Fruit and Seed Bars

These bars are delicious.  I love seeds and coconut so it just couldn't go wrong for me.



Fruit and Seed Bars
Recipe found at With Style & Grace

Ingredients:

1 cup gluten-free rolled oats
1/2 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
2 tablespoons flaxseeds, whole or ground
1 cup dried fruit  (dried blueberry, cranberries, apricots, etc.)
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
pinch of ground cinnamon
1/3 cup agave or honey
1/2 cup sun butter (sunflower seed butter)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9×9-inch baking pan, then line it with parchment, allowing the parchment paper to come up two sides of the pan.  In a food processor, pulse the oats, pepitas, sunflowers seeds, flaxseeds, dried fruit, coconut and cinnamon until finely chopped.  Add the agave (or honey)(I actually used a combination of the two) and sunflower butter and pulse until the mixture is combined.  Pour the mixture into the pan and spread it out evenly.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until firm to touch.  Let cool completely, then use a serrated knife to cut into the 2-inch bars.  The crumbly bits left over on the bottom of the pan are perfect over fruit or yogurt!!!

Healthier Three Cheese Beef and Ziti

(This is actually a picture of the original recipe, I didn't think to take a picture yesterday when I healthified it!!)

 

 

 

Right now I'm doing the 60 Day Body, Mind and Spirit Challenge (you can find details on it here on April Kennedy's blog).    I love this challenge!!!The challenge includes exercising, clean eating and random acts of kindness every week.  It also has bonus challenges every week, and one of this week's bonus challenges is to make a healthier version of a favorite recipe.  I'm excited about trying this with a lot of our favorite recipes, but today I started with an oldie but a goodie, Three Cheese Beef and Ziti.  It was so easy to healthify it!!  (I made up that word and I don't care if it's not proper English!!)  I swapped out whole wheat pasta for the regular stuff, fat free ricotta for the part skim (I guess low fat cottage cheese could be used also, but YUCK, I hate cottage cheese!!) and ground turkey for the ground beef.  I also put less ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan cheese in one section of the pan where I got my portion from, but I don't even think that was totally necessary.  It tastes exactly the same as the regular version to me, EXACTLY!  This is a super easy meal that the whole family loves and makes A TON. 

 

**  The original recipe can be found here.

Healthier Three Cheese Beef and Ziti
Recipe from some old Reader's Digest Cookbook from about twenty years ago!


Ingredients:

8 oz. ziti, macaroni, or other small whole wheat pasta (any shape will work!!)
1 lb. lean ground turkey
1 medium yellow onion, chopped (of course I don't add this, are you kidding?  I HATE ONIONS!!!)
1 jar spaghetti sauce
10 oz. frozen french style green beans, or whatever kind you like, partially thawed
1 cup fat free ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded low fat mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese


Directions:

Boil the pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, saute the turkey and onion(bleh) in a large skillet over moderate heat, stirring frequently to break up any clumps, until the turkey is browned - about 5 minutes. Drain off the excess fat. Stir in the pasta sauce and bring to a simmer. Add the green beans, reduce the heat to low, and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

*** Let me just take a second to confess that I don't ALWAYS add the green beans. I would love for them to be in it, but I get a lot of complaints when I do, and sometimes, I just don't want to deal with that.

Stir in the cooked ziti, then place large spoonfuls of the ricotta on top but not touching. Sprinkle the mozzarella in between. Cover and cook just until the mozzarella melts and the ziti and beans are heated through - about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.