MOVE YOUR FRAME REVIEW

A couple weeks ago I was sweating my big but off in Kings Cross, Granary Square at 7am for a Nike Train Tuesday event hosted by Move Your Frame Fitness Studios. Slipped inside my goody bag was a free class pass ticket to one of their studios (Queens Park and Shoreditch). The other day me and my friend were trying to think of somewhere we could train together, or find a class we could both try till I remembered I had that pass... using my one free pass, and splitting the cost of another, we went to Queens Park for FRAME cardio - with loads of cool and original classes we were stuck for choice: FRAME X train: a crossing training class with plyo, TRX work and weights, FRAME barre, Ass and abs, yoga, pilates and even 'Rebounding': yep, trampolines!!!!  In the end we decided a time best to meet up leaving us with a choice between FRAME cardio or a class called 'Get Leggy'; boasting as the solution to perfect pins, but after training HEAVY legs the day before, as you can imagine, that wasn't even an option.

We found Frame down a side street of houses with its bright bold, blaring-red logo. Inside the reception/waiting area was a juice bar - Fuel Your Frame - where you could choose from the 'Cleanse': kale + spinach + apple + mango, the 'Glow': beetroot + carrot + apple + mango, or the 'Recharge me': banana + almond milk + protein powder + cacao + peanut butter or almond butter, amongst yummy snacks and bars, and gorgeous tempting activewear draped in the corner by Whistles.

The trainer came out, in a funky Hype tee splashed in space rockets and old school black ribbed American Apparel-style leggings and took us all into what was actually quite a small studio; 4 treadmills packed one end, 4 spin bikes against the next wall, and a pile of medicine balls and low weight dumbells in the following corner.  Me and my friend started on the floor with two other girls, while four went on the bikes, and the other four began on the treds. We did a series of conditioning exercises using all the equipment on the floor, plus using our own bodyweight, like planks, lunges with the med balls and dumbell flyes. It didn't take long till  sweat was dripping and our hearts were racing. The trainer picked up the stretch mats and jokingly fanned us all.

A third of the way through we switched to the spin bikes mixing up between sprints and hill climbs while continually changing the resistance. Funky beats pumped out loudly through the whole class which encased Frame's fresh and fun image - I mean, they played tunes like 'Brown sugar babe!' Finally, and regrettably, we finished on the treadmills doing more sprints and hillclimbs. Just a bit of advice; start on the station that you find the hardest as I was nearly falling off the treadmill in a sweaty heap at this point haha!

The class bought the fun and excitement back into cardio. Frame is definitely a leading contemporary fitness studios for young fitness fans. With a a big list of awesome classes, I can't wait to go back again.

Check out their classes HERE

PROTEIN POW WORKSHOP

Over two years ago my now boyfriend flashed a picture to me on his mobile phone at work and this very picture changed my life. NO... it's not what you're probably thinking... it was picture of dark chocolate pancakes stacked like Jenga pieces, with shiny pretzel sticks slotted on top of each individual cake, and dripping in salted caramel sauce. 

The magical thing was, these weren't just regular pancakes, they were healthy pancakes, made with protein powder. He then proceeded to show me a lady named Anna Sward, founder of Protein Pow. 

Protein Pow is healthy food blog where all the food is made with protein powder. It started in 2011; back then the idea of using protein powder in cooking was outlandish and inane. But today,  the site has over 1,000 recipes - from pizzas to cakes, to soups and ice cream -, Anna has two cookbooks and is on her way to releasing more, and on top of that, she travels around the globe teaching fitness enthusiasts and foodies how to master protein powder cooking. Now their are tons of people imitating her recipes and becoming protein chefs in their own right. Recently you'll even see how almost every protein supplement company - as well as health food products, like nut butters and coconut oil brands - have their own 'healthy chef' creating masterpieces from companies products in 'Recipe corners', brand blog pages and social media feeds. 

 Protein Pow led me to find tons of other 'healthy chefs' and amazing food blogs. I learned what ingredients you could use which were nutritions and healthy, and how you could turn a food considered 'bad' into something just as tasty, yet best of all, which was good for you. As I got into bodybuilding... and fell madly in love with fitness... my food, my 'diet' (and when I say diet I'm not talking about going on a 'diet' I mean diet as in my daily food intake), changed dramatically. The problem is most people think eating healthy is boring, and even I have been guilty of this, but healthy isn't boring, it's just you're being lazy! People like Anna, Kevin Curry, Deliciously Ella... to name a few... show how you can make all kinds of amazing food with a little imagination and prep. 

I've been wanting to go to one of Anna's Protein Pow workshops for ageeees and luckily enough I received a ticket as birthday present this year  - best birthday present ever!! Before I knew it I was heading to  52 Cookery School in Barbican. We all waited upstairs with mugs of coffee and tea until Anna came up. Before heading downstairs to get absolutely covered in protein powder (yes, this happened to me!), we all introduced ourselves and shared our experiences with cooking with protein; how you spend hours making an awesome cake only for it to turn out like a shiny, rubbery dense ball, to attempting to make cookies and ending up with cakes... someone even admitted to making cauliflower ice cream - yep, you totally just read that right! Also... Christmas vegetable cake; including brussels sprouts...  But most of us all had the same common issue: texture. If you've made healthy versions of favourite treats before you probably will have experienced this too. A lot of us rarely, if ever, used other protein powders like pea, rice or hemp too. Anna had mountains of these alternative protein powders in the kitchen for us to try and experiment with.

We started off making protein bars and smothering them in melted dark chocolate to make them into candy bars. After that we split into groups to make protein cheesecakes, cupcakes, cakes, cookies and frosting (D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S). Finally we made the best thing ever; protein pizzas.  Once we finished creating crazy concoctions we all sat down to eat it all. It's safe to say I probably ate my protein intake for the entire week. 

The workshop was awesome and there was such a great mix of different people there; from people who love cooking, to fitness professionals and couples. I learned loads and left with ideas on how to make protein baking even more awesome. I also left with gewy protein batter in my hair haha. 

Here's some pictures from the day and some links to foods that we made.

ENJOY!

Protein pizzas

Protein bars

Protein cheesecakes

Protein cupcakes

SWEET POTATO CAKE BITES

Today at work we had some pre-cooked sweet potatoes laying forsaken in the fridge. I was about to throw them away until I thought, 'I can make something out of these.' I've heard of sweet potato brownies before so surely you can make other stuff too, I thought. I quickly google searched for sweet potato cakes only to come across this nifty, and surprisingly tasty, idea. 

I mean, sweet potato mash is the bomb, and sweet potato fries kick regular fries in the face but, these sweet potato bites trump them both. Honest!

They're super sweet, moist and chock-a-block full of goodness; antioxidant packed, an awesome source of low GI carbs and boasts vitamin A.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 large roasted/steamed/boiled sweet potato
• 60g of oats
• 2/4 cup of desiccated coconut 
• 2/4 cup of walnuts
• 2/4 cup of dates (chopped)
• 1/4 cup of honey + 1 tbs extra for bit more sweetness
• 1 tbs of flaxseed
• a handful of raisins
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• a dash of salt

Mash the cooked potato in a bowl and blend in the rest of the ingredients. It should form a very sticky mixture. Wet your hands and separate the mixture into big balls and place on baking paper. Drizzle a a little olive oil over each and bake for half an hour on 170'C. This made 12 big sized cakes bites - If made into small cake bites, reduce the baking time.

PEANUT BUTTER CUP COOKIE DOUGH PIE

So Saturday night me and my boyfriend decided to make a healthy American style dinner; mains, sides and dessert included! 

We drooled over ideas and all American treats to make for dessert, like cheesecake, apple pie, peanut butter, smores, oreos, snickerdoodles... in the end we combined two of our favourites: Reeces peanut butter cups and cookie dough. We made a peanut butter cup pie with a cookie dough base. Best of all,  this yumminess is full of protein and healthy fats. 

COOKIE DOUGH LAYER

• 100g nut butter (almond/peanut)
• 1 cup of almond flour
• 1 tbs honey
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 2 scoops of protein (vanilla/chocolate)
• handful of dark chocolate chips

FILLING

•  1/2 cup of peanut butter
• 2 scoops of protein (peanut flavour/vanilla + peanut flour)
• 1/2 cup of cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup of yoghurt
• 2 tbs of milk (dairy/nut/rice/oat/coconut)
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbs of honey/maple syrup

TOPPING

• 80g of dark chocolate
• 2 tbs of milk
• 2 tbs of coconut oil
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 1 tbs of honey/maple

First mix the almond flour and protein in a bowl. Then add the rest of the ingredients to form a dough. Add a little water if necessary. Spread the dough mix evenly across the bottom of a pan and freeze. 

To make the filling blend the cottage cheese and yoghurt with hand blender until all of the curds have gone. Then stir in the rest of the ingredients. Add the filling to the top of the cookie dough (and save some mixture to eat, trust me...).  Pop in the freezer again while making the topping.

Melt 80g of chocolate then the stir in coconut oil, milk, syrup and vanilla. Drop the chocolate sauce across the pie, turning the pie sideways to allow the sauce to drip into place and cover all of the top. 

Freeze for an hour and enjoy :)