Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 01:15 PM
Hello friends,
Glad to see that everyone likes our take a tortilla 
Check out our guest post on Eating Bender to learn more about our story 
Check out this amazing ice-cream giveaway!
Today we wanted to talk about what we have been doing for workouts snacks both pre-workout and post-workout! We get many of our ideas from Brendan – you all know we are fans of his. We have talked about his most recent book here if you are interested in learning more about him and his whole concept of food and fitness Great read!
We have been trying puddings as most of our snacks. We are huge fans of puddings, we like really thick puddings too! Ok we might have weird taste buds
We enjoyed eating this delicious pre-workout snack a few days ago
This date mesquite ball was perfect for a quick but intense workout to give you the energy you need! We plan to make more of these again soon and keep in the refrigerator to have on hand.
Another pre-workout snack that we have been playing around to see if it gives us energy and makes us feel good while working out is coconut kefir. For example this one
Coconut kefir mixed with spirulina, dates, vanilla, banana, coconut oil, maca, and cacao nibs.
Our bodies really seemed to like it. We ate this about an hour or more before we worked out. We felt it was great for our hour long workouts!
We have been making some fun post-workout puddings. *warning some may not look the prettiest but promise you they were amazing!
Like this one
This was pumpkin seeds flour, spirulina, lemon juice and zest, yacon syrup, maca and a splash of water.
It made a very small pudding but that is all we needed immediately after working out. We than come back about an hour later or so to make a large green smoothie!
Another great and very thick pudding was this delicious ‘>chocolate Vega shake that we made into a pudding.
We just took some Learn more>”>Vega Protein powder and mixed with maca, chia seeds, lemon juice, stevia, and a splash of water. Stirred till everything was combined. 
Yummy and thick a great post-workout snack in our opinion and our bodies seem to love it!
And after today’s workout we had something very similar though we made it out of hemp protein powder. (sorry no picture).
As you can see some of these pre and post workout snacks had ‘sugar’ in them from bananas to dates. This is about the only time we have any sugar except for stevia and yacon syrup. Though we are really going to try to cut back even more on our overall ‘sugar’ intake for a couple of weeks and rely mostly and vegetables and healthy fats (and certain fruits) to fuel us (with the occasional protein powder puddings).
We actually took a few weeks off from having any protein powder but these past week we have incorporated them back into our post-workout snacks. We have been trying to increase our intensity of our workouts and our overall strength training program so decided to give the powders a try again to see if we noticed any great improvements. We will keep you all updated on how we do with that!
So far we are feeling great and loving the way we are feeling before, during, and after our workouts! With fit-bloggin coming up soon we are giving ourselves a little challenge to keep our intensity up and eat very clean. We will see how that goes
Now here for some exciting news that we have been talking about lately!
In honor of our love for blogging and fitness. We teamed up with a new and up-coming ‘green’ t-shirt design company to help us create fun and cute shirts for all to enjoy! More information on that soon!
We will be selling these shirts on our site very soon. Here is a sneak preview of what they will look like!
Currently these shirts are in production. And of course these shirts are going to be on high quality organic cotton and approved with the Twins stamp of approval
**We will take pre-orders on these 100% organic cotton shirts – just email us at twins at pure2raw.com. If you are going to the FitBloggin event you will receive a 5% discount. These is a great way to advertise your blog and workout at the same time. They will be great conversation starters. You will see Pure2Raw Twins wearing these shirts while at the FitBloggin event in March.
“ I blog all day”
And
“If you think I’m cute you should see my blog”
**Please not these images are just an artist renderings not actually photos. Once we get the ‘actual shirts’ in we will post them
We wanted to create shirts that were fun and that everyone could work-out in!
Readers and non FitBloggin attendees can benefit from wearing one too More t-shirts to come! We are so excited!
Pure2Raw TRULY THANKS ALL OF OUR READERS and YOUR CONTINUE SUPPORT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU TO OUR READERS and FRIENDS We love you all!
Till next time,
The Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: Events, Fitness, Miscellaneous, Raw Recipes, pure2raw products
Tags: dates, hemp protein, maca, post workout puddings, post workout shake, pre-workout snack, spirulina, tshirts, vega protein
Friday, November 13, 2009 at 02:00 PM
Hello friends,
We wanted to go over some of the ingredients that we have been using in our recipes as well as provide you all with some substitutes.
Now many of these ingredients may be new to you or yes a little more expensive than SUGAR. But the health benefits out weight all that : ) We are fortunate enough that with our bakery we get to play around with these ingredients. So if you ever get the chance to play around with these ingredients we hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
At the end of the post we provide where you can get all these goodies!
Ingredient and substitution lesson with the twins:
grab a paper and pen
Ready-
Here we go-
Coconut oil
Full of lauric acid, provides energy for the body, good fat, great for the metabolism and thyroid.
Common use: baking, cooking, face, smoothies, sauces, puddings, sports drinks, bars, any desserts
Substitutes: olive oil, soy butter (if you can tolerate soy), ghee (for non-vegans), palm oil
Yacon Syrup
Low-glycemic sugar, lower in calories then most sweeteners, taste like molasses and caramel, can improve digestive health due to containing prebiotic (which is the food for the good bacteria)
** yacon also comes in powder form
** it does have an unique flavor so it may take a few times to get used to the flavor although we LOVE IT!
Common use: replace honey or maple syrup, or any liquid sweetener (we like to use it more than agave because it has more health benefits than agave), add it to anything that you want a little bit more sweetness like smoothies, puddings, any desserts, fruit, sauces, dressings, nut milks
Substitutes: maple syrup, molasses, dark or light agave, honey
Lucuma powder
Low-glycemic sugar substitute, rich maple-like flavor, full of vitamins and minerals like beta caratone, niacin, calcium and iron
Common use: great in ice creams, yogurts, desserts, smoothies, puddings, pies, nut milks
Substitutes: maca powder, yacon powder, stevia (though will have to alter the ratio in recipes), nut flour, coconut flour, rice protein powder or hemp protein (though will need to add some other sweetness to the recipes)
Maca powder
Rich in amino acids, phytonutrients, vitamins, and minerals, increases energy, can help with endurance, supports the immune system and adrenal function (helps with stress) and we just love the flavor!! Gives things a malted flavor : )
Common use: desserts, pudding, smoothies, yogurt, ice cream, nut milks
Substitutes: lucuma, yacon powder, nut flour, coconut flour, rice protein and hemp powder (these will alter the taste and texture)
* we have discussed maca here before
Stevia
Zero- glycemic level, zero calorie, can improve digestion, excellent choice for those watching sugar and calories, comes in liquid or powder form
Common uses: drinks, smoothies, coffee,tea, any dessert (will have to alter the wet to dry ration), yogurt, puddings
Substitutes: although there really is no substitute if you using it for the reasons listed, although all the sweeteners list here would work, just have to alter the recipe
Dates/date paste
Natural sweetener, high in glucose (a carb for fuel), rich in fiber, full of calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, sulfur
Common uses: desserts, sauces, dressings, smoothies, puddings, snacks, bars, granola
Substitutes: dried figs, dried apricots, plus the other sweeteners listed above
Please keep in mind when you make substitutions in any recipe, not just ours, that we ask you to please use some common sense If they batter is dry add more liquid and vice versa. Example, if you use high fats nuts (walnuts) in your recipe, you can use less liquid due to the natural oil from the nuts. Or if you prefer stevia as your sweetener, whether liquid or powdered, you will need to “make up” for the volume missing, so either add more dry ingredients or liquid.
We hope these tips help, and you have any questions with using these different ingredients please email the twins at twins@pure2raw.com. We would love to help you out : )
Our favorite places to get our ingredients:
Here are some new places we have come across, we have not tried them yet, but look good!
And to continue on with our dessert theme week today is
RAW SMORE’S
Now Matthew Kenney has his recipe of this classic in his book Entertaining in the Raw. And our friend Shannon Marie has done her own twist on this dessert.
And we wanted to get in on the action…. We will see this later what we did. It is still in production. We will get the recipe and pictures to you as soon as it is ready!!!
Till next time,
The Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: Health, Raw Recipes, Theme Week
Tags: coconut oil, dates, desserts, lucuma powder, maca powder, raw desserts, raw smores, stevia, yacon syrup
Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 06:07 PM
Hello Everyone
After a busy day yesterday, today was just as busy. We hope to get in bed before 1am like last night.
Our morning started with a fruit smoothie
- 2 peaches
- 1 fresh pint of raspberries
- 2 apples
- 4 tsp Sun is Shining
- 3 cups water
Blend and enjoy!
Did we tell you, we have finished Thrive!!!!! It was great, some of the information we knew, but did learn a lot that we will discuss soon. It has made as re-look at our fitness/exercise routines and what we eat before and after. So today before we went for our long walk we had buckwheat mixed with spirulina, dates, and coconut oil! Yesterday we had the same thing but instead of buckwheat we had a banana. We took a break from bananas due to the sugar they have, but realized they are good for energy!! We sure missed them!
Green pre-workout buckwheat mix
Now you may see that things are similiar in what we ate yesterday and today before we workout and we have a reason for that. We wanted to see what our body likes before we workout, fruit and fruit/grain (since buckwheat is mostly known as a grain but actually is part of the rhubarb fruit family). As we were walking, we had plenty of time to talk about how we felt, we realized both pre-work out meals digested easily and we had energy, despite the heat.
Importance of pre-workout ingredients:
Bananas contain fructose which means it provides you with quick and prolonged energy you need. Fructose is low glycemic which gets consumed by the body at a low rate. Bananas are easy to digest (a most for working out) full of potassium and vitamin C, which are important for proper muscle function and helps heal injuries. Vitamin C produces collagen, which is important for ligaments, blood vessels, bones, and tendons
Buckwheat contains 8 esstential amino acids (building blocks of protein), with one being tryptophan. Tryptophan is a precursor for serotonin that will enhance your mood and mental clarity. It is high in manganese, Vitamin B, Vitamin E and calcium, and is very easy to digest!
Both pre-workout meals had spirulina, coconut oil, and dates because all 3 are great for energy! Spirulina is rich in gamma linoleic acid (GLA) which accounts for mental clarity and improved energy. Coconut oil is PERFECT for energy because goes directly to the liver to be burned for fuel. This is due to coconut oil being a medium chain triglycerides. Dates are preferred by many athletes for energy because they are rich in glucose. Glucose is a sugar that goes straight to the liver and used for immediate energy. By eating all these things together your body does not have to speed valuable energy on converting it from another form to be able to use it! This is a huge benefit of eating living, plant based foods!!
Workout
A 2 hour walk outside (hills and heat naturally provided)
Today, we both felt great, besides the fact Michelle had a blister : (
We could of went another hour if we had the time!
Post workout meal: JUICE
Yes, juice because the nutrients get absorb into your bloodstream the quickest, which is important for recovery.
Our Green Fuel:
Snack was slices of avocado on top of our Pure2raw onion kale bread
YUM
Next we had ourselves a anti-antioxidant smoothie
- coconut milk
- acai
- goji berries
- vanilla
- spinach
- stevia
And then finally later on we had a simple chocolate vega mint shake
Overall today we felt great. Full of energy to get all the things done that we needed to…although our to-do-list just seems to get bigger : /
Twins Question?
What is your favorite pre-workout/post-workout meal?
Till next time
The Raw Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: Fitness
Tags: bananas, buckwheat, coconut oil, dates, juice, smoothie, spirulina, walking
This date mesquite ball was perfect for a quick but intense workout to give you the energy you need! We plan to make more of these again soon and keep in the refrigerator to have on hand.
Another pre-workout snack that we have been playing around to see if it gives us energy and makes us feel good while working out is coconut kefir. For example this one
Coconut kefir mixed with spirulina, dates, vanilla, banana, coconut oil, maca, and cacao nibs.
This was pumpkin seeds flour, spirulina, lemon juice and zest, yacon syrup, maca and a splash of water.
Yummy and thick a great post-workout snack in our opinion and our bodies seem to love it!
