Snack Hacking with Nosh & Co. and Devin Connell

Snacking and food hacking are two things that I have a lot of experience in. As you may know, a couple years ago I was Kraft Canada's Official Food Hacker for their Food Hacks campaign, which meant scouring the internet for every possible food hack I could find. I learned so many different food hacks during that time, some good, some not so good, and it was clear to see that the best food hacks were those that were simple, convenient, and made cooking more enjoyable. Having ended the Food Hacks campaign a couple years ago, I still love coming across new food hacks that I haven't yet discovered.

I was super pumped to have the opportunity to add a few more hacks up my sleeve, when I was invited by Rexall Canada and Nosh & Co. to join TV personality, entrepreneur, and recipe developer Devin Connell as she led a mini cooking demo on her favourite snack hacks. What I loved about Devin's snack hacks was that they were not about utilizing gimmicky methods or kitchen tools just to be "hacky." Devin's type of hacks were about real life tips and tricks that make healthy and guilt-free snacking easy! 

The first recipe that Devin led us through was how to make the dry mix for her Pumpkin and Sunflower Seed Banana Bread. The banana bread, which Devin baked into mini, individual loaves (perfect for those snack cravings!), allowed us to understand how we can utilize other healthy ingredients in our kitchen to sweeten up and add flavour to healthy treats. The banana bread contained zero added sugar, allowing the natural sweetness from the overly-ripe bananas to sweetened the loaves. The addition of Nosh & Co. Unsalted Roasted Shelled Sunflower Seeds and Roasted & Salted Pumpkin seeds added a fantastic crunchy texture to the loaves, with the pumpkin seeds adding just a hint of saltiness. 

The second recipe that Devin led us through was how to make her Fruit & Nut Mix Power Balls. Not only were the Power Balls insanely simple to prepare, they were also delicious, and actually very filling! This was definitely my favourite hack of the day, and one that I can see myself using all the time! I've been turning to those Power Balls ever since the event, as my new favourite late-afternoon treat to sustain my appetite before dinner. 

The final hack of the day allowed us guests to prepare our own signature trail mix using a selection of Nosh & Co. nuts and trail mixes, as well as some other healthy and tasty ingredients. Devin loves to layer her ingredients into a mason jar, shake it up to disperse, and keep the jar in her car for snacking emergencies. More than just sweet ingredients, Devin also gave us the great idea of creating our own savoury trail mixes. With ingredient such as spiced chickpeas, shredded seaweed, and salty pumpkin seeds available, the savoury trail mixes were just as satisfying as the sweet ones! 

I had such an awesome time at this event, and more importantly, I really loved the tips and tricks I learned from Devin that I can actually see myself applying to my daily routine! I have included the recipes for you below and encourage you to try them! Let me know what you think in the comments! 

Pumpkin & Sunflower Seed Banana Bread

Ingredients:

Dry Mix: This mixture can be kept in an air-tight container at room-temperature for up to one-month. Double or triple the recipe to have some on hand for last-minute muffins

1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour

1 Tbsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/4 cup Nosh & Co. Unsalted Roasted Shelled Sunflower Seeds

1/4 cup Nosh & Co. Roasted & Salted Pumpkin Seeds

Wet Mix:

4 very ripe bananas (like really ugly and brown)

1/2 cup melted coconut oil, plus more for greasing the tin

2 extra large eggs

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease loaf pan or muffin tins with melted coconut oil.
2. In a large bowl, sift together gluten-free flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Push any remaining kosher salt through the sieve. Stir in sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds.
3. In a separate bowl, mash bananas very well with a fork until very soft and almost liquidy. Whisk in coconut oil and eggs until well incorporated.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir with a large spoon until just mixed together. Do not over mix.
5. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pan or muffin tins until 3/4 full.
6. Bake 45-minutes for the loaf or 20-minutes for muffins. 

Fruit & Nut Mix Power Balls

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Nosh & Co. Raw Fruit & Nut Mix

1/2 cup dried coconut (unsweetened)

1/2 cup sunflower seed butter (may sub almond butter)

2 Tbsp. honey

1 Tbsp. water

1/4 cup chia seeds

1 cup rolled oats

Directions: 

1. In a food processor, combine the fruit & nut mix, dried coconut, sunflower seed butter, honey and water. Periodically stop the machine, and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
2. Once blended, the mixture should not be chunky, but still have some texture to it.
3. Place the mixture into a large bowl. With a large spoon, mix in the chia seeds and oats. The mixture will resemble a loose crumble.
4. Grab about 2-Tbsp. of mixture and, using your hands, form into a ball. Continue with remaining mixture. Power balls can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week. 

Listening To:

Portugal, The Man - Noise Pollution

When Life Hands You Bagels, You Make Everything Bagel Butter

What do you do when life hands you an obscene amount of plain, grocery store bagels? You make Everything Bagel Butter! This past weekend I had the chance to escape the city and head to beautiful Minden Hills near Haliburton to celebrate my good friend Rommi's bachelorette. Though the prospect of spending the weekend on a dock with a bunch of like-minded and hilarious ladies is enough to get me pumped about going away, in typical Danielle fashion, the thought of getting permission to binge eat all weekend using the "calories don't count on vacations" excuse, was always in the back of my mind. 

Though I arrived at the cottage a day later than most of the group, I couldn't believe how much food and snacks were still decorating the cottage. Everywhere you looked you would find gummies of every shape and flavour, Kettle Chips in just about every seasoning, hard candies shaped like dicks (it was a bachelorette weekend after-all!), Oreos, brownies, bagels, fruit, vegetables, I could go on and on! I was in snack-attack heaven! Come Sunday, upon our time of departure, I was amazed at how much food ten small women had consumed in only a few days. It was downright impressive! But as is true with any girls getaway, our eyes were much larger than our stomaches and despite our impressive consumption, we ended up with quite the haul of leftovers by the end of the weekend. 

With so much leftover food about to hit the trash, along with my recent extreme budging and fear of food waste, I happily accepted any of the leftover food that no one else wanted to take. Though I was thrilled to go back to Toronto with a kitchen full of food, I somehow ended up with over a dozen bagels for just myself and my boyfriend. I'm not just talking about any kind of bagels here, I'm talking the plain, ol' grocery store kind, devoid of any flavour or appetizing texture. Sure, you can call me a food snob, but I've grown up eating some of the best bagels this city has to offer, and plain grocery store ones just do not do it for me. Despite my distaste for the brand of bagels, I was still grateful to have free food, and knew that I would be able to think up a creative way for making those sad excuse for bagels edible. 

Once again, I find myself thanking the heavens for giving me the gift of Pinterest, as all I had to do was quickly scroll through my board of Recipes To Make to find an easy-as-can-be recipe for Everything Bagel Butter! Pure genius and just what I needed to give my plain bagels a much-needed flavour boost! This trick for making a compound butter, enhanced with the flavourings from an everything bagel, was the kind of idea that had me thinking "why didn't I think of that?" The Everything Bagel Butter took all of 5 minutes to make (maybe even less!), and only two hours in the fridge, and most definitely did the trick in making my bagels delicious! It's safe to say I've eaten at least one bagel per day since returning thanks to my new favourite butter! 

WARNING: Do not eat this butter before a date! It contains both dried onion and garlic and will leave you needing a very good tooth-brushing, flossing, and mouth-washing session. You have been warned! 

Check out the blog Spend With Pennies for the full recipe for making Everything Bagel Butter! 

Listening To:

A #createlounge podcast!