Chocolate Banana Pops: Protein Style!

     Summer is on the way and who doesn't remember eating frozen chocolate covered bananas as a kid?!  we all know bananas are good for you, but that chocolate coating is filled w/ sugar, unhealthy fats, and random chemical ingredients.  Plus the regular chocolate coating takes forever (30 mins) to set up.  Healthy chocolate shell to the rescue!!!! Not only is this version lower calorie, it also becomes solid almost instantly, is basically sugar free, and although it isn't ft free it uses healthier fats.  Note that the chocolate shell itself will only cover 1 to 2 half bananas.  I jut pre freeze uncovered bananas for the next time I want one.  You can keep covered ones in the freezer too, but I feel like I would over eat them if they were sitting in the freezer already coated in chocolate so thats why I choose to keep them 'naked' :).  Check it out!

Healthy Chocolate Protein Banana Pops:
Ingredients:
2 large bananas
1 TBSP cocoa powder
1 TBSP unsweetened chocolate brown rice protein powder
1 TBSP melted coconut oil
8 drops of vanilla liquid stevia

Chocolate shell all mixed up.

Straws, skewers, or popsicle sticks
Optional toppings: nuts, shredded coconut, sprinkles, cacao nibs, goji berries, peanut butter to paint on top of the chocolate shell.

Method:
1) Slice bananas in half through the peel
2) Gently push popsicle sticks into the peel on banana, this helps minimize splitting
3) Slice gently through the peel to remove it and pop bananas in the freezer for a few hours, 2 should do the trick!
4) Mix protein and cocoa powder, stevia, and coconut oil together in a narrow yet tall glass or in a shallow bowl.
5) Dip banana in the chocolate shell to coat, it will become solid in just seconds so have your toppings ready!!!

Cover 1 for today and save the rest for the next time!

Chocolate Protein Banana Pops

Check back here on Thursday to see my new recipe post!

Wedding Share

     I know this is a healthy recipe blog, but with


my wedding 2.5 months away wedding plans have consumed my life and my time so I thought I'd share with you guys how I'm spending my time!

I created the envelope liners and did the graphics for the invite 

     I'm getting married in a small ceremony (about 50 guests) in early August and we are going with a sort of vintage carnival theme.  Its been tough to keep it elegant and super fun and surprising all at the same time while minding the budget ($5,000 max) and my keeping sane with all the DIY projects there are to do.  $5,000 sounds like a lot for a small group, but I live in a very expensive Southern California city so it doesn't go as far as you'd hope.  Anyway take a look at what's keeping me busy, hope you guys like it as much as I do!

     The first thing of course are the invitations which I purchased about 4 years ago at Target for $25.  The still carry similar sets that are jut $5 or $10 more now if you want to check them out then click here.  We went with email RSVP and I plan to use the matching RSVP cards as thank you cards for after the wedding.
   
     I never wanted a cake, but we have some family members coming from very far away who have never seen a multi-layer wedding cake so we went ahead and decided to add one to the reception.  Fortunately I have an odd talent in cake decoration and here is a quick digital rendering of the cake design.  I'll post a link to where I purchased everything with a photo of the real cake.

Also this is going to be a fondant covered foam cake dummy and we will serve cupcakes to our guests since my maid of honor and I agree that they are just 'happier'. I decided on strawberry, vanilla, chocolate pb, black forest, and red velvet (getting extra!)

chocolate pb

Strawberry & Black Forest

Red Velvet

     I think the newest spur of the moment addition project is my new favorite thing, the I Spy photo challenge list for each table to use as a game and a way to break the ice!  I just love the way this turned out with the amazing border and all the fun fonts, plus I"ll have left over paper after printing the programs so its no extra cost.

3 different variations to get all different photos :)

Right now I'm working on the programs themselves and I think they might have a more carnival look than a vintage look like I went with for the I spy game.  Also I just finished the labels for the CD's of photos we'll send out with our thank you cards.

Elegant & fun all in one!

     I've been doing a bunch of other things as well and as the big day gets closer I'll post more of my stuff and links on where I got everything in case anyone is curious, Have a great weekend!

Berry Banana Cabana Cheesecakes

Every Tone It Up girl knows about Perfect Fit Protein and they are hosting a contest!  If you post a photo and tropical recipe using perfect fit on their facebook page before friday at midnight you can win more pfp as a prize :)  So here is a quick post on the recipe I entered: Berry Banana Cabana Cheesecakes, so yummy!

1 scoop or 1 packet vanilla perfect fit protein

½ banana

¼ cup raspberries

¼ avocado

Juice from ¼ of a lime or lemon

2 tbsp nonfat pain greek yogurt

1 tbsp coconut oil melted

3 coconut mango babe ball from the TIU beach babe edition or 3 coconut date roll

A few vanilla stevia drops

Toasted coconut pieces for garnish

1)      Squish coconut babe balls or date rolls into the bottom of a silicon muffin tin of a cupcake paper to create 3 mini crusts.

2)      Add fruits, perfect fit protein powder, yogurt, stevia and oil into a food processor and blend until smooth.

3)      Pour fruit mixture over date crusts and freeze for 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes.

4)      Top with toasted coconut and enjoy with your favorite babe shot from the new wedding edition J

DIY Creamy Peanut Butter Thinkthin Bars

DIY All Natural Thinkthin bars

     So anyone on the TIU plan knows that Thinkthin bars are allowed at any meal and I LOVED them.....that is until I looked at the label this weekend and saw malitol listed on the ingredients ...My body just packs on fat when I eat fake sugar so thinkthin is a no go for me now, but I love the ease of grabbing a bar when you're on the go or when you need healthy food that tastes like candy.  Anyone else hate fake sugar?  Well if you do and you will miss your thinkthin bars the way I would have then this recipe is for you!  Its an all natural version of the creamy peanut butter flavor and it has some great healthy ingredients and is super quick to make.

Ingredients:
3/4 c quinoa flour
1 packet perfect fit vanilla brown rice protein powder or 2 Tbsp of a natural protein powder
2 Tbsp natural peanut butter (no added sugar or oils)

Always a cat around to check on things!

2 1/2 Tbsp of pb2 powdered peanut butter
2 egg whites
8 medium dates
1 Tbsp agave
1 packet powdered stevia
3-4 squares of 72% cacao dark chocolate
Method:

1) Pre heat oven to 350 degrees
2) Add dry ingredients and dates to a food processor and blend until its mealy looking.
3) Add egg whites and agave and pulse until a thick dough ball forms
4) Spray a 8x8 pan w/ cooking spray (I use Trader Joe's coconut oil spray)
5) Press dough in the pan and bake for about 8-10 minutes, just enough to cook the egg white.  The edges will look crisp and the majority will look wettish still, but it will set up as it cools.
6) Chop chocolate and place it on top of the bars and once it starts to melt just spread it evenly to get that top chocolate coating.  Place in the freezer for 10 minutes and then slice it up!

The tastes is different, but so so good, you'll love them and the serving size is 8 bars :)

Comparison:
Here's the info on the actual Thinkthin product:

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 bar (60.0 g)

Amount Per Serving

Calories 240 Calories from Fat 81

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 9.0g 14%

Saturated Fat 3.5g 17%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 6mg 2%

Sodium 300mg 13%

Total Carbohydrates 22.0g 7%

Dietary Fiber 1.0g 4%

Protein 20.0g

Vitamin A 0% • Vitamin C 0% Calcium 10% • Iron 4%

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

INGREDIENTS: PROTEIN BLEND (WHEY PROTEIN ISOLATE, CALCIUM CASEINATE, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, CASEIN), COATING (MALTITOL, COCOA BUTTER, CHOCOLATE, SODIUM CASEINATE, MILK FAT, SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL FLAVORS, SALT), GLYCERIN, MALTITOL, PEANUTS, WATER, COCOA BUTTER, PEANUT FLOUR, NATURAL FLAVORS, SOY LECITHIN, SEA SALT.
CONTAINS: MILK, PEANUTS, SOY.
MANUFACTURED IN A PLANT THAT ALSO PROCESSES EGGS AND TREE NUTS.
GLUTEN FREE Certified Gluten Free by GFCO, gfco.org

Now the info for our DIY bars:
Total Calories: 207 (saves 33 calories)
Carbs: 34g (original has 22g, but lots of bad ingredients and ours are all natural and minimally processed)
Fat: 5g (saves 4g of fat from the original and it has healthy fat from quinoa)
Protein: 8g (obvioulsy the orginal has double the protein, but the protein in our bars is complete and totally soy free!)

Raw cookie dough bites!

     So yes my last post was also a version of the chocolate chip cookie, but today's recipe is so different and still delicious!  Its going to be 90 degrees here today so I decided to start the day off with some of my banana ice cream with these healthy, easy, and raw cookie dough bites :)

Ingredients:
1/3 cup raw cashews
1/3 uncooked oats
1 Tbsp agave, maple syrup, or honey
(you might be able to use water & stevia, but I haven't tried yet)

Method:
1) Throw nuts, oats, and sweetener into a blender or food processor until it forms a mini dough ball
2) Hand mix in chocolate chips.
3) pinch off bite sized pieces and roll into balls.
4) I recommend freezing them for 30 minutes to an hour to get rid of some of the chew factor, but you can eat them right away too.

These were awesome in banana ice cream, but you can eat them alone too.  I bet they'd be great on top of greek yogurt or squished as a whole on top of a brownie (not so healthy, but sounds amazing!)

Other flavors:
- Mix in cinnamon and raisins for oatmeal cookie bites
- Use pecans in place of cashews and add vanilla for a shortbread flavor
- Add dried coconut for a macaroon taste