October 5th...Paleo friendly breakfast bars!

 Well lately I have been in the bad habit of eating the same foods over and over, I won't list all my excuses why, but I really need to change things up a bit.  Especially when it comes to breakfast, I just want to grab and go.  The reality is, mornings are busy around here, I need something I can eat while multitasking!  So that usually comes in the form of a bar or a ball of some kind.  I came across this recipe and "Mel-er-ized it" by subbing out regular flour with Almond flour and vegetable oil with Coconut oil, plus I added some other healthy stuff as well.  Let's get started!

In a food processor combine Almond flour and salt, pulse once or twice to mix. In a separate bowl, combine Coconut oil, honey, vanilla and water.  While pulsing add your liquids.  Then combine cranberries, shredded coconut, nuts and seeds into a bowl and add while pulsing.

 Line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper and spread dough out evenly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20mins.

I managed to get 16 bars out of this recipe but it's highly likely that I would eat 2 pieces as they were so good!  In the second batch I made, I added extras like Chia seeds, whole ground Flaxseed Meal and Wheat Germ.  They tasted great but I should have added more liquid as the bars held together...but I waited too long to cut them and many of the bars became too flaky and fell apart.  Of course all those yummy bits and pieces, I saved and added to my yogurt, enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup almond flour 

• ¼ teaspoon sea salt  
• ¼ cup coconut oil
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• ½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• ½ cup pumpkin seeds 
• ½ cup sunflower seeds 
• ¼ cup slivered almonds
• ¼ cup unsweetened cranberries

October 2nd...no bake Gluten Free cookies!

 I love this recipe because it's a "no-bake" recipe, which means I can't burn anything!  You may have most of these ingredients kicking around in your cupboards already.  No worries if you don't have the exact ingredients, such as Almond butter, maple syrup, almonds, dried fruit...you could use natural peanut butter, honey, hazel nuts or cashews and any dried fruit or mini dark chocolate chips, possibilities are endless!

 Load up the first 5 ingredients on the list in your food processor...

Make sure to scrape the container to get all the ingredients stuck at the bottom mixed in.  Then add the oats and just a pinch of salt, mix one more time... 

Line baking sheet with Parchment paper.  Scoop the dough out with a spoon and roll into small balls.  place on cookie sheet and press down...I made mine about the size of a Toonie.  Place in fridge for about an hour or so.

This recipe yields about 14 cookies...they may be small but they're big on taste and enough to keep your sweet tooth at bay!  

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup dried apricots

1/2 cup Almonds

2 tbsp Almond butter

1 tbsp Vanilla

then add...

1/4 GLUTEN FREE oats

pinch of salt

You might need to add 1-2 tbsp of water after the dry ingredients, just to loosen things up.

Nutritional info per cookie : calories 59, fiber 1g, protein 1.5g, fat 2.3g and sugar 4.5g if you use "sweeten" dried cranberries, so spend a little more to get the unsweetened cranberries and you'll cut the sugar by half!