Ohhhh man. There is a new protein bar in town you guys.

I saw B-Up bars kind of floating around on Instagram, so I reached out to the company and asked if I could try a few. They were nice enough to send me lots of different flavors to try and let me tell you, they do not disappoint.

I hate to compare B-Up bars to Quest bars but I’m going to anyway. They are similar in that they’re both high in protein, low carb, and delicious. The biggest difference to me however is the texture.

I’m sure most of you have had a protein bar sometime in your life and a lot of the time, they taste like chalk. Quest bars are great. They’re especially great though, when you warm them in the microwave. B-Up bars are great when warmed too but they don’t have to be microwaved to taste great. 

Somehow these guys figured out how to make a protein bar that tastes light, fluffy, and soft. They are such a great texture I really can’t hammer on that enough. How did you do it Yup Brands?! Genius.

Here’s a little info on some of the ingredients in their bars:

• 100% Natural Prebiotic Vegetable Fiber- This is basically the same type of fiber that goes into many fiber supplements.
• Whey Protein Isolate and Milk Protein Isolate
• Xylitol- A sweetener. About as sweet as table sugar but with less calories. 
• Stevia Extract- Sweetener. Doesn’t have major effects on blood glucose so those on a controlled carbohydrate diet tend to favor it.
• Monk Fruit Extract- A sweetener derived from the monk fruit plant.
• Some also contain chocolate, cocoa butter, and almonds. 

The B-Up Bars come in a variety of flavors:

Sugar Cookie- Honestly tastes like a sugar cookie. I would describe it as a bland sugar cookie which doesn’t sound great…but even a bland sugar cookie tastes good. Not overly sweet. Just right.

sugar cookie

Chocolate Mint– So yummy. The perfect amount of mint and chocolate. This is definitely a favorite of mine. Check out those chocolate chunks!

the softest protein bar ever!

check out the chunks!

Peanut Butter– This has chunks of peanut butter which was a nice surprise. It reminds me of a peanut butter cookie or Nutter Butter cookies. The chunks kind of melt in your mouth.

PB&J– Tastes pretty good. Not my favorite. Tastes mostly like peanut butter with a little hint of raspberry jam?

Vanilla Peanut Butter– I would describe it as a cross between sugar cookie and peanut butter. Not too much of either flavor…just right!

Cinnamon Roll– Great cinnamon taste! Would be especially yummy warmed up.

My favorite flavors are chocolate mint and sugar cookie!

The one thing each bar had in common was the soft texture. I love that about these bars.

B-Jammin’ Bar (Cherry Vanilla Pie)

Their B-Jammin bars are a little different than the B-Up bars. They come in 3 flavors: PB&J, Cherry Vanilla Pie, and Apple Pie a-la-Mode. I tried the Cherry Pie.

I would describe these bars as their ” healthy treat” bars. They have less protein and fiber (still 12 grams), and more sugar (11 grams compared to the 3 grams in the other bars).

The bar I tried was so dang good. It has a fruit filling so it literally tastes like a mini-cherry pie. These would be great to have around to satisfy a sweet craving.

Conclusion 

So, overall, I think these bars are great. They’re delicious and have great nutritional stats. They are so light and fluffy it’s kind of incredible.

The bars are expensive though (about $27 dollars for a box of 12 from GNC) but they’re priced about the same as other protein bars.

I would buy these bars if I was feeling particularly rich…ha! I go through phases with protein bars. Sometimes I try to save money and  so I don’t buy any, other times I buy some. So, depends on the day! They taste great though so I’d love to have them around.

I have seen a few bars at a local GNC so I’m sure you can find some there. If not, you can always order off GNC or the Yup Brands site.

*The folks at Yup Brands were nice enough to share some bars with me, but my opinion of the bars is 100% mine.*

This dessert is so decadent and just majorly hits the spot. If you haven’t heard of avocado being used as a pudding it probably sounds gross. I swear it works though.

Avocado’s provide such a great, creamy consistency and as long as you add a sweetener (and cocoa to disguise the green color), you’d never know the difference. Pudding? Avocado? I’ll never tell.

Let’s talk about the chocolate coconut whipped cream. This is good. It actually reminds me of chocolate mousse. It’s a light, fluffy texture with a really yummy chocolate taste. In the future, I may just make this and eat it as a dessert or over some fruit. The avocado pudding is great too, but I really loved the way this turned out. If you were to choose one thing out of this recipe, try the coconut whip!

Both recipes are great because you can customize them however you’d like. You could use different sweeteners, or even less sweetener, cacao powder if you want, try some extracts like almond or even mint with chocolate? There are lots of different things you could try. I would just recommend tasting as you go along!

Avocado Pudding

• 1 avocado
• 3 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 3 Tbsp honey
• 1/2 banana
• dash of cinnamon

avocado pudding mmm

Throw everything into a food processor (blender would probably work too) and process until smooth.

I used 3 Tbsp of honey but I think it could even use less. My banana was barely ripe so if you had a super ripe banana for example, you might use less sweetener since they provide quite a bit of sweetness. Again, I would just taste test along the way!

Chocolate Coconut Whipped Cream

• 1 can coconut milk (full fat)
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp cocoa powder

Refrigerate your can of coconut milk overnight. Once you’re ready to use it, scoop out the firm part which will be sitting on top. You’ll be left with some liquid on the bottom- do not add this to your whip. I usually use it in my coffee or smoothies.

Anyway, once you have your coconut milk, add the honey and cocoa powder and mix on high (I use a stand mixer, but you could probably use electric beaters) until it has a whipped cream texture.

whipped texture

That’s it! You can serve both right away or refrigerate for a bit if you wanted it chilled.

I threw some Enjoy Life chocolate chips on top because everything could use a little crunch.

mmmm just so much goodness in one bite. and pink toes

Enjoy!

enlightened crisps

I am so excited about this giveaway!!

A couple weeks ago I was contacted by the good folks at ENLIGHTENED. You may be familiar with ENLIGHTENED ice cream which can be found in several retailers across the country. I actually haven’t had the chance to try their ice cream yet but I really want to.  Their ice cream bars come in lots of yummy flavors like Sea Salt Caramel, Mint Chocolate Swirl, and more. Each bar is between 70-80 calories with 7-8 grams of protein, and no more than 5 grams of sugar. I need to find these! Anyway, on to the crisps!!

ENLIGHTENED recently launched a line of savory snacks: ENLIGHTENED Crisps. The Crisps are actually roasted broad beans ( or Fava beans… I believe they’re the same thing?). There are only 100 calories in a serving, 7 grams of protein, and 3 grams of fiber. Pretty amazing stats. They are also GMO free, vegan, gluten free, and soy free.

enlightened crisps

My honest, honest opinion of these are that they are delicious. I love the idea of roasted beans because they’re healthy!! They’re an incredibly convenient and nutritious food. I always find most convenience foods to be highly processed, high carb, and high sugar-these are none of those things. I think they did a really awesome job with these so I’m excited for you guys to try them! Here are the flavors:

Wasabi

This might be my favorite. I don’t love spicy stuff…but I guess wasabi isn’t spicy? I’m not sure how to describe it but it is addicting. Something about it. The wasabi flavor is perfect. If you like wasabi you’ll love these!

Mesquite BBQ

I think this is my least favorite. It tastes good but sort of weak in my opinion on the BBQ flavor.

enlightened crisps mesquite bbq

Garlic and Onion

They nailed the garlic flavor! These are my husband and daughters favorite flavor.

enlightened crisps garlic and onion

Sea Salt

I love just plain and simple Sea Salt. You can’t go wrong with a little sea salt. These are great! Not too salty which is usually a complaint of mine with savory foods.

enlightened crisps sea salt

Sriracha

Yum. Like I said, I generally don’t like hot or spicy foods but sriracha is another exception. In moderation :). This sriracha flavor is actually not that hot at all. I think it’s a little sweet actually. If you love that burning hot flavor you might not love this, but if you like a subtle sriracha…you’ll like it! My two year old daughter ate this and liked it so definitely not too hot.

enlightened crisps sriracha

So, this is the best part: ENLIGHTENED will give away a sample pack and (so you can try all the flavors) and ice cream coupons to 3 winners!! Here’s how to enter:

• Follow ENLIGHTENED on Twitter (leave a comment below and let me know) @eatenlightened
• Follow ENLIGHTENED on Facebook (leave comment)
• Follow ENLIGHTENED on Instagram (leave comment) @eatenlightened
• Follow ME on Facebook  (leave comment)

I will pick THREE WINNERS on Friday. Good luck!!

This recipe has been toying with my emotions the past 24 hours. My intention was to make strawberry bars, but immediately after taking this out of the oven, I assumed bars were a no-go.

They seemed way too gooey so I thought they would just fall apart and, well, crumble. So, needless to say, I decided that I made a crumble and not bars.

I saw this recipe originally on Against All Grain. It looked like the perfect spring treat; just too pretty to pass up.

The original recipe used rhubarb and strawberries but I didn’t have any rhubarb (or enough) so I just loaded it up with strawberries. I’m sure you could sub in other fruits if you’d like like blueberries or peaches. I couldn’t even find rhubarb at the store. Isn’t it rhubarb season? Maybe not yet.

Anyway, here’s the recipe I used:

Paleo Strawberry Crumble

Crust:

• 2 cups almond flour
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
• 1/4 cup honey
• pinch of sea salt

Strawberry Center:

• 4 cups strawberries, chopped ( I used a mix of frozen and fresh)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 Tbsp Tapioca flour

Crumb Topping:

• 1 cup almond flour
• 2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted and cooled
• 1 1/2 Tbsp honey
• pinch of sea salt

The original recipe uses maple syrup as a sweetener, arrowroot powder as a thickener, and of course, rhubarb with the strawberries.  I didn’t change a lot of things in the recipe, I just didn’t have maple syrup or arrowroot powder. I’m sure you could use a little flour instead for a thickener? Maybe start with a little less since you could always add more if you feel like you need to.

This recipe has a few different parts to it,  but it was so simple to make. First, I combined the ingredients for the crust then pressed it down into an 8×8 baking dish lined with parchment paper.  I baked it for about 15 minutes at 350 or until it was slightly browned on top.

my little helper

Next, I cooked the strawberry filling. I cooked the filling for about 20 minutes on the stovetop on low heat (stirring frequently to prevent burning). You basically just want it to thicken up a bit to a texture resembling jam. Once that was finished, I spread it evenly over the crust.

Finally, I mixed the crumble ingredients together then sprinkled it on top of the strawberry center.

I cooked the crumble for about 35 minutes.

Of course, I tried it right out of the oven. It was definitely not ready to be cut into bars so I ate it as a crumble!

It turned out delicious. I will make this again since it was so easy. I’d love to try it with rhubarb if I can find it! I think peaches would be yummy too.

After I was done taste testing, I put it in the fridge. Well, turns out refrigerating it for a night solidifies the goodness enough so you can actually cut it into bars.

serious deliciousness

So…good news!! You can have this as a crumble or cut it into bars if you’d like. Either way, tastes yummmm.

What are your favorite summer desserts? Nothing like a pie or crumble with some ice cream!

So, I don’t think I’ve mentioned this on the blog yet, which is pretty incredible, but I got a Vitamix!! It was a Mother’s Day present. Pretty sweet! They are as good as they say by the way.

I’ve made several smoothies with the Vitamix so far and it did not disappoint. That thing pulverizes anything you put into it. I was flipping through the recipe book that came with it and nut milk was listed-almond to be exact. I happened to have a container of cashews AND had was about to run out of the store bought cashew milk I had in the fridge. So why not try cashew milk?

Homemade Cashew Milk

• 1 cup cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours, then rinsed
• 3 cups of water
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• sprinkle of cinnamon

I measured out 1 cup of cashews and let it soak for about 2 hours (maybe soak them longer if you aren’t using a high powered blender).

Next, I rinsed the cashews then added them to the blender along with 3 cups of water, 1 tsp of honey, 1 tsp of vanilla extract, and a little cinnamon.

I blended it all for about 30 seconds- that’s it!!

So, if you’re using a regular blender you’ll probably have to strain the milk through a cheese cloth or use a nut bag (you may have to blend a little longer too).

I love this recipe!! Cashews are just creamier than the other nut milks I’ve tried. The flavors remind me of horchata (I think it’s the cinnamon). I’ve been using it as a coffee creamer in the morning.

You could definitely add more sweetener, or none, or even try different sweeteners like maple syrup or dates.

Do you drink almond or cashew milk? Ever made your own?

I made sauerkraut! And I think I spelled it right, right?

Okay, so a couple weeks back I bought a fermentation book for beginners. I think I’ve mentinoned this before, but I’ve been listening to way too many health and fitness podcasts (lots are Paleo) and fermented foods come up quite a bit. After doing some research, I decided fermenting foods can’t be that hard…right? Say yes, please.

Well, sauerkraut was really pretty simple…although a had a few hiccups I’ll address in a little bit. Basically, I thought I screwed it up, but I didn’t. Yay! I love when that happens.

This recipe is very basic. Definitely a good place to start. The book goes into tons of fermented food recipes like Kombucha, kimchi, beer, sourdough bread, and lots more (I can’t wait to make sourdough bread).

The first thing I did was clean. I cleaned the daylights (I had a really difficult time finding a word that was not a cuss word here) out of my mason jars.

Next, I chopped up the green cabbage (just a medium green cabbage). I chopped it into pieces then put it through the food processor. I probably could have just chopped it because the cabbage kind of falls apart on its’ own. But, regardless, it was chopped/grated evenly at least. Next, I added caraway seeds and sea salt and mixed everything up.

Now the fun part (at least my two year old thought it was fun): squeezing time! We placed the cabbage mixture in a big bowl then squeezed it for about 10 minutes to release all the juices.

So, once I thought it was ready, I placed it in a mason jar. At first, I placed all the cabbage in 1 jar because it just looked like it fit better.

Then I changed my mind and split the mixture between two large jars.

After splitting it, I pressed the mixture down as much as I could with my knuckles to make sure the juices were well over the cabbage. The directions said to make sure the juices were an inch over the cabbage but I couldn’t get that much juice out. So, maybe I didn’t squeeze my cabbage as much as I should have? I will try it again…

Anyway, I split it into two jars, placed them in the pantry, and left them alone for about 5 days.

So, since I didn’t have an overabundance of juices, I assumed the fermentation process wouldn’t take place…but it totally did! We took the jars out after 5 days and took 1 bite (just in case it was going to make us sick ha). Well, it didn’t make us sick and it tasted exactly like sauerkraut should.

From what I read, the sauerkraut can stay in the fridge (after opening) for a couple of weeks. Does that sound right fermentation people? I’m constantly scared of making myself sick hah.

We had a fun weekend this past week! We took our two and a half year old to see a movie for the first time (Inside Out). It was really nice to have some one on one time with her. I’ve had some alone time with our baby girl but not as much with our older one.

It’s so easy to forget, by the way, how crazy the whole movie experience is in the theaters. Those screens are huge and the movie is SO loud. My daughter did great and watched the whole thing but sat on my lap the entire time.

The movie itself was cute! It had some pretty “deep” undertones so I think a lot of it went over Brooke’s head but I’m sure it entertained her enough.

I just can’t get over what a kid she is..ugh, so crazy. Everyone always says this but that’s because it’s true: it goes so fast. These kids grow so fast it’s nuts.

Anyway, my rant it over!

How was your weekend? Have you ever made any fermented foods?

I am so, so guilty of buying rotisserie chickens from the store like, several times a week. Does anyone else do this? They’re just so awesome to have around (in my opinion). My husband, on the other hand, rolls his eyes every time I bring one home. God bless those rotisserie chickens. My family would probably eat cereal or peanut butter and jelly’s for dinner if it wasn’t for them.

Usually, I’m uber lazy and just eat them as is with a couple sides of whatever. Last night, however, I was inspired to use them in a different way. I whipped up a BBQ chicken salad and it was delicious. Ironically, it was the one time my husband wasn’t here for dinner for he has yet to see my creativity.

That being said, this isn’t anything new or unique so don’t get too excited, but if you’re like me, you probably fall into a rut with dinners. Chicken can especially become boring and bland (at least how I cook it).

Have you ever had the BBQ chicken salad from California Pizza Kitchen? Because it is major yums. This salad was inspired by that (and by a close friend of mine who made it once for me).

The best part is, I had most of the ingredients on hand already. All I needed to pick up was some cilantro and of course, the beloved rotisserie chicken. You can absolutely use whatever chicken you have on hand or even sub in ground or shredded meats (or more beans!). Here’s the “recipe” (can I call it that? Sure, why not).

BBQ Rotisserie Chicken Salad

• 1 rotisserie chicken
• head of lettuce
• 1 can of sweet corn
• 1 can of black beans
• chopped cilantro
• small handful of shredded jack cheese
• caramelized onions to taste (or chopped red would be yummy too)
• BBQ sauce
• Light ranch dressing

BBQ chicken salad

You could also add jicama, crunched up tortilla chips, salsa, or Rotel…lots of yummy variations.

I love cilantro. That’s just a side note. Oh, and I happened to have caramelized onions on hand (I usually don’t). They’re time consuming to make but man they are good.

On to my workouts!!

I had family visiting for a couple weeks AND got LASIK eye surgery (ummm amazing. My life has changed), so I haven’t been working out a ton. Now that everyone’s gone though, I’m getting back into the groove of things. I’m leaving on Saturday for California so hopefully I can keep up the pace while out at the beach.

Have you guys heard of Kayla Itsines? She’s a personal trainer from Australia who makes Bikini Body Guides (workout programs). I’ve seen her around on instagram mostly and sort of brushed it off as spammy (not that I would really know). Then a few of my friends started using her guides and actually said they’re pretty good so I’ve been giving it a try. They are hard! I totally underestimated them.

(source)

So far, I’ve only tried a couple of days (legs, arms, and a full body day). I’ve been sore every time! I will write another post detailing the program but just wanted to mention it in case anyone else out there is a fan.

Finally, our giveaway winner!!

Congrats Dandi D!! I hope you make lots of delicious goodies with your new set of jars for canning :). Feel free to send me some.

What’s your latest go-to workout? Weight lifting? Yoga? Running? Tire flipping? Children chasing? All the above? 

Heyo!

This post is going to be short and sweet with no pictures. Aren’t you excited to read it? Ha! I’m writing this in my iPad which is basically a first world form of torture so I can only handle short and sweet :).

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about our grocery budget recently because I feel like it’s (once again) getting a bit out of hand. To be fair to us, we basically never eat out so we are spending money on food we eat for every meal. But still, I think there are ways to shave down the monthly/weekly bills.

So, I wanted to try actually planning out our meals or at least, dinners. Dinners are always the meal I struggle the most with so literally planning each one out should make things a bit easier.

I didn’t plan for every single night this week because I wasn’t sure I wanted to buy everything today. I planned from last night through Wednesday. Here’s the plan:

Pulled Pork Taco Salads– I bought a pork shoulder last week and slow cooked it a few days ago so we have lots of meat to go through.

Elk Steak Fajitas– Using some elk meat we already have.

Spaghetti with Ground Meat Sauce– This is a great meal for us because the kiddos love the noodles and I make zucchini noodles for me! If I’m feeling lazy I eat it over spinach unseat (that’s good too).

Spaghetti Squash Pizza Bake– I’ve made this before but its been a while. So, it’s basically cooked spaghetti squash, Italian ground meat, pizza sauce, veggies, and cheese. Good stuff and low carb! You can add whatever veggies you want, just like pizza.

I’m hoping we will have leftovers too so maybe Thursday night we will have something already planned. We’ll see! I’ll keep you posted on recipes and how the food stretching is going.

Do you plan your meals for the week?

Hey ya’ll! How’s it going? How was your long weekend? I hope you all did amazing things. If you did, tell me about them I want to live vicariously through you. Not that my weekend wasn’t great, because it was! Me and the littles went to Phoenix for two baby showers. Yes, two. I have two friends who are both due with baby boys the same week in October.

me and my lady friends

We only went for 3 nights so it really was a quick trip. The babes were a nightmare on the flight to Phoenix. I swear whenever I travel with them I always tell myself, “never again!” But then, of course, I do it again. I guess you get through it eventually, right? They were much better on the flight back. The 1 year old is becoming more of a challenge since she wants to crawl, not sit in my lap for 2 hours. Ugh. Planes.

my favorite time. sleep time.

She’s kind of been an overall pain the bootay lately. She’s going on 14 months and STILL wakes up at night. I may just start sleeping in another room and letting her cry it out. Is that mean? I honestly just don’t know what else to do with her. I think at this point she wakes up out of habit so it’s mostly my fault. But, we need to squash this habit quickly because mommy is very tired.

My other babe is going to be three on Friday! That’s so crazy. She’s been a lot of fun lately. Just happy and playful…all things a three year old should be. She got an early bday present: Elsa!! Yes, she loves Frozen like every other child under 10.

I have the Frozen soundtrack in my car and I swear I know every word to every song. So, if you need me to sing it to you I totally can.

Anyway, on to my eats!!

As I mentioned in a post from last week, I planned out our dinners and it was actually really nice. I’m definitely doing that again this week. I think it did help with my weekly grocery budget too since the moment I wanted to impulse buy something, I simply reminded myself that nope, we already have that meal covered. I struggle with dinner ideas so having them laid out for me is just so nice. Here were a couple meals we had last week:

spaghetti squash pizza bake…amazing.

So, I followed a recipe from Paleomg’s blog (link found here). My version is obviously not Paleo (um..cheese), but it is low carb and it IS delicious.

I think I’m going to make it again this week.

It’s pretty easy just a little time consuming (cooking the squash, then the meat, then everything). As long as you have a little time though you’ll be good to go.

pulled pork taco salad

I have really been loving taco salads lately. I had one with pulled pork and another with chicken. Salsa is officially the best salad dressing ever.

Also, cilantro is my favorite.

cottage cheese, almonds, and an apple

Do you like cottage cheese? My husband is loving it these days. I like to add something crunchy like almonds..mmm.

my new favorite dessert

I have to have dessert every night…I just do. For a while I was having light Cool Whip and a Fiber One brownie. That’s definitely delicious but crazy processed. Cool Whip is literally all chemical-type ingredients.

So, my healthier swap is Chobani Flip yogurts. They do have some sugar, but they are definitely much better than my previous choice. I love the crunchy toppings too…it’s almost like Froyo. Almost.

Speaking of Froyo…I definitely had to get me some while in Phoenix. Have I mentioned we have NONE near me in Colorado. It is a real tragedy. So, whenever I go to Phoenix, I gotta hit it up. This was awesome: maple pumpkin yogurt. I think I might be ready for fall.

Last thing, if you’re a Costco member, get there and take advantage of the Premier Protein protein bar promotion going on right now. (I love when things go on sale at Costco..it’s very exciting).

Samples!! Seriously, I love Costco

So, normally the boxes $19.99 but they’re doing a $5.00 off promotion. So you bet I got me a box. The dark chocolate mint bars are my favorite.

premier protein bars from Costco

Here’s some additional information about the bars and the promotion:

• Premier Protein’s 30g bar variety pack will be available in Costco stores nationwide throughout the month of September
• Costco will be offering $5.00 off the retail price of the 30g variety pack from September 3^rdthrough September 27^th
• Each variety pack will include a combination of Premier Protein Chocolate Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate Mint 30g bars. Each gluten free bar is packed with 30g of protein, is a good source of fiber (3g) and a good source of calcium.

So, you  have a couple more weeks to swipe them up!

*Disclosure: I am a brand ambassador for Premier Protein, but I also really like their bars. Try the mint *

How was your long weekend? Do anything fun?

I have a VERY exciting giveaway for you guys!! I’m partnering up with Sun Basket, a meal delivery service, to giveaway 3 meals (for 2 people, worth $68.94) to a lucky reader. First, here’s a little background information on Sun Basket and what they provide:

Sun Basket is a new healthy meal kit service based out of San Francisco that delivers organic ingredients and easy, delicious recipes for cooking at home.

Each week, their chef develops an array of quick, healthy recipes to choose from, including Paleo, Gluten-free and Vegetarian options. They source top-quality organic produce from the best West Coast farms and sustainably-sourced meats and seafood – the kind of food you can feel good about eating.  Plus, their packaging is 100% recyclable, and you can even return the materials to us—free—so we can recycle and reuse them.

So, I gave Sun Basket a try and picked three meals off their website. I picked the Quinoa and White Bean Burgers with Baked Sweet Potato Fries, Thai Style Code with Cilantro-Lime Sauce and Grapefruit Slaw, and Chipotle Roasted Chicken Wings with Sweet Potatoes and Salsa Verde.

Everything came in a box with the proteins on bottom and the bags of ingredients on top. The box also comes with individual recipe cards for each meal and its’ nutrition facts.

Each bag contains all the ingredients you need for that particular meal. It’s perfectly portioned out, which is awesome.

Let’s start with the Quinoa and White Bean Burgers.

The quinoa burgers were the most work since I had to grate carrots and chop a few things, but overall, pretty darn easy.

When I first saw the ingredients in the bag, I honestly didn’t think it would be enough food for my husband and I (we are eaters), but it totally was. I guess it comes back to that saying, “your eyes are bigger than your stomach.” The food was absolutely enough.

So, these were supposed to make 2 (probably large) burgers, but I made three since there were three of us.

greek yogurt and dill sauce

We aren’t vegetarians, but I wanted to try a vegetarian meal to give them a fair review. I really liked these burgers! They came with a little spice packet that just made them delicious. I’ve never made any veggie burger before and they were so much easier than I thought. I really like white beans and the quinoa gave it a slight crunch. I would HIGHLY recommend these.

Next up, the Thai Style Cod!

I think out of the three meals, this was my least favorite. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it, I just found the other two meals had more flavor. The cod is a great choice for someone watching calorie intake. Cod (like most fish) is low cal, high protein-great choice for those trying to lose some lb’s.

This meal was really easy. Chopping up the foods for the salad and sauce was the most time consuming part and it probably took about 10 minutes. The fish cooks within like, 6 minutes, so easy, quick dinner!

I absolutely love thai food and flavors so the sauce that came with it was great on top of the fish.

Finally, the Chipotle Chicken Wings.

This isn’t something I would usually pick because chipotle typically means spicy and I’m not a spicy foods person. My husband, on the other hand, is, so I picked this one for him. Aren’t I a nice wife?

This meal was crazy easy. The hardest part was cutting up the sweet potato, so pretty minimal work involved. I even cooked everything on the same pan-chicken wings, sweet potatoes, and onion!

I wasn’t so sure about the onion at first, but it was delicious with the potatoes.

My father in law was here to enjoy these and he was a HUGE fan. The chipotle sauce was incredibly tasty. It had bite to it, but also nice sweetness (probably from BBQ sauce?).

So, my overall opinion of the food (and my husband and father in law’s) was that each meal tasted great! The food is high quality, the recipes are creative and delicious, and everything is laid out for you so it’s very easy to make your meal.

Here’s a little more information on how it works and pricing:

• Weekly delivery of fresh pre–measured ingredients and 3 recipes.
• Choose your own recipes each week, or select the perfect meal plan for you.
• Chef’s Choice, Vegetarian, Paleo–Friendly and Gluten–Free options.
• Change your recipes by clicking on My Menu once you’re logged in.
• Meals cost $11.49 per person.
• 2-person plan: $68.94/week,
  4-person plan: $137.88/week,
  6-person plan: $206.82/week.
• Skip any week or cancel at any time.

So, it’s actually very affordable. My initial instinct was something like this would be over the top expensive, but it’s really not.

Anyway, on to the **giveaway**!

One reader will win 3 meals (each meal serves 2 people). It’s just so awesome NOT to have to plan dinner and instead, whip up a delicious meal. This is a giveaway you definitely want to win!

To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is enter your email into the rafflecopter giveaway widget below. Easy Peasy.

The giveaway is starting today, 10/8 and ending 10/15.
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Good luck!

Does everything Kirkland/Costco do hit it out of the park? Pretty much, yeah. (No, this post is NOT sponsored… I just like finding yummy new treats and I’m betting you do too).

I saw these bars all over Instagram and they looked amazing; I had to pick them up. I’ve been trying to stay away from Costco lately because…well, see the budget post :). I have a tendency to impulse buy there and that is NOT a place you want to impulse buy. This time, I went in with a purpose: protein bars.

The box comes with 20 bars in 2 flavors: chocolate chip cookie dough and a brownie bar (ten each). The price of the entire box was about $18 dollars making each bar about .90 cents. Not too shabby.

My immediate reaction to the cookie dough flavor was that it looks just like the chocolate chip cookie dough Quest bars. Quest fans, am I right?? Do they taste as good? YES they do.

The flavors are different, but in my opinion, both bars are delicious. This Kirkland bar had some major chocolate chunkage which I am all about. They actually tasted a bit fresher to me too…which I don’t even know how to describe to you, but it was a good thing.

The nutrition facts are very similar to Quest bars too:

• calories: 190
• Fat: 9 grams
• Carbs: 22 grams
• Fiber: 15 grams
• Sugar: 1 gram

So, these Kirkland bars (at least this flavor), are a win. They are significantly cheaper than other bar (for example, Quest bars are about $2.40 a bar depending on where you buy them), taste great, and have good nutrition stats.

Will I buy again? YES!

I haven’t tried the brownie flavor yet, but once I do, I will post a review on that one too!

Have you tried these bars? What did you think? What’s your go-to protein bar?

Hey guys! How’s it going? We are doing really well over here. I’m about 27 weeks pregnant right now-almost in the third trimester! How did that happen? That’s crazy and SCARY.

We’ve been braving Colorado winter and we’re almost through it. I can officially see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am so ready for warmer weather too..anyone else?

The upside to glorious winter is I find myself trying/eating lots of new foods and snacks. I mean, I do that during the summer too, but let’s pretend it happens more during winter.

I’ve seen Siete Foods products all over social media so there’s no doubt these are kind of a new, sexy product. Obviously I had to try them. They have several different products including grain free tortillas (one using almond flour, one using coconut/cassava, one coconut/chia) and tortilla chips. I’ll have to review their chips because I’ve tried their sea salt tortilla chips and they’re awesome.

Today I’m reviewing their grain-free almond flour tortillas. Here’s a little more information about the tortillas and my thoughts:

Siete Foods Almond Flour Grain Free Tortillas

Ingredients:

Pretty clean. These tortillas are only made with almond flour, tapioca flour, water, sea salt, and xantham gum (usually used as a thickening agent. I use it sometimes in smoothies).  So, no ingredients that I don’t recognize and all the things..meaning these are Paleo, non-gmo, gluten free, dairy free, soy free, and vegan. All the things. 

Nutrition Facts:

Not too shabby. Here’s the nutrient breakdown for 2 tortillas:

Calories: 190

Fat: 12 grams

Saturated Fat: 1g

Carbs: 17g

Fiber: 3g

Sugar: 2g

Protein: 5g

Considering it’s made of almond flour, the calorie and fat content is really not that bad.

Taste and Texture:

Very good!

Honestly, I’m always skeptical of “health food” sort of “trends” because a.) they’re always expensive, and b.) sometimes they don’t taste very good.

I expected these to be super nutty (ya know, because of the almond flour) but they’re actually not. They have a good taste, basically that of a tortilla, and a great texture. Sometimes these sort of things fall apart easy too but these held together nicely when stuffed with tuna salad.

I tried some Paleo wraps a few weeks ago that were made of coconut (like, basically only coconut meat) and (surprise surprise) they tasted a lot like coconut. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I prefer these almond flour wraps since there isn’t an overwhelming taste or flavor.

Cost:

Here’s the sad part: they’re expensive. I mean, sort of expected, right?

I bought them at Natural Grocer’s for around $8 something for 8 tortillas.

If you buy them from Siete’s site, they are $55 for a pack of 6, so about 9 bucks a pack.

I checked Amazon too and they’re over the top expensive. About $12 for a pack plus like, $8 in shipping.

They might sell them on Thrive Market too so that might be worth checking out. I’m sure they’re at Whole Foods too. I’m sure we can all assume they aren’t a bargain there.

Where to Buy:

Natural Grocer’s, off The Siete Foods website, Amazon, Whole Foods, and maybe Thrive Market? They seem to be sprinkled throughout some health food stores in Colorado, so I’m sure it’s like that in other states too. You can always check on their website for store locations.

Will I Buy Again?

I probably will.

I say “probably” because we don’t eat 100% grain free everyday. I probably eat an 80/20 paleo diet, so definitely not strict. I’m also not someone who misses tortillas when I don’t have them around. Since the cost is a bit high, I’m sure they won’t be a “staple” in our refrigerator, but I would like to have them around because I genuinely like them. So my answer is yes, I would buy them again but sparingly (mostly due to cost).

They have 2 other tortillas if almond flour isn’t for you. One made from cassava and coconut flour and the other cassava and chia.  I’ll pick them up at Natural Grocer’s next time I’m there and write a review on those!

Have you tried Siete’s products? Thoughts? Any other grain-free wrap recommendations?

**This review is strictly my opinion. I was not sent this product to review nor was I compensated in any way**

The post Review: Siete Foods Almond Flour Grain Free Tortillas appeared first on Healthy, Hungry, and Happy.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts/every post every, I love me a little treat. Each and everyday, please.

I heard about these coconut butter cups from Julie at Paleomg.com. I think from her podcast? If you’re a podcast listener, by the way, check her’s out because it’s hilarious. It’s full of fun content (if you’re into Paleo eating/beauty/other random things) but she just cracks me up.

At the time I was satisfying my sweet tooth (sometimes) with Justin’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups, which are amazing. I sort of have to watch myself with those things because I will pound a whole bag of ’em. Like, they’re so good they put other regular pb cups to shame. You will never go back.

I loved the idea though of these coconut butter cups because they’re paleo friendly, relatively low in sugar, and chocolate.

Eating Evolved Coconut Butter Cups

There are a few different flavors of these cups: original, caramel and sea salt, banana cream, mint cream, and strawberries and cream.

I’ve actually tried all of them except strawberries and cream. I have to say, the banana cream cups surprised me the most; I really liked them!

I’ve liked all the flavors I’ve tried and usually buy a couple of each. Here’s a more detailed breakdown:

Ingredients:

Very simple and straightforward: organic coconut, organic cacao, organic coconut sugar, organic cacao butter, himalayan sea salt, and organic vanilla extract. That’s it!

Obviously if you hate coconut, you probably won’t be a fan. But, if you like coconut, love chocolate, and want to eat clean/paleo, you might just be a fan.

Nutrition Facts:

In 1 cup (there are two in a package):

calories: 131

fat: 11g

carbs: 6g

fiber: 3g

sugar: 4g

protein: 1g

The fat content is on the higher side because coconut has quite a bit of fat in it. I’m personally not concerned with the grams of fat when they’re coming from a natural food source, but if you are, that’s something to keep in mind.

Taste and Texture:

I like these!

When I first tried them I think my taste buds were a little shocked by the lack of sweetness because, let’s be honest, other foods shaped like that are extremely sweet. These are made with a dark chocolate though, so they’re a bit more bitter than their milk chocolate/pb distant cousin (or friend…or someone they really don’t know at all).

I love dark chocolate, so I am definitely on board with the dark, slightly bitter taste. I also like coconut. Again, if you hate coconut, you may not love these.

Another thing I actually liked about them is that little taste of salt. They do sell a flavor that’s caramel sea salt and that’s much saltier than the original (also good though), but I like just a tiny hint of salt.

Cost:

These little cups of yumminess are not cheap. But, if they were, they’d probably be those other cups sold at gas stations…

They are obviously made with higher quality ingredients: organic, quality dark chocolate, etc. So, those higher quality ingredients are reflected in the price. Just is what it is.

I usually pick up a few from Natural Grocer’s and they’re about $2.70(ish)-$2.99.

You can buy them directly from their website and they sell individual bags at $2.99. If you buy a pack of 9 it drops the cost to $2.79 and if you buy an 18 pack, the cost is $2.49.

Where to Buy:

So, I can find a few flavors near me at Natural Grocer’s (they usually sell the original and caramel and sea salt).

They are also sold at Whole Foods, via their website, and possibly Thrive Market online?

You might want to check their website too because they do sell at some smaller natural grocery stores.

Will I Buy Again?

Given the fact that I’ve been buying them somewhat regularly now for about a month…yes, yes I will.

I actually just ordered some from their website because I think that’s a better deal in the end. They are expensive, so I try to pace them out by eating one a day (ha) or even half of one, but I do really like them.

I’d like to try and recreate them at home. That might be a fun recipe to try! I’ll keep you posted.

Have you tried Eating Evolved’s Coconut Butter Cups? What’s your favorite treat?

The post Review: Eating Evolved Coconut Butter Cups appeared first on Healthy, Hungry, and Happy.