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

Oreo Pudding Cookies

The other day, I was helping *someone* paint his house, along with his mom and dad. Naturally, the conversation turned to food, which ironically tends to happen when words leave my mouth. It's some sort of disease, I think.

We got to talking about baked goodies, and his mom mentioned Oreo Balls. I've heard of them, but don't think I've ever tried them before. In Brittany fashion, I took to Pinterest. Bing bang boom Pinterest explosion. People love these things! So, I wanted to make them, and ship them over from home as a surprise pick-me-up. Well, I realized they probably wouldn't ship well, so I went with the next best things! Oreo Pudding Cookies! I cannot even begin to explain how good these cookies smelled while they were baking! Mmmmm!

The recipe was fairly easy and included all sorts of yummy ingredients. Find it over at The Girl Who Ate Everything. Love her stuff! You will too! (And hopefully so will they-fingers crossed)

Xoxo,
Brittany

Homeward Bound! And some cookies..

I haven't posted anything in a while, I know. I apologize to my maybe 2 loyal followers! This week we are on Spring Break and it has been a long time coming! Much much needed for everyone, including the students. I traveled home to Syracuse for half of the break, to spend time with the family. I just love being home. My brother loves it too, because I bake up a storm while I'm there! Let me tell you, I'm finding how hard it is to provide for a family of 5! And expensive, too! I commend you, mom!

Here's the rundown of what I've made so far while I've been home:

Oreo Pudding Cookies
Peanut Butter Pancakes
Italian Ham Pie
Chinese Chicken Stir Fry

Still on the To Make list:

Lemon Garlic Butter Tilapia
Lasagna with Meat Sauce

That's right. Dad said, "Britt, are you ever not in the kitchen?" "Yep, when I'm at the gym, Dad!"

I'm often asked, "How are you able to make this stuff and not want to stuff your face with it afterwards?" It's honestly not that bad. While I'm cooking, just the act of doing so is good enough for me. While people are enjoying the food that I've made, hearing them say what they thought is good enough for me as well. If I do happen to be the least bit tempted, I snack on fruit. Fruit is amazing. End of story. Literally, ha!

Xoxo,
Brittany

Super Bowl and Super Delicious Dessert!

Tonight, I was tempted to make super duper unhealthy food. I mean foods like, Stromboli, Pizza Dip, Buffalo Chicken Dip, Pizza Rolls, Jalapeño Poppers, Taco Dip, and the list goes on. SO, instead of doing so, I suggested to my roommate that we go OUT for the Super Bowl. Yes, I love to cook, and yes, I'd rather be home watching the game, but I figured we needed to change things up a bit. After all, we are both single and certainly aren't meeting any men sitting home on our couch now are we?! Nope! So, we shlepped out to a local bar that is apparently closing in a few weeks. I had been there once before and actually enjoyed the atmosphere. I'm slightly sad to see it leave the area. We stayed for the first half and then decided we'd head home so that we could finish watching (and hearing) the game, then crash. Unfortunately, we left before we could get dessert. It's Super Bowl, I could not let us end our night without having dessert. So, I asked what everyone's favorite cookie was. Someone chimed in immediately, "Oatmeal Chocolate Chip!" Done and done. I'd never baked these before, but knew I had the ingredients in the pantry hiding away. I searched and pinned a recipe, then got to baking. The cookies came out deeee-lish, and are only 90 calories per cookie! Not too shabby! (I had to halve the recipe because I didn't want the extra cookies lying around the apartment to be gobbled up by the 2 cookie monsters that occupy it). If there are leftovers, they are going into work with both of us tomorrow. No leftovers here, folks!

Go Ravens!

XOXO Brittany

The Road Ahead...

Weekend Getaway..Sort Of

 

Today I went to Barnes & Noble. It's my Sunday routine. I always look forward to the weekend, partially for this reason. First, I start out usually by going to the Loft. Love love love the Loft. Then, I usually head over (across the street) to Bath & Body Works. I tend to head straight over to the 3 wick candles (when they are on sale 2 for $20). Then, I head on over to Corner Bakery, where I pick up a super scrumptious lunch-Asian Wanton Salad (Cafe size). I usually swap or add an order of fruit on the side, to take the place of the breadstick that it comes with. Deeeelish! Then I walk over to my spot. First things first, set my things down, and hop in line at the Starbucks counter inside-Grande Hot Cinnamon Spice Tea coming right up! Ooooh, so good! Especially on those chilly days! I round up a bunch of feel good easy-read magazines to flip through, and slowly indulge! I love the weekends.

 

XoXo,

Brittany

You Can Run, But You Can't Hide

 





The one place you'd expect to be free from the temptation of deliciously unhealthy food, is the gym, right? Well, wrong...tonight. I was going about my workout as usual: 35 minutes of cardio on the elliptical followed by 20-25 minutes of lifting/core. Tonight was abs. I trudged up the stairs to where the mats were, determined to finish early tonight. My tummy was very rumbly, all the while. Hence the push to finish early. Done. Walked downstairs to leave and I smelled something delicious. Hm. Thought I was hallucinating at first-(am I really that hungry?) Turned the corner and lo and behold I wasn't delusional-the French bakery and deli across the street had set up shop in the lobby. I stopped dead in my tracks. Woohoo free food! 1 year ago, I would've loaded up my plate-there were chocolate muffins, pastries, chocolate covered strawberries, danish, sandwiches, and fruit. 1 year ago, I would've piled on the chocolate muffin, pastry, and multiple chocolate covered strawberries. Oh, and a sandwich too. Maybe 2-they're fairly small, I'd tell myself. But tonight, this is what I walked away from that delicious display with...

 

 

I love fruit! It's a win-win :)

 

XoXo,

Brittany

Question of the Day

 

"How do you resist eating this?", is a question I hear often. No, not this lovely Buffalo Chicken Salad pictured above-I mean the terribly tempting food that is provided at staff meetings, etc. Food such as ice cream sundaes (yep, that was at our last staff meeting) cookies, pies, cakes, candy-you name it, we've had it. It's hard, for sure, but my trick is: if I know that there's going to be food that will tempt me, I'll make sure to pack something that I can enjoy at the same time, that equally satisfy (or somewhat equally).

 

At our Special Education staff meeting yesterday, I figured we'd probably order pizza for dinner. I can't tell you the last time I had a slice of pizza. Pizza is my kryptonite. I know that once I bite into a slice, I won't be able to stop. So, I just don't start. Instead of ordering pizza (and in an attempt to save some money) I decided to bring something for dinner that I could enjoy while the rest of the team enjoyed their pizza: enter, Buffalo Chicken Salad. That did the trick! Mmm, good!

 

Ingredients:

Grilled Chicken (1 breast)

3 cups lettuce (spring mix)

1/3 cup (or less) fat free feta cheese

4 cucumber slices

2 tbsp Frank's Red Hot (for dressing)

 

Enjoy!

 

XOXO,

Brittany

Eat This, Not That

 

I love me some Washingtonian Center (commonly referred to as "Rio"-although I'm not quite sure why). It's the first place my roommate, Erin, brought me to when I first moved to Maryland. We decided to eat dinner there Friday night, at Cafe Deluxe. I had a delicious Greek Salad, and Erin enjoyed the Chicken Pot Pie. Mmm! After we finished, Erin said she was craving a cupcake: cue huge happy wide-eyed grin-"Lily Magilly's!" We l.o.v.e Lily Magilly's. Not only are their cupcakes delicious, but the decor inside is absolutely adorable. Did I mention I love it? Yes. So, we walked over, and Erin chose my favorite cupcake, Chocolate Peanut Butter-her regular go-to is Red Velvet. I'd been craving frozen yogurt for the past week, and lo and behold, frozen yogurt was right across the way. Double the good stuff, it's my favorite yogurt place-16 handles. I enjoyed the Peanut Butter Confession-mmm! Curious about the calories? I was too...

 

Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcake: 290 calories (based on Georgetown Cupcake nutritional information)

Peanut Butter Confession: 160 calories (based on 16 handles nutritional information)

 

So, as you can see, a bit of a difference-not much, but enough for me.

 

More to come soon!

 

XoXo,

Brittany

Planning your meals

I'll be the first person to tell you that eating healthy is expensive. It certainly is, but it's worth it, and there are ways to making the most out of what you buy. I'm only one person, obviously, and therefore only have to cook for myself which is less costly. But last week, I spent about $175 on groceries, and $60 this week. Granted, a lot of what I buy is produce-I love love love fruit and most of my meals contain various vegetables. When I go to the grocery store, I make sure to plan accordingly. I plan out my meals for the week, and have a general idea what I'll eating each day, to ensure I'm hitting all of the food groups accordingly. I workout a lot, so my diet is important. I'm not one of those people that can workout and just eat whatever I want. I can look at a candy bar and gain one pound! Here's what my meals for this week looked like:

Chicken Quesadillas
White Bean Pumpkin Turkey Chili
Chinese Chicken Stirfry
Stuffed Peppers
Buffalo chicken Salad
Black Bean Burger w/ side of carrots and homemade tomato basil hummus

Each of these meals are my staples. I alternate them throughout the week so that I don't get bored. I look forward to eating, so I make sure my meals aren't only healthy, but ones I'll look forward to enjoying.

The turkey chili is a dish that I make and freeze. It serves 9-so, I have it for 9 meals. It's a great quick go-to if I'm running late in the morning, or even of I'm getting home late at night and don't feel like cooking. The rest serve 3-4, and keep fresh in airtight containers for up to 5 days. Works perfectly! Easy peasy! Tonight, I'm serving up my buffalo chicken salad-my own concoction-grilled chicken on top of spring mix lettuce, with fat free feta cheese, cucumbers, and Fran's Red Hot as my dressing. I had Chinese Chicken Stirfry for lunch and a protein bar for a late afternoon snack, so the salad will be a perfect way to balance my carb intake.

As you can see, I plan balanced meals that are healthy, filling, and contain protein. Must haves.

Here's my delicious lunch-recipe courtesy of Skinny Confidential, via Eat Yourself Skinny.

Xoxo,
Brittany

Satisfyingly Skinny Chicken Quesadillas

Tonight, I made homemade quesadillas for dinner. This is a weekly staple-something I look forward to. I found these delicious wraps at Wegmans in the Nature's Market section, and they are only 80 calories for a 10" shell, and 19 carbs! Doesn't get much better than that! (Most are around 210 calories, 25 carbs). They taste pretty gosh darn good, too! I'll post my recipe card for this in a bit. Here are some photos to tide you over till then!

XoXo,
Brittany

Streets of Georgetown

Hi there! Today I come to you from lovely Starbucks in Georgetown. Why, you ask? I'll tell you why. Twice, actually let's say 3 times, in the past few months (and more recently days) I've been advised to "hang out" in Georgetown. Now, it doesn't take much to get me to go to Georgetown. Honestly, I love it here. It's gorgeous. The people are gorgeous. The shops are gorgeous. The streets are gorgeous. It's just..gorgeous. I enjoy walking the streets and looking around (mostly window shopping because everything is ridiculously expensive). The only thing that keeps me from frequenting Georgetown more often is the parking/driving situation. I am not good at driving in DC. Not good at all. Even with my GPS, I still get lost. It's quite unfortunate. Anyways, I thought this weekend would be a perfect one to head on down. It's actually quite nice outside today-sunny, and not too cold. My first stop, because I was absolutely starving, was Sweet Green. Unfortunately, I scarfed my salad down before I remembered to take a picture.

What I ordered: Create your own: spring mix, grilled chicken, feta Cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers,

and onions. As for dressing, Balsamic vinegar on the side. *Fit Hint* Always order your dressing on the side. That way, you can monitor how much you actually put on. You probably don't need all that they douse it with. I choose Balsamic vinegar as opposed to any other dressing, because it's the lowest in calories and fat, and I genuinely enjoy the taste. If Balsamic vinegar doesn't cut it for your taste buds, I suggest oil & vinegar (obviously more vinegar than oil), or balsamic/raspberry vinaigrette. Unfortunately, with these options, you still need to beware, as most of them are made in house and contain not so healthy ingredients which ups the calorie and fat content.

At Starbucks (after I ventured into Lulu Lemon, JCrew, and Banana Republic-but didn't purchase anything), I hunkered down at the additional seating available upstairs, with my new purchased mug (I've been eying it since before Christmas, and now it's on sale!) and a cup of coffee (Grande Pike Place Roast with Skim milk and 3 Splenda). This is my go-to order. Just for kicks, let's compare what I *used* to order at Starbucks, to what I order now:

Old Starbucks order: 

Grande Raspberry White Chocolate Mocha (with skim milk and no whip)-400 calories

Current Starbucks order:

Grande Pike Place Roast with Skim milk and 3 Splenda- 20 calories (give or take)

Big change. Big taste change, too, but the drink might as well have been a dessert, and I'd rather eat my dessert than drink it. Oh, did I mention, I'd also add on a raspberry scone to that order-480 calories (snack total-880 calories). Now, I order the fruit cup-90 calories (snack total-120 calories). Mm, yep.

 

Cheers, Starbucks!

XoXo,

Brittany

New Year, New You!

As many of you know, I've been on a roller-coaster fitness ride. About this time last year, I decided so was going to lose weight. I didn't have a limit in mind, I just sort of went with it. There were things that I desperately wanted to be in shape for: 1.) Dance team performances, 2.) My cousin's wedding, 3.) My good friend Liz's wedding, 4.) The dating realm. Yep, the weight needed to go. So, I did the most I thought I could handle. Changes to my eating habits-courtesy of Skinnytaste, and started incorporating physical activity into my daily schedule (dance twice a week for 1 hr). It worked, slowly but surely. I know I could do more, give more, lose more. I became more strict with my diet, No, self, you don't need to eat an appetizer, entree, and have dessert with every dinner. Yes, self, you could workout more. So, I did. See this post for more detail. So as not to completely lose your interest, I'll cut to the results.

Out with the old..in with the new.. (top left-Winter '10, top right-winter '12;bottom left- New Year's '12, bottom right-New Year's '13)