Chocolate Crepes with Chocolate Sauce and Strawberries

Just pretend I posted these for Valentine’s Day ok? This is what I had intended too….shhh…I’m a little behind….. :)

Whether for Valentine’s Day or for any occasion, especially those special ones….this makes a delightful breakfast or dessert.  Top with whip cream if you have it on hand and can eat it. :)

The crepe recipe was altered from this recipe. The rich, dark chocolate syrup is my own creation.

Ingredients (crepe):

• 1 cup flour (whole wheat or GF mix)
• 2-4 tbsp  unsweetened cocoa powder (depending on how strong of a chocolate taste you desire-start with 2)
• 1 tbsp honey/sweetener
• 1 1/2 cups  milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 t. oil

Heat a pan on medium heat.   Mix wet ingredients. Then add dry ingredients. Grease pan. Pour scant 1/4 c. batter into pan and lift the pan off the burner, moving the batter around until you have a thin crepe.

Top and fill with strawberries and

Rich Dark Chocolate Syrup

• 3 T soft butter
• 1/2 c. cocoa
• 4 T. agave/honey
• 6-8 T. water (to your desired thickness.

Combine all ingredients and serve over crepes. Use leftovers for chocolate milk or ice-cream (cow, almond, soy, etc).

Mini Easy Little Cheesecakes

 

Don’t these look good? And the best part too is that they are really simple and relatively healthy to make:

• One “slice” of cheese from a box of Original, Laughing Cow, Creamy Swiss (or other flavor),3/4 oz. Soft Cheese Slices OR cream cheese cut up into wedges

 OR  for a DAIRY-FREE OPTION try Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese or Follow Your Heart Organic Vegan Cream Cheese (again, cut up into wedges etc)

• 3 chocolate chips (I used Sunspire Grain Sweetened)
• Chocolate Syrup (cocoa powder, honey, and a little water will do the trick in a pinch)
• Peanut Butter (that’s the tan stuff you see- my pb is made from a powder- it’s not as yummy but anywho…)

Arrange your slice of “cheesecake” on a plate. Top with your favorite toppings or those mentioned above. Relax and enjoy! :)

Healthy Chocolate Cookies with Homemade Peanut Butter Chips!

Or, How to get your chocolate peanut butter fix all in one stop! :)

Note: I made a small batch since I was adapting this from another recipe and also didn’t want too many cookies around. :) This recipe makes about 10 cookies though…Feel free to double or triple it according to your needs and wants.

Ingredients:
1/4 (~2T) banana, mashed
3 T. honey/agave

1 T. milk/water/dairy-free milk
1 T. cup melted butter/earth balance/oil

1/2 cup flour (whole wheat/GF flour blend)
1/4 c. cocoa

(Or if you want to make these as a basic cookie, use 3/4 c. flour and no cocoa)

pinch salt
1 /4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 c. homemade peanut butter chips

Preheat your oven for 325*. In a small bowl, (if you are making 1x the recipe, a cereal bowl can be used) mix together the wet ingredients and then add the dry (minus the chips). Spoon the dough onto a greased cookie sheet. Flatten the cookies if desired and then add chips. :) Cook for about 15 minutes.

PS. These are very satisfying with the chips added. If you don’t use the chips, they might be a little bland and not as sweet. I would suggest adding additional sweetener in that case.

Recipe Review: FUDGE! Refined-Sugar-Free Carmel-like Peanut Butter Fudge/Truffle

I tried Comfy Belly’s homemade peanut butter fudge recently! It was so good! I followed her recipe except I used 3/4 c. honey instead of 1 c. honey and used my low-fat peanut butter that I get and finish at home here. It was really sweet-even with less honey. Next time, I think I’ll experiment with 1/2 c. honey instead and maybe some extra water/peanut butter .  Be sure to watch it though- I burned the butter/honey mixture the first time! :/ :)

 

 

ALTERATIONS:

For those of you who are dairy-free, sub coconut oil or earth balance for the butter.

For those of you who are peanut free, try a different nut butter.

For those of you who are nut-free, try sun-butter.

For those of you who are vegan, try it with agave, maple syrup, etc.

Let me know what you come up with! :)

Soft and Chewy, Healthy! Chocolate Chip Cookies

WOW! This is the first time in years I’ve had a chocolate chip cookie! It’s amazing! And my first try worked! :) They were so good I ate way too many! and burned my tongue. :) I think these would be great too with the alterations listed but I was excited that they turned out so well with whole wheat flour and no refined sugar. Give them a try and let me know what you think!!! :)

They aren’t quite as sweet (just a little bit less sweet) than your normal cookie but they do the trick for me! :) Hence, the burnt tongue and disappearance of a 1/3 (ok…ok…1/3 sounds better…I ate 6! :) They were that good!) of my cookies! :)

Amazingly, Yummy, Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

by Ari (me) based of this recipe

1 cup whole wheat flour (or GF flour blend)

1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup honey (or maple syrup)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup melted butter(or melted earth balance, melted coconut oil, etc)

1/3 cup chocolate chips (I used grain-sweetened, which are sugar-free)

Preheat the oven to 350*F. In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, stir together honey, vanilla extract and butter until well combined. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Place spoonfuls of batter on cookie sheets and bake for 13-17 (no more than 17- the maximum actually gets you a very crisp cookie with a tiny bit of a chewy center) minutes for soft chewy cookies. I would guess 15 minutes is about perfect. Cookies will set up as they cool. :) Makes 12-15 cookies.

ENJOY! :) Serve with a glass of cold milk! :)

Chocolate Banana “Ice cream”

To make this simple ice-cream, all you need is a little sweetener, water,  cocoa (1/4- 1/2 c.) and four frozen bananas. Add the frozen bananas in chunks, to your ice-cream maker or food processor and then add cocoa and sweetener (preferably liquid) to taste.  Then add water until it reaches the right consistency. Serves 2-4. YUM!

Recipe Review #5: Super Easy (and yummy) peach crumble

Have some peaches that need to be eaten up? I sure did! I was looking at a dessert I could make that my family may enjoy even though they in no way eat the same as I do. I came across this recipe by Gluten-Free Goddess and had to try it.

The verdict? YUM! Thank you for the recipe!

Here's the only alterations I made or how I followed it:
For the topping:

• I used oat bran for the oats (I thought these would be interesting to try for texture and easier to digest) Make sure they are GF though if you have celiac!
• 2 T. oat flour
• 2 T. dark agave
  
• no walnuts or mesquite
• pinch of cinnamon
  
• 1/2 t. vanilla
  
• 2 T. earth balance (not melted)

In the peach filling, I didn't use arrowroot because I didn't have any on hand. I used 2 T. light agave.

Anyway, everyone of my very picky eaters (that would be my siblings especially) loved it. Most of them asked for seconds and thirds!

GF, DF, and Sugar-Free Rice Krispie Treats!

Mmm, gooey rice crispy treats! My favorite! I missed these guys for a while . Anyway, I found a recipe (and then edited it) and “marshmallow” type treat I could eat these with.

Here’s my recipe.

Ingredients:

3 c. Erewhon Brown Crispy Rice

1.5 t. Earth balance, ,melted or extra virgin olive oil

slight more than 1 c. of Suzanne’s Rice Mellow Creme

Stir Rice Mellow Creme and “butter” together on the stove until combined. Add the brown rice crispies and pour into a greased 8×8 square pan. Let cool. When it’s hard enough to eat and cut, serve. If not, place in the freezer for a few minutes or until hard enough. Cut, serve, and enjoy!

Recipe Review #2: Healthy! Guilt-Free Key Lime Pudding!

Here it is! The recipe that the most of you requested! Key Lime Pie Pudding! I got this recipe from Ricki’s dietdessertndogs website. See the original (almost the same recipe) here. I give her all the credit for this recipe and thank her for it! It is definitely nutritious and delicious! Thanks Ricki!

Ingredients:

2 small or 1 large chopped ripe avocado

3-4 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice

stevia to taste or 1/4 cup agave

Pour all of the ingrediants into your food processor and blend! Serve immediately! And enjoy!