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Clean Peanut Butter Banana Cups
What’s a girl to do when her clean cooking partner-in-crime is 200 miles away?
Skype, of course.
Chelsea & I love new healthy recipes. (**By the way, she launched her own blog! —–> seasunseasmiles.wordpress.com**) Being in different cities calls for creativity. We “baked” together via Skype and the result was these unbelievably-delicious-not-to-mention-super-clean cups.
With our laptops in the kitchen, we threw together coconut oil, cacao powder, peanut/almond butter, bananas, honey and a little bit of salt. The recipe was inspired by The Whole Pantry app. If you use cupcake wrappers or mini candy wrappers, they come out looking like a perfect peanut butter cup with rippled edges and everything :)
Chelsea’s batch came out significantly better than mine because I decided to add Greek Yogurt, which seriously disturbed the texture. I threw the batch out and made another. 50x better.
Peanut butter and coconut oil are clean, yes, but also very calorie-dense.I decided to add a fat slice of banana to the middle to make each cup more substantial without adding another 100+ more calories.
The Recipe:
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder or cacao powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 Tbs honey or pure maple syrup
- 1 Tbs Stevia
- 2 Tbs peanut butter, almond butter, or any nut butter of your choice
- banana, sliced
- cupcake or candy wrappers
1.) Mix the coconut oil, cocoa, salt, honey and stevia together.
2.) Spoon 1/2 tablespoon of chocolate into each wrapper (makes 4) and freeze for 5 minutes.
3.) Spoon 1 tsp peanut butter onto the chocolate. Top with a slice of banana and add another spoonful of chocolate mixture.
4.) Allow to completely freeze, about 30 minutes.
There’s your clean dessert! A perfect serving-size indulgence free of any chemicals, preservatives, additives and processed sugars.
I’m eating one for dessert right now while I catch up on Grey’s Anatomy :) Sound like a low-key Friday night? Well that’s because I’M RACING A 5k TOMORROW MORNING!
My first “race” since the marathon. It’s just a local road race put on by my school’s ROTC but I’m excited do something competitive again and see what kind of shape I’m in. Plus I really want to see how many army boys I can outrun ;)
Lists on Lists // De-stressors
I am officially enrolled in classes for the first semester of my senior year of college. It honestly feels like only a year ago I was a senior in high school, giddy about the possibility of running cross country in college, and lining up official visits with coaches. And here we are, the aftermath of my decision.
This morning I sipped my coffee and ate a Quest bar after my 6:00am workout at the rec center while making my typical to-do list/meal plan for the day. (I do this in Excel & I have way too much fun with colors and fonts.) My life practically relies on my day planner and schedules. For example, exhibit A:
This is just a sample, and my real to-do list is about 15x longer. Group projects are my life right now. The never-ending schedule has started crowding into my all-important 8 hours of sleep. It started to stress me out. What did I do? Made a list of stress-busters. Naturally.
Kenzie’s List of Healthy Habits to Adopt for Eliminating (or at least reducing) Stress:
***First let me preface by saying that I am no model for a stress-free lifestyle. I sincerely am adopting these habits for myself during this last month of the semester***
- Unplug at night. Read a book (like my new Sports Marketing textbook, Skinny Confidential’s Lifestyle Guide, or the The Maze Runner!)
- Sip a cup of green tea daily.
- Keep a journal *see below*
- Take two yoga classes each week (Monday/Thursday)
- Take a 10 minute walk in the middle of long study sessions
- Plan one “cheat” meal a week (for my sanity!)
Starting at the top of the list.
I have realized that its habit to check Facebook/Pinterest/Gmail/Bloglovin/Hulu when I’m “winding down” for bed. Which does the exact opposite. . . Not like there’s anything useful on these sites after 9pm anyways. Social media takes over enough of our lives during the day. Cue a real live bed time story :)
I added “keep a journal” specifically because of this Carpe Diem Journal my friend Emily bought for my 21st birthday. I haven’t touched it yet. Only because I wanted to save it for something substantial. I consider blogging a form of journalism, but it is highly-filtered because I keep 85% of my life private. This particular journal is “goal” themed and you know I’m all about those. So I am making it a point to write a couple times a week for myself. It should be fun to look back on and see which of my goals I actually accomplished. :)
Then there’s those yoga classes. . .
I hate yoga. I am impressed with anyone who can sit peacefully for an hour and not feel extremely antsy. When I’m in the gym, I’m there to push myself, work hard, SWEAT. And you’re telling me to just sit here and breathe?? Isn’t that an automatic bodily function . . .?
You’re saying “inhale // exhale” but I’m thinking “if I do laundry tonight, I can wear those cute jeans tomorrow.”
A restless brain like mine could seriously benefit from a forced-relaxation session. Or 30. I’m not going to like it, but I will try. :)
Lastly: cheat meals.
Clean eating is a wonderful challenge. But as with anything that’s 100% extreme, deprivation can make you go loonie. The fact that my roomies keep ice cream stocked in our freezer. . . or the fact that the girl next to me brings heavenly toasted bagels to class. . . or the fact that the chocolate-covered pretzels call to me every time I walk through Sprout’s. . . are out of my control. But they seriously test my will power.
I don’t want to deprive myself, because that’s not healthy either. So planning a “cheat” meal once a week is just enough to avoid a case of the grumpy-gretchen’s. BUT not dangerous enough to undo the whole week’s worth of work-outs. Limiting it to a “meal” and not a “day” keeps it in control. This might also be an excuse to pop open a bottle of my birthday wine that’s been decorating my counter-top for far too long ;)
So that’s the game plan for a happy end-of-semester. Plus it’s 8:54pm so I technically have to log off in 6 minutes! ;) I would love some of your best stress-reducing tips though.
Goodnight Friends!
A Date with Mr. Warren Buffett
Okay, not a “date” exactly….
Rewind a bit.
Coming off of spring break was no joke. Exams, travel, freak snow-storm, 6am workouts, lunch with Warren Buffett. No big. Wait whaaaaat?
Last semester, I applied for a trip to Omaha, Nebraska through my university’s college of business. Our school was one of the few selected by Warren Buffett to travel to Omaha, tour three of his Berkshire Hathaway companies, attend a Q & A session with Warren himself, followed by lunch with Mr. Buffett at a local Omaha restaurant. For a business student, it was the opportunity of a lifetime. And after an application, essay, and interview process…I was one of the 20 students selected to go. :)
(If you don’t know who Warren Buffett is, don’t worry. I didn’t either until my first semester in the business college. Mr. Buffett is a self-made billionaire/legendary investor/genius businessman. Berkshire Hathaway’s subsidiary companies include Dairy Queen, Geico, Pampered Chef, Heinz, See’s Candies, and Oriental Trading Company.)
Last Thursday was a travel day, and Omaha greeted us with grey dreary skies. We explored downtown Omaha & ate dinner at a local brewery.
**Eating clean on this trip was a struggle. I knew I’d have to pack some of my own snacks so I came prepared with apples, bananas, almonds, walnuts, quest bars and oatmeal. But dinners with the group would probably require some sacrifices**
Coming into the trip, I didn’t know any of my peers. We might have had a class together, but for the most part we were strangers. Our first night was free to explore downtown Omaha and the Old Marketplace. I found a mostly healthy menu item: Raspberry chicken with feta & pine nuts, vegetables and wild rice.
Friday was the big day! We dressed business professional and I felt like newscaster in my three-quarter sleeve blazer and high-waisted pencil skirt. We were instructed to dress “conservatively” which in my mind equates to “frumpy.” There are SO many adorable options for dressing professionally and feminine, but I guess I’ll be saving those for my big-time sports marketing days.
I am so grateful to have been selected to attend this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Mr. Buffett answered our questions for two and a half hours before treating us to lunch at a local restaurant. Afterwards we toured the Oriental Trading Company’s fulfillment plant and talked to the CEO (who did an episode of Undercover Boss!).
I most enjoyed what Mr. Buffett had to say about passion. He is 83 years old, perfectly capable of having a more-than-comfortable retirement. Yet he continues to come to work everyday because it brings him joy. He loves what he does! I want that. I came home from the trip more excited than ever to kick-start my own career (starting with an impulse buy of sports marketing textbooks….never thought I’d be spending my “fun money” on textbooks!).
I will say though…this trip really threw off my schedule. Waking up extra early, no gym time, little physical activity, relying on restaurants for meals, skipping normal snack times. Because I’m following the LiveFit training program and clean-eating nutrition plan, this was alittle quite stressful. It’s only three days, but I like my routine! Straying from my workout schedule and diet plan brings me such anxiety and I realize it’s absolutely ridiculous. I should be focusing on the amazing opportunity I am presented with instead of how I’m going to burn off the extra cheese and rice I had with dinner. It’s something I continue to work on.
Time for this girl to crawl in bed. My alarm is set for 5:02am. Early riser = early bedtime! I do love my morning workouts. The gym is wonderfully empty and sometimes they even play country music. Goodnight Friends <3
