Banana Bread (healthified)

When I got home home from the gym last night I immediately started putting dinner together. I marinated 2 chicken breasts (each cut in half to make 4 thin breasts) in a balsamic, lemon and basil marinade. My plan was to make chicken and steamed broccoli...until I opened the veggie drawer and saw kale. Then I decided on baked chicken, steamed broccoli and steamed kale. Just as I was putting the chicken in the oven Doug asked if I was making a starch. He's trying to put on some weight and asked that I add that into the mix. This was the perfect opportunity for me to try my new Quinoa pasta! I made the baby shells in a big pot and steamed the broccoli and kale over top of it. Once everything was done I decided it'd be easiest to dice up the chicken and toss it, along with the veggies, with the pasta and some pesto sauce. Mmm Mmmm Mmmm. It was delicious! I'm glad my eyes were bigger than my stomach because I have leftovers for lunch this week!

While I was waiting for the chicken to bake I read through some recipes I'd been saving in my email. A recipe for Pumpkin Banana Loaf with Chickpeas from the Peanut Butter Fingers blog I subscribe to peaked my interest and I decided to give it a try. I modified her recipe a little bit (I used Stevia instead of sugar, agave nectar instead of honey and egg whites instead of egg) and it turned out wonderfully.  In retrospect I could have added nuts or cranberries to the mix for some added texture and flavor. I'll have to remember that next time.

The loaf came out super moist and very flavorful. You can't even tell it's a "healthified" version! Below is the recipe I used. The original can be found on the Peanut Butter Fingers Blog.

Pumpkin Banana Loaf with (Undetectable) Chickpeas

• Makes 1 loaf
• Cook time: 65 – 75 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 cup agave nectar
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup white flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3/4 cup stevia
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2) butter, softened
• 2 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup canned pumpkin 
• 1 large banana, mashed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place chickpeas and agave nectar in a food processor and pulse until relatively smooth. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, combine whole wheat flour, white flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
4. Mix stevia and butter with a mixer until combined. Add egg whites slowly. Add vanilla extract.
5. Add chickpea mixture, pumpkin and banana to stevia mixture.
6. Slowly add flour mixture to stevia mixture until batter is combined.
7. Slowly pour batter into a loaf pan sprayed with cooking spray and bake for approximately 65 – 75 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
8. Allow to cool before slicing.

All in all I think the bread was a success. I enjoyed a slice with a cup of coffee this morning while getting some work done from home. It was nice to have something different in the morning (I'm used to my Tone It Up Slim Down Scramble).

After working a bit from the laptop my alarm went off on my phone reminding me of a 9am conference call. I quickly grabbed my food for the day, and decided to make a smoothie for the road (the little slice of bread wasn't cutting it for this girl after a morning run).

I read an article this morning about the importance and berries and how they can help memory and cognition, so naturally I had to put berries in my smoothie. In to the blender went:

1 scoop of vanilla protein powder
Vanilla Almond Milk
Blueberries
Spinach
Ground Flax Seed
4 ice cubes


I can't really give measurements for what goes in my smoothies because I always just eyeball it. For some reason I'm always able o make the exact right amount, even without measuring. Yay me!

You may be thinking I'm a total freak for adding spinach but it adds in extra nutrients and you can't taste it at all! My smoothie was a deep blueish green. Weird looking but very tasty.

Today is a big day for the Stewarts: today is Doug's 30th birthday!!!!!

Yup, I'm married to an old man! LOL. In all actuality he is as playful and youthful as ever in probably in the best shape of his life. I'll update with birthday festivities later tonight or tomorrow. Have a wonderful day!

To Gluten or Not to Gluten...

This topic has been on my mind a lot lately. Gluten-free products are becoming much more accessible, and for good reason. Apparently 1 in 126 children suffers from either a gluten allergy or Celiac disease. For adults it's 1 in every 111. With close to 15% of the world's population having some sort of gluten intolerance, it's no wonder the gluten-free market has really opened up. These gluten issues are really nothing new, they are just more commonly diagnosed today.

Often diagnosis of a gluten allergy or intolerance is diagnosed after several steps. First, some of the common symptoms must be present. If some are present and there's no other medical reason for it, then the patient is recommended to remove gluten from their diet for a few days or weeks to see if the symptoms subside. If they do the doctor may simply recommend removing gluten from his or her diet (or avoiding it as much as possible) or may call for further testing for confirmation. A blood test can be done to detect antibodies that suggest Celiac Disease. Damage and inflammation to the small intestine can also be detected via endoscopy to also confirm Celiac Disease.

Why the sudden interest in all this gluten nonsense? I myself possess several of the symptoms and think I may be gluten sensitive or have a gluten allergy. I'll spare you the details of my specific symptoms, and instead have shared a general list with you below.

Symptoms of a Gluten Allergy

• Upper repository tract problems
• Fatigue
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Mouth Ulcers
• Anemia
• Infertility
• Acne
• Weight Loss
• Diarrhea
• Constipation
• Abdominal Bloating
• Crohn's Disease
• Diverticulitis
• Depression
• Attention and Behavioral Problems
• Asthma
• Keratosis Pilaris
• Irritability
• Eczema
• Wheat-Dependent Exercise-Induced Anaphylaxis

I did a 3 day trial- removing most gluten from my diet and my symptoms literally disappeared. Though I'm happy I may have found a solution to my stomach and skin problems, I'm also a little sad. Gluten is in some of my favorite foods!

First, beer has gluten. I'm not a big beer drinker, but I do really enjoy good beer. I like rich dark beers with lots of flavor and am known to jump at the opportunity to try a new micro brew or attend a beer festival. Luckily, most of the other alcoholic beverages I enjoy (wine, vodka and tequila) typically do not contain gluten.

For those of you that don't know, gluten is found in wheat, barley, rye and triticale. Because I eat healthy and run a lot, whole grains are a large part of my diet. I'm going to have to do a lot of learning quickly if I need to sub my whole grains for gluten-free versions.

I keep looking at Healthy Pancake Recipes on the Peanut Butter Fingers Blog and have been anxiously waiting to try most of them. I don't think any are gluten-free, so they may require some modifying.

During my many hours spent online researching all this gluten stuff, I did find a delicious looking recipe for Gluten Free French Toast Brownies. Click Here to check it out.

I think my next step is to discuss it with an actual doctor. Self diagnosis can only do so much plus gluten free alternatives are not cheap. If I'm going to be gluten free there better be good reason for it. This brings me to another point. Some believe that removing gluten will help with weight loss but there is no evidence to support this. Gluten is in a lot of cards, which really is the only correlation with weight loss. Removing gluten has only proven to be beneficial to those with gluten allergies (thought removing gluten certainly will not hurt you if you are not sensitive to gluten). I guess this means I have to find a primary care physician.... this could take a while.

Creative Cooking

This post is dedicated to the other twenty-somethings out there who are figuring out the whole cooking thing, like I am. It hasn't been easy, but over the last year I've learned a lot about food and how to prepare it. I'm more aware what's going into my body, which has led me to try a lot of interesting and healthy new foods. I'm constantly reading blogs and scouring the internet for interesting ways to make healthy food fun and tasty! Although I may never get bored of steamed veggies, salads, grilled chicken and plain quinoa, I know my husband would! Therefore trying new things and getting creative is a MUST in the Stewart household. Unfortunately for me, my husband hates to cook. So although I try a lot of new recipes, there's little time (after working, exercising, then cooking) to blog about them, even with the photo on my phone as a constant reminder.

I wanted to share with you in a quick post some of my recent creations.

Ground Chicken Taco Salad (this is quick, easy, and one of my FAVES)

"Healthy" Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies and Mint Stuffed Sugar Cookies

Tune Steak with Homemade Salsa, Steamed Broccoli Slaw and Brown Rice

Heart Shaped Eggs, Bacon, and Wheat Toast with Nutella for my Husband on Valentines Day

Tone it Up Protein Pancake

In the next few days I'll post a few recipes for pancakes, cookie and smoothies that I've been dying to share with you. Are there any other recipes you'd like to see?

Christmas in South Carolina

We do things just a little bit different in the south.

This year was only the second time I hadn't been back home in PA for Christmas. The first time was in 2009, when I had only been at my job for a few months and couldn't take the time off for both Christmas and Thanksgiving. Each year we can only make the 800 mile trip for one or the other, certainly not both when they are so close together. So it was a quiet Stewart Christmas- just Doug and I with Karma, Pepper and Senior Gato.

...and Melissa Facey (she's peeking out at the bottom of the photo).

You may think I'm a complete lunatic for having a life-size picture of my sister's face but I assure you I am totally normal (mostly). See, there's a hilarious radio morning show that we're big fans of called Preston and Steve on 93.3 WMMR in Philadelphia. One of the co-hosts, Casey, created Casey Facey. Listeners can go on the website and print out a picture of his face, then attach it to a paint stick and take pictures with it in exotic places: France, The Grand Canyon, Chickie n Pete's... The point is that, um, I guess there really isn't a point other than embarrassing yourself in public and making a regional inside joke reach far and wide. When I moved to SC I really missed my sister. We thought that creating facies for one another would be a hilarious way to include the other in things that we do. My first Melissa facey was quite busy.

In my kitchen

I lost her on a road trip to Atlanta. So on Saturday while dreadfully slow at work I made a new one, this time without the ridiculous facial expression.



Melissa Facey with Rowyn on Christmas Eve



Despite how slow we were at work on Saturday I still had a fairly productive day. I started it off by running 8.2 miles with some friends. It was supposed to be a 12 mile run originally, but somebody couldn't hang...*cough cough*. Seriously though, I was not upset about cutting the run short because I needed to fix breakfast and get to work.

AND get a Grande Skinny Peppermint Soy Latte. What? We meet in a Starbucks parking lot to run. What do you expect?? I also got a White Chocolate Mocha for Doug. It's his fave!

I was able to finish off my homemade gift for Doug and was happy to send my employees home 2 hours early! I wrapped up the work day on my laptop while watching the Eagles win but still not make it to the playoffs thank to the Jets. Argh! We had dinner with the neighbors, played the PlayStation Move and then I graciously pulled an Irish goodbye and snuck off to bed with company still over. I was exhausted!

But let’s get back to business: CHRISTMAS! Doug and I had so much fun opening our gifts. We only exchanged a few small items between the 2 of us, but our families had kept the base of our tree full by mailing gifts for weeks.

New Eagles Trailer Hitch Cover



My Gift for Doug. I got this idea from another blogger and absolutely LOVE it!



I got LOTS of new running stuff, including a headband with headphones built in! SO COOL!

The aftermath

My new scarf, earrings and cookie monster pants

Notice I'm wearing a short sleeve shirt while on my back porch? That's a South Carolina Christmas for you! I couldn't even wear my cookie monster pants for very long because they were way to warm! Seriously. After about an hour I had to strip them off! The weather has been pretty unpredictable recently, with a week of warm and sunny and then 2 fays of bitter cold. I'm sure I’ll get good use out of my winter clothes eventually.




Christmas Breakfast

I really wanted to try a healthy gingerbread pancake recipe but the idea immediately got dismissed by Doug. It turns out he's not a fan of gingerbread :( So instead I made Tone It Up Chocolate Protein Pancakes. They were awesome. Naturally they didn't taste like a gigantic cookie like regular chocolate chip pancakes do, but they were nutrient dense, very filling and super healthy! I had a second pancake for a snack a few hours later. I also indulged with Bailey's in my coffee. Mmmmmm!



With Whipped Chocolate Fat Free Greek Yogurt

 All in all I'd say our morning was fabulous! After thoroughly destroying the living room with cardboard boxes and wrapping paper we watched a movie (Warrior- definitely recommended) and spoke to family members on the phone. Before we knew it the time had come to get get ready and head over to the Arlett's (2 of our close friends with 2 amazingly adorable children) for dinner and cocktails!

On Sofa: Doug, Bruce and Me
Back Row: Nikki, Emily, Dave, Tracy and Pat
Not pictured: Neil (holding the camera), Todd, Sally, Stef and Buzzy

Doug and I with baby Rowyn



Rhys with his cell phone



Emily, mommy-to-be, feeding Rowyn

We had a great time with some of our dearest friends. Dinner was wonderful (thank you to Neil and Tracy) and I especially liked the champagne cocktail we enjoyed at the end of the night. Despite being so far away from home on the holiday we had an incredible time. It made me realize that I have family everywhere- even in SC. I hope anyone reading this also had lots of laughter and love yesterday. Merry Christmas (Fa rararaaa rara ra ra)

Healthy Meals with a Side of Chritmas Cookies

After waking up 20 minutes late and missing my run with my running group (sorry guys), I still needed to do something to get my metabolism going first thing in the morning.

50 High Knees

20 Reach/Calf Raise to a Toe Touch Stretch

I repeated these simple exercises 4 times through as quickly as possible. My heart was pumping when I was done, which was exactly my goal. I then did about 15 minutes of yoga while I was waiting for Doug to quit hogging the shower.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the sweets are flowing here in the office! I planned ahead with some nutrient dense meals to try and curb my cravings for the sweat treats. I started my morning with my Tone It Up Meta-D shake and the Tone It Up Slim Down Scramble. All the Tone it Up recipes are available in their nutrition plan which is incredible and I highly recommend purchasing!

I took some Tazo Green Tea in my travel mug and headed to work. I honestly had every intention of having half a grapefruit for my mid-morning snack but instead indulged in a few Christmas cookies. I'm not gonna lie...I have no will power when it comes to cookies.

Lunch today will be left over Chicken Chili. This is my own recipe and it's really quite simple. I load my chili up with veggies! Ingredients are orange and yellow bell peppers, black beans, red chili beans, zucchini, onion, ground chicken, chili powder and cayenne pepper.This dish is packed with protein and fiber! I didn't take a pic of the chili however I do have a pic of my lunch from yesterday.

This is a tossed salad with mixed greens, baby spinach, red onion, yellow peppers, mushrooms, avocado and coconut curry tempeh. No need for dressing with all those flavors!!

Tonight's workout with be very much needed after all of my indulging! I'll probably do a 1 Body Rock workout, 1 Tone It Up workout and 30-45 min of cardio.

Spreading Christmas Cheer...and Sugar!

After spending a lazy Sunday around the house with Doug, watching football and digging through old photographs, I decided to try making something new! Ever since I picked up a pack of peppermint bark from Walmart last month I've been dieing to make the homemade version. The recipe was easy to follow and required very few ingredients.

Peppermint Bark

Ingredients:

•1 pound dark or semi-sweet chocolate (I used Baker's b/c it's good quality and was on sale at Publix!)

•1 pound white chocolate (again, Baker's)

•1 to 2 teaspoons peppermint extract

•1 teaspoon oil (canola or vegetable)

•4 to 5 regular-size candy canes, crushed


Directions:

1.Line a baking sheet (with raised edges) with foil, and spray with non-stick spray.

2.Melt dark chocolate in microwave (30 second intervals on high, stirring in between).

3.Add 1/2 tsp. of oil and spread evenly in pan. Refrigerate until solid (5 minutes was plenty)

4.Melt white chocolate using the same method, and add 1/2 tsp. of oil, as well as the peppermint extract.

5.After allowing the white chocolate to cool for about a minute, spread white chocolate mixture over dark chocolate layer
6.Sprinkle crushed candy cane pieces on top, and refrigerate (or freeze) until solid.

7.Remove from cookie sheet, peel off foil layer, and chop into pieces.

To be perfectly honest the hardest part of this recipe was chopping the bark up. I so wanted neat little squares (yes I am a perfectionist!) but instead ended up with various shapes and sizes. I placed the bark pieces in little baggies to hand out to my 10 wonderful staff members. I also brought in left over cookies from Saturday night and a box of candy canes. YUM!!

I packed all the goodies into a festive Christmas bag for easy transport. Just walking around with the bag of treats made me feel extra cheerful!

I hope my team enjoyed the treats as much as I liked giving them out. Who knows, maybe the sugar and peppermint will make them extra productive! LOL.
 
But I wasn't the only one in the auto mall with Christmas spirit! Nick, our General Manager at our Infiniti store, brought us 3 gigantic trays of cookies!
 

Sugar, Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal Cinnamon (I prefer the Oatmeal Cinnamon)

Talk about a sugar high! Thankfully I balanced it out with a healthy breakfast and lunch. And just when I thought I had seen enough treats for the day Whit, GM at our Nissan dealership, brings me his wife's homemade peppermint bark! I was so happy because I didn't save any of my bark for myself. She make hers with just white chocolate and mixes the candy cane pieces in. It's absolutely delicious! He also gave me 3 bottles of red wine. Chocolate and wine...I wonder if he's buttering me up for something (JK). It was so very generous and I can't wait to uncork a bottle this weekend!

 
I'm off to the gym to burn off all the Christmas spirit I consumed today ;)

Eat, Work, Live, Love, Run...repeat

It's been over a month since my last post. It may seem like I'm slacking but in actuality I've been in overdrive! August was an insane month. On top of the birthdays (yours truly included), out-of towners visiting and a record-breaking month at work, I've been focusing heavily on taking care of my body. Thanks to Karena and Katrina from Tone it Up I've been eating healthier than ever, trying challenging workouts each day, and developed the discipline to follow a fool proof and successful routine. For my Tone it Up Booty Call each morning I run 3 miles on an empty stomach. My meals are all fresh and nutrient dense. I do strength training and more cardio in the evening, and finish of the day with a healthy homemade meal. I have to admit, however, I still indulge in my regular glass of red wine and the occasional mixed drink or beer. A girls gotta live a little, right?!?

I also completed the Tone it Up 7-Day Slimdown. My sister-in-law and I did it together, which held us both accountable and kept us on track. At the end of the detox we both saw significant results and felt like a million bucks. The cleanse is a great way to flush out heavy toxins and balance both your hormones and PH levels. K&K recommend doing it bi-monthly. I can't wait until October! After I completed the slimdown I had a photo shoot with a friend on the beach to document how great I felt.

I've also recruited another TUI member, a co-worker of mine with a drive to shed some pounds. Having friends and family be passionate about healthy living makes it a lot easier to stay focused. I'm looking forward to doing the 7-day slimdown with her :)

I've learned more about cooking in the last 2 months than I have in 10 years! My diet now consists of seasonal fruits and vegetables, beans, healthy grains and seeds and hardly anything processed. Though it requires more work I am having fun and my energy level has skyrocketed. My husband is enjoying the variety of foods as well and is eating things he never thought he'd try. Knowing I am making us both healthier is an incredible feeling. We also enjoy the quality time we're spending making and eating our exciting new meals.

My life has been go,go,go and I suprisingly do not feel exhausted. I am happy, healthy, and loving life. More updates to come :)