Protein Packed Banana Sunflower Cookies gluten and sugar free

My baby is going to be 4 years old in a few weeks. I suppose that means I can officially no longer use the excuse that I am still trying to loose the baby fat. What's that you say? Most people say it only takes 6 months to a year at most to lose the weight after having a baby. Well then, I guess I better find another excuse for hanging onto the chubs like being almost 40=slow metabolism, being constantly busy with 4 kids and work.......

Alright, alright. Excuses suck and they don't create results so I'll  just have to suck it up and take matters into my own hands. Step it up a notch. Or two.

My chubby tummy is really starting to get on my nerves. The chubs have gots to go! I have been telling myself for almost 4 years, since aforementioned baby numero 4 that I will not buy new clothes until I lose at least 20lbs. 30 would be super.

The fact that my wardrobe is seriously out of style should tell you something. It's been way too long just waiting for the weight to come off. After I had my first 3 children I worked out once and a while, a few times a week usually hiking or playing tennis and sometimes home workouts when it was too hot outside. The wight came off fairly easily. So what happened after baby #4? This belly won't budge!


Taking matters into my own hands I decided to join a workout program along with a month of Shakeology with my long time fellow blogger and inspirational friend Jen aka The Fit Housewife.
I'm so excited to get started! My package should be on the doorstep any day now and I'll be on a 90 kick ass jump start to the new me with Chalean Extreme.


Getting motivated to workout isn't easy for me. Usually I have to tell myself to at the very least do a Yoga or 20 minutes of Pilates and after I do I'm energized and ready to kick it into gear with a tougher workout. Cute new workout clothes also are a great motivator so when Marni from ZUMBA Fitness offered to send me some of their new apparel I was more than happy to check it out.

I recieved this cute tank top which I loved! It wans't clingy which helps hide the tummy while I try to get rid of it. I really liked how airy it was, I hate when my clothes stay wet when I sweat. 

These sports bras would look great under their open back tanks!

 I like the sassy edgy quality of Zumba's line of comfortable workout clothes. 

Sporting my cute, new workout clothes and stocked with these healthy,

 protein packed pre-workout cookies I'm ready to get my cardio on!

These banana sunflower cookies taste like banana bread, my favorite!
Sweetened with a touch of honey and a handful of shredded coconut and made with
good for you gluten free flours minus the starch. I'm in love.

 

Oil free, butter free, refined sugar free, grain free. These still tasted wonderful. They have a cake like texture and the sunflower seeds added just the right amount of texture and heartiness, not to mention tons of beneficial vitamins and protein.

PREP TIME    10 MIN   

BAKE TIME    10 MIN

YIELDS    16-20 COOKIES 

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas

1/2 cup plain, fat free yogurt (or sugar free applesauce)

1/4 cup honey preferably local Organic, aides w allergies (eye it)

1/4 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut (or more honey)

1 cup spelt flour

1 cup buckwheat flour (or almond flour)

1 cup shelled, unsalted sunflower seeds

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon iodized salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, use an electric mixer on medium speed to cream together the bananas, yogurt and honey for 1 minute.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour with the sunflower seeds, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture along with coconut. Mix thoroughly to combine. 

Drop rounded tablespoons of the dough onto the baking sheet, placing them about 2" apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.

Sunflower seeds are an excellent source of Vitamin E, the body's primary fat-soluble antioxidant. Vitamin E travels throughout the body neutralizing free radicals which can reduce the
symptoms of asthma, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, conditions where
free radicals and inflammation play a big role.

The minerals and vitamins in sunflower seeds also can greatly help reduce the severity of asthma, lower high blood pressure, and prevent migraine headaches, as well as reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke.





Sources
The World's Healthiest Foods

Home Made Banana-Chocolate Crisp Granola Bars {and a Secret-Under Cover Give Away!}

I'm always thinking of healthy, home made snacks I can throw together for myself and the troops. I love a good snack that is loaded with good ingredients. One that will keep you feeling satisfied and energetic (not too energetic when it comes to the kids, there's a fine line...) and most importantly, one that is grab and go! Go. Go. Go. We are always on the run here; play dates, park outings, sports, practices, errand running, Dr. appointments and so on and so forth. There's nothing worse than being out and about with cranky hungry kids (and mommies) and having to go through a drive-thru or stop and a 'convienience' market for a processed, uber unhealthy, over priced snack. *yuchh! 

At the very least I try to grab a re-usable/home-made bag {snack bag} of mixed nuts and dried fruit and maybe some cheese sticks to take with me. Keeping a bag of mixed nuts in your cars center console will come in handy for emergency snacking and help you keep off that weight and save money! All good things in my book.

Then there's the issue of healthy school snacks. You know how I feel about that right?  Passionate.
I've mentioned my thoughts on sending processed and sugary snacks to school for my kids. It really, really isn't very hard to make home made granola bars, whole grain cookies or fruit bars. They come in so many forms your bound to find one that works for your family.

Also, again at the very least send fruit (yes, your kids will eat it if they are hungry and they know that holding out and whining will get them 'fruit' gummies or twinkies). Some of our favorite school and at home snacks are; Whole fruits, veggie medley with hummus or buttermilk-poppy seed dip,  mixed nuts and dried fruit, cheese sticks, Greek yogurt with pumpkin seeds and dried fruit, whole grain crackers with nut butter etc. These all work for you too! All are wonderful mid-afternoon pick-me-up's!

There are lots of  simple, school box friendly snacks for you right........ here on my blog. Go on, try one!

Let me know what you think and your favorite ideas for school snacks, I'd LOVE to know!

The secret to these granola bars is this cereal. It's very gently kissed with chocolate.

Who doesn't want to be kissed by chocolate?

I'm not talking about the 'other' chocolaty cereals that are loaded with sugar.

This brown rice cereal is just ever-so-slightly sweetened and a whole grain to boot.

Secret Under Cover Give Away!

O.K. If any of you can tell me what type of  plant I have dangling in the background I will send you TWO of my home made, super cute reusable snack bags! (pics coming soon)

 {To the first person with the correct anwnser!}

For the Banana-Chocolate Crisp Granola Bars

You Will Need:

1 cup slivered almonds
1  cups cashews, coarsely chopped
1 cup banana chips, chopped
1 1/2 cups rolled oats (I use Coach's Oats)
1 1/2 cups {chocolate flavored} brown rice crisp cereal
* 1 cup brown rice syrup (sold at Whole Foods and other “natural” stores)
1/4 cup Grade B maple syrup
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract



Putting them together:

Preheat the oven to 350°. Spread the oats, almonds and cashews on a cookie sheet and toast them in the oven for  8-10 minutes, or until they start to brown a bit. Remove from oven and let cool.
In the meantime, line a 9 x 13 baking dish with parchment paper and set aside {can use butter or coconut oil}. Now, mix the rice cereal, banana chips and cinnamon in a big bowl. Add the oats and nuts once they’ve cooled.

In a small saucepan, heat the syrups, salt and vanilla extract over medium-high heat, stirring constantly to avoid burning. Once the syrups come to a gentle boil, continue to cook for an additional 3-4 minutes until the syrup begins to thicken, then pour it over the oats and nuts mixture. Mix everything together so that the syrup evenly coats everything in the bowl.

While it’s still warm, pour the contents of the bowl into your prepared baking dish. Using a rubber spatula, pat everything down so it’s nice and compacted (I did this again after about 10 minutes to make them nice and compressed). Let cool to room temperature. You can also put them in the fridge for a bit since this’ll make cutting easier.

Cut them into square or rectangles as you please.  Store them in a airtight container in the refrigerator.

recipe very slightly adapted from Bitchen Camero
 
 

 
*Brown Rice Syrup

 
* brown rice syrup = rice syrup = rice bran syrup = rice malt = yinnie syrup  

Notes:   Health buffs like this because it contains complex sugars, which are absorbed more slowly into the bloodstream.  It's about half as sweet as ordinary table sugar. Some rice syrups include barley malt, and may pose a problem for people with gluten allergies.  Substitutes:  maple syrup (substitute 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons liquid for each cup of brown rice syrup) OR molasses (substitute 1/2 cup for each cup of brown rice syrup) OR barley malt syrup (substitute 3/4 cup for each cup of brown rice syrup) OR honey (substitute 3/4 C honey plus 2 tablespoons liquid for every cup of brown rice syrup)
 
The Cooks Thesaurus

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Almond Butter and Banana Pancakes: Simple and Decadent in every way

First off, I have a funny, albeit slightly embarrassing story to tell you about my first experience with Almond butter.

I've always loved cooking and all it entails. For me it is a creative outlet. Chopping, sauteing, deglazing ect. are all de-stressors for me. I love that it is an expression of art in a lot of ways and that you can really change and experiment with the ingredients to create a flavor that is just right for your mood or tastes. Baking however, IMHO is another story. Yes, you can change the ingredients a little for the most part, exchanging one flour for another or a bit of applesauce for some of the butter, but really you usually need to be pretty exact to get a result that was worth your efforts ie. 'A Big Fat Mess' at my house.

Anyway, waaay back when I was just a novice little baker (errhegmmm, a few short years ago), I had some recipe that called for Almond Butter. In my mind, I was thinking it was just regular butter flavored with almonds and so I thought, I can just make my own and save a trip to the store...........

And so, I proceeded to take a cup of butter from the fridge and poured a few teaspoons of almond extract into it and creamed it up into my cookies. I told you, embarrassing.

It wasn't long before 2 and 2 clicked together and I realized that I had created the butteriest, greasiest, most disgusting cookies ever. Pooor cookies. Poor me. So while this was at the time very frustrating and humbling, I did end up discovering what in fact Almond Butter actually was. Goober, I know.

Speaking of what a goober I am, I am probably one of the only people in America who does not like peanut butter. *gasp! 

Never liked PBandJ's or apples with peanut butter as a kid. As a health conscience adult I've tried to like peanut butter, at least with apples or in recipes but it's just not my fav. I do however L.O.V.E. Almond Butter. Go figure.  Almond Butter has a very mild and less 'toasty' taste compared to peanut butter and is very decadent and naturally sweet.

I've listed a Nutritional Comparison Chart below, based on a 2,000 calorie a day diet in case your interested. Both peanut and almond butter are good for you and pretty similar except that Almond Butter has slightly less carbs and saturated fat and quite a bit more Calcium, Iron and Vitamin E.

2 tbsp. Peanut Butter      2 tbsp. Almond Butter

                            Calories                     190                               190

                           Total Fat (g)                 16                                 16

                          Saturated Fat (g)            2                                  1.5

                           Carbs (g)                      7                                    6

                            Fiber (g)                      3                                    4

                           Protein (g)                    8                                    7

                           Calcium                       1%                                  8%

                            Iron                             3%                                 6%

                           Vitamin E                    14%                                40%

                           Folate                           6%                                  6%

Choose baking powder that is aluminum free!

Almond Butter and Banana Pancakes

SERVES 4-6    TIME  15 MINUTES
Ingredients


1 cup Whole Wheat flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder  (*without the aluminum additive!)
1/2 teaspoon salt  (*preferably iodized)
1/2 cup creamy Almond Butter  (preferably Organic)
2 tablespoons sugar  (preferably Organic/Raw)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large egg   (preferably free range)
1 cup milk + 2 tablespoons milk   (*preferably Organic or w/out rHsbt hormone)
2-3 ripe bananas  (don't need to be Organic ;)
tablespoon of butter for griddle.



Directions

In large bowl mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In small bowl, whisk together peanut butter, sugar and oil until smooth. Beat in egg, then milk. Add 1 chopped banana.

Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture, stirring just until blended.

Lightly coat griddle or skillet with butter and heat it over medium heat.
Drop batter onto the griddle and cook until tiny bubbles appear on the surface of the pancake, then flip and cook a few minutes more. 

*Careful, these burn easily. I suggest making small pancakes so they won't be undercooked in the middle before they burn.
 
Serve with pure maple syrup and top with sliced bananas and a glass of ice cold chocolate milk!  My 16 year old likes these with jam on top.