Hi, friends!
How have you been? Has the summer heat been making you a little bit lazy and not very much up for your usual morning workouts? And if you going to take a vacation this summer (because I know that I’ll HAVE to do something with my kids!), doesn’t it feel close to impossible to NOT gain some extra weight whenever you travel from always eating out and not always being able to find a gym? (and oh, how many beautiful, pretty and yummy, but not always very skinny food options you’ll be choosing from no matter where you’ll go!)
Because I’ll be honest with you: I ALWAYS gain some weight during the summer!
But you know what? I don’t sweat about it anymore! Because I know that when things get back to normal and I’ll have my days scheduled around taking and picking my kids to and from school, squeezing the time to do some of my work and running errands all day long, I KNOW that my regular healthy meals and workouts will be scheduled in as well. And then it won’t be all that difficult to shed those summer pounds!
But… Although I am not going to sweat very much about sitting in the car all day or eating a frozen yogurt instead of my usual Healthy Non-Fat Mousse as a late night snack… I always try to keep making healthy choices when it comes to my food! Because there is one thing that matters to me above all other kinds of fun: I like to FEEL GOOD! And even though I can’t whip my healthy mousse if I’m staying at a hotel, I’ll always pick that healthy-yummy grilled fish and veggies over the deep-fried Fish-And-Chips. And it’s not because I’m so worried about gaining weight. It’s because all that fried food does NOT make me feel good! And that tags right to my beauty-philosophy: if you don’t feel good – you don’t LOOK good. And I like to look good! I very much do! 🙂
And you also know what? I always like to take a lot of healthy but yummy snacks with me whenever I travel. This way at least when it comes to a mid-trip hunger strikes I’ll know exactly what I’ll be having.
This is how I came up with this recipe for the Healthy Chocolate Banana Bites that I’ve just prepped to take for our upcoming trip to Vegas.
Not only these little treats are handy to keep in the car for the whole family to munch on…
They are also very easy and simple to make. And it’s exactly what I need with all that packing and readying up madness when I just don’t have much time to prep something overly complicated! (The only little hassle comes from baking the bananas since I generally don’t like to use any easy-to-spoil ingredients such as fresh fruit in my no-bake recipes. But how long does it really take to peel the bananas and stick them in the oven?)
I hope that you too will not be worrying too much about gaining a pound or two and will be having LOTS of FUN this summer. But I also very much hope that you won’t ever be forgetting about staying in tune with yourself and your body and making sure that you’re feeling great while you’re indulging yourself and… AFTER you’ve indulged on it, too!
And here is the recipe for the easy-to-make and easy-to-take wherever you go treats. But… You know what? I’m not sure if there’ll be any left for our trip, because I’ve already had like 3 or 4 of them… It looks like my kids are working on the rest… But what does that matter? I’m feeling goooooood! And all ready for the upcoming fun!
Healthy Low-Fat and Low-Sugar Chocolate Banana Bites
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup of breakfast cereal* see note!
- 2 ripe bananas
- 2 tbsp . cocoa powder
- 1 tsp . vanilla extract
- 2 oz . of chocolate chips optional
- extra cocoa powder for dusting and rolling
Instructions
- Peel the bananas and bake them in the oven at 350F for about 20 minutes until they are cooked through (I always like to make sure that all the easy-to-spoil ingredients in my recipes (such as the fruit) is cooked) (You can also boil your bananas with a little bit of water in a saucepan to speed up this process)
- Put the cereal, the baked bananas, vanilla extract and 2 tbsp. of cocoa powder in a blender and blend until everything is incorporated.
- Add the chocolate chips to the dough (I add the chips for my kids - for myself I went for the plain bites to cut down the calories).
- Scoop out the dough, a tablespoon at a time to form the round bites. Since the dough is kind of sticky, roll each bite in cocoa powder. (Those extra anti-oxidants are always a good idea to me!)
- Put the bites in the fridge until you are ready to eat them. (...But if you want to devour a few right there and then - go for it. That's what I did anyway:)
- Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
* I used the chocolate-flavored breakfast cereal made out of garbanzo BEAN flour! They are low-sugar and naturally high in protein and I like to sometimes munch on them right out of the bag!
Enjoy your summer!!! 🙂
Please, comment!