Apple Nachossss! :O

These things....are.....holy good god.
Never did I think apples, which I already love, could be any better.
The original recipe, I found HERE.

I did an alternative version of these, just going off of what I like and what I had in my house. Meaning, I don't really like coconut or pecans and I didn't want to go to the store to waste money on those.
Anyway....

For my version, you'll need:

• One apple (red, green, any you like)
• A tablespoon or so of natural or organic peanut butter (just make sure it's not packed with preservatives)
• About a small handful of chocolate chips
• A few sprinkles of cinnamon
• About a tablespoon or so of walnuts
• Lemon juice (optional. It's just to keep the apples from turning brown and I left it out)

So all I did was slice my apple and arrange it on a plate. I then melted my peanut butter in the microwave, keeping it to about 5 seconds at a time so I didn't burn it. Burned peanut butter is revolting, trust me. Next, I drizzled the melted peanut butter on the nachos, sprinkled it with cinnamon, added the chocolate chips and walnuts....BAM. Party in my mouth hole. 

Healthy burrito!

So I know tacos/burritos (unless from tacobell) aren't usually SUPER unhealthy, but the ones I made tonight are bangin'....and healthier.

So you'll need:

• Whole wheat or regular tortillas (I used flour ones because no way I was going to pay 5 bucks for whole wheat)
• Hummus (I made my own)
• Shredded chicken breast
• Lettuce or spinach (any green you like, really)
• Brown rice (I added broccoli to mine)
• Salsa and or hot sauce
• Pinch of salt and pepper
• Cheese-optional (I didn't use any)

So all you so is:
First, microwave the tortillas with a damp paper towel over top to soften 'em (I think two is a serving for a really hungry person). Then, lay down the hummus so that everything else has something to stick to. Think of it as the re-fried beans on a burrito. You can add as little or as much as you'd like. Next, add your lettuce, chicken and other things. You can add cheese, hot sauce, anything you want...but I only added about half a tablespoon of salsa to each of mine. All that's left is to roll 'em up and you're done :D.

Tips:

• You can add beans to this if you'd like, instead of chicken, as your protein.
• You could use huge lettuce leaves as your burrito's shell instead of the tortillas.
• You can add anything at all to these, but make sure it's healthy! Things like bean sprouts, tomatoes, etc!
• If you prepare all of your ingredients before hand, like I did, it's super quick and easy and it makes you want to eat the healthy version more. Just because it's as simple as going to the drive through.

Smoothies! :D

So, I've been doing pretty good on my healthy-thing...yes that's what I'm calling it! And I've come up with some smoothies that are super good :) here we go!

One:
Banana, kiwi, and blueberry smoothie.
For this you'll need:
One ripe banana
One ripe kiwi
A small handful of blueberries (or as many as you want)
Naked Green juice (or any other juice you like)
Plain or vanilla low fat yogurt
Ice

So I have this amazing little blender that my sister, Kelly, got me for my birthday and I absolutely love it. It's supposed to be for a single serving smoothie, meaning one person. Easy peasy to use and easy to clean too! I think THIS is the one I have? Mine's pink, though :)



Anyway, all you do is pour in a little green juice (sometimes I add some water, too,  to thin the smoothie out a bit.) Then about two tablespoons of yogurt, add in your fruit in small chunks and then pulse until it's blended. Then I add about two ice cubes at a time and blend those as well. I'll admit the blender isn't all too great at completely crushing ice, but for me, it gets the job done okay enough.

Two:
Banana, mango, cinnamon.
For this one you'll need:
One ripe banana
One ripe mango (you'll use about half of it)
1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Naked Green juice (or any other juice you like)
Plain or vanilla low fat yogurt
Ice


Okay, so this one is my new favorite. I recently read somewhere that if you take in about 1/4 teaspoon to a full teaspoon of cinnamon a day, it really helps rev up your metabolism. So...I already love cinnamon and I cannot wait for the Fall so...this works for me lol. Again, follow directions above, making sure you keep the fruit smallish so the blender can really get everything well combined.

Bam. You, sir, now have deliciousness.

Three:
Green Juice and Banana
Pretty self explanatory, I think.Plus yogurt, ice, and a splash of cold water.

A little tip:
I find that if you chill the fruit in the fridge and make the smoothie with cold fruit as apposed to room temperature ones, the smoothies just come out better.

All of these, of course, can be tweaked according to preference and all. I absolutely love the Naked brand of real fruit smoothies! Of course they're good on their own, but it makes it so easy to cut out a sugary drink you may have used in place of the Naked juice when making a smoothie. I'm currently running low on green juice so the next trip to the store will be to try out new combos :)

I drink these smoothies sometimes for breakfast, but more than that I drink them before and after work outs. Sometimes I'm just not 'hungry' before a work out so I won't eat which is a no-no. Instead, I'll drink half a smoothie and work out, then drink the other half afterwards and most likely eat then. I find that if I eat or drink too much right before a work out, I feel sick and need to stop sooner so half a smoothie about 15 minutes beforehand is working for me so far.

My next smoothie, I'm thinking, is going to have avocado in it, somehow....we'll see how that works!
Anyway, I hope some of you out there will try one of these :)

Bored. So....HAUL.

I see a lot of people on youtube make 'haul' videos...so I'm going to make a 'haul' blog. Because I'm bored. Here we go!

So, today I went food shopping and only spent about 30-40 dollars so whoo! Here's what I got:

• A bunch of bananas
• 4 huge mangos
• 3 medium avacodos
• Whole wheat pasta
• Naked green juice
• A huge container of plain yogurt
• 10 luna bars
• Three boxes of poptarts
• Two boxes of pita chips
• One huge bag of pretzels
• Raisin bran cereal 
• Box of 6 cliff bars
• Cat litter
• Dishwasher soap

Annnnnnnd I got a few other miscellaneous things like floss and crap but that's boring so I won't go into it lol
Wow. I'm finished and still bored. Whomp.
Ganna go make a smoothie and eat a luna bar. Bam.

Holy healthy pancakes, Batman!

So, I've really been trying with this whole healthy lifestyle thing and although I wouldn't call myself a health-freak, I do feel as though I'm much healthier than I was a few months ago....which makes me happy!

Anyway, I've really been into Casey Ho on tumblr/youtube.
Here's her links:
Clickity-Click
Clickity-Click

This morning I made banana pancakes from a recipe I found on her tumblr and HOLY. GOOD. LORD. They're amazing. At first I was kind of weary to try them because it's only two ingredients and how the hell is something supposed to taste as amazing as she claims with only two ingredients, right? I was soooooo wrong.

All you need:
Two eggs
One large banana
 THAT'S. IT!

You can find the video of how she makes them here, but basically: Mash everything in a bowl until frothy(I used a whisk), spray some non-stick cooking spray on a pan/griddle, wait until pan is hot (medium heat), and pour little sand-dollar looking things. They literally take no time at all to cook and just flip them when they're brown on one side.

Two keys, I found, is to make sure your pan is hot! I was hungry and poured the batter in the pan with it still heating up and it was quite the mess lol. The other key thing is to use a large banana as opposed to a small one. I used a pretty smallish one and I found some of my pancakes were more egg than anything else. Also, if you are super hungry, double the recipe!


Anyway, I hope some of you try this recipe and like it as much as I do. Of course they don't taste as good as the heavy ihop pancakes, BUT these give you so much more than those do!
They're all natural, no gluten or processed flour/sugar! Also, they give you a lot of energy so it's great to eat before you go and workout. Added bonus= They're flipping cheap as hell to make as well! A bunch of bananas is, what? 2 bucks at the most? Same  amount about for a carton of eggs!

These are the nutritional facts according to Casey Ho, the brilliant mind behind these things:

I seriously suggest you try these, even if you're on the fence about it. I know what you're probably thinking, "Those aren't banana pancakes, those are egg omelets with banana in them. Gross." I thought the exact same thing, but I was completely wrong! Do it!

Also, side note...in my last blog I said I was going to do the 30 day blogilates challenge, starting September first. I lied. I started yesterday :P. Putting more thought into it, I'd say it's more of a 30 day fitness challenge. I say this because I would love to go outside and go for a run sometimes, too. I'm thinking of keeping an online log of my workouts to keep track on here so keep an eye out for that, too. Now I'm just thinking out loud. Anyway, thanks for reading! :D

Challenge

So....Lately I've been into healthy stuff and things and all that. I've been doing reasonably well with eating not as much crap (ie soda, fast food, so on). However, I haven't really gotten into the exercising aspect of it as of yet. I just...I'll plan out to work out or go for a jog or what not and then, for what ever reason, I lose interest/motivation and don't do it....so....I think I am going to do this:

I found this really cute, admittedly sometimes a bit annoying, person on youtube who does work out videos. She combines pilates with a whole bunch of other good stuff (I'm tired and not good at words at the moment, but you catch my drift, right?). So, I think for thirty days, I'm going to try and do at least one to two of her videos each day, giving myself one to two days of a break so my body can recover....because I hear you're supposed to do that. I want to start this September 1st just because it'll be easier for me to keep track of the thirty days.

Now, I'm not saying that I'm going to sit on my ass and do nothing until then. It just won't be every single day for now. I have a lot of knee and lower back problems and I'm not used to working out, especially doing pilates, so I think before I do this challenge of mine I had better get comfortable in some of the moves and so on. So...until September first, I'll be taking things slow and basically just familiarizing myself with her workouts.

I don't even know if any of this makes sense. Anyway.

My plan is to combine her videos, both pilates workouts and cardio, as well as going for jogs once the Fall weather really comes in. I don't think I'd mind that at all, actually.

So, here is the person I've been rambling about:
http://blogilates.tumblr.com/

She makes it as easy as it possibly can be as far as what to eat, what moves to do and so on, as well.
So...Tomorrow I'm planning on doing this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r_z7DUpjH8&feature=player_embedded

We shall see what happens :)