The Very Best Healthy Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

8 / 5 / 188 / 5 / 18

The very first thing you do when gifted several pounds of zucchini? You make healthy chocolate zucchini muffins of course! The *very best* healthy chocolate zucchini muffins that are also vegan, naturally sweetened, and made with whole grains, that is. {WINNING.}

Just check these beauties out, will you? I don’t know if this photo does their size any justice, but they’re huuuuuuuge.

And begging to be turned into these insanely good chocolate zuchinni muffins by Relishing It. For real, they taste more like cake than any other muffin I’ve eaten before. Insanely good. We’re talking by far the very best healthy muffin I’ve ever tasted… To the point where I regularly pass them off as chocolate birthday cupcakes {and even our pickiest little guests gobble up TWO}.

Now here’s my public service announcement… If you’re just a regular person wanting a regular healthy muffin recipe, pop over to Laurie’s post and make them exactly as she tells you to. They’re absolutely perfect as is – no need to change anything.

Now if you’re like me and are attempting to minimize the amount of animal products your family consumes, try our version below. They’re every bit as delicious, but they don’t contain the egg or honey, which makes them healthy, whole grained, naturally sweetened, and VEGAN.

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Here’s our line up of ingredients… First up, whole wheat pastry flour. Every bit worth the effort it takes to find, in my opinion. In Kuwait we used this one by Bob’s Red Mill and in Canada we use one from Nature’s Fare. Whole Foods stocks whole wheat pastry flour too and my guess is that it is decent. Next, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, sea salt, and dark chocolate chips that are optional, but delicious. The wet ingredients include coconut oil, flax ‘eggs’ {which is just ground flax seeds and water}, and vanilla, and of course you’ll need the zucchini too.

The most important part of any baking session though? Little helpers. Little helpers who undoubtedly make the process longer and messier and way more fun.

Here’s how this recipe goes down… First, measure out the dry ingredients and whisk them together well.

Then in a separate bowl {we use a big glass measuring cup}, measure out the wet ingredients and give them a good whisk before adding them to the dry mixture.

Lastly, add in loads of finely grated zucchini that will pretty much just disappear during the baking process and leave you with the cake-iest, most delicious muffins ever.

Gently stir it in…

And then enlist your little ones’ help to prep the muffin tin {silicone muffin liners like these are the BEST} and divide the batter evenly between the 12 cups.

Patiently wait as they bake….

Let them cool for a couple of minutes…

And dive in!

SOOOO good. {Find Sam’s construction spoon here.}

So good that we almost always make a double batch – otherwise they disappear too quickly.

The Very Best Healthy Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Muffins (adapted from this recipe on Relishing It)

2 tablespoons of ground flax seed
6 tablespoons of warm water

1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

1/2 cup of coconut oil {in its liquid state}
1/2 cup of pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon of good vanilla

1 1/2 cups of finely grated zucchini, deseeded if necessary
1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, measure out the ground flax seed and warm water. Stir to combine and set aside to thicken. {This mixture is two flax ‘eggs’.}

In a large bowl, add the flour cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Whisk until thoroughly combined and sprinkle the dark chocolate chips on top.

In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together the liquid coconut oil, pure maple syrup, and vanilla.

Add the liquid mixture and the flax eggs into the dry mixture and gently mix until almost combined. Add the finely grated zucchini and give the mixture a few more gentle stirs. {A word on the zucchini… If you pre-grate your zucchini like we usually do, by the time you go to use it, there will most likely be some liquid that has drained off. No need to include this. Simply pick up the zucchini by the handful, allow it to drip over the bowl for a few seconds, and then add it to your mixture, tossing out any liquid that’s left in the bowl afterwards. Do not squeeze your grated zucchini dry before adding it… The moisture from the zucchini is what makes these muffins so dang good.}

Line your muffin tin with silicone muffin liners and distribute the batter evenly amongst the cups. Bake for approximately 20 – 25 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean.

Remove the muffins from the oven and allow them to sit for several minutes before removing them from the pan and placing them on a cooling rack.

These will last for several days in an air-tight container on the counter, but because of there high veggie content, I pop them in the fridge if they’re going to be around longer than a few days.

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Chocolate Chia Pudding

9 / 10 / 159 / 10 / 15

I’m not sure what’s taken me so long to come up with this variation of chia pudding, but goodness gracious… Am I ever glad I finally got here. We’ve been chia pudding fans for a long time now and Grae still absolutely loves it, so make it chocolate flavoured and she’s in heaven.

Watermelon Dessert Pizza

6 / 15 / 157 / 16 / 15

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 Almond Bliss Balls

8 / 15 / 1410 / 8 / 14

Oh my goodness… Miss G is absolutely obsessed with these chocolate almond bliss balls. Seriously. She begs for them like they’re candy and when you give her one? Her eyes light up like it’s Christmas morning. I love them too – they’re delicious, easy to make, and make for a great portable snack to throw in my purse or into our carry-on when travelling.

{3 Ingredient} Apple Fig Fruit Leather

7 / 26 / 138 / 2 / 13

Amidst our packing frenzy, the figs on our lovely backyard fig tree have decided that now is the time to become perfectly ripe. This poses a problem for a few different reasons…. 1) The tree is big and old and produces a TON of fruit, 2) I’m the only one in our family that truly enjoys fresh figs, 3) Keeping up with the daily picking of the fruit is time consuming, and 4) If I don’t keep up with the picking, our backyard becomes a sticky mess filled with wasps.

In an effort to avoid a waspy sticky mess of a backyard, I’ve been giving away boxes of figs to almost every person I’ve been in contact with, I’ve been adding 3 or 4 to our green smoothie each morning, and I’ve been eating them fresh as my nightly treat, but that just wasn’t enough. I needed a way to use up a ton of figs all at once, and preferably it would be something that the other members of my family would enjoy too. Enter fruit leather…

Gracen loves fruit leather, and though it can be a little intimidating if you’ve never made it before, it’s truly one of the easiest, most forgiving things to make. And no special equipment is needed! If you have some fruit, an oven, a baking pan, and some parchment paper, you can easily make your own fruit leather at home.

I’ve made several batches of this stuff already, and it’s getting eaten up like nobody’s business! Plus I’ve changed my method a little bit and it’s now even easier for me to make my own fruit leather. Here’s how to do it…

Apple Fig Fruit Leather

10 ripe figs, washed
2 apples, cored and peeled
1 cup of water (fresh-squeezed apple or orange juice works too!)

Preheat oven to 125 degrees (or lowest setting) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper (paper should cover all edges of the pan).

Place all ingredients in a covered pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer fruit {still covered} for about 30 minutes, or until super soft.

Pour everything into a food processor or good blender and purée until smooth.

Pour fruit mixture out onto parchment-lined baking sheet and use the back of a spatula to spread the fruit purée out so it covers the entire base of the pan. Gently shake the pan make the purée as even as possible.

Pop into the oven for approximately 8 hours (I put ours in just before going to bed). You want to remove the fruit leather from the oven when it’s still sticky to the touch, but not at all wet. You may find that part of your fruit leather will be done earlier than the rest. In this case, you’ll need to remove the fruit leather from the oven, cut off the finished part, and return the still wet to the touch part to the oven for another hour or two.

When finished, simply remove the large sheet of fruit leather from the baking sheet, cut of the excess parchment paper around the edges, and cut directly through both the remaining parchment and fruit leather to create strips. Roll strips and secure with baker’s twine or washi tape. Store in an air-tight container or jar.

Enjoy!

See our other homemade fruit leather recipes here:

Berry Banana // Apple Pear Carrot

♥

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A Delicious First {& a Recipe}

6 / 15 / 136 / 15 / 13

This happened tonight… Miss G’s first ever ice cream cone. And oh my goodness, did she ever love it. Before we knew it, all that was left was sticky fingers and a drippy chin and dress.

She’s already planned our next two flavours too – pumpkin with cinnamon first, and then strawberry afterwards. There’s bound to be plenty of ice cream in our future.

{Healthier} Creamy Coconut Ice Cream with Candied Coconut Sprinkles

Ice cream:

1/2 cup of whipping cream
2 cans of coconut milk (we used full fat)
6 tablespoons of pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon of pure vanilla

Whisk all ingredients together in a large bowl, then place in fridge to cool for a couple of hours. Process in an ice cream machine for 20 minutes and put into the freezer for a few hours to set.

Sprinkles:

1/2 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut
1 teaspoon of pure maple syrup

Put both ingredients into a jar or bag and shake well. Spread coconut out on a baking sheet in a thin layer. Roast at 250 degrees until crunchy and golden brown.

Enjoy!

For more healthy-ish desserts, click here.

♥

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{Healthy} Tropical Fruit Popsicles

5 / 11 / 135 / 14 / 13

With 1/2 a crate of mango in the fridge and our supply of banana fudgesicles and avocado kiwi pops dwindling after last week’s burst of hot weather, Gracen I set out to make a yummy new batch of popsicles this afternoon. And yummy they are! The combination of mango, pineapple, coconut, and lime makes them taste just like something you’d sip on vacation while sunning on a gorgeous beach… Delicious!

Here’s our lineup of ingredients… Pineapple chunks (we used frozen because it’s what we had on hand, but fresh would be even better), mango chunks, a lime, one ripe banana, coconut milk, and Grae’s addition – unsweetened shredded coconut.

We began by juicing our lime and threw both the juice and the pulp into our food processor…

Along with everything else, except the shredded coconut.

Then we blended everything up until completely smooth while this little monkey gave our food processor some love.

Next, we added the shredded coconut and gave the mixture just a couple of pulses to mix it in. At this point, we had a little taste test and decided to add in a teaspoon of good honey because our mango was very tart (totally optional, of course).

Now while it does mean dirtying another dish, I always like to pour our popsicle mixture into a large measuring cup before filling the moulds. It’s so much easier and quicker than clumsy me attempting to pour straight from the food processor. Of course, if you use a blender, this won’t be an issue.

After I fill the moulds, Miss G’s job is to place a ‘stick’ in each one. When she was done, she desperately wanted a popsicle to eat (particularly, “the green and blue one on the riiiiiight”) .

Luckily, the disappointment that came with me telling her they’d need to sit in the freezer for several hours first was kicked to the curb with the offer of drinking up the leftover mixture, smoothie style.

Healthy Tropical Fruit Popsicles

3 small mangos
1 cup of pineapple
1 banana
1 cup of coconut milk
juice and pulp from 1 lime
2 tablespoons of unsweetened shredded coconut
honey (optional)

Juice lime and add both the juice and pulp to a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth. Add the shredded coconut and pulse just long enough to mix it in. Taste your mixture and add a small amount of honey if desired. Pour into moulds and freeze for several hours.

Enjoy!

♥

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Healthier Mini Mason Jar {Birthday} Cheesecakes

4 / 30 / 135 / 4 / 13

Yesterday, when I told Gracen that we’d be celebrating Papa’s birthday soon, the first thing she said was, “We need to make a cake!” Then she went on about painting him party hats and getting 3 pink gifts, but I digress. Originally, I was thinking about doing two cakes. Something delicious and wildly unhealthy from Pioneer Woman for Brad, and something wholesome, wholewheat, and sugar/butter-free for Miss G to enjoy. Buuuuut, when I thought about doing a cheesecake for Brad (one of his favourites), I realized that I could probably do a modified version that would suit everyone’s needs since cheesecake is mostly just cream cheese. My main obstacle was coming up with a yummy crust without using the usual graham wafer/sugar/butter combo, but I played around a little bit and I’m happy to report and it turned out really well.

As for the cheesecake itself, I wasn’t sure about it at first. It tasted good fresh out of the oven, but it was light and bubbly instead of thick and dense the way proper cheesecake is supposed to be. In the words of my husband, it tasted “healthyish”. I had come to terms with the fact that I’d have to do some recipe revamping in the future, until we tasted it again tonight. After sitting in the refrigerator overnight, it had densed up significantly and was actually really good! Good enough to make again, that’s for sure.

Here’s the lineup of ingredients my little sous chef and I used to make our mini mason jar cheesecakes… Sour cream, cream cheese, lemon zest, pure maple syrup, pure vanilla, almonds, an egg, and coconut. Plus the mini mason jars themselves, of course. 5 of these little jelly jars works perfectly with this recipe.

To make our crust, we added some coconut, some raw almonds, a little bit of pure maple syrup, and a little bit of pure vanilla into our food processor and blended until it was thick and sticky.

Then we scooped the crust mixture evenly into our 5 jars, and Miss G used a cork to flatten them out.

This was the end result.

With our crusts ready to go, we switched our focus over to the actual cheesecake part. First, we added our room temperature cream cheese and egg into our mixer and beat until smooth.

Next we added our sour cream, pure maple syrup, pure vanilla, and lemon zest, and mixed again.

Baking is ridiculously fun, wouldn’t you agree?

With our cheesecake filling prepared, we poured the mixture evenly into our 5 mason jars.

Then we placed them into a high-walled baking dish, filled it halfway up the jars with hot water, and baked the entire thing.

When they’d finished baking, I topped the ones for Gracen and I with stewed blueberries…

And the birthday boy’s with deliciously naughty Nutella. Of course the options are endless really… Fresh berries, shredded coconut, sliced bananas, or mini dark chocolate chips would all make yummy toppings too.

The biggest perks to these little desserts is that they already come in a storage container, they’re super easy to hand out at parties, and they tuck easily into picnic baskets and backpacks for a treat on the go.

Healthier Mini Mason Jar Cheesecakes

{adapted from this recipe}

5 4 oz. mason jars

1/3 cup of raw almonds
1/4 cup of unsweetened coconut
1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon of vanilla

250 grams of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 egg, at room temperature
1/4 cup of sour cream, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
zest of 1/2 a lemon
2.5 tablespoons of pure maple syrup

Blend almonds, coconut, maple syrup, and vanilla in a food processor until thick and paste-like. Divide the mixture equally into 5 mini mason jars and use a cork to create a flat, even crust.

In a mixer, combine the cream cheese and egg until smooth. Add in the sour cream, vanilla, lemon zest, and pure maple syrup and mix again.

Pour the cream cheese mixture evenly into the 5 mason jars. Place the jars in a high-walled baking dish, fill it with water until halfway up the jars, and bake for 30 minutes at 325 degrees.

Allow to cool on the counter. Top with toppings of your choice before or after refrigerating overnight.

Enjoy!

♥

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Healthier Chocolate Puff Squares

4 / 24 / 134 / 21 / 17

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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Crispy Rice Treat Eggs

4 / 3 / 134 / 8 / 13

Our healthier {butter and marshmallow-free} version of rice crispy treats have been a huge hit in our house since we first created them a few months ago. For Valentine’s Day we made a heart-shaped strawberry version, and I knew I wanted to come up with an Easter version too. As it tends to, my mind went to getting more use out of the plastic eggs I still feel guilty about buying (even though we reuse them year after year, use them for sensory play, turn them into bath tub toys, and make fun popsicles with them).

While I had grand plans of creating a little hallow in the centres of the eggs and placing a couple of small treats in the middles, we ended up just making solid eggs. To do so, all we did was fill up each side of the egg generously with warm crispy rice treat mix, packed them down a little, and shut the eggs while they were still warm.

We let them cool and ended up with perfectly formed eggs that pop out of the shells effortlessly and make great on-the-go treats (the plastic eggs double as containers until you’re ready to eat them) . They were also a lovely addition to Gracen’s egg hunt and she’s been enjoying one every couple of days since.

♥

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Healthy Chocolate Coconut Banana Muffins

2 / 24 / 131 / 6 / 14

One of the little traditions we do on Gracen’s half birthday (ohmahgerd, I have a two and a half year old) is make a fresh batch of muffins (aka ‘cupcakes’) to top with freshly whipped cream and candles later in the evening. So today we used our usual no sugar added banana muffin recipe, tweaked it just a little bit, and came up with these delicious chocolate coconut creations. They are super yummy and truly do feel like a cupcake instead of a healthy muffin… Especially if you add the dark chocolate chips I added to the adult half of the batch (with which I doubt they can be remain in the ‘healthy’ category, but hey – I try my best). ☺

Here’s the recipe…

Healthy Banana Chocolate Coconut Muffins

4 large ripe bananas
1 organic egg
1/3 cups of coconut oil
2 tablespoons of pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons of cocoa
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla

1 1/2 cups of wholewheat flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut shavings
dark chocolate chips (optional – we used 1/3 of a cup in half the batter)

Preheat oven to 350° . Prepare a 12 cup muffin pan by brushing it with coconut oil.

Mix the bananas, other wet ingredients, and cocoa until the mixture is mostly smooth and only slightly chunky. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients (save the coconut and chocolate chips) well. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Slowly stir in the coconut (and chocolate chips if adding them). Fill greased muffin tin with the mixture and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Let cool.

Enjoy!

Apple Pear Carrot Fruit Leather

1 / 25 / 138 / 27 / 13

After getting our batch of banana berry fruit leather in the oven, Gracen and I decided to give round two a go, this time with a different combination of ingredients…

We had a couple of bruised pears that I really wanted to use, and while digging in the fridge for an apple, Grae suggested carrots too (sure, why not?) We added the other half of our lemon to the mix and called it good.

This batch took a wee bit more prep than the last one. Grae peeled carrots {ever so cautiously}…

While I prepped the apples and pears (I peeled the apple, but not the pears).

When everything was ready to go, my little sous chef added the produce to a big pot…

And attempted to squeeze the juice from the lemon. (Her exact words just before this shot was taken were, “Com’on, lemon… Why you not working??”)

Then she poured in some water (quite a bit more than with our first batch because carrots don’t produce their own juice while stewing).

Then we popped our pot on the oven, put a lid on it, and let everything simmer for about half an hour on medium heat.

It looked absolutely horrible when it was done cooking (like some kind of veggie stew gone terribly wrong), but smelled delicious.

During the stewing process, my little girl helper was replaced by this equally cute kitty helper. Luckily, she likes to help just as much and saw to it that our mixture was pureed perfectly.

Then we poured it out onto a parchment-lined sheet.

This time we were a little more careful to make sure the mixture was an even thickness all over the base of the pan. Then it was into the oven on the lowest temperature.

After eight hours, we had a lovely sheet of fruit leather.

Once again using kitchen scissors, I cut the sheet into strips…

And rolled it up using strips of parchment paper and baker’s twine.

And though our berry banana version is very tasty {despite being a tad over dried}, I think these are even better. They’re sweet and flavourful and have just the perfect bit of tartness.

Gracen seems to agree. She gobbled up this entire strip in 3 minutes flat and promptly asked for another.

Carrot Pear Apple Fruit Leather

2 Red Anjou pears
3 large carrots
1 Granny Smith apple
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 cup of water

Peel the carrots and peel and core the apple. Put all of the produce into a large pot along with the water and the juice from the lemon. Cover the pot and stew the fruit/veggies on medium heat for 25 to 30 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool a while.

Pour the stewed fruit and veggies into a blender or food processor and puree.

Pour the pureed mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and use a spatula to evenly distribute the mixture over the base of the pan. Bake at 150 degrees for about 8 hours, removing it from the overn when the leather is no longer sticky to the touch.

Peel away the parchment paper and cut into strips using kitchen scissors or a pizza cutter.

Enjoy immediately or roll using parchment strips and baker’s twine and store in an airtight jar.

♥

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Berry Banana Fruit Leather

1 / 25 / 138 / 1 / 13

One of the few ready-made packaged foods I buy now and then is organic all-fruit fruit leather strips. They’re a very special treat for Miss G and I don’t feel horrible about letting her have one once and a while (as long as her teeth are brushed extra well that day), but I’ve always known that I should probably be making them at home instead. Recently, our local grocery store stopped restocking their organic fruit leather supply (I think they’re getting rid of the current stock and then no longer carrying them) and they were down to just two lonely strips on our last visit. It was the perfect push I needed to try making my own.

Today I asked Gracen if she’d like to try making some fruit leather of our own, and she responded enthusiastically with, “Sure! Purple ones.” so I decided we’d try a berry variety first. Since we don’t really buy many berries when they’re out of season, we went with what we had in the freezer – strawberries, raspberries, and wild blueberries. Plus an apple and half a lemon for texture and a little kick.

As we were prepping the fruit, which really only consists of peeling and coring the apple, we decided to add a banana in the mix for sweetness.

With all of the ingredients ready to go, Gracen popped them into a large pot…

Then squeezed the lemon on top…

And added a little bit of water.

Then we popped the mixture on the stove to stew over medium heat for a while.

About a half hour later, this is what we had.

We let it cool for a little bit and then dumped it in the food processor to puree for a bit.

With our mixture nice and smooth, we lined a baking sheet with parchment paper…

And poured our berry mixture on top.

Using a spatula, we spread the mixture out to cover the entire base of the pan (on our next attempt, I’d spend a little more time getting it as evenly as possible) and put the pan in the oven on the lowest temperature.

Eight and a half hours later (yes – it takes a long time!) this is what we had.

We carefully peeled off the parchment paper…

And then I used kitchen scissors to cut it into strips.

A little parchment paper and baking twine later, we had our own homemade {and healthy!} version of a Fruit Roll-Up. ☺

Banana Berry Fruit Leather

1 cup of raspberries, frozen or fresh
1 cup of strawberries, frozen or fresh
1 cup of blueberries, frozen or fresh
1 ripe banana
1 Granny Smith apple
juice of 1/2 of a lemon
1/3 cup of water

Peel the banana and peel and core the apple. Put all of the fruit into a large pot along with the water and the juice from the lemon. Stew the fruit on medium heat (uncovered) for 25 to 30 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool a while.

Pour the stewed fruit into a blender or food processor and puree.

Pour the pureed mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and use a spatula to evenly distribute the mixture over the base of the pan. Bake at 150 degrees for 8 to 9 hours, removing it from the oven when the leather is no longer sticky to the touch.

Peel away the parchment paper and cut into strips using kitchen scissors or a pizza cutter.

Enjoy immediately or roll using parchment strips and baker’s twine and store in an air-tight jar.

♥

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Healthier Crispy Rice Treats

1 / 13 / 131 / 11 / 14

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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Healthy Trail Mix Cookies

11 / 6 / 1211 / 6 / 12

This weekend, Gracen and I tried a new healthy cookie recipe. Knowing how most healthy cookies turn out (good, but very healthy tasting), I didn’t have my hopes set too high. Much to my surprise, however, these cookies turned out to be delicious. Slightly crunchy on the outside while still soft on the inside, super sweet, and chocked full of yummy seeds and nuts. Even Brad commented on how good they were. So today, only a few days after making the first batch, we made another.

Here’s a quick rundown on how we like to make our new favourite cookies…

Gather the ingredients.

Place the pecans on a baking sheet and pop them into the oven to toast for about 10 minutes.

In the meantime, put some of the oats into a blender or food processor and turn them into oat flour.

Pour the oat flour into a large mixing bowl.

Add your regular old-fashioned oats.

Then the ground flax and hemp hearts…

Plus the salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.

Give all of the dry ingredients a good stir.

Next, pour in the pure maple syrup.

Coax the coconut oil into coming out of its bowl…

Add the honey…

And vanilla.

Stir the sticky mixture well.

At this point, it’ll be crumbly and sticky all at once and you’ll wonder how on earth it’ll ever become cookies. Don’t fret.

By now, your roasting pecans will smell lovely and will be ready to come out of the oven.

Allow them to cool a moment and pop them into a blender or food processor, pulsing them just a handful of times to create small bits.

Then add them to your cookie mixture.

Next up, the add-ins. Dump in your raisins…

Plus the sunflower seeds and almond slices…

And stir everything up really well.

Now for the tricky part… With a bowl of warm water nearby, wet you hands, scoop out a heaping tablespoon of cookie dough, and shape into a ball, pressing firmly. Repeat for the remainder of the dough, rewetting your hands every couple of cookies.

Now pop them in the oven…

And take them out approximately 10 – 13 minutes later, when the outsides are golden and crispy, but the centre is still very soft to the touch. Let the cookies cool completely before removing from the pan.

Serve with a glass of cold milk, or if you prefer ‘the Gracen special’, with a small bowl of plain yogurt (she plops the cookie in, then smashes it into the yogurt with her spoon – I think they remind her of granola ☺).

Healthy Trail Mix Cookies

Adapted from this recipe from Oh She Glows

1 cup of pecans, toasted
1 cup of old-fashioned oats, blended into oat flour
1/4 cup of rolled oats
1 tablespoon of ground flax seed
1 tablespoon of hemp hearts
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/4 cup of pure maple syrup
2 heaping tablespoons of honey
1tablespoon of coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla

1/3 cup of raisins
3 tablespoons of sunflower seeds
3 tablespoons of sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Spread pecans onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, use a blender or food processor to grind your oats into oat flour. Put the flour, along with the other dry ingredients, into a large mixing bowl and stir. Add in the wet ingredients and mix really well.

By now, your pecans should be ready. Remove them from the oven and crank up your oven’s temperature to 350 degrees. Pop the pecans into your blender or food processor, and give them just a few pulses to break them up into small bits. Add the pecans, as well as the raisins, sunflower seeds, and sliced almonds to the cookie mixture and stir well.

With a bowl of warm water nearby, wet your hands and press firmly to shape approximately 1 heaping tablespoon portions of cookie mixture into a balls.

Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for 10 – 13 minutes. When you remove them from the oven, the cookies should be golden, crispy on the very top, but very soft to the touch still. Allow them to cool completely before removing from the cookie sheet.

Enjoy!