I get a lot of emails and questions regarding "eating".
It gets me all giddy inside ( I'm such a nerd! ) because I am a HUGE nutrition believer!
I have read, studied, and experimented over the years and come up with a pretty solid eating plan for my own body.
I am a huge believer in the 80/20 rule for "dieting" ( so basically in a nut shell it's eating strict 80% of the time and splurging the other 20% :) So most of my food choices are obviously healthy but trust me, I do have a list of foods that are definitely my "splurge" foods!
Of course, every body is different and every one has different tastes in food. But over time I'm going to share most recipes I use, daily food intake and hopefully give some good ideas for snacks and the "do's and don't's" in the kitchen :)

Today I'm going to share my favorite quick and easy protein oatmeal.
I have a few things I eat for breakfast that I switch off between.
( If you are reading this and are a "breakfast skipper" --
PLEASE DON'T SKIP that meal any more!!
One of the worst things you can do for your body is to skip breakfast! )

I have to confess that I used to eat cereal for breakfast almost every day...
I was always hungry an hour later and it never left me feeling satisfied.
Ever since I started having oatmeal every morning - I am SO much more satisfied and it fills me up!
Plus it keeps you regular and fuels your body! You want energy during your workouts!? - try eating oatmeal for breakfast!

Now, I don't remember the last time I had cereal for breakfast! I'm so converted to oatmeal!


Aaron and I eat this pretty much every day and I seriously look forward to my breakfast because it's so good! A good friend showed us how to do this and we have never gone back to our old "brown sugar in the oatmeal" ways! It's tastes WAY sweeter this way and tastes almost like cake batter to me!?

It's seriously the best guys!


Protein Oatmeal


I have realized that some Whey protein's are sweeter than others.
I would recommend this kind! ^^
It's definitely our favorite and tastes better than others ( in my opinion )!
And of course, Any type of quick oats will work! ^^

Monday's are either the hardest day of the week, ( just coming off the weekend and bummed it's over and the laundry is piled high ) or the most motivating day of the week - I can't quite decide what kind of "Monday" today is yet HA!
Hope this Monday is a motivating one for most of you today! XO

P.S. This blog is in the process of a pretty big makeover and I'm so excited about it!
Stay tuned and follow along HERE for all blog updates! Thanks for all the support!

OKAAYYY! Let's be real, who doesn't love a Wendy's Frosty!?

So last night Aaron and I are getting ready to watch the Olympics ( our nightly ritual these days! )
And I start craving something sweet - like big time! ( what else is new )
You know that frustration that comes when looking through the pantry and not sure exactly what you want / not sure what you want to let yourself eat...

Well that was definitely happening.

That day we had run out of almond milk so I couldn't whip up my PB Vanilla Shake or that would have been a no brainer! Plus, we were already in our PJ's and not really wanting to head out to the store to buy more milk - #grandparentstatus

Anyways, I was trying to be a cool mom and had bought some chocolate milk for Ryan ( haha! I try not to buy it all the time, just so when he does get it, it's still special to him ) and I thought "why not try something with chocolate milk!?" Aaron puts chocolate milk with his protein powder on occasion and likes it but I'm not usually a chocolate milk drinker so I wasn't sure how I would like it...

UM.
I died and went to heaven!
It is a legit Wendy's Frosty guys!
Please try it for me and love it!

This is my new favorite treat for the moment!
And Ryan couldn't stop drinking it, he loved it!

So HERE IT IS -- with the hardest 4 ingredients you will ever buy ;)

Chocolate Frosty Protein Shake



Make this for your weekend treat and feel good about eating it! XO

Breakfast for dinner is our JAM.

If you have not ever tried Kodiak Power Cakes - You need to.
( I buy mine at Costco in bulk but they also have them at our local HEB grocery store in a smaller package! )

My family got us hooked us on them and we have never gone back.
They are honestly the best pancakes in the world!
PLUS they are Whole Wheat and have 14g of Protein a serving! WOOP WOOP!

There is an option to add "milk" and "an egg" to the mix and make it 21 grams of protein a serving!
I usually just add my mix with water but if I'm ever making them just for Ryan, I milk and egg away! - so good for the kiddos!

I can finally feel ok about him having pancakes for lunch every now and again because they are so protein packed haha!
So Ry's preschool teacher can be a witness to this, but we totally ran out of bread a couple times last school year so I made Ryan a PB and J sandwich inbetween these pancakes for school! haha! He LOVED it! #momoftheyear





Let's talk about syrup for just one minute..
Let me preface and say that generally everything; if eaten IN MODERATION IS OKAY.
In no way am I saying to "never eat syrup again!" haha

However, be CAREFUL with your syrup guys! What I didn't realize until I started counting my macros is how many CARBS syrup contains! I always knew it was packed with sugar and calories  ( and it is!! ) and often in the past had a hard time eating it early in the morning because it gave me headaches! ( No wonder! - The sugar content in one serving of syrup is more than a day's worth of recommended sugar intake! )

So, if you look at a nutrition label for syrup - It's generally around 44 - 54 grams of carbs per 1/4 cup of regular maple syrup! ( Next time you have pancakes measure out your syrup and you will find that 1/4 cup of syrup is really not that much syrup depending on how many pancakes / waffles you eat! ) That is almost double the amount of carbs that are in the actual pancakes / waffles! -- GUYS, That's so awful!

Just to give you an idea, 54 carbs is equivalent to almost 5 slices of bread ( * of some brands ) worth of carbs! So really, after adding 54+ grams of carbs ( from the syrup ) to the carbs of the pancakes / waffles you are eating; right there you have hit WELL OVER half of your day's worth of carbs in ONE meal!

So with that all sadness HA, here's a couple ways to minimize your need for syrup :

#1. Aaron puts peanut butter on his waffles and drizzles a TINY amount of syrup to give it a little "sweet taste". This puts on a little more "protein" with the added peanut butter and you definitely don't need as much syrup!

#2. I always pack my waffle full of fruit and that also helps to hardly need any syrup.
Bluberries, strawberries, raspberries - all of it!
I actually sometimes just eat mine plain ( no syrup ) with fruit and maybe a dab of cool whip and I love it! Once you get used to the taste of it, you don't crave the sweetness as much!
(( Of course fruit contains carbs and natural sugars, ( not near as many "carbs" ) so YES I am "in a sense" adding carbs to my waffles, however it is obviously GOOD carbs and and good sugars that will fill your body up and benefit you a lot more than a serving of syrup would ))

I know there are "light syrup" options ( that do have A LOT less sugar and carbs ) and people have mixed feelings about them, ( if they are really "healthier" for you or not with the added sweeteners etc. ) That's a topic for another day. However, I honestly don't love the taste of some of the lighter syrups ( weird after-taste! ) ... so I would rather barely drizzle a little of the "real stuff" on my food and call it good!

I feel like this is a Costco Ad post but I promise it's not!
We just love Costco so if you are going to splurge and have syrup that one right up there ^^ is our favorite ever!

So moral of the story, There really is no "GOOD SYRUP".
It's really quite depressing.
But of course a splurge here and there is obviously ok :)

Luke love these too! ^^ He's obsessed.


Thanks to people that commented on my Instagram,
I hear the Dark chocolate Kodiak power cakes are AMAZING!
I have yet to try them and am excited about it!

"Waffles for dinner" just make me happy. :)

I LOVE playing around with blender recipes. I never look at a recipe, just throw in what I have in the fridge and keep tasting it until I like it! HA 

I'm not kidding when I say this tastes like a vanilla milkshake! I LOVE milkshakes so this is heaven in a cup for me!

It's SO easy and takes literally 3 minutes to throw together!

Aaron and I hardly ever eat treats in the week ( we have cheat day on Saturdays! ) so this is definitely our TREAT in the week, if I'm craving something sweet!

If you have never heard of PB2 ^^ THIS is what it looks like! You can get it anywhere!

It is only 45 calories for 2 TBS, just 1.5 grams of fat and 5 grams of protein!

It gives you the "peanut butter taste" without the high fat and high calorie of actual peanut butter!

(( NOT saying peanut butter is bad! I LOVE peanut butter. This is a lower calorie, less fat option. ))

ALSO! WE get  THIS vanilla whey protein  at Costco and it is on sale right now for 8 dollars off a bag! It has 27 grams of protein a serving and It's our fav! I believe it's on sale until the end of the month! I went yesterday and STOCKED UP!
The cheapest way to buy protein is in bulk!
( I've also tried this shake with "half chocolate whey protein and half vanilla" and it tastes kind of like a Wendy's frosty! )

Happy Shake making and happy Friday friends! XO
P.S. I truly appreciate all feedback and comments! Means the world!

Okay guys, I'm not joking when I say this is honestly my lunch almost every single day.

I may or may not go through a WHOLE bag of Costco lettuce and spinach PER WEEK on my own.

HA Aaron does help me a little because I will do this salad often for us ( lunch or dinner ) and he loves it!

Blueberries were around 80 cents a pint at the grocery store yesterday so it's definitely the season to buy fruit! Long live this last month ( couple weeks ) of SUMMER!

A couple friends of mine got me into "counting my macros" a while back and I LOVE it.

I will go more into it as time goes on, but basically, you have a certain amount of Protein, Carbs, and Fat that you can eat per day that is dependent on YOUR own body and activity level.

Since I started counting macros, I have noticed results through muscle definition as well as in my energy levels! I also love that it's something you can maintain ( not some crazy off the wall diet that makes you cut out food groups! ) Anyways, I will go into more detail later but that's a quick explanation of it all!

My point in bringing up "macros" is that I will add different foods to this salad depending on what my body needs for the day.

For example, if I am "low on my fat intake", I will add extra avocado or some nuts to the salad.

If I'm low on carbs for the day, I will add extra fruit. 

If I need more protein, I will add some mozzarella cheese or extra meat. You see??

I will also include a couple of my favorite salad dressings to add to this salad!

Avocado is HUGE on this salad because you can add A LOT less dressing.

It's so much better for you to be getting the "GOOD FAT" that an avocado gives rather than the extra calories from dressings.

Please say you all love avocado! HA I don't think I go a day without it!

P.S. When I make this salad for dinner for Aaron I will triple his meat on top and add MORE of everything, to make it more filling and "man-ly-ish" HA

Here are my 3 favorite dressings on this salad!

I LOVE this Panera bread Poppyseed dressing ^^ ( found in the cold section at "Some" targets and some grocery stores! ) And yes they sell it in States that don't have the actual "Panera Bread" restaurant!

It's fat free and wonderful!

I also love this Marie's Raspberry vinaigrette ^^ ( 3g of fat per serving ) (( found in the COLD section at the grocery store ))

as well as (( not pictured )) -- Trader Joes Raspberry vinaigrette ( 2g of fat per serving )

Like I said, with the avocado on the salad, you don't need too much dressing, just enough to give a little flavor :)

Just a side note that some people believe ALL salads are healthy! --- YIKES!!

A salad can JUMP HIGH in calories and fat fast depending on how it's prepared and the dressing that is on it!

Always as for low fat dressing options at restaurants and ask for dressing to be put on the side and you will be just fine! :)
Happy Salad making friends!

I started baking them with olive oil, sweet potatoes, and kosher salt and it changed my life!
It has become one of my favorite things to cook this up in the day and eat it for a snack/ lunch/ dinner.

Peel and CUT the following..

1 Sweet Potato

1 Zucchini

1 Yellow Squash

1/2 Large Onion

1/2 Red Pepper

Toss in a baggie with a little olive oil.

Spread on a cookie sheet.

And top it off with kosher salt.

Yesterday was Mother's Day and I was so spoiled thanks to my sweet husband and babies!
Hope all incredible ladies had the best day!
XO

^^ Ryan's cookies have no shortage of sprinkles.. That's what I'm talking about child! ^^

( THE BEST ) CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

1 ( 8-ounce ) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, melted
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream the softened cream cheese; blend with butter. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and beat well!