A Happy Saturday with Brownie Pops

I recently tried to make Non-Dairy Cake Pops and it didn't go so well... but as I was searching through the updates of all the blogs I follow, I came upon this super awesome idea over at Little Birdie Secrets. Brownie Pops! So click here to go over and check out this cute little treat. Don't forget to follow her blog, awesome ideas and recipes are plentiful there! If I can find a way to make these with no dairy, I'll post it later on. Happy Saturday :)

Whole Wheat Vegan Friendly Cookies

So I've modified my good friend's chocolate chip cookie recipe and come up with this awesome Vegan Chocolate chip Cookie recipe that all can enjoy no matter the diet or allergy. Unless you're allergic to Gluten... still working on that one. In my extended family there are a lot of different diets and a lot of different allergies so we're always striving to make new and awesome recipes that everyone can have. The only diet this doesn't follow is Low Carb (which I'm on) bc each cookie has about 20g. It sucks, but they are so good and everyone needs to splurge here and there :) I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Ingredients:

1 cup margarine (the Nucoa Brand has no dairy)

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup Xylitol (about $7 a bag at your local health food store)

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 tbsp corn starch

4 tbsp water (corn starch and water make up your egg substitute i.e. 1 part starch + 2 parts water = 1 egg)

2 tsp Real Vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 bag Semi-sweet chocolate chips (be sure to check the ingredients to make sure there is no dairy. There are two brands I've found so far that have no dairy: the first is the Kroger brand semi sweet and the second is the awesome but more expensive Ghirredeli semi sweet)

Preheat your oven to 375.

In a medium mixing bowl mix together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder and set aside.

In a larger mixing bowl mix all your other ingredients together. Add your flour mixture to the wet mixture one cup at a time, and mix well after every cup. Once your flour mixture is all added and blended, slowly add your chocolate chips and mix them in well.

Place on ungreased cookie sheet by the tablespoon full and cook for 9-11 minutes depending on how soft you like your cookies.

A warning- this cookie dough may look pretty normal, but the whole wheat flour makes for a much softer and moister cookie, so they look, cook, and taste much different than what you are normally used to. Don't worry! They are still pretty tasty. Watch them carefully in the oven and let them cool on a cooling rack before storing them together because they tend to stick together.)

Healthy Kid's Snack

I was getting updated on my Facebook stuff this evening, (laugh if you must, but I am addicted to my Facebook page) and I came across a post by my friend Laura, mother of 3 soon to be four awesome kiddos, about a blog entry she'd found that day for an awesome healthy snack for kid's. I read it and was immediately impressed by how simple it was to make and how actually healthy it is. I just had to come on here and post the website for all of you to enjoy as well. Happy summer snacking!

The "Powerball" kid's snack

Tasty Homemade Pico de Gallo

I made chicken tacos for dinner the other night and since I'm used to making regular tacos I was kind of stumped as to what to chop up to put on them. I thought Pico would be a pretty good way to spice up these tacos so here's how I made my pico. I bought some from the store a while back and was looking at the ingredients thinking 'I could totally make this on my own.' This is something I just threw together, so feel free to make adjustments as needed for your taste or family size. This fed my family of 4 for taco toppings and there's leftovers in the fridge.

This is my Pico de Gallo.

(sorry for the terrible picture, it's from my phone)

*A tip before we begin: I've made this twice. The first time I used my food processor for the onion, bell pepper, and jalapeno. For some reason they produced a kind of juicy foam that didn't look very good. (I don't know if that's normal or not) The second time I chopped all my veggies by hand (as shown in the picture) and it turned out very tasty and pretty. So my tip is, altho it takes longer, chopping your veggies by hand makes better pico.

You will need:

1/2 of a medium purple onion, cored and finely chopped

1 green bell pepper, cored and finely chopped

1 large slicing tomato, chopped

1 Jalapeno, cored and finely chopped

Cilantro, finely chopped

2 pinches ground black pepper

2 pinches Garlic powder

1/2 of a lime, cut into wedges

After you've chopped all your veggies drop them into a medium glass bowl and mix them together with a spoon. Make sure that your Cilantro is very finely chopped and add that and stir again.

Squeeze the juice of half your lime wedges into the bowl and mix it together again. This helps the spices stick to your veggies so they can soak in better.

Add your pepper and garlic and stir, then juice your remaining lime wedges directly into the bowl and stir one more time. Take a look at your fresh Pico de Gallo! Looks great doesn't it? And not very hard either!

I served this on Mission brand White Corn Tortillas covered in shredded chicken breast. This would also be good as a salsa type topping for nachos or just to eat plain with chips. Enjoy :)