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

Date: December 2, 2013

Author: astottler

5 Things I Never Thought I’d Do Until I Became a Blogger

1. Selfies. On selfies on selfies. Until I started blogging, I think I’d taken a total of 1 seflie ever. In my life. Now?

2. Obsessively check the yogurt aisle. Or get ridiculously excited over yogurt in general. When coconut Chobani came out, I would obsessively check every grocery store for it. Heck, I still do. And I have yet to find it anywhere!

3. Take pictures of literally EVERYTHING I eat. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again. So why do I have a million of the same picture?

And this only proves my Coupa cappuccino addiction. Feel free to send help.

4. Take a picture of a stupid watch. I mean, how many normal people (aka not bloggers-let’s be honest, none of us are normal) would take a picture of their watch? Heck, I used to never even wear a watch.

(And yes, I did choose particularly special runs for the watch photos.)

5. Actually made an effort to make my food pretty. Well, sometimes. Example 1: makeover of “banana mush”-then and now.

Then:

Now:

You’re welcome.

Ok-not all my food looks pretty. But it’s a lot better! Some of my early blogging photos…shudder.

What do you do now that you’re a blogger?

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

Date: December 1, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

4 Holiday Starters!

3 recipes

2 workouts

and 1 amazing family

Calling this a recipe is kind of a crime, given how simple it is! As some of my longer time readers may know, last year I would often eat a warm banana mashed with cocoa powder for dessert. I thought-why stop at cocoa? These could be so much more! These little holiday bites come in chocolate peppermint, gingerbread, original cocoa, and pumpkin spice. Why starters? While delicious on their own, these would be amazing in so many things-stirred into oatmeal or yogurt, in smoothies, as a dip for graham crackers or cookies, on toast, made into a pie-when chilled, the peppermint cocoa and cocoa thicken into an almost fudgey texture-the possibilities are endless! The best thing is, with so little sugar (the gingerbread has molasses, but otherwise there is no sugar), these sweet treats could be enjoyed any time of day.

To make them, microwave a banana for about 30 seconds, or until hot and soft. Then, mash up with the additional ingredients. For a smoother texture, throw them in the blender! Since these have no eggs, the spices can be added to your taste.

Original

1-1.5 T cocoa powder (or dark chocolate cocoa powder, which is what I used)

That’s it!

Gingerbread

This is a bit spicy, so add a little less of the spice if you prefer a milder flavor.

1 t molasses

1/4 t ground ginger

1/4 t cloves

pinch of all spice (or nutmeg+cinnamon)

Peppermint Chocolate

Although this is banana based, I promise all the only flavors that come across are cocoa and mint! This would also be delicious made with fresh mint blended in, instead of extract.

1.5 T cocoa powder-or more to taste

1/4 t peppermint extract, or to taste

Pumpkin Spice

3 T pumpkin

1/4 t vanilla

1/2 pumpkin pie spice

1/2 t cinnamon

Enjoy!

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

Date: November 30, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

3 new recipes!

2 workouts

and 1 amazing family.

I don’t post a ton of recipes, but since we’re approaching my blogiversary, it was time to get to work in the kitchen! I love low sugar recipes, and these lack the sugar without the flavor. Enjoy!

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

Ingredients:

4 ripe bananas

1 egg (or 2 whites)

2 T oil (I used canola)

1/3 c milk

1 t salt

1 t baking soda

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 c cocoa powder (I used dark chocolate, hence the color)

1 c flour-I used whole wheat pastry

1 T honey

1/2 c bittersweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mash bananas and mix all ingredients besides the chips.

3. Stir in chips

4. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 until done.

Cranberry Banana Bread

Ingredients

4 ripe bananas

1 egg (or 2 whites)

2 T oil

1/3 c milk

1 t salt

1 t baking soda

1/2 t baking powder

1.5 c flour (I used whole wheat pastry)

2 t cinnamon

1 t vanilla

1/4 c packed brown sugar

1/4 c dried cranberries

1/2 c chopped fresh cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mash bananas and mix in all but cranberries.

3. Stir in both types of cranberries.

4. Bake for about 50 minutes or until cooked through.

Healthy Polka Dot Cookies (Mint chocolate)

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas

4 soaked dates (unsoaked should would but may not blend as well)

1 full square Baker’s chocolate (unsweetened)

1 T butter (or coconut oil)

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

3/4 c cocoa powder

2 eggs

1 t vanilla

3/4 c flour (whole wheat pastry or any type)

3/4 c mint chips

Makes 24

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Warm bananas in microwave, and then blend with dates until smooth.

3. Melt Baker’s chocolate into banana mix.

4. Using a mixer, blend in all but flour.

5. Mix in flour with mixer.

6. Stir in mint chips

7. Drop onto cookie sheet-about 2 teaspoons per cookie.

8. Bake for about 9 minutes, depending on oven and cookie sheets, or until cooked through.

Enjoy!

On The First Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me…

Date: November 28, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

One AMAZING family. I am so thankful. And how appropriate that the first day of Christmas fall on Thanksgiving? They are the best.

Even though my sister is in Michigan right now!

Today just proves how awesome my family is. My parents woke up at the crack of dawn (well, it was dark) to take to and support me in a Turkey Trot.

Also-so much respect for this guy: he ran the whole 10k with the ship!

I had plans to take a fast for me but still easy pace of 9:00. I went out pretty fast-my first mile was 8:10-so clearly I have no ability to not go hard. This race was pretty hard, but definitely a ton of fun. And it was nice to see my race pace in the 8s again!

After cleaning up, we headed to my Grandma’s house. She really outdid herself on the cooking front this year. I was SO blown away. Check out all these desserts-dark chocolate pecan pie, key lime pie, pumpkin cheesecake-all from scratch.

We had a 24 pound turkey (for 6 people), mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, 3 types of cranberry sauce, ambrosia with homegrown oranges, butternut squash soup, green beans, rolls, orange maple sweet potatoes.

Check out that concentration!

So thankful. I have no words.

What are you thankful for?

12 Days of Christmas

Date: November 14, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Guys, guess what is coming up? I mean besides Christmas-I’m talking about a holiday MUCH more monumental.

That’s right-my one year blogiversary! (Is it just me or are a lot of people having these around now? Are the holidays just a really great time to procrastinate by starting a blog? Confession-mine was most definitely started during finals…oops.)

Does anyone know when it was? Extra super bonus points if you do-I had to look it up! I just remembered that I was supposed to start it over break, but I got overeager and probably a little bored of studying, so I started sooner! Approaching the one year mark has led to a lot of reflection-why do I blog? What’s the purpose? It’s forcing me to go back to my roots. Bonus-my first ever post isn’t as embarrassing as I was expecting-I actually really like it. I clearly put more effort into what I spewed from my fingers back then.

I also want to thank you all so much. I remember how big of a deal it was to see my first reader! (Although it may have just been me, checking out my spiffy new blog repeatedly.) And my first comments-those were truly amazing-although I’m pretty sure my first ever comment was my mom…

Anyways, to celebrate one year of blogging, I wanted to do something fun!

So-I’m going to do a 12 days of Christmas countdown to the big day! I’m insanely excited for this-each day will feature something different-expect workouts, recipes, decent food pictures-basically all the things I’m too lazy to do on a regular basis. I’m insanely excited for this, and I’m already planning all sorts of fun things! I’m also trying to use this as a chance to get back to my roots-my recipes should reflect my eating beliefs-something my day to day diet hasn’t done as of late (not that’s it’s been awful, but it doesn’t reflect my passion for nutrition).

I have some ideas for some of the days, but I don’t want to give anything away. It’s still a few weeks away, so I have tons of time to prep and make this amazing! So be on the lookout for this in the next few weeks!

This morning I did a spin class on my own-it’s one I made over the summer with 20 minutes on HIIT in the middle-and it’s intense. By far the hardest spin class I’ve made-future students beware! I know it’s probably not totally accurate, but the reading on the bike was 1000 calories. Mwahaha-again, future students beware 🙂

Here’s what I didn’t eat today. I was smart enough to only pack money for my morning coffee:

And seeing as I’m not into shoplifting, it worked like a charm 🙂

I also tried a persimmon from our CSA box (which came with tons of goodies this week-persimmons, pears, apples, avocados, tomatoes) to see how it compared with the ones from my roommate’s trees. The verdict?

It was probably a little softer and sweeter, but the skin was pretty tough and the overall flavor wasn’t as good. Don’t worry-I made sure to have one from her tree later though!

I took this because I wanted to show you guys what I’m wearing. But you can’t really see that so…basically I wear the same thing everyday-scarf, crew neck sweatshirt, leggings/workout pants, moccasins. I’m really lucky to go to a school where pretty much everyone wears athletic clothes every day.

I’ve been missing rowing a lot lately, so I headed to the gym to do a rowing workout on the erg. I was surprised that I was able to maintain my pace! I’m definitely going to be incorporating more rowing into my workouts in the future-it’s really great crosstraining for running, plus I was in killer shape last fall from it. I followed that with 10 minutes of abs.

I felt confident enough to attempt the dining hall today, as I hadn’t had sweets all day. Plus, I was looking at some of my old food pictures (my first month or so of food pictures was laughable…apparently I didn’t know how to hold my phone still??), and it made me realize I’ve been kind of slacking somewhat in the vegetable department, so I loaded up my plate with veggies.

I wasn’t a fan of the chicken though-I hate dealing with meat of the bone. I feel like I only get about 2 bites out of the whole things!

I then passed up cookies in favor or cinnamon toast and fruit. Maybe not the 100% most healthy option, but still a much better option for me!

So-look out for the 12 days of Christmas! I need to go study for tomorrow’s midterm-eek!