I fell completely in LOVE with Rooted Juicery's banana power bites and just had to try to recreate them myself! Don't get me wrong, I love the ones from Rooted, but it is much, much cheaper to make my own!

Ingredients

2 medium ripe bananas

2 1/4 cups oats

2 scoops vanilla protein powder

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1 tbsp coconut sugar

1 tbsp pure maple syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla

a dash of cinnamon

1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Instructions

In a food processor, pulse the bananas, 1 1/2 cups of the oats, protein powder, coconut, coconut sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon until combined

Stir in the remaining oats and the chocolate chips

Line a dish with wax paper and scoop dough into even sized balls onto the paper (I used an ice cream scoop)

Refrigerate for 1-2 hours and enjoy!

Store in the fridge

I absolutely love having these on hand in my fridge to grab as a quick pre- or post-run snack!

Sunwarrior Vanilla Protein Powder

Rooted Juicery & Kitchen

Lately I have been traveling back and forth a lot from university to visit my family back home, so I thought I would share what I ate today on my drive back to school.

Breakfast

Since I don't have a kitchen at school, I took FULL advantage and made chocolate chip banana oat pancakes--so YUMMY. I always miss making pancakes when I'm away, so pretty much this entire weekend I ate these for breakfast, but I'm not complaining!

Ingredients
1 cup oats
1 cup almond milk
1/2 ripe banana
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp coconut oil
a few dark chocolate chips

Instructions
In a blender, blend the oats, almond milk, banana, baking powder, and vanilla until it becomes a smooth batter
Let sit for 3-5 minutes to thicken up a bit
Heat a frying pan on a low heat and grease with a bit of coconut oil
Once the batter has thickened up, pour batter and sprinkle on a few chocolate chips
Let cook until bubbles form around the edges and flip to cook the other side
Serve with maple syrup or any other toppings you like!

*tip: to avoid burning the chocolate chips, using a fork, gently cover with batter

Lunch

I find pancakes pretty filling so I did not end up eating lunch until probably around 3:00pm. On my way out of town I stopped by Rooted Juicery & Kitchen and picked up a superfood smoothie and my all time favorite snack to get there--banana power bites!

Dinner

Before I left to drive back to school this morning I prepped the 'cheese' sauce from Niomi Smart's Macaroni 'Cheese' recipe in her cookbook, 'Eat Smart'. So DELICIOUS! I could honestly eat this everyday. All of the ingredients are super great and I like prepping a big batch of it to keep in the fridge for a bit to have with pasta and broccoli when I need a break from the everyday dining hall and school market options. 

Late Night Snack

I ended up feeling pretty peckish later in the evening, so I had half of a brownie bar that I picked up earlier from Rooted Juicery and some vanilla nice cream I had in my freezer. I topped it all off with a little bit (okay, maybe more like a lot--I just couldn't help myself!) of chocolate sauce!

Claire

xx

Rooted Juicery & Kitchen

'Eat Smart' -- Niomi Smart

There is no better food combination than peanut butter, banana, and chocolate--so good.

Ingredients

1 cup medjool dates, pitted

1/4 cup raw cashews, unsalted

2 tbsp raw pecans, unsalted

2 tbsp raw almond, unsalted

1 tbsp raw almond butter

1 1/4 tbsp raw cacao powder

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp hemp seeds

a pinch of himalayan pink salt

Instructions

In a food processor, blend the nuts until finely chopped

Add in the dates, almond butter, cacao powder, chia seeds, and hemp seeds and process until well combined

Roll the mixture into little bite-sized balls (I made 13)

Optional: roll balls in cacao nibs and/or cacao powder, or any other toppings you'd like!

Store in the fridge

Lately these 'get baked with me' posts have not involved any actual baking--get raw with me? I have been really enjoying experimenting with raw treats as the weather has gotten nicer, well that, and I'm a TERRIBLE baker! Raw treats just tend to turn out better for me!

Claire
xx

As soon as I saw Purely Elizabeth's sample sale Instagram for these functional granola bars I immediately had to order them. I have never really been a huge fan of bars, but the idea of adding superfood mushrooms into a granola bar caught my attention--that and I am obsessed with Purely Elizabeth's ancient grain granola already! 

Mushrooms?--I know it sounds kind of strange, but upon reading about the mushrooms used and all of their different benefits, it's actually GENIUS. They have benefits ranging from energy and insurance to digestion and immunity and more! There are five different functional granola bars--immunity, refresh, shine, energy, and mind--in classic nut butter, coconut, dark chocolate, and fruity flavors. 

The sample sale is sadly over, but they will be coming out this summer, which is super exciting because I am definitely going to be needing more of these! What could be better than granola bars with a purpose, great ingredients, that taste amazing too?

Functional Granola Bars

Meet the Mushrooms

Ancient Grain Granola

Late last night around midnight I came to a HUGE realization as I was preparing to get up at 6:00am for my 14 mile long run before class--Why am I doing this?

All week I had been stressing over when I was going to get my long run in for the week--and to make matters more stressful, the weather forecast after tomorrow has been saying nothing but rain for over a week. I had been really feeling the pressure to get up, run for 2 hours, and get to class on time--but for what?

Lately I have caught myself saying that if don't get my miles in that I'm letting myself down, that I'm being a quitter and that I'm already weeks behind in training because of my injury so I can't lose anymore mileage. I have been putting so much pressure on myself to run a marathon this year, especially since I ran 2 half-marathons last year--but why? I had been convincing myself that it was something I really wanted to do, but in reality it isn't--not right now in my life anyway.

I felt like it was expected of me to run a full marathon after conquering the half and that if I didn't--was I really a runner?

Yes. I. Am.

I had a realization this evening that running was becoming more of a chore than something I enjoy doing. I LOVE running. I love the freedom in just mindlessly running forward and I love being able to spend some quiet time with my thoughts--but having a training schedule and not having a reason for running more than my comfortable 10 mile that was for me, made me begin to fall out of love with it. I have been dreading putting on my running shoes lately, and honestly, I don't care if I ever run a marathon in my lifetime.

Don't get me wrong--I think running a marathon is an amazing achievement, and props to you if you have or are planning to, I just don't think that it's for me at this point in my lifetime.

I love running--And I don't need to prove that I'm a runner to anyone else. I believe that I am, and running a marathon or not, is NOT going to change that.

Claire

xx

Lately I have been binge watching some of Amelia Liana's old videos/vlogs--she is so hilarious and fun to watch! (She also has amazing style!) And while being weird watching old videos, I came across the Healthy Caramel Slices recipe that she adopted from the Hippy Lane app. They were so easy to make and, although mine don't look nearly as beautiful as hers, SO delicious!

Ingredients

Layer 1 (base)

1 1/2 cups raw, unsalted cashews

2 tbsp desiccated coconut

7 medjool dates, pitted

2 1/2 tbsp brown rice syrup

Layer 2 (caramel)

7 medjool dates, pitted

1/4 cup coconut oil, solid

1/2 cup almond butter

1/4 cup brown rice syrup

2 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

Layer 3 (chocolate)

1/3 cup cacao powder

1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

1/4 cup maple syrup

Instructions

In a food processor, or blender, add in all of the ingredients for base layer and blend until fine

Pour into a lined baking tray and spread evenly

Place in the freezer while making the second layer

Add all of the caramel layer ingredients into the food processor and pulse until a thick paste forms

Remove the baking tray from the freezer and spread the caramel layer evenly on top of the base layer

Put back into the freezer while making the top layer

Add all of the chocolate layer ingredients into the food processor and blend

Spread the chocolate layer evenly on top of the other layers

Press raw nuts or freeze dried fruit into the top layer (optional--I topped mine with chopped pecans)

Freeze for about 30 minutes and cut into little squares

Store in the fridge!

*I altered the recipe just a little bit to cater to what I had on hand and what I prefer taste-wise.

Claire

xx

Amelia Liana (YouTube)

Amelia Liana (Blog)