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Beauty Pirate Hippie Cookies with a silicone baking mat demo

I seriously don't know how I ever lived (or at least cooked) without these things. If you like to bake, do yourself a favor and get some of these bad boys.



Silicone Baking Mat - Non Stick Bakeware - 2 Piece Set - Best for Cookies, Pretzels, Pizzas and More - Large Enough for Almost Any Cooking or Pastry Need - Perfect Fit for Half Size Baking Sheet

Trust me, you don't wanna make my Hippie #Cookies without a silicone bake mat. #bakingwizards #oatmeal #oceanspraycranberries #chiaseeds

A photo posted by Julie Ann Keene-Roppolo (@thebeautypirate) on Aug 13, 2015 at 7:46

So I make these on a regular basis for my sweetie to take to work. For years he took granola bars, but those are really just glorified candy bars full of corn syrup. Now if we run out he harangues me for the next batch. I start with a basic recipe and tweak it to add different goodies :-) This is super nutritious and filling- they get him through the day and now his co-workers always try to gank some off of him- I'm starting to get requests from his starving co-workers who work too hard to get a break.

These take no time at all to whip up and while I do call them cookies, they're more like a soft chewy granola bar.

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas (this is a great way to use up bananas that have gotten too squishy)
2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup fruit sauce (apple sauce for example. I made a batch with homemade pear puree once that was AMAZING!)
1 TSP vanilla extract
2 TBSP chia seeds
1/2 cup dried fruit - these are great with cranberries or tart cherries!

Preheat oven to 350 and mix everything together, smashing up the bananas first. Use a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. These are STICKY! Put them on the cookie sheet by spoonfuls and flatten them just a little bit. Cook for about 25 minutes or until the edges crisp a bit. They won't become overall crispy.

Ruki Home Vegetable Spiralizer

I am now a spiral veg addict!


 

The Spiral Vegetable Slicer turns veggies into healthy spaghetti instantly!
Spiral slicer has dual stainless-steel cutting blades for thick or thin pasta strands
Built from BPA-Free ABS Plastic and Heat-Treated Stainless Steel
Create NOODLES and JULIENNE SPIRALS from a great variety of vegetables: Carrots, Zucchini, Cucumbers

Cooking Light Selects Crave Box (sad face!)

Crave Box was so rad!
I only paid $13 for all this! Too bad they went the way of the dodo, but here's my thoughts on the products themselves.

• Perfect Pinch Salt Free Garlic & Herb Seasoning from McCormick (2 bottles) Turn up the flavor without adding salt with this bold blend of garlic, Italian herbs, red pepper and paprika. This stuff is seriously awesome and you can put it on almost literally anything. I tend to be a salt addict, but with this, I don't even miss it. We go through this in my house like water. From meats to veggies to eggs- it does it all. If I'm in a rush, you can take some meat and coat it in olive oil then sprinkle this all over and throw in the oven. It actually winds up tasted like you TRIED. 

• Nectresse 100% Natural No-Calorie Sweetener  NECTRESSE™ Sweetener tastes like sugar and is naturally zero calories per serving. How? We started with the deliciously
  sweet extract of monk fruit and combined it with the perfect
  blend of other natural sweeteners. It's 100% natural with
  nothing artificial.   So for reals, I have no idea how they do it, but this actually tastes good! Normally artificial sweeteners gross me out because they taste so much like chemicals that I don't even see the point. I was really surprised by this stuff, though. No bitterness and adds just the right amount of sweetness to my cuppa tea. I now keep a box of this in the bedroom with my tea and electric kettle for my nightly tea fix. 

• Tully’s French Roast Coffee Tully’s most popular roast. Powerful and intense with a smoky, decadent finish. It's the ultimate expression of European coffee. This is a really great coffee! My hubby is a french roast fiend and I had to practically hide this from him. And he used to work in a coffee house, so he knows of what he speaks. I like that you get a good strong taste without the bitterness, stomach acid and bad breath of so many strong coffees. A+

• Dole Fruit Crisps (Apple Pear, Peach, and Apple Cinnamon) DOLE Fruit Crisps are satisfying bowls of juicy DOLE fruit in a fruit sauce, each with its own crispy, crumbly topping made with whole grain oats and brown sugar. When you are ready to enjoy, simply peel back the lid and sprinkle the topping over the fruit! These seem to have an artificial sweetener in the fruit syrup, so to me at room temperature they taste too fakey. Oddy, heated up, they taste just fine. Maybe heating brings out the sweetness more? I would LOVE to see these in an unsweetened version that just tastes like full on fruit. I do however love these for camping.

• 
  
• Torani Syrup in Sugar Free Salted Caramel First comes the sweet and then comes the salty. Then you welcome the news of Splenda® making this a sugar free syrup. Rich, buttery caramel kicks things off. And just when you thought that was it, a touch of saltiness appears – and the ride continues. Hop on and enjoy the sugar-free adventure. So yeah, I know what I said about artificial sweeteners, but I'll make an exception here. Maybe since coffee has some bitterness anyway, it masks any artificial sweetener bitterness. All I know is that this stuff is pretty damn good. It doesn't take much to get a nice flavor and you really can taste the caramel and the salt. I became enough of a fan of this that I bought another bottle in this flavor and one in the french vanilla sugar free. 

Also included:

• One digital tablet-edition of the Cooking Light 25th Anniversary Issue (code to use to redeem)
• Miscellaneous coupons, recipes, a cooking measurement magnet, etc.

So you can see why I'm bummed that Crave Box tanked, right? Sigh...... More fish in the subscription sea though. 

NUMMIES!

Crum Creek Soy mix
"Featured in Oprah's O magazine as part of Dr. Oz's "28-Day Plan to Renew Your Body, Mind and Soul," our Soy Nut Trail Mix is a perfect organic blend of slightly sea-salted soy nuts, raisins, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and chocolate chips." 
 * Organic
   * High in fiber
   * High in protein
   * Just 6 net grams of carbohydrates per serving 
   * Conveniently packaged in 10 single-serving packs (1 oz. each)
   * Trans fat and cholesterol-free
   * Vegan 

I fell absolutely in love with this stuff. It's highly addictive for those who crave some crunch. How can something this yummy be good for you? I can only find it for purchase directly from them  but it's quite inexpensive and absolutely worth it, especially as a great snack for healthy kids. I need to turn my neighbors onto this stuff. 




Bella Rose Belgian Hot Chocolate Pop
"Welcome to Bella Rose Chocolates!

Our handmade chocolates are made with the best ingredients. We make our own fondant from dairy fresh cream and real butter. No cheap substitutes here! Our chocolates are always made with a high quality, premium Belgian chocolate. We have a wide variety of chocolates to choose from. You will delight in our caramel and nut selections and well as in our smooth and rich cream selections! Our truffles are some of the best around and are sure to not disappoint.

Our creams have a generously smooth creamy center that harmonizes delightfully with our smooth and creamy chocolate. From our natural fruit flavored creams (raspberry, cherry, lemon, orange, strawberry) to mint, butter rum and even cheesecake! Taste the difference with our real fruit selection. 

We also are able to do custom orders and wholesale"

Once you've made hot chocolate with one of these, you will never want to go back to that powdered crap. Yes, I know it's summer, but I made some and then put it in the fridge to cool and drank it like the worlds most decadent chocolate milk. For truly decadent is the best way to describe the explosion of flavor in your mouth- it's a chocogasm! Smooth, creamy, rich and a perfect true chocolate flavor. I had the milk chocolate but I REALLY wanna try the dark chocolate. Actually, I wanna try one of everything they make.....If you're a fan of chocolate, do yourself a f(L)avor and check out their Etsy shop. (another thing that I love- this is real chocolate made by hand with love by real people, not heartless assembly lines in a town named after your bigass company...) 



I am now officially addicted to these. "Beanitos are an honestly delicious snack made from super nutritious beans that have fiber and protein grown right in them. They’re real food, full of crunchy flavor, free of preservatives, and made with only natural non-GMO ingredients." 
I love that these are so full of fiber and protein instead of being an empty calorie snack. This is what they mean when something is called snack FOOD. This is real food with actual nutrition and health value that fills you up and contributes something to your nutritional intake. They make the best nachos ever, too. It tastes like you have beans on your nachos! I've eaten the black bean with sea salt and the restaurant style white bean with sea salt, but they have numerous other flavors as well. Chomping at the bit here to try the Better Cheddar pinto bean! And WOOT! They now sell them at my local grocery store! (though i did add a link to where you can get them from Amazon Grocery if your local store doesn't carry them. If you like to eat healthy but also get the crunch monster cravings, these are fantastical. All abut Beanitos