Archives for February 2014

This is such a simple, easy recipe for the summer! These are great for breakfast & on the go snacks!

Adapted from Primally Inspired

 

yields 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 banana, mashed (or ½ cup unsweetened applesauce)
• 1/4 cup coconut oil or butter
• ¼ cup pure raw honey or pure maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• ½ cup coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup of fresh raspberries (or other fresh berries)

 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine eggs, banana, oil, honey and vanilla until well combined. (I love using my potato masher to mash my bananas if they are not ripe enough yet)
3. Add in coconut flour, baking soda and sea salt and stir.
4. Fold in berries gently.
5. Fill a lined muffin tray about ¾ of the way to the top.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or unitl golden on top and cooked in the middle.
7. Enjoy!

 

Nutritional Value: Calories: 111   Fiber: 2g    Sugar: 6g

Easy Raspberry Muffins

gluten free, paleo

I haven’t had too much experience with non-flour muffins (using almond flour, coconut flour, etc. instead). These tasted awesome, but were not as fluffy as other muffins I have made. Regardless, they still tasted delicious.

modified from Just Eat Real Food 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon gluten free flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
• 5 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
• 2 lemons, juiced
• zest of 2 lemons
• 1/4 cup honey (or maple syrup)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons of chia seeds or lemon poppy seeds

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees

2. In a large bowl, mix together honey, vanilla, eggs & lemon juice. Melt the coconut oil (I put it in the microwave for 45 seconds) & mix that in with honey, vanilla, eggs & lemon juice

3. In a separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients.

4. Then mix the wet & dry ingredients together. Do this slowly so it doesn’t get too lumpy!

5. Add mix to each muffin lining (if desired) & fill 1/4 full.

6. Bake in the oven for 22 minutes!

Nutritional Value: Calories: 112 Fiber: 1g Sugar: 6g

Who doesn’t love ice cream? This is one of my favorite things to eat on the whole planet. Anytime, any kind, anywhere. The catch is, it has to be dairy free (unfortunately for those of use with a dairy intolerance)…. which usually doesn’t work out in my favor when everyone wants to go out at night for ice cream, sorbet is hard to find. This is also a great way to use those bananas that have started to go bad. If your family is anything like my family, they don’t care for them once they’ve started gathering brown spots. Anyways, I found this at The Kitchn and bingo! My new frozen summer treat! All you really need is bananas (I added chocolate chips to mine though. I’ve seen it done with nutella, peanut butter, honey, fruit etc.

Serves 1

Ingredients: 

• one ripened banana
• 2 tablespoons of Enjoy Life chocolate chips (or peanut butter, almond butter, nutella, fruit, honey, etc).

​Instructions: 

1. Chop up the banana and put it in the freezer until it is completely frozen.

2. Take banana out and blend it in the food processor until it looks like frozen yogurt.

3. Add in toppings and pulse (don’t mush them up too much, if you are using fruit or honey you could even mix it in with a spoon).

4. Eat as is, or put back in the freezer to make it a little bit more like hard ice cream.

Nutritional Information (with Enjoy Life chocolate chips): Calories: 250 Fiber: 5g  Sugar: 29g

These brownies were a huge hit with my husband, who is picky about his desserts. They did not last long. He knows that I am always trying out new recipes for my blog, which is gluten free, dairy free and refined sugar free, so with his eyebrows raised, he asked me what the catch was. I didn’t tell him there were black beans (the secret ingredient!) in the them (and no white sugar!). He ate the whole batch anyways. These fudgy brownies will leave no crumb behind! Adapted from The Sugar Free Mom
​

Makes 12 brownies

Ingredients:

• 1 can (15.5 ounces) of black beans, rinsed
• 1/4 cup raw cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 cups Enjoy Life (no soy, no dairy, no gluten) mini chocolate chips (+ some for the top of the brownies if desired)
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of stevia

Instructions:

 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (you can line the brownie pan with parchment paper, non stick cooking spray or coconut oil

2. Process all ingredients together in a food processor or blender.

3. Pour into brownie pan and smooth to edges.

4. Bake 30 minutes & make sure that a toothpick or knife come out clean.

5. Cool & slice into 12 pieces.

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 221    Fiber:  5g   Sugar: 12g

Who doesn’t love an ice cold, refreshing treat? Popsicles are all the rage right now, & when I saw them, I knew I had to try them. I’ve never made popsicles before, so I was really excited to dig in & give them a shot. I was really surprised how quick they were to make, and how delicious the outcome is. I also love that you can make these with any fruit you can blend! I want to try them again next week with pineapple or mango. *note: you will need popsicle molds, I got mine on Amazon.
​

Makes 6 popsicles

Ingredients: 

• 4 cups of watermelon (seedless or deseeded)
• 2 tablespoons of lime juice
• 1 cup of blackberries

 

Instructions: 

1. Cut up watermelon into small cubes (or to size for the food processor).

2. Rinse & clean blackberries.

3. Process watermelon with 1 tablespoons of lime juice in the food processor. Pulse until smooth. Set aside in a bowl.

4. Process blackberries with 1 tablespoon lime juice. Process until smooth & set aside in separate bowl.

5. Pour a few tablespoons of the blackberry mixture into the molds, swirling around the liquid on all sides of the mold so that the blackberry mixes with the watermelon.

6. Pour in watermelon mixture & fill to the top. Set the handle in the popsicle & repeat for the other 5 molds.

7. Set in the freezer overnight.

​

Nutritional Information: Calories: 41   Fiber: 2g   Sugar: 7g

 

Blackberry Watermelon Popsicles

You know it’s July in New England when the zucchini abundantly starts growing from the garden & you just don’t even know where it is all coming from! I have been making a lot of zucchini dishes lately (more to come), but when my Nana put me up to the challenge to make her some zucchini bread, off I went. I actually made not one, but two, zucchini breads before this that failed miserably. This one came out great. Very tasty & I loved the texture - & Nana approved!

Adaped from Against All Grain

Serves 12

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup peeled, shredded zucchini
• 1 ripe banana
• 1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
• 3 eggs
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups almond flour (or food processed raw almonds)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Peel & cut up the zucchini. If you are going to use a food processor or blender to mix, you can leave the zucchini in small pieces. If you plan on hand mixing, shred or dice the zucchini.

3. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl & set aside.

4. Put wet ingredients in a food processor & pulse until foamy.

5. Add in dry mixture slowly until dry and wet ingredients have fully combined.

6. Add zucchini in and pulse lightly (or gently fold in).

7. Set zucchini mixture in bread pan & place in the oven for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Nutritional Information: Calories: 128 Fiber: 2g Sugar: 7g 

Anyone grow up eating rhubarb? It grows in abundance here in New Hampshire in the summer! My husband grew up eating rhubarb and during the summer he asks me regularly to make him rhubarb pie. His version of pie contains a lot of sugar… so when I had a lot of extra rhubarb this go around, I began digging for something to make that I would be okay ingesting. I went back and forth between a bunch of recipes and finally decided to try out this one from PaleOMG​ (which was a good choice). These are the right amount of sweet, with a delicious nutty flavored crust! I made 6 tartlets, but these would easily make 12 muffins (or even a crumble in a 9X9 pan if you’d like!)

Makes 6 tartlets or 12 muffins

Ingredients: 

For the filling:

• 2 cups of rhubarb, washed & sliced
• 1 cup of raspberries, washed
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg white

For the crust: 

• 1 cup walnuts
• 2/3 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg white
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

2. Place rhubarb and raspberries in a oven safe dish, mix with honey, coconut oil & honey. Set in the oven for 25 minutes.

3. While the rhubarb & raspberries are in the oven, pulse walnuts in the food processor or blender under the walnuts are crumbles.

4. Add in the rest of the crust ingredients until the mixture forms a ball of dough.

5. Coat bottom of tartlet or muffin forms with coconut oil if desired (it would help them pop out easier after cooking). Press 1-2 tablespoon of dough mixture into tartlet forms or muffin tin/liner until it covers the bottom.

6. Take rhubarb/raspberry mixture out of the oven and use a fork or potato masher to break up the mixture until it looks like jam.

7. Mix egg white into rhubarb/raspberry mixture.

8. Distribute mixture evenly in tartlet or muffin tins. Top with unsweetened, shredded coconut (optional).

9. Bake for 25 minutes.

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 265 (113 if you make muffins)  Fiber: 5g Sugar 8g

My mom is literally the queen of scones. She can make any kind, any ingredients, and she just knows what the consistency needs to be to make them absolutely perfect. No, really, perfect. Trust me. When my Mom, my sister and I went blueberry picking the other day, I knew we would have to make at least a batch or two of scones with all of these little gems. I honestly don’t know if a dessert (or breakfast, or snack…) could be as crumbly, tart and sweet as this!

inspired by Cook, Eat, Paleo

Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of almond flour (I grind raw almonds in the food processor until the almonds are granular)
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 2 tablespoons of honey or maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil (+ 1 tablespoon for greasing)
• 1 cup blueberries

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and prep baking sheet with tin foil (optional). If needed, grind almonds for flour.

2. Mix almond flour and coconut flour in a bowl.

3. Add baking powder and cinnamon to the flour mixture.

4. Add in lemon juice, lemon zest, egg and coconut oil. Mix well.

5. At this point you are going to have a ball of dough forming. Fold dough together as needed so that everything sticks together in one big ball.

6. Gently fold in blueberries (don’t worry about squishing one or two!)

7. Once the blueberries have been added and you have your big ball of dough, you want to flatten the dough out with your hands, so it looks more like a pie (the more you flatten the ball of dough, the thinner the scones will be. I like mine thick, so I don’t flatten it too much).

8. Use 1 tablespoon of coconut oil to grease the pan. I normally don’t do this, but after making a few batches, it helps the scones stick together so they will not fall apart.

9. Transfer scone mixture to the baking sheet or Silipat and cut the scones into 8 pieces. I make 4 cuts; top to bottom, left to right, and then two diagonal lines. Separate the scones a little bit, leaving a small amount of space in between each one. They will not rise very much, so it’s not necessary to give each one lots of space around it.

10. Bake for 18 minutes.

11. Serve with coffee or tea!

Nutritional Information: Calories: 214  Fiber: 5g   Sugar: 7g

I started making ‘oreos’ last year, before this blog even started! These are a tried and true favorite of mine (and my family’s). They are delightfully delicious and enough sweet to make just one a perfect dessert. Best of all, they are easy to make, and raw cocoa is good for you! Did you know there is tons of nutritional value in raw cocoa? Raw cocoa can lower blood pressure, supports heart health, and helps improve digestion with its high fiber content! Its theombromine content also helps stimulate the central nervous system, which relaxes muscles, dilates blood vessels and gives the body a boost of energy!

When I think about putting these cookies together, those old commercials of people twisting their oreos open and eating the inside filling comes to mind. Anyone remember those? Oreos are still one my husband’s favorite cookies. He asks for them on a pretty regular basis in this household! What is one sweet item that is always in your kitchen? ​

Makes 12 oreos

adapted from The Sweet Life

Ingredients: 

• ​1/2 cup of dates, packed tight, pitted & soaked 1 hour
• 1/4 cup water (from the bowl of dates)
• 1/2 cup raw cocoa powder
• 1 cup almond flour (I put my almond in the food processor until they are finely ground)
• 1/4 cup coconut butter
• 2 teaspoons stevia or one teaspoon maple syrup

Instructions: 

1. Pit dates and soak them in water for one hour (make sure there is enough water to cover all of the dates).

2. Grind almonds until fine (if you are not using almond flour).

3. When almond are done soaking, combine dates, 1/4 water from bowl of dates, almonds and cocoa powder in food processor or blender until the ingredients form a ball of dough.

4. Roll out dough on parchment paper until it’s 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Use a cookie cutter (I used a 2 inch round cookie cutter I got at the dollar store). You may get more than 12 or less than 12 depending on the size you use.

5. Once you have your cookies you can either a) put them in the refrigerator until they get hard or b) put them in the dehydrator until they are not soft anymore. I have a dehydrator, and that is what I used, but this is the first time (I just got one). I always just ate them cold and they were still amazing. If you are using a dehydrator, I only put mine in for an hour. Because mine does not have a temperature or time setting (it is 600 watts, though) I couldn’t tell you an exact time. It took mine about 90 minutes.

6. While your cookies are setting, mash coconut butter with stevia or maple syrup until smooth.

7. When cookies are cold (or done dehydrating), divide frosting evenly between 2 cookies.

8. If you did not dehydate the cookies, store them in the refrigerator. If the cookies were dehydrated, they can be kept in the refrigerator (I actually prefer them this way) or at room temperature.

Nutritional Information: Calories: 180  Fiber:  4g   Sugar:  14g

​I’m back with another scone recipe! If you missed my blueberry scone recipe, you should really try it - especially if you are still reaping the benefits of the end of bluberry season. These ones are just as good (my Mom actually thinks they are better), and a little more dessert friendly than the others (don’t worry, many fall scone recipes are in the works…) These are perfect with a cup of tea and a book, if you ask me…

Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 2 cups almond flour (or finely ground almonds)
• 2 tablespoons coconut flour
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon water
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Mix almond flour, coconut flour and baking powder.

3. In a different bowl, combine honey, vanilla extract, coconut oil, water and egg.

4. Combine wet and dry ingredients in one bowl, kneading together well.

5. Gently fold in chocolate chips.

6. Place dough onto a lined cookie sheet (or a Silipat). Put down coconut oil for greasing if needed.

7. Press the dough down into a pancake shape on the liner.

8. Use a large knife to make four cuts in the dough to create triangle shape scones. One vertical, one horizontal, and two on a diagonal.

9.  Seperate the scones slightly.

10. Cook at 375 degrees for 18 minutes.

Nutrtional Information: Calories: 236  Fiber 5g   Sugar 9g