Snacks Archives - Page 3 of 8 -

A Whole Lotta Thank Yous

Post author:Melanie
Post published:October 8, 2013
Post category:Breakfast / Guest Post / Snacks / Travel / Vacations
Post comments:13 Comments

Hey ya’ll!! I’m baaaaaccckkk! Dana and I got in last night at 10:45 pm from our anniversary vaca adventure. We were in three countries within a week and a half! Before I share any more details, I want to give a huge thanks to my guest posters for taking the time to write for Beautifully Nutty. In case you missed them:

Katie: How to Survive a Hard Run
Rebecca: Simple Meal Planning Tips
Jackie: Spicy Chicken Dip
Hailey: Decide to Be Happy, and Be

Dana and I had a seriously incredible and climate diverse vacation. It felt great to be together and to celebrate our two-year anniversary. Thank you for all of the anniversary wishes as well!

I am wiping my sleepy eyes this morning as I am slightly jet-lag going from west coast time back to central time zone. I know it’s only a difference of two hours but I’m sensitive to my sleep. You all know that by now. But waah wahh, I’m tired because I was on vacation. No one is going to throw a pity party for me that’s for sure!

I’m still working on gathering photos from my phone, Dana’s phone, and the camera, so the recaps are going to have to wait a bit but I thought I could at least share with you where I went.

We started the trip by spending a few days in Ucluelet and Tofino, BC on Vancouver Island, then we drove to Victoria, BC, crossed back on the ferry over to Vancouver, then Seattle, then down to California where we hopped on a three-day cruise to Ensenada, Mexico.

Canada, United States, and Mexico. Not bad, huh?

We spent a lot of time in the car needless to say but we got to enjoy some incredible views along the way.

Not to mention some seriously windy roads through the mountains.

I just about lost it on our 2.5 hour car ride out to Ucluelet. It didn’t help I had come off of a day of travel with very little sleep, eaten a less than stellar veggie burger, and the icing on the cake of course is that I get motion sickness fairly easily. Again, waah waaah.

(I tried to capture the zig-zag roads)

That’s about the extent at which I’m going to get into vaca today. I’m thinking I will spread it out a bit. I think it will take a few posts. Look forward to them!! 😉

It’s always hard to come back after vacation, but at the same time I get very excited to get home and see Moose, and my family and friends again.

I want to give a huge thank you to everyone who took care of our Mooser baby while we were away. I can’t wait to see his huge puppy face!

Dana (my travel agent and husband) did such an amazing job planning this trip for us. If you’re ever needing to book any type of trip, let me know and I can get you his contact information! Thank you, Dana for all of your time spent planning this awesome getaway for us!

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So guess what came to my door step the day before I left for vacation?

My Cosmedix prize! Remember back in September when I went out to New York for the Bethenny Frankel show and premiere party? I mentioned I had won a basket of $500 worth of Cosmedix swag. I anxiously awaited this basket of goodies and it’s finally here!

I can’t wait to try it all out! Thank you Cosmedix!

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I didn’t do a whole lot of food prep for our trip, but one thing I did make was a batch of Katie’s nummy bars! These served as our breakfast for the first few days and were SO good! I looked forward to eating them every morning and will absolutely be making another batch in the near future. I may even try almond butter instead. We will see! Thanks for the tasty recipe, Katie! xoxo

I am feeling very out of the loop with what is going on in our world, in the blog world, and with my family and friends. Did I miss anything big? How is everyone doing? I’ve missed you all!

Spicy Chicken Dip

Post author:Melanie
Post published:October 5, 2013
Post category:Guest Post / Snacks
Post comments:1 Comment

Hi I’m Jackie from NachoAverageRunner ! I blog about fitness, healthy living, recipes, and fun! I’d love to get to know you! Stop on by!

When Melanie was looking for guest posts I knew this recipe would be perfect to share. Tis the season for football after all! Plus the holidays are coming and I don’t know about you but that means tons of parties and get togethers just around the corner! When I go to parties I love to contribute to help out the host! It also helps my waistline knowing that I can contribute something on the healthy side to have as an option!

As my blog name suggests, I love nachos, and all dips for that matter! I could eat them all the time! I love finding fun ways to lighten them up without missing out on flavor!

Enter in my spicy chicken dip! This dip is a crowd pleaser and easy to manipulate! You can add tons of variety to this and it is great! (Not to mention super easy!)

Ingredients:
Two cans of chicken breast or fresh pulled baked chicken (whichever you have time for)

1 packet low sodium taco seasoning

1 jar salsa- whichever flavor and brand you prefer!

1-2 cups reduced fat shredded cheese (feel free to add as much as you want depending on how healthy you want to make this)

Directions:
In a baking dish combine chicken, seasoning, and salsa and mix well.

Simply top with the cheese and heat through until it’s bubbling! Seriously, I told you this was easy! Double the easy factor- bake in a disposable aluminum pan that you can leave at said party!!

You can serve this with multigrain chips, crackers, or fresh veggies like bell peppers! It’s great on it all! Leftovers are a great salad topper the next day too…. Not thy there will be any though!

I hope you enjoy this recipe! Thanks again Melanie!

Deliciously Simple Egg Salad Recipe (No Mayo)

Post author:Melanie
Post published:September 25, 2013
Post category:Gluten-Free / Lunch / Snacks
Post comments:16 Comments

Happy hump day! I hope everyone is having a fabulous week. How’s the freezer clean out going? Before we get into that I want to share with you all an embarrassingly easy recipe that you can make this week for lunch. It is a mayo-free, deliciously simple egg salad recipe!

I always forget how much I enjoy egg salad until I make it again and then I always say, “why don’t I make this more often?” It’s protein packed, full of great vitamins and nutrients like Vitamin D and choline, and can be very versatile. Serve it on a lettuce salad, or on a couple of pieces of whole grain bread with tomatoes, in a whole grain tortilla with spinach, or you could even eat it as a snack by using thick cut veggies (think scoop-shaped ones like bell peppers and celery) to dip it up!

This is what’s for lunch today, and I am excited!!

Deliciously Simple Egg Salad Recipe (No Mayo)

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Serves: 1

Ingredients

2 hardboiled eggs, peeled and diced
2 Tbsp celery, diced
1 Tbsp dill pickles, diced
1 tsp capers, chopped or whole
1 heaping Tbsp mustard
sprinkle of onion powder, to taste
fresh black pepper, to taste

Instructions

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients. Use a fork to mix well and mash eggs slightly.
Serve cold over a salad, on whole grain bread, in a whole grain tortilla, or with thick cut veggies to scoop up salad.

It has been a looooong time since I’ve shared a recipe, or at least I feel like it anyway. So although this is the most simple recipe ever, I am so happy I got to share one with you all still!

So, back to the project freezer clean out. How is it going for everyone? I am personally having a great time scrounging for long lost items in the freezer. Here’s a tip: remember to write the date that you freeze the items right on the bag or the container before you freeze them. Even if you think you’ll remember when you put the item in there, there’s a good chance you will probably forget. Just do it!

I threw together this hodge-podge of a meal last night and it turned out great. It was leftover asparagus and leek soup with broccoli, leftover sautéed veggies from the other night, chicken, yellow quinoa, and cheddar cheese melted over the top. So random but honestly so good!

Besides that leftover meal, I’ve also been enjoying brown rice wraps (that I keep in the freezer—sorta doesn’t count) with peanut butter and banana, smoothies made with frozen fruit, and that’s about it besides that I showed you in the previous post!

This whole freezer clean out business might have to extend to post-vacation. It is fun to get creative with what you have already! Plus, leftovers such as soup are so great when you are feeling real lazy and not wanting to make anything. Just toss it into a microwave safe bowl, cover it and let it heat through! Easy and delicious.

I hope you all have a great day!

I want to hear from you…Have you been working on cleaning out the freezer? Any delicious concoctions you have come up with?!

WIAW: Sweet and Salty

Post author:Melanie
Post published:August 21, 2013
Post category:Blog / Dinners / Gluten-Free / Lunch / Misc. / Snacks
Post comments:7 Comments

Well I was all set to write out a nice post to contribute to WIAW (What I Ate Wednesday) hosted by Jenn over at Peas and Crayons, but guess what? My body was needing some extra sleep this morning and I gave it what it wanted. Therefore, I don’t have ~~any~~ much time to blog this morning, so here is a quick version of WIAW (actually a combination of eats from Monday AND Tuesday)!

First, what is WIAW?

According to Jenn…

“—What WIAW isn’t about—-

Comparison – Judgement – Restriction – Guilt

—-What WIAW is about—-

Celebrating one of the glorious things we all have in common: We all eat!

WIAW is about food and fun! It’s about making new friends, breaking out of a food rut, noting changes in your diet/lifestyle, inspiring yourself & others, embracing fruit & vegetables, nourishing your body with the foods that work for you, finding new ways to eat your favorite foods, and so. much. more.

Celebrate Food. Celebrate blogging. Celebrate Individuality.”

I also want to mention that I absolutely did not photograph everything I ate! Here’s what I have got for ya!

Berries with brown rice puffs and almond milk.

Spinach salad with tuna and veggies!

Caribou coffee with mom (no picture): caramel soy latte! My new favorite!

Spoonfuls of this stuff…

My amazing dinner I shared with you yesterday: quinoa with sautéed veggies and hummus!

And I will not lie to you, I consumed a lot of this stuff over the past couple of days. Trail mix is my weakness! The sweet and salty combo gets me every time. So darn delicious!

Thanks Jenn for hosting WIAW! Happy Hump Day!

Do you prefer sweet or salty foods?

Clean Almond Chocolate Cookies

Post author:Melanie
Post published:August 6, 2013
Post category:Gluten-Free / Recipes / Snacks / Sweet Treats
Post comments:8 Comments

Thursday, August 8th is Miracle Treat Day at Dairy Queen. Dairy Queen will donate $1 to the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals for each blizzard purchased. Make Thursday a DQ Blizzard day if you have one in your area!

So speaking of ice cream, I have been seriously craving it, like in a really bad way. When these cravings arise I will make myself a batch of banana soft serve but ya know what, I’m not going to lie, it’s just not the same. I can’t wait for the day when my body is stable enough to enjoy a frozen ice cream treat now and again!

Until then, I will continue to find substitutions to the sweet treats my body has been craving.

On Monday, we had a cool and cloudy day here in Minnesota; the perfect cookie baking kind of day. I whipped up a batch of clean almond chocolate cookies! I was inspired by a recipe from the Clean Blog but made quite a few changes, so I wanted to make sure and share my recipe with you all.

These cookies are gluten-free; made from almond and coconut flour.

They are refined sugar-free; sweetened with coconut nectar and applesauce.

They are rich and chocolatey thanks to raw cacao powder and cacao nibs.

And they are pretty darn delicious if you ask me.

They have a rich chocolatey flavor, they are subtly sweet, and Dana and I have really been enjoying them for the last few days! We can’t always have cookies around or we would turn into cookie monsters, but it’s fun to have them around the house every once in a while!

Almond Cacao Cookies

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Serves: 3 dozen cookies

Recipe adapted from Clean blog: http://blog.cleanprogram.com/almond-butter-chip-cookies/

Ingredients

½ cup coconut flour
1 ½ cups almond meal/flour
½ cup coconut sugar plus ½ cup to coat dough balls
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 Tbsp raw cacao powder
1 cup raw cacao nibs
¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 Tbsp coconut oil
¼ cup almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup almond butter

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a non-stick baking pad or coconut oil.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, coconut sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cacao powder and cacao nibs. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the applesauce, coconut oil, almond milk and vanilla.
Add dry ingredients slowly into wet ingredients and mix until well combined.
On a small plate, sprinkle ½ cup coconut sugar.
Roll batter into 1 inch balls, then roll in coconut sugar, and place on the baking sheet leaving about an 1½ inches between cookies. Use your hand or the back of a cup to flatten the cookies to about ½ inch.
Bake for 13-15 minutes. Let cookies completely cool on the pan.ENJOY!

Have a great day friends. Enjoy a cookie!

Raw Vegan Truffle Brownies

Post author:Melanie
Post published:July 27, 2013
Post category:Recipes / Snacks
Post comments:14 Comments

Happy weekend my friends! I hope you all have some fun and relaxing plans this weekend. I will be spending the day out on the lake in the sun—eating, laughing, kayaking, pontooning, playing yard games, and sitting by a roaring fire. If that doesn’t say relaxation I don’t know what does.

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Raw Vegan Truffle Brownies

I wish I could take credit for these amazingly chocolatey brownies, but I can’t. I can thank Julie and PB Fingers for introducing me to these bad boys. They came across this recipe on cook.me, and if you were to have a look at their recipes, I’m sure you’d find something titillating enough. I already personally thanked them for this incredibly easy and delicious recipe, and I have a feeling after you make these, you will do the same.

They are vegan, gluten-free, and use no refined sugars.

The first time I made these brownies I made them into fudgy truffle bites like Julie had done.

source

The first batch flew out of our house in less than a week. These taste like fudgy, soft, dark chocolate truffle brownies so it’s no surprise they didn’t last long.

This second time around making these I got a little lazy so instead of forming a bunch fudgy little balls, I made them into brownie bars and of course they taste just as great!

There are only four ingredients that go into these bars:

2 cups walnuts
1 cup dates
1/4 cup cocoa powder
unsweetened coconut flakes

First process the walnuts in the food processor. Then add in the dates and the cocoa powder and process until a dough-like texture forms.

If you want to make balls, simple grab a small handful of dough and use hands to form balls. Place into plastic bag filled with coconut flakes. Give a gentle shake to coat the balls and store the balls right in the coconut bag.

For the brownie bars: ** I actually made 1.5 of the recipe for the brownie bars because it fit better in the pan** Line a 9 x 9 baking pan with saran wrap, sprinkle the bottom with coconut flakes, press the mixture down to form brownie-like bars, sprinkle more coconut on top, and press it in so it sticks. Cut into little squares and serve!

Julie captured the texture of these babies better than I could…

source

Thank you Julie! I am in love with these fudgy babies!

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One last thing to share. I used up the leftovers from my lentil stuffing and created an awesome lunch yesterday. I sautéed broccoli and mushrooms, then added in the lentils to heat through. Meanwhile I cooked an over-easy egg. Once the veggie mixture was heated through I plated it and topped it with my egg! So easy, so delicious and satisfying!

Have a great weekend!!

Cinnamon Muffins {refined sugar-free and gluten-free}

Post author:Melanie
Post published:July 26, 2013
Post category:Breakfast / Gluten-Free / Recipes / Snacks / Sweet Treats
Post comments:8 Comments

The perfectly sweet way to start your day…with mini cinnamon muffins! They are cute, sweetened with honey and no refined sugar, gluten-free and would be PERFECT with a little smear of nut butter. Although I recommend taking time in the morning to sit down and thoroughly enjoy your breakfast, I know that this isn’t always realistic in the busy world we live in, these muffins would be perfect for on the go.

Since they are mini-size you can decide how many you want to enjoy at any given time. They also make a perfect pick-me-up snack or even for dessert. You could even bake up some apple slices with cinnamon and crumble one of these little guys right on top of your apple slices! Or crumble one on top of some Greek yogurt! I’m getting all excited over here! Mmm, mmm.

Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

**Note: Although these are made with no refined sugar, they still contain sugar from the honey. Just something to be aware of! 🙂

Recipe adapted from stiritup.me and Elana’s Pantry.

Cinnamon Muffins (refined sugar-free, gluten-free)

Print

Serves: 3 dozen mini muffins

Ingredients

1 cup almond flour
1 cup brown rice flour
¼ cup coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp cinnamon
3 Tbsp flax seed + ½ cup water
¼ cup coconut oil, melted
¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
½ cup raw honey
3 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
Topping:
¼ cup honey
2 Tbsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat two mini muffin pans with cooking spray. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine all flours, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
In a food processor combine flaxseed and water and process until frothy.
In a large bowl, beat together the flaxseed mixture, oil, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla.
Slowly blend dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until combined.
Carefully spoon batter into prepared muffin tins.
In a small bowl, combine the topping ingredients: melted coconut oil, honey and cinnamon. Mix well and spoon over muffins.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until tooth pick inserted into middle muffin comes out clean.

Happy Weekend!!

My Go-To Blueberry Smoothie

Post author:Melanie
Post published:July 12, 2013
Post category:Breakfast / Gluten-Free / Health / Recipes / Snacks
Post comments:13 Comments

First and foremost, happy Friday to you all!

We have two very special guests staying with us this weekend so I am one happy gal.

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I’m keeping it short and simple for you all this Friday.

I have been really loving my smoothies lately especially now that I have reintroduced bananas back into my diet. I have been mixing up lots of different concoctions but have found one that has become my go-to smoothie.

I never really measure out the ingredients, I prefer to “eyeball” them, but I did my best to estimate the correct measurements per ingredient so you can try making it at home yourself!

My Go-To Blueberry Smoothie

about 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/4-1/2 cup frozen pineapple
1/2 frozen banana
handful of kale
spoonful of hemp protein powder
spoonful of raw cacao powder
spoonful of almond butter
touch of stevia
1/2-1 cup almond milk

Give it a good whirl in your blender or Nutribullet until completely blended. Enjoy as an on-the-go breakfast or a perfectly healthy afternoon snack!

Warning: Be careful drinking this smoothie when wearing white clothes! I usually play it safe by wearing an apron in the car if I’m taking it on the go. Nerd alert.

I hope you all have a fantastic Friday! xoxo

Question: What’s in your go-to smoothie?

Memorial Weekend: Productive Yet Relaxing

Post author:Melanie
Post published:May 28, 2013
Post category:Dinners / Gluten-Free / holidays / Home Life / Lunch / Snacks / Sweet Treats
Post comments:7 Comments

Long time no see! How was everyone’s Memorial Weekend? Mine was very productive but also relaxing. That seems to be a common theme around our house on the weekends. We got so much done around the house and spent the majority of our weekend working outside in the yard.

I want to give HUGE shout-out thank you to the guys who came over on Sunday to help Dana dig the egress window well. THANK YOU times a million! They plowed through that job so fast I couldn’t believe it.

After the window was dug, I helped Dana lay the bricks in for the walls of the well. I felt pretty tough as I carried those bricks around the yard, and my arms are definitely feeling it today! One more trip to Menards for our last batch of brick and the egress window well will be nearly complete. The next step will be putting the windows in, but we’re going to have that done professionally. Then we can start finishing our basement! I’m just waiting for that money tree to start growing in the yard. It all adds up real fast.

Besides getting muddy in the yard this weekend, I also hung out with family, friends, and ate some delicious food. I was hoping to get a bike ride in with Dana but the weather wasn’t really cooperating. The sun hasn’t shown us its beautiful face around here since Thursday if I’m not mistaken. Our poor plants haven’t seen sun since we planted them in the ground on Thursday! We could all use a little Vitamin D around here. Soon enough though. Think positive thoughts, right? Maybe I’ll do a little sun dance later.

Alright, I’m planning on keeping it short today. I don’t have a ton of photos to share to recap the weekend, but I do have a few. So, I’m going to finish off today’s post with the collection of my photos from the weekend. And here we go…

Chipotle loaded with veggies! Proof that you can chose healthy fast food decisions; just go light on the cheese, sour cream, and guac, ditch the tortilla, and go heavy on the veggies and you have yourself an extremely delicious and healthy veggie-packed Chipotle bowl.

Almond banana muffin with almond butter and sliced bananas…

The Egress window well…

Salad: mixed greens, tomato, carrots, peas, avocado, olives, sunflower seeds, and Newman’s Own honey mustard dressing.

One of many trips to Menards…11% off everything right now really adds up when you’re there everyday. Spend money to save money, right?

Cherry Berry…with no skimping on frozen yogurt OR toppings. I meant business.

Homemade MAH bites, fauxtmeal raisin cookie style.

And the Bachelorette…

I had to throw that last one in there because I am super excited that the Bachelorette is back on again. I spent a good 5-miles on the treadmill watching the season premiere last night. It should be a good one! No favorites yet, though.

I have a nummy vegetarian meal planned for tonight that I am anxious to share with you all (inspiration from Denise). This is actually the only meal I planned for the week because I’m thinking there will be leftovers. Do you have any meals planned for the week?

I hope you all had a FANTASTIC weekend.

Did you do anything fun this weekend? Were you productive around the house? Did you relax with family and friends?

Pure Happiness

Post author:Melanie
Post published:May 7, 2013
Post category:Breakfast / Dinners / Recipes / Snacks
Post comments:12 Comments

Happy happy hump day!

Since I decided to post about my new adorable Ellie workout gear yesterday, I failed to update you on my nummy day of eats from Monday. Since I had a major lack of food photos yesterday (zip-zero), I am going to catch you up to speed from Monday.

Breakfast

Breakfast was a piece of toasted almond bread with organic natural peanut butter and raw honey, served with a cup of coffee with my new favorite cream!

This picture makes me so happy. Photographed is one of my favorite foods: peanut butter, my favorite morning drink that comforts my soul: coffee, and gorgeous yellow roses that my mom gave to me: love and friendship. Pure happiness.

Lunch

A bed of mixed spring greens topped with deviled eggs, red bell pepper, celery, olives, peas, avocado, sunflower seeds and Annie’s Green Goddess dressing. Way good!

I ate it outside in the sunshine which probably made it taste even better!

Dessert

Driscoll’s beautiful organic raspberries. Nature’s candy.

There was definitely more snacking that happened in the afternoon. There are no pictures of it but I am guessing I had some mixed nuts, some carrots, and maybe an apple. 🙂

Dinner

For dinner I roasted up brussels sprouts and broccoli with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. To go on top of the veggies I made a marinara sauce using Ragu No-Sugar-Added spaghetti sauce, with one Italian turkey sausage, and sautéed onions, mushrooms, and garlic. I sprinkled in some dried basil and oregano too!

To plate it up I started with a layer of veggies, next I grated some fresh parmesan cheese, and then finished it with a huge serving of the sauce which in my opinion is the best part!

I wasn’t loving the brussels sprouts that night. I had bought them fresh and then froze them, and feel they take on a bit of a different flavor once I use them out of the freezer. Anyone else experience this? Anyway, I still enjoyed the dish and ate all but three bites.

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Alright, it’s time for me to go pack up my lunch and think about what I want for breakfast! I am so food-minded; always prepared for moments when I may need to eat. 🙂 The hardest part is not knowing what I will be in the mood for come lunch time. I usually pack myself a couple of options so that I can pick and chose what sounds good.

I am super excited that thunderstorms are possibly going to happen this afternoon. I LOVE a good thunderstorm, as long as no one gets hurt and no damage is done of course. They remind me of being young and hanging out with my family in our safe home. As the thunderstorm approached we would watch the news and make sure we didn’t have to go to the basement. Then, as it whooshed over us I would watch safely out the window as the lightning struck and the thunder rolled (Garth Brooks anyone?) and it would make me so thrilled! I still feel that way when a thunderstorm rolls around! My mom also loves watching storms; she must have passed that gene down to me. 😉

Watch, we won’t even get one now that I got all hyped up about it.

Do you enjoy thunderstorms?

Have a great day my friends!