Tag: vegan

Apple Pie Fruit Leathers

Melissa King 23 Comments

My kids love fruit leathers, but they are so expensive at the store.  So now I make my own.  It’s so easy and you can add in whatever fruits and spices you like.  I have peach fruit leathers on my blog already, and now I can add these to the list.

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The house smells amazing when these are cooking, kind of like when I make my crock pot applesauce.  The best part is that you probably already have all the ingredients in your own cabinets!  I used applesauce to make mine, but you can most certainly use real apples and puree them first.  Think about it though.  When your store has a sale on applesauce, you can stock up and make these.  It would save a lot of money and make your kids happy too. I used a dehydrator to make mine, but you can certainly try this in the oven as well.  You just need to keep an eye one them.

Apple Pie Fruit Leathers

Apple Pie Fruit Leathers

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Prep Time 20 min Cook Time 7 hr Serves 20 fruit leathers     adjust servings

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. If using an oven, preheat to the lowest setting or 135. 
  2. Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. 
  3. Line your baking sheets with parchment and spread the mixture out evenly. 
  4. Bake for about 4-6 hours, depending on how low the temp your oven will go. 
  5. If you are using a dehydrator , line the trays with parchment as well.  You can use the dehydrator sheets as well, but I think parchment is much cheaper and works great. 
  6. I baked mine in the dehydrator at 135 for about 6-7 hours. 
  7. Once it feels tacky, it’s pretty much done.  I got about 20 fruit leathers out of my batch.  Enjoy!

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16 Whole Food Recipes for Condiments, Dips and Spreads

Melissa King 23 Comments

When switching to a whole food diet, condiments, dips and spreads are the hardest things to find clean.  I usually make my own.  So here is a roundup of every recipe I have so far.

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Hummus

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Teriyaki Sauce

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Fruit Spreads

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Italian Herb Dressing

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Balsamic Vinaigrette

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Homemade Ketchup

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Easy Crock Pot Tomato Sauce

ranch 1

Dairy Free Ranch Dressing

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Homemade Peanut Butter

dressing

Healthy Honey Mustard

bbq sauce

Homemade BBQ Sauce

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Homemade Re-Fried Beans

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Coconut Butter

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Healthy White Bean Pesto Dip

Hope these recipes can help you transition away from store bought versions!  Enjoy

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Toasted Sesame Asian Dressing

 

 

Gluten Free Herb Crackers and a Giveaway!

Melissa King 153 Comments

When I made my Homemade Wheat Thins the other day, a lot of you wanted a gluten free cracker as well.  This recipe is more for adults than kids, but it’s so good!  But first, let me tell you about the giveaway.

If you need help on your knife skills like I do, this giveaway is for you!  I used this mezzaluna from Joseph Joseph to cut the herbs in this recipe.  Let me tell you it worked so well!  Makes me wonder why it took me so long to get one!  Joesph Joseph is also going to give a mezzaluna to one lucky winner.

mezzaluna

All you need to do is:

Like My Whole Food Life on Facebook
Like Joseph Joesph on Facebook
Leave a comment under this blog post

Contest is open to US residents only. Winner will be chosen on  Tuesday, August 27, 2013.  Good luck!  Now onto the recipe.

This giveaway is now closed.

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Gluten Free Herb Crackers

Gluten Free Herb Crackers and a Giveaway!

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Prep Time 20 min Cook Time 30 min Serves 30 crackers     adjust servings

Ingredients

  • 2 cups cooked brown rice or quinoa
  • 1 /4 cup chia seeds
  • 6 basil leaves chopped
  • 2 T fresh parsley chopped
  • 1 tsp fresh rosemary
  • 1 tsp fresh chives
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • About 4 T water

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350. 
  2. In a food processor , blend up the rice and the chia seeds. 
  3. Then add in the remaining ingredients and pulse until a dough starts to come together. 
  4. Tear two pieces of parchment paper the size of your baking sheets . 
  5. Place 1 piece of parchment on the counter top. 
  6. Put half the dough onto the parchment. 
  7. Tear some plastic wrap to put between the rolling pin and the dough.  This will prevent the dough from sticking to the rolling pin . 
  8. Roll the dough out pretty thin. 
  9. Transfer the dough and the parchment paper to a baking sheet.
  10. Repeat these steps with the other half of the dough. 
  11. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. 
  12. Remove the pans and carefully cut the dough into squares with a pizza cutter . 
  13. Carefully flip each square over and bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until crispy. 

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Recipe Notes

You can probably do the whole thing in the dehydrator as well if you want to keep them raw. I got around 30 crackers in my batch. Store them in a container with dry rice scattered at the bottom. The rice will absorb the moisture and keep the crackers crispy. Enjoy!

Smoky Sweet Potato Fries (Vegan & Gluten Free)

Melissa King 17 Comments

These Smoky Sweet Potato Fries are awesome.  I used to think that french fries were off limits once I started eating better, but it turns out that’s not the case.

I already have a Healthy French Fry recipe on the blog.  I love sweet potatoes and I really wanted to make some french fries with them.  Well today I made these sweet potato french fries, and they were amazing!

 

smoky sweet potato fries

This sweet potato french fry recipe is really simple to make.  The smoky flavor of the chili powder and the smoked paprika really goes well with the sweetness of the sweet potatoes.  This recipe would go great with my veggie burgers.

I loved dipping them into my Homemade Ketchup.  Needless to say, the entire tray was gone in minutes.  My picky, older daughter loved them!  This made me very happy because she says she doesn’t like sweet potatoes.

Smoky Sweet Potato Fries

Smoky Sweet Potato Fries

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Prep Time 15 min Cook Time 1 hr Serves 4 servings     adjust servings

Ingredients

  • 1 sweet potato chopped into fries (I used this machine )
  • 1 heaping tsp smoked paprika
  • 1-2 T coconut oil
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • salt to taste
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. In a saute pan , pan sear the fries with the oil and spices for about 5-7 minutes, stirring often.
  3. Once all the fries are well coated with seasoning and oil, spread them out on a lined baking sheet .
  4. Bake for 1 hour, stopping halfway to flip and shake them around.

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Recipe Notes

That’s it! These should last a week or so in the fridge. If you can keep them that long!

12 Make Ahead Breakfasts for Back to School Mornings

Melissa King 65 Comments

It’s that time of year again.  The kids are going back to school.  Mine start in a couple of weeks.   So now is the time to get organized so you are not rushing on those busy mornings.  Here is a list of make ahead breakfasts you can freeze and easily pull out in a hurry.  I thought I would also share some of my favorite school lunch supplies.

Lunchbots Lunchboxes – We have had these going on 3 years and they are great.

Kids Drinking Thermos – Another product we have had 3 years so far.  They are very easy to pop open.  Perfect for little hands.

Lunchskins Re-Usable Snack Bags -These are easy to clean and quick drying.

Hot Food Jars – Perfect for bringing hot foods like pasta and oatmeal.

Kids Konserve Ice Packs – Made of non toxic materials and BPA free.

Olive Kids Lunchbox – Durable, BPA free and easy to clean.  Comes in many styles.

 

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Strawberry Banana Baked Oatmeal

This recipe will make a weeks worth of healthy breakfasts you can freeze and reheat for busy mornings.  You can swap out the fruits for what you have on hand as well.

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Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal

This recipe can also be made with peanut butter or sunflower butter.  The choice is yours.  Make, freeze and re-heat.

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Almond Butter Overnight Oats

Use this recipe as a base and add in your own flavors.  Fruits, nuts, seeds…the possibilities are endless!  Make a weeks worth of these and then grab them when you need them.

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Homemade Pop Tarts

Fill them with your favorite jams.  I personally love them with blueberry chia jam.  Then just freeze them and pull them out when needed.

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Homemade Nutri-Grain Bars

These are perfect to throw in your child’s lunch box.  My kids love them.  Add in your favorite jam and you are ready to go.  They freeze very well.

Banana Blueberry Muffins - My Whole Food Life

Banana Blueberry Muffins

These freeze very well and all the kids love them.  They can also be done gluten free.

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Raspberry Coconut Smoothie

Make a big batch of these and then freeze them in ice cube trays.  Then on those busy mornings, just pop out and blend what you need.

Here are some other recipes from some blogs I follow.

Real Food. Real Deals No Knead Apple Pie Bread
Eat Good 4 Life Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chia Pudding
The Clever Carrot Gluten Free Zucchini Muffins
Sugar Dish Me Whole Wheat Poppy Seed Bagels
Chocolate Covered Katie Gluten Free Cinnamon Sugar Waffles

22 Make Ahead Breakfasts

Apple Cinnamon Waffles (Vegan)

Melissa King 40 Comments

Apple Cinnamon Waffles. Every weekend we try to make waffles.  You can never have too many healthy waffle recipes.   Today we made healthy apple waffles with lots of cinnamon!

We usually make Blueberry Oatmeal Waffles or Strawberry Banana Waffles.  The last couple months, my daughter had soccer early in the morning, so we had to rush out quickly with no time to make waffles.

This past weekend, we were finally able to again.  My daughter requested apple cinnamon waffles, so here you go.

 

apple cinnamon waffles

 

You can use all white whole wheat flour if you want.  I just like to mix it up with some oat flour.  This recipe is super easy and could probably be easily converted into pancakes as well.

It will make your house smell amazing too!  I always make a big batch and then freeze some.  Then you can easily pull one out and toast it on those busy mornings!

Apple Cinnamon Waffles

Apple Cinnamon Waffles

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Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 10 min Serves 5-6 waffles     adjust servings

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Preheat your waffle iron . 
  2. Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl. 
  3. Mix wet in another. 
  4. Add we to dry and mix until combined. 
  5. Using a 1/2 cup scoop, spoon mixture onto a greased waffle pan. 
  6. Repeat these steps until all are made.  I got 5-6 waffles out of my batch.  Enjoy!

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