Chewy Chocolate Squares

Yet another Pinterest find! The recipe is technically labelled a Granola Bar but I cant bring myself to refer to them as that. They are creamy, chocolatey and delicious. More of a dessert delicious then a breakfast delicious! Although I would still classify these on the healthy end of the spectrum :)

Without further ado...

Ingredients
1 cup peanut butter (Sun Butter works well for a nut free version)
2/3 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut oil (no substitutes, this is what gives its creamy texture and flavor)
2 cups oats
1 1/4 cups mini semi sweet chocolate chips
3/4 Cup Dried Cranberries or Dried Blueberries (Cranberries = Chewy, Blueberries = Crunchy)

Melt the peanut butter, honey and oil in a pot. Once the mixture is smooth and combined add oats, chocolate and fruit. Mix until the chocolate is melted. Pour into a 9x13 pan and refrigerate until firm. Cut into squares. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve because they tend to get 'melty'.

Trust me when I say "GO MAKE THESE NOW!!"

Smoothies!!

Mmmm smoothies! So yummy, cool, refreshing and yes, healthy! My 1 year old has decided she is a smoothie lover so I have been throwing them together a little more often. Really you can throw any type of fruit in, pretty much any quantity you want and add extras to it, but if you like to have a recipe to follow, this is one that I have concocted that we like :)



Ingredients

2 Bananas

2/3 Cup Blueberries

1 Cup Mixed Frozen Fruit (mine had melons, grapes, strawberries, mangos etc. in it)

1 Cup Coconut Milk (I used canned)

1 Cup Plain Yogurt

1 Cup Milk

1/4 Cup Ground Flax Seed (optional)

1/4 Cup Whey Powder  (optional)



My blender isn't the best,  so I blend a bit after every addition, and I had to thaw my frozen fruit first, but it turned out yummy! If you don't like bits in your smoothie then I suggest you leave out the flax, but it does add a lot of health benefits! If you think it's too thick, just add some extra milk and re-blend.



It's like a tropical smoothie. You can taste the coconut, but it's not overpowering, you can taste the banana but it's not a 'banana smoothie'. All the flavours flow together and compliment each other nicely!



Bottoms up!

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New Pantry Items!

I got to escape the house this afternoon without my two kids since my mother in law is here, and I got to go into stores and actually *gasp* take my time looking at things! Bulk Barn is one of my new favourite stores. Not because it's always cheaper, because it's not (although sometimes they are!), but because you can try so many new things without committing to spending a fortune and ending up with a huge bag that you will never use.
My experimental purchases of the day:
Organic Coconut Sugar It has an interesting less sweet then sugar taste and is less bad for you. It actually contains some good for you things :)
Arrowroot Powder To try as a substitute for corn starch
Steel Cut Oats To grind in my new grain grinder Kitchen Aid attachment that I'm geeking out about and dying to try out!
Hard Wheat For the same reason as above!
Chickpeas Because I'm going to try out a new recipe I found :)

Then I went to Earth's General Store. If you remember I bought a LivingSocial spend $10 get $20 for  a store gift certificate. It was great, I didn't have to print it out or anything. I have a smartphone, and I have the LivingSocial App, and I just pulled up the certificate on it and she put the info into the computer and that was it!! The store has moved and it is quite a bit larger now. They have everything from bulk shampoo (but you have to bring your own container so I didn't get any of that), to a small produce section and pretty much everything inbetween. I spent quite awhile in there. I had to spend all $20 at once, but I didn't want to spend a ton over so I just got a few things.

Xylitol I need to do more reading so I just got a bit, but it can replace sugar, has fewer calories and actually has health benefits!! We tasted it and it has a hard to place taste. The best description is that it tastes 'cold'. It's very different!
Xantham Gum I'm going to experiment with my granola bar recipe!
Amazing Dad's Original BBQ Sauce I'm going to go by the ingredients (since I can actually understand what they all are!) and try to make my own, this one is a little sweet for our tastes.
Organic Vinegar For a starter for my homemade vinegar project that I want to start!
Daiya 'Cheese' This one is for my mother in law. She can't eat a lot of fat for health reasons, and can't buy fat free cheese in Canada. She lives near the US border and gets it from there, but when she comes to visit she never gets to have anything with cheese! This is a very low fat cheese alternative. Great for people who can't have dairy. And it actually doesn't taste all that weird, which totally surprised me! It has a 'different' taste to it, but not bad. We haven't tried to melt any yet, but apparently it actually melts and strings like cheese.

I'm ready to start experimenting with my recipes and see what happens! Hopefully I'll have some results to post about in the next couple of days :)

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