My New Favorite Cookie!

So, I've been in search for a cookie that resembles the delicious Chocolate Chunk cookies at Zebb's. If you haven't yet tried these delicious things, please do yourself a favor and hop to it!

After scouring Pinterest and the Internet and coming up empty handed, I decided to search an average chocolate chip walnut cookie, and modify it to Fit my expectations: enter, most delicious cookie ever! No modifications necessary!

I *might* do chocolate chunks next time, and try using dark brown sugar instead of light. We'll see what the taste testers think!

Skinnified Snickers Sundae

Okay, needless to say, I felt a tad bit guilty after completely indulging in that delicious sundae. Why, you ask? Because not only did I finish of mine (and lick the bowl clean), but I also polished off my day's title pecan sundae. SO good!

So, in an attempt to feed a craving while back in Maryland, a special visitor and I scoured the aisles at Target to see what skinny version we could come up with.

We found some wonderful items!

1. Edy's slow churned ice cream (lower in fat and calories than several other brands)
2. Unjunked candy-Snickers and Reese's
3. Special K brownie and blondie bites
4. Breyer's hot fudge
5. Better n peanut butter
6.Fluff
7. Redi whip

First, we chopped up our toppings, candy then heated up the toppings. Sprinkle and pour, and we were in business!

Seriously, it came quite close to the taste of the previous sundae, and with a significant amount less calories and fat!

Try it sometime!

Xoxo,
Britt

National Ice Cream Month

Happy National Ice Cream month! Unbeknownst to me, that's what July is! Coincidentally enough, this month so marks a bit of a milestone for me. The first weekend in July, upon an unscheduled visit home, is the first time in about a year that I allowed myself to completely indulge. Oh boy, did I go all out! Dad suggested we go out for ice cream, and I couldn't resist! I made up my own delicious sundae, consisting of a scoop of fat free frozen yogurt, snickers, marshmallow, peanut butter, hot fudge (hate the syrup stuff), and a dollop of whipped cream. Mmm, delicious!

I instantly fell in love with the boy at the counter when he presented me with this delectable masterpiece!

Oops, forgot! He topped it with a cherry too! Mmm, good!

Xoxo,
Britt

There's No Place Like Home

I have been traveling home more recently lately, despite the fact that I really don't have the funds to support my doing so. But, I can't help it, I miss home. I would really make the trip more often, if I weren't so terrible at driving long distances. The 6 hour drive may seem trivial to some, but it can be tough if I go about it without my many supports!

I have a routine that I follow when I travel home:

1. Pack the car-make sure to include enough pre-made meals to last me at least half of the time that I'm there. (I.e. stirfry and chili). Load up on Special K, protein bars, fresh fruit, and almonds.

2. Hit the road! Eeeerrrrrr. Screeching halt. Stop off at Starbucks, pronto. Might as well fill up the tank while I'm at it.

3. Resume trip. Try super hard not to suck down Starbucks so that I can make it the 2 hours til my next stopping point.

4. Fewf-made it! Sheetz! My favorite gas station. If I didn't stop for gas before, I'll fill up here. Probably finished coffee by now, grab a small one for the remainder if the trip. Hit up the fresh fruit bowl and protein/energy bars.

5. Back at it. 2 hours to go til Wegmans in Willes-Barre. Here! Hop out, dilly dally a bit, head to the salad bar and make a big spring mix salad with all the fix-ins: red and green peppers, cucs, red onion, feta cheese, and a generous helping of grilled chix. Done. Toss with balsamic vinegar.

6. 2 more hours to go. Homeward bound! Stick it out and don't stop until I'm there!

7. Made it! Run into the house and scream: "hello?! I'm home!" Cue the big smile on my face.

There's really no place like home.

Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Tonight, I decided to forego the gym, because I was just way too tired to go. Instead, I decided to get to work on baking for our team meeting tomorrow. Every few weeks, we have a team breakfast. It's our way of celebrating the birthdays of the month, and it gives us something nice to look forward to! Many of our breakfasts have consisted of a potato dish/casserole, egg dish, fixins for yogurt parfaits, bagels with various cream cheeses, croissants with Nutella, and sometimes fruit. What do I reach for? The fruit. I make sure that I come prepared to our staff breakfasts with a full belly. Now, you might be wondering what I bring to the table (ha, literally) when it's my turn to contribute. Well, this week it's my turn and I'm bringing Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins. They tasted best fresh out of the oven, still warm. They were fairly easy to bake and all of the ingredients came together rather quickly. The recipe called for regular peanut butter, but I really don't mind the taste of Reduced Fat, so I used a mixture of both (1/2 regular, 1/2 reduced fat). Not too shabby! You can find the recipe over at Emily's Bites. She includes WW points and nutrition facts, which is just fabulous when you're attempting to be nutritionally conscious.

XoXo
Brittany

Morning Workout

This morning, I decided I was going to attempt to throw myself for a real loop and trade my afternoon workout for a morning one. I'm there now, so, we'll see how I do, I suppose!

I've always wondered how people do it, especially those with kids. How on earth do they fit everything in? Maybe this os one of the ways. After all, I'm always wishing that u have more time to myself in the afternoon to finish work I've taken home, or to cook, clean, etc. Unfortunately, by having my workout in the afternoon, that takes up a good 2.5 hours between the workout itself and drive time.

Drive time, that's a whole other story. It takes me a half hour to get to the gym on a good day. Then if there's traffic, forget about it! When I'm home in Syracuse, I love it, because the gym is literally down the street. Queen of cramming too many things into a small amount of time, so decreasing my drive time is very beneficial to my already jam-packed schedule.

That being said, the workout I'm doing today is:

Morning:

35 minutes on the elliptical
7 Crossramp, 9 Resistance
400 calories, 3.42 miles

Afternoon: (abs and arms)

3 sets of 50 crunches
3 sets of 20 air bicycles
3 sets of 20 bent-knee hip raisers
3 sets of 12 side lateral raises
3 sets of 12 front dumbbell raises

It's very important to pair weights with cardio. When I first started working out, I was unaware of this. Was easily the queen of cardio, sometimes working out twice a day, but it wasn't coming off the way it should have been. Enter Kelsey Beyers' blog. The routines I do come primarily from her recommendations with a few personal tweaks.

Xoxo,
Britt

Sticking to Skinny During Lent

Well, yesterday was Easter! You might say this post is quite overdue being that I'm primarily going to write about how I stuck to eating "skinny" during Lent. Probably would've helped, oh, 40 days ago-but who's counting, right?!

Let's get to it. This was the first Lent that I was actually full fledged eating healthy I had started slowly last Novemver, but wasn't nearly as strict on myself as I am now. Let me you first, I'm not a fan of seafood. Naturally, my go-to Lenten meals consisted of grilled cheese, pizza, mozzarella sticks, and macaroni and cheese. Clearly, I would be needing to find a better substitute for seafood on Fridays. After wracking my brain, I settled on Sushi. I went with the most mild option: California Roll (crab and veggies). I opt for the brown rice instead of the white rice for an added healthy bonus. Now, I'm sure you're thinking to yourself, "Britt, that's seafood." It is, but it's tolerable-with one additional condiment that is: enter, Frank's Red Hot. Zero calories, tastes delish! Many opt for soy sauce with their sushi, and if you choose to do so, I recommend the light soy sauce (green bottle).

1 pack of 8 rolls fills me up, and is only 180 calories for the entire thing! Bring it on! (I choose to go to Wegmans for my sushi-they have it pre-packaged with the calorie count right on the outside of the package.) If you are more of a "fresh is better" sushi person, Wegmans will make it happen.

Try it, you might like it!

Xoxo,
Brittany