So, 2 days a week I am in downtown Cleveland for work and I very rarely ever get out and about on my lunch break!  Well, the other day I was watching the news (which I rarely ever do!) and the Cleveland new station was doing a featured on this cute little Cleveland "novelty" shop, except it was way cooler than any other traditional novelty shop I've ever seen!  So, I decided the next time I'm in the office downtown I'm heading down to check this little place out!  So glad I did!  It's so much more than just a visitor's center, they have cute cute Cleveland novelty tees, the design and graphics on the front of the shirts look like something you'd pick up at an American Eagle or Hollister clothing store, very vintage, VERY cute!  And all Cleveland!  Ever in the downtown area, this is must stop, it's on the corner of Euclid and 4th Street!  Check em out on Facebook too!  CLE Clothing Co.
Great little Cleveland shop, I loved it, and the staff is killer too!  Two very nice ladies helped me out and gave me the deets on some other stores that are in the area that are similar to this one!  Oh, and I just happened to catch them on their lunch hour too and they each had this awesome arrangement of veggies, hummus and pita!  Being the foodie that I am, of course, I needed to know where they found such a dish!  Right around the corner from the shop is a quaint little coffee shop called, The Erie Island Coffee Shop, where they scored the awesome fresh find!  So, you can just guess where my next stop was huh? ;) 
Yep!  Had to stop and get me a fresh veggie bowl with hummus and pita bread!  Loved this little place it was cozy and their menu was unique, I'll definitely be stopping back here to try new things out!   It is also locally owned.  And if there's one thing I support, it's locally owned businesses, so move over Starbucks!
All in all, a lunch hour definitely well spent!  I did make a pit stop at another fantastic find, but that one needs a post all to it's own, it's a fashion find.... NEED I SAY MORE!?  I'll be blogging about that later next week for sure.  So, yes, a good lunch break ended with me comfortably at my desk with my veggie bowl browsing the Facebook pages of these two awesome finds :)  Have a great weekend fit friends, use this weekend to explore new foodie finds!  Variety is good!
 
Hey ya'll!  Ok, this pizza is by far one of the BEST pizza's I've ever eaten.  Seriously... and it's super healthy, hardly any carbs!  YES!  You can now enjoy pizza without the carbs!  How great it that?!  Ok, let's get busy, cause I know you all are just like give us the dang recipe already!  LOL... k, here it is guys! 

What you need:
1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/2 tsp garlic salt
olive oil (optional)
***pizza sauce, shredded cheese and your choice of toppings*

Quick little tid-bit here... I was out of pizza sauce, so I used a can of diced tomatoes mixed with a touch of low sugar BBQ sauce, mashed it up and used as the sauce...DELISH!

What you do:
Ok so there's this technique out there called 'ricing' the cauliflower... yeah, new to me too!  But here's how it's done!

To "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.****  I ended up just making 3 pizzas, LOL!  Hey, we now have lunch already made for today, right?!

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Me 'ricing' the cauliflower! FYI... totally not cool for newly manicured nails! So be careful chicas ;)
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.
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Before baking the crust, and then after :)
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).

Ta-da!!!!  YUM!  DELISH!  ENJOY!  Let me know when you try this!  We LOVED it in our house, even the kids ate it!  Of course, their kiddie pizzas were just plain cheese and sauce, but still they ate the cauliflower crust!  Haha, Mommy tricked you!!!  You'll thank me later kids ;)
 
Morning my FIT beauties!  Hope your weekend was fabulous!  Mine was eventful! Took puppies to show and tell on Friday, hit up a good friend's 30th birthday party on Saturday, met up with some great friends and their kiddos at Chucky Cheese and yesterday I worked a little in the morning and then spent an enjoyable afternoon with the hubs!  But back at it today and really all I can think of is FOOD!  The pic above is one of my all time favorite breakfast meals... Old Fashioned Rolled Oats with cut up nectarine and a splash of almond milk, so so good.  And also this weekend, YouTube got the best of the hubs and spiked his curiously of homemade protein bars :)  So to the kitchen with the iPad we went and whipped up some chocolate protein bars.  The process was pretty simple really, all it took was some chocolate protein powder, couple scoops of PB2, rolled oats and a dribble of skim milk and DONE!  They were delicious and yes they are all gone LOL!  They were so good that Tony made another batch yesterday, but this time he used vanilla protein powder and those were even better than the chocolate!  I think there's a new fav recipe in the Bollini house :)
Ok ok I know your mouth's are probably watering by now, I know mine is!  But, one more snack post and then I'll be done, I told ya FOOD was on the brain today!  I made this snack after dinner one night last week as a little dessert for myself, consisted of plain non fat yogurt, 2 tbsp of PB2 Chocolate and fresh sliced strawberries! Delish!  Ok I'm done!  Have a great week! And def try out on of these food ideas, you won't regret it... PROMISE!
 
So less than a week til Christmas!!  Is everyone ready??  I hope so :)  Well this past weekend was definitely packed with tons of festive happenings.  Friday we made Christmas cookie cutouts (sorry.. no healthy alternative here, all sugar cookie, hey it's Christmas!).  The kids did the decorating and loaded the cookies with more than enough frosting and sprinkles, OY!  All in all they turned out pretty good, I'm sure Santa will enjoy them ;)  But don't worry.... I threw in a healthy option for ya (of course!).  Shakeology balls!  Funny name, but oh so good to taste!  Really, it almost seems like I should feel guilty for eating them they are soooo good!  The recipe will be at the end of this post, def. check it out!
Saturday morning, we turbo'd like crazy with jingle bells tied to our kicks, SO FUN & FESTIVE!  Everyone enjoyed it and I even brought some Shakeology balls to share with my class afterwards :)  Later that night, Tony and I had an adult night out, we headed downtown for a Christmas themed bar crawl, good times, I even wore my candy canes!  I had an elf hat for Tony, but Scrooge was against wearing it in public, good thing I got a pic at home LOL ;)
Sunday we had TWO family get togethers, talk about a BUSY day.  Enjoyable for sure though!  My favorite part of the holidays is being with the families, they all truly mean so much to me :)

Well.. this is probably my last post until after Christmas, so from the bottom of my heart, from me to you, I sincerely hope ALL of you have a wonderful Christmas.  God bless each and every one of you.  Love you guys! 

Shakelogy Treat!
What You  Need:
8 Tablespoons PB2 (low fat, high protein powdered peanut butter - get it at www.bellplantation.com

3 Tablespoons Natural Peanut butter (w/flax seeds is the best!)

½ Cup Shakeology Protein Powder (Haven't tried this with another brand of protein powder)

3 Tablespoons Raw Honey

½ Cup Quick Oats

What You Do:
 Mix PB2 with water until it’s a paste like consistency. Mix all ingredients, including the PB2 mixture together in a mixing bowl. It make take some time to blend all of the ingredients together. If it's too sticky, sprinkle in additional protein powder so that it's a pretty dry/crumbly texture.

Roll mixture into small individual balls (about a ping-pong ball size) and place on a wax sheet. Makes about 12 balls, 1 ounce each. Put in freezer until firm.

ENJOY!

 
WOW!  It's been over a month since I did a food post!  Alright, back at it!  This little authentic indian style cuisine is pretty easy to cook up and it only packs about 340 calories, 13 g fat, 44 g protein (WOW), 12 g carbs and 3 g of fiber, per serving.  NICE!  Ok, here's the good stuff, ENJOY!

 
Happy Monday All!  Hope you had a wonderful weekend full of relaxtion and fun :)  I has a super busy weekend full of fun and an amazing find! (Thanks to my awesome sis-in-law!).  Have you guys heard of this?  PB2, it's peanutbutter, dry peanutbutter.  SAY WHAT!?  Yep, it's like a powder and YES it's real peanutbutter and tastes like it too!  Now, why on earth would you want dry peanutbutter you ask, right?  Well, in this product all the oil has been pressed out, therefore squeezing out lots of the calories and fat, but still providing great nutritional value.  So instead of getting 190 calories and 16g of fat in regular peanutbutter, you only get 45 calories and 1g of fat!  SCORE!  This is going right into my Shakeology, perfect!  I'm sure you can find this at any health food store like Trader Joe's, but you can also buy it in bulk at www.bellplantation.com!   Def. check it out!

Switching directions for a moment... last week I posted about my weight-loss challenges right... well I wanted to make a video about them too, so that I could better explain them and give others some insight to what I'm doing here... if you haven't already, check out the video on my YouTube channel!
So Saturday... started off great with a little TurboKick, my girls and I rocked it out as usual, and as usual, can't wait til Saturday to Turbo again!  Also, one week from today, next Monday the 14th I will debut my official TurboKick class at Vedas Fitness!  SOOO EXCITED!  I'll def. be posting on how that goes :) Anywho the day flew by as we had family pic and then a birthday party, then ended the day relaxing, ordering take out for dinner and a movie from OnDemand, Horrible Bosses, so funny!!!
Sunday I laid low, woke up totally congested and just feeling blah!  Took it easy with the fam for most of the day and then headed out to see one of my very good friends in the lead roll of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.  So glad I went, what a show!  Got some much needed rest last night and am feeling much better this morning.  But really, can I just get over this constant sniffling and cough!?!?   Tis' the season I guess.... time to get a bottle of Vitamin C and start poppin'!  LOL.... have a good week everyone!  And def try the dry peanutbutter ;)
 
Happy Tuesday friends!  I'm in a great mood this morning.  FINALLY, after being sick for an entire week, I am starting to feel like my old self again!  Really... it isn't until you are down and out do you realize how we take our health for granted.  Don't get me wrong, I am WELL aware of how precious my health and well-being are (otherwise why would I being doing what I'm doing, right?!).  But, really, until you are put in a position where you are forced to limit yourself because of an injury or illness do you truly become humbled for the ability that you have to be as active as you normally are.  That's the case for me anyway and I'm SOOO glad to be back in business!  So glad that I decided to get back in the kitchen and whip up meal that sounded delicious and that I might actually be able to enjoy now that I'm getting my senses back :)  On the menu... SPICY SHRIMP TACOS!  These turned out fantastic, an instant top five on my list of favorite meals for sure!  So here it is - enjoy friends!

What you need:
1 spray canola cooking spray
2 tbsp salsa (I used homemade from my garden)
Wheat tortillas
12 oz. shrimp (tails off)
1/4 cup plain lowfat yogurt
1/4 tbsp cumin
1/4 tsp ground oregano
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 oz dill
2 cups chopped cabbage (I used romaine lettuce)
1/2 cup cilantro
2 cloves garlic
 1/4 cup low cal mayo (I'm not a fan of mayo, I used nonfat sour cream)
1 lime (or lime juice)
What you do:
Saute shrimp in cooking spray, fresh minced garlic, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tbsp salsa and juice from 1 lime.
White Sauce:  In a separate dish, use yogurt, mayo or nonfat sour cream, 1/2 lime (juiced), remaining cumin, oregano, dill and cayenne pepper.
Serve in warm tortillas the sauteed shrimp, fresh cilantro, fresh limes, shredded cabbage or lettuce, salsa and the white sauce!
Additionally, I added a few side dishes to my yummy shirmp tacos.  Plain black beans and a romaine lettuce salad with thinly sliced onions, cubed avocado and my own concoction of dressing;  a touch of EVOO, red wine vinegar, lime juice and a sprinke of cilantro... DELISH!
 
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Almost the weekend ya'll!!!!! I'm happy to report that today is Day 4 of the 5 Day Inferno Plan that I've been doing all week and I've lost 5lbs so far!  The best part about the plan (besides the 5lbs weight loss) is the snacks... they've got me snacking like crazy on this plan!  I've read this a lot in magazine, from fitness programs, trainers and nutritionists, eating small snacks throughout the day is better than having 3 big square meals a day.  Some call this grazing, I call it snacking.  And I LOVE to snack!  So, here's some great healthy snack ideas I came across this week, enjoy!  And HOORAY for Friday tomorrow!

1. Homemade Trail Mix
A handful of walnuts, a pinch of mini chocolate chips (dark chocolate of course) and a pinch of raisins and tada!  A sweet, chewy, nutty treat :)

2.  Apple Slices with Low Fat Cheese
Personally I like to dip my apples in all natural Jif peanut butter, but if I'm going the cheese route, I'll go non-fat philly cream cheese.  Delish!

3.  Baby Carrots and Hummus
This is a quick easy snack.  Grab a handful of those cute little baby carrots and a few dollops of hummus in a bowl (refrain from eating from the container, you tend to over do it).

4.  Egg Salad Surprise
I use 1 whole hard-boiled egg and 1 hard-boiled egg, egg whites only.  Chop it up, add 1/4 cup of non-fat cottage cheese, a squeeze of dijon mustard and a sprinkle of dill and spread it on a mini flat wheat bread.  YUM!

5.  Orange Delight
I take a can of those mini mandarin oranges, rinse them and mix them with a half a cup of plain non-fat greek yogurt and a sprinkle of stevia sweetener.  If I want a little crunch, I add a handful of bran flakes.  Soooo good :)
 
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Morning ya'll!  Just had to share my breakfast I had this morning.  I found this fun idea in my Turbo Fuel The Fire Guide, it's called Toad In The Hole With Turkey Sausage, funny right?!  Anywho, this is a great breakfast idea that adds a few interesting aspects on cooking an egg.... take a look!

What you need:
1 slice whole wheat bread
1 egg
3 turkey sausage links, ready- made

What you do:
Use a round cookie cutter to cut out the center of the bread.  Spray nonstick cookng spray on thbe wheat toast and place on a skillet.  Crack egg and drop it into the hole of the bread.  Cook for 1 minute and flipthe wheat-egg toast and cook for another minute.  Microwave the ready-made sausage links and there you go!  A quick little interesting breakfast just under 300 calories!  Oh, and the actual hole of the bread that I cut out.... I toasted it and spread about a half a tbsp of sugar free strawberry preserves on it, clever huh... Enjoy!  I did :)
 
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So, this is my absolute favorite soup.  I haven't made it all summer, well who wants soup when it's 90 degrees out, right!?  Well, last night after the rain, it was cool and breezy and it seemed like the perfect night for some soup, my fav soup of course!  This black bean soup I make from scratch and it's super healthy for you, that's a given right?!  ;)  So here ya go, enjoy!

What you need:
4 scallions (whites and greens chopped and separate)
4 tbsp of garlic
1 celery stalk (chopped)
2 tbsp EVOO
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp of ground cumin
1/8 tsp of chili power
1 1/2 cup of chicken broth
2 cans of black beans
1 can of diced tomatos
tbsp of lime juice

What you do:
In a medium saucepan warm the oil and stir in the white parts of the scallion, celery, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin and chili power until veggies are soft.
Then add in the black beans, tomatos and broth.  Bring to a simmer for about 10 minutes.
Once simmering, lower heat and add about 2 cup fulls of the soup mix to a blender (I like to use my Magic Bullet) and blend to a smooth liquid.
Add it back to the rest of the soup mix, splash with the lime juice and sprinke the green chives on top and DONE!