Finger-Lickin’ Good Clean BBQ Sauce

IMG_2183.JPG

I LOVE chicken. And I love barbecue sauce. Sure, some BBQ sauces’ ingredient lists are semi-decent, but most of them contain a ton of sugar, preservatives, or high fructose corn syrup hidden in there. So when I was searching for a clean BBQ sauce online, I stumbled upon one from mywholefoodlife.com.

I modified it a bit, doubled the recipe, and voilaaaa!

INGREDIENTS:

2, 6oz cans organic tomato paste
1 cup water
8 tablespoons worcestershire sauce (okay, so this is not considered clean, but Annie’s makes a vegan version, or you can make your own, clean version following this recipe)
4 tablespoons Bragg’s apple cider vinegar
2-3 minced garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons raw, organic, local honey
2 teaspoons black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (less if you don’t like spicy; more if you want to kick it up a notch).

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pre-make Worcestershire sauce if making it from scratch
2. Mince garlic cloves
3. Mix tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, water, and apple cider vinegar in a bowl.
4. Add honey and mix until dissolved
5. Add garlic + spices to sauce mix and mix well
6. Use as a marinade, top meat or veggies, or store in fridge!

*This sauce tastes best after a couple days; it really brings out the flavors & kick! So if possible, prep a day or so before you plan to eat it!

I used mine to marinade organic chicken cutlets that I cooked on high in the crockpot for 4 hours, then stored the remainder of the sauce in a mason jar in the fridge.

Perishable, so refrigerate to store, and use within a week to be safe because of tomato paste!

Protein-Packed Fall Flap Jacks

IMG_2116.JPG

Fall. Flap Jacks. Is there anything more festive than the term flap jacks?? I immediately think of the holidays. Add in pumpkin and pumpkin spice, and oh boy, that’s a recipe I can’t wait to get my hands on. Which is exactly what I wanted to do with these gems.

It only took me six months to finally print out my TIU Nutrition Plan, but better late than never! I’m so happy to have it organized in a super cute binder with each page in sheet protectors, and each plan separated by tabs (I’ll dedicate another post to this later).

I knew I was in the mood for pancakes…

This morning I completed 2 rounds of Sunkissed Abs, 1 round of Love your Body Abs, and made it through three mins of Love your Body legs until Tanner had a meltdown. I knew I was in the mood for pancakes, because I need a little smoothie break, so stocking up on pumpkin purée yesterday, I knew that was the flavor I wanted to make. I looked through my TIU plan recipes, and decided to modify a few of the Perfect Fit recipes to create my own. I always add extra bananas, or I find they don’t stay together well.

With that, here’s my Fall Flap Jacks!

Pumpkin-Banana Perfect Fit Flap Jacks

Screen Shot 2014-10-10 at 6.39.48 PM

INGREDIENTS:

Flap Jacks-

  • 2 organic bananas
  • 2 scoops organic, chocolate Perfect Fit protein powder
  • 1/2 cup organic, cage free egg whites
  • 2 tablespoons organic almond milk
  • 6 tablespoons pumpkin purée
  • 2 tablespoons organic ground flax seed
  • 2 tablespoons organic ground chia seed
  • 2-4 tablespoons organic quinoa or organic brown rice flour
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2-3 drops orange extract
  • Organic coconut oil spray
  • Skillet or frying pan
  • Medium-sized mixing bowl (wet ingredients) & small mixing bowl (dry ingredients)
  • Optional: 1 1/2 tablespoons carob chips (my favorite are the “Enjoy Life” brand which still taste just like semi-sweet chocolate chips, but are dairy, soy, and nut free; you can find them at Walmart).

If you prefer to bake these egg-less, you can follow the substitution ratio I used in my pumpkin bread recipe (sub 1/4 cup applesauce per egg; or coconut oil, or a mixture of both)

Greek yogurt topping –

If making yourself:

  • 2 tablespoons Plain 2% Greek yogurt
  • 1 tablespoon pumpkin purée
  • 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin spice

OR you can use pre-made pumpkin Greek yogurt. I love Trader Joe’s or Yoplait’s pumpkin cheesecake flavors!

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Heat skillet to 365 degrees.
  2. In mixing bowl, mash bananas and almond milk until well mixed. I used a potato masher and it worked wonders!
  3. Add in remaining wet ingredients; egg whites, pumpkin purée, and orange extract. Mix together.
  4. Combined dry ingredients in separate bowl and mix; protein powder, flour, flax seed, chia seed, pumpkin spice, & baking powder. Once mixed, add to wet ingredients and mix well.
  5. Optional: add carob chips to batter.
  6. Spray skillet with coconut oil (make sure to buy a brand that tolerates heat up to 375 degrees).
  7. Keep scoops of batter small when adding to skillet, as these are super moist because of the banana & pumpkin. Best when dimensions of flattened flap jacks are no larger than 3″x3″.
  8. Scoop batter onto skillet, and flip at about the 3-5 min. mark, it when you can successfully flip without flap jack sticking to skillet.
  9. Flatten flap jack with spatula and let fresh side cool about 3-5 mins.
  10. When ready to flip again without sticking, I cook mine for about 2-3 mins longer on each side to make sure batter is cooked all the way through and no longer wet.
  11. Place flap jacks on a plate to cool, while you prep your Greek yogurt.
  12. Place one pancake on a small plate. Too with pumpkin Greek yogurt mix. Place another pancake on top, topping with another heap of Greek yogurt. Continue to stack layers until you reach your desired serving size. I find 3-4 layers are perfect to keep me full through lunch.

Bon appetite!!

IMG_2117.JPG

IMG_2118.JPG

Fitness Tanks

Screen Shot 2014-10-08 at 1.27.06 PMScreen Shot 2014-10-08 at 1.26.55 PMScreen Shot 2014-10-08 at 1.27.11 PMScreen Shot 2014-10-08 at 1.27.15 PM

EEEEE! I’m SO excited to FINALLY announce my fitness-inspired tank line is officially revealed!!! I can’t thank my friend, Zan, enough for bringing my designs via A Beautiful Mess app (what would we do without that?!) to life through Illustrator. If you’re ever looking for a graphic designer, he is AMAZE. So patient and sweet through the back-and-forth process that comes with the design process.

Fun, Inspiring, Funny, Cute

Within the TIU community, we all have so much fun admiring one another’s workout outfits, posting motivational quotes, and sharing all sorts of goodies that provide inspiration. I wanted to take all of that and create fun, inspiring, funny, cute tanks!

Remain Cozy & Comfy 

I order through a mom-and-pop company in Chicago, and have used them in the past for my wedding planning company, Better Half Weddings & Events, Inc., and have always been extremely happy with their service and product. These tanks fit amazing and are super soft! They don’t shrink into a crop top in the wash, and remain cozy and comfy the more you wear! I can vouch, as I wear about 10 BHW tanks on the reg 😉

 

Soooo, without further ado….

ShellTanks_Mocks

PRE-ORDER NOW AVAILABLE HERE!!

Available tanks:

Screen Shot 2014-10-08 at 1.27.06 PMScreen Shot 2014-10-08 at 1.26.59 PMScreen Shot 2014-10-08 at 1.26.55 PM Screen Shot 2014-10-08 at 1.27.15 PM Screen Shot 2014-10-08 at 1.27.18 PM Screen Shot 2014-10-08 at 1.27.22 PM Screen Shot 2014-10-08 at 1.26.50 PM  Screen Shot 2014-10-08 at 1.26.45 PM  Screen Shot 2014-10-08 at 1.27.11 PMScreen Shot 2014-10-08 at 1.27.03 PM

TIU Weekly Planner

Since the most recent TIU 8-week Bikini Series challenge, I’ve been dying to get organized and create an Excel spreadsheet (anyone who knows me knows Excel + Me = #BOOM) where all the weekly challenges are laid out nicely, neatly, and organized.

An easy-to-read format 

My wedding planning company, Better Half Weddings & Events, Inc., creates custom wedding planning spreadsheets for brides-to-be, and ever since college I’ve had a passion for creating organized spreadsheets to help keep people organized for various organizations. So when TIU presented all our workouts in a format that wasn’t geared for the busy mom who doesn’t have time to read through their entire posts a few times a day when working out, checking off the PM challenge, or searching for the minutes of cardio we’re challenged to complete, I knew it was time to step in!

The weekly spreadsheet

So FINALLY, almost to the day of my 6-month TIU anniversary, I’ve created a weekly spreadsheet where I’ve inputed the listed booty calls, workouts, PM challenges, and check-in themes/hashtags. The blank spaces are for you to input what you’ve completed. For example, fill in your meals under M1-M5, your total miles toward #100byhalloween, your additional PM or AM workouts (what AMWO and PMWO stand for), etc. The listed workouts don’t necessarily have to be completed in the AM or PM; you can do them whenever works for you.

Download my PDF friendly version of this handy TIU Planner here

Screen Shot 2014-10-06 at 8.24.26 PM

I had some requests for a blank version, too, so have updated one and you can download it here

Screen Shot 2014-10-07 at 12.59.50 PM

Download: TIU Planner BLANK

I’ve only used Google Docs a few times in college, and it’s been a while, so here is my attempt at uploading it there too; please let me know if it works!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17JAuc5tIdkCCxd_burF1LVujdLHCi5XSxR_XbIQ8Uf8/edit?usp=sharing

TIU Planner created by @TIU_SHELLEY

Please let me know how you like the layout! I’d love to hear from you!

XOXO

Spritzers are the New Black

Last night we celebrated my sister-in-law and her husband tying the knot in the most gorgeous, romantic, traditional wedding ever. Being a wedding coordinator, I feel like I’ve seen it all, but with each new wedding I work or attend, there are always special touches that make each unique. The details that stood out to me this wedding were everywhere!

IMG_2005.JPG

I absolutely LOVED the cocktail hour setting. The reception was held at the Westin Fort Lauderdale Beach & Spa Resort, and the cocktail hour was on the rooftop terrace, where the most gorgeous, vivid sunset appeared out of nowhere and created the perfect backdrop for the bride & groom to take pictures. I also loved their guest book; they asked everyone to leave well wishes as well as an adventure, that they promised to complete in their lifetime. How adorable is that?! I also had the best wedding food I’ve ever had – a juicy, perfectly cooked steak. SO.GOOD.

IMG_1993-1.JPG

Drink like a TIU girl.

Anyway, back to the origin of this post….drinking like a proper TIU girl. Being a breastfeeding mom, I can only have one glass when out, and not being a huge drinker anyway, that’s totally fine with me. Luckily, I just don’t really like the taste of alcohol anyway; not wine, liquor, or beer. I love a good marg and a good glass of champs, though, so those are my weaknesses.

Save Calories + Save a Hangover

Cocktail hour didn’t have champagne, so I was left to be creative. I had a baby sitter, my friend Jackie, watching Tanner for a few hours so I could enjoy myself and feel like a pretty little independent human for the night, so I deserved a drink! So what’s a TIU girl to do to save calories and save a hangover? (Or in this case be breastfeeding aware – I don’t pump and dump; that milk is gold!)

Here’s my trick…

IMG_2017.JPG

Photo credit – NY Times, 2014.

I order a half glass of wine (they had a rosé white Zin, so this was my choice because I don’t really like red or white & prefer the sweeter taste) and top the glass off with sparkling water and ice (if you’re somewhere chilly you obviously don’t need ice, but this is South FL and you need all the help you can get chilling anything). Being a champs girl anyway, I love the bubbly effect this creates, and you can still enjoy your night with a fun drink – with HALF the cals, and half the guilt 😉

Spritzers are the new black!

Don’t let too many drinks dull your sparkle the morning after. Drink well, be well! Congrats, Jena & Brian! Thank you for a wonderful evening!

IMG_1994.JPG

IMG_1992-0.JPG

IMG_1991-0.JPG 💗💗💗

TIU SAN DIEGO Meet Up!

Pumpkins + Painting + Potluck…oh my!

IMG_1807.JPG

Where: Address TBA to those who RSVP yes – North County, San Diego

When: Sunday, October 19th from 1:30-3:30pm

Why: because nothing is better than fall and pumpkins celebrated with TIU sisters! Let’s get to know one another better 🙂

Who: San Diego TIU sistas

How: Cost is $10 to cover painting supplies. Bring yourselves, a pumpkin, a TIU approved dish to share, paint-friendly clothes, and anything specific you like to drink! I’ll provide painting supplies, paint, a TIU dish, and the rest!

A few of my favorite things…

Goodness for your soul, goodness for your body…

My morning started off with such positive vibes this morning! Mostly because I took a minute of gratitude to appreciate my surroundings and realized I was embodied by so many of my favorite things, both materialistic and spiritual. The perfect blend of what makes you happy…a little goodness for your soul, a little goodness for your body…

Screen Shot 2014-09-29 at 2.37.30 PM

Happiness-in-a-little-Instagram-square

For me this morning, a good handful of these things were featured in the photo I posted on my TIU Instagram (@tiu_shelley). Here’s the breakdown of my little happiness-in-an-Instagram-square:

What makes YOU happy?!

what’s good for your body is good for your soul + what’s good for your soul is good for your body

Screen Shot 2014-09-29 at 2.36.44 PM

I realized that what’s good for my body is good for my soul, and what’s good for my soul is good for my body. It’s so much easier to hold on to hate, to hold on to the past, to hold on to grudges. I hate that! It’s not fair those things take up more space in our beautiful minds than all the wonderful things going on around us. Challenge yourself today – whether it’s for a five second breath count, a minute, a few minutes, or even part of your day….breathe out the bad, breathe in the good. Share more of the beauty, dismiss the ugly. Imagine all the bad thoughts, the resentment, the things pestering you to pop like bubbles each time they try to enter your thoughts. Sweep them out of your mind like dust bunnies!!

Screen Shot 2014-09-29 at 2.37.41 PM

I took all that out of my yoga practice this morning. The teacher really struck close to home today. Set your intentions – set your happiness – set the tone for your life. You deserve it, and are in charge of it!

Happy Monday, sweet souls! Xoxo

Crockpot Pineapple Habenero Chicken

Two of my favorite things in this world are chicken & crockpots. Seriously, whoever invented the crockpot was a God or a Goddess. I’d say it was obviously a woman, because it’s so practical and time saving, but it could have equally as been a man since it’s the ultimate lazy move as far as the actual cooking process goes.

I went to Costco for printer ink & paper, but of course roamed the aisles throwing other things in my cart. One of them was this all-natural marinate/sauce…SO.GOOD.

IMG_1643.JPG

IMG_1681.JPG

All Natural. No Funky Ingredients or Artificial Flavoring.

I loved that it was pretty clean and there weren’t any weird ingredients that you couldn’t pronounce; typically a good rule of thumb for anything healthy as we all know. The vegetables used in the sauce weren’t “flavoring”, they were the actual veggies themselves. It was already noon when I was shopping & I knew I had organic chicken breasts in the fridge, so as soon as I saw this sauce, I knew I wanted to bust out my crockpot. Now, if I didn’t have a one year old that was climbing out of my cart and clawing me like a raptor, I would’ve bought the ingredients to make the sauce myself. But today just wasn’t one of those days I was going to have 30 seconds to myself. (teething + up all night + sleepy + clingy + temperamental baby today). I’ve gotten used to this new life as a mom & the sacrifices we make are worth it. Like how I’m going to have to pause writing this right now to tend to a screaming banshee who wants out of his playroom and onto my boob…

Okay, where were we? Chicken & crockpots…

Ingredients (Using Costco Sauce):

  • Organic, boneless chicken breasts
  • Costco sauce

Ingredients making homemade pineapple habenero sauce:

  • 1 cup pineapple
  • 1 cup pineapple juice
  • 1 cup mango
  • 1/4 cup chopped white or yellow onion
  • 1/4 cup red bell pepper
  • 1/4 cup yellow or orange bell pepper
  • 1 teaspoon coconut sugar
  • 1 teaspoon amino acid soy sauce substitute (I use Bragg’s)
  • 1/4 habenero pepper (use less or more depending on how you tolerate spicy things).

IMG_1641.JPG

Directions (using Costco sauce):

1. If using Costco’s pre-made marinade, pour about half the bottle into crock pot

2. Add chicken (I only used two breasts, but you could could make three with using half the bottle of sauce, or double up recipe when using more chicken; which I would recommend because both the chicken and sauce is really good leftover).

3. Cook on low for 4-6 hours, depending on your crockpot’s cooking ability & how many chicken breasts you used. Cutlets cook faster if you only have 3-4 hours.

4. Serve with a TIU approved side. I made veggie fried “rice” which you’ll find the recipe post coming soon!

Directions (using homemade sauce):

1. Dice all vegetables using food processor or knife

2. Dice pineapple & mango using food processor or knife

3. Add diced veggies, fruits, pineapple juice, coconut sugar, and “soy sauce” to crock pot. Stir all ingredients together to form a nice relish-like consistency.

4. Add chicken breasts.

5. Mix sauce and chicken breasts until nicely coated.

6. Bake on low for 4-6 hours, depending on how many chicken breasts & your crockpot’s cooking ability. (I used two chicken breasts and cooked for 6 hours, only because I wasn’t home).

7. Chicken should fall into nice shreds when served.

8. Serve with your favorite TIU approved side. I made veggie fried “rice” which you’ll find coming soon to my blog!

*Do not consume under-cooked meat. Make sure chicken is properly cooked all the way through before consuming.

FALLing out of Summer Parfait

IMG_1667.JPG Since the TIU Pumpkin Parfait took over my breakfast tastebuds, I decided to try another parfait this morning. The morning parfait is something so simple, yet I always forget about it! Probably because I’m a smoothie and acai berry bowl addict.

Apples + Pumpkins = Oh my, it’s fall, ya’ll…

I was grocery shopping yesterday searching for my Yoplait Pumpkin Pie low-fat yogurt (this was a quick essentials shop with limited time, so I couldn’t make it to Sprouts or Trader Joe’s for a cleaner alternative) when a sparkly new “limited edition” yogurt caught my eye; apple crisp. Um, yum. Apples + pumpkins just scream fall, so I left the store with my two yogurt flavors in tow (among other things, like fresh fruit of course!)

IMG_1684.JPG

FALLing out of summer

This morning when I ones the fridge to make Tanner’s breakfast, I began slicing nectarines and blackberries down to baby niblets, when I thought, hmmm these could be yummy with my apple crisp yogurt! Blackberries and nectarines/peaches always remind me of summer, but cinnamon and apples remind me of fall, so the two flavors combined seemed perfect to saying farewell to summer and hello to fall! (In the kitchen, at least, because we’re having another heat wave here in San Diego). Que recipe name, FALLing out of summer 😉

What you need:

  • Apple crisp Yoplait low-fat yogurt OR you could absolutely make your own, clean version (listed in directions). If doing so, you will also need plain greek or low-fat yogurt or vanilla greek yogurt, apples, cinnamon, and vanilla extract.
  • Optional, Perfect Fit protein.
  • Blackberries
  • 1 Nectarines and/or 1 peach
  • Chia/flax sees granola
  • Mason jar or Tupperware
  • Spoon (duh)

Directions:

1. Pre-prep your yogurt if making homemade;

1a: For a cleaner substitute, start with plain Greek Yogurt, apples, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Bake the apples until mooshy, and cube. Once completely cooled, add tiny apple cubes to your Greek yogurt. Add a 1/4 tsp vanilla extract and a few sprinkles of cinnamon.

1b: *For a protein boost: sprinkle in vanilla Perfect Fit Protein into yogurt mix. If you chose to add PF protein, you may not need to add vanilla extract.

1c. If you’re using Yoplait’s, just open the lid 😉

2. Slice nectarines/peaches into tiny little cubes

3. Add about 1/4 cup yogurt to bottom of Mason jar

4. Add nectarine cubes

5. Add 1/4 cup granola

6. Top with about 10 blackberries

7. You can sprinkle top with cinnamon or drizzle a teaspoon of raw, local honey atop blackberries

8. Mix together or eat in layered bites, and enjoy!

IMG_1659.JPG IMG_1665.JPG Would love to hear how you like this mix of flavors!

As you can see, it’s baby approved!!

(no granola & all fruit chopped into tiny bits; no protein powder.)

IMG_1661.JPG

@TIU_SHELLEY

Instagram is an incredible platform of social media. You’re able to reach an audience of like-minded people and connect on a common-ground through pictures…who doesn’t love pictures?! I know the old saying is to never judge a book by its cover, but when it comes to Instagram, the opposite rings true. Pictures express our emotions, our lifestyles, our backgrounds, what motivates us, excites us; what makes us happy. And, of course, let’s not forget our meals. Who hasn’t uploading mouth-watering pictures of a meal a time or two?! If you’re nodding your head no, I don’t believe you. Especially if you’re a TIU girl – this is pretty much a rule of thumb to get initiated into the #tiuteam.

share. love. inspire. sweat.

Community-Social-Media-Icon-Pink-400x400

If you’re not a member of Tone It Up, some of my lingo will seem foreign; when it comes to Instagram check-ins during challenges, such as the current #friskyfall, we’re encouraged to check in. What does that mean? Posting pictures alllllldayerrrrdayyy of our meals, workouts, motivational quotes, etc. Basically anything that embodies the TIU way of life; share. love. inspire. sweat. In fact, during 8-week challenges, our likelihood of winning weekly giveaways is increased by checking in (posting pictures) and interacting with the TIU community by encouraging others.

@TIU_SHELLEY

On that note, my Instagram dedicated to solely Tone It Up (@tiu_shelley) is such a ray of light during my day. The support I constantly receive from other TIU girls never ceases to amaze me. Each and every single one of my family of followers seems to say just what I need to hear, at all the right moments. I swear, no matter what outside chaos is going on in my life, my TIU girls keep me grounded. They keep me smiling. They keep me motivated. They keep me HAPPY. If I’m ever feeling down, I just open my TIU instagram, and scroll through my posts. Even just looking at my feed of bright colors, happy things, inspirational collages and quotes makes me smile and boosts my mood as an instant pick-me-up. I mean, just look at it!

Screen Shot 2014-09-24 at 10.10.05 AM

“I don’t want to be the one who says life is beautiful. I want to be the one who feels it.” 
― Marty Rubin

If you’re part of my TIU Instagram family, thank you. Thank you for inspiring me, making me smile, and making me feel so loved, each and every day. I hope I continue to inspire you the way you all encourage me!

XO,

@tiu_shelley