Hello, hello! I hope that you had a lovely weekend. Mine was pretty relaxing except for some power outage shenanigans. My hubby was away for the Marine Corps, and on Friday night my pup and I went for a long sunset walk along the beach. We came home to the power being out and I was unable to get into my house. Let's just say I had to get creative and borrow a neighbor's garbage can to hop onto and climb over my fence to get to a spot where I could let myself in. It was eventful! I was pretty proud of myself for being resourceful. :) Besides that little bit of craziness, it was a low-key weekend. My cousin visited from Long Beach and stayed with me. We took Harley for a little hike at a nearby park, and went out for Mediterranean food, wine and live music on Saturday night. It was ... [Read More]
almond butter
Chocolate Pretzel Almond Butter Granola Bites
Happy Friday! Let's kick off the weekend with something sweet, shall we? With Valentine's Day on the horizon, I've been finding myself with dessert on the brain. I just can't help it! Also, my hubby and I are celebrating our friend's 30th birthday tonight, and I can't let a friend's birthday pass without baking them some sort of sweet treat... #foodieproblems Recently Nektar Naturals sent me some of their new dark chocolate covered pretzels dusted with honey crystals to play around with, and I came up with this fun granola snack: Does anyone else love mini-sized foods? I find them to be so cute and fun, so instead of making regular granola bars, I cut them into little squares for granola bites. Made with oats & hemp hearts and sweetened with honey, dark chocolate ... [Read More]
Chocolate Coconut Caramel Smoothie [Vegan & Healthy!]
Like most Americans - any Americans with a sweet tooth, at least - I have Girl Scout cookie memories. Growing up, my mom had a similar sentiment to the food kept in the house as I do now: lots of healthy food, and then a few "goodies" in one cabinet that were treats we broke out after dinner some nights for dessert. (source) My mom bought Girl Scout cookies, but she would usually get ones that I deemed weird (and that still wouldn't be my pick today). I remember some sort of shortbread cookie and something with lemon (ick), and then there were the two I liked the most: Thin Mints and Samoas. This Girl Scout cookie season, I found myself craving the chocolate mint and chocolate coconut caramel flavors that I looked forward to as a kid for dessert at night. This led to me recreate these ... [Read More]
Cinnamon Almond Butter Date Truffles
Hey friends! Hope that you had a fabulous weekend. A highlight of my last few days included meeting up with my friend Trish and her little pup for a hiking doggie date.... Temperatures were in the 80s on Saturday, but it didn't feel too hot because it was nice and breezy. Harley wasn't slowed down by the warm weather and was her usual maniac, super friendly self. Another fun thing I did over the weekend was volunteer with a group called CropSwap. The organization is dedicated to harvesting produce from farms, which would have otherwise gone to waste, and getting it to people who can't afford to buy fresh fruit and veggies. As a health coach whose passionate about the importance of nutrition and eating a healthy diet full of whole foods, I wanted to get involved because I ... [Read More]
Banana Almond Butter Muffins {Vegan & Gluten Free}
Happy Friday friends! Hope that your first full week of January has been awesome, and that you have some fun weekend plans ahead. Speaking of fun, today I've got a fun recipe to share with you guys! Whenever I go food shopping, bananas are always on the list. I buy a ton of bananas! A and I both use them for smoothies almost daily, plus I like to smear bananas with nut butter or top yogurt bowls with banana slices often. However, I somehow wound up with too many bananas in the house over the past week. We couldn't eat them fast enough, and before I knew it, I had 5 brown bananas sitting in my fruit basket. I threw a few of them in the freezer for later smoothie use, and then I had a yummy idea for the remaining ones... ....baking some muffins! ... [Read More]