Low Carbing and Hemp Heart Winner

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First and foremost, CONGRATS to Elizabeth F for winning the hemp hearts giveaway here!  :)  I just KNOW she is going to enjoy them!  Such a fun, nutty addition to any meal.  I found them to be a great way to add extra flavor and protein to my salads especially!

The hemp hearts were a nice way to add that little extra something while beginning my "low carb" lifestyle.  I have to say, when you sit and discuss cutting carbs and think of all the things you will be giving up or cutting way, way, WAY back on its daunting to say the very least.  Bread, pasta, doughnuts, cake, cookies...oh dear.  This wouldn't necessarily be too terrible except we have a tendencies to ALWAYS have doughnuts around at work (my fav), and Mini Me, my aspiring chef loves to BAKE more than anything.  She is planning her initial victory for Cupcake Wars, then to eventually be a star on her own food network show.  She watches episodes of Cupcake Wars on Netflix, and then acts them out.  Then she starts to think about what she is seeing and what she knows she likes and creates her own ideas and is not happy until we see them into fruition.  we signed up to bring cupcakes to the school carnival this weekend which brought about multiple discussions on what type of cupcakes we would be making.  How many 6 year lds weigh the option of ganache over fondant?  Her first cupcake, omne that we had to do  test round on, is Night on Chocolate Mountain(trademark pending).

This is a chocolate cupcake with a dark chocolate filling, a sprinkling of mini chocolate chips in the cupcake itself as well as a topper on the homemade chocolate buttercream frosting.  

Now obviously she is 6 and can't use the oven on her own, but for the most part that is the only thing we are helping with.  She reads the mix boxes, gets out the measuring cups and spoons, assembles her ingredients and gets started.  My favorite part of this test round was when my hubby was helping make the frosting and she was explaining how he needed to be more careful so the buttercream didn't separate. 

Hubs and I did break down and split a cupcake...only half as many carbs in HALF a cupcake right?!?!  And it was SO worth breaking the numbers for that day.  My main rule is, if my kiddo makes something from scratch, I am trying it...no "diet" is more important than her happiness.

OOOhh and bonus, my pants were still loose the next morning. ;)

I have not been missing the carbs as much as I thought I would.  The numbers on the scale are dropping, slowly but surely.  The best thing is how much better my clothes fit and how soundly I sleep.  I think the cutting down on refined carbs (aka sugar) has really done WONDERS for the type and quality of sleep I am now getting.  I wake up refreshed...which hasn't happended in a long time.

I do have energy drops, the past few weeks have been rough, no energy after everything is said and done to go out and exercise too...but this past weekend, I got myself out and got in a couple mile run.  It. Felt. Amazing!!!  So glad I forced myself to do it.  My goal at this point is to continue on a low carb diet and try to get in at least (minimum) 3 workouts a week.  I am seeing (and feeling) my clothes get more and more loose, and my body get smalled in places...time to make sure it is also getting/staying toned!

I heart Hemp Hearts

OMG!  I am very excited to share this with all of you!  So a few weeks ago I was selected by Manitoba Harvest to try out Hemp Hearts and do a review.  I was a little wary, as I sometimes am with food that is so new to me, but I scanned through some of their suggestions as to what to eat it with/on...and decided what the heck.

First a little background on these, they are a great source of Omegas and plant-based proteins.  They have a nutty taste to them and I have to be honest...they are delish!  Who knew!  The hubs and I have been cutting back on our "bad carbs" so sometimes the thought of ANOTHER salad is just too much...but add a little dash of these goodies, and it gives the salad a whole new taste.

a little dash of hemp hearts on my salad

added a bit to my eggs

on the table to share with the fam at dinner

salad topper

I actually am a bit mad at myself because I used it on other things too...scrambled eggs, lettuce wraps, but TBH I was either so hungry at the tine or so enveloped in the yumminess of my creation that I forgot to  take pics!!

These little delights add just the right amount of extra flavor to anything!  The kiddos were even intrigued by them.  And with us being on a lower carb diet right now, all the extra protien that these little bad boys pack was much aprciated.

I am looking forward to purchasing some more of these as my first bag is almost gone already.  Oh yeah, did I menton that...all of these meals pictured above PLUS at ;least 4-5 more have nice portions of Hemp Hearts added, and they are all from the SAME BAG!  So I know...now that you have heard (and seen) the yumminess you want some of your very own too don't you?!?!  Wel you are in luck because my good friends at Manitoba Harvest want to give one lucky reader a free sample, just enter below!!

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