Homemade Protein Bars

Okay, so I just told all my Facebook friends about this recipe I had for homemade protein bars and they came out SO GOOD I have to share! :o)

Ingredients

• 1 cup liquid egg whites or egg substitute
• 1/2 cup pure pumpkin
• 3/4 cup lowfat cottage cheese or 6oz of vanilla yogurt
• 1/2 cup of protein powder (you can use flavored if you have it)
• 1 cup of wheat bran
  
• 1/2 tsp pure stevia
• 1 tsp each cinnamon and ginger

Directions

• preheat oven to 350. Spray 8x8 cake pan and set aside.
• mix egg whites, pumpkin, and cottage cheese until well combined.
  
• stir in rest of ingredients, pour into cake pan.
• bake for about 30 minutes or until knife comes out clean.

Changes I made:

• used oat bran instead of wheat bran
• used 16 packets of Purevia instead of Stevia
• did 2 tsp of cinnamon
• substituted nutmeg for ginger (didn't have ginger on hand)
• added 2 tsp of vanilla

Smear some Dark Chocolate Dream or Nutella on top and you're looking at around 150 calories or so per bar...YUMMMO!!!

Will be adding maybe some dried fruit, nuts and/or chocolate chips next time. Even my 1 year old LOVED them!!

8 servings

It's Baking Day!!!

Whole Wheat Bread (in machine)

1 cup + 2T Water
1 T + 1.5tsp Butter softened
1/4 C Firmly packed brown sugar
3.5 C Whole Wheat Flour
2 1/4 tsp Bread Machine Yeast (1packet)

Place Ingredients into machine in this order:
water
butter
sugar
salt
flour

Make a small indentation with your finger in the flour and add the yeast making sure it doesn't come into contact with the water.

Put breadpan in machine.
Makes a 1.5lb loaf

Pizza Dough

1 C water
2 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 C Flour (you can use all purpose or whole wheat)
1 Packet Yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 T Italian Seasoning

Load into bread machine and set to dough cycle. My machine takes 1.5 hours and then you remove it, roll it out, stick it on a stone and top it!

Bake at 450 until done!



Zucchini Bread

Rice Crispie Treats

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

How cute are these?!?!!?

You know I am totally making these! How cute, huh?

Oh, how I LOVE FALL! Time to cook chilis and stews, time to bake and EAT! LOL I made my first batch of cookies yesterday in our new oven, BUT I didn't cook them long enough. The kids loved them and I *heart* raw cookie dough so they were fine. :o) I was so nervous using my new convection oven that I was afraid of burning them.
Here is another recipe I think I'll try this weekend.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

2 1/2 cups of pure cane sugar
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
2/3 cup water
2 whole eggs
2 egg whites
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup miniature semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 9X5 loaf pans.

In a large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, oil, water and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Fold in Chocolate Chips. Fill pans 1/2 full.

Bake for 50 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean. Cool on wire racks before removing from pans.

What a Nice Treat!

Today, my friend Cindy stopped by with a nice HOT SKINNY VANILLA LATTE for me, what a TREAT! She had to stop by Walmart before she came over for a playdate so she made an extra little pitstop at one of my FAVORITE PLACES and grabbed a couple cups of Joe!

It was such a nice start to my day. Adrianna loved playing with Peyton, it's like having a real, life sized doll. :o) She let Adrianna dress her, put pigtails in her hair and just followed her around like a little cutie! What an EASY playdate, Cindy and I actually got to talk! (with a few interruptions by our boys...they are ALWAYS on the move, LOL). I love days like today.

The kids and I just ate lunch, I'm about to go clean up and put everyone down for a nap (well at least Christopher, Adrianna just relaxes and watches a show). I even may take one myself. I went for a run this morning, but got started too late and felt like I was going to die! Texas heat, yuck! I did a different route today but got in my 2 miles in under 30 minutes, so I'm glad for that, but it seemed VERY hard today. I don't know if it was the running against the wind or if it's because my mind is so focused on preparing to get pregnant again that it's SO unmotivating me to exercise, LOL! Hey, it IS the one time in my life that I don't worry about weight! :o)

I am trying a super easy Key Lime Pie recipe for Bible Study at our place tonight and am also doing a new Sweet and Sour Meatball recipe for dinner so hopefully everything turns out okay. Here are the recipes...

Key Lime Pie
5 egg yolks, beaten
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lime juice
1 drop green food coloring
1 prepared graham cracker pie crust

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together egg yolks and condensed milk. Stir in lime juice and food coloring. Poor into prepared pie crust. Bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees. Garnish with whipped cream if desired.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

• 1 can of crushed pineapples
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce (I added a bit more of this)
• 24 meatballs (from freezer)

Mix all ingredients except meatballs in a large saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until well blended. Add meatballs. Simmer for 10 min. Serve over cooked rice. (I'm cooking Jasmine rice and serving it with Snap Green Beans)