New Poll on side bar!

Homemade Rees' Cups!

A few weeks ago, Esther and I held a tea party at our house for a few of the young girls, and their mothers, that attend our church. While we were planning the menu for that special day, a friend sent us a recipe for homemade rees cups! They looked so cute and petite, we just had to add them to the tea menu. If you would like to indulge yourself on a rees, but don't want to feel guilty;-) Then give this recipe a try, its sure to fulfil any chocolate pb, cravings you have!

Homemade, Healthier Peanut Butter Cups

If you use another nut butter, you may need to add more honey. Peanuts are naturally sweet. For that matter, this is definitely a “to your own taste” recipe! And you can easily adjust the sweeter to satisfy you.

3/4 cup of peanut butter, toasted and salted (or use nut butter of your choice)
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla (if you are making this gluten free, make sure to use gluten free vanilla)
1/4 cup of coconut oil
1/3 cup of chopped soaked and dehydrated nuts, or toasted (I used a mixture of chopped almonds and pumpkin seeds) *
4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate
2-4 tablespoons honey *
1-In a small bowl combine the peanut butter, coconut oil, vanilla, first two tablespoons honey, and nuts. Mix until well combined.

2-Drop by the heaping teaspoon into mini cupcake pans. Place in freezer.

3-Chop chocolate into small pieces and place in the top of a double broiler (or, like I do, in a heat proof bowl that fits on top of a pot you have). Mix in the honey. Bring about two inches of water to a boil in the pot and place the bowl on top. Watch the chocolate carefully so that it doesn’t burn, stirring gently while the chocolate melts. When there are just a few chunks left in the chocolate, take off of the heat and allow it to melt completely.

4-Drop by the teaspoon over the peanut butter mixture and place back into the freezer. Freeze for 20 minutes. Take out, and using a butter knife pop them out. Keep in the freezer or refrigerator and enjoy!

*To toast the nuts, place in a dry pan over medium-high heat. Stir almost continually until they are starting to brown. Take off of the heat.

Del Sisters note: We did not use nuts in our recipe, and they were good anyway!

Also, we would cut down the amount of coconut oil for the PB filling to 2T. instead of 1/4c.

Next time we might double the filling but keep the chocolate amount the same. I personally think that the recipe does not have a very prominent peanut butter flavor....so doubling the filling would fix that problem!

What's your favorite flavor?

Today I'm making ice cream! The flavors I decided on were French Vanilla and Peach. We also made a dairy free "ice cream" that is peppermint chocolate, will see how it turns out:-).

What's your favorite flavor of ice cream, and have you ever made ice cream from scratch?

Other things we have made today are, Coconut Flax Granola,Raw granola,Protein Bars and Raw Brownies. We also picked a large laundry basket full of swiss chard, washed, cut and steamed it. All in under 2 hours!

Great Recipe!

Not much cooking going on around our house lately, just the usual everyday kind of stuff, though we have found this really tasty healthy brownie recipe from Green Kitchen Stories! We modified it a little by leaving out the Chai tea and using almonds and walnuts instead of hazelnuts. Try them for a guilt free pick me up for your next afternoon snack or an after dinner treat!

How daring are you?

Lately Hannah and I have been experimenting with green smoothies. I have only gone a little wild once, that's when I decided to put in a rather large amount of swiss chard:-) I just thought that if a little was good why not add just a little more....right?!?! This morning I made us a very delicious concoction consisting of 11/2 bananas, 1cup strawberries, 4 kale leaves, 2 very small swiss chard leaves, and 2 cups almond milk, this does serve 2. Oh, and just for a side note, all our greens are coming straight from our Mom's garden!!!!

( Because of having this smoothie for breakfast we were not able to capture a picture of this awesomely green concoction......sorry:-)

So my dear readers, are any of you the adventuresome type? Do you like to add those extra greens to your morning smoothies???If so, please do share we always love to try new things!

Monkey Bars

Monkey Bars

Ingredients:

• 5 T. coconut oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 large mashed bananas
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/3-1/2 cup oat flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4-1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325 and spray 8″ square pan or 11×7 pan
• Melt coconut oil over medium heat along with honey and stir with whisk. Remove from heat and let cool while doing the next step
• In a large bowl, mash bananas, add the beaten eggs, pumpkin, and vanilla. Add the slightly cooled oil and honey mixture
• Add oat flour and w/w flour and salt. For less moist bars, add more oats.
• Bake for 25-35 minutes until they don’t jiggle in the middle anymore and turn slightly brown around the edges
• Allow to cool and then melt chocolate chips and spread on top.

Basil Pesto and Mozzarella Stuffed Chicken

With summer on its way we decided to post a recipe that requires using the grill! This recipe is very easy to change, so if you don't like pesto skip it and add something else, also try changing the cheese. Some of our next experiments will be with swiss, brie, gouda, and cheddar.....just get creative, don't be shy! If you don't care for bacon, just don't use it:-) It won't be as flavorful, but it still will be good!

Basil Pesto

Mozzarella Cheese

Sliced Bacon

Chicken Breasts

Toothpicks

Pound chicken breasts with meat mallet till chicken breast is even in thickness. Spread pesto on chicken breast, sprinkle with cheese. Roll breast and secure with toothpicks, warp bacon on and make sure to place extra toothpicks to hold it onto the chicken. Grill on medium heat till cooked through.