healthy laps

I found an article this afternoon on CookingLight.com that gives 8 ideas for healthy office snacks!  I wanted to share it with you for more snack ideas since I recently did a tip of the week post on snacking.

From the article:

Working eight or more hours a day can make it difficult to eat healthfully unless you plan ahead. Research shows that eating every four hours helps to keep your metabolism charged and your energy level high. Before you dig in your drawer for spare change and head to the vending machine, plan ahead and stash low-calorie, nutritious snacks in a cabinet, drawer, or your briefcase. Each of these snacks has less than 200 calories and are sure to satisfy when the 3 p.m. cravings hit.

8 Healthy Office Snacks (from Cookinglight.com)

1. Whole Wheat Crackers and Peanut Butter
2. Fruit
3. Popcorn with Parmesean
4. Nuts (one ounce)
5. Instant Oatmeal
6. Mini Pitas with Hummus
7. Granola Bars (like Larabar’s)
8. Veggies with Low-Fat Ranch Dressing

I would switch up #8 for veggies and hummus, since packaged salad dressings often contain unhealthy oils.

On to dinner, which was simple tonight, but very delicious!  BLT’s with eggplant, lettuce, tomato, cheese and roasted red pepper spread on whole wheat toast served with sweet potato fries!

I spread one slice of toast with a Laughing Cow Cheese wedge and the other side with Roasted Red Pepper and Artichoke spread.

Then, eggplant bacon, lettuce and tomato!

With baked sweet potato fries.

I needed dinner to be simple so that I could whip up some baking creations for our little dinner party tomorrow night!  I will be cooking the main course tomorrow, but wanted to get the bread and dessert out of the way tonight.

Last time I was at Trader Joe’s I picked up a box of their Beer Bread Mix.

The mix is only $1.99 and is a combination of the following ingredients: wheat flour, cane sugar, baking powder and salt.  Not bad for a mix!  All you have to do is add a bottle of beer, stir it up and bake.  How easy is that?

You can add different beers in order to alter the taste.  I imagine that adding a light beer would taste much different than a dark beer.  I stuck with something in the middle that we had in our fridge.  I decided to make muffins for our dinner tomorrow instead of a loaf.

While the beer bread was baking, I set out to make a dessert.  I was searching recipes, but decided to keep it simple once again and make blonde brownies with the option of brownie sundaes for anyone who may want one!  I had a coupon for some Nasoya Silken Creations, so I decided to use it in my dessert recipe.  I always love to try new products, and you can’t go wrong with a free coupon. 🙂

I was nervous to try a new product with friends coming over, but if they come out awful, I have my Chocolate Clusters as back up!

Blonde Brownies

from Nasoya’s website

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Silken Style Creations Vanilla
• 1 1/2 cup flour (I used unbleached white whole wheat flour)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter or canola oil (I used coconut oil)
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup sugar (I used turbinado sugar)
• 1 cup dairy free semi-sweet chocolate pieces (I used dark chocolate chunks)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Mix the oil with the sugar, then add the vanilla silken creation to the mixture.
• Mix together the flour, salt and baking powder in a separate bowl.
• Add the flour mixture to the liquid mixture and mix just until combined.
• Fold in chocolate chips.
• Pour into a greased 8×8 pan.

• Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until cooked.

Of course, we had to try a brownie warm out of the oven.  Yum – they came out great!  Super moist and lots of chocolate chips.

Filed under: Eating Laps, Recipes | Tagged: baking, Eating Laps, Recipes |