Day 5 and Larabars!

I had some dark moments today. Moments in which I considered going "Screw it!!" and ordering a large cheese pizza or at the very least munching on some of Emile's* Goldfish crackers and Keebler Fudge-Striped cookies! I managed to resist those temptations. As I type this post however, I'm feeling very hungry and it's almost unbearable. I shouldn't feel this hungry, it's not like I didn't eat today...
* Emile is the 4 year old boy that I babysit.

Breakfast: Standard Green Smoothie: 1 banana, 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, 2 large curly kale leaves ( makes almost 2 cups chopped), 1 date, 1/4 cup raw cashews soaked overnight, 1 tbs hemp seeds, 1 tbs ground flax seed, 1 tbs raw coconut butter, water to blend.

Lunch: 2 cups of Burrito Breakfast Bake (last night's dinner) over 2 cups baby romaine lettuce salad.

Dinner: Millet with Mushroom Gravy, basically this recipe (one of my faves) without the rosemary and kale.

Snacks: raw almonds and raisins, an apple, baby carrots, a clementine, and...a Larabar! What's a Larabar you ask? These are Larabars!

 In the first few months after I decided I wanted to be vegan, I started following a number of vegan blogs and every once in a while someone would write about how amazing Larabar's were. I tasted my first one some months ago, was very pleased, but then somehow forgot about them. Unitl now. I found myself at a Jewel Osco this evening and while trying to find a pack of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Oats, I came across the most amazing array of Larabars I'd ever seen. There were so many flavors and I had a hard time deciding which to get. Eventually (and I mean like 15 minutes later) I settled on "Key Lime Pie," "Cherry Pie," "Chocolate Coconut Chew" and "Ginger Snap." As you can see from the above picture, Ginger Snap is no longer with us. She was delicious.  Why do I think Larabar's are great? Well they are the only food bars I know of that are made entirely of actual food--no "inulin fiber" or "soy protein isolate," or unpronounceable, chemical-y sounding ingredients. They are also completely vegan and gluten free. The majority of the flavors are also sugar free (meaning no white sugar, brown sugar, agave nectar, maple syrup, fruit juice concentrate, brown rice syrup, tapioca syrup, evaporated cane juice etc.) All the ones pictured above are sugar free and get their sweetnes from dates. Take a look at Ginger's ingredients:

Do you see that? Most food bars have at least 15 ingredients (although they are far from being the worst offenders, try getting through the list on the package for a Clif or Luna bar). This one? Dates, Almonds, Pecans, Ginger, Cinnamon, Cloves. That's it. This bar has no questionable ingredients and all it's sugar comes from whole fruit. Try them! I can't wait to eat the others.

In other news, I just gave in to my hunger and ate a banana. My reason for trying to resist was that I wanted to have at least an hour between eating my last bit of food for the night and going to sleep. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow.

Cheerio!