Spicy Chai Latte Blender Muffins

I love Saturday mornings, and I LOVE cold weather. It might be premature to say it’s ‘cold’ outside, but we’re getting there! Being a nurse, I used to work most Saturdays- especially since weekend shifts are the ones that you want to pick up when you’re new to the profession. I loved Saturdays for a different reason when I was working them- but now that we’ve got Gabs and I’m working less, Saturday mornings usually consist of: fresh brewed coffee, breakfast with the husband, snuggles with Gabs, and watching soccer while watching the sun come up.

It’s great. I love it.

Aaaand Gabs is 7 months now!! I’ve been without a phone for a couple days, so I don’t have a good new picture of her (Gasp! The horror!) but I’m sure that’ll be rectified soon. In the meantime, I have some delicious muffins for ya’ll.

You can make ’em in the blender.

My mom recently got a Vitamix (totes jelly) and it came with a fantastic recipe book for making pretty much anything in a blender! I don’t have a Vitamix, but I just used my regular blender for the muffins and things turned out okay. Deliciously okay.

We changed up a couple things on the recipe to suit our tastes, aka less sugar, less chocolate chips (what?) and spicy chai latte mix.

If the name of the recipe has ‘chai’ in it, that means it’s healthy right?? I don’t know, but these are super good and a perfect breakfast, snack, or post-workout re-fueler. In this case, a pre-workout snack- I’ve started going to some classes at my gym and am hooked. I don’t know how I keep going back because usually I can’t hardly move for 2 days after the class. Muscle Blast and Spin Class are my recommendations so far- each is led by an awesome instructor who is awesome at motivation and using music to keep up the intensity.

She made me do an extra set of push-ups because I merely mentioned Krispy Kreme in her class. Yeah. I LOVE intense fitness instructors though- I’m a glutton for punishment. Anyways, I usually save breakfast for after class, but these muffins are small enough and not super sweet, so they are a perfect energizer for a good workout.

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Best part about using a blender to make muffins? To clean the blender, Vitamix recommends just blending hot water and a drop of soap for 30 sec or so, and then rinsing. Then wah-LA! Clean! Changed my life.

Hope your weekend is wonderful!

~M

 

Blender Chai Latte Muffins 

adapted from the Vitamix recipe for Jamocha Tea Bread

Makes 12

INgredients:

{dry}

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 TBSP spicy chai latte mix

{wet}

2 eggs

1 stick of butter, softened

1/2 greek yogurt

1/2 milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In the blender, put all the {wet} ingredients. Once fully blended, add the blender mixture to the dry mixture and stir well. Add more chai mix to taste 🙂 Bake for about 20-22 minutes at 350 degrees.

Enjoy warm with BUTTER!!

Burning Lights Tour!!

I’ve actually really been suffering from withdrawals, I think, from not being on here! It makes me sad. I miss you people. 🙂

So I’m just gonna give y’all a little picture of the last few weeks….

1. My friends Adrienne and James’ wedding two weekends ago….

Gorgeous aren’t they? The wedding was beautiful, and we had a BLAST 🙂

2. My friends Janna and John’s wedding this past weekend….

My apologies for the lighting….She looked like a princess!! Beautiful!

Another wonderful time with friends and family! Congrats Janna and John 🙂

3. The Chris Tomlin and Kari Jobe concert Curtis and I went to with my mom and stepdad- AMAZING!!!!! Holy cows, guys. I have been to plenty of concerts before but this one kicks all those other concerts little butts.

We were SO CLOSE! Props to Dave for the awesome seats 🙂

It was so cool to be in a huge room with tons of other people all worshiping God through music. It’s one of those things that kind of renews your faith a little, just by being around others who believe in the same God you do.

Plus, Chris Tomlin was HI-larious! It was a pretty high-energy concert so of course everyone is standing and being enthusiastic until Chris sets up for an acoustic guitar song that seemed like it was gonna be more low-key. So everyone starts sitting down (not us though!! I promise!!!) and Chris stops doing the intro to the song mid-chord and calls everyone out, ‘Why is everyone sitting down? Stand up! Let’s get this going!’ and everyone jumped right back up! He starts laughing, the crowd all starts laughing, and the music starts up again.  Hehe I don’t think anyone sat down again for 40 minutes until he brought his piano down for a solo and started laughing again and ‘gave us permission’ to sit 😉

Not sure how much longer the Burning Lights tour is out and about, but you need  to go. Kari Jobe is amazing also- I didn’t recognize her name but she sang several songs I was familiar with so she must be on K-Love a lot. If you can’t make it to a concert, download these songs…

1. Love Came Down by Kari Jobe

2. White Flag by Chris Tomlin

3. We Are by Kari Jobe

4. Whom Shall I Fear by Chris Tomlin

5. Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) by Chris Tomlin

So that’s the last of the fun stuff til May 25th, when Ashley gets married!

This wonderful girl was the first friend I made when I moved to California, and she is the one who introduced me to my husband, who happens to be her cousin, so now we’re stuck together forever 🙂

So, til then….

hittin’ the books 😉

~K

P.S. I tried M’s Kettlebell exercise. If I can move my body tomorrow, I may try it again. If it makes me sore like this, that means it’s working, right??!?!

Brisk

I woke up this morning with a need for food ASAP. As good as K’s breakfast looked yesterday, I still defaulted to my habit of a Greek Yog mess…. I just can’t shake the habit. It’s too good.

3/4 cup Plain 0% Greek Yogurt, 1 cup berry blend, 1/2 cup Fiber One Cereal

As perfectly satisfying and delicious as this breakfast is, I’m pretty sure I’m making that egg sandwich for a Sunday morning breakfast tomorrow. Saturdays really are just awesome days, aren’t they?? Usually I work on Saturdays, but it just so happens that today I DON’T and therefore I get to indulge in all the gloriousness of an actual weekend!! Added bonus- Joey isn’t usually as busy on Saturdays so we even had breakfast together today!

After breakfast- we watched the beginning of the Arsenal vs. Newcastle soccer game and then Joey had to go out and work for a while. I had been playing with our new toy we got for Christmas (AAAhh!!!) but then decided to get my brisk on and take our pups for a long walk. Exercise lately has been somewhat of a challenge for me since I’ve been having a little more round ligament pain due to my ever enlarging pregnant belly- I definitely have not been able to run anymore comfortably, and have been sticking to brisk walking and a few times a week I try to hit the gym and use the elliptical and some weights. I get lots of friendly advice to ‘not push it’ during pregnancy and want to reassure everyone that I talk with my doctor often about what is acceptable during pregnancy, and make sure to never overdo it during a sweat session! Having a healthy & fit pregnancy has always been important to me, but as the countdown for this little peanut gets smaller and smaller, I am reminding myself there will be plenty of time to get back in shape after babe is born, so for now I’m enjoying a little more rest and relaxation 🙂

 

Also, it’s hard to drag myself to the gym when walking my dogs is so much more entertaining!! This pic of Samson (the goofball in the second picture) was taken right before he jumped up and almost knocked me over  gave me a muddy good morning hug. We were out for over and hour and I came back feeling so invigorated!

Lots more to do today, including going to my friend Ash’s house to help with wedding crafts- definitely looking forward to some girly crafting time!

Lunch will probably look like this…

 

Roasted assorted veggies with goat cheese and peanut sauce for the win! This combo is so dang good.. I just threw together a peanut sauce with some creamy PB, soy sauce and a little sriracha.  Keepin’ it light because Joey is taking me out for a surprise location dinner and to see Les Miserables tonight!! Saving room for a hearty dinner and movie snacks, of course. It’s not a movie without Sour Patch Kids, ya’ll.

Enjoy your weekend, and hope you have a GREAT rest of 2012!!

~M