I found this fantastic recipe for strawberry banana muffins on Peta.org! They have a ton of great vegan recipes that you can give your own spin to when you make ’em at home! Strawberry-Banana has got to be my favorite flavor combination so I could not resist these little babies!

 

Strawberry Banana Muffins

3/4 cup light brown sugar

Egg replacer equivalent of 2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup melted margarine

2 1/4 cups of flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

pinch of salt

1 cup chopped strawberries

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your muffin pan with liners. In a bowl, whisk together your brown sugar, egg substitute, vanilla, and bananas. Next, add your margarine. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Now gently, fold the berries into the flour mixture. Add your first bowl in, and stir until just combined. Fill the cups just a little more than half way and bake for about 20 minutes! Enjoy! These are a lovely breakfast treat with some tea or soy milk!

 

 

I felt like it had been entirely too long since I posted a good old fashioned recipe! With summer just around the corner I figured I would try my hand at ‘skinny-fying’ one of my absolute favorite summertime desserts. Lemonade Pie has been something I’ve eaten in the summer for as long as I can remember. My neighbor/second grandma, Mary, would always come drop off all sorts of pies and crumb cakes for us growing up and this was by far my favorite creation (the chocolate chip crumb cake was a close second but we’ll get to that recipe later). Anyways, another great thing about this recipe is that it’s completely oven free! I don’t know about you, but when it gets hot outside the last thing I want is to be standing next to a hot oven that’s heating up my house, which makes this a great recipe for those unbearably hot days.  So from my house to yours, give this refreshingly tart and creamy pie a whirl at one of your bbqs this summer!

Lemonade Stand Pie

1/3 cup Country Time Lemonade Flavor Drink Mix

1/2 cup water

1 pint of softened vanilla ice cream (get a low fat version or non dairy to tailor this to your diet)

1 tub (8 oz) of fat free Cool Whip, thawed

1 prepared Graham pie Crust (or four/six little mini pies!)

Stir drink mix and water till dissolved. Then, beat lemonade and ice cream in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed until completely blended. Gently stir in whipped topping until smooth. Freeze until mixture mounds, if necessary. Spoon into your crust and freeze for 4 hours or overnight (if you can) till firm. Let it thaw for 15 minutes before you serve and garnish with some cut lemons or lemon zest! Feel free to get an additional Cool Whip tub to add a dollop to top the pie off.  (Make sure you store this in the freezer when your done)

 

           Who doesn’t love to do a little spring cleaning?! Well, okay, I’m not terribly jazzed about it either but sometimes you got to put in some work to keep that home beautiful and what better incentive to pamper your sweet abode than all the calories you’ll burn while doing it!

Yesterday, I had my girl over to help me paint my bedroom this kick-ass shade of turquoise and boy did we work up a sweat! Neither of us felt guilty about skipping the gym that morning or indulging in some skinnygirl margaritas and guacamole after we finished. And rightly so on our part! Painting burns about 320 calories an hour and we had just made a whole afternoon/evening of it! So here’s a list of some other surprise workouts around the house, cause come on doesn’t it make it a little more exciting to clean when you get to skip the gym to do it?!

Scrubbing your tub..200 cals in 30 minutes

Making Beds…………..130 cals if you have 30 mins worth of beds to make

Cleaning Windows…125 cals for 30 mins of wax on, wax off

Wash your dishes…..160 cals for 30 mins of skipping the dishwasher

Vacuuming……………..180 cals for an hour of clean carpet

Ironing……………………140 cals an hour but don’t hunch over the board

 Climbing Stairs……..285 cals for 30 minutes of putting that laundry away

Now get cleaning my skinny little sweethearts! 🙂

 

 

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These little treasure troves of healthy lunches are popping up all over Manhattan! I highly suggest popping into one if you happen to spot one, I’ve been to the one on 18th by union square and the one downtown by Wall street but there are plenty more. Dig Inn makes getting delicious veggies fast and easy! My favorite picks are their veggie platter (where you can choose from five of their vegetarian or vegan sides) or their organic tofu platter (which comes with three sides). With sides like local spaghetti squash, balsamic mushrooms and broccoli and quinoa salad your lunch will be so yummy you’ll forget how healthy it is!

And as if this place didn’t already have my name written all over it- THEY MAKE FRESH JUICES! I’ve tried their all greens with apple, lemon and ginger and it is fabulous. With a slogan like “everything here is good for you”, you better make this your new favorite skinny spot this spring. Check them out at http://www.diginn.com/order to see if they deliver to your office! 🙂

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I saw this on Facebook and I just couldn’t have said it better myself!! And what perfect timing when we’re just about to launch our own sweet and skinny special orders section of the website! So if your in Manhattan, stay tuned because soon you’ll be able to get a taste of sweet and skinny delivered right to your door! Now if that’s not just happiness in a box, I don’t know what is! 🙂

Today is my first day since Sunday out of my apartment and I sit here in Starbucks with a large iced green tea and a toasted plain bagel with butter (insert your gasp here, it’s ok). Nope, this isn’t some “cheat day”, sadly white carbs are the only thing I’ve been able to stomach for the past 5 days. Hit by an awful fever and flu like symptoms, I could barely get anything down for the first three days but it became apparent that my antibiotic would just eat my stomach away (or force me to throw it up) if I did not try to get something down there. Enter, the sick girl’s beloved friend “toast”. I have been living on toast for days!! I’ve eaten more simple carbs in the past few days then I have probably eaten in entire months of my sweet and skinny little life. Bleck!

Funny thing is, once upon a time ago, I would have loved such a good excuse to indulge in something so “off limits” in my mind. However, when your body is utterly fighting for it’s health and you feel like death, you actually want something with nutrients in it! I’ve been dreaming about raw broccoli with hummus and fresh fruit. In fact, I’m pretty sure starting tomorrow I’ll be throwing that loaf of bread out and buying some fresh produce because my body is begging for it. I’m not going to say that having whatever awful flu -like-bug I was infected with was a good thing, but it definitely gave me a refreshed outlook on taking care of myself. I can’t wait to feel good enough tomorrow to get back into my work out and to introduce my tummy back to some other food groups!

 

              It’s that magical time of year again, the weather’s getting warmer, the sun’s shining and it’s only a matter of time till you need to be seen in public in a swimsuit. This year I’m saving myself some money and not buying an over priced NYC gym membership, instead, I’m going to do some work out videos in the comfort of my own apartment. Work out videos are great for those of us with less than ideal schedules – you can do them whenever, for how ever long, no judgement. So I’ll be reviewing a string of different workout videos for you guys over the next couple months as I test them out but here’s my very first!

10 Minute yoga is ah-mazing! Not for the beginner yogi, (they have a beginner version for that though) it has a great pace, flowing from pose to pose while connecting with your breath but without giving you enough time to go over your grocery list while hanging out in downward dog. I love that it’s chopped up into little ten minute segments so that even on mornings that I don’t quite have time to work out, I can do a run through of “yoga basics” and get centered for the rest of the day. My favorite is by far the “yoga burn” segment but they are all short and sweet, making it incredibly easy to switch up your workout daily and not have an excuse to skip it. I’m excited to try out the rest of the videos in this ten minute series because I think it’s an absolutely brilliant way to make work outs accessible to even the most time crunched of us all. Give it a whirl! I bought the DVD, but it’s also available on Netflix instant play!

I stumbled across this gem in a book I was reading and felt like it was worth passing on. It’s actually written by a man who started losing his mind to Alzheimer’s at age 50 and found himself having to rediscover who he was all the time but I think it can be applicable to our lives in so many ways. I know that I and a lot of my twenty-something, and yes even thirty-something girlfriends often find ourselves holed up in a coffee shop discussing how lost we sometimes feel. It’s a very human, and perhaps even more feminine trait to think about what we’re doing with our lives, where we’re heading and if we are where we’re “supposed” to be. I think this poem is a great meditation on embracing that feeling, being at peace with not knowing and not looking at lost in a negative way. Hey, maybe we’re just playfully wandering?
The first few times
Being lost was frightening
Stark, pregnant
With the drama of change
Then, i didn’t know
That everywhere is nowhere
Like the feeling when an ocean wave
Boils you in the sand
But as time goes by
Each occurrence of lostness is quieter
Falling from notice
Like the sound of trains
When you live near the tracks
Until one day
When a friend asks
“How often do you get lost?”
And I strain to recall a single instance
It was then that I realized
Being lost only has meaning
When contrasted with
Knowing where you are
A presumption that slipped out of my life
As quietly as smoke up a chimney
For now I live in a less anchored place
Where being lost is irrelevant
For now, only when there is a need
Do I discover where I am
No alarm, no fear
Just an unconscious check in
Like glancing in a rear-view mirror
David Hollies, “lost and found”

It’s that time of year again, the holidays have passed and there’s no snow on the ground but you still can’t bear to peel yourself out of the covers when your alarm goes off because it just seems cruel to have to leave that warm cocoon and face the bitterly cold world. I know, it’s rough but somehow we still manage to get up and face the day, and what’s more important than a nice warm, hearty breakfast in the morning? Maybe showering, but barely.

Luckily some skinny goddess invented glorious oatmeal for us! Low fat, full of fiber – this stuff not only fills you up but lowers your cholesterol, could it get any better? Well maybe it could taste a little better. Here are some fun ideas to spruce up your oatmeal so that you can make it through the cold front a little easier this winter.

Strawberries and Cream – add 1/4 cup of non fat greek yogurt, 1 tablespoon of agave and 1/4 cup (or as many as your heart desires) of fresh cut strawberries (you can also try this with blueberries)

Chai – mix a pinch of ground cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and ginger into your oatmeal, add 1/4 cup of fat free soy or rice milk and garnish with some slivered almonds on top

Raspberries and Chocolate -(c’mon we all have THOSE days) add 2 tablespoons of vegan chocolate chips and a handful of fresh raspberries

Pumpkin Spice – add tablespoons of pumpkin butter and drizzle a bit of maple syrup over your oatmeal

Banana Cream Pie – chop up half of a banana, add 1/4 cup of non fat vanilla greek yogurt and drizzle a tablespoon of agave

As you can probably see, I’m much more inclined to sweet in my oatmeal but if your a savory kinda gal, feel free to get even more outrageous with your oats by adding turkey/veggie bacon and maple syrup for some hard core oatmeal or by sauteing some spinach and melting cheese and an egg on top for an oatmeal florentine. The possibilities are endless and I usually make my best creations when I’m just trying to use whatever I have left in the fridge!

My first post in 2012 and it’s already January 19th! Someone’s been a bad, bad girl, but that’s about to change.

I love resolutions, I make them all year round ( and post little reminder notes all over my room) but I especially love them on new years because it always feels like a clean slate. Whatever happened in 2011 is over and now I can decide who I want to be in 2012 and what I want my life to be like. This year, I’ve made some big personal ones, to finally get my own apartment with out roommates and to take a leap of faith when it comes to my career, to name just two. Only 19 days in and I can tell you it’s already been pretty exciting. Don’t you love that feeling when your completely overwhelmed and stressed but somehow you know it’s all going to be worth it? I’m pretty sure it’s one of my favorites.

Maybe I’ll touch back on my personal resolutions at a later date but for now I want to focus on my GoSweetandSkinny resolutions! First, I promise to post more frequently, this starts today! I’m aiming to be posting at least once a day, five days a week minimum. I want to keep updating the site so that you guys have a reason to come back and see what’s going on.

Secondly, I’ve decided to expand a bit. After some careful thought and reflection over the holidays, I’ve decided that I want GoSweetandSkinny to be about so much more than just baking. Yes, I love baking and yes, I love vegan baking even more but that’s not all my life’s about. In fact, that’s a very small part of my actual life. Don’t worry, there will still be more recipes to come and I’m not about to stop baking but now I’d like sweet and skinny to relate to every aspect of your life. I want this to be about having a sweet life and being skinny (staying fit) while doing it. Having your cake and eating it too, in all aspects of your life.

So look out for upcoming posts that will be more, well in Oprah’s words, about “having your best life”. I’m not putting any limits on what it could be but I want this to become a place where you can be inspired and find things you can take away for yourself. Which is why my next big undertaking is going to be a webseries for the site called “Sweet Talk” where I will interview successful, entrepreneurial woman while making their favorite baked goods. With so many wonderful women doing incredible things, I think it would be incredibly valuable to share there story, ask them what hurdles they faced and what advice they have to give us twenty-somethings still trying to find our way. I know, I’d sure like to know!

Lots of exciting things going on for GoSweetandSkinny in 2012, I’m thrilled to get started.

 

 

Have some ideas for future articles or ways to contribute? Want to share your new years resolutions with me? I’d love to hear! email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com

 

 

Made a quick stop by Liquiteria in the East Village before heading to set today to get myself some fresh juice! This adorable juice bar has quickly climbed the ranks in my book of must haves. Its the next best thing to making it myself at home, and none if the mess in my kitchen. I got a “Royal Flush” this morning, which is one of their special Rx mixes and it was refreshing and delicious. My usual is their “all greens” which is kale, spinach, romaine, parsley, celery, cucumber, apple, lemon and ginger. These juices will run you around $8.00 but trust me, it’s just what the doctor ordered, you’ll feel great after liquiteria get it’s hands on you!

Girls’ night is simply not complete with out a pitcher of sangria and huge bowl of freshly made guacamole with chips. Granted, most girls’ night are self professed “calorie free zones” when it comes to my ladies but I couldn’t help but try to find an even healthier lower in fat alternative to our favorite green godliness! Avocados have a ton of good for you fats and the added edamame in the recipe will make you feel fuller faster and give you an extra punch of protein.

Good for You

Guacamole

1 12oz. pkg frozen shelled edamame
1 lime, zested and juiced
1 avocado, halved, pitted and cubed
1/2 cup cilantro
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped scallions
2 tbs fat-free or tofu sour cream
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 tsp. hot sauce
1 8oz. bag of baked tortilla chips

Cook edamame and let cool for 10 mins. In a blender, puree edamame, lime juice, lime zest and next ingredients till smooth, adding 1 tbs water at a time if too thick. Season with salt and pepper and serve with your favorite baked tortilla chips.