63 Calorie Mock Frappuccino

Low calorie mock Frappuccino recipe in a minute… first, dinner!

After a trip to the dog park with Sadie, we hurried home to see Ryan! I don’t know who was more excited to see him after his one night away… me or Sadie. When I said “Daddy’s home” in the car, Sadie went berserk!

After exhanging a hug and kiss hello (and in Sadie’s case, a lick), Ryan and I left for a quick trip to the grocery store because we didn’t feel like living on soup for the rest of the week.

We went shopping hungry, so everything looked delicious! Ryan suggested making ravioli for dinner tonight since it’s a quick and tasty meal. We snagged a pack of spinach ricotta ravioli to cook when we got home.

Spinach Ricotta Ravioli

I chopped up some veggies (onion, squash and cauliflower) to include in our ravioli bowls.

Veggie Overload

Veggie Topped Ravioli

We added lots of marinara sauce to the mix and stirred it up.

Saucy

Ravioli Dinner Bowl

Ravioli never disappoints!

Low Calorie Mock Frappuccino

Tonight my dessert came in drinkable form. 🙂

Foamy Frapp

I made myself a low calorie mock Frappuccino using a recipe I had in my handy dandy recipe binder. I printed it off of the Hungry Girl website a couple months ago.

Raspberry Mocha Madness Swapuccino

Ingredients:
4 oz. Almond Breeze, Unsweetened Chocolate 
2 oz. Torani Sugar Free Raspberry Syrup
1 1/2 tsp. instant coffee
1 tsp. Fat Free French Vanilla Coffee-mate powder
1 tsp. unsweetened cocoa
3 packets Splenda
1 1/2 cups crushed ice OR 8-10 ice cubes
2 tbsp. Fat Free Reddi-wip (a one-serving squirt)

Directions:
Place coffee, cocoa, Splenda and Coffee-mate in a glass. Add 1 oz. hot water to glass, and stir to dissolve ingredients. Next add Almond Breeze and Torani syrup and stir briefly. Now place contents of glass in a blender. Add ice and blend on high speed until well blended. Pour into a tall glass, and finish off with whipped cream.

Nutrition Facts (entire recipe, one Frappuccino): 63 calories, 7.5g carbs, 1.5g protein, 2.5g sugar

Blending Away

My Frapp

I am so impressed with how much this drink really does taste like a real Frappuccino! I made a couple substitutions to the recipe (which obviously alter the nutrition facts), but it turned out great. My changes included:

• Milk in place of Almond Breeze
• Sugar-free hazelnut syrup in place of raspberry syrup
• Decaf instant coffee instead of real instant coffee
• Omitted whipped cream (We didn’t have any because I can’t be trusted around a whipped cream dispenser)

If you’re a fan of the ol’ Frapp, definitely give this one a go!

I’m off to cuddle with Ryan and Sadie. It’s a very special day for someone in our little fam tomorrow… stay tuned!

Chickpea Pita Pocket

Today I finished up the can of chickpeas I opened up yesterday. Lunch was my third chickpea meal in less than 48 hours!

What’s your favorite chickpea recipe?

I combined my remaining chickpeas with veggies I had leftover from dinner and coated everything  in marinara sauce.

Saucy Chickpeas

I stuffed my saucy ‘pea mixture in a whole wheat pita pocket with a handful of fresh spinach. It was yum.

'Pea Pita Pocket

Stuffed Pita

After work I’m off to an Invisalign appointment and plan to scoop up the pup for a quick trip to the dog park before Ryan gets home. On Monday he left for the University of Florida to represent his company at a career fair on campus. I missed him last night. Fortunately I was able to entertain myself with The Bachelor. 😉

What’s your favorite reality show?

I am a huge fan of The Biggest Loser.

Overcoming the Steady-State Cardio Hump

For some reason I seem to have slipped into the mindset that on my cardio-only days, 50 minutes is the correct amount of time to spend gettin’ my sweat on. I tend to prefer steady-state cardio, or cardio done at a continual pace and heart rate (such as running five miles).

Steady Run

Today I was determined to change it up a bit. I was determined to make myself stop after 30 minutes of cardio. This may sound ridiculous, but it’s really hard for me to stop because I have this weird feeling that my workout is incomplete. I’ve read so many articles touting the benefits of interval and HIIT training, done in a much shorter amount of time, so my plan was to complete a 20 minute interval workout.

To fight my natural inclination to do 50 minute of cardio, I planned to attend a yoga class at 6 a.m., so by the time I got to the gym, I only had 30 minutes to spare before the class.

My  interval workout included a five minute warm up and a five minute cool down and 20 minutes of interval training:

Minutes            Speed                                                                      Incline

• 1-5                 4.0                                                                   6.0
• 5 – 12            9.0 for 20 seconds, 4.5 for 40 seconds     1.0
• 12 – 13         10.0 for 20 seconds, 4.5 for 40 seconds   1.0
• 13 – 23         9.5 for 20 seconds, 4.5 for 40 seconds     1.0
• 23 – 25         10.0 for 20 seconds, 4.5 for 40 seconds   1.0
• 25 – 30         4.0                                                                 5.0

Total time: 30 minutes, Calories burned: 320

I hopped off the treadmill just in time to make it to yoga. Yoga was meh. I have such a hard time getting into the proper mental state to enjoy a yoga class. My mind is always racing and I have the worst time concentrating on my breathing. I literally start singing songs in my head.

Are you a fan of yoga?

I desperately need to incorporate more stretching into my workout routine… I’m just not sure that yoga is the way for me to do it. I may try taking a Pilates class, because I’ve enjoyed those more than yoga in the past. We’ll see!

Breakfast

Today’s breakfast wrap came together in a flash and included:

• Joseph’s lavash bread
• Two slices of Canadian Bacon
• Laughing Cow light Swiss cheese wedge

Canadian Bacon and Cheese

Wrapped Up

I really wanted to throw an egg in this bad boy, but we’re all out! A trip to the grocery store is a must tonight!

Special Birthday Shout Out

Happy birthday to my best friend, Michaela! Michaela and I have been friends since elementary school and lived across the street from each other in Palatine, Illinois until I moved to Florida after my senior year of high school.

Me and Michaela... and our Miller Lite Microphones 🙂

Though she’s currently in optometry school at Indiana University (yeahhh, she’s a smartie pants 😉 ), we’ve still managed to see each other at least once a year since I moved down south… last year we met up in Arizona to visit our other friends from high school.

You’ll definitely see more pictures of this pretty girl because she’s going to be a bridesmaid in our wedding in October and I’ll see her in Chicago for my bachelorette party before the big day.

I love you Kay Baby! Happy 25th! 😀