Banana “Ice Cream”

I came across this recipe on Pinterest while on my quest for finding healthy treats: One ingredient ice cream. 

Is it too good to be true?  Fortunately, no!  It came out great.  It’s a healthy and sweet treat to substitute for when you have that ice cream craving.  You can also customize the recipe to add cocoa powder, peanut butter, nutella, or anything else you would like!  I just tried out the plain version but I will definitely try adding some cocoa or peanut butter or both next time!

Frozen banana slices

The recipe is so simple.  Just peel 4 bananas, slice them up, and pop them into the freezer for an hour or two.

Ready to pulse

Once frozen, place the bananas into a food processor and pulse for about a minute or so.  You may need to scrape down the sides.  When the mixture is completely smooth and creamy, you’re done.

All mixed up and ready to eat

That’s IT!  You can try it as is (texture similar to soft serve ice cream) or freeze the mixture so that you can scoop it out.  I tried both and liked it frozen better. 

Banana mixture before putting back into freezer

Frozen banana mixture...Yum!

Healthy and cheap, how can you beat that?

The Best Cookie You Will Ever Eat

Sigh…another weekend has come and gone.  I’ve been sticking to my diet and working out, which I am proud of myself for.  But the thing about restricting your calories (for me at least) is that you start to fantasize about food that is very very bad for you.  Cheeseburgers, fries, cookies, ice cream, etc.  So of course when I get these cravings, I go to Pinterest to get my fix of looking at all the pictures of delicious recipes that I probably shouldn’t eat while I’m trying to lose some weight. 

But I caved.  I hadn’t baked in a while and had the itch to try out a new recipe, so I went for it.  I came across this recipe a while back, and knew I had most of the ingredients on hand so I wouldn’t have to pick up 20 ingredients and spend a small fortune at the grocery store. (I hate when that happens.)

I just love all of Pioneer Woman’s recipes.  They are usually fairly simple and always come out great.  I saw her make these cookies on a recent Food Network show and thought they looked delicious.  I love thin and crispy cookies, but I have never tried to make them before.  After reading through the blog post of the recipe and watching her make them on TV, I was fairly confident I could do it myself.  

I did make two modifications to her recipe: I used semi-sweet chocolate chips, instead of milk chocolate, since that is what I had on hand, and used chocolate malt powder instead of the “original” because that was all I could find.  They still came out wonderful and are the best chocolate chip cookie I have ever eaten!  The malt powder intensifies the flavor of the cookie dough and does something really special.  Definitely worth those extra devilish calories. 

Gathering all the ingredients

Measuring the dry ingredients

 

Creaming the butter

Adding the sugars

Adding the dry ingredients to the butter mixture

Try to resist licking the bowl!

Adding the chocolate chips

Just look at that beautiful cookie dough!

Ready to bake!

They spread out A LOT!

Cooling down

Ready to eat

Pioneer Woman Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 Sticks) Unsalted Butter Softened
• 3/4 cups Golden Brown Sugar
• 3/4 cups Sugar
• 2 whole Eggs
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 2 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1-1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1-1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 cup (rounded) Malted Milk Powder
• 1 bag (12 Ounce) Milk Chocolate Chips

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream butter, then add both sugars and cream until fluffy. Add eggs and beat slightly, then add vanilla and beat until combined. Add malted milk powder and beat until combined.
Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to butter mixture, beating gently until just combined.
Add chocolate chips and stir in gently.
Drop by teaspoonfuls (or use a cookie scoop) and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Bake less if you want chewy cookies; more if you want crispy cookies.
Optional: Allow to cool completely, then use two cookies to make an ice cream sandwich. Add sprinkles to the sides of the ice cream, then wrap individually in plastic wrap.

Five for Fridays

I am jumping on the bandwagon on this one!  Clare and Kate both posted the five things they are grateful for and I wanted to join in too!  Here we go...

      1. Being able to see friends more during the week.  Ever since I moved to Bethesda this past summer, it has been easier to get together with friends.  Whether it’s dinner or watching some trashy TV, I wouldn’t trade my girl time for anything!  When we watch the Bachelor on Monday night’s our comments sound something like this.

      Oh Ben….You are boring us to death!  Thank god we drink lots of wine while watching you. 

   
 2.  Being able to stick to my diet and exercise plan this week.  I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do it, but I have stuck with it! I am down about 2 pounds since last week!  Woo hoo! *Pat on back*  

      

      3.   Not being busy at work this week.  I appreciate that it has slowed down a bit at work the past week because this time of year used to be my busy season when I worked in public accounting.  I basically worked 60 hours a week from late January/early February up until April 15.  I hated it.  I am so glad to have a job with normal hours so I can have a life outside of work!  Free weekends and time for reading, blogging, cooking and baking make me sooooo happy because those are things I never used to have time for!

Brian and me 2 years ago

4.  Being able to see Brian every day.  People say that living together can be tough and that it might strain or change the relationship.  I wasn’t too worried about that because ever since I met Brian about 2 1/2 years ago, we have always wanted to be closer to each other.  When I lived in FL and he was up here in Maryland, it was hard.  When I lived in Alexandria, Virginia only about 30 minutes away, and he was here, that was hard too – because we wanted to be around each other all the time, and we couldn’t see each other every day.  FINALLY I feel like we are where we are supposed to be.  We’ve come so far and I am really grateful that we were able to make it work.  Living together has only made us closer and more in sync with each other.  I love where we live too! 

Our cozy cottage

 5.       Dinner tonight with our friends Jason and Erin.  We are going to Olazzo in downtown Bethesda, which is a great Italian restaurant.  We haven’t seen them in a while, but every time we get together it's lots of fun.  I love them!  

Wow I feel like one lucky girl after thinking about all that!  I have plenty more than I am grateful for, so I’ll save those for next week!

Ready for a Change

Last weekend, my friend told me about MyFitnessPal, which is an IPhone app and website, and I was instantly hooked. Based on your height, current weight, and amount of weight you want to lose, it gives you a recommendation on how many calories you should be eating a day.  There is a food diary in the app and you can even scan a bar-code of something you're eating and it will add it to your calories for the day.  I guess I didn't realize how much I was really eating - those calories add up FAST!  But the nice thing is that it's not a diet plan.  You can eat whatever you want, you just can't eat as much as you're probably used to.  And since you probably want to eat more, you will pick healthier things to fill up on!

Another cool thing is that if you burn calories by working out, it subtracts that from your calories eaten for the day, so you can eat more and still lose weight!  For example, if your recommendation is 1,500 calories/day, and you burn 500 calories by working out, then you can eat 2,000 calories that day.  Also, you can keep up with how your friends are doing with their goals if they also have MyFitnessPal accounts.








I guess a light bulb just went off in my head, and I got serious about losing the weight.  The weekly free Zumba classes my boss offers after work and the new gym membership I have also gave me the push I needed to get started. 

I have been content with my weight for a while, but I want to be happy with my weight. I want my clothes to fit without having to try and cover up some pudge here and there. I want to wear a bikini in the summer and feel confident that my body looks great. But other than that, I want to be healthy and be more aware of what I put into my body.  I'm excited to get the ball rolling!

Weekend in Atlantic City

My friends and I spent Saturday night in Atlantic City and it was so much fun!  

We stayed at The Chelsea hotel (*which I would NOT recommend*) because it was a LivingSocial escapes deal.  The hotel had previously been two separate hotels renovated into one.  So the nicer part of the hotel is where we thought our room was, but it was actually on the older side and the room wasn’t as nice as we expected, but since we were only staying one night we weren’t going to throw a fit about it.   But lesson learned – beware of those LivingSocial deals!  Do your research!!

After we got situated, we had dinner at the hotel restaurant, Tepliztky's, which was actually pretty decent and cheap after we used our $30 voucher from LivingSocial.  I had a spinach salad and sweet potato fries, my favorite.  One of the girls got the signature hotel drink, which was a martini with cucumber and mint, it was really refreshing and different than most drinks I've had.  Ashley and I had the happy hour special drink which was Grey Goose Pear vodka and ginger ale, which was very good too.  

We went back to our rooms to get ready for the evening and had a few drinks.  The other girls we were with had a slightly nicer room, so we popped some champagne and hung out in their room for a bit before heading out.

  

We went to the Tropicana which was a short walk from the hotel (across the street).  It was really nice inside - lots of restaurants, shopping, and of course gambling!

We went to Providence night club based off of our concierge's suggestion.  It was a typical Jersey club: expensive drinks, girls dancing in cages, creepy dudes, etc.  But there were eight of us and we all stuck together for the entire night!  We all danced the night away.

Me and Jessi

Ash and Natalie

Inside the Tropicana in Atlantic City

This weekend was so much fun and reminds me how much I love the time I spend with my friends.  Although we were only there for one night, we made the most out of the time we were there and it felt like we had been gone for the entire weekend!  We need more of these little getaways in the future!

Working Out

Last night, my boss did a free Zumba class in our building after work, and it was so fun.  It was my first Zumba experience, but it definitely won’t be my last!  My boss loves going Zumba classes, and recently she got certified as an instructor, so she is teaching classes after work to get experience.  I think that class was a great way to ease me back into regularly working out, because I felt so energized and refreshed after it was over.  This leads me to a confession…

I haven’t worked out in MONTHS.  Like more than six months at least.  I used to get these little spurts here and there where I’ll go to the gym pretty regularly, and then for no reason at all, I’ll just stop going completely.  The longer I haven’t been to the gym, the harder it is for me to motivate myself in going.  Also, living in a house, I no longer have a gym I can go to like I used to with living in an apartment complex.  Luckily, Brian was able to add me onto his plan at Bethesda Sport & Health for a good price.  I think this will give me the boost I need to get back into shape and work out regularly.   Tonight is the first night going to my new gym and I’m so excited!

Always Craving

Fro-yo.  It's so refreshing and good. I don't even feel guilty after eating it.  I am ALWAYS craving it!  

Frozen yogurt from YogiBerry in Rockville, MD.  Isn't it beautiful?

What do you always crave?

Fun Traditions

My friends and I like to get together during the week (especially Mondays) to watch some of our favorite shows, drink wine, and consume large quantities of food. This has become somewhat of a tradition.  Who says you can only have fun on the weekends?  It’s a great way to relax, re-charge, and break up the monotony of the week.  We all take turns hosting, and everyone brings something, so it’s not too overwhelming for the person having everyone over.  Last night, it was my turn.  Natalie, Kate, and Ashley came over to watch the Bachelor.  Although I'm not too into this season, its a lot of fun to watch and make fun of the stupid things they all say and do.

Winston waiting for the girls to arrive

The girls brought over wine, champagne, cheese and crackers, veggies and dip, and cheese and crackers.  For the main course I made homemade pizza, using the same pizza dough recipe as I used last week since it was such a success.  It was also something easy to make ahead of time and a cheap way to feed everyone.  

I made a Hawaiian pizza and a pepperoni pizza.  I added Italian seasoning and garlic powder to the pepperoni pizza dough.

Ready to bake!

Having two pizzas in the oven took about 20 minutes

Finished Hawaiian Pizza

Finished Pepperoni Pizza

How cute are these?

 

For desert, we had mini cupcakes that my dad brought from NYC.  They are called “Baked by Melissa” and they are SO GOOD!  My favorite was the Boston cream pie cupcake (the one in the middle).  But there are lots of different flavors like chocolate chip pancake, smores, cookies and cream, PB&J, cookie dough, mint chocolate chip and more!

After drinking all the wine, we popped some champagne.  Although we weren't celebrating anything in particular, it was so much fun.  It was the perfect way to spend a Monday!