SLEEP BETTER with these evening snacks 😴

No one likes to go to bed hungry with your stomach growling and your cravings peaking. It messes with your sleep. Diet culture tells us that we shouldn't eat after a certain time, but here at Pick Up Limes we think it's really important to honor our hunger cues. So if you're feeling hungry before bed, definitely consider eating something. So today we're gonna be making some super easy, quick, delicious snack recipes that nourish the body and might even help to promote a better night's sleep. So let's get started. For the first recipe, we're gonna make a creamy cheesecake dip that's made with an unexpected ingredient. This recipe comes together in just five minutes, and it's just a single step. You're gonna add all of the ingredients to a small food processor, blitz it up, and that's it. Easy peasy. So we're gonna add one and a half cups of cooked butter beans or lima beans to a small food processor. And this is the unexpected ingredient, but trust me, you can't even taste it in there. You're just gonna have to try it out to see for yourself. Then we'll add a quarter of a cup of cashew butter. We do have a recipe, by the way, for making your own homemade cashew butter if you'd like to. I'll leave the recipe link for you in the description box below. Then we're gonna add in three tablespoons of maple syrup, a quarter of a cup of plain vegan cream cheese, two teaspoons of vanilla extract, and then just a little pinch of salt. Then pop on the lid and blend it all up until it's smooth. I'm gonna top this creamy dip with some crushed up cookies and freeze-dried raspberries for a bit of extra crunch, but this is totally optional. I'm also just doing it so that it looks cute for the camera. But you can just dig straight into it with your favorite fruit. We carefully crafted these recipes knowing that they have certain compounds in them that have been shown to help with sleep. So this recipe, for example, features beans and cashews, both of which are a rich source of protein, and they contain the amino acid that's called tryptophan. And tryptophan is well known for its role in helping to regulate sleep. If you do want to geek out and learn more about it, check out this previous video that we made on the relationship between food and sleep. For this next recipe, we're gonna be making stuffed energy balls. I've never shared this with you guys, but well over 10 years ago, just little baby Sadie and her sister, we filmed some at-home videos together with the intention of posting these videos to YouTube, but those videos never saw the light of day. But one of the recipes I wanted to share even back then were these stuffed energy balls. I have been obsessed with these for as long as I can remember, and today they get their time in the spotlight. I don't know if you're gonna want to show the audio of those videos because they were like super cringy. Super cringy. Hey guys, I'm Sadia. Today, we're gonna be making these chocolate orbs with a peanut butter surprise. These are decadent, rich, and absolutely delicious. All you need to make these are a cup of soft dates with the pits removed. We're gonna add it to a food processor along with half of a cup of roasted cashews, two tablespoons of Dutch processed cocoa powder. We'll add a tablespoon of sesame seeds and a tablespoon of ground flax seeds. What sound does a nut make when it sneezes? Cashew! When everything has been added in, we're just gonna pop a lid onto it and blend it all up until the mixture becomes uniform. It should just hold together when you press it between your fingers. Then I'm gonna scoop up a couple of tablespoons of the mixture into the palm of my hand, form it into a ball, and then use my finger to create a little crater in the center of the ball. Now comes the fun part. We're gonna dollop a tiny bit of peanut butter into the center and then enclose the peanut butter by pinching the edges closed around it. If your peanut butter is too liquid, you can actually pop it in the freezer for a few minutes just to help it solidify and that can make it easier to work with. You can enjoy these balls as they are, but if you want to decorate them, you can also coat them in cocoa powder or in toasted sesame seeds. And now they're ready to enjoy. You're also gonna have leftovers so you can store them for several days in the fridge. Or what I like to do is make a bigger batch and store them in the freezer just so I have it at the ready whenever I need it. Now this recipe again features cashews, which we know now contains tryptophan. But why do we keep combining it with a carb, this time in the form of dates? Well, carbs help tryptophan more easily enter into the brain where it's needed. And so this is why a combination of carbs together with protein can help us in getting quality sleep. Warm milk before bed. It's comforting. It's familiar. It's been a common practice for people around the world. So let's explore why, but first let's make a golden hot chocolate. To get started, we're gonna add all of the ingredients to a blender. Starting with two cups of soy milk and three medjool dates with the pits removed. Soy is also a good source of tryptophan and when you combine it with the quick digesting carbs that are in the dates, it again just helps to ensure that that tryptophan more easily enters into our brain. Then we can add in two tablespoons of Dutch processed cocoa powder. We'll add a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, a quarter of a teaspoon of ground turmeric, a quarter of a teaspoon of vanilla extract, and then a pinch of optional ground nutmeg and black pepper. Then we're gonna pop the lid onto it and blitz it up until it's smooth. I like to sweeten this with dates because I like the little bit of extra fiber that it provides. But if you don't have a blender, you can always use maple syrup instead. And then you can just add all of the ingredients straight into the saucepan. For now, we're gonna add these ingredients to a saucepan and then just stir it continuously until it heats up. Be sure to keep stirring so that the milk doesn't scorch. Soy milk is also a good source of calcium and calcium plays a role in the production of melatonin, which is a hormone that helps to regulate our sleep and wake cycles. And just as an aside, other minerals can help us with our sleep as well. Things like iron, magnesium, and zinc. If you do want to geek out more about that, we've written a nutrition article and I'm gonna leave that link for you in the description box below. When the milk is just heated through, take the saucepan off of the heat and then just pour it into some mugs. You can top it with some milk froth if you'd like. We're also just kind of garnishing it with some ground turmeric and cinnamon, but you definitely don't have to use this. Now this comforting and nourishing cup of hot chocolate is ready to enjoy. I hope you enjoyed the snacks that we made today, friends. In summary, snacks that work really well in the evening to help to promote a better night's sleep are those that contain protein combined together with carbs and it's all the more helpful if it's rich in minerals, which a lot of plant-based foods tend to be. If you're looking for even more snack ideas, we have nearly 200 snack recipes alone in our app and there's new recipes in general just added every single weekday. So I'll leave a link for that in the description box below and thanks so much for hanging with me today. I really appreciate it. Pick Up Limes, signing off and we'll see you in the next video. All of the ingredients to a small food process. You want me to up top? You want me to like bally girl? Oh my god, I can totally do that. Pour it into some mugs. If you want, you can top it with some foam. Foam? Is it called foam? Foam. Is it called foam? Foam sounds weird. What do you add on it? Foam? Frost milk. Some milk frost. Can I say that? Frosted. No. Maybe that's like how the British say it. It's frosted milk.