Delicious!

I just made the most delicious breakfast cake inspired by:

http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/12/05/deep-dish-cinnamon-roll-pie/

It was amazing... I made a few modifications mainly because I forgot some of the ingredients at the grocery store.  I forgot the applesauce, and substituted coconut butter for the oil.  I also added rainbow sprinkles and more coconut butter on the top for fun.

This is just what mine looked like, except with the rainbow sprinkles!  :o)  It was so good that I have eaten half the pan.  Between that and several handfulls of my new favorite snack, yogurt covered almonds,  I will be going to spin class STUFFED.... fantastic :/  Why am I always doing this?

 

Breakfast bowl, work out and smoothies

A miracle happened last night.  My little girl only woke up once, and then she slept until 8:30am! I am still in shock.  I guess Fuss Fest 2014 yesterday really wore her out!

Today is my very first What I Ate Wednesday (or half-day).  I have been a fan of Jenn's blog for some time now, and one of the reasons I decided to start my own.

Today, started out with a breakfast bowl of this:

I mixed together ~1/2 cup plain non-fat Greek yogurt, 1 cup Fiber One Honey Cinnamon cereal, a sprinkle of PB2 and almond milk.  Yum!  Cereal is one of my most favorite foods in the world, and I always overeat it.... always... until today.  It dawned on me that if I added the Greek yogurt it may actually fill me up.  It worked!  I did grab a few handfuls of green bean chips... but that doesn't count.  :o)

My work out today looked like this on the treadmill:

Run 1 mile at 6.3mph

.25 miles at 7mph
.25 miles at 6.8mph
Repeat

Run 1 mile at 6.5mph

.25 miles at 8mph
.25 miles at 6.8mph
Repeat

Run 1 mile at 6.3mph

.25 miles at 7mph
.25 miles at 6.8
Repeat

It was a good one to break up the treadmill monotony.

Post work out shake:

It may not look too pretty, but it was tasty!

1/2 avocado
2 handfuls greens
1 orange
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
1/2 cup rhubarb
a few drops stevia or honey to sweeten
1 cup water

The avocado made it so nice and creamy.  It was a new smoothie addition for me, but one that I plan on using a lot more of.

Lunch today followed almost immediately after, and was way too ugly to take a picture.  I made a big salad with 2 pouches of StarKist Tuna Creations, lots of blue cheese yogurt dressing, green bean chips and croutons.  it was yum.

I love this dressing so much.  I go through a bottle a week.  It is so great.  Highly recommend all Bolthouse Farms products.

Time to shower and get going!  Dinner tonight will probably be out.  I'm getting some serious cabin fever... I need to start finding places conducive to bringing a 2 month old....

Finally...

I made it to the grocery store!  We were way overdue.... as in I ate 4 cheese quesadillas for dinner the night before because that's all we had left in the house.  While there, I stumbled upon these gems:  Dried green beans and okra are some of my favorite snack foods.  They give that perfect salty crunch that you actually still have some nutritional value that you can feel good about.  Yesterday, these caught my eye... garlic chips!  I'm aware that most  would think this is the most absolutely disgusting dried creation ever to enter HEB, but if you love garlic... yum!  Definitely worth trying them out.

Once I got home and situated, I couldn't wait to try out one of my favorite recipes that I haven't created since this summer.  Cauliflower chicken fried rice.  It's super easy, and is the perfect meal when craving anything Asian.

It's super easy, too.

- 1 bag frozen cauliflower
- 1/3 bag frozen mixed veggies (peas, carrots, corn)
- 2 eggs
- soy sauce
- grilled chicken (or shrimp would be good, too)

Heat cauliflower in the microwave for ~5 minutes.  Pop in the food processor and finely chop.  Throw into a greased saute pan.  Add frozen veggies, eggs, chicken, and soy sauce to taste.  Stir fry together and serve.

Broccoli pizza crust

Surely by now everyone has heard of the cauliflower pizza crust.  With today being the super bowl, I was wanting pizza but only had a few ingredients in the house... one of which was broccoli.

Here is what I came up with...

- 1 bag frozen broccoli
- 2 big handfuls of Parmesan cheese
- Egg beaters (or real eggs or egg whites) Use the equivalent of 2 eggs
- Garlic powder
- Salt
- Dump in ~ 1/2 cup flax seed
- Whatever sauce and toppings you want

Heat broccoli in microwave for 5 minutes.  Pop it into the food processor and blend until fine.  Pour into a medium size bowl.  Firmly press paper towel on top of broccoli to absorb all excess fluid-- very important step.  Add parm cheese, eggs, garlic powder, and salt to taste.  I tend to go heavy handed on the garlic powder and salt.... why?  Because I love salt, and this is a lot of broccoli!  Dump in the flax seed and mix it all together.  Poor mixture onto a greased baking sheet and pat into a circular pizza shape.  Try to get this as thinned out as possible without any cracks in the crust.  It's important to really thin out the middle as this portion takes the longest to cook.

Pop it into an oven at 415 degrees.  Let it cook for about 10-12 minutes and then cool.  You will know it is done when the edges are slightly browned.

Now for the fun part-- toppings!!!!  The above recipe is for 1 pizza.  Tonight I made two of these, one for me, and one for Justin.  I kept my pizza simple by adding diced grilled chicken and mozzarella cheese.  Since Justin had leftovers from the enchiladas I made him last night, I am re-purposing the shredded beef   and adding grilled chicken and Mexican cheese.  I am going to use ranch for the sauce component of his pizza and top with Greek yogurt in lieu of sour cream to make a Tex-Mex Pizza.

After this cools, I'll pop it in the fridge for him to reheat when he gets home.

Enjoy!

This is how we do it

 Justin and I were married December 2011 and in December 2013 we welcomed our first child.

Life up to this point has been a dream for a fast paced, multi-tasking person like myself.  This year, Justin finished up residency in Dallas, worked for 2 months in New Zealand, and we moved to our Alma mater in College Station, TX.  I try to maximize each day in hope of being the best wife, mommy, and person that I can be.  Squeezing in a work out and whipping up easy nutritious meals for the fam can be quite a daunting task, but my hope is to provide a glimpse into my unconventional way of doing things that somehow work for us.

My husband, works random hours, and I always like to send him off with some sort of nutrient dense snack to sustain him.  Justin is really passionate about following a low carb diet- so most of our meals and snacks follow suit.

These peanut butter cookies were whipped up today with what I had laying around the house (I rarely get to the store these days with a one month old) and they just happen to be moist and delicious.  As you can see, I rarely follow recipes.... just go with it.

- Big blob of natural PB (I used chunky and about 1/4-1/3 of the jar)
- Enough all natural, no sugar added apple sauce to thin out the PB
- 1 cap full of vanilla extract
- Sprinkle of baking soda
- Dash of salt
- Flax seed to thicken to a cookie dough consistency

Mix all ingredients together, spoon onto a non greased baking pan, and pop into the oven at 350 degrees, and bake until you smell the cookies.  This is usually 5-8 minutes depending on the oven. Let cool.  They will be the perfect consistency once they cool and thicken up a bit.

Makes 5 medium size cookies.

Your husband will love you.