Hi friends! I’m half back (ok so physically back to home base but mentally … floating around Pluto?) but also back in the sense that we’ve got another Birthday Guest Birthday Post! Whee!!! And from the fabulous Jessa Slade too! I love that we have such a variety of voices, and that this one is perfectly chill to top us off. <3
Thanks for having me for a birthday post!
Sometimes when you get to be a certain – ahem — age, one forgets to be excited about birthdays anymore, and it’s good to be reminded that birthdays are meant to be fun! Toward that end, I want to share my birthday brunch recipe with you. But since I am that certain age, it’s going to be a healthy birthday brunch. Hold the groans!
- Homemade Brunch Bars
1½ cups old fashioned oats (toasted)
½ cup fun seeds (chia seed, flax seed, sprouted buckwheat, sprouted millet, quinoa, hemp seed, amaranth, etc.)
1 T cocoa powder
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
½ cup peanut butter
¼ cup maple syrup or honey
¼ cup almonds, chopped
¼ cup mini chocolate chips (let’s be honest; I used more than this)
Sea salt, to sprinkle
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Toast the oats to a golden brown. Toasty oats stay crispier.
- After toasting, combine the oats, seed mixture, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix well.
- In a small bowl, heat the peanut butter and maple syrup (microwave or stovetop) until they mix well. Add to oat mixture.
- Stir until dough forms.
- Add to a greased 9×9 pan. Sprinkle and press almonds on top.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until set.
- Remove from oven. Sprinkle and gently press on mini chocolate chips and sea salt. Lick fingers. Let sit until slightly cool then cut into 8 bars.
Kale-Berry Smoothie Base
One handful each:
— Kale leaves minus the hard center stem
— Blueberries
— Raspberries
— Other dark berries
1 C orange juice
Half an apple
Half a lemon
Cayenne pepper (a little goes a shockingly long way!)
- Blend the kale and orange juice until liquefied.
- Add everything else.
- Don’t inhale the cayenne. Makes enough for several days.
- Mix 3 spoonfuls of the base with 3 spoonfuls of Greek yogurt.
LIVE FOREVER!!!
Okay, full disclosure: There will be birthday cake too. 🙂
Healthy AND happy can be a bit of a tricky balance, I think, but it’s a worthy goal because I have a lot of books left to write. One of my latest projects — writing as Elsa Jade — is just wrapping up its first round of books. The Mating Season Collection is six authors contributing three stories each to a shared world of sexy wolf shifter alpha males searching for their true mates.
You can get my first title Wolves of Angel Rest #1: HERO for 99¢ at Amazon or free with Kindle Unlimited.
Please share in comment one way you stay healthy or happy or both. I’ll be giving away three copies of Wolves of Angel Rest #2: JOKER as a birthday gift. Happy reading!
Leela Jones had a mission: kill a werewolf. Instead, she was captured by one. Now Bastian Villalobos, bad boy of the Mesa Diablo pack, has a werewolf hunter on his hands. Wolf shifters and hunters have always been mortal enemies. But under the hungry light of the mating moon, they might be lovers too.
BIO: Jessa Slade writes paranormal romance, urban fantasy romance, and science fiction romance, while her alter egos Jenna Dales writes sexy contemporary romances and Elsa Jade writes sexy shapeshifting romances. Basically, whatever catches her fancy at any given moment.
Great recipes. I intend to be excited about each & every birthday. They are kind of a big deal in our family.
Mary, I still have hopes of finding the PERFECT healthy lunch (i.e. made entirely of chocolate somehow) but until then…
Happy Birthday! Exercise is a good way to stay healthy
Timitra, yes, exercise is so important. Especially when my day job AND my writing job both require me to be on a computer for hours. Luckily I have a dog so I get walked twice a day, every day, whether I want to or not. 🙂
couple of years ago, I stopped eating processed food and it has made a difference. I [mostly] gave up soda last November.
I’m mostly off soda (except with pizza — I figure if I’m eating pizza, nothing really matters anymore!) but baked goods are my nemesis. C’mere, cookies and cupcakes! Hence the attempt at the healthy brunch bar. Sigh.
Happy belated birthday Jessa! I hope you had a great day. Thanks for sharing the recipes with us. I don’t know about kale in a smoothie though.
Kale is the worst! No, that’s not true. Brussel sprouts are the worst. 🙂 But kale grows really good in my yard so kale goes in everything. I learned the trick about blendering the kale first though. Otherwise you get kale lumps. And for sure the only thing worse than Brussel sprouts are kale lumps!