Fruit and Nut Energy Bites

Ingredients

1 cup dried apricots

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup walnuts

1 cup roasted salted almonds

2 TBSP chia seeds

5 TBSP honey

Directions 

Put all ingredients in food processor and pulse until mixture is able to form a ball in your hands.

Make rounded TBSP sized balls. Makes approximately 37 bite sized balls. Refrigerate.

*Chef's note: I used a heavy duty food processor made by Breville.  If you have a "regular" food processor you might want to pulse the nuts first, mix the honey and chia seeds together first and add slowly, and then slowly add the dried fruit.  You also might want to cut the recipe in half.  I've burnt out several less durable food processors by asking them to do too "much". 
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Healthy Snack Mix

What you will need:
A large tub
Smaller containers to portion out servings and/or pack them in your lunch/bag/purse.
Whole almonds
Dried cranberries
Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips 60% cacao

This little container holds 1/2 cup which is 2 servings.
Watch your serving sizes!
For example: for each of these ingredients each package says that a serving size is 1/4 cup.
That doesn't mean you get to eat 1/4 cup of each!

One of the keys to eating healthy is that you have to have healthy stuff around and not the bad stuff.
It's also not really a good idea to deny yourself sweets if you are a sweets kind of person.
You just have to have healthy sweets around.
I've learned to satisfy my chocolate craving by making healthier choices.
I only eat dark chocolate with 60% cacao or higher for my health.
I combine my chocolate with other things that are healthy for me so I don't just fill up on chocolate.
The key is finding what works for you.
Mixing a large batch saves time.
Having healthy snacks around keep you from making bad food choices!

Super Easy Salmon Tacos

Ingredients
Corn tortillas
Salsa
Spinach
Cooked Salmon
(See Tim's Perfect Salmon recipe)http://healthyfoodforahealthyou.blogspot.com/2011/07/tims-perfect-salmon.html

Last night I looked in the fridge for some inspiration.  I had leftover salmon.  I like mine with the cajun seasoning!
All I had to do was heat up the salmon, warm up the tortillas, spoon a little salsa on the tortilla and add some spinach. Yum!

Healthy Snacking

One of the best ways to snack in a healthy way is to have fresh fruit and vegetables around.  

If you are looking for an energy boost mid morning or afternoon, fruit is quickly digested and converted into energy! Vegetables will fill you up!

Another key is not to have the bad stuff around.  

You know what I'm talking about...the candy, cookies, and donuts that are so hard to resist.  

Retrain your taste buds to crave fruit and veges!

At our house I always make sure I have apples, oranges, bananas, carrots and celery.

You can mix it up with grapefruit, clementines, pears, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini...whatever!  

Milk Chocolate Chia Protein Balls

• 1/2 Cup Vanilla Protein powder
• 2 Tbs almond butter
• 2 Tbs honey
• 2 Tbs coconut oil, melted
• 1 Tbs cacao powder
• 1 Tbs chia seeds

Mix together all ingredients until chia seeds are fully incorporated. If necessary, add a splash of almond milk to thin out mixture. Once combined, form into balls! Makes about 8 tbsp size balls.

I based this recipe off of the dark chocolate recipe but exchanged the chocolate powder for vanilla and didn't add the coconut.  http://toneitup.com/2013/11/featured-chocolate-treats/