Cashew Butter Flourless Zucchini Brownies

I was planning on making these brownies last night, but didn't have any almond butter.

 

I had almonds and I have a vitamix and I figured: Well, how hard IS it to make almond butter?

 

Apparently it involves a special skill that I don't have.

 

 I trashed my 3 cups of hot, globby almond meal and pulled out a jar of cashew butter from the fridge and decided to live on the edge by going rogue with this recipe.

 

I've decided I like them BETTER with cashew butter.

 

 I had 2 pieces last night for dinner and we ate them for breakfast today.

 

Skinny is over-rated.

Now go make some:

 

• 1 cup cashew butter
• 1.5 cups shredded zucchini
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips

Mix all of the ingredients together. Put in 9x9 inch greased baking dish. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

 

I calculated these to be 0.35 carbs/gram.

 

 



Cheesy Chips

Remember when I went all crazy and cut out ALL dairy?

 

Well, after Livie' last OGTT test, I realized something:

 

I CANNOT CONTROL WHETHER OR NOT SHE GETS TYPE 1 DIABETES.

 

Let me say that again...

 

I CANNOT CONTROL IT.

 

I'm not going all crazy and pouring cow's milk down their throats.We still do almond milk and daiya cheese and soy/coconut yogurt and ice cream. But I have loosened up and allowed dairy back into my house...mostly in the form of

 

CHEESE !!!

 

Do I think cheese is good for you? Heck no. But neither is breathing our polluted air, using plastic products, watching TV or having a pancreas that doesn't work. So there ya go.

 

One of my girls' favorite cheese treats is something we call

 

CHEESY CHIPS

 

They will literally sit on the couch and chant:

 

CHEESY CHIPS! CHEESY CHIPS! CHEESY CHIPS!

 

while waiting for these little gems to come out of the oven.

 

So, without further ado, here's the ridiculously easy, why-didn't-I-think-of-that recipe for

 

CHEESY CHIPS

(from George Stella's Eating Stella Style Cookbook)

 

Ingredients:

• Cheddar Cheese. I prefer Medium Tillamook. I don't know why but I think it makes superior cheesy chips

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 400F
• Cut one slice of cheese into 16 small pieces. This is much easier if you buy the pre-sliced cheese versus the block. Each piece is slightly bigger than a nickel.

• Place cheese on  baking sheet - line with parchment paper or not. Depends on how non-stick your backing sheet is.

• Bake for between 5 to 7 minutes. Ella is an expert at identifying the exact moment of when the cheesy chips are ready - right after they stop bubbling but right before they get too crispy

• Pull 'em out of the oven and immediately scoop them off and transfer them onto a paper towel. If you let them sit for too long, they will start sticking and then you'll be left with a big mess.

• Let your kids have at it.

 

Enjoy!

 

 



Cookies for Breakfast

I was inspired by Katy (I love her blog - check it out if you haven't done so already) over at bigfootchildhavediabetes.com to try out a new cookie recipe:

 Vegan Cowboys.

Except that I didn't have any walnuts and I didn't have whole wheat pastry flour.

So I improvised and made a couple of tweaks and came up with this:

1.5 cups old fashioned quaker oats (81 CHO)

1 cup almond flour (24 CHO)

1 cup chopped peanuts (31 CHO)

1 cup dairy-free mini chocolate chips -cuz we're dairy-free and mini = mo' fun (110 CHO)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup ground flaxseed (10 CHO)

1/2 cup grapeseed oil

1/2 cup maple syrup (106 CHO)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking sheet w/parchment paper. In large bowl, mix dry ingredients. In small bowl, mix wet ingredients. Stir wet into dry. Let it sit for about 5 minutes.

Scoop onto cookie sheet. As always, I use my pampered chef scoop so every cookie is the exact same size = exact same carb count. I also smooshed them down a bit since they don't spread.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Consume for breakfast.

Or lunch. Or snack. Or dinner. Or really whenever because these are so darned good.

Total Carb Count = 362. I made 26 BIG cookies using the big pampered chef scoop so each cookie = 14 CHO. My kids thought it was a blast to eat cookies & strawberries for breakfast.

No Spike Chocolate Chip Cookies

I completely forget the original recipe from which these were inspired. That being said, I believe recipe etiquette is if you change 3 ingredients, you can consider the recipe yours.

Ella's Favorite "No-Spike" Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 3 cups almond flour (72 CHO)
• 1/2c butter
• 1/4c organic coconut sugar or xyletol (35 CHO)*
• 1/2 tsp liquid stevia drops (clear or vanilla - whichever you prefer)*
• 2 eggs (2 CHO)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 80g mini chocolate chips (~50 CHO)

Preheat oven to 375. Cream butter & sugar. Mix in egg. Add flour, vanilla, salt & soda. Mix. Add chocolate chips. Bake 10 to 12 minutes.

I make mine using the small pampered chef scoop, so I get ~ 48 small cookies using this recipe. I usually bake some up now and freeze the dough (already scooped) for later use as they are best fresh & hot out of the oven.

I calculate ~ 160 CHO total so each cookie = 3.3 CHO. Round down to 3 since I don't take any CHO out for the fiber in the almond flour.

*If you're not a liquid stevia fan, increase the coconut sugar or xyletol to 1/2 cup and omit the liquid stevia. Total carb count is increased to 195 = 4 CHO per cookie

Try it and let me know what you think!

Peanut Butter Balliscious

We got the new Dishing It Up Disney Style Cookbook at the FFL Conference. My kids immediately flipped to the "snacks and desserts" section and chose Pocahontas's Peanut Butter Trail Mix Balls.

I just happened to have everything we needed to make the recipe so we whipped up a batch (making slight alterations) and let me tell you they are

Peanut Butter Balliscious

I'm pretty sure Domestic Divo ate at least half of them...

So, without further ado, here's the recipe.
I'm also including the alterations we made and carb count, too (what a gal!):

• 1 cup peanut butter (50 CHO)
• 1 cup honey. I used 3/4 cup and they were PLENTY sweet. (~200 CHO)
• 3 cups old fashioned oats (162 CHO)
• 1/2 cup ground flaxseed (20 CHO)
• 1 cup chocolate chips - I used mini chocolate chips. I just think mini is mo' fun. (~100 CHO)
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts of your choice. We used peanuts (22 CHO)
• 1/2 cup dried fruit of your choice. I omitted this.

Grab a big bowl and a sturdy spoon. Had I known how thick these bad boys were, I would have busted out my KitchenAid Mixer. Mix peanut butter and honey until smooth. Add in oats and flaxseed. Add in chocolate chips and nuts and dried fruit if that's your thing.

Roll into ping-pong size balls. Because I am anal detail-oriented, I like everything to be the same size (and therefore the exact same carb count) so I used my Pampered Chef Small Scoop. If you do not own these scoops in every size, find your local Pampered Chef Peddler and BUY THEM.

The recipe made 60 total so each PB ball was 9 carbs. Pop them in the fridge for safe keeping (makes them less sticky, too) or you can freeze them.

Go Peanut Butter Ball-istic and Enjoy!