Healthy Treat - Homemade Hot Fudge Brownie "Larabar"

Thanks to my friend, Renee, for reccomending this recipe. And thanks to Chocolate Covered Katie for posting it on her blog! Just click here for the recipe straight from her blog.

I made these thinking they would be an okay diet food. You know, the ones you eat because that's all you can eat and it's good for you. Oh my, I was very surprised! These are delicious!! And they are grain free, no added sugar (only what's naturally in the dates) and still taste like a dessert!

My three year old can't get enough of them. He proudly announced to the little girl we were carpooling with on the way to preschool this morning that he has a special chocolate bar in his lunchbox and "it has no sugah in it". I guess he heard me telling my husband that. Ha!

So, after you blend together the nuts, dates, vanilla, salt and cocoa powder you come upon the challenge of how to shape the crumbly mixture into bars. I pulled out my mini candy bar mold I bought last Halloween to make homemade candy bars.

[That was before I found out that Aldi brand mini candy bars have real vanilla!] It was super easy to press the mixture in the candy bar mold and the little bars popped right out, perfectly shaped. This will be key for getting my older boys to try them. If it looks too messy and homemade they are very suspicious!

If you make them or another of her flavors, let me know how you like them!

Homemade Ranch Seasoning and Salad Dressing

Ranch Dressing is a staple in our house. It is good for many things, not the least of which is getting the kids to enjoy their raw veggies more! It is good for salads, of course, but also can be a dip, used in baking great meals and is wonderful on roasted potatoes. I've recently discovered that the dry seasoning mix is a great thing to use in cooking as well. I had a big, empty spice shaker and put the dry mix in it. The recipe makes over 40 Tbsp and you only need 1 Tbsp to make a bottle of salad dressing. I shake that ranch seasoning on veggies to roast, on chicken or pork before grilling and even added it recently to a container of sour cream for a quick & easy party dip. An easy meal is to coat chicken breasts in ranch dressing and roll them in bread crumbs for "Chicken Ranch".

Ranch Seasoning & Dressing

Mix together:

2 cups Dry minced parsley flakes
1/2 cup Dry minced onion
2 tablespoons Dry dill weed
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp Onion powder
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp Garlic powder

You can blend above ingredients in food processor until powdered or just mix in a bowl and use as is - it's not absolutely necessary to blend in food processor. Put into container with tight-fitting lid. Store dry mix at room temperature for 1 year.

To Make Salad Dressing:

1 tablespoon dry seasoning mix

1 cup Mayonnaise

1 cup buttermilk or sour cream [or Follow Your Heart Soy Sour Cream]

Combine mix, mayonnaise and milk or sour cream and stir with a whisk. Add xanthan gum to thicken to your desired consistency. Store in the refrigerator.

Mango Pina Colada Smoothies - dairy free!

1 fresh mango peeled and cubed -OR- 1 to 1.5 cups frozen mango chunks
1 1/4 cups ice cubes
2 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 cups pineapple juice
1/2 cup rice milk
1 can coconut milk

Place all ingredients in the blender and process until smooth.

I adapted this from a recipe on allrecipes.com and we loved it. You may taste it and decide you want to add a little more sugar, or you could add honey.