Almond, Coconut, Chocolate Protein Bars

Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. 

Doug Larson

Target Colander

I'm not even going to try to guess how many people won't end up making these simply because they are protein bars :) Trust me I know I was one of those.  However, I started running a while back and realized that in order to keep your legs from hurting the next day you really need some protein.  However, I'm not a big fan of meat and you can only eat sooo many eggs before you never want to see another one.  For a while I switched to making protein shakes but had to put so much stuff in them to mask the chalky taste and I didn't really enjoy drinking my food.  I like the act of eating food, why would I want to miss out on that by drinking it?  Didn't make much sense to me.  Well I'm running in a long race soon and wanted to try out some new foods that I could make at home (to save some money) but also taste good.  I looked at a TON of protein bar recipes before I found one that actually looked good.  I made them and they were good.  The texture is a little different (think cross between a power bar and a brownie).  But the taste is great!  Plus they're high in protein and not so high in calories so they're a great take a long snack food that will keep you full!

Roast Chicken

I want there to be no peasant in my kingdom so poor that he cannot have a chicken in his pot every Sunday.
Henry IV

La Cafatiere French Press

Well this recipe may not take care of world poverty as the mentioned quote above but it is an awesome cheap recipe that I make alot! When I first got married I wanted to find an inexpensive recipe that was decently healthy that could be made over and over with the same results.  I have to admit I'm not a huge meat person but I love this recipe.  It's easy and affordable.  It's a great recipe to put together and throw in the oven after work.  It tastes great with brown or wild rice and the broth the chicken gives off while cooking makes a really great pan gravy base.  The leftovers are just as good on top of a spinach salad or chopped up for chicken and rice!  Enjoy!

Soup Season

"There is nothing like soup. It is by nature eccentric: no two are ever alike, unless of course you get your soup in a can."
Laurie Colwin

Le Creuset Cookware

Well it doesn't get very cold in Florida so the few days when it actually get below 70 degrees I'm all about celebrating the small moment of fall before it gets back up to beach weather.  This weekend I was craving making some soups.  They are just so warm and comforting and such a great way to watch the waistline!  They are filling, full of fiber, cheap to make and great on-the-go.  This weekend Shale asked me to make lentil soup.  After I got over the initial shock that he requested something healthy, I started looking online and stumbled across a great find!  Apparently the food network is featuring soup recipes and has an awesome list you can print out for 50 simple soup recipes (some of them use the same base and only tweak one or two ingredients)  Visit http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes-and-cooking/50-easy-soups-1--10/index.html to print out the list.  When looking I found a great recipe for black bean soup that I tweaked to make my own version without having to buy more ingredients.  It turned out awesome!!!  Even the meat-and-potatoes husband loved it!!!!  So I just had to share!!!

Healthy Running Snacks

We load up on oat bran in the morning so we'll live forever.  Then we spend the rest of the day living like there's no tomorrow.  ~Lee Iacocca

Love These!
Silicon Cupcake Molds

Don't you just love this quote?  It's funny, convicting and honest all at the same time!  So true that we often do this every day!  In a few weeks I will be running a 3 day relay race with 11 of the most amazing girls I know!  One of the challenges of the race was what to eat?  You can't really last three days by pulling off the quote above.  We all knew portable nutrition (we will be sleeping in vans the entire time) would be really hard when you take away the fast food.  So a few nights ago I decided to do some searching online and come up with some great recipes I could try out and last night was my experimenting night.  Now just so you know experimenting with different recipes in the kitchen is one of my FAVORITE things to do so I was loving every minute of it.  Some of the recipes ended up being pretty amazing so I decided to share three below.

Cinnamon Almond Raisin Balls
Great on-the-go sweet snack!
Ingredients:
1 cup almonds
1 cup raisins
1 tsp cinnamon

Rinse almonds and raisins (very important as water makes them stick better)
Toss raisins, cinnamon, and almonds in food processor.  Blend until they come together.
Roll into balls and serve!
So easy and yet healthy!  However, the raisin taste is quite strong and I think next time I will use dates as they are not as strong but still sticky enough to work.

Cinnamon, Honey Almond Butter
Amazing on apples, pears, reduced fat nilla wafers, etc...
Ingredients:
1 cup almonds (I used leftovers from the package I bought for the recipe above)
2 tsp honey
1 tsp cinnamon
*few drops of oil (olive, vegetable, etc...)

Place almonds ONLY in food processor and process for 12 minutes until almonds release their oils and form into a peanut-butter like substance. (*if your almonds are dry roasted you may need to add a few drops of oil to help them out)
Remove almond butter from food processor and place into bowl
Stir in 2 tsp honey and 1 tsp of Cinnamon (don't add these while processing or your butter will seize up and not work)
Place in resealable container and store in fridge

Spicy Beef Jerky
*this is Alton Brown's beef jerky recipe found here
Ingredients:
1 1/2 to 2 pounds flank steak
2/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
2/3 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Trim the flank steak of any excess fat, place in a zip-top bag, and place it in the freezer for 1 to 2 hours in order to firm up.
Remove the steak from the freezer and thinly slice the meat with the grain, into long strips.
Place the strips of meat along with all of the remaining ingredients into a large, 1-gallon plastic zip-top bag and move around to evenly distribute all of the ingredients. Place the bag into the refrigerator for 3 to 6 hours.
Remove the meat from the brine and pat dry. Evenly distribute meat onto food dehydrator and cook.
Once dry, store in a cool dry place, in an airtight container for 2 to 3 months.
*please note make sure you know how long your food dehydrator takes I started mine at 7 PM, it wasn't done when I went to sleep at 11:30 so I had to set 2 alarms during the night to get up and check on it :) much like having a small child but could have been prevented by reading the directions.