Oreo Truffles!

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Another boring recap post.

Foods:

Chicken Fajitas for dinner on Tuesday. Mine with corn tortillas and Tyler’s with flour. Topped with TONS of sriracha.

Starbucks (totally a treat for me)

More coconut flour pancakes. This time I put the fruit IN the batter so everything was nice and warm. Way better that way. And I topped the stack with a combo of Click espresso protein powder and greek yogurt. That breakfast keeps me full for forever.

I hit the Calgary Farmer’s Market yesterday and got great produce (for cheap) and a treat!

Buffalo mozzarella, an eggplant, mangoes, green beens and pomegranates ($1 each!)

A maple bacon donut and a s’mores donut from Jelly Modern Donuts. Tyler and I have been meaning to get to their actual store for quite some time now, but they’re in a completely different part of Calgary that it never made sense to make the trek on a weekend morning. I saw their kiosk at the farmer’s market, and the purchase was totally on impulse. I cut them up and we tested them after our dinner last night. The verdict: turns out maple and bacon is not our preferred salty/sweet combo, but the s’mores was pretty tasty.

Speaking of Valentine’s dinner, I hit up Safeway yesterday early morning (I thought everyone would be flocking to the butcher counter for steaks, and I wanted to make sure I got two good ones for us). We had steak, asparagus and baked potatoes. One of the best-and most basic- meals ever. Honest to God, Alberta beef is out of this world dynamite. I hardly had to cut it and we only seasoned with a pinch of salt. Melt in your mouth deliciousness.

It took almost all my willpower to not inhale that steak.

I also managed to slap on an apron at some point in the day and make a special valentine’s treat for Tyler.

Oreo Truffles!

Super easy to make: Throw 36 Oreos (almost TWO packages…I swear they’re getting smaller and smaller) in the food processor until crumbled. Throw in a package of cream cheese (8 oz) and pulse until incorporated. Empty contents into a bowl and ensure the mixture is thoroughly mixed. On a double boiler, add 2 8 oz. packages of Baker’s white chocolate. Make sure to constantly stir. Roll the Oreo mixture into tablespoon sized balls, drop in the white chocolate, and fully coat. Use a fork to retrieve out of the chocolate and let cool on waxed paper. Refrigerate.

They’re not the most glamourous looking truffles, but they show the homemadeness which makes them all that much better (and WAY more thoughtful!)

I topped this batch with some rainbow sprinkles for a little decoration. You could use extra Oreo crumbles or graham crackers or nuts or….whatever!

Mmmmmmm.

Layla got a few Valentine treats herself! I call them Refrigerator Cookies, because she prefers the yogurt coating to be cold. (Don’t know how that was discovered, but she is a pretty spoiled dog). First, her daily morning RC stick in PINK, then a Valentine’s heart that was bigger than my hand.

Workouts:

Tuesday: 50 minutes of crazy intense spinning!

Wednesday: My tummy was a little agitated after dinner, so I opted out of the planned BBB workout and chose to go through 5 superset tabatas for my upper body. Apparently the pumping adrenaline helped, because I was able to round out the workout with 50 burpees!

Thursday: I did 4 miles of intervals on the treadmill.

Random Things:

Finally got new sunglasses. They look identical to my old ones. (I would use the saying If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it but in this particular case, I suppose that doesn’t fit)

I went to pick up some stuff that Tyler found on Kijiji. This woman was giving away TONS of wine and beer making equipment for free! I barely fit it all in my car.

And that’s all I have. For now.

Burpee Love

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

The last two nights have been fun. Why, you ask? Because I did TONS of burpees. Yes, I am now officially obsessed with them. Only took about 9 years. As soon as Biggest Loser started on Monday night (I watched it at 6pm since it was a New England broadcast) I got right into the strength portion of my Best Body Bootcamp workout. I told myself that during every commercial break of the 2 hour long show I would do 10 burpees. So, on top of getting my designated lower/upper body workout done, I also managed to get 100 burpees done! (And I had run for 36 minutes earlier in the day on the treadmill).

(Source)

Then, yesterday, I managed to bust through a 20 minute circuit workout I originally posted here. Once Bachelor (part 2) started, I did another 100 burpees- this time with an audience- then went to the gym for an AWESOME 30 minutes of HIIT on the bike.

Let’s see, burpees have been my life as of late. Other than that, I have been napping or hanging around the house, so there really isn’t that much to share. I DO have some new music that I’ve recently added to my playlist:

And I DID take Layla to the dog park yesterday to stretch her legs.

I have a new recipe that I’m trying for dinner, so stay tuned to see if I post it (totally to be determined by their outcome!)

Here are some other recipes that I’ve bookmarked:

1. Um, anything and everything CAN be made with sriracha, or ‘rooster sauce.’ This post has 50 healthified recipes that include the stuff.

2. Although there is no chocolate in this recipe, it caught my eye. PB&J is always a winner.

3. Yet another way to make quinoa.

4. Gluten Free cheddar cornbread. Yum

I have also been looking through tons of recipes that use alternative flours, etc. Some are paleo, some are not. I’m not leaning towards eating a particular diet, I just thought it would be fun to play around with different ingredients! Any suggestions?

Chia Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Aaaand I totally thought it was Tuesday. But it’s not.

Moving on!

Happy Monday, folks. What oh what do I have to share with you today? Well, there’s a recipe. That’s about it.

These cookies are seriously delicious. I was searching around the internets to find inspiration and after about 2 hours of wandering, I found it. These are chia chocolate chip cookies that I modified to accommodate what I had in the house and what I actually would want to eat.

Chia Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 c quick oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 c flour
1 scoop chocolate protein powder (I used Click, an espresso protein powder-my FAVORITE-, which gave it an awesome coffee kick!)
2 tbsp chia seeds
1/4 c butter
1/2 c brown sugar
3/4 c peanut butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie pans with cooking spray.

2. In a bowl, mix oats, baking powder, flour, protein powder, and chia seeds.

3. In another bowl (or mixer), beat eggs and butter until smooth. Add peanut butter, eggs, and vanilla. Slowly add oat mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.

4. Take tbsp amounts of dough, form into balls using your palms and place on cookies sheets. Bake 13 minutes and allow to cool.

I think it’s safe to say these are some of my favorite cookies ever. They have protein. And peanut butter. And chocolate. The chia seeds give it a great twist, too!

They keep their shape in small, roundish balls. Cue me eating more than intended. And they have a super yummy middle.

Ok, ok, I’m going to stop describing them. Mmmm….so good.

I managed to get in the cardio portion of Workout A from Best Body Bootcamp already. I ran about 40 minutes of intervals on the treadmill. It felt SO GOOD to get back on those nice treadmills and really push myself.

I’ll be getting the strength portion done while I watch Biggest Loser tonight. AND, as an added bonus, I’ve decided to do 10 burpees for every set of commercials (doesn’t hurt that the show is 2 hours!)

And last, but certainly not least, today is the first day of the Healthy sELF challenge.

The challenge was designed as a way for people to connect through social media as a means of motivating each other to choose healthy options in life. Healthy through food, fitness, love, etc. Today’s challenge was go to meatless. That’s kind of hard when you’re coming off a Super Bowl high and live with a guy who loves meat. But, I managed to come up with an interesting concoction. Insert: tofu tacos with slaw, tangy sauce and warmed grapefruit.

They had a lot of different flavors and textures, but it just didn’t feel like a cohesive dish. Nonetheless, I got in my protein, kept it meatless, and filled my tummy with an assortment of goodness.

Question: Do you have a favorite meatless meal?

Wednesday W’s

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

What I ate:
My parents and I returned to Rock Hill Bakehouse for a late lunch. I guess since its my last full day in New York I can tolerate both lunch and dinner with them today (oh and I can’t wait to tell you about dinner, even though we haven’t even had it yet!!) Anyways, this Bakehouse always has such delicious daily specials

I opted for the salad special- with a cup of the vegan split pea soup. Bother we’re so delicious and I am now incredibly full and burping raw onions.

Wedding:
Chose the hotels for our wedding. One of them wanted us to block 30 rooms! I was all ‘helllllls no.’ I talked to the curator of the property where we are having the ceremony/reception and she recommended 2 particular hotels that offer a free shuttle and great discounted rates since they often get wedding guests from their particular property. Doesn’t hurt that both are within about a mile of the location as well!

I was wandering the house as I was speaking to various hotels on the phone and I came across this little gem:

That would be me when I was about 3 years old. The daughter of friends of my parents was getting married in Beverly Hills and I just so happened to be an adorable blonde-haired little girl that they knew! Lucky me. ~~My resources~~ mom tells me the guy she married (who I was totally afraid of because he was so muscle-y) owns a ton of Gold’s Gyms throughout Southern California now. Had I not recently moved to Canada, I would so be on the phone with him inquiring about personal training jobs. Could you imagine? Training rich, tan people in California? Ugh. I can’t think of it because its making me ~~mad~~ jealous.

Workout:
Oh yes, this is a great workout. I don’t know why, knock on wood, but lately I have been in love with my workouts. This is partly because of Best Body Bootcamp, part because of the new home equipment I have acquired over the past few months, and part because of my mentality towards each workout.

For the strength portion of today’s workout, I slightly modified some moves from BBB. The idea for the circuit was to run the clock for 15 minutes and get as many rounds of 3 exercises in as you can. I don’t want to give away the moves (it wouldn’t be fair to all the hard work Tina does with the program. If you’re interested though, click the link above to find out when you can sign up for the next round!) but the 3 exercises in each round focused on lower body and chest/shoulders. After completing the first round, I danced around to loosen up for a few minutes, the got right into round 2 for another 15 minutes of 3 different exercises.

The schedule also planned for some cardio intervals. I haven’t really been loving the gym here for my cardio workouts, and I have exhausted the option of using my parent’s treadmill everyday, so I changed this to my own AWESOME cardio bit:

You see that? I did Tabatas! (Tabatas are 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated 8 times for a total of 4 minutes.) In the above picture, I alternated between two moves for each tabata. I also hopped on the treadmill for a quick 1/4 mile run before getting into the next tabata. All these, combined with the strength circuits really kicked my tush. And I loved it.

Edited to note: I actually subbed the 1/4 mi sprints with 10 stair runs between each tabata set. More sweat, more work! That’s what happens when you post about your workout before you actually do it! Never again, Jen. Never again.

And now, I leave you with Weird:

Stuffed rhino head

My 4th grade self.

Question: What exercises do you currently have on heavy rotation in your workouts?

Armed and Ready

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

I have a mish mash of things to talk about. I could make this one long cohesive post, but I’m not the best at transitional writing. Or any writing for that matter.

Last night I made a BOMB ASS chicken salad. I didn’t really follow a recipe, nor did I really track the amounts of the ingredients I used, but I’m still gonna share the goods.

I used shredded chicken (boneless chicken breasts and chicken broth in the crockpot on high for four hours and shredded with 2 forks), red grapes, cashews, celery, mayo, plain Greek yogurt, spicy brown mustard, lemon juice, white vinegar, salt, and pepper.

It was super yummy and I couldn’t stop ‘mmmmm-ing’ with each bite. Something similar to this might make its way into my Super Bowl menu this Sunday…

This morning, my mom and I went to Target for some random items, then headed over to the nail salon for some pedicures. Not gonna lie, the last time I got a pedicure was when I was in New York in August. I’m not really one to splurge on pampering (at least not on a regular basis) so it’s nice to sit in a sweet massage chair while someone rubs my feet and legs with lotion. note: I specifically sat in the tub before heading out so that I could shave up to my knees. Gross, I know. But hairy legs at a pedicure is even more gross.
Also note, the massage chair at this particular salon is no joke. It kneads and chops and rolls and vibrates and does everything you could possibly imagine. With my back still being sore from my Saturday workout, it was pure bliss.

I had picked up a new shade of Essie nail polish from Target, so as soon as I got home, I slapped that shade on! (It’s called Armed and ready!!) My mom is convinced it’s grey, but it’s a deep green with a slight shimmer. I love it.

Today’s workout for Best Body Bootcamp focused on cardio, but I wasn’t really feeling it. Instead, I took inspiration from the deck of cards workout I did this last weekend with Ashley and Athena. I chose to do one cardio/more challenging ‘deck’ and another slightly easier strength ‘deck’. I got my grey gear on and was ready to sweat!

Round One:

Jump Squats

Start in plank position.

Squeezing your abs, ‘jump’ your feet as close to your hands as you can, with your feet landing wider than your hand position.
In a fluid motion, kick your feet back into plank position. and that’s 1!

Arnold Press

Start laying on your stomach, with your knees wide and bent and your heels touching in the air.

Squeezing your glutes, and keeping your heels together and knees wide, attempt to raise your heels in the air (think of squeezing enough to get your knees off the ground)
Return to start position. That’s 1!
(Like the sweet demo pics? I had my mom take them in the basement. Super pimp setup down there.)
Similar to before, I did the number of reps per face value, 10 reps for face cards and 11 for aces. The entire round took me about 23 minutes.