White Chocolate Macadamia Clif Bars

Soft, chewy, sweet, and filling.  Clif bars are an amazing mid-afternoon pick-me-up, or pre/post workout snack. These little beauties aren't like your normal run-of-the-mill granola bar. Oh no, these are much more than a granola bar. These taste more like a candy bar. A guilt-free candy bar. If you haven't tried one before, pick up your keys, put on your shoes and drive to the nearest drug or grocery store to purchase one. Once you've tried one, you'll get hooked!

Now that you're back from your little Clif bar trip, why not make your own? You'll save money, and you can make your own flavor mixes! When I decided to try my hand at making some, I went to Pinterest to find inspiration. I looked at multiple recipes, and combined them. Granted, most of them were the same, but none of them were the flavor I wanted to make, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut. So, get our your mixing bowl, spoon, and a baking dish along with a few other pieces of kitchen equipment and start mixing!

Ingredients

1 1/4 C rice cereal (such as rice crispies)

1 C oats

3 T ground flaxseed

1/4 C macadamia nuts, toasted

1/4 C white chocolate chips

1/4 C honey

2 T splenda brown sugar (or regular brown sugar)

1/3 C peanut butter 

1 t vanilla extract (real, not imitation)

Instructions

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.

In a small saucepan, bring the honey and brown sugar to a boil, stirring constantly. Turn off the heat, and stir in the peanut butter and vanilla extract.

Pour sauce over the dry ingredients, and mix until fully combined.

Spray a glass baking dish with cooking spray. Pour the mixture into the dish. Push down the mixture with wax paper.

Cool in the fridge until set.

Cut into 8 pieces.

Nutritional Information

176 calories

7 g fat

25 g carbohydrates

2.5 g fiber

5 g protein

Mickey's Jingle Jungle 5K

Photo Source

It is officially 86 days until my next 5K! I'm going to run the Mickey's Jingle Jungle 5K during the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend!!! I am ecstatic! I cannot wait to run with thousands of my closest strangers friends! Not to mention Mickey and Minnie and anyone else who decides to cheer us all on. 

What am I doing to help me prepare? You may have heard of a little program called Couch to 5K. It is fabulous! They have a free app that you can download on your iPod, or android device, and it tells you when to run and walk. While that program is running, you can have your music playing in the background. If you're like me, you begin to go stir-crazy thinking about your muscles, breathing, distance remaining, etc. I definitely need something to keep my mind off of it! 

Each week, I will update you all on my C25K progress, and also provide some tunes that I found particularly helpful that week :)

Banana-Nut Chocolate Chip Muffin Tops

While I was grocery shopping today I decided that I wanted to make banana chocolate chip muffins. Here is what I came up with. They have a slight banana taste from the banana extract. Honestly, I think the chocolate chips hide the banana flavor. Next time, I would add more banana extract. Other than that, they taste absolutely delicious! I ground my own almonds to make almond flour. Mine was coarse, which I thought made the muffin tops even better. It gave it that 'nut texture' that banana nut muffins have traditionally with walnuts. These muffins are Extended Induction Friendly.

I got the basis of the recipe from Atkins Diet Recipes: Low Carb Banana Nut Bread. 

Makes 15 Muffin Tops

Ingredients

1 stick butter, salted

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 C splenda, or liquid equivalent

5 eggs

1 Tablespoon banana extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 C almond flour

1/2 C flax meal

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 C Hershey's Sugar Free Chocolate Chips

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and cream cheese. Add the splenda and both extracts. Cream together. Add in eggs, one at a time.

3. Beat in the almond flour, flax meal, and baking powder.

4. Once combined, stir in the chocolate chips.

5. Spoon in to muffin-top pan (or whoopie pie pan). Bake for 15 minutes, or until done. 

Nutrition Facts (1 Muffin Top): 189 Calories, 17 g Fat, 5.5 g Protein, 6.35 Total Carbs, 4.7 g Fiber, 1.65 Net Carbs

May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor

In honor of the release of The Hunger Games DVD, I thought I would add a post about the nails I produced for the movie theater premiere (I actually saw it a couple days later, but that is beside the point).

Please ignore how messy they are! I took the photo
before cleanup. Yikes!

What is more appropriate than the mockingjay? If you've read the books, you know the significance. If not, then read the books! (No, really, they're great!). Also, since Katniss was the "girl on fire", I thought I would do some "fire" nails. 

To make the mockingjay, I used a silver sharpie and made the design on my nail. I then went over the outline with a gold glitter polish. The fire was produced by "dotting" red, gold glitter, and a clear with iridescent glitter over the black. This was to give the illusion of the red, yellow/orange, and slight blue hues of a flame.

I honestly don't remember the colors I used for this, but the colors you need are:

black, gold glitter, red (I used a red shimmer), and clear with a blue-ish iridescent glitter (mine was a Sinful Colors brand). 

Chicken Pad Thai

As I drove my Mom to one of her last physical therapy appointments this morning, we passed a Food Truck in the parking lot of the building we were going to. The food truck was Thai food! Oh how I love Pad Thai. The first time I had it was when I was 10 years old, visiting my best (and longest) friend. We met when we were 2 at pre-school, and became inseparable until she moved to Texas and we moved to Florida. Anyway, her mom ordered thai take-out and we watched Varisty Blues while eating pad thai. Maybe not the best movie for a couple of 10 year olds, but at that age we didn't understand any of the innuendos anyway. 

On to this dish though! As I drove past the Thai food truck, I thought to myself, "Self, I want Pad Thai!" (I added the "Self" for emphasis). I immediately googled "Pad Thai" on my phone and found Alton Brown's recipe. I decided to adjust it to my tastes, liking, grocery store, and my Atkins lifestyle. I took one bite of the version I made and automatically said "this is a keeper!" If you like Asian food, you'll like this recipe. 

These Items are readily available at a grocery store that has an international foods section.

Make it Induction Friendly: omit the peanuts

Makes 4 (gigantic!) Servings

Ingredients

4 Bags Shirataki Tofu Noodles (available at most grocery stores, look in the produce section by the egg roll wrappers)

12 oz. boneless skinless chicken breast

1 1/2 tsp. Chinese five spice

2 Tbsp. Canola oil

1 3/4 C chopped scallions, roughly 7 scallions, divided

2 garlic cloves, minced

4 large eggs

1 Tbsp seasoned rice wine vinegar

2 Tbsp fish sauce

1 Tbsp soy sauce

3/4 C chicken broth

6 drops liquid sucralose (or ~2 Tbsp. granular splenda)

6 oz. Bean Sprouts, divided

1/4 C peanuts, divided

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Season both sides of chicken breasts with Chinese five spice. Bake until cooked through, and juices run clear. Once cooked, allow to cool a bit, and then dice.

2. Wash tofu noodles well. I like to drain them from the liquid in the package, then press between paper towels, rinse, and press again. Once well-rinsed, cut the noodles a bit. Microwave to heat them up a bit, and then press between paper towels again. 

3. In a measuring cup (liquid measure), combine the vinegar, fish sauce, soy sauce, and chicken broth.

4. Heat a large skillet or wok over medium high to high heat. Add 1 Tbsp. of oil, and saute the chicken for about 1 minute. Remove from the skillet.

5. Add last Tbsp of oil, and saute 2/3 scallions and garlic for about 30 seconds. Push to one side of the skillet, and add the eggs. Let them set for about 30 seconds, and then begin to scramble. When the eggs seem completely set and scrambled, combine the scallions and garlic with the eggs.

6. Add the remaining ingredients in the following order, making sure to stir/toss in between additions: noodles, sauce mixture, chicken, 2/3 bean sprouts, and 1/2 peanuts.

7. Divide into 4 bowls. Garnish with remaining scallions, sprouts, and peanuts.

*Note: The rice wine vinegar does have sugar in it. I honestly did not notice when I purchased it (yes, I know I am a horrible Atkins-er). Honestly, each person gets 1/4 tablespoon, so I figured it wouldn't matter too much. I also decided that since the original recipe called for tamarind paste and I couldn't find it, I shouldn't skimp on too many of the other sauce "flavors" or else it wouldn't taste enough like pad thai. Use it. Don't use it. Your decision. I am now done with my "sugar tale of woe".

Nutritional Information (per serving, with peanuts): 406 Calories, 21 g Fat, 40 g Protein, 16 Total Carbs, 7 g Fiber, 9 Net Carbs

Nutritional Information (per serving, Induction Friendly): 355 Calories, 16 g Fat, 37 g Protein, 14 Total Carbs, 6 g Fiber, 8 Net Carbs 

Flourless Chocolate Tortes

This is so decadent! You won't want to stop eating these that is for sure! So how did I come up with these little bite-sized pieces of heaven? From a low carb website of course! All Day I Dream About Food has 2 different flourless chocolate torte recipes. The first time I tried making them, I tried to combine the 2 recipes, taking what I liked from each. Bad Idea. They were absolutely terrible! I threw them out. There was no saving them unfortunately. I know, I know. There are starving children in China, Africa, Indonesia, and right here in the good old U.S. of A. Even the starving children wouldn't eat them. They were that bad. I'm a better cook than baker. I can look at recipes for food and say "I can improve that.", but looking at a pastry recipe? I should just stick to the thing! Anyway, I decided to try this again, only with two crucial differences. One, use only the one recipe! Two, make a small change to the recipe. This time the change was for the better. Much better! P.S. These are great with or without the frosting!

Induction Friendly.

Makes either 16 or 32 servings

16 if you decide to make one large torte, 32 if you use mini muffin tins

Ingredients

Torte

1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter

1 8-oz. bag Hershey's Sugar Free Chocolate Chips

5 large eggs

1/4 C granular Splenda

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick salted butter, softened

1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened

3 Tbsp heavy cream

1 Tbsp Torani Sugar Free Syrup (I used Raspberry)

10 drops liquid Splenda

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit, and grease 8 inch pan lined with greased parchment paper (or grease mini muffin tins).

2. Melt the butter over medium heat in a light bottom colored saucepot

(The website suggested browning the butter. I did this, and it really gave an extra "something" to the torte. Try it, don't try it. Whichever you prefer.)

3. Pour the butter into a medium mixing bowl. Add water to the saucepot. Put the mixing bowl over the pot, and stir in the chocolate chips. 

4. Cool in the fridge for 30 minutes.

5. Beat 5 eggs with the granular splenda until pale yellow. 

6. Slowly beat the egg mixture into the chocolate mixture (3 increments).

7. Pour into pan or tins, and bake. 

If using an 8 inch pan, bake for 25 minutes.

If using mini muffin tins, bake for about 10 minutes.

To make frosting: Cream the butter and cream cheese. Add the cream, syrup, and sweeteners, and beat until fully incorporated. 

Let the torte(s) cool before frosting them.

Nutrition Info: 

32 Servings (with frosting): 115 Calories, 10.5 g Fat, 2 g Protein, 4.69 Total Carbs, 0.47 g Fiber, 3.28 g Sugar Alcohols, 0.95 Net Carbs

32 Servings (no frosting): 87 Calories, 7.5 g Fat, 1.5 g Protein, 4.45 Total Carbs, 0.47 g Fiber, 3.28 g Sugar Alcohols, 0.7 Net Carbs

16 Servings (with frosting): 230 Calories, 21 g Fat, 4 g Protein, 9.38 Total Carbs, 0.94 g Fiber, 6.56 g Sugar Alcohols, 1.90 Net Carbs

16 Servings (no frosting): 174 Calories, 15 g Fat, 3 g Protein, 8.9 Total Carbs, 0.94 g Fiber, 6.56 g Sugar Alcohols, 1.4 Net Carbs

"Potato" Salad

Low carb potato salad is a myth right? WRONG! Technically it is right, but this tastes like a potato salad. Can you guess what is used in place of the potatoes? Come on, guess! Can't think of anything? Ok, fine. I'll tell you. Cauliflower! I made this as a super quick side dish to go with my francheesies (bacon-wrapped cheddar-stuffed hot dogs) one night for dinner. It was an absolute hit with my mom and me.  This dish is Induction Friendly

Makes 5 (1/2 Cup) Servings

Ingredients

7 oz. by weight riced cauliflower raw 

3.25 oz. by weight cucumber, chopped

2 oz. by weight onion, chopped

1/2 C Duke's Mayo

salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder to taste

Instructions

* To "rice" cauliflower, put through shredder attachment of food processor*

Combine all ingredients. Taste, and adjust seasonings as needed.

Nutrition Info: 178 calories, 19 g fat, 1 g protein, 4 total carbs, 1.25 g fiber, 2.75 net carbs