Banana Soft Serve

Wanna know what’s really good?

Banana soft serve. I mean, look at it:

I’ve been meaning to make this for a long time, ever since I saw this post on how to make it while procrastinating at work one day.

Do you want to know how to make it, too? OK, then. Here we go.

First, gather your ingredients. You will need:

2-3 bananas.

………………………..

Yes. That’s all.

Once you have your bananas, peel and freeze them in a tupperware bowl. Or plastic baggie. Or just throw them in there without any protection. Whatever floats your boat. I’m not going to judge.

Once said bananas are frozen, take out your food processor and place bananas inside.

Turn it on.

Let it do it’s thing for about 5 minutes. The bananas will turn creamy and fluffy, just like soft serve ice cream.

No strings. No mush. Just delicious soft serve.

Since I wasn’t going to eat mine right away, I put it back in the tupperware bowl and threw it back in the freezer. So my soft serve more resembled hard ice cream.

Still delicious though.

Side note: I actually don’t own a food processor (those suckers are expensive!), so I used my blender, and put it on the “aerate” setting. I’m not really sure what aerate means, but  it made me imagine my bananas getting light and airy, so, yeah.

Minus the fact that my poor blender started smoking and almost caught on fire, it did the trick quite nicely. But I still recommend using a food processor if you are fancy enough to have one.

You know, so you can avoid said smoke and fire hazard.

If you are feeling really wild, sprinkle some chocolate chips on top. (Or, if you are out of chocolate chips like I was, butterscotch chips work well, too.)

Here’s another shot in case you don’t get how good this is:

I also wanted to show off my cute polka dot bowl.

I also imagine you can add some vanilla flavoring if you want less of a banana taste. Let me know how that works out if you try it. I’m curious.

And that’s all folks! You can thank me later. This has been a mainstay in my dessert diet ever since I started my weight loss challenge.

Speaking of which, yeahhhh, I’m not so sure how that’s going. But I’m not blaming the bananas.

Happy Wednesday! 🙂

Inquiring Minds Want to Know…

…what I eat on a regular, day-to-day basis.

Oh, you guys. You’re making me blush. I actually have a fanbase!

My question is– do you want the truth? (pizza)

Or the ideal? (um, pizza with whole wheat crust?)

I kid.

Here’s the thing– While I do try to eat healthy on a consistent basis, my diet is far from perfect.

I love cheeseburgers. I would die for baked goods. And alcohol has a pretty regular spot on my beverage rotation.

Given my love for food, I try to take the “you can eat anything as long as it’s in moderation” approach.

Sometimes this works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

(Shameful truth– if I make a pizza at home, I can easily take down at least half of it. I try really hard not to do this, but, you know, sometimes I do. And I may or may not be watching Jerseylicious while doing it. Whatever. Go ahead and judge me.)

However, while I’m not one to be giving out nutrition advice (just yesterday I had 2 chocolate cookies after lunch. What? They were getting old. Someone had to eat them. I don’t bake cookies to throw them away. God.), I will be happy to share with you the healthier side of my diet.

My healthy eating tends to occur Monday-Friday between the hours of 8-4.

Eating right is so much easier when you’re on a schedule, am I right?

And, since today is Thursday and therefore falls into that time slot, I’ve eaten pretty well so far today.

So, let the meal tracking commence.

Breakfast today was my typical go-to Breakfast Sundae. (How is it that even for breakfast, I manage to make it sound like I’m eating sweets?)

I’m a sucker for Chobani Greek yogurt, but the flavored kinds are chock-full of sugar. This made me sad, since the peach kind if my fave.

Enter– chocolate protein powder. Yes, still sugary, but I can control how much I put in, and it adds a little extra protein to boot.

Throw in a few frozen blueberries, and voila! You’ve got yourself a very tasty, kind of frozen, sweet but not-too-sweet-for-breakfast Breakfast Sundae.

Nom nom nom

I also try to eat another piece of fruit along with this. Today it was an apple. A Fuji apple from the grocery store to be exact. I don’t usually like to eat fruit from the grocery store, but I haven’t been home to stock up in a while so Shaw’s apples it is.

And while I’m at it, I might as well start tracking my work outs too.

Wow– look at you guys keeping me on track!

So, yesterday was the big day I decided to officially start training for another half. I’ll be running 4 days a week, which leaves me two days a week to strength train, with one day rest.

Thursdays are a strength training day. Today’s workout was:

Warm Up:
Ankle/Knee/Hip/Shoulder Rolls
Random Stretching
Alternating Back Lunges
Side-to-Side Squats
More Random Stretching
(I have an actual warm up routine I should follow, but that doesn’t always happen. Today was one of those days.)

Main Set:
12x (per arm) 8kg Kettlebell Snatches
15x Bosu Ball sit ups
(Repeat 3 times)

Alternating 3 sets Incline Dumbbell Press/Lat Pulldown
Set 1– 10x @ 30 lbs Press
12x @ 80lbs Pulldown

Set 2– 8x @ 35lbs Press
6x @ 100 lbs Pulldown

Set 3– 6x @ 35lbs Press (meh)
5x @ 100 lbs Pulldown

Cardio Boost:
12x 28 kg Kettlebell Swings
15x 15 lb. Medicine Ball Slams
(Alternate 3x’s through)

Alternating 3 sets Chest Fly Machine/Bent-Over Row
Set 1– 10x @ 70lbs Flies
12x @ 65lbs Row

Set 2– 8x @ 80lbs Flies
8x @ 75 lbs Row

Set 3– 6x @ 80lbs Flies
6x @ 75lbs Row

Final Set– Ropes
100 Alternating
25 Rope Slams/25 Alternating
Repeat 25/25
Finish with 100 Alternating

Took me about 45 minutes, kicked my butt, and I feel good.

So, tell me loyal readers. Do you want to read about what I eat and what I do in the gym? Or should I stay away from the fitness/nutrition stuff and leave that to the pros?

Fake Fries

As you all know, I love ketchup.

I mean, seriously. Anyone who gets this jazzed about a condiment must have some serious issues.

But there’s a problem. Ketchup is usually the perfect companion to a heaping, delicious pile of deep fried, oil-laden french fries.

And sadly, with my new GSP, fries aren’t exactly on the menu.

Well, my friends, you can now start calling me Chef Lindsay. I actually made quite a yummy side of potatoes last night to satisfy my insatiable craving for ketchup.

They were super simple and super yummy.

Step 1: Line tray with foil and drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO).
Step 2: Dice red potato into bite-sized pieces.
Step 3: Toss potato in about 1 tbsp EVOO.
Step 4: Sprinkle with garlic powder, maybe some pepper, perhaps some Mrs. Dash, a dash or two of onion powder. (In other words, whatever spices you have on hand and are tasty. I did add a little bit of salt as well.)
Step 5: Broil at 350 (I did 370, only because I was baking chicken too and freak out about raw meat) for 35-40 minutes or until you can stab them with a fork.
Step 6: Squeeze glob of ketchup on plate.
Step 7: Enjoy the yumminess.

I think this whole experimenting in the kitchen thing is kind of fun. Next on the list: Bean Soup. In a crock pot.

Whoa.

Progress, Not Perfection

People often times ask me where I turn to for exercise and health advice. The fitness field is ALWAYS evolving, and if you don’t stay on top of your game, it’s easy to fall behind.

If you direct your eyes to the right of the screen, scroll down a little, and look under the “Healthy Living Advice” section, you’ll see a link called Progress, Not Perfection. This, my readers, is a blog that is bookmarked on my computer. I read it almost everyday, and get super excited when I see a new post.

Not only is the blogger one of the freaking awesome trainers at Punch Gym, where I dutifully go 3-4 times a week to get my butt pummeled by kettlebells, but she is also a former co-worker of mine. I’ve seen her in action, people, and take it from me, this is a blog you want to follow (along with mine, of course!)

My goal is to be able to do this:

Yeah, she's nuts!

It runs the gamut…exercise tips, nutrition tips, yummy (and healthy) recipes, holistic living…

Check it out. Read it. Bookmark it. You’ll love it.