Healthy S W E E T S

I love sweets, but I try to distance myself as far from them as humanly possible!
and as for baking....

It hasn't happened much in the Young house. For good reason too:
 
1.. I HAVE ZERO SELF CONTROL
and well....
2. I don't want to weigh 500lbs.

And so the story goes on...

 I started following some amazing people on Instagram.
These chics make bad, fatty, and sugary food.... not bad, not sugary, and not fatty.

I say, Halleluiah!

That being said, things have changed around here lately. I have a new found love for baking healthy delicious "sweets".

My 1st Attempt:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Brownies

Batter: 2 cups oat flour, 2 scoops chocolate whey protein, 3 tbsp PB2 powder, 1/2 cup stevia in the raw, 1tsp baking soda, 1/2c unsweetened apple sauce, 3/4c unsweetened almond milk, 4 egg whites - Mix all dry ingredients first then add in wet ingredients- mix well. - as for topping I melted 2 tbsp of PB and poured on top prior to baking. Pour in 8x8 cake pan and bake at 350 for 15 min. (Middle will not be fully cooked- removing early prevents them from drying out) Thanks to cleanitupgirl for the inspiration!

My 2nd Attempt:

Coconut Cake Batter Blondies

 

These are my favorite so far!!!

 

Ingredients: 1 can chickpeas drained/rinsed, 2 scoops vanilla whey + 3/4 tbsp. golden batter cake mix ( or 2 scoops cake batter protein), 1/3 cup PB, 1/3 cup honey, 1egg, 2 egg whites, 2 tsp. vanilla or coconut extract, 1/4 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt, 2 tbsp. unsweetened coconut + coconut/sprinkles for topping. Mix all ingredients together in food processor/blender, spray 8x8 baking pan or line. Spread evenly in pan, top with coconut/ sprinkles, bake 20min @ 350. :)

I am HOOKED!

And my picky husband is too!!!

Try these out and let me know what y'all think.

What's on the agenda for this week you ask???
- Banana Protein Muffins
- Protein Peanut Butter Cups

mmmmm MMMMMM mmmmmmm  MM MM!!!



Dirty 30 Brewbash!!

 

 

Last weekend we celebrated my husbands 30th BIRTHDAY!

He is now officially "the OLD MAN" ;)

 

I had such a fun time planning this big day and have been dying to share the details with you guys!

 

So without further adieu, lets get to it!

 

The invites:

 

 

I purchased these from JacksMaster etsy shop and printed them off at home.

 

We asked each guest to bring one chilled 6-pack of their favorite unique brew- 2 beers from each 6 pack were entered into the beer tasting. Each guest voted on their favorite and the winner was awarded a giant beer mug filled with goodies/gift card.

 

The party décor:

 

 Most of the décor was handmade.... Thank goodness for the enormous amount of Pinterest inspiration!!!

 

 

To keep the categories simple we went with lights, ambers, and darks. I had planned to do IPA's, lagers... etc etc. but soon discovered that there are FAR tooooo many categories of beer.

 

 

These fans are so easy to make!! For the small fans I used scrapbook paper, and for the large, I used wrapping paper (postage paper would work well too). Tutorial can be found here.

 

 

Handmade Burlap Birthday Banner

 

The beer tasting sign was another pinterest inspired idea. This thing literately cost me a measly $5 bucks to make. I dug up a piece of plywood in the garage, cut it to the size I wanted, bought a can of chalkboard spray paint and went to town. Piece. of. cake.

 

And as for the pig head....  This guy was the life of the party. He was pretty darn tasty too!!!!!!

 

The Chow:

 

 

We ordered a 60lb. pig, and it fed roughly 30 people... it was aaaammazingly good.

Along with it my mother in law made her famous bacon baked beans, and scalloped potatoes.

 

 

Appetizers included stuff we like to eat with beer. Pretzels with cheddar, cheddar popcorn, peanuts... and for the healthy people: vegi platter/ fruit platter

 

 

 

And for dessert: cupcakes by CupKates. Katie is a good friend of mine and she makes the BEST cupcakes! If you live in the eastern NC area look her up on facebook. yummm.

 

The BIG Celebration:

 

Festivities began with a surprise visit from Mike's Momma and Poppa.

 

 

 

Mike was definitely surprised!!! Especially when this was presented to him shortly after their arrival.

 

 

A custom engraved Colt45 1911. He was in heaven.

 

Party Time:

 

 

 

 

 

The Beer Tasting:

 

 



 

 

Something Different... A Recipe.

Yesterday I woke up sick of my regular morning grub so I started digging around and came up with this lovely concoction!

Breakfast Pita Pizza

 

Ingredients:

Whole wheat pita bread

Eggs (scrambled)

Mushrooms

Tomato

Chicken Breast (shredded)

Green Pepper

Onion

Avocado

Parmesan Cheese (less fat than soft cheese)

Salt & Pepper to taste

 

I first cut the pita bread horizontally and sprayed it with olive oil, put  it in the oven alone for about 5 min. at 400 degrees to get the crust crispy.

I sautéed the mushrooms, green peppers, and onion. Heated up chicken that was left over from the night prior, and scrambled the eggs.

Add all of these lovely things on the pita bread and put it back in the oven for another 5 min. at 400 degrees.

 

yummmmmmmmmmmmm

 

These are so delicious and definitely something different than my normal blah egg whites!

Go ahead.... try it out, and let me know what y'all think!

 



Making Breakfast Count!

You've heard it before- breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

I would have to agree!

So why is it so important?

Breakfast is essential for energy. Your brain needs glucose from food to work well... hence why studies have shown that students that eat breakfast tend to do better academically than those who skip it.

Research has also shown that breakfast eaters have fewer weight problems that non-breakfast eaters. Yep, that's right... EAT to maintain a healthy weight. When you eat breakfast- you get your metabolism running and tend to eat fewer calories throughout the remainder of the day.

I try to eat a healthy breakfast everyday... But with school keeping me so busy, it seemed as if I was just grabbing anything as I walked out the door.

So lately I have been trying to make a better effort in the breakfast arena.

Here are a few pretty fast, super easy- HEALTHY recipes I have tried.

Spinach/ Red Pepper Egg White Scramble w/ 1/2 Grapefruit

 2 Egg whites, hand full of fresh baby spinach, handful of sliced red bell pepper.

I mixed the egg whites with spinach and red pepper, tossed it into a nonstick skillet and toasted a piece of whole wheat bread. Throw in 1/2 of a grapefruit and you have a well balanced breakfast that will keep you full well beyond 11 a.m. :)

(The scramble can be done as a omelet... I suck at making omelets so I just go for the scramble- same thing, just not as pretty!)

Almond Pecan Oatmeal

Steel cut oats, a little vanilla soy milk, pecans, almonds, raisins/ craisins, and 5 minutes. Delicious! (Follow directions on back of oat meal package, add a dash of milk, and toss in all others)

Banana Pecan Wheat Pancakes

This recipe is for 2. (About 6 pancakes)

Mix 1cup Hodgson Mills Insta-Bake Whole Grain, 1/2 squishy banana, 1/2tbsp. brown sugar, 1 egg, 2/3 cup of vanilla soy milk (or reg. milk). Cook as you would with any pancake mixture, add a handful of pecan pieces, the rest of that banana, and syrup- I use 100% pure maple... a little goes a long way.

Protein Packed Banana PB Yogurt

0% Vanilla Greek Yogurt, sliced banana, PB, and drizzle honey. Yummm.

Quick Breakfast Smoothie

 Photo: Pinterest.com

I've made this smoothie a lot in the past. As with most smoothies- its SOOO easy! I do a scoop of PB, a whole banana, hand full of ice, about a cup of vanilla soy milk, hand full of almonds. I have tried it with the oats and its ehhh ok- I prefer it without the oats.

And here are some HEALTHY breakfast recipes I plan to try this coming week.....

Caramelized Onion, Red Pepper and Zucchini Frittata

photo: skinnytaste.com

Find this recipe here.

Avocado Egg Rings

 Photo & Recipe: apronstringsblog.com

Heat a non-stick skillet to medium low heat. Lightly spray with oil. Slice an avocado with the skin ON lengthwise, forming one thick slice in the middle. (You will have some leftover avocado pieces) Remove the seed and use a small cookie cutter to make a hole in the center of your thick slice. Place the avocado slice in the pan. Crack a medium sized egg into the center of the hole. Cover and cook for a minute or two, until the egg is as you like it. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Quick PB and Jelly Banana Roll ups

Photo: Pinterest.com

A wheat wrap would make this a little healthier!

Hope you all can use some of these breakfast ideas. Let me know what you think!

Have a good weekend y'all!

Peel & Eat

Crawfish boil? Yea… been to one of those. Crab boil? Yep… tried that. Shrimp boil? HHMMmm never even been invited to one those.

We live on the coast of North Carolina where you can get your hands on fresh shrimp any day, anytime…  SO I thought- hmm wouldnt it would be fun to throw a shrimp boil at the casa for OLD ASS-Hubby’s Birthday??! [I love giving him a hard time ha] I’ve been planning it out for a couple of weeks… & on Saturday we made it happen!

Throwing a shrimp boil is really SO EASY, I definitely didn’t need weeks to plan. A day in advance would have done just fine.

We found several recipes online -since they all sounded amazing, we decided to merge a few of them together…

Here's how it went down.

We bought 10 lbs of shrimp from a local shrimp shack, cut all of their heads off and let them marinade in 1/2 a thing of Old Bay seasoning and H2O… We were pushed for time so they only ended up marinating for about 4 hours.

That was about the hardest part, well next to peeling the garlic. Piece of CAKE!

We filled a turkey fryer w/ strainer basket 2/3 of the way full with water. Added two Zatarain’s Crawfish, Shrimp, Crab Boil Bags, 1/2 a bottle of Zatarain’s Shrimp & Crab Oil, 1/2 a thing or Old Bay Seasoning, about 3/4 cup of salt, and 3 bulbs of peeled garlic…

Let all that goodness come to a boil… then added a bag of red potatoes- boiled those about 8 minutes, added a package of halved frozen corn on the cobs- boiled another 6 minutes, added 2 packages of kielbasa (cut in 2in pieces)- boiled for another 8 minutes or so, then threw in 4 large onions (cut in wedges) and squeezed 3 lemons (halved) tossed those into the pot- boiled for another 2 minutes, then added as much shrimp as we could fit, and let those boil until pink- about 4-5 minutes or so.

We then pulled out the basket and shook it out across a crowded brown paper covered table. [next time I’ll use freezer paper]

Since we couldn’t fit all the shrimp in on the 1st go around, we did the rest of the batch afterwards. It ended up working out perfect though- as the 1st batch went missing, out came the second… this time shrimp only.

10lbs. fed 17, no problem.

I think its safe to say everyone had a great time… As for the Birthday Boy… well, he might have had a little bit too much of a great time. lol – Here he is in 3D glasses he just happened to find from outer space randomly. Ridiculous! haha

Hope you all had a fun weekend!

Today was my last day full time… I’m so excited to do NOTHING! AHHH… heaven!!