Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

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I’m not sure if you are a chocolate lover like I am, but any recipe that has the words chocolate and chocolate written side by side makes me very happy and excited.

Chocolate_Chocolate_Chip_Muffins

My biggest hint on this recipe is to use sour cream instead of milk. (The recipe lists either one.) Sour cream makes these super moist.

This recipe is a definite family favorite. They taste amazing with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip MuffinsYum

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sucanat
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup melted coconut oil or butter
2/3 cup milk or sour cream
1 egg
1/4 cup chocolate chips (I recommend these organic chips without soy lecithin)

Stir together dry ingredients. Mix in coconut oil, milk and egg. Fold in chocolate chips. Scoop into 9-12 paper lined muffin tins. Bake at 400° for 20  minutes. Makes about 9 muffins. (I double the recipe for my family of six.)

5.0 from 1 reviews
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins
 
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Author:
Serves: 9 muffins
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups whole wheat flour
  • ⅓ cup sucanat
  • ¼ cup cocoa powder
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ cup melted coconut oil or butter
  • ⅔ cup milk or sour cream
  • 1 egg
  • ¼ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Stir together dry ingredients.
  2. Mix in coconut oil, milk and egg.
  3. Fold in chocolate chips.
  4. Scoop into 9-12 paper lined muffin tins.
  5. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes.

If you have some good quality coconut oil, I highly recommend using it in this recipe. The coconut flavor with the chocolate is SO GOOD.

How about Chocolate Chip Bread?

Don’t mind if I do. Indeed, you can also make this recipe into a quick bread instead of muffins. Just spread the batter into a buttered loaf pan and bake at 350° for 50 minutes! Get all the details here.

chocolate_pumpkin_bread_2

 

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Our Healthy Eating Journey, Part 9

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healthyeatingjourney

If you missed them, please catch up on
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 , Part 7 and Part 8.

I had just been released from the hospital from complications from asthma and Malachi was miserable with his eczema…something had to give. We were starting to make several changes in the way we ate (more whole grains, more organic produce) and the way we cleaned (no harmful chemicals in our cleaning products)…but I was NOT willing to give up my Pepsi. I did feel a little ridiculous drinking a Pepsi (or three) with my organic, free range chicken…but what-ever. I needed my Pepsi!

So, do you want to know what FINALLY broke me of drinking Pepsi? I’m sorry if it’s not as exciting or enlightening as you were maybe hoping it would be…but this is my Pepsi quitting story nonetheless:

We had several thousand dollars worth of medical bills from my hospital visit (insurance didn’t touch it because there was a rider on my asthma). Nor did insurance cover one bit of the Osteopathic treatments we were experimenting with to try to get my asthma and Malachi’s eczema under control. (This is not an insurance bashing post…we just had a lame insurance plan.)  Bills were stacking up like crazy. Our financial reserves were pretty much gone.

I basically had to make a decision:  Keep eating poorly and drinking lots of Pepsi and remain sick, while spending LOTS of money to try to improve my health. (Sounds like money down the drain, huh?)  Or, stop hurting my body and let the money we were putting into my health be WORTH SOMETHING.

I was an all or nothing Pepsi drinker. I couldn’t just have a little. If I had a little…I would have a lot. And then I would have some more.

I was going to have to quit.

As I was wrestling with all of this and “trying to quit”, one of my friends who was quite a few months ahead of me on the healthy eating journey (and who was worried sick over my health) said to me, “Laura, you’re so sick. Your asthma is out of control. You can’t keep up with your kids. You need nourishment.”

Nourishment. I needed nourishment. My family needed nourishment.

Funny isn’t it that although I’d already read through Nourishing Traditions and looked into eating a healthier diet…I still hadn’t equated food with nourishment. 

I had taken all the information I’d learned and just worked to avoid pesticides and avoid hydrogenated oils and avoid high fructose corn syrup…but I’d forgotten that the big point of eating is to fill our bodies with nourishment!!

Until then, eating and food was all about “dos” and “don’ts”. Don’t eat fat. Oh wait, do eat healthy fat. Don’t eat red meat. Oh wait, do eat grass fed red meat. Don’t eat eggs. Oh wait, do eat free range eggs. Don’t eat food coloring, additives, pesticides, chicken from the store, etcetera, etcetera. But do eat organic produce, free range chicken, food without preservatives, etcetera, etcetera.

That simple statement from my friend, “Laura, you need nourishment” was a light bulb moment for me. I suddenly saw food for what it was:  a way to nourish every part of our body.

And the Pepsi? Not only was it not giving me nourishment…it was completely wrecking me. What in the WORLD was my body supposed to do with all the Pepsi I was putting into it? 

I quit drinking Pepsi that day. I missed it, I craved it, I had withdrawals from it. But I knew that I had to just give it up. I had lots of support. And I had so many reasons to stop my Pepsi madness. Five of them are my most precious men who count on me to take care of them every day.

I then had to change the way I thought about Pepsi. I had to stop believing the lie that “I needed my Pepsi”. I had to change my afternoon “relax with a Pepsi” habit and I had to replace it with a healthy habit. I had to pray. I had to be strong.

I’ve been Pepsi (and all pop/soda) free for four and a half years now. Now, I simply smell Pepsi when I have a chance.  Pitiful (and weird), I know. 

So now that I’d conquered the Pepsi addiction…what was next in our healthy eating journey? Ugh, so many other healthy eating changes I thought my head would fall off.

To be continued…
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This post is linked to Works for me Wednesday.

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How I Plan our Meals + Our Menu Plan This Week

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Download free menu planners here!

Recently one of my readers asked if I have any special method for menu planning. When planning a menu, I usually ask myself these questions:

  • What do we have going on this week (field trips, soccer games, events, church activities, company coming, etc)?
  • What is Matt’s work schedule this week?
  • What do we have in the fridge that needs to be eaten up?
  • What did we eat last week? (so I can offer a variety if possible)
  • What do I have in the freezers and pantry?

Then, I plan meals accordingly. If we have soccer games, I’ll try to plan a quick meal before we leave…or plan something easy to heat up when we get home. If Matt is working in an evening, I’ll plan a bigger meal for lunchtime so he can share it with us. If we have a homeschool activity in the morning, I’ll plan something quick to heat up when we get home (or something transportable so we can eat on the way there or back).

I try to plan a variety, so that we don’t have three chicken meals in a row or the same veggie all week long. This helps keep food exciting for the kids…plus makes sure we get many different kinds of nutrients each day.

What about you…do you have a special way of planning your meals?

Sunday, April 11
Oatmeal, peaches
Leg of lamb, baked potatoes, honey glazed carrots, peas, honey wheat muffins
Homemade pizza pockets, fruit

Monday, April 12
Whole wheat waffles, blueberries
Fried chicken legs, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans
Bean and cheese burritos, clementines

Tuesday, April 13
Mini breakfast pizzas, oranges
Spaghetti, tossed salad
Chicken fried steak strips, potato wedges, steamed broccoli and carrots

Wednesday, April 14
Chocolate chocolate chip muffins (recipe coming THIS week – finally!)
Beefy enchilada bake, tossed salad
Simple soaked pancakes, turkey sausage

Thursday, April 15
Breakfast burritos, applesauce
Cheeseburger macaroni, steamed carrots
Italian roast wraps, fruit salad

Friday, April 16
Giant breakfast cookies, pears
 Corn dog muffins, fruit-kefir smoothies, carrot sticks
Homemade pizza

Saturday, April 17
Scrambled eggs, toast, fruit
Leftover buffet
Grilled cheese sandwiches, pasta salad, carrot sticks

Hey, question for you of the UTMOST importance (not really)…

We got our toaster as a wedding gift and it has lasted 15  years (which means it’s actually 105 years old in toaster years – impressive). It’s been good to us and has toasted hundreds upon thousands of bready items. It is now on it’s last leg…sometimes toasting…sometimes forgetting to toast…sometimes sleeping through the entire process.

It’s time to get a new toaster. My question is…do you have any recommendations? Do you know of a great brand of toasters? OR do you think we should just get a toaster oven instead?!

See, I told you my question was important.

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Menu Plan for the Week

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We had an absolutely fantastic weekend – I can’t wait to tell you more about it on Gratituesday! I hope you had a wonderful Easter!

Here’s our menu for this week:

Sunday, April 4
Oatmeal, clementines
Roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, creamy corn casserole, homemade rolls, cantaloupe, apple crisp
Nacho bar, fruit

Monday, April 5
Mini apple pies, cheddar cheese slices
Corn dog muffins, apples
BBQ beef, creamy coleslaw, peas

Tuesday, April 6
Homemade oat crunch cereal (recipe found in Think Breakfast Outside the Box ebook), dried fruit
Fish nuggets with tartar sauce, steamed broccoli and cauliflower
Chicken tostadas, pineapple

Wednesday, April 7
Honey whole wheat bagels, pears
Taco potatoes, cantaloupe
Simple soaked pancakes, scrambled eggs

Thursday, April 8
Breakfast burritos, applesauce
Tuna on tomatoes, cottage cheese with peaches
Homemade pizza, tossed salad

Friday, April 9
Scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, creamy orange cooler
Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup
Lamb chops, baked potatoes, honey glazed carrots

Saturday, April 10
Whole wheat sourdough biscuits, turkey sausage gravy
Leftover buffet
Sloppy joes, potato salad, carrot sticks
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Visit Organizing Junkie for more Menu Planning Inspiration.

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Freezer Cooking Diary of the Week

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I’m gonna just admit to you that I bit off more than I could chew this week (so pardon me while I type with my mouth full).

This was not a good week for me to try to make extra food. This would have been a good week for me to HAVE extra food in my freezer ready to pull out and warm up quickly. But what did I do? I cooked extra food. In the midst of running around like a funky chicken taking my kids to soccer and musical practices…putting the final touches on all of our LTC projects…preparing for a short trip…working on costumes…going on a field trip…sorting through spring/summer clothing…and doing school work.

WHAT was I thinking?

I think I was thinking that having extra food on hand in the coming weeks will be very handy, and I’m right…it will be very handy. But I’m whipped.

I am NOT whining. No ma’am. I’m just saying that maybe next time I should make a better judgment call on when I should do extra cooking. 

And also, I’m letting you know that every single room of my house looks like a bomb went off. There were apparently separate bombs for every room and some bombs were larger than others and had a flying clothing effect.

Ah, but at least I have lots of prepared food in my freezer now, eh?

Here’s a run down of the week:

Sunday night I started a pan of beans to soak and mixed up a double batch of tortillas to soak overnight.

Monday morning before schooltime, I started cooking beans and rolling out tortillas. I put together the Bean and Cheese Burritos and got them into the freezer by noon. I then mixed up a double batch of dough for Homemade Pizza Pockets and Beefy Enchilada Bake to soak. I also made a batch of Homemade Ice Cream for the Ice Cream Experiment. That was it for Monday.

freezercookingapril1sm

 

Tuesday was the biggest cooking day as the only extra thing we had going on was one soccer practice.

I got five pounds of meat cooking before breakfast. Once I got the kids started on their math and other individual work, I mixed up a double batch of Corn Dog Muffins and got those into the oven.

The meat was then finished browning, so I stirred up three pounds of Sloppy Joes and put them into jars for the freezer. The remaining two pounds of hamburger helped make up two big pans of Beefy Enchilada Bake.

I then set about putting together Homemade Pizza Pockets and Mini Apple Pies. I had to take a break somewhere in there and feed us all lunch. Everyone was disappointed that we weren’t having pizza pockets and apple pie for lunch. (Ah, but what they didn’t know what that I had secretly stuck a big apple pie in the oven for later!)

freezer_cooking_april_sm

Here’s a look at a very adorable five year old, along with the finished
Beefy Enchilada Bakes, Homemade Pizza Pockets, Corn Dog Muffins and Sloppy Joes.

freezer_cooking_april_3_sm

And here’s a closer-up picture of the food…but without the five year old..
so this picture may not be as fun to look at.

freezer_cooking_april_2_sm

Finally, I got the Mini Apple Pies finished and put into the freezer. 
Those will make a wonderful breakfast some morning soon!

I finished Tuesday off by mixing up a double batch of Giant Breakfast Cookies to soak for the next day.

Wednesday I spent the morning baking Giant Breakfast Cookies. While each round of cookies was in the oven baking, I’d go tackle some homework help or spring clothes sorting.

freezercookingapril3sm

I took some time to shake up some Ranch  Dressing Mix, Italian Dressing Mixand Taco Seasoning Mix. I LOVE having these mixes ready for when I need to make dressing or dip or tacos or…all the other things I use making these mixes.

freezercookingapril4sm

And there you go. I didn’t quite finish everything on my list, but that’s okay! I think we will be using many of these convenience foods next week while we CLEAN UP the war zone that is our house. 

Has anyone seen my broom?

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The Ice Cream Experiment: Take One

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Is all ice cream created equal? Should we go with the cheap stuff…or is it worth it to pay a little more to make our own or buy brands that have more wholesome ingredients?

I recently read an ice cream story that left me with my jaw on the ground. With Randy’s permission, I will share part of his story (taken from a monthly newsletter I receive from North Star Neighbors)…

On February 25th, I went to [a grocery store] and purchased  2-quarts of ice cream. It tasted so-so. I went to try again and when opening the cartons, it just didn’t look right and fresh! So, I set both cartons in the sink to melt.
 
The [first brand] took 2 days to actually melt. The [second brand] NEVER did melt. Three days after sitting on the counter, I stuck a spoon in it and it ‘stood up’ all by itself. 

I read through the rest of this email and was shocked that an entire month later, the second brand of ice cream had still not melted!!!! Ice cream that doesn’t melt?! Whoa! I knew that many store brand ice creams contain some funky ingredients, which is why I avoid them, but funky ingredients that actually keep the ice cream from melting?! Kinda makes you think that maybe this frozen stuff in a box is possibly…not real food?!?!

And so, I decided to do a little ice cream experiment of my own, and blog the progress for you. Only for you (and because I’m weird enough to want to see this for myself) would I buy two cartons of ice cream that I wasn’t planning to eat  and leave it on my countertop for days and days to watch it’s progress.

At the risk of sounding like Dr. Seuss, please allow me to introduce to you…Brand One and Brand Two:

icecreamex1sm

Brand One Ingredients:  milk, cream, sugar, skim milk, corn syrup, whey protein concentrate, mono- and diglycerides, guar gum, sodium phosphate, cellulose gum, sodium citrate, polysorbate 80, carrageenan, vanilla extract, artificial flavor, annatto

Brand Two Ingredients:  milk, cream, buttermilk, whey, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, guar gum, mono & diglycerides, sodium phosphate, cellulose gum, sodium citrate, polysorbate 80, carrageenan, natural flavor, annatto

We took a scoop out of each, just to show the texture.

Brand One:

icecreamexsm

Take special notice of the layer of gunk (for lack of a better word) on the top of the box of Brand Two:

icecreamex3sm

We set the ice cream out at precisely 10:40 am Saturday, March 27 (2010).

Exactly one hour later, Brand One looked like this:

icecreamex4sm

And Brand Two looked like this:

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They appear to be melting don’t they? Oh dear, maybe we should stop the experiment right now and eat the ice cream before it melts all over the place! But no, let’s not. Let’s wait and see what happens.

Two hours later…Brand One:

icecreamex7sm

Brand Two (notice again, the lid gunk that hasn’t changed a bit):

icecreamex8sm

As the familiar saying goes, a watched ice cream carton never melts…so we put a towel under it and walked away for the evening. 

The next morning…

Brand One:

icecreamex9sm

Brand Two:

icecreamex10sm

The towel underneath the cartons was wet and clearly the cartons were slightly less full than when we first started this two days ago. So, I will give it this much:  the ice cream was melting somewhat.

Moving on to Monday morning…

Brand One:

icecreamex12sm

Brand Two:

icecreamex11sm

At this point in the experiment, it had been almost 48 hours since we’d taken the ice cream out of the freezer. When we gently pushed on the contents of the cartons, it resembled a sponge. A sticky sponge.

What could we do now, but make Homemade Ice Cream with all natural ingredients to make a comparison! And so, we lugged out our ice cream maker and got it whirling.

Homemade Ice Cream Ingredients:  Cream, milk, real maple syrup, egg yolks, vanilla, arrowroot powder

icecreamex13sm

Okay…yum.

I know this experiment isn’t exactly apples to apples (or ice cream to ice cream as the case may be) because I just wasn’t willing to part with an entire quart of homemade ice cream to see how long it would take to melt. Instead, we scooped some out into a small bowl.

Here’s the Homemade Ice Cream at 11:40 Monday morning:

icecreamex14sm

Homemade Ice Cream at one hour later at 12:40 pm:

icecreamex.15sm

And the homemade ice cream on Monday at 1:26 pm:

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The homemade ice cream melted in our mouths too…but that goes without saying.

So let’s review:

Homemade Ice Cream…melted in just under two hours.

Brand One and Brand Two…72 hours later, we’re still waiting to find out.

Check back  here in a few days and I’ll share the ice cream melting progress (or lack thereof)!

And um, just in case it never melts…how long do you suppose I should let it sit on my countertop?
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Gratituesday: Creamy Orange Cooler

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Wow I love me a good Creamy Orange Cooler!

Over the weekend when I was nursing a sinus infection, I found myself without an appetite. But, I knew I needed to keep some good foods going in so that my body would have something to work with to fight the infection.

Something made me think of a recipe I had tried years ago (like before Asa was even born), and suddenly it sounded SO GOOD. I got out my old recipe book, made several tweaks to the concoction and guzzled it down!!! If I hadn’t been sick and out of energy, I would have done a dance around my kitchen! Maybe I had been hungrier than I thought – or maybe this was just exactly what I needed. Either way, I made another batch the next day!

Creamy Orange Cooler

Creamy Orange Cooler

Gratituesday: Creamy Orange Cooler
 
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Author:
Ingredients
  • Juice of 3 medium oranges
  • 2 cups buttermilk
  • 2 teaspoons real maple syrup (or more to taste)
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • a handful of ice cubes (optional)
Instructions
  1. Squeeze juice from the oranges and pour into a blender with remaining ingredients.
  2. Blend until smooth (or until ice is crushed if added).

This drink is so easy to whip up. The buttermilk mixed with the sweet citrus creates an amazingly tangy taste that is SO refreshing!

I also love that this is a new way to get down some cultured buttermilk! (Learn how easy it is to make your own buttermilk here.)  I have a hard time drinking the raw, cultured buttermilk by itself, but in this mixture – I could just drink it straight from the blender!

And yes, I know dairy products aren’t great when you have a sinus infection…but I didn’t care. ;)  I needed something that would go down easily and satisfy my insides. It did exactly that. (Plus I used raw milk, which doesn’t have the same ill effects on the sinuses as store-bought milk does.)

Looking for more healthy, satisfying recipes? Here is a list of all my healthy Bread and Breakfast Recipes.

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Our Healthy Eating Journey, Part 8

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healthyeatingjourney

If you missed them, please catch up on
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7.

Because of Malachi’s severe eczema, we had started looking into the world of healthy eating. Here’s one of the first (and biggest) things we learned:  This new definition of healthy eating I was reading about was WAY different from anything I’d ever heard of.

For sure, I had spent years thinking that healthy eating meant eating as little fat as possible. Avoid the french fries and the pizza. Choose margarine over butter, don’t eat eggs, watch the cheese, eat chicken not beef. Drink fat free milk, choose fat free candy, eat fat free yogurt. This is what I’d been taught was “a healthy diet”.

Suddenly, everything I had ever learned about eating healthy was being challenged. Not only that, but if I was going to start eating these whole foods I’d been reading about, I was going to have to actually spend money on food. I didn’t like spending money on food. What was I going to do? How important was it to eat healthy, anyway?

About the time we were starting to wrestle with and learn about healthy eating,  my asthma started giving me some real trouble. The boys were 8, 5, 3 and 8 months at the time. I was pretty exhausted, mainly from getting so little sleep night after night trying to comfort Malachi. I was still nursing him exclusively because we were very afraid to feed him any food. I was drained.

My guess was that it didn’t help that I was drinking a lot of Pepsi every day. Even though I was in the process of learning about raw milk and grass fed meats and free ranged chickens and organic produce…I was having the HARDEST time giving up my Pepsi. I drank Pepsi because I LOVED it. I drank Pepsi because it tasted so good. I drank Pepsi to “give me energy”. I drank Pepsi because I was in the habit of drinking Pepsi. And also, I just LOVED it. (But I think I said that already.)

I drank it in the morning with my breakfast (I always called it my “coffee”). I drank it with my lunch. I drank it in the afternoon if I had some “down time”. I drank it in the afternoon if I didn’t get my “down time” because well…then I really “needed it”! I would usually go through almost a liter and a half a day (or 3-5 cans, depending on what I had bought on sale).

And…if I went out to eat? I would SO take advantage of the free refills!!! Oh yes, I would. It’s almost embarassing. (almost?) 

All that to say…my immune system was pretty shot. (I’m sure the Pepsi wasn’t the only reason, but, WOW that’s a lot of sugar consumption!)  Once my depleted body started to have worse asthma symptoms…I found myself unable to fight back. 

It started with what seemed to be a cold, but I could not get over it. I got so sick I could hardly walk across the room for lack of energy and breath. Friends came over to help with the kids and laundry. I lost a lot of weight (I looked terrible). I had no appetite. Every breath hurt. I coughed all the time. I fell asleep in the middle of a noisy room with the kids playing all around me. I couldn’t answer questions. I remember my friends asking me what I’d eaten for lunch and I’d just give them a blank stare. Matt was trying to juggle his work and the kids and a very sick wife. He would fall asleep at night with his clothes on, he was so tired from trying to keep up. (By the way, during the time I was the sickest, I wasn’t drinking Pepsi anymore…I wasn’t that stupid! But I hadn’t decided to give it up for good yet!)

My doctor was trying different medications to get the asthma under control, but nothing seemed to work. He was very concerned about my weight and overall health and wanted me to stop nursing Malachi since I was so depleted. He finally insisted on hospitalizing me so that we could do something about my lungs and get me hydrated.

I was in the hospital for four days. My friends and church family were incredible. They took care of the kids. They brought meals. Some of my fellow nursing mothers were even kind enough to pump extra milk for Malachi. 

It took almost two months for me to finally begin to feel well again. And then, I began to drink Pepsi again because I missed it so much…and I was feeling so much better, so why not?! 

It didn’t take long for my lungs to feel wheezy and my energy to wane. I was getting sick again…

To be continued…

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Menu Plan for the Week

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I spent the weekend fighting a sinus infection. My Gratituesday post this week may be about how thankful I am for soft kleenexes, because you just don’t realize how much you appreciate the softness until you go through two entire boxes in three days. I promise I’ll write about something else for Gratituesday. But kudos to the folks at Puffs. Many, many thanks.

In other news, I have three weeks to make two puppy costumes, a goat costume and a pig costume. Our boys are in a Three Little Pigs musical, which is going to be SO STINKIN’ CUTE. But, making costumes is not my gift. Do you suppose they could just be super heroes? I have all kinds of super hero costumes already. Picture it:  Super Man comes in and saves the Two Little Pigs and The One Little Batman from the Big Bad Wolf and everyone lives happily ever after. The end. I like it. I’m going to talk to the director and see if she’ll go for it.

Just in case she doesn’t, does anyone want to come help me make costumes? 

And now, without any kind of nice segue, here is our menu for this week:

Sunday, March 28
Oatmeal, peaches
Soccer game – packed sandwiches, etc.
Creamy mac and cheese, steamed carrots

Monday, March 29
Simple soaked pancakes, blueberries
Bean and rice bowls with salsa and kreme fresh, oranges
BBQ meatballs, baked potatoes, green beans

Tuesday, March 30
Scrambled egg sandwiches, clementines
Spaghetti with meat sauce, tossed salad
Rice and veggie stir fry, pineapple

Wednesday, March 31
Warm chocolate soother, toast, apple slices
Beefy enchilada bake, fruit-kefir smoothies
Three cheese garlic chicken pasta, tossed salad, fruit

Thursday, April 1
Cinnamon swirl bread, pears
Salmon patties, steamed broccoli and cauliflower
Hamburgers on whole wheat hamburger buns, carrot sticks, apple slices

Friday, April 2
Spending the day with friends…meals??!!

Saturday, April 3
Scrambled eggs, toast, fruit
Tortilla meat and cheese wraps, carrots,apples
Chicken sandwiches, onion rings

There are just a few more hours to sign up for the Custom Blog Design from Delight Design giveaway! Hurry over and sign up!

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Coming up on the blog this week…I’ve finally got new posts in BOTH the Becoming a Better Help Meet series and Our Healthy Eating Journey series! I’m going to try to get some extra cooking/baking in this week, so you can follow along with my progress. Plus be watching for a very crazy science experience I am conducting in my kitchen!!  Mwooohahahaha!
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Find more menu planning inspiration at Organizing Junkie!

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Homemade Chewy Granola Bars (without corn syrup!)

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Chewy Granola Bars. No corn syrup. Easy recipe. Grab-and-go snack option. Fantastic.

Chewy Granola Bars - No Corn Syrup

Every homemade chewy granola bar recipe I’ve ever seen includes corn syrup and/or marshmallow cream (not ingredients we feel okay about eating or feeding my family). Even most pre-made granola bars I have seen at the store (even the organic ones) have ingredients I don’t like feeding my family.

I finally figured out a chewy granola bar recipe that we like! It’s easy and includes all natural sweeteners and ingredients! These bars are way cheaper than store bought granola bars! Plus you can customize it according to your family’s taste and allergies! They can be easily wrapped individually to take in the car or packed in a lunch!

Homemade Chewy Granola BarsYum

5.0 from 2 reviews
Homemade Chewy Granola Bars (without corn syrup!)
 
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Ingredients
  • ½ cup peanut butter or sunbutter
  • ⅓ cup honey
  • ¼ cup coconut oil (or another oil of your choice)
  • 1 cup oats
  • 1 cup total of any combination of: sesame seeds, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, mini chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. In a medium sized saucepan, melt together peanut butter, honey and coconut oil.
  2. Remove from heat and add one cup of oats.
  3. Choose your favorite combination of coconut flakes, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, dried fruit and mini chocolate chips, to equal a total of ONE CUP. (I just got out my one cup measuring cup and poured in the ingredients until the cup was full.)
  4. Pour in and stir well.
  5. Spread mixture into a 8x8 or 9x4 pan.
  6. Chill for two hours, then cut into bars.

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Wrap in plastic wrap for a quick grab and go snack!

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Many have said that these taste similar to the oldie-but-goodie No Bake Cookie recipe we’re all familiar with. How fun that these are quite a bit healthier!

I’ve found that these keep best in the fridge as they get a little bit too soft if left out for too long. What a perfect grab-and-go snack!

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