The Christmas plaque my oldest daughter made for me when she was in pre-school

Homemade Christmas tree ornaments

The painted cardboard glitter stars (and candy canes) that hang from our living room ceiling

The wooden star made by a friend.

Chocolate Sparkle Cookies

How to Make Chocolate Sparkle Cookies

1/2 pound bittersweet chocolate

3 Tbsp butter

2 eggs

1 Tbsp honey

1/3 cup organic sugar

3/4 cup ground almonds

2 tsp cocoa powder

granulated sugar for rolling

powdered sugar for dusting

Directions

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in your microwave. Remove from heat. Mix butter to heated chocolate until melted. Beat eggs with a mixer, gradually adding the sugar and honey until the mixture falls in thick, smooth ribbons from the beaters (about ten minutes). Fold in the chocolate-butter mixture.

Stir together the cocoa powder and almonds and gently add to the chocolate mixture. Cover and refridgerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease your cookie sheets or put down parchment paper. Roll balls about 1″ in diameter in granulated sugar. The “dough” will be hard. I had to spoon it out with a heavy spoon and work it with my hands. Place 2″ apart on the cookie sheet.

Bake 12 minutes, until centers are moist but not wet. Cool slightly. Dust with powdered sugar.

Makes 36.

Notes: You could serve this as a warm dessert with whipped cream. You could try using ground hazelnuts instead of almonds.

These are amazing. Rich and delicious. A true treat!

Oops, I forgot one! Natural greenery!

This was almost a Wordless Wednesday post but I couldn’t help but add the recipe. I knew a few of you would want it.

Click the link to read more about my family’s emerging Christmas traditions.

Related posts:

1. I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas
2. Foodie Fridays: Vanilla Breast Milk Cupcakes With Strawberry Frosting
3. Christmas Busy-ness and Thoughts on Babble

Since we’re still newcomers in our neighbourhood, I thought it would be a fun idea to invite the other neighbourhood children and their parents over for a Halloween treat-making party.

I have decided that the best way to deal with my Halloween Candy Dilemma is to skip town. Literally. Even though I just printed out the Our Candy Bowl is Nestle Free Poster from the Boonestle Blog, I think we’ve decided to take the girls to the nearby Waldorf School (close to where we used to live) for their Halloween Celebration. Waldorf festivities are magical. For Halloween, an angel leads you and your costumed little ones (no scary costumes allowed) along a pumpkin and lantern lit path to different dressed up people who talk about who they are and give you a treat at the end of their story. We went a few years ago and there was a farmer who handed out apples, a carpenter who handed out half circle wooden bridges (which we still play with), a baker who handed out hot buns, etc.

Since I am a fan of home made treats but know I can’t get away with it on Halloween night, we thought this would be a nice way to connect with the parents and safely get out of our neighbourly Halloween obligations so we can celebrate in our own way.

How To Make Banana Ghosts

• Last night we took our nice organic yellow bananas (not too ripe, not too green), peeled them and cut them in half and pushed a craft stick part way up the cut end. Then we wrapped them in plastic wrap and froze them over night.

• This afternoon we melted some white chocolate and some organic dark chocolate in separate bowls. You can do this in the microwave (1 minute per cup of chocolate) or over a double boiler, but be sure not to get any water in the chocolate or else it won’t work.

• Then we took our frozen half bananas and dipped them in the chocolate. We tried to make devil bananas with the dark chocolate, using red jelly bellies for horns and yogurt covered raisins for eyes, but take my word for it - they looked stupid – so we just made plain chocolate-dipped bananas after that.

• The ghosts turned out great. The chocolate will melt fast so before it does put two chocolate chips on for eyes and one for a spooky mouth.

Ta da! You’re finished. Keep frozen until you eat them. They taste so good and I had no guilt around them eating one. Hooray!

Oh, and our neighbours loved their treats. They were very surprised by our backwards Halloween treat delivering ways, but I think touched too. And the girls were thrilled with being able to give away their small tokens of new friendship.

I’m sharing this at Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum, Recipe Swap at Grocery Cart Challenge, Friday Food at Momtrends, Food on Friday at Ann Kroeker, Wholesome Whole Foods at Health Food Lover, Friday Potluck at EKat’s Kitchen, Family Food Fridays at Get Healthy Cheap, Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays at Blessed With Grace

Related posts:

1. Vanilla Chocolate Marble Banana Loaf
2. Kicking It Homeschool Banana Muffins

Let’s all make some banana muffins.

You know when you just want to make something fast and easy? I was sitting at the counter watching my daughter work in one of her workbooks. She was thoroughly enjoying coloring pieces of a circle to illustrate fractions. While the rain came down outside, I sat there stressing daydreaming about what fun thing we should do after working in the workbook. Why I was stressing is too complicated to go into in this post, but then I realized it’s been awhile since we had fresh muffins. And since baking with your child = learning about fractions due to the measuring cups involved, I thought, “Yay, let’s bake banana muffins.”

You’d think this would have gone over well but no, she wanted to make granola. (I’ve been talking about it for awhile now you see.) Okay, “Let’s make my famous granola!” But alas, there was not enough oil, oats or dried fruit. So much for that idea.

With much coaxing my difficult-to-transition-child, we made these banana muffins instead. They kicked it old school in their simplicity, but under the circumstances I decided to kick them homeschool instead. So here you go. And in the end it was worth the small effort to make these because they are so moist and flavourful and my daughter eventually brightened to the fact that she got to crack an egg. And of course with granola there is no egg-cracking fun to be had. The coconut flour I added as an experiment gave the muffins a slight coconutty taste but if you don’t have any, you can substitute whatever kind of flour you’d like.

**Oh, and note to homeschooling parents – notice that all four of the basic fractions are represented here. How cool is that? **

Homeschool Banana Muffins

4 ripe bananas

1/2 cup dry sweetener

1 slightly beaten egg

1/3 cup melted butter

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups flour (I used mostly whole wheat and about 1/3 coconut flour)

Directions:

Mix the egg, sweetener, and bananas together. in a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients and mix well. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, pour into greased muffin tins and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Makes 12.

Linked up at Vegetarian Foodie Fridays at Breastfeeding Moms Unite!, Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum, Recipe Swap at Grocery Cart Challenge, Friday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home, Friday Food at Momtrends, Food on Friday at Ann Kroeker, Wholesome Whole Foods at Health Food Lover,  Family Food Fridays at Get Healthy Cheap, Hearth and Soul Blog Hop at A Moderate Life, Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays at Blessed With Grace.

Related posts:

1. Foodie Fridays: Maple Muffins with Coconut Streusel Topping
2. Banana Ghosts
3. Vanilla Chocolate Marble Banana Loaf

As the Summer winds down and the briskness of Fall returns, friends and family have been talking about craving pumpkin.

I found this recipe for Pumpkin Coconut Squares on the Tropical Traditions website and modified it just a tiny bit by using a can of 100% organic pumpkin puree, sugar and spices, instead of canned pumpkin pie mix. The result was awesome. It wasn’t very sweet due to the small amount of sugar I put in, but the flavours of pumpkin and coconut really allowed this treat to stand on its own. My kids and I gobbled them up in two days and I was pleased to know they were getting a serving of vegetables inside a treat that was healthy in every way. Also, they are gluten and dairy-free!

Pumpkin Coconut Squares

1 15 oz can of organic pumpkin puree

1/2 cup organic coconut flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup organic dry sweetener or honey

3 eggs

2 Tbsp + 1 tsp coconut milk

2 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp organic virgin coconut oil

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger powder

1/4 tsp cloves

Directions

Pre-heat oven at 350 degree F.

Mix the coconut flour with baking powder and spices. Set  aside. Blend all the rest of the ingredients. Make sure the butter is soft. Warming the coconut oil also as I found it difficult to work the lumps out. The white spots that you see on the squares in the photo are from the coconut oil not mixing in. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ones. Grease an 8 x12 rectangular pan with coconut oil. Pour the mixture on the pan.

Bake at 350 degree F for 45 minutes.

Test to see if it is already done by inserting a clean toothpick in the middle. When the toothpick comes out clean or with no residue, the mixture is done. The consistency will resemble a soft baked cheesecake.

Cool down. Cut into squares. Serve with whipped cream for a dessert or eat as is for a healthy snack.

Giveaway Alert!

If you want to give these squares a try, are intrigued by the idea of gluten-free baking or just want to try some coconut flour, I’m giving away a 2.2 lb (1 kg) package of Tropical Traditions Organic Coconut Flour.

• ALSO Zmooz Natur Organic Rattle Ring Doll ends Tuesday September 7th
• 2.2 lbs (1 kg) bag of Tropical Traditions Organic Coconut Flour ends Friday September 14th.

*******

This post is linked to Vegetarian Foodie Fridays at Breastfeeding Moms Unite!, Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum, Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade, Friday Food at Momtrends, Food on Friday at Ann Kroeker, Family Food Fridays at Get Healthy Cheap, Wholesome Whole Foods at Health Food Lover, Fresh, Clean and Pure at Bella Vita, Just Another Meatless Monday at Hey, What’s For Dinner Mom? My Meatless Mondays at My Sweet and Savory, Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays, Two For Tuesdays Blog Hop at Rendered Lard, Delicious Dishes at It’s a Blog Party, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday at Simply Sugar and Gluten Free, Real Food Wednesdays at Kelly The Kitchen Kop.

Related posts:

1. Pecan Squares
2. Tropical Traditions Organic Coconut Flour Review and Giveaway
3. Foodie Fridays: Vegan Pumpkin Pie

This recipe will serve 2-3.

Yogurt Sundae or Parfait

2 cups plain organic or raw yogurt

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 Tbsp honey

Toppings: choose any or all

fruit, chopped (bananas, mangoes, oranges, peaches, pears, apples, melon, kiwi, etc)

coconut, shredded

berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, wild berries, etc)

nuts, chopped

seeds, toasted

raisins, dates, apricots or other dried fruit

granola

Directions: Mix yogurt, honey and vanilla. Chop or slice any toppings you want to use.

Spoon yogurt into a dish and cover with toppings of your choice.

For a parfait, layer the yogurt and toppings in a pretty glass. Top with a sprig of mint, if desired.

Serve and enjoy.

Linked up at Designs by Gollum, Momtrends, Ann Kroeker, Food Renegade, Urban Momtographer, Hey What’s For Dinner Mom?, The Green Phone Booth, and My Sweet and Savory.

Vegetarian Foodie Fridays

If you have a vegetarian recipe or vegetarian-related food post I encourage you to participate in my linky. So far, in my travels through food blogs, I have yet to find another vegetarian carnival. Vegan or vegetarian dishes or desserts are welcome. Dairy and eggs are fine, just no meat. I respect everyone’s choice to eat meat, but I would like to keep my blog meat free. Many thanks.

Related posts:

1. Vegetarian Foodie Fridays Link Up
2. Vegetarian Foodie Fridays: Rice Fried Vegetables
3. Vegetarian Foodie Fridays: Cauliflower Marranca

Luckily there’s this recipe I have that kicks the butt of ranch dressing, in taste and ingredients. And if you don’t like the herbs and spices I use in mine, this recipe is very cool in the sense that it has a base that you can work with and put in anything that you like! If you are making this for a large group of people make sure you double it. But if it’s just for your family, this dip is best eaten within a couple days so I keep it on the small side.

This dip also makes a great, albeit thick, salad dressing and goes pretty well with chips too.

Easy Veggie Dip

1 cup plain yogurt, or ricotta cheese, or sour cream, or a combination

1/2 cup natural mayonnaise

2 tsp dill weed

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine all ingredients. Serve chilled.

Linked up at Designs by Gollum, Ann Kroeker, Food Renegade, Grocery Cart Challenge, The Urban Momtographer, Cookie Notes, The Nourishing Gourmet, and Momtrends.

Related posts:

1. Foodie Fridays: Hearty Tomato Lentil Veggie Soup
2. Easy Handmade Gifts: Chocolate Lover’s Sampler
3. Easy Handmade Gifts: Bath Products

I actually posted this recipe for stinging nettle pesto last year, but since nettle season is upon us again and it’s my best nettle recipe, I thought I should post it one more time!

Other ways in which to use your nettles include soups, stews, spanakopita, quiches, and stir-fries. Basically, any place you would use spinach or other dark leafy greens, you can use nettles. You can also dry it and infuse it in teas or put the dried nettles in your dishes too. I also like to add a little of the dry stuff to homemade gomasio.

Nettles make my blood feel clean. I drank them in quantities after my births to replenish my iron stores and drank it throughout my pregnancies for increased health benefits. Nettles are a highly recommended and gentle health-inducing herb. To read more about nettles, how to recognize, handle, harvest and prepare them, see this post.

Nettle Pesto

3 packed cups of fresh stinging nettle

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup raw cashews, almonds or pine nuts

3/4 cup fresh parsley

3/4 cup parmasan cheese

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup melted butter

salt to taste

Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and whir until a desired consistency is reached.

Are you familiar with nettles? What do you like to do with them?

Posted at Food Renegade, Designs by Gollum, Ann Kroeker, Momtrends, and The Urban Momtographer.

Related posts:

1. Foodie Fridays: All About Nettles!