No Flour Peanut Butter Squares

I love me some peanut butter, and peanut butter in a bar?  SCORE!  This recipe came from the Fixate cookbook and it came out soooo good.  Totally kids (and parents) approved AND fix approved too (it counts as one yellow container and 2.5 tsp of oil).  It was super easy to make and there is no flour.


Ingredients:
nonstick cooking spray
1.5 C     all-natural smooth peanut butter
1/2 C     raw honey (or pure maple syrup)
2 tsp      vanilla extract
2            large eggs, at room temp
1/2 tsp   baking soda

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2.  Lightly coat 8x8 inch baking pan with spray.
3.  Combine peanut butter, honey, extract, eggs, and baking soda in a large bowl.  Mix well.
4.  Evenly spread batter into prepared pan.  Smooth top with a spatula.
5.  Bake for 20-23 minutes.  Squares may be a little soft when coming out of the oven, but they will   continue to cook.
6.  Cool.  Cut into squares.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies I'm OK with giving my children

Sometimes you just need a treat. In this case, it was my son's 5th birthday last month and the teacher asked if I was going to bring something in for them to celebrate in preschool. I thought I could get away with not bringing anything (since we had a party which included his classmates), but I felt the mommy guilt. I didn't want to buy pre-made small cupcakes, as I always think there's way too much sugar in them, and the frosting itself can verifiably leave your kids on a sugar high for hours. So in comes #100daysofrealfood and me tweaking the recipe slightly to make that recipe even healthier. Here's the recipe for Whole-wheat chocolate chip cookies per the website. I have notes on where I changed things. You can definitely taste the lack of butter in these cookies. But you also get that wonderful coconut-ty flavor instead. 

 


2/3c whole wheat flour
1/2c white flour (or use all whole-wheat instead)--that's what I did
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter (8 TBSP), slightly colder than room temp. (I substituted with coconut oil-- see here to read all the great benefits of cooking with coconut oil)
1/4c brown sugar
1/4c white sugar (I used mostly brown sugar)
1 tsp vanilla
3/4c choc. chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
1) In a small bowl, mix together the dry ingredients with a hand-held whisk including the flour, baking soda, and salt.
In a large, separate bowl use an electric mixer to cream the butter. The butter is the KEY ingredient in this recipe and for best results it must be “slightly” colder than room temperature.

2) Add the egg, both sugars, and vanilla to butter until well mixed. Scrape sides of bowl as necessary.

3) With the electric mixer on low, add the flour mixture (in batches) to the butter mixture.

4) With a large spatula stir in the chocolate chips.

5) If you have time, and for the very best results, it is recommended that you chill the batter for 10 – 15 minutes before putting the cookies in the oven (even if your butter was the perfect temperature!). {Since coconut oil is room temp, I did chill the cookie dough by putting the whole mixing bowl into our deep freezer for 5 minutes. I would've kept it there longer if I wasn't pressed for time.}

6) Put spoonfuls of batter on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 7 – 9 minutes. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack.
Enjoy!

  

Maple Carrot Muffins

 

Staying at home on a workday earlier this week because my little one was sick meant I had time to make a batch of Maple Carrot muffins to freeze for breakfast for the kids.  When my son was younger, he was really picky about eating vegetables.  I would scour the internet for recipe ideas to hide veggies inside things.  Pretty soon I came upon this one.  The original recipe called for white flour, white sugar, and vegetable oil, but I substituted it with wheat flour, mostly brown sugar (I like the flavor better), and applesauce to make it somewhat healthier. It was a hit for both my kids (5 and 2.5). They freeze well so it's easy to heat one up when you're on the go during the week.  Who doesn't want kids to eat more veggies?  This recipe makes about 18 regular sized muffins. Enjoy! 

2 C Whole wheat flour
scant 1 C brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 C applesauce
1/2 C maple syrup
3 C grated carrots (about 3 medium carrots)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl, combine first 6 ingredients. In another bowl, beat eggs, applesauce, and syrup. Stir into dry ingredients until just moistened. Fold in carrots. Fill cups 2/3 full.
 
2. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. 

A closer view of carrots inside