This week, I will be spotlighting my favorite clean eating snacks. I've really been thinking lately about how snacking is essential to your success on a clean eating diet as you are suppose to eat 5-6 small meals per day. The great thing about clean eating is I feel I'm always eating, grocery shopping or preparing or planning a meal! If you're all about food, I think clean eating will be a great fit for you. So what snacks do I make to help keep me on track and what packaged foods do I recommend? Keep reading and you'll find out! I've also got a new recipe in the works for chocolate raspberry banana bread. I will list my preliminary recipe and welcome you guys to test it and let me know what worked, what didn't etc! Join me on my journey to health, happiness and the pursuit of wellness.
Spinach salad with bulgur wheat, one organic date cut up, raspberries, onions, 1/2 of a mini babybel light cheese wheel and liquid aminos and lime for dressing.
Chobani Greek Yogurt with raspberries and hemp hearts. I also blended a frozen organic berries mix with a tad of honey and some unsweetened chocolate almond milk and pour over the yogurt for a yummy decadent desert.
Spinach salad with white onions, raspberries and hemp hearts, lime with and olive oil for dressing.
Air popped popcorn with fruit smoothie. I make popcorn on the stove in a big pot. I add some olive oil, a little pink Himalayan salt and a spray of liquid aminos and cook over medium heat until popped! The smoothie is Oikos Greek Yogurt with mixed frozen organic berries and some local honey.
Ezekiel bread with fresh ground organic almond butter. I blend this fresh from my coop.
Local honey in the comb from my farmer's market. When buying honey, you want to try to buy local especially if you are using it for the benefits of relief from allergies. Something about consuming the local pollen may build up your tolerance? I'm guessing thats what it is. And from doing over 8 years of allergy shots which means I have what I'm severly allergic to directly injected into my arm, the theory makes sense to me. I've been using honey as my main sugar substitute and I wanted to make sure that in doing so I was actually making a healthier choice. They sure make it hard on consumers these days!
Tip: What honey is best and what should I be concerned about?
- Buy local
- Look for cloudier honey which means the pollen has not been filtered out
- Look for the words "unfiltered" and "raw"
- Buy honey right from the comb-cut off a piece and eat until you have wax left in your mouth. I usually spit out the wax, but some believe eating the comb has health benefits as well.Or melt in tea. I also scrape the container and use the honey that has fallen out of the comb in recipes.
- Somewhat better chance of getting healthier honey if you buy a brand labeled as "organic"
- This site lists more information on honey brands that don't contain pollen meaning they are more processed and have been filtered!
- http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/11/tests-show-most-store-honey-isnt-honey/#.UcSiPPkb6Ak
- •100 percent of the honey sampled from drugstores like Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS Pharmacy had no pollen.
- •76 percent of samples bought at groceries had all the pollen removed,
Greek yogurt with Chia Seeds and Raspberries
Tip: What should you buy organic when on a budget?
Share me by pinning! http://pinterest.com/pin/531706299726973653/
Home made sweet potato fries with cinnamon
Mac n Cheese boats over spinach with tomatoes and black beans. Mac n Cheese is Annie's brand organic which contains no artificial flavors, colors or additives, no synthetic hormones antibiotics or pesticides used on farms where the cows/cheese comes from.
Tip: Pair less healthy choices with uber healthy sides!
When choosing an unhealthier food such as macaroni and cheese, I like to pair it with very healthy foods to fill me up and lessen the amount of the unhealthy food I'm eating. I at first just had a a side of spinach and then a tomato and black bean salad with lime juice and black pepper and in playing with my food I discovered a cute little boat which could be made into a nice little snack, especially with leftovers or an appetizer for guests. This week I also had Connie's brand pizza and limited my intake of the pizza by pairing it with a nectarine and cooking some frozen green, yellow and red peppers and placing on top of the pizza.
PB & Jelly Oatmeal from Jumpstart to Skinny
I use my own blended Almond Milk and steel cut oats when making oatmeal now! Rolled oats are actually just one more processed step. Steel cut oats kind of look like gerbil food to me when they're dry but once cooked they look like regular oatmeal and with clean eating you always look for the least processed version of a food.
Kale Chips Before the Oven
Rip off chip like pieces from the bunch, put into a bag or container, add 1-2tbsp olive oil, sea salt and pepper and shake. I also add lime or lemon juice or cayenne or red chili pepper for additional tastes.
Kale Chips After the Oven
Bake at 350, preheathed 10-12 minutes
Make your own hummus and add some veggies!
1 can of chickpeas, 2-3 cloves of garlic, 1/2 tsp cumin, 2 tbsp lemon and blend
Greek Yogurt blended with natural peanut butter, eat with bananas or use as a fruit dip
Greek Yogurt with Granola, Strawberries and Natural Peanut Butter in the middle
Ginger Lemon Tea with Honey
Packaged Food Snacks:
We live in the real world and that means that some packaged foods are going to be necessary. I use the phone application called Fooducate to scan my foods in store. It has been an essential tool for cleaner healthier shopping for me. I also love Prevention's list of the 100 cleanest packaged foods, linked below. If you sign up for emails, you can also download the printable list!
Prevention's 100 Cleanest Packaged Food Awards
Mary's Gone Crackers, Hemp Hearts, Bear Naked Heavenly Chocolate Granola, KIND bars, honeycomb, Natural peanutbutter.
Mary's Gone Crackers
Plain Greek yogurt has endless uses. You can use it to make fruit smoothies, use in a bread recipe, use as a sour cream substitute, eat plain, etc. I've also been drinking unsweetened chocolate almond milk which is horribly dreadful alone but great for cooking, using in coffee, shakes and smoothies and even pouring into Greek Yogurt, especially as some don't like the thick texture of Greek yogurt.
Chocolate Raspberry Banana Bread
Here's where you can help. I'm working on perfecting a new recipe. This is my chocolate raspberry banana bread. I think I've got the ingredients pretty well down, but the bake time is a little off. I'm not a precise lets cook from a recipe type person, so play with the below ingredients and let me know what you've come up with!
I used a base recipe for muffins as a start. If you test out my recipe, be sure to let me know how it worked for you, how you baked it, etc! I'd love to hear from you!
Base Recipe I worked from: http://pinterest.com/pin/531706299726925675/
My recipe:
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup steel cut oats
1/2 cup chocolate granola (Bear Naked brand pictured above)
Blend oats together in a food processor until they have a flour like consistency
In a bowl, add 2 fresh organic brown eggs, 2 ripe bananas, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 tbsp ground flax seed, 1 cup plain greek yogurt, 1/4 cup of honey, 1/8 cup of hemp hearts, 1/2 cup of raspberries (squish in your hands and add to batter), 1 tbs pure vanilla, 1/8 cup of walnuts and 1/8 cup of chocolate granola (that hasn't been ground).
[play with the amount of honey, hemp hearts, raspberries, vanilla, walnuts (or add chocolate chips) until the batter is to your liking]
Blend all together in a food processor, mixer or hand electronic blender
I baked at 375 for 1 hour. I didn't have toothpicks to test how well the inside was baked and used a fork which isn't as effective. Your oven may vary, so use a toothpick to see if the middle is cooked (toothbpick should come back out clean), inspect how the crust is looking and use your sense of smell when you get that "its done!" sensation, it probably is!
At the 50 minute mark, I took the pan out and drizzled honey over. I then added some hemp hearts and chocolate granola on top!
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