Coconut almond biscotti

Hey guys! I've got a super delicious whole grain recipe for coconut almond biscotti over on Food Fanatic! You should totally go check it out! You wont be sorry. I make a batch of these 1-2 times a week. Love um!

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Revolt 2.0 week 5

I'm done with week 5!! of my second uprising of Revolt fitness! That means I only have one week left and I'll be doing a full recap for you all. This doesn't mean I'm going to be stopping the program though. Total truth, I'm keeping this as my go to workout plan. I LOVE it. If you live near me and have heard me talking about it you already know this. I'm pretty much telling everyone I know to give it a try. I'm sure I'm starting to get annoying *sorry*

As I mentioned before, there is an entire diet to go along with the program, I'm not following it in the least, just sticking with my normal "everything in moderation" method because that is what works for me. So I can't speak to the diet and loosing weight aspect of the program, but truthfully the workout alone is enough for me to continue on with Revolt. Another thing I want to mention is the "support" that you get with this group. Once you join you get access to private facebook pages were fellow revolters share their ups and downs. I've seen some amazing transformations going on from couch potatoes to dropping some serious pounds and inches. I wouldn't really expect those results for myself since 1. I was already working out 6 days a week and 2. I'm not following her diet. But even considering those two things, I'm seeing my body change. And as I said in last weeks post, I'm seeing these changes by doing her higher intensity workouts in about 1/2 the time of my old workouts. LOVE!




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Fresh Possibilities - Giveaway

I was contacted by the people putting together Kraft Fresh Possibilities Tour, and asked if I wanted to give some Fresh Possibilities a try. Sure!

You might guess that I'm not the type to normally pick up prepackaged mixes, but I'm always willing to give something a try. Plus, it's breadcrumbs and cheese, I love both of those things, so what could go wrong? The cool part is they way it's packaged, it's one large ziplock bag that has cheese on one side side, and bread crumbs on the other, you pull the divider apart and mix the two together. Toss in your chicken, shake, and you are ready to pop them in the oven! Serve with your favorite dipping sauce and a side of potato salad (recipe to come) and dinner is ready.

The tour is currently working its way around the country, if you want to try these mixes first hand head here: Try Fresh Take, to see if the truck is coming near you!

Now for the giveaway! I have three $10 walmart giftcards that Fresh Possibilities would like to give away so you can go try some for yourself! To enter just head to KraftRecipes.com and then comment here about which flavor or recipe idea you'd like to try! One entry per person, US only.


I was provided samples of Fresh Possibilities, all opinions are mine.



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Revolt 2.0 week 4

Week four is over!? That means there are only 2 weeks left of my Revolt Now Fitness experience left! I told you last week that this second installment of Revolt was seriously kicking butt. The workouts keep my body guessing and I'm loving how often they change!

In case you are just tuning in, the workouts are broken down into 3 days of cardio, one day upper body focus, and one day lower body focus. She's also introduced a new thing called sevens where you do large circuit of 7 exercises, but instead of doing them once through and rest, then repeat, you build on them like a ladder without rest. I LOVE them!!! Again, mixing things up and keeping me interested!

This program is marketed as a weight loss program. As I've said before, I'm not following the diet and I'm using it strictly as an exercise program. Here's the best part. I went from going to the gym 6 days a week, doing hour long spin classes, and weight routines and elliptical trainers, and I was maintaining my weight. Now I'm doing Nichole's 20-30 minute 5-6 day a week routines AT HOME, and I'm still maintaining my weight. Seriously, the woman cut my workout time in half, and I feel like I'm in better shape now that I was when I was living at the gym. To me that is worth it, I've gained time, am no longer bored, never wondering "what should I do today to work out" It's all planned out, easy to follow, and has 3 levels of intensity. I know I sound like a marketing pitch, but I REALLY do love the workouts. Diet, no. Workouts YES! :)

To catch up on all my revolt posts head here. 

Full disclosure I am getting free access to the Revolt site in return for blogging about my experiences. All opinions are my own, no lies, no exaggerations.




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Going bananas

I go through a ton of bananas in a week. I eat one in a green monster every morning, and John brings one to work most days. In reality it's pretty easy math to figure out how many we need in the week... but somehow we end up eating more or less, and when it's less... you end up with brown overripe bananas. And there is only so much banana bread one feels like eating. So instead of bread this past week, I made cookies. Delicious amazingly soft and chewy hot out of the oven cookies.

Here's the bad part, they were only ehhh once they cooled off. SAD. I'd make them again, but plan on less... or having people over to gobble them up. Because out of the oven they tasty buttery and gooey and decadent. The next day, they taste... kinda bland, and ehh texture. But based on how tasty they were hot I had to share this recipe and not just scrap it.

Do you have recipes where things taste great day 1, but not so great day 2?

Banana chocolate chip cookies
recipe by steph chows
dry
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oats (old fashioned)
1 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbs flax

wet
1 large ripe banana (mashed)
1/3 cup brown sugar packed
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup chocolate chips

In a small bowl mix together dry ingredients. In a medium bowl beat together wet ingredients. Add dry and gentle stir, add in chocolate chips and stir until everything is incorporated. Drop heaping tablespoons on a silicon mat lined baking sheet and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Eat warm with a tall glass of milk.

Use dark chocolate chips and serve with a non dairy milk to make these vegan.



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Revolt 2.0 week 3

When I was first asked to do 2- 6 week long uprisings with Revolt I was thinking "man that's a long time... i'm totally going to get bored with it" Amazingly so it's already the end of week 9, and I am not even close to being bored. Nichole has upper her game with this second uprising, she's taken input from the first 6 week program and has made this second one even better.The workouts have 3 levels so someone at any fitness level can play along (I wasn't feeling totally challenged during the first uprising, now I'm having to push hard to finish the advanced level and loving it). Her design of handouts has gotten more user friendly, and from the sounds of it the upgraded website is going to be even better.

Truthfully, if you are looking for a constantly changing schedule of what to do at the gym or your home makeshift gym (you don't need much to make this work at home), this program rocks. Even me being a dedicated gym rat I had become lackluster with my routine, and this was just what I was looking for to mix things up.

To switch things up, here's a photo of the cats we have at work. This is how they sit on my desk every day. The box keeps them mostly out of my way so I can actually get work done.

To catch up on all my revolt posts head here. 

Full disclosure I am getting free access to the Revolt site in return for blogging about my experiences. All opinions are my own, no lies, no exaggerations. 




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Cooking on white

I've heard all the arguments about cooking on non stick and if it's going to kill you or not. In truth I can't really tell you what I believe and what I don't. I do know however that a good number of the non-stick pans we got for our wedding (a mear 3 years ago) already look pretty beat up and seem to have lost their non-stickness. I never put pans in the dishwasher, and never use scouring anything on them... so what gives? The worst for wear pan is my go to 12inch frypan. Apparently I use it too much, since it has zero non-sticking ability left.

Not a drop or spray or oil in this pan.

So this brings about my decision to pick up a ceramic pan. Sure I could tell you I did a ton of research and that's why I ended up going with them. Not the case. I first considered replacing with stainless steel, but I try not to use a lot of oil in my cooking... and they kinda require it unless you want half your meal stuck to the pan. And then there I was wandering through Marshalls when I found this nice new snazzy guy in the cooking aisle for $10. Pretty sweet huh? I figured, what the hell, I'll give ceramic a try.

I admit the hardest thing to get used to is the fact you are cooking on white. But now I'm loving it, you can easily see when things are starting to brown and true to the name, NOTHING is sticking to it. I seriously tossed some shredded yams out of it the other night while I was stirring because it was so slick. And no spray! Just food, in the pan, BAM! Perfectly browned!

Here's a set of 3 ceramic pans for $40. That's a pretty good price considering I've seem them for a lot more per pan.

Have you cooked on ceramic before? Did you love it as much as me? I'm going to keep stopping by Marshalls until I have a full new set of pans and pots :)




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Revolt 2.0 week 2

Even though I had a bum ankle this past week I was able to modify most of the workouts to work for a one legged person (arm workout Monday instead of Friday, then a modified cadio circuit session Tuesday). By mid week I was able to put weight on my ankle so I was able to do even more of the exercises. The moral of the story is, no excuses people.

I'm really hoping to be able to do burpees and other jumping exercises next week. fingers crossed!

And now for your weekly Hobbes fix!

To catch up on all my revolt posts head here.

Full disclosure I am getting free access to the Revolt site in return for blogging about my experiences. All opinions are all my own.




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