Recipe & Ramblings

Welp, winter is here. 

I had heard that snow was in the forecast, but I just dismissed it since usually the weather people are wrong! But...I woke up to this. 

It's the first time since I've been alive that I remember ever having snow in November! I mean, there are still leaves on the trees!I don't mind the snow, really...it's just the brutal cold that is so awful! It's only in the teens today! It does get me excited for Christmas though. I have all my Christmas stuff down from storage, so that will be my weekend project!

Last week was my hubby's birthday, and since it fell on a weekday, I made him a protein cinnamon swirl "cake" to keep it healthy. It turned out really good, and I was glad that he loved it. I used Jamie Eason's recipe from bodybuilding.com. And I'd definitely make it again! 

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup Ideal( I used a sugar/stevia blend)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups oat flour + 2 scoops Platinum Whey Vanilla Cake
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup Ideal or ¼ cup Stevia in the Raw(used the stevia/sugar blend again)
• 2 egg whites
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk 
• 1/3 cup applesauce and ¼ cup low sugar vanilla yogurt. (I did not use the yogurt)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Spray an 8 X 8 inch Pyrex dish with non-stick spray (can use larger pan, will make thinner bread, or loaf pan) 

 In small bowl combine: (set aside)

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

In a large bowl combine: (whisk together)

1 1/2 cups oat flour + 2 scoops vanilla whey protein

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

In a medium bowl combine: (whisk together & add to large bowl)

2 egg whites

1 cup unsweetened almond milk 

1/3 cup or 1 4oz applesauce and ¼ cup low sugar vanilla yogurt (optional)

Pour a shallow layer of batter into the loaf pan (about 1/4 of the batter).

Sprinkle heavily with half of the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Repeat with remaining batter & cinnamon/sugar on top. Draw a knife through the batter to marble. Bake for 24 to 28 min. Let cool for 10 min. Bread will be dense.

Of course, that weekend I made him a "real" cake-his favorite pumpkin spice with cream cheese frosting. And we went out for pizza, like always! We tried a new pizza place that he really liked but that was not my favorite.

Sooo anyway...I'm kind of sad that I only have 2 more weeks of training left! I've really enjoyed this style of training a lot, even though it's not super different than what I was doing previously. I'm thinking that for after the meet I'll stick with the same split or go back to what I was doing before, maybe having an upper and lower body heavy day and then an upper and lower body higher rep day. 

Even though I love this training, I do miss the Olympic lifts, so I'll be excited to add those back in. And I've really missed overhead pressing, so I'll add that back in as well. And of course, I gotta throw in some bicep curls! Yes, I've kind of missed them. One thing I can say that I haven't missed is calf raises!!!  What I plan on doing after the meet is just taking a month or two to focus on slightly higher reps and more bodyweight exercises to give my body a break from the heavy barbell lifts. So things like pushups, dips, handstand pushups, and inverted rows. 

But ...I don't need to get too far ahead of myself! Right now I gotta start visualizing and seeing myself completing all the lifts at the meet. My goal is to not fail any lift, but I'm not sure if that's a reasonable goal for your first meet or not. And yes, I said "first meet"...implying that this one probably won't be my last. ;) Unless, of course, I just absolutely bomb out and hate the whole experience. But I don't think that will be the case.

 I'm really excited for Thanksgiving next week! Can't wait to eat some good food and see Celeste! And of course, the rest of my family, too. ;)  

Enjoy the rest of your week!!