Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Ok, so these don't look the prettiest of all gnocchi but they sure taste good. And even my taste tester couldn't stop raving about them! Ingredients: 1 Extra Large Sweet Potato. 1.25 cups oat flour (you can make oat flour by putting your dry oats in a blender). 1 egg. Oregano, basil and salt to taste. Place sweet potato in oven at 400F for about 45 minutes, or until the center is soft (another option is to cook in the microwave). Remove from oven and let cool. Remove skin from the sweet potato and mash the flesh in a large bowl. Add oat flour, whole egg, and seasonings. Mix until just incorporated. Roll dough into long tubes then using a fork (or knife) cut into one inch tubes. Bring a pot of water to boiling and add 5-10 gnocchi at a time allowing to cook for 3-5 minutes, or until they begin to float. Fish them out and place onto plate to cool. I served them with a sprinkling of Parmesan Cheese.

The dough.

My taste tester couldn't get enough of them!

Mocha Muffins

Mmm. I love me some Expresso. I'm going to miss going to the Bar in Italy mid day and getting that delicious Expresso after lunch. Or ordering my after dinner finishing touch of Expresso before getting the bill. This morning while Kellen was sleeping I got a little creative with the ingredients hanging around my kitchen and came up with this new, easy, simple and delicious recipe. 1.5 Cup Oats, 12 dates, 1 container Elinas Greek Yogurt (half cup), 1/4 cup cocoa, 2 tbs egg white, 2 Expresso shots, 2 packets Truvia (or 1 tbs raw sugar), 1/4 tsp baking soda, scant salt. Put all in a food processor and blend. I made three large muffins with this recipe. In the oven for 15 min at 375F. But time will vary depending on the pan/tin you use to bake.

Oldie But Goodie #3

Protein Truffles. Mix 1/2 c peanut butter, 3 scoops of vanilla protein powder, 1 1/2 cups of oats and a little water to moisten. Lay wax paper on a cookie pan and spread the mixture thin, refrigerate overnight. Next day roll mixture into small balls and place back into the freezer. While they are setting up again, set up the double broiler and melt the dark chocolate (or if you like milk chocolate). Set up another cookie sheet with wax paper on it while the chocolate is melting. Take the protein balls out of the freezer and start dipping them into the chocolate coating them well then placing onto the newly lined cookie sheet. Let cool.

Oldie But Goodie #2

Buon Giorno Breakfast Cake This is a higher protein, lower carb (and lower sugar) version of a Honey Cake. I had it for breakfast with a little cappuccino. Delicious.   1 1/4 Cup Oat Flour (can make this by putting oats in blender) 1 Cup Almond Flour 1 Cup Soy Flour 2 Tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice 1 Tsp Baking Powder 1 Tsp Baking Soda 3/4 Tsp Salt 2 Cups chopped and peeled Granny Smith Apples 2 Tsp Orange Zest 3/4 Cup Egg Whites 1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar 3/4 Cup Honey 3/4 Cup Coconut oil 1/2 Brewed Coffee, cooled     1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Spray tube pan with nonstick cooking spray. Combine all three flours, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt into bowl. Set aside. 2. In large bowl, beat egg whites fast with wisk for one minute, then add brown sugar, honey, coconut oil and coffee until smooth. Add flour mixture and beat until combined. Fold in apples and zest. Pour batter into tube pan. 3. Bake 1 to 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted near center of cake comes out clean. 4. Cool cake in pan for 15 minutes, then loosen from sides and center. Invert on cooling rack, cool completely.

Oldies But Goodies

Im going to start posting some of my older recipes that I haven't published on this blog. First up... Healthy Monkey Muffins? Wet ingredients: 1 egg, 1/3 cup egg whites ¼ cup coconut oil 1 baby food jar of squash 1/3 cup agave syrup 1 medium mashed banana Dry ingredients: 1/2 cup chocolate protein powder ½ cup almond flour ½ cup cream of rice cereal ½ cup wheat germ 1 cup rolled oats ¾ tsp sea salt ¾ tsp baking soda 3 tsp cinnamon Optional: 2 squares 70% dark chocolate, made into shavings.   1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly spray a 12-pan muffin tin with oil. 2. In a small mixing bowl, mix together wet ingredients thoroughly. 3. In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients. 5. Combine the wet ingredients into the dry mix bowl. Mix together with a wooden spoon. Gently fold in dark chocolate shavings. 6. Spoon batter into muffin tins. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Serve. Calories in muffins with dark chocolate: 210 Without chocolate: 198

The Other Plan... With A Side Of "Blueberry Chocolate Almond Ice Cream"

So I'm kind of feeling lost in terms of my fitness goals and how to fit them into my life for the next four months (actually for the next 8 months). The problem is I feel somewhat like a Gym Gypsy. I hope that this "fitness plan" helps keep me stay focused and efficient in the gym no matter which gym I'm training in. After I leave Sicily in April I will be living in Utah for 3 months until Mike returns from his 3 month deployment and we head to Vegas (in August we should be transitioning to our life in Vegas). During this time back in the states I plan on enjoying my time with my parents, my mother in law, and my friends. I hope to keep my training motivation high and accomplish my fitness goals in this three months. As for my fitness goals, I'm going to put more muscle onto my lower body, mainly my quads. I feel my upper body is good in terms of size and definition but I think my legs, especially my quad sweep, is lacking the size to be symmetrical with my upper body. I plan on doing lots of box squats, leg presses, and narrow stance hack squats. I also hope to stay fairly lean in this off-season so that when September rolls around I can do a competition (or maybe a competition in October). I feel like I shouldn't choose a Bodybuilding Show until we have settled in a house. Doing so otherwise will set me up for failure because of all the other commitments and issues that come when transitioning into a new home. To keep me accountable, I'm posting my most recent pictures as well as my leg measurements. Right thigh at largest measurement, 20.25 inches. Right thigh at mid measurement, 19 inches.

And now, onto a delicious dessert! I call it Blueberry Chocolate Almond Ice Cream. 1 cup frozen blueberries (they must be frozen), 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, 1 cap full of Cocoa Roasted Almonds (I used Emeralds). Put into a blender and turn on the low setting. Depending on your blender, you will have to stop the machine and scrape down the sides. I have a VitaMix so I only had to do this once. But a lower grade blender you may have to stop a couple more times. No extra sugar necessary, the blueberries add sweetness and those cocoa roasted almonds are a great crunch! Delicious!

The Plan

For those of you I haven't informed directly, my husband is being reassigned to a new location. Drumroll please... LAS VEGAS! We are both very excited for the new possibilities and what LV brings us in terms of new opportunities. Let me start my "List of Excitement" with 1) The Olympia! Yes, the superbowl bodybuilding is held every year in Las Vegas. And perfectly we go to Vegas in August, a month before the Olympia. Meaning, I'm going this year. Woop woop. Very stoked about this. Now, onto number 2) fancy gym with childcare. Another HUGE excitement because then Mike and I can hit the iron together. 3) Whole Foods Market, Trader Joes and a host of other health food stores (with Kombucha Tea). I miss my selection of when I lived in San Diego. It will return to me! 4) A new house with a larger kitchen to develope more recipes of yumminess. I don't know if you've seen my current kitchen but it's very European Chic, and ridiculously small. I can only fit 4 days of grocery in the fridge, I'm using my kitchen table as counter space to prepare food, and my sink is approx 1 foot by 1 foot, meaning I can fit the dishes from breakfast and lunch in the sink before having to wash them BY HAND. 5) A dishwasher, yep, I'm getting a ridiculously good dishwasher so that I never have to hand wash again. Lol. 6) Ok, number six doesn't have any less importance than number 1, in fact, it's the most exciting reason we are moving to Vegas. Our family is so close. Our family lives in Utah and Arizona, which means it only takes a half day drive to reach them. This is so important to me. I'm close with both my siblings and parents, plus I gotta hold my new baby Nephew Braden. Mike was joking the other day about how I should open up a bed and breakfast in Vegas because of all the friends and family that have already jumped at the opportunity to come visit. Not sure if it's because we are in Vegas, or because Kellen...