FitnessRum

I made myself a great dessert today and, of course, it’s once again one that’s super easy and quick to make. But before that let me share the details of my workout from yesterday that made me sweat as if I had just stepped out of the shower.

Set the timer for 36 intervals (they are double and are in fact 72) 15/30 or 27 minutes

15 seconds of strength training
30 seconds of aerobics
Equipment: 2 dumbbells

The exercises:
Note: The strength exercise can be done for a little longer than 15 seconds, if you want to count to a more complete number. For example, I did more push-ups.

1. Side LEFT leg lunge, the right leg is stretched to the side, move to an upright position by jumping on the LEFT leg and lift the right knee
2. Jogging with medium-high knees (MHK) – to be performed with high intensity
3. Side lunge, move to an upright position by jumping and lift the knee of the other leg – the RIGHT one
4. MHK
5. Lunges by alternating the legs, you alternate the legs by jumping
6. MHK
7. Pushups
8. MHK
9. Renegade row with 2 dumbbells in hand – LEFT side
10. MHK
11. Renegade row with 2 dumbbells in hand – RIGHT side
12. MHK
13. Donkey kicks
14. MHK
15. Frog Clasp
16. MHK
17. Swing
18. MHK

In this workout which focuses on the total body you can see the Frog Clasp exercise.

After the workout I added 50 repetitions of the Swing exercise with 8 kg (17 pounds) of weight because during the workout with that weight I felt I needed more. But after the 50 repetitions performed without pausing, be it with a small weight, I felt it just right The Swing is a great exercise for shaping the buttocks muscles without bulking your thighs!

Has your mouth already started watering at the thought of strawberry jelly 😀

Ingredients
400 g strawberries
2 tablespoons chia seeds (ground flax seeds)
1 handful of walnuts
1 tablespoon cocoa powder (optional)
Honey (optional)

My idea of the jelly was to make it in 2 layers – a strawberry and a chocolate one. I pureed the strawberries and put half of them in a bowl in which I added 1 tablespoon of the chia seeds. I left the mixture aside for 20 minutes so that it could get a jelly-like texture.

I added the cocoa powder, walnuts and 1 tablespoon of the chia seeds to the rest of the strawberries in my kitchen robot. I mixed them for several seconds, only to stir in the cocoa powder. After that I poured the mixture over the strawberry jelly and left the dessert in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

It had become jelly-like but not enough, apparently the chia seeds had not been sufficient. I suspected that 2 tablespoons of chia were far from enough for almost half a kilogram of strawberries but I wanted to eat all my strawberries and only 2 tablespoons of the seeds. So if you want to get a real jelly texture use less strawberries.

The exact ratio for soaking chia seeds is 1:9 chia versus liquid. When I am making a dessert and it is important to get the best possible result, I measure out the chia seeds and the liquid precisely. If I am using a spoon I always make sure I am measuring out level quantities because when I start adding the liquid I have no way of topping the spoon over with the liquid Another way is to use a mug or a measuring cup. You can also adjust the ratio to 1:8 or 1:7 if you want super thick jelly.

If you don’t have chia you can use flax seeds which have to be ground (in a coffee grinder) by all means. Flax seeds absorb less liquid than chia but I haven’t measured the exact amount. Maybe 1:3 or 1:4.

I liked the cocoa-powder-free strawberry layer more, but the walnuts gave the whole dessert a really wonderful taste. Next time I would omit the cocoa powder.

Right before the dessert I ate a bowl of salad made with rocket salad, tomatoes, cucumbers and grated mozzarella. I love rocket salad and take my word for it – it’s great on pizza! We went to a pizza restaurant over the weekend and I snitched a small piece of pizza which was topped with rocket salad. Mmmmm, I loved it! I am making pizza tonight because I have some more rocket salad left!

Question: What types of chia seed jellies do you like? Do you like or hate rocket salad?