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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

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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
[print_this][/print_this]

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!

SRC: Orange Cranberry Chocolate Chip Scones

December 15, 2011 by Lindsay 11 Comments

Hi Friends!

I’m guest-posting today for Diana over at Veggie Next Door while she backpacks across Asia! I’m sharing my Lentil Pot Pie recipe, one of my absolute favorite vegetarian meals ever. Click here to check it out!!

**IMPORTANT NOTE: OK, so SRC got canceled for this month while they make some behind the scenes changes, but I was so on top of things that I’d already made my recipe AND written my post, so I’m not changing anything. I’ll just let you read exactly what I would have published. It’s a delicious recipe 🙂 **

Can you believe it’s time for another Secret Recipe Club post already?!

This month I was assigned to Barb’s blog over at Mom’s Fridge! She had tons of recipes to look through and I had fun browsing. These Orange Cranberry Scones jumped out at me, mainly because I LOVE scones but I always find myself making blueberry. Time to branch out!

I just made a few changes to her recipe. I used white whole wheat flour, added chocolate chips, used clementine zest instead of orange and left off the glaze!

[print_this]
Orange Cranberry Chocolate Chip Scones
Prep time: 10 min
Bake time: 15 min
Makes: 12 scones

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup butter (cut into small pieces)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 c dark chocolate chips
2 teaspoons orange or clementine zest
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Mix together flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until mixture resembles course crumbs. Stir in cranberries and chocolat chips.
3. In small bowl, mix buttermilk, egg and zest. Add all at once to dry ingredients, mix until just combined. Put mixture on floured board and pat into a circle. Cut into 12 triangles and place on ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle with a tiny bit of sugar.
4. Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown.
[/print_this]

These turned out great! Not too sweet & packed full of goodies.

What’s your favorite kind of scone?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–
>Today’s Workout:

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 🙂

Sweet & Spicy Shrimp with Soba Noodles

Sweet and Spicy Shrimp with Soba Noodles 2

Print Recipe

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Ready in just 15 minutes, this recipe for Sweet & Spicy Shrimp with Soba Noodles is easy to customize and perfect for busy nights.

Author: Lindsay L
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Yield: 3-4 1x

Ingredients

Scale

2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 cups broccoli, chopped
1 pound shrimp
3 Tbsp Thai chili sauce
juice from one lemon
1 – 2 tsp sriracha
buckwheat soba noodles (I use about half the box)

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Cook soba noodles according to package directions and set aside.
Add garlic and vegetables to a large pan and saute over medium heat for 5-10 minutes or until desired texture is reached.
Add remaining ingredients to pan and cook another 5 minutes or until shrimp are cooked through.
Add noodles to pan, toss and serve!

Notes

Feel free to add additional veggies or sub in your favorites. [br]Adjust amount of sriracha to fit your desired spice level.[br]Try serving over zoodles to change things up![br]Also works well with chicken or tofu

I often double this recipe because we love the leftovers!

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!

And it doesn’t always look this pretty on my plate, as you can see by the original photo below 🙂

{original photo}

[Tweet “Sweet and Spicy Shrimp with Soba Noodles via @leangrnbeanblog – the perfect weeknight dinner!”]

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Cookie Swap: Chocolate Caramelitas

December 12, 2011 by Lindsay 33 Comments

When it comes to holiday cookies, it’s easy to fall into a rut and make the same ones over and over again every year. I’ve been trying to challenge myself over the past couple of years to try some new recipes and I’ve been doing a pretty good job. This year, The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap seemed like a really fun way to continue challenging myself, while also getting to try some new cookies! Plus, getting 3 packages in the mail is right up my alley since i LOVE getting mail.

I spent a lot of time looking at Christmas cookie websites trying to find a fun new recipe to try and when I came across these, I immediately fell in love.

I’m a sucker for pretty much any baked good with oats in it, and I kept finding myself being drawn to recipes with pecans…which is weird, because I never buy them. I also never buy caramels. I didn’t even know they had vanilla flavored caramels. But indeed they do.

A few notes:
-The original recipe says this makes 48 bars…but unless you’re cutting them into like microscopic 1 inch squares, it does not make that many. Mine made just over 2 dozen and then I made another 1/2 batch so that I would have enough.
-I added Christmas m&ms just because they’re super festive and I love them.
-I used skim milk. I think any kind would do.
-I ran a little low on caramels on the last batch so I melted some butterscotch chips in with the caramel and it worked really well.
-LET THESE COOL COMPLETELY before trying to remove them from the pan or they will be a hot, gooey mess.

Chocolate Caramelitas

by Lindsay L

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook Time: 30 min

Keywords: bake dessert oats chocolate caramel Christmas bars

Ingredients (9×13 pan)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 c vegetable oil
8 oz vanilla caramels, unwrapped
3 Tbsp skim milk
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 c m&ms
1 cup chopped pecans

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 13x9x2-inch baking pan with foil, extending foil over edges of pan. Grease foil; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, soda, and salt. Add melted butter and oil and mix until crumbly. Set aside half of the mixture for the topping. Press the other half into the bottom of prepared baking pan.

3. In a small microwave-safe bowl, combine caramels and milk. Microwave on 50 percent power (medium) for 4 minutes or until caramels are melted and mixture is smooth, stirring twice.

4. Sprinkle chocolate chips, m&ms and pecans over crust in pan. Drizzle evenly with melted caramel mixture and top with reserved crumb mixture.

5. Bake for 25-30minutes or until the top is light golden brown. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Use the foil to lift uncut bars out of pan. Cut into bars.

*Optional: these can also be made with 1 cup butter instead of 1/2 c butter, 1/2 c oil.

These are definitely going on the to make again list!

And here’s a look at the cookies I got!

Walnut Cookies from Melissa @ I Was Born to Cook
Peanut Butter Blossoms from Dr. Hbar- Chronicles of an Academic Foodie
Almond Joy to the Worlds from I don’t know who! There was no card inside!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Today’s workout:

Lollihop

December 10, 2011 by Lindsay 11 Comments

Hi Friends!

I’ve got an awesome company to tell you about today! Have you heard of Lollihop? It’s essentially a program where you pay a monthly subscription fee and in return, they send you a box of healthy snack samples each month!

——————————————–

From their website:

The membership.

Lollihop is a monthly, 6-, or 12-month membership to the best of healthy eating delivered to your doorstep. That means that for as low as $18.95 a month, you can discover a fun and simple way to eat healthier via our monthly snack box. Along with our box filled with a diverse selection of wonderful snacks, you’ll also get tips and articles from our nutritionist to explain how to best incorporate the snacks into your day and feel better about how you eat everyday. There’s no catch, no hidden fees, and free shipping. You’ll hear from any of our current members from all around the US, Lollihop is the best way to kickstart your healthier lifestyle today! So what are you waiting for?

The box.

Each monthly box includes at least eight organic and healthy snacks picked by our nutritionists. We source snacks from all different places, and work with brands big and small. The one thing they all have in common is that they are good and wholesome. What does that mean to us? Our team of nutritionists have a set of guidelines that they check every ingredient and company against, and if the label doesn’t provide enough information, you can bet they will go directly to the source to find their answer. Snacks are hand-chosen for flavor, quality, nutrients, texture, and that thrilling something extra that great food always has. Your box goes out on the 15th of each month, rain or shine.

The good life.

That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Lollihop is on a mission to discover and try new snacks and new meals — ones that fit easily into daily life — and share what we find. We truly do love bringing fun and healthy eating to all!

———————————————————–

Over the past month or so, Lollihop reviews started showing up on a few of the blogs I read…Not one to miss out on the fun, I asked them if I could see for myself what all the fuss was about. They immediately offered to send me a box and about 2 days later it was sitting on my doorstep!

On the day I got my box, I had just gotten home from a super long day of studying and taking a really hard test. Seeing it on my steps totally made my day! I was STARVING and immediately dug into the box!

They send you a little card that tells you about the theme of the box. This month was whole grains, so it shows you whether each item is a good source of fiber, vitamins and minerals and/or healthy fats.

I immediately grabbed the Food Should Taste Good Chips! Love them 🙂

Later that night I tried the Popcorners and lemme just say: ADDICTED. They might be my new favorite snack. In fact, I had just so happened to have a larger bag of them sitting in the pantry from Sarah Smart Kitchen that I had yet to try. After trying the sample bag, we opened the big bag the next morning. I went to work and when I came home, the whole bag was GONE! Hubby ate them all. I think it’s safe to say we both liked them.

Next up, the Somersaults!

Like I mentioned in my last WIAW post, these were a bit too salty for me. But now that I know they exist, I’m definitely going to try out some of the other flavors!

The larabar made a great post-workout snack and I threw the Kind bar and the Gnu bar in my school bag to eat during class.

Best of all, I still have some stuff I haven’t tried yet!

Overall I was really impressed with my Lollihop box. The only downfall is that they’re a little bit expensive (in my opinion). I can’t afford to subscribe myself, but here’s the cool thing…you can give gift subscriptions! What a great Christmas present these would be!!!

If you’re able, I’d highly recommend subscribing to Lollihop! It’s the perfect way to learn about some fun, new healthy snacks. If you subscribe, tell them I sent you by using the referral code LINDSAY-LEANGREENBEAN.

Have you tried Lollihop? What’d you think? If you haven’t tried, is this something you’d consider subscribing too??

Happy Saturday 🙂
–Lindsay–

Today’s Workout:

3 Set Legs/Arms/Abs Workout + 1 mile run

Took 30 min.

Fitness Friday

December 9, 2011 by Lindsay 24 Comments

Hi Friends!

We’re going to do something a little different around here today. Hope you like it. I know at least one friend is looking forward to it (Hi Britta!!) Over the past few months I’ve been posting some inspirational workout mantras, usually over the weekend to help encourage you to exercise…but I’ve never really talked about exercise on my blog. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and since I’m studying to become an RD, I strongly believe in finding a healthy balance between eating well and exercising.

Growing up I was always an athlete. I played volleyball, soccer, softball, basketball, swam on a swim team, ran track….you name it, I did it. As I got to high school, I narrowed it down to volleyball and played pretty seriously year-round. In college, I did crew (rowing) for the first couple years. Then, somewhere around my junior year I kinda fell off the wagon. I wasn’t eating right and was having a lot of fun, so even though I would head to the gym occasionally, it wasn’t really doing much.

After I graduated, I got serious about eating right AND I started exercising. Then, over the next few years I went through exercise cycles. I’ve kept my eating pretty much on track but when it came to exercise, I’d go through a few months where I was really into it, and then I’d get sick, or busy, or just stop caring and I’d do nothing for a while. Between the hubby and I, we wasted a lot of money on unused gym memberships…

But over the last year or so I’ve slowly gotten my act together. Especially since late spring. My gym membership expired, so I started running outside and I’ve been running pretty consistently since March. And that was all well and good for the cardio side of things. But I knew something was still missing- weights.

I’ve lifted weights before. I took a class in high school, I had lift for volleyball, I’ve been to personal trainers…I know how to do it correctly. In fact, I used to be pretty freakin’ strong. And being a nutrition major, I know how important it is. But quite frankly, I just haven’t felt like doing it for ohhh, the past 6 years or so.

Good news is, I’ve fallen in love with weights again. You may have noticed that as soon as Thanksgiving hit this year, all sorts of exercise posts started popping up about avoiding holiday weight gain. A lot of bloggers, like Samantha & Kristin, are hosting awesome exercise challenges. I don’t know what it was about this year…I read these same kinds of posts last year…but this year I got the spark! Two weeks ago I decided I was going to make exercise a habit again. And not just cardio…weights too.

I’ve challenged myself to break a sweat every day until the new year and so far I’m on a roll. I also started doing something I haven’t done in a long time….I’ve been writing (well, typing) down my workouts. Mostly for myself, but also so I can share them with you! I’ve had about 1.8 million workouts bookmarked from other bloggers and I thought this challenge would be the perfect excuse to start going through and actually doing them!

So here you go…my first two weeks of workouts. I’m literally just copying and pasting what I sat down and wrote after each workout so it’s kinda like an exercise journal. There are links to the original workouts, plus how I modified them, how far I went and how long it took me. I’ve been trying to do two more intense strength training workouts a week, plus a few full body and some running. I’ve found that circuits and intervals work much better for me than just getting on the treadmill and running 5 miles. It helps keep my attention span and passes the time quickly. I’ve also been using Saturday as an active rest day, typically to walk the dogs. But don’t let that fool you- they provide quite the workout!

Nov 28^th– http://www.healthywithheather.com/2011/11/100-workout-strength/

Took about 45 minutes. Used 15 lb dbs for the 100 squats and 8lb dbs for the rest of the workout. Exhausted by the end!

Nov 29^th– http://www.eatingbirdfood.com/2011/05/protein-overnight-oats-and-incline-walking-hiit/

Changes- after incline 15 at minute 17, I went back down to 12, 8 & 4 and then walked two extra minutes at incline 2 to get to 1.5 miles.
took 22 minutes

Nov 30^th– http://www.sweettoothsweetlife.com/workout-log/30-minute-speedy-interval-run/

Changes- had to modify this one since 8.0mph was as fast as I’d gone on a treadmill and didn’t want to push myself too much. Mine looked like this:

2.62 miles, 30 minutes. If I did it again, I would cut the warmup and cooldown to 4 minutes and add and on two extra running intervals, plus cut the two 2 min walking breaks down to one minute each. Could easily reach 3 miles next time. Still super sore from Monday’s workout so taking it a little easy.

December 1^st– made up my own supersets workout!

Took about 35 minutes, sweaty by the end. Tried to think of two supersets where you could do the exercises simultaneously and three where you alternated

December 2^nd– http://www.sweettoothsweetlife.com/2011/11/19/20-minute-give-it-your-all-hiit-workout/

Modified: Again, I didn’t want to run at anything about 8 so after confirming that by running the first interval at 8.5, I dropped all of the 8.5s down to 8.0. I also added an incline for the warmup and added a couple walking breaks.

Mine looked like this:

*incline 8.0

Although I wasn’t nearly as sore as I thought I’d be when I got up this morning, as soon as I got on the treadmill and started running I could tell how tired my legs were. I wanted to bring the 6.5 down to 6.0 so many times but I compromised by giving myself two walking breaks instead. Near the end I could tell I wouldn’t get to 2 miles if I walked the last 3 minutes so I walked one and ran two.

2.00 miles in 20 minutes

Considering I walked 5 of them, I’m pretty happy with that! Next time I do this I’ll try to eliminate the two walking breaks or increase them from 4.0 to 6.0

Dec 3^rd– Active rest day. Walked the dogs 2.35 miles in 32 minutes.

Dec 4^th– http://insweetnessandinhealth.com/2011/12/04/incline-pyramid-interval-workout/

Modified this to make it a bit harder. I knew walking at 3.5 would be too slow for me so I bumped them all up to 4. I decided to challenge myself and run them all at 6 instead of decreasing speed. Mine looked like this:

Pyramid Interval Treadmill Workout

2.0 miles in 25 minutes. This wasn’t the hardest workout ever but it definitely got me sweating. I could really feel my legs using different muscles than when I run at no incline. The 4 minutes at the 10 incline were tough!

Dec 5^th– http://www.healthywithheather.com/2011/11/100-workout-strength/

Loved this one so much last week I did it again this Monday. Took me 36 minutes. 10 minutes faster than last week. Used 10 lb dumbells the whole time. My arms were feeling it! My right quad was a little tight. Hurt on some of the lunges but pushed through! On the chest flies and back flies I did arms and legs separately.

Dec 6^th– intended to do this workout: http://www.faithfitnessfun.com/14123/a-blessing-in-disguise/

Could tell as soon as I started that my body is too tired. Adjusting to all this working out it catching up to me so I adapted. Wanted to get my muscles moving. I was sore today but not nearly as sore as I was after last Monday’s workout. My upper body was more sore and I could definitely tell I used 10 lb dbs instead of 8. Today’s run was long intervals and it was BORING. They seemed to last forever and it made the run go slowly. I could tell I was tired because running at 6.0 mph was hard for me and that’s usually my slow slow pace. I wanted to stop so many times during the last 6.7 interval but I knew it was mental so I pushed through it.

Total 3 miles, 33 minutes. It wasn’t anything crazy but it got me sweating and covered the distance I wanted it to.

Dec7th– http://pinterest.com/pin/612408822/

Modified the crunch and leg lift part of each set

Mine looked like this:

99 workout

This took me 1 hour and 5 minutes. I covered a mile in my very slow run/walk at the end. This workout was a bit long to do all the time. I’d say it’d be good to do once a month or so to change things up but not every week. I was sweating by the end.

Dec 8th- In honor of this post, I took a total rest day 🙂 It was MUCH needed.

So whaddya think? More fitness on The Bean? Or should I just stick to food? Please note that future fitness posts would not be this long!!!

Happy Friday 🙂
–Lindsay–

Toffee Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

December 6, 2011 by Lindsay 42 Comments

These Toffee Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies can be enjoyed plain or drizzle with chocolate. They’re the perfect addition to a party or a holiday dessert tray.

*Post and photos updated 12/2017*

Hi friends!

I realized this year that I’ve been severely lacking in the Christmas Cookie offering department. Every year I bake cookies around the holidays but it’s been a while since I shared a new recipe with you guys.

I was searching back through the archives and came across these gems. I originally shared them as part of a blog cookie swap that I did with a few friends, but they’d be the perfect addition to any holiday dessert tray! The original recipe I posted was a little bit over the top on the butter and sugar. I’m all for enjoying a real cookie, but there were definitely a few swaps that could be made to the original recipe.

Since I needed to take some new photos anyways, I tweaked the recipe a little bit and they turned out just as great as I remember. Here’s the thing about toffee- I love it. But the only time I seem to think to use it is during holiday baking. Why is that??

I guess what I’m saying is, these cookies would be great year round….but for me, there’s just something about them that screams Christmas cookie.

Here’s how you make them:

Toffee Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

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These Toffee Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies can be enjoyed plain or drizzle with chocolate. They’re the perfect addition to a party or a holiday dessert tray.

Author: Lindsay
Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 12 min
Total Time: 22 minutes
Yield: makes 2 dozen cookies 1x

Ingredients

Scale

8 Tbsp butter
3/4 cup brow sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup toffe pieces
white or dark chocolate chips for decorating (optional)

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Melt butter in a large, microwave-safe bowl.

Add brown sugar, peanut butter, eggs and vanilla to the bowl and mix well.

Add remaining ingredients and stir until just combined.

Scoop onto baking sheet, sprinkle with sea salt and bake at 350 degrees F for 12-14 minutes.

Let cool and drizzle with or dip in melted chocolate if desired.

Notes

Pretty easy right? Serve one up with a nice cold glass of milk and you’ve got dessert perfection.

Like I said, these are great plain…but if you want to jazz them up a little, drizzle them with some melted chocolate or dip in white chocolate!

[clickToTweet tweet=”Add these Toffee Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies to your Christmas cookie tray this year!” quote=”Add these Toffee Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies to your Christmas cookie tray this year!”]

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

SRC: Baked Garlic-Beer Potato Wedges

December 5, 2011 by Lindsay 17 Comments

It’s that time once again. Time for Secret Recipe Club!

This month I was assigned Jaida’s blog Sweet Beginnings. I really enjoyed looking through the wide variety of recipes on her site, but these Baked Garlic-Beer Fries grabbed my attention almost immediately!

As you know, I make roasted potatoes all the time, and I thought these would be a fun way to change things up for the hubby and I.

I made a few adjustments to Jaida’s recipe: I used mini yellow potatoes instead of russet because that’s what I had. I used Yuengling for the beer, reduced the amounts of salt and oil and I also only baked mine for 25 minutes because I didn’t want to burn them.

Baked Garlic Beer Fries

by Lindsay L

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 30 min

Keywords: bake side healthy vegetarian potato beer

Ingredients (Serves 2)

12 oz beer
10-12 mini/fingerling potatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425°F

2. Quarter potatoes, then cut each quarter in half. Put potato wedges in a bowl and add the beer. Let soak for 15 minutes, tossing a few times so that the potatoes soak evenly.

3. Drain beer and toss the potatoes with the oil, garlic, salt and pepper.

4. Spread the fries in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes.

The result? Good! They had a different flavor than our regular potatoes thanks to both the beer and the garlic. They got super brown and crispy….my only complaint is that about 15 minutes after they came out of the oven they weren’t nearly as crispy as they were straight out of the oven…so eat them fast 🙂

Today’s Workout:

25 Min Pyramid Interval

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Silent Saturday: Christmas is Coming!

December 3, 2011 by Lindsay 20 Comments

We started with that, and ended with this:

And just cuz they’re cute:

Happy Weekend!
–Lindsay–

Vegetarian Stuffing

December 1, 2011 by Lindsay 7 Comments

Every year since I was little, my mom has made stuffing for Thanksgiving. And I’ve never eaten it.

A couple years ago, she made it and the hubby LOVED it. The following year, it was our year to stay here for Thanksgiving and even though we didn’t see my parents, the hubby requested my mom’s stuffing. So she froze some for him, and he ate it when we visited them for Christmas.

This year, I decided to surprise the hubby and try to make my mom’s stuffing for him. I asked her for the recipe and she said there wasn’t one! But she gave me a list of ingredients and a general outline of what she did and I decided to give it a whirl.

The only thing was, her version was not vegetarian. BUT, with just a couple substitutions, I adapted it to our current dietary needs. Instead of regular sausage, I used Morningstar vegetarian breakfast sausages…and instead of chicken broth, I used homemade veggie broth! Piece of cake!

Vegetarian Stuffing

by Lindsay L

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Keywords: stovetop saute side healthy vegetarian rice apple cranberry Thanksgiving fall

Ingredients (Serves 4-6)

2 Tbsp butter
1/2 c celery, thinly sliced
1/ c leeks, thinly sliced
1/2 c apple, chopped
2-3 Morningstar breakfast patties, diced
1 tsp McCormick’s grill seasoning
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 c Craisins
1 c wild rice, cooked
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, minced
5 c old bread, cubed
3/4 – 1 c vegetable broth

Instructions

1. Saute the leeks and celery in the butter until soft.

2. Add the apple, sausage, Craisins and seasonings and saute 5 minutes more

3. Stir in the rice, parsley and breadcrumbs until well combined.

4. Slowly add broth until all of the bread is moistened.

5. Cook until heated through and serve warm.

Notes

-If you’re not vegetarian, feel free to use real sausage and chicken broth

-If you don’t have any stale bread, slice up some fresh bread, cut it into cubes and lightly toast it in the oven.

-If you don’t have McCormick’s you could use any kind of poultry seasoning if you have it, or whatever combination of spices you do have on hand.

The good news: The stuffing was a big hit. The hubby immediately said, “you gotta put this on The Bean!” So there you have it.
More good news: I actually tried the stuffing…and I liked it 🙂 Although I don’t really have anything to compare it to because I never ate my mom’s, I’ll definitely be making this again.

The hubby has already requested another batch!

Check out yesterday’s post to see what I did with all the extra wild rice I accidentally made!

Have you ever adapted a family recipe to make it fit your dietary needs or made it healthier?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Today’s Workout:

5 x 50 Supersets Workout

Foodie Penpals November

November 29, 2011 by Lindsay 11 Comments

It’s time again for another Foodie Penpals reveal day!

This month, I received my package from my girl Jordan over at Food, Sweat & Beers. Jordan is HILARIOUS and I look forward to reading her posts because they usually make me laugh out loud at least once. Plus, she writes about beer…so that’s awesome. Also…she’s so fun to follow on Twitter!

Check out some of the awesome stuff she sent me!

{A box that was stuffed to the brim}

{A sweet card & a fun little painting!}
{Jordan did you paint that?! I love it}

{Precision Packing- tetris style}

{Blueberry Granola that was great with my Lemon Chobani}
(Two new flavors of bars that I had never tried!}
{I’m saving them for finals week snacks}

{Candied ginger, which I’ve heard such good things about}
{Spicy chocolate = AWESOME}
{A fun new flavor of gum!}

{Spiced Apple Cider- the perfect drink for cold winter nights}
{And some fuel to fight off the inevitable winter sickies!}

So there you have it! Big thanks to Jordan for hooking me up with some great stuff!

And now it’s time for some details about Foodie Penpals. In case you’re a new reader, here’s a reminder of what the program is all about:

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month. *US Residents only please at this time- hopefully we can expand soon!*

If you’re interested in participating for December, please send an email to me at [email protected] and include the following information:
-Your full name
-Your email address
-Your blog name/address
-Your twitter handle (if applicable)

I will need to hear from you by December 4th as pairings will be emailed on December 5th!

*You may have noticed that today is only November 29th…which is not in fact the last day of the month, but tomorrow is Wednesday and I didn’t want to interfere with Jenn’s WIAW party!!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Thanksgiving In My Kitchen

November 28, 2011 by Lindsay 12 Comments

Hi Friends!

Sorry about my brief little blogging hiatus over the holiday weekend. I needed some time away from my computer 🙂 I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Let’s play catch-up shall we?

I spent the Wednesday before Thanksgiving going crazy in the kitchen! I started my morning at the grocery store. I got there around 9am and I was super impressed with how well-stocked everything was! They had everything on my list, lots of helpful employees working, everything was neat and organized AND there was no line to checkout!

When I got home, I put everything away and got to work.

First, I cooked up a bag of dried black beans because I noticed my freezer stash was running low.

While those were simmering, I got to work on some homemade vegetable broth.

I wanted to make my Grandma’s Turkey Dumpling Soup, but obviously needed to make some modifications this year. I decided to replace the turkey with chickpeas and potatoes, and make some veggie broth instead of turkey broth. It turned out great!

I also cooked some wild rice for the stuffing I was planning to make! (Recipe coming Thursday). Then I started running out of timers and burners!

While all of that was simmering, I made some strawberry jello and stuck it in the fridge to set so I could make Grandma’s Jello.

Next I got a small batch of Mimi’s Cornbread in the oven for the hubby and I to enjoy 🙂

I also made a batch of my mom’s cranberry sauce….and after making it a bit too liquidy last year, I nailed it this year!!

Around this time I needed a break from all the traditional Thanksgiving foods, so I got to work on my bars for the The Great Food Bloggers Cookie Swap! Stay tuned for the recipe.

And finally, after enjoying all of the above for Thanksgiving eve dinner, I made some of Jessica’s Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls.

Best idea ever! They were amazing. Just like store bought…except better!

I brought the jello and the rolls to Thanksgiving, along with a vegetarian entree for hubby and I to enjoy instead of turkey. Stay tuned for that recipe on Wednesday!

What were you in charge of making for Thanksgiving this year??

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Meatless Meatballs

November 22, 2011 by Lindsay 29 Comments

Hi Friends!

I’m pretty sure all of you are probably familiar with the kind of night I had last night. You know the kind where, after working so hard the week before you go out of town to clear out your fridge, you come home from vacation exhausted and haven’t made it to the grocery store yet? But also the kind where you’re so tired of eating out that you can’t possibly stomach another night of eating something you didn’t cook yourself?

You know those nights. And on those nights, you have to get a little bit creative. One of my goals over winter break is to cook a few meals that freeze well so i’ll be better prepared for nights like these….but I think I did pretty well last night, all things considered.

Since we started our vegetarian experiment, I’ve made spaghetti with a lentil bolognese sauce a few times. I usually load up my spaghetti sauce with extra veggies anyways so it really wasn’t all that much of a change. Last night, however, I wanted to change it up a bit and decided to attempt some meatless meatballs. I’ve been thinking about them ever since Lindsay posted these Cheesy Meatless Meatballs a while ago. After googling a bit more, I also found these Lentil-Ricotta “Meatballs” from In Jennie’s Kitchen. It just so happened that I had a container of ricotta in my otherwise barren fridge so I based my recipe off Jennie’s, with several additions. I had some leftover rice that I threw in, along with some onion for texture. I also had some homemade pesto in the freezer that I thawed out and added. I’m not always crazy about traditional Italian seasonings so I wanted something to boost the flavor.

Meatless Meatballs

by Lindsay L

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Keywords: bake entree healthy vegetarian lentils ricotta pesto rice Italian

Ingredients (Serves 4)

2 c lentils, cooked
2 eggs
1/3 c breadcrumbs
1/2 c part-skim ricotta cheese
2 Tbsp pesto
1/2 c brown rice, cooked
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp paprika
black pepper, to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 c onion, chopped

Instructions

1. In a food processor, combine the lentils and rice and pulse several times.

2. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and add remaining ingredients.

3. Stir thoroughly to combine all ingredients, then form into balls using your hands.

4. Place balls on a baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, flip/rotate balls and bake another 10 minutes.

Notes:
-These balls held together really well, they were firm and they browned up nicely in the oven!
-After I baked them, I added them to a pot with marinara sauce and let them simmer together while I cooked some spaghetti.
-Hubby asked me multiple times if I was sure there was no meat in these.
-I put half of these in the freezer for a future easy dinner 🙂
-If you don’t have pesto, you could use basil/parsley/italian seasoning.
-You could also add some frozen spinach to these!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Pumpkin Oatmeal Bars

November 18, 2011 by Lindsay 37 Comments

Hi Friends!

I was gonna save this recipe for Monday. But since it’s Friday….and Thanksgiving is coming up…and because I love you, I decided to share it with you today.

So here’s the deal. If you know me at all, you know I’m my own harshest critic. I can almost always find something wrong with whatever I happened to make on a given day…and I’m here to tell you that these are PHENOMENAL. So take that for what it’s worth.

This recipe was loosely inspired by Jamie’s recipe for Pumpkin Blondies. And when I say loosely, I do mean loosely. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure those blondies are absolutely delicious. But I was in the mood for something a little healthier. So, I reduced the butter by 1.5 sticks, cut the sugar from 1.5 c to 2/3 c, added some oats and fun mix-ins, made a few other quantity adjustments and hoped for the best!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Bars

by Lindsay L

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 25 min

Keywords: bake breakfast dessert snack healthy vegetarian oats pumpkin cranberry bars fall

Ingredients (24 bars)

1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
1 c oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 c pumpkin
½ c dark chocolate chips
½ c butterscotch chips
½ c Craisins

Instructions

1. Cream butter and sugars in a medium bowl until light and fluffy.

2. Add the egg, vanilla and pumpkin and mix well.

3. Mix in the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and salt and mix well.

4. Stir in the oats, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and Craisins and mix until evenly distributed

5. Grease a 9×13 pan and spread mixture evenly in pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.

6. Cool completely in pan. Use a sharp knife to cut into squares.

Notes

You may reduce the sugar to 1/4 c of each for a slightly less sweet bar that would be good for breakfast.

Grease the pan well, these are sticky!

Annnnnnd, since I was feeling super lazy when I made these, I didn’t even bust out the camera to photograph them. Instead I just snapped a few pictures on my phone and then played around with all my photo apps. So that’ll just have to do for now 🙂

Hands down best thing I’ve made in a while.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!
–Lindsay–

A Good Idea

November 15, 2011 by Lindsay 21 Comments

A good idea- from me to you: Buy this cookbook.

Then you can make things like this:

And pretty much everyone will want to be your best friend.

You’re welcome.

Lindsay

ps…no one asked me to write this post. i get nothing if you buy the book, except the satisfaction of knowing that you took my advice 🙂 i just love the book!

Pumpkin Gingersnap Muffins

November 14, 2011 by Lindsay 30 Comments

So, the making of these muffins was a bit of trial and error. I bought a bag of gingersnaps last week and I’ve been doing some experimenting….I made some bars that had a gingersnap crust (still working on those) and I made these muffins.

The first time I made them, I used this recipe, which I saw on my girl Rachel’s blog. I turned the bread into muffins, and then used the streusel topping from this recipe, except I used chocolate chips and left out the pecans. I think I was craving a streusel topping after Kerstin posted these Pumpkin Oat Bran Muffins with Crumble Topping a few weeks ago.

Truth: the muffins were a bit of a bust. The muffin itself was a little too light and airy to hold up to the crunch of the topping from the gingersnaps. So I set out to make a bit of a heartier muffin. I also noticed that when I put the gingersnaps in the topping, they tasted a little bit burnt. I may have overcooked the muffins…but it got me thinking about what it would taste like if the gingersnaps were mixed IN the muffin. . Finally, I wasn’t crazy about how much butter and sugar was in the topping.

So, for round two, I used my own pumpkin muffin recipe, except instead of oat flour, I used oat bran…and I used 1/2 c of it instead of 1/4 c. I finely crushed about a cup of gingersnaps and mixed them right into the batter and I also increased the amount of pumpkin to 3/4 cup. Then I topped the muffins with dark chocolate chips, pressing them in gently to make sure they stuck.

The result? Much better. I really liked the faint gingersnap taste that came from mixing them into the batter…and I loved the oat bran edition! These heartier muffins would probably be really good with the crunchy streusel topping as well. I think I’m gonna freeze some of these to save for later. I normally don’t freeze muffins and sometimes I have too many and they go bad, so my goal is to start stocking my freezer instead of wasting them 🙂

So friends, I’m gonna leave it up to you. Use my pumpkin muffin recipe, or use your favorite. Make the streusel topping, or don’t. Top with chocolate chips, or top with gingersnaps. Mix the gingersnaps in, or don’t. The main thing is, enjoy this flavor combination. It’s a match made in heaven.

Also, I took pictures after the first batch. And they’re pretty. And it was dark and late when batch #2 finally came out of the oven. So I’m not taking pictures of batch #2. Just enjoy the pictures of batch #1…but don’t worry if yours don’t look the same 🙂

Happy Monday!
–Lindsay–

Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffles

Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

Playing Catchup

Homemade Christmas

To You, Love Me

Fitness Friday #2

SRC: Orange Cranberry Chocolate Chip Scones

Sweet & Spicy Shrimp with Soba Noodles

Sweet & Spicy Shrimp with Soba Noodles

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

Cookie Swap: Chocolate Caramelitas

Lollihop

The membership.

The box.

The good life.

Fitness Friday

Toffee Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Toffee Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

SRC: Baked Garlic-Beer Potato Wedges

Silent Saturday: Christmas is Coming!

Vegetarian Stuffing

Foodie Penpals November

Thanksgiving In My Kitchen

Meatless Meatballs

Pumpkin Oatmeal Bars

A Good Idea

Pumpkin Gingersnap Muffins

Recipes

Kids

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