Recipe Review: Amazeballs

Posted on by eatloveplank

It’s Recipe Review time in the ELP House and I am exited about this one. I am a huge fan of Fitnessista and when I saw her remix her own Amazeballs I had to give it a try. Protein balls are all over the interwebs and especially in the fitness blogs. There are sooooo many different ways to make them and this summer my obsession has been anything that is lemony with blueberries so I just had to give this one a try. Are you ready for this? For the full recipe for these Lemon Blueberry Amazeballs please check out Fitnessista.

Missed the Agave syrup in this Picture!

This recipe is soooo easy that Kas was able to do almost everything by himself. We started off by putting the Protein Powder, Oats, Blueberries, Almond butter, Salt and Cinnamon in the Ninja and blended. (I skipped the Stevia, not a fan)

Next I added the zest from a lemon, juice from half a lemon and some Agave syrup and we blended again. Once everything was nice and mixed I added a sprinkle of whole oats for a little more texture. Now, I made my balls WWWAAAAYYYY to big so I was only able to get 2 balls but hey, you live and learn right.

Regardless of size…… they are delicious! This is the perfect small meal or snack for pre or post workout. It is a great way to get in some good protein, my mom will really benefit from these little balls of wonder! It is super easy to make and you can easily make a large batch and have snacks for the week. The mix of the Lemon and Blueberry gives it refreshing taste with the right amount of sweet! I love it. Plenty more will be made in this house and there are soooo many recipes out there that you could never get bored!

What is your favorite Protein Ball recipe?

XOXO

Eat Love Plank

Let them eat CAKE! Recipe Review

Posted on by eatloveplank

Hello! I am very excited to be back. The last 2 weeks have been a scary and wonderful rollercoaster but I will explain more at a later time. I hope I did not lose anyone. We are going to start off strong with a delicious and healthier cake recipe. Both myself and my son love sweets, specifically chocolate cake! Who doesn’t like chocolate cake, well besides those allergic to chocolate maybe? While scrolling Pinterest, I came across a pin reminding me of my Hungry Girl recipe books; 4 different cake variations that are guilt free. This is the one that caught my eye! For full recipe and instructions go here.

In the description it says that devils food is the favorite mix but spiced is good and in this house….. we want chocolate, so chocolate it is. After a quick trip to the store it was time to start baking.

Kasyn loves to help me in the kitchen. He says one day he wants me to open a restaurant and he will work in the front and help people. That little guy just surprises me daily. A good wash of the hands and here we go. Yup, that is only 2 ingredients. TWO INGREDIENTS! This one cannot get any easier. Into the bowl the cake mix and pumpkin went.

You will need an electric mixer for this because the batter gets extremely thick and was impossible for us to do by hand. The finished mix will be super thick. That is the only way I can explain it, almost doughy.

Spray a cake pan with Olive oil then spread the batter out in the pan. Take your time because the batter is stubborn. And a little kitchen humor helps too!

Bake at 400 degrees, and time it based on the instructions on the cake mix depending on the pan that you use. Once cooked take it out and enjoy the smell of freshly baked cake in your house while it cools.

Review time! HOLY COW! From now on when I am baking a cake, this is how I will do it. Not only did I love it without frosting, the hubs, the kiddo and the sister did as well. We added a little frosting to it which will of course up the calorie count, but at 140 calories for 1/8 of the cake I’ll manage. It is thick and moist so an 8th of the cake will be too much anyways. There is no hint of pumpkin and using the Devil’s Food cake mix gives it the perfect amount of chocolate but not too rich. This one is definitely kid tested and mother approved!

What is your favorite cake?

XOXO

Eat Love Plank

Back to your regular programming?

Posted on by eatloveplank

So Hello! I hope it has been a great Holiday week for you. It has been a very enlightening and a self observing week for me so far. Like I said before I know I am missing some posts. I wanted to give a quick hello and make sure you know I have not forgotten about you. The last week(ish) has been very eye-opening and i have learned a lot about myself and my goals and my soul. I have learned that although I am super new to blogging. I love it. I miss sitting down and writing and finding recipes and trying them out. However, my family will always come first and we are in a very transitional period in our life. My hope is to be back to my normal schedule next week. That is hoping that life regulates itself over the weekend, if not then I will take one more week to make sure all the kinks are back to normal. I will post an update if things do not go back to normal. Thank you sooooo much for understanding.

XOXO

Eat Love Plank

What is going on?

Posted on by eatloveplank

First I will start with….. I’m sorry. I know I missed Friday’s review. This weekend was my dad’s 60th birthday and family will always come first. It may have been a small party but lots of planning had to go into it. Holding an event at someone else’s house is not always ideal. Then last night I hopped on to get a post up and WordPress was down or not working or something. I looked on the forum and lots of people seemed to be having similar problems. So the post that I typed and did pics and all that jazz is now all coding and I can not figure out how to fix it. I will have to just retype it and see if I can remember everything. So this is just a quick update (if this even posts) to say I did not forget!

To all the bloggers who do this every day. I tip my hat to you! I have only been doing it a short while and dealing with all the mishaps is enough to pull your hair out. So please bear with me. I am trying to figure out what happened.

XOXO

Eat Love Plank

Home Sweet Havoc! What were we thinking?

Posted on by eatloveplank

A little back story. About 3 yrs ago we bought our house knowing that it would need work, that’s why we got such a great deal on it. We just kinda thought it would hold out a little longer. So about 3 months ago we noticed that the shower in our master bath was leaking into our bedroom so we had to stop using it until we could figure out why it was leaking. So after a few tests to see if it was a loose drain or broken pipe we still had no answer. Finally after a little thinking I had remembered that the soap dish was pulling away from the wall a little and after closer inspection we saw that the grout around it had deteriorated and the dish was letting water behind it. Mystery solved. So the plan at first was to just pull down the tile and put in the shower surround that you can just get at Home Depot! Quick, cheap fix right? Ya right! Once we started pulling down the tiles we saw just how bad the damage was.

Lots and lots of gross yucky smelly mold. Me being a complete germ freak…….. The WHOLE BATHROOM HAS TO GO!  Oooooppppss.So we set a budget that was reasonable but tight. We were going to do as much of the work ourselves as we could and find the best deals on the rest of the stuff. Right….. So one night after a bad day at work I had some frustration to get out so I took it out on the bathroom. And boy was it awesome! Knocking holes in the sheet rock and taking an old bat to the shower tiles. It was the best way to get out all of my frustration in a productive way. A few hours later and it was all down.

We kept things like the counter tops, toilet and mirror. Things that could be recycled until we are able to afford what we really want. We also decided to convert the tub to a shower. The space is to small for a tub that I can not even stretch my legs out in. That weekend I found a sale on a bathroom Vanity. A $500 dollar vanity on sale for $125, who would pass that up? After some dealings with a couple of rude sales people at a couple of different stores and some contact with the Home Depot complaint line….

I got 2! Hey its a nice vanity and I can use it when we do the other bathroom as well. Vanity, Check! The following weekend we went to a local discount flooring store called Floor and Decor and I found a beautiful tile for the floor of the bathroom as well as a flat pebble floor for the base. (The large “white linen” tile in the back is for the floor, the pebble is the shower floor. The other 2 tiles are no longer in the running)

So far so good on the budget… Now we get to the point where we can not do the work ourselves. The plumbing and electrical. I want to add a light and switch were my new “makeup” area will be…(where the old cabinet used to be)

…as well as move the drain to the center of the shower with a larger opening and raise the head of the shower. I am not a fan of having to bend backwards to wash my hair. Were people just that much shorter 30 years ago? Things should start moving along now right? Nope! The plumber came in on a Saturday, jack hammered the floor, moved the drain and started our float. Yay.. progress…

Not so fast! The drain was not centered and the shower edge was not in the right spot. Time to rip it all out and get a new plumber. Plumber number 2… Go!

Moved drain, perfect center, check. Raised shower head and valve, perfect center and 7 ft high, check. Puts in new float and membrane with proper folds to allow for drainage in the event of a leak, awesome job, check! Still have not seen nor heard from the electrician that was supposed to be there 3 weeks ago. Time to look for a new electrician I guess. As a gift, my parents are buying the Hardibacker and sheet rock for the bathroom. Gotta love parents! So Hardibacker purchased, let’s get the shower started….. Not! I will just say we are at an impasse.

Time has been a huge burden on this project. Have I mentioned before how hectic our schedule is already, lets add a bathroom remodel. So as of today we have a new shower drain and spout. Almost all of the materials are bought and we are ready to go. Darn electrician is kinda holding us up a bit. Let’s just hope this doesn’t take another 3 months. Wish us luck!

Do you know any good electricians in the Dallas area? We could use the help!

XOXO

Eat Love Plank

Recipe Review: Baked Oatmeal with Fruit

Posted on by eatloveplank

I have been seeing tons of posts on Pinterest and in the blogs lately about baked oatmeal. Since I am already on the Overnight Oats bandwagon I thought I would give this one a try. After a good 30 minutes of searching I finally found a recipe that did not take to many ingredients or steps and that I pretty much had everything for it already. This one is from Annie Eats  and if you want the full recipe and directions check out her site. She has tons of recipes and we are gonna give this one a go. Kasyn kept thinking I was saying cake oatmeal instead of baked oatmeal so he wanted to help. I think he hears what he wants. So we pulled out all of the ingredients, washed up and got ready to go.

We started by mixing all of the dry ingredients.

I use the sharp objects and he lines the dish with bananas and blueberries.

He even sneaks some in here and there. Caught red-handed!

Now its time to put together all of the wet ingredients. He loved the way it smelt, said it smells like breakfast!

Next add the dry oat mix over the fruit, pour the milk mixture over the oats and top with remaining nuts and a little extra cinnamon and put it in the 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes.

It was a very easy recipe to put together and the kitchen smells like blueberry pie right now. It would be the perfect busy weekend breakfast.

However, for our household it was a little bland. It was described as a soggy organic cereal. I will definitely try it again with a few adjustments, like maybe adding some protein powder or peanut butter. Hmmmm that sounds good.

UPDATE! The Baked Oatmeal has now been sitting over night and I had it for breakfast this morning. It was MMMUUUCCCHHHHH better after sitting longer. The “cake” was much more cake like and held together. The sogginess has hardened a little and it now has a little crunch to it. The flavors are bolder and sweeter. I then drizzled a little agave nectar over it and it was perfect.

So to rate the actual recipe that I found…. I did not love it, but I think with a few basic modifications it could be great. It definitely needs to sit over night. This is not to say that I may have done something wrong. That is very likely! :P Till next time though…. Good eats!

What is your favorite way to eat Oatmeal?

XOXO

Eat Love Plank

Workout DVD’s Galore!

Posted on by eatloveplank

Over the last couple of years I have gathered up a small collection of workout dvd’s that I have purchased with my own money. Some have been for me and some have been for my husband. You would think, WOW they must really be in shape. LOL Wrong! Most of these DVD’s are still in the original sealed wrap. There are tons but in this picture I have only put the ones that I want to give a go!

I am going to try out each DVD for small amount of time and give a brief review of what I think about it. Now of course the ones in the TurboFire kit go as a 90 day challenge so what I want to do is give a small opinion on each one and answer questions like…

What level is the DVD best for? (Beginner, experienced, expert trainer)

Was it fun, enlightening or calming?

Would I want to do it again?

A little about me and my experience with “working out” to give you an idea of what I have to work with. I am currently 28 and out of shape. You could say I have been out of shape for 7 years. Before that I was considered an athlete. I played volleyball, softball, basketball, ran track and dabbled in everything else that I could. So you could say that I might be a little more coordinated than some. But for the sake of these reviews and the reality of my current situation, I am a beginner with 2 handfuls of injuries from torn rotator cuffs, torn ACL’s and meniscus’s to genetic issues like degenerative cartilage leaving me pretty much starting over. So this is a challenge for myself plus it will finally get some use out of all these DVD’s. Let’s do this!

First I am going to start with the Biggest Loser DVD’s. First one I will try is the original. (far left, white case) I’ll try it out for a week and next Friday I will let you know what I thought about it. Then from there we will just keep moving through the groups.

Next I will work my way through the Exhale Core Fusion Collection. From the description of these DVD’s they are based on the Barre Method, which I love by the way!

Then it will be the battle of the Yoga DVD’s. Jillian VS. Bob.

And once those are all done, maybe I will take the 90 day challenge and burn through the Turbo Fire. I attempted it before but schedules were just overwhelming. Maybe this time will be easier!

So that is the plan. Summer is here and I am going to take advantage of it!

What is your favorite workout DVD?

XOXO

Eat Love Plank