Sweet and Salty Snack Bars

I love Kind fruit and nut bars, but I'm not a fan of the ingredient list. Of course, I had to find a way to make my own. I've played with this a few times, but could not quite get them to stick together the way they should. This time I increased the "sticky" stuff, and I believe I have something that works! These things taste great, have minimal ingredients, and you can keep them in the freezer for a quick snack whenever you need it! ~ C

1.5 cups raw cashews and raw almonds (You can sub any nut in here that you like, or increase the seeds for a nut free version.)

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup raisins (or craisins, dried blueberries, etc)

1/2 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tablespoon ground flax

1 tbsp chia seeds

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 plus two tbsp maple syrup

1.5 tbsp almond butter

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper (Don't skip out on the parchment paper. Trust me.)

Mix the maple syrup and almond butter together until they are well mixed. 

Put all other ingredients in a bowl and toss until mixed. Add in the syrup mixture, and make sure everything is well coated, and that the flax, chia seeds and salt get mixed in throughout. 

Pour into the pan, and bake for 15 minutes.

Allow to cool completely and place in fridge for about two hours before trying to cut. 

Cut into bars, and wrap individually in saran wrap, to make it easy. Store in fridge for a week, or put in a ziploc bag, in the freezer, to grab and go! 

Sunbutter Banana Chocolate chip muffins

My boys are creatures of habit. They want some type of chocolate chip muffin every.single.morning for breakfast. Their eczema is flaring, so I'm trying to cut out all wheat and dairy again to see if it improves. Since I have a ton of coconut flour in the pantry, I experimented a little to come up with a filling muffin that still has their coveted (demanded) chocolate chips in it. These turned out great, and are going into our on hand freezer rotation! (Did you know that you can freeze any of our muffin recipes, and just thaw or microwave for 30 seconds? Makes preparing lots of muffins at a time well worth it!) ~ C

Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
3 bananas

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup Sunbutter* (or any nut seed butter)

1/8 cup applesauce

2 eggs
Dry Ingredients

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp sea salt
Add Ins

1/2 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tins with coconut oil.

• Preheat over to 350 degrees. Grease your muffin tin with coconut oil or use liners. 
• Mix all wet ingredients together in your mixer. Make sure the banana gets good and mashed up in the mixing process. 
• While your wet ingredients are in the mixer, put all your dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and mix together with a fork or spoon.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the mixer. Mix until well blended. 
• Add the "add ins" and mix by hand, or on the mixers lowest setting.
• Pour into muffin pan and cook for 25 to 30 minutes. Muffins are done when toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. 

*Note: Sunbutter may take on a greenish hue in the baking process. Do NOT be alarmed. In fact, your kids may think it's pretty cool. If you want to teach your kids a science lesson, check out this science fair winner on the Sunbutter website!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies - Made with RawMio Almond Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Spread

Anyone else out there a fan of all of the different varieties of nut and cookie butters? My personal favorite before switching to a more whole food based diet was speculoos cookie butter from Trader Joe's, so when RawMio offered to send me a jar of their Almond Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough spread I was so excited. My family and I have tried it a few different ways now, including straight off a spoon (because who can resist?!), on toast, and in the cookie recipe I'm sharing today.

This spread is seriously yummy and loaded with all kinds of super foods. I personally like it best when it's in a warmer form since it takes off a little of the edge from the raw almonds and takes on a little more of the dry-roasted almond flavor I love. In order to really highlight the cookie dough flavor of the spread I added cocoa powder to the cookies; the cocoa powder majorly enhances the flavor of the cacao in the spread.

The finished product!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

Virgin coconut oil, softened 

2 tbsp raw honey (use maple syrup for vegan version)
½ cup RawMio Almond Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough spread
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 egg (use flax egg for vegan version - how to make a flax egg)
1 tsp vanilla
¾ cup white whole wheat flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup oats

Instructions

1.   Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease cookie sheet or use Silpat to line cookie sheet.

2.   Add the coconut oil and honey to a large mixing bowl, and cream using an electric mixer. Next, add cookie dough spread, cocoa powder, egg, and vanilla to mixture; mix until combined.

3.   In a medium mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, and baking powder together; add salt. Stir to combine. Add the oats to the other dry ingredients, mix until combined.

4.   Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stirring to combine as you add the dry mixture.

5.   Using a cookie scoop, form tablespoon-sized balls and place the balls on the prepared cookie sheet about 2” apart. Use a fork to flatten the cookies slightly and form a cross-hatch pattern.  

6.   Bake for 9 minutes on the middle rack of preheated oven. Remove from oven and let cool on the cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before enjoying. 

Stay tuned for more recipes using RawMio products.... If you would like to check out more of their products you can head over to their website http://rawmio.com/. 

Note: All featured products were provided free of charge, but the opinions are solely my own. 

Easy Raw Almond Butter

Do you know how much raw almond butter costs? Seriously, that stuff is pricey! Last time I looked at whole foods it was $17 for a 16 oz jar. Say what!? I was so excited to see they had it, but my excitement quickly diminished when I saw the price tag! So, my $5.99 bag of raw almonds from Trader Joe's is getting some good use. I have made this about 5 or 6 times now, and finally learned the secret to making it a little quicker, and with my Ninja food processor.

All you need is a decent food processor, raw almonds, a little coconut oil or additions you want (salt, honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, etc).

 I'm sure you can use this same process with any nut, and get the same result, but so far I have only tried almonds.

Ingredients:
16 oz raw almonds

1 tsp salt (more or less to taste, or you can omit)

Optional mix ins (Coconut oil, chocolate)

1) Put your almonds in the food processor and start it up. (Warning, it is going to be loud when you first start it up, but once they break up a little it won't be so bad. I have to warn my kids ahead of time though, so they can cover their ears!!)
2)My Ninja processor is the pulse one, so I let it run for about 30 seconds, then stop to see if I need to stir it up since they seem to stick the the edge the more it processes. I do this on and off for about 6-7 minutes.
3) Once it starts sticking together a little, you want to add any add ins, like salt, coconut oil, chocolate, etc. (see picture below of how it looks when it's starting to stick.)

4) blend again until it is mixed in well, and you have a nice nut butter consistency. The longer you blend it, the creamier it will be. I like it with a little bit of a gritty texture.
5) You're done! See how easy that was?!

I store it in my fridge, and scoop out what I need. It will harden a little when cold, but 30 seconds in the microwave is all you need to soften it back up! This lasts about a week or two, and then it's gone. I love it for my morning and afternoon snack with apple slices! Best stuff ever!