Showing posts with label Cookies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cookies. Show all posts

Feb 9, 2018

Review: Quest Protein Cookies

I have such a sweet tooth. I can completely do without pizza, chips, fries, or other greasy junk food. Sweets, however? Much harder - especially chocolate and soft, chewy cookies! 

In general, I try to live a pretty healthy lifestyle. I'm fairly active, I do some sort of exercise most days of the week, I go to bed at a reasonable hour most nights, I drink a lot of water (and tea - I'm halfrican), and I eat a colorful diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and whole grains. I'm a firm believer that mental health and happiness is as important as physical health and fitness, so I allow myself daily sweet indulgences. Still, it would be nice if those sweet indulgences could be more than just empty calories! 

Enter protein cookies from Quest, the original creators of the cheat clean bar that tastes like a candy bar, but is low sugar, high protein, and high fiber. Would the cookies live up to my high expectations?

Quest Protein Cookie Review

They come in four flavors and I hope that, like their bars, Quest will regularly add new flavors of the cookies. They're big, approximately palm sized, and nicely thick. 

Quest Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

In addition to a lot of protein and fiber, the 240-250 calorie cookies each have only around 1-3g of sugar. That's less than a teaspoon of sugar! 

Dec 14, 2017

Recipe: Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Spelt Cookies

Who doesn’t love cookies? Especially when they’re lightly crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, and full of melty pockets of dark chocolate. 

Recipe for Whole Grain Cookies


Most of us eat a lot of sweet treats during the holidays and, as much as our tastebuds might enjoy it, our bodies and faces don’t. These peanut butter chocolate chips use whole spelt flour instead of processed white flour to help keep you off of that skin-unfriendly blood sugar rollercoaster. Sweetened with honey and bound with chia and flax seeds, they’re full of heart healthy fats! If you’d like a vegan cookie, just sub the honey for an equal amount of maple syrup. Enjoy!

Jul 17, 2017

Recipe: 100% Whole Grain Dark Chocolate Coconut Quinoa Cookies

Who doesn't love cookies? Especially when they're packed with coconut and dark chocolate? Unfortunately, most cookies can be nutritional black holes - fine for now and then, but not the best as a regular snack.

These cookies have all the chewy, sweet, chocolatey deliciousness of decadent cookies, but are packed with fiber and protein (they're 100% whole grain and feature protein-rich quinoa), and are pretty low sugar for cookies. 

How to Bake Healthy Cookies

I'll stop blathering on about them, because the best way to convince you will be if you try them yourselves. They're pretty quick and easy to make, so give the recipe a try!

Feb 10, 2017

More Delicious Mornings with Erin Baker's: A Review

I love getting mail. I also love breakfast foods and mornings. So getting this in the mail was wonderful!

Erin Bakers New Products Review

Erin Baker's focuses on making delicious foods out of whole grains and without preservatives. Whether they're eaten as a standalone snack or part of your breakfast, they're food that nourishes you and fuels you for a great day ahead.

The two new products I got to try were The Original Breakfast Cookies Minis:

Healthy Breakfast Cookies

They taste just like the full size cookies - hearty, just the right amount of sweet, and always fresh (never stale) but they're a smaller size that's great for crumbling over yogurt or oatmeal or slipping into a lunchbox as a sweet, but nutritious, snack. 

Dec 16, 2016

Holiday Round-Up

From pretty Christmas stockings to delicious Yuletide treats, here's a round-up of the Christmassy things I'm enjoying this week!

I'm baking Impossibly Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Impossibly Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies

And turning them into ice cream sandwiches with Dark Chocolate Wink Vegan Ice Cream:

Vegan Ice Cream

I'm wearing Christmassy stockings, to match my holiday spirit:

Elegant Christmas Lingerie
From my Instagram

They're from 3Wishes.com and it's cute, comfortable, fun to wear, easy to put on, and oh so festive! They would go great with a Christmas party outfit, but they're also just fun to wear around the house and dance around to Christmas music in!

Dec 10, 2016

Recipe: Soft Snickerdoodle Cookies

It's Christmastime! AKA baking season. AKA my favorite time of the year.

If you've had enough of chocolate chip cookies (whaaat), run out of peanut butter (the horror!), and one of your little cookie monsters balks at oatmeal, here's the perfect solution:

Buttery Snickerdoodle Cookies

Melt in your mouth, pillowy soft snickerdoodle cookies that delight your tongue with buttery, cinnamon-sugary goodness. These cookies bake soft, stay soft, and are the kind of cookies that disappear at the party in the first ten minutes.

They're also super easy and pretty quick to make! Without further ado, here's the recipe.

Jun 17, 2016

Recipe: Nutty for Nuts Bars

We're well into June now and with the warm weather and long days comes a lot more time spent outside and, by extension, a lot more fun social activities like potlucks and parties for many of us!

I love baking, so I always try to get dibs on dessert when I go to a potluck. Not only is making desserts loads of fun, but desserts are often also easier to make ahead of time and transport to the party location, since they generally don't have to be kept particularly hot or cold in transport.


These nutty bars are a sweet, delicious, and indulgent dessert that's a big hit at parties, potlucks, and bake sales. They're fun to make, a great way to switch things up from the typical chocolate chip cookies and brownies, and are perfect served at room temperature. They're very rich, so you get a lot of bars out of the batch. Read on for the recipe!

Mar 19, 2016

My Top 10 Favorite Baking Hacks

I love baking and have been baking for as long as I can remember!

I could bake every day and be the happiest girl in the world (assuming we can temporarily ignore the food waste and cost of ingredients for this happy hypothetical).

My friends and family know me as a good baker now, but that wasn't always the case. I've had my fair share of kitchen disasters and near disasters!

The person who set this pasta on fire.

I promise that's not my photo (it's cooking, not baking, anyway) and I have never set pasta on fire. But seriously - how do you set pasta on fire?

I'm also confused by this election, but that's a different topic.
The good thing about (mild) kitchen disasters is that they can be great learning experiences! Read on for some of my ten favorite kitchen hacks - some picked up from books and fellow bakers over the years and others learned the hard way!

Dec 23, 2015

Recipe: Chewy Chococonut Cookies

Everyone loves a good chocolate chip cookie, but sometimes you want to mix it up a bit. If you've had enough plain chocolate chip cookies this holiday season, check these out!


These chewy Chococonut cookies might be a bit of a tongue twister, but the flavors of the dark chocolate chunks and the chewy shredded coconut compliment each other brilliantly and make these a great change from the typical chocolate chip cookie!

They're big, soft, chewy cookies, like the kind you get from the cookie bakeries or carts at the mall. Without further ado, here's the quick and easy recipe! No dough chilling required.

Dec 16, 2015

Recipe: Ooey Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love trying out all sorts of different cookie recipes and cookies around the holidays. There are so many fun varieties! 

But when it comes down to it, you can't beat the nostalgic appeal of the classic chocolate chip cookie around Christmastime. 

This is the only chocolate chip cookie recipe I use anymore! The cookies are amazing and everyone loves them.

Everyone.

Read on for the recipe. You'll be glad that you did!


Dec 9, 2015

Recipe: Impossibly Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy holidays! Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year and while I go hard all December, I already start prep back in September.

By prep, I mean I start listening to Christmas music, planning Christmas presents, testing recipes, and watching Christmas movies.

Thanks to my obsessive extensive preparation, this Christmas chocolate chip cookie is the absolute best chocolate chip cookie recipe out there. I've tried so many, I know what I'm talking about!


I love to make the dough for these the night before and then bake them shortly before serving, because they look great after the dough has been chilled and they taste amazing warm and fresh from the oven.

Read on for the recipe!

Oct 26, 2015

Recipe: German Honey Cookies

I'm half-German and absolutely love so many things about Germany - the landscape, the people, the culture, the music, the organization, the country overall, and (of course) the food!

Food is a huge part of culture and it's a great way to take little staycations to far-away places without leaving your kitchen. So you can all enjoy a little piece of Germany in your homes, here's a recipe for traditional Germany honey cookies!


These cookies are essentially the basic 'milk and cookies' cookie. They're simple, sweet, pair perfectly fresh from the oven with a cool glass of milk, and are beloved by children and adults alike. They're also quite simple to make and use only fairly basic pantry ingredients for the most part, so there's no reason not to give them a try.

Happy food-venturing!

Aug 5, 2015

Recipe: 5-Ingredient Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Going gluten-free? Simply out of flour? 

These flourless peanut butter cookies are rich, perfectly sweet, and a great, decadent texture without any flour at all. There are only five common pantry ingredients!


They're super quick and easy to mix up!

Enjoy!

Jul 18, 2015

Healthy Snacking with Go Raw

I love snacks. Yes, I'm 22 years old but no, there is no such thing as too old for snacks. Crunch-munch, munch-crunch.

In addition to being a yummy way to lift your energy levels, snacking provides an excellent opportunity to pack a little extra nutrition into your day. Don't waste the opportunity!

One of my favorite healthy snack brands at the moment is Go Raw. As the name suggests, their products are raw vegan and focus on whole food ingredients with healthy fats, fiber, minerals, vitamins, etc. They're also delicious!


Let's start with their dark chocolate, because it's delicious and because what's better than healthy chocolate?

Mar 8, 2015

Recipe: Easy Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

Here's a no-fail Oatmeal Cookie recipe for when you need something simple, easy to make, with relatively ordinary (and not too many) ingredients. That also makes them a perfect Teacher's Appreciation Day gift!



This recipe is incredibly customizable, so feel free to throw in craisins, raisins, walnuts, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter, almonds - or all of the above, if you're in a kitchen-sink kind of mood!

Feb 1, 2015

Recipe Review: Soft and Chewy Nutella White Chocolate Chip Cookies


I often enjoy making up my own recipes, or starting with someone else's recipe as a baseline and turning it into something totally different. But sometimes other people's recipes are already perfect as they are!

Averie Cooks's Soft and Chewy Nutella White Chocolate Chip Cookies are perfect exactly as the recipe is written, so I resisted the temptation to make any alterations and was pleased by my decision to do so!

My results

Nov 30, 2014

A Healthier Alternative to Childhood Cookie Favorites!


Growing up, I loved Fig Newtons - loved. I also was a huge fan of Nutrigrain bars. While either of those is fine as a now and then treat, they aren't really a daily indulgence. Both are full of refined flour of and overly processed ingredients.

I was delighted to discover a snack that was every bit as delicious as the fig and jam-filled bars of my childhood, but whole grain, all-natural, vegan, non-GMO, and kosher.



Not only do Nature's Bakery Fig Bars have all those health benefits over the fig bars I grew up eating, but they also come in a much wider assortment of flavors than their less-healthy counterparts!


There are the traditional fig bars, of course, which are sweet and delicious. I wouldn't change a thing!


But there are all sorts of other great flavors, like blueberry and strawberry. These two really put the Nutrigrain versions to shame!



Some of the more exotic flavors include Mango and Lemon.


I wouldn't have guessed that fig bars would come in those flavors, but they're delicious! Of the two, I especially strongly recommend the mango.

But you really can't go wrong with any of the bars! The filling to cookie ratio is perfect, they're perfectly sweet, they're flavorful and fresh (there wasn't a single dry or stale one among all of them), and they perfectly exemplify my ideal of healthy and delicious!


My single complaint is that the bars come in twin packs but the serving size is listed as only one bar. Pop-tarts are guilty of this, too, and my general opinion is that they should either wrap them individually or make the serving size two bars, instead of one.


Especially in this case, where the bars are small and a single bar wouldn't be an adequate snack, but two are, I think it's a cop-out to 'prettify' nutrition stats.

But overall, the bars are awesome! Yum!

Have you tried the Nature's Bakery Fig Bars?

What was your favorite packaged snack as a kid?


Which flavor of fig bar sounds best to you?

Oct 26, 2014

Celebrating National Non-GMO Month with GMO-Free Cookies!

I love science. In fact, I majored in biology at Harvard. That said, I don't particularly have the desire to eat science experiments.


So GMO foods? Not really my thing.

A lot of people feel the same way, so October is national month to consciously avoid GMOs! It's really not as hard as you might imagine - it doesn't mean you have to go all organic or you can only eat hemp seed shakes and fruit salad (as yummy as those both are).

It's also not difficult to get kids on board! There are lots of delicious non-GMO snack foods, if you look for them. I really like Mary's Gone Crackers Love Cookies!


They come in four flavors, of which I've tried (and loved) the chocolate chip and the double chocolate cookies.

I know, right. I've tried the two chocolate ones - big surprise.

For those who don't like chocolate (how is that a thing?) there are the n'oatmeal raisin and the gingersnap cookies! Why N'oatmeal? These cookies, all four flavors, are gluten-free, vegan, dairy-free, nut-free, and GMO-free.


They're healthy, lunchbox-friendly, allergy-friendly, and delicious!


The cookies are made with superfoods, like chia seeds, quinoa flakes, a whole grain gluten free flour blend, and coconut palm sugar.

They're crunchy cookies that are the perfect amount of sweet and both of the chocolate cookie flavors (even the chocolate chip) are very, very chocolatey.


I love it! They're also buttery-tasting, even though they're vegan, and crisp, even though they're gluten-free.

Mary's Gone Crackers did a great job with these! I give them a thumbs up and would definitely include them in C's lunchbox as a healthy non-GMO treat that she can take with to her nut-free cafeteria without worry. Yum and yay!

How are you celebrating National Non-GMO Month?

Do you pay attention to GMOs in your foods?

Are you concerned about GMOs?

Oct 14, 2014

Koochikoo - the Cutest Cookies Review

I would choose sweet over savory any day, but sweet tends to be less healthy than savory.

After all, sugar isn't known for being stomach-friendly in large amounts, nor is it particularly good for your skin, energy levels, or even long-term mood.

Koochikoo Cookies are all the sweet of normal cookies, but without sugar. They're also free of artificial sweeteners and thus actually healthy, as well as free of weird aftertastes (unlike most other sugar-free cookies).



Instead of weird chemicals, they're sweetened with monk fruit and organic agave inulin!

They come in small bags of about four servings each and each serving is multiple cookies, because the cookies are small rounds.

They're nice crunchy cookies and perfectly sweet and rich!


My favorite are definitely the Blissfully Chocolate Brownie Cookies, because they're just soooo chocolatey (they're way more intensely chocolatey than they look). I love chocolate!



Another added nutrition bonus (since the taste alone will more than sell these with kids and really anyone) is that the cookies are made with whole wheat flour!


They're certified vegan, made with organic ingredients, non-GMO, verified kosher, and an excellent source of fiber. YUM.

I'm their new biggest fan, because they're really making healthy delicious. As it should be!

Which flavor sounds best to you?

Do you prefer chewy or crunchy cookies?

Do you like all chocolate cookies or chocolate chip cookies better? All chocolate, but with chocolate chips too (like these), are the best IMO.

Sep 20, 2014

Have Your Cookies And Eat Them Too

Back to school is well underway - or rather, almost forgotten by now in face of the return of routine - and it's finally starting to feel like autumn.

There are lots of wonderful things about fall and winter and the advent of the holidays. But they aren't exactly known for helping with health goals! Spring and summer are all about eating right and getting fit, but fall and winter, with the holidays and colder weather, are more about comfort foods and coziness.

It's like:


But too much of that and you feel like:


After all, fall and winter encompass a lot of months.

I'm all about healthy being fun and more desirable (even purely on a hedonistic level) than unhealthy. So there's no reason not to indulge your cold weather cravings - but indulge it the healthy way most of the time!



Betsy's Best Bar None are a healthy alternative to your traditional cookie. Normal cookies are great for now and then, but these Whole Food Rounds are something you can enjoy daily without concern as a healthy source of energy - and protein!


Each cookie has 5g of protein and each packet has 2 cookies (so, let's be honest, that's the realistic serving). All that protein is vegan, paleo, organic, non-GMO, and filler-free.

It's also, as advertised, whole food protein and not protein from whey or soy isolates or pea proteins.


The nut-free and grain-free recipe is not only paleo-friendly but also perfect for allergen-free diets or schools with strict nut-free lunchbox rules.

They're certified vegan, gluten-free, 100% organic, certified kosher, and non-GMO. There's pretty much no healthy diet that these don't fit into!


There are six flavors (the sixth is Orange Poppy Seed) and I tried five of them.


The flavors are all inventive and delicious. I honestly enjoyed all of them, even the Lemon Coconut! Usually that type of flavor isn't my thing (I'm all about all chocolate everything for bars and cookies) but the dense texture made it work!

The chocolate flavors were, of course, my favorite.


Especially the dark chocolate because, well, dark chocolate.


As you can see, these aren't masquerading as a candy chocolatey treat - they do taste like healthy food and they aren't interchangeable with an Otis Spunkmeyer double dark chocolate muffin, but they're deliciously hearty with nice dark chocolate chips.


They taste good, they're good for you, and they're good for the community!

I find the story behind the cookies particularly fascinating and it's definitely another good reason (though the taste and nutrition are really enough) to buy these!

Betsy's Best Bar None was founded in 2011 in Portland, Oregon not just to create a healthy snack for people of all different dietary requirements to enjoy, but also to provide those transitioning out of the prison system with gainful employment. That's a hugely important part of breaking the cycle!

Do something for your health while helping others rebuild their lives! That's such a perfect double-win situation!

Have you tried Betsy's Best Bar None Whole Food Rounds?

Which flavor looks best to you?

What's the last thing you did to give back to your community? Can't think of anything? Order some of these and you just did!

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