Tag: snack

Friday Things

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Hey there! Happy Friday! This week has flown by- can you believe it’s already mid-March? And St. Patrick’s Day, at that! Is anyone doing anything to celebrate? I don’t think I am, but I’m OK with that- I’ve had plenty of years where I’ve had St. Patty’s day celebrations so a quiet one this year doesn’t bother me.

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve popped in with a Friday post! And, to be honest, I’m not sure if I’ll continue with my “Five on Friday” series. It’s been fun, but these days I feel as though I’m struggling to find 5 share-worthy things with you, so what’s the point in that? Instead, I’d rather just share things of interest and relevance when they occur- sound good?

  • As Close to Us As Breathing- This was another book club book for one of my book clubs and I really enjoyed it! It was about a Jewish family in the mid 1900’s and it was interesting to see just how different things where back then and how badly different ethnic groups did not get along. It’s also interesting to see the family dynamic of the main character’s family.

  • Share your stuff!- After class last Saturday, two people tagged me in their after-class meal pictures and it was so fun to see how they refuel. I always re-post in my Instagram stories, so if you want to be included, be sure to tag me!

  • Snow Day Baking- While we were home together on Tuesday, RM and I both felt like cookies. We didn’t have the traditional cookie ingredients in the house so I googled “Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies” and this recipe popped up first. Luckily I had all of the ingredients so I whipped them up and we were both so happy with how they came out! They’re definitely “healthy” cookies, but they satisfied our cookie craving, too!

  • Sweat, Shop, Snack at New Balance– Don’t forget, in 2 weeks I’m hosting a fitness event at the New Balance flagship store in Brighton. At 6:30 we will start a cardio kickboxing class and then after that you’ll have a chance to shop around (with a 20% discount) and snack on Larabars, sip on Purity Organics and more. Grab a girlfriend (or boyfriend!) and get your spot now– you don’t want to miss this!

I think that does it for me! I’ll be at the Y tomorrow morning for kickboxing if anyone wants to join in on the fun 🙂 10am!

Questions for you: Have you read any good books lately? Have you done any good baking lately? What are your plans for this weekend? 

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Protein Balls {No Bake!}

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Good morning! I have quite a little treat for you today 🙂 I was inspired by a project DailyBurn is working on this spring season and decided to see what I could come up with. The focus? Protein-packed meals/snacks/pre-workout recipes that will be shared on their Facebook page as a way to provide their followers with some new breakfast recipes, bar recipes, pre-workout recipes, fuel-for-long-days recipes, etc. As I am often on the go and working out a lot, proper meals and snacks with a strong protein base is necessary in order to keep me satisfied and fueled properly to get through whatever crazy things I have on any particular day.

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This request couldn’t have come at a more perfect time because I had just made some peanut butter banana oat bars and wanted to tweak the recipe a little. I had stumbled on the idea of making these bars when I saw Athena tease us on Instagram with this recipe and because I was trying to find a way to use up the HUGE jar of peanut butter I had picked up at BJ’s. I also had some very ripe bananas that needed to be used, so it was really just a recipe waiting to happen! By going by the look of Athena’s bars and perusing the internet for some other bar “staples”, I ended up creating a recipe all on my own- something that’s not always easy for me when it comes to baking!
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Homemade Gluten Free Nutty Granola (low sugar!)

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Hi there! Happy Friday 🙂 I hope you’ve all had a good week. Anything fun planned for the weekend? I am SO excited to say that I have relatively nothing planned. It’s been a longgg time since I’ve had a mostly open weekend, so I’m looking forward to taking full advantage of it! Before I get to that, though, I wanted to share a recipe that I came up with a few weeks ago. Enjoy!

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During my “funemployment” (my friend JP coined that term for me) week a few weeks ago, I had plenty of time to do some baking and cooking in my kitchen. After seeing Fed Up, I was in the mood to make a healthier, lower sugar version of one of my favorite things: granola.

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Although people often think of granola as a “healthy” snack, it really isn’t. Most granola’s out there are FULL of sugars and seemingly unnecessary ingredients (there shouldn’t be anything in a simple granola recipe that you can’t pronounce.), which make them a not-so-healthy or smart snack. Since I love granola so much, though, I’ve turned to making it for myself when I can. By doing that, I can pick exactly what I want in it and keep all the unnecessary ingredients out.

Knowing that I would be sharing with RM, I used my gluten free oats and kept all other gluten ingredients out of it. I loaded it up with healthy nuts, fats and super foods to help keep me full and satisfied after snacking on it. In the past, I have added in agave, honey or maple syrup as a way to sweeten it up a bit. This time around, I opted out of adding in any of those things because even though they are a “healthier” sugar option than others, bottom line is that they are still added sugars.

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While the end product wasn’t as “omg I can’t stop eating this granola” as I would’ve liked (goes to show you how much of an effect sugar has on the taste of the food we eat), it was still a great addition to my daily yogurt bowls that left me feeling guilt-free. Please note that if you’re looking to make it a little sweeter, I would certainly add in an eighth to a quarter of a cup of a liquid sweetener.

Homemade gluten free nutty granola

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups gluten free oats (or regular oats if you’re not looking to be gluten free)
  • 2 tbsp. ground flax seed
  • 2 tbsp. chia seeds
  • 1/3 cup of each: pecans, hazelnuts & cashews (or whatever type of nuts you have on hand and would like to use)
  • 2 tbsp. almond butter (I had a Raw almond butter, which didn’t help with adding flavor to the granola. Next time, I would use a roasted almond butter)
  • 2 tbsp. coconut oil
  • 1 egg white
  • 2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1.5 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 325*. Combine the dry ingredients (GF oats, flax seed, chia seeds, nuts and cinnamon).

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2. Combine the wet ingredients in another bowl (almond butter, coconut oil, egg white and vanilla).

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3. Mix together the wet and dry ingredients and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, making sure to mix it up halfway through. *please note: it make take more or less time, depending on your oven. I checked on mine a lot and stirred it often to make sure it was cooking evenly.

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Although this wasn’t a super sweet granola, it totally hit the spot for me and I still found myself going back for more handfuls even when I wasn’t hungry. What is it about granola that does that to me?! I generally pride myself for having good self control when it comes to portion control and knowing when (and being able) to stop, but when it comes to granola, all of that goes right out the window!

granola

Looking for more granola recipes? Check these out:
Grain Free Granola
Quinoa Granola
I have a granola obession…

Questions for you: What’s your favorite brand of granola? What are your favorite granola ingredients? Do you eat it by the handful or just in yogurt bowls?