Gluten Free Protein Cookie Experiment

What is wrong with me!? I am NOT usually a sweets person but the last week or two I have been craving sweets. I've luckily had a fair amount of self control besides having a little dark chocolate here and there... and maybe some coffee frozen yogurt on Valentines. I used to love making baked good out of thin air but since going gluten free last November.. let's just say there is a bit of a learning curve.

So maybe not so guilty cookies?

Protein cookie surprise - as I have no idea how this will turn out!

- 1/2 Cup Whey Protein powder (i have cake batter right now haha sounds so bad but it's not!)
- 1/2 Cup crunchy peanut butter
- 1/2 Cup Dark Chocolate Chips
- 1 Cup cooked steel cut oats
- 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
- 1/4 Tsp Salt
- 1 TBS Vanilla
- 1 TBS agave
- 2 TBS non fat Greek Yogurt
- 1 Chia "egg" - 1 TBS Chia seeds and 2 TBS water - combine and set aside

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. "Create" the chia egg by combining the seeds and water and set aside. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl - Chia egg last... I literally just threw everything together. I wish I had some Earth Balance or something as I know the texture of these are going to be weird with no fat. I baked first batch for 9 minutes and they were a SUPER weird texture... so I tried 11 minutes.. ya, they are just a weird texture. They don't taste have bad and fill you up FAST! It made about 25 cookies and with about 60 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 1 gram of fiber and 4 grams of Protein PER cookie... you can't feel too bad about it! Be better dipped in your milk of choice.

Neglecting my blog & Best way to make a good healthy snack aka popcorn

First off.. Sorry blog. I've been a bad blog owner. In between the move to SoCal - Hermosa Beach, finally healing up from surgery, then getting the Gardasil or HPV vaccine and having severe repercussions... and just LIFE. But hey! Enough about that. 2011 sucked. 2012 I'm getting into the best shape of my life, running a marathon, entering in a NPC bikini contest, getting closer to God, being a better friend, girlfriend, daughter and just being a better me. Not a New Years Resolution... more so making up for lost time and feeling more motivated then ever before.

So why am I back? I want to share how to make a healthy snack that is not only filling but helps me also combat cravings for other more guilty things. For some reason lately I have been on a sugar craving kick.. and I'm not usually a sweets kind of person.

Microwave popcorn is not only expensive but not usually not very healthy either and usually had a ton of kernels left over. But homemade popcorn seems like such a mystery to some or creating the perfect homemade popcorn seems like a craft.

Here is homemade popcorn demystified. Whole Foods has kernels for super cheap in the bulk bins. But you can find just kernels almost anywhere.

What you need is:

-3qt saucepan 

-about 3 TB oil (canola, peanut, grapeseed - has to have a high smoke point) 

-1/3 cup kernels 

-salt and then whatever you would like to add for me this case it was cinnamon. 

But you can add: nutritional yeast, shredded parmesan, cayenne, chili powder, curry powder, cumin etc!

(Note: I put the salt in the oil first as it distributes it nicely - just go easy you can always add but not subtract) Now here's the trick - heat the oil on med/high heat and throw in 2-3 kernels, when they pop evenly layer the 1/3 cup and REMOVE FROM THE HEAT and count to 30 then place it back on the heat and they will rapidly pop, try to shake the pan back and forth but also try and let the steam escape so they get nice and crunchy and then remove from the heat when you hear a couple seconds in between pops! Quickly place into a bowl and add whatcha want! I did a few shakes of cinnamon and it was so yummy!! It gave me my sweets fix, with my crunch fix, with my snack fix haha.

Just a quick little snack to get back into the blog but more to come!