After School Snack

The kids are coming home from school every day hungry!  They raid the pantry like food bandits.  So it's important to make sure that they are fed before the food frenzy sets in.  These easy no bake granola bites are the perfect treat after a hard day on the job.  They taste like balls of raw cookie dough but don't contain eggs, butter or flour.  So I guess you can call them healthy:)

Granola Bites

2 cups quick oats

1 cup granola-I like vanilla almond

1 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup honey

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup mini M&M's

1 tsp vanilla

Combine dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.  Mix peanut butter, honey and vanilla and put in microwave to soften for 25 seconds.  Add to the dry ingredients, form into balls and place on parchment paper.  Put in refrigerator for 15minutes to cool. Store in airtight container and serve as a healthy and yummy after school snack.

Enjoy!

Summer Detox-Thirsty Thursday

I can't believe it's the last day of July!  Nothing makes me more sad than summer flying by and thinking of back to school.  Maybe it's the kid in me or the former teacher???  I love summer for the freedom, the sun, the later mornings and the longer nights.  School starts August 25th around here which means that August is last call.  It's the month that we cram everything we haven't done on our summer bucket list into our last days and nights.  This thought calls for a drink-Ha!  But today it's not the alcoholic kind-it's for a detox water that will make you feel great even with the thought of school right around the corner.  

I tend to take it easy at the gym during the summer months only because its difficult to maintain any sort of a schedule with the kids going every which way.  I workout when I can and I try to make good choices when it comes to eating. That way I can enjoy summer without feeling guilty that I'm not being a gym rat.  One great way is by drinking more water and infusing it with fresh, available fruits.  It makes the water taste great as well as boost your metabolism and help kick start or maintain your slim down.  Give this one a try as well as this one.  And let me know what you think.

Summer Detox Water

1 pitcher or carafe of H2O

1 lime

1 peach

1 cup of blue berries

1 cup of strawberries

Slice your favorite summer fruits and combine into pitcher.  Allow to chill in refrigerator for 1-2 hours.  

Make a new pitcher each day for maximum freshness.  

Happy Thirsty Thursday!  Enjoy!

Foods That Fight Sun Damage

We all know that wearing sunscreen is the best way to protect our skin from the sun's harmful rays.  You will find some of my favorites here.   But there are foods that we can eat more of to protect our skin from the inside out.  Many of these are so easy to incorporate into our diets every day.  Super healthy AND helpful.  Love it!

Green Tea:

I have always loved Green Tea. Besides its abilities to boost your immune system and speed up your metabolism, it also helps to soothe sunburns. Drinking one to two cups of this antioxidant-rich tea a day helps to reduce the redness of sunburn. 

Sweet Potatoes:

Sweet potatoes are packed to the brim with beta-carotene, so chow down this summer! Cancer-causing compounds called free radicals are the enemy when it comes to sun damage. They not only cause damage to skin cells, but also cells inside the body. One of the best ways to help your body fight off free radicals is through consuming a variety of antioxidant-rich foods. One of the major antioxidants is beta-carotene.

Grapefruit:
One of my favorite morning fruits.  Grapefruits are rich in lycopene and are a great way to minimize sun exposure.  Pink grapefruit and juice contains high levels of lycopene. There is almost a shield like role lycopene plays in protecting the skin from severe burn.   Can't beat that!

Garlic:

Garlic contains a natural compound called allicin, which has strong antioxidant and healing properties. Antioxidants fight off free radicals that enter your body from sun exposure, so eat your garlic.

Olive Oil:

Olive oil is not only great to use for cooking, it’s also an antioxidant-rich food that fights sun damage. One study actually proved that incorporating olive oil regularly into your diet can help to reduce reddening from sun exposure by 35%, according to an article from World’s Healthiest Foods.

Tomatoes:

Tomatoes are so abundant, taste so fresh in the summertime and a study, performed in 2001, looked at volunteers who ate 40 grams of tomato paste over a ten-week period. The group was forty percent less likely to experience sunburn when exposed to harmful UV rays.  Again, lycopene in the tomatoes is the shield.  But don’t forget to add a little olive oil to insure absorption of the special skin-protecting photochemical. 

So make sure you always have plenty of sunscreen on hand when going outside and include these skin healthy foods in your diet for an added boost.

Strawberry Smoothies

It's beginning to look a lot like Valentine's Day around here.  Candy hearts and strawberry smoothies-that's how we roll.  I love making fruit smoothies for the kids.  They think it's a treat and I know that it's healthy-win/win!  Simple ingredients make for the perfect snack and I always make sure to make enough for me.

Strawberry Valentine Smoothies

1 cup skim milk

2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries

1 Chobani vanilla blended Greek yogurt 

Combine ingredients in blender and pulse until think and creamy. 

Garnish with candy hearts for Valentine's Day.

If you love this smoothie then try this one and this one.

There are so many other healthy versions of pink smoothies that taste just as yummy.

Try substituting the strawberries with red raspberries or pomegranates.