Now What?

Ever get on one of those health kicks when you go to the health food store and buy all those "good for you" products like chia seeds, flax seeds, almond butter, coconut flour and such. Then they sit in your food pantry because you don't know what the heck to do with them? Well, here's a recipe that incorporates some of those health foods into a tasty cookie. Soon you'll be restocking those items because you actually know how to use them. I call these little yummers "The Good Earth Cookie".

1 tbs flax seeds
1 tbs chia seeds
1/2 cup nonfat Greek yogurt (I like Fage 0%)
1/2 large avocado
2 tbs coconut flour
2 tbs almond butter
1 whole egg
1/4 cup local honey (see below*)
2 tbs cocoa
1 scoop protein powder of choice
Directions: Mash avocado well. Mix in all ingredients. Bake at 375F for 10 minutes on Pam sprayed cookie sheet.

*I recently was educated on the benefits of using local honey in cooking. My Italian friends suggested I use local honey in Italy because it helps with allergies. They explained that the bees pollinate the plants that I'm allergic to and that when you consume the local honey it's like getting little allergy immunizations! Plus you get the added benefit of supporting local farmers!

Chocolate Molten Lava Cake

Seriously, sweets are my kryptonite, my achilles heel, my ultimate food weakness! You should have figured this out by now if you follow my blog. 99.9% of my recipes are goodies. So when my Dad started talking about Chili's famous Molten Lava Chocolate Cake I ran to the kitchen and started throwing things together to satisfy my sweet tooth. And here it is. 1 scoop vanilla protein. 1 tbs cocoa. 1 egg white. 2 tbs "Better N Peanut Butter" (or almond butter). 1/4 tsp vanilla. Mix all together in a large mug or small bowl. Microwave on high for 30 seconds. If you need it more sweet (like my Dad does), add 1 tbs honey.

Flag Nor Fail!

Yesterday my new Flag Nor Fail sleeveless hoodie arrived in the mail. This is my third purchase from the company who is quickly becoming my newest addiction. If you're not familiar with FNF, they are a small company that hand prints their products (mostly shirts) and has extremely limited quantities of each piece. That means once they sell out it's GONE. I love their message, "FLAG NOR FAIL is a mindset. No surrender and no failure. Flag represents surrender, much like one would wave a white flag to admit defeat. No surrender, no failure." Mostly bodybuilders wear their clothes, but it's not limited to only us meat heads. Dana Linn Bailey, the NPC's first Women's Physique Pro and her husband are the main faces behind the clothing brand. I love Dana's physique and follow her career in the IFBB. She looks a lot different in the shirts than I do, but hey, I think I still look pretty good in them. ;) Anyways, today I tried my hand at the "Perfect Foods Bar". I stumbled across this delicious snack/meal replacement bar a couple years back at the health food store. I was very impressed with the ingredients list AND the flavor was phenomenal. Yesterday I went to Good Earth for a few things (Ezekiel Bread, Kombucha Tea, and some dark chocolate). I was standing by the cashier line and saw the Perfect Foods Bar eyeballing me back. My tummy grumbled and then yelled, "feed me... with that!" So I obliged and purchased the bar. I shared some with Kellen, because ya I'm confident enough in the brand and the ingredients that I'd feed it to my 1 year old. He gobbled up half of it, little stinker. The bar is pretty expensive, about $3 each. So I decided to try to make a version for myself.

In a food processor, mix 4 tbs almond butter, 12 almonds, 2 scoop vanilla protein powder, 1 tbs chia seeds and 1 tbs flax seeds. It'll form a ball in the food processor when it's done. Remove the dough and form into 3 small bars.

And here's a pic in my new FNF sleeveless hoodie.

Missing Sicily Already!

While I was down in Arizona I stopped at the Penzeys Spices store in Scottsdale. I absolutely LOVE Penzeys because the make truly the best spices I've ever used in my cooking. I'm on somewhat of a budget so I had to be selective of which spices I was going to purchase. As I was walking through the store I spotted the "Sicilian Salad Seasoning" and stopped for a whiff of the mixture. I was instantly in love, it smells like fresh Romano cheese! Of course I added it to my basket. After returning back to Utah I decided to try something yummy with the new found seasoning. This is what I came up with...

Sicilian Style Meatballs! They are clean eating of course. I ate the meatballs with a small side salad but the others in my family partaking in my new recipe are carb lovers and insisted they be served on top of pasta. But here is the recipe for the meatballs.

1 lb lean ground turkey. 1/2 cup brown rice bread crumbs. 5 tsp Sicilian Salad Seasoning. 2 egg whites. 1 tbs garlic seasoning. Mix all ingredients together and roll into meatballs. Pour approximately 2 tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil into a pan and cook the meatballs on medium, tossing them every couple minutes to brown all sides of the meatballs.

My taste testers loved the meatballs over bowtie pasta (bowtie pasta cooked to al dente then tossed with 2 tbs butter and 3 more tsp of the Sicilian Salad Seasonings). I prefer a lighter carb dinner so I ate them with green veggies. Either way, delicious! Also, if you don't want to order the spices from Penzeys (which you are crazy if you don't at least try their stuff), you can try to put something together yourself. The Sicilian concoction consists of Romano cheese, salt, toasted onion, red bell pepper, tomato, white onion, paprika, Tellicherry black pepper, thyme, rosemary, cayenne and basil.

Cocoa Cake Batter

I recently found a recipe on Pinterest that everyone was repinning and so I decided to look at what all this hype was. The original recipe maker was boasting a delicious "cake batter" dessert which included healthy-for-you chick peas but not raw egg in sight. After reading over the ingredients I realized I could make this recipe EVEN BETTER. I would keep the idea of the chick peas (because beans are awesome don't cha know!) but use my usual ingredients to make this recipe mine. So a little substitute there, an addition here, a deletion there and voila. I was so happy with the finished product. So I grabbed my taste tester and had him try a bite. He asked, "what are you making me eat this time?" I replied, "I promise it's good, just try it! I'll tell you what it is after you taste." So he tastes and goes YUM. I asked him what he thought it tasted like. He said, "it kind of tastes like licking the spoon after your mom makes cake." Now, if that isn't called 100% success I don't know what is. So, here's MY version of the recipe with higher protein and lower fat. Makes 4 servings. 1 can garbanzo beans. 2 tbs Hershey's Cocoa Powder. 1 scoop vanilla protein. 1/2 cup walnuts. 7 dates. 1/2 tsp vanilla. 1/2 tsp baking soda. Scant salt. 2 packets Truvia. Approx 1/4 cup water. Place all ingredients EXCEPT WATER in a food processor and blend until smooth. Slowly add water until reaching desired cake batter-like consistency.