Healthy chocolate no bake cookies

I do not remember where I found this recipe, but these little cookies are awesome, and of course the best part is that they're healthy!  They have no sugar, butter, oil, or flour (even though I have nothing against flour, especially whole wheat flour.  I do lots and lots of baking with flour.).  Honey or maple syrup is used instead of the sugar; we prefer raw local honey or pure maple syrup.  I usually use honey because pure maple syrup is so expensive.

These cookies are quick and easy to throw together, but be sure to make them ahead of time because they need to set up for about 2 hours in the freezer (of course you could just eat the batter with a spoon if you wanted!).  They're rich and chocolatey so if that's your thing (it's definitely mine!) I bet you'll like these.

printable recipe

Healthy Chocolate No Bake Cookies

makes about 24 cookies

Ingredients:

¼ cup cocoa powder

¼ cup honey (or maple syrup)

2 tsp vanilla                          

2 bananas

½ cup peanut butter

2 cups oats

Combine the cocoa powder, honey or maple syrup, and vanilla in a bowl.  Whisk until combined (it’ll take a minute or so and should look like chocolate syrup – see pic below).  Add the bananas and mash into the mixture.  Then add the peanut butter and mix well.  Add the oats and mix.  (You may have to add more oats – you don’t want the mixture to be too dry because the cookies won’t stay together, but you don’t want it to be too wet either because it’ll just be a gooey mess – see pic below.)

Spoon cookies onto wax paper, as big as you like.  Place in the freezer until set, about 2 hours.  Transfer the cookies to a container with a lid and keep them stored in the freezer.

Now for some pics!

This is what the cocoa powder/honey/vanilla mixture should look like when it's thoroughly combined - this would probably be a good topping for ice cream!  *Note - I halved this recipe this time around, for what reason, I have no idea.  They did not last long.

Izzy was my helper.  She likes to help me cook and bake, especially when chocolate is involved.

Adding the oats after mixing up the banana and peanut butter.

Here's the consistency we ended up with.  Like I said above, I halved the recipe, only needing 1 cup of oats, but we ended up adding just a tad more - maybe 2 tbsp or so.  It's still gooey, but not dry.

And here's Izzy licking up as much chocolate as possible.

Goob.

We ended up with 13 cookies.  Izzy spooned them out, so some ended up on the small side.

More chocolate leftovers.

And more.

Pretty yummy!

We love love these cookies.

I hope you like them!

The busy mom's oven pancake

This past Sunday was Easter, and I did not plan ahead for breakfast.  Which is sort of unlike me because I'm usually excited about making something special for breakfast on holidays/special occasions; something besides cereal or toast.

This time, however, it was already 8:00 a.m. before I thought about breakfast and we still had to fill and hide Easter eggs before the rain moved in (and it did before lunch).  The girls said they wanted pancakes and I just did not feel like have time to sit in front of the griddle watching pancakes for 30 minutes.

Sooooo, instead I made up an oven pancake.  It took me probably 3 minutes to whip together and then I was able to hide the Easter eggs in the backyard while it baked in the oven.  The hubs cooked up some bacon and right before we ate I sliced up some strawberries.  Yum!

This oven pancake has a different texture than a regular pancake.  It's more eggy and almost spongey, but it's very light and delicious, and best of all, quick and easy!

It kinda looks like bacon on the top, ha!  But that's from the cinnamon/sugar mixture that I sprinkled on before it baked.

printable recipe
Oven Pancake

Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter

4 eggs

1 cup milk

2 tbsp sugar

½ tsp vanilla

pinch of salt

1 cup flour

1 tbsp sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425°.  Place the 2 tbsp butter in a 9 inch cake pan (you may want to spray the pan with cooking spray first – my pancake stuck!) and place in the oven to allow the butter to melt.

In a blender or food processor, blend the eggs, milk, 2 tbsp sugar, vanilla, and salt, until well blended.  Add the flour and blend until smooth.  Pour into the cake pan (after the butter has melted).  Mix the cinnamon together with the 1 tbsp sugar and sprinkle on top of the batter.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes until puffed up and golden brown.  Serve with maple syrup.

Enjoy!

The best pumpkin cake ever

It's been quite awhile since I posted a recipe.  I mean, I do have a 'recipes' tab at the top of my page, so one would think that I would actually share some recipes every now and then.

My blog, as you can see, is not really focused on any one thing.  It's just about our life.  I post pictures of our family with explanations of what we've been doing (you know, boring stuff that usually only family is interested in!), blurbs about homeschooling (which is not much right now because the girls are still too young to officially begin lessons), random thoughts here and there about faith or what I've been reading or who knows what, and then there's sometimes a recipe thrown in because, well...because I just want to.

Anyway.

Sunday was dreary and we were kind of bored, so I thought, let's bake!  The girls and I ended up making something DELICIOUS and I wanted to share it with you.  It's a pumpkin recipe, and maybe some people are tired of pumpkin because they went overboard around the holidays, but not us.  I still have 4 cans of pumpkin in my pantry.  I think I've only used one can - now two! - this whole fall/winter season.  So pumpkin it was!

We made a pumpkin cake.  It's the only pumpkin cake I think I've ever made, but it definitely won't be the last because it. is. awesome!

I think they're singing while waiting for me to get everything out.

Before it went into the oven.

After it came out.  I thought this picture was so cute, but of course it's blurry :)

Spreading on the icing.

Izzy was super serious about her task.

She didn't do too bad.  I just had to laugh at her, though, because she got it all over the dish.

Of course, I had to fix it, as best I could.  Izzy's got some icing in her mouth.

My camera batteries died before I got a picture of Izzy scarfing her piece down.

This was seriously one of the best cakes I've had.  But maybe I was just in the mood for pumpkin.  I don't know.  It has the perfect amount of spice, in my opinion, it was very moist, and the icing was wonderful with a little touch of cinnamon.  I did not create this recipe on my own, but adapted it from here.  I changed up the spices a little, decreased the sugar (and will probably decrease a little more next time), omitted 2 eggs, decreased the amount of butter, added applesauce, and totally changed up the icing.

Delicioso.

Would you like my recipe?  Okay!

Pumpkin Cake Cake Ingredients: 2 ¾ cups all purpose flour 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder ¾ tsp salt 1 tsp cinnamon ½ tsp nutmeg ¼ tsp ginger ¼ tsp cloves ¼ cup butter, softened ½ cup oil (I use canola) 1 cup granulated sugar (I’ll probably use ¾ cup next time) ¾ cup brown sugar ½ cup unsweetened applesauce 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla 1 15 oz. can pumpkin ½ cup milk (I use almond) Icing Ingredients: 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature ¼ cup butter, softened 1 tsp vanilla ½ tsp cinnamon (optional, but highly recommended) splash of milk 2 ½ cups powdered sugar Directions: Preheat oven to 350°.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour through cloves).  In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the softened butter, oil, and sugars until well mixed.  Add the applesauce and mix.  Then add the eggs one at a time.  Lastly, add the vanilla.  In a small bowl, mix the pumpkin and milk together.  Add the flour and pumpkin mixtures to the bowl of the stand mixer in three batches, beginning and ending with the flour.  Mix each batch just until combined.  Pour batter into a greased 9×13 baking dish (I used a glass dish) and bake for about 45 minutes.  When a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, it’s done.  Let it cool for about two hours before icing. For the icing: In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the cream cheese and butter.  Add the vanilla, cinnamon, and a splash of milk (maybe a tsp at the most).  Add ½ to 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time until the desired consistency is reached (I used 2 ½ cups powdered sugar total.  It was a perfect amount in my opinion.).  When cake has cooled, frost with the icing, and eat! Store the cake in the fridge.

Enjoy!  Unless you're tired of pumpkin.  I can't help you there.  :)

What we ate this week, a recipe, and a tip

Here's what we ate this week (we are trying our best to not eat out!).  We actually made a goal at the beginning of April to not eat out the whole month, and we did really well!  (I didn't say we were successful because the girls and I got a $5.00 Little Caesar's Pizza at the very end of the month because we went to the park and it was a treat).  But, $5.00 isn't too bad.

I know this isn't April, but Jared and I are making that goal again (in the middle of May).  So, I wanted to keep track of what we're eating and post some recipes.

I have a few recipes on this blog already.  I started a recipe notebook awhile ago, but then thought that this blog would be a great place to store them.  That way I can easily access it, as well as the girls when they get older, and in the process, I can share our favorite recipes.  And, I can include pictures!

Sprinkler and cookies...is it really already summer?

It's barely May and we already broke out the sprinkler.

I'm not looking forward to our water bill this summer.  Or our electric bill.  And our summer is apparently planning to last a good 4 months.  Ugh.

Oh well.  It is what it is.

One of our favorite meatless meals

We try to eat at least 1 or 2 meatless meals per week.  First off, it's less expensive (have you seen the meat prices lately, especially red meat?).  Secondly, meatless meals usually require you to integrate much more healthy foods to make up for the missing meat.

So, frugal and healthy?  Yes, please!

I've talked about our vegan phase before, and even though it didn't last, it was a real eye-opener.  We were so used to having meals revolve around meat that we were missing out on some awesome food.

Homemade, no-bake Mac & Cheese

Yes, that's Dora under there.

My kids are 3 and 5 years old.  So, I'm sure you can imagine how limited our options are for lunch time. 

First off, lunches have to be easy because I just don't have the time to put together some gourmet meal in the middle of the day (or in the evening for that matter).  

We love bread (frugal French bread recipe)

We eat a lot of bread around here.  A lot.

And people claim that bread is not good for you.  Isn't it the French who eat a lot of bread, yet they're pretty thin?  Or maybe the Italians eat a lot of bread.  Or maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

It's probably the latter.

Now, I make most of the bread we eat; sandwich bread, French bread, rolls, what have you.  Please don’t think I am bragging, because I’m not.

First of all, I like to bake.  It’s fun.  I guess I would call it one of my hobbies.  I just like to do it.

Second of all, it’s cheaper than buying from the store.  And I’m all about saving some money!  I can make two loaves of French bread for about $1.20, which is $0.60 per loaf.  And that's even using some whole wheat flour; all purpose flour is much cheaper.

Saturday = donuts

This morning was a lazy Saturday morning (what Saturday morning isn't?).  I was sitting on the couch drinking my coffee and enjoying the quiet.  The girls were still in bed and Jared had left for work...yes he's a teacher...yes he has to go to school on Saturdays...stinking snow days.

Then Izzy gets up, comes and sits by me on the couch, and says, "Mommy, I want breakfast."

No, "Good morning, Mommy."  No, "Hi, Mommy."  No hug.  Just, "I want breakfast."

She doesn't waste any time when it comes to her meals.  Hmmm, wonder who she gets that from?  (Papaw, ahem.)

So we made donuts!  Now, if you read my post about our Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins, you'll know that I'm always trying to make our food a little healthier.  And these are no exception; I used whole wheat flour and they don't have any butter, oil, or eggs.  These are also baked donuts, and they're not the yeasty kind.  But even though they're healthier than a regular donut, they are still pretty fluffy and yummy.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins...and they're healthy

So awhile back Jared and I went through a vegan phase.  We read a book called The China Study, which argues that the majority of our health problems is caused by animal products – meat, dairy, eggs, etc.  It’s a pretty interesting book backed by a ton of research (some of it I skipped because it got really technical).  As a result, we got kind of serious about going vegan because of the health benefits.  However, it’s a pretty big lifestyle change, and with two little kids who can be quite picky at times (and a husband who loves to eat meat), it didn’t last long.

But along the way, I did learn a lot of ways to cut out animal products from everyday foods.  And, I came across some really great recipes that we wouldn’t have otherwise tried.  I also became a little more health conscious about what I serve to my family and have made an attempt (sometimes good, sometimes bad) to healthify (I don’t think that’s a word) a lot of what we eat. 

So, here is a recipe that I wanted to share.  It’s a muffin recipe, one of several that I have, because we (I) make a lot of muffins around here.  They’re really easy for breakfast and for snacks, and a lot healthier than a little Debbie or cookies or what not.