Walnut Coconut Power Balls

June 12, 2015Leave a comment

If you like these as much as we do, you may want to plan a heavy workout before you make them! Since they are sweetened using dates, each ball has approximately 6g of sugar, making them perfect post-soccer snacks, but not something you would want to take to the couch as you pound back a 6-pack!

Speaking of sugar, I don’t know about you, but I would rather eat my treats any day than drink them. One can of soda has approximately 33g of sugar! I can’t even fathom how I used to drink that stuff regularly. It makes me cringe now. The next time you feel the need for a soda, try adding the juice of half a lemon and a tbsp of apple cider vinegar to a glass of Perrier. It’s the best invention ever. I’m pretty sure I learned about that drink from Food Matters, so props to them for that one!

Walnut Coconut Power Balls

2 cups walnuts
1 cup Medjool dates (about 12, pitted)
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 tsp sea salt
Shredded coconut for covering.

Place walnuts in a food processor and pulse until fine.

Add the dates, almond flour, shredded coconut, cocoa powder, coconut oil, and sea salt. Pulse until thoroughly combined.

Roll into golf ball sized balls and roll in shredded coconut.

Store in the fridge.

German Chocolate Cupcakes

February 1, 2015Leave a comment

Photo 2015-02-01, 12 58 27 PM

These babies have been a long time in the making. I’ve been working on the recipe on and off forever, making them now and then but never really getting excited about them – until now!

I’m really glad I didn’t post them earlier because I’m on a low carbohydrate mission in all of my recipes these days. There is so much unnecessary sugar in modern day food – it drives me crazy. I had a muffin last week in a moment of weakness and I went into a sugar coma immediately after. No wonder I was a walking zombie every day in high school, having delicious sugar-rich cookies every. single. day. I literally lived off of sugar! I do not want my kids suffering the same fate, but I also don’t want to deprive them of treats.

I made so many cupcakes testing this recipe that we had them for breakfast the next day along with 2 pints of blueberries. No sugar crash. No mommy guilt. And very happy kids.

Photo 2015-02-01, 12 56 12 PM

German Chocolate Cupcakes

2 cups almond flour
¼ cup cocoa
1 ripe banana, mashed
2 eggs
½ tsp baking soda
½ cup almond milk
16 drops stevia (I use Now’s French Vanilla)
¼ cup maple syrup
1 tbsp vanilla extract
½ tsp sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with 12 silicone cups individually greased with coconut oil.

Mash up the banana very well, then add the eggs, almond milk, maple syrup, vanilla, and stevia.

Combine almond flour, cocoa, sea salt, and baking soda, and add the dry ingredients to the wet. Stir well.

Divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups.

Bake 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean (dry).

Let cool in the pan at least 20 minutes. Hollow out the middle with a tsp. Ice liberally with the chocolate ganache (careful not to fill the hole) and fill with the coconut filling!

Filling:

1 cup pecans, finely chopped
1 ½ cups shredded coconut
3 egg yolks
½ cup coconut cream (solid mass in a can of full fat coconut milk)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp maple syrup
16 drops liquid stevia

Place egg yolks and 1 tbsp water in a large bowl. Place the bowl over an inch of barely simmering water, and whisk until the eggs thicken, about 5 minutes. Add coconut cream and stir until melted. Remove the bowl from the heat and mix in pecans, shredded coconut, vanilla extract, maple syrup, and stevia. Set aside.

Ganache:

8 oz good quality 70% cacao chocolate
2 tbsp coconut cream
1 tbsp maple syrup

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Once the chocolate has melted, remove from the heat source and add the coconut cream. Stir to melt the cream. The coconut cream brings down the heat of the chocolate. The mixture will thicken and you can immediately ice the cupcakes (after they have cooled a little).

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Coconut Macaroon Cookies

December 18, 2014December 19, 20143 Comments

I’ve been meaning to make something like these for a long time and finally got around to it yesterday! As always, I made sure to get the sugar down to a minimum, and these certainly don’t disappoint. Everyone who has tried them has said, “These are healthy?” Well, they’re as healthy as I could get them! I mean, they’re not a spinach salad. They’re still cookies!

But unlike a lot of the Christmas goodies you’ll cross paths with, they’re extremely low in sugar, which means you can eat them and not turn into the grinch 30 minutes later. Each cookie has only 1/2 tsp of maple syrup.

Coconut Macaroon Cookies

3 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
1 cup almond flour
2 eggs
¼ cup maple syrup
15 drops stevia (I use Now’s French Vanilla flavour)
½ cup coconut milk, canned, full fat
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
½ tsp sea salt

For the chocolate topping:

1/3 cup chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life)
1 tsp coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 325F and place a silpat sheet over a cookie tray.

In a large bowl, mix together the coconut, almond flour, and sea salt.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs, and then add the stevia, coconut milk, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Stir well.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well.

Drop dough in tablespoon amounts onto the silpat sheet. Roll them into balls and then flatten them with your fingers.

Cook at 325F for 22-25 minutes.

As the cookies are cooling, melt the chocolate. Place an inch of water in a medium sized pot and bring it to a simmer. Place a bowl over the simmering water and add the chocolate chips and coconut oil. Stir frequently until all the chocolate has melted. If you need to thin the chocolate, you can add more coconut oil. Remove the chocolate from the heat and drizzle over the cooled cookies. Refrigerate.

Keep the cookies in the fridge until ready to serve!

Cranberry Orange Muffins

October 16, 2014October 13, 2014Leave a comment

These muffins took a few weeks to perfect but they were worth the wait! The recipe makes 15 muffins because each time I tried to change the amount of batter, the muffins didn’t turn out as well as this exact recipe. I ended up just placing the 3 extra silicone muffin cups on top of the filled muffin tin (each at a joint between 4 muffins in the tin). I hope that makes perfect sense to you… If I overfilled the silicone cups, the muffins would cook over the edges and were impossible to remove.

I happen to have xylitol in the pantry, so if you don’t you can either skip it or use a pinch of sugar. I love the extra hint of sweetness on top since cranberries are quite tart.