Photos | - Part 2

I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend and was able to spend some time with loved ones whether you were celebrating Mother’s day or not! My weekend was a mix of relaxation after school ended, preparation for my Philippines trip (started packing! woo!), and celebrating my wonderful Mom (check out yesterday’s post for a little ode to Moms everywhere)! Here are some pics from the weekend…

With all the rain we got (even HAIL at some points!), my veggie garden really started to flourish!

[the plants are even bigger now...this picture was from Friday!]

Even though it was Moms weekend, my parents surprised with some flowers and a card congratulating me for getting through my first year of college….so nice of them.

Ella and I hung out on Saturday while my parents took my Uncle to dinner…

She also helped me prep THESE:

Those would be the pre-baked version of the HOMEMADE POPTARTS I made for my mom for Mother’s day breakfast! Before I share the recipe (it makes exactly two pop tarts!), let me tell you the story behind these babies!

My mom always comments on how she loved pop-tarts as a kid but she never buys them anymore because they discontinued her favorite flavor. She’s a fan of simplicity and used to eat only the unfrosted cherry variety. But Kellog’s stopped producing that kind (seriously I think every kind is froster now!), so she hasn’t had them in years. I decided to get a little gourmet and make her a homemade one for Mother’s Day!

I found a few different recipes online, changed them a bit so I didn’t end up having to make a whole tray full of pop-tarts and came out with something that turned out great! I even was able to give one to my dad! Granted I think these are more like toaster strudle rather than pop-tarts, but they were pretty close. And FUN to make!

Perfect for Two Pop-Tarts

1/2 cup flour
1/2 stick butter, cold
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp water
1 egg
3 tbsp jam ( I used cherry obviously!)
1 tsp corn starch
powdered sugar for sprinkling

In a food processor, combine flour, salt, sugar, and cinnamon. Next slice butter into 5 pieces and pulse with the flour until little balls of dough are formed. Stream in the water and pulse for a few more seconds. Remove dough mixture from processor and form a dough ball with your hands. (You may need to wet your hands a bit to form the ball)

Roll out dough (1/8 inch) on a flour coated sheet of wax paper. Make the dough into the best rectangle that you can and cut away the sides using a pizza cutter to form straight edges. Then cut the rectangle into 4 equally sized smaller rectangles.Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350. In a small bowl beat one egg. In another small bowl combine jam and cornstarch. Remove dough from the refrigerator. Spread two of the rectangles with the egg mixture. On those same two rectangles, place half the jam mixture on each. Don’t spread it out too much…just a little in the middle. Place the other two dough pieces on the jam filled halves and press down the edges.

Using a fork press down the edges of the pop-tarts. Using a toothpick poke a few rows of holes on the top of the pop-tarts.

Place the pop-tarts on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes or until lightly golden brown on top.

Serve warm from the oven with a dusting of powdered sugar.

After a lovely breakfast (made by yours truly)….

[a wheat grass shot (my mom's been wanting to try one!, yogurt with honey granola and nuts, the homemade pop-tart, and a sliced banana]

We attempted to take Ella for a walk, but it started to rain! So we headed back home to open presents…

[pretty card from my sister]

[homemade card from me...photoshop skills being put to good use!]

[got my mom two tickets to a local comedy club for a night out with my dad!]

[also got her the NEW Clean Eating book....SO MANY DELICIOUS RECIPES!]

My Dad went BIG!

A diamond necklace with my Mom’s initial! (it’s my initial too so I guess I should borrow it every now and again…ya know, just to get his money’s worth! )

Later in the day we met up with my Grandma!

And I finally admitted to myself that I think I’m allergic to caffeine…at least that’s the diagnoses my Mom gave me.

I don’t drink coffee often but every once in a while I get a hankering (where did that come from?) for a cup o’ joe. But every time I drink it, I get an immediate headache, foggy feeling, shakiness, and heart palpitations. It’s so weird! I almost can’t explain the out of body feeling I get! Guess I’ll have to stick to decaf for my occasional coffee drinking.

All in all it was a great weekend! Gotta love family, fun, and good food!

Before I go, let me announce the winner of my Krono Bar giveaway! Thank you to all who entered!

Congrats Laura! Email me your info and I’ll get your bars to you ASAP!

Oh and before I forget, EMAIL ME (proulxkr@roadrunner.com) if you’d be interesting in guest posting while I’m away in the Philippines! I’ll definitely be posting but it won’t be as frequent so I thought I’d give some other bloggers (or readers!) the opportunity to hang out here!

Kaila

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Todays’s Healthy Help: Cleaned up the kitchen since my mom wasn’t feeling well!

Never too early to start Lending a {Healthy} Hand for this weeks round-up! Tell me what you’ve done to help someone else lately!

WIAW- Grin and [BAR] it! {giveaway}

THANK YOU for all the kind words on my BIG announcement yesterday! It was so great to hear your encouragement and excitement about the next step for Lend a {Healthy} Hand! It’s become such a big passion of mine and I feel like it’s my baby! SO happy it’s expanding the ways I had hoped. Again, all thanks to your participation. It wouldn’t be anything if no one shared their weekly #healthyhelp!

Today is of course WIAW and I have lots of eats to share as well as a few product reviews, both of which I am very happy about, and one of which has resulted in a giveaway for all of you! But first…WE FEAST!

[lemon pound cake ALT bar (AMAZING), chocolate mint Jocolat bar (equally as delicious)] [my newest shipment of PROTEIN...egg white (haven't tried it yet) and my favorite whey]

[mahi mahi with salsa, roasted veggies, and a japanese sweet potato]

[overnight oats with cherry, vanilla, banana softserve]

[turkey cabbage salad, corn tortillas with humus and feta]

[crispy cauliflower crust pizza]

[pumpkin oats with ezekiel cereal, buckwheat, raisins, apple dices, and chestnut chips]

[turkey salad, crackers with banana and pb]

[tofu nuggets and onion rings, roasted kabocha, roasted veggies]

[first strawberries of summer, blueberries, protein powder, chestnut flour, and almond milk]

It’s NO secret that I love bars…I mean come on people, you’ve seen my stash…

[not even all of it]

I have at least one a day! There are just so many different varieties, textures, and flavors! So when I was offered the opportunity to try some new ones, I jumped at the chance.

First up Simply Whey!

I reviewed for the Simply Bar a few weeks back and fell in love with the rice crispy treat-like consistency and the subtle sweetness of their bars! They just released a new line of protein bars that have whey in them as the source of protein instead of soy. I think this is great because I personally am a huge fan of whey and sometime have digestive issues if I eat too much soy. Of course this line is no longer vegan, but I have no problem with that and I was excited to see the flavors they came in! The chocolate mint was by far my favorite, simply because I love that combination. But all the bars were crispy, gooey, and of course not overly sweet! All the flavors were subtle and not over powered by the brown rice syrup used to sweeten these. Usually I am opposed to sweetened bars, but these are VERY minimally sweetened…only 3 grams per bar! And I’m okay with that, seeing as how much protein they back and how good they taste!

Edited: These bars ARE available in the US, so you can head on over to the Simply Bar site to order some!

Thanks Simply Bar!

And for my second bar review…another export from Canada! I am getting seriously jealous of our neighbors to the North because they are rolling out some awesome bars! Elevate Me last week and this week….

KRONO BAR! All vegan protein and energy bars.

I have to be honest, upon tasting these I had to go back and read up on their ingredients and how they’re made. They were SO FREAKING DELICIOUS that I almost doubted they could be vegan and have no added sugar. They come in such a wide array of flavors, many of which I’ve never seen for a bar before (like coconut cherry, chocolate pear, and chocolate banana!), and are a pretty good size for a bar…much bigger than larabars! And like I mentioned above…their ingredients (as well as their nutritional information!) ROCKS. These seriously taste like candy bars and they have amazing texture as well. Big chunks of nuts, seeds, grains, and CHOCOLATE….all a great contrast to the fudgey dates! I popped these babies in the refrigerator and was greeted with a dense fudge like texture when I was ready to eat them! Pair that with the amazingly chocolatey taste of each bar…and I swore I was eating dessert.

So they not only taste great, but they provide a ton of healthy fats, protein (in the protein variety of course!), and energy boosting carbs from the natural sugars and grains (like quinoa!). One of the most unique, innovative products I’ve ever tried and I’m even more impressed with what quality of them.

But enough of my RAVE review….

The nice people over at Krono Bar have decided to donate a box of one of their newest bars, Chocolate Coconut, for one of my lucky readers to try! I’m so jealous…