Healthy Halloween Recipes

Twix Bars, Milky Ways, Snickers…

If you’re cutting back on sugar, watching your weight, or living with food allergies, Halloween can be a scary time. For treats without the tricks, here are eleven not-so-scary healthy Halloween recipes:

Homemade Butterfingers

Eatmore Fudge Chocolate Bars

Snickers Ice Cream Bars

Homemade Mounds Bars

Healthy Twix Bars

Inside Out Peanut Butter Cups

Copycat Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes

Vegan Candy Corn

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cups

Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie Bites

Mint Chocolate Nanaimo Bars

This post is part two of the healthy Halloween recipes. If you didn’t see your favorite copycat candy bar, it might very well be included in part one, linked below:

More Recipes: 16 More Healthy Halloween Recipes

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Casual and Healthy Lunch at Twist Eatery

Twist Eatery recently opened in La Brea, serving breakfast, lunch and baked goods along with coffee.

The lunch menu is mostly healthy (although they do have a burger if you're so inclined).

I got the Salmon Bowl, with lentil, quinoa salad tossed in a pomegranate, vinaigrette served with moroccan spiced salmon and a citrus salsa ($14)

The salmon was nicely cooked, still moist, and the sauce and dressing were flavorful yet still light. I really liked this for a healthy yet still filling lunch.

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Now at Pinkberry: Greek Yogurt and Great Savory Bowls!

Did you know that Pinkberry now has greek yogurt? Not a "greek" frozen yogurt, but a bonafide greek yogurt, and they use it to make some great bowls! Yes, Pinkberry's not just about froyo anymore.

I was recently invited to the Pinkberry headquarters in Santa Monica to do a blind tasting of greek yogurts and try their new Powerbowls. When else will I get a chance to visit their headquarters??

When I eat yogurt at home, I usually just add fruit and granola to it - maybe honey. That's it, and you probably do, too. But Pinkberry has been getting quite creative with their greek yogurt! I was amazed by their Sunflower Cucumber combination in which they top their greek yogurt (named "Pinkberrygreek") with cucumber, sunflower seed bites (like sunflower cookies), olive oil, and chili powder.

You don't have to have dessert at Pinkberry, you can have something savory too! I never thought of making something like this with yogurt, and was very pleasantly surprised. It was sweet and savory, silky and crunchy. This bowl has a very Mediterranean flavor to it, and will make a great light meal or snack. I'm already itching to go to a Pinkberry to get this.
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Healthy Vegan Cuisine at Dr. J's Vibrant Cafe (Downtown LA)

Being a food blogger is hazardous, so a healthy, vegan dinner is a welcome change once in a while. Recently this came to me with a preview dinner at the new Dr J's Vibrant Cafe in downtown LA.

The owner of Dr J's is the young man in the picture who opened this cafe to honor his mother and her cooking. His mother is the cute little woman next to him. Story was that he got really sick after attending college and was supposed to go on life long medication, but his mother, Dr. J, told him to try eating her pure, clean eating lifestyle before going on the medication. As you can guess, he got better and no longer needed his medication. Now he wants to spread this lifestyle by opening the cafe.

What I liked about Dr. J's Vibrant Cafe is that the food is not only vegan but actually healthy - as in low sodium, low sugar etc. Some vegan or vegetarian places around didn't actually seem that healthy to me because they tend to be overly salty to make up for the lack of meat or dairy. The food here, like the kale salad, quinoa spring salad, or brown rice medley, tasted healthy but still has enough flavor (the rice noodle one was still a bit bland to me)

Of the ones I tried, I really liked the brown rice medley (with peas, onions, carrots, and tofu) and the Curried Potatoes with carrots, green beans, and peas.

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Red, White, and Blue Fruit Cups

Hey friends.

It's time to get all patriotic up in here.

 

 

I'm keeping it simple yet colorful and so pretty with these Red, White, and Blue Fruit Cups. I love themed foods if you can't tell already.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tend to go a little overboard with the themed foodie props too. This time it's all in the name of independence!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What can I say? I love my country!

 

Red, White, and Blue Fruit Cups

slightly adapted from Rachael Ray

• 1 pint fresh strawberries
• 1 pint fresh blueberries
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 pint heavy whipping cream

Slice strawberries and combine in a bowl with blueberries. Sprinkle berries with two teaspoons sugar.

Add heavy whipping cream and remaining sugar to mixer bowl. Whip cream until soft peaks form. Serve berries in small cups with generous spoonfuls of fresh whipped cream.

Printable Recipe

 

Aren't you proud to be free?!

 

Need some more patriotic inspiration? Check out these other patriotic recipes from my blog, though most don't have pictures because I still need to go back and update ones that were lost! But the recipes are still good :) 

 

Happy 4th of July everyone!

 

Peace, and bacon grease!

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Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop Starts Juicing

Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop has been a popular destination for salad and other healthy breakfast and lunch options, with more locations slowly popping up. Recently, they've also started offering juices to meet their customers' demands. Their executive chef, Kristi Ritchey, explains that there are two types of juicers The centrifugal juicers are high speed and create heat. This type of juicer separates juice from the pulp. On the other hand, Greenleaf uses a slow speed juicer which extracts more fiber from the ingredients. I came in to taste the juices on my own.

Red grape juice

Greenleaf sells pure juices including carrot and tomato ($5.95), orange, grapefruit, green apple, and red grape pure juices ($6.95). If those prices seem high, keep in mind that these are all 20oz servings and use higher priced ingredients. Even though red apple is cheaper, Kristi decides to use Granny Smith apple for the juice because it gives a crisper flavor. They also use red grapes instead of the cheaper green grapes because the green ones have a metallic aftertaste.


You can also build your own juice for $6.95, for which you can select three main ingredients like kale, apple, pineapple, cucumber, etc and add one accent like ginger, celery, jalapeno, mint, or parsley. All the juices can be sold in a sealed bottle to take home (they do suggest consuming anything with ginger within a day, though).
If you're baffled by the choices, just go with one of their signature juices.

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Strawberries and Cream Crunch Parfaits

I always look forward to The Secret Recipe Club each month. I've found some amazing blogs and posted some amazing recipes over the years I've been a member.

It's exciting being assigned to a new blog and searching through their recipe archive to find the perfect recipe for me. This month was no different - I was assigned to Serena and Deanna's blog, Teaspoon of Spice, a new-to-me blog. Perfect timing too, they are two dieticians and lately I have been wanting to get my butt in shape. 

 

A little. You saw my Bacon Spinach Cheese Ball (it has spinach in it at least, does that count??) and Salted Caramel Pretzel Bark recently, and I doubled the caramel on that bark recipe, so I can't say I'm very strict with it. I just can't give up my good-for-my-taste buds-but-bad-for-my-belly foods. But I've been more conscious of trying to drink more water, and since I work at a desk all day, of getting up and taking more steps throughout the day and taking the stairs whenever possible. And I can eat some healthier recipes here and there too, without giving up the foods I love still.

On my first trip to Whole Foods, I knew this would be the perfect time to pick up some organic strawberries and healthy granola to make their Strawberries and Cream Crunch Parfaits. I already had some Greek yogurt in my fridge from the salad I made the other day with Chipotle Ranch Dressing.

Strawberries and Cream Crunch Parfaits

from Teaspoon of Spice

• 3/4 cup sliced strawberries
• 2 tablespoons mascarpone cheese (or reduced fat cream cheese)
• 2 tablespoons nonfat Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup low fat granola 
• whipped cream, for topping

In a small bowl, mix together mascarpone cheese and yogurt. In a parfait glass, layer 1/4 cup sliced strawberries. Spoon half of the cheese/yogurt mixture onto strawberries in the parfait glass. Layer with 2 tablespoons granola. Repeat with another 1/4 cup layer of strawberries, the remaining cheese/yogurt mixture and remaining granola. Top with remaining strawberries and dollop with whipped cream.

Printable Recipe

We were surprised at how much we liked this! I've got some strawberries leftover so I'll be whipping another one of these together for a light and healthy snack very soon. This healthy thing won't be so hard after all with delicious recipes like this!

Check out what the other Group C members brought to the table!! 



Linking up here.  


Peace, and bacon grease!

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