I think that one of the reasons why I'm always cooking and creating recipes is because I had my mom and grandma as cook role models growing up. Both of them have always enjoyed spending time in the kitchen making meals for the family to enjoy. To us, food is love. You still can frequently find my 80-year old grandma in her massive kitchen, complete with 3 ovens, 6 burners, and plenty of counter space to work, cooking up a storm. Her first questions when you walk into her house are always, "Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?" We've learned to never go to her house already full. She's a persistent little lady, and even if you initially say no, it's almost guaranteed that you'll somehow wind up with a plate in front of you. Today I'm guest posting on My Own Balance (a blog I ... [Read More]
healthy recipes
Pumpkin Pie Spice Date Balls
Happy Fridayyyy! I am super excited for the weekend, because tomorrow I'm flying out to New Jersey and will be there spending a few weeks there with my family and friends. I'm always a last minute packer, so I've got a lot of packing to do, some work to get done, a workout to fit in, and early Christmas presents to exchange with my hubby tonight... but first, let's talk dessert, shall we? With all of the sweets that surround the holidays - from baking Christmas cookies to holiday parties full of goodies - I find myself just in the mood for a little something sweet. Who am I kidding, I usually am craving something sweet anyways, but even more so lately. There were cupcakes last weekend, and last night I baked these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (<--post from the beginning of my blogging ... [Read More]
Roasted Sweet Potato & Farro Salad
Hi there! Hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was exactly what I wanted it to be: productive yet also relaxing. Since I'm flying to the East coast this upcoming weekend for the holidays (!!!), I wanted to get some Christmas shopping done and clean my house - check, check. Since it has been SO chilly in the Bay Area and I'm a baby in the cold weather, I didn't have any outdoor workouts besides long walks with Harley, but I did do at-home workouts both yesterday and today. I probably look like such a nut awesome jumping around my living room doing burpees and pushups while watching football... hey, whatever works up a sweat right?! A lot of good food made its way into my belly this weekend, including: A post-workout bowl of goodness: chopped apple & banana sprinkled with cinnamon, ... [Read More]
Healthy Milkshakes with Arctic Zero Frozen Desserts
It's no secret that I have a sweet tooth that I indulge often. I think that life is too short to not enjoy some dessert here and there. One kind of dessert that I most definitely am a fan of is ice cream. Recently, Arctic Zero reached out to me to see if I'd like to try some of their frozen desserts. I was intrigued by their products because they're: Gluten and fat free Non-GMO Made with whey protein Free from artificial sweeteners or flavors Sweetened with monk fruit and organic cane sugar 150 calories per PINT I immediately knew that I had to try these desserts. I mostly eat fro yo or light ice cream to avoid the excess fat and calories in real ice cream, but Arctic Zero appeared to take guilt-free desserts to a whole new healthy level. When I came home to my fun Arctic Zero package, ... [Read More]
Banana Pumpkin Muffins with a Cinnamon Brown Sugar Topping
Hi everyone, happy Sunday! I have a few updates for you all on the blog front. I've updated my recipe pages to include all of my latest kitchen creations. I also updated my workout page, which now includes a new section for my hiking spot posts. Lastly, I added a 'travel & fun' page so that all of my travel posts, restaurant and winery experiences, as well as random adventures are in one place. Fun stuff! And now onto food - banana pumpkin muffins to be precise... After a morning yoga session, running errands, and going hiking with my hubby and puppy yesterday, I came home and decided that a bit of baking was in order. Since I had an open can of pumpkin and some ripe bananas ready to be eaten in my fruit basket, and I've been loving muffins lately, I whipped up some tasty banana ... [Read More]
[Secret Ingredient] Double Chocolate Pumpkin Muffin Bites
A couple of days ago, I was on a mission to come up with a mini-something recipe that could serve as a baby snack or dessert. An I'm-waiting-for-dinner-to-cook-and-need-to-eat-a-little-something-ASAP recipe. Also an I-just-ate-dinner-and-am-not-really-hungry-but-want-a-bite-of-something-sweet snack. Since pumpkin eats are constantly on my brain these days, I naturally incorporated some into the recipe - in more than one way. I think that including chocolate in a sweet recipe is always a good idea, so this recipe quickly became a combo of chocolate + pumpkin yumminess. And then there was the mini muffin tin I happened to see peering from my cabinet just waiting to be used, all of which resulted in these babies... Then comes the *secret ingredient* part... I wanted to omit use of any oil ... [Read More]