04/22/13

birthday week giveaways + chocolate trail mix clusters

Happy Monday! Hope your weekend was relaxing and fun. We got away to the lake house for some family time. Just what we all needed.

This week is my birthday week! Typically I’m not a big fan of celebrating my birthday, but for some reason this year I am. And to celebrate I want to share some goodies with all of you.

Everyday this week, I will have a different prize to win. The giveaways will only last 1 day. So it will be announced in the morning, then the winner will be selected the next morning when the new giveaway goes up.

Not only is it giveaway week on the blog, I’m sharing goodies will all of my classes this week. Today they’re getting chocolate trail mix clusters. They are soooooo good!

And since most of you won’t be in my classes, the first giveaway to kick off the week is one dozen chocolate trail mix clusters!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED

Giveaway day 1: one dozen chocolate trail mix clusters

How to enter

Leave a comment for each – the more comments, the more chances to win!

Leave a comment telling me when your birthday is and something fun that you like to do.
Share this giveaway on your blog + the birthday week giveaways picture above.
Share the link to this giveaway on twitter (@fitmamarealfood), facebook, pinterest, instagram, etc.

Winner randomly selected and announced Tuesday, April 23 in the AM. Open to US residents.

Now, if you don’t want to wait to win, or if you don’t win since there will only be 1 winner, you can make these for yourself! They are suuuuuuuper easy.

Chocolate Trail Mix Clusters

makes about 25 clusters

Ingredients

1 bag dark chocolate chips

2 cups raisins

1 cup dry roasted peanuts

1 cup raw almonds, chopped

1/2 cup roasted sunflower seeds

1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Directions

Fill a medium pot with 2 inches of water. Place a large glass bowl over it. Make sure the bowl does not touch the water. Place on the stove over medium heat. Add the chocolate in. Stir as it melts.

Once melted, add in all the remaining ingredients.

On wax or parchment paper, drop about 2 tbsp of the mixture. Repeat until no more remains. Allow to harden. You can also place them in the fridge or freezer to cool faster.

I made a triple batch of these. They won’t last long!

Alright, time for the giveaway week to begin! And if you were wondering, my birthday is Wednesday. Giveaways before and after. It works out perfectly.

I am off to teach body pump and fitness yoga today… and share some chocolatey goodness.

Heather

02/11/13

black bean brownies

Yesterday I made something pretty special. Sweet and special. Special brownies…

Special because they’re made with black beans! Hehe. I’ve made bean based sweets before, so I had an idea that they would turn out good. And for bean brownies, they were yummy! After my taste testing I found the recipe on Rebekah’s blog Food, Family and Fun, my secret blog for the secret recipe club this month! I loved looking through her blog and always have such a hard time picking which recipe to make… then I typically end up
with something sweet. What can I say, I like my treats.

I’m a big fan of her philosophy “If the ingredient list includes items my third-grader can’t read or pronounce, we don’t need to be eating it Amen! I can read all the ingredients in this recipe… thus I ate it.

Straight out of the oven sampling.

Black Bean Brownies recipe from Family, Food and Fun

Ingredients

1 (15 oz) can black
beans

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup flour *

3 eggs

3 tbsp oil (I used coconut)

2 tsp
vanilla extract

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp instant coffee granules

1/2
tsp baking powder

1/2 cup dark chocolate
chips/chunks **

Directions

Preheat
oven to 350°.

Drain beans in a colander and
rinse very well. Put beans in a blender with all other ingredients
except chocolate chips and puree until completely
smooth.

Pour into a greased 8 or 9″ square
baking pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out
nearly clean.

* The original recipe did not call for flour, but there was a note that adding 1/3 cup flour would give the brownies a more typical brownie texture. I may try it without this the next time.

**Next time I would definitely mix in the chocolate chips throughout the batter, and also use mini chocolate chips so that they’re distributed all the way through. I enjoyed the bites the most when it had chocolate chip on top.

Have you ever tried black bean brownies or any other bean based sweet?

Heather

07/20/12

MY oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

Growing up I always loved one cookie in particular that my mom would make – peanut butter chocolate no bake cookies. There’s something about them that I just can’t resist. All no bakes are good, but hers are the best. Still to this day they’re my favorite.

Jacob’s favorite without a doubt are his mom’s oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. In fact, the recipe is almost identical to my mom’s oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe, but his mom’s always taste different when she makes them. I’ve made her cookies before for him, and they are never the same. It could be because I sub in whole wheat flour, but we won’t get into that.

I got a hankering to make cookies and had Jacob’s mom’s recipe on my fridge, so I grabbed it, but made them my own in the process.

See, I want our kids to remember my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Maybe it’ll just be because I made them, or maybe they will taste different from others because I didn’t follow my mom’s or Jacob’s mom’s recipe. They were more a guide for me to modify into my cookies. Heather cookies. Less sugar, more whole grains. Just the way I like my cookies to be.

MY Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
makes 12 cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened

2/3 cup natural cane sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

2 handfuls chocolate chips (about 3/4 cup)

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together butter and sugar until smooth. Add in egg and vanilla and continue to whisk.

Add in flour, baking soda, sea salt and rolled oats and stir together. Once fully combined, stir in chocolate chips.

Scoop dough into 12 mounds on ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until edges are slightly golden. Cool on sheet for a couple minutes then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.