Strawberry-Banana Bread

Strawberry-Banana Bread

Ingredients:

3/4 pint strawberries

1 banana (can use a frozen banana)

1/4 cup coconut butter

1 cup almond flour

1/4 cup coconut flour/shredded flakes

2 eggs, whisked

1 Tbls coconut oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease the bottom and sides of a loaf pan with coconut oil.
2. Rinse the strawberries and cut off the tops. Dump into a food processor/blender and process until smooth (you can leave a few chunks if you like).
3. Remove 1/4 cup of the strawberries and set aside.
4. Chop up your banana and add to the food processor until fully combined with the strawberries.
5. Add in your coconut butter. Once combined, followed with the almond flour and coconut flour. (You'll probably need to grab a spatula and push the mixture down from the sides of the processor.)
6. Mix in one egg at a time.
7. Transfer to your greased loaf pan and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until the center is firm.
8. Let cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan.
9. While cooling, heat 1 Tbls coconut oil on the stove. Once hot, add the 1/4 cup of strawberry puree that you had set aside in step 3. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. The mixture will turn a deeper red and start to clump together.
10. Slice up a piece and top with the warm strawberry mixture.

Paleo Pizza and Tuesday/Wednesday Workouts

Because my computer decided not to post this when I planned to, you get Tuesday and Wednesday wrapped into one. Lucky you!

Tuesday's 5 am workout took about 45 minutes to do.

Warm-up: 20 lunges

Side-to-Side Squats: 2x20, 15 lb

Straight-Arm Raises (Front/Side): 2x20, 10 lb

Step Back Lunges: 2x20, 15 lb

Inchworms: 5

Punches: Jab-Cross – 20 each side, Hook-Uppercut – 20 each side

Wall Sits: 1x1 min, 2x30 sec

Bench Press: 10-8-6, 50 lb

Angled Leg Press: 20 @ 120 lb, 20 @ 180 lb

Abs (Lay flat on your back. Lift your legs about 6" off of the ground and rotate to the right. Rotate your legs over your head and then to your left, returning to your starting position. Switch directions. Repeat 20 times - 10 in each direction.)

Cool-down: Stretching

By Wednesday morning I was so sore from my recent reintroduction into weight lifting, that the effort of  ignoring my muscles to roll over and turn off my alarm was almost too much. I had a very serious debate with myself over whether I should just let the alarm keep going off. I mean, it'll turn off eventually, right? Instead I turned it off and went back to sleep until my next alarm.

Sitting at my desk for the day at work was rough, too. Because I sit on my ass for most of the day, my muscles, such as my hip flexors, like to tighten up so that when I do try to stand up, it becomes a very slow process of stretching out my muscles first. Therefore, my exercise for the day was to go for a nice relaxing walk... outside. It was wonderful getting fresh air.

And you know what else is wonderful? Pizza. Especially pizza with a yummy crust, like the one from the picture below. So keep scrolling for the recipe. Yum!

Paleo Pepperoni and Sausage Pizza

Pizza Crust

1 cup almond flour

1/2 cup shredded coconut 

2 Tbls flax seeds

2 eggs, thoroughly whisked

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp parsley

1/2 tsp ground pepper

sprinkle of salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease the bottom of a round cake pan with coconut oil.

Mix the ingredients together and transfer to the cake pan. Use the back of a spoon or your hand to spread the mixture evenly across the bottom of the pan. It'll be pretty sticky.

Bake for 20 minutes or until top is browned and crust-like.

Topping

1/2 cup pasta sauce (like this one I found in Whole Foods)

6 pieces of pepperoni

1/2 cup sausage crumbles, precooked (I used mild Italian sausage)

5 basil leaves, chopped

1 green onion, chopped

1/2 cup sliced cherry tomatoes

Once the pizza crust is made, spread the pizza sauce over the crust and sprinkle with the basil and green onion. Spread the meat across the sauce...

... and top with the cherry tomatoes.

Bake for 15 minutes (this is basically just to heat the meat and roast the tomatoes).

Slice into quarters and serve hot.