PBJ Bites

When I’m craving a treat – and trying to be healthy – I need look no further than Chocolate Covered Katie‘s blog.  My favorite part is all her homemade Larabar recipes.  And my favorite of those, a recipe I’ve made a bunch of times now, is her Thin Mint Brownies.  Instead of making them into bars, though, I scoop them out of the food processor with a tablespoon (the measuring kind) and roll them up into balls.

via chocolatecoveredkatie.com

 

I make a lot of variations on these, based on what nuts and dried fruits I have on hand.  I always weigh the ingredients, because there’s a lot of variation on what a cup of dried fruit can be based on how hard you smush it, or of how much a cup of nuts can be based on how finely they’re chopped.  The brownie bites have about 240 g of dried fruit and 120 g of nuts, so that’s a 2:1 ratio.  Chuck whatever you have in the food processor, grind it up, add water as needed until it will clump.  Then roll it into balls or press into a square and cut up.

My kids LOVE them, and it’s an awesome way to give them a quick, healthy snack that is perfect for lunch boxes.  Gluten-free, all natural, no added sugars or flavors, high-fiber, and full of healthy fats and proteins to prevent the sugars from spiking in your blood.

Today, I made myself a batch of the brownie bites.  My son doesn’t like mint, though, so I figured I’d use the other bag of dates I had to made something he’d like.  Then I spied the bag of freeze dried strawberries that have been hanging out in my pantry for a year or so.  I figured that chopped up, they’d be about equivalent to the cocoa in the brownie bites recipe.  The result: YUM.

Too bad I’m not a food stylist, though, because I couldn’t really get them to look any more appealing than raw meatballs.  Think of a redder, spherical version of Katie’s pretty picture above, and there ya go.

At least I know they came from Target…

PBJ Bites

120 g peanuts
1 bag (8 oz, 227 g) dried dates
1 bag (1 oz) freeze-dried strawberry slices
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp water

Grind up the peanuts in the food processor, being careful to not let them turn into peanut butter.  Add in the strawberries and process until powdery.  Add the dates and vanilla, process until smooth.  Slowly add in the water until the mixture begins to clump together.  Using a tablespoon, scoop up and roll into balls.  Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Makes about 20 bites, each one with 75 calories (12 g carbs – 2 g fiber, 3 g healthy fat and 2 g protein).

Things With Fat In Them

“I don’t know if you know this, but things with fat in them taste WAY better than things that don’t!”
Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe), Parks and Recreation

So says the health-obsessed character when he finds out the “fat-free” eggnog he’s drinking is, in fact, full-fat eggnog.

Yep, he’s right.  Things with fat in them taste waaaaaaaaaaaaay better than things with no fat in them.  There’s an important evolutionary reason for us to think this.  When our cavemen ancestors were eking out their meager existence on the savannah, they lived on mostly lean meats and whatever wild vegetation they deemed edible.  Fat is crucial to protect our organs, is necessary for certain vitamins, and keeps us alive during periods of famine.  That last one doesn’t apply to most of us anymore, but was important to them.  Therefore, when they found anything with fat, it was important for them to eat as much as they could.  Those who enjoyed the fats more and ate more of them survived to pass their fat-loving palates on to their offspring.  And on and on and on.

And now, millennia later, we still love fats.  They’ve really become vilified in the past few decades, though.  Someone got the idea that if we don’t want to be fat, we shouldn’t eat fat.  Unfortunately, this is completely untrue, and the resulting years of eating low-fat have made the population fatter than ever.  My previous posts on Why I Don’t Eat Wheat talk about that in great detail, as does my review of the book Why We Get Fat.

The important truth that has been largely ignored, despite plenty of scientific proof, is that EATING FAT DOES NOT MAKE YOU FAT.

Fats provide a lot of benefits to our modern diets.  Without them, your body cannot process vitamins A, D, E and K.  The good fats deliver the brain-building omega-3 fatty acids.  Fats increase your satiety, and keep you feeling fuller longer because they digest slowly.  And, as Chris said, they make foods taste good!  When your food tastes good and keeps you full for a long time, you are naturally going to eat less overall.

“Fats” is a broad category, though, and the subtypes fall on a broad spectrum of healthfulness.  One one end, you have the scary lab-created Frankenfats, aka trans fats.  Scientists created these to be a healthy alternative to saturated fats, then found out they are far worse.  In the middle, there are the controversial saturated fats like butter and bacon.  Most people think they are horrible, but they actually do not increase heart disease as common wisdom suggests, and do have some important benefits.  Then you have the monounsaturated fats on the end that everyone agrees are healthy – the ones in foods like walnuts, avocados, and olive oil.

In general, if you eat real food you are eating good fat.  If you’re staying away from processed junk, you’re avoiding the worst fats.

Sometimes I track my food intake on MyFitnessPal.  The program recommends 55% calories from carbs, 30% from fat, and 15% from protein. Therefore, I feel like its always yelling at me when my fat intake is way beyond that.  I consider a good day, though, when I’m closer to 40% from fat.  That feels so weird to “admit”, because it goes against all conventional wisdom.  But that’s what happens when you reduce those CARBS, which research now proves are what really make you fat.

I start every day with a nice dose of fat.  It keeps me full for a long time and sets me up to not spend the whole day grazing.  I’m a big fan of smoothies.  Last week, I had an avocado sitting in the fridge near some strawberries, and I thought, “hmm…”  What I came up with is my absolute favorite breakfast right now.  It tastes like a strawberry milkshake.  You can’t taste the green stuff in it, I swear.  The avocado gives it a luscious mouthfeel that makes you feel like you are drinking something sinful, while the fats, protein and fiber keep you full well beyond lunchtime.

Strawberry Avocado Smoothie

Not pretty. But definitely tasty.

1 cup skim milk [EDIT: or milk of choice!]
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1/2 avocado
1 cup strawberries
3 cups raw spinach
ice

Layer it all in your blender and turn it on.

Values will vary based on your protein powder, but I come up with 15 grams fat, 42 grams of carbs (but 10 grams are fiber), and 38 grams of protein.