Tag Archives: healthy snacks

“Healthy” Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you are looking for a treat but trying to limit white sugar this is a pretty nice good compromise. 🙂 I love baking cookies probably to eat the cookie dough. Its hard to stop sneaking tastes once I start. What I found with this recipe is that I could take or leave it. The cookies left me satisfied and I didn’t end up with a stomach ache from cookie dough/cookie overload. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. 🙂

What you need:

10 dates (soaked for 1 hour)

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup honey, local if possible

1 egg

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1.5 cup flour

1/2 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup chocolate chips

What to do:

Preheat oven to 375 F
Cream butter and dates in food processor.
Put mixture into mixing bowl and mix honey and egg with butter and dates.
Add in dry ingredients and mix until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
Bake at 375 for 9-11 minutes

Makes appx 2 dozen cookies

Enjoy!

Homemade Lara Bars

My husband was out of town last week so my daughter and I enjoyed leftovers while he was away. I recently made homemade Lara bars that were a great success. I don’t have any pictures to show because they were eaten that quickly. So here is a picture of a happy belly post double chocolate bar instead.

Double Chocolate Almond Bars

what you need:

1 cup de-pitted dates (about 10)

1 cup almond meal (or whole almonds)

1 tablespoon cocoa

1/4 cup chocolate chips (we used minis)

what you do

If using whole nuts using a food processor or Ninja blender (that’s what I used) blend well. Add dates and blend again. Look for a sticky consistency. If you don’t have good clumps add a few more dates. Then add cocoa and chocolate chips. Press into wax papered cookie sheet and put in fridge or freezer for 15 minutes to set.

Walnut Cherry Bars

what you need

1 cup walnuts

1 cup dates

1/4 cup freeze dried cherries

Same directions as above.

Let me know what you think! 🙂

p.s I was inspired to try the recipe with dried figs instead of dates and it was a fail, a delicious fail but a fail anyway. I think a combo of fig and date would have worked better.

p.p.s We are giving a few of these recipes a try for inspiration this week. (got to love facebook) I’ll let you know how it goes. Of course I’m most excited about the chocolate chip cookie bites!

White Bean Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found this recipe awhile back and finally got to give it a try after I received the Ninja blender for Christmas. Some of you asked for the recipe so I am posting it here on the day 1 of my sugar fast. (I tried to slowly work into giving up sugar so this recipe kind of helped) If you are looking to let go of the sweets for awhile you might also want to read this from my dear friend Anne it might get you motivated.

Anyways, back to the recipe. You will need a food processor for this one or a super blender like the Ninja, Vitamix etc. If you use a regular blender you will most likely burn it out. Here are my adaptations to the original recipe.

What You Need:

1 1/4 cup of white kidney beans drained and patted dry

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter (you could use sun butter if there are nut allergies or almond butter)

1/4 cup local honey

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F

Put all ingredients into food processor except for chocolate chips and pulse until smooth. (I had to scrape sides twice)

Stir in chocolate chips until well mixed

Form small balls of dough and place on parchment paper lined cookie sheets. I gently pressed my palm into each ball and found that smaller cookies were better then bigger ones. No need to leave lots of space in between each cookie as they won’t melt down like a regular cookie does.

Cook for appx 10 minutes. They will be really gooey and don’t set like a normal cookie. Its best to let them cool on the parchment paper and then transfer.

Homemade Granola Bars (healthy-ish)

I’m cautioning you now that if you make these granola bars you might be tempted to eat them all in a very short period of time, they are that good. 🙂 So don’t say I didn’t warn you!

I came across this recipe awhile back for homemade granola bars. They are quick to make and they are delicious. Here are my adaptations so there are a few healthy additions for extra protein and healthy fats.

What you need:

1/2 cup coconut oil
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup local honey
1/2 cup almond butter or sunflower butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups quick oats
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup chocolate chips or cacao chips ( you could add or freeze dried strawberries or cranberries as well or use instead of the chocolate chips too)

What to do:

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Melt coconut oil, brown sugar, almond butter and honey on stove in a sauce pan over low heat. When ingredients are all smooth turn off heat and add the rest of your ingredients and stir until well blended. Press mixture into cookie sheet and and chocolate chips on top. (if you mix the chocolate chips into the mix they will melt) and put in freezer for 15 minutes to harden. Take out and cut into bars. I usually keep my bars in the refrigerator but they should do fine in a container in the pantry as well. 🙂