Paleo | Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Trust me when I say, these (or you may think me) will be your best friend after attempting to make these. Not only do they taste absolutely orgasmic, but you could not even tell they're Paleo... As in, you can tell yourself "but they're healthy right"?

In case you are not aware of Paleo; also known as "caveman" diet. It's a diet that consists of foods that can be fished and hunted, such as seafood and meat, and foods that can be gathered, such as eggs, fruits, herbs, insects, mushrooms, nuts, seeds, spices, and vegetables. Sounds crazy right? I actually practice mainly Paleo, Vegan and Vegetaran dishes in the kitchen. My method is to find dishes in mainly these three categories that you could not tell actually taste that great for you but really are. ESPECIALLY when it comes to sweets, since I am a "cupcake lover".

Moving on to the good stuff... I came across this recipe on Pinterest and haven't looked back since. Even as many looks in "EWW" I have received. After trying these, not one person has not asked me for the recipe. This recipe can be found on Taylor Made's blog and the recipe is as follows...

Ingredients:

2 bananas

*1 cup sunflower seed butter (or other nut butter)< I actually prefer Justin's Almond Butter w/ a hint of honey

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp honey

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp cinnamon

1/2 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips (or dark chocolate chips)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Line a muffin tin with paper/silicon liners.

3.  Mix all ingredients except chocolate chips together in a blender/food processor until everything is incorporated.

4. Mix in chocolate chips.

5. Fill cups 3/4 full with batter (you can top them with more chocolate chips if you want!)

6. Bake for 15 minutes.

7. Let cool on wire rack and remove from tin.

8. Let them actually cool before you burn your mouth off. Although, they just could be worth it...

Makes about 12 muffins.

If you plan on making all twelve just for yourself (guilty), these also are great to put in the freezer and for a grab and go breakfast muffin! I also highly suggest making them now.... It is Saturday after all.

Yamas | Niyamas

This was the first book I read after my training last year and I highly recommend it, whether you're looking to go down a spiritual path, strengthen your yoga practice, or just looking for a good read. I particularly took a long time to read all 196 pages of this amazing book. I wanted to be able to grasp every Yama and Niyama as much as possible.  

This book completely opened my eyes to a new world and how I should live it. The Yamas and Niyamas come from The Eight Limbs of Yoga that originiate from the Yoga Sutras from Pantanjli. The Eight Limbs of Yoga are eight steps that act as guidelines on how to live a meaningful and purposeful life. 

Two of the Eight Limbs are Yama; the ethical standards and sense of integrity. Basically, "Do unto others as you would have them undo to you". And Niyama; self discipline and spiritual observances. In each Yama and Niyama there are five, a total of ten. 

The five Yamas are as follows:

Ahimsa: Non Violence 
Satya: Truthfulness
Asteya: Non Stealing 
Brahmacharya: Non Excess 
Aparigraha:Non Possessiveness 

The five Niyamas are as follows:

Saucha: Purity; Cleanliness 
Santosa: Contentment
Tapas: Heat; Self Discipline
Svadhyaya: Self Study 
Ishvara Pranidhana: Surrender

Even though I want to practice them all and eventually bring them to my everyday life without a reminder from myself. It is a progression, and time and patience are the most important through out this process. The ones I am currently reminding myself everyday when I wake up, dedicate to my practice or remind myself throughout the day would be Brahmacharya, so every time I want to shop, I try to think of this one. Santosha, being content with my everyday, whether I'm happy or sad, but being content with being happy or sad. No matter how tough life can be, we must be content. And the most important one to me of them all that I am especially focusing on for the year is, Saucha. I always say at the end of my practice or classes to my fellow students. "Peace within our hearts, peace within our words and peace within our thoughts". I believe if we can achieve all of these we can live a pure and clean life. Everytime I have a bad thought, I catch and remind myself of Saucha to bring myself back to what I've already worked so hard in achieving. 

The Yama's and Niyama's are such a great reminder of how we treat ourselves, treat others and loved ones. This book was a great way to explore and re-evaluate my life and what's really important. You don't have to believe in God, Buddha or anything or one in particular to read this. If you have desire to want to change or better yourself. This is a great first start.

-Samantha Lee

Green Smoothie Challenge

I came across this challenge via Instagram, their username is SimpleGreenSmoothies. 

They do monthly challenges ever so often and provide you with the recipes. For $5.00 you can go to their website and print off a PDF file of all 30 recipes. That way you can go to Costco and buy almost everything in bulk and store a majority of it in the freezer beforehand. Otherwise, they just send you the recipes and grocery lists weekly.

I recommend buying mason jars for this challenge, which you can get for as little as $23.87 on Amazon. That way if you're doing this at all for dietary reasons, it fills up to two servings. One as a snack, and the other as a meal replacement. I chose to do this mainly to apply to my New Years resolution, which is Saucha in Sanaskrit AKA Purity one of the Niyamas ... Along with reaching the goal of Miranda Kerr's body as well. 

There are a few recipes I have made that are a few of my favorites that you should try. Below I put a few extra tips for getting the best results...

• The trick to making a green smoothie is blending the liquids and the greens first, then adding in the fruits etc. 
• If you have a Vitamix or Ninja, these are the best blenders (and a great investment).
• I find myself sometimes straining some of the smoothies because of the thickness and texture. When you do that they end up becoming more of a green juice, rather then a smoothie, which is just as delicious!
• I sometimes sub certain fruits such as bananas in particular. Or i'll add in a few other things such as, Flax Seeds, PB2, Probiotic Good Belly drink etc.

SXSW Part II

I'm going to keep this short since I'm past this at this point...

After Patrick "the clinger", in the same night I met a beautiful stranger. His name was Tom, we made eye contact multiple times that night before he made a move. Finally his friend and him had a plan... How I knew this? That's because I could see them discussing the plan only a few feet away from me. Since Tom was 6'4, they thought the best plan was for him to stand right in front of me so I couldn't see anything in front of me. His friend then turned around and apologized immediately for his friend Tom doing so... Pathetic, but Tom was beautiful so I couldn't hold it against him or even call him out on it.

We hit it off instantly and after the concert we decided to hang out a bit more after that. As
Tom, his friend and myself walked to my car we walked through the Capital of Austin. They then saw bulls and children statues that they thought "Oh, hey, that would be a great idea to get on and take pictures.". So I began taking pictures for them on it. Then Tom asks me to get up there with him and take "prom like" pictures, I thought, why not?... Horrible idea, because the cops came and took our ID's to make any checks for warrants etc and gave us a huge lecture on how disrespectful it was and how we could go to jail for years for any damage. After all of that mishap, we went back to their hotel. They offered me a vicodin to "help with my hangover"... Yeah, I'm good thanks. They shortly passed out after that and I snuck out. Tom and I met up one other time that week but nothing happened sadly since neither of us were "prepared".

We messaged a few times back and forth weekly for a few weeks. I then told him I was going to LA and he said he was more then willing to meet up. Even days leading up to my trip we were texting back and forth. When I get in I messaged him asking him if he was up for meeting that Monday evening. He does not end up texting me back until that night at midnight. You think I'm going to be up waiting around for you? He gives me some work excuse, which is fine, but I don't have time for that. I had to make the most of my time while I was in LA and I ended up meeting up with my DJ from SXSW anyways multiple days. We partied until 5am, hung out with good people, jammed to good music, and danced the nights away.

Needless to say, Tom is out of the picture. People prettier then you never works out anyways. I stand by my moto. "You should never be with someone thats way better looking then you as a woman."

-Samantha Lee

Love For All Things Delicious

First thing you should know if you don't know me. I am a HUGE lover for cupcakes and all things sweets. My thing is trying to make things that aren't necessarily as bad for you. But I also love a good cupcake from a nearby bakery.

Paleo Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Paleo Dark Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

Georgetown Cupcakes; NYC

I also love to try new dishes that are as natural as possible and yummy as can be!

Whole wheat summer pasta

Roasted Rep Pepper Tomato Soup

Mushroom pizza bites- Gluten free

The beginning

My Yoga journey first started when I was 18 at Bikram. I was a loyal Bikram yogi for the past 5 years and I couldn't get enough. After starting Bikram in Austin, bringing it to San Antonio and continuing my practice in New York. I moved back to Austin and chose to try a new company after deciding I wanted to get my yoga certification. After going to Corepower Yoga, I was hooked! I did a little bit of more research at other studios but realized this was where I wanted to get my certification. So follow me on my continuous yogi journey of all things yoga!

The day I received my certification in mid Crow Pose

SXSW PT 1

I always say SXSW is my favorite time of year, and that's because it's like Candy Land... Yes, you read that correctly. What I mean is, there are a ton of ridiculously good looking guys in this small city to choose from for a week.

-DJ: Eric

This was just the beginning. A friend of mine said he could get me and a friend into Rev Run VIP. Obviously I was going to take him up on this offer. What else was there to do after all? After having way too much tequila and redbull (worst combination ever), Rev Run comes on stage with this DJ. First off, Eric had an awesome body, secondly, he just knew what was up. This performance just kept myself and Jessica (AKA twerk team) dancing all night long. While multi tasking and pouring us champagne that was legitimately as tall as me every 15 minutes during the performance.

After the show we were backstage at the bar. Eric and his friend start talking to us and they invite us out for more fun. Why would we say no at this point? We end up staying out until 5am, him offering me a whole bottle of tequila when I asked for one Patron shot, a whole club to ourselves, his brother almost gets in a fight with the car driver, somehow gets us to smoke (which I never do). This could have been one of the more wild nights I have had in Austin and I am born and raised in this town. Nothing may have ended up happening... yet. Needless to say I am booking my flight to LA soon to have some more fun with Eric.

-Clinger: AKA Patrick

Poor Patrick, I just don't really know/remember his name Period. Basically, I was initially attracted to his personality, as I do not have a certain "type". He was ok, but nothing special looks wise. My good friend Allicia got me into Girl Talk VIP where Patrick was. We initially hit it off and we stayed out all night, dancing and drinking far too much... This seems to be a pattern so far.

 I should have caught the first red clinger flag. He would not stop telling my friends how much he "liked me". He had just met me, how could he be so into me and telling multiple of my friends that? ... Well clearly the alcohol was in full effect because that wasn't my thought at all at the time.

As the night comes to an end, I somehow feel bad having him catch a cab back to his hotel so I invite him back to my place "just to sleep". I also let him sleepover thinking it could maybe get my friends and I tickets to JayZ and Kanye. Sometimes you have to take one for the team as I say. I threw a little bit of a bone and made out with him, then I stopped that and I set the alarm so I can take him to his car in the AM and I just turned to my side (he wasn't so happy about that)....

730am, I realize I wasn't alone and he needed to get out NOW. So I go with my best excuse as always. But before I could get to it, he says this, "awww, are you waking up for good? Just come back in to bed a little bit longer.". Nothing I hate more is cuddling when unnecessary, or jumping back into bed when I'm clearly already awake. So I bring up my best excuse, "I am actually going to Yoga so I think it's best if I take you to your car now".  As i'm dropping him off to get out of the car, he leans in to what I thought was a hug. So since I love an awkward situation I turn my cheek.

Basically, long story short. He texts me all day and somehow gets tickets to the same show I was already going to with my friends (desperation station). Luckily, I got VIP and he did not. After about an hour he texts me telling me he is going to leave. I respond saying "sounds good, enjoy the rest of your stay.". He freaks out on me and proceeds to tell me "wow, not even a goodbye? I guess I was the only one that really felt something here, but I guess I was wrong. Enjoy your night?". WHOA, I reply " you need to chill, I just met you.", he then attempts to redeem himself and texts me a few times after that .... and days after that. I cut myself off from that situation as soon as he told me he was a Taurus.



So far I'm 1 for 2...