Oh my goodness… We’ve totally been on a popsicle making streak. We can’t seem to help it. It’s summer and summer requires a freezer stocked with delicious frozen treats… Right?? Currently, we’ve got polka dotted blueberry lemonade pops, chocolate avocado pudding fudgesicles, fresh fruit freeze pops, and these beautiful chunky fruit popsicles in our freezer and they’re all delicious!
Tag Archives: dessert
Watermelon Dessert Pizza
Oh my goodness… I’ve been wanting to make this for ages, but with seedless watermelon not generally available in Kuwait, I’ve had to practice using alll of my patience {until today}. Lucky for me, seedless watermelon was the first thing I saw when I walked into our local grocery store here in Germany, so obviously, this watermelon dessert pizza was meant to be! ☺
Chocolate for Breakfast
Confession: Today Miss G had chocolate for breakfast.
And it wasn’t the first time. {Ugh.}
Now I know what you’re thinking… WHAT IN THE WORLD?!?
I know.
Wholewheat Sugarless Apple Strudel {a bake off}
There is no doubt that Miss G and I miss our Canadian mama and munchkin friends terribly despite being very happy here in the desert. Two of those pairs include Tairalyn of Little Miss Mama and her little lady, Sofia Marie, and Hillary of Hillary with two Ls (please) and her petit monsieur, Grady. Gracen sees both of her little friends via Instagram photos and videos, and I stalk both mamas via all of their social media outlets to make sure I don’t miss out on a single thing. Last month, when Tairalyn posted about a naughty recipe full of white flour, butter, Velveeta, and cream cheese, a crazy fun idea came together. You see, the three of us mamas all love to cook and bake. The only difference is that our approaches vary quite widely. Hillary loves to play with ingredients and try to find healthy(ish) alternatives to traditional ingredients, but despite her daily green juices and veggie-packed dinners, she’s a butter lover at heart. Tairalyn, on the other hand, unapologetically cooks up indulgent recipes in their full sugary, buttery glory, and spares nothing when it comes to taste.
…And then there’s me. Yes, lame-o ‘I bet I could make that sugar-free and wholewheat and butter-less, and, and, and…’ me. I once attempted to make a banana healthier. Enough said.
Healthier Peanut Butter Oat Cookies
Gracen and I have experimented with making many different versions of healthier peanut butter cookies – cream cheese ones, two ingredient ones, banana-based ones – but sadly, none have ever turned out really well. Late this afternoon, however, when she randomly declared that “We should make cookies! Yummy no sugar ones that Gracen can have – YEAAAAAAAAH!”, we came up with our first batch that actually taste like real peanut butter cookies. Only they’re much healthier. ☺ Here’s our new go-to peanut butter cookie recipe…
Healthier Peanut Butter Oat Cookies (based off of this recipe by Weelicious)
- 1/2 cup of coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons of good honey
- 1 cup of all-natural peanut butter
- 1 large egg
- 3 tablespoons of pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla
- 1 1/4 cups of wholewheat flour
- 1 cup of old-fashioned oats
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment.
Using a mixer, cream the coconut oil and honey together until smooth. Add the peanut butter, egg, maple syrup, and vanilla and mix again until smooth.
Add all of the dry ingredients to a separate bowl and whisk to combine.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix just until combined. Scoop out 1 tablespoon balls of dough and flatten with a floured fork. (For an additional nutrition boost, you could roll the balls in chia seeds or hemp hearts before flattening.)
Bake for 9 or 10 minutes, then cool and serve.
Enjoy!
For more healthy-ish desserts, click here.
♥
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Healthier Chocolate Puff Squares
Now that Miss G is a little bit older, we’ve definitely loosened up a little in terms of what she eats. While ‘treats’ in the past may have included roasted chickpeas, kale chips, or popsicles made with almost strictly mango and yogurt (all things that pack a pretty decent nutritional punch), nowadays, some ‘treats’ are simply treats… Things that are yummy and not oozing in nutritional value. That being said, we do try to keep them on the healthy side, using whole, organic ingredients whenever possible.
After fairly successfully creating a yummy and healthier crispy rice treat recipe, I decided we would try to redo another classic children’s treat… Chocolate puffed wheat squares. It took a little bit of experimenting, but I think we found a pretty awesome alternate recipe. Here’s how we made them…
First, the lineup of ingredients… Coconut oil, unsweetened cocoa powder, kamut puffs, pure vanilla, pure maple syrup, brown rice syrup, and cashew butter. {Edited to add: I find that this is an incredibly forgiving recipe and have now tried it many ways, so I’ll list a few alternatives in the recipe at the bottom of the post.}
To start off, we added our coconut oil, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, and cashew butter to a large pot.
Of course finding a spoon licking volunteer wasn’t hard.
Then Miss G measured out the kamut puffs into a large bowl…
While I stirred the wet ingredients over at the stove. Just as it started to form slow bubbles, I turned off the heat, added the vanilla, and gave it another quick stir.
Then we poured the wet mixture into the kamut puff bowl and Miss G mixed everything up well.
When it was mixed well, we poured the mixture out onto a parchment-line baking pan (my smaller one was already in use and this one was too big so we only used half of it) and used slightly wet hands to press everything down firmly.
After about 30 minutes in the fridge, we took our chocolately dessert out of the pan and cut it into squares.
The verdict? Gracen LOVED them (as did I). When I asked her how they were, her response was, “So, so, sooooooooo yummy!”
The other way I know they are decent? When I left for a 30 minute run around the neighbourhood, there were 10 squares sitting on parchment paper on the butcher block. When I got home? 3 and some crumbs – THREE! (Proof is in my Instagram feed – mamapapabububa). Apparently they are husband approved also.
Healthier Chocolate Puff Squares
- 1/2 cup of organic brown rice syrup (or honey or pure maple syrup)
- 1/2 cup of cashew butter (or peanut butter)
- 1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup (not needed if using honey or maple syrup in place of brown rice syrup)
- 3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa
- 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla
- 4 1/2 cups of kamut puffs (or other puff cereal)
Measure the brown rice syrup, cashew butter, maple syrup, cocoa, and coconut oil into a large pot. Warm over medium heat, stirring almost constantly. Allow the mixture to come to a bubble, turn down the heat slightly, and continue stirring while it thickens up a little. When done, turn off the heat, add the vanilla, and give it another quick stir.
Add in the kamut puffs and mix well to ensure the cereal is evenly coated with the sticky mixture.
Dump the mixture into a parchment-lined baking pan or scoop into a greased muffin cups and press it down firmly. Pop the pan into the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to allow the treats to set.
Cut and enjoy!
♥
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Apple Crumble Dessert Popcorn
Oh my goodness. After our morning cooking class at Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co. where the lovely Suz shared more of her secrets, Gracen and I whipped up a batch of this sweet, satisfying popcorn treat. It’s ridiculously delicious.
Here’s the line-up of ingredients… Pure maple syrup, coconut oil, dried apples (we dehydrated our own, but you can just as easily buy unsweetened, unsulphered ones at the store), popping corn, cinnamon, and sliced raw almonds (not pictured because ours were toasting in the oven).
To start off, we added our coconut oil, popping corn, and cinnamon into a pot (thanks to my lovely friend Tairalyn who reminded me that putting seasonings directly in the pot is a brilliant idea). We have this fancy popcorn popping pot (which we adore!), but any decent quality pot will do. Warm your oil, popcorn seeds, and cinnamon over medium heat until the seeds start popping. Shake the pot back and forth over the element almost constantly once the popping begins.
When the popping has finished, we had a delicious, slightly coconut-y popcorn, evenly coated in warm cinnamon.
Next, we chopped up our apples, put them in a bowl, and drizzled our maple syrup on top.
Then my freshly bathed sous chef dumped the mixture on the popcorn and mixed it all up with her hands.
The last step was sprinkling the generously toasted almonds on top and giving the popcorn one final mix.
Depending on how much will power you have, you can either eat it immediately, or lay it out on a baking sheet and let it lose some of its stickiness for a few minutes – both ways are delicious (though we definitely know how the ‘served immediately’ kind tastes like better than the ‘wait’ kind).
When I asked Grae what she thought of it, she replied with “Nummy!”, “Sweet!”, and “Delicious!” in between ‘mmmmmmmm’ sounds. My guess is that she liked it every bit as much as I did.
Apple Crumble Dessert Popcorn (inspired by Suz of Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company)
- 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
- 1/2 cup of popcorn seeds
- 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
- 1 cup of unsweetened, unsulphered dried apples
- 2 tablespoons of pure maple syrup
- 1/2 cup of raw sliced almonds, toasted until golden brown
Toast sliced almonds in an oven set at 200 degrees.
Put coconut oil, popcorn seeds, and cinnamon into a large, heavy pot and pop over medium heat.
Roughly chop dried apples and drizzle the maple syrup on top. Dump the apple/syrup mixture on top of the popcorn and mix well by hand. Sprinkle toasted almonds on top and mix again.
Serve immediately or let sit on a baking sheet for 5 – 10 minutes before serving.
Enjoy!
♥
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Healthier Crispy Rice Treats
I don’t know why, but lately I’ve had a real hankering for Rice Krispie treats… Of course I could have easily whipped up the classic butter and marshmallow version I grew up with, but number one, I wouldn’t feel good about letting Miss G try one (which is slowly becoming the determining factor of whether or not any of us should eat particular foods), and number two, have you ever read the ingredient list on the side of a bag of marshmallows?! It’s not good.
So today Miss G and I set off on a little mission to create our own healthier version.
To be honest, I really had no idea if it was going to work. My thought process went something like this… Hmmm… I guess I could replace the butter with a nut butter (still lots of fat, but good fat with some added nutrition mixed in). Then I could replace the marshmallows with a more natural sticky sweetener (Maybe maple syrup? Honey? Brown rice syrup?) And the regular Rice Krispies cereal could easily be swapped for a sugar-free crisp brown rice cereal. It at least sounds like an okay plan, right?
In the end, I decided to go with cashew butter… It’s light, has a mild flavour {that is almost mallowy}, and is super creamy. As for my sweetener, after a bit of online research, I decided to go with this brown rice syrup. I haven’t used brown rice syrup a whole lot in the past, but that’s only because I hadn’t yet done my research. What I found out is that brown rice syrup is a natural sweetener produced by fermenting cooked rice and treating it with natural enzymes from sprouted barley. It’s about half as sweet as sugar, has a mild flavour, and is thick and syrupy (somewhere between pure maple syrup and a good honey). The benefits are that it has a low glycemic value, and it’s a good source of minerals and minor nutrients. Sold. In order to add just a touch of sweetness, we added a little bit of pure maple syrup, and pure vanilla is a must in almost all baking projects in our house.
So there you have it – crisp brown rice cereal, brown rice syrup, cashew butter, pure maple syrup, and pure vanilla – and all were available in our nearby {regular} grocery store.
Just for fun, we decided to make our treats in individual portions using a muffin tin, so Grae prepared the tray ahead of time by lightly brushing on some grapeseed oil.
Now for the actual cooking part… First, we put our brown rice syrup to a large pot…
Then we added our cashew butter…
And a little bit of pure maple syrup for sweetness.
Then we transferred the pot over to the stove and stirred the mixture over medium heat until it was hot and liquidy, but not bubbling.
Next, we added a good amount of vanilla, gave the mixture another quick stir, and removed it from the heat.
While you could just as easily dump your cereal into the pot and dirty one less dish, we opted for dumping our cereal into a large bowl and pouring the mixture on top so Miss G wouldn’t have to worry about the hot pot during the mixing process.
Then we mixed everything up until the cereal was evenly coated with the gooey mixture.
Working quickly, I filled each cup with a heaping scoop of crisp rice mixture.
Then we placed a large sheet of parchment paper on top and pushed the mixture down firmly into the cups.
Voila!
After a little bit of time in the freezer, I used a butter knife to pop out our treats.
The verdict on Miss G’s first ever crispy rice treat? She LOVED it.
We all loved them in fact. They’re soft and gooey just like regular Rice Krispie treats, with a similar flavour that is just slightly more caramely.
The true determining factor of success? Brad {my sometimes picky husband who doesn’t always love the ‘weird food’ G and I cook} announcing that he likes them just as much as the classic variety, only to later decide that he thinks he likes them more. Score. ☺
Healthy Crisp Rice Treats
- 1/2 cup of organic brown rice syrup
- 1/2 cup of cashew butter (or your favourite nut butter)
- 1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla
- 4 cups of organic sugar-free crispy brown rice cereal
Measure the brown rice syrup, nut butter, and maple syrup into a large pot. Warm over medium heat, stirring almost constantly. When the mixture is hot and liquidy (but not bubbling), add the vanilla, give it another quick stir, and remove the pot from the heat.
Add in the crispy rice cereal and mix well to ensure the cereal is evenly coated with the sticky mixture.
Dump the mixture into a parchment-lined baking pan or scoop into a greased muffin cups and press it down firmly. Pop the pan into the freezer for about 15 minutes to allow the treats to set.
Enjoy your much healthier crispy rice treats!
♥
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