Chocolate Coconut Love + Luna Bar Giveaway!
Guess what arrived?!?!?!
A giant package from DrugStore.com…………
I currently have 15 strike that 14… ok 13 CHOCOLATE DIPPED COCONUT LUNA BARS in my possession 😀 😀 😀
As soon as the package arrived, I tore into the box.
Immediately, I tried to smell the chocolate coconut goodness through the wrapper.
I don’t smell anything…
SMELL HARDER!
This game didn’t go on long before I ripped open the package and took the first glorious bite of the new luna bar flavor.
HOLY CANNOLI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Almond Joy lovers hold on to your seats. This was so DELICIOUS and so worth the wait not to mention risking my life in a Cleveland ice storm.
See all the flaky coconut goodness?
Lucky for you all, I’m ready to share my goodies! So, I’m going to give one reader TWO Coconut Luna Bars plus a Blueberry Bliss Luna Bar (one of my all-time favorite flavors)!
Here’s how you can enter:
1.) Leave a comment including a link to the BEST healthy or healthified recipe you’ve ever tried.
2.) Tweet about the giveaway (my twitter ID is @Fervent_Foodie) — make sure to leave a comment here letting me know you tweeted. Here’s a shortlink for you: http://wp.me/pW6Qg-1f0
3.) Like the Fervent Foodie page on Facebook and leave a comment here saying you did so.
I’ll let this run through Midnight eastern time on Tuesday Feb 15, and then I’ll use a random number generator to find out who I get to share some Luna Bar love with. I hope you are as excited as I am… I know.. I’m obsessed. It’s ok.
Friday eats
Sooooooo… it has been FOR-EV-ER since I last posted about workday breakfast-breakfast-lunch. I guess I just got bored posting about the same things over and over again. But today, I figured what the heck. It’s Friday. Let’s do this.
Breakfast #1
I absolutely adore this B#1 every day! Sausage, eggs, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, spinach, and garlic? Come on!
Don’t forget the dollop of ketchup of course 🙂
Stats on 1 Servings of my Special Eggs (sans ketchup): 189 Calories, 9g carbs, 9g fat, 23g protein, 1g fiber
Breakfast #2
Oatmeal!
I was in the grocery store the other day and ALMOST bought some strawberries so I could make overnight oats… But it’s so stinkin cold outside that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Man I miss them 🙁 So for today, it was standard microwaved quick oats with cinnamon and brown sugar… maybe my OO’s will make a return next week!
Stats on 1 Servings of oats: 165 Calories, 31g carbs, 3g fat, 5g protein, 4g fiber
Lunch
And that brings us to LUNCH. Mini cheesy meat loaf and a yumlicious side salad with Newman’s Light balsamic dressing:
Maybe it’s a midwest thing….. but I seriously adore meatloaf.
It’s comforting.
It’s meaty.
It brings me unfettered joy.
Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.
Stats on 1 mini cheesy meatloaf: 350 calories, 19g carbs, 17g fat (red meat, folks), 29g protein, 1g fiber
So what’s on everyone’s agenda this weekend? Here’s what I’ll be up to:
- Eyebrow wax this evening (fun Friday night activity, no?)
- Clean.my.house. Seriously. I’m living in filth.
- Work.
- Get some of my friends and family tax returns done… oh the joys of being a tax accountant
- Buy the BF a bday present… I’m thinking outlet mall!
- Possibly venturing out on a Luna Bar quest. Must find the new flavors STAT!
- Super Bowl of course! Bring on the cheese!
Saturday eggs, smoothies, & tuna salad
This morning I woke up bright and early to try and pick up on my interval running (even though I had already decided to take a week off of high-impact excercise)… I was able to get 1.5 intervals in before my knee started hurting 🙁 Looks like I’m going to be in the walking group at the Healthy Living Summit.
Breakfast of champions
After my disappointing run, I wanted a delicious breakfast to perk me up. I cooked up 1 egg sunny side up, and had a piece of Country Hearth 12 Grain bread with sunflowers and a half a cup of oven baked potatoes:
Why are egg yolks SOOOO delicious tasting? I find them oddly decadent!
Stats: 250 calories, 37g carbs, 7g fat, 12g protein, 2g fiber
Soon after downing this delicious breakfast, I was already feeling hungry and decided to make a fruit smoothie.
I threw the following into the blender:
- 1 container Yoplait Strawberry Greek Yogurt
- 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
- 1/4 cup fresh blueberries
- 6 medium strawberries
- 1 cup fresh spinach
- 1/2 cup ice
This puppy definitely filled my belly up!
Stats on my smoothie: 199 calories, 32g carbs, 2g fat, 14g protein, 4g fiber
After watching me down my smoothie, Jarrod got jealous and decided he wanted a smoothie too. So we threw the following into the blender:
- 1 scoop optimum nutrition whey chocolate protein
- 1/2 cup frozen sliced bananas
- 1 tbsp JIF peanut butter
- 1/4 cup ground-up quick oats
- 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
- 1/2 cup ice
This doesn’t look like much, but I tried a sip and it was AMAZING:
Tasted like a shake you’d get at a hamburger stand. I’m going to try and make a lower-calorie version sometime!
Stats on Jarrod’s chocolate peanut butter banana smoothie: 377 calories, 39g carbs, 12g fat, 33g protein, 6g fiber
Lunch
A little before lunch, I headed over to my mom’s house for some quality time with the fam. Just as I was about to leave, I locked my keys in my trunk… 😯 What am I, 16 again? When I was younger, I had the joy of consistently locking my keys in my car. Actually, the day I first got my license I locked my keys in my trunk and had to have my dad come rescue me…. Oh joy….
Once I got the key situation all worked out, I headed home to make a tuna wrap for lunch. Here’s what went into the tuna salad:
- 1 can chunk light tuna in water, drained
- 1/4 cup red onion
- 1/2 a chopped roma tomato
- 1 tbsp Ken’s Steakhouse Lite Creamy Ceaser Dressing
- S&P
Then I added a few slices of a ginormous banana pepper I grew in my backyard garden:
I put the tuna salad atop a Light Flat-out Italian wrap with 1 cup of spinach:
Then I wrapped everything up burrito-style and grilled on the george foreman grill for about 5 minutes:
DELICIOUS.
Stats on the tuna wrap: 282 calories, 28g carbs, 9g fat, 32g protein, 12g fiber
I’m hoping to try out a new recipe for dinner tonight.. I have a few ideas in mind. Maybe a nap will help things come to fruition 🙂
Saturday eggs, smoothies, & tuna salad
This morning I woke up bright and early to try and pick up on my interval running (even though I had already decided to take a week off of high-impact excercise)… I was able to get 1.5 intervals in before my knee started hurting 🙁 Looks like I’m going to be in the walking group at the Healthy Living Summit.
Breakfast of champions
After my disappointing run, I wanted a delicious breakfast to perk me up. I cooked up 1 egg sunny side up, and had a piece of Country Hearth 12 Grain bread with sunflowers and a half a cup of oven baked potatoes:
Why are egg yolks SOOOO delicious tasting? I find them oddly decadent!
Stats: 250 calories, 37g carbs, 7g fat, 12g protein, 2g fiber
Soon after downing this delicious breakfast, I was already feeling hungry and decided to make a fruit smoothie.
I threw the following into the blender:
- 1 container Yoplait Strawberry Greek Yogurt
- 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
- 1/4 cup fresh blueberries
- 6 medium strawberries
- 1 cup fresh spinach
- 1/2 cup ice
This puppy definitely filled my belly up!
Stats on my smoothie: 199 calories, 32g carbs, 2g fat, 14g protein, 4g fiber
After watching me down my smoothie, Jarrod got jealous and decided he wanted a smoothie too. So we threw the following into the blender:
- 1 scoop optimum nutrition whey chocolate protein
- 1/2 cup frozen sliced bananas
- 1 tbsp JIF peanut butter
- 1/4 cup ground-up quick oats
- 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
- 1/2 cup ice
This doesn’t look like much, but I tried a sip and it was AMAZING:
Tasted like a shake you’d get at a hamburger stand. I’m going to try and make a lower-calorie version sometime!
Stats on Jarrod’s chocolate peanut butter banana smoothie: 377 calories, 39g carbs, 12g fat, 33g protein, 6g fiber
Lunch
A little before lunch, I headed over to my mom’s house for some quality time with the fam. Just as I was about to leave, I locked my keys in my trunk… 😯 What am I, 16 again? When I was younger, I had the joy of consistently locking my keys in my car. Actually, the day I first got my license I locked my keys in my trunk and had to have my dad come rescue me…. Oh joy….
Once I got the key situation all worked out, I headed home to make a tuna wrap for lunch. Here’s what went into the tuna salad:
- 1 can chunk light tuna in water, drained
- 1/4 cup red onion
- 1/2 a chopped roma tomato
- 1 tbsp Ken’s Steakhouse Lite Creamy Ceaser Dressing
- S&P
Then I added a few slices of a ginormous banana pepper I grew in my backyard garden:
I put the tuna salad atop a Light Flat-out Italian wrap with 1 cup of spinach:
Then I wrapped everything up burrito-style and grilled on the george foreman grill for about 5 minutes:
DELICIOUS.
Stats on the tuna wrap: 282 calories, 28g carbs, 9g fat, 32g protein, 12g fiber
I’m hoping to try out a new recipe for dinner tonight.. I have a few ideas in mind. Maybe a nap will help things come to fruition 🙂
Big Fat Flop(s)
Last night I was apparently in the mood to try 3,000 new concoctions. I found this recipe for Protein Cakes the other day. They are super simple to make and work out to less than 100 calories each (before you add toppings) so I decided to make two different kinds to try out for breakfast #1.
Protein Cake #1
- 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 packet truvia
- 1 tbsp sugar free applesauce
- 1 egg white
- 1 tsp choc chips
Protein Cake #2
- 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
- 2 drops vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 packet truvia
- 1 tbsp sugar free applesauce
- 1 egg white
- 1/4 cup fresh blueberries
They only take 1 minute to cook in the microwave!
Cakes in the mugs:
Check out the height on the chocolate cake:
As you can see, one of these cakes is not like the other. One of these cakes just doesn’t belong…
Apparently the blueberries had a negative effect on the vanilla protein cake. BUMMER! (PS, that one got tossed, it was just gross looking).
BIG FAT FLOP #1.
This morning, I was really excited to try the surviving chocolate cake. I heated it up in the microwave for about 15 seconds, and took a big ole bite. I guess since they have “cake” in the title, I was expecting something moist and delicious. But this was super dry and not very tasty. I put some blackberry preserves on top, but still ended up throwing most of it away.
BIG FAT FLOP #2.
Because I’m such a smarty pants, I had planned ahead for such a catastrophe by bringing a Peanut Butter Cookie Lara Bar. This is the first time I had tried a Lara Bar. What really intrigued me was the mere 3 ingredients:
Gotta be honest, I wasn’t super happy with it. If it weren’t for the ingredients list, I probably wouldn’t buy it again. Maybe some of the other flavors I picked up will be better–but as of now I’m not sure when I’ll be trying them.
Any of you prefer Lara Bars to Luna Bars? Looks like I’m a Luna girl…
BIG FAT FLOP #3.
OVERNIGHT OATS!!! YAY! 😀 😀 😀
No let downs here! My oats today consisted of:
- 1/2 cup oats
- 3/4 cup almond breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- 1 packet stevia
- 1 tbsp PB2
- 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- fresh strawberries
These were coldy, creamy, and delicious, as usual!
Stats on the oats: 219 calories, 36g carbs, 7g fat, 9g protien, 8g fiber
Lunch
After the flops I had for Breakfast #1, I was kind of anxious for lunch. I have always really enjoyed chicken salad with grapes in it, so last night I decided to whip up my own healthified chicken salad using Oikos plain greek yogurt:
- 3 oz shredded chicken breast (grilled up last week with McCormick’s Montreal Chicken Seasoning)
- 2 tbsp Plain Oikos greek yogurt
- 1 small green onion, minced
- 1/2 tsp lime juice
- 1 tsp chopped cilantro
- Sprinkling of S&P, cumin, cayenne pepper, celery seed
- 1/3 cup grapes, halved
I put the chicken salad in a Joseph’s Low Carb Pita.
SUCCESSS!!!!!! This was really yummy! Hooray!
Stats on the chicken salad: 215 calories, 14g carbs, 5g fat, 25g protein, 4g fiber