A friend told me about a blog
100 Days of Real Food, and although it is not all vegan / gluten free, it did make me think more about processed food. I limit processed food as much as I can, I do not eat much, really any. But, when it comes to the girls lunches and snacks, I often relent. I buy "healthy" processed food, but it is processed none the less. I was determined to make healthy snacks that would replace some of the boxed products in the girls snack drawer. These three recipes are all healthy, whole foods, no added oil, salt or sugar!
First up -
Fast Cookies for School Lunches - p 186 in the Forks Over Knives companion book. What could be better FAST is in the title and cocoa is one of the ingredients. I made mine a little different than the recipe. This is what I did:
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup unsweetened soy milk
3 TBS almond butter (unsweet)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups GF oats
Put maple syrup, plant milk, cocoa into saucepan, bring to boil, then simmer for 3 minutes. Add the nut butter and stir until melted. Remove from the heat, add the vanilla and oats. Stir well then make into small cookies. Done! That is it! I thought they were delicious. Sierra enjoyed them, and Ryder ate them when there was no other option for dessert. (But she did eat them!)
And, nothing excites my girls more than telling them they can have a cookie for snack.
I really thought I nailed this next snack. I mean, I was thinking the girls would jump up and down when they tasted this. No such luck - I was the only one who ate it, and yes, I ate the entire bowl. Fortunately, not in one sitting. But, your children might like it!
This is a
low-fat version of a nut butter, I believe the original recipe is in the
Happy Herbivore cookbook. I saw it mentioned on a couple of blogs.
1 can white beans (I used northern white beans) - drained
1/4 cup of your favorite unsweetened nut butter - I used almond
2 TB maple syrup
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Put all ingredients in your high powered blender and voila!
I dipped apples and veggies in it, I also put a tablespoon of it in my hot oatmeal. So good. One morning I spread it on a whole wheat tortilla with sliced strawberries, rolled it up and sliced it for the girls. Nope, they still did not like it. Apparently right now they did not like tortillas. What?
Anyways, try it, I hope your children LOVE it as much as I DO!
Yes, I was on a roll, determined to find something they liked. This one was the winner. I found the recipe in Whole Living magazine in the April 2012 issue. This is what I did:
1 1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup raw almonds
2 TB unsweetened shredded coconut
1 TB maple syrup
1 TB cocoa powder
Pulse apricots, almonds, coconut in food processor until finely ground. Line a 9x5 inch loaf pan with parchment, leaving an inch overhang on all sides. Transfer mixture to pan and press firmly to form a rectangle.
In saucepan, combine cocoa and maple syrup. Stir until melted into a chocolate sauce. Using a spoon, drizzle sauce on top. Transfer to refrigerator for at least 15 minutes, until firm. Remove, using parchment paper and cut into rectangles or square bars. I stored these in the refrigerator in individual baggies so they were ready for the girls lunchboxes.
The girls loved these. Finally...
The afternoon taste test:
The muffin is a vegan banana muffin from Dekalb Farmers Market, I can
not eat it because of the wheat, but the girls enjoyed it.
Oh the challenge of getting the girls excited about healthy snacks! We went today and bought these nifty containers, one for each of them. I laid out all the goodies on our counter and let them make their own trail mix. I had cashews, pistachios, gluten free pretzels, raisins, dried cranberries, dried pineapple, gojii berries, coconut flakes, vegan chocolate chips, toasted pumpkin seeds all out for them to choose. They LOVED this afternoon activity and are so proud of their creation. 
