Vegan Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes

Oh man do you ever wake up just craving some syrupy goodness? Today I did, it wasn't the pancakes I was craving it was my boysenberry syrup I bought a little while ago! I grew up on that stuff and I adore it...no it is not sugar free, but my pancakes were!

Pancakes warm my soul! I love the flavors and I adore the rich taste of any syrup really poured over the top of fluffy, hot pancakes. What makes me feel better is when I get the same comfort food with no oil and no sugar (apart from the chocolate chips of course :) ) I love watching the kids gobble delicious nutritious food up and ask for more...this morning in particular we had to make a whole new batch--I couldn't keep up with the demand!

I'm very satisfied with my end result this morning. I found these little babies here and I tweaked it just a little bit to make them oil free and a little more holiday spice! Delicious. I didn't even use that many chocolate chips, but they sure melted when I added them to the skillet and it made them quite homely looking! Even though they looked ugly they were very delicious. 

If you want a fast, healthy, satisfying breakfast for your whole family...you have got to try these

Oh and by the way...this only takes one bowl for mixing except a small bowl for the flax egg...pretty sweet.

Vegan Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes

1 ripe banana

1 flax/chia egg (1 T ground flax +1 tsp chia seed +3 T water)

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 c whole wheat flour

1/2 c steel cut oats (or any oats)

1 T applesauce

3 T almond milk

1 T almond butter- melted down a little

3 T semi sweet chocolate chips or raisins

Mix flax egg and set aside for 5 minutes in a small bowl. Mash banana and baking powder together. Add flax egg, applesauce, almond milk, almond butter, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix together well. Add flour and oats, combine until well coated. Fold in chocolate chips. Heat skillet and pour 1/4 c of batter onto skillet. Cook about 2-3 minutes on each side until golden brown. You may want to double this recipe...it only yields about 5-6 small pancakes...

seriously I could eat that by myself :)

*use gluten free flour and gluten free oats for a gluten free option

Enjoy

You may find that you have helpers that want to assist in making breakfast!!! Courtesy of my 18 month old!

Peanut Butter Cup Oatmeal

Cold Cereal in the morning can get pretty boring, and it isn't the healthiest choice out there. I'm not perfect and you can find me many mornings placing cold cereal in front of my kids. I try to have healthier breakfasts, but I leave for work at 6 am most of the time...not a whole lot of time to make great breakfasts. 

My son has been on a picky cycle for awhile, I've been having a difficult time getting him to eat dinner, lunch, basically anything besides fruit. I'm happy with fruit, but I know he needs his vegetables, beans, and healthy fats. He's still my little guy and his brain is still busy learning and growing. So I sat and thought I need to give him something besides bananas for breakfast...that's all he eats! I wanted to either do avocado green smoothies or oatmeal...well my daughter voted oatmeal~ so here we are. I added some Adam's Natural Peanut butter, if you guys haven't tried natural peanut butter please do! The flavor is amazing and the price isn't that much different! We were sold from day one! Well anyways then I garnished the oatmeal with a few mini dark chocolate chips just to get the kids excited! And what do we have! Oatmeal that is like a peanut butter cup!

Moment of truth for me, this was not my favorite oatmeal. I prefer more fruity oatmeal flavor, but and a big but, the people I wanted to down this....DEVOURED IT! They loved it. My son actually ate his entire bowl without flinging it all over the floor! I was so excited...do you want to know what else...later that day he actually ate an entire hummus wrap from the tasty hummus I made! He was on a role yesterday...hopefully today is the same! 

Peanut Butter Cup Oatmeal

2 c oats

2 1/4 c water

2 -3 T natural peanut butter

dark chocolate chips for garnish

Cook oats in a sauces pan with water until water is absorbed and the oats are tender and moist. Fold in peanut butter so it is swirled throughout oatmeal. Top with chocolate chips! Enjoy

for gluten free, make sure you use gluten free oats!

Raspberry Chocolate Freezer Bites

This summer has been perfectly mild most days. It has had a few scorchers, but I have felt that it has been sunny, comfortable perfect frozen treat weather.

As I said in my earlier post I had planned on making something involving raspberry and chocolate...okay the excuse was because we are learning the letter R but mostly it's because I am a fool for raspberry flavor...okay okay and chocolate!

In my mind the simple recipe was going to work out perfectly. It was going to form round little pieces of chocolate that would be sinfully delicious and put DOVE chocolate to shame :)

....this little dream land didn't work out so perfectly. My original thought didn't set up for some reason...it was crazy. It was just a nice tasting liquid blob for over two hours. So I had to really think and brainstorm on how I could get this creation to set up nicely. After some extra ingredients added in, I finally was able to get it to solidify, but if you leave them out too long they do start to thaw very quickly! They turned out really yummy and they will be a fun freezer snack whenever the urge hits for a sweet!

Raspberry Chocolate Freezer Bites

1 C fresh raspberries

3/4 C dark chocolate chips

1/2 C oats

1 tsp vanilla

2-3 T almond butter

1 banana (optional, banana can help things mold. I personally didn't use one)

Add raspberries to saucepan and heat over medium. Stir until they are a liquid. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients. Stir until chocolate is melted. Spoon mixture onto cookie sheets covered in parchment or wax paper. Place in freezer for 1-2 hours to set up. Keep covered and store in freezer. 

 

*you could also use carob chips if you prefer

Whole Grain Blender Waffels (Gluten Free)

Good Morning!!!!!!! It's Saturday and there is no where else for me to go this morning except lounging around eating AMAZING food with my sweet little family! The weekends are when I usually try and make a larger breakfast, obviously because I have more time in the mornings!

A few days ago my husband told me he was craving some big, syrupy, waffles or pancakes...I think he wanted a lot of butter included in that too :) well I couldn't help him with the butter but I could help him with the big, syrupy waffles!!!! I found these tasty little things here and I only changed one ingredient since I didn't have any concentrate juice and I was out of dates! So what did I add....honey. Super simple but I think they tasted wonderful, they're gluten free so I think that's saying something!

Whenever we'd stay over at my parents house and we had pancakes or waffles my mom always had her "special" pancakes or waffles that were gluten free! We never tried them, since they were sure to be nasty (even though she just loves them) well if they taste like these gluten free waffles I think I may just battle it out over the gluten free "special" waffles with my mom :)!  These are quick and easy and ready in a matter of minutes. You throw everything all at once into your blender (you need a high powered one, I've got some links for blenders at the bottom) and a minute later you have your waffle batter! These are wonderful served with either maple syrup or my strawberry syrup that you can find here Easy Peasy!

Whole Grain Blender Waffles

2 C water

1 T honey

1 C oats

1/4 C millet or corn meal (I used corn meal)

1/4 C ground flax seed

1/4 C raw cashews

1 T cornstarch

1/2 tsp salt

Place all ingredients into blender and blend on high for one minute or until everything is very smooth and blended together.

 Pour batter into a heated waffle iron. They are done when they are very brown and slightly crispy on the outside! Serve warm with fresh or frozen fruit on top!! Enjoy!

Honey Oat Muffins

I feel like the last few days we've been on the go and I haven't been able to stick to my typical eating routine. I haven't been bad with my food choices, at the baby shower the other day I had no desserts and only had my couscous salad and a green salad, I went to a movie last night with my husband, I did have some sips of his root beer, but that's it! Even after trying to be really good on the go, the up and down eating schedules and not having typical small meals throughout the day has sent my stomach for a loop and my energy levels down, I've been craving whole natural foods today, so for snacks I indulged on nectarines and super bars, for lunch I had an awesome spinach salad with chia seeds and today for my family I made these Honey Oat muffins! They are full of yummy healthy ingredients, they taste like naturally sweetened, so they aren't quite as sweet as my zucchini muffins or blueberry muffins, I used agave in those these have raw honey, but I needed just some overall good health food!

I am happy that it has come to this point with me, that a couple sips of root beer or some missed veggie servings really cause a change in my energy and feeling good!! That must mean somethings going right with the way we eat! It just is more proof to me that our bodies really do want natural, wholesome foods, they don't throw a fit when I eat those, but if I go without you bet this body is going to have something to say.

I'm glad these muffins turned out, I wanted to make them for "H" day for my family but I also wanted to make them vegan! I decided to see if I could master making muffins from my own mind without eggs, you know I think I did it! I think I should have taken them out a little bit sooner, but they still tasted great!

Honey Oat Muffins

1 3/4 C whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)

1/4 C ground flax seed

3/4 C oats

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 - 3/4 C honey (depending on desired sweetness)

1 C almond milk

1 T apple cider vinegar

1/4 C applesauce

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp almond extract (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine almond milk and vinegar in small bowl and set aside. Combine all dry ingredients in large bowl. Mix vanilla, almond extract, applesauce and honey with almond milk. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add wet ingredients. Fold everything together so that it is well mixed. Pour dough into paper muffin liners or grease muffin tin with coconut oil and pour dough in. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Let cool for 10 minutes.

 Optional- you can sprinkle some raw cane sugar on top before you bake just for an extra sweet taste. Also add nuts or raisins if you'd like! Enjoy

Energizing Overnight Oats

Well for "E" day in the alphabet days I decided to have breakfast waiting for us in the morning, with "Energizing" overnight oats...okay okay, I'm stretching the "E" a little bit, but I was going to make an egg white omelet, but I want to save my veggies for a pasta salad I'm making for a baby shower, and we are going to be super busy around dinner, which I had planned something like eggplant parmesean or enchiladas, but those will just have to wait!

So the idea for overnight oats came from ohsheglows.com she has a lot of overnight oat recipes, but how to make this "Energizing" overnight oats and why! Well I don't know about you, but my kids wake me up super early, my husband gets home super late sometimes so he wakes me up, not on purpose, then my kids wake me up looking for breakfast...and last night and this morning I knew would be no different and since we're on the go today there is no time for any R&R, so instead of feeling weak and possibly getting a caffeinated beverage I decided to start the day out right with some natural sources of energy! So the specific things added for energy:
 Raspberries, these little babies are chuck full of natural energizers through all the vitamin C these berries contain and good carbohydrates! One cup of raspberries provides 50% of your daily vitamin C intake for only about 50 calories! It also gives you 14 g of carbohydrates! So you can feel awake from the get go!

Bananas, again bananas are an excellent source of good carbs and vitamin C but also potassium which can help regulate your blood sugars, if your like me sometimes I get spikes if I'm not eating the way I should and go into dizzy, shaky spells! Bananas provide us with 30 g of carbs in a single banana, 15 % of our vitamin C intake, and 13% of our potassium intake!

Chia seeds, chia seeds are full of the omega 3 fatty acids which provide a whole list of benefits for our bodies, but also providing energy to our muscles and organs!

Almond Milk, the almond is a great source of protein which provides the energy our bodies need! Combined with the almonds from the super bars this breakfast is full of proteins. Almonds are known at times to have more protein than some meats, but with the good fats included!

So there is a lesson on some foods that can give you the natural pick me up without turning to refined sugars and caffeine! Now onto breakfast...I need to top these with something crunchy, so I used some left over super bars from yesterday. They are really soft in the morning, so if you don't like that texture add something crunchy and it's just like cold cereal to me!

Energizing Overnight Oats

1 1/2 c of raspberries

2 c oats

2 c almond milk

2 T chia seeds

1 tsp ground flax seed

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp almond extract or vanilla

1 banana chopped, (add in the morning)

1 cup granola (add in the morning)

Combine all ingredients except banana and granola, into a dish. Mix together and put in the fridge overnight, or over 3 hours. In the morning top with banana and granola! That's it, enjoy! Add anything else you'd like, fruit, nuts, make it your own!

*Gluten Free option use gluten free oats

Butter Bean Scotchies!

My mother-in-law gave me a recipe when my husband and I were first married for oatmeal scotchie cookies! They are Derek's favorite cookie, the only problem is they use about two sticks of butter and tons of sugar!
Today my nephew came to play so I wanted to have some fun with all the kids and make some cookies, well I wanted to clean up those scotchies....we all love that recipe and we've missed it, but can't justify eating. Well I'm happy to report we've done it! We cleaned up those cookies and now there are no worries when I plop one into my mouth! It's awesome when you can keep the taste you love without all the harmful ingredients!

Butter Bean Scotchies

1 c oats

1 c whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

dash of salt

1/2 c butter beans

1 T bean liquid

1/4 c raw cane sugar

1/4 c agave nectar

1/4 c applesauce

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp honey

1/2 butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add 1/4 c of oats to blender. Pulse 6-8 times and pour into a bowl. Combine remaining oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt to bowl, whisk together. In blender remaining ingredients including sugar. Blend until smooth, combine wet ingredients to dry ingredients.  Fold in butterscotch chips. Form into balls or flatten with palms (they don't flatten by themselves very much). Bake 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees! Enjoy

They are delicious!

* p.s. follow me on facebook, naturally healthy and happy!

No Bake Peanut Butter Crunch Cookie Balls

This is a super fast way to get a yummy, no guilt treat in your hands! To me there aren't many things that are better than peanut butter and chocolate. I love fast recipes for when I'm craving something sweet and this is one of those! I found this recipe on ohsheglows at this link, I added almonds to mine instead of peanuts and left out the rice cereal, but I still think they turned out great!

No Bake Peanut Butter Crunch Balls

1/2 c unsalted cashews

1/2 c oats

1/4 c flour (I used spelt)

1/2 tsp salt

2 T sugar

3 T peanut butter

3 T maple syrup

1/4 semi sweet chocolate chips

1/4 c almonds

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp almond milk

Put cashews and oats into processor or blender. Blend together until they are flour like in texture. Add flour salt and sugar to blender to combine. Add vanilla, peanut butter, almond milk and syrup and blend until mixed. Scrape the sides of blender or processor, mixture may be sticky, if it is too sticky add more flour or if it is too dry add a little more syrup or milk. Put mixture in a bowl. Place chocolate chips and almonds into blender or processor pulse until chopped. Add chocolate chips and almonds to mixture. Roll into balls and place in freezer for a few minutes to set up. There you have it a fast easy treat at your fingertips!!


* these can be Gluten Free, simply use a gluten free flour!

No bake banana cookies

This is a great way to get your chocolate fix the recipe came from here. They are only 80 calories and super easy to make, about 5 minutes of prep work, then you just need to wait for them to set up. I didn't use vegan chocolate chips for mine like the original recipe, I just used semi-sweet chocolate chips, I still thought it tasted good with it. It does have a very strong banana taste, basically chocolate banana treat!

No Bake Banana Cookies

1/2 C rolled oats

1/4 C chocolate chips

1 banana

1 tsp vanilla

1 T chia seeds

1 T buckwheat groats

1 tsp cocoa

sweetener to taste (optional)

Melt chocolate chips in the microwave, be careful not to let them burn. About 60 seconds then stir to melt the rest. Add chopped banana and mash together. Mix with other ingredients until coated. Drop in spoonfuls on wax paper on a cookie sheet. Freeze for 1 hour. These cookies will set up, however they will remain chewy. 

Banana Blueberry Muffins

These are super yummy and a much better muffin for you. My family really enjoys these for breakfast. The original recipe had raspberries in it, I haven't tried it with raspberries but it does sound yummy.

Banana Blueberry Muffins

1 C whole grain flour

3/4 C rolled oats

3/4 C white wheat flour

1/4 C wheat germ

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 T chia seeds

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C blueberries

Wet Ingredients

1/2 C great northern beans

1/2 C applesauce

3 bananas

2 T almond oil (can also use canola)

1 tsp almond extract (or vanilla)

2 eggs

1/2 C honey

2 T maple syrup (optional, I use maple extract)

2 T berry jam (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl except blueberries. Add all wet ingredients to blender and blend until smooth. Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix well. Lightly coat blueberries with flour and add them to the mixture. Spoon into muffin tins about 3/4 full. Bake for 13-15 min. 

Cinnamon Vanilla Oatmeal

Here is a quick, easy, tasty breakfast that everyone can love. I think there will be lots of ways to adapt this and add different flavors to change it up a bit!

Cinnamon Vanilla Oatmeal

2 C water

1 tsp vanilla

2 C oats

2 T cinnamon

2 T coconut sugar (or agave)

Boil water with vanilla. Add oats. Once oats are cooked add sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle dash of cinnamon on top! Enjoy!

Raw Granola Bars

Granola bars have always been a tricky thing for me. Usually I have a really hard time getting them to actually stay in a bar form, but these were great they stayed in the little squares I cut them into. I've put these little babies into three different categories, treat, snack, and raw. They are so delicious and healthy, but they still taste like a treat to me, they make a great snack, and they have all raw ingredients so there you go. They are also so simple. They were a huge hit

Just combine all your dry ingredients, and then add the wet (you might want to microwave the wet for a few seconds to make sure you get all the lumps out)

Smash it all in a cake pan, and freeze it for about an hour! Your done

*Tip keep them in the fridge, if left out they will start to fall apart, but hey I guess you have some granola then :)

Raw Granola Bars

3 C oats

1/2 C chia seeds

1 1/2 C cashews (or almonds)

1 1/2 C coconut flakes

3/4 C sesame seeds

1 tsp cinnamon

1 C sprouted buckwheat groats (optional)

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 raisins (or chocolate chips if you don't want completely raw)

1 C natural peanut butter (or almond butter, I use half and half)

3/4 C raw honey (I have also used agave)

5-6 T coconut oil

 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla

Combine dry ingredients into bowl. Combine peanut butter/almond butter, coconut oil, honey and vanilla in separate bowl. You may have to microwave wet ingredients to make sure coconut oil and nut butters are smooth. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Pack into cake pan and place in freezer for about 30-hour or until desired hardness is achieved. Keep refrigerated

Banana Cinnamon French Toast

I've made this a few times because it is SOOO simple and tasty. I found this recipe on here, My kiddos love it. This isn't your typical french toast, no eggs, no butter nothing like that. It typically only has four ingredients, however this last time I added some maple extract...yummy it'll be a permanent addition I think.

Super simple just combine all the ingredients and blend!

Then you just coat your bread like regular french toast, the tricky part does come in cooking the bread. The batter tends to get a little sticky, so keep a close eye on it, I find I do have to constantly scrape the pan or the remnants of batter burn quickly. The bread will be soft. 

Banana Cinnamon French Toast

1 banana

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup soy milk

1/4 cup oats

1 tsp maple extract

Combine soymilk, oats, banana, and maple extract in blender. Blend on high until smooth. Pour into shallow baking dish. Add cinnamon. Mix well. Soak bread before putting it on skillet. Make sure to spray pan with non-stick spray, cook on each side until golden, Turn carefully because they get sticky. You can have these with syrup, or alone. I put fresh raspberries and blueberries on mine it was delish!!!! And here is your end result...

Happy Kids!!!

Heavenly Bean Cookies!

These are my family's favorite treat!!! Yes they have chocolate, but that's about the worse thing there is in them, we love them and they are only about 50-60 calories a cookie (depending on if you use a lot of chocolate chips or not)! So I feel okay eating one or two or maybe three :) I typically use butter beans for these cookies, but you can use any white bean you want. I found these online right at the beginning of our health eating and I don't remember where I just googled a recipe and now I've made it my own over time :)

Heavenly Bean Cookies

1 c oats

1 cup whole grain flour (I use spelt)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 C canned butter beans

1 T bean liquid

1/4 c coconut sugar (optional)

4-5 medjool dates, pitted

1/4 c unsweetened applesauce

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 c. chocolate chips (or raisins)

dash of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pulse 1/4 cup of oats in blender or food processor, combine with flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and remaining oats, whisk together. Combine beans, applesauce, optional sugar, dates, and vanilla and 1 T bean liquid into blender. Blend until smooth. Mix wet and dry ingredients and add chocolate chips. If mixture is too wet add more oats, if too dry add a few tablespoons of water. Drop spoonfuls on greased cookie sheet and bake for 13-15 minutes. Enjoy

*These cookies don't flatten they stay in little balls, so don't be alarmed :)