Fitness & Carbs via Instagram

And it's Monday!  :)

This morning I was sooo sleepy... but I still managed to pull off a nice quick session in the Gym, focusing on shoulders and triceps.

Todays Session:
Treadmill 10 minute warm-up
Shoulder Press - Barbell
Side Lateral Raise - Dumbbell
Forward bent side Lateral Raise - Seated
Tricep Pushdowns - Straight Bar
Tricep Extensions - Dumbbell
Tricep Kickbacks - Dumbbell

I think this work-out took only 25 minutes, so a nice quick morning session before starting the day.  shorter breaks, faster paced, more intense - who says you can't get in a nice session in the morning?  :)



Good thing that I managed to kick myself out the door, considering all the yummy stuff I've been enjoying this weekend! 

We went to Low Carb & Coffee in Oslo that had the most amazing blueberry cake and carrot muffins - how on earth do they make them that yummy?  It's a very small and quirky coffee shop located on a street corner close to the castle in Oslo. Definitely worth popping by if you're in the area and interested in low carb food.

We tried out the restaurant Bamboo at Sagene for dinner.  They had a large variety of different types of Asian cuisine, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Sushi, Vegirarian - you had a lot of options.  I tried out their "And a la Saigon", which was really tasty.

You should try it out if you're in the area.  :)


Alright, now it's time for me to get back to the knitting videos.   :)
Hope you're having a great start to the week!

Healthy & Low Carb - Orange & Chocolate Muffins

So, time for some work-out chat and some protein baking goodness!

Nice and heavy strength session today, with focus on arms and back.  My triceps were already screaming from yesterdays extensions, but here there's no mercy!

Todays Session:
Treadmill: Warmup 10 min, incline 12, speed 6
Deadlift: 50-60-70
Tricep-extensions - dumbbell
Standing one arm Row
Seated Row
Cable Curl


 
It might not look tough, but trust me, it was.  I'm so glad there were no body around with a camera! Just sayin! It takes a bit to make me whimper! Ha ha! :)  In other words, a good work-out!

Unfortunately I didn't manage my 80 kgs during Deadlift today, and I know why.
I was already sore from the work-out from the day before, and my body was sending signals telling me to take it down a notch.  I know I'll be back up there in no time.

It's OK to not go 110% if your body is telling you no.  Always listen to and respect your body. Give it time to recover, and come back stronger when your body is ready.

But now, over to a much tastier subject...

Low Carb & High Protein 

- Orange & Chocolate Muffins -

(Now that's quite a mouthful... pun intended)

These are really tasty.  The recipe is from our lovely Kristine Weber, with some minor tweaks from me.

...can I get a "yum"?

Muffin Recipe - Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 egg white 
20gr coconut flour
20gr chocolate protein powder
15gr dark cocoa powder
1 ts baking powder
5 tbsp icing sugar replacement
Juice from max half an orange (careful as it makes the batter very liquid)
4-5 drops of Stevia Vanilla
4-5 drops of Stevia Chocolate
Orange Zest from half an orange



How to Proceed:

• Whip to eggs well together with stevia and the icing replacement.  

• Slowly add the dry ingredients, a bit at a time.

• Add some orange juice and zest - taste to see how much orange flavor you want.  The zest adds a lot of wonderful flavor.

• At the end, whip the egg white until stiff in a separate bowl, and carefully blend it into the batter.

• Pour into a muffin tray and bake in the oven on 180 C for about 17-22 minutes.

 
Remember to check the muffins to see if they're done, using a wooden toothpick.  Stick i into the middle.  If it comes out dry, they're finished.

My little muffin army of healthy goodness!

If you use the medium sized muffin tray you should get around 7 muffins from this batter - in other words around 58 healthy and protein packed kcal per muffin!  ♥



Frosting Ingredients:
As the muffins are cooling down, create a nice and easy frosting.  You'll need:

• Creme Cheese (Philadelphia )

• Icing Sugar replacement

• Stevia vanilla

• Orange zest

How to Proceed:
I would not recommend using juice from the orange in the frosting as it get's very liquid.  Take around 100 grams of creme cheese, add loads of icing sugar replacement, taste your way with amount of vanilla, and add bit by bit of some orange zest.

Let the Muffins be completely cold before you put on the frosting, or it will melt and likely slide off.  If you feel that the frosting is a bit liquid, stick it into the fridge and let it cool down for a few hours.



If you're like me and can't wait, just dip the muffin in the frosting, and enjoy - liquid or not!  Mmmmmyum! :)

♥ Yummy Little Muffin being consumed while Knitting ♥

Happy & Healthy baking to you guys!

Winners and Waffles!

So, I finally decided which sweater to go for!  And the winner iiiiis.... *drumroll*

Tadaaaaaaa! The VM 2013 sweater!  This one is going to keep me going for a long while I'm sure.

It was so nice popping by the yarn store yesterday.  I've never seen young women working in a yarn store - normally around here there are lovely ladies in their 50s - so when not just one, but two in their twenties came to help me out I was positively surprised to say the least.  They really knew what they were doing too. 
Funny, but it makes me happy to see more of my generation knitting!  :)


We made sour cream waffles yesterday like I mentioned, and they turned out really yummy!
They were not the regular  version, but low carb from a book by the blogger Cecilie Theiste-Bratli. Check out her blog; fristendelavkarbo.no "tempting low-carb".  You can find her book by the same name here. 
She's got several low carb recipes on her blog as well if you're curious.  :)

I added some more sweetener since I like my waffles sweet, but overall the original recipe was really good.  With homemade blueberry jam it was heaven!

Next time I'll be testing out protein waffles! :)


On a sidenote...
I've finished my last knitting project and will be posting pictures of it - as well as of the previous cap - soon!

Hope you guys are having a relaxing Sunday

 

The Big Brownie Experiment!

I had to have something sweet.... there was just no way around it...

So, since I was going to have something caloric one way or another, I figured I might as well do my best to make it as healthy as possible.

I didn't have much around, and the stores were closed... what to do.  Didn't really have a lot of ingredients for anything at all really, so baking from scratch wasn't really an option. 

Luckily for me I found a  low-carb brownie mix that I could use, all the way in the back of the closet.  Last time when I tried it I remember I was thinking; Hmmm, sure, it's good... but how can I make it better?

So, this time around I got creative, and the result is absolutely awesome! Seriously, I could eat the whole thing in one go! Yum!

I followed the recipe on the bag, but decided to add some of my own ingredients to add something to make the brownies a bit more healthy, at least in my opinion.

I added two types of protein powder to the mix, both chocolate and neutral.  I did this after I had added the wet to the mix so that I had a better idea of the final consistency.  I had no measures to go by, so I kept adding until I felt that the brownie mix was starting to feel more solid.  At the end I added four tsp of liquid sweetener to the mix as well, which made it even more tasty.

It turned out perfect!  It still kept the dense texture and feel of the brownie, but it wasn't as sticky as the last time.  It felt a bit lighter.

Now I was left with a problem - the frosting!  What on earth to do for a frosting?  Now this is where the total randomness starts.  After digging through fridge and closets, I managed to find some potentially usable ingredients.  Dark Cocoa powder,  Icing Sugar replacement, skim milk, Stevia English toffee and a bag of powdered low sugar vanilla sauce.

 
I had no idea if this was going to work...

I started with the vanilla sauce. 
Instead of adding the 7.5 dl of milk to it, I added only 2 dl of milk instead.  I wouldn't want it to get too liquid.  While I was waiting for it to boil and thicken, I added several topped tbsp of dark cocoa powder.  I kept adding until I was satisfied with the rich chocolate flavour.

The mix thickened, and then I added six drops of the Stevia English toffee that I stirred in.

When the mix had thickened, and I had stirred it for a few minutes, the taste was really intense.  At this point I added the Icing Sugar replacement until the taste was right.


Voila!  Perfect icing for the brownie!

Above you see the initial result, when it's still warm.  Yummmm!  It actually get's even better after a night in the fridge as you can see below.

Ooooh, chocolate brownie love ♥  I'm still amazed at how incredibly good it turned out.  Seriously, if you have the chance, try it out! A healthier version of a brownie - what's not to love?  :)

...Having this thing out of the fridge is seriously damaging my dinner today!  Chocolate brownie for dinner?  Does that sound like a good idea?  :P

Tifa and I wish you a great Saturday!

Cauliflower Crust Pizza!

Last Saturday we decided that we felt a bit adventurous on the food side, and tried out a low-carb version of pizza with no flour whatsoever: Cauliflower Crust Pizza!

Yup, you heard me, the crust is made out of cauliflower!  In addition it has egg, mozzarella and different spices. It has absolutely no flour of any kind.

I was skeptical, but it actually turned out pretty good.  It's pretty different from a normal pizza, and you have to use knife and fork because of the softer cauliflower crust, but it actually works.  I was definitely positively surprised to say the least.  :)

 The ingredients are as follows:

• 1 cupcooked riced cauliflower
• 1 cupshredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 egg,beaten
• 1 tspdried oregano
• 1/2 tspcrushed garlic
• 1/2 tspgarlic salt
• olive oil (optional)
• pizza sauce; shredded cheese and your choice of toppings*

For the Pizza sauce we made one tomato and one pesto sauce.  For topping we added onion, cheese and different types of meat.  Yum!


"Rice" the Cauliflower:
Take 1 large head of fresh cauliflower, remove stems and leaves, and chop the florets into chunks.
Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Do not over-do pulse or you will puree it. (If you don't have a food processor, you can grate the whole head with a cheese grater).
Place the riced cauliflower into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 8 minutes (some microwaves are more powerful than others, so you may need to reduce this cooking time).
There is no need to add water, as the natural moisture in the cauliflower is enough to cook itself.
One large head should produce approximately 3 cups of riced cauliflower.
The remainder can be used to make additional pizza crusts immediately, or can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week.


To Make the Pizza Crust:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup cauliflower, egg and mozzarella. Add oregano, crushed garlic and garlic salt, stir. Transfer to the cookie sheet, and using your hands, pat out into a 9" round. Optional: Brush olive oil over top of mixture to help with browning.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.Remove from oven. To the crust, add sauce, toppings and cheese. Place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted (approximately 3-4 minutes).

Enjoy!

*Note that toppings need to be precooked since you are only broiling for a few minutes.

This recipe we found at BigOven, which is a great place for sharing and storing recipes online!  It's awesome.  I couldn't find a name to give credit to for this recipe, but I have however a link directly to the original here.

Time for some experimenting in the kitchen?  :)

Organic goodness! ♥

Today I received a package from iherb.com that I've been waiting for. Yacon syrup is in the house  - now I just have to wait until I finish my diet before I can use it...

What is Yacon syrup? It's an organic sweet syrup which can be used for replacing honey or maple syrup. It's usually used for cooking, as a topping over yogurt, cereal or to sweeten juices and smoothies.
 

I got the Bakepro, which is basically neutral protein powder for baking, some weeks ago already from Gymgrossisten.no, so now I'm all set for baking experiments!
I can't wait to start experimenting with it - and I know exactly what the first things I'm going to use them for will be. 

These two lovely recipes are from Kristine Weber, and just happen to be the two I'm picking out for starters and that will need the recently acquired ingredients:

♥ Healthy cinnamon buns

picture borrowed from kriweb.no

♥ Lazy Buns (*giggle*) - directly translated from "Loffeboller"

picture borrowed from kriweb.no

Doesn't that look good?  And the best thing; it's healthy! At least healthier then the "regular" alternative for sure.  :)

There are so many recipes I want to try out, and I can't wait to start experimenting with all of them! On the web and in books there are crawling with low-carb and healthier versions of recipes - I've got a load to choose from - but I'll start with these two lovlies since I've been drooling over them for a while.  He he ♥

I'll let you know how the baking goes!

 Tifa sends ♥puuuurrrrs♥

 

The first day!

Well, here I am, writing the first blog post. 
It's getting late, and it's dark outside, but the blog is up and running - and so far everything seems to work! *famous last words*

Now, I am going to sit down and relax, enjoying a lovely low carb cupcake with absolutely no guilty conscience! Lovely feeling :)

Not bad for a first time cupcaker eh? :)  The recipe I got from Caroline Berg Eriksens book - you can read her blog here: http://fotballfrue.no/ 


It helps that I did almost 8kms on the elliptical today - 1 hour and 5 minutes, and 60 kgs of dead lift (which I absolutely loooove)! *so proud*
Considering I didn't work out at all some months ago, and now I'm working out 3-4 times a week? Not bad! :)
I wonder how it's gonna be when I'm back on the treadmill after the shinsplints have passed... something tells me that it will be interesting! *nervous*




Aight, gotta go, I can hear some cupcakes calling!