Fire Roasted Black Bean Chili

I like to prepare easy things for my husband to take to lunch for work.  We put together this chili on a Sunday morning, let it cook during the day and then divided it into containers for him to take for lunch.  Easy and simple!

Fire Roasted Black Bean Chili



Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
1 15 ounce can of black beans
1 15 ounce can of tomato sauce
1 15 ounce can of dark red kidney beans
1 15 ounce can of diced tomatoes fire roasted
1 can of corn 2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
salt and pepper to taste

1. Brown ground beef over medium heat in frying pan over medium heat.  Drain off any excess oil

2. Add ground beef, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, kidney beans and fire roasted diced tomatoes to crock pot and stir well.

3. Set crock pot to low heat for 4 hours.

4. Add seasonings and stir well.

Question, do you prefer seeing step by step pictures and a picture of all ingredients or is a picture of just the "end product" better?

Chocolate Pistachio Date Balls

The girls used to love to eat LaraBars. The only problem was that I didn't like having to pay sometimes close to $1.50 per bar, especially when the girls would each want their own! We've played around a lot with different combinations but this one is one of our new favorites. Instead of making the date mixture into a "bar" shape we just roll into balls which makes them perfect for little hands to hold and eat up!

Everything you need:

Pistachios and chocolate chips:

Make sure you can form a ball out of the dates:

Chocolate Pitaschio Date Balls

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of dates, pitted
1/2 cup of pistachios, with shells removed
1/4 cup of chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Put pistachios and chocolate chips in food processor and mixed about 30 seconds until crushed
2. Add dates to food processor and mix until crumbly and well mixed.  Test to be sure dates can be rolled into a ball before removing mix.
3. Roll into balls, we were able to make 18 total out of these measurements.
4. Store tightly covered in fridge.  The date balls will last longer if you wrap them individually in plastic wrap but if you plan on eating the bunch within 3 days a container will be fine.

Secret Chocolate Cupcakes

The girls have been requesting cupcakes for a while now. While I love to bake I didn't want to make them a batch of sugary chocolate cupcakes. They would want to eat one every single evening and then I'd end up with 2 very hyper girls!

I made substitutions in both the cupcakes and the frosting so that neither one contains actual sugar. Honey and maple syrup are excellent substitutes and the girls had no clue!

Everything I used for the cake (minus the eggs, I guess I forgot to photograph those!).

I lined our muffin pan and sprayed each liner with a little coconut spray oil.

Everything I used for our frosting, notice there is no sugar!!

The avocado in the food process, make sure it is very smooth.

The frosting mixing away! 

I put the frosting in a container to store in the fridge while waiting for the cupcakes to bake and cool.  It reminded me of pudding but went on the cupcakes perfectly!

Secret Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients for cupcakes:

1/3 cup of cocoa powder

1 1/3 cups of all purpose flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

3/4 cup of honey

2 eggs

1 cup of sour cream

1/3 cup of applesauce

2 teaspoons of vanilla

Directions for cupcakes:

1. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl together.

2. With a mixer blend honey, eggs, sour cream, applesauce and vanilla in a separate bowl.

3. Slowly mix in dry ingredients until combined.

4. Line muffin pan or use non-stick cooking spray (we did both).

5. Fill muffin cups until almost full, we were able to make 12 cupcakes.

6. Bake 25 minutes.  

Ingredients for frosting:

1 small avocado

1/4 cup of cocoa powder

1/4 cup of maple syrup

1 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

1/2 cup of sour cream

Directions for frosting:

1. Using a food processor mix avocado alone until completely smooth and free of all chunks.

2. Add cocoa powder, maple syrup, vanilla and sour cream and process until smooth.

3. Store covered in fridge until read to use on cooled cupcakes.

I was worried someone would notice these are free of sugar, nope, the secret is safe!

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Dream Cookies

We are a family that loves peanut butter, sunflower butter, cashew butter, Nutella and most recently, on a splurge I bought this Dark Chocolate Dream peanut butter you see in the picture below last summer (for the next few months the ages of the girls won't make sense because I took a lot of these pictures months ago!).

It was addictive!  Luckily I decided to use up a large portion of it on these cookies!

I got everything together, very simple as you can see, only 3 ingredients!

Measuring out the sugar.

Adding an egg.

And finally the Dark Chocolate Dream!

Mix by hand.

Taste if you need to (unless you're paranoid about raw eggs).

Roll the dough into balls and place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Flatten each ball with a fork in a criss cross pattern.

Pop them in the oven.

And they are done!

Ready for an after dinner treat!

My tester approved.  They were very moist/mess but very good!

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Dream Cookies


Adapted from this recipe from allrecipes.com

What you need:

1 cup of Peanut Butter + Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams
1 cup of sugar
1 egg

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Line baking sheet with parchement paper.
Mix ingredients by hand until smooth.
Roll dough into balls about 1 inch in diameter.
Place balls on parchement paper and flatten with fork in criss cross pattern.
Bake 7 minutes.
Let cool completely as cookies with continue to bake after they are removed from oven.

Chocolate Banana Muffins

On the weekends I like to make batches of muffins so that the girls can have them for breakfast in the mornings while I'm at work.  I freeze the batches in our deep freezer, the night before I pack them a little breakfast/lunch in a container and keep it in the fridge.  Overnight the muffins thaw so that they're perfect and ready to eat in the morning.

This is one of their favorite muffins, which is easy to see because of the chocolate chips in them.  Who wouldn't want to have chocolate chips for breakfast?

Everything we used to make the muffins.

Butter and brown sugar.

Wet, dry and bananas.

All mixed together.

Ready for the oven.

All done!

Chocolate Banana Muffins



What you'll need:

1/2 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups of white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of dark or semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners or spray with non-stick spray.
In a large bowl using a mixture cream together butter and brown sugar until fluffy.
Add applesauce and mix until combined.
Add each egg one at a time making sure it's fully mixed.
Add vanilla and mashed bananas.
In a medium bowl mix together with a spoon the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mix until combined.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Bake for 22 minutes.  Make sure muffins are fully baked by putting a toothpick into the center of the largest muffin in your pan.  Once it comes out clean the muffins are baked.
Cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then remove to fully cool on counter.
Once fully cool you can either serve or put muffins into a freezer safe bag and keep in freezer for up to 3 months.

The Most Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever

In our opinon, and some other people who have tried it, this is the most perfect chocolate chip cookier ever!

I adapted this recipe from a recipe I found on Pinterest.  It was called the Copycat Panera Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from The Pinning Mama.

I made a few changes and these cookies turned out great.  Plus I had a helper to make these cookies with (these are OLD pictures, I made this cookies sometime last summer).

My helper.

Everything you'll need.

Mixing the batter.

1/4 cup scoop of a cookie.

Ready to go into the freezer!

Love having a deep freezer.  Makes making cookies easier!

Fresh out of the oven.

 What you need:

1 cup of butter, melted
1/2 cup of coconut butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups of dark brown sugar
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
2 large eggs
4 teaspoons of vanilla
2 1/3 cup of all purpose flour
2 cups of white whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
1 bag of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl beat on low with a mixer butter, coconut oil and sugars.
3. Add eggs and vanilla and continue to beat on low.
4. Next add cornstarch, baking soda and salt and mix.
5. Add in 1 1/3 cup of all purpose flour until combined.
6. Follow with 1 more cup of all purpose flour.
7. Next add in just 1 cup of white whole wheat flour until completely incorporated.
8. Last add 1 more cup of white whole wheat flour.  Dough will be thick but keep mixer on low speed.
9. Stir in the bag of mini chocolate chips.
10. Using 1/4 cup measure scoop out dough onto baking sheet, set each cookie about 1-1 1/2 inches apart.
11. Place dough on the baking sheets in freezer for 2 hours (dough can also be stored in freezer bag for up to 3 months).
12. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and make cookies for 15 minutes straight out of the freezer.
13. Let cool at least 10 minutes before enjoying as cookies continue to firm up and bake after being removed from oven.

These turn out to be huge cookies!

Since last summer we've started using a 2 tablespoon measuring spoon to measure out our cookies.  Use a 2 tablespoons of dough to make smaller cookies if you don't want your cookies to be so big.

Unsweet Sweet Potatoes

I have always hated sweet potatoes.

I don't like them with brown sugar and especially don't like them with marshmellows, yuck!

I know that sweet potatoes are healthy so I wanted to try to figure out some way of eating them without the extra sweetness of brown sugar or marshmellows.

This is seriously the only way I can eat sweet potatoes and now I love them!  I actually like to eat them with a side of cottage cheese.

Everything I used to make this recipe.

Chopping potatoes.

Coated with olive oil and spices.

Single layer on cookie sheet.

Unsweet Sweet Potatoes


Ingredients:
5 sweet potatoes, peeled
2 tablespooons of freeze dried chives
2 tablespoons of dill weed
3 tablespoons of olive oil
olive oil spray Jane's Krazy Mixed Up Seasonings: Original Mixed Up Salt

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Chop potatoes in cubes about 1/2 inch in size.
3. Put potatoes into bowl and toss with olive oil until potatoes are evenly coated.
4. Add dill and chives and toss until potatoes are covered.
5. Spray olive oil on cookie sheet and place potatoes in a single layer.
6. Roast in oven for 20 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and flip potatoes over. Bake for an additional 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
8. Remove from oven and serve warm. Use "mixed up salt" for additional flavor.