Category Archives: Food

06/9/13
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{healthy} chocolate oat cookies

We are officially camping, right now.  Whoa, how are you reading this?!?!  Okay, I planned a couples posts to go live while I was gone.  Today’s yummy treat had to be shared today, as it’s Secret Recipe Club reveal day!

What does that mean?  It means I went snooping around my secret assigned blog – The Tasty Cheapskate – for something delicious to make.  I headed straight to Jeanie’s healthy cookie section and spotted a recipe for chocolate oat breakfast cookies.  Yes, please!  Jacob planned to take a big box of Safeway chocolate chip cookies (yup, these same ones) along with us camping, and I know once I start eating them I just can’t stop.  I lack so much self control sometimes.  Instead of chowing down on them and waking up with an upset stomach I decided to make and bring my own cookies! Healthy Heather style though. :)

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What makes them a healthier cookie?  In the entire batch, which made 12 cookies, there was only 5 tbsp of sugar.  It’s made with whole wheat flour, tons of coconut oil, oatmeal, pecans and of course dark chocolate chips.

They have a nice texture with the rolled oats, crunchy pecans and little chunks of chocolate.  The only downfall was how crumbly they turned out.  I think when I made them again, I’d add an egg into them as a binder.  One thing I tried was putting them in the fridge, which did make them firm (cold coconut oil is solid), but hard too.  They reminded me of frozen cookies almost.

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Chocolate Oat Cookies

Makes 12 cookies

Adapted from here

  • Ingredients
  • 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
  • 5 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 3 tbsp natural cane sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate chips (optional, but highly recommended!)
  • 1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional, but highly recommended!)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In large bowl mix whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.  In a different bowl, whisk melted coconut oil and sugars together. Add in the vanilla.
  3. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix. Stir in oats, then add chopped chocolate and pecans.
  4. Take a spoon and drop mounts onto an ungreased baking sheet.  Bake for 7-9 minutes.

Jeanie shared tons of variations and changes that you can make to the recipe.  Using coconut oil instead of butter was one of them, and since I have a massive jar of coconut oil, I figure I better use it!  You can’t really taste the coconut oil.  But if you like coconut, I would definitely try these with shredded coconut added into them as well.

Do they taste healthy?  Nope.  They taste pretty wonderful. Kind of sweet and salty.  It’s hard to stop at one!

Of course, we’ll be making s’mores in front of our camp fire.  Marshmallows aren’t my favorite thing, so I like to use a banana chunk instead.  You heat it up just like you would with marshmallows and sandwich it between chocolate and graham crackers.  Such a yummy treat!

Do you have a favorite healthier cookie recipe?  Hope your week is starting out well!

Heather


06/4/13
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baby’s first smash cake {healthy no sugar banana cake}

Well hi!  I feel like I’ve been away from my little bloggie for a while now.  The weekend went by in a zoom at BodyCombat training.  Whoa.  Remember when I went through BodyPump training?  That seemed like nothing compared to this.

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Thankfully, I PASSED my initial training, which means now I need to work on learning the entire release, start teaching and film my video assessment within 2 months.  This is just the beginning…. :)

Over the next few weeks I’ll be popping in here and there.  We have a camping vacation coming up, a big farewell party for my brother who’s going oversees with the air force and lots of stuff to catch up on around the house.  It seems like when something’s gotta give, it’s the blog that does.  Oh well!  Onto today’s yummy topic.

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For Hunter’s 1st birthday party I knew I wanted to make his cake with no sugar.  I try to limit the amount of sugar he eats and I want to limit the super sweet things as long as I can.  Like until he’s 20. ;)   For inspiration I did what I normally do – go to google!

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I came across this recipe on Our Haven Hill, which you could totally make with no changes.  However, I really liked my enhancements to it.  For Hunter’s cake I baked about half the batter in 4 mini tart pans.  The extra batter turned into cupcakes for the party.  The 4 mini tart pans made the perfect size baby cake.  If you have them, I highly recommend it!  If you don’t have the mini tart pans, just use an 8″ or 9″ cake pan like the original recipe calls for.

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This cake doesn’t have to be just for birthdays, it really is an every day yummy banana snack cake!

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Healthy No Sugar Banana Cake  {AKA Baby’s First Smash Cake}

adapted from here

Ingredients

  • 4 or 5 ripe bananas
  • 1/2 cup natural no sugar added applesauce
  • 3 tbsp coconut oil (melted)
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
  • 3/4 cup oat flour (grind rolled oats in blender, then measure)
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

  1. Mash the bananas in a medium bowl.
  2. In a separate large bowl, mix the flours, baking soda, and cinnamon together.
  3. Add the mashed bananas, applesauce, coconut oil, and vanilla to the flour mixture. Mix just until incorporated.
  4. Coat your 4 mini tart pans + 6-8 muffin pans (or 2 8 or 9″round pans) with oil.
  5. Spread the batter into the bottom of the pans.
  6. Bake at 375° for 15-20 minutes.  Check with a toothpick for doneness.
  7. Cool the cakes before frosting.  If you used the 8″ or 9″ pan, then use an overturned smaller bowl to cut out small cake rounds.

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Healthy No Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

recipe from here

This made enough frosting for the cake + 8 cupcakes I made.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (8 ounces) cream cheese
  • 1/2 cup (4 ounces) no sugar added apple juice concentrate
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

  1. Soften the cream cheese.
  2. Whisk the cream cheese with the apple juice concentrate and vanilla extract until creamy.

For Hunter’s cake I stacked all 4 layers with a layer of frosting in between them, then covered the entire cake in frosting.  For his ‘ONE’ on top of the cake, I used blueberries!

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The frosting was actually pretty delicious.  The whole cake was really.  It’s hard to believe there was no added sugar in the cake or frosting.  Apple juice concentrate worked so well at sweetening it up!

I’ve made the banana cake (without the frosting) a couple times now just to have around as a snack cake.  It’s very much mommy approved. :)

Soooooo Make it Monday didn’t happen yesterday (I was away all weekend so I made nothing!).  The next Make it Monday will be on June 24 (I tell ya, busy times ahead), which gives us all a few weeks to prepare for it.

That’s all for today!  I hope you are all doing well.

Tell me what you’ve been up to, something fun you’re planning for this month or if you have a favorite naturally sweetened cake recipe. 

Also, I’d love ideas of what your kids have made for Father’s Day presents.  If they’re young like Hunter, what did you ‘help’ them make?

Heather

05/14/13
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crockpot berry cobbler

One of my favorite things to watch is Hunter play and interact with his daddy.  He sure loves him.  One more recent thing that just makes my heart smile is seeing this.

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Jacob will sit down on the ground with a book, and Hunter walks on over and sits down right next to him or on his lap.  He’s snuggled up close soaking in the book, and just being super sweet with his daddy.

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Love these two.

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When Jacob gets home from work, he tries to get as much play time in with Hunter.  This usually frees me up to get dinner started or just have some Heather time.  But on those days I plan ahead and start dinner in the crockpot I don’t have to be in the kitchen, I can sit on the couch right next to them and just watch.

While today’s recipe isn’t a crockpot dinner recipe, it is made in the crockpot, but for an after dinner treat of berry cobbler!

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I’m not going to lie, pictures of the cobbler cooking in the crockpot are not flattering to this dish.  I’ll show you.  Once it is done:

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Once you have taken most of the cobbler out:

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Good thing I’m basing this recipe on taste, not looks!  It was delicious, especially serves over nice cold vanilla ice cream.

I got to thinking about why you would use a crockpot for this recipe.  The prep time takes just as long as oven made cobbler and it takes longer to cook.  Well, it was a hot day when I made it, and not having to turn the oven on was glorious.  Summertime dessert making in the crockpot is the way to go.

Crockpot Berry Cobbler

adapted from here

Ingredients

  • 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
  • 2 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup natural cane sugar, divided
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 2 tbsp canola oil
  • 1/8 tsp sea salt
  • 2.5 cups fresh or frozen raspberries, thawed (or any berry)
  • 1.5 cups fresh or frozen blackberries, thawed (or any berry
  • Vanilla ice cream, optional

Directions

  • In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, baking powder and cinnamon. Combine the egg, milk and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened (batter will be thick). Spread batter evenly into a 5-qt. slow cooker coated with oil.
  • In a large bowl, combine the salt and remaining flour and sugar; add berries and toss to coat. Spread over batter.
  • Cover and cook on high for 2 to 2-1/2 hours or until a toothpick inserted into cobbler comes out clean. Serve with ice cream if desired.

I may have skipped ahead in my 50 crockpot recipe list to share, but I’ll get back on track with the next one!  This one was pretty tasty and I just had to share. :)

Have you ever cooked dessert in a crockpot?  If so, what did you make?   Do you love watching a dad with his kiddo?

workoutwednesdayTomorrow I’m sharing PLANK workouts.  If you have one you want me to include, please email it to me (heather.englund@comcast.net) along with the link for where to find it.  Thanks!

Heather