Gfreely Subscription Service Review!

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I've reviewed other subscription services on here before and, in general, think that they're a great gift. I know I'd never complain about getting a gift of healthy, yummy snacks that keep coming

Every.

Single.

Month.

It's a great gift, because there's a new gift every month. It's literally the gift that keeps giving!

I know my birthday is already a national holiday and all, but I still don't mind having a mini-birthday every month.

I'm a total martyr like that. You're welcome.

And gifts? The more the merrier! Teehee.

Anyway, there's a subscription service just for people who eat gluten-free, too! I have a few friends with Celiac's Disease, one of whom is really into healthy eating, and I'd seriously consider giving her a subscription as a birthday gift one of these years!

The service is called gfreely and they pride themselves on finding and delivering the "best gluten free snacks & foods" every month. It's a great way to discover new favorites!



With services starting at $19/month, it's not a bad option as an extra special gift (like best friend, unless you're Daddy Warbucks) or as a gift to yourself. $19/mth isn't too hard to allocate in your grocery budget for tasty snacks and foods!

There's a nice assortment of treats, both for snackage and for proper meals.



It got a whole grain pizza kit (with pizza sauce mix and a whole grain, gluten-free crust mix - made of buckwheat, among others!) as well as both sweet and savory snacks.



I like sweet snacks the best and the Justin's All-Natural Dark Chocolate Peanut Candy bar was beyond delicious and a perfect study snack last night! There's also a mini Bumble Bar, which I've stashed in my bag for on-the-go snacking tomorrow, and Kay's Naturals Cinnamon Pretzel Sticks (they were goners within thirty minutes of opening the box).

The savory snacks were pretty great, too - I liked the Sheffa Zesty Snack Mix the best, but the Super Seedz mixes were both real treats and the PopCorners was a fun twist on popcorn and corn chips.



If you really love anything, you can buy it in a bigger size/package from their store online! That's super convenient and I think it would be great if some of the other subscription services would follow suit!

You can also find great gluten-free recipes on their website, so it's a great place to spend a little web time.

Have you tried gfreely?

Do you know anyone with Celiac's disease?

What's the last recipe you've tried out?

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ProBar Core: 29g Protein Bar Review

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I have a new bar to share with you guys!

I know what you're thinking. With all the bars I eat, how is there a new one to share?

But there is.

ProBar Core is a new line of plant-based protein bars from ProBar. With 20g of protein per bar, as well as heart-healthy chia seeds, this bar is perfect for athletes. And busy college students like me!

Seriously, sometimes hoofing it to lab after waking up late makes me feel like a pro athlete, too. I've shaved off 2 minutes and 47 seconds since the beginning of the semester.

*Shameless bragging, followed by conceited cabbage patching*

There are four flavors of ProBar Core bars. And it's like they're made for me - and all other chocoholics out there! There's Brownie Crisp, Cookie Dough, Mint Chocolate, and Peanut Butter Chocolate. They're all winning flavors, especially because they actually taste like those flavors and don't have that icky, chalky taste that some bars can have. 

You won't believe that these are healthy for you, but there are about 300mg of Omega 3 fatty acids per bar and about 500mg of Omega 6 fatty acids. 

The bars aren't exactly light on sugar (there's around 15g of sugar per bar) but they also have a good amount of fiber (and all that plant protein!) so you don't have to be too concerned about that sugar hitting your bloodstream too fast and leaving you sugar whacked-out after an hour. Further, the sugars are all pretty healthy and minimally refined, with nothing like corn syrup appearing in the bars. 

They also have around (slightly less than) 300 calories per bar, so they're substantial enough to pair with just a yogurt and banana for a quickie lunch if you're crazy busy. They're also pretty big bars, and quite dense, so they are nice and satisfying. 

Overall, I quite like them!

How often do you eat bars?

What do you look for in a bar?

Do you know of any bars that I haven't tried yet?

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Pep in My Step: A Giveaway

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When the folks at QVC reached out to me a while ago to review their Re-Body with Svetol supplement, I hesitated a little.

1) I don't generally take supplements.

2) Diet fads, like green bean coffee extract and raspberry ketones, tend to be overrated and about as useful as snake oil.

3) I'm not in about the middle of the healthy weight range for my height, so there's no pressing need for me to lose weight.

Then again, I had put on an extra ten or so pounds above my normal weight during the ultra-busy semester, full of convenience foods and maybe a processed snack too many (not to mention that nightly ice cream habit). So why not? At worst, it would do nothing (or so I figured) since the supplements they offer don't have weird fillers or extra chemicals - just green bean coffee extract and rice bran.

So, er, caffeine?

I'm sure there's supposed to be more to the supplements than that, but you'll have to check Dr. Oz out if you want more info.

Here's what I think of it: a 30 day supply (60 capsules, you take one twice per day before meals) is about $30 dollars, so that averages out to about a dollar a day. Not obscene, but not it's not dirt cheap, either.



I didn't lose any weight on it, which I can't say I'm surprised about. I didn't change my diet at all or do exercise, I was just testing the effect of the pills, and there wasn't any in terms of weight. They actually caused me to bloat a little bit, which is sort of counterproductive for someone who's actually trying to lose.

On the upside, I did feel like I had more energy when I took them. The mid-afternoon slump didn't hit as hard and sometimes it didn't hit at all. I wasn't tired at all in the evening, so much so that I even had a bit of trouble with getting to sleep.

If you're already an insomniac, you might want to be careful about that.

If I were a big coffee drinker, I think these would have absolutely no point for me. The only effect that I saw was the increased energy, which I would attribute to the caffeine. Since I can't stand the aftertaste of coffee (though I love the smell and coffee-flavored treats are a definite go in my book) they were a bit useful in giving me that extra bit of caffeinated energy to pull through a never-ending midterm period.

If you want to try the supplements yourself, they're offering one bottle of 60 capsules (just like I reviewed) to a lucky LLE reader. You have two weeks to enter through Rafflecopter (below) for your chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also, a call for guest bloggers: does anyone want to help me out over these next few weeks? I'm super busy with exams and would really appreciate some guest blog posts! Either comment on this post or email me at livinglearningeating AT gmail DOT com

 Do you take any supplements? When I was little I used to take fish oil and I still take multivitamins now and then, but no supplements regularly.

Have you tried Green Bean Coffee Extract?

Do you drink coffee?

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Fit Friday #1

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That's a bit of a controversial title, isn't it?

Fit means different things to different people. Extremism in popular culture (including Instagram accounts, Pinterest boards, blogs, etc.) sometimes make it sound like being fit is a synonym for being skinny, or for eating a 'clean' diet (um, don't know about you buuuuuut I generally try not to eat dirty food, the 5 second rule excepted), or working out 30 minutes five times per week.

My thoughts? FALSE.

Being fit is about not letting you health limit your life - so you're just as not-fit if you give up socializing to fit in a workout or give up eating out with friends to eat your carefully prepared, nutritionally balanced meal as you are if you eat a nutritionally void diet/never leave your couch and end up getting health issues.

In both cases, your life is compromised by your health decisions.

Being fit is whatever lets you go through life feeling like this:

If you drive to your mailbox and eat more colors (red #2, purple #3) than foods, you probably won't feel like that long-term. 

If you workout everyday for over an hour and never eat ice cream or one too many cookies, you probably won't feel like that long-term.

Again, it's all about the blasted b word - balance.

Okay, rant: over. Anywho, the reason for this is because I want to start a new series for my blog. I've done Friday Foodie Finds, but wanted something new.

So I'm doing Fit Friday, where I'll post about something related to health, instead! 

You're all welcome to join me, if you have blogs of your own :) You can post about anything from mental health, to a healthy recipe, to your own definition of health, to fun ways to be active, to fun facts about nutrients, etc.!

Just grab the button and let's have some fun!

Today's topic is carbs. Why? Because I love 'em and they get an awful rep (which dates back to Atkins/South Beach diet days, but the recent gluten-free craze only serves to fuel the carb-hating).

Carbs are important fuel for proper organ function and physical activity.

I'd also like to point out, once more, that gluten isn't unhealthy or inflammatory unless you have Celiac's disease or intolerances (much, much more rare in reality than the number of gluten-free people out there would make you think). Gluten-free treats these days are so good that even those of us without gluten-intolerances love to partake, but that doesn't mean that we need to shun wheat.

Okay, moving on - so if carbs are important, what kind of carbs do you want to have more of in your diet?

While there's no harm in the occasional bowl of Frosted Flakes, there are definitely some carbs that you want more of in your diet. There are differences between different types of carbs.



Carbs to emphasize in your diet include:

* Whole grains like oats, quinoa, whole wheat, millet, brown rice, etc.
* Beans
* Fruits
* Starchy vegetables (potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, winter squash, etc.)

For ideas of some ways to enjoy those healthy carbs, here are a few healthy carb-centric recipes to check out!

Sally's 30 Minute Soft Pretzels

Made with a mix of whole wheat and all purpose flour, these are a great snack (or side to a soup lunch)! I'm really not much of a hard pretzel fan, but soft ones are delicious. 

Melissa's Baked Sweet Potato Fries (V)

They're not vegan if you top them with parmesan (as pictured) but if you leave that off, they are! This is probably one of my favorite ways to eat sweet potatoes, though it's even better with nut butter (instead of ketchup) as the dip...

Kelly's Ancient Grains Granola Cups

I love granola in pretty much any form, so I have a hard time imagining not loving these. They're also much more convenient than loose granola if you need a quick breakfast on the go!

Marion's Spelt & Rye Bread (V)

Wow. Does that look amazing, or what? I like to consider myself the queen of bread in my house and so I *need* to try this recipe next weekend - don't let me forget!!

How has your definition of fit changed over the years?

What would you like me to write about in the next Fit Friday post?

Have you ever demonized carbs?

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Caramel Time!

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I have a raging sweet tooth.

No joke, a sweets-deprived me isn't a happy camper. I tend to prefer satisfying my sweet tooth with chocolate, ice cream, dried fruits, fruits, baked goods, and the like. I'm really not, and never have been, hugely into hard candies.

My dad, on the other hand, can make a bag of lemon hard candies or Werther's Originals disappear in a day or two. But he completely snubs chocolate, ice cream, cookies, and most other treats.

Weird, right?

Anyway, even though I tend to go for other types of sweet treats, I do occasionally enjoy a hard candy. I'm more selective with candy, though, since I'm usually not as wild about it. While I'll eat most types of chocolate or ice cream, a candy has to be pretty tasty for me to even bother.

Like Werther's smooth, sweet caramel candies. Ever since I've been little, they've been one of my favorite non-chocolate candies. They're creamy, sweet, and melt in my mouth.



But I know several diabetics (some friends, some family, and even some bloggers). There are now diabetic-friendly chocolates and ice creams, but what about when that taste for something sweet to suck on strikes?

Werther's Original now makes Werther's Original Sugar Free Candies that provide the same rich, velvety caramel flavor and creamy mouthfeel of the classic caramel candies in a diabetic-friendly treat.



There are seven ingredients in the candies and they're sweetened with acesulfame-k. I can't give much of an opinion on that sweetener, unfortunately, as I don't know very much about it.

The sugar-free candies come in the Classic Caramel flavor, as well as three swirled flavors - Caramel Apple, Caramel Cinnamon, and Caramel Coffee.



I'd tried the regular sugar versions of the Caramel Coffee and Classic Caramel candies, but the Caramel Apple and Caramel Cinnamon flavors were both new to me and I enjoyed both. The Caramel Apple is reminiscent of fall harvest festivals and the Caramel Cinnamon is probably my new favorite.

I love cinnamon and it's delightfully cinnamon-y!

Especially if you have diabetes, I'd recommend trying the candies - you'll probably be pleasantly surprised! They're definitely way better than I thought a diabetic-friendly candy would be. And they come with Werther's Original's Taste Guarantee, so if you don't like them you can get your money back. There's nothing to lose!

Do you know anyone with diabetes?

What's your go-to sweet treat?

Do you know anything about acesulfame-k?

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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Counting Down to Summer...

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It's roughly a month until my summer break, but I'm already so ready.

Can we just skip final exams this year and all get A's?

Sigh. That's what I thought.

Still, a girl can fantasize about summer, even if she still has a month of school (then another month until LSATs) to go.

And fashion fantasies are some of the best,  no?

nyc by livelearneat featuring long post earrings

River Island stripe shirt
$45 - riverisland.com

Lanvin wrap pants
$1,855 - harrods.com

Burberry patent leather tote
burberry.com

Ivanka Trump long post earrings
nordstrom.com

Guerlain makeup
neimanmarcus.com

NARS Cosmetics nail polish
$22 - asos.com

Sia Mixed Bouquet of Orange, Red & Cream Roses
$125 - amara.co.uk

Lacquer Vases - Burnt Orange
zgallerie.com

Flower Hair Clips, Silk Flower Hair Clips, Hair Pins and Accessories
mydivascloset.com



To be a tres chic New Yorker...

What are your summer plans?

When does summer break start for you?

If you could fast forward to any day, what day would you go to? No rewinds allowed!

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Pastabilities...

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By now, many people have heard of shirataki noodles. They're a Japanese noodle made of primarily yam flour that's stored in water, smells fishy, is gummy in texture, and is low in carbs and calories (which is why it, along with kelp noodles and spaghetti squash, has become popular among carb-phobic dieters).

But while shirataki noodles don't have gluten or much in the way of carbs or calories, they also tend to offer very little in the way of nutrition. They're either pretty much like eating pure nothingness, or they're enhanced with tofu (which can be a good thing, but can also lead to a bit of gastrointestinal distress for those that are sensitive to soy).



Nasoya has improved shirataki noodles with its Pasta Zero, which has similar carb/calorie stats (20 calories and 4g of carbs per serving, with two servings per packet), but it has some added calcium, iron, and folic acid, as well as a wee bit of chickpea flour, so that you aren't just eating a purely nutritionally void filler food.



Pasta Zero comes in two varieties at the moment: spaghetti and fettucini. They have the same stats and the same simple ingredients (water, potato starch, konjac flour, chickpea flour, calcium hydroxide, reduced iron, folic acid).

It's really easy to prepare the noodles and takes even less time than preparing traditional noodles. Just rinse them (you won't want to skip this step, or they'll smell reallllllly fishy) and boil for two or three minutes. When I tried them, I just added them to whatever sauce I made a few minutes before it was done.



 That worked out pretty well. The first time I made them, I made them in a pasta sauce (I cheated and used Classico Garlic & Basil) with some spinach thrown in for extra flavor and a nutrition boost. This is the entire packet of spaghetti, so you see about how much it is.



And this is half of that, just about a serving.



I'd say that most people would probably need more than that as a serving, if it's the bulk of their meal. On the other hand, I suppose the assumption might be that you make it with grilled chicken or something, or as a side dish, since it doesn't provide much energy otherwise (calories are necessary!).



It looks like spaghetti, but it doesn't really taste or feel like pasta. As mentioned, it is gummier than your usual pasta (and from the get-go: there's no way to make this al dente. It's always going to taste like overcooked pasta). It's also just about completely flavorless on its own, so you'll want to be sure to cook it in something flavorful.

I liked it better the second time that I made it, because I made a richer sauce, with plenty of olive oil. That helped give it some oomph, so it would be satisfying.



I also melted some Daiya Havarti cheese (from the wedge) into it, which really brought the flavor and satisfaction level up.

All in all, Pasta Zero is fine if you're making a great (and rich) sauce, but it can be pretty lackluster if you're trying to eat it with a lighter sauce or you're hoping for something that exactly mimics regular pasta. It's a pretty solid gluten-free option, but I don't have Celiac's Disease and so I'll probably stick the normal stuff.

Do you like shirataki noodles?

If you do use alternative pastas, why?

What's your favorite pasta sauce?

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Healthy Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

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Instead of a recipe round-up this week, Friday Foodie Finds style, I have a recipe that I made up just for y'all!



And, um, my crazy chocolate sweet tooth...



But seriously, two new recipes in a week - whaaaaat?

These chocolate peanut butter cups are healthy, natural, made of just a few ingredients, and are 100% vegan to boot!



And they're just ridiculously delicious. So that's pretty awesome.



You can whip them up in five minutes (less if it's hot out and your coconut oil is already melted) and they are ready to eat after an hour in the freezer.

Healthy Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

Chocolate -
* 1/3 c. coconut oil (I used Tropical Traditions), melted
* 0.5 c. unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's baking)
* 3/4 c. Cane Sugar (I used Alter Eco Organic Mascobado Cane Sugar)
* 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Peanut Butter Filling -
* 1/3 c. creamy peanut butter (I used Earth Balance)
* 8 Ritz Crackers, crushed
* 1/4 c. Cane Sugar (I used Alter Eco Organic Mascobado Cane Sugar)

1) Mix all of the chocolate ingredients together in a medium bowl.

2) Distribute 2/3 of the mixture among 7 cupcake liner-lined cupcake/muffin cups.

The finished chocolates, after freezing

3) Mix the peanut butter filling ingredients together in a small bowl.

4) Distribute the peanut butter filling between the seven cups. Smooth it out over the chocolate layer.

5) Fill the rest of the each cup with the remaining chocolate mixture.

6) Cover and freeze for approximately an hour, until hardened.

ENJOY!!

You can store the chocolates (if any are left) in the fridge or, even better, the freezer.

I'm not sure how long they last in there, because mine were all gone within three days. 

Yum!

Have you ever made your own chocolate? This was my first time, as I'd always been intimidated by the idea before. It sounds way tougher to make chocolate than it really is!

What's one recipe that intimidates you, but you want to try?

What's your favorite kind of chocolate?

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Super Super Angsty Hipster Stuff (sigh)

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I tend not to seek out New York Times Notable Books or New York Times Bestsellers for my free time for-fun reads, but sometimes accidents happen and, well, a critically acclaimed book finds itself in my to-read pile.

Le sigh.

The most recent of these is Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story a cultural critique, pop culture satire that's effectively a work of science fiction for the realist fiction lover. 

Here's the blurb from the book website:

In a very near future—oh, let’s say next Tuesday—a functionally illiterate America is about to collapse. But don’t that tell that to poor Lenny Abramov, the thirty-nine-year-old son of an angry Russian immigrant janitor, proud author of what may well be the world’s last diary, and less-proud owner of a bald spot shaped like the great state of Ohio. Despite his job at an outfit called Post-Human Services, which attempts to provide immortality for its super-rich clientele, death is clearly stalking this cholesterol-rich morsel of a man. 

And why shouldn’t it? Lenny’s from a different century—he totally loves books (or “printed, bound media artifacts,” as they’re now known), even though most of his peers find them smelly and annoying. But even more than books, Lenny loves Eunice Park, an impossibly cute and impossibly cruel twenty-four-year-old Korean American woman who just graduated from Elderbird College with a major in Images and a minor in Assertiveness.

After meeting Lenny on an extended Roman holiday, blistering Eunice puts that Assertiveness minor to work, teaching our “ancient dork” effective new ways to brush his teeth and making him buy a cottony nonflammable wardrobe. But America proves less flame-resistant than Lenny’s new threads. The country is crushed by a credit crisis, riots break out in New York’s Central Park, the city’s streets are lined with National Guard tanks on every corner, the dollar is so over, and our patient Chinese creditors may just be ready to foreclose on the whole mess. Undeterred, Lenny vows to love both Eunice and his homeland. He’s going to convince his fickle new love that in a time without standards or stability, in a world where single people can determine a dating prospect’s “hotness” and “sustainability” with the click of a button, in a society where the privileged may live forever but the unfortunate will die all too soon, there is still value in being a real human being.

So it's critically acclaimed.

Whoot-whoot for it.

But does that mean I've got to love it? Does that mean that I won't eventually start to tire of the extremism of the satire? This novel definitely 'out-Herods Herod,' but it is, after all, a satire. 

Still. I get that society is trending towards sluttishness and superficiality and all that, but...onionskin jeans? Really now?

That's not to say that the novel doesn't have its moments - it is humorous at times, there are a lot of really psychologically insightful moments with the characters (perhaps too many, but maybe that's just me), the protagonists are well-developed (though I thought Joshie felt a bit flat as a character), and there's plenty to applaud in the novel, especially if you're a literary critic.

Here's the thing: I'm not. 

Hipsters and book clubs are sure to love Super Sad True Love Story, but leave me to my Meg Cabot (please and thank you). 

You can check out the book trailer to see if Super Sad True Love Story looks like something you'd like to read.

 

Or just to ogle James Franco...though that's definitely not his finest moment as far as hotness goes.

What are you reading right now?

What's your favorite and least favorite book genre?

Who is your favorite actor?

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WIAW 86: And A Recipe!

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It's WIAW again!

After a week that started with a big, scary exam, I'm pretty darn happy that it's hump day. The weekend can't get here soon enough!

In the meantime, here are some yummy food photos, courtesy of WIAW!

The eats this week aren't all from one day, but I do have a pretty wicked recipe for y'all!

First, we'll look at a few tasty eats from the past week. 

Has anyone else been a bit confused by the heat wave? How did the temperature jump from 40 to 90 overnight?

And what happened to the lovely 60-70F spring days?? Can we please have a couple of those?

This taste of summer has definitely made me reach for summer foods, though - ice cream and smoothies, like the tasty shamrock shake above (mint and vanilla). 

But who am I kidding? I'm up for ice cream any time of the year, even (or especially?) in the dead of winter.

Anyone else love loading up on a bean-heavy rando-bowl at salad bars?

Chickpeas (and loner blackberries) for the win.

Just kidding, guys - there are more blackberries in there, somewhere.

When the weather cooled off a bit, I cooked a pasta dish. I hate cooking/eating hot food in the summer (I'm really bad at tolerating heat) so I should enjoy a few more hot meals before the weather gets (and stays!) hot for good.

Hopefully this summer won't be too torturous. I'll be in NYC again for most of it and NYC can really be a hot, sticky armpit sometimes. 

But a fun one, so I can't really complain.

Okay, so for that recipe I promised y'all. 

A custard-y dutch baby without eggs or gluten! It took a bit of tinkering, but now it's delicious - and protein packed to boot!

Blueberry Green Protein Dutch Baby (serves 1)

* 1 small handful spinach (~1/3 c. NOT packed)

* 1/4 c. milk

* 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

* 1 Tbsp. oil

* 1 package Betty Lou's Vanilla Whey Protein

* 1/8 tsp. salt

* 1 Tbsp. sugar

* 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

* 3/4 tsp. baking powder

* 1/2 c. blueberries

1) Puree the spinach with the milk in your blender until liquid. 

2) Add vanilla extract and oil to the milk-spinach mixture

3) Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. 

4) Add the liquid mixture to the dry mix.

5) Mix, don't overmix.

6) Add the blueberries.

7) Pour into an oven-safe oiled dish.

8) Bake at 400F for about 20 minutes, until set. It may end up taking less time in your oven, my oven is pretty dinky. 

Enjoy!!

The spinach adds a fun green color that I think looks really pretty with the blueberries, but it's optional. If you stick to a small handful, however, you won't be able to taste it!

What's the last recipe you've tried?

Do you prefer dutch babies or pancakes?

What are your go-to foods and drinks when it's hot out?

Read More...