheat night! Splurge meal! Yolo meal! Faturday! Whatever you call it in your life, it was heavenly. I have been working SO hard keeping my eating clean and training mean, and boy was this a well-deserved treat.

Brett and I went out with our dear friends Eric and Ariel and indulged in some BoomBozz Pizza. I had the Chicken Sausage Peppadew, and boy was it delightful! Then we walked (some calorie burn in walking right?!) to nearby Handel's Homemade Ice Cream! I mean, I don't need to tell you how delicious this stuff was if you are from around here... Let me just say when you type the word "Handel's" into google, Handel's ICE CREAM pops up before Handel's MESSIAH... Yeah... it's THAT good. We then retreated back to Eric and Ariel's apartment in our food coma and slap-happily played Settlers of Catan on into the night. (Or on into 10 pm... we are just cool like that.)

But enough about my splurge meal! Now on into the GOOD for you stuff. :)

Brett and I prepared the most delicious, perfect for fall, sweet potato chili recipe EVER tonight. If you haven't heard of the blog "Chocolate-Covered Katie" then you are missing out! This girl does healthy, vegan-friendly remakes of tons of classic dessert dishes. But she also branches out once in a blue moon and shares some of her favorite main dishes - this sweet potato chili being one of those. And for good reason! Here is a link to a more in depth explanation of the recipe, and for her hardwork in creating this recipe, I want to give credit where credit is due: http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/01/05/sweet-potato-chili/

Here are the basics...

Sweet Potato Chili

• 2 cups sliced onion (1 large)
• 20 oz peeled and cubed sweet potato
• 2/3 cup diced zucchini
• 1-2 cans black beans (or another bean)
• 28-oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 1/2 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp orange zest
• 1 cup water (or broth)

(Makes 1 giant pot) - mix it all together in a pot, and boil until tender!! 

We also prepared some of her "totally addictive cornbread" to accompany this dish... and it definitely earns its name - it is hard to have just one portion! It can get a little crumbly, but we didn't care! We crumbled it right over our chili and enjoyed! -> http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/01/18/totally-addictive-cornbread/ Here is the "nutshell" version of her recipe, with our choices highlighted in red.

Totally Addictive Healthy Cornbread

• 1 cup milk of choice. We used almond milk.
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 2 cups fine or medium cornmeal (I used whole-grain, but regular is ok.)
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup evaporated cane juice or regular sugar (I like my cornbread southern-style, with zero sweetness, so I like to omit this. But everyone else who tried the recipe preferred the sweetened version. I’d recommend leaving it in, especially if you’re making this recipe for the first time.) We used 1/4 c of Sugar in the Raw
• 1 and 1/2 packets NuNaturals stevia (or 2 more tbsp sugar) We did NOT add more sugar.
• 11-oz can corn, drained We used unsalted
• 2 tbsp coconut or canola/veg oil 
• 1/4 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
• (gluten-free!)

Basically, you mix your dry ingredients, you mix your wet ingredients (minus the vinegar and milk which you mix separately in its own bowl and then ADD to the wet ingredients). Once your wet (plus milk/vinegar) and dry are mixed, you mix them together, throw in a greased 8x8 pan, and bake at 420 degrees for 25 minutes and let cool for 15 minutes before enjoying!

Earlier today, after we finished singing in our church choir, we wanted to hit the gym hard in order to enjoy our Sunday Fun Day of relaxing and watching football! We had a great full body strength session!

Warm-up

10 minute cardio warmup - I chose stairmaster, Brett chose treadmill

(I tried to stay in my 130-140 HR zone)

Strength

**Sumo deadlift - wide stance version of your basic deadlift

 **Half-kneeling cable row - kneel like a marriage proposal and go to town rowing one arm at a time. Pinch those shoulder blades together!

**Rear foot elevated split squats - keep your front knee over your ankle as you squat down

**Single-arm shoulder press - really focus on stabilizing your core

**Barbell bicep curls - don't throw your upper body and sacrifice form for reps!

Abs

**Swiss ball roll-outs - knees on the ground, swiss ball in front of you under your elbows, roll out until you are almost parallel with the ground and return to starting position

**Planks w/ alternating hand/leg raise - plank, lift R arm and L leg simultaneously, return to plank, switch to L arm and R leg, etc...

**Heels to the heavens - lie on back, legs straight up to the ceiling, and pulse those heels up to the ceiling, lifting your bottom up off the floor. Don't let a lot of forward/backward motion occur with your legs!

If you have any questions on specific strength moves, comment below or private message me on any social media! I'd love to help! Strength is a great way to challenge yourself, see yourself get stronger, and lean out to get that toned, slimmer body that simply doing cardio cannot possibly give you!

Happy fall, y'all! Enjoy these dishes, and please stay hungry... I'll be back! ;)

CH

Protein Pudding and Interval Training

Whew - what a week it has been!

I started back up at my music teaching job on Monday with the elementary kiddos and BOY am I whooped! I had a great first week back, with almost every class doing their personal best and really feeling in charge instantaneously with my classroom management and procedures, but it is nonetheless exhausting to be ON constantly when teaching in front of a class!

That being said, I haven't blogged in awhile and I thought it time to share a little snippet of both diet and exercise with you all in the blogosphere!

First off, my incredible husband found yet ANOTHER way to incorporate protein into our diet. PUDDING! Mmmmmm, yes, you heard right! Who says you can't still enjoy decadent tastes and textures while eating healthy?! This pudding uses pumpkin puree as the base, which is low in calories and high in fiber and protein itself! Here is the recipe. It is literally one of the most dark and creamy things I have tried in a long while that is very low calorie and absolutely guilt free PLUS still giving you some nutritional value!!

High Protein Chocolate & Pumpkin Pudding

 

Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

 

]Ingredients

• 1 15-ounce can unsweetened pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
• ¼ cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder (Brett and I used 100% DARK CHOCOLATE, OH YEAH!)
• ½ cup all-natural, sweetened chocolate protein powder (vegan or whey... we used whey)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¾ cup almond milk or lowfat dairy milk (we love our Silk!)
• Optional: additional natural sweetener to taste (e.g., stevia, honey, maple syrup... BUT we didn't sweeten it at all, the protein powder did enough of that for us!)

Instructions

1. In a blender (we used our Ninja) or food processor, process the pumpkin, cocoa powder, protein powder, vanilla and cinnamon until well blended and smooth, stopping once or twice to scrape down the sides of the processor bowl or blender pitcher with a spatula.
2. Add half of the milk to the blender or processor; process until smooth, then scrape down sides, Add remaining milk; process until smooth. Taste the pudding and add additional sweetener (a little bit at a time) if desired.
3. Scrape into a big container or into individual jars or ramekins. Cover and chill at least 2 hours for it to thicken and for the flavors to blend. (We could only wait 1 1/2 hours before trying it.. and it was FABULOUS, but would have reached its perfect level of thickness had we been patient! :)

Nutrition Information

Serving size: ½ cup Calories: 71 Fat: 1 g Carbohydrates: 8 g Protein: 10 g (FEW variances might pop up depending on your protein powder, but it is still a very low calorie high protein treat!!)

Next up, I am going to speak on interval training. This type of exercise has truly been a life changer for me. It saves me time in the gym, and I reap huge benefits physically from it. When you do interval training, your body pushes incredibly hard for short spurts and then fights to recover in short spurts of rest, causing huge peaks and valleys in your heart rate which is OPTIMAL activity for fat burning! 

There are a lot of different types and variations on interval training, but a simple one to start out trying is simply choosing this easy format: 4 exercises, each performed back to back with no rest at 30 seconds per exercise, followed by 30 seconds of rest before beginning the next round. That is a 2 1/2 minute circuit, which you can continue on as long as you wish! Usually you can do 10 to 12 rounds to bring your workout up to 25 or 30 minutes. 

This may seem redundant at first, doing the same moves that many times, but when you are first starting out, it is an effective way to get into the swing of HIIT and to really work on your form staying proper and keeping track of the exercises in your brain! :)

This is a great app I use that you can create your own customized intervals within for free and alter each workout if you so wish! https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/timerlist-interval-timer-for/id769031985?mt=8

Give it a shot sometime! Today I did 30 seconds of burpees, then in and out jacks, then jump squats, and lastly floor sprints followed by my rest. Try to add some variance in pure cardio moves followed by some strength based moves, OR you can just focus on pure cardio! Whatever floats your boat! If you want to know more about HIIT and find out some of my favorite go to moves, let me know!

Take care, and happy Saturday!

Court

Protein: not just for shakes anymore!

Normally I post a "smoothie Sunday" recipe on Sundays. But this morning, my husband and I experimented with incorporating our protein powder into a different kind of recipe: French Toast!

Many of you may be wondering why in the world I talk so much about protein, protein, protein! Well, it is an important macro-nutrient (or macro) in your daily diet, as are carbs and fats. In the average American diet, we consume well over our daily requirement of carbs and fats, and not nearly enough protein! Think about it... walking down the grocery store aisles you find bags and boxes and canned goods chock full of fats and carbs, and not the best kinds of fats and carbs, eithers.

Carbs and fats are essential for a healthy lifestyle, but you need to fuel yourself with the correct kinds and at the right times of the day that works best for you. Fruits and veggies and whole grains are great examples of the "good" kinds of carbs. Nuts, nut butters, avocados, and healthy oils like coconut and olive oils are great ways to get your "good" fats! But... back to protein.

I love lean meats and fish, Greek yogurt, egg whites, cottage cheese... but sometimes it is still hard to get my protein intake high enough for the day. I like to aim for 30% of my food intake to come from protein so that as I maintain weight or even lose some weight from training, it will be fat that is being burned and NOT my lean muscle mass that I work so hard to get with my training!

Anywho.. I do not claim to be a dietician, but from the little research I have done, those are my takeaways and I hope that you all can try to incorporate enough protein into your diet and keep your macros well-balanced for optimal health and weight loss! :)

Here is a website with some great ideas for ways to incorporate protein powders into other recipes... PROTEIN RECIPES!!

The delicious breakfast that Brett and I tried today is what we like to dub "All American Toast!" Check it out! And try it, it is SO delicious! We followed the recipe except we did not use any maple syrup on top at the end. Brett ate his plain with just the bananas and blueberries that he added, and I added a swipe of Jif natural PB on top of mine with a drizzle of honey and sliced bananas. MMM mmm good!

All-American Toast - Serves 2
INGREDIENTS: 
*1 scoop vanilla protein powder
*4 slices of bread (We used Ezekiel sprouted bread. SO good!)
*½ cup egg whites
*¼ cup milk (your choice... we used Silk Unsweetened Original Almond Milk)
*1 banana
*Cinnamon
*Syrup, honey, or PB for topping








DIRECTIONS: 

Mix egg whites, milk and protein powder together in a small bowl. Add cinnamon to taste. Dip the slices of bread into the mixture. Place the batter-covered bread on a non-stick skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, then remove from heat. Add syrup, honey, or PB for extra flavor. Cut the banana (or fruit of choice) into small pieces and sprinkle them overtop the bread. 

I hope that you have enjoyed this post about the great and powerful PROTEIN and can be brave and start incorporating it into some different recipes! Make sure you eat enough, especially if you are training hard! Soreness means your muscles have broken down and need to repair themselves, thus making them stronger!! You need that protein to rebuild quickly and correctly! And now you know instead of just drinking up that protein, you can eat it up with these recipes! ENJOY!!

Court

Smoothies for days!!

It's another smoothie Sunday! Were you worried I'd forget?

Both of these delicious smoothie recipes were personally taste-tested by yours truly and given my stamp of sweet tooth approval! :) However, I cannot take credit for creating these delectable concoctions! The first smoothie which I have dubbed the Apple Almond Smoothie is a great pre-workout carb-boosting smoothie courtesy of my old childhood dance studio friend and fellow smoothie lover, Chelsie!

Apple Almond Smoothie

What You Will Need:
-1 apple of your choice
-10 almonds
-1/4 cup of your choice of milk (I chose almond, she chose skim)
-1/2 T cinnamon (I just liberally sprinkled away to my hearts content without measuring... I LOVE cinnamon!)
-1 1/2 T flax seed (I used my pre-packaged flax meal, which is a fancy term for ground up flax seed, and it worked beautifully)
-1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
-Ice (I used about 6 cubes)

Place all ingredients in a blender, blend, and enjoy. It's literally that simple! It is a thicker smoothie, so blend longer or add more ice or a splash of water for it to be a little more straw drinkable if you so desire. As always, you can add unflavored (or flavored?) protein powder to give it an extra UMPH since it is definitely a carb heavy smoothie. Nothing bad with carbs though, do NOT be afraid! Just eat the right kinds at the right times and you are good to go! This really revved me up and filled me up for my cheer rehearsal the other night without making me feel weighed down, but it gave me a ton of quick energy! :)

Macros
290 calories - 12.8 from fat - 41 g of carbs - 17 g of sugar - 8.5 g of protein


Ok friends.. if you do not know about greatist.com, go there know and block out at least an hour of time to peruse the site and become obsessed with the health knowledge that will be bestowed upon you!! I may have mentioned it before, but I cannot say it enough, this site is a GEM!

Next up is the blueberry muffin smoothie. So tasty, so sweet, so sinfully easy to make! Thanks to my husband, Brett, for introducing me to this fabulous concoction today!

Blueberry Muffin Smoothie

What You Will Need:
-1/2 cup blueberries
-1 orange, peeled
-1/2 cup rolled oats
-1/4 tsp cinnamon
-1 cup vanilla almond milk
-*BONUS* 1 scoop of unflavored protein powder

Add all of the ingredients together, blend, and enjoy immediately or after a minute or two if you like it extra thick and creamy! :) My husband decided to add the protein powder, but due to the fact that it is unflavored, it changed nothing about the taste and was so delicious either way! Enjoy with or without protein added for a perfect pre or post workout snack, or as part of a meal replacement or even a snack! :) It seriously tastes like a liquified muffin. Please try it. For real.. now! 

Macros
295 calories - 6.2 from fat - 56.5 g of carbs - 20.2 g of sugar - 7.5 g of protein (WITHOUT ADDED PROTEIN POWDER)

Happy Smoothie Sunday! :) 
Court

Chick peas, apples, and kickboxing!!

I have a confession. I used to think I had a sweet tooth. Then, as I started eating more clean and healthy, I realized that my true vice is salty, savory, crunchy snacks! Salty tooth you might call it? I used to be able to pop a bag of popcorn and down the entire thing in one sitting, no problem. However, that isn't the a good habit to maintain when trying to stay lean and fit... so I need to find a healthy, crunchy, savory alternative!

Before I share my homemade recipe, I have discovered a delicious popcorn alternative in Boom Chicka Pop! So tasty, and much healthier than microwaved popcorn. It is all air-popped and you can find sea salt or slightly sweetened options! 1 cup is only 35 to 37 calories. So good... But moving on to the recipe. This recipe uses the tasty little chickpea! If you are a hummus lover, then you are already sort of familiar with the chickpea (otherwise known as the garbanzo bean). However, I bet you have never eaten it in its natural pea form! Well know is your chance! Prepare to be amazed! If you are a fan of corn nuts, then you will LOVE this recipe!

Spicy Roasted Chickpeas

Makes 4 servings

-1 15.5 ounce can chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans)-1 tablespoon olive oil-½ teaspoon salt-½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

*Heat oven to 450 degrees and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

*Drain and rinse chickpeas and place in a bowl.

*Add oil, salt, and pepper to chickpeas and mix well. Spread them out on the baking sheet.

*Bake for 15 minutes.

*Remove pan, shake the chickpeas around so they brown evenly, and return to oven for another 15 minutes until brown and crunchy.

*Enjoy! Eat them while warm, or later when at room temperature!

Apples with PB and granola

-1 apple, sliced
-1 TB melted natural PB
-1/4 cup of your choice of granola
-Dash of cocoa powder and cinnamon

This "recipe" is so easy you could laugh! But I like to give people a delicious snack or meal option every once in awhile that is completely fool proof and literally requires little to NO prep. 

All you do is microwave the PB until melted (I did mine at 10 second intervals to avoid splattering PB). While the PB is microwaving, slice up your apple and sprinkle with cocoa and cinnamon. Once the PB is melted, drizzle it over top of the apples evenly. Finally, shake your granola over the top of the apples and PB and enjoy a decadent, healthy snack! So simple, yet so satisfying!

Kickboxing!

Last week I found a fabulous HIIT workout fitnessblender.com. If you haven't check that website out yet, then you are missing out! TONS of workouts for free, at home access to do on the go when you can't make it into the gym. I usually in the past did not like the kickboxing portion of workouts because I felt like it did not get my heart rate high enough. It turns out that I wasn't pushing myself to my full potential! 

Below I am going to list the basic kickboxing moves that you can do in any combination you want. String 4 or 5 together (Such as jab, cross, hook, uppercut) and do that combination 10 times at your absolute maximum capacity, as if you were really in a fight! Then take a brief 10 second pause, and repeat that same set again 2 more times! You will be amazed at the heart rate peak you can achieve. Do this a few times for a great little mini cardio kickboxing workout!

1. *Jab (non-dominant hand, straight punch)
2. *Cross (dominant hand, straight punch)
3. *Hook (non-dominant hand, horizontal punch)
4. *Upper cut (either hand, straight up as if aiming at the chin of your opponent)
5. *Front kick (facing forward, bent knee, throw kick out from foot)
6. *Side kick (lean body sideways, bent knee, throw kick out from foot leading with heel)
7. *Knee (act as if you are grabbing your opponents shoulders and lifting your knee with force to make contact)

Have fun kicking and snacking this week! Let me know what you try and what you like! <3

-Court

PB&J Smoothie!

Happy Smoothie Sunday, Blogosphere!

This is probably one of the most delicious smoothies I have ever tried. It does not have any protein powder supplementation in it, so it is easily ingredients the average person should have on hand in their pantry or fridge. If you are not one to usually have Greek yogurt around, you could substitute milk or other yogurt, but I adore Greek yogurt for its health benefits and always have it in the fridge. Plain is the way to go, as it has a very low sugar content which is hard to come by in this day and age!

This is apparently one of Katy Perry's favorite smoothies, and I can see why. Delicious, creamy, nutritious, and easy to make and have ready in a few minutes!

Feel free to play around with the ingredients in this smoothie recipe. To lower the carb content while also upping the protein, increase the amount of dairy and cut the banana in half. I also froze my banana ahead of time to make it colder and more creamy!

INGREDIENTS

2 cups fresh strawberries
1 (or 1/2)  frozen banana, chopped
2 teaspoons natural peanut butter
4 ounces fat-free plain Greek yogurt or fat-free milk
1/2 cup ice cubes

DIRECTIONS

Place all the ingredients in a blender, and mix until smooth. Enjoy immediately! And lavish in this breadless PB&J!