.For the Love of all Things Nutritious & Delicious.

I love food.

I love making food, and I love eating food. I also love experimenting with different kinds of food. There is not too much that I won't try - once. And I have a very wide palate.

Except for

soda

marshmallows

coconut.

Those three things I just do not like. At. all.

I go in phases where I "health food binge". I become manic about researching health foods, trying new things, scrounging around our local health food store, and exploring new recipes, but then it consumes me. And I start to freak out when my children have a teaspoon of refined sugar or they go to someones house and have a pop tart or food dye in a cupcake that was made from a box. I think surely they will die from this unnatural awfulness, and then I panic and fear the worse and try to control every morsel they put in their mouth.... etc. It's an awful thing. I wish I was not an "all or nothing girl". I wish I knew how to be in the middle, because I don't want to live like that crazy mom I just described. Yes, I want to feed my family good food, I want to be healthy, I want my family to be healthy. I want to honor God by stewarding the body He gave me, and the family He entrusted me with, but I do not want to be mastered by anything except for God (Matthew 6:24). So this is a delicate dance for me. I write all of this to say, that I am cautiously dipping my toes back into the health food "pool", and balancing it with yummy indulgences and seeing them as a blessing when used in moderation. Because I will not be consumed by this. I won't be.

And with that here are a few healthy recipes that I have tried in the past few days that have been amazing. I thought I would pass them on. That is the real reason for this post. I just took a round about way to get here. {grin}

Homemade Breakfast Bars - except I replaced the slivered almonds with crushed cocoa almonds, and  shook two tablespoons of flax seed over the bars while they were still hot. I used almond nut butter, honey, and raisins in mine.

Black Bean Toss - This is an amazing, HUGE salad that is packed with protein and fiber. It was soooo good. We had it for dinner last night (the salad was the meal - it is completely a meal on its own), and I am officially adding it into our Monday night salad rotation.

Kale Chips - Ooooh my. These you must try! My children were stealing them off of the tray right out of the oven. They are amazing! Next time I am going to try making a salt and vinegar version.

 Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding - Yes, it is made from the seeds that chia pets grow from. Ha! I have been using chia seeds on and off for about a year, and I am so excited to find more uses for them - this being one. I added some natural peanut butter in mine. It was yummy.

You can follow me here on Pinterest to see some other healthy (and some not-so-healthy - balance, remember?!) recipes that I have tried, and I plan to try. Now, how about you share some of yours?!

(Cadi has another blood draw today, I will update the blog's facebook page with her count. You can get to it by clicking the facebook badge on my right sidebar. Thank you for praying for her.)