Clean Breakfast Bars

A Few Hungry Girls



Since I've been on a clean diet with my 21 Detox I haven't been eating any refined sugars or chocolate :(. Last night I was CRAVING something sweet in the most vicious way, so I came up with these tasty cookies! I wanted to bake something with ingredients that I already had and that would be easy and take less than 30 minutes to make!

These cookies are thick, crunchy a tad on the outside, chewy on the inside, and all around a great flavor. I really don't like bananas plain, I don't even like the smell of them but I've found when mixed with other ingredients that nana flavor is quite mild. Instead of adding the obvious choice of chocolate chips for this recipe I went with apples (Sweetango), then added chia seeds for moisture and more fiber! The only spices I added were apple pie spice and ginger, then a lil almond milk for moisture.

You can actually make just these cookies with just banana and oats, but add ins are always a little more fun! A lot of people use the food processor to break down their oats, but I like whole oats and I think it was a lot easier to use and less time consuming!

Here's how I made them:

Rise and Shine Juice Recipe

A Few Hungry Girls

I don't actually use a juicer, I use a great blender to blend fresh fruit! In my humble opinion juicers are expensive, messy, hard to clean, and takes out half the nutrients in the fruit or veggies your consuming! I'm greedy I want allllllll the nutrients honey! So I blend... 

Since I'm on my detox I wanted to incorporate juices/smoothies! This one I actually made last night and grabbed it in the go for breakfast! This ones a quickie and here's how I made it: 

Ingredients: 

3 pineapple slices 

5 watermelon slices 

1 teaspoon powdered ginger 

1 whole lemon 

Directions: 

Place all ingredients in blender, blend until smooth. DRINK! 

Easy right? Enjoy. 

Stay hungry my friends... 

Ray B. 

Why I'm Cutting the Crap!

A Few Hungry Girls

Cut the Crap 21 Day Detox Program

Bottom line, I needed to cut the crap out of my diet, that’s it! After having my gallbladder taken out at age 19 things quickly changed my eating habits, no more greasy foods they said. Well me, being the collegiate athlete who thought she could eat anything she wanted SOON realized she couldn't. Honestly, it still didn't start there…not until I graduated from college did it all catch up with me. I gained nearly 15 pounds in a year…that’s only 365 days!! Even then, it didn't start there!

Fast forward 2 years, I suffered from IBS, on a weekly basis I had problems, and then came the fibromyalgia diagnosis. Shortly afterward I was prescribed a medication for my pain, the doctor left out some of the side effects such as: weight gain, water retention and increased hunger. So I was hungry, pudgy, and always felt bloated. This was not a miracle drug, in fact it was a nightmare…I stopped taking it but my body went through withdrawal and I suffered migraines daily. I felt alone. I work in healthcare and often heard how co-workers judged other fibro patients. I was alone. Even then 20 pounds later… It still wasn't the turning point.

Flash forward to NOW. I’m 26, work long hours, suffering from what I call FATigue, and probably some depression. When I was 21 this is not how I pictured my life, nonetheless I have a job, the bills get paid (eventually), I have food in my fridge, I have no life threatening conditions, and a wonderful man in my life, I’m thankful. I wouldn't necessarily call myself fat, but I am quite thick like no plastic surgery video girl thick (some of ya'll know what I'm talking about). I don’t care about weight; I want to be healthy all around! So now I’m ready to Cut the Crap, this not only includes unhealthy dietary habits, but negativity in my life, and as much stress as possible. Are you ready to join me…? 

The program is free, I just ask that you update us with your progress, reach out when you are tempted, and be there so we can all congratulate you when you've completed your program! 

What Crap are we cutting?

1.       Alcohol (which is hard, I love wine about as much as Olivia Pope)

2.       Bread (muffins, waffles, garlic knots, etc.)

3.       Fast food (I've created a meal plan for you)

4.       Sweets (even dark chocolate…)

5.       Pasta (Ciao Pasta Bella)

6.       Processed foods ( anything in a box)

Click the link here for full meal plan...

Spicy Hummus

A Few Hungry Girls

For years I really had no idea what hummus was, I just knew there was a special complexity of Mediterranean flavors involved! I actually wasn't a fan the first few times I'd had it, maybe my taste buds hadn't matured yet lol. 

Garbanzo beans aka chick peas was an ingredient I used quite often when I made curried chicken or Indian dishes. I'd seen a few recipes on baked chick peas but I haven't tried it yet! The reason I actually made hummus was I purchased some as a snack at work and I was soooo good with pita bread. Thus, my inspiration...

Chick peas are a relatively inexpensive food that can be found in any canned goods aisle. Personally, I'm to busy to be soaking beans and what not. I need food items that can be prepped easily with nutrious value so I will use canned food sometimes in place of raw beans. 

One ingredient that I wasn't familiar with was Tahini, apparently this is a huge part of making legit hummus and I'm glad I added it! Tahini is essentially ground sesame seeds and has a very unique flavor that I really couldn't pin point. Nonetheless I purchased it, the bottle was about $9 dollars in the peanut butter aisle. 

Quick Chick Pea facts: 

- is a legume 

- no cholesterol 

- low fat 

- good protien source

- lots of potassium 

- easily prepared and flavored 

- low cost

Dark Chocolate Rice Cakes

A Few Hungry Girls

Most people I know hate rice cakes, they are typically bland and dry. Well not these cake!! Well they're still dry but that's obvious, but when dipped in chocolate and topped with Honey Chipotle almonds, chia seeds, and sunflower seeds they're bomb.com. I wanted a low cal snack that packed a big punch in the flavor department and these worked out perfectly. These rice cakes also are the PERFECT late night snack!

 

INGREDIENTS: 

(this is for 8 rice treats)

4 Rice Cakes (I went with Apple Cinnamon)

2 chocolate bars 

Sunflower Seeds

Chia Seeds 

Chipotle Honey Almonds

DIRECTIONS: 

1. Cut rice cakes in half and melt chocolate in microwave for 30 seconds at a time stirring frequently. Make sure they don't burn and get lumpy!

2. Coat top 1/2 of rice cake with chocolate. 

3. Immediately add chia, sunflower, and almonds to chocolate protion. 

4. Allow to cool by placing rice cakes in freezer so the chocolate hardens, and ingredients stick!

 These rice cakes are seriously unbelievable! I couldn't even wait to eat these, originally they were made ahead for my boo's birthday, I don't think they'll make it very far. Oh and did I tell you they were super easy?

Stay hungry my friends...

Ray B.

Peach Chia Tea

A Few Hungry Girls

If you read my Chia seed post you'll the down low on chia seeds! This tea is really easy, high in fiber, protien and really tasty! Here's how we did it: 

Pumpkin Spice Chia Bread

A Few Hungry Girls

If you read my post from a few weeks ago called "Cha Cha Cha Chia Seeds" I promised a few recipes with chia seeds and finally I delivered! Please excuse the subpar pics, I didn't have my good camera charged and I promised a few people I'd have the recipe up tonight! 

I've been wanting to make a pumpkin bread this month and I needed to incorporate chia seeds into a recipe. I did some research and found that you can actually use chia seeds to swap several ingredients in food! These food swaps include: oil, eggs, and thickeners for smoothies and shakes! In this recipe I swapped out oil for chia seeds.