PB&J Smoothie

Posted on April 14, 2015 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Yup, another smoothie. And it’s SO good. Per usual.

I had kind of fallen off the peanut butter train for a while, but my dad came home from a trip to the grocery store with two large jars of pb the other day so I HAD to indulge. What better way than to add some of the sweet stuff to a smoothie!

Gosh. I really do love my Vitamix. There are way too many combinations of smoothies I can throw together- especially now that I have a blender that actually BLENDS.

Saturday morning, I was craving a PB&J but didn’t really want the actual sandwich for breakfast, so I decided to try to whip something up in my handy dandy blender to mimic the awesome PB&J taste.

PB&J Smoothie

1 frozen banana
1 handful frozen strawberries (or any other berry)
1 spoonful peanut butter
2 spoonfuls plain greek yogurt
2 T quick oats
Cashew milk (enough to make smooth consistency when blended)

Noms. It was so good and tasted exactly like the sandwich! (but healthier??)

I also apparently felt compelled to draw a little heart in the new jar of pb. I must’ve been low on blood sugar or something.

Your turn: What’s your favorite PB&J version?

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Muffins w/Cinnamon Frosting

Posted on April 9, 2015 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Does that make them cupcakes? Meh, whatever. I will eat them any time of day thankyouverymuch.

These are seriously SO good. I kept the leftover frosting just in case I need to dip into it at random for a little pick me up. Don’t judge.

Maybe next time, I’ll just load these puppies up with more frosting so there won’t BE any leftover frosting. Yup, that sounds like a good idea. Definitely remembering that.

Let’s just cut to it and get to the recipe

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Muffins w/Cinnamon Frosting

for the bread

3 bananas, mashed
1/3 c plain greek yogurt
3/4 c brown sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1 t baking soda
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour

for the cinnamon swirl

1/3 c sugar
1 T cinnamon

for the cinnamon frosting

4 oz cream cheese, room temp
1/8 c butter, softened
1 t vanilla
1 t cinnamon
3(ish) c powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray muffin tin or line tin with paper cups.

2. Mix bananas, yogurt, sugar, egg and vanilla in a bowl until incorporated (can hand mix or opt for a standing mixer).

3. Add baking soda and flour and mix until incorporated. Don’t over mix!

4. In a separate bowl, mix the cinnamon and sugar. Fill the muffin tin halfway with banana mixture. Generously sprinkle (and be VERY generous) with the cinnamon/sugar. Top each muffin with the remainder of the batter. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Note: I accidentally forgot to set the timer on this, but that’s my estimate! Just make sure a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean

5. Let muffins cool on wire rack. While they cool, put all ingredients for frosting in a bowl. Using a hand mixer, beat on high until nice and smooth.

6. Once muffins are cooled, top the shit out of them with ALL THE FROSTING.

Haha, did you actually read the directions? I swore in one of the steps. So naughty of me.

Oh wait, there’s one more step. EAT THEM ALL.

When I attempted to take the above picture, Reggie promptly got ahold of this one. I fought him for it and I won. And then I ate the rest of it.

So yeah, these are kind of healthy? I used greek yogurt instead of butter and brown sugar instead of regular sugar. Yup let’s consider that a healthy swap.

Ah what the hell, let’s just call them cupcakes.

Your turn: cupcakes or muffins?

Five Favorites

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Just thought I’d pop in today and share some things I have been loving lately. And of course, feel free to share in the comments what YOU’VE been loving lately, because I will probably check them out and end up loving them too. Unless you’re loving seafood or Glee or country music then fat chance.

1. Kerastase Elixir Ultime

This stuff is amazing. I put a few drops in my hair after I wash it and not only does it smell DIVINE (think of the glorious salon/expensive smell) but it makes me hair soft and light when I style it. Which is rare these days, but I will still throw some in before I go to bed because the smell honestly just makes me feel sexy. It’s a bit pricy ($54 CAD) but it last forever and well worth it. Several of the other products I rotate through are also a bit on the pricy side but they too have been in my hair regiment for a long time!

2. Smoothies

In previous years, I loved making smoothies (mostly ones that included protein powder) but I had the crappiest blender ever. When we reno’d our kitchen, the blender kind of when kaput, so my smoothie consumption drastically went down. Unless I felt like shelling out $7 bucks at Jugo Juice. BUT- this year, I finally decided to splurge on a Vitamix..using some of the money I got from my work bonus! Holy moly is that machine the most amazing thing ever. It blends anything and everything like a charm. Tyler and I have both been loving smoothies lately because they are quick and tasty and cheap! We can use not-so-good looking fruit we have leftover and stock up on a ton of frozen fruit from Costco. I’m excited to try out more recipes this summer! Oh, and I’ve given up on Nutella for a bit, but if you’re still on that wagon, check out this YUMMY Nutella Milkshake recipe.

3. Whimzees dog treats.

Ok, obviously this one isn’t for me but the dogs go NUTSO over them. We generally only give these types of ‘big’ treats to them on Friday and Saturday nights and ones we’ve bought in the past have either not agreed with the pup’s tummies or Reggie gobbles them up faster than you can blink. Which is unfortunate, because you’d hope they’d last at least a few minutes when you’re spending upwards of $20/bag on them! Reggie gets the hedgehogs and Layla get the alligators and both dogs love them- I think it even helps with Layla’s mouth troubles! (both dogs have each had a tooth removed but Layla also has a lot of nerve damage on the left side of her mouth making it hard for her to chew).

4. Behr Marquee paint

Do I sound grown up for listing PAINT as a favorite? But seriously, this paint is great. Here’s why: Our house was built in 1981 and I’m guessing there have been quite a few previous owners- most of whom had terrible taste in decor. Paint colors included. When I moved in 3 years ago, most of the house was a weird dark brown/mauve color and totally barfy. We tried to lighten up the dining room and living room a few years back, and it took us 3-4 coats of crappy paint to just cover the yucky brown. When we did the basement this winter, we decided to give Marquee a go because of the one-coat guarantee and it covered the basement’s dark green like a charm! We were so impressed that we bought another can to do the guest bedroom, another for the baby’s room, and are now currently working on covering up our previous poor paint job in the main living space/kitchen. The paint line comes with a slightly higher price tag, but it DOES work in one coat which could really make it more cost efficient in the end.

5. Home Workout Equipment

Right now, my arsenal includes:

bosu ball
rope less jump rope
gliding discs
resistance bands
TRX
dumbbells
bender ball
stability ball
DVDs

Since I haven’t had a gym membership at all this calendar year (gasp) it has been really great being able to alternate between what I do have here at home. Sidebar: I can’t wait until after this baby is born to join the Y again!!! Obviously my workouts and far less intense while pregnant, but it is really nice to be able to grab a few weights or a band and do SOMETHING while I’m watching TV.

Regarding pregnancy DVD workouts: I bought the Tracy Anderson Pregnancy Project, the Complete Prenatal Vinyasa Yoga & Short Forms, and the Prenatal Fitness Fix.

-I’ve only done the Prenatal Fitness Fix once because I thought it was a really cheesy video and could honestly come up with the series of moves myself.

-I’ve done the vinyasa yoga DVDs quite a few times because it is a nice change up from typical workouts, plus it offers 15/30/45/75 minute practices depending on how much time or desire you have!

-I’d like to say that I love the Tracy Anderson Pregnancy Project series, but that would be a lie. She has some great moves that actually target all those muscles that might be hard to otherwise reach during pregnancy, but I really just can’t stand her teaching method. Her explanations, banter, and demonstrations just bug the bejesus out of me. And you can tell when she gets tired because her rep counts are very inconsistent. Tyler laughs when I do these DVDs because I yell at her a lot.

So that’s it!

I’ve covered, beauty, food, dogs, home and fitness. Only topic left untouched is baby- which will come tomorrow! (the topic, not the baby).

Chai Pear Muffins

Posted on March 24, 2015 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

So I bought a couple of pears last week and usually they take a couple of days before they get ripe enough for me to be able to eat them on their own. But it had been EIGHT days already and the pears were both still hard as a rock. So weird. But I really wanted to eat those suckers.

That, paired (see what I did there? Play on words) with the fact that I was only really comfortable with either a napping position or a standing position, I opted to take the standing position and whip up some sort of baked good that included these pesky pears.

I recently saw a post for Pear and Applesauce Muffins (recipe can be found here) but decided to change it up a bit based on the ingredients I already had. The result? A SUPER tasty, dense muffin. PS: Some people are strictly light-and-airy muffin goers. If that’s you, I’d stay away from my recipe, but maybe give the one linked above a go. If you can handle a more dense and hearty muffin, give this one a whirl.

Chai Pear Muffins

1/3 c plain greek yogurt
1/2 c sugar
3/4 c unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
2 c flour
2 t baking powder
dash of salt
2 t chai spice
1 pear

I opted to use chai spice as I bought a jar of it from Epicure about 2 years ago and have only used it once since! If this isn’t available to you, go ahead and use apple pie spice. Or cinnamon. But chai is really such a unique flavor that I highly recommend picking some up if you ever see it in stores!

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and heavily spray a 12 muffin tin with cooking oil (or use liners)

2. Add butter, sugar, applesauce, eggs and vanilla to a large bowl and use a beater to thoroughly combine. Add salt, baking powder and chai spice. Combine. Slowly add flour to mixture.

3. Fold in diced pear (cut into about 1/4 in pieces). Spoon mixture into muffin tins and bake for about 15 minutes or until tops of muffins ‘bounce’ back to the touch.

Allow to cool on wire racks immediately after removing from the oven. Do not eat on the floor in front of your beagle. Beagles will beg.

Anyone use chai spice? Got a good recipe? I’d love some recommendations so I can use up my jar!

Cucumber Fruit Smoothie

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Sounds kinda gross, right? But when you really want to sneak in some extra veggies (especially after a carb-filled weekend) what better way than in a smoothie?

Ah if only the background of the above picture alluded to the chance of alcohol being included. Amiright?

PS: that background is actually one of a set of napkins my godmother made for me a while back. I LOVE them. I need to have a cocktail party some time so I can bring them out again.

Ok, back to the smoothie. I didn’t really measure out the ingredients, but I wanted to keep it on the smaller side so I could also enjoy a slice of banana bread. Because of that, the frozen fruit I used didn’t so much make it your typical smoothie consistency, but more of a juice. Still, totally ok with that because it’s healthy and that’s what I need on a Monday morning. Don’t remind me that I accompanied my glass with the totally not healthy banana bread. Whatever, BALANCE.

Cucumber Fruit Smoothie

Cucumber (I used about 1/3 of a super long english cuke)
Frozen pineapple chunks (small handful)
Frozen blueberries (small handful)
Plain greek yogurt (2 spoonfuls)
OJ (enough to cover about half the goodies in the blender)

Pretty basic, right? Note: If you’re not a huge cucumber fan, I probably wouldn’t recommend this as the cucumber taste is still pretty evident. Here’s the part where I’d normally tell you that this drink would be a great way to kick start the new work week. But, since I’m not going to work, I can attest that this smoothie did help me power through 3 episodes of Scandal. So that’s something.

I fully anticipate repeating this smoothie throughout the summer when it’s hot/if I potentially need to lose baby weight (just won’t have it with the banana bread!) Plus, it’s a pretty neat change up from the typical addition of spinach or kale as the hidden veggie..especially when you don’t have either of those in your fridge.