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Whole-Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Whew, that title is a bit of a mouthful, huh? Well so are these cookies! Though they be small, they are mighty with flavor and warmth! Yes, another pumpkin recipe. And don’t expect it to be the last! Fall is my favorite season of the year, I think, and although Los Angeles isn’t very good at crisp weather, I’m still gonna do the pumpkin up! Whole-wheat pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, here we come! I based this recipe off of Tried and Tasty’s wonderful recipe!

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banana bars

Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Bars

What do you do when you have over-ripe bananas to be used? Bake, of course! But what to bake? Normally I would make these sweet banana cookies, but we are all out of oats! So I browsed the internet hard to find me something on the healthier side that featured bananas. And…drum roll, please…I came up with whole-wheat chocolate chip banana bars (found it from a great blogger’s site)! Banana bars? Sound weird? They’re not. It’s basically brownie-shaped banana bread with chocolate chips. Yeah, they’re good. Hungry brought them to work and he got major points from his coworkers. 

The texture of the banana bars are cake-like rather than brownie-like, light and fluffy. Some hybrid of banana bread and cake. It’s yum. What makes this recipe healthier? Whole-wheat flour, no butter, and not too much sugar. Yeah, there are chocolate chips in it, but I mean, you got to live a little. Some baking recipes are complicated. This one is not. It’s basically mix together, put into sheet pan, and bake. And you know I love easy recipes. Alright, let’s make these delicious banana bars. 

banana bars

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Passion Fruit Pudding Cake

My boss has a big bounty of a garden and he generously brings in lots of different kinds of fruits. One of these fruits in which he brings surplus of is passion fruit! Passion fruit is such a treat because it’s not very common. The abundant amount of rain Southern California has received lately has helped more fruit, well, come to fruit. Passion fruit has a certain tropical flavor. It also absolutely looks like an alien fruit: it has a purple shell and inside, there are a bunch of green slime covered seeds. Sounds appetizing, right? Well, it’s actually super tasty and they’re only about 15 calories a pop!

My boss had brought in a large amount this time and I had quite a few sitting in my fridge. I didn’t want them to go bad, so I looked up passion fruit recipes and found this one. I altered it a little to have less sugar. A passion fruit pudding cake…full of moisture and flavor without being too sweet. Those who know me know that I’m not a huge cake fan, but this recipe is a cross between a pudding and a cake so I like it. It may look a little intimidating, but it’s quite simple to do. I’ve already baked it twice because it’s so delicious. It’s perfect for a guilt-free dessert because it’s so light, but also hits the spot because of its flavor and texture.

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Cookies (No-Bake)

Could you have a better combination of words? Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Cookies. Yum. Oh and don’t forget the no-bake part! What! I was so excited when I saw this recipe that I had to make my own variation! You may get that I’m excited due to the back-to-back exclamation points. This was an incredibly easy recipe. As I was putting it together, I kept thinking, is this really going to work? Spoiler alert: it worked and it’s damn delicious! There is no cooking time to these cookies and they are chock-full of protein! Often times, adding protein powder to baked goods can give them weird textures and flavors. Not this one! You wouldn’t even suspect that there was anything added to these cookies besides deliciousness. 

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Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies



Don’t you just wish you could gnaw on? Something tasty that didn’t sit like a rock on your stomach? Some kind of dessert…maybe cookies…chocolate chip cookies…sounding better by the minute! I have a solution for you as we near swimsuit season: healthy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (they ALSO have raisins–added bonus). This recipe is very simple and features a new protein powder we’ve been trying!

It’s called Clean Lean Protein by NuZest (a kiwi company! How do we get so lucky?!)–and the ingredients are rather incredible. Most have no more than five ingredients and it’s composed of things like “Pea Protein Isolate,” “Vanilla,” “Strawberry,” “Red Beet” and other wonderful things. Usually protein powders have an insanely long list of ingredients that you can’t pronounce. Clean Lean Protein brings along this simple protein powder that actually doesn’t taste like cardboard! Although I used it in a baking recipe here, I’ve also used it for smoothies and shakes and it definitely hits the spot (it mixes well in a shaker cup too–huge plus). If you use hungry20 to buy a NuZest product, you can get 20% PLUS free shipping. Click here to get to their website. Don’t forget to enter in the contest below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Cinnamon Whole-Wheat Apple Bread

Since we’ve finally settled into our “new” place, I’ve been scouring the web and the bloggers I follow for new recipes to try. It’s just something about being in the kitchen, creating, and enjoying it. I’m happy to have been doing more recipes lately. I was inspired by Cookies and Cups to do a cinnamon whole-wheat apple bread–a little healthier version of the typical snickerdoodle apple bread. It was extraordinarily easy to make, and let me tell you, the batter was delicious. Not that I ate too much… I always love trying and creating different treats that don’t make me feel bad afterwards. I can add this one to the list. 

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Chocolate Oat Apple Crumble

I have an unfortunate sweet tooth. I try to curb it, but sometimes I don’t. Sometimes, however, I think in advance and then make something that’s sweet, but still on the healthy side. That’s when Smitten Kitchen inspired me! Jasmine is a very close family friend who turned me on to “crumbles” very early in my life–particularly apple crumble. This recipe calls for very few ingredients so I decided to give it a go. It was really easy and made the house smell wonderful! I made a Chocolate Oat Apple Crumble and my sweet tooth was absolutely overjoyed without killing my health.

Finished product, but not before I dove in

Finished product, but not before I dove in

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Last-Second Valentine’s Day [Healthy] Treat

You have a busy life, a busy schedule, or maybe you just forgot. Well, it’s Valentine’s Day today, so if there’s someone special in your life, you should make sure that they know you feel that way about them. If you didn’t get them anything (don’t fret, there’s still time)–or if you want to do a little something extra–you’re in good hands! I was inspired by Life with spices to make a healthy version of a “red velvet mug cake” just in time for V-Day. Even if you’re not romantic, this will put a smile on your partner’s face. Plus, even though it seems decadent and delicious, it actually has decent ingredients! Gotta love guilt-free baked goods. This takes, all in all, four minutes. No oven, just microwave. NO EXCUSES. Let’s hit it.

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Healthy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I think I talked many times about how baking is therapy. Not shoving sugar in your face, but the act of baking itself. It’s the act of creation and producing something, I think. Also getting to work with your hands helps too. Bringing several ingredients together to make something completely different is fun and satisfying. The process consumes you so you aren’t thinking about the challenges or difficulties in your life. Also, another great byproduct is the delicious things themselves! However, we don’t want to feel guilty about eating this “invention,” we should instead enjoy them. 

This recipe is based on of this one here. It’s an incredibly easy recipe that’s hard to go wrong (just make sure you measure). It doesn’t take many ingredients, in fact, if you bake often, you’ll probably have most of them in your pantry. Sometimes Hungry doesn’t like when I bake “healthy” recipes, but I’m thinking that this time he did because they didn’t last over 24 hours (and there were at least a dozen of them). Praise to healthy oatmeal raisin cookies! This recipe is a crowd pleaser without making you feel the guilt!

Stiiir it up

Stiiir it up

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Stuffed Strawberries (4th of July Recipe)

This is a re-post of a recipe made last year, but it was so good, I had to bring it up again! It’s a perfect 4th of July recipe and it’s healthy and delicious. Sure, pie and such are popular on Independence Day, but you can’t beat this. You get your sweet fix without the heaviness of the usual foods. This special dish involves fruitdairy, and happiness and doesn’t take longer than 15-20 minutes to make! I got it from here and added a bit of lemon into it and took out some sugar.

Beautiful sight

Beautiful sight

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Hard not to eat it all

Hard not to eat it all

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Yum yum yum

Yum yum yum

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Stuffed Strawberries
A healthy treat for the 4th of July
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Prep Time
15 min
Prep Time
15 min
Ingredients
  1. a tin of strawberries (I just usually get the regular pound at the grocery)
  2. a tin of blueberries (same thing)
  3. 5 oz marscapone
  4. juice of a lemon
  5. lemon zest
  6. 2 tbsp powdered sugar
  7. 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Wash the fruit and pat dry all of it
  2. Take the strawberries and cut the green ends off and also a little portion of the tip so they can stand upright on a platter
  3. Take a melon baller and ball out of the bottom, creating a crevasse.
  4. Once your strawberries are all "pitted" and plated, let's turn to the filling. Put 5 ounces of marscapone cheese and put it in a small-medium bowl
  5. I would next do the lemon juice. Cut the lemon in half and squeeeeeze all that juice out.
  6. Next, grind the lemon on a grater and get a good amount of zest (people say 1 tsp, but I eyeball it)
  7. Then, throw the powdered sugar and vanilla in and stir! Mix it all up really well
  8. Now comes the most difficult part: take the marscapone mixture and put it into a re-sealable bag and snip a corner off. Use this contraption to fill the pits in the strawberries up with the mixture
  9. Once all the strawberries are filled to perfection, place the blueberries on top of the cream in the strawberries. And that's it!
Adapted from Gina Marie's Kitchen
hungry and fit https://hungryandfit.com/
This is an easy, healthy treat you can substitute for pie or something else you’d like to stay away from on those holiday food feasts.  How could you do wrong with this one? It’s easy to do, pretty to the eye, and delicious enough to impress. I’m sure whoever you are celebrating with this year will enjoy this special, healthy treat. Make this recipe if you’re looking to stay hungry and fit! 

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