Are Your "Healthy" Drinks Making You Fat?

 

The 'health & wellness" industry is booming. People worldwide are spending billions of dollars on energy drinks, supplements, health programs, and "all natural" products that claim to make us slimmer, healthier, happier, and well..just better... And who doesn't want to be better? So we buy it..

 

For that reason many companies are on the bandwagon to sell us "healthy drinks" that are great choices for everyday living- TREAD LIGHTLY HERE... Not all of these brands are healthful. Just because a label says "all natural" or "made from real fruit" does not mean it is low calories or fat. These drinks can quickly pack on the pounds faster than a starving model at a Pillsbury Bake Off competition.

 

Take a look at some offenders..Are you drinking any of these??

 Keep in mind that your drinks should not have calories or sugar-

 

Remember that the American Heart Association recommends only 24 grams of sugar A DAY.

 

Bolthouse Drinks

 

 

 

Mango Coconut Splash has 120 calories and 13 g sugar

Daily Greens has 180 calories and 19 g sugar

Berry Boost Smoothie has 260 calories and 28g sugar

 

Naked Drinks

 

 

Berry Blast has 240calories and 52 g of sugar  52!!!! That's the sugar content of 2 Snickers bars!!!

 

 

 

Acai Machine has 320 calories and 48 g of sugar

 

Vitamin Water

 

 

 

Various flavors including power-c, energy, focus all of which have 120 cal, 32g sugar

Better Option: Vitamin water does have a line called vitamin water zero- with zero cals/sugar. Please watch your labels!

 Dunkin Donuts

Medium Frozen Coffee Coolata with milk has 420 cal, 77g sugar
Medium Frozen Caramel Coolata with cream has 800 calories and 98g of sugar
          That's the sugar equivalent of three cups of chocolate ice cream!
 

Better Option: Dunkin Donuts does have a DDSmart label on healthier options such as an iced coffee with cream (70 calories and 0 g of sugar)

 



Happy St Patricks Day- Irish Potatoes Makeover!

St Patrick's Day is a big day in our house. It is probably our favorite holiday next to Christmas. A favorite treat on this holiday is Irish Potatoes. Have you had them? Sweet creamy coconut goodness all wrapped up in a cinnamon sugar coating….sigh…Anyway- they are absolutely delish- but they are also gigantic calorie bombs. Having one is no biggie you tell yourself- but next thing you know 30 minutes of the Real Housewives of Atlanta is finished and so is the box of Irish potatoes. Damn. 

So what's a girl to do? Remake it.

Here is my version of Irish Potatoes without the guilt. 

P.S. this was my cooking helper on this snowy day..

Irish Potatoes

Ingredients:

3 scoops Vanilla Protein Powder ( I use muscle milk but use whatever you have)

1/4 c philadelphia whipped cream cheese

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp splenda

1/4 - 1/2 c shredded coconut depending on how much you want

1/4 - 1/2 c almond milk ( or skim milk)

A couple tablespoons of cinnamon ( just coat the bottom of a small plate/bowl)

Mix first 5 ingredients in a small bowl. Add your milk in gradually to form a soft dough consistency. This varied for me from 1/4-1/2 c depending on the batch. You don't want it dry but also not wet- make sense :)??

Looks like this

Form dough into small balls, drop into the cinnamon and coat. Makes about 14 pieces. 

Nutritional info

(Per 2 pieces)

                Theirs:                           Mine:

Calories-   100                                  110

Sugar-       22 grams                          3 grams

Carbs        22 grams                          4.8 grams

Protein-     0                                       9 grams

More room for green beer!! Cheers!

Protein Pancakes

Traditional pancakes suck. There it is. They are calorie/carb bombs that do nothing to get you closer to your fitness goals. Not to mention- they're usually boring. That being said- "healthy" pancake mixes can vary greatly from tasting like chalk to more like dirt.  In my experience, making pancakes out of whole wheat flour is always a bad idea so stay away from it. 

I've made many health pancake recipes and reached high and low for a delicious tasting but healthy option and I've finally found it. The original recipe was posted by Mama Laughlin who I adore. I altered it to make a few different flavors to prevent boredom. 

Basic Recipe

Ingredients:

-1 cup oats 
-1/2 Tsp vanilla
-1 ripe banana

-2 whole eggs (or 4 egg whites)
-dash of Cinnamon
-1 scoop Chocolate Protein Powder (you can use any kind of protein powder you have, I use muscle milk, mama laughlin uses Dymatize)
-a splash of unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Take 1 cup of oats, scoop of protein powder, and cinnamon and put them in the food processor until it forms a fine powder. 

In a separate bowl mash the banana and add in eggs and vanilla. 

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix. Add in almond milk until it is makes a pancake batter mixture that you prefer. Looks like so..

Cook it up as usual..this part is mind-blowing I know..

So that's the basic recipe- and YUM YUM it is…

Here are the variations I did. 

Vanilla Parfait Pancakes

   Sub chocolate protein powder for vanilla, add a dash of nutmeg to the cinnamon. Mix in blueberries, strawberries, and/or raspberries. 

Choc PB Pancakes

   Add in a Tbsp of natural PB

Pumpkin Pie Pancakes

   Sub vanilla powder for chocolate. Use only half of the banana called for in the original recipe. Add in a 1/4 c pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice ( if you don't have it on hand add cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove)

Time Saver- Make multiple batches of the dry ingredients and ziplock bag them individually -BAM you have pre-made pancake mix. AND DONE..Enjoy!

Sunday Funday Breakfast & A New Favorite Find

So everyone pretty much knows that Sunday Funday is a tradition in our household. Regardless of whether it is bulking season (Adam-not me) or slim down time (me- not Adam)- Sunday requires a traditional breakfast of eggs, some sort of meat, and a carb. Our fav is eggs, scrapple, and pancakes but we do many variations of this. HOWEVER, just because we are indulging we still keep it on the straight and narrow as best we can. 

This is not your grandma's breakfast that was cooked with bacon fat that sat in the crock next to the stove..am I the only one who's grandma did that?? How we didn't have heart attacks at age 9 I'm just not sure. 

For example, here is a list of "you will never find this in our fridge" breakfast items…

- full fat cream cheese
- prepackaged pancake /waffle  mix
- pork bacon
- salted butter
- white bread
- whole milk
- cooking fat
- and the latest is pork scrapple..more about this in a minute

So you're probably reading that list and saying.."well I'm sure your breakfast tastes like ass"..Well in fact nope. It's yum-licious if I say so myself. So what are the best choices?
Well there are just better choices when it comes to having a traditional breakfast and you have to be ok with that. There is no fat free traditional breakfast but there is a slimmed down version. 

Here is goes..

Eggs- 
   Usually I just scramble mine, nothing fancy here. You can sub egg whites for a better option but it's my eggs and I like the yolk. If you make a omelet you can add some skim or almond milk but leave out the heavy milk/cream/full fat cheese.

Meats- 
   Turkey bacon - you have to play around with the brands to find which ones get crispier vs not and which ones are backstabbers and have more sodium than the pork version- read your labels. 

   Turkey scrapple- YUP I SAID IT- turkey scrapple! Oh Be Still My Heart…and let me tell you- uncurl your nose because you seriously can't tell the difference between it and it's original counterpart. FA-REAL- no lies. Same flavor, gets just as crispy, just as delicious..I even tried it out on my in laws over Christmas and they had NO IDEA. And these people are serious about their breakfast meats. 
So far, I only know that Rapa makes the turkey version- other brands may make it I just haven't seen it. I bought mine at Safeway but I'm sure it is in most stores. 

Original - 120calories/ 8 grams of fat
Turkey- 80 calories/ 4 grams of fat
Get yourself some!

   Pork Roll- don't judge me. It's apparently a Pennsylvania thing ( or a NJ thing? ) not sure- Adam introduced it to me and I'll say- it is NOT a healthy option but it is quite tasty so it's a rare treat sometimes. They do not currently make a turkey roll so we stick with it :)

Carbs-
   Whole wheat toast-  sub whipped cream cheese for the full fat version and save 50 cal and 4.5g of fat.    Better yet top it with natural pb for added protein.
   Potato shreds with onions, peppers, and seasonings
   Pancakes- never out of a box- I will be posting about my favorite pancakes soon…
   Vanilla Protein Banana Bread - posting about this soon as well ( dang I've got some work to do)

That's just how we do it in our house- there are obviously a million variations, recipes, etc…like a turkey scrapple sammich :)

Help A Lady Out!

So as I navigate through this new adventure of blogging I am learning a ton of new things and going outside of my comfort zone on a daily basis. I never thought that I would be the type of person to share things publicly but I just love being able to help people make small changes in their life to be healthier. As many of you who have read my blog know- I am not making groundbreaking revelations here. If you are a fitness guru you might even think this blog is a bit elementary…but that is exactly what I want it to be. I am targeting the average person here. The person who was raised on whole milk, white bread, and cream of whatever soup. The person who has been making the same recipes/food their entire life but may not be aware of just how unhealthy they are. The person who knows they want to make change but has absolutely NO IDEA where to start.
We sometimes take it for granted that everyone knows the things that are "basic" to us- but those are the things that are revolutionary to someone else in this world.

And that's where I come in and say that although I have a blog- I have no idea how to professionally do it. I am learning as I go, doing a lot of googling, and spending a lot of time at my computer screen with a "wtf" look on my face. I mean, what is a RSS feed? No idea until a few weeks ago..Now I know. The next step in advancing this blog (and myself) is to learn how to take more professional appearing photos for the blog. I am looking for some advice from you all - I know someone has to have some insight!!! Help please! I am looking to mostly just take close up shots of the recipes I make/products I try. I see beautiful photos on other blogs where the focal point is crystal clear and everything in the background is a bit blurred but the colors are great and the tone is soft. I have been researching for days about apertures (sp?), shutters, ISO's and I am utterly confused. I played around with my camera today for about an hour and still can't get it right.

Does anyone have experience with this? Help a desperate lady out!!
Thanks- B