Treat Yourself with Heathier Chocolate Fudge

In the hot summer month like this, I crave nothing else but cold desserts. While frozen yogurt and ice cream are perfect summer treats, it is easy to overeat sugar. In the past few months, I have successfully unfriended cupcake, cake, cookies and brownie from my life and I don't miss them one bit. However, I still am a good friend with Fro-Yo and pie at least once a week.

Thanks to the talented Healthy Bloggers out there and many inspirations on the Instagram, I am amazed at how you can make healthier desserts without compromising the look and flavor these days. I mean you can't expect the healthier version to taste exactly the same as traditional desserts made with good old butter, margarine and white sugar but hey they satisfy the sweet tooth and that suffices. They taste like ice cream bar + chocolate fudge to me. Definitely satisfy my chocolate craving yet feel light. The husband gave it thumbs down but my daughter and I liked them. Boo..who cares what he thinks, right? He is a hardcore dessert guy so quite impossible to convince him to eat stuff like this.
When I first came across this Healthy Eatmore Fudge Squares, it looked too chocolaty to be true I kept dreaming about them. I lightly adept the recipe by cutting the amount of nuts and add oats instead. Although this is healthier than regular chocolate fudge, you still want to consume them in moderation. Just like everything else, I strongly believe moderation is the key. Too much of something is not good even fruit or veggies. I personally prefer a well balanced diet.
My Version (adept from the original recipe)
Crust

1 cup Pitted dates (soak in warm water for 30 mins)

1/4 cup Almonds, unsalted

1/4 cup Walnuts, unsalted

1/2 cup Old fashioned oatmeal

1/4 cup Unsweetened cocoa powder

Fudge

¼ cup Unsweetened cocoa powder

2 Ripe Banana

2 tablespoons Peanut Butter

2 tablespoons Raw Honey

A hint of Vanilla extract

Add Almonds, Walnuts and Dates in food processor (or blender). Pulse a few times

 
Add Cocoa and Oats, pulse a few more times


Now make the fudge, add Banana, Peanut Butter, Honey and Cocoa in a food processor and pulse until well blended
Pour over a prepared crust and store in a freezer at least an hour (I brought it out at 40 mins and it didn't set quite well yet)

Via Instagram

Visit me at Instagram @MaysaAndSunshine

Sunday Funday

It has been two very stressful weeks for me so we decided to get out and did something fun. Something we hadn't done since the Disney trip two months ago. Just to get out there, eat, play, sweat and eat some more.
We went to a popular beach town the south - Galveston. There are tons of seafood places to explore, places to visit. We treated ourselves to some seafood (which turned out to be way to salty by the way), took a little one to the amusement park on the pier and ended our day with refreshing frozen yogurt. The heat wave was brutal (temperature was around 92F but felt like 100F) but we had a fun family time. Now how's your Sunday?
I know I haven't spent a lot of time updating this blog as often as I used to. Work related stress sure has pretty much sucked the life out of me in the past few weeks and seem to continue until about a week longer. Once that part is over, I hope to sit back..relax and have fun with blogging and visiting you all once again.

Let's Roll {Sushi} & Raw Diet Talk

Sushi is one of my most favorite Asian food. In prior to becoming pregnant, I devoured sushi and sashimi at least twice a week but had to sadly say bye bye to raw fish when I was officially a pregnant lady. I thought I went through a drug withdrawal period. Funnily after 9 months of eating raw fish I didn't crave too much after all. Until recently it is kicking in. 
However I want to make my own and make it healthy. The very first time I had a hands on experience on making homemade sushi was almost 10 years ago. I still have the very same bamboo mat as a matter of fact. Lately I have been inspired by vegan, raw food diet on Instagram. 
All the colorful fruit and vegetables are such eye candy and it blows my mind how so many young girls these days can manage to lead such lifestyles (strictly consume fruit, veggies, nuts (completely meatless, dairy free, strict vegans). Being a vegan is not the direction I am going at the moment but I want to incorporate the concept of adding more uncooked vegetables to my diet at least a few meals per week. I was concerned that I might be hungry after 20 mins just eating veggies but surprisingly very fulfilling and clean tasting. I started last week and these homemade vegetarian sushi made with brown/red rice was fulfilling. 
 I started by cooking my rice. Once cooked and while still hot. Mix with some Rice Vinegar (go light on this and add more if needed, it has strong taste and flavor. Mix well and let it sit until rice cools off. 
Prep veggies of your choice. I opted not to cook mine, just eat them raw. I used red/purple cabbage, cucumber, avocado, zucchini and yellow squash (next time I will add omelet, nit vegetarian but it is nom..nom). 
Prepare a Nori seaweed. Spread some rice (thin) and leave space on the 4 edges. 
 Add vegetables. Be careful not to add too much or you won't be able to roll. Start rolling from one side, tightly (this take practice). If you are not a master sushi roller like me (yeah..whatever). 
 Roll all the way til the end and use some water to seal. Let it sit a few mins and use a sharp knife to cut. 
 Grab your chopsticks, prepare soy sauce and Wasabi. 
 EAT!!! Oishi desu ne!!!
 

Spelt and Oat (Flour) Pankcakes with Fruit

I am a huge breakfast kind of girl, without breakfast I am unable to function. My typical weekday breakfast items consists of mixed fruit and plain Greek yogurt. However, weekends are a little bit special since I have more time in the kitchen to whip something up. Pancakes are not really on top of my list but after seeing tons of healthy pancakes pictures on Instagram, I couldn't resist. The recipe I used is not vegan version but definitely is lighter and healthier. I adept from Bon Apetit recipe {here}.
Here is my take on this recipe: 1 cup Spelt Flour 1 cup Oat Flour (I didn't have oat flour but made one from regular oat, simply blend in a blender) 1 tablespoon Brown Sugar 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder 1 cup Milk 2 Eggs (large) 2 tablespoons Olive Oil Some butter for frying
I actually like Spelt flour as the flavor is milder than whole wheat flour. I served mine with Natural Raw Texas Honey. Yummy!!