No Bake Nut & Oat Balls

Good morning folks!

Today is going to be a good day, I just know it. I have my morning off work, so I plan on going to the gym, and catching up on my favorite show. I only work two hours this afternoon, and then I will go into town to get some shopping done. Like I said, this day sounds sweet.

Lately I have been trying out all sorts of healthy granola bar, and snack recipes for Dan. Here is the latest, and I love how it turned out. I hope you guys love it too! This recipe makes 24 and each ball has only 58 calories!

All you need is:

• 1 cup of pitted, dried dates
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup of peanut butter
• 1/4 cup chopped, unsalted peanuts
• 1 tsp coco powder
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 cups quick oats

Step one:

Process the dates and water in your food processor until it becomes a paste.

Step two:

On your stove heat up the peanut butter,date paste, chopped peanuts, coco powder and milk on medium heat. Heat it for a few minutes and continue to stir so it doesn't burn.

Step three:

Remove from heat and add the quick oats. Stir until everything is combined. Spoon out small balls and place on wax paper to cool. Enjoy one for me please :)

Have a wonderful day!

-Britt xo

Orange Cranberry & Chocolate Scones

Hello darlings!

How are you doing today? Well, my day started out a little crazy. My car wouldn't start this morning due to the -30 weather, and the car wasn't plugged in properly so it was frozen. Dan came home from work with a friend to boost me and that took about 30 minutes to get the car going. Because of all the craziness, I missed my morning shift and I think I got frost bite. 

Seeing as I was stuck in my home all morning, I made some of these yummies. They are basically cookies, but whatever we will call them scones ;)

Here is what you need:

• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup softened butter (olive oil works as well. The consistency will be slightly different, but still delicious)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup or less of chopped semi sweet chocolate
• one orange grated with the juices squeezed 

Step one:

Mix up all the dry ingredients. Flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar.

Step two:

Make a little hole in the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients there. Add the egg, milk, butter, orange peel and squeezed juice.

Step three:

Mix in the chocolate and cranberries.

Step four:

Bake the scones at 425F in a preheated oven on a greased sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes. This recipe makes one dozen.

Enjoy this yummy treat! I know I enjoyed one too many.

Here are some pics from our weekend. The weather was so mild that we were outside the whole weekend!

 xo

Whole Wheat & Flax Banana Muffins

I HAVE A RECIPE!
YAY!

I am back in my kitchen! It feels so nice. Seeing as I am supposed to be a food blogger, I figured I should post a recipe. This is my third batch in two weeks. yum!

You need:

• 1 cup white flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tbsp whole flax seeds
• 2 tbsp ground flax seeds
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• dash of salt
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup skim milk
• 1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 3 mashed bananas

Also you can add chocolate chips for some extra FUN!

Step one:

Mix all your dry ingredients together. {Flours, flax, baking soda & powder, salt}

 Step two:

Add your wet ingredients to the dry. {Bananas, egg, milk, applesauce, and chocolate chips if you so desire}

Step three:

Heat your oven to 350F and bake your muffins for about 20 minutes. 

This recipe makes 12 muffins. I've had one of these bad boys every morning for breakfast over the past two weeks. YUMMO.

ENJOY!

I have a leg of lamb roasting right now with orzo. Oh baby. The recipe will come sometime soon.

Have a great weekend everyone.

xoxo

Banana Bread with a Chocolate Twist

HOLLA.

Who doesn't love a good 'ol banana bread? So seeing as I had 3 bananas starting to turn, I made myself a batch of my fav banana bread, but with a new little twist.

A chocolate twist that is.
So yum.

Just looking at this pic makes me want another slice.
But I shall resist. Or at least I will attempt to resist.
I have to go to the gym at 11.

Well let's get started! Here's what you need!

• 2 cups of white flour
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• dash of salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup of skim milk(or milk of your choice)
• 1/3 cup of olive oil
• 3 bananas mashed
• 1/2 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips

Step one:

Mix all the wet ingredients together. Flour, baking soda, baking powder & salt.

Step two:

Mix up the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Sugar, bananas, egg, oil & milk.

Step three:

Mix the wet and the dry together until it's evenly mixed.

Yuuuuuuummm.

Step four:

Take 1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chips and put them in the microwave for 35 secs. If it's not totally melted put it in for another 15 seconds. Feel free to use more chocolate if you want. ;)

Add a little bit of milk to get it to make it a little less thick. 

Step five:

Put the banana bread goo into a greased bread pan. Now pour the chocolate on top. Use a knife or spoon and swirl the chocolate around. 

Are you getting hungry yet?

haha

Step six:

Bake for 1 hour at 350F.

Enjoy!

What are your plans for the week? I will be working, planning for our spaghetti fundraiser lunch at our church this Sunday and I will be planning for my friends who are coming for a visit!!

I am like beyond excited. My friend Chantelle and her husband are driving here to come visit us next week. They've never been here & I can't wait to show them all that Saguenay has to offer! 

Also a few days after they leave my friend Haelee is coming to visit! We actually met here in Saguenay in a French course, but I am so stoked that she's coming back for a visit. 

So much joy. 

I will post pics from my friends' visits! I feel so blessed.

Okay well I am off the gym!

xo

-Britt

Peanut Butter Chocolate Coconut Cookies

Can it get any better than this?
I am not sure, because these are pretty darn amazing.
A week and a bit ago I made these cookies & they were eaten pretty fast. Please don't judge, it's not just me who eats all the cookies although I wish I could. Dan & I loved these cookies so much that I decided to make them again but with peanut butter. Of course peanut butter makes everything better!!

Also, Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends! Most of my readers are from the states so I figured I should give a shout out to you guys! Canada celebrates thanksgiving in October. Enjoy your time with your friends & family.  It is always good to take time & be thankful for the wonderful lives we have. I hope you all enjoy your turkey dinners! :)

Here is the recipe :)

In a medium size pot on medium to high heat put:

• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (not super packed down)
• 1/4 cup of skim milk 
• 2 tbsps cocoa powder

Bring it to all to a boil. Set your timer & let it boil for a minute. Don't forget to stir ;)

Once it is done boiling take the pot off of the heat. 

Add these ingredients into the pot. Combine well:

• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup of non sweetened coconut (you can use sweetened if you want)
• 1 1/2 cups of quick oats (you can add a little bit extra if you feel it needs it)

OPTIONAL:

• add some raisins
• add some chocolate chips
• add nuts of your choice

SPOON out the cookie dough & place them onto wax paper to cool. Once they are cool they should harden up a it & look like little macaroons/cookies. This recipe makes 12 cookies.

Enjoy!

I promise you will!

xo

{Easy No Bake} Oatmeal Coconut Chocolate Cookies

Hello folks!
Today I am in the mood to blog. By that I mean, I want to blog a lot. I want to redo my blog, post a few recipes & I want to check out all of my favourite blogs. So be expecting some new recipes in the next few days! This recipe was created last night, when I was on the phone with my friend Kelly & I was craving something sweet. The only problem was I didn't have eggs, and I didn't have at least one ingredient in each recipe I was finding online. Therefore, I created my own recipe. I kept saying to Kelly " I don't think these are going to turn out.. I don't think they are going to work." BUT they DID WORK & I am so happy about it. This recipe makes 12 cookies.

In a medium size pot on medium to high heat put:

• 1/4 cup margarine (or butter)
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (not super packed down)
• 1/4 cup of skim milk 
• 2 tbsps cocoa powder

Bring it to all to a boil. Set your timer & let it boil for a minute. Don't forget to stir ;)

Once it is done boiling take the pot off of the heat. 

Add these ingredients into the pot. Combine well:

• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup of non sweetened coconut (you can use sweetened if you want)
• 1 1/2 cups of quick oats (you can add a little bit extra if you feel it needs it)

OPTIONAL:

• add some raisins
• add some chocolate chips
• add nuts of your choice

SPOON out the cookie dough & place them onto wax paper to cool. Once they are cool they should harden up a it & look like little macaroons/cookies. They have an ooey-gooey center. mmm.

Eat one right away ;)

Enjoy!

What are you all up to today?
As of right now I am enjoying a bowl of my newly created Carrot & Lentil Curry soup. It is super good & it is totally hitting the spot right now. I will post the recipe later this week.
My day is a get stuff done around the house  kind of day. Laundry, vacuuming, mopping, clean the bathroom, you get the picture. You know, all of the good housewife kind of stuff ;). Then later today I am going to finish putting together the 6  Operation Christmas Child boxes that our youth group help do. I am looking forward to that. It's a great ministry & it made me so happy to see our youth group pull together & fill the boxes. I will share some pictures of that later.
I hope you all have a fabulous day!

xo
-Britt

{Decadent} Cheesecake Filled Strawberries

Like I said before, I love Pinterest. This idea comes from there. I made these last night for Dan and I. We enjoyed a romantic evening of these strawberries, tea and the tv show Curious and Unusual Deaths. haha sounds romantic right? haha. We actually love anything on Discovery channel. If we feel like watching something together, it's normally from that channel. These strawberries HIT THE SPOT. for real. I will make these again.
They are super easy to make. Here is what you need:

• 1 brick of low fat cream cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 tbsps icing sugar
• 1 pkg of strawberries
• chocolate syrup (or melted chocolate, because that would taste so much better)

Step one:

In a bowl beat the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla.

Step two:

Cut out the centre of your strawberries & stuff them with the cream cheese!

Last step:

Drizzle with chocolate sauce. Then enjoy!

xoxo

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

Hello blogger friends! Well I wish I could say happy Monday, but I am not feeling so happy :( I am still feeling sick.. I hope you all are having a better Monday than me! Today I spent the day sleeping, drinking tea&coffee, finally figuring out how to use pintrest and obsessing over myfitnesspal.com. {By obsessing I mean spending an hour and a half looking at peoples before and after weight loss pictures!} Oh and I did a little cleaning, and I made these muffins! Unfortunately folks this is my only recipe to post this week! I am trying to lose a few pounds before the summer{so not fun} and we ate SUPER plain this week. Steamed veggies with grilled chicken breasts..etc. So the bad news is, only one new recipe this week, but the good news is I have lost 8 pounds in the last 4 weeks! Yay. I can't believe I am sharing such personal info with the world. Who have I become? haha Okay enough about that. I have been working on my little cookbook project and I have decided this recipe is a keeper and is going into the cookbook! I plan on having an entire muffin section seeing as I love them! Here is what you need to make these muffins yourself:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup shredded zucchini
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 
  

This recipe will make 12 small (very small) muffins. I made 9 muffins at the size I like 'em. :)


Step one:


In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a separate bowl combine the egg, oil, apple sauce, milk, lemon juice and vanilla.: mix well. 


Step two:


Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in zucchini and chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. 

Step three:


Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes. Check them at 20 minutes. 

YUMYUMYUM. This is me eating one as we speak(or as I write this..) 

I hope everyone has a great rest of the day. I will probably continue relaxing and doing nothing. haha. See you all next Monday!
xo