Eating Healthy on the Go

This weekend is really special because my sister-in-law is getting married on Saturday! The rehearsal is on Thursday afternoon so my husband and I are leaving early Thursday morning. John’s family lives in Ottawa so we’ve made this trip quite often, and I’ve come to realize there aren’t many healthy food choices along the way.

In order to avoid the tempting fast food stops I have to come prepared with some healthy, yummy options. I find that lunch is pretty easy; I’ll just make some sandwiches the night before with some leftover chicken, whole wheat bread, mustard & fresh veg. And some good snack options are carrot sticks, roasted almonds and apples.

However, I find that breakfast on the go can be a challenge. We will probably hit up Starbucks first, which means we’ll be faced with their tempting display of muffins, bars & pastries. Bananas and boiled eggs just can’t compete, so I started searching for some healthy alternatives and came across an interesting recipe that I adapted from Snack Girl (a great resource for healthy food options!). This recipe doesn’t have any added sugar or flour. It’s just oats, bananas, peanut butter, and a dried fruit & nut mixture of your choice. It’s kind of like taking your instant oatmeal and baking it to go!

Yes I know, it would be easier to just grab a muffin with your coffee, but muffins are about 500 calories with very little nutritional value, and are high in processed sugar & flour. You will be left feeling hungry shortly after eating it. If you’ve made the decision to live a healthy lifestyle it does require some planning & knowledge of healthy options. But there are still lots of healthy, yummy & easy options to choose from. Trust me, you’ll feel better if you make healthy choices.

Oatmeal-to-Go Muffins
(makes 9-12)

Ingredients

1/2 cup natural peanut butter (or any natural nut butter you like)
3 ripe bananas, mashed
¾ cup almond meal or whole almonds, ground
¾ cup of prunes (or raisins, apricots, cherries, etc.)
¼ cup hemp seeds
¼ cup sunflower seeds (or pumpkin, shredded coconut, sesame)
¼ cup of ground flax seed
1 cup rolled oats
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp of cinnamon 

Method

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a glass bowl, mash bananas and stir in peanut butter. Heat mixture in microwave for about 30 seconds to soften and bring out banana flavour. Add the vanilla and whisk until smooth.

If using whole almonds, blend almonds into meal or a flour-like consistency in your food processor.

Using a food processor, combine almond meal, prunes, hemp, sunflower & flax seeds and cinnamon and pulse until everything is well combined.

Add your nut/fruit/seed mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in cinnamon. Stir in the mashed bananas & PB, and oats and mix well until combined. 

Spoon your batter into lightly greased muffin cups (grease with coconut oil). You can fill muffin cups to the top because you don’t have to worry about them rising. Recipe yields 9-12 muffins.

Bake for 20-30 minutes. Let cool in muffin tray for 15 minutes, and than remove to finish cooling. Store in fridge or freezer. (It’s ok if muffins are a bit soft when you take them out; they will finish cooking in the muffin tray).

Enjoy! 

1 Oatmeal to Go = approx. 190 calories, 8.4 g fat, 26.7 g carbohydrates, 5.4 g protein, 3.1 g fiber, 52 mg sodium

Do you have any healthy snack or meal ideas that are great on the go?