Mint-Chocolate Shakeology

This time of year, Americans experience 75% of their annual weight gain. SHEESH!!

Shakeology, my secret weapon, helps me prevent icky weight gain not just during the holidays, but every day. Shakeology fills my nutrition gaps, keeps me from getting sick like I used to EVERY winter, fuels my body with natural energy, curbs my salty-sugary cravings & is the most healthy/convenient meal of the day.

Most days, I stick to the SAME recipe.. what can I say? I keep it classy & SIMPLE. But this time of year, I enjoy making things festive. Say hello to this mint chocolate Shakeology recipe!

To learn more about WHAT Shakeology is and how it's changed our lifestyle, click here.

OR maybe you've heard me preach long enough. Click here to try it risk free for 30 days. 

Lean, Mean & Easy Chili

One of the Ghoens' fall recipe staples is CHILI... You aren't a red blooded American if this doesn't frequent your fall meal plan.. Kidding. Kind of..

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One of the reasons I love this classic, cool weather dinner is that I can basically dump {any} soon-to-be-expired veggies into it!

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The bones of my chili are:

• 1 (Large) Can of CRUSHED tomatoes

• 1 Can of diced tomatoes & green chilies

• 2 Cans of kidney beans

• 1 lb. of lean ground turkey

• 1 packet of HOT chili seasoning

•  any available veggies

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I don't like to babysit dinner when I don't have to and I LOVE to cook ahead, so this is a no brainier crockpot concoction.

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Here are some of the veggies I have added to my chili before:

• cubed squash &/or zucchini

• onion (basically always)

• minced garlic

• green beans 

• tomatoes- yep, more of 'Em. I HATE wasting food!

• corn

• mushrooms

• okra

• carrots 

• cubed sweet potato (or russet!)

• jalapeño

• the list goes on!

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I don't think you can really go wrong with chili variations. Sometimes if I have black beans and no kidney beans, I'll rock it out and call it "southwestern."

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One of our favorite ways to eat a bowl of this goodness is on top of quinoa or brown rice. Then -> portion put your leftovers for lunch -> or use it as a non-conventional "spaghetti sauce" & put it on top of spaghetti squash, noodles made with a vegetti or whole grain pasta -> or scoop it onto a whole grain pita or bread for some fancy sloppy joes!

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I don't want to blow your mind too much in one post, but I've heard (and yet to try) that dark chocolate is a great addition!! We HAVE boozed our chili up before though with a bottle of red wine that needed to be finished.. YUM!

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I hope you get the gist and decide to liberate yourself of the plain Jane chili out there. Be resourceful and use what you have.. Or get a little crazy and surprise your taste buds!

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Drop any suggestions below that we need to try.

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Happy cooking, friends!!

Xo, Linz

21 Day Fixed Approved: Chocolate, Peanut Butter OATS

Today's recipe is a special one, folks. This tasty treat is straight out of Autumn Calabrese's new cookbook called Fixate; for those of you who don't know who Autumn is, she's the creator of the 21 Day Fix that gave me these results in 3 weeks. Yeah, she's one of my heroes. Ha!

ANYWAYS, this recipe is an awesome breakfast option for the days I save my shake for a quick lunch or on the weekends when Nate and I want to eat a yummy, guilt free breakfast together! 

So let's start with the main ingredient: Steel Cut Oats.

For those of you who aren't familiar with anything other than instant, old fashioned or rolled oats:

"Whole grain oats provide a healthy start to your day. Steel-cut oats, also known as Irish oats, are a type of whole grain oat cut from the center portion, or kernel of the oat, called the groat. Although steel-cut oats undergo less processing than rolled oats or instant oatmeal, all whole-grain oats have essentially the same nutritional value, as long as the finished product contains no added sugars. Steel-cut oats do take longer to cook than rolled or instant oats and have a chewier consistency."

Personally, I prefer steel cut oats because I'm a texture gal! Take the extra time to try them, I bet you'll like them! Go ahead and make these bad boys start to finish before you move onto the other ingredients.

Next, you're going to need some shakeology. This is going to give your oats a CREAMY sauce to bathe in & that desert-like chocolatey taste! PS, the shakeology is also adding a protein element to this meal.

If you aren't sure what Shakeology is, check out my blog post about it here; it's a nutrient dense shake that costs about $4 a day to drink and replaces a meal, vitamins and supplements. It's a game changer in healthy eating and the pursuit of fitness goal, I highly recommend you try it risk free for 30 days.

Now you need to stir in some all-natural peanut butter! My household is 100% crunchy, but you could of course go the creamy route.

SO this is where my rendition of this recipe gets comical. My hubby and I moved on Friday.. who cares, you just want the recipe.. WELL, most of my food items were either packed, discarded or misplaced. A few lucky ingredients made it over here to my two burner, no oven kitchen. SO, when the cook book says himalayan sea salt, caramel extract and cinnamon- I say no biggie!

All I had here was vanilla extract, so I used that and went without the cinnamon and sea salt. You know what? This stuff still turned out to be AMAZING! I can only imagine how much richer the other ingredients would make it.

Okay, so here's the recipe!

4 Cups Water

1 Cup Steel Cut Oats

1.5 Scoops of Chocolate Shakeology

4 TBSP All Natural Peanut Butter

Dash of Cinnamon (omitted above)

Dash of Pink Himalayan Sea Salt (omitted above)

1/2 TSP Caramel Extract (substituted pure vanilla!)

Optional: Mixed Berries for Topping (or in my case- I had like 2 strawberries left in my mini fridge) 

Top this treat with some mixed berries & you're SET!

Bon Appetit, My Friends!

xo, Lindsey

Chunky Monkey Chocolate Cookies (21 Day Fix APPROVED)

Holy DECADENT -- okay maybe that's the 21 day fix sugar ITCH talking, but these cookies are TASTY! I snagged the recipe from one of the coaches on my Beachbody team & whipped them up right away. Modify to make them unique to you or try them as is. Let me know what you think!! And good luck only eating one or two..

Ingredients:

2 scoops chocolate Shakeology

1 Banana

1/4 c Oats

1.4 c Chia/Flax/Coconut Seed (blend)

1 tbsp. Peanut Butter

1.4 c Dark Chocolate Chips

Mix until THICK batter is blended together. Drop on baking sheet and cook 7-10 minutes at 350 degrees. You're welcome! 

{healthy} peanut butter cups

If you're anything like me, the demands of the sweet tooth can strike at any time. My weaknesses, to name a few, include chocolate and salt. I can pretty much forget about self-discipline if either of those are sitting in front of me. If I'm not following an abnormally stick meal plan for my current workout program, I try to keep a couple kinds of healthy treats around the house to avoid a grocery run of desperation for the candy, pop chip or frozen yogurt sections.

I saw online via gosh-darn pinterest that people had been making candies using chocolate shakeology. 

shut the front door!?

If you know me well at all, you are fully aware of how much I LOVE my chocolate shakeology! I saw the recipe and decided to kick it up a notch and add some peanut butter; I'd say this spark of creativity was purely to add protein to this little snack, but who doesn't love a good reeses cup?

Without further ado..

Ingredients:

1/4 c. Coconut Oil

1 scoop chocolate shakeology

2 tblsp. PB2 OR crunchy peanut butter

cooking spray (olive, vegetable or coconut)

*optional: sea salt to sprinkle on top*

Directions:

1. melt coconut oil in microwave

2. stir in chocolate shakeology

3. if using PB2, add now and stir. if using crunchy peanut butter, leave to the side.

4. spray muffin tin with cooking spray of choice

5. spoon mixture evenly into 6 muffin cups

6. if using crunchy peanut butter, you may spoon a small drop into the center of the chocolate mixture

7. finally, if using sea salt, sprinkle LIGHTLY on top

8. place muffin tin in freezer to allow candies to harden.

(notice here, I doubled my recipe to make candies with PB2 and peanut butter)

9. after about 30 minutes, use a knife to loosen the candies. Mine came out VERY easily and in one perfect little piece. 

Give these a try and let me know what you think!

For a tasty snack that contains legit nutrients from the shakeology & a little protein from the peanut butter, I could look past the texture for the "reeses-like" taste!

Enjoy,

Lindsey

My famous "Tannyn Balls"

When Nate and I started eating healthier in September of last year (like, lifestyle healthy), we decided that we needed a tasty little energy ball  that could be made once a week so we could grab & go. I found approximately a zillion recipes on pinterest and ended up creating my own version! This little nugget of goodness will appeal to your sweet tooth while packing a punch of energy and protein!

We named these little energy balls "Tannyn Balls" after our ever so active german short haired pointer named Tannyn. I'm pretty sure that if Nate and I had to choose two words to describe her that they would be: energetic and sweet. Naming these bites after her just seemed fitting.

Here's the recipe!

1 c. Oats

1/3 c. Agave (or honey, if you'd like)

2/3 c. Coconut Flakes

1/2 c. Peanut Butter

1/2 c. Dark Chocolate Chips

1/3 c. Flax Seed

2 tbsp. Black Chia Seed

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1/3 c. Dried Cranberries

1 scoop of Vanilla Protein Powder mixed with water to a "paste (optional)

My secret to keeping it easy and no-mess when making these bad boys is to use an ice-cream scoop and let them set on wax paper. Easy Peasy!!!

Enjoy!

xo, linz

DOUBLE Chocolate Cookies (Grain Free, Biscuit!)

There is this cookie recipe that just changed my life last night. So maybe that's a little dramatic.. but these cookies are the BOMB.COM! I gotta hand it to detoxinista.com for this gem!

Okay, so if there is no grain & less than one cup of chocolate chips, does that makes these healthy?

who am I kidding..I don't even care.

Make sure you try these out.. and don't worry, the prep/bake time is SO super fast!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup creamy almond butter
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• ½ cup honey
• 1 egg
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cup dark chocolate chips

** my Lindsey spin to this recipe was to sprinkle shredded coconut on top before baking**

**ALSO, I plan to try these next time with my chocolate shakeology.. #boombaby *

Love & Chocolate,

Linz-erilla

Paleo Treat: 'Back Country Clusters'

Today's recipe was a Pinterest find from the blog ourpaleolife.com. I myself am not on a strictly paleo diet, but like to incorporate some of these recipes into my regime every now and again.. Especially when chocolate is an ingredient!

Ingredients:
- 3 cups of a nut/seed/dried fruit mix (unsalted and no sugar added.. When in doubt, make your own)
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 tsp. sea salt
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (I used a smidge more)
- 1 tsp. vegan shortening (I used coconut oil)


Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (I used wax paper and learned my lesson.. NEVER again).

Combine all ingredients, EXCEPT shortening and chocolate chips, in a large bowl and stir until evenly coated.

Pour nut mixture onto lined baking sheet and press mixture flat until about 1/2" thick.

Baked for 20 minutes. Then let cool COMPLETELY.

Break nut mixture into bite-sized clusters.

Melt chocolate chips and shortening (coconut oil at casa de ghoens) for 30ish seconds.. Until you can stir it smooth.

Dip bottom of cluster into chocolate and set on sheet of parchment to harden.

I like to keep mine frozen or refrigerated!

--my experience of this recipe varies slightly from my instructions. My nut mixture didn't harden because the original recipe didn't mention that the shortening was to be used to melt the chocolate. That being said, my nut clusters remaining sticky instead of getting crunchy. I persevered and adapted by putting 1 inch spoonfuls of chocolate on the parchment paper first and the. Setting the sticky nut mixture on top. In the end, I acheived the same result but invested a little more time in the process.

Now I know for next time!

Bon appetit!

Xo,
Linz