Smoothie Saturday, Euchre Champs, Banana's Foster Breakfast WITH the alcohol!

After my yoga practice, I knew just what I wanted for Lunch saturday.
It was very fruit and vegetable full!

Smoothie: Ground Flax (Bob's red mill- it's at Trader Joes for about $2-3), organic banana, frozen mango, frozen pineapple, frozen blueberry with protein powder and organic milk.
Veggies: Brussel sprouts steamed with cabbage and a teaspoon or so of goddess dressing and some shredded cheddar. I absolutely devoured this - I don't know why I find it so fantastic but it was gone in about 2 seconds ( okay not really 2 sec. but you get the idea).

We took Lurlota over to Jeff's parents after Jeff's alum basketball team won their first ACC game!

We played Euchre and drank some Chianti. Jeff and I planned on renting a movie and having some wine by ourselves but since we were invited over- we ended up just hanging out at Jeff's parent's house. As you can probably tell, Jeff and his family are very family oriented, it's the most important thing to them which I think is just wonderful. I teamed up with Preston and we won both games!! Woohoo! ( I edited the photo so you could see the wine)

Dinner was a group effort: I put together that salad! Organic mixed greens, english cucumber, green onion, tomato with a little blue cheese. Delish! Jeff did the potatoes- he added sundried tomato and basil dressing after slicing . Jeff's stepdad Preston cooked the potatoes and steaks on the grill and Momma Mo did the mushrooms just perfectly. I normally don't care for potatoes, but these were awesome! Nice work Jeff!

Sunday Morning Breakfast:
Banana's Foster French Toast... the banana... and I sprinkled less than a teaspoon of brown sugar ( there is no more sugar left in this house!)


and just for you SWEETANDFIT , I added a tablespoon of the rum I had on hand....after they had cooked for a 1 minute

So so so divine! In South Africa we had guava fruit, and I have not been able to find it here in the US anywhere. I saw this when we were at the store for something and just had to try it! It is very sweet for a rum but enjoyable. The guava rum definitely added another layer to this dish. The banana's tasted even sweeter but also a slight savory hint from the rum.

I added a glob of (unsweetened) plain nonfat greek yogurt and added some of the bananas foster to it-


That was fantastic as well since the banana's had so much flavor.


Recap

Body:

Circuit Training with Jeff:
We did squat thrusts in between sets of chest fly's, jumping jacks in between sets of leg presses, we did a back exercise that I have never done before-It is the opposite of a push up. You lay on the ground underneath a bar, and keeping your body straight , feet on the floor- you hold the bar and lift yourself up using your back muscles ( your "lats"). It was tough but good! Afterwards, I did 40 minutes on the elliptical.

Yoga:
I did 45 minutes yesterday of a combo of my own practice and my dvd.

I am hoping to get a run in today.

Mind:
Played cards, Euchre!

Read for class next week

Ordered my chef coat for lab ( Jeff helped me find one, how cute!)

Searched for jobs... I found a few natural foods stores that would be fun to work in while in school, I found a few fitness centers that I would also like to work at but I haven't found anyone actually saying they are HIRING!
grr.. I need $$

Soul:
Weekend time with Jeff, and fam, and lots of sleeping in.

Watched Kung Fu Panda- it was interesting. I mean, it was fun to watch but I didn't think it was hilarious.

Guess who ran away again this morning!?!?!!?
Sad face... jack brown pants is just crazy. We gave him a new comforter for his crate and I bought him a new bed that is laying right next to it ( this was about a month or two ago) I have taken him on 1 mile walks several times this past week ( 3 mile walks at my mom's last week!) and I gave him several treats too. I don't know why he runs away when we treat him so well, I feel like a bad puppy parent.
Happy Sunday to all!

Foodie

My friday started out with a smoothie and steel cut oats and half a banana and pb.

To save some time since we have a busy saturday of just "saturday stuff"- I am just going to highlight a few things...

I had Steamed Brussel Sprouts with green cabbage and some goddess dressing- Let me say, this was SO delicious! I actually had another bowl of this with some cheese on top!


I made another version of blondies based off on Veggie Girl's Fig Almond Blondies and also inspired by my not so greatest -latest version of Bourbon Blondies.

This batch came out very very tasty and very cake like. Here is the recipe I used:

** Adapted from Veggie Girl's Fig-Almond Blondies ( click to get her recipe)

(** which she had brilliantly adapted from the Raspberry-Almond Blondies recipe from Martha Stewart's cooking website**)

• 6 ounces nonfat greek yogurt (I used Trader Joes)
• 1/4 cup Smart Balance Oil
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon maple syrup ( I don't have molasses but it is in the brown sugar so I decreased the maple)
• 1.5 cups flour (I used Organic Whole Grain All Purpose Flour)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup almonds, finely-sliced
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
  • Milk of choice, added to the batter as needed
  
  Get-It-Made:
  
  Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Lightly coat an 8x8 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
  
  In a large bowl, add in the yogurt, oil, sugar, vanilla extract, and syrup. Mix well.
  
  In the same bowl, add in the flour, baking soda, sliced/slivered almonds, chocolate chips, and oats. As the mixture starts to thicken up/combine, add as much of the milk as you need (I used less than 1/4 cup) so that the batter is mixable.
  
  Pour mixture into the pan ( I used an 8 x 8 , coated generously with nonstick cooking spray).
  
  Bake for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the blondies comes out clean.
  
  The result:
  

I really liked this version but they did remind me more of coffee-cake. Still fabulously delicious, and yummy, but worth more experimenting to get to more of a blondie-texture....


Saturday Morning Breakfast:
Banana's Foster French Toast!

I had a comment ( Thanks Dori!) about this when I made it quite some time ago, you can check it out here at Banana's Foster Stuffed French Toast , so I remembered how good that was, and definitely was inspired to make it this morning.

Two slices with leftover egg mix scrambled. The "stuffing" is just a little Cabot Cottage cheese and cinnamon and bananas.

For "Banana's Foster" or also on here I refer to them as "fry pan bananas": I slice up the banana into a pan heated to medium. That is it- flip em after about 2 minutes. If the bananas are ripe enough ( not green at all, some brown spots)- Their sugars are more readily available. Thus, when you slice it into the pan- those sugars caramelize on the sides of the banana. You could of course add brown sugar and some rum to do a true "banana's foster". I prefer without because you get all that flavor and sweetness in a little bit healthier way.



Off to enjoy the weekend- Hope everyone has a great weekend and STAYS WARM!! It is 24* here! brrrr, but much better than -10 !