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Soft Carrot Cake Energy Balls

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Soft carrot cake with cream cheese icing. For over a decade of my childhood, I ordered carrot cake for my birthday cake when dining out OR when my mom asked what kind of celebratory dessert I wanted. Every. Single. Year. Today, I eat fewer heavy desserts like dense cakes or cookies, but I still love sweets and I know you do, too!

My Soft Carrot Cake Energy Balls are delicious and filling enough as a breakfast bite or snack that you won’t be hangry by meal time. The recipe’s mixture consists of nature’s best ingredients including dates, raisins, chia seeds, and say it with me…carrots! Admittedly, I use peanut butter as the binder so if you’re someone with a peanut allergy, this is not your recipe.

This is the right consistency for the mixture to form into balls.

Did you know carrots are a power food packed with nutrients and vitamins essential to our body’s good health? We all know that eating carrots improves one’s vision, but they also slow the aging process. Yes, please! (And there are 8 more reasons to eat them!) I know you’re going to love how simple it is to make this recipe and the clean-up couldn’t be easier.

You may also like my recipe for No Bake Energy Bites made with chocolate chips and dried fruit! That recipe also includes chia seeds since they help keep hunger at bay and are super healthy as well.

Soft Carrot Cake Energy Balls

onedelightfullife.com
Love decadent carrot cake? These breakfast bites are the next best thing but healthy!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 7 -8 energy balls

Ingredients
  

  • 1 c. rolled oats
  • 3/4 c. shredded carrot
  • 1 c. smooth peanut butter
  • 1/2 c. diced dates
  • 1/4 c. raisins
  • 1/2 tsp. chia seeds
  • heavy pinch sea salt

Instructions
 

  • Add all ingredients to a food processor and pulse until completely combined.
  • Test the mixture to see if it binds to make a ball. If it isn't quite ready, just add more peanut butter.
  • Remove the blade from the food processor.
  • Using your hands, roll the mixture into tight balls about the size of a quarter.
  • Transfer the carrot cake balls to a Ziplock bag or storage container and refrigerate until you'r ready to eat them. They last a couple weeks, if refrigerated.

Notes

Some people enjoy this recipe with shredded coconut added.

Baked Apples Filled with Oatmeal, Dates and Brown Sugar

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Hello, Fall! Good to see you again.

October is the best month of the year. Why? It’s my birthday month (holla!), breweries are prepping for Oktoberfest, and the food….oh, the food!

Many cooks have prepared baked apples to welcome autumn, but my recipe incorporates chopped dates and walnuts with oatmeal to bring home real fall flavor. Leave room for dessert tonight because you will want to gobble up the entire apple. They serve well with vanilla bean ice cream too!

Baked Apples Stuffed with Oatmeal, Dates, and Brown Sugar
Prior to baking, stuff these babies as full as you can with the filling ingredients.

Here are the instructions for Baked Apples with Oatmeal, Dates and Brown Sugar:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Wash two Pink Lady Apples. Core out the inside without penetrating the bottom. (Remove about half of the apple’s core.)

3. Add the butter to a small microwavable bowl and heat it about 10 seconds until it’s melted. Add remaining filling ingredients. Stir to combine all thoroughly.

4. Stuff each apple with the filling.

5. Set apples upright into baking dish. Add enough water around the apples until the bottom surface is covered.

6. Bake apples at 350 degrees for one hour. Serve warm. Devour.

Baked Apples
The apple’s exterior color fades during baking, but the flavor is accentuated. Trust me. These apples are delicious on their own or served with vanilla bean ice cream.

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Stuffed Baked Apples

 

No Bake Energy Bites: A Mid-Day Snack to Keep You From Feeling Hangry

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Hangry – The word ‘hangry’ is a concise way to describe a common feeling. Hangry is a clever word combination of hungry and angry, and an adjective that describes being irritable due to hunger, according to Webster’s Dictionary.

Anyone who works with me knows that I keep snacks in my drawer (fruit roll-ups, whole fruit, or granola bars) so that in the event I begin to feel hangry, I’ve got relief nearby. Sometimes I can feel myself getting hangry mid-morning and nobody wants me to get hangry. Nobody. So, I grab a healthy snack.

Inspired by our healthier “lifestyle” (we’re not calling it a diet), I was inspired to make No Bake Energy Bites: A Mid-Day Snack to Keep You From Feeling Hangry. They taste like no bake cookies and curb your hunger thanks to the addition of oatmeal and chia seeds, a popular ingredient in smoothies and granola bowls. Chia seeds are a trending super food high in nutrients that provides boost of energy. You can purchase them in bulk at any health food store. Because they expand a bit when wet, they make you feel full! Oh, and total bonus…chia seeds are suppose to promote healthy skin and reduce the signs of aging. Well, duh! I think I’ll add them to every early morning breakfast.

These No Bake Energy Bites taste like a cookie but they’re healthy for you. This recipe included cocoa, chocolate chips, peanut butter, almonds, vanilla and honey add-ins. See the recipe card below.

Using quick oats as the base, the mix-in ingredient options are about as endless as your imagination. For example, you can make ingredient substitutions or try these flavor combinations:

  • butterscotch chips for chocolate chips
  • chopped dried bananas, bacon bits, and peanut butter
  • dried apple chips with raisins and cinnamon
  • sunflower seeds instead of peanuts or almonds
  • Nutella and dried berries like cherries or blueberries
  • crushed honey oat cereal and peanut butter
  • cranberries, raisins, and toasted coconut with Nutella (see photos below)

Making No Bake Energy Bites is as easy as combining all of the recipe ingredients in a bowl, mixing them (your hands are a great kitchen tool but beware – the added honey will leave your hands sticky), and rolling them into one inch balls after the mixture refrigerates for 30 minutes. It’s a cinch!

This recipe version of No Bake Energy Bites includes cranberries, chopped peanuts, chia seeds, toasted coconut, raisins, Nutella, honey, vanilla, and oatmeal.
Work together all of the ingredients by pressing your spoon into the walls of the bowl and then finish mixing.

If you initially have a hard time rolling the mixture into balls, squeeze it in your hand until the mixture is tight and then use both hands to form a one-inch ball. Tip: Layer parchment paper (or wax paper) between the layers of energy balls in an airtight container before you store them in the refrigerator for at least two hours. I’m impatient and put my Tupperware container of energy bites in the freezer for one hour. A-c-t-u-a-l-l-y, I must admit that I ate one before the rest even made it into the refrigerator. They’re simply delicious!

Cranberry Raisin with Nutella No Bake Energy Bites

There you have it! No Bake Energy Bites are healthy for you and will save you from hunger pains at work so you don’t “bite” your co-worker’s head off. Yes, I went there (insert eye roll). Grab some oatmeal and your favorite mix-in ingredients and get started making tomorrow’s mid-day snack (or breakfast)!

No Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Energy Bites

onedelightfullife.com
Fight mid-day hunger with this healthy grab-and-go snack that tastes like an oatmeal cookie.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Course Breakfast, Snack
Cuisine American
Servings 9 energy bites

Ingredients
  

  • 1 c. quick oats
  • 1/2 c. natural peanut butter
  • 1/3 c. honey
  • 1/4 c. cocoa
  • 2 T. chopped almonds
  • 2 T. milk chocolate chips
  • 1 T. chia seeds
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions
 

  • In a large bowl, mix all ingredients with a spoon.
  • Refrigerate mixture in the bowl for 30 minutes.
  • Remove bowl from the refrigerator and shape it into one-inch balls.
  • Place energy bites into a airtight container. Separate layers with wax paper or parchment paper.
  • Refrigerate at least an hour before serving.

Enjoy friends.

Easy to Make Baked Apple Slices

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Did you know that apples are a member of the rose family of plants, along with pears, peaches, plums, and cherries?

According to nyapplecountry.com, Americans eat more apples per capita than any other fruit. Why? Perhaps we know that they’re good for us. A medium-sized apple contains about 80 calories. They keep us feeling full, unlike other processed snack foods. Better yet, apples are fat-free, sodium-free, and cholesterol-free!

Clearly, I’m fascinated by the delightful qualities of apples. So much so that I tried my hand at baking apple slices this weekend. Initially, I wanted to make these bite-sized snacks to add to a copycat Panera Fuji Apple Salad (which I may still whip up), but yesterday’s chilly temperatures inspired me to add them to a bowl of warm oatmeal for breakfast. It was delicious!

My Easy to Make Baked Apple Slices make a great grab-and-go snack or a flavorful addition to salads, sandwiches, or even a bowl of ice cream. This recipe produces soft apple slices with crispy edges. I prefer to leave on the apple skin. Unlike other baked apple slices recipes online, I bake mine at a higher temperature for less time. Let me walk you through the simple steps to making apple slices.

After shooting this photo, I ended up adding natural peanut butter to my oatmeal bowl. It was a little thick, but oh so warm and delicious.
After shooting this photo, I ended up adding natural peanut butter to my oatmeal bowl. It was a little thick, but oh so warm and delicious.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. After washing each apple, remove its inside core using a melon baller. If you don’t have one, you can simply slice the apple in half and remove the core with a knife. Carefully use a mandolin slicer on the thin setting to slice each apple. Lay the apple slices on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle the apple slices with pumpkin spice.

No need to sprinkle pumpkin spice on the apple slices on both sides.
No need to sprinkle pumpkin spice on the apple slices on both sides. One side is enough.

Bake for 10 minutes. Flip the apple slices using tongs. (They will be soft, but that’s okay. We’re not making dehydrated apples.) Bake for another 10 minutes. Note: Small end pieces of apple may begin to burn so watch them closely in the later minutes of baking. Remove as necessary. Oven temperatures vary and these instructions are meant to produce still-soft apple slices, not hard chips.

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If you love apples as much as I do (ironic because I was once a teacher), then you’ll also enjoy my recipe for Salted Caramel Apple Martini  or Peanut-Butterscotch Apple Nachos. Have a super apple recipe for me to try, tag One Delightful Life on Twitter or add it to the comment section below. 

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Peanut Butter Banana Honey Overnight Oats

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Sometimes I wish I could come up with a genius invention to cash in on. For example, the person who invented the Post-It note is a total genius. I use those every day!  While I do get creative in the kitchen when it comes to recipes, I can’t claim the overnight oats idea. It’s a brilliant recipe that is incredibly simple to make and you can flavor it up any way you like with mix-ins. If you’ve got a mason jar and oatmeal, then you’re halfway there.

Peanut Butter Banana Honey Overnight Oats combines many of my favorite flavor combinations and includes heart-healthy ingredients. Many recipes for overnight oats call for chia seeds. I wasn’t going to drive all the way to the store just for fancy seeds and I think my recipe came out just as great or even better.

While I made a large batch of overnight oats, which I’ve eaten on for two mornings, you could make a half size mason jar for one serving. Simply layer the ingredients (see recipe card below), shake, and refrigerate overnight. Don’t be put off by the look of the mixture when you spy it in the refrigerator the next morning. It will taste delicious!

Open the jar and top it with your favorite flavors. You can use everything from dark chocolate to fruit. Let your imagination go wild as you enjoy a guilt-free, healthy breakfast.

Overnight oats are all about the layers and mix-ins and like a surprise in your refrigerator in the morning.
Overnight oats are all about the layers and mix-ins. Think of it like a lil’ breakfast surprise waiting in your refrigerator for you to enjoy.

The first time I read about “healthy fats” I thought it was an oxymoron. It turns out that healthy fats are r-e-a-l! Monounsaturated fats are actually good for your body and they have positive effects on your health. The nuts in this recipe contain protein, vitamins, and fiber.

Walnuts contain fatty acids which are good for heart health and peanuts have compounds that keep your cholesterol on the level. You can feel good about eating dark chocolate chips in your breakfast. A study noted in a 2014 article “Why is Dark Chocolate Good for You? Thank your Microbes” in Scientific American by Katherin Harmon, found that dark chocolate “improves vascular function and cardiovascular health in general.”

And what’s all the buzz about using honey in recipes? Honey is high in antibacterial properties and published studies confirm that a daily consumption of the liquid gold helps boost the memory of women experiencing menopause.

Peanut Butter Banana Honey Overnight Oats

onedelightfullife.com
Overnight oats sound labor-intensive, but they're incredibly simple to make and delicious. The mix-in combinations are limitless!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 8 hours
Total Time 8 hours 10 minutes
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Servings 1 large jar

Ingredients
  

  • Overnight Oats Mixture:
  • 1/2 c. quick oats
  • 1/2 c. plain low-fat yogurt
  • 1/4 c. soy milk vanilla flavor optional
  • 1 T cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tbsp peanut butter
  • 1 tsp honey
  • Mix-In Toppings:
  • 1 T. whole walnuts
  • 1 T. peanut butter
  • 1 T. dark chocolate chips
  • 1/2 sliced banana
  • 1 tsp honey

Instructions
 

  • Layer all ingredients in a mason or Bell jar starting with the oats.
  • Secure the lid.
  • Shake for 5 seconds.
  • Refrigerate overnight.
  • After the oats have refrigerated overnight, open the jar and top with sliced banana, walnuts, dark chocolate chips, peanut butter, and a honey drizzle.

Notes

Use the One Delightful Life graphic to try other mix-in combinations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhdvGjJHB1k

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