Mini treats for Mom Part 1

It's almost May so HOPEFULLY you're starting to think about Mother's day! I'm giving you the mom look if you haven't at least thought about it a teeny tiny bit! If your mom is a chocolate lover, here are two recipes that I tried out. You can give her the chocolate with a little less bloat this year:) I made these for a bigger family gathering so I used sunflower seed butter for both. Yes, the peanut butter probably would have tasted better, but my love for my nephew is greater than my love for PB... so I love him a whole heck of lot!

Clearly I am not a photographer! Please pardon my knuckles :(

Chocolate Chip Truffles

 This is just a variation of the peanut butter eggs that I made for Easter. I processed 4 dates with 1 TBSP of water, and 1/2c sunflower seed butter. (you can add a little bit of cocoa power if you want a chocolate overload!) Then I folded in a couple of tablespoons of mini chocolate chips. How many you add depends on how healthy you want to keep it, but don't go too crazy or they will be hard to roll! Next I scooped and formed balls and let them chill in the fridge for about an hr. Dip was the same. Melted chocolate with a little coconut oil to thin it out. Make sure you place them on parchment paper to dry! Keep refrigerated!

Caramel Fudge 

 One of the best parts of going to the beach is buying some fudge on the Boardwalk. And who doesn't love caramel sauce/topping??? BUT you don't have to be a pastry chef to know that they are so extremely full of delicious evil sugar!!! This recipe was a Super Healthy Kids facebook post (FOLLOW THEM!) and I had to give it a try. I'm totally a sucker for the caramel and brown sugar types of desserts. A lot of my most popular desserts include it. When I make real caramel sauce, the pot is full of sugar! I needed to see if I there really is a way to make a healthier version! I could alter so many of my evil but delicious desserts into healthier versions! Here is the link:

 salted caramel fudge recipe

 Everyone seemed to love them. I thought maybe only the adults would go for them, but my kids picked them over the other treats. They've got a darker chocolate taste. I don't think that I let my caramel cook down as much as I should have. You burn sugar in a pot once and deal with an angry dishwasher, you get a little paranoid! Definitely watch that baby as it cooks! It takes a while so it would be good to do while you're in the kitchen making dinner or doing meal prep for the week! As for the taste..... Was I tricked into thinking it was the real thing. Yea....no! Will I use it for other recipe ideas. Yes!

Muffin Mania

When I signed up to be a coach, I made a promise to myself that I was going to get the whole family eating healthier or else.... Okay, not really like that, but it was time to change up some of their habits. They weren't living on pixie sticks and mountain dew, but I was always doing my fix approved separately from theirs and not putting a ton of effort into getting them to eat like me.... because... well... It was hard! They are picky eaters and.... and.... no more excuses! Don't think that I'm great (not that you do) I took the babiest of steps and started with breakfast! Super simple! Ditch the sugary cereals and cereal bars *coughs* and donuts *coughs*  and trick them with healthy muffins! I'm a pastry chef, I can do that! I have made about a million muffins since then. These are some of the winners.


These blueberry oatmeal muffins are my favorites so I put them first! After making several batches of muffins during my Challenge group time, I needed a muffin fix and I needed to be able to figure out my container counts to stay on track! The Beachbody Blog had this blender recipe and it didn't cost a lot of yellow containers (the glorious carb container!) I'm loving these blender recipes! Perfect for upper body fix days when your arms are dead lol!

How easy is that???

blueberry-oatmeal-muffins-recipe

Nathan only likes the extra bigger blueberries that are not baked. News to me! We had recently gone a little banana crazy so that option was out. I found this blender recipe and noticed dates listed in the ingredients. Dates are becoming an obsession and I'm sorry! Nathan ended up being very happy with these and we shared them with friends and they gave it a thumbs up too.

no sugar apple cinnamon healthy muffins

This next batch seems to be the ultimate winner! It's double chocolate so it feels like dessert! Like mommy lost her mind! They don't really know that zucchini is one of those "gross" veggies. I've made this 3 times so far. The first time (see photo) I peeled the skin and chopped the crap out of it in the food processor. Second time, I left the skin on but then chickened out and chopped it up like crazy. After them BEGGING for them again and rejecting the baked oatmeal I had made after only 2 mornings, I just grated it. I don't know if they were too tired or not but they didn't question the difference.

I took a photo of the batter because it was delicious! Just as good as brownie batter

healthy double chocolate zucchini muffins

Muffins are a super quick breakfast for "where are your shoes? We are gonna be late!" mornings. I'll let the muffin mania continue for as long as they want!

Not so insanely sweet Easter baskets

I promised myself that I wouldn't buy the kids Easter candy. No, I didn't become hardcore health nut overnight. I knew that their grandparents and aunts and uncles and honorary aunts and uncles and other various members of their fan club would be giving them treats. They would get plenty. I just wasn't going to add to the sugar pile. That lead to another problem. I also wasn't only gonna fill their baskets with that dollar section stuff or those expensive stupid blind bag nonsense. That is extremely hazardous to my health and maybe bottom of my feet ( curse you, shopkins and Legos!!!!) I needed to find balance.
    My family takes their peanut eggs seriously! We LOVE them! My grandmother always made tons! ( coconut and butter cream too!) Nothing like slicing yourself just one piece and then another and then another and another until you realized you should have just eaten the monster egg in one sitting because you have no will power. I decided to do something that would possibly get me kicked out of the family! I found a healthier recipe! One that didn't require a pound of powdered sugar. It popped up on Facebook ad for the High Def Health page. It was super simple! Just throw 7 dates, 2 TBSP of water and a cup of all natural peanut butter in the food processor. ( I added a squirt of honey... not a lot! Only the bit that came out of the bottle as I quickly muttered, "maybe they won't murder me now!") Blend it all up until it forms a dough and roll it into eggs. I let the eggs chill overnight in the fridge and dipped them in melted chocolate that I thinned out with coconut oil. *fingers crossed* There has been no tribal council meeting planned to vote me out yet!

Got a little scared at this point

looks normal-ish, right?

They'll never know! Looks just like Oma's ;)

I needed something else for that baskets that looked exciting and took up some space ;)  I saw rice krispie treats at a bake sale and decided to try Google again. A lot of recipes called for Brown rice syrup, but I needed to take a tiny break from stocking the pantry with all the new ingredients. Yes, I'm kinda cheap, I know! I found one that said I could substitute honey for the syrup. I also used peanut butter because the almond butter that was on sale definitely needed a lot of stirring. I had visions of shaping bunnies and butterflies, but it was too warm and not sticky enough. I put it in a pan,and let it chill in the fridge for about 40 minutes. Then I cut them up and made something that I would call a distant cousin of an Easter egg... My hands were a little too warm and my photo taking skills a little too slow! I had to throw them back in the fridge a few times. As long as they taste good and I let them have one for breakfast tomorrow, they'll be happy with the mutant eggs! Rice Krispie Treat Recipe

I'm brave but not that brave! Sprinkles are the perfect distraction

How cute are those demented overgrown eggs???

Side note: For our egg hunt, I could advantage of an awesome sale on organic snacks! Eggs filled and a head start on next weeks snack supplies. SCORE!!

Not store bought granola bars too?? The Sugary truth

 It's sooo easy and convenient to buy granola bars from the store and toss them at starving children or throw them in a lunch box! Or how about breakfast on the go!?! Oh wait, what's that? Oh crap, those healthy, oat-y looking things aren't as healthy as they say?  Nooooooooo! But I love them! At first I tried to live in denial, but the guilt! I stopped buying them and endured a million "can I have a granola bar?" (I'm pretty sure the kids think we have a magical pantry because they are always asking for things that aren't there!) Ugh! I really needed some granola bars to throw at them! I started googling and searching for recipes that did not have brown sugar or granulated sugar. I got scared by some of the ingredients. My kids were gonna totally throw them right back at me claiming that I was feeding them that stuff in the bird feeders. I have no idea where their dramatic tendencies come from??? Anyhoo, I studied several recipes and kind of merged  a couple for a hybrid, perfect for kids who are eating healthier but weren't exactly on board with plan yet. One day, they'll be eating super packed granola with all sorts of funny named goodness, but I gotta keep this journey gentle and torture free to succeed.


Chocolate Chip Peanut butter Granola Bars 
1 c peanut butter
1/4c-1/2c honey (I like less)
1/2c coconut oil
2 3/4c oats
3/4c flax seed ( or whatever bird feeder like food your kids won't notice)
1/2c mini chocolate chips

Line a baking dish with parchment (bottom and up over the sides.)
Combine oats and flax seed in a bowl and set aside.
Heat and melt peanut butter, honey, and oil
Pour over oat mix and stir.
Quickly fold in 1/4c of chips and them press mix into the pan.
Sprinkle the rest of the chips on the top.
Make sure everything is firmly pressed together and refrigerate.
Cut into bars and squares and store in a container in the fridge

First attempt and you would have thought it was my first time with chocolate! I put the chips with the oats and poured the warm peanut butter mix directly on the chips! Hid the flax seed real well though!!!

As usual, each kid likes something a little different so I went on a search for something else and stumbled upon The Minimalist Baker Blog. I got very excited about this recipe! DATES!! I love them! They make me think of my Oma's frosted date ball cookies and Christmas! I had to try this recipe! I feel like it required a little more muscle to mix but both kids and my inner kid gave them rave reviews!!!! I think that these are my absolute favorite. They held together well and weren't too sticky:)

healthy 5 ingredient granola bars recipe

My poor nephew has peanut and tree nut allergies. It seemed like almost all the recipes I found contained nut butters and nuts.  Most suggested swapping out the nut butters with sunflower seed butter, but my cheap self wanted to see if I could find a recipe without either before buying a jar for occasional visits. It took a couple tries. One recipe fell apart and became granola bits for yogurt. I found another one but it had frozen raspberries and they were too tart for the kids. I found this one from the blog Chocolate Covered Kate and it seemed to work the best. I baked them because to be extra cautious. I also added golden raisins and cinnamon to try and recreate something similar to the store bought ones Nathan adores.

Healthy granola bars recipes

I thought that making granola bars was going to be a giant pain in the butt. I was surprised to find so many recipes with so many options! I love how you can play around and create your own mix in combos (heaven forbid we like the same thing around here!!) It's also great for baking with kids! A lot of dumping stuff into one bowl. 

Nope! Nope! Nope!

I got so stinking proud of myself today! The kids were BEGGING me to bake more of the muffins that had zucchini in them! That's right... Zucchini! Look at me winning at life! I'm just the winningest winner ever! I'm gonna find me another hidden veggie recipe and just be awesome!

 I found a recipe for carrot and cheddar crackers that look like those cheddar ones in the store (rhythm s with wheeze its!) Sounded easy enough...

This was the point where you are suppose to be able to LIGHTLY FLOUR the counter and roll it out. It was a soft sticky mess. It stuck to my hands and the Rolling pin every. single. time! LIES! My counter looked like the Blizzard of '96 just to get it semi rolled and unstuck from fingers!!

Just a tiny glimpse of the mess. I think at this point I started muttering about how stupid life was and that'll I just buy a darn box of organic crackers. I don't care if the box costs a $100 because the cheddar comes from free range cows who graze on grass fertilized natural by unicorn farts. I was not well

Forget the nice neat squares! No way was that gonna work! I grabbed a heart cookie cutter. As you can see they are a little busted up like my poor battered new healthy recipe-heart

So it appears that I only violently stabbed some of the "hearts" because some are rather puffy.  Got to be a cracker archaeologists and dust away the buckets full of  the light flour dusting

 The kids tell me that after I dusted them off, they weren't bad. Not sure if that's the truth or just them seeing the crazy in my eye.  I guess we shall see how many days they are left in Sydney's snack pocket in her school bag.
 Will I try these again? Probably one day when my hands stop cracking and bleeding from the five thousand hand washings and I get over my overly overdramatic self and figure out what I did wrong;) Even someone with a degree in baking can royally screw up a simple looking recipe.