Hi and happy Thursday morning to you. I’m excited because I have the delicious little recipe I mentioned a few days ago to share with you today.

I said was going to go out and get the ingredients to make the goo balls asap and that’s exactly what I did.

Now I have a container of these babies waiting in the fridge for me at any given moment of the day. Perfection!

A little background behind these balls – Chef Jesse (the demo specialist at my local Whole Foods) has been talking up his heady goo balls for a few weeks and it wasn’t until Monday of this week that I was finally able to experience them in all their glory. Yes, they are worthy of the word glory.

I’ve had different types of balls before (i.e. coconut protein balls) but none have been quite like these. Not only do they contain two of my favorite foods – chia seeds and oats, but they’re packed full of other nutrient dense ingredients as well including:

• Cocoa Powder – High in magnesium and antioxidants.
• Amazing Grass Trio of Barley, Wheat and Alfalfa Grass – Increases and sustains energy naturally, detoxifies and cleanses the body, high alkalinity helps balance acidic pH levels, strengthens immune system.
• Raw Honey – Honey is said to be more digestible than any other sweetener. Because raw honey hasn’t been heated, it contains vitamins and enzymes that are lost during the heating process of pasteurized honey. It is also easier on the body during digestion because of its chemical structure and it does not cause a huge insulin rush as normal sugar does. Eating local honey is also said to help with seasonal allergies. <– Find more details on local honey and allergies here.
• Bee Pollen – an energizing super food that’s considered a complete food, one that provides all of the 22 essential amino acids, minerals, vitamins, protein, carbohydrates, etc <–Learn more about bee pollen here.

We recently bought raw local honey and bee pollen at the Forest Hill Farmers Market so I had both of these items on hand. If you don’t already have them, they should be relatively easy to find at your local farmers market or organic market. The Amazing Grass and chia seeds can also be found at an organic market or online. With that said, don’t let not having one or two ingredients deter you from making the recipe – I’m a big advocate of experimenting with what you have on hand.

As you can see, the goo balls will boost your energy and your immune system. They’re perfect for a pre or post workout snack, a small breakfast on the run or a mid-afternoon pick me up. And, don’t worry, the reason I like them isn’t only for the health benefits – they taste good too. They have a nice sweet flavor from the honey and dried fruit, a little crunch from the chia seeds and a hint of chocolate!! Enough talk – here’s the recipe so you can try them out for yourself.

Heady Goo Balls

Makes 25-27 balls depending on how big you make them.

Original recipe from Chef Jesse (who works at my local Whole Foods). The version I am posting here includes all the same ingredients, but is scaled down quite a bit. They can be made gluten free with the use of gluten free oats and vanilla.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup Chia Seeds
• 1/8 cup Bee Pollen Granules
• 1/4 cup Old-fashioned oats (use gluten free if you’re avoiding gluten)
• 1/4 cup Unsulfered Dried Apricots, chopped
• 1/4 cup Dates, pitted
• 1/4 cup Almond Butter, Crunchy Unsalted
• 1/4 cup Organic Raw Honey
• 1 Tablespoon Organic Cocoa Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon Organic Vanilla Extract
• 1/2-1 Tablespoon Amazing Grass Trio
• Shredded Unsweetened Coconut, for rolling

Preparation

1. Place chia seeds, bee pollen, oats, cocoa powder, cinnamon and Amazing Grass into a food processor or mini chopper and process for 20-30 seconds or until oats are finely chopped.
2. Add dates, apricots, almond butter, honey and vanilla extract and process until the mixture turns into a dough ball. Work “dough” with clean hands to make sure everything is well combined.
3. Pinch off small amounts of the mixture (about 1.5 teaspoons full) and roll into balls. Roll balls in shredded coconut.
4. Store in fridge.

I hope you like these balls as much as I do! I was going to do a full recap of the Whole Foods Cooking demo from Monday night but my camera died during the demo so I didn’t get photos of everything, plus Stephanie did a great job recapping it so just check her blog out for all the deliciousness. I liked everything on the menu and can’t wait to make the Warrior Breakfast, Vegetarian Pho and Salmon en Papillote at home.

I hope to be back before the end of the week with an update on the Eat Clean Challenge (officially there’s only 2 more days left!) and how Jamie Eason’s LiveFit Trainer workouts are going. Have a great day.

Last night I attended the January Cooking Demo at my local Whole Foods. It was lovely… lots of delicious food (per the usual) and fun company including Liz, Stephanie, Sharon (Steph’s mom) and my friend Heidi.

This month was about having a Healthy New Year so all the dishes were nutritious! While everything Chef Jesse prepared was tasty, I’m pretty sure I went to sleep and woke up thinking about the goo balls he made.

Their name = Heady Goo Balls.

Sounds like something you would get a Phish concert but rest assured these dense little nuggets of goodness are filled with nothing but superfoods including bee pollen, raw honey, almond butter, oats, chia seeds and more. Oh and Amazing Grass. They taste delicious and would be great for a pre or post workout snack. I plan to make them as soon as I stop by the store and grab all the ingredients, which will hopefully happen tonight.

Full details about the demo and the recipe for Jesse’s Heady Goo Balls coming soon. Have a great Tuesday!

Oh and don’t forget to check out the Sparkly Soul non-slip headband giveaway I have going on.

Despite the freezing cold weather we’re experiencing here in VA the weekend is off to a great start!

As I mentioned on facebook, Isaac and I toured a wedding/reception venue this morning that we absolutely fell in love with. We’ve toured three other places and while they all had some great aspects, none of them seemed “perfect”. Today’s venue was not only beautiful, the lady who worked with us was so welcoming and friendly and by the time we were leaving both Isaac and I had the same feeling – we REALLY liked the place. We didn’t sign the contract today because we have at least one more place to check out, but I have a gut feeling this will be the place we get married. So exciting! I’ll be sure to share more details about it soon.

We also checked out the SlowFoodRVA TEDxManhattan – Change the Way We Eat viewing party at Gallery5 today. I love TED talks and this whole event was focused on something I’m truly passionate about so I was excited to check it out. My favorite part was the TED talk from Jamie Oliver about the obesity epidemic affecting our nation and what we can do about it. He emphasized that teaching our kids about where food comes from and how to cook nutritious meals is essential and needs to be done in schools. It was very inspiring and makes me want to get out and do something to help make a change. I’ve already got some ideas floating around in my head!

Changing topics to something a little lighter, do you like sparkly things? If so, you must check out Sparkly Soul headbands.

As part of the FitFluential Ambassador program I was sent two of the Sparkly Soul non-slip headbands to review. I hate having my bangs in my face while I’m working out but I typically don’t wear headbands because they never stay in place for me. I won’t lie, I was actually skeptical that these ones from Sparkly Soul wouldn’t stay in place but they’ve proved me wrong! Check out the video below for my review:

The best part… Sparkly Soul has offered to give away two headbands, one thin and one thick (in the color of your choice) to one lucky EBF reader! To enter the giveaway check out the Sparkly Soul website and tell me in the comment section which headband color you like best. For an extra entry you can do do the following and leave a comment telling me you’ve done so:

• Follow Sparkly Soul on Twitter @SPARKLYSOULINC and tweet about the giveaway. Your tweet could be something like this: “I want to win a @SPARKLYSOULINC non-slip headband from @eatingbirdfood! Enter to win here: http://wp.me/pDCSr-2Na”

You’ll have until January 31st to enter and I’ll announce the winner on February 1st.

PS – I’ve only ever done one other video post before (over a year ago!) so I thought it would be fun to try my hand at it again. Hopefully you guys like it.

Nothing warms me up like a bowl of oatmeal on a winter morning – especially if it involves flavors that make me think of white sand, suntan lotion and piña coladas.

Take me back to Cayman please! (Ang, I’m looking at you. )

This bowl of oatmeal does just that with flavors of both banana and coconut. It’s delightful…

and now one of my favorite oatmeal variations.

The star ingredient is Blue Diamond’s New Unsweetened Almondmilk Coconutmilk Blend. I have a slight obsession with Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk so when I saw this at Kroger (on sale nonetheless) I had to buy it!

I like it because it’s unsweetened and has pretty much the same nutritional facts as their unsweetened vanilla almond milk – low calories, 50% more calcium than regular milk and no sugar! Plus it’s soy and gluten-free! Kroger didn’t have the vanilla almond/coconut milk blend but I definitely want to try that flavor next time!

A first sip I wasn’t super excited about the flavor, but that’s no surprise because I don’t really like to drink any milk product (dairy or non-dairy) on it’s own. The amazing flavor it brought to the oats more than makes up for it! I’d honestly buy it for the sole purpose of making oats, but I’m sure I’ll find other uses as well.

So if you’re in the mood for a tasty bowl of oats that will have you daydreaming about exotic islands, find yourself some coconut milk and give this little combo a shot. If you can’t find the almond/coconut milk blend, you could always use half almond milk and half coconut milk.

Take Me to the Tropics Oatmeal

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup old fashioned oatmeal
• 2/3 cup almondmilk coconutmilk blend
• 1/2 banana, sliced
• pinch of cinnamon
• splash of vanilla
• 1-2 drops of liquid stevia, optional
• 1 teaspoon unsweetened dried coconut
• 1/2 Tablespoon almond butter (or another nut butter)

Preparation

1. Put oatmeal, milk, banana, cinnamon and vanilla in a medium sized pot. Cook on medium-low heat for about 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally so the oats don’t stick. Remove from pot, top with coconut and almond butter and enjoy!

The first time I made this I used a little stevia to sweeten it up, but left it out the second time. I’ve found that the oats don’t really need any extra sweetness – a ripe banana will do the trick!

With all this talk about tropical flavors I’m ready to book a trip somewhere warm and sunny. Instead I’m heading in to work. Oh well, at least it’s Friday. Have a great day!

I’m glad you all liked the Whole Foods Pantry Stock Up Contest post. How cool would it be if an EBF reader won one of the giveaways? I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

As I mentioned, I’ve started experimenting with some of the recipes. It’s been getting colder here in VA and I’ve been craving warm foods so I decided to give the Simple Black Bean Soup a try.

I tweaked the recipe a little based on what ingredients I had on hand and turned it into a crock-pot soup by throwing all the ingredients in the pot before going to bed. It was super simple and I loved waking up to the delicious aroma of smoky black beans. In addition, I had a piping pot of soup waiting for me when I came home for lunch. Can’t beat that!

Easy Crock-Pot Black Bean Soup

Inspired by WF’s Simple Black Bean Soup / Serves 8

**Make sure to plan ahead and allow time for soaking the beans.

Ingredients

• 1 pound dried black beans (about 2 1/2 cups), soaked and rinsed
• 1/2 Tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 4 carrots, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 Tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 Tablespoon ground chili pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• pinch of cinnamon
• ground black pepper, to taste
• 8 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cups water
• ripe avocado, chopped

Preparation

1. Soak the beans overnight or 6 to 8 hours prior to cooking. Drain and rinse.
2. In a pot, heat coconut oil over medium heat. Add onions, carrots and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes.
3. Place cooked mixture into the crock-pot and add all the other ingredients except the avocado. Stir to make sure everything is combined.
4. Cover and cook on high for 6-8 hours, until beans are tender.
5. This step is optional – you can either keep the beans whole or puree them using either a hand blender/traditional blender to your desired texture. Pureeing until pieces of the beans are still visible makes the soup thick but keeps a bit of the texture.
6. Spoon soup into bowls for serving and garnish with avocado.

I skipped the pureeing this time around so the soup in the photos is chunky with extra broth. The flavor is spot on and the hint of spiciness is perfect for a chilly winter day!

The best part – it is super easy to make and fits with my Stripped Challenge (a combo of the Eat Clean Stripped Diet and the nutrition plan from ToneItUp). Plus, it made a ton – both Isaac and I have been able to eat it for several meals this week!

After the success of this soup, I’m excited to try out some of the other WF’s pantry stockup recipes. I think the zesty quinoa with broccoli and cashews will be next.

Have a lovely Thursday friends.

Also, Richmond readers – Slow Foods RVa has partnered with the Frontier Project to host a TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat” viewing party at Gallery5. The event is free and open to the public and will take place this coming, Saturday, January 21st, from 10am -5:30pm. This is a great opportunity to learn about our food system and to connect with other Richmonders. You can go and stay all day, or just come for a little bit. They’ll be featuring information about local farmers markets, farmers and growers, as well as artisans and what they produce. Pizza Tonight will be on-site cooking pizzas for lunch. It sounds like an awesome event! For more information on the Viewing Party, check out the registration page. (It’s a free event, but you still have to register.) http://changeourfoodsystemrichmond.eventbrite.com/.