While at work last night I got a craving for two things: BBQ pizza and chocolate. Together those two items my have been disastrous, but separate they're both decadent and delectable! Now just how do I have these things but stay healthy at the same time?
I've been doing so well on my Fit Girl journey that now it's almost to the point of being a lifestyle. After three months of clean eating (not always) and attempting to get regular exercise, I can say that I've hit the ten pound mark. This is something I knew I could do since day one but it's surreal to actually see it on the scale. I've been here before, just a couple of years ago I weighed less than this, but to see the numbers diminish and to know that I can say I will never allow for my body to be that heavy without proper medical cause again- that's so fulfilling. I can only imagine where I'll be two months, even two weeks, from now!
I took my first Orange Theory Fitness class a week ago and I was super skeptical going in, but it was free so I didn't care whether I liked it or not. Tonight I'm purchasing my first ever paid gym membership because that was hands down the best one hour workout I have ever had. When in college I frequently went to the school's gym where they had everything you could want out of a fitness center. I took classes anywhere from Zumba and Pilates to basic core and strength workouts; did the same kind of routine week after week with little to no results. After college a friend and I went together to Planet Fitness and we would workout for an hour or so and saw nothing. I know eating habits make a larger impact than the gym does but to see no results can be defeating. Even after the workouts, and the days following, I didn't see much results or feel any soreness- in my eyes it wasn't working. With Orange Theory you basically have a personal trainer by your side the entire time telling you what to do and they're making sure you're getting the best possible workout for your body. I'm going to start with one class per week and then after I feel committed enough I'll bump it up to two classes a week.
"Blah, blah, blah, we didn't come here to read about fitness, where's the pizza?!" Okay, okay, I'll dish it out now. After a quick Pinterest search on the way to my car I found a recipe for Hawaiian BBQ Pizza that I thought was good enough for me. I was basically using the recipe as a guideline for what ingredients I needed to purchase, I wasn't going to follow it while baking my pizza. I grabbed all of the ingredients from Publix as well as some other things I needed to make some cookies (I know, not very Fit Girl of me, but sue me!) and I headed home to whip up a masterpiece. While the pizza was in the oven I calculated the nutrition facts and it came in at a pretty good standing in comparison to the other Fit Girl's Guide meals I've been eating. The only thing was the sodium was a little (okay maybe more than a little) high... but I'm not telling you to eat this every day! My initial plan was to bake it on a pita bread like my regular pita pizzas but even with the single serving pizzas I usually have too many toppings and it becomes a mess. So I settled for a normal whole wheat pizza crust. With turkey bacon, chicken breast, red onion, and pineapple this BBQ pizza came in at under 400 calories per serving which is almost as much as a single Fit Girl's Guide dinner so I was right where I needed to be! I'll put the recipe down at the bottom of this post.
For the chocolate craving I decided to make peanut butter no bake cookies because I thought I could make them in a healthier way than usual. Well with 1/2 cup of butter I don't know how "healthy" I could've made these cookies. I followed this recipe and substituted a couple things for healthier options. Instead of regular milk I used almond milk, I used 100% dark cacao powder to get all of those delicious antioxidants, and I added one scoop of vanilla protein powder to get that extra boost of protein because I honestly don't get enough without it. I ran out of parchment paper when it came time for them to set so I laid the rest down on aluminum foil- don't do that. The ones on foil didn't set at all! While they're still delicious and edible with a spoon, they don't have their cookie-like shape; I moved them over to the parchment paper to dry out.
I hope you love my pizza recipe and I hope you give both of these delicious treats a try!
Happy baking!
Hawaiian BBQ Pizza
Servings per pizza: 4 || Serving size: 1/4 of pizza
Calories: 389 || Fat: 12 g
Carbs: 51 g || Protien: 22 g
Ingredients
1 whole wheat pizza crust
1/2 C favorite BBQ sauce (I used Sticky Fingers Carolina Sweet)
1/2 C canned chicken breast
1/2 C pineapple tidbits
2 slices of cooked turkey bacon (I used Jennie-O)
1/4 C chopped red onion
1 C mozzarella cheese
cilantro, garlic powder, and fresh ground pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spread BBQ Sauce evenly over pizza crust. Top with 3/4 C of the mozzarella cheese. Place all other toppings on and top with seasonings and remaining 1/4 C of cheese. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in preheated oven. Let cool for a couple minutes before slicing into quarters. Serve & enjoy!
Source: Cooking Classy
