Peanut Butter and Honey Rawcoroons

Crunchier than my other rawcoroons, these peanut butter bliss balls hit home with the kids (and the adults too!!) The combination of honey and peanut butter really puts these rawcoroons in my top 3 flavors at the moment. These little balls are such a great thing to have around the house as they are packed with nutrients, healthy fats and carbs, to keep my kids full and satisfied when we are on the go. The perfect snack that packs easily or the quick breakfast when there is no time to be in the kitchen, or really just an awesome cookie when the craving hits.

I had made a peanut butter raw cookie like this before but this time I switched up the recipe because of what I had on hand, and they came out much tastier than I expected them to.

And I tested a few in the oven in order to relay good information to those of you who don’t have a dehydrator, and I am happy to say that the oven version was equally as delicious. While I am a huge advocate of raw as much as I can in order to preserve nutrients in the foods I consume, I understand it is not convenient for everyone, and eating a homemade baked cookie made with these ingredients is better than not eating a cookie at all. There, I said it. Eat a cookie. It makes life tasty.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond meal or flour or finely ground raw almonds (For this particular recipe I used almond pulp left over from making milk, that I had then dehydrated to make flour)
• 1 cup oats, ground to a flour (I used my blender but a coffee grinder works too)
• 2 cups shredded coconut, ground finely but not to a flour consistency
• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 cup raw honey
• 1/8 cup water

Steps:

• combine everything in a large bowl and mix well
• taste and make sure it is to your liking, add more honey or pb if the need be 🙂
• scoop out into balls (I use an ice cream scooper)
• put on a dehydrator mesh screen
• dehydrate at 105*F for about 8 hours. Check them at 6 hours and see if the consistency is to your liking. The longer you leave them, the drier they get.

If using an oven:

• preheat your oven to 200*F and bake them for 1.5 to 2 hours. Check them to make sure they are to your liking. If you don’t care in preserving too much of the nutrients, go ahead and bake them at a regular cookie temperature for much less time. I am sure it will work too, I just haven’t tried that yet.

Store in an airtight container for several days. In all honesty, I have no idea how long these last as they were gone in under 48 hours.

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Cacao Energy Clusters

These little clusters are packed with nutrient dense ingredients: flax seeds (high in omega 3’s, good kind fat), cacao powder (powerful antioxidant, god for fighting free radicals), maca powder (good for energy) amongst several other amazing ingredients.

This recipe kinda just happened. I had made a lot of sprouted buckwheat when prepping for making raw granola, and didn’t feel like really putting anything fancy together so just threw a bunch of ingredients in the bowl, thinking I was going to be making another granola. Before putting it in the dehydrator I tasted it and it tasted so good I immediately wrote down what I had used in order to not forget! When it came out, instead of being a granola, it was more of an energy cluster. Not only because it stuck together in convenient clusters, but also because the flavor was so rich that I don’t think I could actually eat a whole bowl of it. A few clusters was enough. I packed some for a hike and my daughter wanted some for her school snack. I am so happy I wrote down the ingredients so I can make this again.

So here it is. Another kitchen happy “accident” 🙂

Ingredients:

• 3 cups sprouted buckwheat, or buckwheat that has soaked for at least 8 hours, then rinsed really well
• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup sunflower seeds
• 2 TBS mesquite powder
• 2 TBS maca powder
• 1/4 cacao powder
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
• 1/8 tsp salt

Steps:

• mix everything together in a bowl, adding the wet ingredients last
• spread on a dehydrator sheet, tapping it down to make it more compact
• dehydrate at 115* for about 12 hours or until dry and crispy
• store in an airtight container for weeks! (Although ours lasted barely a week)

If making this in the oven, put it on the lowest setting for about an hour, try it and keep checking every 10 minutes until fully done.

Tropical Muffins

Pineapple. Coconut. Orange. It’s like pinacolada in muffin form!! When my husband came home with a pineapple earlier this week, I knew I wanted to make muffins with it. The thought of bitting into a baked good and finding a nice piece of sweet pineapple is what got my creative juices flowing.

My good friend just had her second baby, and as good friends do, I brought her some food. Among all the goodies I brought her, were a version of these muffins. The first version actually. Although I wasn’t a fan of the way the first batch came out, I still delivered them to her because I didn’t have time to bake another batch that day and I really wanted to provide her with something more than just dinner. So she got my test run muffins (Sorry Paige!!). The very next morning I woke up and decided to try again because I just wasn’t satisfied with how they came out. After changing the recipe a bit, I am much happier with this version 🙂 The only thing I would change is adding more fresh pineapple.

Ingredients:

Dry:

• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1 1/2 cups flour (I used buckwheat)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp tumeric (optional)
• 1 cup oats (I used small)
• 1 cup toasted coconut shreds
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar

Wet:

• 1 cup orange juice (I used fresh pressed)
• 1 TBS orange zest
• 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
• 1/4 cup ground flax seeds in 1/2 cup water
• 2 TBS apple cider vinegar
• 1 TBS vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped fresh pineapple

• 1/4 cup coconut pieces to top muffins

Steps:

• preheat oven to 350*F
• in a smal bowl combine ground flax with water, stir and let sit
• in a skillet, on medium heat, toast the coconut shreds. Stirring constantly. Pay close attention to this as the coconut goes from not toasted to brunt really fast. This should tie just a couple minutes.
• in a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients, coconut included
• in a blender combine all the wet ingredients, flax seeds included
• barely blend, just enough to mix the ingredients and start breaking down the pineapple. If you have settings on your blender, I would put it on low. If you don’t you could do this in the food processor and pulse a few times.
• put in greased muffin tins, top with coconut pieces and bake about 10 minutes for mini muffins and 20 minutes for larger muffins.

Blueberry Corn Oatmeal Bites

While snuggling in bed this morning, the kids were putting in their breakfast requests. My daughter said she wanted corn muffins. I responded I don’t have corn flour. She says: “But we have the frozen corn! My son:”I don’t want corn muffins Tika! I want oatmeal wif boobewies!” In order to make them  both happy, we came up with these as a solution. They were so easy to make, my daughter did most of the work. As they were baking i thought “Great, here’s school snack for the next few days!”.

Well as I’m typing this, there are barely a quarter of them left. I doubt there will be any left by the end of the morning. I guess the kids love them!!

You can get as creative as you want with the flavors here. Raisins? Cranberries? Shredded coconut? The possibilities are endless. And these are super quick to make I actually could make these before school one morning.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups small oats
• 1 large ripe banana
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1/2 cup frozen corn

I would have added 2 TBS of honey but we are out. The kids don’t seem to mind but if you are used to having a sweetener breakfast, i would suggest you add a couple TBS of sweetener as these are just slightly sweet.

Steps:

• preheat oven to 350*F
• put all ingredients but frozen fruit in a bowl and have your kids mash it all together with their hands!
• add the frozen fruit and continue mashing until well combined
• grease mini muffin tins with coconut oil
• fill them up pressing them down so they keep there shape
• bake for 10 minutes
• cool and enjoy!

Cherry Cacao Fudge Balls

Can these all too familiar raw fudge balls ever be over done? I am not being very inventive here in sharing this recipe but these little tasty nuggets are so simple to make and bring me so much joy that I just had to share yet another recipe with you guys. Plus, this was my daughter and I’s Valentines Day kitchen project. She was the one who had the idea of making these. So we turned the popular little ball into a labor of Love at our house.

These are a great project to do with kids. My 6 year old daughter got her own little food processor for christmas and enjoys throwing all kinds of stuff in there and making her own concoctions. So she made her own balls (pictured here). She had the most fun rolling them and licking the sticky stuff off her hands afterwards 🙂

Ingredients:

• 1 cup  raw walnuts
• 1 cup pitted medjool dates
• 1/4 cup dried cherries
• 1/4 cup raw cacao powder
• dash of salt

Steps:

• put everything but cherries in food processor and combine until everything is broken down
• add cherries and keep processing until a ball is formed
• roll into little balls of desired size
• roll in coating of choice
• keep in fridge

We combined 2TBS  freeze dried raspberries and 1TBS shredded coconut in a blender and pulsed to break down. That was one of the coatings. The other one is the same but replace the raspberries for blueberries. And lastly just plain raw cacao powder.

My daughters one’s are the blueish one’s. There is no recipe as she doesn’t write things down as she makes them 😉 But I know that she put freeze dried blueberries and cranberries as hemp seeds in hers.

Chocolate Dip

I did it again. Chocolate. You sweet sweet temptress. I just cannot seem to escape you. I had leftover baked sweet potatoes. I knew I wanted to make something sweet with them. I put a bunch of stuff in my food processor and what came out was a dense, sweet, chocolatey mixture. This makes for such a fun snack! Delicious on it’s own, but even better when used as a dip. With anything really. I chose apples for todays snack. The kids loved it! Nutritious, delicious, filling. A winner in my book.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups baked sweet potato
• 1/3 cup raw cacao powder
• 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
• 1/2 avocado
• 1/4 cup milk (I used coconut)
• dash of salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
• 1/4 cup maple syrup

Steps:

• put everything in food processor and blend until smooth
• serve with any dippable food (that is SO a word, spellcheck)

Blueberry Vanilla Granola

Another granola win for me 🙂 This granola is a crowd pleaser with all its sweetness and gentle flavors. As always, it is loaded with beautiful nutritious goodness. There is not much more to say here than, YUM.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups sprouted buckwheat (just soaking the buckwheat overnight and giving it a good rinse is enough if you don’t want to sprout)
• 2 cups coconut flakes
• 1 cup chopped soaked almonds (soaked for at least 8 hours)
• 2 cups small oats
• 1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked 4 hours or more
• 2 TBS vanilla powder
• 1/2 TBS hibiscus powder (optional but it does add a hint of tang to this, which I love, as well as some color)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
• 2 oz freeze dried blueberries

Steps:

• mix first 7 ingredients in a large bowl
• combine honey and coconut oil then pour over dry ingredients
• mix well, add the blueberries
• put in a dehydrator sheet
• dry for about 12 hours
• store in airtight jars for weeks!
• this makes at least 13 cups

Have this with some fresh almond milk for optimal enjoyment 🙂

Sweet potato Chocolate Muffins

I’ve been on a muffin mission lately. I find it to be such a convenient food to have around with kids. I try and make my muffins nutritious so that they are not just a filler food and so I feel good about the fact that the kids want to eat 3 or 4 at once (I always make mini muffins now). I had sweet potato left over from dinner last night, which makes a perfect base for a muffin recipe. I have made these before, but have altered the recipe a bit. And since I have a hard time following recipes in general, I will probably alter it again next time I make these 🙂 These muffins are a bit dense because of the sweet potato and the dates, but I find that to be a good thing so you can get full after only eating a couple. In my opinion, that’s what nutritious foods do: the high quality of nutrients make you feel full faster and longer than something less nutritious like pretzels, crackers or chips. I also intentionally never make my muffins overly sweet. If you like things super sweet, I recommend you add extra maple syrup.

As usual I made a big batch and will freeze a couple bags in order to have some handy for when we need a quick snack or for school lunch.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour ( I used spelt and buckwheat)
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• dash of salt
• 1 cup mashed sweet potato
• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 2 TBS ground flax seeds (or 2 eggs) (I grind my flax seeds in the coffee grinder, a blender can work too)
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup pitted medjool dates
• 1/2 cup melted coconut oil

Steps:

• preheat oven to 375 F
• mix first 5 ingredients in a large bowl
• in a food processor mix all the other ingredients, minus the sweet potato
• add sweet potato at the end and pulse a few times to mix it in
• grease your muffin tins
• fill them up and bake for 10 minutes for mini muffins, probably about 20 minutes for larger muffins
• this recipe made 48 mini muffins

Zucchini Banana Muffins

Every week, for 5 days, I send my daughter off to school with a snack and a lunch. That’s a lot of snacks and a lot of lunches, week after week. For that reason, at times I like to make a huge batch of muffins and freeze a bunch so that I can easily grab a snack last minute that will be nutritious and exciting for her. She can get bored of the dried fruit mixes and sliced apples.

This recipe is simple in taste, no processed sugars therefor not overly sweet and, in my opinion, nutritious and healthy so that she can stay full longer and have good fuel for her body. Store bought muffins (or coffee shop muffins), are glorified cupcakes without the frosting. In terms of sugar content, they are pretty much equally high. When made well, muffins can be an easy, quick nutritious breakfast/snack.

The kids loved these, I had to hurry and freeze a few batches before they ate them all. Which to me is a win. Giving them something they love while maintaining my nutritional integrity is important to me.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour (I used spelt and buckwheat here)
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 nutmeg
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 2 large ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup pitted dates ( I use medjool because they are so decadent and sweet and soft)
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 tsp liquid vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 F
• In a large bowl mix together first 6 ingredients
• In a food processor combine the rest, except for zucchini
• Add wet mixture to the bowl, add zucchini, mix well
• Oil some muffin tins, fill them up
• Bake for about 10 minutes for mini muffins, probably 20-25 minutes for large muffins
• I made 72 mini muffins with this recipe!!!

Lemon Cashew Rawcoroons

These are a spinoff of macaroons. A wholesome, nutritious spinoff. They are becoming quite a staple of raw treats I like to make for people. This is the first of many rawcoroon recipes I will be sharing. I am having fun experimenting with flavors! Please feel free to ask if you would like to have me try making a specific flavor! I am always up for new ideas! 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups shredded coconut
• 1 cup almond flour (made from whole almonds, blended down into a flour, not the store bought flour)
• 1/2 cashew pieces
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• zest of one lemon
• 2 TBS coconut oil
• 1/4 cup agave or any liquid sweetener
• 1/8 cup water

Steps:

• in a large bowl mix first 4 ingredients
• in a small bowl or blender mix all the rest
• combine both mixtures until well incorporated
• try not to eat all the mixture before it makes its way onto the mesh screen
• scoop into little balls and put on mesh screen on dehydrator
• dehydrate for about 8 to 10 hours, or until desired texture. I like mine dry on the outside and moist on the inside. 

Blow peoples minds away with these tasty wholesome treats!! Or eat them all by yourself 😉