"Clean Simple Eats" Sweets

Healthy cookies? Who knew there was such a thing? This afternoon I was checking up on the happenings on Instagram when I saw @cleansimpleeats posted a recipe for "Skinny Banana Cookies" and I immediately went to store, grabbed some bananas, and turned on the oven. The result was awesome. :-) 

Last night, Darren and I went to a birthday party and overdosed on delicious appetizers and desserts at a restaurant called Moxies. While these eats were scrumptious, we both woke up today and decided we needed to repent and be a little healthier (I feel like we do that a lot though, it's a vicious cycle). 

The problem with trying to be healthier is that I have a VERY overactive sweet tooth. So when I saw "skinny" and "cookie" in the same recipe name it caught my attention. Enough of my gabbing, here's the recipe:

"Skinny Banana Cookies" from @cleansimpleeats
Ingredients:
- 4 medium ripe bananas, mashed
- 2 1/2 cups oats
- 1/4 cup all natural peanut butter or other nut butter (I used regular PB because that's all we had)
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- dash of cinnamon
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate because if I used dark then I'd be the only one eating them)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Combine all ingredients together and spoon onto parchment paper on a baking sheet
3. Bake 12 minutes and cool on cooling rack
Makes 32 cookies.



Pretty straight forward, yeah? Mash up some bananas, throw in some oats, peanut butter, chocolate chips, seasoning and voila! Healthy cookies!

Did you know that in Canada, Kraft makes peanut butter and puts pictures of teddy bears on it? I didn't.

Now this is where I got nervous: I'd made the dough, I'd formed the cookies and placed them on the cookie sheet. The thing is that I have very rarely, like VERY rarely, had a cookie that I formed nicely and stuck in the oven and had it come out looking as nice as it did when it went in. I seriously thought that these would turn out the same way and they would fall sometime during the 12 minutes of baking time. 

The picture @cleansimpleeats posted looked like baked versions of the cookies I'd formed from dough: (Photo taken from her Instagram post)

 I wasn't sure how mine would turn out. Twelve minutes later:

Victory!!! I was seriously so surprised!!! Adding to the fact that I love @cleansimpleeats because she posts healthy food and sticks the recipe in the comments instead of making you track down the website, but now I can confidently say that non-foodies and people who are less than proficient in the kitchen can follow her recipes and have them turn out as good as she says they will!!

Taste test: they were delicious. And I typically steer clear of things with banana in them but maybe it was the oats or the peanut butter or the chocolate (all things I love) but I didn't feel like the banana took over the cookie. If I were to rename these, I would call them "Skinny Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies Held Together by Bananas." Her name for them is shorter though and probably more accurate... I tried. 

I texted my husband to tell him I'd baked him some treats. His response was, "Are you trying to make me fat?" And I could tell him with confidence that they wouldn't! (He got home from work and ate some before I even knew he was home. Pretty sure that means he liked them)

Instagram WIN!!!

Trying Some "Clean Simple Eats"

Nine times out of ten, when it comes to exercises, cardio routines, and recipes that I want to try, I turn to Pinterest. BUT I do reserve the right to change that up and I'm glad I did. 

Instagram was the key to finding these new recipes. She's @cleansimpleeats and I've been following her for a few months now after Heidi Powell (wife of trainer Chris Powell and co-host of "Extreme Weight Loss" - a show that I'm absolutely addicted to) re-posted a recipe for some healthier Valentines Day cookies. She always posts delicious looking foods and, what I especially like about her posts, she posts the recipe in the comments so you don't have to go tracking down a website (turns out websites don't translate to hyperlinks in Instagram).

Today she posted what she called "Skinny Banana Cookies" and I decided today was the day to try and re-create her delicious looking treats for myself and see if they actually worked. There was another post for "Sausage and Hash Egg Muffins" that she'd posted a while back and, because I'm trying to find protein-filled, healthy yummies to include in my hubby's breakfasts and lunches, attempting to make the muffins was added to my to-do list as well.

First up to bat:

"Sausage and Hash Egg Muffins" from @cleansimpleeats

1. Preheat oven to 375F

2. Crack 18 whole eggs in a large bowl and beat

3. Add:    1 grated sweet potato

                 2 chicken sausages, chopped

                 2 cups spinach, chopped

                 1 Tbsp dried, minced onion

                 Salt and pepper to taste

                 Shredded cheese (optional)

4. Grease 24 foil muffin liners and scoop about 1/3 cup mixture into each liner

5. Bake 30 minutes. 

Store leftovers in fridge.

I started off with the eggs, per her instructions. I don't think I've ever cracked so many eggs in my life. Holy Protein, Batman.  After using an entire carton of eggs (turns out in Canada, Costco sells eggs in boxes of 18 so I was in luck), I peeled a sweet potato and grated the whole thing directly into the eggs.

Next came the chicken sausage. I tried to cut each one up into semi-small pieces so that each of the 24 muffins would get at least two or three pieces in it. As a side note, I bought these at Safeway but I'd been at Costco the day before and noticed that they had some turkey & chicken sausages and you get eight sausages for the same price that you'd get a package of four from Safeway so if you're planning on making these muffins on a regular basis, I'd suggest going the Costco route and either freezing or refrigerating the extra and using it for the next batch.

The spinach, onion, salt and pepper came last and I mixed it all together. In retrospect, I should have added more salt and pepper but I figured that it would be safer to add too little than too much. In the taste-test portion of this experiment, my sister-in-law cut the muffin in half and added more salt and pepper to each side and it made up the difference.

When filling up the muffin tins, the recipe calls for using about 1/3 cup. Keep in mind that the eggs are going to expand during baking so you don't want to fill them all the way to the top of the liner. The first few muffins that I filled I used exactly 1/3 cup and then had to fix them later because there was WAY too much egg and they may have exploded in the oven and no one wants to clean that up. I went back and fixed the first few and ended up using a little less than 1/3 cup in each muffin.

Here's a helpful hint: they raise up when they're cooking but a few seconds after you take them out of the oven, they settle a little bit. I took this picture after they'd already fallen but they still look pretty good.

As a born skeptic, I'm always cautious when I try to replicate the recipes of others. I feel like no matter what I do, mine never end up looking the way they are "supposed to look." Here is the picture she posted along with the recipe:

And here is a picture of what I made: 

Taking into account that I grabbed the smallest one of the batch to sample and acknowledging that her picture was taken outside with better lighting, I'd say that they aren't a far cry from each other!! Win!! 

Two of my sister-in-laws helped with the taste test and they both said that they were good. As noted before, we all added some extra salt and pepper and I will probably put ketchup on some of the ones I eat in the future (but I put ketchup on almost everything so that's not a comment about needing to change the taste of it) but I thought they were really good, easy to make, and I'm a huge fan of the nutrition facts:  

Protein: about 6 grams

Carbs: about 1 gram

Calories: about 65

I'm chalking this one up to a Instagram WIN and sending props to @cleansimpleeats. 

Stay tuned to see how the "Skinny Banana Cookies" turned out :-)

Quest Bar Ranking: Round 1

The results are in!!!

About a week ago, my wonderful husband surprised me with a bag full of eight Quest Bars to try and, if you're like me, you want to know what's good before you buy a box of something (hence why I am a HUGE fan of Costco samples but that's a story for another time). Quest Bars are available individually but, depending on where you buy them, they can get a little pricey. So I decided to put the Quest Bars in order of the ones I like most to the ones I like the least and share them with you so that you can hopefully make a more informed decision if you decide to try them yourself (which I very highly recommend).

Now I've tried a lot of protein bars in my time and these are my favorite BY FAR for multiple reasons:

• High Protein
• All of the Quest Bars in this post have at least 20 grams of protein.
• Not Overly Carb-y
• About 22 - 26 grams of carbohydrates in each of these.
• Lots of Fiber (for anyone who knows me, you know that I am a huge fan of fiber)
• There are a whopping 16 - 19 grams of fiber in each bar!!! There are only 9 grams of fiber in a Fiber One bar.
• Low Sugar Content
• Only 1 - 2 grams of sugar in each of these protein bars.
• Relatively Low in Calories
• These are NOT a meal replacement but definitely a good snack in between meals (you should be eating 5  to 6 times a day to maximize the function of your metabolism so these are really good for meals 2, 4, and 6).
• They taste GOOD!!!

So here they are in order of my least to most favorite Quest Bars of this batch. The ranking is based only on taste but I've provided what I believe are the important nutrition facts so you can compare and contrast those along with my comments.  This list is not all inclusive, there are a few flavors I haven't tried yet but I may or may not have bought the rest of the flavors today so there will be a comprehensive list coming soon. :-)

Number 8:     DOUBLE CHOCOLATE CHUNK

• Protein: 20 grams
• Carbs: 25 grams
• Fiber: 16 grams
• Sugars: 1 gram
• Calories: 160
• Taste: I know what some of you may be thinking. "Chris, you LOVE chocolate. How could this be your least favorite of the batch??" While this one didn't taste bad necessarily, I'd have to say that this one tasted the most like your typical protein bar: a little chalky with a weird after taste. If it's the only near by and you have to choose between eating this or eating a cookie, I'd say pick this bar but I wouldn't recommend ordering a full box of them. There are better ones out there to satisfy your chocolate cravings that don't leave a funny taste in your mouth.

Number 7:     BANANA NUT MUFFIN

• Protein: 20 grams
• Carbs: 25 grams
• Fiber: 17 grams
• Sugars: 2 grams 
• Calories: 190
• Taste: I'm going to be honest with you, I'm not the biggest fan of banana in things. I can handle bananas by themselves and banana bread is good (not good for you, but tastes good) but other than that there is just something about banana inclusive foods that I just don't like. So it would make sense that this would be towards the bottom of my list. I will say that I would recommend this as a breakfast-time protein bar. Say you just finished working out and you need some recovery food, if you like bananas, this would be a good one to munch on. It gives your body the post-exercise carbs it needs (you should have a few carbs within 30 minutes of finishing your workout), it has plenty of protein so your muscles can soak that up, and the fiber will help you feel full so you don't feel like you have to grab that extra doughnut sitting on the break room table.

Number 6:     STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE

• Protein: 20 grams
• Carbs: 26 grams
• Fiber: 17 grams
• Sugars: 2 grams
• Calories: 180
• Taste: I need to qualify these bars really quick. If you are regularly eating a lot of processed sugars, these bars will NOT be as tasty to you. If you are used to eating a Snickers bar every day, the taste of this Strawberry Cheesecake Quest Bar probably will not live up to the hype that I'm giving them now. With that in mind, when I tell you that this bar actually does taste like strawberry cheesecake please note that you should not take a bite of this Quest Bar and then take a bite of actual cheesecake and expect them to taste exactly the same. In one slice of Costco cheesecake, there are 24 grams of sugar instead of the 2 grams that are in this bar. I would recommend this bar as a post-lunch or after dinner dessert to curb any sweet cravings you might have.

Number 5:     MIXED BERRY BLISS

• Protein: 20 grams
• Carbs: 22 grams
• Fiber: 18 grams
• Sugars: 2 grams
• Calories: 210
• Taste: This is the bar that I prefer as a mid-morning snack as I pick berries over bananas any day of the week. It tastes like it has some strawberries, blueberries, and some almonds in it which makes for a very pleasant mix. It doesn't taste like a dessert though so while I would still recommend it over a cookie for a dessert, this to me is more of a post-morning-workout Quest Bar as opposed to a dessert Quest Bar.

Number 4:     CINNAMON ROLL

• Protein: 20 grams
• Carbs: 25 grams
• Fiber: 17 grams
• Sugars: 1 gram
• Calories: 190
• Taste: The Cinnamon Roll bar was the first Quest Bar that I can remember trying (my husband claims that he bought some a few months ago to try but I can't really remember those). It was Christmas time and I LOVE baking so, unfortunately, I was eating a lot of sugary, fat-filled baked goods and didn't appreciate how good these were. Then I re-tried them just this last week and I loved it! This one is good for any time of day. It works as a morning cinnamon roll fix or an after lunch or dinner dessert. You really can't go wrong with this bar. Again, don't eat an actual cinnamon roll and then eat this and expect it to taste the same but, on it's own, this tastes just like a cinnamon bun to me. 

Number 3:     WHITE CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY

• Protein: 20 grams
• Carbs: 23 grams
• Fiber: 17 grams
• Sugars: 1 gram
• Calories: 190
• Taste: I love my chocolate but there are some days where dark or milk chocolate is just not what my sweet tooth is craving. On the occasion that happens, this is my Quest Bar of choice. I love raspberries and adding white chocolate (which is not actually chocolate to me because it doesn't contain the cocoa bean no matter how you dice it or splice it) gives it the sweetness and flavor I need to curb my need for a dessert after dinner. Or lunch. Sometimes a girl just needs something sweet, am I right or am I right? If you're a girl then you know I'm right, if you're a guy then I will teach you a valuable life lesson in that you should agree with me and say that I'm right. :-) I was really excited to try this one and it did not disappoint.

Number 2:    CHOCOLATE BROWNIE

• Protein: 20 grams
• Carbs: 24 grams
• Fiber: 19 grams
• Sugars: 1 gram
• Calories: 190
• Taste: If you need a straight up chocolate fix, not just something with chocolate in it or something with a hint of cocoa, this is the bar to eat. It looks like a brownie, is chewy like a brownie, and it tastes like a brownie. And unlike the Chocolate Chunk bar, it doesn't have the weird after-taste that I was nervous it would have. I would say that this is the bar that comes the closest to tasting like the actual thing. And you have the bonus of the placebo effect that comes from the looking and feeling like the actual thing. Also, it's chocolate. And I love chocolate.

Number 1:     COOKIES AND CREAM

• Protein: 21 grams
• Carbs: 22 grams
• Fiber: 17 grams
• Sugars: 1 gram
• Calories: 180
• Taste: EXCELLENT. This is my number one favorite Quest Bar as of right now. The chocolate chunks in it seriously taste like Oreos, there is no weird after taste, and the ratio of chocolate to "cream" is spot on. I can eat this as a dessert even if I'm having the biggest sweet craving of my life and my tastebuds will be satisfied. I know I said these rankings were based only on taste but I had to add that not only does this Quest Bar taste the best but it also contains 15% of your daily needed calcium. Win. Win. Darren actually ordered a box of these a month ago and I loved them but I ate the new ones with an open mind but this one still came out on top. That's right. It is that good. That's probably why they were sold out of them at GNC today….

So there you have it my friends. My list of my favorite Quest Bars as of today. There will be a list coming that will include the bars that I got today but, even as much as I love these protein bars, if I were to eat them all today so I could give you a comprehensive list, I'm pretty sure I'd be sick as a dog. And no one wants that. But there are the bars that are coming: 

• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
• Peanut Butter Supreme
• Coconut Cashew
• Apple Pie
• Chocolate Peanut Butter
• Peanut Butter and Jelly
• Vanilla Almond Crunch

Stay tuned and give some of these Quest Bars a try. I've given you my opinion but, in the words of Levar Burton, "you don't have to take my word for it." ***

*** Quote taken from the children's show "Reading Rainbow." If you don't know what that means then you are probably too young to have lived during the "Reading Rainbow" era and you missed out. I'd say look it up on youtube but that won't do it justice. Just trust me that the 5 to 8 year olds of my childhood loved it.