Two-Ingredient Banana Peanut Butter Ice Cream Recipe | Two Peas & Their Pod

So I came across this recipe on Pinterest, I thought I would give it a go.  I had 3 huge (like 9″ long) banana’s, that were getting brown.  Normally I would make Banana Bread, or Cake, or biscuits, but then I saw this recipe, thought it looked easy, so I would give it a go.

Two-Ingredient Banana Peanut Butter Ice Cream Recipe | Two Peas & Their Pod.

Um wow! Who would have thought that you could have banana icecream just from banana’s!

So my daughter is allergic to peanuts, so I didn’t add peanut butter, but you could sub it with sunflower seed butter, or almond butter.  Or you could just use a bit of yoghurt like I did.

Seriously really easy, and so good for you.

Try it you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Hard

There are things in life that are hard.

Riding a bike for the first time is hard.

Learning to read when you are 6 years old, that’s also hard.

Enduring chemo, yeah that would be painfully hard.

Me trying to kick a goal for the world cup, yeah that would be hard too.

Seeing a loved one or pet for the last time at the hospital, gut wrenching hard.

But putting down the cookie and picking up a carrot, or celery, or even spinach, that’s not hard.  So stop telling yourself it’s hard.  There are harder things in life to go through.

So what’s your excuse?

Source: seesawdesigns.blogspot.com via Jackie on Pinterest

Bib Arrival

Who gets excited about a bib arriving?

Well me of course.

My bib came. 15km long course here I come!#run4thekids#runningtwitter.com/LoveMiCreation…

— Matilda I (@LoveMiCreations) February 25, 2013

And yes, I’ve decided to try my hand at twitter.

 

Edit: https://twitter.com/oniongirlblog

is my running and fitness twitter feeds.

Roast Turkey Casserole

So I’m a fan of Carrie Brown on Facebook (because of the Smarter Science of Slim).

Well one particular day she posted that she had made this particular recipe.  I looked it up and was like, well this looks super easy, I will have to put this on the list to try out.

Source: marmaladeandmileposts.com via Matilda on Pinterest

 

Well O M G!!!!!!!!!!!!! This recipe is just AH-MAZING.

Not only is it so super easy, it is so super yummy.  The kids loved it too.

Will definitely be making this one again.

To Read or Not To Read

I enjoy reading now more than I did years ago.

My family (my dad and sister) are big readers.  They read all the time.  It’s rare for them not to be reading something.

One of my books this year is to read 30 books.  With my ears and eyes.

I’m doing really well so far.  I’ve read 7 books so far. 6 with my eyes, and 1 audio book.

But I also have another mission.  I want to read more non fiction books.  So I’ve decided for each 2 fiction book I read I need to read at least 1 non fiction book.

It’s also really handy to have my ereader back working normally (it’s brand new and was being a spaz), this makes reading a lot easier, and it fits perfectly into my handbag.

The other advantage of reading is that encourages the kids to read too.  I caught my son asleep with a book on his chest, too cute to say the least.

Tackle new Recipes

Challenge Accepted!

When you are are parent, you know what your kids like, and what you’re kids don’t like.  So you tend to make the same meals over and over again.  It can get a bit boring.

This year I have un-intentionally made a goal of trying new recipes.

It came about because well, I want to go more SANE ie Paleo way.  I see the benefits already by not eating so much rice and pasta and bread.  My son has also un-intentionally gone gluten free.  He doesn’t really care for bread, he’d rather have rice or corn thins.  He does eat bread every now and then.

So I’ve baked some things that I know that the kids will like but done a twist. For example, my kids like eggs, so I tried a cheese soufflé.  Big hit with my daughter. My son ate it but didn’t fall in love with it.

I’ve created a Pinterest Board where you can see the recipes that I’ve tried and tested here.

Other recipes that I haven’t found online, but in recipe books I will write up and post on my blog, just look up Tags of food or recipes.

The goal is to obviously have new recipes to add to the list of kid approved.  I’ve already written up my menu plan for the next 2 weeks.  I’m excited!

Cheesy Omlette

I have a new love of eggs.

In fact one of my goals for the year is to have a chicken coop, so I can have free range eggs at my finger tips.

Egg whites are high in protein, and when you are trying to increase your protein intake then egg whites make it a little bit easier.

So this recipe is so super easy, and really low in calories.

Ingrediants

1 whole egg
1 egg white
50g of low fat cottage cheese (I use the Bulla Brand)
25g of frozen peas (optional)

Method

1. Whisk the eggs and the cottage cheese together in a bowl. 
2. Coat a small (non stick) fry pan with cooking spray (i use canola).
3. On medium heat (for me it’s in-between gas mark 3-4 even though I have an electric oven), poor mix into pan.
4. Add peas if using.
5. Flip or fold when top of mix becomes solid.
6. Serve

Macro’s – 133 calories, 4g carbs, 6g fat, 15g protein
(based on no peas)

83 down

Kilometres that is.

For the month of January I ran 83km towards my goal of running 1000 km in 2013.

 

So how am I coming along?  Well right on track actually.

As you can see from the nike+ screen dump, I had 13 runs with an average distance of 6.4km (6.4 x 13 = 83.1 km).

Considering it was also the holiday period and what not, I’m happy with the result.  I didn’t get to run as often as I would like or as far as I wanted, but that doesn’t matter, I still went out and did it.

Now February is a shorter month, but that doesn’t phase me, I’m still going to do my best to totally smash my goal.

A Year of Fine Tuning

So last year (2012) was a year of just getting fit, and pushing myself.

This year I plan on just maintaining my fitness.  Yes I still have fitness goals, but my fitness goals are different to what they were.

For example in June I set these goals:

1. Get to 62kg
2. Run a sub 55min 10km
3. Run a sub 25 5km
4. Finish a half marathon
5. Run a half marathon

But now those goals are:

1. read/listen to 30 books
2. run 7 fun runs
3. run 3 half marathons
4. be a pace runner for a run
5. run a fun run in another state

I should mention that these are in no particular order.

The other thing that I’m fine tuning is what I’m eating.

Notice I didn’t say diet.

That’s right, I’m not on a diet.  I’m just eating way better. I’m eating way more veggies and whole foods.  I’ve cut down my carbohydrate intake and increased my protein intake.

My protein intake use to be anywhere from 10-20% of my total food intake.  Which is really low.  I was eating anywhere from 40-80 grams of protein a day.  Which in the grand scheme of things is not a lot.  My carbohydrate intake was insane! It was anywhere from 180 grams to 300 grams a day!

Protein is important as it helps to build and sustain muscle.  I also found out recently that our body will naturally convert protein to carbohydrates if it’s needed (how cool is that).

So my percentages for my carb/protein/fat intake was as follows:  55% Carbohydrate / 15% Protein / 30% Fat.

I’ve now changed it to the following: 40% Carbohydrate / 30% Protein / 30% Fat.

It’s taken me a month to get use to the changes, but let me tell you, eating more protein has done many things.

1. It’s filling me up faster.
2. I’m not feeling as tired
3. I’m not craving sugar as much

And those are the things I have noticed.  I still have to fine tune it, but I’ll get the hang of it.

The other thing I’m doing is I’m trying out a lot more new recipes.  Especially paleo recipes.

Why Paleo? Because that’s what our ancestors ate.  And no I’m not talking cave people (although they would have been paleo eaters), I’m talking our ancestors of just 100-200 years ago.  In the sense of if they didn’t grow it, kill it, or make it themselves they wouldn’t eat it.

I don’t know if I will ever go full paleo because I know carbohydrates have a place in a runners diet. And well I’m a runner (and I do like my carbs), but I will try to make better choices.

Muesli

I love a good muesli.  This is the muesli that I make that I like to use as a topper on my weetbix or convert it into Bircher Muesli in the slow cooker during winter.

This particular recipe will make 8 cups worth of muesli.

Ingredients

• 360g Rolled Oats
• 110g Bran Cereal (or Processed Bran aka All Bran)
• 80g Pepitas/Pumpkin Seeds
• 80g Sunflower Seeds
• 125g of Almonds
• 170g of Sultana’s/Cranberries (or approx 80g each of sultana’s & Cranberries)
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Mix together in a bowl, and store in an air tight container.

8 Cups = 3818 calories
1 Cup = 477.25 calories
1/2 Cup = 238 calories
1/4 Cup = 119 calories