Peanut Butter and Chocolate Protein Bars

I've learned throughout this pregnancy that getting enough protein is SO SO SO important. I aim for 75-100 grams of protein every day. Sometimes that's really hard. Especially when I'm having a "sweet tooth" day. I've come up with a solution to my problem....peanut butter and chocolate protein bars.

Here's what's in them:

1/4 cup whole almonds
1 (15.5 oz) can of chick peas, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1/4 cup honey (or agave nectar)
1/2 chocolate chips (I prefer dark chocolate)
1-2 Tbsp. coconut oil

1. Grind almonds in a food processor until they are super fine. Dump in a mixing bowl.
2. Put drained and rinsed chick peas in food processor and pulse until pasty. Dump in mixing bowl with almonds.
3. Add peanut butter and honey into bowl. Stir all ingredients to combine.
4. Press mixture into a wax paper lined 8X8 pan.
5. Melt chocolate chips and coconut oil together in a small bowl.
6. Spread melted chocolate and coconut oil mixture over bars.
7. Refrigerate for at least an hour to let chocolate harden.
8. Enjoy!
*Keep protein bars in refrigerator and cute off a chunk when want a treat!

These are a yummy, healthy way to get some protein and enjoy a little something sweet. If you close your eyes and think of rainbows and unicorns, these can even taste like those delicious Reese's peanut butter eggs.

Homemade Dog Food

Wesley has some reoccurring skin issues. It first happened last year shortly after we moved to Florida. After being on and off steriod treatments for a while, the vet suggested we switch him to a grain-free food. We made the switch and it seemed to help. But the past couple of weeks he's started itching again and chewing himself raw. I'm sure it's an allergy to something growing this time of year, since this is around the same time it happened last year. Maybe he's just trying to be like me with my allergies going CRAZY!

Anyway, when we were visiting my family at Christmas, my aunt suggested I try making Wesley's food. I did a little research and thought it sounded reasonable. I made the first batch yesterday and it was really easy. Wesley has had 2 servings and he loves it! I think he licked his bowl for 10 minutes after he finished eating last night.

It took me around an hour to make the food, let it cool, and package it up. I was able to make 8 1/2 days of food for around $5. It's not a huge savings from buying his special dry food, but hopefully it will make a difference with his skin condition.

This batch included: 1 lb ground beef, 12 oz pkg. frozen mixed vegetables, half pkg frozen spinach, 1 apple, 2 eggs, 2 carrots, and 2 sweet potatoes, and some olive oil.

It made enough for 8 1/2 days of food. Because the food doesn't contain any fillers like dry dog food, he doesn't need to eat as much.

Healthy Snack Options

Snacking throughout the day is one thing that always gets me when I try to stay focused on eating healthy. I've been trying to find healthy(er) snack options to keep around the house that don't cost a fortune. Here are a few I've tried and really enjoyed:

Salt and Vinegar Chick Peas

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I love salt and vinegar chips and I love chick peas, so this was a win-win for me! They were super easy to make and irresistible! My pantry is now stocked with chick peas at all times. 

 

Frozen Yogurt Dots

 

 

 

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Who doesn't love frozen yogurt? I love yogurt just about any way, but it's more refreshing when frozen. I squirted yogurt droplets on a baking sheet covered in wax paper, threw it in the freezer for an hour or two, and had a tasty treat ready when I wanted it.

Peach Smoothie

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  I enjoy smoothies for breakfast or as a snack and I'm always looking to try new combinations. One of my favorites is banana, peanut butter, spinach, and coconut milk. But this peach smoothie ranks pretty high up there now. This was so refreshing and yummy! Now, the recipe has alcohol as an option addition, but I refrained.

Strawberries

Last Saturday, we visited the Strawberry Festival here in Plant City. These folks around here are really proud of their strawberries! Not that it's a bad thing, because they certainly are delicious! As we were leaving the Festival I bought us a flat of the prettiest strawberries you ever have seen. Once I got them home and realized just how many strawberries are in a flat, the wheels started turning trying to figure out what I was going to do with all of them before they started going bad.

I found this idea on Pinterest for dried strawberries in the oven. The directions say to dry halved or quartered strawberries for 3 hours at 100C/210F. Well, I had a blonde moment and tried to set the oven at 100 degrees. My oven would only let me turn it down to 170, so I dried them at that temperature for around 3 hours. My dried strawberries didn't turn out as vibrant and plump as the picture from the website makes them look. They were kind of mushy, but still tasted pretty good. Maybe if I try baking them at the right temperature, they might not be so mushy.

Their strawberries...

My strawberries.

I also attempted to make some strawberry jelly. I found Martha Stewart's recipe for Quick Strawberry Jam. It sounded easy enough and I had all the ingredients. I was a little skeptical that it didn't use any pectin or gelling agent, but I thought if Martha Stewart approved then it was good enough for me!


My jelly/jam turned out a little thin. It's more like syrup than jam. Grandma and I had it on some pancakes this morning and it is delicious! It did thicken up some in the refrigerator, but still not quite as thick as jam.

Strawberry jam/syrup on pancakes. Yum, yum!

We have been eating a fair amount of strawberries for breakfast and snacks. I also froze some to use in smoothies after the season is over.

Recipe Reviews

I've tried several new recipes over the past few weeks. Most of them were good, but a few weren't so good.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who isn't on the hunt for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe? I had a craving for some a few weeks ago and really wanted to make good ones. I usually follow the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag. Those turn out alright, but not memorable. I came across this recipe on Pinterest (did you expect anything less?). It claimed to be "the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever" by another pinner. So I gave it a try.

Oh.my.cookies! Heavenly! I whipped the dough together fairly easily and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. I followed the recipe exactly, using sea salt where it calls for either sea salt or table salt. After it sat in the refrigerator overnight, I baked the cookies for 12 minutes exactly. They turned out perfectly crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The sea salt gave them the perfect sweet/salty taste. I definitely ate more than my fair share!

Breakfast Casserole

As we were planning for company during the Florida Fellowship, I hunted for good breakfast ideas. I knew that I wanted to do a "traditional" breakfast one morning, but I wanted other ideas for the other mornings. Breakfast casserole can be an easy breakfast idea, but it can also be tricky to find one that is tasty. This one hit the spot!

My additions/changes to this recipe were that I used a pound of Johnsonville Sage sausage. We really like the flavor of the sage sausage. I also used 6 or 7 eggs instead of just 5. For the spice mixture, I used salt, pepper, a little garlic, onion powder, oregano, rosemary, dill, and thyme. I didn't measure any of those, but I would say a healthy amount of each. Maybe 1/2 tsp. salt, garlic, onion, oregano, rosemary, dill, thyme and 1 tsp pepper. I also didn't measure my cheese (who does that?), but I think I probably used a little more than 1 cup. I assembled the casserole in a freezer pan and stuck it in the freezer a week or two before the meeting. I put it in the refrigerator overnight, then baked it like the directions say in the morning.

It was scrumptious! I loved the spice combination a lot. I have a hard time eating eggs, so the more hidden they are, the better! Several of us wanted leftovers later that night!

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

I made this recipe for church one Sunday. It was easy to put together and was very yummy! I used a 9-inch store bought graham cracker crust. The filling made WAY more than what could fit in the crust. I ended up saving some of the filling and using it later in the week. I made a 10 inch graham cracker crust and made another cheesecake with the rest of the filling. I didn't make the chocolate glaze, but I'm sure it would have added to the deliciousness!

When I made it, I put a handful of extra chocolate chips on the top of the cheesecake after it had baked for about 10 minutes. A lot of the chocolate chips from the batter sank to the bottom while it baked, so this helped it to have a layer more towards the top of the cake. Again, it was a good sweet/salty mixture with the graham cracker crust.

Country Club Chicken

We eat a lot of chicken around here, which doesn't always go over well. I like chicken a lot more than I like beef and I find it's easier to be creative with chicken. So, when I find a new chicken recipe that sounds interesting, I'm excited to try it out! This recipe was one of those that I was excited to try. At first glance, the flavor combination sounds odd: chicken (yum), bacon (yummo), cheese (yum), creamy sauce (yum), apple (saywha!?!). I make another chicken recipe with pureed apple that is pretty good, so I thought this might be good too. Well, it didn't quite live up to expectations.

It was a bit time consuming and used a lot of dishes to prepare. It was a very rich dish and it had an interesting flavor. We didnt' care for the flavor of the sauce. I'm not sure if it was the apple, or the combination of several things. I can't even describe what it was that we didn't like about the flavor. It was just odd. In an unappealing way. But, you might think differently if you try it!

Baking Adventures

Sister Danielle and Miss Ruth came over today for a little baking fun. I wanted to make some biscuits and cinnamon rolls to put up in the freezer for when we have company during the Florida Fellowship Meeting. I'm figuring out the more than can be done ahead of time, the better!

We started with the cinnamon roll dough. It was quite a sticky, yeasty adventure!

While the dough had to rise, we worked on the biscuits. This was Sis. Danielle's first time making biscuits.

Miss Ruth was a good girl while we were busy in the kitchen. She had fun playing with Wesley!

When it was time to roll out our cinnamon rolls, we thought we had ruined them. The dough sort of exploded in the bowl!

We were able to add some flour and get them to the right consistency. Add a little (or a lot) of butter, sugar, and cinnamon and roll away!

We had read about the floss method for cutting the cinnamon rolls and were a bit skeptical. The directions were to use unflavored dental floss, but I only had mint flavored in my stockpile. I figured a little mint couldn't hurt too much! Let me tell you, this was the smartest thing in the world! It was amazing how easy it was to cut the roll into individual pieces. I think I'm going to try using the floss method on cookie dough.

Of course, we had to test out a a few cinnamon rolls to make sure they were suitable to feed to guests! They got the stamp of approval!

It was a fun day of laughter, baking, and talking. Sis. Danielle even helped me get some laundry done and my kitchen was cleaned up at the end of the afternoon!

Recipe Reviews

So, remember my goal of trying one new recipe a week and posting a review? Yeah, that's not going so well. I have tried a few new recipes so far this month. I'll do my best to combine reviews in this post.

Chicken Rollups

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This was an interesting recipe. I was a little skeptical about it from the start, because of the issue with the crescent rolls being baked in a sauce. Can you say soggy bread? But, the picture looks so yummy that I wanted to try it.

My additions:
I added bacon into the cream cheese and chicken filling mixture. I also added a little sour cream to the sauce and the filling.

Taste:
The flavor was alright, but not exceptional. I got it a little too salty, probably because I added the bacon. Otherwise, the flavor was a little one-dimensional. It needed something to jazz it up or add a little pop.

As I was afraid, the texture was a bit icky. The crescent rolls were soggy, which wasn't so yummy in my mouth.

Ease:
This was a fairly time-consuming recipe. I sauteed some onions and cooked the chicken as I was making the dish, which added some time. If you had pre-cooked chicken and didn't add onions, the prep work wouldn't be as time consuming.

Overall:
2 1/2 out of 5 stars

Hawaiian Sweet Roll Ham Sandwiches

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I made this dish for Friday night supper of our annual meeting. I had been seeing it float around Pinterest for quite some time and was anxious to try it. The ingredients were a bit expensive, but not outrageous.

My additions/changes:
I didn't use the Hawaiian Sweet Rolls. I could only find a small package and they were super expensive. I used small potato rolls instead, which I thought were good.

Taste:
This was a winner in the taste category! Every last crumb was eaten. The combination of the sweetness from the rolls, spiciness of the Dijon, and the zing from the poppy seeds was a perfect blend.

Ease:
The great thing about this recipe is that it can be put together earlier in the day, kept in the refrigerator, then just popped in the oven before time to serve. It's a perfect potluck dish or would be great for Superbowl Sunday.

Overall:
Five stars!

Cabbage Rolls - - my combination of two recipes

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I was visiting with my Grandma when they were here over the holidays and we got to talking about ideas for suppers. I asked her what kinds of dishes she likes to fix with ground beef. One dish she said she fixes often is cabbage rolls. I had never heard of them, but it sounded good from her description. I hunted for a good recipe and ended up combining two recipes.

My additions/changes:
I sauteed half an onion in butter and added a pound of ground beef to let it brown just a little. I don't like putting raw ground beef in the crock pot. It just weirds me out. I added 1/2 cup brown rice, one small can of tomato sauce, salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil, oregano, celery seed, dill, paprika, and a dash of cayenne. I didn't have a package of onion soup mix like the first recipe calls for, so I just threw in some spices I thought would taste good. Once I rolled the filling in the cabbage leaves (I had to look up a video on how to core cabbage!), I made a sauce out of tomato soup and beef broth. I cooked it in the crock pot for about 5 1/2 hours.

Taste:
I really liked this dish! It smelled delicious as it was cooking and made my mouth water all day. I thought the flavor was just right, but Chris said it was a little too sweet. I really liked the taste of the cooked cabbage with the meat filling.

Ease:
This was a little time consuming to prep. The good thing is that you can do it earlier in the day and have supper done. It does make a mess and uses a lot of dishes to get it together. If you don't brown the ground beef, then you could mix the filling up in one bowl and use another bowl to steam the cabbage. Then you wouldn't have as many dishes. But I seem to like to dirty a lot of dishes as I'm cooking.

Overall:
Four stars (I would give it 5, but I gave it 4 since Chris wasn't a huge fan.)

Fried Chicken

One of my favorite memories of visiting my grandparents in Mississippi is of Grandma Kate making her fried chicken. After Chris and I got married, I asked Grandma to show me how she makes her chicken. My recipe is similar to hers, but I've changed a few things to suit us. I took advantage of having my friend, Shelly, visiting to make some fried chicken. I usually don't pay close attention to measuring the ingredients, but I did this time! Shelly was great to write out what I was doing and take pictures of the step-by-step process.

I use about a 3-4 lb. chicken, which is always plenty for the three of us. I buy my chicken whole and butcher (cut up) it myself. I have tried buying the pre-cut chicken, but it was too expensive! You could use this same method if you would rather just fry up a half or quarter of a chicken.

First, you need to wash and cut up the chicken. If you don't know how to cut up a chicken, I would suggest watching a few videos about it. Grandma showed me how to cut it up, but I've since forgotten the right way to do it. So, I end up doing a crazy butchering job on the poor bird!

Once the chicken is cut up, soak it in 1/4 cup of salt dissolved in 6 cups of warm water. (This doesn't need to be exact, but it's what I measured out.) I soak it in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. This helps make the chicken extra moist and salty throughout.

When the chicken has soaked and you're ready to fry the birdie, you need to get the battering process prepped.

We like a double crust on our chicken. I coat it in the flour mixture, dip in the milk/egg, then coat in flour again. If you don't prefer this, you can just do the milk/egg mixture, then the flour.

You want to pat the chicken pieces dry as you pull them out of the salt water. This will help the batter stick better.

The first flour mixture is: 1 cup flour, 1/2 tablespoon salt, 1 1/2 teaspoon pepper, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, and 1/2 teaspoon paprika.

Mix eggs and 1/4 cup milk with a dash of salt and pepper.

The final flour mixture is: 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1/2 tablespoon of salt, 2 teaspoons pepper, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, and 1/2 teaspoon paprika. (Just a note: I use sea salt in my mixture. I really like how this turned out, because the salt is rather prominent when it is fried up. We like salt, just saying.)

There will be flour left over when you're done with battering the chicken. I'm sorry if this bothers you, but you'll just have to get over it. I have tried starting with less, but I hate running out and having to add more as I'm going along. It really ruins the proportions.

As you're chicken is getting prepped, heat the oil in a skillet. We have a large cast iron skillet that is especially for frying chicken. I fill the skillet about 2/3 full of vegetable oil. Whatever size skillet you use, just make sure there is about 2-3 inches of space at the top. You don't want your grease to spill out or splash out once the chicken is added. My grandma fries hers up in an electric skillet and it works great too.

Once the oil is hot, I put in a few pieces of chicken. I try to get a good mixture of pieces in each frying batch. That way when it's time to eat there is a good variety that is hot and fresh.

Fry each batch for about 15-18 minutes on med/high heat, turning halfway through. If I were really good at this, I would have used a thermometer to tell you how hot the oil was. But, I'm not that good.
While you wait on your birdie to cook, you can take pictures of yourself in your super cute apron. Mine was a Christmas gift from my sister-in-law last Christmas. I just love it!

Or of the dog looking oh-so-cute and hopeful that he will get to taste the bird. Too bad, so sad.

Once the chicken looks golden brown, take it out to drain. I drain mine on a plate with a paper towel. However, I recently read that it's best to drain it on a wire rack inside a cookie sheet. I forgot about that little tip. This helps it stay crispy while the other batches are cooking.

And now the best part....

I recommend serving with fresh green beans and mashed potatoes.

I would also recommend this recipe for dessert.

Double Crusted Fried Chicken

Ingredients::

3-4 lb. chicken

Salt water mixture:

¼ cup salt

6 cups warm water

Batter:

2 ½ cups flour

1 T. salt

3 ½ t. black pepper

1 t. garlic powder

1 t. paprika

4 eggs

1/4 cup milk

Directions:

1. Wash chicken and take out insides. Cut into pieces, discarding skin as necessary.

2. Soak chicken in salt water mixture in refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

3. Prepare batter in 3 dishes:

• 1st flour mixture: 1 cup flour, 1/2 tablespoon salt, 1 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• Egg wash: 4 eggs, 1/4 cup milk, dash of salt and pepper
• 2nd flour mixture: 1 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 tablespoon salt, 2 teaspoons black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon paprika

4. Pat chicken pieces dry from salt water mixture. Coat in first flour mixture, dip in egg wash, coat in second flour mixture

5. Heat oil in large skillet, leaving 2-3 inches of space at top of skillet

6. Fry chicken on med/high for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown

7. Remove from oil and let drain on paper towel or wire rack

Recipes to Share

I've mentioned before how much I enjoy trying new recipes and love sharing a good recipe! I've tried a couple new recipes in the past few weeks and have been meaning to share them.

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Homemade Chick-Fil-A Nuggets - I LOVE Chick-Fil-A! Who doesn't?!? I was excited to try this recipe and it did not disappoint! They were super easy to make and the flavor was so close to Chick-Fil-A. I couldn't stop eating the cute little nuggets. They are especially good with a little honey mustard to dip 'em in. Yummy!

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Slow Cooker Jambalaya - - I didn't actually cook this in my crock pot. I also didn't use shrimp in it because I'm a cheapo and didn't want to spend the money on the shrimp. I used chicken and sausage. It was a little spicy, but I loved it. It was very easy to make on the stove top. This could also make a good dish to take to church.

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Slow Cooker Bacon-Apple Chicken- - I was a little suspicious of this recipe at first, because I usually don't like sweet barbeque flavored dishes. But, it had bacon, so I had to try it. I was pleasantly surprised with the flavor. I used a chipotle flavored bbq sauce, so it didn't get too sweet. The sweetness of the apple was a nice compliment, but not overwhelming. The recipe says to cook it on low for 8 hours, but I felt like that was a little long. The chicken fell apart as I was trying to get it out of the crock pot. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it would have been fine after about 6 hours.

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Cheddar Bacon Dip or "Crack Dip" - - Ok, so there's a reason this is called Crack Dip! I made this for Friday night supper for our annual meeting. There was a lot of it left to bring home. Once I had it at home, I couldn't stop eating it! I ate it with broccoli, carrots, and pita chips to make me feel a little healthier. :) Using the bacon bits from a bag makes it super easy to throw together. Just be warned that the whole bowl might be empty before you know it!

Let me know if you try any of the recipes and what you think!

Dried Herbs

Earlier in the summer, I blogged about my herb garden. As with most other vegetation in this part of the world, the ridiculous heat did a number on my herbs as the summer went on. About a month ago I gathered up what was left of my herbs that I hadn't used or hadn't been fried by the heat.

I did a little research as to the best way to dry them. I prepped the herbs by washing them and tying them in bundles. They needed a relatively cool, dry, and not dusty place to hang for a few weeks. Finding a place that matches all of those requirements is quite a task! I read somewhere that over the water heater is a good place to hang the herbs, so that's what I did.

Fresh herbs hanging over the water heater

They hung out for about 4 weeks and I finally got around to jarring them up this week. The smell as I was crushing them up and putting them into jars was yummy!

4 weeks later...dried, crispy, and very aromatic!

I bought the jars at Ross for $2.99 for the set! I used dry erase marker to write the name on the lid.

Thyme, sage, oregano, parsley

I now have dried thyme, sage, oregano, and parsley to enjoy through the winter!

Oops...broke the corner of the parsley jar!

Side note: As true to my typical form, I managed to break one of the jars in the process. No surprise there!