Homemade Popsicles

Can I just start this post off by saying how on earth is it already July?!?!?! Where has 2014 gone? It's like I blinked and BOOM we're already halfway through the year. Cray-cray!

Anyway, I'm coming at you today with a super duper easy peasy delicious and HEALTHY popsicle recipe for you. I figured since the Fourth of July is right around the corner, it'd be the perfect time to whip out my popsicle molds and do some "cooking." The word cooking use lightly, considering these are frozen. lol Anywhoooo, this popsicle recipe is just basically my go-to pre-workout smoothie frozen into a popsicle form.

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 banana
• 5 strawberries
• 1 handful of blueberries
• 1 tsp Chia Seeds
• 1/2 C orange juice
• 1/2 C vanilla Greek yogurt

Place all of your ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. If you want to leave a few chunks in there for texture, that's totally fine too. Once you've done that, take out your popsicle molds and pour in the mixture to the fill line. With my molds, I can make four and still have about a quarter of the smoothie/mixture left. So I just drink the rest! Place your lids/sticks in the molds and then pop into the freezer for about 4-24 hours or until they reach the consistency you like.

Tada! Super easy. The best part is that each little popsicle only has about 60 calories and it's 100% natural. Pretty sweet, right?

Healthy Brownie in a Mug Recipe

The other night I was craving something chocolate but didn't want to completely undo my day or splurge on a "yolo" snack (I was particularly proud of myself this day on the way I was eating). I knew brownies in a mug were quick & easy and we had enough ingredients for me to throw something together. First I tried a recipe on YouTube that  all of three ingredients and literally cooked for just 50 seconds. While it was tasty, I felt like it was missing something so I decided to tweak it a little and came up with this! It has one extra ingredient, but is still healthy and just as easy. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 eggs

2 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder

1 TBS agave nectar

1 TBS almond milk (I used original sweetened)

Mix everything in a mug, place in the microwave for 30 seconds. Once done, take out of the microwave and check it out. Mix it up and place back in the microwave for about 20 more seconds. It should create a nice cake-like consistency and you're done!

Egg White Scramble

I love making this in the morning when I’m in the mood for something like a skillet, but don’t want all of the preservatives and crap that come along with the frozen stuff. This recipe is easy and takes maybe 20 mins top. It’s only 181 calories for the whole thing and is super filling. So here ya go:

Ingredients:

3 mini bell peppers or ¾ big pepper

3 mini potatoes or

9 TBS egg whites or

1 tbs shredded cheese

1 slices Canadian bacon

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp fat free milk

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Chop up peppers, potatoes, and Canadian bacon. Place butter into a frying pan and allow to melt.
2. Once the butter is melted, throw your veggies and meat in and sauté. Cook until everything is golden brown.
3. In a separate bowl, pour 9 tablespoons of egg whites and 1 tbsp of milk and mix.
4. Once everything in the pan is ready, pour the egg over the mixture and cook egg as normal. I usually scramble mine up.
5. As they finish cooking up, add a dash of salt and pepper to your liking.
6. Once eggs are completely done, turn off the heat and add the cheese. Mix up and you’re done!

Flush out those toxins!

I've been hearing from a lot of people about how they've been infusing their water with fruits and veggies. For Christmas my friend even got me an infuser water bottle. Lately I've been feeling super bloated and gross, so I started perusing the web for cleansing fruit combinations to try in my fruit infuser. I didn't really come up with anything I was interested in, until alas, once again Cassey over on blogilates posted a video for a "Natural Belly Slimming Detox Water" that was just what I was looking for! I've since replaced my regular water that I drink daily with this concoction for about a week now. I had a party last Saturday that I was going to and wanted to make sure I could rock my dress feeling my best. :)

Ingredients (for 24 oz. of water):

• 2 orange slices
• 2 lemon slices
• 3 cucumber slices
• 3 Mint leaves
• Cold water

The part of my water bottle where I place the fruit is too narrow to fit full slices in it, so I cut everything in half. Once I've done, that throw everything together in my bottle and leave it in the fridge for an hour or two to make sure it's nice and cold. Cassey (and I) recommend replacing the fruit every 2-3 refills (probably closer to 2. Mine starts to taste super diluted right away so I try to replace them as often as I can to get all the nutrients). Just replace your regular water with the detox water throughout the day and drink for as long as you wish. Also try to remember to get the recommend 8-10 glasses of water a day (64-80 oz)!  You will feel a world of difference once you're properly hydrating yourself.

Strawberry Protein Pancakes

Today I tried my hand at making strawberry protein pancakes again to see if they would turn out any better. Guess what? They did! This time around I actually had the psyllium husk that the recipe called for (which, by the way, if you're looking for it, I found at Fruitful Yield). The pancakes themselves tasted like egg. I probably didn't have enough strawberry chunks in them, so I topped them with whipped cream and gobbled them up! They didn't take too long to make and were a nice treat in the morning that was more than just a smoothie. If you're interested in making them, the recipe is below.

Here is what you'll need:

1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder (I used Trader Joe's brand)

1 Tbs Psyllium Husk

1 whole egg

3 strawberries chopped

1/2 cup water (or milk if you like them creamier)

Mix everything together in a bowl (including the strawberries). Spray a pan with non-stick spray and pour the batter onto it. I decided to make bigger pancakes, so I had enough batter to make three bigger ones. Otherwise it should make about 6 smaller pancakes. Cook them until they start to bubble, then slip and wait until they're a golden brown.



Recipe borrowed from Blogilates (surprise, surprise. lol).

Apple Cinnamon Protein Pancakes

Good morning! Since my return home from vacation, I've been working to get back into the swing of things during the week. I wanted something more clean and healthy for breakfast that was more than a smoothie, so I searched through Cassey's recipes on Blogilates and rediscovered the Apple Cinnamon Protein Pancakes she shared on her blog. This is my second time trying them and let me tell you, they turned out much better! The first time I was a little NutriBullet crazy and used that to "mix" everything together. However, what I ended up doing was pulverizing the binding ingredient/thickening agent (oatmeal) into dust, thus leaving me with a runny mess of a pancake batter. So my end result was apple cinnamon protein crepes. I put peanut butter on mine...OH. MY. GOSH. Amazinggggg. The pancakes taste nice and appley so if you like apples, these are for you!

Here's what you'll need:

• 1/4 cup oatmeal
• 1 whole egg
• 3-4 egg whites
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder (I used Trader Joe's whey protein)
• Half a chopped apple
• Dash of cinnamon

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl until it has a batter-like consistency. Pour onto a coated frying pan (so it won't stick) and cook on medium heat until you start to see bubbles. Flip and cook until done.

That's it! Easy peasy and delicious!

Calories: 342

Protein: 39g

Carbs: 28g

Fats: 7g

Sore Muscle Smoothie

About two weeks ago, I strained my back at the gym doing squats and I was desperate to find a remedy for the spasms without taking a bunch of pills. I mulled around on the internet and found some ingredients that would help ease muscle soreness.

Here's what I found would help:

1. Kale.
2. Cherries.
3. Pomegranate.
4. Wheat Germ.
5. Ginger.
6. Blueberries.
7. Flaxseed or other Omega-3s.

Out of those ingredients, I had a berry mix and kale. So I threw together a recipe adding in some strawberries, protein powder, almond milk, and  yogurt.

So roughly about this much of each:

1/2 cup strawberries

1/2 berry mix

1 cup kale

1 cup milk

1/2 yogurt

Just put everything into a blender and mix away! This little mixture didn't really help with my back, but it definitely helped to prevent sore leg muscles the next day! Super duper yummy.

Breakfast Smoothie

I wish I had the guts to experiment with recipes and make up my own but I feel like that would turn out disastrous. Soooo instead I hit up places like pinterest and blogilates to find new ones to try out. Today's recipe came from pinterest, or more specifically Mindfully Frugal Mom. I like to make this the night before I have class (so on a Sun or Tues) and refrigerate it so I can just grab it and go in the morning. It's yummy, filling, and super easy since I have to leave at 7:15 for my 8:00 class. The recipe actually has quite a few calories, but I've tried altering it cut down on them. It went from originally having 630 to...*drum roll* 453. Not super great, but not horrible either. We want to keep in mind that this is a meal replacement smoothie so having a few extra calories isn't necessarily a bad thing.

So here is what you will need:

1/2 cup milk (you can use any kind you want. I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
1/2 cup Vanilla Yogurt (the recipe suggests stonyfield whole milk yogurt. I just used dannon light & fit fat free)
1/2 cup quick oats
1 banana
1 tbsp peanut butter (or any other kind of nut butter you want).
1 tsp chia seeds (optional but great for omega 3s!)
1 tbsp cocoa powder (optional)

Instructions:

1. Soak oats in 1/2 cup of water for 5-10 minutes.
2. Place everything into your blender in this order: milk, oats (with water), yogurt, peanut butter, banana, cocoa powder, chia seeds.
3. Blend everything for 30 seconds - 1 minute until everything blended and smooth. Serve chilled.

Like I said, I put it in the fridge overnight and just grab it in the morning. Easy peasy!

Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding

After putting it off and not being able to find them, I finally had the brilliant idea to just ask someone where the hell they keep their Chia Seeds at Trader Joe's.

Once I got home, I decided to try their chia seed pudding recipe and it turned out pretty good!

This one is fairly easy.

Here's what you need:

1/4 cup chia seeds

1/4 cup almond milk (I used unsweetened original)

1 TBS Agave Nectar

One spoonful unsweetened cocoa powder

Just mix everything together and refrigerate for 2-3 hours. Tada! Chocolate chia seed pudding.

Tasty Tuesday - Homemade Guacamole and Baked Tortilla Chips

I don't know about you, but I love guacamole and tortilla chips. Especially the wholly guacamole that I buy from Target. It. Is. Addictive. But man oh man is that stuff expensive! With me being on a college student budget as well as trying to expand my horizons in the cooking world I wanted to find a cheaper alternative that I could make at home. That being said, here is my own spin on a guacamole recipe from a Mr. Dan Phillippi on YouTube. He and his wife Nikki, made a whole video on it that you can watch here. The recipe calls for a Serrano pepper, and since I'm not a fan of spicy foods, I nixed that and went for some garlic powder instead. As for the tortillas, I kinda sorta followed a "recipe" from Pinterest that was sweet and simple, which you can find here. I brought both to work and my coworkers gave me a stamp of approval. So without further ado, here is the recipe!

Homemade Guacamole & Baked Tortilla Chips

What You'll Need:

Guacamole

2 Avocados

2 Limes

Cilantro

Red Onion

Ground Cumin

Garlic Powder

Sea Salt

Tortillas

12 Tortillas (makes about 72 chips) or however many you choose

Sea Salt

Little Bit of Lime Juice

What to do:

1. Slice your two avocados in half, remove the pit, and squeeze into your blender/food processor/whatever else you're using. I'm using a Nutribullet.
2. Take your cilantro, remove the stems, and add as much as you want to the mix.
3. Cut a good chunk (or as much as you want) off your red onion and toss that into the mix as well.
4. If you choose to add in a Serrano pepper, this is where you would do so. If not, cut your two limes in half and squeeze the juice into your mixture.
5. Next, add your ground cumin and garlic powder, again as much as you want. In case you haven't noticed, this recipe is really lax with measurements.
6. Add a pinch of salt, close everything up, and mix away! You want to blend the guacamole until you see a nice swirl going on. If you're using a nutribullet, you may have stop a few times and tap the cup on the counter to get everything to fall to the bottom.

1. To make the tortillas, preheat your oven to 350°F and cut each one into 6 pieces (think Pizza slices).
2. Spread the wedges out on a cooking sheet in a single layer.
3. Sprinkle them with lime juice and/or salt.
4. Bake them for about 6 minutes, sprinkle a little salt on them and then use tongs to flip them over and bake for another 6-9 minutes, or until a light golden brown. Repeat the steps until all of your chips are made.

And voila! Homemade guacamole and baked tortilla chips.

Easiest Pancakes EVER!!

Goooood morning everyone! I have found yet another extremely easy recipe from Miss Cassey Ho over at Blogilates that I'm sure you will love. This recipe is not only simple, but it's gluten free, dairy free, and low-calorie! That's not even the best part! There are two ingredients! That's right, just two!


Here's all you'll need:
1 banana
2 eggs

I used my Nutribullet and all I did was break up the banana, crack the two eggs, put everything into a large cup, and blend until frothy. If you're using a mixing bowl and whisk, do the same, but be sure mash up your banana real good before pouring the batter onto your pan. Once everything is mixed and mashed, coat your pan with something to keep the pancakes from sticking (they will stick, even if it's a nonstick pan. I had that problem this past weekend) and cook just like regular pancakes.

I was looking through the comments on Cassey's post and someone said she added a dash of cinnamon and a few drops of vanilla. I don't know about you, but that sounds delicious. These pancakes do taste heavily of banana, so just a heads up there, but that's so minor compared to the ease of this recipe and the lack of calories. Maybe try topping them with some fruit or dare I say, Nutella?

Just 250 calories for an entire batch of pancakes with about 14g of protein! I can get my batter to make 6 small pancakes. Cheers to that!

I really enjoy making this recipe and I hope you do too. Let me know how you liked it and definitely head on over to Cassey's blog to check out some of her other recipes. I know I'll be doing that very soon!

Healthy Enchiladas?

So I just recently discovered Blogilates and let me tell you, I am in love. It's an excellent source for meal plans, workouts, recipes, inspiration, and soooo much more. Cassey has a recipe for clean, healthy quesadillas that have only 319.5 calories for the entire thing! Whaaaat? That's insane. If you decide to quarter it, it's about 80 calories. And it is delicious.

Ingredients:

Tortillas

6 - TBS egg whites

2 - TBS water

2 - TBS Coconut Flour

1/8 - tsp Baking Powder

Meat Filling:

1/4 lb - 99% fat free Ground Turkey

3 - Celery Stalks

1/4 - cup Light Mozzarella Cheese

Mrs. Dash seasoning (optional)

What to do (do these at the same time):

Tortillas

1. Mix egg whites, water, coconut flour, and baking powder together.
2. Coat a pan with non-stick spray and heat.
3. Pour half of the batter into the pan and move around to coat entire bottom of the pan.
4. Cook until bubbles appear in the batter and slightly brown.
5. Slip tortilla onto plate and repeat with the rest of the batter.

Meat Filling

1. Cut celery stalks into small chunks.
2. Coat different pan with non-stick spray and heat.
3. Toss celery into the pan and stir until golden brown.
4. Once celery is golden, add ground turkey to the pan and stir until the turkey is brown.

Once they filling is done, pour onto one of the tortillas, top with the mozzarella cheese, and place the second tortilla on top. Cassey also shows you how to make her fresh pico de gallo in the video, but I didn't bother making that since I'm not a fan. However, you can watch the video here.

And that's it! Super easy, super yummy, and healthy for you! Big, HUGE thanks to blogilates for the recipe! I, in no way take any credit for this recipe. This was all Cassey and I just wanted to share it. (:

Tasty Tuesday - Strawberry Blood Orange Smoothie

So a couple months ago, I tried Red Robin's Berry Blood Orange Margarita and fell in l o v e. One day I was trying to come up with a different smoothie to try and thought of the berry-citrusy flavors of the margarita and how well they went together. So I tossed a few ingredients into my Nutribullet, and voila! This smoothie was born and I fell in love. If you add a little vanilla protein powder, it's perfect for a pre-workout boost or if you want something sweet without all the fat, it's the perfect treat. Either way it's super duper yummy and a must-try. So without further ado, here's the recipe.

Strawberry Blood Orange Smoothie

You'll Need:

1 - Blood Orange

3/4 - C Trader Joe's Organic Frozen Strawberries

1/2 - C Non-fat Vanilla Yogurt

1/4 - C Original Unsweetened Almond Milk (if the smoothie is a little thick)

Peel your orange, measure everything, put into a blender and blend until smooth. If it's still a little thick, add in about 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk. That's it! Super easy and it tastes like a berrylicious creamsicle.

Total calories: 182