Hacking Larabar Jocalat

I’ve actually never tried Larabar Jocalat but from what I read, it’s similar to regular Larabar but with chocolate. Since I have quite amount of nuts and dates, I decided to make my own hack version.

Ingredients:
1 cup of walnut
1 cup of almonds
9 pitted medjool dates
3-4 Tbsp cocoa powder
A dash of salt

Directions:
Blend everything using your food processor until everything incorporates together..

When everything comes together become a paste, you’re done!

Set them aside and refrigerate until it’s set, then shape them into whatever you want! I just made mine into bars

No added sugar and good for emergency snacks. I wouldn’t recommend eating these on daily basis because of the high sugar content (from the dates). But sometimes, when you’re in a pinch, it becomes pretty handy.

 

Experiments

Before I started my crazy busy day, I’ll recap a bit about yesterday and the day before. It wasn’t much different stuff except I tried my experiment of Thai inspired BBQ chicken last night and this time I used chicken legs instead of whole chicken.

Much better than the last time I made the whole chicken, but taste wise was a bit lacking. I should add a bit of salt instead of using all soy sauce and honey. And I have to add more basil leaves while baking it to get that nice fragrant basil smell….Also I will bake more chicken legs later afternoon to bring to my friend’s place tonight. We are having a little get together at one of my friend’s house..she’s nice enough to host this little gathering at her place. There will be lots of food so I’ll make sure to take lots lots of pictures and post them tomorrow.

Anyway, this morning I went to the beach for my morning run. It was definitely a workout while you try to run against the wind. I could feel my legs were a bit tight and had to slow down a bit couple times. Regardless I still had a good workout!

On the way back, even though I wasn’t hungry I was tempted to snack on Prana Bar Apricot Goji from the samples I got last time.


Ingredients: organic cashews, organic almond butter, organic date paste, organic agave nectar, organic dried apricots, organic puffed amaranth, organic goji powder, sea salt.

This bar is a little too sweet to my taste due to the agave nectar in addition to the date paste. The date by itself is already sweet. Also despite the flavor named “Apricot Goji”, I didn’t taste much of apricot and goji in there..more of the date paste and the cashews. Even in the ingredient list, apricot and goji are not at the top list. I didn’t take the picture of the inside..sorry, was too excited to chomp it down..haha. The bar is chewy and a bit dense for me and also make sure to drink lots of water after consuming it. Like any other bars, it’ll make you thirsty after eating it. Anyway, despite all of those, it’s still a decent after workout snack, especially if you need something to hold off your hunger. It’s still better than consuming a bar of Snickers or any other HFCS snacks.

Yesterday I finally had a chance to sample Larabar Cherry Pie for my afternoon snack.


Ingredients: dates, almonds, unsweetened cherries

Despite its name, it tastes nothing as sweet as cherry pie, which is I like. I no sweet tooth girl but more of tangy tooth girl..haha (is that even a word)? Due to its unsweetened cherries, this bar has a good balance mix of sweet and sour. I could even taste the cherry bits in there! I almost mistaken this flavor with the other Larabar that I had a while ago, Larabar Peanut Butter and Jelly.
Maybe the package color is almost similar? Or maybe I’m just going nuts..haha.

Breakfast was nothing too new, a slice of whole wheat toast with pb and ham & cheese bread from some Chinese bakery.

So, today will be my total experimental cooking and baking. I will bake the rest of the chicken legs for tonight’s potluck and cross my fingers that they’ll turn out better than last night. Also I am currently soaking the almonds I got today to make my first homemade almond milk tomorrow. I came across to this post on Novel Eats Simply Vegan, which shows you how to make your almond milk step by step with pictures! We’ll see how it turns out tomorrow.

Lastly, I decided to make a little treats for my friend who’s hosting the gathering. I’ve been wanting to be a little creative on my chocolate buns that I made last time, so this post on King Arthur Flour Blog inspired me. Instead of putting cinnamon, I’ll use chocolate sprinkles and no icing.
The dough is still in the process of kneading and rising in my little bread machine.

Wish me luck!!!

 

Sweet Savory Tangy Oatmeal

Oh how I missed oatmeal for my breakfast!! I haven’t had any oatmeal for almost a week and almost drove me crazy! So last night my husband and I made a trip to a market to get some groceries. Last time I bought 1 lb oatmeal case so this time I bought 2 lbs! That should last me for a little while.

After finishing 1 1/2 hour yoga, I had to take a quick shower, quickly cooked the oats and cut the fruits. I washed a bit too much blackberries so what the heck I just dumped those into the oatmeal. Topped with pb and 1/2 banana, I got this Sweet Savory Tangy Oatmeal! Apparently the blackberries weren’t as sweet as the banana and pb, thus gave me this tangy taste.

In the mix: 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup water, 1 tsp pb, some Kashi Cereal, 1/2 banana, couple blackberries. Delicious!

Btw, what happened to the other 1/2 of the banana? I was still a bit hungry so that joined into my belly as well!

The oatmeal didn’t hold my hunger until lunch time unfortunately, but here comes Larabar® Cashew Cookie to my rescue!

Ingredients: Cashews and dates...nothing more, nothing less! Isn't that great?

Taste was amazing! The bar has a lot of cashew chunks to bite on. Even though it was chewy and a bit sweet (from the dates, no added sugar), it didn’t sit heavily in my stomach and hold my hunger perfectly until my lunch time. I’d say I LOVE LARABARS for its simplicity and organic ingredients!

After lunch, I had cherries as my dessert but I didn’t eat my other fruit mix in mid afternoon as I usually do. Apparently, my lunch meal satisfied me for quite a while.

Finished the cherries, but not the other. It'll be for my tomorrow fruit platter

My husband prepared the dinner today because he didn’t have to go to work. Guess what? A table full of veggies with only one plate of meat (baked chicken from yesterday).

I had everything except the white rice.

I’ve been reading Jessica’s blog a bit too much today so I craved for some egg white omelet as well. Whipped up 4 egg whites, topped with organic ketchup = HEAVENLY DINNER!

After dinner, for a dessert I had a cup of plain non fat yogurt, topped with a bit of PB, and some dried apricots. So cool and refreshing having yogurt in this warm breezy So Cal weather.

 

The ego

Who wants to get up at 4:30 am on Saturday? Nobody..LOL..including me! But my workout ego overcame it, dragged my ass off from the bed and got ready. Seriously this round 2 of my semi P90X workout seems more intense than the first one. At least for the first round, I still get some more sleep over weekends. But now I only have 1 day during weekday to sleep in until 6:30 am. Hopefully I won’t got burned out too quickly.

Beach workout was pretty good today. I could jog alternating with running in between and added one or two sprints, mostly to catch up with my husband. Again, it’s my ego not wanting to be fall behind from him. Especially he doesn’t workout every single day like me. That got me even more.

On the way back, I was super hungry so I snacked on my first sample from Larabar®, Larabar® Peanut Butter and Jelly!



My thought? LOVE IT! Not too sweet, has a little tangy taste into it and pretty filling! Plus no chemical ingredients in there, just straight forward peanuts, dates, unsweetened cherries and salt. See that unsweetened cherries? That explains where that tart taste came from Plus no added sugar! The sweetness came from the dates! Wonderful stuff.

Of course I still needed a real breakfast food so after I got home and shower I made this bowl of oatmeal! This time it turned out creamier than the previous two. Topped with 1/2 not quite ripe banana, a bit of peanut butter and pieces of whole wheat pita bread left over from my husband’s breakfast, I’m in heaven! Also cooked them in plain soymilk instead of water. Yummy!

thick and creamy oatmeal!

Speaking of which, I wonder what do cook for lunch? My husband had to go help his brother so there would be only my brother and I. On the way back from the beach, I bought salmon, smelt fish and shrimps. Hm…

UPDATE

boiled spinach, baked acorn squash and soft tofu (eaten with organic ketchup)

these are yummy!

baked smelt fish. These are so tiny! I should make more. I only ate 1 and brother finished the rest

 

Less is always better!

Today was such a gloomy day. It was drizzling in the morning. Just look at this view from my home.

Perfect weather to sleep in huh? But nope! I still got up at 4:30 am to crank out my P90X Chest & Back, Ab ripper X, and Pilate Abs. It was quite rough for me, maybe just one of those days. Anyway I refueled with plain soymilk with chocolate protein powder and a banana.

This time I bought another brand soymilk instead of some generic Asian one. It said plain soymilk but it’s still with sugar in it? Just look at the ingredients!

why so many ingredients? can't they keep it simple?

My husband bought the usual soymilk at an Asian supermarket because the one I got yesterday was too sweet for me. The bummer part was I couldn’t find a single soymilk brand WITHOUT added sugar! Seriously, why can’t those commercial brand make soymilk with just basic ingredients: soybeans and filtered water, THAT’S IT! Just like this one:

soybeans and filtered water! Nothing else! Why can't they do this?

Of course if you compare the American one and the Asian one, the American one did a great job with their packaging. But, we’re not consuming the package, but the content! Who cares how pretty is the package?

Anyway I’ll still finish the American brand one, hate to waste it.

After I got to work, I had my second breakfast: low fat cottage cheese with Kashi® Go Lean Crunch Honey Almond Flax Cereal and a piece of my whole wheat bread with some Natural Chunky peanut butter.


This is my second time having cottage cheese and I’d say I am still acquiring to the taste. I have no problem having it as long I have some other stuff together with it, whether it’s cereal, crackers or fruits.

Lunch was good. Just left over whatever I had for lunch yesterday and of course some fruits.

Came back home, I found this package from Larabar®! Finally my samples arrive. Can’t wait to review these! I heard lots of good things about them and the best thing is, their ingredients are super simple! No chemical names, no hard to pronounce ingredients name and no added sugar!

Dinner was just simple stuff, lots of veggies and tofu and some eggs. Hubby prepared all of these!

After dinner, I felt I didn’t get enough protein intake so another round of cottage cheese with Kashi® GoLean Crunch Cereal!
Not sure if I’m starting to like cottage cheese or maybe it’s because of Kashi® Cereal

crunch crunch!