Showing posts with label Nuts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nuts. Show all posts

Aug 5, 2017

Recipe: Flour-less Whole Grain Seedy Bread

There's this general misconception out there, probably thanks to the carb-phobic diet industry, that bread is unhealthy. False! Bread can be unhealthy, just like anything else, but it isn't inherently unhealthy. There are all sorts of healthy bread out there and the best way to make sure that the bread in your sandwich/on your plate/drowning under your peanut butter is healthy is to make it yourself!

Healthy Bread recipe

If you want to keep the carbs down and the healthy fats and proteins and fiber up, this bread is for you. It's wheat-free and, if you use gluten-free oats, is also gluten-free. It's chock-full of heart-healthy nuts and seeds, plus enough fiber to pep up your digestive system *cough, cough* from the chia seeds and whole psyllium seed husks. If you want to make it sugar-free, you can sub stevia for the maple syrup - but honestly, I don't see the point. It's a very modest amount of maple syrup, adds a little nice something, and a teeny-tiny bit of sugar won't kill you. But it's up to you!

Enough blathering on and on from me, here's the recipe. Happy baking!

Mar 10, 2017

Review, Giveaway, and a Discount: Ambrosial Harvest Muesli + Granolas

Cereal is one of America's favorite breakfast foods. It's one of my favorites, too! 

Starting the day with a bowl full of sugar and refined grains, however, is a questionable health decision. Sugary breakfast cereals aren't good for energy levels or blood sugar levels, they don't contribute much other than empty calories to your nutritional needs, and they're just not 'breakfast of champions' material. On the other hand, a bowl full of twiggy bran that both looks and tastes like shredded cardboard isn't satisfying anyone's cereal craving.

Luckily, there are healthy cereals that both taste great and are great for you!

Ambrosial Granola

I love Ambrosial Harvest cereals! Ambrosial Harvest makes whole grain granolas and muesli that are all USDA organic, gmo-free, gluten-free, vegan, certified kosher, free of refined sugars, and full of heart-healthy omega 3 fatty acids. 

As a bonus, they're also local! Ambrosial Harvest granolas are made right here in New York!

Ambrosial Muesli Review

I love the creative flavors - their muesli has goji berries, big flakes of shredded coconut, generous pumpkin and sunflower seeds sprinkled throughout, and filling whole grain oats.

I'm half-German, so I grew up on muesli for breakfast and it has long been a favorite. This one didn't disappoint! While I would have liked a bit more of the dried fruits (I loooove dried fruits) the balance was sweet enough and the combination of flavors was delicious! I love it soaked in milk for 15-20 minutes, so the oats start to soften, but don't turn to glop.

Oct 10, 2016

October Degustabox Unboxing

Did you see my September Degustabox Unboxing?

It's a new month - how is it already October 2016?? - and with a new month comes a new Degustabox! To refresh, Degustabox is a monthly subscription service that delivers a big box full of full-sized foodie finds (10-15 of them!) to subscribers every month.

I love getting mail, trying new things, and good food. It's perfect!


I love that every box comes with a greeting sheet telling me a bit more about all the products in the box on one side and offering up some relevant recipes on the other side. 

There are typically also some coupons in the mix, to help you save money if you like any of the products so much that you want to buy more. Yay for coupons! My mom instilled a great appreciation for coupons in me - sometimes we'd get an entire grocery cart full of food for like $7 and it always felt so amusingly satisfying.

Anyway, on to the actual food! We'll start with the food that accompanied the two recipes included in this box:

Healthy Pasta Dish

Barilla is my go-to brand for pasta (check out my mac & cheese recipe) and as a carb-loving vegetarian, I was thrilled to see that I could get 17g of protein and a good dose of ALA Omega-3 fatty acids from eating my pasta, with their new high-protein multigrain pasta.

Sep 11, 2016

September Degustabox Unboxing!

Degustabox is my favorite monthly subscription service! Every month, like a surprise care package from an in-the-know-foodie friend, a big box full of full-sized new treats (10-15 kinds!) shows up on my doorstep! 

I'd never even heard of many of the products before and, in two months of deliveries, I've already discovered some new favorites.

Degustabox

New Foodie Finds: 

Can we start with my favorite one? Good, because I am. 

Toosum Bars

Let's have a moment of silence to honor this amazing bar, which came to its delicious demise right as the mid-afternoon energy slump hit at work. I'm learning a lot at my new job and I need to be fully alert and fueled to do so! 

I was ravenous on Thursday and paired this with a granny smith apple for a satisfying, well-rounded snack that powered me through the rest of the work day and until I got home for dinner at 7! So yummy.

It's oaty, whole-grain, the perfect amount of sweet, and so good. I normally hugely favor snack bars with chocolate in them (or that are entirely chocolate-based) but I didn't miss the chocolate in this at all. I'd love to eat this as a work snack every afternoon!

Next up is a childhood favorite:

Jun 23, 2016

Review: Paleo Scavenger Granola

Granola is my absolute favorite sort of cereal. Nuts are my favorite crunchy snack. So a granola made almost entirely out of nuts sounded delicious!



It didn't disappoint. Paleo Scavenger Granolas are handcrafted in Chicago and, as the name suggests, completely grain-free, gluten-free, and paleo-friendly.

Instead of the usual grains, these granolas are made of healthy nuts, like almonds, walnuts, and coconut, as well as dried fruit and natural sweeteners, like honey and maple syrup!


Healthy fats are so important for healthy skin and hair! Paleo Scavenger granolas are a much better choice than many other commercial granolas, which can often be packed with processed sugars and sometimes even trans fats. I would much rather have a breakfast or snack that keeps my skin soft and glowing and my hair shiny and healthy!
 

They're also all delicious! They're not what I would first think of when I think of granola and they do taste different than other granolas, so I would say they're somewhere between granola and trail mix. 

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!

Jun 2, 2016

Review: Bhu Fit Bars

As the temperatures rise and summer sets in, many of us find ourselves on the go much more than during the cooler months. Whether it's traveling or simply spending more time outside at parks, beaches, lakes, and so on, summertime is all about going out and having adventures!

Bhu Fit Bars  from Bhu Foods are the perfect grab-and-go choice for healthy snacking away from home. They're conveniently packaged, like traditional protein bars, and they're made of only healthy, whole foods. That's rare to find in a protein bar!

The bars are no-GMO, gluten-free, and full of healthy protein and digestion-regulating fiber. They're also wonderfully low in sugar, without relying on unhealthy chemical sweeteners, like sucralose.

They come in three main types, all of which are oh so delicious and oh so good for you! 


There are the vegan bars, which are made with organic pea protein and come in three great flavors. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip is my favorite, but Chocolate Tart Cherry Pistachio is delicious, too!

Bhu Fit Chocolate Tart Cherry Pistachio Vegan Bar
Many chocolate-flavored protein bars feature chocolate as the main flavor, but these bars have just a little bit of chocolate, so that the other flavors still shine, too. The bars have a chewy texture and aren't too big, but also not too small! They're perfectly snack-sized.

May 10, 2016

Tips for Better Train Travel (AKA There's Spinach in My Chocolate)

I'm moving to Boston for the summer on Sunday (summer is coming so quickly!) and I'm going to take the Amtrak up again, like last year.

I go/have gone back and forth between NYC and Boston quite often over the years and Amtrak is almost always my choice. It's faster, more reliable, and more comfortable than a bus. It's slower than flying, but if you account for the time spent getting to the airports, which are, unlike train stations, outside of the city, as well as TSA time. It also has less strict limits on the amount of luggage allowed, which is great when the trip will last multi-months and you have to pack a lot.

forget-bring-farewell-ecard-someecards

I would honestly have expected it to be much cheaper than a flight, but it's usually only slightly cheaper. It's still always the overall cheaper option, however, because you can take the subway to the train stations easily whereas airports generally require a cab or Uber ride.

Still, there's no perfect form of transportation. Here are my tips for a better train trip!

Mar 26, 2016

Recipe: Cherry Pecan Bread

Banana bread is a beloved breakfast and snack time staple. Cherries are a beloved summertime fruit. And pecans taste like lazy afternoons in North Carolina.

This cherry pecan bread is a combination of all three!

Quick Bread Recipe


This recipe is quick and easy! There are no crazy, hard to find, or expensive ingredients and all you need for kitchen gadgets is your standard measuring cup/spoon set, two mixing bowls, an electric mixer, and a wooden spoon.

It's great eaten warm with a pat of butter, cold with pecan butter, or toasted with cherry jam! There's really no wrong way to eat it and since it's quick, easy, and bakes into a beautiful and delicious loaf, it makes an excellent gift or potluck brunch contribution! Read on for the recipe.

Mar 16, 2016

Review: Kit's Organic

I love Luna Bars! They're made by women, for women and they're both vegan and (as of fairly recently) gluten-free, so they fit into many different healthy diets! They're as delicious as dessert, but as healthy as a busy millennial's snack ought to be. 

But this post isn't about Luna bars!


Kit's Organic is another line of delicious snack bars from Clif Bar, the healthy snack company that makes Luna Bars!

Like Luna Bars, Kit's Organic bars are vegan and dairy-free. But for those with soy sensitivities, or who just like to avoid much soy, Kit's Organic are the perfect choice. They're soy-free! 

The fruit and nut bars are made of just a few simple ingredients, combined in really delicious ways, and are, as you could probably have guessed from the name of the line, certified organic!

Feb 13, 2016

Four Fun February Foods

Trying new things is always so fun! It's no secret that I love to cook and bake and generally play with food in the hopes that something awesome (and edible) happens. Here are four fun February foods that I'm trying this month!

Since Valentine's Day is tomorrow, don't worry - if you're super behind this year, it's not too late to retreat to the kitchen, cover things in flour, and emerge with a sure-to-please food gift for your special someone!

I give these toasted coconut and cherry hand pies a glowing recommendation.


They're really cute, super festive, taste great, and make a beautiful gift. If you follow Kim's recipe exactly, they're also pretty quick and easy to make! I like to make my own pie crust so that the whole recipe is from scratch, but that's the only thing that I did differently.

Read on for more great gifts, festive foods, and even something for those who like to avoid all things Valentine's Day!

Feb 10, 2016

Review: Nookie Bars

An afternoon snack is great for so many reasons, especially when working or traveling. It gives us energy, fights off hangriness, and keeps us from being ravenous by dinner time!

But what we choose for our snacks matters just a much as choosing to have a snack. Nookie Bars are a nutritious snack that are both healthy and delicious! 


We don't have to compromise taste or convenience for good nutrition. Nookie Bars  have yummy chocolate, healthy fats and sugars for the energy we need to make it through the rest of our days, and even the superfood spirulina!

Feb 7, 2016

Recipe: Toasted Almond White Chocolate Irish Bread

Irish Soda Bread is a great breakfast or snack loaf, even when it isn't St. Patrick's Day. It's dense, sweet, satisfying, and basically halfway between a loaf cake and a loaf of bread.

But what if you don't like dried fruit? Or caraway seeds? Or what if you just want to buck tradition and shake things up a bit?

It's wild. It's crazy. It's -

Irish Soda Bread

- okay, maybe it's neither that wild or that crazy. But it is a fun twist on classic Irish Soda Bread! White chocolate and toasted almonds pair deliciously for a more dessert-like Irish Soda Bread variation.

Read on for the recipe!

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!

Nov 27, 2015

Review and Giveaway(!) : My Favorite Indulgence

I love breakfast and it's so important! Especially before a crazy day (as today will be for those who partake in the Black Friday shopping frenzy) or after a very indulgent day (as yesterday likely was for many of us), it's important to eat a healthy, balanced breakfast with whole grains for energy and fiber to keep us satisfied all day long.

Luckily, a healthy breakfast can also be a delicious breakfast!


My go-to for breakfast all week has been My Favorite Indulgence, a breakfast choice that's both deliciously indulgent (it lives up to its name) and delightfully healthy. 

Read on to learn more about the granolas and to find out how you can enter to win the four granolas pictured above! 

Nov 22, 2015

Choose This, Not That: Holiday Edition!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas Thanksgiving!

Okay - it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, too.

funny-Cinderella-fairy-Godmother-Halloween-Christmas

But I'm trying to restrain myself from going too nuts (Christmas carols 24/7, decorations all over the place, daily Christmas baking, searching for the perfect gifts for all my loved ones, and just generally being a holly jolly elf) until Black Friday. It's a tradition for me to try to exercise a teeny-tiny bit of self-control until that hotly-anticipated Friday when I can dial it up to 95% and then December 1, when I can go 100% Christmas nuts.

I don't even participate in Black Friday shopping, but I'm always really excited for the day because it means Christmas is approaching!

so excited for christmas - so excited for christmas  Red panda

Anyway, the holiday season is a time of indulgence. Holiday indulgences are wonderful and I firmly believe in taking part, but over-indulgence doesn't feel good and doesn't do anyhting to increase our enjoyment of the season - quite the opposite, in fact!

Go for the indulgence on the big days and when you really want them, but when you're just looking for a bit of a festive feeling, try a healthy swap! Read on for three healthy holiday swaps that I recommend!

Oct 24, 2015

Review: Mamma Chia Organic Chia Granola Clusters and Organic Chia Vitality Bars!

Let me introduce you to my new favorite snack foods. 


Mamma Chia Organic Vitality Bars and Organic Chia Granola Clusters are so deliciously fantastic.


They're both packed with heart healthy chia seeds, healthy fats, and plant-based protein. They're also all organic, gluten-free, and made with 100% whole grains in the case of the granola (the bars aren't grain-based).


Want omega-3 fatty acids (a whopping 1000mg of them) in a sweet, chocolatey, delicious and portable snack? Mamma Chia Vitality Bars have you covered!


They come in four great flavors, each as delicious as the next. 


While my favorite (by a narrow margin) were the Blueberry & Dark Chocolate Vitality bars, every single flavor was amazing. 


Cherry & Dark Chocolate was a close second favorite. The sweet tart cherries worked amazingly well with the chocolate and nuts!

I loved that the bars were healthy, a great snacking size, made with all natural ingredients in relatively unprocessed forms (I could still tell what the nuts and seeds and dried fruits making up the bars were), and that they were coated in chocolate, making them taste much more like indulgent chocolate bars than a healthy snack!


And yet they are a healthy snack with the omega-3 fatty acids you need to keep your brain and heart in tip-top shape. Hooray!

I could rave about the bars all day, but I also want to get to the granola.


Oh. My. Goodness.

Mamma Chia granola won a place among my favorite cereals of all time from the first bite.



It's sweet, it's crunchy, it's hearty, and there are big chunks of granola for from-the-bag snacking as well as smaller pieces for a more cereal-like experience.


How do I love soy-free, dairy-free, gluten-free 100% whole grain Mamma Chia Vitality Granola? Let me list the ways.


With milk, with yogurt, from the bag, on a smoothie, on an acai bowl, from the bag, on ice cream, with peanut butter and banana, in trail mix, and straight from the bag.


I may have mentioned that last way a few times, but it's because the granola is just that good. It tastes great with everything, but it really doesn't need anything to make it delicious!

Oh, and did I mention it's non-GMO, too? Trust me, you'll want to try this granola - any of the delicious flavors will do. You can thank me later!

What is your favorite way to eat granola?

What kind of snack bars do you like most often?

What snacks do you keep in your handbag/backpack/coat pocket?
Is that last one just me?

Oct 18, 2015

Review: The Bliss Bar

If you've been reading the blog for a while (thank you!) you know that I am and always have been a big fan of food bars.

They're sweet, energy-sense, convenient, (can be) healthy, and super portable. What's not to love?

Unfortunately, you'd be surprised by how many food bars are hiding mile-long ingredients lists of less-than-healthy ingredients to lend them their candy bar-Raquel flavors and textures. 

That's why it's a real treat to discover a new energy bar that's plantbased with a simple ingredients list, just healthy fats, and minimal added sugars. 

The Bliss Bar fits the bill perfectly!


The Bliss Bar comes in five delicious flavors, three of which (my favorite three, of course) are chocolatey through-and-through!


Among the three chocolatey flavors (Amazon Chocolate, Chia Mulberry, and Chocolate Goji) I honestly can't pick a favorite. They're all delicious and the dense, sweet, disk-shaped bars taste like super fudgy brownies. But they come with a boost of natural energy, instead of a weighed down icky stomach feeling.


Just look at that! They're minimally processed and you can tell, because you can still see the nutritious dried fruits, seeds, and chopped nuts they're made with. 

The bars are true to their slogan (superfoods that taste like dessert)! Even the Honey Gold and Coconut Goji, which are based around other scrumptious flavors instead of chocolate, are really yummy.

And they're all made with just a few healthy, organic ingredients - plus love & light! 


Love & light, ingredients featured in every flavor of Bliss Bar, must be the secret behind the bars' great flavor and excellent nutritional profiles. 



Whatever the secret is, I hope they never change it! I have a new favorite bar!

Do you want to try the bars yourself? Use the coupon code LIVELEARNEAT for 10% off sitewide (EXP 12/31/16).

Have you tried the Bliss Bar?

What are your go-to snacks?

Do you like food/snack shopping online?

Sep 7, 2015

Review: New Crazy Richard's Pure PB

I'm a legume-loving vegetarian and a huge fan of peanut butter. HUGE. 

Peanut butter is awesome with so many things! For starters:

* Bananas
* In smoothies
* Chocolate
* Sandwiches
* In savory dishes
* In sweet desserts
* On ice cream
* On a spoon...

You get the point. Peanut butter is pretty awesome. The delicious spread has also come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1895! In addition to a large variety of different flavors for peanut butter spreads, there are also variations on peanut butter for all sorts of different dietary needs. 


Crazy Richard's Crunchy Peanut Butter is a long-time favorite of mine, but recently the company behind my favorite peanut butter also put out a high protein, low fat peanut flour and a high protein, nutrient enriched peanut butter. Let's take a look!

Jul 12, 2015

Latest Finds: A Purely Elizabeth Granola Review!

Granola is my favorite sweet cereal, hands down.  

Despite its healthy reputation, however, some commercial granolas can be unhealthier than even the worst of your childhood sugar cereal favorites! 

Granola is very dense and can pack a lot of sugar and fat into a very small portion (who eats a measly quarter cup?) and I've seen boxes of granola where the ingredients list was longer than a Faulkner sentence and featured more chemicals than an orgo exam. No thanks!

Luckily, not all granolas are candy in a bag. There are healthy and delicious choices out there, you just have to choose carefully!


One such choice is Purely Elizabeth granola. Available in three flavors (Original, Pumpkin Fig, and Cranberry Pecan), Purely Elizabeth granolas are all free of gluten, refined sugar, and GMOs. 

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