All posts by harkey12

Banana Gluten-Free Pancakes

Recipes, Workouts, , , ,

Yay for a good start to my Saturday! I usually wake up extremely early on Saturdays and roll out of bed to decide if I’m going to go take a Jazzercise class. Today, I didn’t have to make this decision since I’m subbing for my center’s owner this morning at 10:15 AM! And a little history, this class time was originally mine when I first became an instructor, so I’m feeling slightly nostalgic to teach it this morning. 🙂

Anyways, since my 5K is next weekend, I decided to head out about 7:15 to go for a 3.5 mile run. Honestly, I felt TERRIBLE through about the first mile. Usually it takes me about 2 minutes to get in the groove, but not this morning. I was struggling! But I made it through without stopping and actually decreased my time by 1 whole minute. Exciting stuff!

I made it back from my run feeling tired but happy with my time. So I quickly came inside to stretch and cool off because my coffee was a waitin’!

photo(36)I’ve had about 2 of these large cups full of steaming coffee by now, and my caffeine high is pretty high. HA! Guess that’s a good thing for a Saturday morning.

Once my appetite starting kicking in, I decided to whip up some banana pancakes that I had seen a recipe for on Pinterest last night. I changed up the ingredients a bit and they still turned out super tasty!

Caution: The pictures look really terrible through this whole recipe because I’m really bad at making pancakes. But I guarantee if you like eggs and bananas, you will enjoy this easy breakfast!

Banana Gluten-Free Pancakes

Makes 2 servings, or 4 medium-sized pancakes

Ingredients:

  • 2 extra-ripe bananas, mashed
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats
  • 1 ts Vanilla
  • A dash of cinnamon or your favorite seasoning

Heat a skillet to medium-heat and spray it with a non-stick spray. I use Pam Olive Oil spray.

photo(37)Once your bananas are well mushed, mix in the eggs. Beat the mixture well to thoroughly combine.

photo(35)Then add in the oats, vanilla, and cinnamon. The mixture will be pretty soupy and runny!

Once your skillet is very hot, pour out 1-2 medium sized pancakes. This is where the pictures go down hill. Lesson learned: My skillet wasn’t hot enough so the batter ran everywhere!

photo(34)I fail, but as it got hotter, I kinda reshaped the pancakes to salvage the first batch.

photo(33)Slightly better, no? Well regardless, they still tasted great! I topped mine with apple butter while they were still hot.

photo(32)Nick had the other half of the recipe with maple syrup. So feel free to experiment with your toppings! I still think the yummy apple butter wins though.

Nom nom nom
Nom nom nom

This was a great, filling breakfast! I ate every bite off my plate. And with my apple butter included, it had just over 300 calories and 15 grams of protein. A great meal between my workouts today!

I hope you all have a great Saturday! I’m heading off to Jazzercise soon. Then I’ll be spending some time with Nick and Mac for the rest of the day. Yay for having no special plans!

Enjoy your weekend 🙂

 

Creamy Chicken & Rice Crock Pot Recipe

Food for Thought, Recipes

Returning home after work today and having my house smell like heaven was quite a little treat! I like cooking on my weekend evenings, but Friday nights are sometimes a struggle. I want home-cooked food, but I’ve been at work all day and have most likely forgotten to even defrost anything, let alone prepare something awesome for dinner. This is where my handy-dandy Crock Pot comes into play!

Nick bought me my first Crock Pot a little over a year ago, and I have used it about once a week ever since. I love it! ‘Set it and forget it’ cooking is my specialty 🙂

During my lunch hour at home today, I threw together our dinner in about 5 minutes. It may be hot outside still, but this dish is all about warmth and yummy comfort food. My fave!

Creamy Chicken & Rice Crock Pot Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 4-5 large chicken breasts (mine were still frozen)
  • 2 cans Cream of Chicken soup, low-sodium
  • 2 cups of water
  • 2 cups Baby Carrots
  • 3 celery stalks, cup into chunks (not diced)
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
  • 2 ts Paprika
  • 1/2 TB minced garlic
  • 2 ts Garlic salt
  • Black pepper, to taste
  • A dash of dill weed
  • 1 cup instant Brown Rice

Turn your Crock Pot onto high. Place the chicken breasts into the bottom of the crock. In a separate bowl, mix up all the other ingredients, except for the rice, to create a chunky, creamy sauce. Pour this over the chicken in the crock. Cover and leave to cook on high 4-6 hours. The chicken will become more tender the longer you let it cook!

photo(30)When I got home from work today, I shredded up the tender chicken with 2 forks and stirred in the brown rice. Note: Use 1/2 cup more rice if you would like a thicker consistency. Recover the crock, leave it on high, and let it cook for about 1 more hour. Once the rice is nice and soft (and has soaked up a lot of the liquid), dinner is ready to be served!

YUMM!
YUMM!

This recipe came out to the consistency of a thick and hearty stew. Nick immediately said it reminded him of chicken pot pie. He was right! It is exactly like chicken pot pie without the crust. It was delicious and filling. We both had to have seconds tonight!

Since my lunch was completely carb filled (you’ll see below!), I opted to eat mine with extra veggies – green beans to be exact.

Green beans are hiding!
Green beans are hiding!

Nick would rather have his chest hair plucked than eat green beans, so he just ate his on it’s own. He completely loved it!

No beans here!
No beans here!

I think this will definitely be a go-to recipe for this Fall and Winter. It was a bowl full of comfort food at its best! And even better, we have enough leftovers for a few more bowlfuls. Yay for quick and easy leftover meals!

Since we both had several bowls of this hearty meal, we were in complete food-comas. So we leashed up Mac for a nice evening walk. Nick was totally game with the nicer weather we’ve been having. It’s so nice to go out for a little family walk! Plus it definitely helped my bulging food baby digest a bit. 🙂

Lunch

Backing up a bit…Lunch was rushed and all over the place since I was trying to decide what dinner would be tonight and walk Mac at the same time. I was STARVING when I walked in the door, so I won’t lie…I definitely overate at lunch today! I started with a Whole wheat Bagelthin topped in a mixture of cottage cheese and mango salsa. This mixture is completely savory and delicious!

photo(44)I lightly toasted the bagel first, making this extra yummy! I then moved on to graze around the kitchen as I was putting our dinner together in the crock pot. Other food included (but is not pictured!) some Wheat Thins and cheese – which I am now regretting! – some leftover pasta with marinara, and some more carbs (ahem…more whole wheat bread…) with strawberry jelly. I think I was just needing some carbs today after my morning workout! I only wanted bread and crackers, so I indulged. Oh well, a splurge once in a while is a good thing, right?? Let’s hope so 🙂

Luckily, I think I was in need of the nourishment. Usually this meal would’ve left me sick and feeling tooooo full. But I felt like I had barely eaten anything by the time I arrived back at work today. Just call me the real life Bottomless Pit!

So it’s been a food-filled Friday! Hope it’s been a good one for you all. Tomorrow will hopefully start out with a good run and then I’m teaching a 10 AM Jazzercise class. Have a great night!

Return of the Pleasant Evening Walk

Daily Life!, Food for Thought, Workouts, , ,

Mac gets at least a short walk 1-2 times a day, regardless of the weather. It’s been a sweaty summer so many of these walks have been super unpleasant and resulted in a stinky mommy. But it’s necessary for him because we don’t have a nice, fenced yard for him to run around in during the day. I’m happy to report that some pleasant weather has finally returned to SW MO this week, and we can finally enjoy our walks again! Mac is especially excited…

photo(42) photo(41)photo(38)Yes, it’s still warm, but the humidity is slim to none, making it feel amazing outside in comparison to the rest of the summer months. I’m excited to finally look forward to our time together outside again. And hopefully this means that Nick will finally be joining us for some evenin’ walkin’ in the near future. If Nick has to choose between sitting on the couch watching TV or going walking in hot and sticky 100 degree weather, the couch always wins. Smart guy, right?

Cute little street we always walk down. So quaint!
Cute little street we always walk down. So quaint!

The forecast for the next 7 days is still in the 90’s each day, but low humidity is also in the forecast. So I’m okay with it 🙂  We’ve gotta soak up some daylight while we can during the next few weeks before the time changes. It’s so depressing when the sun is setting, and I’m still just driving home from work for the day! Then our long, pleasant evening walks will turn into dark and cold mini-walks around the block. I cannot complain though; my love of Fall will keep me happy with or without some sunny outdoor time!

Pretty!
Pretty!

Workout

This morning I woke up bright and early to make it to the gym for a solid hour before my busy day had to begin.

I was feeling pretty spry and lively when I arrived, so I hopped on the treadmill for a 30-minute interval workout consisting of walking, jogging, and sprinting. I love counting down the minutes during an interval workout as opposed to a certain distance. It always makes the time and miles go by so much faster. My 30-min. interval brought me to around 2.9 miles, and I was sweatin’ like a piggy!

I then completed some upper torso work, mostly focusing on my shoulders, chest and biceps with a circuit very similar to what I completed on Wednesday. I’m always a creature of habit, so I’m hoping this weekend Nick and I can go to the gym together so I can change up my routine with some free weight exercises. (I hate that part of the gym unless he is with me!) I finished off my workout with some light cardio on the Elliptical for about 15 minutes before heading home.

Breakfast

Can you guess what my breakfast was today??!! You got it: hot oatmeal with blueberries! I’m still loving it 🙂 And I had some Greek yogurt for extra staying power on the side.

photo(37)And now I’m off to finish up this workday and figure out what we’ll be having for dinner. I’m in the mood to cook and it’s Friday, so this usually leads to me becoming a little creative with our evening meal since I have the extra time. We’ll see what I can come up with!

Hope you’re Friday is going great! We can at least be happy that the weekend is here again!