Simple Rice Cakes with middle-eastern toppings

Hello! Here's a quick thing I made for lunch that tasted a lot better than I expected:


Brown rice cakes with tahini and hummus, topped with goat cheese crumbles, basil, and paprika.

Yum!! :)

Chocolate Almond Cookies

My mom got this recipe from a  friend of hers in Jerusalem, and decided to make a chocolate, sugar-free version. This was my first time making them on my own, and they're so good!! The best part is that there are only 4 ingredients!







Recipe:

 (Creates about a dozen cookies)

1.5 Cups Sliced Almonds
1/2 Cup Coconut Sugar or Xylitol
2 Egg Whites
1/4 cup Cacao Powder
Optional: Unsweetened Shredded Coconut may be sprinkled on top
Optional: Coconut Oil to grease the baking sheet


Directions: 

Preset the oven to 180˚C, or 350˚F.

Whisk egg whites in a large bowl. Add in the sweetener of your choice, the cacao powder, and the almonds. Stir it all up until everything is evenly wet. 

Grease a baking sheet with coconut oil, or you can line the baking sheet with baking-safe wax paper. 

Scoop tablespoon-sized plops of the mixture onto the baking sheet, and pat them so they are somewhat squished circles, but not flat. You may sprinkle coconut flakes on top at this time, if you wish. 

Bake for about 12 minutes, or until the coconut flakes start to turn brown. 

Then simply peel them off the wax paper, or get a spatula to get them off the greased sheet. 

They are amazing!! :D

Brown Rice & Veggies Mix

I had a ton of vegetables in the fridge that needed to be eaten, and a bag of brown rice in my pantry that I forgot I had, so I put them all together! I added almonds and cashews towards the end for a nice occasional crunch in the mix. :) It was a bit bitter because of the rutabaga and turmeric, but I liked it anyway. See what you think!


Recipe:

 (Creates 2 servings)

1 Cup Brown Rice
2 Cups water
2 Kale Leaves, diced (even the stems, if you'd like)
1 Tomato, diced
1 small Rutabaga, diced
2 Garlic cloves, minced
1/4 Cup diced Yellow Onions
1/2 Bell Pepper, diced
1 Green Onion, diced
1 Handful of Almonds
1 Handful of Cashews
Tumeric
Garlic Powder
Ground Ginger
Rosemary
Basil
Oregano
Pepper
Salt


Directions:

Let the water boil in a medium pot. Once it starts boiling, stir in the brown rice with some salt. Turn the heat down to medium-high and put a lid on the pot, but leave it partially uncovered.

Leave the chopped tomatoes and bell peppers on the side, but throw in the other veggies as you cut them.



Let the rice cook for a total of about 40 minutes, or as the package suggests. Once the rice is done cooking, stir in the tomatoes, bell peppers, nuts and spices.

Let it sit for like 2 minutes to get heated by the rice, and then serve. I
personally like to add the salt and pepper last, once it is served.

Enjoy!

Quinoa Pasta with veggies, ginger, & creamy tomato sauce

Hello! It's been a while. I recently discovered that quinoa pasta is a thing, so I tried it out and had great results! I used the sugar free tomato sauce & plain yogurt combo again, which has become my new favorite pasta sauce :)

Recipe:

(Creates 1 Serving)

About 1-2 Cups Quinoa Pasta

1/2 Broccoli head, diced

1/4 Large Tomato, diced

2 Strips of Red Bell Pepper, diced

1/4 Cup yellow onions, diced

1 Clove Garlic, minced

1 Chunk of Fresh Ginger (the size of a clove of garlic), peeled & minced

1/2 Handful of Fresh Parsley

1 1/2 Tablespoons Grated Parmesan Cheese

1/2 - 3/4 Cup Tomato Sauce (make sure there's no sugar in it!)

1/2 Cup Plain Goat Yogurt

Garlic Salt (optional, if you want it less spicy than mine)

Rosemary

Oregano

Basil

Salt

Directions

Fill a medium-sized pot with water half way and set it to boil. 

As the water heats up, chop up the ingredients and throw them in as you go. I start with the ginger and onions first, and then noodles, and more veggies in no particular order. I save the fresh parsley, tomato, and garlic for last. (I add those in when I add in the sauce.)

Boil the ingredients for as long as the pasta package recommends the pasta should be cooked. Drain the pasta, and then put the pasta back into the same pot. Turn the burner off. 

Add the parsley, garlic, tomato pieces, and spices to the pasta. Then stir in your tomato sauce and plain goat yogurt. Let that heat up on the same burner, it should still be hot. Stir for about a minute or until it's at a satisfactory temperature.

Serve it in a bowl or on a plate and sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top. 

Enjoy! 

Spicy Veggie Pasta with Tomato & Yogurt Sauces, and Fresh Ginger

Hello! So typically on the candida diet, tomato products are avoided because they tend to contain sugar. However,  I searched until I found a brand of tomato sauce that didn't have sugar in it, and I'm happy to have marinara sauce back in my life!

I've recently developed a love for fresh ginger in all of my cooked meals, so this recipe is no exception! The strong garlic and ginger made this pasta pretty spicy, so if you're not a fan of spicy I'd recommend leaving those two out of this mix.


Recipe:

(Creates 1 Serving)

About 1-2 Cups Brown Rice Pasta
1-2 Stalks Celery, diced
1/4 Large Tomato, diced
1 or 2 Handfuls of Spinach
2 Strips of Red Bell Pepper, diced
1/4 Cup yellow onions, diced
1 Clove Garlic, minced
1 Chunk of Fresh Ginger (the size of a clove of garlic), peeled & minced
1/2 Handful of Fresh Parsley
1 1/2 Tablespoons Grated Parmesan Cheese
1/2 - 3/4 Cup Tomato Sauce (make sure there's no sugar in it!)
1/2 Cup Plain Yogurt
Garlic Salt (optional, if you want it less spicy than mine)
Cayenne Pepper (optional, if you want it less spicy than mine)

Rosemary

Oregano

Basil

Salt

Directions:

Boil water in a medium sized pot. As the water heats up, chop and throw in the celery, ginger, and onions. Once the water is boiling, add in the brown rice noodles and boil it all as long as the noodle package directs you to.

As that all cooks, chop up the tomato, red bell pepper, and garlic, and put them on a dish to the side. Wash the spinach, and add it to the boiling pasta when there's about 5 minutes left of cooking time. Wash the parsley, cut up the stalks if you'd like, and put those on the plate to the side as well.

When the pasta is done cooking, drain the water out and put all the food back in the same pot. Add in all of the chopped veggies you had put to the side.

Stir in the tomato sauce and the plain yogurt. Stir it all together over a medium heat until the mixture has been heated to your liking. Add in the spices listed above.








Serve with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top if you'd like!

Almond Butter Cookies!

That's right! I was finally brave enough to bake some sugar-free treats again this week! :D I had almost a whole jar of almond butter sitting in my pantry that I had rarely been using, and I still had brown rice flour in the fridge left over from my last batch of delicious sugar free brownies, so I made myself some long overdo safety treats!


Recipe:

(Creates about 25 cookies)

2 1/4 Cups Brown Rice Flour
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp Salt
1 Stick of Salted Butter, softened
1 Cup Xylitol
2 Eggs
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
3/4 Cup Creamy Almond Butter (make sure there's no sugar in it!)
1/2 Bar of Baking Chocolate, diced (again, make sure there's no sugar in it!)
3/4 Cup Almonds, each chopped in half
2 Tbs Milk or Almond Milk (optional, if needed)


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375˚.

Chop the almonds and baking chocolate bar, and mix all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Once it's all mixed thoroughly, you can add a little bit of milk if it's still kinda dry like mine was.

Place spoonfuls of the cookie dough about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. (It doesn't even need to be greased! Yeah!) You can aim for about a 1 1/2 Tbs spoonful size.

Bake 14 minutes, and then take them out to cool.


Mine kind of came out tasting like healthy muffins, which isn't a bad thing, but wasn't as delicious-cookie-ish as I was expecting. That's why the recipe above includes a bit more xylitol and chocolate pieces than the ones I made. I've been eating these every day since I made them though, they've gotten addicting!

Hope you enjoy them too!

Quinoa with Chicken and Red Chard pieces

Hello! I know it's been a while, but I've been either making things that I've already posted, or making things that cheated the diet too much to be featured on here, but here's something new I threw together that I wanted to share!

This recipe has been brought to you by my unwillingness to wash more than one pot after making dinner. ;)


Recipe:

(Creates 1 Serving)

1 Cup Water
1/2 Cup Quinoa
1 Chicken Breast, diced
2-3 Large Red Chard stalks, diced
1/5 Yellow Onion, diced
1 Garlic Clove, minced
Cayenne Pepper
Salted Butter
Rosemary
Oregano
Salt


Directions:

Rinse the quinoa and put in in a pot with 1 cup of water. As you wait for that to boil, chop up chicken, chard, onions, and garlic and stir them in as you finish.

Let it all simmer in the pot with a lid, on a medium heat, for about 15-20 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Add in your spices, and add butter if desired.

Enjoy a healthy, balanced meal with only one pot to clean!

(I made this same thing with brown rice instead of quinoa yesterday, and since it all had longer to cook, the chard and chicken broke down into smaller pieces which actually worked really well, in my opinion. Feel free to try it too, if you have an hour to spare!)

Garlic Veggie Grilled Cheese Sandwich

I thought of this sandwich recipe last night when I couldn't fall asleep. I knew I had broccoli, bread, and cheese in my fridge, so I made a veggie grilled cheese sandwich! I didn't cook the garlic with the other veggies, so the taste was still strong and added a nice garlic bread taste to the sandwich :)




Even though bread is not ideal for the diet, my mom and I have found that if you use whole wheat (vs. white), it doesn't do much harm, especially later in the diet.

Recipe:

(Creates 1 Serving)

1 handful of chopped broccoli
4 grape tomatoes, each cut in half
2 slices of cheddar cheese
Salted butter
1 handful of chopped yellow onions
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 slices of whole wheat bread
Salt

Directions:

Sauté the broccoli and onions in a pan greased with butter. 

In the meantime, prepare the garlic and tomatoes. 

Butter the 2 slices of bread on one side. Place one cheese slice on each bread slice. 

When the broccoli and onions have been cooked to your liking, put them on top of one of the slices of bread and cheese. Add the chopped tomatoes and garlic.

Then put the other piece of bread and cheese on top, so that both cheese sides are in the middle. 

Fry the sandwich for about a minute or so on both sides, in a pan greased with butter. 

Plop it onto a plate, and enjoy!! 

I'd recommend dipping the sandwich in Pace Salsa before each bite, but I unfortunately did not have any salsa at the time. It would have been even more amazing with salsa though!

Chicken, Quinoa, & Veggie Soup

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm sick today, so I made a bunch of chicken soup to try to get better ASAP, especially since my friend and I are supposed to teach a polka dance lesson for the NAU Swing Club in two days.

I also bought a ridiculous amount of citrus, just in case the soup wasn't enough, haha.

Also- I've been researching food photography on Pinterest this week, so hopefully this photo is the beginning of a series of more professional food photographs!


Recipe:

(Creates 4 Servings)

7 Cups Chicken Broth
8 Cherry Tomatoes, chopped in half
1/3 Large Yellow Onion, diced
5 Cloves of Garlic, minced
2 Big Handfuls of Green Beans, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 Chicken Breasts, chopped bite-sized
1/2 Orange Bell Pepper, diced
2 Stalks of Celery, diced
2 Cups Quinoa
1 Small Head of Broccoli, chopped bite-sized
1 Cup of Fresh Parsley, torn bite-sized (including stems, if you'd like)
Rosemary
Thyme
Basil
Salt

Directions:

Chop up the tomatoes, onion, garlic, green beans, chicken, bell pepper, broccoli, and parsley. Put everything in a large pot, along with 2 cups of quinoa.

Pour in the chicken broth, and bring it all to a boil.

Boil it all for about 20 minutes, stirring it occasionally. (While you're waiting for it to finish, you could take cool steam photos like I did ;) )

Once the quinoa looks cooked, serve the soup with sprinkles of basil, thyme, basil, and salt on top.

Stay healthy!


p.s. If you're wondering how many citrus fruits I bought to get healthy, here's your answer:

I also ordered some ACF Fast Relief to help me out, I'd highly recommend it! It's strong stuff; it tends to get me better pretty quick.

Quinoa Oatmeal

I woke up sick this morning, which is why you're getting two new, warm, healthy recipes in one day, haha. I needed warm, soft food for my throat, so I found some Quinoa Flakes to make some hot cereal with. I mixed in cacao nibs, soaked almonds, and a few blackberries; and sprinkled coconut, cinnamon, and lots of xylitol on top. It gave me some voice back! :)

Recipe:

(Creates 1 Serving) 

2/3 Cups Quinoa Flakes
1 Handful Soaked Almonds
2 Cups Water
4 Blackberries
2 TSP Raw Cacao Nibs
1 TSP Unsweetened Coconut Sprinkles
Cinnamon
Xylitol

Directions:

Soak a handful of almonds in filtered water overnight. (They become so juicy and delicious the next morning!!)

Boil 2 cups of water in a medium pot. Stir in quinoa flakes, and continue stirring for about 2 minutes until the quinoa is thick.

Pour the quinoa flakes into a bowl, and mix in the almonds, cacao nibs, and blackberries.

Sprinkle coconut, cinnamon, and xylitol on top.

Enjoy it! I know your throat will ;)

Chicken Pasta

Here's another good meat/dinner recipe! This post has been brought to you thanks to the window next to my desk, which lights up my meals and inspires me to post them haha ;)









Recipe:

(Creates 2 Servings)

2 Cups Brown Rice Pasta
1 Chicken Breast, Chopped
1/4 Cup Salted Butter (can be parve butter if you want to keep it kosher ;) )
1/3 Large Yellow Onion, Diced
3 Cloves of Garlic, minced
1-2 Tablespoons of Coconut Oil
Rosemary
Turmeric
Cayenne Pepper
Cinnamon
Salt


Directions:

Put a tablespoon of coconut oil in a pot of water. Boil the noodles and the pieces of chicken in there for about 10 minutes, or longer if the noodle package calls for it. Chop up and add in the onions and garlic as it boils.

When it's finished, strain it and put the food back in the pot. Add in another tablespoon of coconut oil and the butter, and mix it over the stove until the butter melts. Season with rosemary, turmeric, salt, cinnamon, and a little cayenne pepper.

(If you have leftovers, I'd recommend putting them in your scrambled eggs the next morning! :) )

Beef, Broccoli & Noodle Stir Fry

I bought beef and broccoli today for the first time in a long time, and I was in the mood to actually spend a good chunk of time cooking, so I made a noodle stir fry!










Recipe:

(Creates 2 Servings)

1 Lb of Beef chunks
1 Head of Broccoli (and the stem, optional)
1 Cup brown rice noodles
2 Cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 Yellow Onion, diced
3 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
2 Handfuls of fresh Parsley
Cayenne Pepper
Rosemary
Ginger
Basil
Salt

Directions:

Put water to boil as you chop up broccoli (and most of the stems too, if you want) into bite-sized pieces. When the water boils, put the noodles, half of the broccoli, and a little bit of coconut oil in, and let it boil for as long as the noodle package recommends the noodles to be cooked. Mine took about 10 minutes.

Get a large pan and put 2-3 tablespoons of coconut oil in. Chop up the beef (if it didn't already come in bite-sized chunks) and put it in the pan. Season it with basil, rosemary, salt, a lot of ginger, and a little bit of cayenne pepper. Chop up and add in the onions and garlic, as well as the rest of the broccoli you cut up before. Stir it every once in a while to make sure the beef gets cooked all the way through.

When the noodles with the broccoli are done, strain them and pour them into the beef pan. Tear up the fresh parsley and stir it in. Continue to stir the mixture every once in a while until the beef is cooked to your liking.

When dished out, add more ginger, rosemary, basil, and salt on top.

If you don't have a second person to feed, you'll have beautiful leftovers! Ta-da!

Chicken Noodle Veggie Soup

I made chicken noodle soup, which could only mean one thing... Yep, I was sick. As per usual, I put a ton of ingredients into this recipe, and I think it turned out quite good. It helped my throat a lot too, which is what really matters. In the recipe below, I suggest using a broth to add more flavor to the soup. However, I did not have broth available and felt too sick to go to the store, so I just used a combination of some almond milk and overly spiced water. Wasn't too bad, but could have been better.


Recipe:

(Creates 3 Servings)

1 Large Chicken Breast
1 1/2 Lemons
3 Stalks Celery
1 Head of Broccoli (and stem)
1 Large Tomato
3 Cloves Garlic
1 Medium Onion
1 Cup Brown Rice Noodles
About 5 Cups Chicken/Vegetable Broth
1 Handful (per bowl) Roasted & Salted Sunflower Seeds
Fresh Parsley
Oregano
Basil
Turmeric
Salt
Ginger


Directions:

((If you chop up everything in advance before you begin cooking, I'd recommend cooking it all for about 15-20 minutes total. Or you can chop and add as you go for however long it takes, which is what I usually do.))

Chop the chicken and broccoli into bite-sized pieces. Put them into a large pot with about 5 cups of your choice of broth (add more broth in later if the ingredients are so numerous that they are no longer submerged in the broth) and bring it to a boil.

In the meantime, chop up the rest of the ingredients into bite sized pieces (except for the lemon and noodles) and add them in as you finish chopping them.

Add in spices (I recommend some turmeric, basil, oregano, salt, and ginger) as you go.

Once the broth is boiling, turn it down to medium high so that it doesn't boil too violently. Add in the brown rice noodles and continue stirring in ingredients as they are chopped. I'd recommend adding in the tomatoes, parsley and celery last, since they don't really need to be cooked much.

Once the last of your ingredients are in, let it all continue to cook for about five minutes. Serve with a handful of sunflower seeds and about half a lemon's worth of freshly squeezed lemon juice on top of each serving.

Cheater Additions: The whole time I was eating this I kept imagining how wonderful it would taste with some cheese on top. I recently discovered that Almond Cheese exists, and the brand I found only has one iffy ingredient. I'd recommend using some of that in moderation if you'd like to try it.

Brownies!

That's right! BROWNIES!! I was very excited to have these brownies in my life for about a week, and I've missed them ever since. I don't typically bake very often because it takes too much time, but these were totally worth it. :)

Special thanks to my good friend Zak Kane for going on this brownie adventure with me in his very own kitchen!

Recipe:

(Creates about 6 brownies)

Dry Mix:

1/2 Cup Brown Rice Flour

1/2 Cup Unsweetened Cacao Powder

1/4 TSP Baking Powder

1/4 TSP Salt

3/4 Cup Coconut Sugar

1 Cup chopped Walnuts

Wet things:

1/2 Cup Butter

1 Egg

1 TSP Vanilla Extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325ºF. 

Beat the wet ingredients together in a large bowl. Then add in the dry ingredients. Beat and stir until everything seems mixed pretty well. 

Pour the ingredients into a glass baking pan, and place the baking pan in the oven. 

The brownies were supposed to only take about 25 minutes to cook, but they ended up taking about 50 minutes, possibly because they were made at a high elevation (Flagstaff, AZ). Stick a toothpick in the middle of your brownies every 10 minutes or so until they are no longer wet on the inside.

When they are done, take them out of the oven and let them sit for about 15 minutes. Then you can cut them into whatever shape you want, stick one in your mouth, and die of happiness. They are SO GOOD!

Celery & Almond Butter

A healthy, easy, safe snack! Hooray! The first thing you have to do is find a brand of Almond Butter that has nothing but almonds in it. A lot of almond butter brands include sugars or bad oils, so be careful with that. Once you find the perfect plain jar of pure almond butter goodness, the rest is pretty easy. :)




Recipe:

(Creates 1 Serving)

2-4 Celery Stalks chopped into 3" pieces
1 Jar of Almond Butter (you won't use the whole thing)
Xylitol
Salt


Directions:

Get a spoonful of almond butter and plop some onto a piece of celery.

Sprinkle salt and xylitol on top of the almond butter plop.

Repeat with each bite. :)

Beef, Zucchini & Rutabaga Stir Fry

I had left over rutabaga, I just bought ground beef, and I've never made a stir fry before, so I thought those were convenient circumstances for creating this stir fry recipe! I cheated and put some water in it because I wasn't sure if the rutabaga would get cooked all the way through with just some oil. I'll try to have some more faith in it next time and see what happens, ha. But I liked how it came out! It was quite delicious. :)


Recipe:

(Creates 2 Servings)

1 Zucchini, diced
1 LB Ground Beef, chopped into bite sized chunks
1 Medium Sized Rutabaga, diced
3 Coves Garlic, minced
1/4 of a Medium Yellow Onion, diced
1 Large Tomato, diced
1 TBS Coconut Oil
Ginger
Turmeric
Cayenne Pepper
Cinnamon
Rosemary
Thyme
Basil
Salt

Directions:

Put the ingredients into a large stir fry pan with about a tablespoon or more of coconut oil and a little bit of water. ((Here's what it looks like before you add the meat. You can make it vegetarian and just cook it without the meat if you'd like.))

Bring it all to a medium-high heat and stir consistently for about 12 minutes.

Spice it as much as you like, I personally love to put tons of ginger, cayenne pepper, rosemary and thyme on this, and a bit of the other spices listed above.




If you don't have a second person to feed, you'll have left overs!! Hooray! :D

Chicken, Brown Rice, & Brussels Sprouts

I make some sort of variation of this recipe 2 - 3 times a week. I usually vary my dinners between pasta and meat every few days so that I don't get tired of either one. This will be the first of a few chicken recipes I will post. Note that they are all essentially chicken with onions, a vegetable, and a gluten free starch.  (Side note: I took this photo back in January, so that's why it doesn't look as cool as the other photos I have posted on here so far. Just sayin'.) 

Recipe:

(Creates 1 Serving)

1 Chicken breast, chopped up

1/4 of a medium Yellow Onion, diced

1 Green Onion, diced

1 Clove of Garlic, minced

1/3 of a Bell Pepper, diced

2 Handfuls of Brussels Sprouts, each chopped into halves or thirds

1/2 Cup Brown Rice

1-2 Cups Water

Cayenne Pepper

Rosemary

Thyme

Butter

Salt

Directions:

Bring one cup of water to a boil in a pot. Stir in brown rice. Turn the heat down to medium or medium high (whichever keeps some small bubbles going) and cover the pot. Let the rice cook for about 40 minutes (or whatever the package suggests). 

In the meantime, chop up everything else!

Cut each brussels sprout in half (to help them cook faster). Place the brussels sprouts into a small pot. Fill that pot with water until all the brussels sprouts are submerged. Bring the pot to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium high and let them boil for about 10 minutes. 

Place the chopped pieces of chicken, green onions, yellow onions, and bell pepper in a pan with a little bit of water (enough to submerge about half of each of the chicken pieces). Cook over a medium heat, turning over the pieces of chicken every now and then so they get thoroughly cooked. After about 7 minutes or so, cut a larger piece of chicken open to see if it has been cooked all the way through. (If it hasn't, let it cook a bit longer.) 

Once the rice is finally ready, serve everything on one plate. I would suggest putting butter on the brussels sprouts and the brown rice and then salting them both. I typically put thyme, rosemary, salt, and a little bit of cayenne pepper on my chicken. 

Enjoy!

Nutty Salad

Salad is a nice, safe thing to have on this diet. Salad can be just lettuce and dressing, but if you have the time to make it a whole meal, then try adding in some or all of the following components:

Recipe:

(Creates 1 Serving)

1 Bowlful of Organic Spring Mix

Coconut Oil - or - Olive Oil

Apple Cider Vinegar - or - Rice Vinegar

1 Stalk of Celery, diced

1 Thin Slice of a medium Yellow Onion, diced

1/4 Cup Pumpkin Seeds

1/4 Cup Sunflower Seeds

1/4 Cup Almonds

1/4 Cup Pecans

1/4 Cup Hazelnuts

1/2 a medium Tomato, diced

1/3 of a Red Bell Pepper, diced

Fresh Parsley Leaves

Fresh Basil Leaves

Rosemary

Oregano

Thyme

Ginger

Directions: 

Put the spring mix in a bowl. Wash and chop the veggies you have available from the list above. Put those in the bowl. 

(I personally think parsley stalks are delicious, so I put those in as well. You don't have to.)

Sprinkle nuts and seeds of your choice on top. 

Top it off with some coconut oil and rice vinegar, my personal favorite. You could also use olive oil and apple cider vinegar. The four of these are very healthy. 

Sprinkle the spices on top, and you're ready to eat!

KIND Healthy Snacks - Nuts & Spices Bars

I've been an enthusiastic fan of KIND Healthy Snacks ever since I absentmindedly picked up a KIND bar and happened to read their tagline, "Wholesome all natural ingredients you can see and pronounce." That made me really excited! Not only are KIND products gluten free, GMO free, and (some of them) dairy free, but they even have bars available that only contain 4 - 5 grams of sugar! In fact, every bar shown in the photos in this blog post are different flavors of KIND's 4 - 5 grams of sugar options. 

If they had sugar free bars available, I would be their biggest fan ever, but they come pretty close; I think 4 - 5 grams wouldn't be too bad to have every once in a while. I always keep a KIND bar in my purse in case of "emergencies;" in other words, for times when I get hungry and don't have food with me. So whenever I do have one of those "emergencies," I get excited to eat one of my KIND bars haha :)

KIND bars and other KIND products are available at every grocery store, and I heard they will soon be available at JoAnn's as well. Here is a list of the low sugar flavors they have available:

Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Pecan

Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt

Dark Chocolate Chili Almond

Madagascar Vanilla Almond

Maple Glazed Pecan & Sea Salt

Cashew & Ginger Spice

Nut Delight

Maple Glazed Pecan & Sea Salt is my favorite out of those; it tastes like it has a lot more sugar that it really does, in my opinion, and I like the maple and salt flavor combination. I typically only buy the last four, because eating chocolate on this diet makes me feel guilty. I suppose you could have a chocolate one - or any of these really - as a "dessert" or treat every now and then. 

Here are some photos I took of my low sugar KIND bars... I had fun with my little photo shoot. :)  

I like this brand so much that I even got a bumper sticker for my car. It makes me happy. I love their philosophy and the fact that their logo is friendly and colorful... I kinda want to get a KIND shirt too. :)