No Bake Oatmeal Cookie Bites

These little cookie bites are a great way to get your sugar fix while still sticking to healthy ingredients. It's also a great recipe for kids to help with.

2 cups oats

1 cup unsweetened coconut

1 cup natural peanut butter

1/2 cup flax seed

3/4 to 1 cup honey (if they don't stick well add more honey or maple syrup)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup raisins (or chocolate chips if you really want to go sweet)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Mix all ingredients together using stand mixer (it's really tough to mix natural peanut butter by hand!) and roll into bite-sized balls. Store in airtight container (if they last that long).

Brown Rice Crispy Treats (healthy!)

I was looking for a great snack that could also double as dessert and still fit into my Real Food goal. This was the perfect snack. I love it, my boys love it, it's awesome. I got this recipe from Happy Healthy Mama and modified it just a tad.

Brown Rice Crispy Treats

1 cup natural peanut butter

1/2 cup honey *see note

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 cups puffed whole grain (I used 2 cups puffed brown rice and 2 cups puffed millet)

In a large bowl mix together peanut butter, honey, vanilla and cinnamon. Stir in the puffed grain. Wet hands or use a bit of oil to prevent sticking, and either roll into balls or press firmly into an 8x8 cake pan and slice into bars.

*Note: I only used half the honey the original recipe calls for. They still taste fabulous and are really sweet, I think twice as much honey would be too sweet for my taste. It would help them stick together better though, so if you have a hard time getting them to stick, try adding a bit more honey or just put a little coconut oil on your hands.

Whole Grain Waffles

These are my favorite waffles (since I won't be indluging in these baby's very often anymore). This recipe makes 4-5 belgian size waffles. We love to eat them with fresh fruit and cream, jam or maple syrup. And if we've run out of bread (and I'm too lazy to make any) we can just whip up a batch and have waffle sandwiches for lunch.

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup oats (quick or old fashioned rolled oats)

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups milk

1 egg

1 tablespoon coconut oil or butter

Mix together dry ingredients, then add honey, egg, oil and milk. Mix well and pour into greased preheated waffle iron.

Quinoa: Breakfast of Champions

This is truly the breakfast of champions. Serious cancer-preventing breakfast. Quinoa, blueberries, kiwi and strawberries, all disease preventing superfoods.

Simply cook some quinoa (I use the rice cooker function of the Fagor 3 in 1 multicooker- takes 6 minutes)   use a 2:1 ratio- 2 cups water to 1 cup of quinoa. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes until liquid is absorbed and looks like the picture below.

Stir in a bit of honey and cinnamon, top with your favorite fruit and nuts and a little milk. YUM.

*I've discovered that bananas are THE perfect fruit to go along with quinoa, the flavors blend together amazingly well, especially with a bunch of cinnamon.

Fruit bars/balls (aka larabars)

This is one of my favorite healthy snacks and my boys love them too. They are really easy to make if you have a food processor and the combinations are endless. I think the best website for different variations is the Enlightened Cooking blog.  

For the more traditional larabar style (shown above) you'll need to start with some dates. My first batch I used the Costco size dehydrated dates. Unfortunately those won't stick together unless you add something super sticky (like a lot of peanut butter). I got smarter though and got whole dates (seedless would have been easier, but they still worked!)

I simply use a 50/50 combination of fruit to nuts. I don't even really measure, just throw in my fruit and nuts at the same time and mix them all up until they're tiny.

Date bars (aka Larabars)

50% fruit, I used whole dates, golden raisins and unsweetened coconut

50% nuts, I used walnuts

Put desired fruits and nuts into food processor and blend to fine pieces that stick together. Line an 8x8 baking dish with plastic wrap or parchment paper and pour mixture in. Press mixture firmly into bottom of pan and refrigerate or freeze 1 hour. Slice into bars and serve. I like to store mine in the refrigerator because it helps to retain the shape.

Apricot balls

50% fruit, I used dehydrated apricots, golden raisins and unsweetened coconut

50% nuts, I used walnuts

Put desired fruits and nuts into food processor and blend to fine pieces that stick together. Dried fruit will not stick together well unless you add something like peanut butter or honey which changes the flavor, instead I roll into balls and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Grandma Vance's Fudge

When I was younger, one of the things I looked forward to most at Christmastime was my Grandma's fudge. It was heavenly, melt-in-your-mouth fudge. It is the fudge recipe I now make for my family at Christmas, and although it never tastes quite as good when Grandma made it, it is pretty amazing (and pretty simple!)

Grandma's Vance's Fudge

4 cups sugar
2 12oz. packages of chocolate chips, one semi-sweet, one milk chocolate (you can use two semi-sweet's but do NOT use two milk chocolates!)
2 cubes of butter sliced in pieces
1 12oz. can evaporated milk
1 15oz. jar marshmallow fluff/creme
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts

Prepare a 9x13 pan by lining with parchment paper. You can also grease the pan really well, but parchment paper makes it much easier to lift out and slice.

Combine milk and sugar in a large pot (the milk froths up and will boil over if you don't use a large enough pot). Stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Boil for 7-8 minutes.

In a large bowl add chocolate chips, butter, marshmallow creme, nuts & vanilla. Pour hot mixture over ingredients in bowl and mix well.

Pour into parchment lined 9x13” pan and let sit for 3 days at room temperature, then chill in fridge until firm. Slice into squares.

*I rarely have the patience to let the fudge sit for three days. It does taste better when I am patient, but I usually just put it in the fridge overnight, then it's ready to slice and eat.

Pumpkin Bars!

Pumpkin Bars
2 cups flour (I use one cup whole wheat flour)
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 cup oil (I use 1 cube (cup) melted butter and 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
16 oz. (2 cups) pumpkin (I prefer fresh pumpkin or butternut squash)
4 eggs
1/3 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Cream Cheese Frosting:
8oz cream cheese, softened
5 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
lemon juice (I like to juice a whole lemon)
milk to thin (1 to 2 Tablespoons)

Mix all ingredients, pour into 13x9x2 greased pan. Bake 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes. Cool completely.
*For tips on cooking fresh pumpkin or butternut squash see this post.
*This makes a very thick pumpkin bar which is perfect for feeding a crowd (I half the recipe if I'm not sharing).

Prepare cream cheese icing by whipping softened cream cheese with butter and vanilla until smooth. Mix in powdered sugar until smooth. Add lemon juice to taste. Stir in milk to thin frosting to spreading consistency. Frost bars and serve!