I can not recreate a Cabbage Patch Doll, nor do I think my boys would want me to.  But Beth at Turn 2 the Simple reminded me a few days ago with her comment on my Creamy Pudding recipe that I can recreate a Pudding Pop!  I love how tasty these are, how refreshing they are on a hot day – and how they actually offer some nourishment and keep my kids full for a little while.

I simply followed my Creamy Pudding recipes and froze the mixture into pudding pops.  EASY!!!  I made both chocolate and vanilla.  I didn’t try butterscotch, but I think I might next time just for fun!

How to Make Pudding Pops:

Make a batch (or two or three) of pudding.  You can use my healthy varieties of Creamy Pudding if you want!

Pour the pudding into popsicle containers or 3 ounce sized bathroom cups.
Each batch of pudding made about 15 Pudding Pop cups.
I found it easiest to put all the cups on a large cookie sheet for easier transport the freezer.

Allow the pudding to cool and set up (about 45 minutes).  Place a popsicle stick in each cup:

Put the Pudding Pops into the freezer for at least 4 hours.  I was surprised that it took quite a while for these to be frozen through and through.  Oh, but when they were frozen - it took me back to my days as a little girl playing with Cabbage Patch Dolls with my friend, and eating pudding pops on her porch.

Do you have any Pudding Pop or Cabbage Patch Doll memories to share? Oh dear, or are some of you too young to remember Cabbage Patch Dolls?

I’m not sure if you are a chocolate lover like I am, but any recipe that has the words chocolate and chocolate written side by side makes me very happy and excited. 

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sucanat
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup melted coconut oil or butter
2/3 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup chocolate chips (I recommend these organic chips without soy lecithin, or these homemade chocolate chunks)

If you have some good quality coconut oil, I highly recommend using it in this recipe.  The coconut flavor with the chocolate chocolate is SO GOOD.

Stir together dry ingredients.  Mix in coconut oil, milk and egg.  Fold in chocolate chips.  Scoop into 9-12 paper lined muffin tins.  Bake at 400° for 20  minutes.  Makes about 9 muffins.  (I double the recipe for my family of six.)

You can also make this into a quick bread…just spread the batter into a buttered loaf pan and bake at 350° for 50 minutes!
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This post is linked to Frugal Friday!

I finally figured out a chewy granola bar recipe that we like!  It’s easy and includes all natural sweeteners and ingredients!   These bars are way cheaper than store bought granola bars!  Plus you can customize it according to your family’s taste and allergies!  They can be easily wrapped individually to take in the car or packed in a lunch!

Now I will say this:  I don’t recommend going overboard on these (or any) granola bar.  Unsoaked oats can do a number on your digestive system.  I just wanted to create a recipe that will help our family avoid the granola bars at the store when we need a quick, grab and go snack to take to soccer games or on trips.  I consider these to be “compromise” snacks because of the unsoaked oats, but otherwise, I couldn’t be more thrilled to have finally figured out a yummy chewy granola bar!

Homemade Chewy Granola Bars

1/2 cup peanut butter or sunbutter
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut oil (or another oil of your choice)
1 cup oats
1 cup total of any combination of:  sesame seeds, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, mini chocolate chips

In a medium sized saucepan, melt together peanut butter, honey and coconut oil.

Remove from heat and add one cup of oats.  Choose your favorite combination of coconut flakes, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, dried fruit and mini chocolate chips, to equal a total of ONE CUP.  (I just got out my one cup measuring cup and poured in the ingredients until the cup was full.)  Pour in and stir well.

Stir well, then spread mixture into a 8×8 or 9×4 pan.

Chill for two hours, then cut into bars.

Wrap in plastic wrap for a quick grab and go snack!

We started off with Orange Cream Cheese Cut-Out Cookies.   I used sucanat instead of the organic sugar crystals I had originally used in the recipe, just to see if it would work.  Oh yeah…it worked.  They turned out dark in color…but oh well.  They are delicious and the citrus flavor is SO good. 

Malachi (age 4) was so excited to frost his Christmas cookies that he pulled a stool around the kitchen and got out all the ingredients we would need all by himself.  I hated telling him that we didn’t need eggs or baking powder for the frosting.  ;)

Here’s Elias and Malachi finally getting to frost the cookies.  You MUST try the Orange Cream Cheese Frosting with these cookies.  And don’t forget that you can pretend that the cookies are good for you and packed with Vitamin C since they have orange juice in them. Uh-huh…cookies to boost your immune system.  That’s right.

We (the Mom part of we) got a double batch of Honey Whole Wheat Bread made.  We’ve been out of bread for about a week…so it’s about time I got that job done. 

We also made a batch of Coconut Macaroon Cookies to take to a friend who can’t have gluten (and who happens to love Coconut Macaroons).  These cookies are so easy!

Next week, I plan to share a big list of food ideas that make GREAT Christmas gifts!  Stay tuned!

Been doing any baking lately?!

Zucchini Brownies

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sucanat or rapadura
1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 egg
2 cups whole wheat flour

Mix butter, sucanat and cocoa.  Stir in zucchini and egg.  Gradually mix in flour until well combined.  Pour batter into a 9×13 inch pan.  Bake in a 350° oven for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Since I’m getting vegetable in every moist, chocolaty bite…do you think I can justify eating twice as many?

Just wondering.  :)

Be sure to check out these zucchini recipes also: 

•  Zucchini Cake
• Cheeseburger Zucchini Boats
• Whole Wheat and Honey Zucchini Bread and Muffins
• Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies and Bars

AND, if you want even more zucchini recipes, check out Tammy’s Recipe swap today!   We really might just all turn into zucchinis.
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This post is linked to the In Season Recipe Swap and Works for me Wednesday.

This cake was maybe my favorite of all the experiments.  It was really, really good (and by was, I mean that every last piece is gone).  Of course I happen to think cream cheese frosting makes everything good!

Whole Wheat Zucchini Cake

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups sucanat or rapadura
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups shredded zucchini
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted

Stir together dry ingredients.  Mix in zucchini, eggs and butter.  Pour batter into a buttered 9×13 inch baking dish.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Allow cake to cool completely.  Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.  Below are two recipe choices:

Sorta-Naughty (But at Least the Sugar is Unbleached) Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup melted butter
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 t. vanilla
4 1/2 cups organic/unbleached powdered sugar

Cream butter and cream cheese together.  Add vanilla.  Beat powdered sugar in gradually until you reach the right consistency.

Not-So-Naughty (But Still Really Good) Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
3 ounces cream cheese
1 t. vanilla
4 T. honey

Whip cream until soft peaks form.  In a separate bowl, stir cream cheese, vanilla and honey together until smooth.  Gently fold in whipped cream.

Either frosting recipe is really good…the latter one is just a bit more natural and healthy.

If you like carrot cake…we all kinda thought this cake tasted a lot like carrot cake.  Mmmm!

(If you don’t like carrot cake, then this cake tasted nothing like carrot cake.)  You should totally try it.  ;)
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This post is linked to Frugal Fridays.

It’s amazing how one little hill can produce enough zucchini to fill an entire kitchen.  (Did I mention that I didn’t even plant zucchini this year?!)

We’ve eaten a bunch of zucchini in stir fry or simply sauted it in a bit of olive oil.  It’s SO good like that.  I’ve already shredded a bunch and put it into the freezer.  Now, I’m on a quest to figure out some great recipes that will sneak zucchini into a variety of dishes, making them more nutritious.  And well…a zucchini can only serve as a baseball bat for so long.  Eventually it must be eaten.

I don’t like eating a huge zucchini as is.  The seeds are larger than my teeth and the skin is tougher than I prefer.  I like shredding the large ones in my food processor and stirring them into zucchini bread (whole wheat and honey recipe coming soon). 

While making zucchini bread last week (and then looking around at all the other huge zucchini in my kitchen) I realized that surely one could come up with a cookie, or at least a cookie bar that included zucchini.  So I tinkered around.  I discovered this:  Cookies are a delicious way to eat more zucchini. 

Here’s the recipe I came up with:

Giant Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies

2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup organic sucanat (dehydrated cane sugar juice)
1 egg
1/2 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Shred zucchini (I use a food processor).  In a large mixing bowl mix sucanat, flour, salt and baking soda.   Stir in shredded zucchini, melted butter and egg.  Fold in chocolate chips.  Use a large scoop to put 1 1/2 T. sized balls of dough onto a cookie sheet.  Bake in a 350° oven for 15 minutes.  Makes about 20 giant cookies.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bars

Follow the same recipe as above, only spread the dough into a 9×13 inch pan.  Bake in a 350° oven for 20-25 minutes.

My husband, kids and I all loved these.  Zucchini makes them moist…and of course chocolate makes everything good.

Coming up in my next Zucchini Recipes post…I’ll share my whole wheat and honey zucchini bread and muffin recipe!
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Go check out  Amy’s awesome list of zucchini recipes!

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I posted about making homemade chocolate chips a long time ago.  Since that time, I’ve received several emails asking for more help and detail about how this works.  It seems that many of you who tried the recipe are having trouble getting everything to melt and dissolve and mix like it should.

In light of your chocolate chip frustration…I decided to do a more thorough tutorial about how I make chocolate chips.  The words Chocolate and frustration should never be in the same sentence together.  Ever.

You can use coconut oil or butter to make your chips.  I used butter this time because I’m almost out of coconut oil.  Butter doesn’t quite work as well as coconut oil.  They tend to be softer with butter…but still oh so good.  Especially when you put them in these Chocolate Chip Brownies.

Here again is the recipe:

Homemade Chocolate Chips

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup rapadura or sucanat (you can use white sugar if you want)
1 cup coconut oil or butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract  (homemade vanilla extract if you have it!)

Begin by placing the cocoa, sucanat and butter (or coconut oil) into a quart sized jar. 

Fill a small saucepan with two or three inches of water.  Place the jar into the saucepan/water.  Turn the heat on medium/high to begin melting the butter.

Stir often.  After five minutes, my mixture looked like this:

After ten minutes, my mixture looked like this:

It took a total of thirteen minutes for the butter to completely melt.  I then pulled it out of the water, added the vanilla and stirred well.

The mixture in my jar looked and smelled SO GOOD that I wanted to drink it.  But I didn’t.  That would have made quite a mustache. 

Pour the mixture into a 9×13 inch pan covered with parchment paper.  Spread it as evenly as you can. 

As you can hopefully tell from the following picture, I still have a little sucanat that refused to completely dissove.  Can you see the bits of chunkyness?  That’s been one of the questions I’ve received from several of you.  But…the little bits of chunkyness don’t hurt anything.  My chocolate chips tasted just fine!

You like how the ceiling fan is reflecting in the chocolate? 
I’m just trying to show off my terrible photography skills.

Place your pan into the refrigerator for 1-2 hours so that the chocolate can harden.  Remove it from the parchment paper and break it into chunks.  Store in refrigerator in an airtight container (unless you and your family eat them all first).

Just a note:  These chocolate chips taste wonderful in Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies, but keep in mind that they are very pure and therefore tend to melt and get runny while baking.  Chocolate Chip Cookies with homemade chocolate chips taste wonderful, but might look a little bit funny.  No matter, ugly cookies taste good too.  :)  I recommend eating these chocolate chips plain, mixed with peanuts or in trail mix, in Chocolate Chip Brownies or in Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins.

And now, I do believe I need to use my freshly made chocolate chips to bake brownies.  After I eat some green beans and broccoli of course…

Reindeer Cuties 

1 /2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. vanilla
2 cups whole wheat flour

tiny pretzels
chocolate chips
red hot candies

Stir together butter, peanut butter and honey.  Add egg, baking powder, baking soda and vanilla.  Mix in flour.  Chill dough for about an hour.

Roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness on a well floured surface.  Cut circles using a small drinking glass.  Place on cookie sheet.  Use fingers to squeeze the circles in the middle. 

 Place two pretzels at the top for antlers, two chocolate chips on for eyes and one red hot candy for a nose. 

Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.  Allow reindeer to cool 2-3 minutes before removing from cookie sheet.

And, well…from the Land of the Misfit Cookies…
I just had to show you Malachi’s attempt at a reindeer. 
He sure did have fun helping!

Chocolate Snowballs

3/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup rapadura or sucanat
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. sea salt
1 t. vanilla
2 cups whole wheat flour
powdered sugar

Cream butter, rapadura and cocoa.  Add milk and eggs and stir well.  Mix in baking powder, salt and vanilla.  Stir in flour.  Chill dough for at least two hours.  Roll dough into teaspoon sized balls and place on cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes until the tops are cracked slightly.  Roll balls immediately in powdered sugar.

Be sure not to miss the recipes for Christmas Spice Cookies and Orange Cream Cheese Cut Out Cookies!  The next Christmas Cookie recipe will be: 

Reindeer Cuties!  (Your kids will love ‘em!)
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Visit Tammy’s Recipes for more kitchen fun!