Sunday Summary

February 16, 2014

Congratulations on another successful week everyone! I hope you have all been mindful of what you have been eating (Valentine’s Day is of course an exception!) and making sure you are staying active throughout the week.

What did you all do for Valentine’s Day? My Valentine of 5 years was sweet enough to come and see visit me (he lives about an hour and a half away) and we went out for Japanese food. I had a delicious and hearty soup of soba noodles (soba noodles are made out of buckwheat) and we shared some gyoza (how can you not?) and some grilled lamb chops.

We went to Sushi Zen; have any of you San Franciscans ever been there?

Apart from the extremely decadent banoffee pie (recipe here) I made as a Valentine’s Day gift, this weekend has been surprisingly healthy. I for one always give myself a little more wiggle room during the weekends because I like to meet up for meals with friends and I know that it is unrealistic to expect to eat healthily 100% of the time. My boyfriend and I went to a great restaurant for lunch yesterday in the Castro area of San Francisco called Chow. They had many healthy options, and a lot of their offerings were organic which is always nice to see. I got a Chai BaBa Chai to drink (delishhhh), Arancini as a shared appetizer and an amazing Beet salad with greens, fennel, endive, grapefruit, goat cheese and avocado.

Jump rope is #bae

In fitness news, I have re-discovered my love for jump rope (a.k.a skipping for all my European readers)! I became inspired by seeing amazing jump rope videos by the likes of Michael Olajide, Jr. who trains various models including Adriana Lima, and bernapril20 from Instagram. Jump rope is also a great form of cardio and strength conditioning so I highly recommend you try it out. I recently reached out to Miss Galaxy Australia 2012, Danielle Johnson, and asked her what she did to keep her legs in amazing shape, and one of her pieces of advice was to jump rope! So just do it everyone, it’s cheap, can be done anywhere and portable.

Here is a little video I posted of me on Instagram doing criss-cross jumps. I was SO excited I could do these again … they are harder than they look everyone!!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1yxSXAEfTY&feature=youtu.be]

Hope everyone had a great weekend, and have a great fresh start to your week! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave a message in the comment section below, email me or get in touch via my social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest).

Honestly yours,
Alice

Friday Fare

Friday Fare – Almond and Oat Cinammon Spiced Muffins

February 14, 2014

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!! Whether you have a special someone to spend it with, or are single and proud, I hope you are having a fabulous day.

Since I made a very decadent raspberries dipped in dark chocolate and cacao for last weeks Friday Fare, I thought I would make something a little lighter, but delicious nonetheless. I bring you Almond and Oat Cinammon Spiced Muffins!

I really like muffins, particularly in the mornings but most commercial ones are full of junk and other yucky stuff I quite frankly refuse to put into my body. These muffins are light, healthy, and very versatile meaning you can add berries into the mix, dark chocolate chips, pretty much anything into them. If I had some coconut whipped cream I most definitely would have dolloped some on top of the muffins I made. They are still a sweet treat regardless of their lovely and wholesome ingredients however, so please treat these as a dessert and do not go nuts. I am planning on featuring a lower calorie sweet treat soon that you can definitely eat quite a few of, so stay tuned 😉

You need the following ingredients to make 8 muffins:

Almond & Oat Cinnamon Spiced Muffins

Alice Williams

Muffins that won't pack on the pounds!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup almond flour
1 cup oat flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp high quality salt
1/4 cup coconut oil

Instructions

1. Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees farenheit 🙂
2. Mix all of your WET ingredients in a large bowl (eggs, vanilla extract, unsweetened applesauce, melted coconut oil, and raw honey).
3. Mix all of your DRY ingredients into the wet ingredients (high quality salt, baking powder, oat flour, almond flour, and almond flour).
4. Once you have mixed all of the ingredients together well, get a muffin or cupcake pan and either put muffin cups into the cupcake pan holes or grease the holes with some olive oil or coconut oil. Put the batter evenly into 8 of the muffin holes.
5. Bake the muffins for 20 minutes (or 25 minutes if you like them more firm).

To make the oat flour, all I did was buy rolled oats and then quickly pulse them in a food processor (a blender works too).

Nutritional Values per 1 muffin

Calories: 320
Carbohydrates: 32g
Fat: 20g
Protein: 7g
Sugar: 18g
Fiber: 3g

Let me know how the recipe goes for you, and how you personally enjoyed them. Did you add any berries in, had some coconut whipped cream, etc?

Have a great weekend, and again, happy Valentine’s Day!!

Honestly yours,
Alice

Fitness

Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas

February 12, 2014

Hey everyone!

So I decided it would be fun to create a Valentine’s Day gift guide for the health and fit conscious! This is just a fun and personal wish list of mine, and I am sure it will appeal to other ladies who are into health and fitness. Secretly hoping my boyfriend see’s this … just kidding 🙂

valentine’s day gift ideas for the fitness lover

Feel free to share this list to anyone who is desperately thinking of Valentine’s Day gifts for their beloved!

1. ‘Arrive in Style’ bouquet, $55.99 from A Mystic Garden, San Francisco

2. ‘Rose Hip Oil’, $6.99, Now Solutions

3. ‘The Bombshell in P.Space/Pink Moss’ Women’s Sports bra, $48, Strut This

4. Nikki’s Coconut Butter, $12.99, Nikki’s Coconut Butter

5. Bodyism Exercise Band, $12, Bodyism

6. Affirmats, I am Wonderfully Made yoga Mat, $66, Affirmats

7. Harbringers, Women’s power gloves, $9.99, Modells

8. Polar FT4 Fitness Women’s Heart Rate Monitor, $62.50, Polar

9. Nike Free 3.0 Women’s Running Shoe, $79.97, Nike

10. The Ultimate wish: Professional Series 200, $479, Vitamix

And then you know there are silly gift idea’s such as unlimited spending money, a car, unlimited boxes of cookies and cream quest bars, a free for all go wild shopping spree at Whole Foods and Victoria’s Secret …… hey, I dream big okay.

Hope you all enjoyed my personal wish list and hope they help you figure what to ask for Valentine’s, or what to choose for your significant other. Don’t forget to ‘like’ my facebook page and share this post if you liked it.

Honestly yours,
Alice