Ballerinas and Paleo Blueberry Muffins

Mary Helen Bowers. Rachel Neville Photography

  

     Ballerinas are tiny, but they are also incredibly strong. Former professional ballerina Mary Helen Bowers was offered a position in the New York City Ballet at age sixteen! After her on-stage career ended, she began working on her brand Ballet Beautiful. She has workout videos, private lessons, live classes, and many other ballet and fitness related resources. (She also trained Natalie Portman for her role in Swan Lake!)

Her legs are so long.

     If you have Amazon Prime, you have access to a few of her workouts for free! I have completed two of them: Ballet Beautiful Body Blast and Ballet Beautiful Total Body Workout. They are quite challenging. You may take a quick look and think it's a simple, pilates-style workout, but it will kick your butt! Give it a try!

  Yesterday, I completed Body Blast. It's a collection of four 15 minute videos. The first one is a bit odd. You pretty much do "swan arms" for 15 minutes. Your shoulders will burn, but you may also get bored. I certainly did. The next three 15 minute segments, however, make a fantastic workout! My glutes are super sore today :)

   If ballet is something that interests you, or if you just really want to destroy your legs in a lower body workout, then you should check out this video below by Kathryn Morgan, another professional ballerina! These ladies are incredibly strong. Those tiny legs pack a lot of muscle!

This video is an actual barre workout, not a pilates-style workout. But it burns all the same! 

Ok now it's time for some food!

      I've been looking into Paleo desserts because they're a natural alternative to regular flour based desserts. These desserts are usually made with almond flour, which is just ground-up almonds, and coconut flour, which is just ground-up coconut pulp. No grain involved. Also, refined sugar isn't used. Sweeteners may be fruit, raw honey, or maple syrup. (Natural maple syrup...no Mrs. Buttersworth.) The point isn't that these treats are "healthy." They're made from better ingredients so your insulin levels are more stable. Exciting, right? Anyways, here's a recipe for Paleo Coconut Flour Blueberry Muffins from Glutenfreehomemaker.com.

Muffin Ingredients

Ingredients

• 1 cup coconut flour
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 6 large eggs
• ½ cup melted coconut oil
• ½ cup honey
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I actually used 3!)
• 1 cup fresh or thawed frozen blueberries

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350° and grease a 12 cup muffin tin.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the coconut flour, salt, and baking soda.
3. In a smaller bowl, beat together with fork the eggs, coconut oil, honey, and vanilla.
4. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a hand mixer on medium speed for about one minute or until well combined.
5. Stir in the blueberries.
6. Spoon the batter evenly into the muffin cups. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean.
7. Let the muffins cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

My final product!

  They turned out pretty well. I would have taken them out of the oven 5 minutes earlier. I also want to try a variation with lemon or orange!

 My next paleo dessert adventure may involve a giant paleo chocolate chip cookie :)

Question: What dessert would you most want to Paleo-ify???

Good night!