Monkey Bar Muffins {banana chocolate chip}

These muffins come from one of our favorite dessert recipes called monkey bars. They are sort of like banana brownies and they are really good. However, there is a ton of butter and sugar in them. So, I revamped the recipe a little and made them into muffins. My kids devour these and don't even realize how much better for them they are than the original.

3 Ripe Bananas, Mashed
1 C Honey
1/4 C Coconut Sugar or Sucanat
1/3 C Melted Coconut Oil
2 Tbl Ground Flax Meal
3 Tbl Quinoa Flakes such as these. (You can leave these out, but I swear they are the secret   ingredient.)
1 Scoop Plant Based Protein Powder (Again this is optional, but you may need to adjust the flour)
1/2 C Oats
1 Tsp Vanilla
1/2 Tsp Salt
2 Tsp Baking Powder
2 C Whole Wheat Flour (1/4-1/2 C more if you left out some of the other dry ingredients)
1 C Dark Chocolate Chips (optional, but not really because leaving them out would be crazy!)

Beat together honey, sugar, and oil. Add bananas, eggs, vanilla, flax, quinoa, and protein powder. Mix until just combined. In a separate bowl mix together flour salt, and baking powder, then add to the batter. Mix until just combined and stir in chocolate chips.

Bake @ 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes

Baked Honey Whole Wheat Donuts

These are not Krispy Kremes! As yummy as they would taste, that would mean loading them with shortening, sugar, and white flour, and then frying them. These donuts are still light and sweet, but carry nutritional value instead of being nothing more than empty calories. If you don't have a donut pan, try using a muffin pan. They would still taste just as good. 

 

1/4 C Butter

1/4 C Coconut Oil

1 C Honey

2 Eggs

1 C Almond Milk

4 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

2 Scoops Plant Based Protein Powder (If you leave this out, just increase flour by 1/2 cup)

2 1/2 C Whole Wheat Flour

 

Beat together butter, oil, and sugar. Add remaining ingredients and mix until well combined. Spoon into donut pan.

 

Bake @ 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes

Immediately enjoy hot with butter and cinnamon sugar. We make our cinnamon sugar with equal parts cinnamon and coconut sugar.

Dairy Free Fudge bars

It's finally warm around here, and my kids are demanding popsicles. Normally, I would have just bought a big bag of otter pops, but since artificially flavored sugar is now out I had to come up with a different solution. While I was in Oregon visiting family recently, my mom and I made some coconut milk ice cream and even though there was a division among everyone as far as who liked it and who didn't, I thought it was great, so I decided to try a popsicle version.

Puree in a food processor or blender...

1 Can full fat coconut milk
1/3 C. Almond milk
1/4 C. Cocoa powder
1/3 C. Coconut sugar

Pour the mixture into popsicle molds, pop them into the freezer for a few hours, and you are done!

Pizza Popcorn

Last weekend it was lunch time and  the kids were all starving. I was craving pizza but only had enough energy for popcorn. So, pizza popcorn it was. We have an air popper, but I'm sure you could make this with the bag kind as well, although I'm always a little worried about the "butter flavoring" they put in it.

 

I did melt a couple tablespoons of real butter to pour on it and sprinkled it with salt and Parmesan cheese. I think some garlic salt would have been really great with it also. Next I spread it on a lined baking sheet and sprinkled it with a mozzarella cheese and chopped turkey pepperoni.   

 

I baked it @250 degrees for ten minutes and then served it up to my kids for lunch without feeling guilty one little bit.

Sadly, it didn't take away my craving for a big slice of greasy cheese pizza, but that's not the popcorn's fault. And it still was pretty good.

Double Chocolate Brownie Cookies {Gluten free}

 

 

A friend of mine posted a link on Facebook a while back for Secretly Healthy Chocolate Brownie Cookies, so of course I was intrigued and had to check it out. Especially since the author of the recipe claimed they were healthy enough to eat for breakfast. It turns out though that she and I have a difference of opinion when it comes to what is "healthy" I also discovered that this recipe had been slightly adapted several times by different people and the recipe actually originates here. What I also found interesting is that the original version was actually the healthiest and each time it was adapted it was made slightly worse.

 

Even though there are already multiple versions of this cookie floating around out there, I am going to add mine any way, because I think its pretty awesome. I also doubled the recipe because the original was really small.

 

2 Cans black beans rinsed and drained

1/4 C Almond Milk (skim milk would also work)

3 Tbs Natural Peanut Butter

1/4 Coconut Oil

2 C Packed Fresh Spinach (OF COURSE)

3/4 C Honey

1/2 C Cocoa Powder

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

6 Tbs Oat Flour (whole wheat would also work)

2 Tbs Ground Flax Meal

2 Tbs Quinoa Flakes (These are optional if you can't find them, but they add a good amount of protein and fiber. I get mine at our grocery store by the oat flour)

2/3 C Dark Chocolate Chips

 

Combine black beans, almond milk, peanut butter, coconut oil, and spinach in a food processor or high powered blender and process until smooth. Add in the remaining ingredients, EXCEPT the chocolate chips and process again until very smooth and mousse like (2-3 minutes) Stir in Chocolate chips.

 

spoon out about 1 1/2 tablespoons of batter for each cookie onto a cookie sheet and bake @ 375 degrees for 9 or 10 minutes.

 

Yields aproximately 2 dozen. Could be more if you make really small cookies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Whole Wheat Crepes {plus a delicious bonus}

We really only use crepes for one purpose in our house, and that is to stuff them with strawberries and whipped cream. We call them Swedish pancakes, because in Sweden they eat them for dessert after a dinner of pea soup. We skip the pea soup and just go straight to dessert for dinner. I would like to try a few savory crepe dishes sometime soon and see how my family reacts to them.

This was my first attempt at modifying the recipe and it turned out great. Next time I want to try using coconut oil instead of butter.

3 Eggs
1 1/2 Tbs Honey
3/4 tsp Salt
3 C Milk
2 1/4 -2 1/2 C Whole wheat flour
1 Stick butter, melted

Combine first five ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Add melted butter and blend to combine. Let sit 30 minutes.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter in the pan and swirl it around until very thin (mine usually end up much thicker than they should but my family never complains) cook until top side is dry and flip. Cook another 30 seconds or so and stack on a plate. If you've never made crepes before and need a visual here is a video.

Yields about 18-20 crepes

To make Swedish Pancakes you need a batch of crepes, sliced strawberries, and fresh whipped cream. In the past of course I always made my whipped cream with plain old powdered sugar but since I don't use white sugar anymore I had to come up with a different plan.

Coconut sugar is a great substitute because it has a much lower glycemic index so you don't get the spikes in blood sugar levels that you do with white processed sugar and it also contains many nutrients, minerals, and amino acids. I get mine at one of our local health food stores, but you can also order it on amazon. It is a brown sugar though so it does have a slight molasses flavor. I used a "blonde" variety for the whipped cream which is a little lighter in color and has a more mild flavor. If you look close you can see small specks of brown, but my kids didn't notice at all.

In order to turn the coconut sugar into coconut powdered sugar simply put it in a food processor or blender with a little bit of corn starch (up to 1 tablespoon per cup of sugar) and beat until powdery.

Set up a work station on your counter that looks like this.

Stuff those crepes with strawberries and whipped cream and enjoy every bite!

Oh, and be sure to use paper plates because that makes them really fancy!

Healthy "er" Chocolate Chip Cookies

I wasn't sure how my kids were going react to these because the one thing I am famous for in our house are my chocolate chip cookies. I'm not the greatest cook, but cookies are my thing. I was even prepared to call them brown sugar cookies so they wouldn't expect them to taste like the normal ones.

Obviously I should not have worried!

Even though these cookies did taste really good and are much better health wise than the original recipe, I have a feeling I'm not done tweaking. So, this is just a first draft, but a great one!

1/2 C Butter
1/2 C Coconut Oil
1 C Sucanat or Coconut Sugar
1/4 C Honey
2 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
2 1/2 C Whole Wheat Flour
Dark Chocolate Chips

No one really needs instructions for how to make chocolate chip cookies, but here they are anyway.

Cream together butter, oil, sucanat, and honey until light and creamy. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Mix in chocolate chips and bake @350 for 8-10 minutes.