Saturday, March 9, 2013

PROTEIN BAR RECIPE!

I was bored last night (yes, on a friday night), so I decided to look up some protein bar recipes and make some magic in my kitchen.

Anyway, I stumbled upon a few of Jamie Eason's protein bar recipes, and became interested in a few of the ingredients she uses. In other words, I NEEDED to try them :) In one of her recipes, she uses baby food as an ingredient. Weird, yes. But let me tell you, they are delicious.


Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 scoops chocolate protein powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
4 egg whites
1/2 cup stevia
8oz berry flavored baby food
4oz water
and a sprinkle of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for 20-30 minutes

Enjoy :)

Instagram @arianasieghart

My Quick NUTRIBULLET Review!

I know I've been lacking on the blog posts, but I PROMISE I haven't given up on this! 

Anyway, last week I got the Nutribullet food extractor by Magic Bullet.

& let me tell you, this thing is everything I had ever dreamed of.
Seriously.

I mainly use it for protein shakes, but I have been trying to do a "Nutriblast" everyday (basically half greens & half fruit) and I've never seen anything blend so well.

Here's an example of one of my regular protein shakes & ingredients

Ingredients:
2 handfuls spinach
2tbs plain lowfat greek yogurt
1 whole banana
1 scoop GNC Total Lean Protein (or any kind you want)
Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk to the "Max" line on the nutribullet.

Blend, and it's AMAZING. So smooth, creamy, and EASY CLEAN UP!

What more could you ask for?!

What kind of blender/mixers do you use?
Share your protein shake recipes! I'd love to try them!

Twitter & Instagram @arianasieghart

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Juicing!

I can't tell you the number of times I've tried to do an actual "Juice Fast", but for me it's nearly impossible. I have horrible self control when it comes to food and the idea of not being able to actually eat anything just drives me insane.

But now that it's crunch time (only a few more months 'til a fitness test), and I've been eating much better I think I'll be able to start juicing again and adding juice into my daily diet.

I'll definitely be posting updates about my juicing progress, and maybe I'll get brave enough to try an actual juice fast once I've been juicing for a week or so.

Current Weight is 157lbs and BMI is 23.2% (i'm 5'9)
Goal weight is 134lbs and 16% BMI

For those of you interested in juicing, I HIGHLY recommend that you watch "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" before hand.

Also, this is the juicer I have


Have any of you tried juicing before? What were your results?
Share your recipes!

INSTAGRAM @arianasieghart
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Friday, March 1, 2013

MY FAVORITE Stuff for Toddlers! (Age 12-24mo)

So on my previous blog I had posted my all-time favorite baby items when my son was an infant, but now that he's a toddler I think it's time to update the list! I'll also add a link to each of the items so you can take a look for yourself!

And the countdown begins...
So I wasn't aware that these things existed until my mom brought them home one day. My son loves puffs, goldfish, and sucking on ice cubes for some teething relief, but would always spill or dump the bowls over. I am absolutely amazed at how well these bowls stay put. NO MORE MESS!

So this would definitely be higher up on the list if my son actually knew how to use it, but for now I'll just brag about my own experiences with it. My son is definitely a late-starter when it comes to sippy cups. He has no interest in them at all and really still only wants a bottle. But one day I went out and spent almost $100 on sippy cups to try out different kinds, and this one definitely takes the cake.

There's a ton of different types of the Explora Cup for different stages of development, and they're all absolutely amazing. When these things advertise that they're spill and leak proof, they mean it. Trust me, I've tried to spill the cup in every way imaginable, and it doesn't let out a drop. Also, normally truly spill and leak proof sippy cups are hard to drink out of, but this one is so easy to drink out of and works so simple to use and clean!

I bought my son the Leap Pad 2 for Christmas, and he really likes it. This is a really cool toy, basically an iPad for kids, but it's more game oriented and my son doesn't really understand the idea of playing games just yet. He likes the drawing app, and the episodes of Fresh Beat Band I downloaded, but other than that he doesn't understand the toy too much. I added this one to the list because even though my son doesn't quite understand it yet, it's still a really cool toy (and great for a distraction at restaurants!). I'm definitely looking forward to getting more use out of it as he gets older.

My son is nowhere near potty trained, but I use these in replacement of night-time diapers. Normally even with night-time diapers I end up having to change him at some point during the night or he'll wake up soaked. But the Pull-Up brand of overnight training pants don't leak and hold much more liquid than any overnight diapers I've tried. A dry baby is a happy baby.

Everything about Color Wonder is amazing. No more drawing on walls, carpets, floors.. Just on paper! Enough said.

This case is nothing but awesome. It's drool proof, drop proof, and baby proof. You can protect the home button to prevent your baby from closing apps, or you could choose to not block the home button so they can roam as they please. Great investment for those of you with iPad loving toddlers.

Yes, I went there. And yes, my kid has his own iPad. The thing is, he actually understands how to use apple products. Apple has clearly made their products so simple to understand and use that clearly babies can do it. My 22 month old can unlock, roam, click, and use an iPad. He uses the iPad 1st generation. It used to be mine, but it got to the point where every time I powered it on, he would ask for "iPad! iPad!" and I'd let him play instead of me getting school work done. So eventually, I gave in and got myself a new iPad mini, and gave him my first generation iPad. 

Anyway, like I said, he can work the entire thing. I deleted my apps that were on it and made it completely toddler oriented. There are TONS of toddler apps in the app store, and I also downloaded Toy Story to the videos so he can watch it anywhere (he is obsessed with Buzz Lightyear). And from a mom perspective, it gives me a few minutes every once in a while to clean, do homework, or go to the bathroom lol :)

My son won't always drink it, but when he does I love knowing that he's getting all the vitamins and protein he needs. Usually I give him some when I drink a protein shake, and tell him that the Pediasure is his own protein shake. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Regardless, Pediasure definitely knows how to give a kid the nutrition they need.

2. Matchbox/Hotwheel Cars
These are my son's go-to toys. He'll play with them for hours and they're really inexpensive. Sounds good to me.

All you moms know that safety is the #1 thing you worry about as a parent, and I fully trust this car seat. When researching a convertible seat, I looked at every option there was to get the safest and most reliable car seat I could possibly find. This seat did absolutely amazing in crash tests and reading the reviews and some stories shared by parents, I couldn't pass this up. It has amazing head support, and is very sturdy inside my car. My son is also a really big kid, and he fits as nice and comfortable in it as he did at 6 months. Great buy with a great peace of mind.

Well you've seen it now. These are my all time favorite toddler items from 12-24 months. 

Do any of you have any you recommend to the list? Or any reviews about any of the items I listed? Leave comments and let me know! I'm always looking to try out new stuff or hear other opinions!

INSTAGRAM: @ArianaSieghart
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HAPPY FRIDAY



I don't know about you all, but I am more than happy it's Friday.

I apologize for the lack of blog posts this week, everything has been crazy busy with school, workouts, work, and TODAY is my police ride along with a near-by town and I'm super excited. 

As for the weekend, tomorrow I'm spending all day working on Scentsy, blogging, and homework while probably watching Finding Nemo repeatedly with my lil man :).

Speaking of my little guy, he's OFFICIALLY 22 months old today. His birthday is April 29th, but since there's no 29th of this month we have to celebrate today! I can't believe in two months I'll have a two year old.

Any of you have exciting plans this weekend? Or anything specific you want me to blog about? Comments are always welcome and responded to!

Instagram: @arianasieghart
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Monday, February 25, 2013

16 & PREGNANT JENNIFER DEL RIO UPDATE!

So for all of you who don't know, my best friend and her two ADORABLE twin boys were on 16 & Pregnant. She shared the very emotional story of her relationship with her kids' father and the birth of her twins.

Jennifer Del Rio, everyone!

Picture taken at Rolling Meadows High School on Teen Mom Day 2012

If you watched the "Where Are They Now" special last March (you can watch the full episode here), you saw that she moved to Chicago for a little while. Well, her and the boys are back in Florida now and are doing great!

Photo taken while we were filming for the "Where Are They Now" episode!

Jenn is going to college and studying Criminal Justice, and the boys are definitely in the "terrible two" stage (but still as cute as ever!).


Jenn has also been spending a ton of time with her horse, Jack!

And for those of you who ask, the boys do see their father, Josh, all the time and he is still a huge part in their lives.

Jenn's Twitter: @jenndelriomtv
Instagram: @jcdelrio

Are there any questions you have about Jennifer or the boys? Leave comments!

Coffee Protein Shake Recipe!

So I'm one of those people who like to mix up their protein shake recipes every once in a while. When I'm on the go I'll mix my protein powder with some non-fat milk, but when I have time I usually love to make some kind of crazy concoction. 

So here's my absolute FAVORITE recipe of all time.
Coffee Protein Shake!


So here's the deal:
1 cup of brewed coffee, doesn't matter what kind
1 cup of milk (any kind)
1 scoop protein powder. I use Gold Standard Whey, normally Chocolate flavor.
2 handfuls of ice
1/2 a banana
BLEND AND DRINK UP!