Try this for a thick banana shake!
- 3/4 c. orange juice
- 1/2 frozen banana
- 3/4 scoop vanilla protien powder
- 1/3 c. frozen raspberries
- 1 T. sugar free fat free banana pudding powder
- ice
Very Berry Banana Smoothie
PB Banana Spread
I feel like I am reposting all of Katie’s ideas from Chocolate Covered Katie but they’re great! Here’s another must-do for you all:
Peanut Butter Banana Spread. There. I said it. This is So. Good. I did it a little different than Katie and I added some Agave Nectar. Wowzers. This is yummy.
Start by throwing a banana, 1 T. peanut butter and 1 T. agave nectar (or honey) into the blender or magic bullet. (Here’s a picture of the magic bullet for those of you who don’t know what it is. It is a small blender that you pulse and has cups that you screw the blade onto. It’s great for small amounts of things and things that don’t blend easily. When it gets caught you just take it off and shake the ingredients back down into the blades.)
You are left with this creamy spread (only 45 calories a tablespoon) for toast, oatmeal, yogurt, ice cream, or just about anything!
If that’s not yummy enough, how yummy are these:
Tofu Pudding Tutorial
I got a reminder from Krissa a while back about the tofu pudding tutorial I mentioned a few weeks, ok maybe months, ago. Well, here it is! The main thing I use tofu for is blending it into things. It gives puddings and smoothies and really good thick texture. It doesn’t have a ton of taste so it kind of takes on the flavors of things it is mixed with. Today I am going to teach you how to make tofu pudding. 
The flavor for today is Chocolate Banana Pudding. Be creative with mix in’s here and create whatever flavor you feel like! Warning: I tried chocolate strawberry and it tasted like barf. So don’t be creative and create that one. You won’t like it, I promise.Â
Start by blending a whole banana and one 3 oz serving of firm tofu. I started the blending in my Blendtec but I wasn’t making a big enough serving for it to mix well so I transferred it to my Magic Bullet. If you don’t have a Magic Bullet that blends single servings in small cups you may have to make a few pudding servings at once for your blender to blend this well.Â
Once this is mixed well add your flavorings. I added 1 T. cocoa and some stevia and mixed well again.
Of course, it needs some toppings. I added peanut butter and a few chocolate chips.
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 See this post by Katie at Chocolate-covered Vegan for tons of tofu pudding flavor ideas!
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DON’T FORGET to enter my AMAZING GRASS giveaway!!! It ends on Wednesday at noon, MST.
Banana Soft Serve
If you frequent the food blog world you have seen banana soft serve floating around. It is very easy, very refreshing and very sweet. It is very easy too! All you do is slightly thaw two frozen bananas and blend them up! I used the magic bullet so it was in a smaller cup. It might be hard to blend at first but just keep on going and soon you will have a very thick banana soft serve!Â
And what concoction would be complete without some toppings? I did peanut butter, coconut and chocoalte chips.Â
This is a great and refreshing treat for a summer afternoon!
Homemade Chocolate Banana Protein Bar
Chocolate Banana Protein Bars
8 scoops chocolate protein powder
1 mashed banana
1 t. vanilla
1 c. oats
1 small package chocolate jelly pudding (sugar free)
1 c. milkÂ
- Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Pour into a greased 8×8 dish. Freeze for 2-3 hours or until firm enough (but not too firm) to cut.
- Cut into 9 bars. Individually wrap and freeze.
***Really good with 1 T. peanut butter spread on top before eating***
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So I got my pictures done yesterday! I will have them in about a week or two and I’ll get them up here. I think they turned out great! I’m really excited about it. I am also really excited to get back to a more normal diet and eat a little more food.  I have discovered this amazing bowl of oatmeal that is to. die. for. I will feature it later this week. Until then, have a great day!
“Fried” Banana Protein Pancake
I have been so caught up with oatmeal lately that I haven’t posted any of my many protein pancake creations. This is the one I’ve been eating a lot lately. The bananas make it so good! BUT, there’s a technique to it. Read on…
The recipe for the basic protein pancake is:
- 2 egg whites
- 1/4 cup oats
- 1/4 cup cottage cheese
- splash vanilla
- cinnamon
- stevia
Mix all that in the blender. Pour into a 10 inch skillet. When it is almost ready to flip (there are bubbles and it is almost firm enough to handle a flip) press some banana slices into the pancake. Then flip and finish cooking. I usually top with 1 T. natural peanut butter or almond butter and about 1 teaspoon of honey drizzled over the top. The honey makes it so good and sweet!
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Check back tomorrow for my current favorite ab exercise!
Peanut Butter and Chocolate Frozen Banana
I love frozen bananas with peanut butter in them. Today I wanted a little chocolate in the mix too, though. I chopped up some chocolate chips and had them at the ready!
I took a banana and sliced it lengthwise. Then I spread about 1 1/2 T. of almond butter (you can use natural peanut butter) down the middle. I finished it off by pressing the chopped chocolate chips into the almond butter and putting the banana back together again! I wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer for about a full day. I always eat these totally frozen. They are a yummy frozen treat!
Fruit and Nut Oatmeal
This had been my favorite go-to bowl of oats lately. I am loving it. I got the idea from another blogger, but I can’t remember who!!! I’m so sorry! I’d really love to give credit where it’s due so if you’re reading this remind me of where I saw this bowl of oats!Â
Into the oats I stirred:
- 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
- cinnamin
- stevia
I topped the oats with:
- 4 sliced dates
- 1/3 sliced banana
- 1 T. chopped walnuts/pecans
- 1 T. almond butter
This bowl of oatmeal is outstanding and keeps me full for about 4 hours! I love it and have been eating it every day for the last week!
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Oh my gosh, you guys, I feel just sick. I can’t find my garmin forerunner anywhere! I cannot run without that thing! It is here SOMEWHERE. I ran just under 7 miles on Saturday (and it was great, btw!) and then I came inside. I still had it when I came inside, so it is here somewhere. I seriously feel like I’m going to barf. I can’t just go buy another one. They’re expensive! And I have my longest runs coming up. Oh my. Ok, I’m going to stop whining about it and go start tearing my house apart. I’ll get back on here and let you know if I found it. Wish me luck.
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ETA: I FOUND IT!!!!! I knew I had it when I was downstairs strecthing on Saturday so it had to be there. I just started cleaning up the toy room and lo and behold, there is was on the floor! Hurray! My heart was beating and I almost started crying I was so relieved! Ok, now I’m off to have a great day!
Strawberry Banana Carrot Veggie Smoothie
The carrot makes this smoothie so thick! It was kind of watery until I added a big ol’ honkin’ carrot and then it got nice and thick. Just how I like it.
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup egg beaters
- 3/4 scoop vanilla protein powder
- 1 T. sf ff vanilla pudding mix
- 4 strawberries
- 1/3 banana
- 1 large carrot, cut into chunks
- Lots of ice
Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend to your hearts content!
(225 cals)
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Hey bloggy friends! Today has ending up being a nice relaxing day. A few things I was planning on doing have been canceled which leaves me some time to play with the kids and get some things done around the house! I helped at Caleb’s end of the year Luau class party this morning. It was really cute. Something happened that I thought was really cute. I was helping the kids make leis and one of the little boys didn’t get the pattern (straw, flower, straw, flower) right and he says, “Ah, I’m so lame!” Immediately the other kids in the group start saying, “No, you’re not lame!”, “You are so awesome!”, “No way, Jacob, you’re so not lame”, “Your lei looks so good!”. It was really cute. If only we as adults could be as supportive of each other as these cute little kindergarteners.Â
After school the kids and I went outside and played some tee ball. Caleb had his first practice last night and he did great! We practiced catching grounders and knowing when to NOT run to the next base.Â
That’s about all around here. I took today off from working out to let my quad heal. It is doing much better today. Thank you to those of you who asked. We’ll see how I’m feeling tomorrow. I may still skip out on the lunges tomorrow in boot camp so I’m good to go for my 5 1/2 mile run on Friday.
I hope you all have a great day!
Banana Cream Pie Protein Shake
This shake was so thick and yummy. Adding the frozen bananas and ice made it start growing and growing in the blender. This is a great one if you want to feel full for a long time and want the volume for about 220 calories!
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup egg beaters
- 1 T. banana cream sf ff pudding mix
- 1/2Â scoop vanilla protein powder
- 1/3 frozen banana
- 2 T. cottage cheese
- 1/2 T lf cream cheese
- ice
Tastes just like a piece of pie!
In my world today:
We got a rat today. I’ll be the first to admit that I was hesitant. I mean, look at their tails! Creepy! But Caleb wanted a pet and I’ve heard about how good rats are as pets and how smart they are. We headed to the pet store today and looked at them. The one we got is actually so cute! He gives little kisses. I guess you can teach a rat his name and teach him tricks and stuff. I think it will be a lot of fun. But, we’ll see.
I also got some new shorts today at Buckle. They’re way cute.Â
That’s about it so far for today. Oh, we are contemplating getting a Blendtec Blender. It’s just like a vitamix. Do any of you have one of these? A blendtec or a vitamix? Does the novelty wear off or do you still love it as much as you did the first day?
