A whirl wind of events…

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Girl In Pigtails

What a whirl wind of events… so to recap a little I started school, I’ve been a busy bee at work. So my blog posting kind of slowed but I am back and ready to tell it all…

School is actually pretty awesome, yes I know… I’m a nerd (but proud of it!). I’m enrolled with Grantham University and what is neat about it is, it’s an online college. So every week I have assignments due but I can log on anytime, anywhere, anyplace. So it is really flexible with a part time working schedule. I’m taking Macroeconomic and Personal Finance. It’s interesting to see what you are learning play out in the real world. Both my classes are intermingled with today’s politics, especially Obama’s Jobs Act bill.

Speaking of jobs, my little honey nest called Safeway has been very busy. People are back from summer vacation, and the kids are back in school. So the good old soccer mom’s are in desperate need of “caffination”. And as always, I am happy to serve a sweet cup of deliciousness. Joking aside… I actually said that to a customer and the next day she came back and said it was the best drink ever! Not to toot my on horn but… TOOT TOOT!

-Girl in Pigtails

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Ultimate Banana Bread

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Girl In Pigtails

A long long time ago, in a carb-free galaxy far far away… there was one pigtailed girl determined to fine a delicious way to make the ultimate healthy banana bread.

With the help of an alliance, Awesome Boyfriend, Girl in Pigtails was able to create the ultimate healthy banana bread.

So to sum up,

With enduring days of extreme exercise and eating little carbs, we really wanted something carb friendly and tasty. Well, we succeeded with one of the two. There were a few days of experimenting. Such things mattered like: glass pan vs. metal pan, cooking time, and even the sequence of mixing ingredients together.

Our banana bread has:

Item Calories Fat(g) Carbs(g) Protein(g)
Flour 800 4 144 32
Salt 0 0 0 0
Baking Soda 0 0 0 0
Applesauce 220 0 52 0
Splenda 0 0 0 0
Bananas 500 1.8 124.4 6
Eggs 280 18 4 24
Total 1800 23.8 324.4 62
Per Serving
(1/16 Loaf)		 112.5 1.5 20.3 3.9
Add Walnuts 656 64 14 15

Now if the nutritional facts did not scare you, here is the recipe to make the ultimate healthy banana bread:

Ingredients:

2 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
1 teaspoon of Safeway Plain Salt
2 teaspoons Arm & Hammer Pure Baking Soda
1 teaspoon ‘O’ Organics Ground Cinnamon
1 cup Unsweetened ‘O’ Organic AppleSauce
2 cups Splenda
4 Ripe ‘O’ Organics Bananas
4 beaten eggs, Lucerne Large Brown
1 cup Diamond Chopped Walnuts

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. Grease and flour one Teflon metal 9×5 inch loaf pan.
  3. Sift the flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon into a large bowl.
  4. In a separate bowl, mix together the Applesauce and Splenda until smooth.
  5. Mash 3 bananas and dice 1 banana.
  6. Beat eggs.
  7. Stir in the bananas, eggs, and walnuts until well blended.
  8. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture, and stir just until blended.
  9. Pour the batter into the loaf pan.
  10. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted into the crown of the loaf comes out clean.
  11. Let the loaf cool in the pan for at least 5 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack, and cool completely.
  12. Wrap in cling wrap and/or aluminum foil to keep in the moisture.
  13. Serve with Applesauce or Peanut Butter instead of butter for a low fat treat.

Well, there it is: the ultimate healthy banana bread. It is pure awesomeness and I hope everyone enjoys it as much as we do. My next post will be telling about my attempt at apple pie! Yummy!

-Girl in Pigtails

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P90X, P90X, P90…X!

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Girl In Pigtails

When you hear the word P90X most people respond with, “What is that?” For those in the know, you might cringe a little inside, and/or expressively give a nod of acknowledgement. Mr. Tony Horton takes you through a life changing journey which breaks all that you may know about diet and exercise, in 90 days.

My boyfriend and I decided to commit and succeed in the program. The first step was to take our measurements; and if that wasn’t bad enough we had to take photos too… We came up with a pretty good and nutritious menu for: breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, and yes, snack. P90X helps with a book of options that fit your fancy. As a P90X’er you can eat the meals they have created for you or pick and choose how to eat using a block guide.

For my boyfriend and I, we chose the block guide which involved eating more protein and veggies and less fats and carbohydrates. This would eventually help us to lose extra fat on our bodies and beef up our muscles.  It was hard to control the desire for ice cream and pasta, but we managed and found alternatives like homemade banana bread and TCBY.

Day 1: We decided to take a small walk in the morning and then complete the first workout video in the evening. Well, the small walk turned into a 12 mile walk. Exhausted and blistered, somehow through nursing on Gatorade, we managed to complete day one’s workout.

The first week was hard… We used muscles we never knew we had. Every morning with breakfast, there was a little pill of happiness called Aleve. The only nice thing about getting fit; is that the first 30 days of a workout routine, are the hardest. Your body will eventually get used to the torture… I mean workout! Surprisingly, you find that you can dish out more pull ups and push ups. How do I know this? Well, as of today we are on day 90.  We both lost a lot of fat and gained unbelievable muscle. However, we did make the decision to go 30 more days, so we know for sure, we are at the optimal peak of fitness.

I will have more updates on the P90X journey… Every P90X’er knows:

Decide, Commit, Succeed!

-Girl in Pigtails

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Birds, Cows, and flies’… Oh My!

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Girl In Pigtails

So another adventure that I would love to share, are the awesome hikes. P90X is not just an hour a day Monday thru Friday. It is about 3 hours a day 6 days out of the week. So, normal people doing P90X would take the rest day seriously and rest. My boyfriend and I are of another breed, and decided on our rest day, we would go hiking.  So if you read my first post, you might remember an incident were a small walk turned into a 12 miles walk. This same thinking was applied to hiking. Instead of going on the easy; mom’s with strollers and girls with flip flop; trails, we hiked more advanced trails. Our hiking adventures were about 5-11 miles, depending on the day and were we were. There were always a number of giant hills to climb over.

It was not all bad and we actually had a lot of fun. The first thing we invested in were good shoes and a local hikers guide book. The guide book is awesome! It’s called “Tri-Valley Trails” by Nancy Rodrigue and Jacky Poulsen. It has info on all the local parks with detailed maps of the trails. It has a little write up about each trail and what could be expected like; wild flowers, lakes, shade, hills, cows and more. Our favorite spots have to be the Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park and Sunol Regional Wilderness. They both are a beautiful get-a-ways from the city life without really leaving home. Some of the landscape photos you might see on my blog space, have been taken by my boyfriend or I.

I will give a warning for those who want to hear it… Make absolute sure that you have plenty of water and keep your toenails clipped short. The water advice is generic but should not be taken lightly. My boyfriend and I were hiking in Sunol and pretty much ran out of water half way through the hike. Not good on a hot summer day around 3 O’ clock. Lucky for us we ran into some campers and they had a water filter and hooked us up with some clean water. It is moments like that when you really appreciate the help of a stranger.

Now the toenail thing… if any of you are runners you may know my problem as “runners toe”. So, because my toe is out of commission, we are not hiking. Instead, we walk 1 mile about 3-5 times a day.  In the future we are wanting to cover more trails and at some point, even incorporate camping. In which there will be: plenty of water and well manicured toes.

Happy Trails!

-Girl in Pigtails

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