Frozen Juice/Drink Concentrate Slushy

Frozen Juice/Drink Concentrate Slushy :)

12 oz can of frozen concentrate

1 cup water

4 cups ice

Place in blender until desired consistency.  We love this for orange juice slushies, lemonade (so refreshing!) slushies and for just about any juice combination!  Enjoy!

Chocolate pudding recipes!

These are chocolate pudding, but are not your typical recipes! So, please, don't turn your nose up, try it out, it's DELICIOUS!

Chocolate pudding #1
2 cups baby Thai meat or 2 small avacados
3/4 cup coconut water or just water (more if it needs to be thinned)
1/2 Cup maple syrup
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup cocoa powder or carob powder
2 TBS vanilla extract
1/4 tsp sea salt

Blend and enjoy!

Chocolate pudding #2 (less ingredients)
2 small avacados or 1 large
1-2 TBS cocoa
1 TBS honey (or to taste)

Use blender or food processor to mix. Use coconut milk or water to thin.

I usually make the second recipe because I really do have those ingredients on hand. I also sometimes decrease the amount of honey or sweetener and will use berry flavored stevia extract. SO YUMMY!

Vegan Chocolate Shake

I love chocolate shakes but I don’t love sugar and dairy. This reminds me of the shakes you get at a fast food restaurant but guilt free.

1 cup cashews

3 cups ice

3 Tbs unsweetened cocoa

2 dates, pits removed and chopped finely or try you luck in the blender

¼ cup water

¼ cup agave or pure maple syrup

¼ tsp sea salt

Add ingredients to a strong blender in the order listed and blend until smooth. Freezes great for a snack tomorrow.

Honey Caramel Popcorn

This is so tasty! My kids don't think that conference weekend is actually here until they have their caramel popcorn! Here is ONE of the recipes we love. I will try and find some of the other ones we enjoy, but Ron likes this one too :)

8 TBS of butter...coconut oil works great too!
1 cup of honey
Salt to taste
1 1/4 cup of popcorn (unpopped)

Pop the popcorn. I liked to do this right before. I used to do it simultaneously, but found that I couldn't do it by myself very well.

Bring butter, honey and salt to a boil on high heat. Let boil for 3-4 minutes.

Drizzle over popcorn while stirring. You can use two big spoons to toss and coat, but I just continually stir it until I am done drizzling, which does make for a very tired arm, but YUM YUM! Enjoy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

These are so tasty! My kids loved them. They are very easy too. I doubled it, so I will be posting the doubled recipe :)

1 1/2 cups honey (if you are used to really sweet, you might like to add just a little more)

1/2 cup olive oil

4 eggs

2 cups mashed pumpkin (I used canned this time)

1/2 cup water

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp of baking soda

3/4 tsp ground cloves

2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt (which I forgot--with not bad results)

1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. Prepare pans (either grease/flour or use paper muffin liners)

Mix honey, oil and eggs. Add the pumpkin and water. Then add ingredients in order listed mixing just before adding the flour. Add flour and mix until wet. Then add in chocolate chips.

Fill muffin tins 2/3 full and bake for 20-25 minutes. Mine took only 20 minutes, but my oven runs a little hot.

Enjoy! The house smelled divine and the kids each ate 3 each for breakfast!

non-dairy cheesy spread :)

Hey there all! This recipe was inspired by a recipe I had read in the Cancer Prevention newsletter. I didn't have access to my computer and so I had to wing it, I did get to it later and it was pretty darn close! However, there are a few differences, so enjoy! My kids all loved it spread on Flat Outs...kind of like a tortilla.

One 15 ounce can of white beans or 1 1/2 cups cooked white beans
2 TBS nutritional yeast
Handful of baby carrots (I would say like 8-10)
1-2 TBS of olive oil (I just put some in until it was moving in my blender)
1/2 tsp garlic and herbs (or garlic powder or fresh garlic)
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 squirt of prepared mustard (I used honey mustard...any mustard is opt)

You can combine all of this in a food processor or in your blender. Because it has carrots in it, I would make sure your blender is really good...

Then spread like mayo, use as a dip or use as a cheesy substitute, we LOVED IT!

Banana Muffins

These are so versatile and yummy! I make a double batch a lot of the time, but it is a big batch, so be prepared if you double it.

Dry ingredients:

1/2 cup wheat germ
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Wet:

1/2 cup butter/coconut oil
3/4 cup sugar/honey
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup ripe bananas (about 2-3 bananas)

This batter should be creamy, if it seems too thick then you can add a little extra milk.

Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare 12 muffin tins

Cream butter and sugar with mixer. Beat the eggs in 1 at a time. Add the bananas (it says to add them mashed, I always let my mixer do it) and add vanilla.

Mix the dry together and then put into the wet and mix until moist, but a little lumpy.

For muffins you will let them bake about 25 minutes.

Monster Cookies

These are pretty tasty and have a lot of ingredients :)

6 eggs
2 1/4 cups brown sugar (or 2 cups honey and 2 TBS molasses)
2 cups white sugar (or 1 1/2 cups honey)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 tsp baking soda
1 cup softened butter/coconut oil
3 cups crunch peanut butter
9 cups oatmeal (10-10 1/2 if using honey)
1 1/2 cups chocoalte chips
1 1/2 cups candied chocolate (M&Ms) though I successfully just use more chocolate chips

Mix the first 7 ingredients (up to and including the peanut butter) add oatmeal, candy and chocolate chips and mix.

Drop onto cookie sheets with lots of space between. If the dough is too sticky you can either refrigerate it or add extra oatmeal.

Bake at 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes.

Breakfast Cookies

These are tasty and I use them when we go hiking or have a busy week.

1/2 cup butter/coconut oil softened
2/3 cups brown sugar (or 1/2 cup honey and 2 TBS molasses)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup dried fruit/cranberries, cherries, raisins, dried apricots (chopped) etc
1/2 cup banana chips--broken up (opt)
1/2 cup chopped nuts of any sort

Turn on oven to 350 and prepare a pan.

Put oil (butter/coconut oil) and beat until creamy add honey or brown sugar and mix until combined.

Add the eggs and vanilla dn beat until combined. Put the rest of the ingredients up to the oats and mix in a separate bowl and then pour into the first mixture.

Fold/stir in items from the oats down and mix.

Use about 1/4 cup per cookie 2 inches apart onto cookie sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes. I use an ice-cream scoop.

ENJOY!

Peanut Butter and Honey Granola

We really like this recipe. It's great for a change of pace in the granola world. We try not to eat cold cereal because 1. It's unhealthy, even the "organic" varieties. 2. It's WWWWAAAAYYYY cheaper!

I am the kind of cook that really thinks you should use what you have on hand. Don't let a recipe stop you! So, this recipe is pretty flexible.

6 TBS oil (butter, olive oil, coconut oil etc)
1 cup Peanut Butter crunchy or smooth (or almond butter---though if you use almond butter, I recommend extra honey)
1 cup honey
2 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp salt
9 cups oats


1. Over medium heat warm the oil, honey and peanut butter. This is basically just to get it all smooth and melted, no need to simmer or boil.
2. Add the vanilla and salt and dissolve.
3. Add oats and stir until coated.
4. Place on a cookie sheet (you could use a 9X13 pan too, but you would need a couple of them) and put in the oven and bake at 375 degrees for 5-10 minutes. I don't like my granola crispy, so mine comes out at 5 mintues to cool, but you can leave it in closer to 10 if you like it more toasted.

Once it is cooled you can put it in a sealed container for 1-2 weeks or in the fridge longer. Honestly, I never have that problem, so I don't really know how long it would last! ENJOY!

Alicia's Awesome Staple Granola

Combine in a large bowl:

4 c rolled oats
1 c chopped nut
¾ t salt
½ c coconut
½ c seasame seeds
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix seperatley, then add to above mixture:
½ c honey
½ t vanilla
1/3 c oil

Mix thoroughly, spread on 2 large cookie sheets and bake @ 350 degrees for 20-25 min. I just let it get warm to melt the honey into it for 10-12 min. Add dried fruit if you like and our favorite is eating it with applesauce.

Banana Drop Cookies

½ c butter (or coconut oil)
1c honey
2 eggs
½ t vanilla
2 m bananas
2 C Whole wheat flour
1 t baking powder
½ t cinnamon
1/4t baking soda
¼ t salt
¼ t cloves (I also use an equal amount of nutmeg)

Mix wet ingredients (first 5 ingredients)then add the dry.

Bake at 350 for 10 12 min

You can also glaze these cookies, but my kids like them right off the rack!

Heavenly Green Dream Cool Summer Treat!

Hello everyone!

I am sure that someone somewhere has probably already come up with this recipe, but I LOVE IT! When I was in college I had a couple of roomates that lived in the Philippines and said that avacados were used as a sweet fruit, not a savory fruit. They made me a milkshake with them that was SOOOO tasty! So, since I have had the blessing of having some wonderful avacados I wanted to share the recipe that I came up with!

1 ripe avacado
1 cup coconut milk
2 TBS or so of honey
1/3 or a vanilla bean (or you could use vanilla extract)
8-10 ice cubes

Put in blender and blend until smooth and fluffy. Wow, this was so tasty for us. I like to do everything but the ice until it is blended really well. I did not take the vanilla bean seeds out, I just stuck the WHOLE of it in there and blended it. Then I add the ice cubes, it is so tasty! Let me know if you try it and let me know what you think!

Zucchini Pizza Bites

Hey there everyone!

Okay, so this week I had a couple of zucchini and came up with this really yummy meal. My kids didn't like that I called them pizza bites, because there was no "bread" to speak of, however I am going to leave the name the same. These were a great snack/light dinner/appetizer type thing.

Slice the zucchini into medallions. Put a small amount of oil in the pan, salt them (at least I did) and then after slightly browned then flip. I didn't bread them or anything. Then I took some diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning and blended it in the blender. Had I had spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce, I probably would have used that. Then I topped with some Havarti cheese (I couldn't find the mozzerella) until it melted and then removed them from the pan.

They were pretty, they were tasty. We loved them! Well, most of us did. My picky eater felt tricked because they didn't taste like pizza to her.

Tasty Granola Recipe!

From one of my dear friends, this is her recipe and we love it! I always at least double it.

Granola

Combine in a large bowl:

4 c rolled oats
1 c chopped nut (any combination, I have used almonds, pumpkin seeds, flax seed etc)
¾ t salt
½ c coconut (optional, though very tasty!)
½ c seasame seeds (also optional, but very nutritious)
1 tsp cinnamon (I am VERY generous with this)

Mix seperatley, then add to above mixture:
½ c honey
½ t vanilla
1/3 c oil (coconut is great, but I use olive most of the time)

Mix thoroughly, spread on 2 large cookie sheets and bake @ 350 degrees for 20-25 min. I just let it get warm to melt the honey into it for 10-12 min. Add dried fruit if you like.

Yummy Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Hey all! Today we are making super tasty banana muffins. These can be made in a variety of ways and the recipe is very forgiving, which I will list for you to decide for yourself. :)

Wet ingredients
1/2 cup butter/coconut oil/olive oil (I have used all with great success)
3/4 cup sugar/xylitol or 1/2 cup honey (I usually use honey)
2 large eggs (I often add an extra)
1 cup ripe bananas--I add them whole to my kitchenaide
1 tsp vanilla


Dry Ingredients
1/2-3/4 cups wheat germ
2 cups (I use whole wheat, if I use white I use more wheat germ)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate/carob chips

I don't follow the directions to the original recipe I was given because I am not using all of the same ingredients AND I am all about getting done fast and not dirtying a lot of dishes. So..the way I do this is I put the oil I put the first 3 ingredients in until well mixed, then I add the eggs one at a time. If I am using honey and olive oil then I add the oil first and then add the honey with the same mesuring cup, then it doesn't stick. I then add the vanilla and mix.

After mixing all the wet ingredients, I then add the dry ingredients alternating and then mix them in. This mixture should be smooth and creamy with a few lumps, if you are finding it to be too dry you can add any kind of milk (almond/rice/hemp/cow)

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes checking to see when the toothpick comes out clean.

Note: I often double or triple this recipe and share them. Also, they freeze fabulously so for those of you who want to cook and freeze ahead this is a great one to do this with. Enjoy!