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2 Years Strong!
We have a big bad birthday celebration in the house…..
Strong Like My Coffee turns 2 years old today.
My blog is a toddler!
Despite what you’ve heard about those Terrible Two’s I think exciting things are in store ;)
Anniversary…Birthday…whatever you want to call it….we need a cake! Because, I say so. (Who made the rules?!)
Last year, SLMC’s first birthday brought you this “healthified” Raspberry Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake. In keeping with my coffee cake theme, I searched for something equally cute. I adapted Chocolate Covered Katies “1 minute coffee cake in a mug” with a recipe down below :)
The blog statistics:
- In the past 365 days….
- 77 blog posts
- 278 pictures
- 14,562 cups of coffee
Stats on this recipe:
- Healthy (low-sugar, low-fat, portion controlled)
- Convenient (microwavable!)
- Quick (5 min. tops)
- Adorable (it’s a cake in a mug, c’mon!)
- Coffee-themed (how appropriate.)
And that is as statistical as it gets around here :)
The Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake in a Mug Recipe:
(Serves One)
- Combine the following:
- 3 Tbs. flour of choice
- 1 Tbs. water
- 1 Tbs. coffee
- 2 tsp. unsweetened applesauce
- 1 Tbs. Stevia (or sugar)
- tiny pinch of salt
- pinch of cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. vanilla
- 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- Spoon 2/3 of the mixture into a mug (I recommend lightly spraying with cooking oil first.)
- Combine the following in a separate dish:
- 1/2 Tbs. cinnamon
- 1 Tbs. brown sugar (or stevia)
- 1 Tbs. pecan pieces
- 1 Tsp. applesauce
- Spoon half of the cinnamon mixture over cake mixture.
- Add remaining layer of cake batter.
- Add remaining layer of cinnamon.
- Microwave for 1 minute 15 seconds. Increase by 10 seconds if needed.
Bring on a brand new year of coffee, celebrations, cake, hanging out on New York rooftops and many more mornings of blogging :)
***Cheers!***
And if you are on Instagram, I just joined your world. You can follow along @stronglikemycoffee if you’re into that sorta thing :) I’m looking for good fitspo accounts to follow too!
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 ;)
Meal Prepping // Clean Eating
Guess what DAY it is?!
………….
Meal Prep Day!
Not really, Meal Prep Day was actually Sunday. But today we get to talk about it. :)
When I began Jamie Eason’s LiveFit Program, I committed to the nutrition plan which is 100% clean eating. This means 12 weeks of egg white omelettes, lean protein and greens, whey protein shakes, and lots of veggies & fruits. In an effort to ease my hectic school week and stay on track with my diet, I took 4 hours on Sunday to make a week’s worth of clean lunches and dinners. My own little lean cuisines ;)
ON THE MENU:
- Baked seasoned white meat chicken
- Baked Sweet Potatoes
- Brown Rice
- Steamed Broccoli and Green Beans
- Sauteed zucchini & bell peppers
- Chopped spinach, tomatoes and bell peppers (for omelettes)
- Jamie Eason’s Turkey Meatballs
- Jamie Eason’s Cinnamon Swirl Protein Bread (girl’s gotta have dessert too.)
Cooking 6 day’s worth of lunches and dinners in one afternoon is an undertaking. My kitchen was covered in piles of cutting boards and measuring cups and tupperware and vegetables.
Packaging them all up into individual portions was fun…I had a whole Mix n’ Match thing going on so that no single meal was exactly the same. Variety, my friends.
I even finished off by baking a CLEAN batch of Jamie Eason’s Cinnamon Swirl Protein Bread. Gluten-free, with no added sugar, fats, or butter. This bread is made with ground oats, applesauce, almond milk, protein powder, stevia, & cinnamon. Super healthy/pretty/delicious/clean/&GONE (800 calories for the entire freakin’ pan…)
I’m going to be inside due to impending rain this weekend so I plan on experimenting to make a banana, mocha, and possibly pumpkin version of this. I’ll share next week :)
***Those green things are Stevia packets. I made the rookie mistake of buying a box of 40 packets versus buying an actual box of bulk Stevia. No wonder it was $3 cheaper… I tore and measured out the packets & will get the real deal next time ;) ***
Now that I’ve made it through the first week of meal prepping I’ve learned the importance of organization.
Start here: Get the chicken cleaned and in oven —-> Move on to veggie chopping —-> While the greens are steaming, start up a batch of rice —-> After the chicken comes out of the oven, swap in the sweet potatoes —-> While they bake, start cleaning up dishes —-> After everything is cool enough, weigh and measure out portions and package into containers —-> pop into the fridge or freezer depending on how long they need to last —-> feel accomplished :)
