Ok, so who has that song stuck in their heads now? 😉
Well, I just thought I’d go ahead and crank up some tunes…
Because it’s time to parrrrrrrtay!
Be sure to head on over to Peas & Crayons and show our the queen of our weekly shenanigans some comment love! We love you Jenn!
This week marks the second in our “Summer Staples” theme for the month and it is definitely alive in this post. I just can’t get enough of this season’s fresh produce from my local farmer’s market!
I got this morning started off (slash ended for me since I’m now a professional zombie) right with my newest g0-to breakfast…
I made mine with a combination of my favorite GNC powders and topped it a drizzle of coconut flour sauce (coconut flour thinned with water), fresh cherries, and a few coconut flakes!
Protein-packed PERFECTION!
After that, I was off to dreamland!
Once I woke up, I chugged some water and hit the gym for a quick cardio and abs workout. I prefer working out on an empty stomach, but let me tell you, the drive home felt RIDICULOUSLY long!
Fortunately, that gave me just enough time to think about what I wanted for lunch. By the time I pulled into the driveway, I knew exactly what I wanted…
RUNNY EGGS!
I call this my summer breakfast sandwich extraordinaire!
toast cottage cheese sun-dried tomato spread steamed kale perfectly fried egg with runny yolk bell peppers tomato slices fresh ground black pepper toastÂ
Mmm mmm MMM!
On my way to the hospital a few hours later, I enjoyed one of my Coconut Cranberry Protein Bars with a much-appreciated although un-pictured cup of coffee! 😉
And as if I didn’t cram enough fresh veggies into my glorious breakfast sandwich, I made myself a mother of a salad for dinner that was nothing short of spectacular…
kale cottage cheese sprouts okra bell peppers tomatoes red onion fresh ground pepper nutritional yeast
Don’t you just wanna dive right in?
But wait, that’s not all!
What’s a ginormo salad without a bit of crunch?
I felt like I won the lottery the other day when I found one of my favorite flavors of Pop Chips on sale at Kroger…love love love that spicy flava!
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a large bowl, combine oats, flour, protein powder, cereal, cinnamon, and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, combine applesauce, almond butter, coconut oil, vanilla, agave, and stevia and whisk until smooth.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.
5. Push up your sleeves and prepare to put some elbow grease into it as you stir ingredients together.
6. Spread mixture into a greased 13×9 baking dish.
7. Add dried cranberries to the top and push down into mixture with a spatula.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edges are browned and crisp.
9. Allow to cool 10 minutes before slicing.
10. Store in an air-tight container for up to a week or wrap in plastic wrap and freeze.
I tried something new with adding the cereal and I’m so glad I did. I’m all about textures and I love the bit of CRUNCH it added. Feel free to sub in any dried fruit for the recipe (or scratch that chocolate itch if you must) but I think the tartness of the cranberries was the perfect match to the overall buttery coconut almond flavor.
Soft and crumbly, chewy and crunchy, perfectly sweet…
And with nutritionals that will knock your socks off!
This bar makes an EXCELLENT midday snack…the high protein and fiber are guaranteed to keep you satisfied for more than a couple of hours. Or even better, crumble it over a bowl of Greek yogurt and you’ve got yourself a POWER BREAKFAST! 🙂
But that isn’t even the best part…
The ingredient that started it all.
One of the BEST protein powders I’ve ever tasted!
I was lucky enough to win a giveaway from the lovely Jill a few months back for this container of Collagen Sport Whey Isolate Complex from NeoCell. Since then I’ve been enjoying it in smoothies, ugly pancakes, and homemade protein bars and I’m absolutely LOVING it!
Each scoop gives a whopping THIRTY grams of protein without ANY artificial sweeteners or flavors, fillers or synthetic ingredients.
It’s also gluten, wheat, sugar, and lactose FREE!
So you wanna hear the best part?
NeoCell wants to give one of YOU a container for FREE!
HOW TO ENTER:
Please leave a SEPARATE comment for each entry
Mandatory:
1. Tell me what your recent snack/food addiction is!
Additional entries:
1. Like NeoCell Sport on Facebook
2. Follow NeoCell Sport on Twitter
3. Follow Kiss My Broccoli on Twitter
4. Tweet the following: “I just entered to win FREE @NeoCellSport #protein powder from @kissmybroccoli http://tinyurl.com/9zbswno #giveaway”
5. Follow Kiss My Broccoli on Pinterest and PIN this post!
Giveaway will run until Thursday, August 9 at 11:59 CST
Open to US and Canadian residents!
Good luck!
While I did receive a container of NeoCell Sport for free, I was not compensated in ANY way for this review.Â
I was posting up a storm on Instagram all this weekend…do you follow me? If not, you totally should…you know, because ALL the cool kids are on Instagram these days! 😉
BB was able to visit this weekend, but didn’t get in until late Friday night so we didn’t really have much of a dinner…but after text-teasing him with my latest kitchen creation, there was no holding him back…
Luckily, I at least g0t my hug and kiss in BEFORE he started making love to granola squares! 😉
While he mmm’ed and ohhhhmagursh’d this way through a handful of bars, I decided to slice open a papaya…
I had read on a blog…or seen on Instagram…really, there’s no telling…that you can actually EAT papaya seeds! Not being a huge fan of papaya, I thought about giving it another try, thinking that I could slice it up, add it to some spinach and use these magical “peppery” seeds as a salad topping…
Verdict: DON’T EVER EVER EVER EAT THESE THINGS!!!!* *Unless you’re a bit masochistic and you LIKE inducing your gag reflex! 😉
I would equivalate the taste to that of having dog germs. In the famous words of Lucy: “Get some hot water! Get the disinfectant! Get some iodine!!”
Shortly after grabbing a towel to scrape my tongue clean of any and all of the pure pepper hell flavor of the seeds, the papaya flesh was considered…tasted…and then given to BB. I ended up making do with another bowl of the EXACT same thing I had for lunch:
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…am I right?
In the bowl went cottage cheese, peanut flour, THIS cereal, bloobs and steebies!
MUCH better!
On Saturday, BB and I headed out to run some errands and wound up hitting up another restaurant in our never-ending quest to find the perfect hole-in-a-wall BBQ joint
The pulled pork was pretty good…the sauces were perfectly spiced…and the fried okra…well, it’s fried okra people! Yum!
But what REALLY won me over was the cheesy hashbrown casserole…I haven’t had it in YEARS and it was jussssssst right!
Say “cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese”-y hashbrowns! 😉
Oh, and I can’t deny my excitement when I spotted this:
You don’t even know how hard it was for me not to buy them all! Lol
On the way home, we stopped by my new favorite Asian supermarket so I could restock on some goodies.
I grabbed more packages than you need to know of my beloved puffed cereal cookies, some roasted seaweed snacks, and something new…lotus root! I’m super excited to try these!
While I was checking out, the older lady beside me in line looked at me and asked…”Are you Koren?”
REALLY?! What gave it away? Was it my red hair? Or maybe my ghostly pale skin! Lol
When I said no, she asked, “Then why you buy Korean food?”
I replied: “Because I like it?”
And the awkward moment of the year award goessssssss to….. 😉
And of course, the laughs didn’t end when later that night, BBÂ started making obscene comments regarding my mutant zucchini!
Wanna know what happened to our little phallic friend?
Well, after seeing Laura post her version of Caralyn’s Cauliflower Pizza (topped with a perfectly runny egg), I finally broke down and attempted my own Thursday night. It was so good I just KNEW I had to make it for BB!
I subbed quinoa flour for the almond flour to make my “crust” and then topped it with all things delicious!
This time I made SURE to remember to top mine with an egg while BB preferred his “blanket of meat” as he so put it! 😉
I cooked my egg a bit too long (next time, I’ll take Laura’s tip of setting the broiler and adding the egg in the last few minutes of cooking for a more #yolkporn worthy dinner!),
But oh myLANTA was this amazing!!
And what’s a pizza night without a little vino?
I may or may not have gotten tipsy off just ONE glass of our red that evening!
What can I say…I’m cheap! I mean…a cheap DATE!!! 😉Â
This morning, we woke up early and BB treated me to pancakes at one of my new favorite breakfast spots!
Excuse his non-smile…I caught him mid-chew! 😉
I feel it’s my duty as the “Pancake Queen” to make my way down their list of custom pancakes, so this time I ordered the blueberry pancakes
While BB got the same thing as last time…or so he thought. He ordered the pecan pancakes the last time we went, but I SWEAR they didn’t look OR TASTE anything like these!
#Foodporn at it’s finest!
I told him he HAD to wait for me to take a pic after he added the syrup because it was total #foodporn…then I had to explain what foodporn was! Lol
For the record, his pancakes got 101 likes on Instagram to my 84!
After breakfast, we headed home to rest our tummies and lounge on the couch until he had to leave….only ONE MORE WEEK until this out of town nonsense is over and he’s back for good!
Good-bye kisses are the best…and obviously make for the cheesiest of smiles!
Usually on the Sundays that I have with BB, after he leaves I have just enough time to hit fix a snack, hit the gym, and take a cat nap before heading into work for the night.
Well, today’s snack was a little different AND Instagram worth for sure!
Remember thatbee pollen I picked up a few weeks ago? Well, I finally got around to using it and let me just say, I think I found a new obsession! A little bit of an earthy taste, but with the subtle sweetness, it went PERFECTLY with my bowl of yogurt and bloobs!
Just the right amount of pre-workout fuel to get me through my workout!
My first Body Combat class!
For those of you who aren’t familiar with this, it’s a martial arts based class…kind of like kickboxing, but set to fun upbeat music! Lots of punching, kicking, and definitely enough cardio to get you nice and sweaty!
In other words, my dream come true! 😉
You know what else is a dream come true?
Seeing results!!!
When I went to get changed for my workout, I noticed that all morning, I had been pulling up on my jeans. At first I didn’t think anything about it, but then I realized I could pull them down without unbuttoning them.
So I tried something.
I reached in the back of my closet for my old jeans (a size lower than what I was currently wearing) to see if they would fit…
And they DID!!!!!!!!
*happy dance* 😀
Tell me the highlights of your weeekend!
Anyone else out there tried cauliflower pizza? Or lotus root?Â
My name is Heather! I'm a southern gal with a passion for food, fitness, and photography...and alliteration if you didn't notice! Here you'll find a mix of random musings, delicious recipes, and hopefully a chuckle or two! Check out my "About' tab to learn more!
