Oatmeal Raisin Energy Bites

A new hike means a new energy bite recipe! It's been awhile since we made protein/energy bites and we were craving oatmeal raisin cookies (I know, I'm actually not normally a fan of oatmeal raisin cookies either but these are good!). So I decided to turn the cookies into portable energy bites for our hike! Some of our most popular recipes are protein/energy bites. If you haven't yet, you must try them!

You can see more of our hiking/travel related posts below. :)

Clean Eat Recipe: Oatmeal Raisin Energy Bites

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 4 (+) Tbsp natural peanut butter
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1-2 Tbsp pure maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp stevia extract
• 1 tsp coconut oil, melted

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together, excluding raisins and peanut butter.
2. Melt peanut butter and add to mixture.
3. Fold in raisins.
4. Depending on your specific ingredients, you may need to add more oats and/or peanut butter in order for your bites to stick together.

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars

So maybe we are kind of obsessed with our Chocolate Chunk Protein Bars and we ran out of oat flour. We order our oat flour from Amazon's Subscribe and Save and get a box each month but this month I used a lot more than normal for some recipes that were major fails (bummer!). We definitely could have just gone without them but since we were leaving to go out of town in a few days I didn't want to make a bunch of food that we wouldn't be able to finish before leaving. Enter a random concoction of stuff I put together... These are similar to our four ingredient protein bars but I actually prefer these now! They have a few more ingredients but are just as simple to make.

Clean Eat Recipe: No Bake {Gluten Free} Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
• 1/2 cup gluten free quick cooking oats
• 2 packets chocolate protein powder **If you are interested in ordering this protein powder and would like a FREE Shake & Bake Recipe eBook, please email us first at thegang@heandsheeatclean.com.
• 3/4 cup liquid egg whites (pasteurized carton)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• dash of sea salt

Directions:

1. Line a 8X8 dish (we use Pyrex) with wax or parchment paper
2. Mix all ingredients in a medium size mixing bowl using your hands and/or a fork
3. Press mixture down into dish using a spatula to flatten
4. Place in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Cut into four bars.

Yields 4 Servings

Macros (per serving):

• Calories: 335
• Carbs: 16 g
• Fat: 17 g
• Protein: 25 g
• Sugar: 3 g
• Fiber: 5 g

Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars

Kenzie's back with another awesome recipe! Remember her Apple Pie Protein Bars? If you haven't tried those yet, you should! We've had so many people contact us about how good they were! But back to these Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars, they are part of our BRAND NEW eCookbook, Baby Eats Clean (and toddlers too!)! We wanted to give you a sneak peak at one of the recipes in the book.

P.S. As a side note, don't forget to take on our Fitness AND Finance Challenges for 2016!

Baby Eats Clean

This e-cookbook is filled with delicious recipes and tons of information. We know feeding a little one can be overwhelming and there is so much to consider...What is the most efficient way to make homemade baby food? What are the benefits of making it yourself? When can you introduce new foods? What foods should a baby never eat? These are just a few of the topics we discuss in our latest e-cookbook for clean eating baby & toddler foods. The book includes recipes for every stage, beginning with infancy and ending with preschoolers. The layout makes it easy to navigate and breaks down your child's eating schedule into simple stages. If you want your kids to eat healthy and thrive but also enjoy food, this cookbook is a must have!

And, just for fun, here's another picture of us after hiking Mount Yonah when she was visiting Georgia.

Clean Eat Recipe: Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pure peanut butter
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
• ½ cup date sugar, coconut sugar, or 1 tsp liquid stevia
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1.5 cups oat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup jelly
• ¼ cup raw unsalted peanuts, roughly chopped

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x9 baking dish, set aside.
2. Stir peanut butter, vanilla, greek yogurt, sugar, and salt together in a medium size mixing bowl.
3. In a separate small bowl, stir flour and baking powder together. Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients. It should look like a crumble.
4. Scoop out ½ a cup of the peanut butter crumble and stir the peanuts in for topping later, set aside.
5. Pour the peanut butter dough into the greased baking dish pressing it down flat & evenly. Spread the jelly evenly over the top of the peanut butter bars, then crumble the peanut butter & nut topping over the jelly.
6. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown on top. Let cool before cutting into squares.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Yields: 16 bars

Store in the refrigerator to maintain freshness. 

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