Banana Crumb Muffins...The Remix

I love looking at food blogs/recipes/cookbooks etc. While looking at allrecipes.com today I decided I want to see what their top rated/reviewed recipe was. I thought it might be a main dish, but it was these delicious looking Banana Crumb Muffins. The recipe looked verrrry yummy. My eye quickly went to the nutrition facts, and I saw that each muffin contained 263 calories and 8 grams of fat. I knew I could do better than that...and I did.

MY Health-i-fied Banana Crumb Muffins

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
1/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 egg whites
1/2 cup fat free vanilla yogurt
1 vanilla pudding mix (fat free sugar free)

Streusel Topping: 
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon wheat flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon


Directions:  
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  
In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugars, egg whites, and yogurt. Once mixed add pudding mix. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into muffin tins sprayed with non-stick spray or lined with liners.
 In another small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, and cinnamon. Sprinkle topping over muffins. 
Bake for 16-18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. 

They turned out SO GOOD. If I do say so myself. 

The Stats...

The smell of baking banana bread-ish foods always makes the kitchen smell so good. Today I was reminded of the days growing up that I would come walking into the kitchen from a long day at school, or a busy night of dance practice and my mom had something tasty cooking in the kitchen. 

My mom is an excellent cook, and she always let me bake along side her growing up. Her patience and willingness to teach me instilled in me the love that I have for cooking today. Despite our conflicting busy schedules, my mom always made an effort to have home cooked dinners around the table for my family, and I am so appreciative of that. 


Dinner time to so many today has been nixed for convenience. Home cooked meals have been replaced by a trip through the drive through, and the dinner table by laps and car seats in the car. With these replacements we've lost nutrients, proper portions, and most importantly quality family time. Of course there are times that life is just busy, and all feeding the family in any form possible is work enough, but imagine the difference we'd see in the health of Americans today if more people would take the time to cook a healthy meal at home instead of devouring deep fried potatoes and sugary sodas at every meal. 

I now realize the time and effort it takes to prepare healthy meals, as well as the importance of doing so. Good health comes to those who make it a priority in their lives. 


Did you come from a family that ate together? Were your meals healthy? I didn't realize until now home much my parents health habits have been instilled in me. Do you take the time to cook healthy meals for you or your family? It really is a lot of effort, but it is something that is so worth taking the time for.

A Kick In The Attitude Pants...Attitude Really Is Everything.

Truth:
My alarm went off this morning at 5:00 AM and I got out of bed on the wrong side.
It felt early.
I was tired.
I CLEARLY wasn't remembering why I do what I do.

I was actually quite annoyed with myself for feeling this way. Luckily, as I got ready threw on some makeup and my workout clothes, I had a bit of an awakening. I knew If I kept up the bad attitude I woke up with, my day was going to be long and painful. I decided I was going to HAVE to point out the good to myself and work to make it a positive day...like it or not.  

Breakfast: Chocolate PB Oatmeal. I look forward to this warm delicious breakfast.
Positives: Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day.
This healthy oatmeal combo is my fave right now.
Today I had time to make it and eat it on my way to work.
I am so lucky to have warm clothes, a car with heat, breakfast to eat, and a job.

Truth:
I was tired when I got to work.
Because I am a trainer, my job doesn't really allow for me to be in a bad mood. I know I need to be on top of my positive game. My clients come to get a good work out, to be supported, and to be motivated.

I took a second to remind myself why I do what I do.
Positives: I LOVE helping people. I LOVE that I get to help people change and do things that they never believed they could do. I get to talk about health and exercise (and The Bachelor...family life...great eats...the news...funny happenings...hard days...and everything else) all day long. My clients are some of my best friends. I made it a point to make sure each of them knew that I appreciated them, supported them, and loved them.

Truth:
I had a client cancel which gave me a second to sit down.
I knew I needed to work out, but sitting down for a second reminded me that I was so tired.

Time for that attitude adjustment again.
I decided to just do what I could, and utilize this time I'd been given to get a good workout in.
Positives: I ended up getting a solid 60 min interval workout in.
I felt energized when I was done.
I was reminded of how lucky I am to have a healthy body that can do amazing things. 
I got to watch The Today Show. (I have this weird love for The Today Show, and I get really excited when I get to watch it.)
I got to take an hour nap this afternoon when I would have been working out. It felt AMAZING.

Another Positive: I had an awesome lunch today...

La Tortilla Factory Wrap

Pesto

Baby Spinach

Thinly Shaved Smoked Turkey

A Drizzle of Fat Free Ranch

&

Steamed broccoli and carrots over baby spinach

I ate my steamed veggies topped with some mango salsa.

6 servings of vegetables and about 30 grams of protein. Filling and TASTY.

I felt good about it. 

I've decided that some days we feel on top of the world, without even trying. Other days we have to really make an effort to be positive and make the best of what we have in our lives. I really am so blessed to have all that I do. 

So, when working out is the last thing you feel like doing... Remind yourself of how good you will feel after. Remind yourself how lucky you are to have an amazing body that is so capable. Remind yourself of all of the benefits you'll receive from working out. You will almost ALWAYS feel better. 

When the healthy meal option looks less than appetizing... Remind yourself how great it will make you feel. Remember what eating healthy does for you. Remember how gross you can feel when you don't eat nutritiously. 

And don't forget that sometimes you just don't have it in you, and that is OK too. We don't have to be perfect all the time. Simply, doing your best for you...for THAT day...for THAT workout...is something to be proud of. Something to be REALLY proud of in fact. 

Look at the positives in your life. 

and if you need something to make you smile...watch this...

If that doesn't make you smile...I don't know what will. :)

How do you stay positive? Do you have any mantra's or mental reminders that get you in a better place? Do you know the double dream hands dance? I think I've got it down. My favorite parts being the "freestyle" and the final look at the end...this video sincerely makes me laugh my head off. 

Black Bean Brownies

Sounds sketchy huh? As I mentioned yesterday, I really wanted to try out using beans as a substitute for fat in a recipe, so I searched online for different concoctions and this is what I came up with...

It should be noted that having never done this before I didn't really have a base to go from as far as what was going to taste great, and I ended up combing several different recipes.

Black Bean Brownies

Recipe Makes 15 Brownies

Ingredients
15 ounces black beans, cooked, drained, and rinsed
2 bananas
1/3 cup honey (or agave)
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp raw sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar
¼ cup instant oats
1/8 cup chocolate chips (I did a combo of chocolate chips and butterscotch chips)
*These are almost vegan and with a few alterations could be made to be that way.


Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 

Rinse your cooked/canned black beans.

 Combine beans and honey in food processor or blender.

 Puree black beans and honey together until they make a paste.The honey helps add a little moisture while you're pureeing them.

 Combine the rest of your ingredients into a bowl and add the pureed bean mix. If you are using old fashioned rolled oats you may want to run them through the food processor as well to refine them.

 Mix ingredients together well and spread the ingredients in a pan coated with cooking spray.

I decided after I spread them out to top them with a few butterscotch and chocolate chips for good measure.

Bake at 350 for 30 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean.

 Allow to cool before cutting and serving.

 

 Nutrition facts:

Pretty amazing as far as fiber and protein content! Thank you black beans.

Here are my thoughts...

Upon tasting the batter I felt like it wasn't sweet enough so I added 1 Tbsp of both, brown sugar and raw sugar. It was so weird for me to taste the batter because I'm not used to trying the sweets that I bake. I kinda liked it...Who wants the beater? I DO!!

I feel like next time I would use xylitol or stevia to sweeten it up a little and leave out the sugars.

I really liked the fudgey texture. 

I love how moist the beans make them, and you really can't even tell they are in there. (I even had my friends guess the ingredients...they couldn't.)

I tried a piece of one right when they came out of the oven and I wasn't loving them. I felt like they lacked sweetness, and were kinda bland. However, I tried another piece tonight after they had been sitting for a few hours, and I liked them about 100 times better. I think allowing them to sit gave the cinnamon a chance to come through, flavor-wise.

I love how much fiber and protein they have in them. 

I want to try them out on my niece and nephews tomorrow to see if they fly as kid friendly. I know my palate is a little different than most because I don't eat a lot of sugar, but I liked them. I do feel like they could still use some tweaking, and I kept thinking about how much I'd like them slathered in PB or crumbled in my chocolate PB oatmeal. (I am going to turn into a giant peanut if I am not careful.)

I'm excited to try some other recipes I found using white beans, so I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Do you taste while you cook? I used to L-O-V-E making cookies because half of it would end up in my belly before they even were baked. Sometimes I think I like the cookie dough better than the actual baked cookies. Since decreasing my sugar habit that was one of the hardest routines I had to break. This is definitely one of those **watch for hidden calories creeping into your diet** areas. Don't you worry...I still will test out my low-fat zuchinni cookies and my honey banana oatmeal cookies. I just don't eat the whole bowl of dough. On a total unrelated note...but equally important...Do you Tweet? Are you a twitter-er? If you are we should be tweeting friends. I know some of us have already found each other and I LOVE it! You can follow me by clicking the link at the top left of this web page, or leave me your twitter name and I'll find you!!

You've BEAN good to me.

Well, it's been settled. With your support, (and willingness to participate in night games, dance parties, and endless bowls of frozen yogurt), I will be a shoe in for president in 2012. Luckily, many of you volunteered to fill my cabinet positions, so it's pretty clear that this country will be run by geniuses. I'll call Beiber and get him lined up for our election celebration party.

I just got done stuffing my face with a ginormous salad while watching, The Biggest Loser. I would have/should have taken a photo of it in all of it's glory...I'm pretty sure there was a solid 5 servings of veggies and one serving of fruit. However, I was ravenously hungry and let's be honest, sometimes most of the time hunger comes first.

I learned the COOLEST healthy trick today from one of my clients. I wanted to come home and cook up a storm just to try it, but there was no time today...hopefully tomorrow.

Let me just say first and foremost, that I LOVE BEANS. I may struggle with protein, but I could eat beans all day. White beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, soy beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, sports beans...you get it. They are just SO dang good for you. They are a great source of protein and fiber, and they are a high quality food. They are also easy to keep on hand, and throw into almost any recipe to up the nutritional value and keep you full!

I've done a lot of things with beans in my day...dips, sides, sauces, salads, soups...etc. But today I learned a new use! Pureed beans can be substituted into recipes in place of fat, (Butter, oil, shortening) Amazing, huh?
White beans work best due to their lack of color and their mute flavor. However, if you are using a recipe that is darker in nature such as brownies or chocolate cake, black beans could work just as well.

1. First cook your beans, or simple rinse your pre-cooked canned beans.

2. Next you put them in the food processor or blender and puree them.

3. Substitute the pureed beans straight across (cup for cup) into whichever recipe you're using.

4. Lastly, enjoy your BOMB creation that now has an increased amount of fiber and protein and a decreased amount of fat.

I am planning on whipping up something delicious and bean-i-fied tomorrow! I'll share it as soon as I do. :)


Do you like beans? I most certainly do. I think they are tasty in just about everything. What is your favorite way to eat them? Any great recipes you want to share? I'm always down for new recipes. Have you ever used this method of swapping out the butter for beans? I have heard of people making black bean brownies, but I wasn't aware this was what they were doing. I can't wait to try it!!

If I were a president I would...

1. Work out daily in the White House Gym. I don't know if they even have one, but they've got to right?
2. Have a chef who prepared me BOMB meals with all of the perfect amount of calories and macro-nutrients at all the perfect times.
3. Take the White House helicopter to a warm beach somewhere and soak up some needed Vitamin D.
4. Go shopping with my personal stylist. If you are president you have to look awesome...duh.
5. Throw a huge dance party with the Black Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani, Ke$ha, Usher, Beiber, Lil' Wayne, Justin Timberlake, Taio Cruz, and Pink...And STEPHANIE of course. ;) 
6. Enjoy fat free frozen yogurt whenever I wanted from the FroYo machine I had installed in the kitchen.
7. Play a game of sardines in the White House where everyone is dressed in black, lights are out, and the winner gets ten million dollars. 
8. Oh yeah...and make sure that everyone was happy with health care, equality issues, education, job security, and world peace.

What do you think? Will I be up for election in 2012? You'd vote for me, right? ;)
Until then I'll just keep up the good work training my clients and baking up a storm.

Step It Up Presidents! 

(My Presidents Day Work Out)

Because presidents are required to really step it up when they are elected into office, I give you my presidents day step up work out.

Exercise #1: Step ups with an upright row. Do six step ups on the right leg holding dumbbells. At the top of your step up do an upright row. Follow with six step ups with out the row. Repeat this same sequence on the left side.


alternate with:
Exercise #2: Plank Hold (put a 10 or 25 lb plate on your back if the regular hold is too easy.) Hold this for as long as you can. Start with 30 seconds, build up from there!

alternate with:
Exercise #2: Squats with a press. Hold two dumbbells, a plate, med-ball, or a bar at shoulder level. Squat down keeping your form correct, (hips back, knees in-line with ankles, keeping that upper body up.) As you return to standing squeeze your glutes and keep your abs tight pressing your dumbbells towards the ceiling. Make sure you aren't leaning back. Slowly lower them down, and return back to a squat starting again. Do 12-15.
*repeat this two or three times through.

Exercise #4: Step ups with a bicep curl. Follow the same pattern as you did with the step ups and a row, but do a curl instead of a row. Repeat on both sides.

alternate with:
Exercise #5: Row In a Lunge. Do 12 of these on each side.
*repeat this two or three times through.

Finish with...
Exercise #6: Step Up Push Ups. mmmm...I love these. Try for 10 on each side. Go for more if you're feeling it.

alternate with:
Exercise #7: Elevated Push ups. Your arms should be toasted at this point.

You can add weight or increase the height of the step to any of these exercises to increase the difficulty. Don't be afraid to step up that work out. Your legs will thank you. :) Step ups work your glutes, quads, hamstrings, your calves, and your core. BOMB. Add an arm exercise in there and you've got a full body workout.


What would YOU do if you were president? I just might have to do some of my presidential wishes anyways...like the frozen yogurt machine in my kitchen? How do you feel about step ups? If you aren't a fan try to mix them up with other exercises to make them a little more exciting. I love them because they work! Nothing like a good leg burn.

Sinfully Sore Sunday.

I absolutely LOVE to bake. I love that feeling of creating something tasty that other people can enjoy. To me it is so fun to try new recipes and attempt different ideas. For the most part I cook very healthy, but I do enjoy baking treats and giving them away. Although I don't eat the sugary sweets I bake, I do fully believe in moderation. I think that there is room in your diet for all foods, and when you are focusing on eating good things most of the time you have room for some treats every now and again!
My friend needed some cookies for a church lesson, so I jumped at the chance to try out a recipe I'd seen on Picky Palate for brownie stuffed chocolate chip cookies. Sounds divine right?

First make up your favorite box brownie mix. You can make them from scratch if you'd like, but a delish box brownie mix will do the trick just fine, and is a heck of a lot quicker.

While the brownies are baking mix up the cookie dough. 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Ingredients: 

2 sticks softened butter

1 Cup granulated sugar

3/4 Cup packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla

3 1/2 Cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 Cups semi sweet chocolate chips

  

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare brownie according to package directions. Let cool completely. Cut your brownies into squares. You can make them whatever size you like depending on how many cookies you want to make. I made mine about one inch squares. In a stand or electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla, continue to beat until well combined. Place flour, salt and baking soda into a bowl; mix to combine then add slowly to wet ingredients along with the chocolate chips. Place a scoopful of cookie dough on top of a brownie square and another scoop on the bottom.  Gently press and enclose brownie with dough adding pinches more dough to cover sides if needed.  Place filled cookies onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet.

Bake for 14-16 minutes or until edges are golden brown.  Remove and let cool for 15 minutes before removing from baking sheet.

 

They smelled divine, and everyone seemed to love them! How could you not? A Combo of brownies and chocolate chip cookies?? As I was baking these I was thinking how yummy it would be to serve them warm with a scoop of ice cream. 

MONEY.

 We also made some mock Pizza Factory Bread sticks. The Pizza Factory is the restaurant I talk about all the time that has my all time favorite salad bar. We were looking for a good bread stick recipe, and I remembered a recipe I'd seen on Jody's blog Great Blog Food Made Better. (Little did every know we were using a health-i-fied recipe...muah hahahaha.)

We made two variations, cinnamon sugar and garlic. I sprayed mine with spray butter and sprinkled a little pizza seasoning on it. They turned out really good! Thanks for the recipe Jody! 

I don't get very sore anymore, so I love waking up to sore muscles. I know that sounds crazy, but I like feeling like I did something, like something is changing! After yesterdays two plus hours of lifting and doing intervals I was feeling it today. 

One of the sequences I did yesterday is this KILLER LEG COMBO. After doing ONE set you will have done 165 lunges and squats. Do it twice through, or three times and you'll be looking like Jessica Simpson in the Dukes of Hazard. Not to mention you'll be using your core the whole time, and feeling it in your shoulders and upper back from holding your weight in front of you.

Again. 

MONEY. 

What is your favorite baked good? I am a fan of warm cookies, brownies, and cinnamon rolls...or pretty much anything with cinnamon! HOWEVER, I would rather have some fat free frozen yogurt than baked goods any day. Do you like to bake for other people? I love it. I would rather make something and give it all away than eat it. I know. Weird. 

Thanks for letting me indulge a little. We'll be back to healthy and low-fat tomorrow ;)

Today I love...

1. Saturdays, first and foremost.
I woke up at 5:30 AM to workout before I went and taught boot camp and trained for the day. I ate my oatmeal and then remembered that my Saturday schedule was wide open and I could work out after boot camp, so I got back into my still warm bed...which I quickly decided is one of the BEST feelings in the world. Sleep does a body good.

2. Resistance Training & Friends. I know some of you are cardio fanatics, but I LOVE resistance training the most. After I taught Boot Camp I went to the gym by my house to burn a few more calories. I saw all of my favorite people there!! Benita and Janae I love you both.
Side note: I have to say THANKS again to Janae for the greatest lunch ever yesterday. We had massive salads and we sat and talked about how crazy we are for a couple of hours. I'm certain we could have stayed there all day.

 (Dear Janae...don't be mad I totally stole this pic from you blog. Also, don't be mad that I kinda look like I just woke up in the photo. Love you...Megs)
I also got to go with my amazing sister and her kids to enjoy some warm veggie soup at Jason's Deli last night for dinner. She is the greatest and I could hang out with her and her little munchkins ALL. DAY. LONG.

Seeing friends put me in the best mood and made me re-invigorated to burn some calories. I initially was going to go do some cardio, but I ended up doing some circuit work and lifting for another hour with Benita, and it was so much fun. We came home and played Dance Central with the Kinect and then went back to Pizza Factory for Salads AGAIN. Are you embarrassed for me? Don't be. It happens all the time. Am I a creature of habit? Yes. I told you...I really like salad bars.  It's so much more fun burning calories and eating healthy food when you are doing it with people you love.

3. My bed. Sometimes getting in bed with some sugar free hot chocolate and my computer makes me really really happy.

Oh and how blessed are long weekends? My work will be closed on Monday, so I get a three day weekend. I hope yours will be too...I feel good about that. Let's be honest, rest can be much needed and much appreciated.

3. Good Health. Today I watched the show, "Heavy," for the first time. Wow.
The people on the show were saying things like...

"I just want to be able to bend over and tie my shoes."
"I would like six jr. bacon cheese burgers, and 4 orders of chicken strips." (for one person)
"I feel like I have lost 40 years of my life..."

It is amazing how unhealthy America REALLY is. Sad, and also a great reminder to me that I want to active and healthy ALWAYS.

4. Peanut butter. Oh wait...that was a couple days ago...nope, that is actually EVERY DAY. :) I still have some of those healthy peanut butter cookies left over and I'm not mad about it.  I told you peanut butter is like the glue that holds this world together. But let's be honest, I just love food in general. 

5. Blogs. I am loving reading your inspirational posts, healthy delicious recipes, and awesome encouraging words of motivation. Please keep them coming. We can learn so much from each other.

What are you loving this weekend? I feel like my list is pretty descriptive of my day, and I feel reaaally good about it! I'll finish out the evening with a good meal and some fun plans with friends. Do you ever get back in your bed in the morning? I always have to be up and out the door so early I don't get the chance, so I definitely took it when I had it.  What are some of your favorite blogs to read? There are so many out there that I'm SURE I'm missing some of them! Fill me in peeps, and have an AWESOMELY relaxing weekend.