Peanut Butter Agave Protein Balls

Hey hey everyone. How are you guys today? It's my first official day of Spring Break and guess what? It's spent at home, relaxing.
I guess it's okay, even though I'd like to travel instead. I want to visit Spain, China, Hawaii or some other places. Anyway, I'm satisfied that I've been pretty much productive on my first day of break. I finished writing my history paper and I ran 6 miles today. For my history paper, I had to read Slaughterhouse Five and write a response paper to it. As for my running, I had to run on the treadmill. It was okay though. I wasn't even planning running that long but I guess I just kept going since I was listening to my favorite songs.
Anyway, I'm here to post this recipe, my Peanut Butter Agave Protein Balls. I just made them recently and they are delicious and addicting. If you add dark chocolate chips, it tastes even better (well, if you like chocolate, that is). These still taste great just as is. So, here's the recipe.

Servings: ~ 21 peanut butter agave balls
Calories: ~ 70 calories each

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup all natural peanut butter
• 1/4 cup agave
• 1 cup oats
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, cream together the agave and the peanut butter. 
2. Mix in the oats, protein powder and ground cinnamon. 
3. Form into balls and place on a plate.
4. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. 
5. Enjoy!

I hope you guys enjoy the protein balls. 

So, the past weekend has been fun. On Saturday, I went to Starbucks and In-N-Out Burger. It was fun and it was nice. It's been such a long time since I last ate a cheeseburger. I felt like a pig eating it but it was alright. I ordered the White Chocolate Mocha with Soymilk from Starbucks.

Yesterday, I went to Six Flags with the family. It was fun. I'm just scared now, since for the roller coasters that go upside down, it doesn't feel that secure. The safety belt is kind of loose on me. Other than that, I love roller coasters. 

I also ordered the Shamrock Shake from McDonald's after spending a few hours at Six Flags. 

It actually looked somewhat like the actual picture. The cherry looked fake though. I didn't eat the cherry. However, the rest of the shake tasted like a vanilla milk shake with mint flavor mixed in. It wasn't bad. It looked kind of cool since it's green but it's not something I would order again. I just wanted to try it since it's only available in March. 

After, my family and I went shopping and I bought these heels. 

I know, I bought heels on Saturday but I couldn't resist buying these. They were only 10 dollars! They look good on me too. I'm getting obsessed with heels now. Well, maybe it's because I'm short....Anyway, I just hope I don't trip while walking with them on. They're 5 inch heels. The other pair is 4 inch. 

Also, I've been using this No. 7 Total Renewal Micro-dermabrasion Exfoliator

I actually really like this product. After using it, it makes my skin feel softer and smoother. My acne also is looking better too. I'm not breaking out that much and I've been using it for a couple weeks. 

I guess that's it for now.

So, do you like writing papers?

What's your favorite type of shoe?

What exercise do you do?

Day 5 Health Challenge Update + pb2 cookie recipe + pb2 protein oats recipe

Hey everyone! How are you guys doing today?

I'm doing fine, thank you very much. I went for a nice run around the creek and the park today with my dad. It was nice. The weather is cold but it's also sunny too. I love sunny weather (except when it's humid or burning hot).

After my run, I ate a delicious breakfast. It's something I created myself. I mixed together:

• 1/4 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/4 cup vanilla protein powder
• 1/4 cup PB2 
• 2 packets of stevia 
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup water

Serving: 1 recipe

Calories: ~ 235 calories

Protein: at least 23 grams of protein

I'm sure that if you leave it overnight, the mixture will become thick. I made it right after my run so it wasn't as thick. I was too impatient to wait even 10 minutes for it to thicken up even more (I was hungry!).

Now, here's my update on my health challenge yesterday:

Day 5:
Breakfast:RiseBar Crunchy Cranberry Apple  160 calories
Morning Snack: Orange and coffee 50 calories
Lunch: PitaPit Sandwich (whole wheat pita, spicy black bean burger, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, cilantro, shredded lettuce, craisins), unsweetened black tea 300 calories
Afternoon Snack: BumbleBar Chocolate Crisp, craisins 350 calories
Dinner: brown rice sushi, steamed veggies 422 calories
Night Snack: oats, truvia, ground cinnamon, pb2, dark chocolate 275 calories

Total calories: 1557 calories

This is how my night snack looked. It's suppose to be a pb2 cookie:

It actually tasted pretty good. I also added in a little vanilla extract to it. Here's the recipe:

• 1/4 cup oats
• 2 tablespoon pb2
• 2 packets stevia
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• a dash of ground cinnamon
•  2-3 tablespoon water

Just mix it all  together and it's ready to be eaten.

I also ate a sample of a green protein bar at Sprout's yesterday. It was like 1/10 of the bar, at most. The pieces were so tiny. It was really good though. I think it was the Greens Plus Chocolate-coated Peanut Butter Protein Bars.

Anyway, that's it for now. I have so many nutrition topics I want to talk about. Here's a list of a few that I will write posts on:

• Electrolytes
• Do athletes really need more protein?
• Are supplements necessary?
• What does low-fat, low-calorie, reduced fat really mean?

That's it for now.

Have you ever been tempted by samples at food stores?

What's your favorite protein food?

Chocolate Protein Donuts, Day 2 Health Challenge Update, HoW 3, WIAW Week 1

I love donuts, don't you? Donuts are delicious! However, they're not healthy for you. With all the sugar and fat, it's something that should be consumed rarely (if at all).
However, these donuts are much healthier than the ones from the donut shop. They are made in a mini donut maker and have a much higher protein content, keeping you full longer. I ate these for breakfast and it still pretty much sticks to my meal plan. It makes enough for 2 breakfasts. Here's the recipe. I hope you guys enjoy!



Servings: 18 mini donuts
Calories:~ 25 calories for 1 donut


Ingredients:

• 1 cup vanilla protein power
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 5 packets (teaspoons) of stevia
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons nonfat greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup nonfat milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. In a bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. 
2. Mix in the wet ingredients. 
3. Preheat your mini donut maker. Spray with nonstick spray (I use PAM Olive Oil). You can also bake these as mini cupcakes or donuts in the oven (preheat to 350 F). 
4. If you're using a mini donut maker, you only need to put in about 1 to 2 tablespoons of batter into each mini donut hole. Coo as directed. 
5. If you're baking them in the oven, bake them for 15 minutes. 
6. Take them out and enjoy. 

You can drizzle these with honey or make a chocolate glaze if you want. It's up to you!

*I liked the taste of these raw better than cooked. It's up to you how you decide to eat it. It's safe to eat raw. *

*By the way, cooking protein powder does not diminish its benefits. The proteins are just denatured, just like cooking egg whites. Either way, before proteins reach your muscles and other parts of the body, it has to be digested. Before even leaving the stomach, the proteins are denatured due to the stomach's acidic environment. Then, it gets broken down to its amino acids. 

I might make a peanut butter frosting with  pb2 when I eat the rest tomorrow. I ordered pb2, BumbleBee Bars and Rise Bars from Amazon 2 days ago and it arrived today! So quick and efficient. I can't wait to try these. The Rise Bars came with:

• 3 Crunchy Cashew Almond
• 3 Crunchy Macadamia Pineapple
• 2 Crunchy Cranberry Pineapple
• 2 Crunchy Perfect Pumpkin
• 2 Crunchy Honey Walnut

So, how did my health challenge go yesterday?

It pretty much went well. I'm happy to report that I didn't eat the sushi. I was really tempted to though! I also substituted tofu instead of eating the boca burger for the nori sushi roll. I ate some sweet potatoes along with the rest of my meal for dinner. I added some cashew clusters to my greek yogurt and I ate some dark chocolate.

Based on my activity level, the amount of calories I ate is just about right and I did do better than yesterday, which is a good thing. I'm hoping that today will be better.

So, here are some pictures for WIAW. It's my first time doing WIAW, What I Ate Wednesday, from Jenn's Blog, Peas and Crayons.


For Breakfast, here are some of my eats: 

My morning snack was an orange (no picture).  My lunches are 2 sushi rolls. The picture is just the ingredients I used. Also, an unpictured avocado salad. 

For afternoon snacks, it's either been almonds, fruit, or carrots+hummus. 

My dinner has been quinoa, salmon (or tofu), and some sort of steamed veggies. 

My night snack has been greek yogurt, stevia, cocoa powder, ground cinnamon and some crushed cashew clusters: 

That concludes WIAW! I love this because it really makes you think what you REALLY eat in a day, or a week. That's also the HoW of the week. Try to track what you eat for a week to see what you really consume. You'd be surprised!

I have one last thing to say. You guys remember that I went to China the past summer, right? I climbed/hiked the Great Wall of China. As it turns out, after you do walk it, you can purchase something that says that you have climbed/hiked up the Great Wall.

Yea. It's in Chinese. But, it's like a scroll thing. It's awesome! I just thought I'd like to share this. 
So, what have your eats been lately?  Do you like donuts?

The Best Healthiest Chocolate Chip Protein Cookie

I love chocolate chip cookies. Don't you? They're sinfully delicious! I can't just eat one. I have to eat 2, or maybe even 3, with a cup of milk.
The thing is, is that, I don't want all the fat and sugar that comes with it. Most cookies come with a lot of saturated or trans fat from either butter or margarine. Neither are good for the health.

So, what is a girl to do if she wants a good healthy cookie with all the goodness that comes with the fat?

Make her own recipe, of course! These cookies are sinfully delicious and yet healthy! They are soft and chewy and yet, a little crispy. My family doesn't usually like healthy baked goods I make but I have to say that these are pretty darn good. My brother even says these are one of the best cookies I've ever made (and I've made cookies many times before!) 

What's the secret to these healthy cookies? Instead of using butter or margarine, I used heart healthy olive oil. Don't worry. This cookie tastes fantastic and still come with the same texture as ones that use the unhealthy fat. I also used whole wheat flour, oats and protein powder. The chocolate is dark chocolate as well. 

I guess it's time to give you guys the recipe. Here it is. 

Servings: 37 cookies 

Calorie count: ~140 calories

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup oats
• 3 scoops vanilla protein powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1-2 eggs
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips 
• 1 cup olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. 
2. In a bowl, mix together all the wet ingredients with both of the sugars. 
3. In another bowl, sift together the whole wheat flour and protein powder. Mix in the baking powder and oats. 
4. Slow combine the dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients. 
5. Mix in the chocolate chips. The dough is a bit crumbly. 
6. Make 2 tablespoon sized cookie dough and drop them onto a cookie pan. It should make around 37 cookies. 
7. Bake for 14 minutes. 
8. Take them out. let them cool and enjoy. 

These cookies look delicious, huh? 

So, I'm officially on winter break and I have so much free time. It's finally nice to relax. It also gives me time to do the Elf 4 Health Challenge. Too bad I'm trying to limit myself to sweets, so I can't eat these cookies. I have to stick on the meal plan I created during the weekend. It's a challenge on top of the Elf 4 Health challenge. Me and my Elf, Arlene, had a chat last night talking about the challenges and I felt bad for not sticking to my meal plan. She encouraged me to stick to it while she goes back trying to eat lower carb.

Will it be hard to resist these cookies and other sweets? Yes! But, hopefully, it will get easier.

By the way, I created a facebook page. 

Do you guys have any plans for the upcoming holidays?

What's your favorite type of cookie? 

Banana Protein Muffins and my weekend

I've been trying to find ways to use up the vanilla protein powder I bought at Costco a while ago (well, maybe a month or two ago). Well, as you can tell, most of my current recipes have protein powder as an ingredient. This time, it's banana protein muffins.
But, before I get to the recipe, I'd like to talk about my weekend. I had my first driving lesson yesterday. And, guess what. The first thing was the freeway. I had to drive about half an hour on the freeway. I was so scared. I've only practiced twice before in a parking lot before the first lesson with the driving school. Talk about change. The rest of the time was streets, so, that was okay, except that I had to go to the right since there was an ambulance with it's sirens ringing passing by (oh..the perks of the first day of driving lessons). I can't really blame the instructor though. The instructor was still instructing another student and that student lived half an hour away by freeway, so the only way back was to go on the freeway. I was hella surprised and scared to death but things were fine.
Now that I've told you about my weekend, here's the recipe for the banana protein muffins. If you like banana bread, just double the recipe and bake for 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 2 scoops vanilla protein powder ( I think the scoop mines came with is 1/3 cup)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 packets low calorie sweetener
• 1 egg (don't double the egg if you're doubling the recipe)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 ripe banana, mashed

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. 
2. In a bowl, sift together the protein powder, cinnamon, baking powder and the low calorie sweetener. 
3. Then, mix in the milk, egg, and mashed banana.
4. Fill cupcake pans 3/4 full and then put them in the oven. 
5. Bake for 15 minutes. 
6. Once it's done, take them out and let them cool. 
7. Enjoy. =) I like eating them with peanut butter 

So, do you guys like banana bread?
Tell me about your first driving lesson. Do you have any stories?