Category Archives: Breakfast
The Burning Questions
Obviously, I wanted people to know that I was doing the cleanse, otherwise I wouldn’t have put it on the blog, instagram, Facebook and all other social media outlets.
So, I guess it comes with the territory when people start asking me questions about said cleanse.
I thought I’d answer a few of the questions that I’ve been asked since announcing my intentions.
How does it taste?
Some are better than others. The green one is good, it tastes primarily like the fruits (green apple and kiwi). I’ve noticed at times I’ve added too much spinach or celery, and then yeah, I’m kinda choking it down.
The cashew milk is also delicious. It’s almost creamy, with the honey, cinnamon and nutmeg working together nicely.
The cucumber is the yellow juice is really the dominant flavor in that juice, but the pineapple adds a nice amount of sweetness. I actually can’t even taste the apple.
Lastly, the spicy lemonade is probably my least favorite. I feel like I still haven’t figured out just the right amount of cayenne pepper. I know there has to be enough to taste it, but if I add too much, then I really have a hard time choking it down.
Aren’t you hungry?
Actually, I’m not. It’s kind of surprising. But as I mentioned before, the first few days I did it, I substituted a “real meal” for one of the juices.
I can totally see how some people say that you just want to chew something, drinking all, day erry-day gets old.
Are you ::ahemm:: going a lot?
I’ve tried to figure out just the right way to say this, but honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Obviously, you’re turning everything into juice, so that’s a lot of liquid. There are a lot of bathroom trips to pee, but other than that… 
I expected.. well, I expected much worse. I’ll leave it at that.
Did you lose any weight?
Well, I actually didn’t do a before and after weight check, but I’m realistic enough to know that even if I did lose weight, it would just be water weight. I really wanted to do this as a jump start to cleaner eating.
So, I did this juice cleanse for 3 days, I had planned to do it for longer, but I got a touch of some kind of bug Wednesday that made me stop. 
Going forward, I may try to do it here and there. I actually liked having the juice in the morning, it’s a good way to start the day with a huge serving of greens.
Now that I’ve answered some of the burning questions, is anyone thinking about trying it?
DIY Blueprint Cleanse
I’ve looked into doing the Blueprint cleanse before, but I quickly dismissed that thought. It’s $65 a day. A DAY!! I’m too cheap. I can think of a thousand other things I’d like to spend $65 a day on.
Thanks to Pinterest, I found some at home variations, and decided to give it a go.
The Blueprint Cleanse consists of 5 juices that you drink throughout the day. I’ve made them all with a few changes.
You start each morning with the “Green Juice”.
Green Juice (makes about 32 oz)
- 2 granny smith apples
- 2 kiwi (peeled)
- 4 stalks of celery
- 1 stalk of kale
- Handful of spinach
- 1 bottle of water.
I threw all the ingredients (except the water) into my Ninja Blender and gave it a whirl. I gradually added the water until the green stuff stared resembling juice.
Because I don’t have an honest to goodness juicer, I had to strain the juice (UGH, this part sucked).
This is the most time consuming- labor intensive part. It just takes time to separate the juice from the pulp. Put the pulp in a separate bowl while you to continue to strain, you’re not done with it yet, not by a mile.
Take the reserved pulp, and add it back to the blender along with more bottled water, and blend it again. The point is to get the most out of the greens.
I strained 3 times before finally wrapping it up. it’s helpful to strain into a large glass measuring cup, then you’ll know when you’ve got what you need. You should have about 32 ounces.
Now that you’ve got the gist of making the juice, I’ll tell you the other juices I’ve made.
Yellow Juice (makes about 32 oz)
- 1/4 of a whole pineapple
- 1 red apple
- 1 whole cucumber
- 1 bottle of water
Red Juice (makes about 32 oz)
- 1 beet (peeled)
- 4 carrots
- 2 red apples
- juice from 1/2 a lemon
- 1 bottle of water
Spicy Lemonade (makes about 16 oz)
- 1 tbsp honey
- juice from half a lemon
- dash of cayenne pepper (or more, to taste)
- 1 bottle of water
Put a little bit of hot water in your bottle before adding the honey so it dilutes easier. Add the lemon juice and cayenne, then top it off the bottled water.
Cashew Milk (makes about 16 oz)
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 1 tbsp honey
- dash on cinnamon
- dash on nutmeg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 bottle of water
Very important! You MUST soak your cashews in water for AT LEAST 2 hours before making this.
Add the softened cashews to the blender along with remaining ingredients and about half the water. Blend together, strain, blend again adding a bit more water.
You should drink the juices as follows:
8am: Green Juice
10am: Green Juice
12pm: Yellow Juice
2pm: Spicy Lemonade
5pm: Red Juice
7pm: Cashew Milk
Here’s where I veer off course. I didn’t like the red juice AT. ALL. The beet flavor was very strong. I tried adding extra lemon juice, honey and frozen blueberries. Nothing seemed to mask the strong flavor. So yeah, the red juice, not happening. It all went right down the drain after the photo shoot. 
The green and yellow juices are my favorites, so I decided that I’ll just replace the red juice with another yellow juice.
The cashew milk is good, not great. I’ve actually found a different recipe where after making the milk, you blend it with a frozen banana. That sounds good. right?
I actually haven’t decided how long I’m going to do this for. I originally thought I’d do 3 full days, but honestly, I went slightly cray cray after a mere 4 hours, I wanted to eat something, chew something. And watching Adam eat chips certainly wasn’t helping. Since I skipped the red juice anyway, I decided to eat a sensible dinner in it’s place.
Guess that’s pretty counter-productive to a cleanse, huh?
Going forward, I’m going to try to do this for the next 3 days. Whether or not I’ll substitute a real meal in place of a juice remains to be seen, but regardless, I will be juicing up all my fruits and veggies. I will not let all that stuff go bad.
YOUR TURN:
Has anyone ever tried a cleanse? Which one? Did it work?
Happy to Report
I had an awesome day!
I had a half day at work today, so I decided to no longer make excuses, and get my butt to the gym.
Plus, I figured at 12:45pm, I’d be there well before all the “resolutioners”. 
I hopped on the StairClimber for an intense 10 minutes. Level 8, fat burner program, alternating skipping steps every two minutes.
Then I hopped on the the treadmill to do 2 miles, power walking, varying the incline every quarter mile.
I finished out with another 10 on the StairClimber. Only because I really wanted to push myself and die.
I did the manual program at an 8, bumped it to 12 for the last minute.
So, a solid minute at level 12 was frickin fast, and my heart was pounding, but when I was done, I felt great.
I love cardio overload!!
I also did a pretty good job eating right today!
I started this morning with some overnight oats, that I actually made a few nights ago, but they still tasted great.
It got me thinking that I want to make them more often, and I will.
When I got home from the gym this afternoon, I made myself a late lunch/early bird dinner.
I grilled up a piece of salmon, and on the side…
I made myself some quinoa, with grape tomatoes, red onion and 2 tablespoons of gorgonzola cheese.
I made enough quinoa that I can incorporate it into other things, like the overnight oats!
Full circle, readers!!
Infamous Food Post
So, back in the good old Bananas and Beer days, I actually used to blog about what I ate.
Imagine that!
A blog post about something other than me drinking too much on the weekends.
That’s a lot of links, friends.
“All ya gotta do is put a drink in my hand…..”
There’s been far too many of those lately…
So this morning, when I woke up, I grabbed my new camera and got to snappin’ on my breakfast.
I had 2 scrambled eggs, with red onion and tomato.
The for dinner, I went way back, and went with a flatbread.
Tonight’s was steak and gorgonzola.
I added a little mozzarella to hold it all together and grape tomatoes for color. 
It was just alright, but I do love that crispy crust. 
Now, don’t look for me tomorrow, I’m going on a lady date with Stephanie.
We decided not to do Christmas gifts, in favor of a really nice dinner out and perhaps definitely a big ass drink.
Give me some steak and a giant margarita!! 
….And I didn’t even fall
Ok, here’s another weekend recap for ya.
On Friday, I went to a cookie exchange that turned into a party.
I totally wanted to take a bunch of pictures of the cookies, but instead I took a bunch of pictures of myself. That’s just my thing, I guess. 
But here’s what I got.
I totally should have busted out the Christmas Ice Breakers, because there were a ton of people I didn’t know.
But I make friends pretty easily, so I wasn’t too concerned.
Plus, there were some familiar faces too.
Then on Saturday, we had plans to spend the evening with Joe and Tara in the great city of Niagara Falls, USA.
We had bought a Groupon for some ice skating at the Niagara Holiday Market, and I was PUMPED!!
I’ve actually never been ice skating, and even though I was slightly concerned I was going to bust my money maker, I had an awesome time.
There were kids ev.er.y.where, and they were dropping like flies. One of them even came charging towards Adam and I screaming “BUFFALOOOO” and as he started to lose his balance, he grabs my arm.
Are you kidding me, kid? I think it was pretty obvious I wasn’t the sturdiest adult to latch on to.
Amazingly, I held the kid up, and didn’t even eat it.
I was making Adam super proud with my skills, and I could have kept going, but people were seriously busting ass on the broken up ice, and I figured we better cut our losses.
The four of us made a few stops at some pretty awesome bars in the Falls. It was a good time.
Who needs a martini glass? They’re too tip-able, just give me the shaker!
After sleeping over at Joe and Tara’s, Joe made us a delicious breakfast, and we headed back home, where I slept away a weekends worth of drinking.
Monday’s are always welcomed with open arms.
Give me back my greek yogurts, fruit and veggies, You can have your chips, cheese and beer…..
Until Friday!
This is NOT a healthy recipe
I thought I’d lead with that, I don’t want to mislead anyone.
This is the recipe I hinted at yesterday, and I’m finally ready to share.
A co worker brought this in last week or so, and I think I may have eaten my weight in this stuff. I suppose it’s a monkey bread, but very easy, and delicious.
Easy Monkey Bread
1 16oz bag of frozen dinner rolls. (I used Rhodes brand, found it at Wegmans)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 box of butterscotch pudding mix (cook and serve)
1 and 1/4 stick of butter, cubed
Place frozen rolls in a non-stick bundt pan. Combine sugars and cinnamon and sprinkle over rolls. Sprinkle package of pudding over the rolls and finish by topping the rolls with the cubed butter.
Place in a turned off oven and let sit 6 hours or overnight.
In the AM (or after 6 hours) remove from oven, and preheat the oven to 375*, place pan back in the oven and cook for 25-30 minutes.
(Make sure you place a cookie sheet or foil under the pan, as it might spill over)
When it’s done cooking, remove from oven and flip onto a large plate.
Let cool slightly, and enjoy.
I resisted eating all the leftovers for breakfast this morning, and opted for an egg sandwich.
I also spent last night working on a cookie recipe that I had rattling around in my head. It didn’t turn out like I wanted it to, so it’s back to the drawing board for a new idea.
Have you ever made anything that seemed good in your mind, but didn’t really work out?
Happy Birthday Sara
Last night, I went out to celebrate the birthday of one of my dearest friends, Sara.
My brother, Andy, and Renae were there too, so, yay for family fun times.
I spent a majority of the evening chatting with Renae and Andy while Sara was working the crowd.
These are my brother’s friends, he’s been friends with them since he was a little boy. I guess we just believe in keeping the same friends around for life. 
And yes, my partner-in-crime was with me too.
After getting my drink on with that gang (I wasn’t driving), we went to a different bar to meet up with some other friends.
We met our friends at Ohm, then moved on to Cathode Ray.
Don’t read too much into all the men in the photos. They weren’t interested in me in any way, other than my fabulous outfit.
And matching shoes
And lets just say that the outfit was appreciated. 
Thankfully, Stephanie was down to get some 3:30 am sampler platter, which we split and I hardly remember eating. I spent the whole time at the restaurant trying to call Adam, because (head slap) I forgot my key and I knew Adam would lock the door.
So at 4am, I’m desperately trying to get a hold of Adam to let me in the house. By the grace of God, he heard the 12th phone call and came down to unlock the door.
This little piggy crawled into bed at 4:45 am.
I woke up this morning afternoon feeling pretty ripe. Luckily I had done a little prep work yesterday and this baby was waiting for me.
I’ll give you guys the super easy recipe a little later.
I know you’re all waiting on pins and needles now, but believe me, that pool of caramel-y goodness is worth the wait.
A Happy Dinner
I had a really good dinner last night. I was excited to post about it, but I was having some computer problems. So, I’ll share it with you now.
But first, I’ll tell you how it went at the gym yesterday. I hopped on a treadmill and got to walking. I ended up doing 2 miles, all while feeling pretty good about my hip. I moved over to the free weights, where surprisingly, my usual 10 pounds weights were posing quite the challenge. 
Apparently its been way too long since I’ve done weights. I did a few sets of bicep, tricep and shoulder moves before calling it quits. I finished out with 10 minutes on the elliptical.
When I got home, I started dinner right away. Adam had somewhere else to go so I was on my own.
I started my grilling some veggies (zucchini and orange bell pepper) and a chicken sausage.
SMILE!!!
I threw some grape tomatoes on the grill at the last minute to add to the mix. Then I put the veggies and the sausage in a small pot with some marinara sauce. I let it simmer for a few minutes to bring it all together. I topped it with some mozzarella, and it was done.
I was really happy with my dinner, and I ended up eating all of it.
I was also really into my breakfast this morning and wanted to share that with you too.
I made some chocolate coconut oats.
I just took 1/2 cup old fashioned oats, 1/2 cup of milk, 1 tbsp chia seeds and coconut extract (to taste).
I combined all ingredients and microwaved for about 2 minutes.
Then I topped the oats with a generous tablespoon of mini chocolate chips.
All together it made for warm super chocolately coconut-y deliciousness.
I’m going to spend my afternoon doing a lot of nothing. I’ve got to clean the house and maybe run few errands. Trying to keep things on the lighter side so I’m not too tired for a night out.
Tonight, I’m going out to celebrate the birthday of my oldest friend, Sara.
She’s actually younger than me by a few months, but I’ve known her since I was 5.
Collective “awwwww”
It should be a fun (read: late) night out!!
Cookie Swap
Before I bought my beloved Kitchen Aid mixer, I actually called my sister to ask her how much she really uses hers.
Is this something I’ll get a lot of use out of, or am I going to have to dust it off before I need it?
She assured me that I would find myself using it all the time, at least when I make my “famous” chicken wing dip.
It was also in the back of my mind that I’m heading to my first cookie exchange this year. I’m on board to make anywhere from 10 to 13 dozen cookies. That’s a lot of cookies!
The day after I ordered the mixer, a fellow blogger, Courtney, had mentioned a blogger cookie swap.
I thought it would be a great way to meet other bloggers and get a little shameless self promotion, all while giving and receiving cookies!
I’m still deciding which cookie to make for the swap, but I better bring my A game. This is the “Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap”.
I’ll make three dozen cookies and sending a dozen to 3 bloggers. I’ll be receiving 3 dozen cookies, from 3 other bloggers. It won’t be a ton of cookies, which is A.O.K with me, I’d just eat them all, but it’ll be a fun way to find new recipes, and new blogs.
Plus, it’ll be a good way to get Bananas and Beer a little love. Especially when people taste my brain child cookie. It’s going to be amazing, it’s going to get people talking. 
This morning, I really wanted to eat about 5 of the PB chocolate chip cookies I made last night, but decided that probably wasn’t the best idea.
Instead, I made myself some waffles. I fancied them up with a bananas foster-esque topping.
Don’t judge a book by its cover, these are delicious!
I mashed a ripe banana with a fork and added about 1 1/2 teaspoon of brown sugar. Warm it up in the microwave for about 30 seconds and pour on top of hot waffles.
The only thing missing was some rum extract to really make them Banana Foster Waffles.
Oh right, and lighting them on fire. 
Granny Smith and Gorgonzola Pizza
Yesterday, I did a whole lot of nothing. The only thing I did that actually felt blog worthy was my newest pizza creation.
Adam and I had gone grocery shopping, so I picked up some things that were rolling around in my head.
I started my spreading a thin layer of fat free ricotta cheese on a flatbread. I topped the ricotta with a thinly sliced granny smith apple and some chopped red onion.
I added a little bit of mozzarella cheese to help everything stick together, and finally, sprinkled gorgonzola cheese on top of the pizza.
I placed it in a 450* oven for about 12 minutes.
While the combination of flavors was interesting, it definitely wasn’t my favorite.
I ate it all though! It wasn’t that bad.
This morning, I got up a little earlier than usual, and no, it wasn’t because I was heading to the gym. Wah Wahhhhh! 
Zeusy was cramping my sleepy style again, Ya know, he’s only 28 pounds, but I swear it’s like having another adult in the bed.
I might even prefer another adult in the bed 
, because they understand English, so I could shout, “GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE” and they would actually get it, and not just do this:
Nah, I love my little guy, I can tolerate a billion more kicks to the stomach. 
For breakfast, I decided to make myself an egg sandwich. Now that we finally went grocery shopping, my breakfast options are a little more open.
Ham, egg and cheese, on a toasted everything bagel thin. Good way to start my day!
What’s your favorite breakfast?
