CUPCAKE DIET

Today my kids and I made lemon cupcakes!  I was in the mood to bake something and was leaning towards blueberry muffins since we still have a lot of fresh blueberries left from picking last week, but my son wanted cupcakes,  and surprisingly lemon.  I myself, like all cupcakes, well to be honest, I like almost all desserts, haha, but I thought for sure he would pick chocolate.  However, the lemon ones were delicious! We made regular size cupcakes and mini ones too, which was good for me, so I could eat a couple without feeling completely terrible!  I've been trying to eat healthier these last few weeks.  I wouldn't mind losing just a couple of pounds. 

So instead of cupcakes, I should be eating this: 

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Which don't get me wrong, I love fruits, but I do have a sweet tooth!  Goodness, dieting can be no fun!  What about you all?  Are any of you on any type of diet?  If so, what are your go to recipes? 

I'm really into nuts and seeds right now. 

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 My current favorite seeds right now are raw pumpkin seeds and my go to nuts are raw almonds and a little bit of walnuts too.  Pair nuts and seeds with a a little bit of dried fruit and it's super yummy! Although you really have to watch the sugar content on dried fruit.  Do you have a favorite healthy snack?  

Healthy Snacks

Just wanted to share with you girls a few yummy things I recently came across.  I'm trying to find new options for healthy snacking and I found a semi local store that had some random organic items scattered throughout.  This was the first item I came across:

Bare Fruits: Organic Dried Mango

 I enjoy dried fruit, but not all the ones you find in the stores are organic,  this company Bare Fruit, which was new to me, offers several options for dried fruits and fruit chips.  All organic, all made in a NUT FREE facility (which can be difficult to find sometimes, so I cherish companies like this, when I find them, since I have a nut allergy!)  It's gluten free, no added sugar, preservatives, or additives.  Mango is the only one I have tried so far, but they offer dried pear, which I want to try next, as well as, dried apples (different varieties) dried cherries, and a few others.  Check out their website here.  So good, you won't be disappointed!

Another tasty organic treat I came across is:

Go Naturally Organic Hard candies 

I bought a bag of the pomegranate flavor and it was very delicious! Made handmade in America, gluten free, natural flavors and colors.  You get 4 pieces for 60 calories.  The picture isn't the greatest quality but they offer flavors such as apple, cherry, ginger, honey, honey lemon, and of course the pomegranate.  Check out their website here. 

I also wanted to mention one of my favorite companies that I came across this last year.  It's called:

Enjoy Life.  

This food company avoids 8 of the major allergens out there!  Which is why I love them!  They never use or come in contact with the following eight:  

wheat/gluten, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish or shellfish
 
Having a nut allergy I have to pay attention to labels all the time on foods, especially sweets.  Having this company avoid them entirely makes me confident in my purchases!  Some of you may not know how difficult it is to find chocolates that a person with a nut allergy, can actually have.  Before I came across Enjoy life, I was limited to Andes Mints and Junior Mints.  Enjoy Life has actual chocolate bars that I can munch on!  When I found these in my local Martin's store and the health food store I bought all the 3 varieties of their chocolate bars!!  As well as some chewy snack bars. 
 

 The Boom dark chocolate bar and the rice milk chocolate bar are both vegan as well!!
 The chewy snack bars I've mentioned are just as good and also vegan!

I've had the caramel apple and the cocoa loco flavors but they also offer sunbutter crunch, and a very berry flavor.  Enjoy Life makes a wide range of products, like cereals, granola, cookies, bagels, and more.  Please check out their website here. 

Have you girls found any organic healthy snacks out there?  I'd love to know what ones you enjoy!  There may be some that are new to me, that I would love to learn more about!

I also always try to snack on plenty of fruits.  Here lately, I've been loving grapefruits!  So yummy and rich with vitamin C!  I recently tried an Asian pear for the first time, and it was so delicious!  I love regular pears but this type of pear is different.  It's crunchy like an apple!  Love it!  Apples are another favorite of mine as well! How about you?

When you snack healthy, what do you eat?