Top 3 Pinterest Recipes I'm Not Cooking Right Now

After a rocky start with Pinterest, I'm now completely on board with that time-suck of a website. I pin and ogle, pin and ogle, again and again and again. My favorite place to pin is while waiting in the never-ending car line at the kids' school. Have you noticed that the pins on the mobile Pinterest seem much more interesting than the ones on the computer?

Here's the thing about Pinterest, though: do you ever actually go back and visit your own boards? Are you making the recipes that you've pinned to your food board?

I sure as heck don't!

But if I did, here's what I would fix:

Honey Crisp, Kiwi, Raspberry Salad



Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl with some vanilla yogurt. So easy...why haven't I done this? Oh yeah, because I don't visit my own boards!
P.S. Those don't look like Honey Crisp apples...seems to be Granny Smith from the looks of it.

Quinoa, Red Pepper, Cucumber Salad



This one's even got an official recipe. Maybe that's why I haven't fixed it.

No Bake Pumpkin Bites



Oh wait! I have made these...but only because I was the one who found the recipe and made it into a pin for Pinterest. Doesn't count!

And finally,

Sunflower Cupcakes



I know those aren't healthy, but they are adorable and my daughter has a birthday coming up this weekend. I just may need to break my streak and actually use one of my Pinterest pins.

Do you use Pinterest in the way it was intended?

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Workout of the Day

P90X Core Synergistics

Bananas for Yonanas

About a year ago I started hearing about something called Yonanas, a little machine that uses nothing but frozen fruit to make creamy soft serve "ice cream." Tony Horton and Missy Costello raved about it on Facebook, saying that the ice cream was delicious and healthy.

I did a little research on it and read pretty much nothing but good stuff. You can buy it online or at your local Target, Best Buy, or Bed, Bath and Beyond. I know that because I had to visit all three to find one! They were sold out at both Target and Best Buy.

 

Why it took a whole year for me to buy one of these babies is beyond me. The kids and I got one for Zach for Father's Day, and it is a big hit around here. Kate asks for "Nonanas" all the time, and any time we get some new fruit Drew asks if it would be good in Yonanas.

All you do is feed frozen bananas and other frozen fruit of your choice down the shoot of a food processor-like machine. No other sugar, no milk, no cream. Just fruit! And if you want to get creative with it you can add other flavor enhancers like peanut butter or chocolate. It comes with a recipe book full of ideas, and the website has even more as creative people come up with new things to press through the machine.

Here's a video showing how it works. Very, very easy:

The first flavor we fixed was Peanut Butter and Jelly, and it was delicious. Next up was Pumpkin Spice, which required a little prep work to make a pumpkin puree made with pure canned pumpkin, vanilla, and cinnamon. I froze the puree into ice cubes and then fed it through the machine after the bananas. It was my favorite so far, but I have a thing for pumpkin. Then we did Blueberry Peach Yonanas, and it was pretty great, too.

It's fifty bucks, and it will change the way you shop for bananas at the grocery store. I used to get all huffy when I'd go to the store and the bananas would be overripe. Now I get all excited and load up the cart with the "cheetah" bananas that I can take home, peel, and freeze for our next batch of Yonanas. (I'm also digging having so many frozen bananas around for my Shakeology.)

Love this machine! I hope the creator makes a million jillion dollars off of it.

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Workout of the Day

P90X2 V Sculpt

We're on the third week of Phase 2 in our second round of P90X2. In October Zach and I will run our first half marathons (Hah! I just typed "marathongs" accidentally. Now that would be some kind of race!), and we are mixing just a bit of running into the schedule now. Once P90X2 is over, we'll move back into three days a week of Les Mills Pump with three days of running/cardio: one day of high intensity intervals, one day of tempo running (at a distance of about 3 miles), and one long run on the weekends. 

My goal is to build my strength and endurance without running my knees into the ground before the race. I've gotten to a point where I don't enjoy putting so many miles in on the road, and through research and personal experience we've found that it's not necessary to run mini half-marathons each week to get ready for the race. You can use a mix of cross training and running to get your body ready to "go" for more than two hours. That's the plan, anyway! We'll see exactly how that plan pans out on October 7...

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with Beans

It's recipes like these that give me a bad reputation with the in-laws.

Every time I show up at their house with a baked good, they look at me with a sidelong glance and ask accusingly, "What's in these?"

I can't blame them -- I will stick some strange things in cookies and cakes in an effort to give them a healthy boost. Drew spilled the beans (hah!) on these cookies before my father-in-law even had a chance to accuse.

"Want a cookie, Pop? They've got BEANS in 'em!"

To his credit, Pop ate it anyway.

Ya'll, these cookies are so good. I'm serious. The recipe comes from the Everyday Happy Herbivore, a cookbook I continue to enjoy. They are soft and chewy (I almost wrote "moist," but I hate that word). I'd compare them to regular chocolate chip oatmeal cookies; you can't even taste the beans.

The best thing about vegan cooking is that you can safely eat the batter without that nagging worry that you're going to give yourself salmonella from the eggs.

Give these cookies a try! You'll be surprised just how delicious they are.

Butter Bean Cookies Recipe

Servings: 24

Description:

The best low fat and protein packed chocolate chip cookie you'll ever eat! Any white beans (butter beans, navy, cannellini, etc) can be used in this recipe. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rolled oats (or quick oats: SEE NOTE)
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp cinnamon (optional)
• a dash of ground cardamon (optional)
• ½ cup canned white beans, liquids reserved
• ½ cup raw sugar
• ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup vegan chocolate chips
• a dash of salt

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a large cookie sheet or line with parchment paper and set aside. Transfer 3/4 cup of the oats to a food processor and pulse, about 15x, until crumbly but not powder.

Transfer to a mixing bowl and combine with flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cardamon. Whisk to incorporate and set aside. Transfer beans to processor then add applesauce, sugar, vanilla extract and 1 tbsp of the bean liquid. Whiz until smooth. Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and stir about 10 times.

Add chips, remaining 1/4 cup oats and the rest of the bean liquid, stirring until combined. If the mixture is too wet, add more oats. If it's too dry, add a little water. Drop tablespoons of batter onto the cookie sheet, leaving an inch of room between each. Bake 15 minutes, until edges are just turning light brown and middles are firm. They will firm a bit more as they cool. Check the bottoms to make sure they are golden brown.

NOTE: You can use quick oats in this recipe. If you do, then skip the step that tells you to food process the oats.

Per cookie: 61 calories, 0.7g fat, 12.4g carbs, 1.4g fiber, 5.2g sugar, 1.3g protein

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Workout of the Day

P90X One on One: Fountain of Youth Yoga