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

Hacka-Lackas & Coconut Oil

I am a TOTAL life hack fan & when I came across these, I knew I had to share!

Hack Numero UNO::

KUERIG Oats

So there's basically nothing to describe here, but when I saw this no the inter-web I literally thought "WHY DID I NEVER THINK OF THAT BEFORE!?"

BOOM- oats in a minute & cooked to perfection. Just add toppings. My favorites: Fruit, chocolate chips {ahem}, coconut, vanilla beans, peanut butter, etc.

Hack Numero DOS::

{Straw, Blue, Rasp} Berry Cleanse

Nate & I eat fruit like it's candy. No really, it's how we stay away from it. When I hit the store on the weekends, I usually buy every berry on the shelf. But usually mid-week, I'm having to sift through them for the nuggets without mold on them.

You feeling me?

Okay, grab your berries, some vinegar, a large bowl and water.

Soak your berries in a 10:1 ratio of water to vinegar. For 2 pounds of strawberries, I used 1/2 C. white vinegar and 5 cups of water. If we had more berries laying around the house, I would have used this mixture again. Soak the berries for 2 minutes and rinse them thoroughly. The vinegar is supposed to kill any mold producing spores, lengthening the shelf life.

Hack Numero TRES::

Toilet Cleaner + Toothbrush Grout Cleaning Method

Ever wonder how to get that DEEP set gunk out of your grout?

Now, this method is a little time consuming, but worked like a CHARM! Just turn on a good audio book, throw on some junky clothes & get comfortable on the floor.

Work by section, using the Clorox toilet bowl cleaner (which squeezes out in a gel form) to line your grout- apply liberally. Let this sit on the grout for about 10 minutes before you come back & SCRUB. Let the scrubbed grout sit for another 5 minutes before you wipe up the excess Clorox & clean with a wet sponge. Repeat until things are looking squeaky clean!

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Okay, I mentioned something super random about coconut oil. Have you ever tried it in your COFFEE?? I did today & oh-my-lanta! CREAMY, frothy, no-guilt goodness.

Ingredients:
Hot Coffee
Coconut Oil
Blender

{if you're feeling frisky, add cinnamon/vanilla/nutmeg/etc}

Make sure you give all of these a try & let me know what you think! 
linz

Healthy HOTCAKES

I found this recipe is from the 21 Day Fix Extreme Food Plan book and thought.. WOAH, pancakes!?!? If you're looking for a TASTY breakfast option to switch things up during the fix, try these!!

Ingredients:

2 c. rolled oats

1/2 c. raw cashews

dash of himalayan salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 large egg (I used egg whites)

1 tbsp. coconut oil

1 1/3 c. water

1 tsp. vanilla extract

5 cups of your fruit of choice (I used strawberries)

coconut cooking spray

Directions:

-pulse in food processor oats, cashews, salt and cinnamon until ground

-add egg, oil, vanilla and water and pulse until the batter is thick (add a little water if it seems too thick)

-spray a warm skillet with coconut spray and spoon 1/4 c. batter for each pancake. cook on each side until golden!

-you can serve with fresh fruit, OR you can warm the strawberries in the same skillet until they make their own syrup and spoon over

PS, this recipe comes out to 1 yellow container, 1/2 purple, and 1 teaspoon per serving