Chewy Chocolate Protein Balls
Anyone else here in big need of snack ideas?? 🙋♀️ With breastfeeding Harlow, I’m extra hungry, causing me to need more food more frequently. And if I’m honest, I get tired of eating the same things over and over. There are times that I’ll walk into the kitchen to get something to eat and think “I’m SO hungry, but what do I eat that I haven’t already eaten at least once today?” 🤪I need something filling, satisfying, and easy that also leaves my body feeling good. That’s where these chewy chocolate protein balls come in. Think cold, chewy no-bake cookie. They’re the perfect combination with plenty of protein, carbs, and fat as well as fiber from the oats, chia seeds, and banana. I’ll make up a batch, throw them in the freezer and then grab a few for a delicious and filling snack.
This Christmas season, Isaac and I decided to make various traditional Christmas foods at our house. So I’ll be munching on homemade snack mix (I finally found Bugles at the store. Who knew they were so hard to track down?!), sausage balls, and crackers and cheese over the next few weeks. If you have any current favorite snack ideas, comment below. I’d love to hear what you’re munching on.
Hope you enjoy these as much as we do!
Chewy chocolate protein balls
Ingredients
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup chia seeds
- 1 banana, mashed
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup collagen peptides
- 1 cup oats
- 1/2 cup chopped nuts (I use peanuts and almonds)
Instructions
- Stir together the peanut butter, honey, chia seeds, and mashed banana.
- Add remaining dry ingredients and stir until combined. Form into balls (or use a small cookie scoop), and freeze on a baking sheet with parchment paper for an hour. Transfer to a container or freezer bag.
- I recommend eating straight from the freezer!!
Mommy and Me Smoothie
This recipe was created in collaboration with Midwest Dairy. I was compensated for my time, but the content and opinions included are my own.
You guys!! How is my baby starting to eat solids already?! WHERE has the time gone? Surely I don’t have a 6+ month year old. 😮 But alas, I DO. We are in the process of introducing new foods to sweet Harlow girl and allowing her to explore new flavors and textures. Something I forgot about is ALLLLL the messes created in this season. I love how relatively clean Camden is eating at the table. His food stays on his plate and I rarely have to clean his hands or face afterwards. There is just SO much cleaning that now has to be done—cleaning the high chair table, cleaning the bibs, washing out the rags we use to clean food off of her, and increased laundry with avocado and other food stains. 🥴 Woof.
With Camden, we used the baby led weaning process for introducing food to him. Pureed baby foods is a relatively new thing and before then, people were giving their babies the food they were eating. We liked how much cheaper and easier it was to be able to just give him the food we were eating (with a few modifications). It’s not for everyone, but we really liked it and how it encouraged independence and self-regulation with food.
One of the first foods I offered Camden was plain greek yogurt with peanut butter mixed in and have done the same with Harlow. Greek yogurt is a great source of protein and fat as well as key vitamins and minerals, so I feel like it has a great nutritional bang for its buck. And surprisingly, recommendations for introducing high allergenic foods like dairy, nuts, and shellfish have changed from waiting until after 1 years old (for dairy, later for other allergens) to introducing it earlier in order to prevent risk of developing an allergy (if you or your family has a history of allergies, these recommendations are a little different—so research this and ask your pediatrician before you start introducing those foods to your little ones. The purpose of this post is not on baby led weaning or allergies with babies).
In our current culture, there seems to be a lot of fear regarding giving our children dairy (or even ourselves!). If you have questions about the safety or nutrition of dairy, check out the Q&A I did last year on it. You can also check out the blog post here. Before having Camden, I did my own personal research on common concerns regarding dairy and feel VERY confident giving it to my children. Dairy isn’t a necessity, but I love how it packs a punch in terms of nutrition for a relatively low cost. And let’s be real, it’s just so stinking delicious. Recommendations are for babies to be at least one year old before introducing cow’s milk to drink (babies should be drinking formula or breastmilk until then), but other sources such as yogurt, cottage cheese, or cheese are recommended. Additionally, milk IN things is just fine—just not straight in a bottle or cup because of the low iron content in cow’s milk.
I mean, come on! Look at that creamy texture!!
Dairy has been a major source of protein for Camden throughout the past two years, because well, toddler preferences against meat and beans. 🤪 When planning out his meals, and eventually Harlow’s, I aim for a source of protein, fat, carbs, and then a fruit or vegetable. Oftentimes, I use cheese or Greek yogurt as both the protein and fat because Cam loves them. He has also been a big fan of smoothies for quite awhile. As a baby and even more so now, it’s a VERY easy and convenient way for him to get in fruits and veggies as well as some protein and fat. The smoothie recipe below is our basic recipe that you can modify for your tastes and preferences. Switch up the fruits, add frozen steamed zucchini (I know it’s weird, but it makes it nice and creamy) or frozen spinach, use peanut butter instead of almond butter, add chia or flaxseed—the possibilities are endless. We also use less milk so that it’s super thick and creamy. You can make it more runny if you prefer that. We sometimes eat this as a meal and other times share it as part of dinner or as a refreshing afternoon snack.
If you want to see Camden and I make it live, check us out on Instagram.
For more information on introducing food to little ones from birth to 24 months, check out these two helpful resources on when, how, and what to feed your child. Airplane Choo Choo and Mealtime with Your Little One
I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!
Mommy and Me Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups frozen fruit (I use half mixed berries, half mango)
- 1 Tbsp almond butter
- 1 cup milk (I use whole milk)
- 2 Tbsp plain full fat Greek yogurt
- 1 scoop of protein powder (plain or vanilla)
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients to your blender and mix until fully combined and creamy. Add more milk if you prefer the texture to be thinner.
Notes:
If you're giving this to your little one, be aware of your child's ability to chew/swallow little seeds. If this is a concern, try frozen fruits without a lot of large/hard seeds--strawberries, mango, pineapple, peaches, banana, etc.
If you prefer sweeter smoothies, try adding a date or maple syrup.
If you want to add some veggies, a handful of frozen raw spinach or kale mixes in easily or even steamed, frozen vegetables such as sweet potato or squash!
Fall Apple Muffins with Crunchy Cinnamon Topping
This recipe was created in collaboration with Midwest Dairy as part of the dairy community’s Undeniably Dairy campaign . I was compensated for my time, but the content and opinions included are my own.
It’s fall, ya’ll…or can we agree it’s basically winter already?? It’s currently 16 degrees outside as I write this. Holy moly, summer transitioned into winter quickly! But to be honest, I’m loving cozy sweaters and pajama pants, candles, hot coffee, and pumpkin spice EVERYTHING. If you follow me on instagram, you know that I’m already listening to Christmas music. There’s no shame in my game.
So in light of the changing weather, fall produce, and the upcoming holidays, I am bringing you these delicious fall apple muffins with crunchy cinnamon topping!!
My neighbor recently had a baby (I promise this is a relevant story), so I wanted to bring her family some snacks to eat on while they figured out a rhythm for taking care of a newborn. I know when we had Camden that meals brought to us was so helpful. And I also know that my hunger was like none other, so snacks and substantial meals were essential. I found an apple muffin recipe that I made for them, but found them to be super dry and dense, and they weren’t sweet enough for my preference. So I decided I needed to perfect my own apple muffin recipe. After a few tries, I found a recipe that brings the right amount of sweetness (it’s there, but not overly so) and is tender and moist.
A few of my tricks for this recipe is the buttermilk, almond flour, and preparation technique. Now, I’m sure you could use regular milk (you know, because thinking AHEAD to get buttermilk doesn’t always happen), but buttermilk gives it moisture and a nice fluffy texture. Leftover buttermilk is great for pancakes, biscuits, scones, and even oven fried chicken nuggets. The majority of the flour used is white whole wheat and all purpose, but I added a little almond flour to make them more moist. It’s actually a trick I use in a lot of my baked goods. Lastly, I made sure to not over mix the batter. The instructions included help to minimize mixing so that your muffins don’t turn out like a rock. You’re welcome. 😉
Oh and that crunchy cinnamon topping? It’s optional, but not really optional, if you know what I mean. It reminds me of coffee cake…which is why I think you should make them for a thanksgiving/friendsgiving/special-family-gather brunch. And if you want to make them a little more fancy, just drizzle some powdered sugar icing or cream cheese frosting on top!
I’d love to hear if you made these and what you think!!
Fall Apple Muffins with Crunchy Cinnamon Topping
Ingredients
- 1 C buttermilk (warmed in microwave for 30 seconds)
- 1 egg
- 1/3 C melted coconut oil
- 1/4 C maple syrup
- 1 1/4 C white whole wheat flour
- 2/3 C all purpose flour
- 1/3 C almond flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 C finely diced apple (granny smith, pink lady, or honeycrisp)
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 3 Tbsp white sugar
- ½ tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425.
- Finely chop apple and combine with remaining dry ingredients. Mix together.
- In a separate bowl, microwave the buttermilk to warm it slightly. If not, the melted coconut oil will solidify and make mixing difficult. Add the egg, maple syrup, and coconut oil.
- Fold the wet ingredients into the dry, being careful to not over mix the batter (that makes them dry and dense). Grease a 12 muffin tin and divide the batter evenly—the tins will be full.
- Microwave the butter and add the sugar and cinnamon and mix. Top muffins with a teaspoon or so of mixture.
- Bake for 5 minutes, decrease temperature to 400 and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Muffins are done when a toothpick comes out clean.
For more dairy inspired recipes, you can check out https://dairygood.org/recipes.