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. 

Be sure to subscribe to Kenzie's email updates and catch up with her on the web, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest!

Clean Eat Recipe: No Bake Gingerbread Protein Balls

DISCLOSURE: This post is sponsored by Kohl's. Thank you for supporting He and She Eat Clean.

These No Bake Gingerbread Protein Balls are the PERFECT pre and/or post workout snack. You can also just keep them on hand for when a craving strikes or when your kids want a festive treat but they've (or you've!) had too much junk food already!

The hardest part about this recipe is actually waiting until they are finish cooling to eat! I'm pretty sure I ate half of the batter before they made it into actual Gingerbread Protein Balls.

Honestly, I'm not a big gingerbread fan. After making these I realized that I'm just not a fan of baked gingerbread. These are perfect because they are "no bake" so they still taste like the batter after they cool. That's a plus in my book!

I made these using this food processor from Kohl's. We've had ours for years and it is perfect for what we use it for. However, if you are looking for a heavy duty food processor Kohl's has many different options at different price points (you can view those here).

Clean Eat Recipe: No Bake Gingerbread Protein Balls

Ingredients:

• 1 packet/scoop vanilla whey protein powder (we use TLS whey protein packets)
• 1/3 cup oat flour
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• ¼ tsp ground ginger
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 Tbsp pure maple syrup or honey (you may also add or sub for another sweetener of your choice)
• 2 Tbsp unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients to a food processor, except for the maple syrup and additional sweetener (if desired) and process until mixed. Add in maple syrup and sweetener. Process again. The batter will form against the sides and will be sticky.
2. Scoop out the batter by hand or use a spoon and roll into ¼" balls. Depending on which sweetener and how much you used, they might be sticky. Sprinkle additional oat flour over the batter and on your hands in order to easily roll them into shape. Place balls on wax paper or parchment paper.
3. Place in refrigerator to chill. These are best served cold (after a few hours in the refrigerator).
4. Enjoy!

Kohl's #MakeYourMove campaign isn't only about moving, it's about living an overall healthy lifestyle. Finding healthier alternatives to your favorite foods is a great way to #MakeYourMove in the kitchen! What are your favorite holiday treats? We might be able to help you make a healthy version!

Don't forget to download our FREE Fit Festive Foods eCookbook! It includes the following recipes + tips to stay on track over the holidays! Grab your copy here.

• Sugar Cookies
• Gingerbread Muffins
• Gingerbread Smoothie
• Cranberry Sauce
• Pomegranate Mojito
• Cherry Almond Shooter

This post is sponsored by FitFluential on behalf of Kohl's.

12 Month Money Challenge

You might be thinking, wait a 12 Month Money Challenge?! Yep, that's right! You've probably heard us talk about creating a new website for all of our finance tips and travel posts but in order to keep my sanity, we've decided to update this website to include those instead. You will find finance tips and trip/hike reviews in the coming weeks. We've also added a "money" page and "travel" page to the navigation. All of this will be continually updated as I move posts here from other websites.

You can read more here but we decided to add this section to our existing website to help individuals live an enjoyable life through health and wealth.  We share a strong passion for helping our community get better at budgeting, saving and investing, and general personal finance along with living a healthier lifestyle in regards to moving more and eating healthy.

>>>>> The Ultimate List of Ways to Save: 18 Ways to Save $15,000 in 2018!

Finance is just like Fitness - you have to STICK WITH IT to see results, sometimes they don't come as quickly as you would like but if you stick with it a year from now you will be amazed at what you accomplished!

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Interested in more money saving challenges? Try one of these:

• Save $1,000 in 3 Months
• 3 Month Money Saving Challenge
• Beginner 6 Month Money Saving Challenge
• 52-Week Money Saving Challenge
• 12 Month Money Challenge
• $300 12-Week Christmas Money Saving Challenge

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Looking for a printable version of this challenge? We've got you covered! Join our newsletter and you will be taken to a black and white printable version right away! Grab the printable challenge here.

If you have been "following" me you know that I love to save money.  My entire life I have worked and saved everything I made - it's in my blood.  I even ironed my money before putting it into my "cash box" when I was little.  You can read more about that here but I've received multiple requests to help share with you what I do to save money.  It's natural for me to save and I've actually had to work on letting loose of some of it.  I've realized that it's okay to spend money in order to create memories (for example, all the traveling we do).  I still have a hard time spending money on "things" though.  We choose to spend our money on organic food and quality supplements since those are things that really matter!

I've shared a few posts on how to save/make money but I wanted to end this year with a "12 Month Money Challenge" that you can start in the new year! If you follow my savings plan listed you will save $1,050 in one year!  The monthly amount may sound like a lot at first but there are ways that everyone can cut back!

Below are a few examples to look over when you do your budget:

• Prepare dinner at home instead of going out to eat
• Do your own nails instead of getting them done
• Watch a movie at home instead of going to the theater
• Make your own coffee at home, skip Starbucks
• Cancel your cable
• Sell things you don't use/need
• Or, find a way to make some extra money and put it away!

I challenge you, if you have more money to put away - double this.  If you REALLY can't make it work (I mean REALLY, not just that you don't want to give up your Starbucks or nails) then half the amount listed.