Strawberry Coconut Chia Seed Banana Bread

I had last night off from work, so I went running, washed my scrubs & got out the KitchenAid for some baking fun. I had some ripe bananas and a bunch of strawberries, so I decided to make some yummy bread inspired by the Ambitious Kitchen. I replaced some of the all purpose flour in the original recipe with whole wheat and eliminated the processed sugar. It turned out delicious! Great for breakfast or a snack. Of course, I think it's even better with some peanut or almond butter…mmm...

Strawberry Coconut Chia Seed Banana Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup AP flour

3/4 cup WW flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt

1 TBSP coconut oil, melted and cooled

1 TBSP sorghum 

2 TBSP unsweetened almond or coconut milk

1 cup strawberries, chopped

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

2 TBSP chia seeds

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350*F and prepare a 9-inch bread pan.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder & salt.
• In a large bowl, mix together the bananas, egg, vanilla, yogurt, oil, sorghum & milk.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix until just combined. 
• Gently fold the strawberries, coconut & chia seeds into the batter.
• Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan. Top with some extra coconut flakes & sliced strawberries.
• Bake for about 50 minutes or until done.
• Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Enjoy! 

Blueberry Avocado Muffins

I'm over halfway through my spring stay-cation. And while, I'm disappointed it wasn't safe to go to Aquiles and sad I didn't get to see my kids in La Union, it's been nice. (Although I now have a really big tent for no reason, and I refuse to take it back…because that would involve going inside WalMart… So, anyone up for a camping trip?)

I've gotten to sleep at night. Like go to bed by 10 or 11 and sleep until 7ish. Actually get things done during the day. I have missed that life. I've gotten to hangout with lots of different friends. I got caught up on TV & Netflix…and started into some new shows… I'm going to FINALLY finish a project that I started forever ago. I've made dinner a couple times (nothing epic…last night was literally, "there is all this stuff I need to use, let's make something out of it" night). 

But I needed to share my muffins from this morning. Totally delicious. Like seriously. And pretty healthy as far as muffins go. The original recipe is from Gimme Some Oven via Pinterest. But I changed it up a bit. I took out 1 cup of AP flour & replaced it with WW (you could replace the flour totally with a GF mix…more power to you). I took out all the processed sugar (3/4 cup) & replaced it with 2 TBSP raw honey. I added a little extra cinnamon. Between using WW flour & the extra cinnamon, my muffins turned out not looking so green, which I think is kind of nice. They look more normal.

Blueberry Avocado Muffins

For the muffins:

1 cup WW flour

1 cup AP flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 ripe avocado, seeded & peeled

2 TBSP raw honey

1 tsp vanilla 

1 egg

1 cup plain Greek yogurt

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Streusel topping:

2 TBSP melted butter, slightly cooled

2 TBSP AP flour

1/4 cup raw sugar 

• Preheat the oven to 375*F and prepare a 12-cup muffin pan.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt & cinnamon.
• In your KitchenAid stand mixer bowl, add the avocado and beat until relatively smooth. Add the egg & beat until completely combined. Add the honey, vanilla & yogurt, beating until just combined. Add half of the flour mixture, beating until just combined. Then repeat with the other half. Gently fold in the blueberries by hand. The batter will be very thick & sticky. No worries. 
• Spoon the batter (or I prefer to use a cookie scoop) into the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle with streusel topping (optional). Bake for 25-ish minutes or until done. Just keep an eye on them!

Enjoy!

{Workout Review} P90X-3

Known fact: I'm a huge fan of P90X. Probably a bigger fan of P90X-2. So, when I found out that P90X-3 was coming out, I was pretty excited. Like, this excited:

P90X-3 is all about training accelerated. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my long workouts. I enjoy days when I can workout more than once. However, the days I work, I need something fast and effective. P90X-3 is where it's at--just 30 minutes. I was kind of concerned that it would be just a watered-down version. However, it's still challenging. It still breaks a sweat. You can modify to make it easier…and you can modify to make it harder.

If you have done P90X or X2, you will recognize several of the moves and several of the people. If you haven't done any P90X before, who are you? Go do it. Now, I haven't done the 90 days of X3. I typically hit up P90X, X2, Insanity &/or Zumba when I have the time. I also like to run now…which is weird. Anyways, I don't doubt that if you really only had 30 minutes a day, and committed to follow the X3 program for 90 days, you'd have great results. Seriously, 30 minutes a day was really my gateway with getting into fitness. 

The base kit comes with 16 workouts plus "Cold Start" (if you're wanting/have time for a longer warmup). You can get another disc with 3 more workouts, including X3 Ab Ripper…which I haven't gotten yet. Shocking, I know. But here's a quick breakdown of what I've done:

Total Synergistics
Upper body, lower body & core all together. Excellent resistance training. I remember HATING Synergistics when I first started with P90X…glad I got over that.  

CVX
Probably my favorite. It's my go-to. Killer cardio with a weight. I typically grab my 6 lb dumbbell or 8 lb med ball because the adjustable dumbbells are kind of loud/annoying with the jumping.

Agility X
Decent cardio. But it's not my favorite…because I'm horrible at it. Agility = not my strong suite. That's why I'm horrible at things like soccer. A certain amount of coordination/foot work (that I do not have) is necessary. Something for me to work on!

Triometrics
If you thought it would be like plyometrics, you thought wrong. You do 1 move for 1 minute at 3 different levels of intensity. There's some jumping involved with some of the moves, but it's not solely plyo by any means. It's most definitely a leg and butt killer. I've done this one several times now…and I'm always sore. Great stuff.

Pilates X
Whoever thinks Pilates is easy, has not tried it. This is one for me to work on. There's a lot of emphasis on core and flexibility, but also breathing…and Pilates breathing is different from yoga breathing…and I have not figured it out yet.

X3 Yoga
Ahhh, yoga. I love it. This is a quick yoga burnout. It moves quickly through several different yoga poses…most of which you've seen before in Yoga-X &/or X2. But there is a new crazy move, courtesy of Ted. While I like it, my favorite is still the original Yoga-X (I find it actually calms me down…clears my mind). 

Incinerator
The goal with this one is muscle failure. Mostly upper body. It burns. And I don't recommend doing it and "The Challenge" in two consecutive days…bad plan.

The Challenge
Push-ups. Pull-ups. Again. And again. Not my wheelhouse at all. I was pretty wasted. It was like P90X Chest & Back on crack.  

MMX
Mixed Martial Arts, X style. Great Cardio. Lots of level changing. Sprawling. Fun, sweaty times.

The Warrior
Body weight training at its finest. You circuit upper- and lower-body resistance with core & cardio. Full body blast that you can do anywhere. No excuses.  

Isometrix
If you're a yoga fan, this is a good challenge. Working the muscles isometrically for 45 seconds/move. I've been doing a decent amount of yoga for a while, and this stuff is HARD…except for "Tree"…I could stay there all day. It's core city too. Wow. If you're not sweating, you're not engaged…you're doing it wrong.

Dynamix
This is like 30 minutes of sweaty dynamic stretching. It's a great way to prepare the body for bigger things. It's the way athletes get ready. It's good stuff. It's technically "down time." But it has a nice little cardio effect. 

Decelerator
This one hits on all the big muscles. You'll go back and forth between a push-up/pull-up move & plyo/legs. Gets the job done.  

Accelerator
A great full-body cardio blast with lots of plank work. It's body weight training. It's cardio. I love it. It's extra challenging if your abs are already sore…not that I know from experience or anything. But seriously.

Eccentric Upper
Another upper body blowout. It's basically a push-up move, followed by a pull-up move, then an arm move. Obviously, you're focusing on the eccentric part of the movement. Example: If I'm doing a pull-up, I go up fast, then do a slow 3-count down…and repeat for 10 reps.

Eccentric Lower
Another workout that focuses on the negative part of the movement…except it's obviously for the lower half of your body. Plan on bringing your core to the party too, though. There's weights involved & a balance component. If your core isn't engaged & working, you will be falling all over the place. 

Key Points:

• Engage you core
• Quality over quantity
• Wear the right shoes
• Time, patience, practice
• You can always make it harder
• Use the right weight
• Bring It!

…And I think that sums it up...