Protein Packed No Grain Pancakes

When I heard the ingredients for these pancakes, I was super skeptical. I mean, how can eggs and a banana make a pancake? But seriously, TRY THEM! They are sweeter than a normal pancake, which means you don't need much syrup (honestly, you may not need any at all!). Best of all? They are SO easy! And you probably have the ingredients on hand at all times!

Seriously, here are the only ingredients:

2 Eggs
1 Banana
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
cinnamon and vanilla to taste

First, throw all of your ingredients into a blender or food processor. You could also just mix them really well in a bowl if you want. I used about 3/4 capful of vanilla extract and several good shakes of cinnamon. 

Blend for just a second or two, until a batter is formed. Meanwhile, melt a little coconut oil in a frying pan or skillet. You can use any oil you want, but the coconut oil adds a nice sweetness that I really like. 

Once your oil is melted, just pour the batter into the size pancakes you want, and let it start bubbling a little around the edges before you flip it (just as you would with a normal pancake). 

Flip it over for only a few seconds on the other side, and that's it! Top it with some real maple syrup, or some fresh berries, and you've got yourself a super delicious breakfast that feels like a guilty pleasure, but is really a very healthy, high protein meal! Who knew eggs and a banana could taste so good?!

Chicken and Cheese Chimichangas

I have to give credit to my sister-in-law Erin for this recipe. It was one of the first of many that I have gotten from her over the years, and it remains a favorite in our house. The best thing about it is that it was so already healthy, so I really didn't have to modify it much for our clean eating lifestyle.

I think what is so great about these chimi's is that they can be thrown together in just a few minutes, and can be on the table in 30 minutes start to finish. Plus, I always make them the night we go grocery shopping and I use a rotisserie chicken! You all know I love shortcuts, and what is easier than using an already cooked chicken? Bonus is that at Costco the rotisserie chicken is only $4.99, so it's cheaper than buying raw chicken and cooking it too!

Honestly, these guys couldn't be easier. Here are the ingredients:

2 1/2 cups cooked and shredded white meat chicken
2/3 cup Pace Pecante Sauce (or chunky salsa of your choice)
1/3 cup sliced green onions
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1 cup shredded cheese (I use whatever we have on hand-- usually a mexican blend)
Tortillas (best to use corn, but they break more easily. I find sprouted wheat varieties at Trader Joes)
Olive Oil spray

Preheat the oven to 475. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large deep rimmed pan and simmer 5 minutes, or until the flavors are well combined.

Spoon 1/3 cup of filling and 2 tbsp cheese onto each tortilla, and roll up like a burrito. Spray the tops of the chimichangas with olive oil cooking spray (or just brush them with EVOO).

Bake at 475 for 13-15 minutes or until tortillas are crispy and chimichangas are heated through. Enjoy with a dollop of guacamole or greek yogurt and some chopped cilantro on top!

Fruit and Nut Chicken Salad

I have been following the 21 Day Fix meal plan lately, and it has been really eye opening! I learned that even though I was eating clean foods, too many of my calories were coming from carbs each day, and not enough from fruits and veggies. So I've been trying to come up with recipes for lunches that I can eat without any carbs, but I was getting a little bored of having a salad with chicken or salmon on it every day.

I decided to create this awesome chicken salad recipe because I had some leftover rotisserie chicken and didn't want to throw it away. Whenever we go to Costco we buy their rotisserie chicken, because HELLO! It is $4.99 and HUGE! There is so much white meat on it that I had more than what I needed for last nights chicken and cheese chimichangas, so I decided to use ingredients I had at home to create a yummy lunch for today.

I like chicken salad, but it's usually loaded with fattening mayo, which I refuse to eat. Lately I substitute plain fat free greek yogurt for anything that calls for mayo or sour cream, so I decided to use as my base. It didn't have much flavor that way, though, so I started adding other stuff I had laying around. The result was this super delicious fruit and nut chicken salad that was absolutely incredible!

Here is what I used, but of course, feel free to substitute your own ingredients that you have lying around!

1 cup shredded cooked white meat chicken
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (I used Fage fat free)
1/2 cup chopped apple
1/2 cup chopped red grapes
1/4 cup sliced green onions
1/4 cup chopped toasted pecans
drizzle of honey to taste
salt and pepper to taste

I just mixed it all together in a tupperware and let it sit overnight in the fridge. The next day the flavors had all combined, the apples and nuts were still crunchy but the honey had sweetened everything just enough to reduce the tanginess of the yogurt, and I was one happy girl!

In my efforts to reduce my carbs, I just ate mine with a fork, but it would be really great as a sandwich, or on top of greens as a salad, or scooped up on some whole grain crackers!

Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup

This past week I had so many after-work commitments, I knew it would be nearly impossible to make dinner most nights.  It was one of those crazy "I'm juggling 50 things at once" weeks, and I knew that the only way to make it work was to rely on my trusty crock pot.

In the past I would have driven through somewhere, or ordered food to go from a restaurant. I am so proud of our family for quitting the excuses and relying WAY less on take-out meals. It takes a bit more planning, but if you own a crock pot, it's really very easy to have a healthy, home-cooked meal ready for your family when you get home!

So this week we made minestrone soup. I love minestrone, and it is full of veggies, which works really well for the 21 Day Fix meal plan that I am currently following.  Plus, you can switch up what you serve with the soup to make different meals. The soup is great on it's own, or even better when paired with a nice salad, but our favorite is serving it with turkey and cheese panini's made in our panini press! However you decide to serve it, everyone is sure to love it.

Ingredients:
1 15 oz can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup shredded cabbage
1/2 cup sliced carrot
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes with basil, oregano and garlic
1 14 oz can beef broth (can use veggie broth if you want this to be a truly vegetarian dish)
3 cups water
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
8 oz fresh green beans, cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2 cup tiny whole wheat macaroni noodles
2 tbsp snipped fresh parsley
1/2 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese (optional)

To make the soup:

In your slow cooker, place beans, cabbage, carrot, celery and onion. Stir in undrained tomatoes, broth, water, salt and pepper. Cover, cook on low setting for 8-10 hours or high setting for 4-5 hours.

If using low setting, turn to high. Stir green beans and macaroni noodles into soup mixture. Cover; cook for another 30 minutes.  Stir in parsley. Ladle into soup bowls. Sprinkle each serving with Parmesan cheese, if desired.  Enjoy!

My 20 Favorite Clean Eating Snacks

Since I started my journey to clean eating almost 10 months ago, I have incorporated snacks into my daily routine. That's because it's way better for our metabolism to eat 5-6 times a day instead of only 3. I was never a snacker before. I just ate breakfast, lunch and dinner. I really wasn't hungry between meals. But my metabolism was also slow as molasses. At first it was tough for me to remember to eat every 2.5-3 hours, so I had to set an alarm on my phone to remind me when it was snack time. But as soon as my metabolism started to increase, I no longer had to rely on anything but my hunger reminding me to eat. I am almost always hungry at snack time now, especially because my body is used to that schedule.

So you might be thinking that adding two snacks per day would only make you GAIN weight, since you'd be adding more calories. But NOPE! You aren't going to really add more calories, you will just be adjusting your meals to be fewer calories to accommodate for your snacks. Plus, if your metabolism starts to increase, you'll be burning more calories too. So, a few extra will not matter-- you'll come out even and never be hungry!

Honestly, in addition to helping you burn more calories more quickly, eating more often also prevents you from having that panicky "I'm starving" mentality when dinnertime does roll around. And we all know what happens when you start to feel your painfully empty stomach growling, your blood sugar drop, and your mood start to deteriorate-- you want to eat anything in site! Forget your plans to eat a healthy dinner! You start either gorging your face with whatever is closest (is that a Taco Bell over there?) or else you eat too fast and too much, resulting in that oh-so-familiar stuffed feeling that leaves you with the need to unbutton your pants. Ring a bell? I thought so.

So try it. Seriously, try it for a week. Try eating more often and see if you don't feel more energy without the blood sugar highs and lows. See if you don't have more control over eating healthy and sticking to proper portions. And see if you aren't more satisfied overall. But don't just snack on chips and cookies. That defeats the whole idea.

So what should you snack on? Here is a list of my 20 favorite clean eating snacks. I always include a protein and a complex carbohydrate so that my body takes longer to process the carbs, resulting in fewer blood sugar spikes. The protein is also more satisfying, meaning you will stay full longer.

1. apple slices dipped into 2 Tbsp natural peanut butter
2. strawberries and 12 cashews
3. cucumber slices and cherry tomatoes dipped into hummus
4. nonfat plain greek yogurt with mixed berries and 1 tsp honey
5. string cheese and handful of grapes
6. 2 hardboiled eggs with the yolks removed, filled with hummus
7. Ak-Mak crackers topped with turkey and cheese
8. 1 piece of Ezekial toast topped with natural peanut butter and 1/2 banana sliced
9. celery sticks stuffed with either natural peanut or almond butter and topped with raisins and cinnamon
10. Lara Bars (my fave is apple pie)
11. Quest Bars (my faves are chocolate chip cookie dough and strawberry cheesecake)
12. Trader Joe's spicy egg white salad with 5 whole grain crackers
13. romaine lettuce leaves wrapped around turkey, avocado and bell pepper slices
14. mini sweet peppers dipped in guacamole
15. 1 cup edamame salad (shelled edamame, corn, black beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers all tossed in a mixture of olive oil, lime juice, cilantro and cumin)
16. 2 no bake peanut butter oatmeal energy balls 

17. Shakeology

18. veggies dipped into ranch or onion dip made with greek yogurt (instead of sour cream)
19. 1 cup quinoa strawberry feta salad

20. frozen banana/peanut butter "sandwiches"

I hope that some of these snack ideas are helpful to you! What would you add to this list?

What is the 21 Day Fix?

Maybe you've heard about the newest Beachbody workout program launching this month, The 21 Day Fix, and maybe you haven't. Either way, you are about to hear about it all over the place, because this is going to be REVOLUTIONARY! I am so excited to get this program and experience it for myself, and I'm even more excited to watch others go through it with me and get amazing results!

What is 21 Day Fix? 21 Day Fix is THE fitness and nutrition program to help you lose up to 15 pounds in 21 days. The unique nutrition plan uses specifically portioned food storage containers that eliminate the guesswork from portion control - no weighing, measuring, or counting calories, carbs or points. If it fits in the container, you can eat it. And you'll lose weight.

The 21 Day Fix is different from any other Beachbody program because it includes color coded food containers that regulate your portion control. What does this mean? It means all of the guesswork about nutrition and portions is taken away, and you are left with an easy-to-follow, simple guideline that will ensure you maximize your results. No counting calories, no foods off limits! Yes, that's right, you can even have some chocolate and wine! If it fits into the container, you can eat it. If it doesn't, you can't. It's that simple. There are containers for each food group (veggies, fruits, protein, carbs, fats, etc.) and then a plan for how many of those containers you can eat in a day, based on your current weight. How easy is that? And of course you get to keep the containers forever, so you can continue to monitor your portion control until it becomes second nature. 

The program also includes seven 30 minute workouts, including: 

• Dirty 30 workout (a bootcamp circuit style workout)
• Total Body Cardio Fix
• Upper Fix
• Lower Fix
• Pilates Fix
• Cardio Fix
• Yoga Fix

So every single day of the week is a different workout, giving your body a total makeover through muscle confusion and variety. And every single workout is only 30 minutes, so you don't have to spend a lot of time to get great results! 

Everyone can do 21 Day Fix and get great results. Each workout has a modifier to show easier moves. The test groups included fit people as well as people with 100+ pounds to lose, to be sure that anyone could be successful with this program. If you are already in great shape, you will follow the advanced moves. If not, you'll rely on the modifier. No matter what, the 21 Day Fix has an option for you.

The 21 Day Fix was created by Autumn Calebrese, a fitness trainer, a competitve bikini model and single mom who knows exactly what it takes to be successful, even with a very busy schedule.  Autumn came up with the idea of the program one day after going out to lunch with a friend who was struggling to lose weight. This friend was working out and eating healthy foods, so she wasn't sure why she was struggling. At lunch, both Autumn and her friend ordered a very healthy salad, but when it was brought to the table, it was huge. While Autumn ate about 1/3 of her salad, her friend finished the whole thing. That's when it hit her like a ton of bricks: portion control is the issue! You can overeat on  healthy foods too! Thus, the 21 Day Fix was born. 

Autumn has said from her test group results that people can expect to lose 10-15 pounds in just 21 days if they stick to the workouts and the eating plan. How amazing is that? It may sound unhealthy to lose so much weight in so little time, but this plan is so well designed that it ensures you are getting proper nutrition and exercise so that you lose weight in a very healthy way. Plus, the plan incorporates Shakeology, which means that you are getting your daily dose of dense nutrition as well.  

Why 21 Days? 

It is said that it takes 21 days to develop a new habit. So in the three weeks that you complete this program, you will be on  your way to maintaining that healthy lifestyle permanently. Of course you can continue to repeat the 21 day fix many times, as well. As a matter of fact, some of the test group members repeated the program numerous times to lose up to 45 pounds!

Honestly, there is no other program out there like this. If you are ready to see amazing results in just three weeks, contact me to join my exclusive test group starting on February 17th. You will get the 7 workouts, the portion control containers, the eating plan, Shakeology and of course the support and motivation of me as your coach! I will NOT let you fail! Together we will change your body, your nutrition, and your life. 

Message me below or contact me at danarsimon@gmail.com to get started!

Crockpot BBQ Apple Pork Tenderloin

I am obsessed with finding new healthy crockpot meals! My goal is to make dinner in the crockpot at least once a week, ideally twice. I mean, how awesome is it to come home from work and have dinner ready? It is so much better than stopping to pick something up, or having to slave in the kitchen for an hour when I am already hungry and exhausted.

I adapted this recipe from one I saw on Pintrest, and it was so simple and delicious that I couldn't help but share! There are literally 4 ingredients. That's it! You can't get much easier than that, right? Plus, it's pretty versatile, so you could easily change it up a little bit to make different variations.

Here are the ingredients:

1 pound pork tenderloin (you could use turkey or beef tenderloin if you don't eat pork)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce (chunky is best, but not necessary)
1 cup BBQ sauce
1/4 cup minced onion

It was really eye opening to find a BBQ sauce that was anything I could consider adding to a clean recipe. Almost every single bottle in the store had high fructose corn syrup, and usually as the first ingredient! Some of them had more than 20 ingredients that I did not recognize, and many topped off at more than 20 grams of sugar per serving! I did end up finding a good choice though, with all natural ingredients that I recognized and only 6 grams of sugar per serving. Just check your labels carefully and choose wisely. Or, you could choose to make your own BBQ sauce. Simply google "homemade BBQ sauce" and a ton of recipes come up. For my purposes, I was trying to make a super fast meal that could be thrown into the crock pot in 5 minutes on a weekday morning, so I wanted to use bottled.

To make this, you literally just have to place the pork tenderloin, silver skin removed, on the bottom of the slow cooker.

Mix the applesauce and BBQ sauce together and pour evenly over the pork. Top with minced onion. Cook on high for 6 hours. When done, the meat should easily shred with two forks. Stir the shredded pork with the sauce and let it sit in the crock pot for about 5 more minutes, to make sure that all of the meat has been soaked with the sauce.

I served the meat on top of a piece of whole wheat toast with a spinach and raspberry side salad, but it would be great as a shredded pork sandwich on a bun, or on top of rice, or even wrapped up in lettuce! There are tons of options.

Hope you enjoy!

P90X3 Progress Update: Week 4

Woo Hoo! I have officially finished three weeks of P90X3! Today I began my week 4, which is a transition week from Block 1 to Block 2. What does that mean? I'll explain.

First of all, if you are unfamiliar with P90X3, it is a brand new DVD workout system designed to sculpt your body, get you lean and strong in 90 days through 16 different 30 minute workouts. Most of you have probably heard of it's predecessor, P90X, or the follow-up program P90X2.  This newer version is NOT a graduate program, so no worries if you haven't ever done the first two. As a matter of fact, I never did them either.  But regardless of whether or not you have already done P90X, this program can be a great option for you. 

To be honest, I was pretty intimidated by P90X, because I thought that it would be too hard for me. Granted, I've been working out regularly since last March, so I am in pretty good shape, but I was still not interested in P90X. The workouts are almost all at least an hour long, and with my super busy schedule between two jobs and two kids, I just don't have that kind of time!

That's where P90X3 came along. Oh, hello 30 minute workouts! I am all about quick workouts, and the thing that honestly intrigued me the most about the program was that it includes 16 different workouts-- everything from martial arts to yoga to cardio. I decided to give it a try, and I am SO glad I did! It's all based on the science which shows that the most effective part of your workout happens in the first 30 minutes. Tony Horton brought the "muscle confusion" science he is famous for to this accelerated version to make what may be perhaps the perfect workout program!

The P90X3 program comes with a few different schedule options, depending on your goals. They are:

Classic

For total body fitness, Classic the the program of choice. Its traditional balance of cardio and resistance, along with the standard Muscle Confusing perks associated with the P90X system, will help you gain muscle, lose fat, and move better than you have since you were a kid.

Lean

The Lean rotation is designed for those who prefer a more toned look. It’s not necessarily better for weight loss. Both Lean and Classic can work equally well. But instead of muscular hypertrophy you’ll target functionality, mobility, and cardiovascular fitness. You’ll still gain some muscle, you’ll still lose fat, and you’ll still get strong; you’ll just stay lean.

Mass

For those looking to bulk over getting ripped, Mass is your schedule. Because it’s not the goal of most people using P90X3, it requires a little more information then other plans. First off, you’ll have to eat. A lot. Gaining muscle takes calories, probably more than you’re used to. You can use the P90X3 nutrition guide. You’ll just be calculating for gain instead of loss. It’s also important that you do the resistance workouts with some forethought. You want to stay in the hypertrophy ( or muscle growth) range during as many resistance sets as possible. Depending on how fast you go, 6 to 15 reps is what you’re after during each set, with the goal of maximizing time under tension. For best results, you should slow each rep down, focus on form, use all the weight you can safely handle, and minimize the rest between sets.

Doubles

Doubles is another niche rotation. It wont be appropriate for all of you, and everyone interested should complete 90 days of P90X3 first. More is not necessarily merrier when it comes to exercise. Without a proper base, Doubles will break you down beyond your body’s ability to recover. With that warning, it can help to accelerate both fitness gains and weight loss for those who are ready for it.

So for me personally, I have decided to follow the Lean Schedule, since that is my ultimate goal is to lean out and tone up (plus I'm not a big fan of pull-ups, and the lean schedule doesn't really have any). Each schedule is broken up into 3 blocks, each consisting of a 3 week repeating rotation of 6 workouts followed by a transition week. What I love about this setup is how much variation it creates! Just as soon as you begin to become bored of a workout, the schedule changes and mixes it up! Plus, your body never plateaus because it is always being challenged in new ways. 

The past three weeks were Block 1 of the Lean Schedule for me, which looked like this: 

Monday: Accelerator-- By engaging both the aerobic and anaerobic pathways, Accelerator increases cardiovascular and muscular efficiency, resulting in more bang for your fat-burning buck. You achieve this by exercising at two different speeds, each targeting specific energy systems.  This unique combination eliminates downtime associated with power-based workouts, while maximizing the consistency of traditional aerobic workouts. This is your go-to cardio workout, and it will have you sweating.

Tuesday: The Warrior-- A total body workout, free of equipment, based on Tony's 10+ years of working with the U.S. Armed Forces. You'll circuit upper and lower-body resistance with core and cardio work, essentially touching on every area of fitness in one workout--- and it's all been honed into an uber intense 30 minute blast. When you need a one-size-fits-all workout that can be done anytime, anywhere, this is your drill. This is honestly the best total body workout I've ever done. 

Wednesday: X3 Yoga-- This flow style practice takes elements from Ashtanga, Hatha and others, and is perfect for filing the gaps in your fitness that other workouts cannot address. It is a perfect 30 minute routine, providing strength, balance, stamina, body awareness and flexibility.  I've never really done yoga, so this is very new for me. It's tough, and I have lots of room for improvement in both balance and flexibility, but I love it!

"The Crow"

Thursday: CVX-- My favorite of the workouts so far, CVX combines resistance with intervals in order to increase the impact across every energy system.  You'll stress everything fro power and anaerobic endurance to aerobic endurance.  You'll also strengthen your core. CVX uses weights and cardio to provide a full-body burn.

Friday: Isometrix-- combines isometric contraction with instability to make your core rock solid.  This is basically the hardest part of yoga, and you hold static movements for 45 seconds each.  Isometric contractions occur when the muscle neither shortens nor lengthens and the joint angle does not change, building static strength.  This workout requires the least amount of movement, yet is the hardest for me. I am totally sore the next day.

Saturday: Agility X-- A full-body workout that requires floor targets (made by placing two strips of tape on the floor marked by X's) to dictate movements, Agility X uses both aerobic and anaerobic energy, focusing on precision, power, flexibility and strength.  As opposed to traditional cardio workouts, these targeted movements force explosion, deceleration, and proprioceptive adaptations, the sum result being an increased ability to move effortlessly for extended periods of time. This one involves a lot of jumping and running, and is a sweat inducing workout for sure!

Sunday: Rest day or Dynamix-- Dynamix is a stretching routine designed to use your muscles, connective tissue and joint function in symbiotic actions to actively increase range of motion, flexibility and stabilization. 

I have to say, I'm honestly really floored by the results of only 3 weeks. Prior to doing P90X3, I had just finished up Focus T25, which is very plyometric and cardio-heavy. This is a very different style of workout, and for me, I think it is really helping me lean out and achieve significant muscle definition. For the first time in my life, I have core muscles that are the beginning of a six-pack?! I mean, what?! Seriously?! 

Honestly, I'm amazed, because there hasn't been a single crunch involved in this past 3 weeks, and I haven't added any additional exercises to my routine outside of P90X3. I can't believe how much my stomach has changed!

I have also lost 2 pounds. That may not sound like a lot, but for me, it's huge. I don't need to lose a whole lot more weight, so it's those "last 5 pounds" that are the hardest. Despite eating clean and working out 6 days a week for a long time, I've pretty much been at a stable weight for the past few months. To all of a sudden see a couple of pounds fall off is a big sign that this program is really working for me.

Of course, in addition to the workouts, I have been sticking to my clean eating plan. As you probably know, I always create a meal plan on Sundays and for the most part stick to it pretty religiously throughout the week. Here was last week's plan:

And as always, I drink my Shakeology every single day. I swear by it, and honestly believe that not only does my shake accelerate my results, but it helps me have the energy for my workouts and ensures that I get all of my daily nutrition. Plus I just really love it :)

I never took a real "before" picture, but I'll be taking progress pics from here on out. Check back next week to see how the transition week goes-- it's my first time trying out Pilates X! I'm excited!