Protein + Caffeine = Road Trip Bliss

Hey guys!  Sorry it's been so long since I've posted.  Life has been crazy recently.  Sunny's birthday, Easter, studying, training, cheer competitions....it's been full steam ahead with no option of stopping.  

I love protein powder.  It's so versatile and it's great for someone like me who doesn't necessarily get their daily protein needs in.  Ken likes it mixed in with his morning coffee.  It's his breakfast, and it makes a good creamer.  

When we went to Kissimmee for Mantha's cheer competition last month I didn't know if the room had a coffee pot.  {I know it sounds crazy to think that the room had a full kitchen and no coffee pot.}  Luckily, I had recieved a free sample of Nature's Best JAVAPRO Caramel.  It's made by the same company that makes IsoPure.  

JavaPro = Coffee + Protein

Each serving of JAVAPRO contains:

• 20 grams of high quality whey protein complex: a combo of whey protein isolate, whey protein concentrate and whey protein hydrolysate
• 80 milligrams of caffeine
• Only 110 calories (compare that to your local barista's mocha!)
• 1.5 grams of fat and 2 grams of carbs
• Amazing, full-bodied real coffee in every serving.

It was delicious!  It actually tasted like a caramel iced coffee.  It makes you feel like you're drinking a Dunkin' Donuts, or Starbucks iced latte early in the morning.  It feels so sinful but it isn't.  I actually mixed it with milk instead of water.  {I just personally think protein powder tastes better that way}

It comes in 6 different flavors (Espresso, French Vanilla, Latte, Caramel, Mocha, Hazelnut) and is sold at GNC, Vitamin Shoppe and a few online retailers.  

For more info on JAVAPRO or any of Nature's Best's products click the link below:

Nature's Best Website

What's your favorite protein powder?

Dunkin Donuts Blogger Event

I was invited to attend Dunkin Donuts menu tasting.  I was really excited because I had been invited to previous Dunkin events and I couldn't make them.  I brought along my taste testers because I wanted to be able to know what everything tasted like and let y'all know what's good.  

Dunkin Donuts recently brought out the Spicy Smoked Sausage breakfast sandwich.  All 3 of the girls and Ken enjoyed it.  This was actually surprising because Kaylee isn't a huge fan of things that are spicy.

Yey coffee!  The one thing I could try!  And try I did.  They have 4 flavors for the holiday season.  There's Red Velvet, White Chocolate, Peppermint Mocha and Eggnog.  The eggnog is ONLY available in select markets, such as Jacksonville - Palm Coast.  Lucky me!  Ken really enjoyed the Eggnog latte.  I was a fan of all of them.  I honestly don't think I've found a Dunkin flavor I HAVEN'T liked!

Next up, the donuts.  There are 3 holiday donuts.  The Red Velvet Drizzle {that Sunny is showing you} is a red velvet cake donut drizzled with cream cheese frosting.  The red  one {I forgot the name, oops!} is a yeast ring donut frosted with a cherry glaze.  And lastly the Holiday Star {that Kaylee is holding up} is a yeast star shaped donut frosted with green icing and filled with a Bavarian Kreme.

They were loved by all of my taste testers.  Ken liked the fact that the "red one" had a nice light cherry flavor.  It wasn't too overpowering.

It kind of upset me that I couldn't try any of the donuts.  I love donuts.  But, in typical Fat Free Queen style I came home and started baking.  I really wanted to give y'all a filled yeast donut but, I tried 4 different recipes and used 99% of my flour and nothing would work.  I guess yeast donuts are not meant to be fat free.  So instead, I bring you an AH-MAZING chocolate buttermilk cake donut hole.  I used my cake pop pan to make them but, you can also use a donut maker, a donut pan or a mini muffin pan.   I'm giving you the whole recipe but honestly, I only made a half batch.  At 25 calories each I wish I had made a full batch!

Chocolate Buttermilk Donut Holes
Adapted from Ina Garten's Beatty's Chocolate Cake Recipe

Servings: 108
Calories: 25.6
Fat:  0.1 g

Carbs: 6 g
Sugar: 3.9 g
Protein: 0.6 g

Ingredients
1.75 cup flour
1 T cornstarch
2 cups sugar
.75 cup cocoa powder
2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 cup skim milk mixed with 2 tsp white vinegar
.5 cup fat free sour cream (you can also use Greek yogurt)
egg substitute to 2 eggs (or 2 egg whites
1 t vanilla extract
1 cup coffee

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray your pan
2. Whisk together flour, cornstarch, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and baking powder
3. In a separate bowl mix together milk, sour cream, egg substitute, vanilla and coffee
4. Mix wet ingredients into dry
5. Put 1 T into your cake pop pan and bake for 15 minutes until they are done.

Do you like coffee?  Do you enjoy seasonal flavors?  What's your favorite seasonal flavor?

Update 12/18/2013:  I found the notes I took at the event.  

• Did you know there is no non-dairy option at Dunkin Donuts?  
• The Red Velvet and Eggnog, Pumpkin Mocha and Red Velvet flavors will only be around until the end of December.  They will be bringing out a completely new flavor in January {I'm so excited!}
• The glazed donuts have less fat then the raised ones.  The cake soaks up less fat than the yeast.

New Month, New Me

Happy December 1st everybody!  I'm so happy November is over!  It was really not a good month for me.  I mentioned most of the things that went wrong during the month in my last post but, here's a quick recap.

• Sick for the first 2 weeks of the month
• Stressed-induced ulcer
• Depression
• My body refused fish of any kind.  The only animal protein I could tolerate was eggs, yogurt and cheese
• I only made it to the gym a handful of times
• The family's diet was seriously horrible due to everything that was going wrong with me

I'm happy  to say that I'm physically and mentally better, and I have reduced my stress by half.  My body is now allowing me occasional fish, I'm changing the family's diet back to normal as of today, and I'm headed back to the gym on Tuesday {I would be going back tomorrow but, Christmas doesn't shop for itself}

I don't know if this is happening everywhere in the world but, where I live, many of the fat free foods are being taken out of the local supermarkets.  My local Publix no longer carries light soy milk.  I could understand if they only carried the Greenwise Market {Publix's brand} brand light soy milk and no longer carry Silk or any other company's light soy milk but, they have taken every brand off the shelves.   I also have difficulty finding fat free coffee creamer {I buy it when I want to treat myself and don't want to pay coffee shop prices.}  I think it's interesting that while everything you read is talking about how unhealthy Americans are and how much we need to reduce our fat and calorie intakes, Publix is taking the healthier options OFF the shelves.  Does this make sense to you??!!??

So, in short, I now shop at Wal-Mart for my light soy milk and I make my own coffee creamer.  After Publix upset me by not carrying any flavor other than French Vanilla in the fat free creamers I started searching the internet for how to make my own.  Every website had the same basic recipe.  This would probably be a great gift for the coffee aficionado in your life.  

Ingredients
1 14 oz can fat free sweetened condensed milk
2 cups skim milk

Directions

1. Whisk together

You can add flavorings to it.  Here are a few links that have a bunch of flavoring ideas.  

Mrs. Happy Homemaker: 20 Different Flavors
Deliciously Organic: Homemade Coffee Creamer
She Knows: Fall Flavored Coffee Creamer 

Another great thing about this recipe?  The calorie count!  1 tablespoon {without any flavoring added} has 21.3 calories and 4.6 grams of sugar.  It makes 3.75 cups/ 60 tablespoons.  

For my first rial I made a pumpkin chocolate creamer since I am currently obsessed with Dunkin Donut's Pumpkin Mocha iced coffee.  Add .25 - .5 cup pumpkin puree and 1-2 T sugar free chocolate syrup to the base recipe.  You can also use cocoa powder but make sure to heat a bit of milk and mix the cocoa powder into the heated milk before mixing everything together.  

Pumpkin Iced Mocha

Ever find a recipe that you want to perfect?  You HAVE to make it taste amazing?  This is the recipe that has been doing it for me.  I've tried a different way every day for about a week.  Tweeked everything atleast once.  But, I finally did it.  I finally got it just right.  

Just in time for pumpkin season!  Pumpkin is my favorite fall flavor.  I love it so much I'll use it until next March or April. Pumpkin coffee is back in both Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks.  This year McDonald's has brought out a pumpkin coffee.  I hate to admit it but I really want to try it.  I love cheap coffee. Dunkin Donuts makes the best Pumpkin Mochas and Pumpkin White Chocolate coffees.  The temperatures are still in the low-to-mid-80's here so, I've been getting mine iced.  Still 100% as yummy without the heat. 
If you don't like coffee then just leave out the coffee.  If you want to make this a hot drink just use freshly brewed coffee and/or heat up the milk. 

Pumpkin Iced Coffee
1 servings
Calories:  162
Fat:  1.7 g
Carbs: 34.6 g
Sugar: 1.6 g
Protein:  6.1g
Ingredients
1 cup Light Chocolate non-dairy milk (I used Silk)
1 cup cold coffee
3 T pumpkin puree
3 T maple syrup
1.5 t cinnamon
Directions

1. Whisk all ingredients together, until pumpkin has mixed in with the liquid
2. Pour in a large cup.

Not into pumpkin?  Make yourself a peanut butter cup iced coffee by switching out the pumpkin puree for 2-3 T PB2.  I would suggest using a blender to mix this one because the PB2 has a tendancy to clump. 

Hot and {Semi} Healthy

Hello August, how the heck did you get here so fast?  I can't believe that the summer is almost over.  The girls go back to school in 2.5 weeks and I start school at the end of August.  I feel like every summer starts off slow and then WAM! it's over.

For the past week and a half I've been eating as clean and healthy as possible.  I've had a bit of a set back this week (which I'll talk about in my weigh-in post on Sunday) but, for the most part I've been going strong.  I also have an inner fat girl that demands dessert.  Healthy and dessert can be found in the same sentence.  I do it often.

If you have been watching my Instagram photos I've posted dessert nightly.  When I'm trying to be healthy I drink a lot of coffee as dessert.  I love coffee.  To me, it's a treat though.  I'm a cream and sugar with a hint of coffee girl so, it used to be a really big diet killer for me.  My new thing?  Flavored coffee.  In my cabinet right now I have 3 or 4 different flavors.  My current favorite though? Archer Farms S'more flavored coffee. It's got a hint of chocolate and a creamy taste.  Pure bliss.    

This is my favorite way of treating myself to coffee.  

Dessert Coffee
Serves 1
Calories: 166
Fat: 0.4g
Carbs:  37.2g
Sugar:  29.4g
Protein:  3.7g

1 cup of coffee (warm or iced)
.25 cup skim milk
Sugar substitute to taste
1 T chocolate syrup
1/4 cup miniature marshmallows

Directions

1. Stir first 4 ingredients together
2. Top with marshmallows?

Are you a morning, nite or anytime coffee person?  Do you have any special coffee recipes?  If you do share it with us!!

Donut Date Night

I might be a health nut (or freak if you prefer) but, I'm also a mom that occasionally enjoys spoiling her kids.  Tonite was one of those nites.  Mo went to a birthday party so I decided to indulge Kay's sweet tooth (which will be her downfall later in life, just like me.)  I took her to the nearby Dunkin Donuts.  Okay, I can't lie, I also enjoyed spoiling myself with coffee.  

 
Why no donuts?  It's a Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins combo store.  Kay decided that she wanted ice cream instead of a donut.  

I ordered a Pumpkin White Chocolate Latte.  It was delish!  Perfectly pumpkin-y and just the right about of chocolate.  Plus, a medium only has 280 calories and no fat!  

Tonite was a nite about learning, not just desserts.  Kay learned that her tummy has adjusted to our new diet way of eating.  Her stomach is very upset right now from the hot chocolate and ice cream.  She even told me she wished she had gotten a donut instead. 

I look out for my kids healthy 99.7% of the time.  Indulgences should be no different.  Next time I won't even offer to let her get the unhealthier option.  I've always said you can indulge in a healthy way.  I need to start applying this to my kids too.  

Do you indulge your kids in ways you wouldn't indulge yourself?