I saw a meme the other day that said it's still snowing in April because Mother Nature saw our summer bodies and knew we weren't ready yet. 🤣 Ain't that the truth! My clean eating diet was supposed to start...well, um, 6 months ago. And here we are. My life is a series of promises to myself that I will eat healthier, snack better, and count my calories and welp, negative. But today, today I made raw carrot cake bars. I am married to a snack hoarder and that makes it twice as hard for me to stick to my meal plans; but having healthier alternatives like these bars definitely helps out. They are no-bake so they whip up super quickly! You will have to soak your cashews overnight but that's pretty much the longest step. Also, I actually realized while making these that I don't own a grater. But thankfully, my Cuisinart food processor came in clutch with a shredder attachment and I shredded my carrots in half the time it would have taken me to do it by ha...

Happy 2019 everybody! It's the start of a new year which means it's time for new commitments to old goals. I've been telling myself for a few months now that I have to start eating better and even though we're 8 days into the new year, I've still got nothing to show for it! I wouldn't say it's super challenging to eat healthy, it's just once you've got your body so used to the unhealthy stuff, it's a bit of a struggle. But I'm really going to try to at least make small steps here and there, and the first one is going to be eating a better breakfast. I typically try to buy protein bars to have with my iced coffee in the morning, but those are often loaded with a lot of sugar and not so easy on the teeth. So, I decided to make my own breakfast protein muffins. I guess these are still on the "sweeter" side for a breakfast, but HEY, baby steps. I don't take my coffee with ANY sugar or creamer, so I deserve it. Plus, th...

I can't wait to tell you guys all about this recipe but first, can we talk about the fact that we've had 65+ degree weather for the past week in New Jersey. I mean, what is life, REALLY? I almost feel like all this nice weather is leading up to a terrible snowstorm. Like, Mother Nature is just messing with us right now. This weather is TOO nice for her not to be up to something. #seriouslyworried But I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and just enjoy this beautiful weather...though yesterday was a little too sticky and hot for my taste....but I'll take it!  Speaking of sticky and hot, ovens are definitely a no-go in that type of weather. Hence, this no-bake recipe I'm sharing today. It's never too soon to start adding no-bake recipes to your arsenals! Also, summer bodies are made in the winter so homemade larabars are definitely the way you want to go right now. They're made of six simple ingredients, naturally sweetened, dairy fre...

As I'm writing this, I can currently breathe through zero nostrils and my molar tooth which has had a root canal is somehow throbbing in pain. Also, there are not enough tissues in the world to soak up the oceans leaking from my nose. Too much visual? Okay, I'll stop there. To paraphrase, I'm totally under the weather this week. BUT, I must resume my blogging responsibilities, so today, I have for you a no-bake truffle recipe that takes literally minutes to make. And it's healthy! We are all about the dates and nuts this month. Remember these no-bake brownies from last week? Well, these are essentially the same, except with different types of nuts and the addition of some cozy winter spices. Clearly, my food processor didn't do a stellar job at grinding up my nuts, but I don't mind the crunch! That being said, a Blendtec will definitely be on my wedding registry!

Houston, we have a problem. My brother refuses to eat any more of my "unhealthy" baked goods...which is basically all of them. Granted, this is a temporary situation until he can start running again (ACL surgery has him on lockdown), but any time is too long of a time for me because I have zero self-control around sweets. Thus, I am being forced to change my entire baking regimen. And not just for myself. But because being the great sister that I am, I can't just make unhealthy stuff and give them away to someone else. I want to make things for him to enjoy while he recovers. *Insert awwwwws here* Yeah, he got lucky with me. So here's the first installment of healthy baking for Adam. Or healthy no-baking, I should say. Vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, carrot cake balls. No cake was harmed in the making of these balls. Only nuts, carrots, and dates. And a few classic carrot cake spices.  Oh, and some shredded coconut.

Hello again and welcome to the second installment of #FourDaysofEid! Today, we're talking truffles, but not the rich, buttery, sugar-laden kind. No, no, no. We're talking the vegan, gluten-free, raw, better for your body kind! That's right, we're talking about the one, the only, date truffle. Date truffles have been popping up around the interwebs for quite some time now, so zero points for me for originality today. However, I did put a cultural twist on them, so to speak, so a little creativity was involved! If you don't already know, Middle Easterners love their dates, Desis love their pistachios, and North-Africans love their orange blossom water. So, naturally, I combined the three! Then, I threw in a touch of cinnamon for added flavor and a touch of honey for some sweetness, and voila, I created the perfect Eid truffle!

Hey everyone! My name is Jessica of Jessiker Bakes and I'm here helping Meriem with posts while she is celebrating Ramadan. Today I decided to bring you some raw brownie bites. I'm a definite dessert lover but as we know, sometimes they can get a bit fattening! I’ve been trying to find options that are not only lower in added sugar, but are honest-to-goodness better for you. I’m on a whole health kick right now and have been experimenting with vegan recipes and I’ve been loving dates. If you’ve never tried them, dates are naturally sweet, and remind me of like a chewier, sweeter raisin loaded with tons of nutrients, vitamins and minerals. That’s why they had to be the prime ingredient in these bites next to chocolate. Enough about health stuff, back to these brownie bites. The ingredients are so simple - cocoa powder, dates, almonds and walnuts. That’s it! The result is a bite that really does taste like a brownie bite, really! The texture is there, the chewin...

June is here! And boy am I glad it is! May was a completely booked, completely crazy cake making season and it felt so good to turn the page on my calendar and see BLANK spaces. Finally, I can catch my breath for a bit and get back to my regular posting schedule. I'm sure you guys are excited about that, right? :) Today, I come bearing granola bars. The NO-bake kind, because my oven is tired and I am tired. And I just want quick, simple and delicious. These granola bars fit that description to a T! There's only eight ingredients, four of which you'll mix together in a saucepan to create the "glue" that holds these bars together. The other four create the chewy/delicious factor. I was in a pretzel M&M kind of mood, not to be confused with actual pretzel M&Ms, which are also a great thing. But I only had mini M&Ms on hand, so I used them in a combination with regular pretzels.

As made obvious by my last few posts, I've been on a no-bake kick lately. And as you can tell from the title of this post, the kick continues. You see, I have recently discovered that not only are no-bake desserts great for when it's too hot to turn your oven on, but they're also super simple to make and always have exceptionally delicious results. So, this no-bake trend just might carry on throughout the winter months. I'm so serious. This recipe in particular will definitely be frequenting my kitchen for the rest of eternity. Allow me to introduce you to the holy grail of granola bars. A darn near perfect replica of the ever so popular Quaker Chewy granola bars. You will not be able to believe your taste buds. I certainly couldn't. 

Well, we're back to summer weather here in Jersey, after a weekend of rain and obnoxiously cold temperatures. I suppose this should be good news, except humidity was like a million percent yesterday so...yeah. Wasn't exactly basking in it. On the bright side, the disgustingly hot weather inspired me to make these no-bake peanut butter pretzel bites, which turned out super bangin'. Tieghan originally posted these as cookies last month, but I wanted to try something a little different. Something a little more poppable. With a little more chocolate. Poppable chocolate covered peanut butter pretzel bites it was.

Hey there readers! I hope you all had a good weekend. I, myself, had a great one. I road-tripped to Syracuse for a friend's wedding and it was awesome. The road trip included but was not limited to lots of beautiful open roads, annoying road construction, sneaky highway patrol vehicles, mother-father-daughter bonding time, a close encounter with the back of someone's SUV, a crazy thunderstorm, coffee, more coffee, and these banana oat snack bars. While road trips are usually my excuse to eat all the junk food in the world, I wanted to change things up this time around and make something healthy to bring along. Ewww, healthy? I know. That word tends to send people running for the hills. But trust me, you're going to want to stick around for this. These bars are the epitome of granola bars. Rare is it for something healthy to be delicious, but that stereotype has been broken here. Despite their added oats and whole-wheat flour, and no added processed suga...