Healthy Cookie Dough Bites

 
Mmmmm cookie dough. Full of sugar and raw eggs and indigestible flour.

I've been in need of snacks that are high in protein and easy to grab and eat. You know, for middle of the night "oh crap I'm hungry!" attacks. And I've had a sweet tooth that I'm trying to indulge healthfully. :) So I was pretty pumped when I found this recipe for cookie dough sans white flour and loads of sugar. I adapted it to make it even healthier, and all I can say is...next time I'm making a double batch.

I made these using soaked and dried nuts and oats, which are lower in phytic acid and therefore have more available nutrients.

It may seem like a lot of work to soak and dry the nuts and oats. If you were doing it just for this recipe, then it would be a lot of work. I prefer to soak and dry nuts and oats in large batches (perhaps 8 cups or so) to keep on hand whenever I need them (for baking, snacking, granola bars, etc.). If you already have them prepped, this recipe is very quick to put together.


Healthy Cookie Dough Bites
ingredients:

2/3 c. crispy almonds
2/3 c. crispy walnuts
2/3 c. soaked and dried oats
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/8. t. salt
1 t. vanilla
2 T. coconut oil
2 T. honey
3 T. dark chocolate chips (I want to try making homemade ones!)

method:
Grind nuts, oats, cinnamon, and salt in a food processor to make a meal. (My food processor isn't very powerful, so mine wasn't quite a "meal." But they still taste great and have a nice crunch.)

Add vanilla, oil, and honey and pulse until it comes together. Add chocolate chips and pulse again to distribute.

Roll into balls (a cookie scoop and wet hands are useful), and place on a piece of parchment on a plate or cookie sheet. Place in refrigerator or freezer until firm (an hour or so). Move the cookie dough bites to an airtight container in fridge or freezer. Try not to eat them all right away.

What's your go-to protein-packed slightly indulgent snack?

This is part of Monday Mania, Weekend Gourmet, Fat Tuesday, and Whole Foods Wednesday.

Pregancy Food Diary: Thirty-One Weeks

Here is my pregnancy food diary for Friday, March 9:

Snack: Apple Flax Muffin with butter
Breakfast: two scrambled eggs topped with cheese, cooked in coconut oil. Sauteed potato, carrot, spinach, mushroom, green onion, and garlic cooked in bacon grease. (store bought) whole wheat toast with butter. Kombucha w/organic orange juice, pregnancy tea.
Lunch: leftover salsa chicken & black bean soup, salad with homemade greek dressing, olives, feta, and green onion, whole wheat toast with hummus, goat cheese, and sun dried tomatoes, pregnancy tea.
Snack: a bite of bean fudge, a Strawberry Orange Julius, an apple-flax muffin with butter
Dinner: Date @ Johnny Carinos - white Italian bread with olive oil; salad with house dressing, veggies, and cheese; whole wheat pasta with veggies, chicken, and creamy roasted red pepper sauce.
Dessert: Breyers chocolate ice cream with strawberries and bananas
3 AM snack: a couple bites of bean fudge

How did I do? (recommended amounts in parentheses)

Protein: 4ish (4)

Eggs: 2 (2)

Dairy: 3.5 (4) 

Butter: 3 (3)
Whole Grains: 3 (2)
Refined Grains: 1 (0)
Veggies: 4 (3-4)
Greens: 3 (2)

Fruit: 2.5 (1)
Citrus: 1 (1)

Probiotic Foods: 2 (4) 

Notes:
I thought we ate pretty well at Johnny Carinos. We had a lovely date and I didn't feel gross afterwards like I often do after eating out. I don't worry about a little white bread here or there. :) We finished our date at home with some Breyer's ice cream. I love that it only has a few ingredients. Much less junky than most store-bought ice cream!

Unfortunately none of my whole grains were soaked or sprouted or soured. I've been very tired, my husband has been very busy, and I haven't been baking very much. I'm trying to get back into it this week - I have some sourdough cookies and biscuits (from the GNOWFGLINS sourdough e-book) souring right now, and plans to make granola bars from Healthy Snacks To-Go soon!


Three super snacks were consumed on this day: Apple-Flax Muffins, Silky Smooth Bean Fudge, and a Strawberry Orange Julius (recipe coming soon). They are the sort of thing that has been getting me through my extreme hunger!


Are you pregnant? What are you eating to nourish yourself and your baby? What are your biggest challenges?



This is part of Simple Lives Thursday.

Pregnancy Food Diary: 30 Weeks

Welcome back to my pregnancy food diary!

I've been slacking. I didn't write down what I ate last week. It wasn't terrible, but I think I definitely slacked on the protein and vegetables. We've been a bit overwhelmed at our house lately, and the hormones surging through my body are making me very emotional and very tired. I'm trying to stop every once in awhile are marvel at the amazing thing going on inside my body. I'm growing a baby! It still baffles me, as well it should.

So, while it's fresh on my mind and before I go get a (hopefully) good night of sleep, here's what I ate today.

Food Diary for Monday, March 5

Breakfast: One of these "armadillo treats" (scroll down to find the recipe). two eggs scrambled in coconut oil, one Applegate Farms sausage link, two sourdough blueberry pancakes with butter and real maple syrup, kombucha. Later, half a cup of half-caff coffee with cream and honey. (We had a little family date at a coffee shop. It was delightful and much needed quality time together!)

Lunch: Fried rice: soaked brown rice with egg, carrot, peas, mixed greens, scallions, and garlic, topped with Tamari and Peanut Sauce. More kombucha.

Dinner: Tuna salad sandwich on soaked honey oatmeal bread (tuna, homemade mayo, yogurt, mustard, celery, scallions, parsley, and lemon juice).

Snack: The rest of my tuna sandwich (didn't have time to finish it earlier) with avocado. Half a grapefruit. Pregnancy tea.

Another snack: A piece of toast with butter, a glass of milk, and another armadillo treat.

How did I do? (recommended amounts in parentheses)

Protein: 3.5 (4)

Eggs: 3 (2)

Dairy: 1.5 (4) 

Butter: 3 (3)
Whole Grains: 4 (2)
Refined Grains: 0 (0)
Veggies: 2 (3-4)
Greens: 1 (2)

Fruit: 1 (1)
Citrus: 1 (1)

Probiotic Foods: 3 (4) 

I definitely could have used another snack in there, and come to think of it I was pretty hungry by the time lunch came around. It is very rare for me to skip my morning snack!

One of my issues lately is nighttime hunger. It seems no matter what or how much I eat before bed, I'm still hungry either before I fall asleep, when I wake up in the night, or early in the morning. I'd love to get more sleep but I usually have to get up at eat sooner than I would like. 


Does anyone have any suggestions for a bedtime snack that might keep me going until morning? (Perhaps this baby is getting started early on needing to eat throughout the night...)


If you're pregnant, I hope you're feeling well and eating well, and taking good care of yourself and that beautiful baby growing inside you! Pregnancy can be a trying time, for sure, but it is also miraculous and beautiful. To quote my midwife, Gestate happily!

Sourdough Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Sourdough bread can be one of the most complicated things you do in your kitchen, or it can be one of the simplest. I vote for option B. Want to know how?

You've probably heard of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I laughed when I first heard about this book. I thought it was a joke. But they don't really mean five minutes total. They mean five minutes of hands on time. The basic premise it this:

1) You mix up a big batch of high-moisture, no-knead dough.
2) You keep it in the fridge, waiting for whenever you need it over the course of several days.
3) When you want to bake a loaf, you pull off a hunk of dough, shape it into a loaf, let it rise for a bit, and bake it.

You can do this the same exact way with sourdough, provided you have a happy starter going. The only difference is that you are using sourdough starter instead of commercial yeast when you mix your dough. Here's how you do it:

Sourdough Bread in Five Minutes A Day

Yield: 3-4 small to medium loaves. This recipe is easily doubled.

Ingredients:
3 c. filtered water
1.5 c. active sourdough starter (fed within the last 8 hours, ideally)
1-1.5 T. sea salt (depending on how salty you like your bread)
up to 6.5 cups flour (I start with one cup of unbleached flour, and use whole wheat for the rest)

Method:
1. In a large container or bowl that will fit in your refrigerator, stir together water, sourdough starter, and sea salt.

2. Add flour, one cup at a time, stirring as you go with a wooden spoon or your hands (messy, but efficient!). Don't add too much flour; you want the dough to be fairly wet. Don't knead it, just stir until the flour is incorporated.

3. Put it in the fridge, covered but not tightly sealed, for a day or so.

4. When you want to bake, sprinkle some unbleached white flour over the surface of the dough and pull off a hunk of dough about the size of a small melon. Shape it into a rough round and place it on a piece of parchment paper. (I put the parchment on my pizza peel for easy loading onto my pizza stone. A rimless cookie sheet would work too.) Rub the top of the loaf with a little unbleached flour.

5. Let the dough rise for 30 minutes to two hours. (I've left it much longer and it's been fine.) It might spread out a lot, but it will still taste good.

5. Preheat the oven to 400 or 450 degrees F, with a pizza stone on the top rack (if you have one) and a rimmed cookie sheet or broiler pan on the bottom rack. Let it preheat for a good 30 minutes before baking.

6. Bring a cup or two of water to a boil. Slash the loaf with a sharp knife in an X shape or diagonally.

7. Load the bread (and parchment) on the pizza stone, or bake on a cookie sheet. Pour the boiling water into the pan you placed on the bottom rack and shut the oven door. (The steam will make the crust nice and crusty.)

8. Bake until the crust is brown but not burnt, and the loaf feels firm when you push on it. (This usually takes 45 minutes to an hour for me, depending on the size of the loaf.)

9. Let cool at least partially, slice, and eat! To keep the crust crisp, store the bread on a cutting board, cut side down, covered with a clean kitchen towel. Or for convenience (but a softer crust), slice the whole thing and place it in a bread bag.

10. Repeat steps 4-9 anytime you want to bake a loaf, over the course of 5 days. When you run out, mix up another batch right away for an endless supply of delicious sourdough bread! (That way you don't have to wash the container.)

Have you ever tried this method? What do you think?

This is part of Fight Back Friday.