Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Bake Strawberry Shortcake in the Crock Pot

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Want to learn how to bake strawberry shortcake in the crock pot? It’s an awesome method!

A few weeks ago, I shared how to bake cake in a crock pot. Why would we do this?? After all, it doesn’t save time!

Why it’s nice to know how to bake a cake in the crock pot:

  1. If it’s hot outside and you want to avoid using the oven, this is a great option!
  2. If you don’t have an oven for some reason, it’s fun to know that you can still do some baking in non-traditional ways!

Since this worked, I decided to use the same idea and try making my Strawberry Shortcake Recipe in my crock pot. It turned out amazing!!

In goes the batter:

On goes the funky lid set-up:

Two-ish hours later:

After it cools:

After you’ve eaten a good lunch. This is the rule at our house:

Strawberry Shortcake made in a crock pot is just as delicious, if not more delicious, than cake made in an oven. Try this!!

Bake Strawberry Shortcake in the Crock PotYum

Bake Strawberry Shortcake in the Crock Pot
 
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Serves: 15
Ingredients
  • 2⅔ cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground whole wheat)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 4 eggs
  • ½ cup honey or 1 cup sugar
  • ⅔ cup oil (I use coconut oil)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup milk
  • 4-5 cups of fresh, sliced strawberries
  • Whipped cream (fresh cream whipped to form soft peaks, with a bit of stevia added for sweetness)
Instructions
  1. Mix together flour and baking powder.
  2. Add in eggs, honey, oil, vanilla and milk.
  3. Stir well (or mix well with mixer).
  4. Pour into a well buttered7-8 quart crock pot.
  5. Lay paper towels to cover the top of the crock.
  6. Place a wooden spoon between the paper towels and the crock pot lid to allow for venting.
  7. Cook on Hi for two hours or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
  8. Once completely cooled, gently work the cake out of the crock with a spatula.
  9. Allow cake to cool completely. Top with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.

I have two crock pots; this one is my favorite. I’m loving the ways we can bake in the crock pot and avoid heating up the house!

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How to Bake Cake in a Crock Pot (with spinach, of course)

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Too hot to turn on the oven? Here’s how to bake cake in a crock pot!

I’d like to say there was a day that “we needed cake” but did we actually need cake? Meh. Define “need.”

But on this day that we “needed cake” it was 101 degrees outside. So baking was a silly idea. “I wonder if my spinach in a cake situation would work in a crock pot,” thought I. With this in mind, I looked on the internet a bit and sure enough, it seemed quite doable.

Look at all the spinach that I blended into our cake. So did we need cake? Yes, because of the spinach.

This is what you need to know about adding spinach to cake:

  • You can’t taste it.
  • You can’t see it.
  • It makes the cake extra moist, which is actually better than eating a cake without spinach. True story.

I buttered my crock pot. It looked like this. And now you can see my crock pot stains. This thing is well-used.

I blended the cake ingredients along with the spinach, and poured in the batter which looked like this. See, you can’t tell there’s spinach in there:

Next, we worked a little crock-pot-cake magic. This calls for a paper towel, a wooden spoon to prop the lid, and then a lid placed cock-eyed over the paper towel and spoon. This lets the crock pot vent a bit while it bakes. We all need to vent sometimes.

At one point when I checked on my cake’s progress, my paper towels fell and got chocolatey. I share this picture with you to make you feel better about your messy towels if and when this happens to you:

After about an hour and a half, our house smelled amazing and our cake looked like this. The kitchen was still nice and cool while the oven sat alone and unused.

The babies were up from their naps at this point and it was time for dinner and an outing for the evening. So I left the cake sitting all night in the crock pot (lid on after it cooled). The next morning, I carefully loosened the edges and worked it out of the pot, turning it out like this:

Then I frosted the cake, which made the kids sing “Happy Birthday to Nobody” because why would Mom be making a fancy cake like this since it wasn’t anyone’s birthday?

Would you look at this amazingness? What spinach? I don’t see any spinach.

Listen, you have got to try this! Use a cake mix, use your favorite wholesome cake recipe, just add spinach to cake and then bake it in a crock pot to avoid the oven. We are huge fans! This cake is so moist and good!

How to Bake Cake in a Crock PotYum

How to Bake Cake in a Crock Pot (with spinach, of course)
 
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Serves: 16-24
Ingredients
  • 1 chocolate cake mix
  • 1¼ cups water
  • ½ cup olive oil
  • 3 eggs
  • 3-4 cups fresh spinach
Instructions
  1. Blend everything up in a high power blender.
  2. Pour the batter into a buttered crock pot.
  3. Lay paper towels to cover the top of the crock.
  4. Place a wooden spoon between the paper towels and the crock pot lid to allow for venting.
  5. Cook on Hi for one to one and a half hours or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
  6. Once completely cooled, gently work the cake out of the crock with a spatula.
  7. Frost and serve!

How to frost your cake

I recommend this Chocolate Fudge Frosting (though I no longer make powdered sugar from sucanat like I used to, eeee).

My favorite-favorite is actually Cream Cheese Frosting.

And if you want to cut way back on the sugar, here’s a Stevia Sweetened Cream Cheese Frosting that is really good. Add a pinch of sugar to take away the bitterness without adding much sugar.

Last idea: Simply whip some cream like this and plop it on top. Super good!

But wait, there’s more. What if we topped it with Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream??!

Or this Peanut Butter Cream Frosting?!

Let me know which turns out to be your favorite!

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Simple Snack Recipe: 5 Minute Mousse

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We all need this 5 Minute Mousse in our lives. I bet after we’ve made it a dozen times, we can knock our record down to make it in just 4 minutes, yes?

I used to make this all the time when I was young and only had two kids. Then I forgot about it as other fun recipes became more prominent. Also, I have a few more than two kids now.

I recently dug this recipe out again and wow is it a hit with our current tribe!

Here’s a fun photo our almost daughter-in-law snapped one day of me surrounded by five of our current ten kids. Life is a party, and that party calls for 5 Minute Mousse!

5 Minute MousseYum

Simple Snack Recipe: 5 Minute Mousse
 
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Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 2 cups heavy whipping cream
  • 3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ¼ cup sugar or honey
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
  1. Whip all ingredients together in a high power blender or with a hand mixer until thick and smooth.
  2. Chill for at least one hour before serving.

 

Usually, I don’t take the time to scoop this into individual serving dishes before I put it into the fridge to chill. I’ve found that a large pyrex bowl with a lid works best. Then I scoop the mousse into small bowls and hand them out.

This dessert is brought to you by the mom who now needs to offer dessert every night.

Why? Because we’ve found that our six and eight-year-olds need some special incentives to eat healthy foods. “No veggies equals no dessert.” They also need reinforcement to be sweet. “If you aren’t sweet you don’t get sweets.”

So I’ve been coming up with desserts a little more regularly to help us as we train this new set of kids. :)

And of course, I add spinach to our cake, so they get to earn their cake and it comes with a full-on salad. That’s a mom-win! :)

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Chocolate Pumpkin SPINACH Cake? Yes.

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Yes, I made a new cake with spinach, a Chocolate Pumpkin Spinach Cake. It’s official. I’m ridiculous. But wait until you try this!

You can think I’m crazy if you want to. You’d be right. But adding spinach to cake? Well, it’s a hilarious way to eat vegetables. Your family will be none the wiser unless they watch you make the cake. Then you have some explaining to do.

Therin lies all the ingredients for a pumpkin chocolate cake, plus a generous amount of fresh spinach. All blended up, it turns into a cake. For Popeye. And everyone else.

Hey, this is a million times better than this fun – but full of sugar and white flour – add spinach to a cake mix idea. I still plan to make that from time to time because it’s fun and truly a good way to get my kids to eat greens.

But this Chocolate Pumpkin SPINACH Cake has both pumpkin and spinach, so it’s basically a health food. Covered in frosting. ;)

Chocolate Pumpkin Spinach CakeYum

Chocolate Pumpkin SPINACH Cake? Yes.
 
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Serves: 15
Ingredients
  • 1 cup melted coconut oil
  • 1 can pumpkin puree (15 ounces)
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ cup water
  • 2-3 cups fresh spinach leaves
  • 4 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 cup sucanat or brown sugar
  • dash of sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
  1. Put all ingredients into a high power blender (like a Blendtec) starting with liquids first.
  2. Blend until well mixed and smooth.
  3. Pour ingredients into a 9x13 inch cake pan.
  4. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
  5. Allow cake to cool completely before frosting.

Want some low-sugar frosting options? Follow this search I did, and find all kinds of fun frosting ideas. Plus, you’ll see more cake recipes, and you know you want to add spinach to all of those!!

Have you tried this idea? Tell me how it went for you!

My family cannot tell there’s spinach in our cake. I love this!

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Add Spinach to Cake (It Tastes AMAZING!!!)

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It’s true. I add spinach to cake now. We will get greens into these kids, will we not?!

Look at this and tell me that you see spinach:

Right? And neither did he:

Now, he is a 3-year-old. Therefore, he also eats the occasional dirt or piece of tortilla that has been stuck under his car seat since last Christmas. So can he really be trusted?

Look at that face. If he can’t be trusted, who can? Though he is not to be trusted with choosing an outfit. It was snowing the day he was determined to wear these swim trunks. Why? Because they had sharks on them, which perfectly matched the sharks on his shirt. Obviously.

So about adding spinach to cake. I got the idea from Justus’ fiance.

She can absolutely be trusted. With food, with picking outfits, and of course, with picking a husband. She’s a keeper.

One day in my kitchen she saw me making these smoothies (yes, she already knows we’re weird and she still wants to marry into the Coppinger family). She was like: “Hey, did you know you can add spinach to a cake mix? I saw it on a reel!”

Fascinated, and seeing as I am in a desperate way to get as many nourishing foods into my kids as possible, I decided to pick up a cake mix the next time I was at the store. (<— Read that sentence again. Weirdest thing I’ve ever typed. Hahahahaha. Who even am I anymore?)

Yes, I picked up a cake mix. To help us eat greens. Yo. Betty Crocker gets salad into the children. We love her.

There’s the blender filled with spinach, oil, and water. If that doesn’t look like a delicious cake waiting to happen, I don’t know what does.

Then, in went eggs and cake mix.

It’s a cake mix? It’s a smoothie? No one actually knows what this is.

In fact, Malachi (our 17-year-old) watched in horror as he saw me blend this up and then pour it into a cake pan. “Mom, what are you doing??!!”

Poor kid. He knows his mom is tired. He really thought I’d lost my mind (some more). He thought I was pouring smoothie into a pan and putting it into the oven.

So then I told him what I was actually doing and he was disgusted that he’d seen the entire thing transpire. Not knowing there was spinach in the cake would have been much better, thought he. But alas, the damage had been done. He’d seen the spinach get blended into the cake. He left for soccer practice full of skepticism.

Would you look at that? It’s just a chocolate cake. Full of spinach that no one can see. Bah.

I frosted it, you know, just to add more sugar to our nourishing cake. What in the world. I then took a blurry picture.

Let’s take another look at that first taste-tester, shall we?

Can you see a slight green tint within the chocolate? No, you cannot. Only because you know it’s there do you think that you see greenish-brown.

Below you can read about how you can also put greens into your cake. We have all lost our minds. I guess we don’t care if our kids eat the sugar as long as they are also eating salad??

How to Add Spinach to CakeYum

5.0 from 2 reviews
Add Spinach to Cake (It Tastes AMAZING!!!)
 
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Serves: 15
Ingredients
  • 1 chocolate cake mix
  • 1¼ cups water
  • ⅓ cup olive oil
  • 3 eggs
  • 3-4 cups fresh spinach
Instructions
  1. Blend everything up in a high power blender.
  2. Pour the batter into a 9x13 inch baking pan.
  3. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
  4. Allow cake to cool before frosting.

And that’s how it’s done.

Will this be a way I frequently get greens into my children?

I don’t think that it will. But then again, I’m kind of on a roll with thinking of new ways to add veggie nourishment to our food. Wonder what else I can add spinach to?

Oh, in case you’re wondering…

Malachi’s Response:

He loved this cake and couldn’t get over it. “It’s so good! How is it this good?!” said we, between bites of cake.

I bet he’ll never be skeptical again when I put green stuff into a cake pan.

Listen, we all loved this cake. We decided that spinach makes it extra moist. I dare you to try it. :)

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The BEST Pumpkin Bars

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Are these really the BEST Pumpkin Bars? I guess you’ll have to try them to see!

I love how moist these are! And how cool is it that they are made with whole grains and no one can tell?! (I use freshly ground soft white wheat, which is a whole wheat pastry flour, to make these.) I love that they are lightly sweetened instead of loaded with sugar. And this:

I LOVE THE CLOVES.

There’s something about the flavor that the cloves gives this recipe that makes is so very good. Cinnamon? I’m always all in with the cinnamon! Sometimes I skip other spices just so I can enjoy the cinnamon in a recipe.

But don’t leave out the cloves in this one. Oh, it makes the Pumpkin Bars – well – it makes them the BEST Pumpkin Bars.

The BEST Pumpkin BarsYum

The BEST Pumpkin Bars
 
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Serves: 15
Ingredients
  • 2 cups whole grain flour
  • ¾ cup brown sugar or sucanat
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 4 eggs
  • 16-ounce can pureed pumpkin
  • 1 cup melted coconut oil
Instructions
  1. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cloves.
  2. Add eggs, pumpkin, and oil, stirring until batter is smooth.
  3. Pour batter into a 9x13 inch baking dish.
  4. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Here are more Pumpkin Recipes you’ll love. Twenty more to be exact!

  1. Pumpkin Spice
  2. Make-Ahead Pumpkin Donuts
  3. Pumpkin Breakfast Cake
  4. Easy Low Sugar Pumpkin Whip
  5. Pumpkin Cheesecake
  6. Easy Flourless Pumpkin Muffins
  7. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
  8. Whole Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
  9. Pumpkin Pie
  10. Cream Cheese Pumpkin Muffins
  11. Pumpkin Bars
  12. Low-Sugar Pumpkin Roll-Out Cookies
  13. Simple Pumpkin Pancakes
  14. Simple Pumpkin Waffles
  15. Chocolate Pumpkin Cake
  16. Whole Grain Pumpkin Bundt Cake
  17. Warm Pumpkin Custard
  18. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake
  19. Warm Pumpkin Custard
  20. Pumpkin Pecan Pie Squares
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Easy Cinnamon Crumb Cake

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This Easy Cinnamon Crumb Cake is a lovely treat with coffee or tea.

You may notice that this cake recipe is very similar to my Strawberry Shortcake recipe. One of my favorite things is to take a tried-and-true recipe, then tweak it to turn it into something new and delicious.

That’s how this Easy Cinnamon Crumb Cake came to be. Take a simple cake recipe, add cinnamon, then top it with cinnamon and brown sugar. SO GOOD.

Easy Cinnamon Crumb CakeYum

Easy Cinnamon Crumb Cake
 
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Serves: 9
Ingredients
  • 1⅓ cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground whole wheat)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ cup honey
  • ⅓ cup oil (I use coconut oil)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ cup milk
  • 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon plus 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
Instructions
  1. Mix together flour, baking powder, and cinnamon.
  2. Add in eggs, honey, oil, vanilla, and milk.
  3. Mix well.
  4. Pour into a well buttered 8×8 inch baking pan or a round cake pan.
  5. Sprinkle cinnamon/sugar mixture over the top.
  6. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes.

Here are some more tasty fall treats you may enjoy:

  1. No-Knead Cinnamon Rolls with Honey’d Orange Glaze
  2. Cinnamon Smoothie
  3. Cinnamon Nectarine Muffins
  4. Quick Mix Honey Cinnamon Muffins
  5. Cinnamon Apple Toast
  6. Snickerdoodles
  7. Cinnamon Swirl Bread
  8. Baked Apple Pancake
  9. Snickerdoodle Muffins
  10. Vanilla Muffins with Cinnamon Crumb Topping
  11. Apple Pie Filling
  12. No-Bake Snickerdoodle Bites
  13. Low-Sugar Carrot Cake
  14. Zucchini Carrot Bread
  15. Applesauce
  16. Baked Apple Pancake
  17. Apple Pie Filling
  18. Salted Caramel Apple Crisp
  19. Cream Cheese Fruit Dip (to go with your apples)
  20. Applesauce Bread
  21. Apple Fruit Leather
  22. Build a Fruit Salad Bar
  23. Apple Crisp
  24. Apple Butter
  25. Apple Nachos
  26. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
  27. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
  28. Pumpkin Donuts
  29. Warm Pumpkin Custard
  30. Multi-Grain Pumpkin Waffles and Pancakes
  31. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake
  32. Pumpkin Pecan Pie Squares
  33. Pumpkin Pie
  34. Pumpkin Breakfast Cake
  35. Pumpkin Cheesecake
  36. Pumpkin Pie Bars
  37. Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
  38. Pumpkin Spice French Toast Casserole
  39. Pumpkin Spice Roll-Out Cookies
  40. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins

 

 

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Confessions of a Chocolate Shake Addict

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Hey, it’s Tasha. Remember me? I’m Laura’s friend. The one who fell off the cliff and didn’t die. I homeschool a few kids and eat chocolate, AND I DRINK IT. Eating paleo took a turn for the better once I discovered some amazing chocolate tricks, but today is the day for the confessions of a paleo chocolate shake addict.

chocolate shake

Chocolate Shake Confessions:

  1. I drink a chocolate shake every day. Sometimes more than one.
  2. Secretly, not so secretly anymore, I am happy a few of my kids don’t like my chocolate shakes—more for me.
  3. 16 oz of cacao powder barely lasts me one month = that means I eat approximately 3 Tablespoons a day.
  4. Once, mid-shake preparation, I was ravenous. Hungry, grumpy, starving. The cacao powder was not where it was supposed to be. I searched frantically through the cupboards to no avail. Mean Tasha came out. I yelled across the house to my husband and kids, “WHO MOVED THE CHOCOLATE STUFF??” No one answered Crazy Mama. Climbed up on the counter and searched the top shelf while yelling at my family that there was a crisis upon us. Turns out, the almost empty bag was found behind the Blentec. Right where I’d left it I’m sure.
  5. No, I’m not misspelling Cocoa. Cacao is a real thing.

Cacao vs. Cocoa?

Cacao is the name of the tree that grows pods with beans that are harvested and roasted like coffee to make cocoa powder and chocolate. But—woah—if you don’t roast the beans, it’s called cacao instead of cocoa. Unroasted beans are raw and contain significantly higher levels of minerals, fiber, and even some protein. So that’s what I chose to eat. Please check out the Subscribe & Save options available for Organic Cacao Powder.

Paleo Chocolate Shake RecipeYum

Clearly, Laura’s salad-drinking habits are commendable. But, another confession: I’m not a grown-up enough human to submit myself to such torture. What I meant to say is that Laura is a super human blessed by the Almighty with taste buds of steel. Hmm. Okay, how about this: I’m so deeply in love with chocolate shakes and I see no reason to give them up.

Sorry. The recipe(s).

I mostly make it the same every day, but has been evolving over the year. Therefore, I will give you two recipes. The first is when you only have 30 seconds to spare. The second is when you have 2 minutes.

Quick Fix Chocolate Shake

  • 8 oz. coconut milk
  • 2 Tablespoons cacao or cocoa powder
  • 2 pinches salt
  • 1/2—1 teaspoon Super Sweet from THM or stevia/blend sweetener of choice
  • Large handful of spinach
  • 3 cubes ice
  • Blend until smooth
  • Drink

The above smoothie has approximately 4 grams of protein and 92 calories. It is enough to satisfy a chocolate craving and sweet tooth. If you want to trick your mouth into thinking you’re having a treat, and you’re in a hurry, give it a try. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of nutrients in the spinach, cacao, and coconut milk, but I wouldn’t recommend replacing a meal with this shake. Unless you’re planning to starve yourself to death, which I highly discourage.

Paleo Chocolate Shake with more stuff…

  • 8 oz. coconut milk
  • 2 Tablespoons cacao or cocoa powder
  • 2 pinches salt
  • 1/2—1 teaspoon Super Sweet from THM or stevia/blend sweetener of choice
  • 2 Tablespoons integral collagen (paleo friendly dairy/soy-free protein)
  • half of a banana (sliced and frozen is nice)
  • 1/2 cup frozen fruit (blueberries or sweet cherries are good options)
  • 1 Tablespoon almond butter
  • Large handful spinach
  • 3 cubes of ice
  • Blend until smooth
  • Drink in secret or make double to share with all the toddlers

This is the shake I drink daily. If we’re heading out and I’m not sure if there’s going to be paleo food for me, then I make a shake. Sometimes I drink with breakfast, or later in the day if I’m hungry and there’s no food in front of me. The full recipe is approximately 320 calories and 17 grams of protein.

What do you eat everyday?! Does it make you ask happy as this shake makes me? If not… maybe you should make this shake instead.

Paleo Chocolate Shake
 
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Recipe type: snack
Ingredients
  • 8 oz. coconut milk
  • 2 Tablespoons cacao or cocoa powder
  • 2 pinches salt
  • ½—1 teaspoon Super Sweet from THM or stevia/blend sweetener of choice
  • 2 Tablespoons integral collagen (paleo friendly dairy/soy-free protein)
  • half of a banana (sliced and frozen is nice)
  • ½ cup frozen fruit (blueberries or sweet cherries are good options)
  • 1 Tablespoon almond butter
  • Large handful spinach
  • 3 cubes of ice
Instructions
  1. Blend until smooth
  2. Drink in secret or make double to share with all the toddlers

book cover of bluebird on the prairieTasha Hackett is a friend of Laura and author of the Christian Romance, Bluebird on the Prairie; available wherever books are sold and from her website, www.TashaHackett.com. She spends most of her time (drinking chocolate shakes) with four chatty children and an incredibly supportive husband. They give her the kind of love people write books about.

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Easy Orange Julius

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This Easy Orange Julius is a perfectly refreshing summer treat!

You guys. I totally cheat now when making so many of our meals and snacks. I only make whatever is the easiest and fastest because there are people to love and we just wanna play outside.

I’ve made Orange Julius for our family for years and years. But this little “cheater” idea came about after a local church had offered a food distribution to our community. They had several boxes leftover at the end of the day, and since we have so many kids, they thought of us. How kind and fun! They piled five boxes of food onto our porch, and we were super grateful!

Some of the items included in the box? Vanilla Yogurt, Milk, and Oranges

Does that sound like a delicious Orange Julius to you? Indeed it does. Brayden thought so too. :)

With a huge pile of oranges rolling off of our countertops, we started with an “Orange Peeling Party.” Our kitchen smelled citrus-y good, and soon we had several bags of these frozen orange slices:

Then, I took those frozen oranges and blended them up with the vanilla yogurt and some milk. Easy Orange Julius perfection!

So, if you find yourself with an abundance of oranges, freeze them like this. Then blend them up with yogurt and milk and grab yourself a straw!

Easy Orange JuliusYum

Easy Orange Julius
 
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Serves: 6 cups
Ingredients
  • 2-3 cups frozen orange slices
  • 2 cups vanilla yogurt
  • 2 cups milk
Instructions
  1. Blend the three ingredients together until smooth.
  2. Serve right away!

Don’t want the added sugar in the yogurt? I usually don’t either, but hey, it was free food! You can make this treat with plain yogurt and honey or maple syrup if you want to cut down on the sugar content. This will be just as delicious and even better for ya!

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Homemade Chocolate Bar

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Want to make a Homemade Chocolate Bar?! And here’s a fun new treat recipe from Tasha!

homemade chocolate

Homemade Chocolate Bar

by Tasha Hackett

This homemade chocolate bar recipe is everything I ever thought it could be. I tend to eat it all and so I make it small batches. Apparently, I have the self-restraint of a two-year-old near a puddle. Which is none-at-all. In case you haven’t been around two-year-olds lately, they pretty much do what they want. Thankfully this homemade chocolate is a good source of calories and protein.

 

Yum

A now a word about our homemade chocolate bar sponsor.

Laura once shared a recipe about Fat Bombs and we all said, “Ew, no.” Every now and then she talks about how hungry she is and is she ever grateful for these amazing goodies and we say, “Ew, no.” Initially, she explained how fat is good for our bodies because woman cannot live on salad alone. Secondly, she tried to be sneaky and change the name of these treats to “Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups.” Nice try, Laura. I can still read and the recipe is the same and know it consists of butter, coconut oil, peanut butter, cocoa powder, and a drizzle of honey. And I said, “Ew, no.” 

And Laura shook her head and thought, “Oh ye of little faith.”

When I was literally starving after switching to a paleo diet (not for weight loss, but for other health reasons) she said, “Tasha, you have to make the chocolate peanut butter cups.” I can’t decide if that’s hyperbole or not about the starving. I was ravenously hungry all the time. If you’ve ever cut out sugar and grains, you know how your body freaks out for about a week. I’ve been eating a paleo diet for over four months and chocolate is life. Except, you know, after Jesus. Obviously. He’s literally life and light and I hope we know I’m speaking superfluously here. But figuratively . . . chocolate is life. I can honestly say that I’ve used significantly more cocoa powder the past four months than I ever have in my life before. 

Why buy the chocolate when I can easily make the chocolate? 

I confess, when Laura shares a recipe, I glance at it and then I take it cruising through the backroads. Is anyone else guilty of this? Therefore, keep reading Laura’s post if you want simple. If you want mostly simple and a heck of lot more ingredients, then also read my posts . . . Whew. Glad I got that off my chest. 

It is here. The chocolate bar that beats all chocolate bar cravings. Come one, come all, and enjoy the gluten-free, dairy-free, honey-sweetened granola chocolate snack thing that will make you wish I was your favorite aunt. 

I have been known to eat these in public and then share the bounty with my fellow mom-friends. (Living the dream over here. There are friends, and then there are mom-friends. #ifyouknowyouknow) This homemade melty chocolate bar has been met with surprise statements of, “This is really good!” As if they, clearly, didn’t think homemade paleo “sugar-free” chocolate would be any good. Oh ye of little faith.

Boy, we showed them! 

I mean, eh-hem, I am modestly pleased when others enjoy the food that I make. So how’s about it? You ready for me to quit gabbing and give you the recipe to my honey-sweetened granola chocolate bar thing?

Okay, it is practically Laura’s Honey Sweetened No-Bake Cookies. Except I took her recipe, skipped off the highway, and drove through the country roads and a few corn fields. Figuratively. Literally, my car would be ruined and there would be no chocolate. Maybe a huge fine. Possibly jail time. Is there chocolate in jail? If so, it wouldn’t be as wholesome as this one.

homemade chocolate bar

This is a huge batch I made to share.

A word about the ingredients in this chocolate bar:

I replace all peanut butter with almond butter. Thankfully, I find it at Sam’s Club for a reasonable price or I make it myself. I go through about a tub a week. Yet I continue to lose weight. Figures. Feel free to use a natural (thick) peanut butter.

Butter is not technically paleo. Use ghee or make your own ghee by warming the butter and scraping off the white foamy stuff. But I’m not concerned about butter. Also, ghee is expensive and I always have butter in the freezer because I buy all of it when it goes on sale. (That’s a hyperbole, I don’t literally buy it all. That would be ridiculous. And rude. And against the rules. I have a heart.)

Where to get Cocoa Powder

Remember that cocoa powder is not all created equally. I buy Better Body Foods Cacao Powder from Amazon and it’s yummy. Actually, I subscribe to it and it shows up on my porch. *Voila* But I’m not going to tell you how many bags I’ve used since January. Mind your own business, mmk? Whatever you do, do not buy the cheapest store-brand variety, it’s not as good. Laura recommends this kind and it’s her favorite. (<— use the code home to get 15% off your purchases at Olive Nation!)

If you’re a rule-keeper and legalistic, there is sugar added to dried cranberries and cherries. If you can find some without sugar, the more’s the merrier. Dried cherries are my all-time favorite, but they’re expensive. I hoard them. Therefore, I share less frequently with my children. Literally. 

Always buy unsweetened coconut flakes. There are tons of varieties all over. (Figuratively. There are literal tons of coconut flakes. But only a figurative ton of brand varieties because brand names cannot be weighed.) I subscribe to Terrasoul on Amazon and get six bags at a time and they’re squirreled away in the basement pantry. 

A homemade chocolate bar blessing

May your homemade chocolate be as delightful as watching your toddler march his new rubber boots into a puddle.

Go ahead, bless your neighbors, your friends, your family, and your mom-friends.

chocolate blessing

Typing this out at the library and chuckling to myself every now and then has been a delight. But now I’m going to mosey around the bookshelves and look for a new historical romance to enjoy. Before I go to bed tonight, I will make myself another batch of homemade chocolate because somebody ate the last of it a few days ago and now that somebody is going to do something about it. Literally. 

chocolate bar recipe

Homemade Chocolate Bars

5.0 from 1 reviews
Homemade Chocolate Bars
 
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Ingredients
  • ½ - ¾ cup honey
  • ⅔ cup natural almond butter
  • ½ cup butter or coconut oil
  • ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3-4 cups total of a combination of dry ingredients such as: pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chopped pecans/walnuts, dried cranberries/cherries, unsweetened coconut flakes.
  • Suggestion: 1 cup pumpkin seeds, 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes, 1 cup dried cherries, ½ slivered almonds, ¼ cup sunflower seeds
Instructions
  1. In a medium-sized saucepan, stir together honey, almond butter, butter or coconut oil, salt, and cocoa powder,
  2. Melt and stir ingredients over medium heat until well combined and slightly bubbly.
  3. Remove from heat.
  4. Add vanilla extract and dry ingredients and stir until coated.
  5. Scoop 1-2 Tablespoons of mixture onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet OR pour into a parchment paper lined 9X13 for a granola bar OR pour into one or two parchment paper-lined cookie sheets for chocolate bark.
  6. Chill Homemade Chocolate Bars in the refrigerator until they are set, about 1 hour. Cut into bars.

Go forth and make a homemade chocolate bar!

Thanks for sharing and blessing others with this recipe! Finally, be sure to let us know when you take a recipe and cruise through the backroads. Take us on the scenic route with you.

Tasha HackettTasha Hackett is a friend of Laura and author of Bluebird on the Prairie, a Christian historical romance releasing Spring 2021. Sunshine, homemade chocolate bars, or hot chocolate—whichever is more readily available is her fuel. While she often pretends to be a ballerina while unloading the dishwasher, her favorite thing is writing with hope and humor to entertain and encourage women. Most of her time is spent with four chatty children and an incredibly supportive husband. They give her the kind of love people write books about. You can connect with her at www.TashaHackett.com or Instagram @hackettacademy

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