Healthy Snacking Tips

eat-clean-fuel-your-bodyGotta admit. At work I have the worst self control. I’ve been known to keep unhealthy treats at work in my desk. Pre-Paleo it consisted of york peppermint patties, chocolate bars, and candies.

Time to empty your treat drawer, or treat cupboards at home (we don’t keep treats at home, so it’s easy there). As I said, I’m much more tempted at work to eat something that isn’t the most nutritious so I need to be readily prepared for when hunger strikes.

When looking for a good snack to help keep you on track, you mainly want to look for foods that will keep you feeling satisfied until the next time that you eat. You know, so you won’t go overboard at your next meal.

This is where foods with volume, fiber, protein and fresh foods will come in handy.paleo snack

Fruit: Apples, berries, peaches, or unsweetened dried mango. Don’t go hog wild with this because fruits still contain a lot of sugar. Limit yourself to 1-2 pieces a day.berries
Handful of trail mix you made yourself. I love creating my own trail mix from Bulk Barn. I only stock up when they have a $3 off coupon online and buy in bulk. Yes, those are m&ms. Moderation people.trail mix
Tuna: So healthy but limit your intake on tuna due to its high mercury content. Below I’ve added bell peppers, carrots, celery and pecans to the tuna. can of tuna3
Kind bars. I only grab one of these when I’m not prepared or extra hungry that day for a snack. These are healthy and pretty delicious. Just look at the back of the package for ingredients and nutritional value.kindbar
Fresh vegetables: Carrots, bell peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes. Eat as much of it as you want. Do not limit yourself.veggies

If you fill yourself up with these snacks in between your meals, you’re going to notice a huge difference in feeling satisfied, less bloated and overall making better choices for your next meals.

Continue Reading

Blueberry Almond Scones

Last night I had plans on going to CrossFit. I forgot to sign up for all my classes on the weekend so when I logged onto the site I had to be wait-listed. There’s only 14 people allowed in the class at a time, and I was so bummed out. But not too bummed because they had wall-balls on the WOD for the day. No thanks.

I never did get bumped to the class. Forever wait listed. All day yesterday that is. So, instead I went school shopping for my nephews back home in Newfoundland. I got a ton of stuff and got all sorts of bargains. If you’ve got an Old Navy around you (who doesn’t, really?) I picked up a few $5 long sleeved tees for my buddies. Then I headed to H&M since they don’t have that back home and I think it’s a “cooler” store lol.

Are the little boy boxers to die for?! I got a little out of hand when I saw these. Picked up three sets. Hey, underwear is a necessity, is it not? I went to Joe Fresh right after and saw more underwear for the same price. I cringed. But then remembered that the H&M one’s were so much cuter.hm-boy-boxers
The little boy jeans are just $12. Seemed like a good price. I have no idea, I don’t own any kids.boys-hm-jeans

The overall haulage that I’ll be sending down to them. With some Super Mario Bros. candy and stickers of course. boys-back-to-school-haul

Best Aunt ever. Thankyouverymuch.

Onto the regularly programmed schedule: Blueberry Almond Scones.

blueberry-almond-scone

On the weekends I usually try and make a special treat for us, rather than going out and buying store bought processed foods. Sometimes it’s homemade blueberry muffins, or lemon poppy seed muffins (from a mix at Bulk Barn, probably processed. Oops). But recently I’ve been testing out new recipes like the seductive raw chocolate fudge, or these blueberry almond scones.blueberry-almond-scone

I made these twice, and the first time I used frozen blueberries and they turned out amazing. The second time I used fresh, which were all melty and gooie coming out of the oven. You could definitely taste the freshness. I’m not sure which way I prefer the blueberries yet. But both were equally good. blueberry-almond-scones

Blueberry and Almond Scones (Modified from Jennifer’s recipe)

Ingredients
¾ cup white flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
6 tbsp virgin coconut oil (or butter)
¾ cup frozen blueberries
¼ cup sliced almonds
1/3 cup buttermilk (make your own, see below)
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla

  • Preheat oven to 400º
  • Fork the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Spoon off the coconut oil and mix in with the flour mixture. Should be the consistency of sand.
  • Gently stir in blueberries and almonds.
  • In a separate bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla.  Pour over dry ingredients and fold into mixture until just combined.
  • Drop batter in 10 triangle shaped scones.
  • Bake 15-17 minutes.

Serve warm. This was my second batch of scones and they’re a little lighter because I used more white flour than whole wheat (ran out!). Yum. second-batch-of-scones

I never have butter milk on hand, so I make my own and it turns out pretty great. How to make your own buttermillk: 1tbsp lemon juice (or vinegar) to 1 cup of milk. Let sit for 10 mins til milk curdles. 

blueberry-almond-scone_I’ve never baked anything in the kitchen where coconut oil replaces butter, but you’d be so fooled if you made these. Thinking they were made with butter or margarine. They’re just as flaky as a regular scone but a bit more dense. Also keep in mind that coconut oil is just as high in saturated fat as butter. So use your discretion.

Continue Reading

Oh She Glows – Seductive Raw Chocolate Walnut Fudge

SEDUCTIVE-FUDGE

Hope everyone is enjoying their civic holiday today! I know I certainly am. So much so, I decided to make a second batch of these seductive raw chocolate walnut fudge from Oh She Glows. The first batch got devoured disturbingly quick.  I find that food is so hard to photograph, so these photos may not do the fudge justice. But if I ever ask you to trust me on one thing, it’s these fudge squares that melt in your fingers within seconds, and forget about chewing on them. They dissolve on your tongue like a coconut icy square. Ugh, the thought of it…  I just want to run to the fridge and stuff my mouth. 

The other night I sat down to relax and read some blogs before bed. As always, Oh She Glow’s food photos makes me salivate. As do all of her recipes, but this one stuck out to me and I got up off the computer around 10:45pm, waltzed into the kitchen with my apron and pj’s on and made it in about 7 minutes. I didn’t even use my electric blender. Once I had everything mixed together, ready to be tossed into the freezer, I brought over the spatula and the Boyf licked it all clean. It was delicious.

Holy smokes. It’s the easiest dessert to make, ever. You need to make this. The texture reminds me of an icy square with hints of coconut. It yields quite a lot of coconut oil in the recipe. I’m a little leary on that since coconut oil is quite high in saturated fats and similar to butter in that sense. But it’s still a tasty treat!

All it takes are these easy ingredients.

ingredients-for-raw-fudge

Dare say it’s true to its name, Seductive Raw Chocolate Walnut Fudge from Oh She Glows:

raw-chocolate-fudge

Ingredients:

  • virgin coconut oil
  • raw almond butter (or nut butter of choice)
  • cocoa powder (or raw cacao powder)
  • pure maple syrup (or agave nectar) I used agave nectar
  • pure vanilla extract
  • fine grain sea salt, to taste
  • raw walnuts, roughly chopped I didn’t measure my walnuts, just poured some in.

Pop in the freezer for 20 mins and they’re done.

Want to know the exact measurements? Head on over to Oh She Glows and grab them!

oh-she-glows-raw-chocolate-You’re welcome.

Continue Reading