Dreamy Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

Happy Monday - I'm so happy to see you today one hour earlier than usual this morning - did you remember to spring your clock forward yesterday?!

This weekend's weather was absolutely to die for. The days were warm and sunny and utterly fabulous. Did you have the itch to get outdoors and get some fresh glorious air into those lungs of yours??

Clearly Spring  really is right around the corner and I think that calls for some serious celebration!!

I was going to tickle your tastes buds with a healthy entree today, but yesterday I was having a little fun in the kitchen and I've decided that this is the perfect day for an easy peasy treat. Why should we wait for Fridays or weekends for a little indulgence? Mondays are totally treat-worthy too!

Dreamy Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls
Makes 14 balls

These delicious little balls are a fabulous treat when you're craving something sweet. They taste like the inside guts of a peanut butter cup, with just a hint of dark chocolate. Store them in the freezer and take one out at a time for portion control because if they're sitting in your fridge and totally accessible, you WILL NOT be able to keep your fingers outta them!

2/3 c Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter
1/2 c smooth peanut butter
3 tbsp Earth Balance (or butter), softened
1/2 c icing sugar
1 1/4 - 1 1/2 graham cracker crumbs

In a large bowl, cream together your peanut butters and Earth Balance.

Add in the icing sugar and then the graham cracker crumbs and mix well.

Shape into 14 1" round balls and refrigerate for 2 hours.

They are ready to serve. How easy is that?!

Clearly anything that starts with this is going to be fabulous, wouldn't you agree?!

Just dig in and get your hands dirty :)

These are set out on mini cookie sheet that's about 1/3 the size of a normal-sized pan.

Please excuse the turd like appearance of these little morsels. I assure you they taste waa-aayyyy better than they look :-D

Three for you.....

...and eleven, er one for me. 

100% PURE BLISS.

Note  - freeze.the.balls.so.you.don't.eat.them.all.in.one.sitting. --- just suggestin'.

Are there any little treats you like to keep around for a sweets craving that you just can't seem to kick?

Did you do anything fabulous this weekend?

Have a great day,

Andrea
xoxo

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

Whoa----what a mouthful for a muffin so early on a Monday morning!!! I tried to think of a shorter name for my newest creation, but I wanted to include all of its deliciousness in the title.

So how was your weekend? Ours was fairly uneventful. My body has been fighting a sore throat and cold for the last 4 or 5 days and I was feeling really wiped out, so I tried to take it easy as much as I could. Even though I hate feeling under the weather, there's a part of me that is so proud of my healthy body and how strong and awesome it is for fighting off all the colds and flus that are going around. I very rarely catch the seasonal bugs {I'm knocking on wood right now!} and I think right now I'm fighthing off the killer cold my dad had while he was visiting. He had a sore throat and filled sinuses and was pretty much down for the count all day on January 2nd. While I'm not feeling 100%, I can feel my body working hard to fight this cold off. My throat's been scratchy and my head is feeling a little full, but I've managed to carry on with my day-to-day stuff without too much interruption. I think my body's been working in overdrive and that's why I'm feeling so tired. See how beneficial regular exercise and good healthy eating is for our bods?! 

Speaking of good healthy eating....that's what I've been trying to do now that the holidays are behind us. My goal is to eat lots of fruits and veggies, get WAY more water in each day and to reduce the amount of sugar and processed foods. I'm also putting a stop to the late night snacking. 

I don't know about you, but I find it so hard to get back to healthy eating after Christmas. My body seems to be craving sugar and carbs on a daily basis and it is not easy to say no! Fruit and chocolate chai tea have been helping to curb the cravings, but I decided I needed to try to come up with a satisfying treat for those cravings that just refused to go away. 

I had some ripe bananas that were begging to be used and I've been craving chocolate peanut butter cups pretty regularly (thank you to my husband who brings them home waaaayyyyy too often!) and that's how I came up with the idea of making a chocolate peanut butter banana muffin. I subbed in some healthy ingredients for some not-so-healthy ones and the result was a pretty delicious, pretty good for ya muffin! A couple of my ingredients are not readily available in Canada (sorry friends), but I have linked up to the sites so that you can have a look and I have suggested substitutes.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

3 bananas, mashed
1/4 c unsweetened applesauce
2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened (Earth Balance would work)
3 tbsp Truvia (you could use 1/4 c brown sugar)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 c Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter (regular peanut butter would work maybe mixed with a little cocoa powder - you'd have to experiment with this)
1 1/3 c unbleached flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt

Preheat your oven to 325. Line a muffin tin with paper muffin cups.

In a large bowl, mix together the bananas, applesauce, butter, Truvia, vanilla and peanut butter. Mix until well combined. I left my bananas a little chunky because I like to get a little bit of banana in my muffin - you can mash as much as you would like and make your batter as smooth as you want.

Add in the flour, baking soda and sea salt. Mix well.

Evenly distribute the muffin batter into the 12 muffin cups.

Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

Remove from oven and place muffins on cooling rack.

Adding applesauce to a recipe is a great way to naturally sweeten

and it can replace the oil you would typically use.

This muffin pan is as old as the hills, but I love it because I always have success when I use it!

Mmmmmm. Sweets craving destroyed.

What do you use as substitutes to make your favourite recipes a little more healthy?
What's your favourite kind of muffin?

Enjoy your day!!!

Andrea

What I Ate "When I Was Under the Weather" Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!! Only one more workday for us Canadians and then we have a long weekend ~ thank goodness for long weekends eh ;-) !!




 
Unfortunately, I am still sporting a very sore throat. Being sick in the summer really stinks :-(

So, in the spirit of feeling under the weather, here's a glimpse into my eats when I'm trying to get back to my super healthy self.

Of course, no sick day would be complete without a cold, delicious green smoothie. This one has frozen bananas, fresh local strawberries, organic baby spinach and water.

Feels AMAZING on my throat.

My other bevies of choice are vitamin waters and diet Gingerale. Normally, I'm not a big fan of pop, but I crave Gingerale when I'm sick!

For a snack, I've been having cut up apple slices with Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter.

You know what they say...an apple a day, keeps the doctor away!!

Lunch has been a super healthy kale salad posted by Angela at Oh She Glows. This salad is Dee-eelicious!! It has lots of great textures and is jam packed with so many healthy veggies. If you're looking for some new salad ideas, definitely check this recipe out.

And for dinner, I've caved and had my all-time childhood fave.
Grilled cheese sandwich and a baked sweet potato. What can I say? I have no energy to put alot of effort into my dinner and this is still one of my favourites!!

So there you have it. Great eats for a sick chickie poo. If you're looking for more ideas, jump on over to Jenn's site, Peas and Crayons. Last week she had over 100 bloggers post about their awesome eats!!

What do you like to eat/drink when you're feeling under the weather?

Have a great Wednesday,

Andrea