Cinnamon Rolls and Kale Salad

I spent the entire day working on these delicious beauties:
Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Frosting from the Pioneer Woman. I halved the recipe since the original quantity is for 50 people. They came out delicious. I let them rise in the fridge for 4 hours which made them easier to work with. I made them for my bf's co-worker's birthday tomorrow. I'll take any excuse to bake. They were sweet, gooey, soft and PERFECT. I'm freezing the leftovers so that we can have cinnamon rolls on weekend mornings without having to do all the work.

Recipe: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/cinammon_rolls_/

For dinner, I had smoked salmon, dry-rubbed ribs, and a Karena's colorful kale salad. I massaged the kale to make sure that the dressing soaked into the leaves, and let it marinate for 6 hours. It was SO GOOD! Creaminess from the feta, nuttiness from the pine nuts, sweetness from the cranberries, and plenty of fresh crunch. I just adore those Tone It Up girls. I added cucumbers, almonds and bell peppers to this recipe, and doubled the kale.

Here is the recipe: http://toneitup.com/blog.php?Karena-s-Kale-Salad-and-Three-Bean-Side-Dish-Recipes-5177

Today's workout consisted of biceps, triceps, abs and cardio from Live Fit Day 32. My poor triceps hate me. I was watching Greys on the treadmill at the gym, and I started crying when I saw O'Malley. I am a complete psycho. I just hate when characters I like die, for example: 007, Mufasa, the kid from Alpha Dog, Marley (the dog, but I guess the singer too?.. ) I'm just a big cry baby. I need to suck it up if I'm ever going to be a nurse.

Herbs and Horchata

Good evening! I just wanted to do a quick post before I go on a little evening stroll. Last weekend I got a CRAZY craving for mojitos (which is strange because I rarely ever drink them.) I convinced my bf that it's way cheaper to plant your own herbs than to go out and buy them every time you need them. So we bought sweet basil and spearmint. I see lots of caprese salads, pesto and mojitos in my future :) This morning I read online that you can replant the roots of the green onion plants, and they will re-grow. I'll let you know how that works out!
 -update: Check out this blog post from Lauryn about the health benefits of fresh herbs. If you don't follow the Skinny Confidential, you're crazy. She's a fashionista, a healthy foodie, a creative bartender, and a workout guru.

Today's workout: I did legs: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jamie-eason-livefit-trainer-phase-2-day-31.html?welcome=true
I followed it with 10 minutes on the stairmaster at level 14, then 5 minutes at level 11 going down the stairs backwards. I have no idea if this is beneficial or not, but I saw someone doing it the other day and decided it was a good way to break up the monotony of going of the stairs nonstop. When I got home I made myself an horchata smoothie fluff. It didn't exactly taste as yummy as a real horchata (a mexican rice milk drink) but it was still delicious.

Horchata Protein Fluff:

1 scoop Isopure vanilla cream protein powder
splash of almond milk, splash of water, or splash of coconut milk
5 ice cubes
1-2 drops of vanilla
a TON of cinnamon
little sprinkle of truvia

Put all ingredients in a blender (I put it in my food processor because my blender was dirty) and BLEND. The longer you blend, the more fluffy and voluminous the protein fluff becomes. It was like eating horchata flavored whipped cream.

For dinner I made this AMAZING recipe: Jamaican Jerk Chicken and the Best Rice Ever. Of course I tweaked the recipe. I added 2 habanero peppers to the marinade and put all the ingredients for the marinade in the food processor. I reserved half a cup of the marinade to use as dipping sauce before I marinated the chicken. For the rice, I added one habanero pepper UNCUT. The tice is supposed to be slightly sweet, not spicy, so make sure you don't break open the pepper! My bf went crazy over the rice, and I LOVED the jerk chicken marinade. I ended up using it as a salad dressing because it was so good! We BBQ-ed the chicken and it came out fabulous.

Hippy-ish Granola

Hey hey hey! You are currently reading the first EVER blog post from me, Sarah C. I'm so excited that you somehow wound up here :) I have been reading healthy living blogs for the past three years, and I love cooking up recipes and baking sweet treats that I find on them. So kind of life "monkey see, monkey do" I will be recreating goodies, but putting my own spin on them. I will also let you know honestly how I think it turned out. I want this to be a place where you can get some ideas for dinner, workouts, places to go, and things to make.

To kick off my first recipe tweak, I tried Elise's Quinoa Granola.
Original Recipe: http://www.hungryhungryhippie.com/quinoa-granola/

Here are my modifications:
1 c oats
1/6 c quinoa
1/8 c whole flax seeds
1/4 c unsweetened coconut
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c chopped almonds
1/2 c trail mix (Trail mix had pepitas, sunflower seeds, cranberries, walnuts and pecans)

1/2 c cereal (I used an unsweetened plain corn flakes kind)
1/6 c coconut oil
1/12 c honey
1/12 c maple syrup
(To do this, I took a 1/3 c measuring cup, filled it halfway with coconut oil, then filled half & half of maple and honey)

Mix the dry ingredients, then mix the wet ingredients. Mix both together, making sure everything is evenly coated. Spread on parchment paper and bake for @ 300 for 40 minutes. Let it cool, then break the sheet of granola into big pieces.

My granola came out perfectly clumpy, crunchy, and sweet. I liked the addition of the corn flakes, because all the small pieces of quinoa had a big vesicle to stick to. The quinoa gave the granola a slight nutty crunch. This granola is filled with protein, healthy fats and fiber. I urge you to give it a shot!

Today's workout: I did day 30 of Jamie Eason's Live Fit Program. It was a pretty intense day of chest and abs, followed by 30 minutes of steady state cardio. I already finished her program all the way through, but still feel like I have some more toning to do... so I decided to go back to level 2 and work my way through again. Here's what was on today's agenda:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jamie-eason-livefit-trainer-phase-2-day-30.html

My modifications: I used the smith bar for the bench presses, did the push ups on my knees, and couldn't do the side-side push ups. I can do about three of them, and then I collapse on my face. Also, instead of doing the cable crunches, I did crunches on a stability ball. I hate cable crunches, I feel like a crazy person trying to do them, and I feel like I'm always doing them wrong. After that, I chose to do the stair master at level 14 for 30 minutes, and cooled down with 10 minutes on the treadmill at incline 4, speed 4. It was a pretty lack luster workout, probably because I was starving.

Thanks for hanging out with me for my first EVER blog post. I hope you stick around :)