Cloud Bread Review

Okay! So last night I decided to try and make "cloud bread" which is a low-carb bread imitation. I kept seeing it all over Pinterest and health food blogs, so I needed to try it for myself to decide it's real-ness.


I've been avoiding packaged bread for the past several months, and now I'm really starting to miss sammiches, so hopefully this will be good for my lunch today!


Ingredients:

3 eggs, seperated
3  tablespoons of something dairy-based and thick: cottage cheese, yogurt, cream cheese etc. (I used yogurt)
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar (or lemon juice or vinegar as substitutes)
1 tsp of sweetener (my yogurt was sweet so I omitted this)


Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Get out your electric mixer and two large bowls, one glass. Add the yolks of the 3 eggs with the dairy ingredient and sweetener. Mix well. In the (clean) glass bowl, beat whites and tartar until very stiff, about 3 minutes. In 3 equal batches, fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture.

On well greased baking sheet, dollop the mixture into 8-10 equal "buns" about 4-5 inches diameter and an inch thick.

Bake for about 25 minutes, or until they have brown tops and edges. Mine stuck quite a bit to the pans, so if this seems to be the case for you, make sure you use a sturdy metal spatula and loosen them quickly. Let them cool on the sheet completely and then store in an airtight container. They become chewier overnight, and less like meringues.

So I will update after I try to use two of these for a spinach, tomato, and clover sprout sandwich today!


Nutrition (per piece):

Calories: 24  Fat: 1 Carbs: 1 g Sodium: 28g Sugar: 1  These will vary depending on the dairy you choose.


Alright so here's a picture of my lunch:

It looks a little weird...and it was. A little weird. The "bread" didn't really hold up to the weight of the produce. I did have a genius idea, though: Strawberry Shortcake.  Here's my idea: whip up some whip cream, get some fresh strawberries, and douse with a little agave and you'll have a healthy version of strawberry shortcake. Mmmmm

Catch Your Breath Workout

I decided I've been lifting heavy for a few weeks now and it was time to do another tough HIIT routine to shake things up. Well, I got what I asked for because almost killed me. It is supposed to be done three times through, and I got through it 1.5 times with...breaks.. Maybe my stamina wasn't great because it's been a while, but my legs are STILL sore and I did this two days ago. Possibly I just used too much weight...12lb ball and 25 lb bar. In any case I'm definitely going to do this again later in the week so I can actually finish it three times through.

This workout was adapted from the "Thrift Shop" workout by dailyhiit.com 

Coconut Oil Candies

Yesterday was very productive! I ate a snack around 4:30 so I wouldn't be hungry while I ran errands after work and went straight to the gym. When I got home it was only 8:00! I like this set-up better then going home, eating dinner, digesting, then working out until 9. So I had time to try out a recipe I've been thinking about AND give myself a pedicure. Awesome.

Coconut Candies

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of Virgin Coconut Oil
12 tbsp Cocoa Powder
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
Agave nectar (to taste)(about 1 tbsp)
Fillings: Natural Peanut butter (about 1 tbsp divided), Caramelized Walnuts, Sea salt, unsweetened Coconut flakes

Procedure:

Melt coconut oil in a Pyrex bowl in the microwave (about a minute). Add cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and nectar. In a non-stick mini muffin pan, drop about 1 tablespoon of the chocolate mixture into 10 places.

Let freeze for 10 minutes.

Add fillings onto the chocolate (now hardened) disks. Cover with another table spoon of chocolate sauce. For the peanutbutter, make sure the chocolate meets the lower half around the circumference so that the candy stays together.

Let set in the refrigerator overnight. They slide out easily because the chocolate shrinks when chilled.

Nutrition per candy (without fillings):
Calories: 60   Carbs: 2 g   Fat: 6 g  Sugar: 2 g

Delicious!

Mango Bleu Chicken Salad

We've definitely been taking advantage of this Spring weather by grilling! On Sunday we grilled burgers (I visited the farm where I used to work in college and got some of their home-grown beef) and fennel, and then last night we grilled chicken and asparagus for a delicious light dinner.


For the salad:

-Boneless, skinless chicken breasts with olive oil and some Montreal Chicken seasoning (or salt and pepper)

-Baby spinach

-1 Mango

-1/4 Red onion

- 2 Tblp. crumbled bleu cheese (we used a gorgonzola)


For the dressing:

-3 tblsp. Olive oil

- 1 tsp. Grey poupon (or some spicy mustard)

- 1 tsp. vinegar (white wine, rice, balsalmic, take your pick)

- 1 tsp. minced garlic

- 1tsp. lemon juice

- salt

-pepper


On the grilled asparagus we put olive oil, salt, pepper, and minced garlic

Procedure:
Mix diced mango with the bleu cheese and onion. Whisk all ingredients for the dressing. Grill your chicken and asparagus (we use the touch method to see if the bounciness is gone to check the chicken). Top the lettuce with chicken, then the mango mixture, and dressing. We also added some chives to the top, but it's not necessary. Devour.

Such a good combination of sweet and salty and bleu-cheesiness. We also had a Sam Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout to go with this meal. I'm not sure it was the best pair, but it was delicious! There was something undefinable about the flavor of this beer. I called it a "smell taste" and Tom said it could have to do with the well water-- it adds such an element of flavor to beer and makes it specific to the brewing area.

picture taken from realfood.co.uk

I should have taken a gazillion pictures, it was so pretty! Alas I was very hungry.

Buns O'Plenty

Here is a workout that I did last night. Switch Jump Lunges are SO hard for my body. It's my achilles heel. I ended up only completing the weighted version with actual jumps for about the first 20 seconds of the first round. Then I dropped the weight, and modified so I could keep going without having to just cut them out completely. I'll get better :)

This workout was adapated from the "Pusher Girl" workout on dailyhiit.com

Full Body Workout

Here is another full body workout with heavy weights. I did this one last night, and my traps are sore from the clean and presses. You do feel like a badass doing them though. Especially when the gym is full of men and you're like "Yeah I'm a woman and I'm doing clean and presses with correct form. GET AT ME SON." At least that's what I'm saying in my head.

Upper Body for a Cloudy Day

Here is an upper-body oriented workout for a cloudy day. Repeat twice. Low in the cardio department; I went on a run afterwards with the pup. Something about warm rain that just makes my legs feel invincible. :)

This workout was adapted from the "Make It Hot" workout on dailyhiit.com

Legs and Abs

Here is a nice 12-minute workout adapted from dailyhiit.com's "Twelve Minute Killer Curves". Not too cardio-intensive, but make sure you're drinking lots of water (especially if it's 95 degrees there all of a sudden like it is in MD and you work out outside like me :) ). I used my Ugi ball for the weight in the abs exercises, and two 8 lb dumbbells for the others. Heavier would have been better, but that's what I've got!

Happy sweating!

Lift Like a Girl

So I've been feeling a little burnt out on the HIIT workouts. I like the way it's changed my physique, but I'm hoping that getting back into some heavier lifting will help with my *gulp* cellulite. What a dirty word.

This was my workout last night, and I'm feelin' it today!

If It's Worth It Workout

Ahh I can smell the spring grass this morning. Which is weird since it was raining ice last night while I was walking Sadie... My tendoniitis is still not completely better, but I'm sorta over it. I did some higher impact stuff last night (meaning I flexed my feet to do push-ups and elevated ball planks) and I'm still alive! Miracle of miracles! So here's a workout intended to bring your heart rate up and crank up the fat-loss sweat.

Complete this Tabata as 20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest. Go for 4 rounds.

If it's worth it to you, you'll make it happen.

Enjoy your sweat!

Low-Impact Tabata Workout

Here's another tendon-friendly workout (since my foot is still not back in perfect working order).

It seems like a pretty good total-body circuit...abs, shoulders, glutes, quads, obliques, Hip flexors. I'm likin' it :) 

Plantar Fasciitis Strikes Again

When I was a ballerina I had a lot of issues with Plantar Fasciitis flaring up, especially during weeks leading up to a performance. After this past month of intensive HIIT exercising I am now feeling the effects of a flare-up in my left foot. It's pretty annoying, but I know it's my body's way of telling me to calm down. It also didn't help that my New Balance Minimus shoes pooped out around March 20, and I had to suddenly switch back to the good old Vibrams without warning my arches beforehand. Probably a bad choice.

Anyways, I took yesterday off and now I'm craving some gym-time so I'm going to try and make a Plantar-Fasciitis friendly routine for this evening.

I'll let you know if this is truly gentle for my painful appendage tomorrow!


UPDATE:

Alright, so I did this workout last night, and I have to say it was actually pretty easy on my aching tendons :) The only thing that still hurt was walking around the gym to get to the weights, stretching area, elliptical...etc. I didn't get to do the bent-over rows or flies because it was so darn busy in the gym and I wanted to get home to see my man, but I added in two rounds of a previous ab workouts I've posted. I signed up for a 7 day challenge with Dailyhiit, and that was their workout for day 1! Good thing it was abs since I still can't jump around right now :/

Death to Adductors

Alright, here's another workout in the Tabata format. It's pretty cardio intensive, and the leg lifts are KILLER. Good luck ;)

Also, I just realized it but this should say "ADDUCTORS" in the picture title. Darn.

{This workout was adapted from a workout from dailyhiit.com}