Whole 30 update!!!

First off: I cannot ignore the elephant in the room. I have been neglecting this blog. Like, horribly so. I'm sorry bloggy, this was never how I meant for shit to go down when I started you. I absolutely have intentions of changing this pattern though! 

Second: I FINISHED WHOLE 30! Oh yeeeyahhhh! Oh yeah, oh yeahhhh, oh yeeeeyah **imagine fist pumping here** Ok, ok - please ignore that fit of dorkiness, it really couldn't be helped. Because, really I am just so incredibly proud of myself and happy that I survived the last 30 days. 

Talk about MIA...

Holy crap...it's been a really long time.

Shortly after my last post my dad unexpectedly passed away. After that I had a really hard time feeling motivated to take care of myself. I also felt little motivation to keep up with this little blog. Plus, this past semester was rough. And I started working full time, which meant very long days between classes and work. When I got home I had to use whatever energy I had to study.

Initially I sporadically went to the gym and ate well on and off...mostly off. It was hard and it took me a while to get back into my groove. Even then it was a struggle. I would go a while doing well and taking care of myself, but then would fall back into bad habits. I even tried paleo for about a month, which is something I never thought I would be able to do. I'm proud of myself for doing it, but again it just lead to me falling into my bad habits. I did really well for that month or so. I don't know if I just felt deprived without realizing it, but for the past month or so it's been pretty bad. And it didn't help that a fairly stressful semester ended  and I just didn't want to do anything. Lately I just have not felt like myself, and I'm definitely not happy with the toll it's taken on my body. SO, I've decided to make a change and get back to my normal self and start taking care of myself again. It doesn't matter how many times we fall, so long as we get back up and dust ourselves off. So if you're like me and you're struggling to get back up, just do it! It will be hard at first, I won't lie. But it's so worth it in the end. In an attempt to get back to my normal ways I've decided to take a break from paleo...who knows, maybe once I've had a break and feel like I've got a handle on my eating habits I will give it another try. There are a few things I've taken away from my paleo trial though:

• Fat is not the enemy. Previously I would shy away from anything that seemed too fatty. I would rarely use nut butters (even though I loved them). I would rarely use oil, butter, etc to cook with. I would avoid fatty meats. Now, I really do have a different view of fats and I'm no longer scared of them. 
• Avoid overly processed foods. The less ingredients the better. There's so many chemicals and things added to foods now-a-days that our body just doesn't know what to do with. Now, I'm trying to find moderation with this as well. With paleo, there's a very strict view of how pure everything you eat should be. But there are certain things that I'm willing to compromise on. Like sriracha. I absolutely love sriracha, but according to paleo you can't have it. It's all about balance, especially right now when I'm just trying to get back into my groove. 

Anyways, enough of my talking...I thought I'd share a recipe for some amazing protein pancakes I made before my paleo trial. These were so delicious, my god just thinking about them has got me drooling. 

PB&J Protein Pancakes

Ingredients:

For the pancakes:

• 1 scoop protein powder
• 2 tbsp peanut flour (or PB2)
• 1/8 tsp baking powder
• 1 banana, mashed
• 2 egg whites

For the toppings:

• 2 handful of berries ( I used blackberries and blueberries, but any work)
• 2 tbsp peanut flour (or PB2, peanut butter/nut butter)

Directions:

1. Add protein powder, peanut flour, and baking soda to a bowl.
2. Add the banana in chunks. Mash it all together while trying to mix it the best you can. 
3. Add egg whites and stir well. 
4. Cook pancakes like any other pancakes!
5. While pancakes are cooking, put your berries on a plate or cutting board. Use a fork or masher to mash the berries very well. Combine mashed berries to form a fruit spread. 
6. Once pancakes are cooked, spread some of the fruit spread on each pancake. Stack them pancakes.
7. In a small bowl add peanut flour and enough water to make a consistency you can pour. Pour the mixture over those bad boys. 
8. Enjoy!

These pancakes are so fluffy and delicious, hands down the best protein pancakes recipe I've ever tried. This recipe was adapted from a recipe posted by @the_starving_artist on instagram.

Hopefully now that I have the summer off I will be posting a lot more on here. At least that's my goal :)

With love,

Tuffy

WIAW #7

Happy WIAW everyone! One of my favorite days of the week , probably next to Friday hehe :)




Since its pumpkin season right now (well, at least it is if you ask me!), first I want to talk about one of my recent ah-may-zing pumpkin creations:

Stacked pumpkin french toast

I made this for lunch over the weekend...good does not even describe it. When making the french toast I added sugar free pumpkin spice coffee mate, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a dash of ginger to the egg mixture. I cooked it like normal (in a bit of coconut oil). Between layers (and on the top slice) and spread Trader Joe's pumpkin butter and PB2 (which I made using the pumpkin spice coffee mate). And then topped it off with a bit of sugar free syrup. Some easy and delicious pumpkin goodness <3

On to today's eats!

Lunch

This morning I just threw together a bunch of stuff for a quick stir fry: ground turkey, broccoli slaw, spinach, feta, and artichoke antipasta spread from Trader Joe's. I put all that on top of some spaghetti squash and topped it off with some hot sauce at work. You can still see the steam in the picture haha :)

Red Velvet Cafe's oatmeal raisin cookie sandwich

Here in Vegas Red Velvet Cafe makes absolutely phenomenal (mostly vegan) desserts. They also have good food, but the desserts is where it's really at. All of their cakes and cookies are supposedly under 200 calories. I don't know how she does it, but it's incredible. My mom surprised me with one of these at work...it was so good I almost forgot to take a picture ^_^

I got off work early and decided to do some food prep. I got super hungry in the middle of it so I decided to share a few of the things I made with my love.

Zucchini fritter topped with lite mozarella and sriracha

Recipe from Meg

Apple peanut butter protein muffin

Recipe from Vevian

Both were very yummy!

For dinner I made something super simple and inspired by my mommy <3 

My love and I have coined it "Mama V's chicken and rice"

And for dessert we decided to take a trip to Golden Spoon...we got one of those "buy one get one" texts and couldn't resist :)

Pumpkin pie & graham cracker swirl, Pecans and Praline, and Vanilla Malt. All topped off with a bit of graham cracker crumbs.

So happy with this decision haha, I love me some pumpkin flavored anything ;)

I hope you all had an awesome Wednesday!

With love,

Tuffy

WIAW #6

Happy Wednesday! I'm happy to be joining in on WIAW again :D

First off, I just want to talk about how much I've been loving pumpkin lately...and then I'll get to what I ate!

               

On Monday I made a pumpkin pie fro yo parfait, and let me tell you it was phenomenal! I kept seeing amazing looking overnight oat parfaits on Instagram and decided to combine this idea with fro yo. This was layers of: pumpkin spice overnight oats, pumpkin fro yo, apples sauteed with cinnamon and a teeny bit of sugar free syrup, and vanilla protein fro yo. So so so so delicious! <3 

Also, I've been so obssessed with sugar free pumpkin  spice coffee mate and Trader Joe's pumpkin spice coffee. It's so delicious, I highly recommend it to anyone who loves pumpkin and coffe :)

And now onto my eats:

Open faced egg sandwich

I just learned how to poach an egg, and I don't know why I never tried this before. This was a slice of whole grain bread, laughing cow cheese, an egg white, 2 slices of center cut bacon, a poached egg, and hot sauce. I scarfed this down before my exam yesterday...so good. I also had some cantaloupe on the way to class but didn't get a picture...although I'm pretty sure you guys know what cantaloupe looks like ;)

Homemade healthy calzone

Artichoke and Parmesan kale chips

For dinner I made my healthy calzone (Joseph's whole wheat pita, no sugar added pizza sauce, Trader Joe's spicy jalapeno chicken sausage, fat free ricotta, and a bit of lite mozzarella) and some delicious kale chips.

"Dessert"

I love cereal and I love having big bowls of cereal as my "dessert" at night :) Trader Joe's O's, Trader Joe's fiber cereal, diced up apples, and some peanut flour. Recently I've been adding peanut flour to my cereal (it was my love's idea!) and it's such a good combination. It just gives your cereal a slight peanut butter taste, and who doesn't love peanut butter?!

Well, that's it for this WIAW. I hope you all had an amazing Wednesday <3

With love,

Tuffy

[TUFF]y Reviews

Whew, it's been a while. It's hard to keep up with a blog on top of school and work. But I love it, so I'm going to keep trying to find ways to work it in :)

One of the idea's I had when I started this was to review products. Since I'm always getting and trying new things I thought it would be a cool thing to do. In fact, I have a list of things I want to review. The problem is finding the time. Well today I want to start and I'm calling it [TUFF]y Reviews as a wordplay on "tough reviews", done by none other than Tuffy ;) I know. I'm a dork. It's okay, I've accepted this about myself at this point in life! Ha :p

So for my first ever [TUFF]y Reviews I want to review the Bestowed box from last month. I know, I know. I'm a month late. I actually just got this month's box yesterday, but I will get to that one later.

I found out about Bestowed boxes from the lovely, amazing, inspiring, beautiful Gina (aka The Fitnessista). I love her blog! Anyways, I saw her mention getting this box full of goodies in the mail one day. I was sitting with my boyfriend at the time and as soon as I saw it I was telling him about how cool that was. He immediately told me that I should do it and that it seemed like the perfect thing for someone like me. That was all I needed to be convinced to try it out. So you might be wondering what exactly Bestowed is. Bestowed is a service that you pay $15 a month for, and on the 15th of every month they send you a box full of new products to try (ok, so you actually only get 5-6 items, but still! It's awesome.). I know there are tons of companies out there that do this, but Bestowed happened to be the first one I had ever heard of. And I just thought it was the most amazing idea ever. I look forward to my little box every month, always wondering what they will give me next. I get to try products that I've never heard of, or maybe have just never bought before. And at least I get a little sample of it to know whether or not I actually want to go buy it. Anyways, I'm done ranting about what Bestowed is, so now I'll tell you about what they sent me last month.

The whole box

I failed at taking pictures of everything, so I'll just start with what I did take a picture of.

Hail Merry almonds

Hail Merry almonds: These were really  good!! They were vanilla maple flavored and the taste was super yummy. I normally stay away from any sort of coated nut for a few reasons. 1. They tend to have extra stuff added to them and have lots of unneeded sugar. 2. I have a really hard time controlling myself with them. Usually coated nuts are so delicious that I can't stop myself and before I know it half the bag is gone. These guys were different though. I wish I took a picture of the back, because now I can't remember the exact details. But I do remember that the calories were around 170 or so and there wasn't a lot of sugar or other added stuff. They didn't have a "heavy" taste to them, which I feel like a lot of coated nuts get just because there's all sorts of sugar and other things added to the coating to make them taste amazing. If I find these in a store I'd totally be down for buying some of these. They are a great little snack that is in a controlled portion.

Plentils

Plentils:  These were amazing! I'd never had lentil chips before (although I have seen them around), and these did not disappoint. First of all, the stats are awesome. 100 calories, no trans/sat fats, no sugars, reasonable sodium. Second, they tasted soooo good. I love garlic. and parmesan. These were the perfect combination. They were light and not greasy at all. My boyfriend said they tasted like a healthy version of funions. I'm not sure where to buy these, but if I ever find them they are definitely coming home with me. 

Kashi chocolate square

Kashi soft-baked chocolate square: Normally I love Kashi products. This...not so much. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, it just wasn't amazing. It was a cool idea because it was made using black beans, which I've never seen in a packaged product before. But it just didn't impress me that much. The stats aren't overly impressive. Honestly, it didn't really taste different than the Fiber One 90 calorie brownies and they are probably pricier. It's not something I would buy on my own.

Sunbutter: This was just your average sunflower seed butter. But it was my first time having it. I really liked it, it was like a combination of almond butter and sunflower seeds. I don't really buy nut butters much (I usually stick to PB2), but if I wanted something a little different this is definitely something I would go for.

Somersault Snack Co. Crunch Somersaults: I really didn't know what to think of these when I saw them in the box. To be honest I didn't even know what they were. After opening up the package and trying a few, it no longer mattered what they were because they were just so delicious. It was like a combination of granola and nuts and...I don't really know. But they were so good! And their made out of sunflower seeds! I can't remember much about the stats other than they were about 140 calories. If I ever see these I will buy them for sure!

Kind Oats & Honey Clusters: I really liked this granola, the stats looked pretty good from what I can remember, and it didn't taste like it was loaded with sugar or honey or something. It was fairly light tasting but was still a yummy granola. I don't buy granola often, it's another one of those things I have a hard time controlling myself around, but if I were to buy granola this would definitely be at the top of my list.

Well, that's it. That's all that was in my box last month. Overall, I was really happy with everything I got. I just got my new box yesterday and I'm super excited to start using all the stuff in it, and I can't wait to share everything!

With love,

Tuffy

WIAW # 5

Happy WIAW everyone :)
First I want to address the theme of this WIAW. Lately I've been inspired by, loving, and craving all things pumpkin. There are so many drool-worthy pumpkin-containing foods being posted on Instagram, it's nuts! I love it. This week I've been loving my pumpkin iced coffees, with pumpkin coffee from Trader Joe's and sugar free pumpkin spice coffee mate. So good! Also, I've made pumpkin blondies, pumpkin protein pancakes, and my oh-so-amazing pumpkin pie fro yo (in previous posts). And I've got a can of pumpkin in my cabinets just waiting for me to do something with it this weekend :)
Anyways, on to my eats today!
Lunch today was:

Baked chicken tenders, roasted veggies, quinoa, and sriracha

Cottage cheese, cookies & cream casein, chocolate PB2, and mashed up banana

Snacks consisted of:

My last quest bar :( Loving these! I almost forgot to take a pic!

Dehydrated cinnamon fuji apples

I love these dehydrated apples from Costco. I don't buy them much anymore because they're kind of pricey, but my mom found a box on the bottom of a cart in the Costco parking lot and thought I would like them. Boy, does she know me well or what! I was pretty excited about that.

For dinner I made pineapple, chicken, and steak cauliflower "fried rice". Yummmy :D

Grated cauliflower

The finished product. Of course, had to add some spice with chili garlic sauce.

And lastly, dessert!

Peanut butter and "jelly" fro yo. Yum yum yummm

Before I added the "jelly" I dipped a strawberry in the PB fro yo...so delicious. For the "jelly" I just mashed together strawberries and blueberries. For the PB fro yo I added 2 TBSP peanut flour to Fage Greek yogurt. I really love homemade fro yo!

Well, I suppose that's it for now....need to get some sleep :)

With love,

Tuffy

MIMM #3

Hey, look at that -- it's actually Monday! This may be the first time I'm successfully posting this on Monday.

Anyways, today "marvelous" is all about the little things for me. Since I worked all weekend and had a super busy day today (worked nonstop until 2, left for class, ate in the car, got home at 5ish), it's the small but marvelous things I look for.

Well, a few weeks ago I made a goal to go 2 weeks of healthy eating and making good choices without any slip-ups or treats/cheats (my love actually decided to join me on this as well). The 2 week mark was last Thursday, and not only did I make it, but I went 2 extra days. I'm really proud of myself, as I don't think I've gone more than a week without any slip-ups in a really long time. So the fact that I went 2 weeks is just awesome! On Saturday my love and I had a planned treat meal (NOT cheat...I will expand on this idea later!) and it was marvelous, lemme tell you.

Treat meal!

This consisted of (clockwise from top left): bacon wrapped dates (SO good!); macadamia crusted chicken (inspired by a meal I've had at Kona Grill), bacon wrapped steak, and Hungry Girl's butternut-cauliflower-potato bake (actually pretty healthy); Yogurtland!! Mine was a mix of white chocolate macadamia nut, french vanilla, cheesecake, and pineapple guava topped with white chocolate macadamia nut crumble, cookie doe, mochi, and yogurt chips; wine that really wasn't that good, and my love and I!

Not only did I wait 2 weeks to have this amazing treat meal, but it also did not trigger me to eat everything else I could find (which is usually the case). The next day I went right back to eating healthy. Something else that I'm proud of :)

Sunday was rather non-eventful. Just work, visiting my dad briefly, and going to the gym. I cam home and did some food prep. My love was super full from eating with his family, so I was on my own for dinner. I took this opportunity to make a yummy breakfast for dinner (I love doing this! reminds me of being a kid lol).

Breakfast dinner

This dinner consisted of leftover squash bake topped with a whole egg; roasted veggies and egg white scramble, whole grain toast, and half of a cinnamon roll oatmeal cake (from Chocolate Covered Katie).

Like I said earlier, today was super busy at work. Mostly because I had to leave by 2 to go to class, so I had to squeeze everything in before then. Tomorrow is just going to be nuts though! By the time I left work I was starving, and this little guy was very comforting:

My protein PB&J

Something else that reminds me of being a little kid. Just a little more grown up. Some protein powder added to PB2 to give it a little bit more protein. The "J" is just fresh strawberries mashed together. So much better and fresher tasting than the stuff out of the jar. 

And now I'm painting my nails, which is most definitely marvelous since it's been a few weeks!

I hope you all had marvelous Monday's as well <3

With love,

Tuffy