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

Recipe: Gyros

Well, I almost did a post three days in a row...I started writing this last night but then I got too sleepy, and since I haven't been getting a ton of sleep recently I figured I should go to bed early. Granted, I still only got (barely) 7 hours, but its better than the 5-6 I've been getting for the past week or so. Anyways! Now that I'm done ranting about nothing, today I have a new recipe, and I hope it brings some joy to dinner for someone out there other than me!

Does anyone else out there have that one Gyro place that you just love to go to, even though you know damn well that it's not the healthiest option? I most definitely do. I actually had never eaten a gyro until about a year ago, but I immediately loved it. A few months ago my love and I found a really good gyro place down the street from us. Tender meat, tasty tzatziki, and amazing hummus and spicy feta fries on the side.

Well eating at this place inspired me to make a healthier version of a gyro for us to eat. I was actually at the gym getting my stair master on and watching food network when I had the realization that I needed to figure out a way to make healthy gyros. I did some recipe searching because I had absolutely no idea what kind of flavors went into making a gyro. The seasoning tended to be pretty consistent, so I just went from there. It actually wasn't very hard to recreate this into a healthier meal. I used very thinly sliced chicken for the meat, fat free Greek yogurt for the tzatziki, and Joseph's pitas for the bread. This is my second time making it now, and I have to say that I'm very happy with it.

Here's a preview of what our dinner looked like:

Greek gyro dinner

Serves 2

Recipe adapted from: Lizzy217 @ All Recipes

• 2 whole wheat pitas (I used Joseph's)
• 6-8 oz boneless skinless chicken breast (I used 3 large tenders)
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp fat free, reduced sodium chicken broth
• 1 tsp oil of choice (I used the oil in our jar if marinated artichoke hearts)
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp dried marjoram 
• 1/8 tsp dried thyme
• 1/8 tsp dried basil
• 1/8 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced yellow onion
• 1/2 cup fresh spinach
• 2 TBSP Fat free feta cheese crumbles (or more if you'd like)

1. In order to slice the chicken super thinly (like gyro meat), I've found it's easiest to work with slightly defrosted frozen chicken. You want the chicken to be defrosted enough to cut easy, but still frozen enough that cutting very thin sliced is easy. For the amount of chicken we used, we defrosted it for about 2 minutes in the microwave on the defrost setting.
2. Once slightly defrosted cut into super thin slices length wise. It should look like this:
   
3. To a bowl add: sliced chicken, sliced onion, balsamic vinegar, chicken broth, and all spices. This is what your bowl should look like:
   
4. Allow to marinade for at least 30 minutes. (I let it marinade while I was at the gym, so about 1.5 hrs.)
5. After letting it marinade, add to a skillet on high heat. It should only take 5 minutes or so to cook since the chicken is sliced so thin. As soon as the chicken is no longer pink make sure to turn off the heat so as to not over cook. The chicken should come out super tender!
6. Warm up pita bread in microwave for 30 seconds.
7. To assemble: add 1/4 cup fresh spinach to each pita bread. Lay out your chicken on top of spinach. Add feta cheese crumbles and tzatziki sauce. For the tzatziki sauce I used Jenn's recipe from Peas and Crayons (I didn't change a thing...except I didn't have dill so I added dried basil instead...it was delicious!)

Tzatziki sauce

The assembled gyro

On the side I added my home made chili garlic hummus with carrots and cucumber, plus a Greek style salad. 

Also, here is the calculated nutrition info for this recipe as I have listed the ingredients I used :)

Enjoy loves <3


With love,


Tuffy

Quick and easy dinner

We've been making pizza lately as a super quick and easy (&healthy!) dinner. We get this awesome thin, whole wheat pizza crust from Walmart that ends up being about 270 calories for half of the crust (awesome!). So we each take a half and top it with whatever our hearts desire. It's awesome because we each get to top it our own ways. My half is always overflowing with veggies, whereas my boyfriend usually takes more of a minimal approach.

Some things we like to add:
•Trader Joe's chicken sausage (1 split between both of us)
•Marinated artichoke hearts
•Spinach + basil
•Onions/garlic
•Laughing cow (for me, broken up) or fat free ricotta (for both, if we have it)
•Sliced fresh mozzarella (for him) and low fat mozzarella (for me)
•tomatoes/tomato sauce (for me)

The list could go on and on, there are just so many possibilities. Pair this with a salad and it's the perfect meal!