Build Your Own Breakfast Cookie

This past week I purchased carob chips for the first time in my life, as I was making a treat for a friend's dog and learned that chocolate is a no-no for pooches. I gave some of the chips to the kids on a whim, fully expecting that they would be promptly spat upon the table as my children dealt with the treachery of being given imitation chocolate. Imagine my surprise when they begged for more and continued to ask for carob chips every day since.  I was raised by a wonderful mother who was and is fiercely loyal to chocolate and all things sugar, who taught me at a young age that carob was an unpalatable chocolate imitation that only self-punishing "no-sugar moms" would eat. Who would have thought that I would so betray my roots and raise these carob-loving children and be feeding them sugar-free breakfast cookies. I hope my mother does not think of me as her own worst kitchen nightmare.

In my defense, I am not so pure as to be a "no-sugar mom," but I do always want my cookies to be healthier than everyone else in the family seems to prefer.  If I call my creations "breakfast cookies,"though, then everyone recognizes that they are not dessert cookies and is just happy that they are eating cookies for breakfast. I have seen a number of breakfast cookie recipes on various blogs, but they always seem to be more on the cookie side and less on the breakfast side to me. So, be warned: my idea of a breakfast cookie is like portable oatmeal, not a cookie that you eat for breakfast just because someone added flax seed and maple syrup to a Tollhouse cookie or some nonsense like that. Believe it or not, a breakfast-y treat like this can be tasty and kid-approved without any added sugar or oil.

Here is the basic formula, with some variations we have enjoyed. This makes 10-12 standard size cookies.

Basic Recipe
1 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp. stevia powder
1/4 cup dried fruit (If the fruit is not particularly soft, soak it in boiling water for 10 mins. and then drain)
1 tsp. vanilla
2/3 cup applesauce, mashed banana, pumpkin, cooked sweet potato, or other fresh fruit or a combination thereof
1 Tbsp. tahini or sunflower seed butter
optional add-ins: 2-3 Tbsp. additional dried fruit, carob chips, mini-chocolate chips, hemp or sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Add the quinoa, oats, stevia, salt, and cinnamon, if using,  to your food processor and pulse just until combined and oats are ground up some but not quite flour. Add your wet ingredients and buzz until combined. Your batter will be a bit thinner than regular cookies but thicker than muffin batter. Stir in any optional add-ins. Drop large spoonfuls onto your prepared baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned on the bottoms. Let cool on wire racks for 5-10 mins. before enjoying.

Apple-Sweet Potato Variation
1 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp. stevia powder
1/4 cup raisins, soaked in hot water for 10 mins. and drained
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup applesauce
1/3 cup cooked sweet potato,
1 Tbsp. tahini
2 Tbsp. hemp seeds

Carob-Berry Variation 

1 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp. stevia powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup prunes
1/2 cup blackberries and/or blueberries
1/4 cup applesauce or pumpkin
1 Tbsp. sunflower seed butter
2 Tbsp. carob powder
3 Tbsp. carob chips

My little cookie-munchers, loving life!

This recipe is linked to Allergy-Free Wednesday Whole Food Fridays Wellness Weekend Healthy Vegan Fridays

Lemon Poppyseed Streusel Bars with Strawberry-Lemon Yogurt Filling

My so-sweet Abiline is approaching two years of age and has turned into the tantrum monster. Every day this past week I have been caught off guard by yet another raging blow out.  Given her performance the last few days, I am not sure why I deluded myself into thinking that running errands with the kids this morning was a good plan. I made the mistake of taking them to Ikea to get a new, higher bathroom stool so that Sawyer can wash his hands by himself.  It seemed so simple, but the task was complicated by the incessant squabbling, hitting, whining, and then me clutching to my cool while seething through my teeth.  In the future, when I have to put my child[ren] in time out as we are leaving for an outing, I should probably reconsider even going.  Or is that too drastic?  I need to be able to get things done, but today I just had one too many days of being the public spectacle interrupting the tranquility of everyone's shopping trips. Why is it that everyone else's kids always seem so mellow? Ugh. And I still have to do the grocery shopping today after nap-time....

I suppose every day is a struggle in its own way, and I can either get all sour about it, or make lemonade.  I have tried going to the store by myself after the kids go to bed at night, and you know what? I usually feel lonely; I don't like it anymore than when I tackle the job with my two bundles of loveable chaos. So what is the key to an enjoyable shopping trip? Not well-behaved children, or no children--just patience, I think. Oh how I wish I had more of it!

But on to the recipe, perfect for a day when I am trying to make lemonade out of this lemon of a morning!

 

For the lemon-poppy seed crust/streusel:
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup oat bran (Or more rolled oats. I have not seen gluten-free oat bran, so using more GF oats may be your best bet if you're going for a GF treat.)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt
3 Tbsp. poppy seeds
zest of 2 lemons
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 c. agave nectar or maple syrup
1 tsp. lemon extract

For the strawberry-lemon yogurt filling:
1 1/2 c. plain non-dairy yogurt (I used homemade.)
3-4 strawberries
1-2 Tbsp. sweetener of choice, or stevia to taste
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp. lemon extract
3/4 tsp. guar gum (optional, for thicker filling)

1. Preheat oven to 350 and oil a nine inch square pan.
2. In your food processor, grind the rolled oats into flour. Add the oat bran, baking powder, and salt and pulse to combine. Add poppy seeds and lemon zest and pulse a few times to mix them in to the rest of the dry ingredients. Then add the oil, agave, and lemon juice, and pulse again until the mixture is crumbly and evenly moistened.
3. Press 1/2 of the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan, and reserve the other 1/2 in a bowl. Clean out the food processor work bowl and add the filling ingredients; blend until smooth and then spoon the yogurt filling evenly over the bottom crust.
4. Sprinkle the remaining streusel evenly over the filling. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 mins. Let the bars cool completely before cutting, or else they will be messy.  

Yes, this was another tumultuous outing--what made us ever think that the kids would ride quietly in a bike trailer together? Luckily, we still have a baby seat on my bike, so we can separate them when things get ugly back there. 

 

This post is linked to Allergy-Friendly Fridays, Fit and Fabulous Fridays , My Meatless Mondays,  Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays , Allergy-Free Wednesdays, Whole Foods Wednesdays, and Wellness Weekend.   
 

Peaches and Cream Sweet Potato Pudding and Waffles

 A few years ago, Anthony bought me a waffle-maker for Christmas.  The funny thing is, I actually don't like waffles that much--he does. But whoever those waffles were for, the sad thing was that no matter what I did, every waffle I made stuck to that iron. We had a number of meals in which we had plates piled high with waffle bits, with not a single whole waffle to be found among the rubble.  After a while, we just tossed that waffle-maker; no amount of waffle bits were worth the misery of the clean-up that thing required.

Anthony was disappointed, but I did not feel the loss too acutely until at age two Sawyer discovered that he loved Whole Foods' frozen mini waffles. At almost $3 a box, his mini-waffle obsession sent me on a new waffle-maker quest.  If any of you have been searching for a waffle iron lately, you may have noticed, like I did, that there is no waffle maker out there that doesn't have a bunch of negative reviews complaining, "No matter what I do, the waffles stick!"  Well, I didn't want another useless appliance, so I gave up.  Fast-forward to last Christmas when my sister gave me a Circus Animal Waffler that makes Belgian-style waffles.  And then my mother-in-law gave me another one that makes the waffles with the little holes!  These wafflers doesn't have stellar reviews online, and I don't know why because they have been great for us: the waffles don't stick, and the kids love the shapes.  I make a batch of waffles every week with our waffle-makers, store them in the freezer, and save a bundle of money over store-bought frozen waffles.  Plus I can make so many different kinds!

Until recently, I have been nervous about making up my own waffle recipe--afraid that if I strayed from the tried and true ones, the waffles would stick to the iron.  But I finally got brave enough a few nights ago and made the first batch of waffles that I--the waffle skeptic--love. They were born from this awesome peaches and cream sweet potato pudding that we were eating as a side to a baked barley casserole.  You could also use the batter to make great pancakes, I'm sure, if you don't have a waffle-maker. I recommend that you enjoy the sweet potatoes as a dinner side dish, and then make the waffles (or pancakes) the next day with extra peaches and cream sweet potatoes on top. Yum!  As an added bonus, these recipes are a great way to get extra fruits and vegetables into your kids.

For the Peaches and Cream Sweet Potato Pudding:
3 medium sweet potatoes
1 generous cup frozen peaches, thawed
1/4 cup plain non-dairy yogurt (I used homemade.)
1 Tbsp. soy-free Earth Balance or coconut oil
1-2 Tbsp. maple syrup or agave nectar

1. To prep. the sweet potatoes, preheat the oven to 400. Scrub the potatoes, place them on a baking sheet, and bake them in the pre-heated oven for about an hour, until very, very soft. When you put the sweet potatoes in the oven, put your frozen peaches in a bowl on the counter to thaw.

2. Let the  sweet potatoes cool. Then peel off the skins and put the flesh into your food processor work bowl. Add the thawed  peaches, yogurt, coconut oil, and 1 Tbsp. of sweetener and blend until smooth. Taste and add additional syrup if desired. You can eat this warm or cold, as a side dish, breakfast, or just for snack!
 
For the waffle/pancake batter:
3/4 cup raw, shelled pumpkin seeds
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup of peaches and cream sweet potato pudding
1/2 cup frozen peaches, thawed
1 cup barley flour (I'm sure you could sub. whole wheat pastry, spelt flour, or a GF mix.)
1/2 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 c. coconut sugar
1 -1 1/2 c. non-dairy milk
1/4 cup melted coconut oil or grapeseed oil

1. To make the waffles, preheat your waffle iron or skillet.  In your food processor, blend the pumpkin seeds and oatmeal until ground. Pour into a large mixing bowl and mix in the barley flour, salt, baking powder, and coconut sugar.
2. Clean out your food processor work bowl and puree the peaches. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the sweet potato pudding, peaches, oil, and 1 cup of milk. Stir just until combined. You want the batter to be thick, but easily spreadable on your waffle iron. If necessary, add additional milk.
3. Cook according to your waffle maker instructions, or fry up as pancakes in your skillet. These didn't even need butter and syrup on top; I just ate them straight out of hand.


Here is Sawyer having a grand time drawing some sort of monster--probably the Backson from Winnie the Pooh. He loves to draw, just like Daddy. 

This post is linked to Breakfast Ideas Mondays,  Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, Allergy-Free Wednesdays , Whole Foods Wednesdays,  Happy lil ❤'s are baking and Wellness Weekend. 

Nut-Free Raw Brownies with Chocolate Hemp-Seed Butter Filling

Overall, we would certainly call ourselves healthy eaters in the Holden household, (Abiline requested kale for dinner last night), and--in my opinion--chocolate is part of a healthy diet.  Take these raw brownies for example: they are a great way to eat super-nutritious seeds and buckwheat. And with the dates and banana in there, I almost count this as a serving of fruit for Abbie (who reaches for veggies while turning up her nose to almost any fruit not in smoothie form). The raw brownie idea is certainly not new, but they seem to always be made out of nuts, which of course doesn't work in our allergy-friendly kitchen.  Fortunately, the seeds worked well in this recipe; both Sawyer and Abiline devoured these brownies for snack today and protested when I said we were going to give some of them to a friend.  Of course we talked about how it is good to share, but I was secretly pleased that the kids liked the brownies enough to grab for the bag and look worried at the prospect of losing them.

For the brownie layers:
1 1/4 cup raw buckwheat groats
1 cup raw, shelled hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds (I used about 1/3 cup of each, but this is variable depending on what you have on hand.)
3 Tbsp. cocoa or carob powder (I did 2 Tbsp. cocoa and 1 Tbsp carob, as I like the fruity accent the carob gives.)
pinch of sea salt
1 cup dates, soaked for an hour to soften them up, then drained
1-2 Tbsp. agave nectar, as needed to bring the dough together 

For the chocolate hemp-seed butter filling:
1/2 cup raw, shelled hemp seeds
1/2 medium banana
1/4 cup raisins, soaked for an hour to soften them up, then drained
2 Tbsp. cocoa powder, or 1 Tbsp. cocoa powder and 1 Tbsp. carob powder, if you like the carob undertone like I do

1. Grind the buckwheat and seeds to a fine powder in your food processor. Add the cocoa powder and salt and pulse to incorporate. Add the softened dates and 1 Tbsp. agave and buzz until everything is well-combined, and you have a dough that is moist and holds together well when you press it into a ball.  If it is dry, add additional agave until it holds together.
2.  Line a workspace with parchment paper. Remove the dough from the food processor work bowl and divide it into two equal portions on the parchment paper. Use your hands to press each piece of dough into a rectangle about 7x10 inches, a bit smaller than your standard piece of computer paper.
3. Make the filling by buzzing all of the ingredients together in your food processor until smooth. Spread the filling evenly over one of the brownie layers and place the other rectangle on top to make your brownie sandwich. Using a sharp knife, cut into even squares. These are pretty rich; I made about 1 1/2 dozen squares.

 Here is Abiline's "Please give me more brownie!" face. By the looks of it, she had already had enough...

This recipe is posted to Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays ,Allergy-Free Wednesdays , Whole Foods Wednesdays and Wellness Weekend.

Agave-Sweetened Strawberry Lime Cake with Avocado-Lime Filling and Coconut Butter Frosting (Wheat-Free)

Happy Easter weekend! Last Thursday was Anthony's birthday; to celebrate, he requested a strawberry cake. While I was musing over how to make it, Sawyer suggested we should make a lime cake instead. So I did both. And while I was experimenting, I went ahead and made it wheat-free and agave-sweetened as well. I am usually not much of a cake person myself because I find it to be too sweet most of the time, but this cake was so moist, with just the right amount of sweetness, that we were all gobbling it down. This doesn't make a very tall layer cake; it's more family-size. If you want to make a tall cake for a bigger party, double the recipe.

For the strawberry-lime cake:
2 cups barley flour
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3 tsp. baking powder
2 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
2/3 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup non-dairy milk
3 Tbsp. canola oil
1/4 cup lime juice (about 2 limes worth)
zest of 2 limes (optional, if you want to up the lime flavor)
1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the avocado-lime filling:
1 large, very ripe avocado
Juice and zest of 1 lime
2 Tbs. tapioca starch
1-2 Tbsp. agave, to taste
2/3 cup sliced strawberries

For the strawberry-lime coconut butter frosting:
2 cups dried, shredded coconut
1 Tbsp. coconut oil
1/3 cup all-fruit strawberry preserves
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup lime juice (about 2 limes worth)
zest of 2 limes

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and oil two 9 inch round cake pans. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.  In a blender or food processor, puree the strawberries, agave, non-dairy milk, canola oil, lime juice, lime zest, and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir them together just until evenly moistened and combined.
2. Pour the batter evenly into your prepared pans. Place one pan on the top oven rack and the other on the bottom, on opposite sides from each other. Bake for 12 minutes, and then switch their positions, so that the one on the top left is now on the bottom right and vice versa. Bake for another 12 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean. Cool the cakes on wire racks for about an hour and then place them in the freezer for another few hours for ease in frosting.
3. Prepare the filling by placing the avocado, lime juice and zest, tapioca starch and 1 Tbsp. agave in your food processor and pureeing until smooth. Taste and add additional agave if desired. Pour the filling into a separate bowl and place it in the fridge while you make the frosting.
4. To make the frosting, clean out the food processor bowl, and add the coconut and coconut oil. Blend for 7-10 minutes, until it has become completely smooth coconut butter.  Then add the strawberry preserves, agave, tapioca starch, lime juice and zest. Buzz until smooth. It may not seem thick enough. Just place it in the freezer for about 10 minutes, and it will become perfect spreading consistency. 
5. To assemble the cake, prep a large plate by spreading a thin circle of frosting in the middle, to hold down the cake. Take the cake rounds out of the freezer and use a butter knife or fork to gently dislodge the cakes from the sides of the pans. Gently remove one round and place it on top of the frosting on your cake plate. Get the avocado-lime filling out of the fridge and spread it evenly over the bottom layer. Sprinkle with sliced strawberries, and then place the second layer of the cake on top. Take the frosting out of the freezer and give it a good stir. Spread the frosting evenly over the top and sides of the cake, smoothing as you go, layering it on really well to hold everything together. Top with additional strawberries, if desired, and store it in the fridge until you're ready to eat. 

I linked this recipe up this week to Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays,  Allergy-Free Wednesdays, and Wellness Weekend. Thanks to all those wonderful bloggers who host these recipe-share events!



The kids were thrilled with the birthday balloons Anthony brought home from work. Once they stopped floating, the became, errrr, a work of art....

Ridiculously Simple Any-Fruit Oatmeal Bars

One packaged snack food that I do like to indulge in is Kashi TLC cereal bars. At $3-$4 a box, though, I really need to be making my own fruit and grain bars--plus then I can share them with the kids without food contamination worries. This recipe is based on my Grandma Langlois's fig neaton recipe, which calls for 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of butter.  Those were true dessert cookies, needless to say, but this updated version is breakfast- and snack-worthy as well.  And a cinch to make!  With two kids, it is way easier to make these at home than to take our traveling circus on the road to Target to buy pre-packaged breakfast bars.

 

1 1/4 cups oat flour or whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup liquid sweetener (agave nectar, maple syrup, brown rice syrup)
1/4 cup canola or melted coconut oil
1/2 cup jam of choice (I used Trader Joe's fig butter in the ones I made today.)

Oil a 9 inch square baking pan and preheat the oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, oats, salt, and baking soda. Add the sweetener and oil and mix together with a fork until crumbly and evenly moistened. Press roughly 1/2 of the crumbs into the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread the jam evenly over the bottom crust. Sprinkle the remaining crust crumbs evenly over the jam and press them down a bit. Bake the bars in the preheated oven for  25-30 minutes, until just slightly golden on the top.  Let the bars cool completely before cutting, or else they will be messy.

This recipe is also posted on Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, Allergy-Free Wednesdays, and Wellness Weekend. Check out all these great recipe collections!

On to the cute pictures! We had a blast being silly at the children's museum in Phoenix this weekend: