4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Protein Waffles

Waffles, or good old “pancakes with abs” as I like to refer to them, have made a delicious return to my breakfasts over the past few weeks. About two or three months ago, I noticed the new Quest protein powders popping up at my favorite HEB here in Austin. As soon as the Peanut Butter flavor caught my eye, I knew I wasn’t leaving the store without buying at least 2 canisters of it. (No shame.)

The Quest protein powders are basically manufactured to be cooked/baked with, which is one of the main reasons I absolutely love them. I’ve done a few tests over the last few months, and regardless of what I’m making — be it my banana muffins, baked oatmeal, proats, or these waffles — using the Quest powder always results in a better final product than any other protein I’ve tried in the past. (I’m still faithful to my GNC Wheybolic as a pre-/post-workout shake, though!)

Stuffed Nutella French Toast on Ezekiel Bread + Top 3 Kitchen Hacks

Guess what? It’s almost March. Holy. Crap. Can we all stop and rejoice at the fact that SPRING IS ALMOST HERE?! After several “inclement weather” days with temperatures below 30 degrees, ice, and overall unpleasant, parka-worthy conditions, this Arizona-born girl is ready for warmer days. I love the fact that I wore sandals and no jacket to work today.

Last weekend, SEVERAL people decided to take a huge step and tackle weekly meal prep. I can’t even express how much that excited me. (PROUD OF YOU GIRLS — Christina C., Vani, and Kirsty — WAY TO GO!) I’ve found that for me, cooking breakfasts and lunches over the weekend saves me so much time throughout the week. Spending 2-3 hours on Saturday or Sunday to get everything lined out and ready to go is THE BEST way to keep me on track with my eating habits. On top of that, it saves an impressive amount of time, stress, and money throughout the rest of the week. If you’re not doing it, you should plan to give it a shot this weekend. (Check out my post on simple lunch hacks if you’re a beginner trying to learn the meal prep ropes.)

Opinions? Gimme.

On the subject of prep — I know one of the biggest obstacles that keeps people from doing weekend meal prep is the fact that it’s really damn intimidating. It can be HARD to figure out where to start. Being a huge advocate of weekend meal prep (I’ve got it down to a science), I’ve been thinking about leading a mini meal prep workshop for people in the Austin area on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. I don’t have any of the logistics figured out yet, but I want to throw it out there to see if it’s even a good idea before worrying about details. Would any of you Austinites be in? Considering I don’t have an unlimited amount of groceries and I’d want to get stuff for everyone to cook in advance, it wouldn’t be free of charge, but I’d do my best to keep the price low. (I’m more interested in teaching people how to cook healthily than I am in making a profit. Just my two cents.) Chime in if you’d be interested!

GIVEAWAY! 1 Free Month of Unlimited Boot Camp + Make-Ahead Bacon and Egg Muffins

EXCITING NEWS, Y’ALL. I’m running another giveaway, and this prize beats the pants off of the Fit-Mas Giveaway that I did in December. No joke. If you live in the Austin area and want a free month of unlimited workouts at the place that motivated me to get my ass in gear and drop the weight, listen up!

If you’re familiar with my story, you’ll know that I credit a lot of my success to joining Synergy Fitness. If I hadn’t bought a Groupon and joined after my 6-week trial, I’d probably still be where I was a year ago — 50 pounds overweight, completely unhappy with myself, and severely lacking in the self confidence department. Ryan wouldn’t be almost 40 pounds lighter and as happy with himself physically as he is today. My family wouldn’t care about healthy eating in the way that they do now. This blog wouldn’t even exist. I’ve come a long way, and none of it would have happened if I hadn’t joined Synergy. Anyhow, Synergy has a rewards program for current members, and if you come to enough classes, you can earn a free month of camp (which is worth a lot of money). One of my VERY gracious fellow campers earned one as of yesterday, and she wants to give it away to one of YOU lovely readers. Janice, you’re a badass. (Everybody say thank you, Janice!)

Here are the details: