All you need is 20 minutes to get in an awesome strength burn and cardio sweat! I love adding cardio blasts to my strength workouts because I burn more calories in less time, and check both boxes for strength and cardio. You’ll get the lean muscle-building benefits of strength and the fat loss powers + heart benefits of cardio. 

My friend Katie is in this video and provides low-impact and prenatal modifications for the exercises. As always, talk to a doctor before making any fitness changes. Honor your body and modify as needed. Here’s what the workout looks like:

HIIT and strength workout you can do at home:

Here’s the full follow-along video:

and a quick video with demos for the moves:

Please let me know if you give it a try!!

xo

Gina

Video: Grant Hunker

Workout partner-in-crime: Katie Surridge

Studio: Animas

Wearing: lululemon align crops, this tank, APL sneakers

More quick and intense workouts you can do at home:

Cardio weights blast

Total body strength + HIIT

Upper body blast

Prenatal workout video

Total body barre

The post Sweat and Burn HIIT/Strength Workout [Video] appeared first on The Fitnessista.

Serves 8
Total time: 1 hour || Active time: 1 hour

“You got your nachos in my breakfast.” “No, you got your breakfast in my nachos.” OMG, it’s breakfast nachos!

These are loaded with all of the brunchy requirements: scrambled tofu, roasted potatoes, avocado salsa and a creamy, cheesy, cashew sauce. They’re great for sharing with a crowd or for a slightly messy breakfast in bed. It’s definitely “company food.” You don’t want to eat breakfast nachos alone, unless you really really love yourself.

You can make a few huge plates for everyone to share, perhaps as the savory component of a brunch. Because, yes, nachos are a great appetizer before pancakes. Or make little individual servings. Either way, just remember to layer ingredients between the layers of chips. I hate when all of the fun stuff is just dumped on top and you’re left with empty chips at the end. An empty chip is just a crime.

There are a few components here, but it’s very easy to put together. None of them are crazy difficult. While the potatoes roast, you can pretty much prepare everything else, just remember to set a timer because you don’t want to burn the taters. It’s always been my opinion that brunch without potatoes is like going whale watching but seeing no whales. It’s fine, but next time, gimme some whales.

Anyway, dig in! I swear there are some chips under there. Here’s the Instagram pic where you can actually see ’em.

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Recipe Notes
~ If you don’t feel like nachos (who doesn’t feel like nachos?), these make great breakfast tacos as well. Maybe just add some shredded lettuce.

~ If you’d like to make the salsa a day in advance, that’s cool! Just leave the avocado out until ready to serve, because it will brown if you leave it in the salsa. When ready, just dice and fold in.

~ The cheesy sauce is great in advance, too. Although you’ll want to bring it to room temp before serving. You can even just gently heat it up and it’ll be yummy that way.

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Ingredients
For the potatoes:
1 1/2 lbs red potatoes, diced 1/2 inch
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt

For the scrambled tofu:
1 tablespoon olive oil
Small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
14 oz extra firm tofu
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

For the melty cheezy sauce:
1 cup unroasted cashews, soaked in water for at least 2 hours, drained
1 cup vegetable broth
2 tablespoons mellow white miso
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon onion powder
Salt to taste

For the avocado salsa:
1 large tomato, diced
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 jalapeno, seeded and thinly sliced into thin rings
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
Pinch salt
1 avocado, diced medium

To assemble:
1 1/2 cups cooked black beans (a 15-oz can, rinsed and drained)
1 big bag restaurant style tortilla chips
Fresh cilantro for garnish
Hot sauce for serving

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Roast the potatoes:
Preheat oven to 425 F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

On the prepared baking sheet, toss the potatoes with olive oil and salt. Cook for about 30 minutes, tossing once or twice, until golden and tender. Remove from oven and set on a cooling rack until ready to use.

Make the scrambled tofu:
Preheat a large, heavy bottomed pan over medium high heat. Saute the onion and garlic in olive oil for 3 minutes, until onion is translucent. Break the tofu apart into bite sized pieces, sprinkle with salt, and cook for about 10 minutes. Get under the tofu with a thin metal spatula now and then as it cooks, scrape the bottom and don’t let it stick to the pan, that is where the good, crispy stuff is.

Add the cumin and turmeric, with a few splashes of water if it seems dry. Toss to incorporate, and let the turmeric color the tofu - it should be a nice bright yellow. Add the nutritional yeast and lime juice and cook for about 5 more minutes. Taste for salt. Cover with tin foil to keep warm until ready to assemble.

Make the cheezy sauce:
Puree everything in a blender until absolutely smooth, scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula occasionally. This could take 2 to 5 minutes, depending on your blender. Remember to give the motor a rest every minute or so.

Make the avocado salsa:
In a medium mixing bowl, mix together all of the ingredients except for the avocado. Get them really well incorporated and let them sit for 5 minutes or so to get the tomatoes to release some juice and for the flavors to meld. Fold in the avocado.

Assemble:
Whether you’re making big shareable or little individual servings, zig zag a little cheezy sauce on the bottom of the plate. Place a layer of chips on the plate, layer with sauce, tofu, potatoes, beans, and salsa, then add another layer of chips and repeat. Garnish with cilantro and serve!

So, as long as we could see Elon Musk chillin' in his podcasts, puffin' away on a cigarette or something else, and spittin' his usual rhetoric, everything seemed fine and dandy.

All things considered, I’d say I have a pretty moderate relationship with sugar. I love homemade dessert, and I bake with sugar, be it refined or natural. As a longtime nutrition student and RD-to-be, I’m mindful of how much I use and I keep in mind that treats are special. But I’ve never avoided sweetening.

This works well for me, but the most common question I get asked about my baked goods here on the blog is whether the sugar can be reduced, and how. I do my best to give good answers, keeping in mind that reducing sugar (or using a liquid sweetener in place of granulated sugar) can change the texture and taste of a finished product (less moisture, less rise, etc.).

Now that I’ve spent a few months working with diabetic patients, I’ve gotten savvier and more knowledgeable about lower sugar baked goods. In my last two rotations, my counseling was almost entirely dedicated to diabetes management. I saw firsthand how much vigilance goes into monitoring and carbohydrate intake and covering it with medication, if appropriate. We never advised our patients to avoid dessert, but we did encourage them to be mindful about how much and how often. And we spent plenty of time chatting about how to create pleasurable desserts at home with less sugar, or with alternative sweeteners.

I’ve never used alternative sweeteners because they haven’t been necessary for my own health needs. When I do reduce sweetness of baked goods, I generally just use less cane sugar or maple syrup. But my winter rotations made me remember being a student in medical nutrition therapy, when our professor taught us to take our own blood sugar in class. As we were pricking our fingers, she told us that the purpose of the exercise was to better understand what our future clients—some of whom would surely have Type I or II Diabetes—experienced each day. Months later, she asked us to try liquid supplements, so that we’d know what patients who relied on them for nutrition support were tasting (there weren’t any vegan options, but it did get me thinking about how great a need there is for them).

I appreciated my professor’s perspective. There’s a big difference between abstract guidance and firsthand knowledge. Before telling any client to do something, I’d rather have a some lived experience of what I’m suggesting. And now that I’ve spent so much time with diabetes management, it’s important for me to understand the dietary changes that need to accompany a diagnosis—enjoyment of lower sugar sweets included.

Just as I was wrapping up my rotation at the Institute for Family Health, the folks at who produce the In The Raw® family of sweetener reached out to me about sampling their Monk Fruit In The Raw®. Monk fruit (also known as luo han guo) is a type of gourd that traditionally grows in China, and it’s been used medicinally for centuries. Monk Fruit In The Raw is a zero calorie sweetener that’s perfect for sweetening beverages and baking.  Plus, the bakers bag conveniently measures cup for cup, just like sugar.

Having never tried the product—and especially since I was in the middle of diabetes counseling—I was excited to sample it. I had a much better experience with it than I’ve had with other alternative sweeteners, especially for baking! It has a pleasantly fruity taste, and the signature baking bag makes it easy to add to cookies, cakes, and more. In my experiments so far I’ve used a combination of the Monk Fruit In The Raw Bakers Bag and sugar to reduce sugar while retaining texture and rise. Folks with diabetes who prefer a truly sugar-free dessert could use all monk fruit instead; the brand recommends using about half the amount of monk fruit for the amount of sugar called for.

The baking recipe I’m sharing today takes even more inspiration from my internship, as it was inspired by something I made in my last rotation. I was working with kids, using hands-on cooking experiences to teach them about food and nutrition. My supervisor and I shared a chocolate beet cake, which was an easy and delicious treat for them to make and also a great opportunity to teach them about beets (watching their little faces light up as we cut the beets open and showed them the electrically colored interiors was so sweet).

An upside of using pureed beets in baking is that they add a lot of natural sweetness along with moisture, which means that it’s easy to cook with reduced sugar and fat. The beets add plenty of vitamins and minerals, and they sweeten while also contributing fiber, which helps to control the release of sugar into the bloodstream.

Today’s chocolate beet cake uses a combination of beets, monk fruit, and a small amount of granulated sugar to create something that tastes completely like dessert, but has a balanced ratio of sugar and fiber. It’s also relatively low in fat (only 1/4 cup of oil for the whole recipe), and—thanks to the beets—packed with fiber, folate, potassium, and vitamin C. I based it off of a Martha Stewart recipe, and I’ve made it repeatedly already, so that I could recommend it to patients and clients.

For diabetics and those who are being mindful of sugar intake for any reason, I like to use a 50/50 combination of monk fruit and coconut sugar here (6 tablespoons of each). This gives a nice rise with less sweetener. If you like, you could use all monk fruit, which would yield a denser and fudgier texture—think cakey brownies 🙂 And of course, you could also choose to use all granulated sugar of choice, which will give you a very similar cake, but a little more fluffiness and rise.

No matter how you make it, this one is really a keeper. It’s plenty chocolatey, and the beets give it a wonderful moistness and rich flavor. It’s super fun to make with kids (they love the beet purée!) and nutritious enough to serve as a special snack/treat as well as a proper dessert. Here’s the recipe.

This post is sponsored by Monk Fruit In The Raw®. All opinions are my own, and I love this natural alternative to sugar. Thanks for your support!

The post Lightly Sweetened Vegan Chocolate Beet Cake appeared first on The Full Helping.

Sorghum Salads

I realize sorghum is not your every-day grain but I love showcasing recipes to try and get it used a little more in the kitchen. The flavor isn't big but it does provide a little warmth to a dish. I find, my usage of sorghum is more about texture. Sorghum has a similar texture to cooked wheat berries. Slightly chewy, far from mushy.

Sweet Potatoes

While I tend towards using roasted sweet potatoes in dishes like this, you could easily swap them for something similar. Roasted squash or rooted vegetables during the winter make a good 1:1. During the summer I like to use similar flavors with roasted sweet corn, tomatoes, and peppers.

Spices

Depending on the spice company, chipotle can get hot in fairly small quantities. However, this isn’t the easiest thing to tell. I like to take just a small taste of the powder and see how it reacts. If I find that my mouth is on fire, I might cut back a bit. If the opposite is true, I’ll usually bump the chipotle amount up to 1 teaspoon.

The other option is if you happen to have chipotle in adobo sauce, you can swap the powder for about ½ of a minced chipotle and a bit of the adobo sauce.

Garlic Oil

One of my favorite ways to have a bit of garlic flavor without being overpowering: garlic-infused oil. It’s as simple as smashing garlic, cooking it in a bit of oil, and letting it rest. Occasionally I’ll use nut-oils and infuse with garlic as well.

[tasty-recipe id="33130"]

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The post Roasted Chipotle Sweet Potato and Sorghum Salad appeared first on Naturally..

Bapho is a little goat, a cute, cuddly little goat.

You will own nothing, and you will be happy!

We went out last night to pick up a tree. The kids were bundled and the packing blanket was in the back to protect the roof. This is the first year both of the kids are super jazzed about the...

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