Lightened up brownies

A while back I was baking a cake and Ethan asked me whose birthday it was. That's when I realized with my healthy approach to eating I was depriving them and needed to make more of an effort to make healthy and lower calorie desserts instead of cutting them out all together. This is the easiest dessert to throw together on a weeknight. It's not the healthiest dessert but everyone likes brownies and I cut calories where ever I can.
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Ingredients:
Box brownie mix (or cake mix)
Diet coke (you can use diet cherry coke or any diet drink)

Mix one box brownie (or cake) mix with one 12 oz can diet coke.

Spray cake pan with cooking spray and spread in batter (it will be pretty thick)

Bake according to box instructions.

No calories from the oil or the eggs.

Makeup?

I have been asked to blog about some pretty odd topics but when I posted this picture on facebook, I was inundated with messages asking me to blog about makeup.

I am a self proclaimed makeup novice. I didn't start wearing makeup until way after all of my friends, in fact I think I was in college before I started wearing makeup. Even now I'm completely intimidated by makeup and on a regular basis I have 3 things that I use.

The Sublime Bronze is a Loreal airbrush tan. I do tan in a tanning bed but I like the airbrush finish I just feel like it evens out my skin and gives it the "airbrushed look." Some people think it gives me an orange-y color, but I spray tanned through my pregnancies and I actually love the bronze glow. I usually do this every other night, and only on my face/neck/chest area.

I use a dark brown eye liner, I think this one is black/brown. I don't use it every day but I probably do have it on in most of my pictures. I have huge eyes anyway so I could probably go without using it at all but sometimes I'll put it on anyway. I just use a little bit on my lower lash line and smudge it so it's not a harsh line.

I use black mascara and I'm never so sure about that because a lady at the cosmetic counter at Dillards told me I shouldn't use black mascara because it's "too harsh for green eyes." For the record that was unsolicited advice! 

I'm actually the one who needs makeup tips because I'd love to be able to do a smokey eye or even to make my little skinny lips look plumper or accentuate some cheek bones that I don't really have, but really y'all I'm clueless, lol!

Adding flavor, cutting calories

Y'all know I never jumped on the low carb band wagon. There is no way I could ever make it through my workouts if I gave up carbs. Unfortunately pasta, potatoes, and rice come with a healthy amount of calories. The way to combat those extra calories is to bulk up your dishes with vegetables but keep your serving sizes the same. I'll show you the calorie breakdown after I share this recipe.

Garden pasta

16 oz box garden rotini

2/3 cup fat free italian

chopped veggies 

fresh grated parmesan cheese (optional)

-Boil pasta until al dente and drain

-Mix in italian dressing

-Cool in refrigerator 2 hours

-Stir pasta and then mix in fresh chopped veggies

-Top with fresh grated parmesan cheese

You can use any veggies you want in this. I used tomatoes, black olives, and green peppers. I had a cucumber to use too but for some reason my refrigerator was turned up too high and it froze! I also think spinach leaves would be good in this recipe. 

Calorie breakdown:

1 cup of this pasta without the veggies would be about 250 calories. Now with the veggies added approximately 1/3 of that cup is going to be filled with the veggies taking away 83 calories. The veggies that were added and are taking the place of those extra pasta calories are under 5 calories. You just made a 

250 calorie meal 170 calories and made it taste better. Obviously the more veggies you add, the more calories you're cutting.

Let me help you!

In the comments let me know what your favorite comfort foods are and I'll choose some to make a healthy version of.

Game night homemade salsa

In our house we eat, sleep, and breathe football in the fall. I always try to do fun "football food" on Monday nights (turkey tacos, grilled shrimp fajitas, homemade pita chips and salsa, etc). A few years ago my aunt and uncle were making home made salsa like crazy and after I tasted my uncle's salsa I knew that jar salsa would never satisfy me again, never mind the benefit of the fresh veggies in home made salsa the taste was in-comparable! I know some people never tackle the task of homemade salsa because I think people think it's harder than what it is but it's so so so easy.

2 tomatoes

1 jalapeno

1 bunch cilantro

1/2 yellow onion

1 lime

1 clove garlic (not pictured)

sea salt (not pictured)

Cut stems off cilantro wash and strain.

Wash jalapeno remove seeds and chop onion (not pictured).

Run the onions, jalapeno, cilantro, and garlic through a food processor. I always use the magic bullet because it's just easiest for me.

Add the pepper, cilantro, onion, garlic paste to the pan.

Dice tomatoes and run those through the food processor.

Mix all together and squeeze the juice from one lime.

Grind in sea salt to taste while simmering on low for about 20 minutes.

And chill a few hours in the fridgerator!

Blog makeover

Sorry I've been MIA, I'm a terrible blogger I know this, y'all know this, but hopefully I can get better. I blog in hopes that I can keep myself accountable as well as share some of my wisdom. So many people have told me that they don't struggle with the fitness side of leading a healthy life style but with the nutrition side of it. I can totally relate, I LOVE to workout, but I also love reese cups, french fries, and ranch dressing (not together those are just my 3 weaknesses)! So I'm going to gear my blog more toward a nutrition standpoint on healthy living. There are so many fad diets out there but I take a completely common sense approach to eating healthy: lean proteins, fruits, veggies, water. I'll never understand fad diets like Atkins for insance, how healthy can a diet be when you can eat all the bacon you want but you can't have an apple? 

The recipes, meal ideas, I'm going to share are going to be family friendly because I have to feed these gorgeous little faces.

Y'all know I'm not discounting the importance of exercise and I will still continue to preach blog about it but I want to give y'all alternatives to feeding your family this.

What? You don't feed your family pink goo? If you take them to McDonalds for a 4 piece Happy Meal you do!

Grossed out yet? Go back here to get a recipe to make chicken nuggets at home. 

Changes

I hate change, any kind of  change but as most of you know at this point it is imminent. Last weekend we travelled down south to find a house. We researched online for weeks to find the perfect house. We had about 10 prospects and by the time we got there, they had all been rented out, were in sketchy neighborhoods, or we were just unimpressed with the interior. We were about 10 seconds away from taking a town house (which we did NOT want) when we passed a "3 bedroom/2bath house For Rent" sign with a phone number. This sign was on the corner of a subdivision with no address so we blindly called about a house we had never seen. The lady gave us the address and as soon as we saw the location we knew this was the house for us. It sits on the end of a cul de sac, the back yard is huge, and the inside of the house is gorgeous! It's a little smaller than what we were looking for but this is just a temporary place until we're more familiar with the area.

Cute right? The house not Ethan. :)

So after all that stress was relieved we could finally relax and explore the area. James and Ethan were dying to get to Auburn so on Saturday we travelled there. First we went to Moe's Southwest Grill in Tigertown. I didn't get a picture of the ginormous buritto that Ethan, Kaylee, and I shared (and still couldn't finish).

Then we headed over to the campus. Ethan is the biggest Aubie fan ever so every time he'd see ANYTHING with Aubie on it he'd want me to take a picture, lol.

I can still influence Kaylee to like Kentucky but not Ethan.

Future students here? Their daddy hopes so.

And the tree is still alive.

Last stop, Toomer's Corner for some lemonade!

Then on Sunday we headed up to James' parent's house to celebrate my big boy's 6th birthday!

Good weekend but I am so so glad to be home in Kentucky for at least a few more days!!

Celebrating weight loss, a promotion, and a birthday!

If something brings tears to my eyes it's a BIG deal so we'll start with that.. I went into the Asylum wanting to get back into the middle of the 120's like far enough in that I am not 129.2 today and 130.4 tomorrow..  I've been doing the Asylum for about 3 weeks and I stepped on the scale for the first time this morning.. I could NOT believe my eyes so I stepped off, took out the battery, replaced the battery, and stepped back on.. WHAT THE HECK?! I ran, grabbed my camera (shut up I know I'm a dork) and stepped back on the scale, and still this is what I saw...........

James found out he was getting a promotion last August but he's kinda been in limbo waiting for a spot to open up and we found out on Friday that a spot is available. We will be packing up and leaving Kentucky very soon. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a KENTUCKY girl so this is a huge step for me. This promotion is huge for our family though so I am on board. Columbus, GA here we come!

Today was also Kaylee's 3rd birthday party. I cannot believe it has been 3 years since we brought home this precious little girl. 

Asylum Before Pictures

I know my body changed so much during Insanity and I'm hoping I see some major changes with the Asylum as well!

The most important thing I want to do in Asylum is get rid of those hips! I wouldn't mind growing a booty too but since that's probably not going to happen I'll settle for sayin' goodbye to the love handles :).

Bicep: I definitely want this to get more defined.. P90x and Insanity was pretty good to that though! PS. I still feel like the biggest goober taking/posting this picture. 

Cherry red and sweaty is how to get there I guess. Unfortunately I don't think the Asylum or any other workout program is going to help me out with those chipmunk cheeks :).

The Asylum and a recipe

I was supposed to "officially" start The Asylum (the sequel to Insanity which I've been doing since the end of January) yesterday but since it was the 4th of July I decided to wait until today. I LOVED Insanity and even though I probably lost less than 10 lbs doing Insanity I know I lost a TON of inches because I look good in my skinniest skinny jeans and that's what's important! My scale knows how bad I long to see the 12-something and it teases me with 130.6, 130.2, 130.0 but never that 129.9 that I need to see. I measured yesterday I did waist, hips, arms, and thighs.. I would like to see the biggest loss in my hips I never thought I would say that because I've never had big hips I've always been more banana shape than anything but Insanity, P90x, and Turbo Fire has done some AMAZING things for my waist (25"!!!) so now it's more hourglass so I'm not used to my hips being so......... out there?? The bad thing now is with my body fat percentage being so low and my BMI being so low I have to fight for every single pound and inch. My calorie burn and recovery is crazy! I remember when I started Insanity burning 1000 calories in a workout.. That will probably never happen again unless I do three workouts in a day!

The Asylum workout is just like an Asylum in real life, only crazy people will go there and everyone on the outside knows the people in the Asylum are CRAZY! Today was Speed and Agility and I was beginning to think I was going to have to dial 911! Shaun T says the work doesn't start until you're tired well that's awesome because I was tired after the warm up!! After the 40-something minutes though I felt AMAZING! I seriously sing Shaun T's praises to everyone I know because that man is a genius! All I want to know is how do girls go to the gym with their hair fixed, makeup on, and come out looking fine and I look like this after every single workout?

Today I did find a recipe that is in the freezer and it's going to be my reward later for all this hard work!! Oh and it's 32 calories! I got the recipe here. Let me tell you I am so OBSESSED with her blog! I've made so many things that she posted but these might be my favorite!

Pineapples, strawberries, kiwi, and watermelon

In a popcicle mold or cups with a popcicle stick fill with fruit and add a tablespoon of pineapple or orange juice.

Freeze for a few hours until firm.

I cannot wait to have one of these later! The kids have been asking about them since they went into the freezer!

Happy 27th to me!

27 is the age I always thought put people officially in their "late 20's," so I'm kinda sad to be 27. I always feel like I'm too young to have a child in school, I'm too young to be close to 30, and most of all I'm wayyyyy too young to be contacted about a 10 year class reunion (WHAT THE HECK?!?) I feel like I just graduated! So for my birthday we went out to Kickers for ladies' night.. It was so nice to get out of yoga pants (or running shorts), actually wear makeup, and lose the fitness instructor ponytail :).

So y'all can now stop feelin' sorry for my husband! I do not always look like the gym rat that I am!

I got some amazing clothes for my birthday, even some dresses so that definitely means I need more nights out to actually wear them! BUT the BEST gift (that I just found out about today) is The Asylum!! I can not wait to get started.. The only thing that could have been a better gift than The Asylum would have been Shaun T himself! Thank you to my friends and family for making this a wonderful birthday! 

Happy Father's Day!!

"It is much easier to become a father than to be one."  ~Kent Nerburn


That quote is so so special to me because it describes my Daddy. No, I do not have any of his blood, DNA, or genetics but he has and always will be my Daddy. I, like Kaylee, early on knew how to work people and if my mama said "no," (which rarely happened) I knew that Dad would not say "no," from tricycles to bicycles to college classes. Now that I'm an adult he likes to play, "tough guy," by telling me his hard life stories about how he "walked to school in the snow barefeet up hill both ways," YES my Dad is one of those! He is a tough guy who several times a week without me asking checks the tires on my Expedition (or any other mechanical issue that I have), a tough guy who spends his one day off fixing toilets, sinks, and electical wires, a tough guy who comes over and puts down new floors for me, and cuts the grass in my back yard. He is also an amazing Papaw whose grandkids all love and adore him!




“He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.” -Clarence Budington Kelland


And this quote is perfect for my husband. He has all the qualities in a man that I want my son to grow up and possess and all the qualities in a man that I want my daughter to find in a husband. I fuss occasionally about all the hours he works and how little I see him but he has this amazing ambition, drive, and work ethic to be successful, not for himself but for his family. I had no idea 8 years ago that cute boy with the crooked smile, giant dimple, and a cowboy hat would be the love of my life, and the best Daddy in the world!

 This is what always happens as soon as Daddy gets home!

 Daddy's girl!

 See what I mean about that dimple?

 There it is again!

 He even splashes around in the baby pool. 

 And lets Ethan embarrass him at Call of Duty.

And with a smile on his face lives with an obnoxious Kentucky fan and endures my abuse when his Auburn Tigers beat my Wildcats by THREE freakin' points (no I'm not still bitter)!!

Happy Father's Day Y'all! I love y'all more than you know!

Summertime

Sorry I've been MIA! Summertime is crazy at the Ashley house. I am still towing the line as far as Turbo Fire and P90x go. I think next Monday I am going to re-start month 2 of Insanity though because I just am not getting the same intensity with Turbo Fire and I'm pretty sure Insanity is the reason I feel so good in a bikini after two kids :). Thanks Shaun T!

My biggest challenge in the summertime though is eating. It's not that I want to eat bad food, I just kinda struggle to eat at all during the day because we're outside and it's hot and I don't get an appetite until we've been inside and cooled off a few hours, so basically at like 10 pm, not good!

I know lots of you only know about my fitness/nutrition career endeavors so I thought I'd share with you what else I do.. A few years ago I was spending enough of hairbows/accessories for Kaylee to feed a small country so I thought one day I'd learn to make hairbows.. I am pretty sure James laughed at me, because let's face it I'm not all that domesticated, ha! When I started my hairbows were just basic but I had a lot of people interested in them (probably because I was charging $5-$6 when boutiques charge $13 for BASIC ones!) and of course over time they've gotten better, bigger, and more elaborate, so needless to say, the fancy (read: expensive) boutiques have nothing on me (and mine are still cheaper!). A few of my favorite bows! :)

And since we're talking about summer time here are a few pair of the flip flops I make as well!

If you're interested in any of that stuff you can add my boutique page on facebook http://www.facebook.com/danielleashleysbowtique!