Tag: dairy free

Healthy Toddler Crackers

Melissa King 53 Comments

My kids love animal crackers.   Problem is, I have never been able to find a store bought brand with a super clean ingredient list.  Sure you can buy GMO free animal crackers at Trader Joes and Whole Foods, but even their brands have too much sugar for me.  So when Wholesome Sweeteners sent me a sample of all their products, I decided to use their coconut palm sugar in this recipe.

toddler-crackers-3-watermark-998x1024 blur

Ideally, I would have liked to make these in animal shapes, but I didn’t have an animal cookie stamp.  I found this one on Amazon and ordered it, so I will make these again once it comes in the mail.  For now, these are just cut into tiny squares.  Since these cookies are for toddlers, I made them only mildly sweet.  My daughter loved them and I hope your kids do as well.

Healthy Toddler Crackers

Healthy Toddler Crackers

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Prep Time 20 min Cook Time 30 min

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup spelt flour (for a GF option, try using GF all purpose)
  • 1/3 cup Wholesome Sweeteners coconut sugar
  • 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil
  • 2 flax eggs (I used a flax egg replacer)
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp ground vanilla bean or vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup milk (I used oat milk)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350. 
  2. In a food processor, grind up the oats into a coarse crumb-like texture. 
  3. Add them to a bowl with the rest of the dry ingredients. 
  4. Add all the wet ingredients into another bowl. 
  5. Add dry to wet and mix only until combined. 
  6. Gather the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic.  It may be a bit sticky. 
  7. Stick dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up a bit. 
  8. While the dough is firming, cut two sheets of parchment paper the size of your baking sheets . 
  9. Using a bench scraper, cut the dough in half. 
  10. Lay the parchment paper down on the counter.
  11. Place the plastic wrap you had the dough wrapped in between the rolling pin and the dough.  By doing this, you will be able to roll the dough out very flat and it will not stick to the counter or the rolling pin.  It will also make for easy transport to the baking sheets . 
  12. Roll the dough as flat as it can get and transfer to the baking sheet. 
  13. Repeat the same steps with the second half of the dough. 
  14. Before you place the dough into the oven, score it for easy cutting once it’s baked.  I used a pizza cutter to make squares. 
  15. Bake for about 15 minutes. 
  16. Remove the pans and very carefully, flip the pieces over.  If you have scored the dough beforehand, they should easy break into little pieces. 
  17. Put back in the oven for another 15 minutes, carefully watching them to make sure they don’t burn.

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Recipe Notes

If you have really young children, you may want to bake them a little less so they can easily be chewed. I filled a large mason jar with the crackers I made. Enjoy!

Dairy Free Spinach Pesto Recipe

Melissa King 30 Comments

You need to try this Dairy Free Spinach Pesto!  Who doesn’t like pesto?  I actually prefer it over a tomato sauce any day.  We have basil growing in our backyard, so I thought I would use some of it to create a pesto sauce.

I could seriously sit there and smell it all day!  Seriously, if you don’t have basil growing in your house or yard, you need to get some.

Basil grows like a weed!  You can save so much money by growing your own herbs, and basil is no exception.

Plus, you can freeze them and have herbs all year round.  This dairy free spinach pesto recipe makes more of a paste than a sauce, so if you want to turn it into a sauce, you need to add a bit more oil and/or some water.

 

dairy free spinach pesto

I love using this recipe for making pizza.  It’s great with a cherry tomatoes as well.  If you are not familiar with nutritional yeast,  it comes in flake form and gives a nutty and cheesy taste.

It is often used in place of cheese.  Nutritional yeast is a great source of protein, fiber and B vitamins.

You can find it at most health stores.  I used almonds when making this pesto, since pine nuts are so expensive.  Almonds make a great substitute.

You can also make this healthy pesto recipe with kale if you like.  Works just as well.

Dairy Free Spinach Pesto

Dairy Free Spinach Pesto

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Prep Time 10 min Serves 1.5 cups     adjust servings

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Throw everything in the food processor and mix until combined. Since my food processor’s lid broke and I am waiting for a new one to arrive, I had to use my Vitamix for this. I can tell you it was a bit harder in the Vitamix than the food processor.

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Recipe Notes

This recipe made about 1 1/2 cups and should last a couple weeks in the fridge. You can also freeze it for longer storage. Enjoy!

Homemade Nutri-Grain Bars

Melissa King 217 Comments

Who doesn’t like a Nutri-Grain bar? I made you Homemade Nutri-Grain Bars!  I used to eat them like crazy until I liked at all the ingredients in them.  If you read it as well, you probably know that they are laden with way too many chemicals and artificial dyes.

So naturally I had to create my own homemade nutri-grain bars.  My homemade nutrigrain bars tastes so much better and it’s made from wholesome ingredients.

Homemade Nutri-Grain Bars

Sadly, it took me two tries.

I did some tweaking the second time around and they still didn’t look that pretty, but I thought, what the heck, I will post them!  The second time I learned from my mistakes so hopefully, these will be easy for you to make.

I filled them with pureed dates and also with a fruit spread. I personally liked the dates better as a filling, but use what ever you like.  I know many people have said they filled them with homemade Nutella.  I bet that is amazing too! I’m not sure I trust myself with something like that haha.

Homemade Nutri-Grain Bars

Homemade Nutri-Grain Bars

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Prep Time 30 min Cook Time 13 min

Ingredients

    For the bars

    For the filling

    • Your favorite fruit spread or 12 medjool dates blended up into a caramel with a bit of water

    Instructions

    1. Preheat oven to 350.
    2. In a food processor, grind up the almonds and oats. Measure them before grinding. 
    3. Once they are ground into a slightly course consistency, add them to a bowl with the rest of the dry ingredients. 
    4. In another bowl, add the wet ingredients. 
    5. Add dry to wet and mix just until combined. 
    6. Gather the dough into a ball.  It will be a bit sticky. 
    7. Wrap it in plastic and place in the fridge for about 30-60 minutes to firm up. 
    8. Once firm, cut a piece of parchment paper the size of a baking sheet, and lay it on the counter.
    9. Cut the dough ball in half.  I used a bench scraper to cut mine. 
    10. Take one piece and roll it out onto the parchment, putting some plastic wrap between the rolling pin and dough. 
    11. Roll it until it is about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. 
    12. Spread jam onto the top. 
    13. Roll the second ball of dough the same way onto another piece of parchment. Place that onto the dough with the jam. I made sure all the sides were sealed up. Then slice into squares with a pizza cutter. Bake for about 13 minutes. These should last a week or two. You can freeze them as well.  Remember to save your parchment paper.  You can re-use the same piece over and over again.  Enjoy!

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    Clean Eating Peanut Butter Cups (Vegan)

    Melissa King 110 Comments

    Clean Eating Peanut Butter Cups.  Let’s face it.  We all need a little something sweet every once and a while.  Who says you need to give up peanut butter cups?  While I will never eat Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups again, I will have a homemade peanut butter cup every now and then!

     

    clean eating peanut butter cups

     

    I made these with homemade peanut butter and also almond butter.  Both worked out well, but I think I liked the peanut butter cups better.  Most homemade peanut butter cup recipes call for powdered sugar.  This does not.  I just dropped some freshly made peanut butter in the middle of these.

    So much better that way and also much less sugar too!  The chips I used are from Enjoy Life.  You can also make your own chocolate with 1 cup coconut oil, 1/2 cup cacao powder and a few tablespoons of liquid sweetener.  Or you could melt a couple of bars of dark chocolate with a bit of milk.  Any way works.

    The Enjoy Life chips have a pretty clean ingredient list and are gluten free as well.  They do contain a bit of processed sugar which is why I gave some other options.  I have tried the chips and the coconut oil chocolate.

    I chopped one of these homemade peanut butter cups and ate it in my 5 Minute Banana Ice Cream.  OMG!  Best.Thing.Ever.  A healthier dessert option.

    If you don’t want to use chocolate chips, you can use my 3 ingredient chocolate recipe in this video.

    Looking for more candy recipes?

     

    Clean Eating Peanut Butter Cups

    Clean Eating Peanut Butter Cups

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    Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 20 min Serves 12     adjust servings

    It's a healthier version of a Reece's Cup.

    Ingredients

    • 1 bag chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life gluten free and soy free chips)
    • 3/4 cup almond milk
    • Roughly 3/4 cup peanut butter or almond butter

    Instructions

    1. Get out a couple of muffin tins and line them with paper or silicone cups. . I used standard sized muffin pans, but the mini cups would work well too.
    2. Using a double boiler, melt the chips and milk in a glass bowl, stirring constantly to get the lumps out. It makes a great arm workout.
    3. Once the chocolate and milk have combined and are smooth, pour a little bit of chocolate in the bottom of each muffin cup.
    4. Place them in the freezer for about 20 minutes to set.
    5. When they are hard, pull them out and put a dollop on nut butter on top of each one.
    6. Fill the remaining cup with chocolate.
    7. Repeat until all the cups are filled.
    8. Place back in the freezer.

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    Recipe Notes

    I would give them a few hours to set. Actually, I store mine in the freezer as well. I think they would get too soft in the fridge. That’s it!

    Strawberry Ice Cream

    Melissa King 97 Comments

    Hooray!  Warm weather is here.  At least, in Texas it is.  So it’s time to start breaking out the ice cream maker.  I already have a Cookie Dough Ice Cream and a 5 Minute Banana Ice Cream on the blog.  Now it’s time to add another: Strawberry Ice Cream. Who doesn’t like strawberry ice cream? I know I love all things ice cream, especially strawberry ice cream.

    ice cream watermark

    I use canned coconut milk as a base for all my ice cream recipes for a few reasons.  It has that rich taste and mouth feel of real ice cream and it is dairy free.  I have tried using just nut milk, but it never comes out as creamy.  Since this is so rich tasting, a little bit will satisfy you.  You can use either fresh or frozen strawberries for this.  We used fresh organic strawberries since they were on sale the other day at Whole Foods.  They were so sweet and yummy!  Most store bought ice creams contain carrageenan and other unwanted additives.  The organic stuff is always so expensive.  The ice cream maker is pretty affordable and you make your money back pretty quick.  Plus, you can create your own flavors! 🙂

    Strawberry Ice Cream

    Strawberry Ice Cream

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    Prep Time 10 min Serves 4 - 6 servings     adjust servings

    Ingredients

    Instructions

    1. Mix the coconut milk, vanilla bean and the sweetener in a bowl.
    2. Pour the contents in the ice cream maker. I used my Cuisinart.
    3. When the ice cream starts looking like it is coming together (after about 15 minutes), add the strawberries.
    4. The ice cream will be more of a soft serve consistency. If you like harder ice cream, you can stick it in the freezer for another 1 1/2 hours. That’s it. Enjoy!

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    Save Money By Making Your Own Hummus

    Melissa King 125 Comments

    You can Save Money By Making Your Own Hummus!!  Hummus is probably one of the easiest things you can make yourself.  It takes only minutes to make.

     

    save money making your own hummus

     

    Most store bought versions contain unwanted additives as well as GMOs.  If you look at the ingredients in Sabra’s Classic Hummus, they are as follows:

    Cooked Chickpeas (Chickpeas [Garbanzos], Water), Tahini (Ground Sesame), Soybean Oil, Garlic, Salt, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate Added to Maintain Freshness, Natural Flavors. Classic Hummus

    Why is there soybean oil in hummus?  Traditionally, it’s made with olive oil….and you certainly would not use natural flavors if you made it in your own kitchen.  According to Wikipedia, Sabra is partly own by Pepsi.  You know the soda people?  They spent a lot of money lobbying against GMO labeling.

     

    If you didn’t know, my mother in law is Turkish and this is her hummus recipe.  It is really good!  I have not tried freezing it, but I am sure you probably could.  For more videos, you can subscribe to my You Tube Channel.

     

    Save Money By Making Your Own Hummus

    Homemade Hummus

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    Ingredients

    • 2 cups cooked or 1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed
    • 1/4 cup tahini
    • Juice of 1 lemon
    • 1-2 tsp cumin (I used two)
    • 3 cloves garlic or 2 tsp garlic powder (I use real garlic)
    • 1/2 tsp salt
    • 1 T olive oil

    Instructions

    1. Process the chickpeas in the food processor or blender to get them started.
    2. Then add all the remaining ingredients until everything is smooth and well mixed.

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    Recipe Notes

    If it is too thick, just add a bit of water until you get the consistency you desire. That is it. Sometimes I drizzle a bit of oil over the top. Enjoy!