Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Healthy Dessert

I love desserts. LOVE. It's by far my biggest weakness.  So trying to cut out sugars and extra calories isn't so easy for me, but I have found these delicious little treats and you only need a few to fill that "sugar void".  Bonus, they're super easy.

Chocolate Almond Bites

Melt 1/2 dark chocolate bar with a tablespoon of honey over low heat until smooth and melted.  Meanwhile place 3-4 almonds in each slot of a mini muffin pan.  Drizzle chocolate over each set of almonds (this is where the mini muffin pan comes in handy - it's the perfect size) place entire pan in freezer for about 20 minutes to harden. Pop each treat out and store in the fridge in an airtight container. Done!

So easy, so healthy and so delicious :)

Thursday, January 16, 2014

My Favorite Hummus

Love this stuff. Love that you can add additional flavors and really make it your own! This recipe is adapted from The Barefooot Contessa's recipe. Make it, it's sooo good, and way better than the store bought stuff.  I make a batch and keep it in an airtight container in the fridge. Lasts about 7-10 days for me.

Hummus For Us

1 can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans) drained (reserve liquid)
2-3 cloves of garlic minced
6 tablespoons lemon juice (see my method for preserving fresh lemon juice)
1/3 cup tahini
1 teaspoon salt

Put all ingredients in a food processor, and blend to desired consistency.  If it looks (tastes) to think, add some of the reserved chickpea juice. All done!

So easy! You can add any other flavor you want, more garlic, roasted red peppers, sundries tomatoes, pesto....possibilities are endless.  Enjoy!

My Quest for Health

Primarily this blog is about money. But what I've come to realize is that when you don't have energy and feel like crap all the money in the world means noting.  Like having money and still feeling broke, it's a double edged sword.  Every January my husband and I do a 30 day detox with hig fiber foods, reduced sugars/ carbs/ etc and it makes us feel great and releases all the toxins from the holidays.  This year something different happened.  
We started the detox, everything was going great and yesterday and today I fell off the wagon.  I barely ate yesterday, then indulged in enchiladas, chips and 3 glasses of wine at my Bunco group, then started off this morning with a donut and a latte.  I. Feel. Like. Shit.  I cannot believe how much the last 48 hours have affected me, physically, emotionally, mentally and physiologically.  This is insane. So I am vowing to keep it clean, goo upside of the box in terms of typical mommy edit and routine and nourish my body - use food as fuel to go, go, go, because let's be realistic that's what we do as moms.  So not only will this blog be about saving money and putting benjis in the bank, but how to stay focused using food and lifestyle as the foundation of those $$ goals.  Who's with me? Time switch out those cookies and lattes for hummus and H2o!

Let's face it, I want to live a long healthy life - but being the hot healthy mom while doing it makes it a little bit sweeter ;)