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Healthy Treat for Today: Coconut Macaroons

February 26, 2008 by Laura 16 Comments

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All these “natural sugar” treats are soooo working for me around here. They satisfy the sweet tooth…my kids love them…and I can feel good about us all eating them!

Here’s today’s recipe!

Coconut MacaroonsYum

4 egg whites
1/4 t. sea salt
1/2 t. vanilla
2 T. arrowroot powder
1/2 cup real maple syrup (grade B is best)
2 cups unsweetened, shredded coconut

Separate eggs…putting the whites in a mixing bowl and the yolks in the fridge for tomorrow’s breakfast!

Beat the whites and salt with a hand mixer until soft peaks form.

(I took this picture with my left hand while I beat my egg whites with my right hand. But, I’m not trying to brag or anything…)

Continue to beat and add vanilla, arrowroot powder and maple syrup, one at a time.

(I cannot brag about adding these ingredients and beating the egg whites and taking a picture all at the same time.)

(I mean, I could have… but I was too busy working on our taxes, practicing my latin skills and tayloring a new suit for my husband while I did this step. I simply cannot do everything at once.)

Fold in the coconut.

Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes….then turn the oven to 200 degrees for one hour to let them crisp up.

These little treasures are so delicious!

The hard part about making them is smelling them bake for a whole hour and a half….and not being able to eat them!

Ah, but your patience will pay off!

Enjoy!

Tomorrow’s natural sugar recipe will have something to do with bananas…as I have several around here who have seen better days.

I’m thinking…hmm…banana cake?!

I also plan to share with you some deep insights into why I hope to be like a banana someday.

Deep. Very deep insights.

Be sure to take a look at all of the great natural sugar treat recipes…and to keep coming back for more each day!

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Healthy Treat For Today: Smoothies

February 26, 2008 by Laura 23 Comments

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There really is no limit when it comes to smoothies.

smoothies

Yum

Whip out your blender and you can make them with just about any combination of ingredients:

Yogurt or kefir, berries, peaches, apples, bananas, juice, cream, milk…

How about spinach smoothies?

Yes, and they’re good too. Really. I’m not kidding.

I made myself one yesterday. Ain’t it purty?

Heather mentioned some smoothie suggestions a few weeks ago at the beginning of the NO SUGAR Plunge. Here are her great ideas:

The Ultimate Smoothie:
half a Banana
four to six frozen strawberries
half cup plain yogurt
half to one cup orange juice
one Tbsp Flax seeds (ground in coffee grinder)

In a blender add the banana, strawberries, yogurt, and orange juice. Blend until smooth. Add the flax seeds and whey, blend until evenly distributed. Pour in two glasses and enjoy! Makes 2 smoothies or cut ingredients for a solo one!

Change the fruits to make a whole new kind of smoothie.
Tropical- Fresh banana, frozen mango, pineapple juice
Very Berry– Fresh blueberries, frozen raspberries, pomegranate juice
Peachy Dreams– Fresh strawberries, frozen peaches, orange juice

Thanks, Heather for sending us those!

I really like mixing my homemade yogurt or kefir (kefir is a lot like yogurt, just a little runnier) and a variety of frozen fruits, a tiny bit of vanilla and a few drops of stevia to sweeten. Blend it up and you’ve got breakfast or a snack or a side dish at lunch.

And I know you’re dying to find out how I made my spinach smoothie…’cause you really want to hop right up and make one yourself!

It was a banana, and apple, a big handful of spinach leaves, about a half cup of water and a few drops of stevia. Trust me, it mostly tastes like banana and apple. You can use any kinds of greens – I just happened to have spinach on hand.

What do you put in your smoothies?

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Healthy Treat For Today: Peanut Butter Raisin Balls

February 25, 2008 by Laura

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I’m curious…which of the “Natural Sugar” treats have you tried?

Nobody’s been complaining around here about the yummy snacks appearing on the table. (Or should I say disappearing from the table?!)

This weekend I made Krista’s Peanut Butter Raisin Balls, and one of my kids just kept coming back, saying, “Can I have another one?”

And I just let him…because there was no reason to limit him! They are so good…and so good for you!

And…just look at how cute they are! (Yes, I’m weird and think that sometimes food it cute.)

Peanut Butter Raisin BallsYum

1 cup natural peanut butter (with salt), smooth or chunky
2 Tbs. to 1/3 cup honey (to taste)
2/3 cup raisins
2 tsp. carob powder or cocoa powder (optional)
big pinch of cinnamon (optional)
1/2 to 2/3 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut (divided) (You can substitute another form of coconut here, but it won’t be the same-this stuff should add a nice texture and crunch)

Mix together peanut butter, honey, cocoa and cinnamon. Fold in 1/3 of the coconut and all of the raisins. Chill thoroughly. Roll the mix into little balls. Roll the balls in the remaining coconut. You may need to roll them twice and press the coconut in a little. Cover them with plastic wrap or put them in a ziplock bag and serve them well chilled.

Krista’s notes:
I like these best frozen and thawed for about five minutes. :) Also, I have never used the carob/cocoa or cinnamon and the taste was still great.

Laura’s notes:

These were SOOO easy to make…I look forward to now saying to Asa or Justus, “Hey would you please go make some Peanut Butter Raisin Balls?”

(And then I’ll go do something else *like blog or somethin’* and they’ll go make them all by themselves!)

Also, I used very little honey…more like the 2 T. she mentioned, and that was plenty…because the raisins are so sweet.

Thanks, Krista for sending in the recipe!! Anyone else have a yummy “natural sugar” treat recipe to share? Email me with it!!

Tomorrow, I think we’ll take a look at some great smoothie recipes…YUM! We love smoothies around here!!

And one more thing…I haven’t asked in a while…

How’s everyone doing on the NO SUGAR Plunge?? Hanging in there? Give us all an update!

(In case you’re wondering how I’m doing…I’ve stuck to my plan: Eat one “natural sugar” treat a day. With one exception…on Friday we had Justus’ birthday party a week late *that’s another blog for later this week*, and I made little chocolate cheesecakes at his request…and I ate one. And I enjoyed it and I didn’t feel bad about it. Other than that splurge, I’ve stayed true to the goal and I’m feeling GREAT!!)

(And it made Justus really happy that I was eating one…cause he was a little sad that I didn’t have any of his original birthday cake. I couldn’t make him sad two chocolate cheesecakes in a row, now could I?)

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Healthy Treat for Today: Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

February 23, 2008 by Laura 17 Comments

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Did you try making your very own homemade chocolate chips, er, chiumpks?!

Yes, they’re different than store bought ones…

But we really like them! And, I think I’ll keep playing with them to see about making them with butter…just to see if that works too!

I have really enjoyed munching on the trail mix…I love the combo of all the nuts with the fruit…and of course the CHOCOLATE!!

So now, here’s a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies, using unprocessed flour and sugar. These have a different flavor than you’re probably used to with a CC cookie…because all of the good stuff hasn’t been stripped out of the ingredients you’re putting in.

We think they’re just as good, if not better…

And when I’ve fed these to company (minus the homemade chocolate chips…I just tried those this week), they LOVE them. And they don’t even know there’s good stuff in them!

Chocolate Chip CookiesYum

2 sticks butter, melted
1 1/2 cups rapadura or sucanat
2 eggs
1 t. sea salt
1 t. baking soda
1 t. vanilla
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 – 1 cup homemade chocolate chips (I tend to be a little stingy on the chocolate chips that are homemade…I kind of want the batch to last longer!)

Mix melted butter and rapadura. Add eggs and stir well. Mix in salt, baking soda and vanilla. Stir in the flour until all combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop teaspoon sized pieces of dough onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Now, of course I picked out some of the prettier ones to show you…and just so you don’t wonder why some of yours didn’t turn out that pretty…

The homemade chocolate chiumpks in these just melted allllll over the place.

Maybe we could call those Chocolate Swirl Cookies?! (Sounds better than Runny Chocolate Blob Cookies.)

The good thing is…they taste great no matter what!

My kids had NO complaints about eating the ugly less fortunate looking ones.

Stay tuned for our next recipe…Peanut Butter Raisin Balls…sent in by Krista.

As you can tell, this series of healthy treat recipes is not going to end any time soon! I still have to talk about smoothies and coconut macaroons and…

There are SOOO many great things to make. Please send me any ideas you would like to share!

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Healthy Treat for Today: Trail Mix With HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE CHIPS

February 22, 2008 by Laura 29 Comments

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Who knew?

You can make your very own chocolate chips!!

Okay, well, I’m actually not clever enough to make them into the shape of chocolate chips…so maybe we’d better call them chocolate chunks.

Chip…Chunk…whatever. How cool are WE to know how to make our very own Chocolate Chiunpks?

I’ve had this recipe for a while, but hadn’t really thought about making it. Then I saw it on another post and was reminded! I’m SO glad for the reminder!

The recipe comes from my FAVORITE nutrition book: Nourishing Traditions.

I adapted it just a bit because it had a pretty bitter chocolate taste…and you may need to adapt it more, depending on how bitter you like your chocolate.

Also, depending on the quality of coconut oil you use, you may or may not have a
coconut-y taste in your chips. I LIKE it with the coconut taste.

Okay…so are you ready?!?!

Homemade Chocolate ChipsYum

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup rapadura or sucanat
1 cup coconut oil
1 T. vanilla

Mix ingredients in a glass container and set in simmering water until melted. Mix together well.

(Anybody wanna know what I was doing at exactly 2:04 yesterday?)
(uh, see…you can see my clock there, behind the melting chocolate chip mixture.)

Spread mixture on a piece of buttered parchment paper and allow to cool in the refrigerater.

When hardened, remove parchment paper and break into chunks. Store in refrigerator in an airtight container.

Aren’t they beautiful? Mmmmm-mmmm. (See a more thorough chocolate chip making tutorial here!)

Now…for the Trail Mix part…

1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup cashews
1/2 cup peanuts
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried apricots, cut into pieces
1/3 cup homemade chocolate chips

Mix it all together and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator…if it makes it that far!

Come back tomorrow for a recipe for whole wheat, rapadura Chocolate Chiumpk Cookies!

(And let me know if you can figure out how to pronounce that.) :)

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Healthy Treat for Today: Creamy Pudding

February 19, 2008 by Laura 122 Comments

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Today, I am sharing recipes for three varieties of YUMMY Creamy Pudding! Just look at all these wholesome ingredients!

And…if you put all or some of those wonderful ingredients together…you’ll get these:

Aaaand…if you put all those three together…and put real whipped cream on top…you’ll get this:

Creamy Vanilla PuddingYum

2 1/2 cups milk
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup real maple syrup (grade B is best for you) or honey
4 Tablespoons arrowroot powder (or organic corn starch)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a medium saucepan, whisk together milk, egg yolks, maple syrup, arrowroot powder and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring CONSTANTLY until pudding begins to thicken. Stir over the heat for about 15 more seconds. Remove immediately from the heat, and continue to stir until pudding is creamy. (I use my whisk the whole time for stirring and find this works great!) Add butter and vanilla and continue to stir until mixed. Pour into serving dishes and serve warm, or chill for two hours and serve cold.

Butterscotch Creamy Pudding

2 1/2 cups milk
3 egg yolks
2/3 cup sucanat (dehydrated cane sugar juice…has a wonderful “molassasy” taste!)
4 Tablespoons arrowroot powder (or organic corn starch)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3 Tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a medium saucepan, whisk together milk, egg yolks, sucanat, arrowroot powder and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring CONSTANTLY until pudding begins to thicken. Remove immediately from the heat, and continue to stir until pudding is creamy. Add butter and vanilla and continue to stir until mixed. Pour into serving dishes and serve warm, or chill for two hours and serve cold.

Chocolate Creamy Pudding

2 1/2 cups milk
3 egg yolks
2/3 cup sucanat or 1/2 cup real maple syrup
1/4 cup cocoa powder
4 Tablespoons arrowroot powder (or organic corn starch)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3 Tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a medium saucepan, whisk together milk, egg yolks, sucanat or maple syrup, cocoa, arrowroot powder and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring CONSTANTLY until pudding begins to thicken. Remove immediately from the heat, and continue to stir until pudding is creamy. Add butter and vanilla and continue to stir until mixed. Pour into serving dishes and serve warm, or chill for two hours and serve cold.

Oh, and just a couple of tips to make SURE your pudding is super good:

1. Enlist the help of an blond headed eight year old (or a close equivilent).

2. Be sure to have a short, cute taste tester on hand for quality control purposes. (I have some taller taste testers around here somewhere…guess they didn’t smell the “purding” cooking like the little guy did.)

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Healthy Treat for Today: Peanut Butter Honey Bars (Gluten free!)

February 19, 2008 by Laura 29 Comments

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Today begins my new series of posts in which I will share recipes for yummy, healthy treats for you to make for your family.

You’ll appreciate these recipes if you:

a) Took the NO SUGAR Plunge.
b) Want to take the NO SUGAR Plunge.
c) Have never heard of the NO SUGAR Plunge.
d) Like yummy food.
e) Have a family who likes to eat.
f) Want to avoid white sugar and white flour.
g) Want to make the most of every bite you put into your mouth.
h) Some of the above.
i) None of the above.
j) All of the above.

(I’m sorry, but if you chose ( j ), I must let you know that that particular option is not really an option…as you can not take the plunge having never heard of the plunge…nor can you “some of the above” at the same time as you can “none of the above”. If you chose ( j ), it would appear that you eat way too much sugar to function properly, proving that you should really take the NO SUGAR Plunge with us!)

My goal with these recipes is to help us all to be able to offer our families special dishes/desserts/drinks/snacks that we can feel good about. They will not have any processed sugars or flours in them…and as much as I can…I’ll try to post recipes that don’t even have flour at all!

And here…is the promised recipe for Peanut Butter Honey Bars:

1 cup peanut butter (be sure to use natural peanut butter with only peanuts and salt in the ingredient list!)
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
1/4 t. vanilla
1/8 cup sesame seeds

Mix all ingredients well. Spread mixture into a 8×8 pan. (I used a baking stone) Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Allow bars to cool completely before cutting.

Yum

These Peanut Butter Honey Bars are moist and satisfying! And so easy to make!

Stay tuned for more yummy recipes! Soon to come (listed in no particular order):

*Super Smoothies*
*Creamy Pudding*
*Fruit Cobbler*
*Coconut Macaroons*
*Limeade*

And oh so many more! I can’t wait to share these with you!

Be sure to leave a comment to let us all know how you’re doing with the Plunge…or if you’d like to jump in with us!

And be sure to come back tomorrow for another recipe to treat your family. I’m not sure…but I’m leaning toward the Creamy Pudding…

Any votes on that one?

You’ll find MANY more “natural sugar” treat recipes here!

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Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

January 30, 2008 by Laura 24 Comments

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Even if you can tolerate gluten, it’s great to have a recipe for a sweet treat for friends and family who can’t. This recipe is YUMMY and so super easy!

Yum

My seven year old chef made these yesterday! His thirty something year old mommy ate three one tiny nibble to make sure they were good. (and they were)

Only four ingredients!

1 cup brown sugar or sucanat
1 cup peanut butter
1 egg
chocolate chips or chocolate stars…depending on how you want to make them

Just mix the brown sugar, peanut butter and egg together.

For bar cookies, stir in about 1/2 cup chocolate chips, spread mixture into a 9×9 pan and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

For cutesy cookies, place a small scoop into a mini muffin paper (using a mini muffin pan), put a chocolate star in the middle of each and bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

And that’s it! Easy and yummy…that works for me!

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Make Your Own Yogurt and Cream Cheese

January 25, 2008 by Laura 271 Comments

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How to Make Homemade Yogurt

Yum

You can make your own yogurt and cream cheese, and it is not hard! You don’t have to have any fancy equipment (and when you see my pictures, you’ll believe it!). Not only will this save you money, you’ll have yogurt and cream cheese that is very good for you! Try making this yogurt, then add your own fruit, sweetener (I recommend stevia or real grade B maple syrup) and a touch of vanilla. YUM!

Here’s what you need to do to make yogurt:

1 quart of whole milk (I use unpasturized milk from a farming friend)
3/4 cup plain yogurt or this yogurt starter

Pour the yogurt into a quart jar (using a glass container is important). Heat the milk on the stove in a saucepan until it is just under 100 degrees.

Pour the milk over the yogurt in the jar and shake.

Place the jar into a cooler of hot water, cover and leave in the cooler for seven hours.

There, you just made yogurt!

Now, you can eat the yogurt as I mentioned before, or you can take your yogurt and make cream cheese (and impress the socks off of someone!).

To make cream cheese, line a strainer with a tea towel. Pour the yogurt into the tea towel.

You need to secure the tea towel full of yogurt and hang it for 7-10 hours (I usually do this overnight) so that the whey can drip off. I’m sure there must be a more impressive way to hang your yogurt, but what we’ve come up with works just fine!

Here are the secrets to my effective cream cheese-hanging-whey-dripping process (I know, you’re on the edge of your chair!):

I fold over the top of the tea towel and hold it closed with a couple of rubber bands. Then, I use several more rubber bands to attach a long wooden spoon to the wadded up tea towel. Then, I use a rope to dangle the tea towel from a cabinet door. And, of course I leave a bowl under the whole contraption so that whey doesn’t drip all over the floor (because then, my process would not be nearly as cute).

Then, after you can tell that the whey has all separated from the cream cheese (you can tell it’s finished if it isn’t dripping any more), then you pull the whole thing down and scrape the cream cheese into a jar. And that’s it. It is so simple.

Sure, you can tell people that it took you hours and hours to make yogurt and cream cheese (because technically it DID take hours to make), but the part you actually played in it took about 10 minutes.

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Create Your Own “Restaurant” Fun

January 11, 2008 by Laura 41 Comments

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My kids like to eat out, but…

a) the food is usually, almost always, mostly bad for you.
b) my three year old eats a lot, my five year old eats as much as I do, my seven year old and ten year old eat as much as their Daddy, and…
c) have you seen how much their Daddy eats?
d) do you know how much it costs at a restaurant to feed a family of six who eat like five adults?

Therefore, I often try to make food fun at home, especially on Friday nights, for our family.

One of our favorite things to have is my Homemade Chicken Nuggets and French Fries. The kids love it, request it and are joyful over it when they know I’m making it.

I watch for Smart Chicken boneless/skinless breasts to go on sale (that’s the only brand of chicken I feel mostly okay about buying) and I stock up. I found it for $2.29/lb the other day which was great for Smart Chicken!

Potatoes are super cheap and we have about 40 pounds still in storage from our garden last summer (yea!). You can also try making some Creamy Mac and Cheese as a yummy side dish!

So, here’s the recipe for my Homemade Chicken Nuggets and French Fries.

(My side note: Kids may have a harder time getting used to these chicken nuggets because they are actually made of, well, chicken. Give them a try though – my kids LOVE them and cheer when I’m making them! Every adult I’ve fed them to LOVE them as well.)

5.0 from 1 reviews

Chicken Nuggets and French Fries

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

30 mins

Author: Laura Coppinger

Recipe type: Main Dish

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

For the Chicken Nuggets:
3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
½ cup whole wheat flour
Sea salt
½ cup oil (I use Palm Shortening)
For the French Fries:
6-8 medium potatoes
1 cup oil - give or take (again, I use Palm Shortening)
Sea salt

Instructions

For the Chicken Nuggets: Cut the chicken into small nugget sized pieces and place in a bowl. Stir chicken around in the flour to coat. Heat oil in skillet. Cook chicken in hot oil for about seven minutes on each side. Salt liberally while cooking.
For the French Fries:
Scrub potatoes well and cut into thin french fries, any length you like. Heat ½ cup oil in skillet. Place half the potatoes in the oil and cook for about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender, yet crispy, stirring then around occasionally. Salt well. Repeat process for remaining potatoes. (I keep the first batch warm in a 200 degree oven while I cook the second batch.)

So there you have it! If I’m really feeling clever, I’ll do one of the following for the meal:

1) Wrap a few nuggets and a few fries in parchment paper and place them in a lunch sack for each of my boys. Sometimes, I’ll even throw in a little trinket if I have them around. Then the kids feel like they are getting a kid’s meal at a restaurant! They love it!

2) Give each of the boys some coins and have them sit at the table with a menu to order from. They usually order the “special” (since that’s all Mama’s Kitchen is offering!) and have to pay for it with their coins. It’s super fun and a good lesson in restaurant behavior and money.

If I’m not feeling clever (or if I have no energy left for much except eating), I just throw a plate of the nuggets and a plate of the fries on the table and we all just dig in. Hey, that’s fun too.

Have you grabbed this Simple Ingredients for Simple Meals FREE printable yet? Get it here!

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