Lately (ok, ever since the Holidays) I have been eating a shit ton of store bought treats for snacks at work. Power bar after power bar and cookies galore.

It’s a lot easier to just buy already made and packaged snacks at the grocery store to take on the go.

This needs to stop asap. 

Remember when I used to bring homemade pumpkin protein bars and vegan scones everywhere?

I need to get back into that habit.

•  It’s healthier – you know exactly what is in your food – all natural, nothing processed.
•  It’s cheaper – each baking episode yields way more food than buying individual bars at the store.

The problem is that I’m tired of the old recipes I used to make.

Cue new delicious and nutritious blueberry bread! I’m definitely taking this as my afternoon snack this week.

Recipe adapted from The Lemon Bowl. 

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup blueberries – fresh or frozen
• 1/3 cup splenda or sugar substitute
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 2/3 cups low fat vanilla yogurt
• 3 eggs (use 2 eggs, 1 egg white)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350°F and grease a bread pan with cooking spray.

Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl: oats, flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, sugar, and wheat germ.

Beat together eggs, yogurt, and vanilla extract on medium speed with a mixer. Gently stir in the dry ingredients.

Fold blueberries into the batter and pour into the bread pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes.

Let the bread cool completely before serving.

Thanks as always to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday! 

If I had to pick one food to eat on a desert island every day for the rest of my life, I would choose french fries.

I certainly love noshin’ on a tub of fries, but it’s definitely not the best thing for  my waistline.

Subbing in sweet potatoes instead of regular french fries makes all the difference health-wise, as sweet potatoes are considered a “super food”(source). Sweet potatoes are chock full of antioxidants and vitamins that our bodies need daily.

Fries and super food in the same sentence? Yes, please.

This spicy recipe is adapted from Cookie and Kate (Um, I like that blog name!)

Ingredients:

• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp hot chili powder

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into fries.

Place the uncooked fries into a mixing bowl or a plastic bag.

Add cornstarch, olive oil, and additional seasonings and spices to your bowl/bag o’ fries. Mix everything so that the fries are evenly coated.

Pour the fries onto a baking sheet(s) covered with parchment paper or a non-stick baking sheet(s) and spread the fries in a single layer with some breathing room.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Take out and flip the fries with a spatula.

Put back in the oven and bake for 15-20 more minutes. Remove when fries are crispy.

Add ketchup and enjoy!

Thanks as always to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday!

If you had to pick one food to eat on a desert island every day for the rest of your life, what food would you choose?

When I brought these quinoa sliders to our Christmas lunch, I kept joking to my family that they better enjoy them because I was never going to make them again! They were quite labor intensive and set the fire alarm off not once, but thrice (I forgot to turn the stove fan on).

But then I tasted them.

Alas, I shall be making them again. Maybe this weekend?

This recipe was adapted from How Sweet It Is.

Makes 10-12 sliders

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 C uncooked quinoa
• 1 C cooked chickpeas
• 12 wheat slider buns
• 2 avocados, sliced for topping
• 1/2 C chipotle mayo for topping
• 1/2 C mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 C wheat bread crumbs
• 1/2 C chopped carrots
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large egg + 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 3 tbsp olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

Thanks as always to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday!

P.S. Have you entered my BIC Bands Giveaway yet??!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday!

Here’s a little snack that I brought to my family Christmas party yesterday. These tasty turtle bites are just a little bit of an indulgence before gettin’ serious about healthy eating when the New Year comes.

Between prep and cooking, these babies only take a few minutes until you can shovel them into your mouth by the handful.

This recipe was adapted from SELF magazine.

INGREDIENTS:

• 16 mini whole wheat pretzels

• 16 dark chocolate-covered caramels (like Rolos)

• 16 pecan halves

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place wax-paper on a baking sheet. Spread pretzels on the baking sheet.

Plop a chocolate caramel on the center of each pretzel.

Cook in the oven for 2 minutes – you want the chocolate caramels to be a little soft, but not too melty!

Remove tray from oven and add pecan halves on the top of each chocolate covered pretzel.

Put the tray in the freezer for 10 minutes to harden.

Super easy and delicious. Yum!

Thanks as always to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday!

So I really wanted to make these on Saturday night after recipe stalking on Pinterest – but I needed to be searching for recipes for dinner, not dessert!

But suddenly, I stumbled upon the same baked apples as a side dish in a dinner recipe. One that didn’t involve pork.

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I had a potato I could use for the starch and frozen green beans in the freezer to have for a side. I glanced at the ingredients.

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Oooo, herbes de Provence, fancy. Wait…that was the name of the fru fru salad dressing I bought at Whole Foods last week! I could pour it all over the chicken and then grill it. That  would go well with my cinnamon baked apples!

It was a damn good dinner.

Cinnamon Baked Apples

Original recipe from Fresh Tastes. 

Makes 4 small servings

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Chop up the apples and mix with cinnamon, brown sugar, and water in a casserole dish or baking pan.

Bake apples for 30 minutes while stirring occasionally.

Serve with meat for dinner or for dessert with vanilla ice cream.

Thanks as always to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday!