Florida!

Hey everybody!

I had the most amazing trip down to Florida, and I was seriously bummed about coming back today. Every time I go down I cannot get over the high quality of the food, beautiful weather, and happy people! It is just such an awesome place. We went to several really cool restaurants, but my favorite was (and always is) Christopher's Kitchen. My brother Mike works there so he always gives us the heads up on what to order, although pretty much everything on the menu is out of this world. It is a completely organic and vegan restaurant, and every single thing you order, whether it is an entree or a smoothie, comes out looking like a work of art. More importantly, don't think that just because it is a vegan restaurant you won't enjoy it. Cort and my mom are both steak lovers, yet they were licking their plates with me after our meal!

Cort and I went a total of four times over the past five days, and I miss it already! Here are a couple of pictures of our food...

How insanely delicious does that look? Why can't we have high quality food like this in Pennsylvania?!? A lot of times when you go out to restaurants to eat, you feel pretty full and sluggish afterwards, but I honestly felt great! 

Besides enjoying as much good food as possible, I also took time to enjoy the beach! I got up early everyday to get a good workout in, then spent the rest of the day with Cort and the fam!

Miss it already! Have a great week everyone! 

Fresh and Healthy Tuna Boats

Yesterday was such an awesome day... Cort, Ben, Bob, and KC were in the SPARTAN RACE! It was so fun to watch, especially since the guys killed everyone in their heat so congrats to them! Between watching that and the Crossfit games this weekend, I am definitely feeling bummed I didn't register to compete in anything this summer, so I'm looking for some good races to do this fall!

Now for the good stuff (food!)... I wanted to share one of my new favorite lunch/snack ideas with you guys, tuna boats!


I normally have a salad for lunch with some tuna on top, but today when I went to make lunch we were out of lettuce, so I thought I was out of luck! However, my mom recently bought some endive leaves for a recipe she was making, so I decided to use these little guys to make tuna boats! Endive leaves are great to use because they hold different fillings really well, and they are super crunchy. I topped three endive leaves with my tuna salad and some sliced tomatoes. I added some other cut veggies with some spinach hummus on the side to complete my lunch!


Tuna Salad Recipe:
-1 can of Bumble Bee Solid White Albacore Tuna (or any white tuna of your choice)
-1 tbsp of nonfat plain greek yogurt
-freshly squeezed juice from half of a lemon
-a bit of sea salt, pepper, and a sprinkling of onion salt

So light, colorful, and delicious! 

Power Muffins!

Hello!

I have had such a crazy week and I haven't had much time to post, but I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! This week has been so insanely hot I had to get up almost every morning at 7am to get my work outs in, so I was looking forward to sleep in this morning!

I have another recipe for you, I have FINALLY perfected my muffin recipe! There is no flour, oil, dairy, or processed sugar in these. They are perfect for breakfast, a midday snack, or to satisfy a craving before bed!

Power Muffins! (aka Banana Oat Flax Muffins)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup raw honey (or any natural sweetener of your choice; pure maple syrup, agave, etc.)
1/4 cup almond yogurt
1/4 cup unsweetened organic apple sauce
2 mashed bananas
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
1 egg white

*Makes about 9 small muffins

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, and spray muffin tins.

2. Put the dry ingredients (oats, cinnamon, and baking powder) into a blender or ideally a food processor and blend until oats have turned into a flour.

3. Add in the remaining ingredients and blend together.

4. Pour batter into muffin tins and sprinkle with a few oats. Bake for 15-18 minutes. Cut in half and enjoy with peanut butter, almond butter, or jelly!

I enjoyed two of these with peanut butter, an omelette with 2 egg whites and 1 egg, and some fresh fruit for breakfast this morning. Great way to start your day!

Homemade Peanut Butter Granola Protein Bars!

Happy July 1st!! This summer is seriously flying by.

My weekend was full of pool time and lots of yummy and healthy food, and I have a great granola bar recipe for you.


Peanut Butter Granola Protein Bars

Ingredients:
-2 cups oats
-1 cup peanut butter (*organic, natural peanut butter, the only ingredient should be peanuts!)
-2 tbsp. of natural almond butter
-1 tbsp. of natural cocoa powder (*only ingredient should be raw cocoa, no sugar)
-1 scoop of vanilla protein (I use plant fusion)
-1 tbsp. of cinnamon
-1 splash of coconut or almond milk
-1 tbsp of honey


Directions:
Combine oats, cocoa powder, vanilla protein powder, and cinnamon in a bowl. Stir in the remaining ingredients.

                              

Transfer the granola to a dish and flatten it out. Refrigerate for at least an hour to let it set. Cut into squares.

These bars are honestly so delicious. I always put a square of it on top of vanilla almond yogurt with some fresh berries for dessert, and YUM! Definitely try it out, it's so simple and a great snack to have instead of buying the processed protein and cereal bars from the grocery store.

Some other simple and healthy meals I made this weekend...

Comment if you want to know any of the recipes :).