Chickpea Chocolate Chippers

Oven baked version

     Happy Tone It Up Tuesday!  I'm having quite the hungry day so it was perfect for testing out my newest healthy recipe :)  I've made chocolate chip cookie dough dip http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/09/27/new-recipe-sugar-free-cookie-dough-dip/ and tried to bake it as is into cookies or cookie bars, but it just turns out messy.  Ever since the original experiment I wanted to try again to make healthy chocolate chip cookies using chickpeas again and today was the day!  I was inspired to bake by this little guy who knocked my apron down early this morning...Without further ado on to healthy cookies!

Crazy 5 month old kitten named Tuotilo <3

Ingredients:
1 cup chickpea flour (found mine at whole foods for a few $ or amazon.com has it too)

1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

5-7 dates, depends upon size

1 egg or egg white

1/4 cup vanillas protein powder (I used nutribiotic brown rice vanilla)

1/4 cup natural peanut butter

1/4 cococnut water or plain water

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup chocolate chips

stevia drops or powder to taste

pinch of salt

Method:

1) Microwave milk and dates for 30 seconds and let sit 5 minutes.

2) Add all ingredients except chocolate chips to a food processor and run until smooth

3) stir in chocolate chips, the will make a swril since the batter will be warm

4) Scoop into 1 tbsp size cookies

5) Bake them at 350 in the oven for about 20 minutes or place on a microwave safe plate and micowave one by one for 30 seconds.

30 seconds in the microwave et voila!

Where I have been and my sunny vegan 'chicken' salad

Hi guys, where have I been?  Being discouraged that I don't have an instant set of followers, but you know what its ok :)  This blog can be followed just by me and I think I'll be happy with that because its like a giant healthy cook book by me, for me, and for the love of food and my continued healthy journey.

I recently joined the Tone It Up nutrition plan and I don't think I can ever go back to falling on and off the healthy eating wagon ever again.  I first discover Karena & Katrina through pinterest, later I followed their workouts on youtube and love them!  I finally built up the courag to join their free community and the support you get is incredable and I visit everyday and share my meals with all my friends that I have met.  You can follow my journey on twitter too if you like @Alia_TIU.

Now on to the good stuff my TIU approved vegan friendly sunny 'chicken' salad!

2 cups sunflower seeds (soaked in cold water for 1.5 hours)

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup hummus

3-5 garlic cloves

1 Tbsp onion powder

1 Tbsp garlic powder

1 Tbsp mrs.dash

1 Tbsp sage

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1) soak sunflower seeds in cold water for 1.5 to 2 hours then drain

2) add all ingrediets EXCEPT dried cranberries to a food processor and run it until smooth, but slighty chunky

3) stir in cranberries and season with a little sea salt and black pepper

4)enjoy!

Summer Time Strawberry Sorbet

June is just around the corner and we had our first hot day in weeks.  A simple post for a simple recipe:  Summer Time Strawberry Sorbet.

Ode to the Toffee Almond Bar & An Early Birthday Present

Here we are 2 weeks in advance of my birthday and a present has already arrived!  Being a cooking crazed girl I asked for a small food processor and the bf has delivered <3.  This calls for a celebration and my very fist post: The healthy toffee almond bar.


A few years ago this delicious bar cookie was available at Starbucks, but has since be discontinued.  It was a truly despairing moment when my favorite work day snack disappeared forever, but today it will be resurrected and reformed into a better being :).  Anyone who is looking for a tasty yet healthy version of the Starbucks toffee almond bar here its is, oh and its gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan too so just about anyone can eat it!


The original recipe includes lots of butter, white flour, and sugar weighing in at 430 Calories per small bar.  Plus each cookie included 21 grams of fat and 37 grams of sugar which is about 74% of the amount of sugar you should consume per day!  


My recipe still has a small serving size(16 servings), but that works for me because they are very sweet.  Each bar is 179.5 Calories and I haven't yet figured out how to determine the other nutrition facts, but at least I can say there is no added sugar or fat in these and nearly all the ingredients are healthy. 

Gather Ingredients

Healthy Toffee Almond Bars

1 cup almond meal

1 cup whole oats

10 Medjool dates pitted

3/4cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk

¼ tsp almond extract

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp amaretto (optional)

1 tbsp regular or sugar free caramel syrup (optional)

Grind Oats

1/3 cup chocolate chips or chunks

1/3 cup whole almonds

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1)      Grind oats in a food processor and then add almond meal and dates.  Grind these three ingredients until you get a dry and crumbly mix.  Try not to blend the dates away totally because they help to lend an extra toffee like taste.

Process Dry Ingredients

2)      Add liquid ingredients.  Process on high until a thick cookie dough like consistency is achieved, it took me about one minute.

3)      Preheat oven at 350.

4)      Prep an 8x8 square pan with a little cooking spray.

5)      Mix in chocolate chips and nuts.  Add salt, baking powder and baking soda at the last minute.  Spread cookie batter into the pan and bake for 10 mins.  Reduce heat to 300 and continue cooking for another 20 mins or until the top is very brown and the center feels soft, but set.

6)      Here comes the hard part!  Let them cool completely (this is so tough because the smell is intoxicating) and then slice into 16 bars.  Enjoy!