It's Friday, and I feel like this Friday calls for a chocolatey recipe! Shall we dive into it? I've often mentioned my love for on-the-go snacks on the blog. Even though I work from home most of the time, I seem to always be eating in my car bouncing around from place to place. I have the protein bar and smoothie stains on the seat of my car to prove it. Whoops. I often whip up some type of bars or balls to have as snack options throughout the week, and today I have a new one to share that I'm loving: Chunky Monkey Protein Bites. We've got some rolled oats, chocolate protein powder, cocoa powder, and hemp hearts as our base. These ingredients get thrown into the food processor with some smooth peanut butter, maple syrup, and banana to hold them together well. ... [Read More]
snack recipes
Mini Pretzel Twists with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
Ooooh, do I have a yummy recipe for you guys today! So, I think that part of being a foodie is often getting mildly obsessed with a certain food or meal. For me, this can go 2 ways: 1.) Sometimes I get a craving for something, and I simply must eat it because the yen just doesn't go away. I eat it once, feel satisfied, and then I'm over it. 2.) I get really into a food/recipe, and I just want to keep making it. I can eat it every week for months on end - such is the case for almond butter, this orzo veggie soup I've been into this winter, or the protein pancakes I've been making every week for heaven knows how long. This leads me to today's recipe. I hadn't had a soft pretzel in years and years, and then my hubby and I went on a weekend adventure to Big Bear Lake, where ... [Read More]
Apple Pie Autumn Granola [Gluten Free & Vegan]
One of my favorite autumn activities in apple picking. There's this little town in San Diego County called Julian where I like to visit a family apple orchard to pick some fruit, wine taste at a few of their small wineries, and have an obligatory slice of apple pie - because pie is what Julian is known for. Unfortunately, when I went to plan out an apple picking day at the start of fall, I was sad to see that none of the family orchards were open in Julian for U-Pick due to a shortage of crop from the drought. While I was totally bummed about it, we luckily still have local farms around at farmers markets and such sharing their sweet, SoCal apples. Now that it actually feels like fall here, I'm all about apples (and pumpkin and squash too). While we get mild seasonal changes compared to ... [Read More]
Chocolate Greek Yogurt Fruit Dip + Labor Day Weekend Recap
Oh, how I love 3-day weekends! It seems like there's so much more time to have fun, relax, and also get a couple of productive things done than during a regular weekend. That extra day really makes a difference, don't you agree? I spent a ton of time outside over the weekend -- just how Labor Day weekend should be. Inspired from watching all of the U.S. Open action, I kicked my long weekend off with a tennis session with my hubby... ...and then we headed over to the beach for a sunset picnic: We also had a chance to stroll around the farmers' market and pick up some local goodness.... ...grill a margherita pizza for dinner one night... ...and go on a hike with our dingo at our nearby favorite park: Something we spent a lot of time doing over Labor Day weekend was ... [Read More]
Sweet & Spicy 4-Ingredient Trail Mix
Hi there! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. My weekend was filled with things like experimenting in the kitchen, gardening & house stuff, a beach date with friends on what turned out to be a cloudy day, playing tennis, eating dinner at one of my favorite healthy cafes and watching movies. It was the first time in three weeks that I got to hang out with my Marine without either of us having work or being away, and it was not too shabby of a weekend! Any who, onto today's topic: trail mix. It's one of those grab and go snacks that can be a healthy bite to give you lots of energy, but it can also be not all that nutritious if it's loaded with stuff like M&Ms. I generally like my trail mixes pretty simple: some type of fruit, some type of nut, usually a little ... [Read More]
Cocoa Banana Blueberry Protein Pudding
Happy Friday!! I'm currently en route to Miami for my friend Meaghan's bachelorette party - I haven't seen her since last fall and am really excited to have an awesome girls' weekend! - but I have a yummy recipe to share with you guys... If you read this blog often at all, you probably already know that I love making dessert-like recipes that are actually healthy and can be eaten as snacks or meals as well. Enter Cocoa Banana Blueberry Protein Pudding. Blue Diamond recently sent me their dark chocolate almonds as well as sea salt almonds to try, and not surprisingly, I'm kind of in love with the dark chocolate ones. ... [Read More]