Vegan Raspberry Thumbprint Breakfast Cookies

April 19, 2015 by Christine Skari

This Saturday night got a little crazy and wild with these breakfast cookies. I’m talking, mashed bananas off the hizzle, chia seeds like WOAH, and raspberry jam’ming all night to the sound of the raging party happening next door. I know, I know. Christine, you need to calm down a little.

These are the latest creation to come out of my college kitchen and are born from a situation I find myself in pretty often. Imagine this scenario: you wake up after a long exhausting night of sleeping, stumble to the kitchen in a hunger-induced stupor, and start the coffee pot. Then, you’re hit by a wave of NEED-TO-EAT-NOW emotions. What should you do?! Well, if you were smart, you would have baked up a batch of these super easy and nutritious raspberry thumbprint breakfast cookies and VOILA! The perfect “treat” to help satisfy that morning sweet tooth.

These babies are made healthy with the use of a combination of whole wheat flour and oats as the base, a super ripe banana and egg to hold everything together, a pat of tart raspberry jam, and ~~river~~ drizzle of peanut butter. I add in just a teeny tiny but of light brown sugar to up the sweetness a bit, but other than that, all the sugar in these cookies are natural!

One thing to keep in mind (as with all healthified recipes) is that this recipe is by no means your standard bakery-style chocolate chip. It’s not loaded with butter and fat and sugar and subsequently will not taste like one of those decadent desserts, but rather is a filling, slightly sweet, and packed with lots of healthy goodness. If you’re someone who likes to eat a cookie-a-day (like me), these cookies are a great substitute to have your cookies and eat em too!

*Recipe inspired from Oh She Glows

Morning Protein Berry Parfaits

April 14, 2015 by Christine Skari

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Renew Life Formulas for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

Ahhh the morning! There’s nothing more exciting to a foodie like me than waking up to a bright and shiny new day of EATING. You literally have a clean plate (hehe I won’t lie, I laughed at my own pun just now) to work with and the best part of the morning- breakfast – is tantalizing close. What should we eat? The world is our oyster!

Oh, how about a lovely little protein berry parfait? Perfect, I’ll take 10.

Breakfast is all about balance for me. Balance in terms of health, where I want to get my nom on (please excuse that I just used that phrase, I’m kinda embarrassed) but also want to my meals to be filled with nutrients (both macro and micro!) to help keep my body running at its best. Lucky for me, the kind people at Lifestyle Shake were kind enough to provide me with a big tub of their Renew Life Skinny Gut Vanilla Shake which is just a POWERHOUSE of a supplement. It comes with 20 grams of organic, grain-free protein fromseeds and legumes to help build muscle, 10 grams of prebiotic organic fiber, including acacia fiber, to help curb appetite by helping you feel full, organic fruit and veggie antioxidant blend plus vitamins and minerals, and full-spectrum digestive enzyme blend to support healthy digestion and help optimize nutrient availability*. Not a vanilla fan? Try the Renew Life Skinny Gut Chocolate Shake!

Another type of balance for me is the actual consistency of food. I’ve always had this weird dislike of eating regular yogurt straight out of the carton because it just seems so boring and the lack of anything but gelatinous texture makes me feel like I’m eating baby food. Not the case in this quick breakfast recipe, though! My creaaamy greek yogurt and protein powder blend practically begs to be topped with fresh fruit and sprinkled (smothered) with deliciously crunchy walnuts. Thump thump thump. Do you hear that? That’s the sound of my heart trying to burst out of my chest for the love of that combination. Be still, my friend.

To make this breakfast, simply mix your favorite greek yogurt flavor with some of the protein powder and layer it into a glass of your choice! I choose to sprinkle walnuts in every section for that extra texture, but if you aren’t a big nut person, feel free to replace them with something more up your alley.

Want to check out Renew Life Skinny Gut Ultimate Shakes for yourself? Click on the link to find out more!

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*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Creamy Banana Avocado Protein Smoothie

April 7, 2015 by Christine Skari

Here I sit, hanging out in the hammock in our tiny oceanside backyard and sipping on this creamy banana avocado protein smoothie after the 6 mile run I just finished. While there are rain clouds looming above me, my spirit can’t be dampened, especially when I have a hipster paper straw to sip out of and another serving of this deliciousness waiting for me in the blender. Life is goooood!

I know, I know. I made these grand proclamations in my previous posts about being totally on top of my game when it comes to my blogging and being super ambitious and fabulous and posting 3 recipes a week and whatnot. Standing on my soapbox and preaching golden promises… none of which have come to fruition 😉 . I thought having only 3 days of class a week would give me tons of free time, but I’ve found myself running around trying to balance all the things I’ve got going on right now! More on that in a future post, but I have some exciting life changes to announce later! Super vague, I know, but it’s a pretty big change-up for me and I want to take the time to sit and get everything down in its own post. In summary, I have been neglecting my little corner of the internet machine but am trying my best to stay up-to-date with posting and keeping up with all you lovely readers! You guys rock for staying with me even when I get a bit shady with my posts. Muah <3.

So let’s talk smoothie. More specifically, creamy green smoothies that have the consistency of a milkshake, but have ingredients that do amazing things for your body and helps you detox from all the nachos and oreo brownies you may or may not be consuming out of your half-marathon-induced hangry-ness. What? Just me? Unhealthy eating or not, one sip of this smoothie and you will be addicted. It’s liquid gold and I can practically feel my cells and insides thanking me!

While I never really think of smoothies as actual “recipes” due to their simplicity, I always love sharing easy, fast, healthy, and delicious combinations with you guys since it make cooking and eating well more obtainable. My half-marathon training has been going well (the race is coming up fast!) and I’ve been in the mood for supahhhh simple foods that satisfy and refresh me that I can have done and ready to eat/drink in just a few minutes. When the nutella is just a little too accessible (it’s currently staring at me from the top of the fridge), you need to have healthy options just as easy to grab!

Sip away, my friends, sip away.

Berry Protein Shake

February 12, 2015 by Christine Skari

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Renew Life Formulas for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

The weather in California has been on par lately. Usually, we get at least some semblance of “winter”, but this December and January have been especially warm. It’s been in the low 70s with lots of sunshine, so my college has been filled with girls in shorts, crop tops, and sandals. And I’m not complaining- especially when the warm weather inspires me to create super delicious and protein-packed cold recipes like this Berry Protein Smoothie!

To make this recipe, I used a new-to-me product, Renew Life Skinny Gut Vanilla Shake protein powder, and loved the extra nutrition it gave me! While I’m usually more of a chocolate kinda girl, the vanilla flavor paired perfectly with the frozen berries I had on hand and was a fantastic switch-up from my normalprotein shake recipe. The frozen berries and nonfat greek yogurt gave a tasty creaminess that was complimented by the vanilla flavoring of the protein powder that left me scraping my glass (yes, I’m weird and like to drink my blended beverages with spoons hahah) when I finished it. Nothing gives you a case of the sads more that finishing something tasty!

This shake helped me recover and cool down after a sweaty 5 mile run and I can’t wait to sip on some more creations after I lift weights tomorrow! I can see myself experimenting with all sorts of protein-packed baked goods and trying out a variation of cookies and cream shakes with it. The possibilities are endless!

And in case you’re wondering, check out the killer nutritional facts about this Renew Life Skinny Gut Ultimate Shakes protein powder! Wowza!

20 grams of Organic, Grain-free Protein from seeds and legumes to help guild muscle*
10 grams of Prebiotic Organic Fiber, including acacia fiber, to help curb appetite by helping you feel full*
10 Billion live Ultimate Flora™ Probiotic cultures providing specially selected strains to support healthy gut balance*
Organic Fruit and Veggie Antioxidant blend plus vitamins and minerals to nourish cells.*
Full-spectrum Digestive Enzyme blend to support healthy digestion and help optimize nutrient availability.*
Low fat and low calorie
Available in delicious natural vanilla and Renew Life Skinny Gut Chocolate Shake flavors
No Artificial Ingredients or Preservatives
No Added Sugar
Gluten & Dairy Free
No GMOs
Vegan

*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Iced Berry Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

January 27, 2015 by Christine Skari

Is it just me, or does it feel like an iced berry oatmeal breakfast muffin day?

Any of the following responses will do:

a.) DUH

b.) HECK YEA

c.) TEN. GIVE ME TEN. Wait, ALL OF THEM.

Healthy Iced Berry Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

Every morning for the last 3 weeks has followed somewhat of the same pattern. I get up at 6:45, basically fall down the stairs on my quest to get some liquid gold (aka coffee) into my veins, log on to my Bloglovin (shameless plug hehe) to read as many of my fellow bloggers posts as possible, realize it’s 15 minutes before I have to leave for class/head out for my run, rush rush rush to get ready, and either miss out on breakfast alltogether or grab a bar on my way out the door. I be moving like zooooooooom.

And guess what. Come the end of my lecture, I’m either starving or gettings all sorts of sad because I missed out on a real breakfast for a lousy little granola bar. I mean, I’m a healthy-ish food blogger for cryin’ out loud. I think I can do better than a pre-packaged snack for breakfast! And these put bars to shame because amidst the gloriously juicy and plump berries and vanilla icing, there’s fiber and healthy carbs and are those trumpet I’m hearing? Unleash the celebratory breakfast muffins trumpets!

These are very dense and filling due to the whole wheat flour and oats and contain no butter and are sweetened mostly by bananas and just a leeeetle sugar in the batch. And those perfectly tart berries? Don’t even get me started. They make me… berry happy. Also, can we just ignore how bad that pun was? You guys da best.

For those of you who like a bit of extra sweetness and prettiness, you can also add on the optional vanilla glaze. And by that I mean, DO IT.