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Let’s Go Grocery Shopping!

January 10, 2012 by Lindsay 61 Comments

Hi Friends!

Over the weekend, the hubby and I did some pretty serious food shopping. It’d been a while since we’d been to the grocery store…plus we went to Costco…so I thought it’d be fun to show you guys what we bought!

Let’s start with Costco:

{A pineapple- it was the best price we’d seen in a while}
{Blueberries & Blackberries}
{12 red peppers- they have these 6/$6 – best price around by far!}

{Farro-$7 for a huge bag here, or $5 for a tiny bag at the grocery store}
{Plain, unsalted almonds- for granola, trail mix & snacking by the handful}
{Fingerling potatoes- the best for roasted potatoes}
{Garlic- I don’t always buy it in bulk but I’ve been using a lot lately}
{Cholula- hubby uses it on pretty much everything}

{All new to us- Popchips, Vegetarian burritos & Sweet Potato Fries}
{I’ve heard good things about all of them- can’t wait to try}
{Cat not included}

{Peanut butter- for the dogs}
{Plain Greek yogurt- for the Bean (Lindsay)}
{The yogurt is $5 per container- best price ever!}

{Duh}

Then we headed to the regular grocery store:

{Skim milk}
{Almond milk- recently started doing 1/2 almond-1/2 skim in my cereal}
{OJ- for the hubby & for my smoothies}

{Veggies: Peppers, sweet potatoes, baby bok choy, green beans}

{Fruit- pears, kiwis, oranges & avocados}

{Jazz apples- one of my fav, broccoli & carrots}
{Usually I buy baby carrots but this 3 lb bag was on sale for $1}

{Whole wheat bread, dried chickpeas & barley}
{Some LGF granola for my giveaway winner!}

{Frozen shrimp}
{Cheese- pepperjack for me, havarti for the hubby}
{wonton wrappers for potstickers- recipe soon!}
{Morningstar black bean burgers- a staple in our freezer}

{Curry paste- our fav kind}
{Soba noodles}
{90 sec brown rice}
{diced jalapenos for an upcoming recipe!}

{Duh}

{Eggs}
{Chobani- I mix 2 scoops of flavored into my bowl of plain}

{Plantains for our buffalo plantains experiment}
{Bananas}
{Discount bananas that I freeze & use for “fro yo”}

{Human snacks}
{Dog snacks}
{Cat snacks}

{Best part of the day- hubby snuck these into the cart 🙂 Love him}

So there ya have it! And yes, I’m fairly certain most people think we’re shopping for a family of 6, when in fact it’s just the two of us 🙂

Now, who’s coming over for dinner?!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Baked Plantains

January 9, 2012 by Lindsay 36 Comments

Hi Friends!

Happy Monday! I have a fun little post for you this today that involves a Cuban meal the hubby and I cooked up last week!

Confession: I’d never had a plantain until last fall when we spent a weekend in Miami (click here if you need a little mental break to enjoy some beach pics) and a friend cooked some up for us!

In case you’re not familiar, plantains look like bananas, and you can buy green plantains or sweet plantains. They’re cooked, instead of eaten raw like bananas…and most often they’re fried. That’s how we enjoyed them the first time. Last week we were shopping at a different grocery store than we normally do and we found some plaintains! Hubby snatched them up and we brought them home. Then we had to figure out what to do with them.

I didn’t necessarily want to eat them fried, so we decided that I would bake some and hubby would fry some so we could compare!

I’m not really sure the proper way to peel a plantain, but I found that if I sliced the top and bottom off, I could pretty much just peel them like a banana. Once peeled, I sliced them into 1/2 inch slices, tossed them in olive oil and placed them on a baking sheet with a silpat. I sprinkled them with some seasonings and stuck them in the oven. After about 10 minutes, I took them out, smashed them flat with the bottom of a glass, flipped them over and put them back in the oven.

Baked Plantains

by Lindsay L

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Keywords: bake appetizer snack side healthy vegetarian plantain Cuban

Ingredients (Serves 2)

2 green plantains
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Peel the plantains and slice into 1/2 inch pieces.

2. Toss in olive oil and place on a greased baking sheet.

3. Sprinkle with seasonings and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.

4. Remove pan from oven, smash slices down with the bottom of a glass.

5. Flip the slices over and return to the oven to bake for 10-15 more minutes until golden brown.

While mine were baking, hubby took a few of the slices and fried them in some canola oil. Meanwhile, I set to work making a quick dinner of red beans and rice to accompany our plantains. I just sauteed some garlic, onion and green pepper in a skillet. I added a can of no-salt-added kidney beans, some brown rice and some cayenne pepper and mixed seasoning that’s similar to McCormicks.

Here are the baked and fried plantains side-by-side:

The verdict? I really liked the baked ones. They got really crunchy and kinda tasted like potato chips. We dipped them in ketchup and then when we ran out of ketchup, we tried dipping them in buffalo wing sauce. Hubby liked the fried ones because they were thicker slices, not smashed. He said they were meaty enough that they would make a good substitute for boneless wings!!

SO, we bought some more plantains and we’re going to bake them again after tossing them in buffalo sauce and then not smash them down! I’ll let you know how it turns out 🙂 Hubby always says that he doesn’t miss eating meat, except for wings…so this could be the substitute we’re looking for!

Here’s the whole meal. It was delicious and a fun departure for the Mexican route we usually go with rice and beans.

So tell me…have you ever had plantains? What’d ya think?!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Today’s Workout:

28 Min Tabata Workout

This workout was challenging. Hubby remarked multiple times that he “hates Dr. Tab” icon smile Fitness Friday 5 & A Vlog Loved it! Another option would be to do all the exercises once and then start over and do the whole cycle 8 times.

Farro With Caramelized Onions & Balsamic Roasted Carrots

January 4, 2012 by Lindsay 15 Comments

Hi Friends!

Happy Wednesday! Here’s a fun new little side dish for you guys. The other night I found myself wanting to cook with farro. I discovered farro last year and fell in love. It’s super healthy, a good source of fiber and protein and nice and chewy.

This week I was trying to decide what to mix it with and I couldn’t get caramelized onions out of my head. After checking the fridge, I noticed we were pretty low on other vegetables…but we did have a bag of baby carrots.

In the winter, I seem to always turn to roasting vegetables…so I immediately thought to roast the carrots. Then I decided I didn’t want them plain…so after they came out of the oven, I sliced them up and drizzled them with some balsamic vinegar.

After a few more last minute additions, this is what I served alongside our black bean burgers.

Farro w/ Caramelized Onions & Roasted Balsamic Carrots

by Lindsay L

Keywords: saute roast side healthy vegetarian vegetables farro feta

Ingredients (Serves 4)

1 1/2 c farro, cooked
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 an onion, sliced into thin rings and cut in half
16 baby carrots
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 c green peas
1/4 c crumbled feta

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the onions, lower the heat and saute slowly until caramelized.

2. Cook the farro according to package directions and set aside.

3. Place the carrots on a baking sheet and roast at 425 degrees F until soft and slightly blackened.

4. Remove the carrots from the oven, slice into bite-sized pieces, drizzle with balsamic vinegar and set aside.

5. Mix the farro, carrots and onions together in a bowl.

6. Saute the peas (if frozen) until warmed through and add to the farro mixture.

7. Add the feta and mix through.

8. Serve warm.

Notes

I served this without a dressing of any kind and we enjoyed it, but if you want a little more moisture, add an extra drizzle of of balsamic after everything is mixed.

You could also make a balsamic & red wine reduction to drizzle over the top.

This was a fun, filling side dish that was a bit different from things I usually make!

Enjoy with some wine like we did 🙂

What’s your favorite winter-inspired side dish?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Chipotle & Rosemary Spiced Nuts

December 28, 2011 by Lindsay 2 Comments

Hi Friends!

Today’s guest post comes from a fellow food blogger that I truly admire. She whips up some of the most delicious recipes (including the one below). I’ve been reading her blog forever and was so excited when she offered to guest post for me!

These Rosemary Chipotle Spiced Nuts are full of flavor and make a great party snack!

A little bit about Brooke:
Brooke Shea blogs at Baking with Basil where she enjoys sharing simple, sugary treats and the occassional savory dish. Her love for baking started young when she would go over to her grandma’s house and dirty her counter up with flour and sugar. She’s been addicted ever since.

Take it away Brooke!

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Hello LGB readers and Happy Holidays!! I am honored to be guest posting on The Lean Green Bean today! When I first told Lindsay I would guest post for her I knew I wanted a recipe that was a little bit sweet and savory. So the days passed and I continued to be stumped on what to make. I sat down Saturday morning in an attempt to clean off the massive amounts of Food Network shows that were recorded and of course the first one I went to was Barefoot Contessa. Ina always has good options to choose from and these spiced nuts were just what I was looking for.

I’m a huge fan of spiced nuts! Especially those ones at the mall or at festivals that have the crunchy cinnamon-y coating on the outside. Oh my! It’s more a dessert than anything but they are soo good. This recipe initially drew me in from the combination of sweet and spicy. As Ina went on to make the recipe, I got pretty excited at the simple list of ingredients (minus the ground chipotle powder which I found at my local supermarket).

These little guys are good!! They are slightly smoky, sweet, salty, and would make a great addition to any cocktail party. Or even a homemade gift for the spiced nut fanatic in your family. Now how easy is that?? 🙂 Be sure to save yourself a few extra because they are addicting and you can’t try just 1 or 2. I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season and have a very Happy New Year!

[print_this]

Chipotle and Rosemary Roasted Nuts
Recipe adapted from Barefoot Contessa

Ingredients

2 tbsp canola oil, divided
3 cups whole cashews, unsalted
2 cups whole almonds, unsalted
2 cups whole pecans, unsalted
1/2 cup walnuts, unsalted
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
3 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
1 1/2 tsp ground chipotle powder
3 tbsp minced fresh rosemary, divided
4 tsp kosher salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour 1 tbsp canola oil onto a large baking pan, spread evenly. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine the cashews, almonds, pecans, walnuts, 1 tbsp canola oil, maple syrup, brown sugar, orange juice, and chipotle powder. Toss to coat the nuts evenly. Add 2 tbsp rosemary and 2 tsp salt and toss again.
3. Spread nut mixture evenly onto prepared pan. Roast nuts for 25 minutes or until the nuts are glazed and golden brown. Stir twice while nuts are roasting. Meanwhile, line 2 pans with parchment paper. Set aside. Remove from oven and sprinkle with 2 tsp kosher salt and 1 tbsp rosemary.
4. Immediately transfer nuts to remaining 2 pans in a single layer, dividing evenly. Be careful not to scrape the extra glaze from the pan onto cooled sheets, this will aid in the nuts not sticking together as much. While nuts are cooling, stir frequently to keep them from clumping together. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Notes:

Feel free to use any combination of nuts that you want. If you do use salted nuts, cut back on the salt in the recipe.
Even with spreading them onto a separate pan to cool, the nuts still stuck together but it did help. Since making them, I’ve read that an egg while wash helps in them not sticking but haven’t tried it yet.
For more/less smoky, spicy flavor, increase or decrease ground chipotle powder by 1/2 tsp.
Ground Chipotle Powder is different from Chili Powder. The Chiptole Powder is what lends to the smoky, sweet flavor.
These are great served warm or at room temperature.

[/print_this]

So there you have it! Do you guys have a favorite kind of spiced nuts?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Mexican Chocolate Peanut Butter

December 27, 2011 by Lindsay 14 Comments

Hi Friends!

Today you’re in for a real treat. On of my best blog friends is here to entertain you. If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you already know how much I love her. Following my best friend and the hubby, she’s one of the best at making me laugh 🙂 So i’m just gonna sit back and let you enjoy her!

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Howdy, y’all! Seasons Greetings from The Smart Kitchen!*
*I have already exceeded my exclamation point quota. Curses!^
^Whoops.

My name is Miss Smart,* and as a food blogger I like to think I’m known for three things:
*OK, it’s actually Sarah. But I like the idea of an alter-ego, and Miss Frizzle was taken.

1. Having a love affair with my food processor
2. Licking my plate in public (and asking people to take pictures of it)
3. Being generally awesome^
^And (usually) having very high self-esteem?*
*Also, if there were a #4, it would be my excessive use of footnotes.

Today, we’re going to focus on #1. There may also be spatula-licking involved, but #3 you’ll have to determine on your own.

Yes, I have a love affair with my food processor. This pretty much stems from the fact that I make ludicrous amounts of hummus and nut butters, in every possible flavor or fashion I concoct in my little ol’ brain.*
*which I actually hope is quite large

I’ve reviewed how to make homemade nut butter a million times on my blog. [OK, maybe three. Whatever.] I’ve offered tips and tricks and suggestions. Still, I find people are scared of the concept.
Maybe it sounds like a really good idea but you always forget to follow through?
Maybe it’s the scary noise made during the initial crunching that frightens roommates and pets?
Maybe it’s the potential for your food processor to start smoking while you are churning away?

Whatever it is, today I’m solving the problem of making your own, flavored peanut butter at home. How? I’m giving you permission to cheat.*
*I’m a teacher. I can do that.

You don’t have to start from scratch all the time…especially not when there companies out there making perfectly affordable (and frankly, quite tasty) creamy peanut butters made from nothing more than peanuts.

From there, the world is your oyster. Or, perhaps I should say, the world is your peanut?*
*Both are in shells? Maybe?

Really, you can go anywhere from here. I get flavor inspiration from cookies, from pie, from seasons, from tea, from other flavored peanut butters…once from a flavor of instant oatmeal! Today, I was inspired by chocolate. Mexican chocolate.

[Source]

Perhaps it was my recent obsession with PB&Co.’s Dark Chocolate Dreams combined with my current habit of putting cinnamon into everything, but the idea of combining cinnamon and chocolate into a delicious peanut butter treat would not get out of my head.

Into the processor went my flavorings and spice: unsweetened cocoa and cinnamon. If I’d had Mexican vanilla–or any vanilla at all*– I probably would have added some of that as well.
*Don’t ask me how that went missing.^
^And no, that was not a lead-in to a story. I really just don’t know.

Then comes the fun part: turning and tasting!

After all, you want to make sure it tastes good before you share it with anyone, right? [Or eat it all yourself. Your choice.]

I find that generally speaking, I have to add WAY more seasoning that I think, especially with cinnamon, but if you put extracts in (like vanilla), it’s easy to go overboard.*
*Like Goldie Hawn, in the 1987 family classic.

Also, unless you’ve started with salted peanut butter, adding a little of your own sodium chloride* generally brings out the flavor.
*That would be salt.^
^ It might taste the same if you get it from the big blue canister…but it’s certainly not as much FUN that way, now is it?

And if you want to sweeten things up, you can give Mr. Snowman a plus one to this Mexican wedding (cake).

And that’s really all there is to it.

Unless of course you want to make a fancy label for it featuring (attempted) recreations of the Mexican flag, chocolate bars, and cinnamon in both its stick and powder form

But while that’s totally optional…

…licking the bowl is not.

———————————-

So tell us, do you make your own nut butter? What’s your favorite flavor combo??

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Today’s Workout:

30 Min Quarter Mile Workout

Inspired by this workout: http://www.fitinheels.com/2011/10/new-workout-obsession-tread.html and this workout:http://www.angrytrainerfitness.com/2011/10/get-with-the-program-the-14-mile-drag-workout/

I ran all of my quarter miles at 7.0 mph and finished the two miles in 17:40. Adding the 8 minutes of exercises and the few minutes of walking warmup I did brought me to just under ½ an hour. I was dripping sweat.

If you want to make this harder you could: run faster, run longer in between exercises, or use dumbells. I did all of the exercises with just body weight and did as many as I could in 1 min. I also didn’t rest at all.

Next time I’m going to add another mile and alternate running my quarter miles at 7.0 and 7.5, or increase my speed each quarter mile for a mile and then start over, pyramid style. I really liked this workout because it got me sweating, kept my heart rate up and the time flew by!

Merry Christmas

December 25, 2011 by Lindsay 3 Comments

Happy Holidays!

From my family to yours 🙂

Wishing you a happy & healthy 2012, filled with love and happiness.

Love,
Lindsay

Pear & Chocolate Bread Pudding

December 24, 2011 by Lindsay 2 Comments

Happy Christmas Eve, friends!

To balance out all the healthy breakfast suggestions from Erin a few days ago, today my friend Megan is here to provide you with a slightly more decadent, but still semi-healthy, suggestion 🙂 You know, to balance things out! I’ve been reading Megan’s blog for a while now. She comes up with amazingly creative recipes, takes gorgeous photos and is currently planning her wedding! I always look forward to reading her blog so I know you’re in for a treat today!

———————————————-

Merry Christmas, everybody! (Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!) Oh, sorry – Christmas movie lines and my real life are starting to blur together in this weird swirl of an alternate reality. Holiday-Autopilot has been set.

So let me try this again – Merry Christmas everybody, I’m Megan from Wanna Be A Country Cleaver! I’m thrilled to be stopping by and visiting with you all and Lindsay today on Lean Green Bean. Lindsay’s blog has been a great resource for me to get inspired by fresh and light cooking (something I’m not exactly known for on my blog) and get a little spring in my step about slimming down the healthy way and eating right as a lifestyle, not just as a diet. Hello, Lentil Meatballs – you are my salvation! (I’m a lentil nerd…fyi)

With the holidays well under way, I wanted to share with you guys a dessert/brunch recipe I made that satisfied my sweet tooth but didn’t leave me feeling guilty and like I needed to do 300 sit-ups as some sort of penance for my food crimes. Today I bring you my recipe for Pear and Chocolate Bread Pudding.

Traditionally bread pudding is laden with butter, heavy cream, extra eggs, and a side of tight jeans and regret. I’ll pass. This one is a lighter recipe that doesn’t forsake taste for health. It’s a win-win! And we all love those, especially when we can have them around the holidays.

Originally I stumbled upon it in one of my Martha Everyday Food magazines, but after flipping through each one I had I couldn’t find it. Pages flipped furiously, my left eye began twitching and exasperation increased. With the angries growing and Hulk bubbling under my skin, I gave up and decided to adapt my Bourbon Bread Pudding recipe for this adventure in an attempt to replicate the inspired recipe.

Growing up bread pudding was that food my mom inexplicably adored. Weirdo.

It wasn’t until the last year or two that it’s come full circle and I realize that I am becoming my mother.

This stuff is the ISH and I now no longer make fun of my mother for her bread pudding fascination. For other things, yes. But this, no.

Bread pudding is warm, cozy and nostalgic..

After preheating the oven to 350F, slice your bread into 1/2 inch slices, width wise across the whole loaf. They will be long and skinny slices.

I’ve always known cubed bread, but with pears in this recipe it seemed appropriate to slice it all and not to mention – gorgeous.

The pears were each sliced in halved, the cores removed and then thinly sliced into 1/4 inch slices.

Into a 13×9 inch baking dish sprayed with Pam, lay out each slice of bread with two slices of pear into between. Lather, rinse, repeat until the whole dish is crammed full. There is no need for daintiness here, the more cramped this dish is – the better.

Once each bit of pear and bread is intertwined and nestled cozily together get to work on your wet ingredients.

Into a large bowl whisk together 4 cups milk, 1 tablespoon vanilla, 3 eggs, and spices. *Sidebar* For all that is holy, use something other than fat free milk. By default bread pudding is not a healthy dish, but cutting out all that delicious fat is a sacrilege. Don’t anger the bread pudding gods. They don’t like when you mess with them. Just bow and gracefully accept their will. It’s tasty will.

Now for the fun part – pour the whole lot over your bread and let it soak in and get all soppy.

Lastly, sprinkle over your chocolate chips and you’re ready to bake. 45 minutes and done.

Not only does this look impressive when all baked, but it tastes even better! So if you need a dish for Christmas morning breakfast, or a warm dessert, this is it.

Printer Friendly Recipe Here!

So there you have it – a semi-healthy and utterly delicious brunch dish that will hopefully be served for years to come. Thank you again to Lindsay for letting me stop by for a visit and for everyone in the great blogosphere- Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and all the best for a healthy New Year!

~Megan Pence
Country Cleaver

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So tell us, do you like bread pudding? Sweet or savory?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Today’s Workout:

Arms & Legs Strength Workout

Christmas Day Breakfast Ideas

December 22, 2011 by Lindsay 8 Comments

Hi Friends!

Today’s guest post comes from my awesome friend Erin. She’s here to provide you with some healthy Christmas Morning breakfast ideas! She writes an awesome blog and is always around to tweet me workout motivation! Plus, she’s one of the most positive people I know 🙂 Be sure to hop on over and check out her blog!

———————————————

Hello Lean Green Bean readers! Erin here from Creative Soul in Motion, my home in the blogging world where I chat about living a healthy, active and mindful life that is full of adventure! I am so excited to guest blog for Lindsay, especially since I LOVE being part of her Foodie Penpal program (thanks Lindsay!). Anyways…

I love Christmas. When my brother and I were little I remember devising our Christmas morning plan on Christmas eve, usually on an etch-a-sketch. We would get up really early, around 5 AM, and sneak into the living room where we would cuddle on the couch and gaze at all of the presents. It’s one of my favorite childhood memories and honestly is more memorable than any gift I ever received.

But, if you’re anything like me and my family, once everyone is up Christmas goes by in a blur of chocolate, presents, candy, more presents, cookies and even more presents and breakfast isn’t even taken into consideration. Because really, isn’t it more fun to open gifts than it is to stop and make breakfast? However, over the last few years I’ve realized that not eating breakfast on Christmas does not set me up for a good day. In fact, whenever I skip breakfast I end up shaky, grumpy and generally regretting it by mid-morning.

That’s why I’m giving you some quick and easy but healthy ideas for your Christmas morning breakfast. So we’ll all be fueled up for a full day of festivities!

Easy and Healthy Christmas Morning Breakfast Ideas

Oatmeal with cranberries and nuts

Alright, alright, I know I talk about oatmeal a lot BUT it’s because it’s so good and so healthy for you! If you make it overnight, like I usually do, it’ll give your home a wonderful smell of cinnamon and goodness.

Cereal with a big smoothie

This is my go to breakfast throughout the year (except for winter time) and always gives me tons of energy throughout the year. Also, it takes literally 3 minutes to throw together.

Fruit salad with toast

This is a great choice for a large group! You can cut up some oranges, apples, pears and grapes, toss them with lemon juice the night before and have a beautiful fruit salad. It’s good to have a whole grain along with the fruit to give your body something that will last a little longer so you can make it through all the presents.

Toast with peanut butter and banana

This breakfast is going to give you fuel you up without slowing you down. Sometimes I like to slice up the bananas and apples and layer them on top of the peanut butter – trust me, it’s really yummy!

Pancakes!!

Now, if you have a little extra time and can hold yourself off from tearing open presents I’d suggest making something fun like pancakes with hash browns!! It’s my favorite weekend breakfast and a nice way to celebrate the holiday.

Well, I know the big day is quickly approaching and I wish you, your family and your loved ones the merriest Christmas. And I’d love if you came over and checked out my blog and said hello!!————————————-So there you have it! Now it’s your turn. Tell us what your family eats on Christmas Morning?!?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffles

December 21, 2011 by Lindsay 8 Comments

These Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffles are the perfect holiday dessert. Made with just four simple ingredients, they’re easy to make and deliciously rich. Roll them in graham crackers or drizzle with chocolate to make them a little fancier!

*Post and recipe updated 12/2017*

Hi Friends!

The holiday season is upon us. If you’re looking for a super easy and delicious dessert for your next holiday party, these Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffles are just the ticket!

I’m not a huge chocolate person, if I’m being honest, but these truffles are right up my alley. They’re the perfect blend of chocolate and peanut butter and just the perfect amount of sweet thanks to the dates and graham crackers.

You could definitely eat them plain, but it’s much more fun to jazz them up a little bit! I chose to roll some of mine in graham crackers and drizzle some with white chocolate. You could also roll some in cocoa powder or dip in dark chocolate!

Here’s the super easy recipe:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles

Print Recipe

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Author: Lindsay
Yield: Makes 16 truffles 1x

Ingredients

Scale

1 cup dates (pitted and roughly chopped)
1/2 cup peanut butter
6 sheets graham crackers
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
extra graham crackers & white chocolate for decorating

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Add dates and graham crackers to a food processor and process until well chopped.

Add cocoa powder and peanut butter and process until combined.

Form mixture into balls. Squeeze tightly to make sure they stick together. If necessary, you can add a teaspoon or two of water.

Roll in crushed graham crackers or drizzle with chocolate.

Notes

Other decoration options include dipping in chocolate, rolling in cocoa powder, etc.

Time to get busy finding a party to take these to! If you want to add a little crunch, you could add some chopped peanuts to the mix. I like to keep mine in the fridge and eat them cold!

[clickToTweet tweet=”Impress your holiday guests with these Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffles!” quote=”Impress your holiday guests with these Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffles!”]

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Playing Catchup

December 20, 2011 by Lindsay 18 Comments

Today’s post is going to be a bit of a mish mash of random things I wanted to fill you in on! You may have noticed some little changes popping up around the blog and they’re all super exciting so I wanted to tell you about them!

1) See that pink Fitfluential badge over on the righthand side of the screen? I’m proud to announce that I’m one of the newest Fitfluential Ambassadors! To learn more about Fitfluential as a company, click here. It’s basically a collection of health and fitness bloggers and enthusiasts that provide motivation, support and inspiration to fellow ambassadors and others on their fitness journey. It also connects health and wellness brands with these ambassadors. I think it’s a great company and am so excited to be a part of it. My fellow ambassadors already provide me with so much support and encouragement on twitter and through my blog posts that I’m thrilled to be officially part of the club. If you’re on twitter and looking for some advice/motivation/support, check out the #fitfluential hashtag! Oh- and I have my own little page on their website! Check it out.

2. You may notice that there are now two tabs across the top of the page that say Recipes. Some changes are in the works for that page as well. As of yesterday, this amazing service called Recipage, created by fellow food blogger Emily at The Daily Garnish, is now FREE!! I’ve been thinking about using it for a while now and absolutely jumped on board yesterday after I heard the announcement. It’s going to be a bit of a long process changing all my recipes over to the new format but in the end it’ll be much easier to search for recipes and I love the new look and format of it! If you want to see what it will eventually look like, click the second recipes tab to see the ones I’ve done so far. I’ll leave the original recipe tab up until I finish transferring all of the recipes.

3. Remember that contest I bugged you guys to vote in a million times? Well it paid off! I’m officially a Love Blogger for Love Grown Foods!

Thank you SO SO MUCH to every single person that voted. This means I’ll be able to give away lots of LOVE in the coming year so get excited. And be sure to check out LGF’s Facebook page to see some of my fellow Love Bloggers and check out their blogs!

4. Starting tomorrow I’m taking a short little break from blogging. I’ll still be around reading blogs and on twitter but I’ll also be trying to soak up some family time around the holidays. I hope you all will be doing the same! I have some really delicious guest posts lined up for you guys from some of my favorite bloggers so be sure to stop by and check those out!!

Happy Holidays everyone! Thanks so much for reading this little blog of mine 🙂

–Lindsay–

Today’s Workout:

Quick Arm Workout

Abs: 2 min plank, 1 min plank, 100 crunches, 100 reverse crunches

Homemade Christmas

December 19, 2011 by Lindsay 25 Comments

So this year I tried a bunch of new Christmas Cookie recipes….but none of them were really my own, so I thought I’d just do a quick little round-up post so you can see all the goodies I made 🙂

As you can see, I was a busy little bee 🙂

1) Peppermint Shortbread- I used this recipe and subbed peppermint extract for vanilla and added crushed candy canes.

2) Reese’s Stuffed Peanut Butter M&M Cookies- I used this recipe and subbed m&ms for chocolate chips.

3) Cinnamon Roll Cookies- I used this recipe and subbed plain almonds for the nuts and left off the glaze.

4) Chocolate Caramelitas- I made these for the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. I used this recipe with skim milk, chocolate chips, m&ms and pecans.

5) Molasses Cookies- I used this recipe and left out the cloves.

6) Peppermint Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies- I used this recipe and subbed applesauce for 1/2 the butter, decreased both sugars by 1/4 cup, used m&ms instead of white chocolate and added extra oats.

7) Toffee Chocolate Squares- I used this recipe but used half the butter, left out the nuts, added m&ms and spread the chocolate chips out when they melted.

8 ) Fudgy Cookies w/ Reese’s- I used this recipe but subbed skim milk for yogurt and added chopped Reese’s.

Put them all together and you’ve got one heck of a cookie plate to give to people!

This year, I was also looking for ideas for Christmas presents that I could make at home. I decided I wanted to make some homemade gift baskets.

Several weeks ago I started searching for ideas. The first one I decided on was homemade vanilla extract! As I kept searching, I ended up with a decent sized list and I was ready to get to work.

Here’s what I ended up putting together:

Included in the baskets above, which I made for my managers at work and a couple friends:

-A loaf of homemade bread
-A loaf of quickbread (either pumpkin or banana) in a cute disposable miniloaf pan
-A ball jar full of homemade granola
–Homemade chapstick
–Homemade Moisturizing Lemon Hand Scrub
–Peppermint Bark in a Cookie Cutter –Homemade Vanilla Extract

These turned out to be a huge hit! They were relatively inexpensive AND they were fun to put together 🙂 A few pieces of ribbon that I had laying around, some scrapbook paper cut with fun scissors for labels, cardboard boxes covered in wrapping paper and stuffed with tissue paper, some ball jars I had in the basement and a few $1.00 plastic containers.

Do you give homemade gifts?

Happy Holidays!
–Lindsay–

Today’s Workout:

I hopped on the treadmill this morning and walked another 3 miles. For the first 20 minutes I walked and read at 3.5 mph, incline 7.0. From minutes 20-25 I bumped it up to 3.7 mph. Then I put the book down and bumped it up to 4.0 mph. When I hit 2 miles, I increased my speed to 4.2 mph and finished 3 miles in 47:05.

After a short break for lunch, I headed back to the basement and did a new 100 workout. I modified the one I’ve been doing on Mondays: http://www.healthywithheather.com/2011/11/100-workout-strength/

And made it all legs.

Here’s what it looked it:

100 Workout-Legs

This took me 23 minutes. I used weights for the 100 squats, deadlifts and calf raises but did the rest with just bodyweight. My goal was to finish in under 25 minutes.

To You, Love Me

December 17, 2011 by Lindsay 13 Comments

Hi!

Has anyone told you lately that your actions make you beautiful?

That there’s no magic number to tell you how healthy you are, or how much you’re worth?

That your mind should be your best friend not your worst enemy?

That there’s more than one way to be beautiful?

That you should spend your time focusing on how amazing you are instead of how much you want to be like someone else?

How important it is to live in the moment?

That just waking up every day and staying true to who you are is a huge accomplishment?

That everyone makes mistakes, but that doesn’t mean you have to let them define you?

That strong is beautiful?

That there’s somebody out there that wants to be just like you?

That you can always, always, always

No? Well then I’m glad I took the time to remind you.

Love,

Today’s Workout:
I didn’t have much time before I had to be ready to go out to dinner but I still wanted to get some weights in, so I put together a 20 minute circuit with one minute intervals. 10 minutes legs, 5 minutes arms, 5 minutes abs.

2o Min Circuit Workout

Do each exercise for one minute and move immediately to the next.
To make it slightly easier, take a 15 second break between each exercise.

Fitness Friday #2

December 16, 2011 by Lindsay 24 Comments

It’s Friday!

To celebrate, we’re going to kick this post off with a little confession. Are you ready?

I’ve been, for the most part, wearing the same sports bras since high school. I know, I know, please don’t judge me. They’ve literally been through thousands of volleyball practices, gym sessions and loads of laundry. They’re faded and let’s face it…old.

SO when Champion offered to send me a few new ones to try, you’d better believe I was all over that offer! They arrived earlier this week and if you follow me on twitter, you may have seen my tweet about my exercise motivation arriving via mail!

Since I pretty much live in workout clothes all day, every day, even though I usually don’t exercise until late at night, I immediately put this one on. And lemme just say, it’s awesome. And after my terribly sweaty running workout…you know what? It was still awesome.

I love love love that they’re moisture wicking! And they’re tagless…which is awesome because almost every tag annoys me so much that I cut it out, and then it still itches, or I can’t remember how to wash whatever I’m wearing….anyways, tag free is the way to be. And finally, I love the thin straps. I’m kind of obsessed with this style…fashionable AND effective.

Fact: Sepia photos make your muscles look better!

The next day I tried out this one which was also great. Mine is plain black, but this style is super fun because it’s reversible and they have several different ones with two colors. I’ve yet to try the third one, but i’m sure i will love it equally as much 🙂

Bottom line is, buy yourself new workout clothes….don’t wait 10 years like I did. But you know what, those 10 year old sports bras? Champion. They’re built to last. I’m just sayin….Now if i could just find some workout pants that I liked this much!

And now for a look at this week’s workouts!

Dec 9^th– http://iowagirleats.com/2009/12/16/a-quad-burning-gasp-inducing-morning/

Only had to make a few minor changes. Mine looked like this:

26 min interval run
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Total: 2.5 miles in 26 minutes

Even though the total rest day did me a world of good, I was still a little tired so on the way back down the pyramid, I split the recovery runs into one minute walk, one minute jog…instead of 2 minutes of jogging. Then I amped it up at the end with 2 minutes of running at 6.5 and walked an extra minute to get to 2.5 miles. I really liked this one because it changed up the speed and intervals but it was easy to follow and remember when to change speeds and heights. Next time I do this one I will eliminate at least 2 of the walking minutes.

Dec 10^th– I used this workout generator (which is AWESOME by the way- Amy is a genius) for inspiration & put together a bunch of moves to make my own workout.

[print_this] wrk2 [/print_this]

This took me about 30 minutes. The stability ball stuff was the hardest because I hadn’t used it in a long time.

Dec 11^th– http://www.yourinnerskinny.ca/25-minute-bodyweight-workout/

I found this workout thanks to Lindsay who tweeted about how awesome it was. Without an interval timer, I decided it would be too much of a hassle to switch between my timer and the list of things I was supposed to be doing so I did reps instead of time, and knocked off the last set to make it still take 25 minutes.

Mine looked like this:

[print_this] wrk3 [/print_this]

This took me exactly 25 minutes. I didn’t rest between any of the moves within each set and rested no more than 30 seconds between sets. It definitely worked up a sweat and it was just bodyweight so there were no weights to worry about. I’ll be doing this one again. I want to do it the original way with timed intervals and see which way I like better.

Dec 12^th– http://www.healthywithheather.com/2011/11/100-workout-strength/

Did my favorite Monday workout again. Shaved another 4 minutes off my time so took 32 minutes. I used 10 lb dbs for everything except the deadlifts where I used a 15lb. Took it a little easy on the weights because my back has been a little sore. I used to have major problems with my back when I played volleyball and rowed so I try to pay attention when it hurts now. As much as I like this workout, there are a few moves I’m not crazy about so I think I may switch it up just a bit next week. No quad pain this time but I noticed my knees were sore walking around the rest of the night.

Dec 13^th– much needed rest day!

Dec 14^th– Made up my own treadmill workout. I wanted to force myself to run for an extended period of time and recover to at 6.0 instead of walking like I have been…but still needed intervals to pass the time more quickly.

My workout looked like this:

[print_this]

Treadmill:
2 min @ 4.0
1 min @ 6.0
1 min @ 6.5
1 min @ 7.0
Repeat running cycle 5 more times to get to 20 min

Abs:
25 stability ball tucks
25 crunches
25 reverse crunches
Repeat once

Treadmill:
2 min @ 6.5
2 min @ 6.5

Repeat running cycle 3 more times
2 more minutes at 6.5 to get to 10 min

[/print_this]

Treadmill Total: 3.12 miles, 30 minutes

I really liked this workout. Changing the speed every minute helped pass the time quickly and I pushed myself to use the 6.0 to recover instead of go down to 4.0. This was the longest amount of steady running I’d done in a long time. Truthfully, I was ready to be done after the first 20 min run and the abs….but I pushed myself to get back on and do another mile.

And then I tweeted this:

And I truly believe it. I’m making it a goal to push myself just a little bit further when I feel like I’m done with each workout. Doesn’t always have to be as big as a mile…could just be 25 extra crunches. Every little bit counts!

Dec 15^th– Made up a weights workout of my own. Combined a lot of moves that are used on various days in the Jillian Michael’s Slimdown App which I have a free trial of.

Here’s how it looked:

[print_this] wrk61 [/print_this]

This one was fun because I did some moves I’d never done before like split squats and sumo squats. I also really pushed myself on the arm weights and I could definitely feel it by the end. It took me about 50 minutes.

So there ya have it! A week’s worth of workouts in Lindsay’s world.

One thing I’m finally getting the hang of this time around with exercise is the difference between tired and lazy.

When you’re sitting on the couch telling yourself you’re too tired to work out & you just wanna sit there and watch one more show, or read one more blog, you’re not tired, you’re being lazy. GO WORKOUT!

When you’re sitting on the couch and the mere though of trying to get up and go to the basement/gym/treadmill literally makes you want to cry out in pain or collapse from exhaustion, you’re not being lazy, you’re tired. Your muscles are screaming for time to rest and recover. LISTEN TO THEM.

There’s nothing wrong with a rest day when you really need it.

So tell me, what’s the best workout you did this week? Got any good ones for me to bookmark?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Today’s Workout:

25 Min Incline Run/Walk

I went 2.06 miles.

Running on an incline is hard for me even when I’m not tired so 6 mph was plenty fast enough to challenge me. I tried bumping it up to 6.5 for one minute and quickly realized I wouldn’t make it through the workout at that speed so I went back down. 3 minutes is a long time for me to run continuously at an incline so the running intervals were definitely challenging. I was dripping sweat when this was over!

Sweet & Spicy Shrimp with Soba Noodles

December 13, 2011 by Lindsay 21 Comments

Ready in 15 minutes, this Sweet & Spicy Shrimp with Soba Noodles is a quick and easy weeknight dinner recipe that the whole family will love!

Ready in 15 minutes, this Sweet & Spicy Shrimp with Soba Noodles is a quick and easy weeknight dinner recipe that the whole family will love!

**Note- photos and post were updated 10/22/15**

Hi Friends!

I first made this dinner back in 2011 and since then it has become one of my go-to dinner recipes. It’s quick, it’s healthy and it’s easy to customize with whatever I have on hand. I usually use shrimp because they cook so quickly, but I’ve also made it with fresh chicken, or as a way to use up leftover chicken or pork.

You can use whatever veggies you have on hand. I usually use a mix of fresh and frozen and my standard choices are onions, red pepper and broccoli but I’ve also used corn, green beans, carrots, etc.

I’ve also made this with zoodles instead of soba noodles! (Check out my 6 Quick and Easy Zoodles Recipes).

Ready in 15 minutes, this Sweet & Spicy Shrimp with Soba Noodles is a quick and easy weeknight dinner recipe that the whole family will love!

Here’s the recipe…and I use that term loosely because I never measure when making this. It’s very forgiving 🙂