A Healthier Snack: Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Balls

If I had one wish I could make – and have it actually come true – it would be that I could eat whatever I want and not have to worry about gaining weight or having to exercise to keep it off. I don’t need to be supermodel thin, but I don’t want to be overweight either.

Generally, I stick to a pretty simple “regimen” (I hate the word diet) during the work week. Some yogurt and fresh fruit for breakfast, a small lunch with protein, veggies, maybe some healthy carbs, and then I try to not eat a lot at dinner. Many times when I come home from work, I’m starving so I eat a spoonful of peanut butter to hold me over.

One day I saw these balls on Pinterest and it got me thinking. So I went ahead and used a calorie calculator to see how they would compare to the peanut butter calorie-wise. Based on the calculations, I could eat 2 of them and it would be less calories and fat – with the chocolate! I've been making them ever since.

I made some adjustments to the original recipe (from gimmesomeoven.com), and I've played around with other variations but this one is the basic one I use most often. Even Brent likes them and he is not a peanut butter chocolate combination fan.

These are very easy to make and the best part about them is they taste good and not really “healthy”. You can’t really beat that in my opinion. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Balls Recipe

*Makes about 30 balls

(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

-          1 ¼ cups whole grain old fashioned oats

-          ½ cup slivered almonds, roughly chopped

-          ½ cup peanut butter

-          ¾ cup ground flaxseed

-          ½ cup dark chocolate chips, room temperature

-          1/3 cup honey

-          1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Buffalo Chicken Egg Rolls with Blue Cheese Dip

So in case you haven’t heard yet, there is this big – HUGE really – football game tomorrow. Which means pizza, wings, beer, and tons of other fat and calorie laden yumminess to indulge on.

I confess that I don’t love buffalo or chicken wings and I refuse to eat them in public. In general, I don’t like any meat that is still on the bone. I do love buffalo sauce though. I've posted a few things on here already that are for buffalo sauce lovers, and I can’t help but always think of new ways to use it.

Like these egg rolls. Why is it so much fun to fuse different types of cuisines together? I've seen egg rolls stuffed with all kinds of non-traditional fillings – the craziest might be the Mac n cheese stuffed ones I saw recently. Not sure if I’d ever go there but these Buffalo Chicken ones are pretty awesome.

They have a crispy, slightly chewy outside with a sharp and spicy inside. Serve them with my blue cheese dipping sauce and you might not even miss the real thing. And I added bacon in them just for good measure. You can’t get that with a chicken wing.

Buffalo Chicken Egg Rolls

* Makes 16

(printable recipe)

Restaurant Recreation: Applebee’s Veggie Patch Pizza

Did you know that Applebee’s took the veggie patch pizza off their menu?

I was pretty shocked when I found this out a little while back. I don’t eat at Applebee’s all that often but whenever I do find myself there, I almost always to order it. This is probably why I thought it was a favorite for their customers. Apparently, it wasn't.

Since I love the challenge of recreating my restaurant favorites, it has occurred to me several times over the years that I could create the veggie patch pizza (VPP) at home. (I've posted a couple of them here and here and here, and I do have another one that I’ll post eventually.) So once I knew it was off the menu, I decided it was time to finally give it a shot.

I think I knocked it out of the park on the 2^nd attempt. My first attempt was to use pizza dough and make it more pizza-like. Big mistake – don’t do it. You need to use a tortilla because it brings it all together.

We shamelessly ate these for dinner with nothing else. If that is the route you want to go, then the recipe below will serve two. But as an appetizer, or paired with some soup or salad, I think you’ll serve four with no problem. And of course, you can always double the recipe!

Applebee’s Veggie Patch Pizza Knockoff

*Makes 2, 10” pizzas – serves 4 as an appetizer

(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

-          1 ½ cups sliced button mushrooms

-          2 tbls butter, divided

-          2-3 cloves garlic, minced

-          1/3 cup minced onion

-          1 cup artichokes, chopped

-          2 – 2 ½ cups packed baby spinach, chopped

-          1 cup heavy cream

-          ½ cup parmesan cheese

-          2 teas oil  - veggie or canola

-          2 10” flour tortillas

-          ¾ - 1 cup shredded mozzarella or Italian mix cheese

-          1 tomato, seeded and diced

Slow Cooker Spicy Pulled Pork

I love my slow cookers. Despite having three, they all surprisingly get a fair amount of use, and I actually wouldn't mind having a fourth. But according to Brent, we don’t have room for anymore kitchen gadgets.

So I buy them and don’t tell him about it.

I do this with clothes and shoes too.

Shhhhh! It’s a secret, k?

While I love using my slow cookers for a variety of things, I find the most useful (or maybe it’s just my favorite) to be for making pulled pork, beef, or chicken. It is incredibly simple to do and the possibilities are endless.

This recipe is for spicy pulled pork that is great for tacos, burritos, southwestern bowls, sandwiches, or anything other vessel you may want to use to get it in your mouth.

Like nachos? Oh, yes. Do it, like now.

Little tip! Puree the chipotles in adobo whenever you open a new can. I do this and keep some in the fridge in a tightly sealed jar, and then divvy up the rest in small freezer bags and freeze them for future use. It makes it so much easier to measure out and you don’t risk wasting any.

Spicy Pulled Pork

*Serves 6-8

(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

-          3-4 lbs pork roast*

-          1 15.5oz can tomato sauce

-          2.5 tbls chipotles in adobo

-          1 tbl chili powder

-          1 tbl cumin

-          1 tea garlic powder

-          1 tea onion powder

-          1 tea oregano

-          1 tbl brown sugar

-          Salt and Pepper, to taste

             *I generally use about a 3 lb roast but a little larger roast will be fine.

 

Grilled Balsamic Chicken Bruschetta

My house is fully decked out for Christmas. The tree is up and the stockings are hung. My mother’s handmade ceramics are placed high on shelves where my meddlesome cats can’t knock them down. The outside is set ablaze with thousands of blinking lights so Brent will let me keep the lights inside solid. And it’s 82 degrees outside.

Yup. Eighty-freaking-two degrees.

Yes, I know there are plenty of people in 30-something degree weather who would LOVE it to be in the eighties today, but let me tell you – it does not feel like Christmas. And snowflakes look kinda silly while you’re wearing shorts and a tank top, and sweating your ass off trying to hang up lights.

It is however, weather like this that allows us to grill pretty much 365 days a year. This is a good thing because we love grilling. Especially since my oven can heat the entire house up by itself and I refuse to turn the a/c on right now. I do many variations of this type of chicken throughout the year. It’s simple, fresh and fast. Not to mention versatile and very figure-friendly without sacrificing flavor.

So if you are up north right now, bookmark it for the warmer months. If you’re down south, maybe make it the night before you have to squeeze into that holiday dress. Like I have to… in 8 days. Not that I’m counting.

Balsamic Chicken Bruschetta

*Serves 4

(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

-          4 chicken breasts (4-6oz each)

-          3 tbls + 2 teas EVOO, divided

-          1.5 tbl balsamic vinegar

-          1.5 tea roasted garlic and herb seasoning

-          1 cup diced tomato

-          1/2 cup diced onion

-          ½ cup diced fresh mozzarella cheese

-          3 tbl fresh minced basil

-          1 tea white wine vinegar

-          S&P