Greek Frozen Yogurt Chips

How's everyone doing on our "STRIKE SUGAR" week?    I started on Saturday and I can already tell I'm not as sluggish in the evenings and.... BEST OF ALL... My cravings for sugar have all but stopped!  (they were BAD the 1st couple days, right before bed I REALLY REALLY wanted a bowl of icecream!)    SO... selfishly, I BRING YOU a recipe that help ME!!!!   My sugar problem is LATE NIGHT SNACKING, and my snack of choice is ICECREAM!!!!!!   These yummy little guys are what I reach for when I have a craving for dairy, and bonus.... because their are frozen little chips, they take longer to eat one by one, you feel much more satisfied than sucking back a shake without even tasting it! :) 

Greek Frozen Yogurt Chips    

Ingredients:

Your choice of fat free yogurt [I prefer GREEK YOGURT ]

1 Ziplock bag

Directions:  

Add Greek yogurt into a Ziplock bag that is surrounding a cup. Separate the cup from the bag after you’ve poured the yogurt in to it. Seal the bag & cut the tiniest hole at one corner of the plastic bag. Use a small plate or cookie sheet, making dots everywhere. 

Freeze for two hours.

A serving size is 1 cup of yogurt, so depending on how big ya make your chips, that's how many you get!

*****  REMEMBER!!!! These little guys are DELISH, But you still need to stay within the serving size, just because you're eating healthy, doesn't mean you can eat as much as you want!!! SORRY. :( 

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Chocolate almond iced coffee

Here's another great SUGAR FREE recipe!  If you've discovered that you get most of your unwanted sugar calories  from say.... STARBUCKS,  This one's for you!  Make a big batch at home and carry it with you throughout the day!! You'll save on sugar, and unwanted calories!!!!

Chocolate almond iced coffee

Ingredients: 
1 cup sugar free chocolate almond milk, 
1 tbsp french vanilla instant coffee, 
2 TBS Stevia, 
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp Cinnamon 
1/2 tray of ice cubes. 

Blend until smooth. 

Baked Banana Chips

So, to start off our "Strike Sugar" week right, I thought I'd share one of my favorite snack recipes with you!  If you did your homework and discovered that your sugar weakness is sugary snacks like, cookies, candy, etc... this is for you!!! And if that's not your temptation, (you're lucky) this is still a GREAT snack to carry with you to work, school, or just running the kids around!

Baked Banana Chips

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients
2 ripe bananas
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preparation
1. Cut the bananas into thin slices.
2. Coat the slices in lemon juice.
3. Place the banana slices on parchment paper and bake them in the oven at 200 degrees F, turning every half hour and watching out for burning.
4. Remove them when they are crispy; let them cool, and store them in an airtight container.

Nutritional Information per serving: 

Serving size is 1 banana

36 calories, 0.1g fat, 1g fiber

Strike Sugar September!!!

One of my favorite fitness role models Tosca Reno has declared September the month to Strike Sugar.  What a great way to begin the fall season (even though it’s not officially fall yet!).  It’s a fantastic way to get all the sugar from the summer out of our system!  I’m definitely on board with Striking Sugar!

So, here at em health & Fitness, we're going to STRIKE Sugar for a week!  September 10th-September 16th is Strike Sugar week!  I'll be posting some of my favorite sugar free recipes, and I'd love to hear any that you may have!

To read all about it, check out Tosca's Website

http://toscareno.blogspot.com/2012/01/sugar.html#.UEpAfa4mw0s

And in the meantime, here is a list of approved sugar substitutes

Sugar substitutes like honey, maple syrup, Sucanat, molasses, fruit syrup, rapadura, stevia,  & yacon are good options, BUT they too must be consumed in moderation.  Also, A great way that I like to get my sweet fix is with good old fashioned FRUIT!!!!    Bake with applesauce, dates, prunes, etc to get the sweetness without the sugar!

NOW for some HOMEWORK:

If you do consume sugar, what form is it in?  Wine, dessert, chocolate, sugary drinks?  THINK ABOUT IT!

Pumpkin Peanut Butter

Even if you don't like pumpkin, (like I thought)  Still try it!  

I love eating peanut butter with, well, just about everything... Plain... with apples... celery... um, plain! :)  Rarely am I satisfied though, with 2 tbsp of peanut butter which comes out to 200 calories, so here's a NEW, low calorie version that's PERFECT FOR FALL!  P.S.  If you use PB2 It's even lower calorie, you could practically eat an entire bowl!!!! (See PB2 under "stuff I love")

My Pumpkin Peanut Butter has 110 calories for 3 whopping tablespoons (you can obviously double this recipe for just 220 calories and 6 tablespoons as well).

Pumpkin Peanut Butter

Makes 1 serving

Takes 2 minutes to prepare.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp Peanut Butter (No sugar or salt added, straight up ground peanuts)
• 2 tbsp Pumpkin Puree
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon or Pumpkin Pie Spice (optional)
• 5 drops of Liquid Stevia or 1/2 packet of Stevia or other sugar substitute  (optional)

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a small dish and blend well together.  Eat immediately with either celery, on an apple, with a spoon or a rice cake.

Nutrition: 108 Calories, 8 g Fat, 6.6 g of Carbs, 2.5 g Fiber, 1.6 g Sugars, 4.4 g of Protein

Swap your lasagna noodles for Zucchini and eat up!

Swap your lasagna noodles for Zucchini noodles and eat up!

By replacing the pasta in your lasagna with thin sliced zucchini you can create a delicious low carb, low calorie lighter lasagna that even the pickiest eater will love!

For the noodle layer: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray, arrange zucchini slices and season with salt and pepper. Bake zucchini slices for 5 minutes on each side, then remove from oven. Set zucchini slices aside and lower oven temperature to 375 degrees.


Here's a quick simple lasagna recipe

Zucchini Lasagna

Servings: 6 • Serving Size: 1/6th 

• 1 lb lean ground turkey
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 onion
• 1 tsp olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• 3 medium zucchini, sliced 1/8" thick
• 15 oz fat free ricotta
• 16 oz reduced fat mozzarella cheese, shredded 
• 1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano
• 1 large egg

In a medium sauce pan, brown meat and season with salt. When cooked drain in colander to remove any fat. Add olive oil to the pan and saute garlic and onions about 2 minutes. Return the meat to the pan, add tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper. Simmeron low for at least 30-40minutes, covered. Do not add extra water, the sauce should be thick.

In a medium bowl mix ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese and egg. Stir well. 
Preheat oven to 350°.

In a 9x12 casserole spread some sauce on the bottom and layer the zucchini to cover. Then place some of the ricotta cheese mixture, then top with the mozzarella cheese and repeat the process until all your ingredients are used up. Top with sauce and mozzarella and cover with foil.

Bake 45 minutes covered at 375°, then uncovered 15 minutes. Let stand about 5 - 10 minutes before serving.

Calories: 400 

Fat: 17.6 g  

Protein: 39.2 g 

Carb: 20.9 g 

Fiber: 3.1 g  

Berry Banana Muffins

Berry Banana Muffins

These muffins are moist, they smell amazing and are perfect for a snack or breakfast. The also freeze well. I put them 1 to a ziploc (in freezer) and grab them for lunches.

Ingredients

• 2 cups oat flour (just grind up oatmeal in your blender or food processor until it is the consistency of flour)
• 1/3 cup stevia
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 medium mashed bananas
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 4 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups frozen mixed berries

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Line 12 cup muffin pan with paper muffin liners or lightly spray with Pam Olive Oil Spray.

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, stevia, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

3. In medium mixing bowl, mix together mashed bananas, egg whites, vanilla extract, and applesauce.

4. Mix the banana mixture into the flour mixture. Fold in berries.

5. Spoon combined batter into lined muffin cups.

6. Bake approximately 18 -22 minutes or until a fork inserted into the center of a couple of the muffins comes out clean.

CRAB CEVICHE

Crab Ceviche

Serves 12

Now, I realize that 12 serving is a lot!  But, I made a HUGE batch of this and my husband has been devouring it for 2 days straight!  This morning, he told me that if this was all he ever had to eat, he would be fine with it!!!   WHOA!!!!!!  I had to share it after that, and, well, it's so low in calories that we didn't even feel guilty for eating all 12 servings in 2 days!!!!!

Ingredients

2 LB IMITATION crab MEAT CHUNKS

• 2 MEDIUM white onions OR YELLOW,PEELED FINELY CHOPPED
• 2 roma tomatoes, FINELY CHOPPED
• 1 MEDIUM cucumber,PEELED AND FINELY CHOPPED
• 1/4 CUP cilantro
• 2 avocados,CHOPPED
• 2 SERRANO CHILE peppers,SEEDED,FINELY CHOPPED (optional)
• 8 limes
• 1-2 TSP garlic salt
• 1-2 TSP black pepper

MIX ALL TOGETHER.

COVER AND CHILL FOR 2 HRS TO BLEND IN THE FLAVORS,

SERVE ON TOSTADAS, OR IN LITTLE BOWLS WITH TORTILLA CHIPS, 

ENJOY    ***** I just ate mine plane it was so good!

Basic Chia Seed Pudding

This recipe is such a simple one! 

The truth is that there’s not much to chia pudding: you simply want to mix one part chia seeds with two parts liquid (almond milk is the easiest choice), stir, and wait. Over the course of thirty minutes to an hour, the chia seeds will gelatinize and the pudding will thicken up nicely. You can add whatever sweetener or spices you like to the mix: cinnamon is a lovely addition, and so is cocoa (or cacao) powder. I always add a bit of stevia and a hint of vanilla to my basic mix, which is as follows:

Basic Chia Pudding (yields 3-4 servings)

3/4 cup chia seeds
2 cups almond milk
Tiny dash salt
Stevia and vanilla extract to taste

Simply mix the ingredients together, and let them rest for a few moments. Stir the mix well with a fork every five minutes or so. At first, it’ll seem far too liquidy, but over the course of thirty minutes the chia seeds will plump up, till the pudding resembles tapioca pudding.

Learn more about Chia seeds under, "stuff I Love"