Melissa-Brooke-Macrina

Sweet meets.... SPICY!!!! For those of you who know me I am a pretty simple, healthy eater...but the ONE thing I love more about food than those two things is SPICY!!!! I HEART SPICY!!!!! I used to eat grilled cheese at work...you know, as in the SCHOOL LUNCH grilled cheese??? The one that was OH SO YUMMY!!! The one that they used to smother with butter and then bake!? Yeah, that grilled cheese...the one I used to eat BEFORE I discovered that I CAN'T eat cheese?! Yeah, that one. Anyway, I was the girl the cafeteria staff died laughing at as I doused that yummy deliciousness with some HOT SAUCE (as in about 1/2 a bottle)!!! HELLO SPICY!!!! HELLO LOVE IN MY MOUTH!!!! ***Confession***To this day, I keep a bottle of hot sauce AND a bottle of sriracha in my fridge at work....YES.I. DO. I may not add hot sauce to everything, but I do add a little spice to just about every meal or snack :) THIS is the YUMMY #CleanEats salad that I made for lunch! Oh, and what's even better...

mmmmm.....cupcakes...... No, no, no silly....not your junk food junky cupcake. As yummy as that sounds, this girl needs to pass on those. With these cupcakes, #21DayFix approved I may add, I can have TWO "cupcakes" in each hand!!!! SO, I saw this awesome recipe on...Pinterest!? Yes, Pinterest...ME on Pinterest? NEVER! OK, OK, GUILTY! Well, the recipe was for a breakfast-for lots of people- you know, for family get-togethers (which I totally missed the boat on when I was home in NY two weeks ago) or even for a baby shower-which one day I will have (after I meet Prince Charming) and my friends will have the rest of the day to themselves after enjoying cupcakes and mimosas. Anyway, here it is... a picture of MY cupcakes and MY rendition of the recipe I found on the one and only Pinterest... According to the 21 Day Fix, 4 of these bad boys is ONE SERVING and counts as 1 red container (protein) and 1 green container (greens/veggies)!!! In order to prep f...

Besides the fact that I don't have to report to my teaching job over the summer, therw are quite a few other things that I just #LOVE about summer! I love that I can get up and go for a run at 6:30am and run for as long as my little heart desires. I love that I get to take these summer days and focus on me...my health and fitness journey and spend more time helping others with their journeys as well. Oh, and I just LOVE the yummy, sweet fruits that come along with these summer months! Berries, berries and MORE BERRIES and the health benefits that we reap when we add these bad boys into our daily diets. You may be wondering what that YELLOW IMPOSTER is... it is NOT a berry as you probably gathered and NO, it's not balled pineapple...that would be SUPER ANNOYING! It just so happens to be........ .......YELLOW WATERMELON! WHAT? I know, I know....it was crazy, I think I've heard about it before, but not so sure if I had ever seen it in person! Well, I...

OMG.....SOOOO DELISH!!!!! AND SO EASY TO MAKE!!!!! So, here's what you need to make these yummy little guys :) 1 1/4 cups canned chickpeas, well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons NATURAL (the kind with the oil that you actually have to mix) peanut butter 1/4 cup honey 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 cup gluten free, vegan chocolate chips Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients into a food processor (except the chocolate chips) and blend til smooth. Use a spatula to remove the mixture from the food processor into a mixing bowl. Fold in the chocolate chips. Spray the cookie sheet or use parchment paper to line the cookie sheet.....great idea for one less pan to clean :) Roll the cookies into 1 inch balls and bake for 10 minutes. ***a little tip....keep your hands damp when rolling the cookies into balls to prevent the cookie dough from sticking to your hands. I think I'm going to add raisins ...

MAN!!!!! This hits home!!! This past January, I was standing in line at Target with just a few healthy items in my basket as I was on day 3 of the Beachbody Ultimate Reset, but ohhhh Target...the smell of popcorn, the very lonnnnggggg candy aisle, the sales of the post Christmas holiday candy! TEMPTATIONS EVERYWHERE!!! I went back and forth over and over and OVER in my head, I'll get a bag of candy and have just one piece. It's JUST ONE, RIGHT? Oh, just ONE piece of candy...like ONE alcoholic drink for an alcoholic or ONE hit of cocaine for a drug addict. JUST ONE, RIGHT? JUST ONE???? WRONG!!!! This day was a HUGE eyeopener for me....I was battling my inner thoughts and desires of the oh so highly addictive SUGAR while my best friend was battling his addiction with drugs. I finally understood the battle in his head that he went through and to this day and every day from here on out will go through with the "It's JUST ONE." With any addictive substance, ONE leads t...

Well, I never, EVER, NEVER-EVER thought I'd EVER be saying this, but I absolutely LOVE KALE!!!! I've always associated it with cooked spinach....mushy, slimy and stinky....and for those who know me, cooked spinach and I have NEVER, EVER been friends, right mom? I remember one hot summer evening, way back when I was probably about 10 years old when my amazing mom insisted that I eat some spinach (from a can) for dinner...I mean come on....my brother and sister LOVED it!! What was wrong with me!? HMMM.....could it have been the smell? the texture?? Who knows exactly what it was. All that matters is that my mom was coming at my mouth with that fork full of spinach, trying to convince me to try it and all that happened was an awful chain reaction of me gagging for about 5 minutes...It WASN'T happening! To this day, cooked greens completely gross me out (spinach, Italian greens, Collard greens, etc...). I really think it's a texture thing. Until one day......what is that on...

So, this week really took hold of me leaving me with barely enough time to get a few hours of sleep! WOW! Here are my final results from the Beachbody 21 day Ultimate Reset: Down 9 lbs & lost a total of 12.3 inches!! I'm feeling pretty awesome! I feel much more lean, less "fluffy" as I like to call it and I actually feel TALLER!!!!! LOL! I'm not very tall and highly doubt I'm any taller, but I feel like the natural foods just gave me an overall more positive feeling and the little things that normally would stress me out and cause disastrous posture by the end of the day didn't really get to me! It's been pretty peaceful in my head :) I thoroughly enjoyed about 90% of the meals, even the tempeh, but won't ever be making that again as it did not at all agree with my stomach...it made me gassy and crampy and I slept horrible the night I had tempeh for dinner. My tempeh research is underway....tempeh: fermented cooked soybeans...hmmmmm fermented? so...