Berries and Carrots and Tomatoes, Oh my!

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Mo

Somewhere around the end of last month I made a decision.
We need alot more fruits and veggies in our diets. No more of this crackers for most snacks business (really bad, I know).
Well, when I decide to do something, especially for our health, I stick to it! So, now I (Justice doesn’t always participate and the hubby doesn’t always have room to store fruits and veggies at work but they’re both working on it) have at least one serving of fruits and/or veggies with each meal as well as having them for snacks. Justice knows that if she wants a snack she’s getting fruits or veggies except for a rare treat of (lower sugar) animal crackers or goldfish or something.
And let me tell you, I love it!!
My typical choices are things that are easy to chop and store.
Watermelon, strawberries, raspberries, black berries, pears, apples, grapes, kiwi, and clementine oranges.
For veggies I tend to stick to grape or cherry tomatoes, cauliflower, baby carrots, orange and yellow peppers, celery, and cucumbers.
One tip I have found that helps immensely is cutting everything up as soon as we get home from grocery shopping. I was doing it at each meal time but by the time I was done, the meal was almost over. So, yesterday after I got everything put away, I proceeded to wash and chop about 5 lbs. of fruit. The veggies get pieced today. Talk about easier and more efficient. Wooo!

So I just thought that I’d share this morning’s addition to breakfast.

Yummm!!!
(and Justice discovered she loved the rasp/black berries.

(sorry for the blur, it was a quick phone pic)

I hope that you all rethink your fruit and vegetable consumption (if it’s not already sufficient) and use this as inspiration on how you can better your diet. You’ll still get plenty of sweetness but packed with vitamins and antioxidants and fiber! Wooo!
I’m so loving it. And so is my body.

Tasty little treats that took no time at all…

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Mo

Well…I did it! I managed to come up with an absolutely delicious little no bake dessert treat all on my own. Oh….and did I mention……they’re Top 8 (allergen) Free?!?!?? Tee hee hee….
They are!!
Chocolate lovers….here you go!!

I recently accepted a fabulous opportunity to sample and review two of Enjoy Life Foods newest products, Double Chocolate Crunch Granola and Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mega Chunks. Yay!

2 bags of Yum!

Enjoy Life Foods is this wonderful company that I’m just thrilled about finding. All of their products are not only FREE of the top 8 allergens, they’re also gluten-free. And most of their products are free of Potatoes, Sesame, Sulfites, and Casein. AND…they’re Kosher-certified and Halal-certified. Jackpot baby!
I can’t even express to you how excited I am. I can serve these to ALL of my friends and family with no worries. And since they don’t have avocado…..I‘m safe too!!

Well, I must confess; I broke into the bag of granola pretty quick as it was the item I was most excited about trying. Chocolate Granola that is nut free? Yay!!
It was, as I hoped it would be, Dee–Lish–Us! Crunchy, chocolaty….pretty much fantastic! The next morning I decided to try a little with some milk for a sweet breakfast. It was a tad sweet for my breakfast taste, but tasty and stayed crunchy even while I walked away a few times which made me rather happy indeed. (I just hate it when cereal gets mushy!)
As much as I wanted to keep opening up that bag (which by the way, is resealable which I love) and dipping my hand in, I also wanted to find something, some recipe, some idea for which I could really use this stuff other than just devouring it ever so unoriginally. I must say…I was having a rather hard time coming up with anything other than granola bars. Now, I have a pretty yummy recipe for granola bars and I’m hoping that I have enough leftover to still make them, but I was really trying to come up with something else. And wouldn’t ya know it? I did. It’s certainly nothing fancy or spectacular but, I think they’re tasty nonetheless.
I present for you, my idea for Triple Chocolate Granola Clusters. And hey, I managed to use both products together! Woo hoo!
I used my mini-muffin pan and lined all 24 cups with my cute little mini-muffin cup liners and filled each one about 2/3 of the way with the Double Chocolate Crunch Granola. Next I melted a small handful of the Mega Chunks in a microwave safe bowl, checking it frequently to make sure they didn’t burn.
I know, I know. What precise measurements huh?! How very helpful of me to document specifically right?! My apologies to you. I had originally planned to only make 1 dozen, but the handful of chocolate that I melted the 1st go round was more than I needed so I continued on with a 2nd dozen. It was just an eyeball-it-kind of a trial for me.
At any rate, once the chocolate was melted, I dipped a large spoon in and drizzled it over the granola. Then I just placed the muffin pan in the fridge and let it harden.
Voila!

Teeny tasty treats

The Mega Chunks melted easily and taste just as great as Enjoy Life’s Mini Chips that I’ve used many times before. And of course, we don’t need to talk about the few chunks that I ever so discreetly, and of course completely inadvertently, tossed in my mouth during this process. That won’t be necessary at all….
I must say, I didn’t think there would be any difference between the chunks and the mini chips but the chunks blended quite easily during the melting process which was nice. They’d be great to use for making chunky chocolate cookies which I will definitely keep in mind as well.

I’m sure I’ll be making these again. Possibly for the holiday party for Evan’s class or maybe just to share at karate. Either way, I’m pretty positive they’ll be a hit and I’m ecstatic that they’re allergy friendly.

With that, I’ll leave you…mouth watering over these delectable little dessert type treats and all. Off you go now to check out where you can buy these two bags of yum, not to mention all their other goodies… Click here to see where you can go to bring these home.

Excited to be sharing some great stuff with you and hoping you try them out,

~~I was provided with the product contained in this post for purpose of review but all opinions are completely my own based on quality and not conditional or influenced.~~

Dreamy and delicious. Sunflower butter cups

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Mo

Oh heavenly nut-free indulgences!!!

I just made my homemade version of “Sun Cups” (nut free “Reese’s” like cups made with sunflower butter). Super easy, fast, and bake free deliciousness!!! Yeah baby!!!!

Thanks to the brilliance of a great nut-allergic friend, I decided to try these myself.
And yep….they were so worth it!

I gathered up my supplies…

Mini-muffin tin, microwave safe bowl, SunButter, and 2 each of the chocolate bars

~~I used Enjoy Life‘s allergy friendly chocolate bars for this recipe. They’re Top 8 free and yet somehow….still freakin delicious!! These are some of Dominic and I’s favorite chocolate. Not that I’m a connoisseur by any means, but I’ve had some pretty chocoholic friends so I’ve tried a few…
I also used SunButter brand sunflower butter. See my SunButter post here.~~

I broke up the 2 rice milk chocolate bars and put them in the bowl. I microwaved the chocolate for 30 seconds and checked it. I put it back in for another 30 seconds (you have to be careful not to burn it) and stirred it. Once I started stirring it, the few remaining pieces melted quickly and it was ready to add the SunButter.
Using a large spoon, I added 1 spoonful into the chocolate and mixed thoroughly. The heat from the chocolate melted and blended the SunButter nicely. I then spooned the mixture into the lined muffin tin. Filling each cup about 1/3 of the way, I was able to make a dozen in each chocolate flavor.

About 1/2 way thru the milk chocolate

The whole process for both flavors took a grand total of about 20 minutes. I put the muffin pan in the fridge for them to set and awaited the 1st taste by Dominic when he got home.

24 cups ready to be refrigerated and devoured

They were a great success! Dominic loves both flavors and I have to say….they’re pretty tasty! Not too sunflower butter-y but just enough to be quite flavorful.
I will definitely be making these again. (And again, and again)
They’re easy and and not a horribly unhealthy indulgence especially in such a cute little package!
I hope you try these and enjoy immensely!

Oh–and I also made Andes mint chocolate cups as well with their brand baking chips. Oooooooh sooooo fabulous indeed!

*~This is in no way a compensated or paid post. All opinions are my own and provided for the simple joy of sharing~*

Brown Sugar Spice Cake…Yummy from the crock-pot!

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Mo

Well, it may or may not have escaped your attention, but I’m not a big baker.

(clip art courtesy of clipsahoy.com)

Pretty much not even occasionally. Rarely is probably the appropriate term. And yet, I love baked goods. I would love to have my house smell of something lovely baking in the oven. For some reason, it just seems to be one of those things that, whether actuality or not, I’m convinced it just takes so long to prep and so I can’t bring myself to do it. (And, with Justice’s allergy to ALL nuts, I can’t buy most ready-to-bake items.) So….that means we do without. Which, nutrition wise, is perfectly fine and dandy! Plus, since my kids aren’t allowed to eat cookies or cake on any kind of regular basis, it’s not all that big an issue.
But still….it would be nice to have those delicious smells permeating our little apartment and being able to have some nice homemade treat every once in a while…

(clip art courtesy of clipartheaven.com)

Well…I managed to find a recipe that got me just those things! And I didn’t have to bake it!
(Not in the oven at least)

I present…..
Brown Sugar Spice Cake a la Slow Cooker! (found on recipe.com)
Yeah baby!

Ingredients
Vegetable cooking spray
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell’s® Condensed Tomato Soup (Regular or Healthy Request®)
1/2 cup water
2 eggs
1 box (about 18 ounces) spice cake mix
1 1/4 cups hot water
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
Serving Suggestion: Vanilla ice cream

Directions
1   Spray the inside of a 4-quart slow cooker with the cooking spray.
2   Combine the soup, water, eggs and cake mix in a medium bowl and mix according to the package directions. Pour the batter into the cooker.
3   Stir the water, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Pour over the batter.
4   Cover and cook on HIGH for 2 hours or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
5   Spoon the cake into bowls, spooning the sauce from the bottom of the cooker. Serve warm with the ice cream.

Just finished step 3

(So…I’m totally admitting it…I remembered to take a picture of the before, but completely forgot to take a picture of the finished product! Yep…Go me! Wooo!!!!
~sigh~
My apologies to you.)

This recipe had me very unsure. I mean……Tomato Soup in a cake mix??? Umm………no thank you! But I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. And whadya know?! We were all glad I did.
This made our little apartment smell yummy and the taste was quite nice too.
Dominic commented that it would be great in the morning with some tea or coffee (so much so apparently that he keeps calling it coffee cake LOL)
Both kiddos enjoyed their little tastes of it as well.

I hope that you give this one a shot (despite the tomato soup weirdness). Easy to make dessert (or breakfast as the case may be) and you don’t have to have the oven on heating up the house! Yay!

Enjoy!

Success on Sunday!

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Mo

Happy Monday!!!
I hope you had an excellent weekend! Ours was pretty uneventful but somewhat productive and completely enjoyable. ALWAYS a great combination.

So this weekend I finally got to a recipe that I’ve been wanting and meaning to get to for about 2 weeks. Zucchini Brownies courtesy http://www.about.com/. This is an egg free recipe which is great as I am trying to limit Justice’s exposure to eggs. It’s also got 3 cups of zucchini stashed in it! Brownies made healthiER. Now before you get too taken aback by the ‘zucchini in brownies?!?!’ part, let me assure you…You’d never know!!! With the exception of the consistency not being quite brownie-like, (as the recipe says it’s more muffin like than brownie), they’re pure brownie! Now this recipe is designed for veggie picky toddlers that are used to sweet treats but it’s absolutely perfect for anyone in the family. I had a very skeptical adult declare that he thought they were delicious. Evan hasn’t tried them yet, but he had a small taste of the batter and became an immediate fan. I personally, not being a chocoholic, could have had several helpings last night!

These brownies turn out moist and delicious with the consistency somewhere between brownie and muffin. They make a delicious treat, breakfast or snack and have 3 cups of zucchini hidden inside. Your toddler will never know! This recipe is also great for vegans (choose ingredients like sugar wisely of course), families with egg allergies or those who haven’t introduced eggs to their children yet.
Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 30 min
Total Time: 40 min
Ingredients:
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups shredded zucchini (about 4 small – peel first)
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan. (I used 10×15)
Using a large bowl with plenty of space for all ingredients, thoroughly mix the oil, sugar and vanilla.
Now cream in the cocoa.
In a separate, smaller bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt and then stir that into the sugar and oil mixture.
Fold in the zucchini and do not be afraid. Depending on the moisture level of your zucchini, this turns out looking somewhere between chunky hot cocoa mix powder and stringy brown paste. It’s ugly. That’s OK. The zucchini releases a lot of moisture as it cooks.
Spread it in the prepared pan evenly and bake it for about 30 minutes or until it just springs back when touched in the center. (Don’t use the toothpick test on this because if it comes out clean, they’re probably overcooked.)

These were a great success and I will be making these more often. A nice treat for everyone with the bonus of a healthy addition. I may use a baking sugar sub next time. I’ve never baked with substitute before, so if you have any tips, I’d LOVE to have them.

Can’t wait for the feedback
Enjoy-
Mo