On the Third Day of Christmas, My True Love Gave to Me…

Date: November 30, 2014

Author: astottler

3 new recipes!

I know recipes are few and far between around here, so for my blogiversary I took to the kitchen and got to work!

Here are last year’s. Note-the double chocolate banana bread is possibly the best recipe I’ve created.

Another note-I’m currently blogging from Starbucks because our Internet has been down since Wednesday, so I apologize for not responding to comments!

Last year’s recipes were all banana/bread based. This year, I made some roasted veggies!

Garlic Roasted Broccoli

3 T olive oil

1 lb broccoli

1/4 c nutritional yeast

1 T garlic paste or 3 cloves of garlic, crushed

salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Toss all ingredients together.

3. Roast until broccoli is tender and starts to brown, about 30 minutes.

Guys. This was good. Like, I wish I had more pictures but we ate it straight from the pan good. The garlic and nutritional yeast makes it almost creamy. The best part? I still have another pound of broccoli I can roast!

Cheesy Roasted Cauliflower

1 head of cauliflower

about 2 T olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup ground parmesan

1/2 cup grated gruyere or cheese of your choice

1. Preheat oven to 425.

2. Toss together olive oil, salt and pepper.

3. Roast for 35-40 minutes, or until almost tender.

4. Remove from oven and toss with cheeses. Return and roast another 5-10 minutes, until the cauliflower is golden and the cheese is melted.

This is super versatile-use any cheese of your choice, but I loved the flavor of the gruyere!

Basic Roasted Asparagus

I feel like I’m almost cheating with this one, but it’s something my family makes on a regular basis so I thought I’d share!

1 bunch of asparagus

2 T olive oil

a few sprinkles garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

1. On a cookie sheet, toss all ingredients together.

2. Broil in the oven for 7-8 minutes.

On the Second Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me…

Date: November 29, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Two new workouts!

1 family

I feel like it’s kind of cheating to use one of my spin playlists, but that’s one of the things I’m doing most right now!

Here’s last year’s post.

The first workout is a class I taught a few week ago.

Some notes:

-Single leg means letting one leg go limp while focusing on the other leg. Do intervals of about 30s for each leg.

-In means sitting, out means standing

-Hand position 2 means hands at the base of the handle bars. Hand position 3 means hands at the ends of the handle bars, such that the rider will be leaning more forwards.

-+1 means one turn up. One turn is generally 1/4 of the way around the resistance knob.

The next workout is a quick bodyweight workout that anyone can fit in in between the holiday madness! I’m planning on pairing it with a 2 miler run today for a quick indoor workout in the rainstorm we’re going to get today!

Perform as many rounds of the following in 15 minutes!

On the First Day of Christmas My True Love Gave To Me…

Date: November 28, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

One amazing family.

Last year’s Day 1.

Well, today is the first day of the countdown to my blogiversary! How perfect that it falls right around Thanksgiving.

My family is seriously the best. Cats and dogs included.

They get up before 6am on a holiday to go to a turkey trot with me.

Last year vs this year:

Gotta love my kitty!

The race went well. Last year I went out super fast and was DYING for most of the race. This time I reigned my pace in so it was a more fun experience!

Last year there was a guy who ran the whole race dressed as a pirate while carrying a pirate ship. I think the same guy this year was dressed as the death star.

Much less heavy!

Anyways, so grateful for my family. After cleaning ourselves up, we headed to Napa for the big meal, and stopped by to see my grandparents.

I also love my pets, despite the fact that I’m very allergic to them…

Then, we arrived in Napa and it was time for the feast!

We went to a buffet, and the set up was absolutely beautiful.

They labeled everything with pumpkins! How cute is that? Plate #1 was salad+soup. The soup. Guys. It was amazing. It was pumpkin with gruyere, and the best part is that they had the recipe listed on a pumpkin so I WILL be making it.

Plate #2:

And of course, desserts. My family takes buffets seriously, especially the desserts. We don’t mess around with the tiny dessert plates.

^The set up, not my plate unfortunately. Here’s my plate:

Pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate cake, chocolate mouse cake, mango cake, pudding cup, and chocolate covered strawberry. The chocolate cake may have been my favorite this year!

I have to say, I’m all for healthy living but Thanksgiving is not the time to worry about that. Although in my old age I feel like I haven’t eaten at much at Thanksgiving as in the past-I miss being a growing teenager with a bottomless stomach!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving and enjoyed good food with their loved ones. I know I have a lot to be thankful for!

On the 11th Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me… (GIVEAWAY)

Date: December 8, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

11 of My Favorite Things…For YOU!

This was supposed to be the Grand Finale of 12 Days, but my 11th day fell through and I have something else for the last day, so here it is!

And it will arrive looking something like this:

NOTE: I am not affiliated with any of these companies-I just wanted to do something fun for you guys for my blogiversary!

Note #2-I realized that most of these are chocolate-related…oh well? Hey, it’s non-perishiable and travels well, what can I say?

1. Sunflower seed butter. Because I’m obsessed.

2. Dried mango. This should be a no brainer.

3. Guacamole mix-I love having this on hand-it’s basically just spices that you add to avocado for instant guac. Perfect for an easy snack!

4. Crunchamame-green onion and chive.

5. Green and Black 85% chocolate. I love dark chocolate, and this is by far my favorite. The texture is so much smoother than other brands!

6. Blackberry chia squeeze-fruit and chia seeds.

7. Square bar-chocolate coconut. I recently discovered these, and they’re delicious! It’s hard finding bars that aren’t full of nuts, and these fit the bill.

8. ThinkThin Divine bars. Chocolate coconut. What more could you ask?

9. See’s chocolate Santa. See’s is one of my favorite chocolates. I realize that not everyone has these in different places in the country, which is part of why I included it.

10. See’s chocolate toffee bar-this is straight out of my childhood. We used to sell See’s bars for band, and this was my favorite!

11. Peanut butter oat bar. This brand is AMAZING. The peanut butter is my favorite (which I tried before I knew I had a peanut sensitivity), but the other flavors are just as addictive.

So how do you win this??

Simply comment below with one of your favorite things!

For additional entries (each is one entry):

Follow me on Twitter (@fitnessissweet) and leave a comment saying you have done so.

Tweet about the giveaway (something like this- “I’m entering @fitnessissweet ‘s 12 days of Christmas giveaway!) with a link, and then comment saying you have done so.

Instragram this picture and let me know you have done so 🙂

Since this is 12 days of Christmas, let’s give you all 12 days for this! The winner will be randomly chosen on the night of December 12! Good luck!

(Sadly, this is only open to US and Canada residents)

Good luck!

On the Tenth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me…

Date: December 6, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

The 10 best things I ate in the last year.

This post is proving to be one of the hardest, and one of my most favorites, simply because it’s so hard to choose! After much soul searching, this is what I came up with! (In no particular order)

1. Wildberry frozen yogurt. Specifically the salted caramel pretzel flavor…AMAZING. I got this an embarrassing number of times while I had mono because my throat hurt something fierce, I could barely eat, and it was on the way back home from school.

2. Yogurt bowls-specifically with vanilla greek yogurt, pumpkin bread, and sunflower seed butter. This combo is amazing. I ate a crazy amount of this last spring. Try it and thank me later.

3. Boston Cream Pie. Made 100% from scratch. For those who don’t know, Boston Cream Pie is sponge cake, custard, and chocolate glaze. I made this once before for my mom as a surprise, but this time around it was a spring break activity that we did together.

4. Tina‘s recipe for Cheesy Brussels Sprouts. They’re super simple and delicious, and a great go-to anytime. But maybe I just really love Brussels Sprouts.

5. Homemade iced chai. After having an amazing iced chai at Philz Coffee, I decided to try my hand at it. The trick? Brew it with a mint leaf, for some extra refreshing power. Plus, I’m totally in love with my Chai tea.

6. Blueberry crisp. This one is a no-brainer. It’s one of my favorite desserts ever, and pretty much only happens when blueberries hit that brief but golden period of perfect ripeness in the summer. The recipe we use is pretty healthy-not a ton of sugar! And not a ton is needed with amazing blueberries! Bonus-no nuts 🙂

7. Blueberry bread. Yes, the kind from a mix with added blueberries. I absolutely LOVE this. And I think it probably helped the cause that this was made right after my first ever 12 mile run. I may have been ravenous and I may have eaten most of the loaf in one day. No shame. #runnerproblems

8. Smitten ice cream. Smitten is a little place in San Francisco that makes Nitrogen ice cream. It. Is. Amazing. I ordered the salted caramel, but I loved even more the chocolate. It was by far, hands down the best ice cream I’ve ever eaten. Ever. Insanely smooth-the nitrogen freezing process won’t create ice crystals-, rich, decadent, chocolate-y with almost a hint of sea salt. OMG. The best part? A Smitten is coming INSIDE my closest Whole Foods at school! SO. PUMPED.

9. These brussels sprouts from my latest trip to Napa. No words. Possibly the #1 best thing I ate all year (yes, I realize how weird it makes me seem if the best thing I ate all year was brussels sprouts-but they were amazing!)

10. Butternut squash soup with cream fraiche and citrus cranberry relish. This was too perfect. Even though I missed out on amazing butternut squash soup in Napa this year, this was just as good. I had this at least 5 times as leftovers.