strawberry banana breakfast muffins + my #4weekchallenge

Hello, friends!

So I suppose I am in need of an update as to where I have been.  I’ve been much busier than I had anticipated with work, working out, travelling around Wisco trying to be a supportive old lady, and giving myself very little time to work on myself or my blog.  Sad panda.  I’ve been in such a terrible funk lately.  I didn’t feel good about myself and was struggling with some other parts of my personal life.  Gross.  Nobody likes that.

During this time though, I realized that I wasn’t taking care of myself.  I wasn’t eating well.  I stopped working out for a bit and everything went downhill.  I felt terrible.  I craved comfort foods (mostly refined carbs…no fruits, veggies, or proteins) and when I ate them, I felt even worse.  I felt bloated from the salty, nasty, crap that I was putting into my body.  And the more I ate that stuff, the less motivated I felt and it just snowballed.

I realized that I NEED TO FOCUS ON ME FOR A WHILE.  So that is exactly what I have been doing lately.  I started my own 4 Week Challenge at the beginning of the week.  I give myself tasks each day ranging from getting a good lift in or painting my toe nails to putting together my new wine bar all by myself, cleaning my entire apartment, and creating a whole new workout plan. 

These next 4 weeks are all about me!  I will be posting updates on what I am doing for the challenges on Instagram (@itsahealthything), so head over there and see what I have been up to!  Also, I have been MUCH more active on Instagram lately.  It’s a great supportive network of people striving to be their best selves, just like I am!  It’s so encouraging to see others making progress and living their dreams.  I love the positive vibes from the Insta-fit fam.  Seriously.  Check meowt!  ;] See what I did there?

Anyway, focus……On the first day of my challenge, I wanted to remind myself how much I love cooking and baking delicious, wholesome, healthy meals and snacks.  Also, I had some nanners that were going bad from the time that I was NOT eating well.  So I decided to give myself a choice:  banana bread or strawberry banana breakfast muffins.  Well, I went for the muffins because I also had strawberries that were probably going to go bad, too.  Like I said, I failed HARD on clean eating.

I posted this recipe a while ago, but I wanted to post it again.  This oldie but goodie is a combo of two recipes that I found on (where else??) Pinterest.  Personally, I love them with a little smear of butter on them.  Something about that saltiness mixes with the sweetness of the muffins just perfectly.  Plus, I love butter.  Haha.  Sometimes I don’t know how I can be in good shape at all with my love for butter and cheese.

Anyway, here they are again!  Enjoy!

Strawberry Banana Breakfast Muffins

2 ½ cups Old Fashioned Oats

1 cup Plain Greek Yogurt

2 eggs

½ cup honey or baking stevia

1 ½ tsp. Baking Powder

½ tsp. Baking Soda

1 or 2 bananas

1-1 ½ cups diced strawberries

1 tsp. Lemon Juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line 12 muffin tins with silicone or foil liners or spray with nonstick cooking spray. Place all ingredients, except the strawberries in a blender or food processor and blend until the oats are smooth. Pour mixture into a medium sized bowl and stir in 1 cup of strawberries. Divide the batter among the cupcake liners. Divide remaining ½ cup of strawberries over the top of each muffin. Sprinkle lightly with sugar. Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

And there you have it!  Twelve delicious, nutritious muffins!

Stay tuned for more updates on my 4 Week Challenge and what I am doing to focus on ME!

Stay fit!

xoxo

lazy girl's breakfast muffins

Hi, all!  (Katy)

I have exciting news!  I signed up for a gym membership this week!  Yay!  I was so excited that I lifted on Wednesday and discovered that I am not NEARLY as strong as I thought I would be.  Anyway, adjustments will need to be made for that.  I can't wait to start seeing results.  Because I am already pretty thin, I really want to focus on building muscle and feeling strong and fit again.  I felt absolutely invincible at the height of my athletic career because I was in the best shape of my life.  I'm hoping to surpass that feeling, although I have a feeling it will be slightly different with the training variance.  So here is my starting point:

 January 2014, 144lb.

So this is where the whole "healthy thing" comes into play.  I'm not doing this to lose weight.  I'm not doing this to get skinny.  I want to fuel my body better, workout, and take care of myself because I love the way that I feel when I am doing those things.  Also, I want my butt back.  I used to have this perky, bubble booty when I was lifting for track.  To be completely honesty, I think I can hold it responsible for a few misses in high jump, but I don't have to high jump anymore, so that doesn't matter!!  Mwaahahaha!  So I want my butt back.  Also, my tummy & posture.  Ever since I stopped working out regularly, I have noticed that I stand differently and push my hips and belly out.  I want to be able to see my abdominal muscles and I'm hoping that the core strength that I build will help with my awful posture.

Those are my two main goals as far as aesthetics.  Smaller goals include working some definition in to my back/shoulder muscles, legs, and triceps.  :]

I haven't thought about weight goals too much, so for now I will just say that I want my maxes to be higher than what they were when I was competing.

All of that being said, has anybody ever heard of DOMS before?  It's Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness.  It sucks.  I am in the middle of it right now.  It's that awful soreness that you get when you start working out again and it hits on about the 2nd or 3rd day.  Ouuuuch.  Suggestions?

Okay, now to the main point of this post:  breakfast food!  I don't know about you, but I am TERRIBLE about getting up in the morning and eating breakfast.  Since I am trying make better choices, I'm thinking processed granola bars are no longer the way to go.  So I didn't a little research on recipes and, as per usual, tweaked it to my needs.  I give you....

The Lazy Girl's Breakfast Muffins:

They are so full of protein and so filling.  Sadly, they do not incorporate much from the plant world, so adding some mixed fruit to your morning snack would be beneficial.

Ingredients:

1-1.5 cups hash browns (I grated my own potatoes to use)

6 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup grated cheese

desired toppings:  peppers, onions, mushrooms, broccoli, spinach, ham, bacon, turkey....whatever you love!

*keep in mind that you might need to prep some of the toppings before starting this process.  (ex. if you want the mushrooms sauteed first, spinach wilted, etc)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400.  Spray muffin tin with non-stick spray.  If using hash browns, put about 1/8 cup into each muffin tin.  Season with salt & pepper.  Pop into oven for about 30 minutes, or until they start to get browned and crispy.  In the meantime, get out a mixing bowl and start cracking your eggs.  Whisk eggs until smooth.  Add milk and keep whisking.  When hash browns are finished, pull out your muffin tin and distribute the egg mixture evenly among the cups.  Add toppings of choice.  Sprinkle cheese on top.  Bake for about 15 minutes or until eggs are cooked all the way through.

I froze half of mine and have been storing the others in the fridge until I want to eat them.  To reheat, it takes about 30-45 seconds in the microwave.  Easy, right?!

I am the ultimate anti-morning person, so I love this idea.  I made them initially with just a couple of ingredients and I used hash browns, but I think that on the next round, I am going to try to do spinach and mushrooms or broccoli or something and skip the hash browns.

What are your favorite easy, peasy breakfast foods?!  Comment!

Stay fit!

xoxo