Banana Bread Cookies

This weekend, I had to watch my 5-yo nephew. Like most kids, he's a ball of energy and - being trapped in the house because of the winter weather - he was easily bored. One thing he loves to do is "help" in the kitchen, so I thought that it would be the perfect time to test out a new, healthy dessert recipe I found online. These cookies are quick and easy to make, and they only take 7 ingredients. And the real kicker is that there is no extra sugar, salt, or oil added and they are dairy and gluten free!

Here's what you need:
3 very ripe bananas
2 cups gluten-free oats
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup applesauce
1/4 cup almond milk (unsweetened)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Here's how you make it:
For this recipe, I find that the blacker the banana is the better. Once they start to turn, you can put them in the freezer until you need them.

First, preheat your oven to 350. Next, peel and mash your bananas. Add in the applesauce, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon and stir them together. Lastly, add your walnuts and oats and stir them together.

Using a tablespoon, place dollops of the mixture onto a non-stick cookie sheet and press them flat. Bake for 15 minutes and remove to cooling rack. Makes 15-20 cookies per batch.

And, that's it! It took us about 30 minutes from start to finish. (Sadly, they were so easy to make that I had to think of a new activity...)

In general, the cookies were a big hit. A few people found them a bit odd, mostly because of the lack of extra sugar and flour. I thought they were delicious and I had several people asking me to post the recipe so that they could try them at home. If you do decide to try them, leave me a comment letting me know how you liked them.

That's it for today - thanks again for reading and, until next time: peace y'all!

Motivate Me Monday

I really need to start posting these before I head to class. It just gets so late in the day until I post them. Regardless, here is you motivation for this week:

My Weekend and the Next Song Theme

Sorry for abandoning you all this weekend. I really have no excuse other than I spent Friday with some friends I haven't seen in a while. An old friend from high school and I went to see The Lego Movie (which was hilarious) and afterwards we met some other friends at Perkins. And today was such a beautiful, warmer day that I took two long walks, one before and one after my trip to the grocery store. I may have over done it because I am wiped out today.

Something else pretty cool happened yesterday, well, cool to me anyway. I'm writing my term paper on fitness and nutrition and I'm doing interviews as part of the research. Yesterday, I got an email response from Cliff Wilde of Wilde Performance who took time out of his busy schedule to answer my questions! Okay, so it's old news if you already read my Twitter, but I could not believe that he personally responded. I first heard of Cliff and Marta through The Lean Machines, a pair of British fitness gurus on YouTube whom I follow religiously, and have since been following them both on Twitter. It's rather exciting for me if you couldn't tell. I'm hoping to get either John or Leon (or both) from TLMs to do an interview as well, but so far I've had no responses.

It struck me today that February is nearly over. I know it's the shortest month, but it seems like it just started. So, with March just around the corner, that means it's time to start selecting songs for my next workout theme! So in honor of St. Patty's Day, sort of, the next theme is songs about getting lucky. This month, my choice is Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke. Leave your song suggestions in the comments here or on my Facebook and Twitter and see if it makes the cut for my next playlist.

Thanks again for reading. See you next time, y'all!

Motivate Me Monday

Ugh... I am very quickly becoming sick of the snow and resulting cancellations. After having this prior Thursday off (again) due to bad weather, I was inundated with a pile of homework. And added to that pile is a second batch given to us in case tomorrow's storm yields us yet another snow day. I did, however, manage to get myself out for a nice 2-1/2 mile walk today after classes. It was a really nice stress-buster and, with the clear sky and sunshine, I had a chance to enjoy some pre-snow outdoor time.

Yesterday, for those who missed reading it, I spent the night with Tyler Oakly. (No, not that way!) He did a livestream for his Prizeo supporting the Trevor Project. And I know I posted an impromptu plaque yesterday, but it just wouldn't be Monday without a "Motivate Me Monday" motivator!

Tyler Oakly & the Trevor Project

It's an interesting night tonight. I am, as I'm writing this, watching (well listening to) the first Tyler Oakly livestream of his Prizeo campaign for the Trevor Project. It's beyond words really, how much love and energy he is putting into this project. Not only is he putting up a bunch of great swag for donating and offering a chance to win a trip to LA for a meet-n-greet with him, but each Sunday he'll be doing live shows to promote and help raise even more funds.

I've been a fan Tyler Oakly's YouTube for about a year, quite a small amount of time compared to a lot of his fandom, and am always amazed by the love he has for his "people" as he calls them. And not only is he smart and funny, but his big heart is obvious when it comes his causes. This is his second year raising funds for the Trevor Project in lieu of receiving traditional birthday gifts. Last year, he raised $29,000, well over his $24,000 goal. And tonight alone, he's raised well over $40,000 (and crashed the Prizeo site three times) in just the three-ish hours that I've been watching his feed.

His goal this year was $150,000 - and that goal was annihilated in the first few days. He set his new stretch goal to $200,000, a goal which might be smashed this very evening. Tonight Tyler and his special guest, Troye Sivan, have been promoting the Prizeo fundraiser live for the past few hours and the best part, unlike most celebrity fundraisers, he is giving full credit to his people. It's amazing what you can do if put your mind to something.

The Trevor Project is an organization near and dear to Tyler, where he once worked as an intern. It offers free, anonymous suicide prevention and crisis intervention to LGBT youth. It has a multitude of online resources like TrevorChat and TrevorSpace as well as the traditional Trevor Lifeline. Sadly, as much as I love this cause, I can't donate more money than I already have, so in place of money I've been promoting it as much as possible. If you want to donate you can check out the Prizeo here: http://bit.ly/1j2ugDc or go directly to the Trevor Project's website.

And for Tyler, because you slay so much - this is just for you:

Stuffed-Pepper Soup

For anyone in the northeast yesterday, like me, you were most likely snowed in from Pax. Classes were cancelled (after a long worry that I would only have a 2-hour delay and be driving in a blizzard), so I though what better way to use my free time than to make some nice, warm soup on a cold winter day. I had found a recipe some time ago for Stuffed-Pepper Soup, which from the pictures looked delicious. I made a few alterations to adjust for the calories, but it still turned out amazing!

Here's what you need:
1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1/2 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup chopped green (or red) bell pepper
1/4 cup diced onion
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 cup tomato sauce
2 cups chicken broth - sodium-free
1 tsp basil (or thyme, marjoram)
1 tsp pepper

Here's how you make it:
This one gets a little complicated at the beginning doing all of the prep. Once your rice is cooked and cooled, separate it into two portions. Mix half of the rice with the uncooked ground turkey (I also added a dash of pepper to the mix) and form it into small meatballs. Place them in a frying pan a good distance apart and cook them thoroughly.

 In a separate pan add your peppers, onions, and garlic. Feel free to add a little olive oil if you like, though I omitted it. Fry them until the onions are translucent.

Once they are cooked, add the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, chicken broth, basil, and pepper. Give everything a good stir and let it simmer on low for about 7 minutes, giving it a stir now and then to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom.

Finally add in the reserved brown rice and the meatballs. Again, let it simmer for about 5 minutes, just to warm-up  your rice and meatballs. It makes 4 servings.

In the original recipe, you just added in fried ground beef to the soup and served it over the rice. I though the rice meatballs made it seem more like a real stuffed pepper. Everyone really liked it, and I thought my alterations gave it a more homey touch. And the best part, 1-1/2 cups of soup was under 200 calories! So try it out and let me know what you think. And as usual, thanks for reading and peace till next time, y'all!

Motivate Me Monday

Sorry I'm so late posting today, Motivate Me Monday is almost over. Oh well, I still made it in under the deadline I suppose! Here is you motivational plaque for this week. Enjoy!

Boycotting the Olympics

If you read the title, you can pretty well guess what this article is about. I feel horrible saying it, but I am truly boycotting the Olympics this year. The Olympics as a whole is my favorite sporting event - my Super Bowl, if you will - but as much as I love to watch and root for Team USA, I just cannot bring myself to watch it knowing what is happening to the LGBT community in Russia.

I've been a fan of the Olympics for as long as I can remember. And the Winter Olympics were always a personal favorite over the Summer games. I cried when Dan Jansen won the gold in his final race in 1994. I was obsessed with Bonnie Blair, Picabo Street, Brian Boitano, and Apolo Ono. I collected pins, magazines, trading cards anything related to them. And now, decades later, who would have thought I'd be boycotting the same games that I loved so much?

I'm not a political person or activist by any stretch of the definition. I'm also not one to watch the news regularly - it's just so depressing. In fact, I'm so "un-worldly" that I didn't even realize how bad things were for gays in Russia until I read the article about Wentworth Miller coming out in a letter declining his invitation to the St. Petersburg Film Festival. It was about this time I also started to read about the Russian anti-gay laws and the Sochi games and decided to boycott the Olympics.

I know that one person refusing to watch probably won't make an impact, but it was the best thing that I could think of to show my support to the gay community, especially in Russia. That is until this past Thursday. It was Hannah Hart (yes the My Drunk Kitchen YouTuber) that alerted me to two other ways that I could help. Both the Human Rights Campaign and It Gets Better Project are offering ways that you can send your support to LGBT's of Russia (and flip the proverbial finger at their antiquated notions of love and justice). I would really appreciate anyone who reads this article to send out a positive message on the IGBP page or Tweet your message of support via the HRC.

The entire ordeal even inspired me to make a Motivate Me Monday plaque that would hopefully show at least one person out there that they are not alone.

The Winners!

I know we're already six days into February and I haven't posted my new workout playlist. Things just got crazy really quick at school playing catch-up from the snow days. (Stupid winter ruining all of my plans... but I'm getting off track again.) So, what songs made the list? Here are my final picks for the month:

The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice

The Beatles - She Love's You

Betty Who - Somebody Loves You

Beyonce - Crazy In Love

Fall Out Boys - Where Is Your Boy Tonight

Gym Class Heroes - Stereo Hearts

Johnny Cash - Ring of Fire

Katy Perry - Unconditionally

Mary Lambert - She Keeps Me Warm

Pointer Sisters - Jump (For My Love)

Sara Bareilles - Love Story

Shakira - Can't Remember to Forget You

A couple of people suggested the new Shakira/Rihanna song, which I never heard before. I'm not a big Shakira fan (I heart Rihanna, though), but I really liked it. I'm not sure if it's a love or break-up song, but it was too good not to include in my playlist. Sorry if your song didn't make the cut, but these fit the theme best and had a great beat for my workouts. Start thinking of songs for next month's playlist, March is coming up quick!

Thanks again for reading (and voting!) Peace till next time y'all!

Motivate Me Monday

Frozen

I know I'm a little late in the game, but I just saw Frozen for the first time today. My local theater brought it back for two weeks because of the Grammy's or Oscar's or something. I missed out on seeing it the first time and I knew I had to see it on the big screen this time around or I would never forgive myself.

It was - as you would expect from Disney - amazing! I thought I would be the only one there, but the theater was packed with people. And from the surrounding conversations, I think it was the first time for a lot of them, too.

I won't spoil it if you haven't it, but Ilsa (the "villainess") was my favorite character. I knew she was voiced by Idina Menzel, who I love, so I knew whatever song she did would be my favorite in the film. And I was right! "Let It Go" was phenomenal - listen to it here if you want (spoiler warning if you do). Luckily Frozen is coming out on BluRay/DVD next month so I won't have long to wait until I can see it again!