Trail Mix

Who doesn't love a good trail mix?

What you need...

• 1/3 cup cashews


• 1/3 cup almonds


• 1/3 cup walnuts


• 1/3 cup dried bananas


• 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes


• 1/4 cup dried cranberries

How to make it...

Pretty simple, put all the ingredients in one container and mix! I like to portion out 1/3 cup of the mix into snack bags so you can have a snack ready to go when you need it!



Obviously this recipe is easy to adapt, so add your favorite nuts or dried fruit! K, byeeee.

Gingersnap Mallobar

We've already established that I love Larabars. Eventually I'm sure I'll recreate all of them, but so far I've only made Coconut Cream Pie [Mallobars]. Recently I saw a picture of a gingersnap larabar on Instagram. As soon as I saw it I made it my mission to find the gingersnap flavor. I went to four different stores looking for them and had no luck. It was quite depressing. THEN, out of the blue, a friend of mine from Texas mailed me a few to try...HOW AWESOME IS SHE?



Anyway, as soon as I confirmed they are in fact delicious, it was time to make them on my own!

What you need...

• 1 cup pitted dates (about 8 ounces)


• 3/4 cup almonds


• 3/4 cup pecans


• 1-2 tablespoon minced fresh ginger


• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon


• 3/4 teaspoon cloves

How to make them...

Place all the ingredients in a food processor except the ginger and dates and blend until everything is nice and chopped up. Add the dates and 1 tablespoon of ginger and blend. Once everything is chopped and blended, take a pinch of it and try it. If it isn't snappy enough for you, add some more ginger and blend! Once you're satisfied with the taste, portion out 1.8 ounce bars and wrap them individually in plastic wrap! This recipe yields approximately 9 Mallobars.



And this ^picture^ is why I suck a being a food blogger...as you can see I didn't bother to make them pretty, wrap them nicely, or take a decent picture.Woopsie :) I'll do better next time! K, byeeeee.

Quick Cucumber Snack

This is another one of those instances where I'm cheating by calling this a recipe, but whooooo cares?!

What you  need...

• 1 cucumber, sliced


• 1 tbsp lemon juice


• 1 tbsp olive oil


• a sprinkle of chile powder


• salt and pepper to taste

How to make it...

To be 100% honest, I made up those measurements. I'm just trying to make this look like a legit recipe......it's not.

Just cut up the cucumber and sprinkle all of the ingredients on top until you're satisfied with the taste. Sometimes I skip the lemon juice and use red wine vinegar instead. Sometimes I just use vinegar! Regardless of how you make it, this is a great snack! I like to make it ahead of time so the juices [whatever they might be] have time to soak into the cucumber, yum!



How do you like your cucumber? I'd love to know! K, byeeee.

Coconut Cream Pie

Larabars are the shit. Every single flavor is more delicious than the next. Why has it taken so long for someone to figure out that squishing these natural ingredients together would create such tasty treats?! More importantly, why wasn't that person me? I could be making bank selling Mallobars at $1.80 a piece! Which brings me to my next point, they're not cheap! However, because there are so few ingredients, I figured they couldn't be that hard to make! Annnddd I was right! I started with my current favorite flavor, Coconut Cream Pie, and after some trial and error I found the perfect balance of the ingredients! This recipe makes four larabars mallobars.

What you need...

• 1/2 cup raw almonds


• 1/2 cup unsweetened organic coconut flakes


• 8 large dates, pitted


• 1 teaspoon extra virgin coconut oil

How to make them....

Put all of the ingredients in a food processer and blend well. It should looks something like this:



Dump the mixture onto a sheet of plastic wrap, form a rectangle, and place it in the fridge for about 10 mins and allow it to harden. Remove it from the fridge and cut it into four bars (I used a pizza cutter). Wrap them individually with plastic wrap to avoid eating them all in one sitting :)



I should also mention that the real coconut cream pie larabars contain cashews. I didn't have any cashews and these taste awesome, so I'm going to say they're not necessary!

So which would you prefer, store bought larabars @ $1.80 or homemade mallobars @ $0.60/bar?! Seems like a no-brainer to me! K, byeeeeee.

 

Valentine Pretzel Buttons.

Pretzel buttons are great for just about any holiday. The best part? They could not be easier to make...unless of course the chocolate kisses came unwrapped.

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What you need... 

1. Pretzels -  I used square ones, but circle ones work great too.


2. Hershey's Kisses - You can use any kind of kisses you'd like (I used regular Hugs and Raspberry Hugs).


3. M&Ms - Again, you can use any flavor you want (I used regular milk chocolate and cherry, because they both went with the holiday theme).

How to make them... 

1. Preheat oven to 200°.


2. Place the pretzels on baking sheet and top them with the hugs.


3. Bake for 4 minutes, or until the chocolate is shiny and starts to look melty...but is not melted. Haha get it? K, good.


4. Place an M&M in the center of each hug and press it down to spread the chocolate.


5. Allow to cool and enjoy!

Fake Pizza.

If you're like me, your normal dietary food groups don't consist of the usual fruits, vegetables, dairy, protein, etc. My food pyramid looks a lot more like this one...



Broken down, my basic food groups can be described as the following::

1. Pizza - including every variety of pizza and pizza-like (Italian) foods, from cheese sticks to calazones. You can't have good Italian without good wine, so I include that in this group as well.


2. Mac n' Cheese - obviously this includes every variety of mac n' cheese you can imagine, but more generally, this encompasses carbs and cheese, cheese and carbs...nomz. Some breads and cheese dips are made with beer, therefore beer also belongs in this group.


3. Mexican - authentic, American, upscale, fast-casual...whatever, if it's considered Mexican and pairs well with tequila, it fits in this group.


4. French Fries - waffle fires, curly fries, shoestring fries....I could go on for a while, but you get the point. Every other form of potato can also be included - tater tots, mashed potatoes, potato chips, etc. Oh and you can't forget potato-based vodkas (or just all vodkas in general) that also belong in this group.

Because these four groups pretty accurately describe my favorite foods/drinks, and I don't particularly want to die of a heart attack at age 30...or look like a hippo in a bathing suit...I have to find ways to enjoy my favorite foods without consuming thousands of calories in one meal.

Using portabella mushrooms as "pizza crust" is one of my favorite healthy pizza substitutes. Just take out the stems and bake them at 400 degrees for 7 minutes.



Then add whatever pizza toppings you like - here I added low-fat mozzarella cheese and turkey pepperoni.



After you add your toppings, put them in the oven on broil for 3 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.



Pretty simple, and very delicious. In college I used to eat these when I was making an attempt to be healthy...you know since not eating real pizza would negate the fact that I drank 100,000 calories the night before. Anyway, give them a try! K, byeeeee.