Tag: paleo

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!

Dairy Free Cashew Cheese Sauce

Melissa King 94 Comments

This Dairy Free Cashew Cheese Sauce is delicious.  Two weeks ago we took the kids to the zoo.  Afterward, we decided to try out a vegan restaurant here in Dallas called The Spiral Diner.  The food was so good!

My husband got a vegan nacho plate and the cheese sauce was made from cashews.  He liked it so much he decided to try to create his own cashew cheese sauce and after a few tries it worked out pretty good.

This dairy free cashew cheese sauce is really quite a good replica. We never would have thought to make a cashew cheese sauce.

dairy free cashew cheese sauce

A lot of vegan cheeses are soy based, but we wanted to do something different since a lot of people are avoiding soy these days.  The cashews gave it a nice creamy feel.

This would not only be a good sauce to eat with nachos, but it makes a great base for a dairy free mac and cheese.

With so many kids having dairy allergies these days, it’s nice to have a soy free cheese option.  To give this a cheesy flavor, we used nutritional yeast.  Nutritional yeast is a great source of protein, fiber and vitamin B12.

 

Here is a quick little video of my husband and daughter making this. For more videos, you can subscribe to my You Tube Channel.

 

Dairy Free Cashew Cheese Sauce

Dairy Free Cheese Sauce

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Prep Time 10 min Serves 2 cups     adjust servings

Ingredients

  • 2 cups raw cashews (soaked overnight and drained)
  • 1 cup water
  • 3/4 cup nutritional yeast
  • 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 1/4 tsp onion powder
  • salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Soak the cashews in water overnight.
  2. The next day, drain and rinse them.
  3. Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

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Recipe Notes

You can store it in the fridge in an airtight container. Should keep for a few weeks. You may even be able to freeze it.

No Bake Macaroons (Vegan and Paleo)

Melissa King 36 Comments

No Bake Macaroons.  These things are like crack.  You cannot just have one!  I know I said that about the Coconut Cream Larabars too.  If you like those, then you will love these!

 

no bake macaroons

 

Did I mention that these were no bake?  That’s right.  These yummy little treats can be made in just a few minutes.  These are also vegan, gluten free and paleo.

These freeze well too, so feel free to make a big batch and freeze some.  So any time you get a craving for macaroons, there they are in the freezer! Sounds like a plan to me.

Looking for more coconut recipes?

No Bake Macaroons

No Bake Macaroons

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Prep Time 10 min Serves 12 cookies     adjust servings

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Combine the flax meal and warm water in a bowl.
  2. Whisk it and throw it in the fridge.
  3. In a food processor, pulse the coconut and almonds into a fine powder.
  4. Then add the dates, flax mixture, vanilla and coconut oil.
  5. Pulse until the mixture starts to come together.
  6. Roll into balls.

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Recipe Notes

You can also roll the balls in some more coconut like you see I did in the photos. I got about 12 out of my batch. Enjoy!

Dairy Free Ranch Dressing Recipe

Melissa King 112 Comments

Dairy Free Ranch Dressing you guys!! I have never met a soul that didn’t like ranch dressing. When we went vegan, my husband really missed ranch.

We wanted to make a dairy-free ranch dressing that would really curb his craving.  This dairy-free ranch recipe really hits the spot.

I don’t know about you, but it seems as though a lot of people have dairy sensitivity lately.  My husband and I are lactose intolerant and my younger daughter is allergic to dairy and soy.

Most of the non-dairy recipes I have seen online use tofu or veganaise as a base.  I was looking for a way to make a soy free ranch dressing recipe and it totally worked!  This is just as easy as the Homemade Peanut Butter and the Healthy Honey Mustard!

 

dairy free ranch dressing

This yummy dressing passed the ultimate kid test.  My 4 year old loved it!  So, now those of you with kiddos that are dairy sensitive can enjoy the taste of ranch.

I was actually amazed at how well this turned out.  I had my doubts in the beginning.  So here is the recipe.

If you like this, you may also want to check out my dairy free sour cream and my dairy free pesto sauce.

Dairy Free Ranch Dressing

Dairy Free Ranch Dressing

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Prep Time 10 min Serves 1.25 cups     adjust servings

Ingredients

  • 1 cup cashews (I used raw and unsalted)
  • 1/4 cup almond milk (If you like a super thick dressing, just omit the milk)
  • 1 clove garlic minced (I do this using a microplane )
  • 3 T chives finely chopped
  • 3 T parsley finely chopped
  • 3 tsp white wine vinegar
  • salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Place the cashews in water and soak overnight in the fridge.
  2. Drain and rinse the cashews and throw them in the blender with just enough water to cover.
  3. Blend them for about 1-2 minutes.
  4. Now add the rest of the ingredients and blend on low for another minute.

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Recipe Notes

That’s it! This made about 1 1/4 cups and should keep for a few weeks in the fridge. I store mine in recycled glass jars.