Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Breakfast Bonanza - Blueberry Bliss Protein Pancakes

Well, hello there! Please forgive me for my extended absence (erm...again) but even though I am trying to keep at leas  a post a week, a lot of things have been getting in my way! Anyhow, as a cry for redemption, I bring you probably one of the best recipes I have tried in a while. Notice I said RECIPE, pure and simple, not CLEAN, just recipe, which oh so happens to be clean - I just love these fabulous coincidences of life! Don't you? :) 




Before I get to the good (delicious, mind blowing) stuff, I will just give you a quick assessment of my progress so far: amazing! I mean it, feeling better than ever (I've said that before but worth emphasizing), skin is great, hair is shiny, no bloating aaaand that's only, I believe, are the benefits of nutrition. If I get into my exercise and workout benefits it gets even better - less fat, muscles are starting to show, and energy levels and resistance are waaaaay up there - I am getting stronger and I love it! 

As far as the bulking and eating unsafe amounts of food.. I gave that a try for 2 days but it was too much for me. I need to take baby steps here. Mind you, I come from the diet, "anorexic" mindset, where less is more...so I need to take it slow in re-educating myself with food and nutrition. I am sticking to eating every 3 hours, focusing on proteins and carbs (yes, I now know carbs are my friends and they won't hurt me! haha) and I'm never hungry. 

I am thinking of posting up some of my exercise plans here as well, what do you guys think? Also have a pretty cool product list of grocery items I found in my quest that are guaranteed to keep you happily (and tasty-ly) on a clean and healthy plan that I'm planning on posting soon (reviews included). 

OK, enough with the rambling. Ladies and Gentlemen, I now present you - The glorious Blueberry Protein Pancakes! 





Ingredients: 
1/2 cup of Oats
1/2 Ripe Banana
1/2 tablespoon of baking powder
1/2 scoop vanilla whey
2 egg whites
1/4 cup Greek yogurt (no fat)
Stevia
1/2 cup of blueberries (or filling of choice

Preparation 
1. Blend all ingredients, except the blueberries, in a blender until smooth. 
2. Incorporate the blueberries to the batter. 
3. grill them as regular pancaked in a coated skillet (I coated mine with coconut oil spray). They cook fast, so you'll probably only need about 30-45 sec. on each side. 
4. For frosting: a bit of vanilla whey, vanilla extract, Greek yogurt (no fat)  stevia and a dash of unsweetened almond milk mixed together.

They're panCAKES, so cutting like a cake made perfect sense! 
Note: You can substitute the vanilla whey for other flavors, same for the blueberries. Get creative! Also, to save you time in the morning, mix the dry ingredients the night before and just dump them in the blender with the wet when you wake up for a fast and delicious breakfast. This recipe should be enough for 2 people with moderate appetite or 1 person post-workout. 

On the macros note the ridiculous amount of protein and the laughable amount of fat. IHOP's got some serious competition. 



ENJOY! =D 


Tuesday, June 11, 2013

2 for 2 and a Perfect Banana Oatmeal



All, I come bearing good news! Guess what... this whole thing actually works! And I've got numbers to prove it! In 1 month of the non-diet diet I lost 2% body fat which in my case are 2 pounds of fat. I think it's quiet impressive... not to mention I've never felt better! For the first time in my life the scale went up and I don't give a damn (weight went up 2 pounds since I started... coincidence?) because my clothes are all lose. I attest: muscle does weigh more than fat (I am a "see it to believe it" person.. never mind that I always read about it everywhere, I had to actually experience it...).

Now to amp up my muscle gain I am actually trying to eat a bit more proteins and carbs (for those of you who know me well... you know how hard that is for me). I'm eating every 3 hours which honestly is not as great as it sounds... I'm usually not hungry when it comes time to eat. I just started this though, so I'll keep you posted on the results and challenges.

Aaaaaanyhow... to celebrate success, I leave you with my absolute favorite breakfast oatmeal recipe (this is the basic version.. but I recently I started adding whey protein powder to increase my daily protein intake)





Ingredients:

1/3 cup oats (I use steel cut oats old fashioned)
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/2 sliced ripe banana 
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Stevia or Truvia to taste
Sliced almond and dark chocolate chips to top it off.

Preparation: 

1. Combine the oats, water, almond milk, banana, cinnamon and sweetener in a bowl (microwavable) and stir. 
2. Place the bowl in the microwave for 6 minutes at 50% power (trust me, this makes all the difference in the consistency you'll get... part of the deliciousness comes form this step).
3. Let it sit for 3-5 min once it's done (if you can wait for that long)
4. Top it with some sliced almond, a bit more cinnamon, some chocolate chips or peanut butter - or whatever you fancy! ENJOY!!

Note: if you are an oatmeal expert you probably noticed that this recipe calls for a bit more liquid than you are used to BUT this is key! Adding more liquid improved the consistency and also makes the recipe "yield" more (so you feel you ate more). Got this tip from chocolatecoveredkatie.com and it changed my world. 






Thursday, June 6, 2013

Turkey Sliders with Sweet Potato Buns

I told you guys I would be back soon...and with a recipe! So here I am! 

Recently  I have been doing a lot of research on simple, delicious and affordable recipes that I can convince you people to try and, even more importantly, love! 

That said, this turkey burger (but sliders really) with sweet potato 'bun' definitely hit jackpot and overcame my expectations! They have very few and uncomplicated ingredients (more often than not,  I noticed, clean recipies can have some very weird and hard to find ingredients that you will use once in a lifetime), almost no fat, a lot of protein and a decent amount of good carbs. The fact that they are almost too cute to eat also helps (I'm a girl so I'm allowed to call food cute). 

I got the original recipe from fitmencook.com but tweaked it a bit to fit what I had at home... and made a little happy mistake that was actually quite successful. I have to admit I had little faith in doing a turkey burger with only turkey (no bread crumbs or eggs), I was afraid they would get dry or just fall apart. However, after seeing (and tasting) the results, I have to admit I am now a true believer! :) 

OK, enough talking, let's go to the good stuff! 





Ingredients: 

9 oz Lean ground Turkey
3/4 cup chopped raw mushrooms (feel free to change this for bell-peppers or any other veggie you have handy)
Cumin, Paprika, Chilli powder, salt and pepper
2 Medium Sweet potatoes
50g All natural barbecue sauce
Some arugula

For Burgers
1) Mix the ground turkey, mushrooms and seasoning together in a large bowl. (I also added a bit of the barbecue sauce to the mix here - mainly because I read the original recipe wrong and I thought I had to mix everything together at this point - oops - but it turned out great and I think it helped to keep them moist!)
2) Portion out 1.5 oz servings (should yield aprox. 9 mini burgers). 
3) Grill them in a hot skillet sprayed with coconut oil (my newest addiction) 

For the "buns"
1) Slice your sweet potatoes horizontally, so you are left with 'circular' slices of about an inch thick each. 
2) spray a baking sheet with coconut oil (I mentioned the addiction above) and place your slices in a preheated oven at 405 F for 17-20 min (I flipped mine at around 10 min to get some nice outer crispiness going)

To serve: 
Place a mini burger on top of one of your 'buns', put a bit of sauce on it, some arugula on top, and top it off with another "bun" aaand voila: Sweet potato turkey sliders! 
(I used the tip of the potato for the top 'bun' on the one in the picture to give it more of a bun-y look. )
You can eat 3 of these guilt-free in a meal and get the perfect protein and carb combo you need! Guilt-free and super clean!! If anyone is planning on trying, let me know how it goes~ 

Nutrition fact per slider (recipe yields 9 - I recommend eating 3 if you are making it a meal) 



Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Still living, and still going!



Yes, I have been MIA for a bit but I'm still here, and still sticking to the plan! Well, kinda sticking to the plan... last week I flopped a bit - I had half a dirty, sinful burger on weekday and a couple of beers more than I should... also on a weekday! But hey, the Heat were playing so cut me some slack hehe. 

Here is one of my shameless (but actually shameful) selfies assessing my 2 week progress (fairly outdated, yes.. it's been 1 week since I did the second picture so hopefully I'll get something even better next week!). I think it's pretty good considering it was only 2 weeks!!

Yes, I am (very) embarrassed by this, but I think it is good motivation

Well, You'd be glad to know (I think) that I am back on track now and at full force. So full of force and determination that this week I decided to cut out my oatmeal from breakfast - just because I was close to getting clinically addicted to that stuff (sooo good *drool*). I mean, oatmeal is great for you and all that, but since I don't exercise in the morning I don't think I need all those carbs (what triggered me to do this was this post I read at hungry-runner.com). 

So, instead of my go to oats, I'm trying some crazy smoothies! So far so good! Second day in and I have to admit I miss the carb kick but I'm not altogether hating it. Smoothies are fun and every morning its like Christmas, you never know what to expect. I will post some of my best recipes here... but I am not sure if it is even worth it following recipes for smoothies.. you have to be adventurous, you know? 

Some more recipes to come (soon, I swear!) are (forgive me the pictures, I am NOT a food blogger): 

This is just a good meal idea

The patties are actually just sweet potatoes (these are slider size)

This chicken has some awesome tricks to it - trust me

I mean EVERYTHING

Just because I'm not eating it doesn't mean you shouldn't

Anyhow y'all (yes, I said 'y'all', it felt appropriate... don't ask me why) catch up with you later! Before I go though? Did anyone get motivated to at least eat a bit better by this? Let me know if you have any recipes too, I need ideas!!