Busy little bees

Hello friends.

My lack of blogging has finally started to catch up to me. I'm getting comments asking when another post will be available. I have no real excuse other than working, school and planning a wedding (oh, is that all?) I know that in order to keep people interested in your product, you need to constantly be in their face. I don't know about you, but pushy salespeople make me want to pelt them in the face with rocks. So, lets just go with that I'm not trying to be pushy. How's that?

How was everyones holiday? Did we all do well watching our waistlines? I, was ok. I did indulge a bit. Well, alot. New Years Eve was a feast of sorts at my place. I took that day to make all the food I always wanted to make, but never do because I know JUST how bad it is for you. I made pizza dip with crusty bread to dip it in, buffalo chicken blue cheese eggrolls and garlic parmesan pull apart bread. For dessert, the piece d' resistance, sopapilla cheescake. Yes, my friends. I indulged. I also looked at the scale on January 1 and almost fell over. I'm surprised the glass didn't break when I stepped on it. I moved it, thinking it was wrong. I moved it again. Then, I had a long conversation with my pants. My pants must have shrunk. Did I accidentally throw them in the dryer? Were there extra calories hiding in my pants adding to the extra padding? It was an eye opener. I let myself, after being good for so long and watching what I ate, careen into a few extra pounds on top of what I had lost.



Easy solution, right? Eat better. Exercise. I have been. And, since January 1, I've lost a bit of weight. I feel better, my pants are once again in the same places they should be and I don't have to resort to wearing mom jeans. I'm not old enough for those yet. If you've not watched this. Watch it.

Mom Jeans Commercial

I've discovered a great tool to try to help assist me going in the right direction. Its called MyFitnessPal.


http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

It allows you to track your weight, gives you a recommended caloric intake based off of how quickly you want to lose weight and from what I can see, has a pretty extensive library of foods to choose from. You can also use your smartphone to scan the barcode of what you're wanting to eat and it adds it to your meals for the day. You can enter in your exercise and what I find most interesting, you can get a summary of your daily consumption- showing you how much fat, carbs, vitamins, protein, etc you've had. You can download it on your iphone, android based phone or just use the website.

I tried out a new recipe last night for a get together tonight. Its Peanut Butter Banana Bread. Its a little healthier version of the classic if you follow my recipe. Its adapted from this one here, but I had to add my own creative touch to it.

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

• 3/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mashed ripe banana, plus one extra banana- NOT MASHED
• 1 cup organic peanut butter
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp clove
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon 
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
• (optional) 1 tablespoon of Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rum

1. In a mixing bowl, mix the applesauce and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, making sure they are fully incorporated after each addition. Add bananas and peanut butter; mix until combined. Combine the flour, salt and baking soda; add the extra spices to creamed mixture. Once the mixture is completed, I took a whole banana and cut it into small slices and mixed it in with the batter. This way, there are chunks of banana in the bread. I sprinkled a little more dark brown sugar and cinnamon on the top- this is optional.
2. I used a larger size casserole dish to bake this as it appeared to be too much for my puny loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40minutes, check then cover with foil and bake an additional 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

This adds a lot of extra protein with the peanut butter addition. You could also make this gluten free by substituting Pam's All Purpose Baking Mix  instead of using flour. In hindsight, I could have also added some of the vanilla protein power I had and put two scoops of that in for extra nutritional value.

I hope the new year finds you well! I am seeking many new, low fat and healthy recipes to fit into my wedding dress later this year. Stay Tuned! Pss.. I'll share