Chocolate Mint Energy Bites

The ideal snack! All my past energy bites were peanut butter based so I tried something new. We definitely eat our fair share of pb around here! I love these pb/coconut/choc chip ones and these pb & “jelly” flavored ones too. Snacks can reset us mid-morning between zooms or virtual kindergarten screen-breaks, or post-nap. I like the powerful, useful, snacks and that these can carry us to the next meal.

Chocolate Mint Energy Bites
Ingredients:

1 cup Old Fashioned Oats
5 dates, chopped
1 tablespoon/scoop chocolate protein powder
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1-2 tablespoons Nutella
1/4 teaspoon mint extract

Directions:
Mix together the oats, flaxseed, dates, and protein powder.

The Three Bite Rule - Chocolate Mint Energy Bites

Add in the tahini, chocolate chips, nutella, and mint. Mix well, breaking up chunks to ensure mint is well incorporated.
Form into balls or disks. Enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - Chocolate Mint Energy Bites

I like these shaped as disks just for easier space storage. We all snack on these and they provide that great flavor with some good protein, fiber, and a little chocolate sweet boost.

The nutella was an afterthought – these tasted a bit too much like protein powder so I added that to sweeten it a bit. Mini chips are ideal so these don’t crumble apart. Careful of that mint- wowza. That can easily be wayyy too much.

My 2.5 yr old sous-chef looooved the dates so those will be a snack too for her now too.

The Three Bite Rule - Chocolate Mint Energy Bites

English Muffin Turkey Melts

I’ve been trying to give home lunches a bit of a face lift. These turkey melts on English muffins are just unique enough be exciting while keeping them a totally do-able weekday lunch. Somedays it is PB&J while doing 5 other things and then there’s a 5 minute special lunch with everyday ingredients like this!

The Three Bite Rule - English Muffin Turkey Melts

These have a nice kick with a spicy sauce and crunch from an apple (or there are lots of variations below)!

English Muffin Turkey Melts:
Ingredients: (for 1)

1 English Muffin
2 tablespoons mayo
1/2 teaspoon Sriracha sauce (or hot sauce)
2 slices turkey
1-2 slices cheese
1/4 apple (I used honeycrisp)
1 cup mixed greens

Directions:
Toast the English muffin (the toaster oven is perfect for this, or “griddle” it on a pan to use again soon).
Mix together the mayo and the sriracha in a small bowl.
Slice the apple and chop the greens if needed, while the muffin toasts.

The Three Bite Rule - English Muffin Turkey Melts


When the English muffin is toasted, spread the sriracha onto both halves, then top one half with greens, apple slices, turkey, and cheese.
Pop the assembled English muffin into a toaster oven, the regular oven, or into a hot pan with a cover to melt the cheese and warm everything through.

The Three Bite Rule - English Muffin Turkey Melts

Pop the top on and enjoy!

These are so fun and could easily swap with what you have. Honey mustard would be great, a pear would taste delicious, ham can swap with turkey. Go crazy! The English muffin definitely adds some variety, and the melty cheese + lunch meat + a fruit + a veg + sauce = is perfect. These can be open faced or popped together as a sandwich.

The Three Bite Rule - English Muffin Turkey Melts

I’m partial to these Fiber One Multigrain English muffins. They are much more fluffy than others and the higher fiber is just an added benefit.

Churro French Toast Sticks

Our kindergartner is totally enthused by school lunch – he goes to school 2 days a week and lunch is provided. Chocolate milk! Square pizza! He eats anything and gets 2 choices so despite not knowing what they’re serving, I’m always interested to hear what he picks. He had french toast sticks and loved it! I decided to make our own and coated them in a little churro crunch. Anything in a dippable format is fun for all!

The Three Bite Rule - Churro French Toast Sticks

Churro French Toast Sticks
Ingredients: (serves 5-6)

1/2 loaf Italian Bread
6 eggs
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 teaspoon + 1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon + 2 tablespoons brown sugar
sprinkle of nutmeg
2 tablespoons white sugar

Directions:
Slice Italian bread in half horizontally, then into slices vertically for sticks.
Whisk together eggs, half & half, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar, and nutmeg.

The Three Bite Rule - Churro French Toast Sticks

Pour into a shallow baking dish and add in bread in one layer, repeat if necessary. Toss well and let soak for 10 minutes. (I used a 9×9 dish for 2 batches, cooking one batch while the other soaks.)

The Three Bite Rule - Churro French Toast Sticks

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Heat a large skillet to medium heat and spray with nonstick spray and butter. Pan fry the sticks- cooking for ~2-3 minutes on each side.
Prep a baking sheet with parchment and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons brown sugar, white sugar, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
As the french toast sticks are cooked, remove from the heat and put onto the baking sheet – rolling in the cinnamon sugar. Then keep warm while cooking other french toast sticks.

The Three Bite Rule - Churro French Toast Sticks

Enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - Churro French Toast Sticks

These were good! The sugary crunch and warm spices is delightful – almost doughnut-like! They’re quite sweet and would have paired nicely with bacon, but do as I say, not as I do!

Psssst! Use the leftover other half of Italian bread loaf cut into chunks to be homemade croutons or for garlic bread. Both are good decisions and reminders how pillowy white bread is!

February 2021 Recap

I’m reallllly feeling 2021. The prospect of a new year, fresh slate doesn’t seem inspiring or fitting. I think some melted sidewalks is what I’m looking forward to the most right now. I’m the most home-body of anyone I know and even I want to go places. I had a few fun foods in February, mixed amongst the staples of easy-to-execute/crowd pleasers.

I made a BLT Chicken Salad that has great flexibility for any time of year…including this part of the year with lack-luster tomatoes!

The Three Bite Rule - BLT Chicken Salad

For Valentine’s Day we made a Raspberry White Chocolate Muddy Buddies. It is a great sweet treat, with only the M&Ms being holiday-specific.

The Three Bite Rule - Raspberry Muddy Buddy

The standout meal of the month for me was Pineapple Coconut Rice bowls. I love a rice bowl and this added some greatly appreciated variety and inspiring a different place.

The Three Bite Rule - Pineapple Coconut Rice Bowls

I’m not sure what’s coming up for March yet. I feel a bit of a slump so maybe some fun foods will revive me – or birthday cake?

The Little Girl:
She just always wants to go places- there’s just nowhere for her to go. I love hearing her tell stories from books she knows well as she flips through them. We’re so lucky she’s easy going. I’m amused by her intense instruction when she’s playing pretend- for the play kitchen she’s forever telling me in a deep voice, “no, that’s for lunch and it is hot”. PB & fluff is her fav lunch and she’d eat maple oatmeal daily.

The Big Guy:
The start of Feb vacation had him sad not to have school, then sad to go back. The break was good – he got some time home to just play, time with all the grandparents, and he was thrilled to have so much snow. It was also good for us as the time-managers. He loves sledding and is never cold. His current fav food is fig bars – like these and he’s been into helping make dinner. He watched the movie Turbo and loved it. We’re reading Charlotte’s Web.

Goals:
Year of the fun mail! We sent a few Valentines around and a little something as encouragement.
More breakfasts: nothing new, but I did make a special doughnut run.
Lunches coordinated or prepped in advance – Umm. Leftovers became some breakfast burritos which are fun to pull out of the freezer now and then. I’ve been having some veggie burgers too.
I’d like to get the house a bit neater: ehh. I didn’t have any particular emphasis on this- but should
Bullet journal – I’ve kept a meals list going which I like as reminders of the every-day/not blogged ones.
What I’m reading: I read Panther Baby and The Giver of Stars which I loooved and The Henna Artist.
What I’m Watching: We caught up on some movies – ‘Knives Out’ which I absolutely loved and ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’ was was OK to me.

BLT Chicken Salad

Approaching 1 year of the pandemic and some gloomy weather has me a bit blah. I desperately miss non-icy sidewalks at the moment. Sometimes a more exciting lunch is something to look forward to, right? I’ve been striving for some more varied lunches and this was a good one.

The Three Bite Rule - BLT Chicken Salad

Just a few slices of bacon with chopped greens, tomatoes, chicken salad, and a bit of bright pickle is so satisfying and perfect in a pita, or on some great bread, or scooped with crackers. This also works nicely for reviving leftovers if you’ve eaten chicken lately!

BLT Chicken Salad
Ingredients: (for 2-3 servings)

2 cups chicken (cooked and cooled)
1 teaspoon mayo
1 tablespoon Italian dressing
1 teaspoon pickle juice (optional)
2 strips bacon (cooked and cooled)
2 cups baby arugula
1 small tomato

Directions:
Chop and shred the chicken and mix the mayo, Italian dressing, pickle juice (optional) and salt & pepper.
Chop the bacon, arugula, and tomato and add in the chicken salad.

The Three Bite Rule - BLT Chicken Salad

Stir gently to combine – add in another splash of dressing or pickle juice if needed.
Serve as a sandwich, with more greens as a salad, or scoop with crackers!
Enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - BLT Chicken Salad

This is use 103,894,380 for a Costco roasted chicken. Those things are so much better than anywhere else, and cheaper! I buy them even without a plan and take it off the bone to freeze it. For this chicken salad, it was easy to break off some frozen chunks and defrost in the fridge overnight.

I’m partial to Ken’s Italian Dressing that looks like nothing special but is ohh so good. I think that WITH the pickle juice is delightful and just enough mayo to keep it together.

Are chopped salads still a thing? I liked everything getting equally distributed but now I’m wondering if they were just a fad of the 2010s? Either way, it is the perfect way to ensure each bite has some of everything. The concept lives on at our house!