I am so excited to tell you about these cookies, you just won’t BeANlieve it!

Gluten Free Chick Pea Chocolate Chip Cookies

OK, so that pun was really bad, but these cookies are really good!  They’re made with chick peas – as in garbanzo beans – STOPMAKINGTHATFACE!  They’re good! It’s true.

I have no problem making and eating “healthy” cookies or treats (like Secret (Spinach and Carrot) BrowniesBanana Oatmeal Cookies or Black Bean Brownies) but if it’s so healthy that it tastes healthy and no one will eat them but me (like White Bean Blondies), then there’s just no point.

Today we’re going to look at cottage cheese as an affordable health food option because it’s on The List.

Honestly, I rarely buy cottage cheese.  I like it, but it’s not what I would call My Most Favorite Thing Ever.  I try to buy organic dairy products (not always, but most of the time) and organic cottage cheese always seems kind of expensive to me… with a $4.99 price tag (!!) on a 16 oz container of Organic Valley cottage cheese, this is one item I only buy when I’ve really got a hankering for cottage cheese.  (i.e., not that often.)

Organic Valley 2% Cottage Cheese

Healthy Oatmeal Pumpkin Snack Cookies

December 19th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Snack Attack - (Comments Off on Healthy Oatmeal Pumpkin Snack Cookies)

I’m calling these cookies “healthy” because a.) they aren’t loaded with sugar and b.) they contain squash.

(Well, pumpkin – but pumpkin is a squash last time I checked.  Consider this your homeschooling lesson of the day.)

They are sweetened only with banana and a little maple syrup, which makes them low enough in sugar that I feel I can throw the word “snack” into the title as well, while also keeping my conscience clear.

Healthy Oatmeal Pumpkin Maple Cookies

I whipped these together yesterday morning using this banana oatmeal cookie recipe as my starting point, subbing pumpkin for flour and using maple syrup instead of white sugar.

Good news!  I’ve got an awesomely healthy delicious snack to share with you.

Bad news.  I’m not actually sharing this with you.  I’m only sharing the recipe.  If you want some you’ll have to make it yourself.

Good news: Zak is still on his juice fast.

Bad news: You can’t juice an avocado.

Good news: I am not on a juice fast.  I can eat all the chocolate avocado pudding I want.

Chocolate Avocado Pudding

Project Weight Loss: Week 5

October 26th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Weight Loss - (6 Comments)

I’m back with another update from Project Weight Loss, it’s now the end of Week 5.

For a quick recap, I got started on September 21, 2012 at 149 pounds.

Week 1: 146.0
Week 2: 144.8
Week 3: 143.8
Week 4: 143.6

Today, at the end of Week 5, I weighed in at 139.6

Oh how I welcomed that “3” in the tens place this morning! From 143.6 last week, that looks like a 4 pound weight loss in one week, but a couple of things are going on here.

Project Weight Loss: Week 2

October 5th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Weight Loss - (18 Comments)

Well, it’s the end of Week 2 of my little Project Weight Loss here.  Last week at the end of Week 1 I weighed in at 146.0.

Today?

144.8

(Did you hear me shouting HOORAY at 6:30 AM, EDT today!?)

I was VERY happy to see 144 on the scale this morning, especially considering I haven’t seen those numbers in that order since I was three months pregnant. I didn’t even care that it had a “.8” behind it. In fact, I wouldn’t have cared if it said 144.99999!

Banana Honey Milk

March 27th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Short or Sweet - (10 Comments)

I went out to lunch over the weekend with a good friend who came in from out of town for a visit. We hit up a local Mediterranean restaurant, and as we were browsing the menu, she suggested the “Banana Honey Milk” for a beverage that she’d had before and enjoyed.

Bananas, honey and milk?  I am so there!

Our drinks were brought to the table by a friendly, older gentleman who proudly told us that he’d made them himself, and then asked us to let him know how we liked them.  This drink was frothy, sweet and thin like milk, as opposed to being thick like a smoothie or milkshake.

Attack of the Snacks

March 14th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Short or Sweet - (14 Comments)

Once upon a time I ate one snack a day, usually between lunch and dinner. But now at nearly 7 months pregnant, I’ve stopped counting how many snacks I eat everyday. I need more fingers if I want to keep track.

Today I’m in the mood to hand out some awards to a few of my most favorite snacks in recent weeks. Snickity snacks that are awesome if you eat 1 or 11 snacks a day. Snacks that please the palate whether you’re gestating or not. I think this paragraph needs the word “snack” in it one more time, don’t you? Snack. OK, that’s two more times. Snack.

I have just returned from Iowa! Did ya miss me? Did ya happen to see a 5 month pregnant woman running through the Atlanta airport last night in an effort to catch her connecting flight back to New York on time?

If you did, let’s just pretend that wasn’t me.

No, instead let’s chat about Iowa! I was invited to speak at a conference called Women Blazing Trails for the non-profit group, Iowa Women in Natural Resources at the Springbrook Conservation Center in Guthrie Center, Iowa.

Carrot Cake Sorbanana

January 27th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Short or Sweet - (9 Comments)

This week, the girls and I found ourselves in front of a Vitamix blender demonstration at Wegmans.

As I slurped down the scary delicious “Carrot Cake Sorbet” sample that Vitamix Demo Man handed me, I immediately began wishing I had an extra $500 bucks laying around to buy this miracle machine that did something amazing with a couple of carrots and some ice.

(I’m still wishing for that $500, by the way. Just in case anyone out there is feeling generous.)