healthy laps

Tonight is just one of those nights where I feel like cooking (or not cooking as the case may be)!  I made up a pretty hefty list of things that I want to whip up this weekend for lunches, dinners and snacks for the upcoming week, so you’ll be seeing lots of yummy recipes to come.

First off, I started my day with another fun juice which included a beet!  I forgot to snap a photo, but my bright red juice included 1 beet, 2 green apples and 1 celery stalk.  It was good!  Better than my juice from yesterday.  Sweet, but not too sweet.

I grabbed some almonds as a snack as I left my house this morning.  They were some new almonds that I was sent by Sahale Snacks.  They sent me a bunch of different types, but the ones I grabbed today were PB&J Almonds!  I mean, I love PB so I knew that I needed to try these first.

Surprisingly, these tasted like jelly covered almonds!  There were peanuts in the mix as well, which is where the pb came from.  I liked them.  They were not too sweet, but definitely had a strawberry jelly flavor to them.  And, it was a small snack size pack which was perfect for an on-the-go snack.

The PB&J Almonds have a pretty decent ingredient list for flavored nuts.  Longer than I would like to see, but pretty natural stuff, so not bad!

• Almonds
• Peanuts
• Organic Cane Juice
• Dried Strawberries
• Brown Sugar
• Dried Raspberries
• Vanilla Extract & Beans
• Sea Salt
• Strawberry Juice Concentrate
• Natural Raspberry Flavor

You can find these snacks at Starbucks as part of their new snack line!  Yum!

My first project of the evening was eggplant bacon!  I used the recipe from Everyday Raw by Matthew Kenney, frankly because it’s the only one I could find with good reviews!

I sliced up and soaked my eggplant for the required amount of time, then plopped it in the dehydrator.  It should take about 24 hours(!!), so I’ll post the recipe when it is done!

Recipe and more photos to come once it is done!

I then went to work on Zucchini Chips.  These were much easier.  I took 2 zucchini’s and sliced them into 1/4 inch strips and placed them in the dehydrator with the eggplant.

And, that is where both will at 115°F for 15-20 hours!

And then, I made the best treat of the evening – fudge babies!!  Katie from Chocolate Covered Katie is hosting a Vita-Mix giveaway!  I would die to have a Vita-Mix right now, and every time I am cursing my blender for not making my smoothies creamy!  To enter, go to Katie’s website.  If you cook up a recipe by tomorrow, you get 6 additional entries!

I decided to use Katie’s basic peanut butter babies recipe, but make it chocolate.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Babies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pitted dates
• 1/2 cup roasted peanuts
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 heaping tablespoons cacao powder

Directions:

Throw all of the ingredients in a food processor and blend!

Roll the dough into balls or flatten it into bars, similar to a larabar.  Eat and enjoy!

These took me all of 5 minutes to make.  It took longer to measure the ingredients and roll them into balls than anything else.  Of course I needed to try one!

Yum!  Just like a peanut butter cup!  Kind of – definitely not the same texture, but it does taste like peanut butter and chocolate which does the trick!

Filed under: Eating Laps, Recipes | Tagged: chocolate, dehydrator, fudge babies, juice, peanut butter, Recipes, vita mix |