Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein No Bake Energy Balls

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Cooking, Food, Health

How’s that for a title that is bigger than the food itself? About two weeks ago I posted my first energy ball recipe (a Peanut Butter Cup recipe– it’s delicious!), and this is just a fun variation of that one. Again, no need to exactly measure out these quantities- I just eye ball them (but I’ll give you a rough estimate for each of the amounts).

Ingredients

• 1 cup dry oatmeal
• 2/3 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup honey (plus about 2 tablespoons)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons of cinnamon
• 1/5-2 tablespoons of chia seeds
• 1/4-1/3 cup chocolate protein powder

I tossed everything into the bowl all at once and mixed it thoroughly together, and then put the bowl in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. When I took it out, I just rolled the dough into individual balls.

Delicious looking, right? For all of you flower folks out there- that’s a verbena in the pot behind the ball.

It’s SO easy, and really only requires 1 bowl and 1 spoon to be washed at the end. You can’t get better than that, can you? I’ve already come up with another 4-5 different flavors of these balls to make, and can’t wait to try them out. I’ll be sharing them all with you as I make them!

So seriously- make these as soon as you possible can! They’re worth it! For more recipes, click here.

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Peanut Butter Cup No-Bake Energy Balls

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Cooking, Food

I’ve recently been a bit unhappy about my sugar intake, knowing that it’s in my best interested to decrease it a bit (please note that I’m not trying to cut out sugar completely AT ALL, but just get down to what the recommended daily serving is). I’ve been eating far too many homemade peanut butter cups, and while they’re delicious, I don’t need 5 or 6 a week! To satisfy my peanut butter and chocolate craving, I decided to make some delicious energy balls. I searched around online, and then I modified this recipe I found on smashed peas and carrots. Here’s what you need:

Ingredients

• 1 cup dry oatmeal
• 2/3 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup of honey (minus about 2-3 tablespoons- just eyeball it!)
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds (which I chopped up further)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• approximately 2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1.5 or 2 tablespoons of chia seeds

I started with sliced almonds, put them on a cutting board, and then diced them up into much smaller pieces. Then I tossed everything else into the bowl too. I put it in the refrigerator for awhile to let it set, and then rolled the dough to make the individual balls. This made 16 balls I believe, and I tried to make them all as even as possible!

The result was absolutely delicious! I’ll definitely be making them again, as they are really fast, and a much healthier (but still delicious) snack option.

 I popped them in a container and put them in my refrigerator… but had to go back a few times to get a ball throughout the afternoon!

This was my first time making no bake energy balls, and I can’t wait to try out other flavors and variations! The day after I made these I ended up spending 14 hours helping a friend pack and move to a new apartment (I carried 59 loads of boxes and furniture up stairs- each time up was 17 stairs), so needless to say I needed a lot of energy! I brought some of these balls with me, and they worked wonderfully! This was a great way to put them to the test:)

So seriously- make these as soon as you possible can! They’re worth it! For more recipes, click here.

Looking for more ways to connect?

• Connect on twitter @kalolainastar
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PureLyft Clean Caffeine

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Review

Disclaimer: I was given 2 PureLyft sticks to try out through my affiliation with Sweatpink. All opinions are my own.

I have an interesting relationship with caffeine. I love it and hate it all at once. I’ve seen too many people addicted to caffeine, and want no part of that. That being said, I still drink caffeine an average of 3-4 times a week because I enjoy it and it helps me wake up in the mornings. Since I teach pilates and barre classes early in the morning, and then head to a dimly lit office to counsel all day, sometimes I need an extra pick me up.

That’s where PureLyft could come in for me. I tried it out early on Tuesday morning, deciding to mix it in with straight water. There is no real taste to the caffeine, so you could mix it in with any fluid you’d like. I unpeeled the packaging off the stick, stuck it in the water for about 10 seconds as I stirred, and it was ready to go. The powder dissolved quickly for me, and it felt like I was drinking regular water. I liked the fact that there were vitamins in it as well– a much better start to my day then the sugar laden coffee I often drink (yes- I’m working on it).

The sticks could be stored in your purse, gym bag, while traveling (for all you caffeine addicts this could be HUGELY helpful!), or desk drawer for easy “in a pinch” use!

Would I choose to use these sticks every day- nope! I definitely am not ready to give up my coffee and tea all the time. However, like I said, in a pinch these would work great, and I plan to keep them around for that purpose! You can check out PureLyft at their website or on twitter.

Now it’s your turn to share! What’s your favorite way to consume caffeine?

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Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

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Cooking, Food, Lactose Intolerance

About six weeks ago I became obsessed with the chocolate/peanut butter combination. A friend of mine picked up these huge peanut butter cups for the two of us, and I happily ate it over the course of a few days. The next week she picked them up again for us. Somewhere in there was Easter (with lots of PB/chocolate combinations), and then again she brought the PB cups over. So, needless to say, I’ve been enjoying a few bites of peanut butter cups most days of the week, and I love it! However, the last time she brought them over she mentioned that they were $5 a piece. While they are absolutely delicious, that’s just ridiculous! Because of that, I decided to try to make my own. While not quite as pretty, they were just as delicious, and MUCH much cheaper! I used this recipe from “comfort of cooking” (head over there for actual recipe). This can easily be made lactose free, which is another great benefit to making your own candy and desserts!

Ingredients 

• chocolate chips (I chose semi-sweet)
• peanut butter
• butter (I used Earth Fare which is lactose free)
• powdered sugar
• salt (optional- the original recipe doesn’t call for it, but I thought it might be fun to add a little salty to half of the batch)

each layered step of the process

That’s it! It was really easy to mix up. The only thing that took a little time is that each layer of the cup needs to be made and frozen at each individual point, so that takes a bit of time.

With the top layer of chocolate, I put a little sea salt on half the batch. It was definitely delicious to have the salty and sweet together (I’m a fan of that combination), but it’s certainly not necessary.

With just a little salt on top!

One thing of note: it didn’t work the best to have the peanut butter all the way to the edge of the cup. With the first bite of the cup, the layers separated a bit and the peanut butter spilled out the sides. Eating them inside the liner definitely helped. While it didn’t impact the delicious taste of the cup, I’d definitely suggest leaving the peanut butter more in the center of the cup instead!

If you’re looking for a cheaper, healthier (I didn’t say healthy, but it certainly has less chemicals if you make them at home), and fun way to make candy/dessert, this is it! You can store these in the refrigerator for a few days to keep them delicious 🙂

If you want more delicious recipes, check out my recipe page!

Looking for more ways to connect?

• Connect on twitter @kalolainastar
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How To Make Jello Eggs!

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Cooking, Family, Food, Holiday

When I was in mid-elementary school, my mom got these jello molds and started to make jello eggs for us at Easter time! Not only are they fun, but a great snack to take to all sorts of spring get togethers (I even made them for the fourth of July last year!). They’re relatively easy, but you need to plan ahead a bit to let them solidify in the refrigerator.

I have the recipe that my mom sent me, and I’ve spent about 10 minutes looking online to see if I could find it somewhere to link to. I couldn’t find it, so sorry if there’s one exactly the same that’s already out there!

Ingredients

• 4 packages of unflavored gelatin
• 3 boxes of flavored jello mix (your choice in flavors!)
• 3.5 cups of boiling water
• 0.5 cup of ice water
• oil spray (could use olive oil and a piece of paper towel I suppose)

Spray jello molds with oil spray so that the jello eggs will come out easily! Once you’ve done this, close the molds tightly together.

Bring about 4 cups of water to a hard boil. While you’re doing this, mix the gelatin packages with the jello packages in a bowl. Make sure to stir thoroughly together. Once the water is up to a boil, pour water from pan into a measuring cup and dump into the jello mix. Mix water and jello mix together thoroughly before putting in the half a cup of ice water. Quickly dump the mix into the measuring cup again (you want a good pouring spout) and pour slowly into the jello mold. When I made these on Saturday after my half marathon I made a mess (I blame it on all the energy I used earlier in the day), so you want to try to avoid that (but it’s not a big deal if you spill on the outside of the molds).

You want to fill right up the top of the egg part. Once you’re done filling them, put the tray that the molds are on into the refrigerator for 3 hours. Once they are set, use a knife to pop the molds open and shake the egg molds upside down into a bowl. You can also slide a knife between the egg and the mold to loosen it.

Store in a container in the refrigerator and enjoy! Kids LOVE these as they’re really a grab and go snack, but adults love them as well! If you’re looking for other recipes, check out my recipe page.

Now it’s your turn to share! What’s something you grew up eating on Easter? 

Looking for more ways to connect?

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What’s In My Snack Drawer?

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Food

I eat breakfast at about 7 am, and my lunch hour doesn’t start until 1 pm, so most of the time I need a little something to get me through those 6 hours. I have a big drawer in my desk that holds all sorts of snacks and drink items so that I have a variety to choose from depending on my mood. I thought I’d give you a peek into my snack drawer:

I have Luna Bars in my drawer for my “2nd breakfast” on Tuesday and Thursday mornings when I teach pilates and barre before work. Cheese sticks are obviously not kept in my snack drawer, but I keep a bag of them in our work refrigerator, and they make filling and delicious snacks in the middle of the morning or right after work if I’m heading to work out. All the way on the right are some flavorings for water. Sometimes I just need a break from straight water, and these are easy and convenient.

More drinks!

I have a number of boxes of tea, as I usually end up drinking 3-4 cups of it a day (I reuse tea bags a few times). I also have apple cider mix to mix it up.

I usually have some sort of peanut butter, both for a snack item and to put on apples or bananas during lunch if I want. Almonds and other nuts are constants in my drawer. Occasionally I have dried fruit or trail mix as well.

Now it’s your turn to share! What are some snack items that you keep at work?

What I Ate Tuesday

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Cooking, Food

I actually don’t really love doing WIAW posts, but today’s challenge for the Move Nourish Believe Challenge that I’m doing is to do one of these posts, so here I am… doing that. While dinner is normally my “big meal” for the week, this week lunch is my big meal because the salads are BIG (I have a huge Tupperware bowl I bring it in to work), and I’m not hungry for a huge meal after that. Salads for the win.

This is actually “what I ate Tuesday”, and Tuesday mornings start early at 4:50 am when I wake up to teach barre class.

(Unpictured: banana and 8-9 ounces of orange juice before class)

I eat two breakfasts on the days that I teach, as I need something before I teach, but I’m hungry after I work out. My typical meal afterwards is a protein bar and 16 ounces of coffee (today it was w/samoa cookie creamer! YUM!):

Most days I either have almonds or a cheese stick as a morning snack, but days like this when I eat 2 breakfasts I am less likely to eat one of these. I didn’t today.

Lunch was this veggie protein salad– packed with a serving of quinoa, a serving of beans,  a hard boiled egg, cheese, spinach, and other fresh veggies. This salad is SO filling and delicious. I also had 2 clementines and a greek yogurt, and I was a little uncomfortably full at this point. I love this meal because it’s so quick, easy, healthy, and is packed with protein.

I often have an afternoon snack, but again with this salad, I usually stay full much longer than most of my lunches. Dinner was a stuffed pepper, a whole grapefruit, carrots with greek yogurt dip (YUMMMY!!!- also, unpictured) and a few of the eclairs from the box pictured. YUM!!!

Like I said, I often end up eating a morning and afternoon snack, but having two breakfasts along with how filling the lunch was, and that was definitely not happening today!

Now it’s your turn to share! What was one of your favorite foods you’ve had to eat so far this week?

Homemade Lactose Free Hot Chocolate {with a few variations}

Tags

Cooking, Lactose Intolerance

One thing that I missed an awful lot when I first became lactose intolerant was hot chocolate. A staple in the winter, I missed cuddling under a warm blanket with it! Back in late 2010 my mom found this recipe for hot chocolate from “Hints from Heloise”, and we modified it to make it delicious and lactose free!

ingredients

• 2 cups powdered soy milk (can use regular powered milk too)
• 1/4 cup powdered cocoa
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• a dash of salt
• 1/3 cup powdered non-dairy creamer (check to make sure it’s lactose free. Can use any flavor to change it up. I typically go with vanilla flavored).
• *optional: Can add any other spices to the mix (i.e. cinnamon, all spice, cloves) or add a bit of flavoring (I love almond and peppermint. orange is also interesting) once you have the mix stirred into the water or milk (i personally like to use almond milk)

(I got that mug while in town for the Monumental Half Marathon)

Combine together and store in a cool, dry place in a sealed container (or in the freezer if you’re going to use it slowly). Like I mentioned, you can mix in other spices or just put them into the cup itself upon cooking. I love to add in things like a piece of peppermint to mix it up as well. Another thing I have done on occasion- poured a cup of coffee and then put 1-2 tsp of the mix into it. It makes a nice mocha flavor- YUM!

Yet another thing to add to my list of “happiness in the winter” 🙂 Enjoy!

Now it’s your turn to share! What’s your favorite way to drink hot chocolate? 

Eating in Cuenca, Ecuador

Tags

Ecuador, Food, Travel

One thing that I really love about Cuenca, Ecuador is the food (other things include Dos Chorreras and Piedra de Agua)! In the weeks leading up to the trip I made a list of the foods that I wanted to eat most of all, and immediately went on a hunt for them as soon as I arrived. Before I talk about the “must haves” and some of my favorite foods, I thought I’d outline a typical day of eating:

• Breakfast: Fresh bread from a local bakery along with cheese, tea, and coffee. Fresh fruit was also plentiful. Once or twice we were also served oatmeal. Typically I was pretty full (and stayed full!) for a number of hours after this meal.
• Lunch: The big meal of the day. Because most people end up taking 2-3 hours off, this meal might be eaten at a restaurant or at home. My host family would typically serve the following: bread with soup (potato, pea, quinoa & chicken, etc… <-all amazing though!), a main course (rice, meat, and veggie), and a dessert. Fresh fruit juice was also plentiful.
• Dinner: Smaller than lunch, and typically eaten somewhere between 9 and 10:30 at night. We had sandwiches, hotdogs (they were mini and cooked in ketchup, coke, and carmelized onions, then put on a bun with chips on top. It was amazing), or oatmeal again. Again, all were amazing.

Fresh fruit market

Fruits are plentiful in Ecuador, and there are so many more varieties of fruits compared to what we get in the U.S. If you ever go to Ecuador, make sure you eat as many fruits as you can, along with the delicious fruit juices (I forgot to take any pictures of the juices 😦 ).

This is what the guaba fruit looks like from the outside

This is guaba fruit (note: this is different than guava). The fruit is somewhat fuzzy and you suck the outside off, and a large black seed (the size of a cockroach) is left behind. It’s delicious and I wish I could get them at home.

This is guinea pig (cuy) and I did NOT try it. I’m opposed to eating any animal that I’ve cuddled at some point (and I had guinea pigs when I was little).

French onion soup at Piedra de Agua

Potato soup at Dos Chorreras

Soups are my favorite, and potato soup is an absolute MUST HAVE in Ecuador. They have different potatoes and a different oil (can also come in a powder form) that makes it a little more orange. It’s usually served with a slice of avocado, and it’s amazing.

Every day you’re in Ecuador you need to find a fresh little bakery and try all sorts of breads! They have dessert and sweet breads (covered in sugar, filled with jam, rolled with chocolate, etc…) as well as typical breads and rolls that you’d eat at a meal.

Make sure you try the delicious coffee at a few different cafes. This is outside of Un Buen, which was delicious! I also brought coffee home with me.

And finally- you need to try Inca Cola. People have very mixed opinions (it sort of tastes like Bubble Gum I think), but it’s part of the cultural experience.

This is by no means the extent of the foods that I ate, but are the things that I tend to look forward to each time I head down to Ecuador. The foods are delicious, and I can’t wait to go back and get my favorites once again!

Now it’s your turn to share! What are some of your favorite foods you’ve had while traveling?

Gingerbread Coffee

Tags

Food, Holiday

This year I’ve fallen in love with the Gingerbread Lattes from Starbucks. However, I don’t choose to spend the money every day to get one because that’d be expensive. I almost never get the lattes, and usually get black coffee with 1-2 pumps of whatever flavored syrup I want (a hint to make drinks MUCH cheaper!). Even so, I don’t want to do that every day either. So, that left me to try and create something that tastes similar. Here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients

• Coffee grounds
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp all spice
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 2 heaping tsp molasses
• sugar (optional)
• milk or cream (optional)

I put all the spices in with the coffee grounds and brewed the coffee as I usually do. Once it was reading, I put the molasses in my cup and poured the coffee into it. I mixed and threw in some sugar. If you’d like it a bit creamier, you can add some milk or cream.

Of course you can play around with the levels of the spices, depending on what you like! While making coffee isn’t the exact same as a delicious drink from Starbucks in that happy little red cup, this was a pretty great substitute!

Looking for other recipes? Check out my recipe page here.

What’s your favorite drink from Starbucks (or another coffee shop)? Do you ever try to recreate your favorite drinks at home?