Trail Mix "Cookies"

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas
1 1/2 C Oats
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Vanilla
1/4 Dates, chopped
1/4 C Dried Cranberries, raisins or Golden Raisins
1/2 C Unsweetened coconut flakes
1/4 C Pecans, chopped

Directions:
Smash bananas with a fork and combine all ingredients in a bowl.
Spoon onto an oiled cookie sheet and Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Frozen fruit treat

This is a really fantastic treat for the summer! Melts a bit at room temp so you should only get out what you want to eat! Fun to make with the kids too!

Ingredients:
2/3 C frozen fruit (We love a triple berry blend)
2/3 C unsweetened coconut
2/3 C coconut oil
10 TBLS salted butter
1/4 C raw cocoa powder
1/4 C honey

Directions:
Soften butter and mix all ingredients in a bowl. (looks like mud pie :) )

Then dump out onto a plate lined with parchment paper, pat down, and freeze until firm.

Little bites of berry flavored awesome dark chocolate! Yes please! :)

Homemade Nutella

Ingredients:
1 C hazelnuts
1/2 C coconut milk
1/3 brown rice syrup
1 TBLS coconut oil
1/4 C cocoa powder
1 TBLS vanilla

Directions:
350 Bake hazelnuts for 8-10 min until browned. Grind nuts in Vitamix (any high power blender) until smooth.  Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth! YUM!
It's ok to double this recipe too! :)

Chocloate chia-pudding parfait

If you've got some leftover cooked quinoa then this snack comes together very quickly!

Ingredients:
1/2 C cooked quinoa
3 TBLS chia seeds
1 TBLS flaxseed
1 2/3 C almond milk
2 tsp cocoa powder

1/2 C Greek yogurt
Berries
Honey (optional)

Directions:
Mix together the cooked quinoa, chia seeds, flaxseeds, almond milk and cocoa powder.  Allow to sit in the fridge for several hours or overnight. This is your "pudding."
Make your parfait layering "pudding", yogurt and berries in a glass. Top with honey if you would like it a bit sweeter!

Almond Honey Cake

I seriously can't believe I haven't had this on my blog.  Found this recipe when we started cutting out all the processed sugars and white flour, etc. like 8 years ago!  Simple, yet stylized enough for a birthday!  My husband loves his piece in a bowl with almond milk. Glad he had a birthday to remind me....get it on the blog!


Ingredients:
1 1/2 C almonds
4 large eggs, at room temperature, separated
1/2 C honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 9 inch springform pan with coconut oil.  Line the bottom with parchment paper and coat that with coconut oil as well.
Process the almonds in a blender until finely ground into a flour.
Separate eggs.

 

Beat the 4 egg yolks, honey, vanilla, soda and salt in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until well combined. Add the ground almonds and beat on low until combined.

 

Beat the 4 egg whites with a whisk attachment on your electric mixer on medium speed until very foamy, white and doubled in volume, but NOT stiff enough to hold peaks!

 

Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the nut mixture until just combined.  

 

Pour into prepared springform pan.

  

Bake the cake until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. 

 

Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan and gently remove the side ring. Let cool completely, then carefully transfer to a serving platter.

 

Drizzle with honey and sprinkle with almonds just before serving!

Thank you EatingWell! 

BEST HOT COCOA

When I made this a bit ago and my 8 year old watched me, he said "when I grow up I'm going to make sure I ALWAYS have those 3 ingredients so I can make this all the time!" No need for Nesquick, or Carnation, or even squeezable Hershey syrup.  This is the best flavored Hot Cocoa hands down!

Ingredients:
3/4 C milk, heated
1 tsp cocoa powder
1-2 tsp pure maple syrup

Directions:
This makes 1 glass at a time.  Heat the milk in a glass cup in the microwave (I just hit beverage)
Stir in cocoa and pure maple syrup.  YUM

Scones

We've made these with cranberries and blueberries.  Both are fantastic!  Filling for a breakfast and even work as a treat :) (At least for my kids!)

Ingredients:
2 C Whole Wheat flour
1/3 C honey
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 TBLS butter (1 Cube) softened
1/2 C sour cream
1 egg
1 C frozen blueberries (Or any fruit/ mix you want)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400.
In a bowl combine whole wheat flour, salt, soda, and powder. With a fork mix in egg, sour cream, honey, and butter. Once all mixed together add in the blueberries.
Place dough onto a greased baking sheet and shape into a circle.  (about and inch tall)  Cut into 8 (like a pizza) and separate pieces out so there is room for them to puff up.

Bake for 15 minutes.  They should be slightly golden.  

Drizzle with honey and allow to cool a bit before serving.

Seriously YUM!

Pecan Breakfast Cookies

We made these as an attempt to have something different for breakfast.  We enjoyed them with some fresh fruit and yogurt.  They are kind of a cross in texture between an oatmeal cookie and a biscuit.  I think they are pretty versatile and could fall in the snack or even treat category...although they are not sweet at all. (Maybe as a "cookie sandwich" with that homemade pumpkin ice cream we had at Thanksgiving?...Now We're talking!:)) Either way, glad we came across them.  What would I do without the internet!? : /

Ingredients:
1 C whole wheat flour
3/4 C oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 C applesauce
3 TBLS pure maple syrup
2 TBLS butter, softened but not melted
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C chopped pecans

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 and spray a cookie sheet.
In a bowl, mix together applesauce, maple syrup, butter, egg and vanilla.  Then add in the flour, oats, soda and salt.  Fold in the nuts with a spatula.  Drop onto prepared cookie sheet and bake for 8-9 minutes or until they just start to brown.

We made these again and doubled it!  Cookies freeze well too!

Dark Chocolate Tart

Ingredients:

Crust: Grease a springform pan with butter or coconut oil and set aside.

     2 C almonds

     1/4 C cocoa powder

     1/2 C whole wheat flour

     2/3 C butter

     1/4 C honey

     1 tsp vanilla

     1/2 tsp salt

Filling:

8 ounces of unsweetened chocolate (1 full box)

2 TBLS butter or coconut oil

1/4 C + 2 TBLS honey

1 1/2 C coconut cream (we used the cream at the top of 2 coconut milk cans)  I'm sure we got some of the coconut milk in there too, and it turned out fantastic! :)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place almonds in a blender and blend into a course flour.  In a bowl mix the other ingredients, then add the almond flour to make a dough.  Press down into the greases pan and bake for 10 minutes, or until top is slightly browned.

Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before making the filling.

For the filling:
Finely chop the chocolate and place in a medium size bowl.

Add the butter and honey and mix a little.

On the stove, heat the coconut cream until very hot. (Not quite...but just ready to boil)  Then pour over the chopped chocolate.  Allow to sit for a minute to melt the chocolate.  Using a rubber spatula, slowly stir in a circular motion starting from the center of the bowl.

Stir slowly for about 2 minutes!

Pour this over the crust, and spread around evenly.

Place in the fridge to set. (Will take about an hour) Cover with plastic wrap once all the way cool.  It's AMAZING and moist the first night, but dries out the longer it's left in the fridge. (Yet still amazing!)

The site we got the recipe idea from said it was pretty rich and best had with fruit!  So we enjoyed ours with oranges! Thanks you nourishinggourmet!

RAW "cheesecake"

Thanks to my friend Alexis, and to her friend Cali from CaliCakes for this INCREDIBLE dessert!!!

Ingredients:
Crust:
2 C raw soaked Almonds or Cashews (we used 1 C of each!)
1/2 C pitted medjool dates
1/4 C unsweetened dried coconut flakes

Filling:
3 C raw cashews, soaked for at least an hour
3/4 C unrefined virgin coconut oil (we used 1/4 C coconut oil and 1/2 C butter)
3/4 C freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
3/4 C raw organic honey (we used Costco honey :))
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp sea salt

Topping:
3 C berries (blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, etc) YOUR CHOICE! (We used frozen berries, which we let thaw before blending with the dates)
1/2 C dates

Directions:
Crust:
Drain the nuts, and process along with the dates and coconut flakes in a food processor until it balls up like cookie dough.

Put wax paper into your pie tin or spring form pan and press the crust mixture down onto it!

Filling:
Drain the nuts, and blend them along with the lemon, honey, gently warmed coconut oil, vanilla, and sea salt in a power blender.  Blend until smooth. (Maybe someday I will have a high power blender, but we made this one work.  We just blended the nuts with the lemon juice and coconut oil.  Then in a bowl I mixed the butter, honey, vanilla and salt.  Then poured the nut mixture in and mixed it all, then it all went back to the blender one more time! :)) Lots of back and forth, but I wanted it creamy!

Pour the whole mixture over the crust.

Place in the freezer until firm (usually takes 2-3 hours) Remove the whole "cake" from the wax paper when it is frozen and place on a serving tray.

Topping:
You are supposed to process the berries and dates in a power blender until well blended and pour of the "cheese cake."  But I couldn't decide what kind I wanted so we had 2 choices of berries, and instead of pouring the fruit all over the cake, everyone just spooned some over their own piece.  The blackberry sauce was the most popular, but the strawberry was just as fantastic!

Thanks again CaliCakes for sharing the recipe!

Pumpkin Ice-Cream

Ingredients:
1 1/2 C pumpkin puree
1 can coconut milk, unsweetened, not lite
1/2 C pure maple syrup
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
dash of salt

Directions:
We combined the ingredients and then poured them into our ice-cream maker.  It churned for about 20 minutes and then we placed it in the freezer.  AMAZING!! Thank you Nourishing Gourmet!

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:
Crust:
I added about 1/2 C chopped walnuts to my Quiche crust:
6 1/3 TBLS butter, softened
1 C whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 TBLS cold water

Pumpkin filling:
2 C pumpkin puree (Yes I did have some in the freezer from cooking & pureeing our own pumpkin after Halloween)  I'm sure the store packed stuff would work fine as well :)
1 can coconut milk (not lite, not sweetened)
2 eggs
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cardamon
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C honey
1/2 C pure maple syrup

Directions:

Mix all of the ingredients together in a medium size bowl, except the honey and maple syrup. Set aside

Combine the honey and maple in a small pot. Bring to a gentle simmer. Make sure it doesn’t boil over! Let it simmer until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage (the temperature should be between 234-242 degrees). To check it, drop a small amount of the syrup into cold water. Quickly gather the syrup in between your fingers, at the soft ball stage it will be a limp sticky ball that flattens between your fingers when removed from the water. I find it helpful to check at least several times as the temperature gets close. If you are new at this, you may want to take the pot off of the heat while you check it. 

When it is done, allow it to cool for about 5 minutes and then add to the rest of the ingredients. Mix thoroughly, and pour into the pie crust.

Place in the middle of the oven (Preheated to 375) and bake until the center is set (it will still seem quivery, like gelatin, when you nudge the pan). 45 minutes to 1 hour.  

Let cool completely and then refrigerate. Enjoy!  Thanks to this website, we found a healthy alternative to a favorite Thanksgiving dessert!  What would we do without the web?

Peanut Butter Power Balls

Erin this one is for you!  I got this recipe from a friend at BYU.  They are a great little energy ball and the boys LOVE them before or after soccer games! It's hard for me to forget about them just sitting in the freezer, calling my name!  I love these!

Ingredients:
1 ripe banana
2 C Old fashioned oats
1 C Almond Butter or all Natural Peanut Butter
1/4 C honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 C raisins

Directions:
Mix everything in a bowl, except the raisins. Or if you have an amazing food processor you could do that too.  Then stir in the raisins.  Roll into balls and place on a plate lined with wax paper.  Put them in the freezer to set.
So fast! So raw! So addicting!

Chocolate Beet Cake

I got this recipe from a friend who got it from the book 12 steps to Whole Foods, by Green Smoothie Girl.  She said it changed her life! (The whole book, not just this recipe! :))  Like most recipes I adjusted it just a bit so that it would be something Christian would also enjoy with us.  Thanks for sharing Alexis!  Now I guess we all need the book to see what else we've been missing out on!  We thought this was delicious!  And the batter was so pretty too!

Ingredients:
1 3/4 C pureed beets (peeled, steamed, then blended)
3 eggs
1/2 C honey
1/2 C molasses
3/4 C coconut oil (or half applesauce and half oil)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 C cocoa
2 C Whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
Puree beats in a blender (remember to peel and steam first), then add eggs, honey, molasses, oil (applesauce) and vanilla.  Pour into a mixing bowl and stir in cocoa, whole wheat flour, baking soda and salt. (So pretty right?)

 Bake in a 9X13 greased pan at 350 for 30 minutes.

Apple Cinnamon Crepes

It might be bold to say this but I think this new creation was just as good, if not better, than homemade apple pie!  And in no time at all!  After having the flench rollups for dinner we had a couple of flenches (crepes) left and decided to try a "dessert."  This was what we came up with!

Ingredients:
Crepes: dairy free version we tried tonight (makes 8 crepes)
     1 C whole wheat flour
     1 1/4 C almond milk
     1/2 C water
     2 eggs
     2 TBLS olive oil (we'll try applesauce next time)
     1 TBLS golden flaxseed meal
Topping: (This would be enough to make all the crepes "dessert")
2 apples, chopped (we used golden delicious)
2 TBLS butter
cinnamon to taste
6-12 tsp Almond Butter
honey to taste

Directions:
Whisk all the crepe ingredients together in a bowl.  Scoop a small amount into a hot pan with melted butter on the stove.  Lift the pan by the handle and swirl your wrist around, to make it really thin.

Flip over when done and cook the other side.

The first side cooks darker.  This is what it looks like flipped back over on a plate, ready to go!

Meanwhile in another pan on the stove melt the butter and throw in the chopped apple pieces.  Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Stir once in a while and allow to cook until the apples are done to your linking.  It will smell amazing! :)

Spread a small amount of almond butter down the center of your crepe.  Spoon apples on, and drizzle with honey.

Roll up and enjoy!  

Just try and tell me you didn't go to heaven!

Carrot Cake

A memory I hear about every year is how much my husband loved his moms carrot cake as a child.  So this year for his birthday I was determined to find a "healthier" version of the stuff.  This is what I was able to come up with.
Ingredients:
2 C whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
3/4 C honey
1/2 C molasses
1 C unsweetened applesauce
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 C shredded carrots

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9X13 pan with olive oil.
In a large bowl mix dry ingredients.  Make a well in the center and add the honey, molasses, applesauce, eggs and vanilla.  Mix well.  Stir in shredded carrots.
Spread batter into prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes.

He LOVED it! (Even without cream cheese frosting :))  It was such a hit I also made him one for father's day!  He really likes to put a piece in a bowl with a bit of almond milk drizzled over! YUM!  So glad I was able to find a "treat" for him!

Banana Cookies

One of the strangest recipes I have ever made!  Thanks for the idea JanaRae!

Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 C unsweetened applesauce
2 C oats
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Mix all ingredients in a bowl and drop by the spoonful onto a cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for about 20 min.  Longer if you want them more crispy.  We like them soft like banana bread.  This has been a great on-the-go snack.