Quick Snack: Bell Peppers + Salsa

I am obsessed with salsa and most spicy foods. Pregnancy really convinced me of this new food passion that I have been neglecting all my life. So, here is a simple snack with any colored bell pepper and salsa. Low calorie, metabolism boosting, and it takes good! #healthysnacksmadeeasy

Easy, Healthy Recipe: Sweet Potato & Carmelized Union Slices

Ingredients and Directions for Sweet Potato & Caramelized Onions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit 

1 Medium Sweet Potato (about 5" in length) (tossed in coconut oil and cinnamon)

Half a large Union (tossed in coconut oil also)

Bake approximately 30 minutes. 

Check up on every 10-15 minutes. Mix the sweet potatoes and onions around during this time.

The sweet potato and onion are low in calories, contain plenty of vitamins and fiber. Plus, this meal is great for metabolism boost and weight loss! It might not be the most exciting meal to some, but it is quick and a solid small nutritional meal.

Tracy Anderson vs. Bethenny Frankel

I think that if Allie and I sat down like Tracy Anderson and Bethenny Frankel, we might have a very similar discussion. It is OK to have different outlooks on nutrition, exercise, and life. The world should be all about love and positivity. Share your opinions, and the wealth of life too. xo- Jamie

2050 Beauty

Have you seen this article? National Geographic Determined What American Will Look Like in 2050, and It's Beautiful

I must have been born in the wrong generation! ;) The future sure looks bright and made up of beautiful people. Let's just hope we can work on the peace and clean up the planet to create a near perfect world.
-Jamie

Wow! She really is very beautiful!

GUILT-FREE Brownie Bites

I feel like I need some strong beginning of a movie type of music, but, folks, it is true-- These brownie bites are literally guilt-free and fiber full-- Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!

Ingredients:

Dates or prunes (7-10)

Steel cut oats (3/4-1 cup)

Vanilla (1 tsp)

Dark Chocolate (I will leave the amount up to you- haha)

Sweetener or cinnamon to taste (Only if needed)

Boil dates or prunes for 10 minutes in about 2 cups of water.

Chop up some yummy chocolate of your choice. This particular chocolate comes from Africa. It is amazing, and the profits go towards the cocoa farmers' families. I love when organic companies include tidbits about their lifestyles and businesses. The symbols on the package actually represent the African tribes' cultures that make these chocolate treats. It is hard to beat 70% cocoa, plus the creaminess may surprise you!

Blend the steel-cut oats into a powder like texture. Add in the dates or prunes and vanilla. I included the boiled water. You can do the same depending on your preference with the dough.

Add in the chocolate as chunks or melted. As chunks, you get cookie dough. If you melt the chocolate, you get a nice brownie mix.

I froze my bites. Otherwise, I would eat the entire batch!

If you have time this week, give this recipe a try! You won't regret it. Besides, check out the calorie count on MyFitnessPal or another app. These are totally worth the time and effort! :)

Strong4Life

Has anyone else seen this video? It might be a little extreme, but it will definitely make you think!

Check out the Strong4Life website. I found some great ideas, and I really want to make the healthiest choices for myself, Alex, and Nicholas. It is much more important to remember the long term goal by providing our kids with the best health choices than the short term reward of unhealthy foods and activities. #foodforthought

Blueberry Protein Pancakes

I got this recipe from Jamie Eason (love her!), and tweaked a few of the ingredients. The pancakes are so addicting- Enjoy, and be careful with these! #cleaneating

• 1 cup Coconut Flour (keep in mind that this flour is a little tough to work with!)
• 2 tbsp Splenda, Truvia, or Ideal
• 1 tbsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp Allspice
• 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
• 4 Egg Whites
• 1/2 cup Raw Pumpkin
• 1-2+ cups or more almond milk or 2-3 cups+ water (The coconut flour absorbs and expands like crazy!)
• Blueberries!

House Hunters....eeeek!

I am so excited, tomorrow night they air our second House Hunters episode!! We filmed this past February with all of our renovations so I am so excited to see it come to life!! Pictures don't show the angles of the renovations well so I am pumped to see what it looks like video taped.

August 14th at 10pm (third segment of show)

Let's take a quick peek at the madness we moved into.

We also demolished the "master bath" and made a jack and jill bath and 4th bedroom.

When we moved in a little over a year and a half ago we had planned to only renovate one bathroom, then we became addicted to the renovation process and brought this old beauty back to life with a tiny bit of Darr family flair. When I look around these rooms it brings me so much joy because we picked every tiny detail of it. It was definitely a long process but so worth it! I cannot wait to see it come to life tomorrow night on HGTV at 10pm. We are the third segment of the show.

Here is a pic of Sammer from the day we filmed. He was only 2 months old. 

 I am semi cringing at seeing myself 2 months post partum but it will kind of be cool at the same time to see how far I have come in my health and fitness. I was literally 20-25 pounds heavier when we filmed. INSANITY how much changes in a few months!!!

Feeling uber blessed.

Let me know if you guys catch the episode!!! eeeeeek!!

The Ultimate Yogi

My P90x3 program is complete, and I am jumping on the Yoga bandwagon! I am not a "yogi" (yet), but I think this might be a great personal (mental/physical) challenge for me. I have decided to try "The Ultimate Yogi" workout series. There are 12 discs (each around an hour, expect for the abs which is 18 minutes).

Since I am used to P90x3's 30 minute workouts, these longer workouts will definitely take some getting used to. Again, I am going to challenge myself to get up earlier and have a more positive attitude. We will see how this goes since I am truly one of the most inflexible people I know. Whatever, no pain, no gain! I am excited to take this on, and we will see how I look and feel after 108 days of commitment. Woohoo!

Travis shares his fitness tips here:

A diet plan is included, as well: I particularly found this part of the website the most interesting (especially this video):

-xo -Jamie

If interested, check out the program's preview here:

Going Out To Eat?

Gosh, I love my background entertainer! Enjoy the show!

Cinnamon + Honey = Weight Loss??

For about a year and a half, I have always put cinnamon and honey into my tea. Alex thinks that I need to lay off the honey, but I can't help but to give a good squeeze or two to that honey bear! ;)

I drink one cup of tea in the morning on an empty stomach and one or two at night before bed. Again, as Alex likes to remind me, I do my best to keep my honey consumption in check. Some days are better than others. Haha.

I have researched the honey and cinnamon weight loss/cleanse debate and found this from The Doctors show website:

"WEIGHT LOSS:
Daily in the morning one half hour before breakfast on an empty stomach, and at night before sleeping, drink honey and cinnamon powder boiled in one cup of water. If taken regularly, it reduces the weight of even the most obese person. Also, drinking this mixture regularly does not allow the fat to accumulate in the body even though the person may eat a high calorie diet.

The formula for honey and cinnamon for weight loss is ubiquitous.

   1. Use honey and cinnamon in a 1:2 ratio (one part cinnamon, two parts honey)
   2. Put the cinnamon in a cup or bowl.
   3. Boil one cup of water.
   4. Pour water over the cinnamon and let it steep for 30 minutes.
   5. Once the liquid has cooled, add honey. Always add honey to the cooled liquid – hot liquid will destroy the enzymes in the raw honey.
   6. Drink half of the resulting “tea” before going to bed. Cover and refrigerate the rest.
   7. Drink the other half first thing in the morning.
   8. Do not add anything to the recipe. Only drink on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning and right before bed.

Typical claims of benefits that you will find for drinking this concoction include:

   1. Inches will be lost before you will notice the scale creeping downward.
   2. The cinnamon and honey cleanses parasites, fungus and bacteria out of the digestive tract.
   3. You may experience side effects due to the release of toxicity.
   4. You may experience increased energy, better sex drive and a better mood.
   5. The formula will block your body from gaining fat."

So, does it work? Well, I guess so. I haven't really been keeping track, but I'd like to think that this has helped me stabilize my weight.

I also found this from another blogger's website (Almost Exactly). She claims to have also read the above information and did more personal research on the actual cinnamon and honey cleanse:

"SO DOES THE HONEY & CINNAMON CLEANSE WORK?!?
maybe. if you count about 1% body fat loss over 30 days… lol. statistically speaking, the findings were significant, but it’s surely not as magical as people are proclaiming!! drinking a thick paste twice a day for me to lose 1% body fat isn’t worth it. i’d rather do an extra 50 jumping jacks lol. but, honey and cinnamon have other health benefits. remember, this was just about the cleanse & its weight loss claims."

I'll leave it up to you. I drink the mixture for the flavor, and maybe your body will react like you've cracked some sort of weight loss code?? Don't expect results overnight, but overtime...who knows. I'll be happy to give credit to cinnamon, as long as there is honey involved too! ;)


My man, Mark, also has some thoughts on the goodness of honey too- click here. He also talks about cinnamon as being a "smart spice" here.

Cookie Dough Bites {only healthy}

My friend Katie posted these yesterday and the moment I saw them I knew they needed to be in my belly, and STAT! I am a sucker for sweets and treats so this was a no brainer for me to make these tasty little morsels, they have been fully approved by me and all the men of the house. Minus the dog, I will harm him if he lays one puppy paw on these cookie bites. 

I was a tad hesitant at first on how the texture would be and how it could possibly taste like cookie dough, but somehow it magically does. I am actually thinking of next time blending the coconut flakes into a finer state so its more doughy. Worth a shot to try it, if not they are still amazing as is.

You will need:

1 1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup nut butter (I did organic peanut butter)

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Mix all in a bowl, it is a tad runny so I used a TBS scoop to drop onto parchment paper. Then freeze and enjoy! Like I said I wonder if I blend up and process the coconut flakes if it will soak up better?

Seriously they are insanely good!! 

Avocado Banana Muffins!

Nick is still totally into whole foods. So, I have been combining healthy fats to create a few snacks and meals for him. One of those is "Avocado Banana Muffins"! The recipe can be found here.

To make things easier on you, I have copied and pasted the directions from the fitness website...  

Ingredients

1/3 cup of crushed nuts/seeds (I used crushed almonds, could use flaxseed or LSA)

 *I also crushed almonds. 

1 cup of coconut/almond flour
   *Nick loves coconut, so I stuck with coconut flour. 

1/2 cup chopped walnuts 

2 ripe bananas 

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda 

2 eggs 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 ripe avocado

1/4 cup avocado oil  

    *I used Coconut oil instead.  This does cause the muffins to be more soft.

2 tablespoons honey 

1/4 cup coconut milk  

Cooking Instructions
Grease muffin tins with some butter or oil Heat oven to 200 degree C, 375 F.
Place all dry ingredients in a bowl
In another bowl add avocado, oil, honey and eggs.
Use a stick whiz or blender to mash. Beat until smooth.
Add the mixture into dry ingredient.
Add in mashed bananas and coconut milk, and stir until combined.
Pour mix into muffin tins, enough for 12 and bake for 12-15 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.      
    *I tried cooking these muffins for 11 minutes. They came out a bit gooey, so I set them back in for 5 minutes. This was baking total of about 16 minutes. Keep checking on your muffins because it may depend on your oven for how long they cook for.

We hope you enjoy them as much as Nick does! :) Again, whole foods has been quite the ticket for us. I am so thankful we came across information about feeding Nick whole foods, and thank you to all those that have encouraged me to do so!

Summer Boredom Busters

A few weeks ago I filmed a quick segment with Rebecca Reginer for her show Full Plate on ABC. I was asked a few months back to go on her show and do a recipe for a company and she asked me to come back on to talk even more topics which I was obviously THRILLED about. She is a fellow boy mom and keeps it real so I love her and also her show! Here is the segment! 

13abc.com: Breaking News, Weather and Sports

Here are the ideas I talked about on the show:

Scavenger Hunts- 

I honestly just googled some and there are a ton. Here is a great link for ZOO scavenger hunts! 

Goodie Drawer- 

I have a drawer in our kitchen FULL of goodies, crayons, coloring books, easy to make cookie mixes! On days where it is a REALLY long day or when it is raining I just grab something new and fun out of the drawer. 

Movie/Pop Corn- 

This is clearly such an easy go to! And thank goodness for Netflix/Amazon Prime for movies galore. I found the cute popcorn containers at Dollar Tree, so we pop our own popcorn and I give them some m&ms and a juice box and we are entertained for a few hours. I mean obviously I am left with a train wreck of popcorn all over the floor but its a good rainy day activity.

Board Games/Books and a blanket-

 Grab your favorite games and books and hit the backyard or hit the park, take some snacks and make a day of it. Your kids will be excited to get out of the house and will enjoy the fun little trip! If you are excited about it, they will be too!! 

Hope you enjoy the segment!! What are some of your go-to activities for summer? Trust me I could use some help, my old bag of tricks gets boring to the boys hahahaa!!