Randomness @nico2220 - Tumblr Blog

That awkward moment when a girl from a different sorority gives you a better hello than a group of your own sorority sisters...

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piecesinprogress

This 3-level workout is designed to be a targeted routine in addition to your regular cardio. For me, I’ve always found it easier to do strength training in smaller sessions more frequently so I made this quick plan to do once in the morning and once before bed. It will get serious results but not feel like it’s taking a ton of time!

I included a checklist so you can mark off the days when you do your workout, you can check them off digitally or print it out and put it on a motivation wall! Try to do this 5-6 days a week.

It is important to remember that strength training alone will not burn significant fat and in order to see results you need to burn fat through cardio! This routine will strengthen and tone underlying muscles which will also help tremendously with posture and balance! For more at home exercise plans go here!

piecesinprogress

I’ve had so many wonderful salads on vacation this week that I decided to try making a new salad every week! I’ll post the salad of the week recipe every Sunday night (homemade dressings too!) and hopefully some of you will join me on the tag #SaladSunday with your favorite salad ideas! I’ll pick a few recipes every week to get a spotlight and share the healthy creativity.

I can’t wait to see what we all come up with together! :)

piecesinprogress

Today’s challenge was to make the best, healthy-ified, pie crust I could and the recipe I came up with is perfectly flaky, buttery, and sweet. I was so excited about it that I came up with these 4 fruity tarts to show it off! You can use it for absolutely any pie or pastry recipe, take these recipes as suggestions and starting points for your own creativity!

Of all of them the blueberry peach had to be my favorite. I used Stonewall Kitchen Maine Blueberry Jam (if you like my blog please support it by supporting one of my favorite local brands & click the link on my sidebar!) and just tossed it with a fresh peach. It was sweet, syrupy and the perfect bite to pair with this crust. My little sisters fought over who got to have the chocolate banana (I sorted it out by just making another one haha) because it was drizzled with another Stonewall favorite Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate sauce and had a quick, easy “pudding” filling!

For more healthy baking recipes go here. :)

piecesinprogress

5 attempts, a few dozen reject cookies (happily eaten by my sisters and their friends) and a well-spent afternoon later I am thrilled to share this lightened up cookie recipe with you! This recipe uses soymilk, light butter and carefully balanced measurements to give these cookies the perfect rich, chocolatey flavor and golden brown color but for a fraction of the calories, fat & carbs of traditional cookies. Each cookie should be about 3-4 inches in diameter (I used an ice cream scoop to get equally sized cookies).

Aside from being just delicious chocolate chip cookies you can also spread some cool whip (fat free if you prefer) between two cookies for crazy easy whoopie pies or some Edy’s half the fat ice cream for delicious homemade ice cream sandwiches!

For more healthy cookie recipes go here! :)

piecesinprogress

Fresh fruity water is one of the most refreshing summer cool-downs but I always end up over-steeping the fruit and making it bitter. To fix that I started making it this way! This makes a fruity concentrate that you can dilute to make it as strong or light as you want the flavor to be. I keep refilling the refrigerated fruit cup all day and make a different combination each morning.

For more creative ways to stay hydrated go here!

piecesinprogress

I’ve experimented with all kinds of lightened-up baking and using Greek yogurt is one of my favorite swaps. It adds moisture and protein and if you use flavored yogurts even sweetness! An important note: if you’re looking for “flaky” textures you might be better off with soymilk or avocado but if you want richness, moisture and lots of flavor it’s a great healthy swap!

These are a few of my personal favorite results but there’s plenty of other recipes and uses for Greek Yogurt in baking.I hope these recipes give you a model for your own creativity to try new flavors and variations! :)

For more healthy baking recipes go here. :)