Happy Sunday! I'm a little bit late posting this week as it has been a very busy weekend. I had fun with my snacks this week, and the theme turned out to be GREEK YOGURT! I used almost an entire tub of Chobani in my snacks this week, but yum! What a great way to add some protein and a little bit of tang.
This Week's Healthy Snacks. Note: Turkey Jerky does NOT photograph well! 🙂
This menu looks a little bit more time-intensive than others, but it's really not. Most of them take less time than peeling and chopping veggies (which I am, admittedly, lacking this week…I'll make it up in my dinners and nighttime snacking). I'm kind of excited about my snacks this week!
You will notice that there is nothing on Friday this week because we have conferences on Wednesday and Thursday night, and therefore we get Friday off. My mom is in town, so we are planning a trip to the zoo. I am SO looking forward to that time with my family.
Here is this week's menu…
I tried THESE banana oat balls. Super, super easy, and I like them. My kids didn't love them, unfortunately. They will be a yummy morning snack, though.
The PB Yogurt Parfait is DIVINE. It is a little bit of a guilty treat, but sometimes on a Monday afternoon, you need a little bit of indulgence. I put half a cup of greek yogurt and a quarter cup of peanut butter together and whisked it. This is less dip-like, and more mousse-like. I put a few raspberries on top and some Fiber One Chocolate Cereal (much less than a normal serving) in a bag to put on top of it. Oh my. The recipe made quite a bit, so I ate some today, and it's pretty darn good for being fairly healthy. Note on the Fiber One Cereal…I love it, but I don't eat a whole bowl of it in the mornings or it makes me feel bloated all day. I like to eat a small handful of it here and there if I'm craving something sweet and chocolately.
The pumpkin granola bar recipe came from Dollhouse Bake Shoppe, and they are pretty good! And by pretty good, I mean half of the pan is gone, pretty good. I did everything I could to make it healthy. I used all applesauce and no oil and all whole wheat flour. I then negated those changes by adding in a handful of chocolate chips. 🙂 These came together in less than 10 minutes, and clean up was easy because you line the pan with foil.
I had been under this ridiculous impression that Nutella was a healthy alternative to peanut butter, but I was so, so wrong, my friends. And that is unfortunate because I just discovered that Nutella is, in a word, scrumptious. My hubby and I loved our peanut butter dip for the apples last week, so I was looking for another one this week, and this one hit the spot! This Nutella Greek Yogurt Fruit Dip is a must-try. I haven't decided what fruit I'll put with it, but I'm thinking strawberries would be a great companion.
Nutella Fruit Dip. Do it.
The last thing that I “whipped up” was some yogurt covered frozen fruit. It was messy putting it together, and it doesn't look pretty, but they are a yummy alternative to a traditional parfait. If you don't like the tang of greek yogurt, try this with regular yogurt. I just used a skewer and dipped slices of strawberry in a bowl of yogurt, dropped them onto parchment paper on a cookie sheet and froze them. One of my girls LOVED these, and I like them, too! Next time, I'm going to try them with strawberry or blueberry yogurt.
As it seems I always do, I had a bunch of extra pumpkin left over, so I made the healthiest version of pumpkin bread that I could find (which wasn't easy). It's super dense, but it's great and isn't loaded with oil and sugar like most of the recipes I found.
That's it! Off to finishing up grades and getting ready for conferences I go. Have a great week!
