A Special Valentine's Guest Post for Eat Yourself Skinny
PIN IT!Psss! I have a big surprise for y’all later (it’s a 2 post kinda day) so be sure to come back!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
I’ll be honest, I’m SUCH A SAP for this “holiday.” I know it’s all commercialized and ridiculous to ‘force’ romance on people. But, I’m also the girl who cries at Nicholas Sparks novels (and the subsequent movies that follow), is a sucker for flowers and chocolates and just plain out, loves love. So, when I got an email from one of my good friend’s boyfriends asking if he could guest post today so he could tell the world how much he loved his girlfriend, well, I nearly broke out in tears. Kelly, you have a good, GOOD man here 🙂
Take it away Chris!
Hello, my name is Chris Gellner and I am the very lucky boyfriend of Kelly from Eat Yourself Skinny. I was trying to find a way to tell Kelly this Valentine’s Day how much I love her and let everyone else know it too. I am very thankful Claire has given me an outlet to let it be known.
To know how much I love Kelly you have to know the story of how we met. It was the summer time and like every typical summer in the Northern Virginia area it was hot and most people spend their summers at concerts tailgating. This was no different for Kelly and me but I was lucky to even meet her on that hot August 14th day. See I was supposed to be a grooms man in a wedding that got postponed which was perfect cause me and all my friends were bummed we were missing Rascal Flatts (all the girls come out to that concert and as a single guy it was awesome). Luckily I got to go to the concert and tailgate and have fun. As the night went on one of my buddy’s Ryan brought over two of his friends, Linda and Kelly, she caught my eye right off the bat. As the night went on I crept up on the lawn and finally getting the chance to dance with her, I grabbed her hand and started spinning her and trying to teach her how to dance (I have no clue how to dance anyways). I will forever remember the way she looked that night, she even had me singing “God Bless the Broken Road” in her ear.
This is Kelly and I the night we met… (We were a bit intoxicated;she is going to kill me for this picture)
After the concert I remember telling myself that if you leave this girl, you might never see her again. So I held her hand that night and never left her side. We went out partying little bit more then crashed and she had to drive me home in the morning because I left my truck with my friend Nicole (The only person I trust with my truck). As my head rang the next day and the stench of Crown Royal and Bud Light hit my nose, I could still only think of Kelly and if I called her if she would call me back and what it could become. Being single for the last year it was tough meeting nice, smart beautiful girls and Kelly was all that plus more. When I called her for the first time I remember I was so nervous and I told her that I would like to hang out with her again soon and she agreed, it took Kelly to ask me if I wanted to come over and watch a movie for us to hang out again cause I was so taken back by her (She is definitely the Beauty and I’m the Beast in this relationship). Tony’s Pizza slice and the movie “She’s out of my league” (which I already watched with my buddy cam but I lied and told her I never seen it) and this is where we are now. I couldn’t imagine being with anyone else but Kelly, She is my Best Friend, Girlfriend and My Life Partner, and I hope one day she is my wife and the mother to my kids.
Kelly and I at a wine festival, which before her, I would never have been seen there
Kelly is one of the most supportive and amazing people you will ever meet. When she met me she inherited all the Washington Redskins and Washington Capitals fandom and ran with it and attends everything with me. Just last month she carted me off to the hospital after a Hockey accident where they told me I have a concussion and a cyst on my brain and she stood right next to me as strong as could be. She is dedicated to her site Eat Yourself Skinny and has made that into something that is so amazing and successful. I am very lucky to have her.
Redskins Games are where we spend most of our fall and winter
Kelly Lynn,
As I sit here and write about a story that we have created it is hard not to get choked up and imagine where we are going to be in years to come. I don’t tell you enough how much I love you and how much I appreciate what you do for me. I have never had so much of a hard time to put into words how I feel because there is no words that can describe how I feel about you, no emotion in the world will ever explain it. I don’t know where I would be today without you Kelly and I can’t imagine life without you. I promise you that I will support you and Love you for the rest of my life. Happy Valentine’s Day sweetheart.
Love you,
Christopher Richard Gellner
Happy Valentine’s Day Kelly 🙂
And the tears are falling. Kelly, I hope you have an amazing day, trust me, it was HARD to keep this secret from you everyday!
Claire
Tags:Eat Yourself Skinny, featured, holiday, special valentine, Valentine's day
Secret Recipe Club: Skinny Banana Pecan Cookies
Hi guys! The sun is shining, I got a nice 7 hours of sleep and I’ve already made 1 dough and 1 pan of rice noodles. All in all, great start to the morning.
Plus, I had a great weekend. Valentine’s is always a really big time for us. For one, February 13th is our anniversary. Secondly, in 2010, that’s the day E proposed 🙂 [Also the day after a freak blizzard].
So each year, we kinda do it big. And this year was no different. To kick things off, we went to Woo at the Zoo at the National Zoo. It’s a thing they do each year where they talk about animal mating patterns, yes I’m serious, and serve hors’Â devours. It was actually really funny and we got these cute glasses!
Then we went to dinner at Toscana West, a cute little Italian place on I street in DC! Shockingly, I took no photographs. The food was good (not awesome but not horrible) and the ambiance was super cute (just borderline tacky). BUT! The best part of the evening? They had live opera singers! So, while we finished our meal, we were serenaded by an amazing group of opera singers. It was awesome. Then yesterday, we did a big trip to Costco (where it was CREEPILY EMPTY, see below) and stocked up on some tasty steaks for tomorrow’s dinner and a ton of eggs.
Apocolypse?
I also had time to relax (which doesn’t happen often) and had time to whip up these absolutely incredible banana walnut cookies for the Secret Recipe Club.
The blog I was given was A Dusting of Sugar and it was so hard to pick what recipe to choose! She’s got a ton of great recipes, including some delicious looking homemade bread recipes which I’ll definitely be trying out in March (I’m tackling 6 yeast recipes that month!) After drooling through her posts, I found one that I knew I just HAD TO MAKE. Banana oatmeal cookies.
As you can see with mine, I omitted the oatmeal simply because I didn’t have any. So, I just doubled up the flour (whole wheat) and wa-la! These gorgeous, delicious and soft cookies were born.
One of my favorite breakfast breads is banana nut bread and these cookies taste JUST like a warm loaf out of the oven. Except they are portable, smaller and easier to eat!
In true Claire fashion, i lightened these up by swaping 99% of the butter for applesauce and using whole wheat flour. Because of the applesauce, the cookies had the same light as air, fluffy and chewy texture as my 42 calorie pumpkin ones.
Because the taste and look so closely resemeble banana bread, I don’t see why you couldn’t eat these for breakfast. I mean, there’s fruit in them, that’s totally healthy for breakfast. (Spoken like a true RD to be).
Skinny Banana Pecan Cookies
Yields: about 16 cookies
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 9 – 11 minutes
Recipe adapted from A Dusting of Sugar and Simply Recipes.
Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened applesace
- 1 tablespoon butter, softened
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 cup mashed bananas (about 1 1/4 large banana)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- dash of salt
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
Directions:
- Beat sugar, applesauce and butter together with a handheld mixture until creamy. Add egg yolk and vanilla and beat until fluffy.
- In a shallow bowl, mix bananas and baking soda together and let sit for 2 minutes. Add bananas to egg mixture. Gradually add in flours, salt and cinnamon and mix until combined. Stir in pecans.
- Cover dough with foil and chill for at least an hour. Once chilled, preheat oven to 350F. Â Measure out about 1 teaspoon of dough and place on a greased cookie sheet. Repeat, placing dough about 1/2 inch apart. Cook for 9 – 11Â minutes, or until golden brown.
Cookies for breakfast are the BEST. [I say as I’m eating two of them with my coffee].
Nutritional information per cookie:
Calories: 85
Fat: 3 grams
Carbohydrates: 24 grams
Fiber: 1 gram
Protein: 1.5 grams
Weight Watchers Points Plus points: 3 points
Eat Skinny Valentines Edition: Coffee Cake Muffin Recipe
These, I’ve dubbed, are my love muffins. For one, they taste like love. And two? They are shaped like hearts! (Well, kinda.)
Truthfully though, I do love them. They are soft and moist with a sweet, sugary crunch. And the filling? Oh the filling. Simple mixture of just brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans, it tastes like Sunday morning. Plus, they have icing. CINNAMON ROLL ICING.
These muffins make the PERFECT addition to a Valentine’s Day brunch. Guys, I’m all about fancy dinners, roses and the like, but right now? Breakfast in bed with these glorious muffins, a pitcher of mimosas and some bacon sounds pretty freakin’ fabulous. Let’s see if I can get my husband to do that. First, he’ll have to recreate these decadently soft, naturally sweet, grainy and crunchy muffins since I know they aren’t lasting past today. I think he can do it.
Now, in case you were curious, I’ve been subtly applying what I like to call the “Andrew Zimmern approach” to my descriptions. I’ve gotten really boring with how I describe food. “Good, delicious, tasty.” Food is more than that! [Especially food like this!]
He has the most….unusual way of describing what he eats. Like, for example, saying a bowl of noodles tastes like wet, rubbery erasers. Or says a room of cheese smells like unwashed feet of 17 dirty teenagers. I’m trying out his tactic of unpretentious description so you may notice more adjectives.  Like grainy or earthy. However, rest assured, I won’t ever post about food that tastes like wet rubbery erasers. That’s just..weird.
Or..I can just be like Bourdain and say “These  f*&^in’ muffins are damn good. Eat them for f’s sake.” That works too.
Coffee Cake Muffins
Yields 12 muffins
Prep time: >10 minutes
Cook time: 12 – 15 minutes
Recipe adapted from Food.com.
Ingredients:
For the muffins:
- 6 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Dash salt
For the filling:
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup chopped pecans
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
For the drizzled icing
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Directions:Â
- To make the muffins: preheat oven to 375F. Grease a mini heart cake pan with nonstick cooking spray. Mix filling ingredients together and set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream butter, applesauce, sugar and eggs together. Add in vanilla. Gently stir in (with a spoon) flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Pour about 1/2 tablespoon batter into the bottom of the cavity. Add 1 teaspoon filling on top of batter. Cover filling with another 1/2 tablespoon batter. Sprinkle each with filling.
- Bake for 12 – 15 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out dry. Let muffins cool completely on a wire cooling rack.
- While muffins are cooling, prepare icing by mixing powdered sugar and milk together. Once muffins have cooled completely, drizzle icing over each one. Enjoy!
Just a note, holding a camera, trying to manually focus and drizzle at the same time is SUPER HARD. (Please see below failed attempts]. I think it’s safe to say I need a tripod.
Nutritional information per muffin:Â
Calories: 175
Fat: 6 grams
Carbohydrates: 25 grams
Fiber: 1 gram
Protein: 4 grams
Weight Watchers Points Plus points: Â 5
Meal Makeover Valentine's Edition: Mini Blueberry Lemon French Toast Cups
Longest. title. EVER. [And latest blog post ever!] I apologize for that. However, I do not apologize for the delicious, sweet nothings I’m about to lay before your sparkling little eyes here.
This, this little cocette filled of wonder, happiness and love is what dreams are made of. Well, not normal people’s dreams. My twisted, food obsessed fat kid dreams.
Yes, I dream of sugar plums, wine and cocettes filled with french toast, WHAT OF IT.
Given the fact that I watched a horrifically sad movie last night (admist a bottle of sparkling wine, I don’t know how that happened), a dream filled with sweet, custardy, tart blueberry goodness is fine in my book. Definitely beats nightmares that leave me sweaty and unkempt.
And look at this! Look at how cute in the little cocette! How could one not love dreaming of these as they nestled in their bed?
Even if your dreams are not made of food, these single serving cocettes are the perfect addition to your Valentine’s Day brunch menu! Served perfectly portioned in a mini cocette, these are easy to eat in bed!
Plus, I made these much lighter by using light brie cheese, light cream and whole wheat bread, which save you 100 calories and 5 grams of fat!
Unlike my gluten free cake, the are no weird or strange secret ingredients that make this to die for. Just the use of super fresh ingredients, like these farmers market blueberries!
Oh, and of course, along with the fresh berries, each cocette is made with a whole lotta love.
It’s Valentine’s Day inspired, you didn’t think I could go a whole post without being lovey, dovey cheesy, right?
Mini Blueberry French Toast Cups
Serves 2
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Chill time: 1 hour
Recipe adapted from Taste of Home.
Ingredients:Â
For the french toast:
- 2 pieces of whole wheat bread, cut into cubes
- 1/2 cup of light cream
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup of fresh blueberries
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ounces of laughing cow brie
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- Dash of cinnamon
For the syrup:Â
- 1 cup of fresh blueberries
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1/2 lemon, zested
Directions:Â
- Grease two mini cocettes with nonstick cooking spray. Place 1/2 piece of bread into the bottom of each cocette. Pour 1/4 cup blueberries and 1 ounce cheese over the bread in each cocette. Cover with remaining bread.
- In a bowl, whisk eggs, light cream, lemon juice, vanilla, brown sugar and cinnamon. Pour mixture over each cocette. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350F. Once mixture has chilled, remove from fridge and let sit for at least 30 minutes. Then bake, uncovered, for at least 20 minutes, or until bread is toasted.
- While mixture bakes, prepare syrup by mixing the corn starch and water on medium high heat until smooth. Add blueberries, lemon and maple syrup and cook until sauce thickens, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Once cups are finished baking, top with the blueberry syrup and enjoy!
Nutritional information per cup:
Calories: 385
Fat: 13 grams
Carbohydrates: 40 grams
Fiber: 15 grams
Protein: 16 grams
Weight Watchers points plus points: 8
Eat Skinny Valentine's Edition: Gluten Free Chocolate Cake
Happy Wednesday! Can y’all believe Valentine’s Day is just a few short days away? Are you ready? Have your restaurant reservations made or your sexy at home menu created? Have your dashing lingerie picked out, the candles ready to be lit and Marvin Gaye saved on your play-list? Well, maybe not Marvin Gaye, but you get the picture I’m trying to create here.
I’m happy to say all my Valentine’s Day boxes are checked and I’m patiently awaiting it’s arrival. I’ve always been a Valentine’s junkie. And now, especially, that I’m an over-eager, food obsessed, soon to be culinary student and full time food writer, this holiday has been on my radar since Christmas and I’ve been dutifully prepping.
Like, making mini heart shaped crepes and homemade glittery candles, for example.
Even those these heart shaped goodies and crafts are FREAKIN’ ADORABLE, I have to say my favorite Valentine’s creation, thus far, is this beautiful and divine concoction I conjured up yesterday.
In the off chance you didn’t read the title, Â it’s a gluten free heart shaped cake!
Now, what makes this cake gluten free doesn’t lie in the use of expensive flours or fancy ingredients. In fact, the special ingredient that makes this cake void of all wheat (and makes it healthier, too) lies in something you can buy at the super market for less than $1 a can.
That’s right, BLACK BEANS! I know, seems just plain wrong to put beans in a cake but, guys, it works. Somehow the molecules in the beans work with the other delicious ingredients to make a batter that is cohesive and thick. It’s like flour, but you know, without the gluten. And if black beans make something THIS delicious? I’m A-OKAY with that.
The beans also give this cake an incredibly fudgey texture and taste. It’s almost like a giant heart brownie.
And seriously, how could you not smile while eating a giant fudgey heart? I mean, come on!
Gluten Free Chocolate Cake
Serves 6 – 8
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes
Recipe adapted from As Good as Gluten.
Ingredients:
- 1 can black beans, thoroughly rinsed and drained
- 3 eggs, separated
- 6 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (double acting)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt
Directions:Â
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9 inch heart pan with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat black beans, applesauce, egg yolks, vanilla and salt with a handheld mixer on HIGH until batter is smooth. (Will take about 5 – 8 minutes). For a quicker route, put those ingredients in a blender.
- In a smaller bowl, beat egg whites until fluffy, set aside.
- In another large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add black bean mixture to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly. With a wooden spoon, stir in cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda, mix well. Gently fold in egg whites until mixture is fully combined.
- Pour batter into the cake pan and bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out dry. Let cool completely. Frost with your choice of frosting!
*Note, I used my light cream cheese frosting mixed with 3 tablespoons of chopped maraschino cherries!
What better way to say “I love you” than with a fudgey cake? A fudgey cake that is also healthy and full of muscle building protein, that is! A win win 🙂
Nutritional information per piece:
Calories: 205
Fat: 7 grams
Carbohydrates: 13 grams
Protein: 8 grams
Fiber: 3.5 grams
Weight Watchers Points: 4
