Chocolate Covered Strawberry Protein Shake and Pumpkin Pie Protein Shake Recipes

Hey y'all! 

I have REALLY sucked at blogging this spring! I mean, I've been working a lot for work, but sometimes blog posts (like this one) don't take long to write! I have so much I want to share from the last couple of months! 

Today though, I am checking in on one of my 30 by 30 List. The one that I feel so awkward talking about! I've been working towards losing 50 pounds, and I am 15 down! I'm joining a new gym this week (sometimes I get anxiety in a big gym that is new to me, I feel like everyone is staring at me!), and I have been practicing clean eating as much as possible!

I'm currently doing the Arbonne Challenge. It is a clean eating challenge that incorporates protein shakes. Honestly, I have tried a lot of different proteins. I'm really loving the Arbonne protein shake mix. It keeps me feeling full for longer and more satisfied after eating it. My next favorite would be beachbody (they have a lot of different flavors).

Personally, I can't just add water and ice to the protein, so I've been looking up recipes to try and now I really look forward to my morning and evening shakes! I have a huge sweet tooth, so I am able to make the chocolate shakes very dessert like so I'm not craving sweets! Here are two that I've made this week that are super easy!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Shake

-2 scoops of chocolate protein 

-1-2 handfuls of frozen strawberries

-1 cup unsweetened almond milk (only 30 calories per cup! - sometimes I add more if the shake is a little too thick)

-fiber (if you want - this is what helps me stay full for so long!)

Pumpkin Pie Shake

-2 scoops of vanilla protein (or 1 scoop vanilla, one scoop chocolate - depends on how pumpkiny you want it!)

-1 cup unsweetened almond milk

-Frozen pure pumpkin (I get the pure pumkin in a can and freeze it in cupcake pans so I have little pucks of pumpkin - I usually use two pucks per smoothie)

-a dash of pumpkin pie spice
-fiber (again, only if you want it)

Just toss all of the ingredients in the blender and that's it! See? SUPER easy! 

Hope y'all are having a great day!

Until next time (and I promise it will be much sooner!),

Rolled Sugar Cookies and Royal Icing

Hey y'all! 

One of my favorite family holiday traditions is making sugar cookies! We always try to make royal icing, and it always ends up super thin and runny (boo!). This year, I have been following quite a few people who decorate the most GORGEOUS cookies, so I knew I had to step up my game if I was planning to post these babies on instagram. I decided to use new recipes from the ones that I normally use because I really wanted soft sugar cookies and I wanted a different icing (the one I used in the past had way too much almond or vanilla or something or another).

Rolled Sugar Cookies - I got my recipe here. They were super soft and tasted great! My only change to this recipe is that the thicker rolled cookies were much softer and I wanted to eat all of them, so you should probably do that. This recipe calls for an ungreased cookie sheet, but I used parchment paper which helped the bottoms become a really pretty light golden color.

Royal Icing - I started with Martha Stewart's recipe here. I will tell you to NOT use nearly as much water as she calls for. Honestly, I probably used half the water it called for and it still wasn't super thick. I would add a tiny bit at a time until you get the consistency you want.

This was my first time to really use the outline and flooding techniques successfully (honestly, I think I used to try the flooding without the outlining...P.S. that does NOT work). If you don't know how to do this, you want to have a thicker icing to outline your shape and then thin it out (i.e. add a tiny bit of water) to "flood" the outline. This results in a smooth even finish for your cookies! A couple of other things that I learned were that if there are bubbles in your icing, you can use a toothpick to pop those suckers and that you want to make sure the icing is COMPLETELY dry before you put them in tins (mine weren't 100% dry so some ended up having crinkles in the icing).

I recognized that I was too obsessive to get into decorating these intricately in the time frame I had to make them, so they ended up being relatively simple. Maybe next year when I can space out my baking days a little better! I'm still pretty proud of the outcome! What do you think?

By the time I got to the candy canes, I was just done with being a perfectionist and almost out of icing, so I just striped those with the light blue and red. They ended up being perfect for people who don't like as much icing though! 

I think this may become an every holiday tradition, not just Christmas. Does your family make cookies for the holidays? Or have any special recipes?

Until next time,

My Favorite Casserole Recipe - Broccoli, Rice, Chicken and Cheese!

Hey y'all! 

I travel for work quite a bit, and Ryan gets LOTS of casseroles while I am gone. I wanted to share one of my (and Ryan's) favorite recipes- Chicken and rice casserole! I shared this on my old blog, but for how often we make it, it's worth sharing again.

This casserole freezes well and it tastes even better each time you reheat leftovers. I could seriously eat this daily for a week or two...probably not a good idea! Funny thing is that this is the first meal my grandma made when my dad brought my mom home to meet the family. In the style of Ree Drummond (my cooking idol) I will show pictures along with the directions.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups cooked rice
• 1 medium package frozen broccoli (chopped or in small pieces)
• 1 can cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 1 can water chestnuts, sliced
• 1 small jar cheez-whiz
• 3-4 cups chopped or shredded chicken (use more if you want!)
• 1/2 cup milk
• Shredded cheese

 Place chicken in a pot and fill with water. Bring water to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook for 30-40 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Go ahead and turn the oven on to 350 if you are planning on cooking this now.

 While the chicken is cooking, go ahead and cook the rice.

 Drain the water chesnuts 

 Combine milk, cheez-whiz, broccoli, cream of chicken, and water chestnuts in a bowl or pot.

 Add chicken! I like to shred mine, but chopping works too. It's just whatever is easiest for you.

 Start adding rice until you think the mixture seems thick (but not too thick) - I end up using about 4 cups.

 

 Place mixture in a greased baking dish.

Sprinkle cheese on top. Seriously, who doesn't like extra cheese?

Pop in the oven for 30 - 35 minutes or freeze for later in the week. I think Ryan can vouch that it tastes pretty yummy after being frozen!

Not the prettiest picture, but I PROMISE it tastes amazing! If you do try it, let me know what you think!

Until next time,