Review: Hail Merry Macaroons

So I've been spending a lot of time looking at nutrition labels with the new dietary rules, and the key is low net carbs. That is Carbohydrates - Fiber. This makes trips to the grocery store take a lot longer, and sometimes sad faces too. For instance, some of my favorite things are chocolate & caramel. Something like a Twix Bar... has 217 calories, 27 net carbs (14 of which are sugar). This is my favorite candy bar, but it exceeds any sane budget for blood sugar control.

Then I found these by Hail Merry Organic, gluten free, kosher, vegan, delicious:

Macaroons - Choco: with 110 kcalories (for 2), 8g net carbs (7g are sugar) and so much amazing flavor that I don't crave any additional sweets. They are dense, moist, with tons of coconut and the perfect amount of chocolate (I like super chocolate when I can get it).

Macaroons - Caramel Sea Salt: with 140 kcalories (for 2), as well as the same 8g net carbs (7g of which are sugar). These just melt in your mouth and with a touch of maple syrup, vanilla and of course the saltiness (not to forget the coconut) you'll wonder why you ever wanted any other caramel treat.

While writing this post, I discovered they have other flavors I'm going to have to seek out and try but for now, these are permanently on my shopping list whenever I see them.

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Protein & Chocolate

I've been really wanting to make something on the healthier side in the sweet family.   I was also inspired by the idea of getting more protein in the form of a cookie.   So again, on the hunt for ideas.  ifoodreal has a recipe for Double Chocolate Protein Cookies that got me most of the way to my finished product.  She's offered a lot of tips on what benefits each ingredient has and it looks like a nice recipe.  I didn't happen to have any avacado so I couldn't make it completely as she did. Plus, there is no whey protein powder in our house out of kindness to the lactose intolerant among us.

Even though there is no added sugar, I found these to be sweetly satisfying.  The apple sauce adds a bit of moisture if your banana's aren't ripe enough (mine could have used a couple of more days). If you've got properly over ripe banana's you may be able to leave out the applesauce.  The chocolate is more than enough to satisfy any chocolate lovers craving too.

Please do experiment. The chia & flax are easy enough to add if you have them, but can be left off if you don't.

With that said, here is the basic & simple recipe.

Ingredients	Tools	Notes
1/2 cup peanut butter 2 medium ripe banana's 2 scoops protein powder 4 tbsp cocoa powder (unsweetened) 3 tbsp dark chocolate chips/chunks 1/2 cup rolled oats 2 tbsp applesauce (unsweetened) 1 tsp flax seed (ground) 1 tsp chia seed (ground) 1 tbsp quinoa (ground) 1 tbsp unsalted, dry roasted sunflower seeds	wooden spoon medium sized bowl cookie sheet sheet liner potato masher Coffee/Spice Grinder works well on the seeds	Preheat to 350 F yields 12-18 cookies

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
• In medium bowl, mash together banana's & peanut butter.  Add remaining ingredients and mix until combined.
• Using a lined baking sheet, and a 2 Tbsp disher, I was able to get 18 cookies.  Bake for about 12 minutes.  Cool until easy to touch and enjoy.

My intention is to have these for breakfast for a couple of days, but if you're going to store much longer than that freezing is probably best.

According to my Lose It! tracker, each cookie of 18 works out to 70 calories, 5.2 g fat, 1.2 g sat fat, 52.9mg sodium, 4.9 g carbs, 1.1g fiber, 1.7g sugar, 3.4g protein