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Healthy Chocolate Date Balls

There’s a brand of ‘chocolate’ bar that we love around here, but it’s pretty expensive. They put the ingredients and roughly the amounts on the back of the packaging though, so we’ve been trying to make them the same. I think we need some kind of cold pressing equipment to make them stick together as bars, but they work pretty well rolled into balls or made in a brownie pan.

chocolate date balls

The reason I love these for my children is that apart from the cocoa – and you can substitute it for cacao – there’s only fruit and breakfast oats in it. When my daughter refuses to have breakfast, she’ll have these, and I’m just fine with that on occasion.

Another bonus of  date balls, is that they are pretty versatile. Just add the basics, and the rest is up to you.

Put them on a pretty plate, and wrap a ribbon around, and you’ve got a lovely gift too.

For twenty more date ball ideas, check out Bliss Balls For Beginners.

Chocolate Date Balls
 
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These originated from Nakd bars, which I couldn't afford to keep buying. Looking at the ingredients on the back, we came up with an earlier version of these. They are delicious!
Author:
Recipe type: Snack,Treat, Healthy
Ingredients
  • 1 cup dates
  • ½ cup raisins
  • ½ to ¾ cup oats
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • Something wet: a ¼ cup apple juice or 2 tablespoons peanut butter, just enough to hold the batter together.
  • Optional extras:
  • You can add a variety of things – nuts, dried fruit, berries
Instructions
  1. Mix everything together in a food processor or blender.
  2. You want it well mixed, but not smooth.
  3. Either roll the batter into balls, then around a plate of coconut and place in the fridge.
  4. Alternatively spread it out on a baking sheet and refridgerate.
  5. Once set, cut into squares and enjoy.

Reposted from Diary of a First Child

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Four Thieves Vinegar

Healing VinegarFour Thieves Vinegar can be used both for food, and around the house for cleaning and decontaminating.  It can also be put in the bath or used medicinally.

Allegedly, Four Thieves Vinegar is so named after the four thieves who pillaged the homes of Plague victims but were not affected by the Plague themselves. When they were eventually captured, they would have been put to death for their looting, but were instead given their lives in return for their secret.  If you Google Four Thieves Vinegar, you’ll find a few variations on the ingredients. This is the one we use. It makes a pretty good salad dressing, if nothing else.

Four Thieves Vinegar
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Dressing, Cleaning
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Place the herbs in a large sterile jar and top with the cider vinegar.
  2. Cover tightly and leave in a cupboard for six weeks, till it’s well infused
  3. Strain off the herbs and garlic and use the vinegar as needed.

 

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Raw Caramel Slice


Rawfood, Caramel Slice
I’m super excited to welcome Charlotte as an author on Keeper of the Kitchen. I met Charlotte in Perth, Australia, and I’ve always been so inspired by her adventures in raw food preparation. She makes it look so good, and I’m really chuffed that she’s agreed to share her recipes with us!

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This is a raw, dairy free, vegan (if not using honey!), gluten free caramel slice alternative. I say alternative but for me there is no question which one I would rather eat. This still has high calories like a regular caramel slice but they aren’t empty calories. With nuts, coconut oil and raw cacao powder full of healthy vitamins and minerals there is no reason not to eat this delicious slice. I like to cut it up into little squares and freeze it, perfect for that 3pm sweet craving or to have ready for unexpected guests.

I make it in the Thermomix, but you can make it in any high powered blender.

Raw Caramel Slice
 
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Just to taunt you for now - recipe will be up shortly - is this raw, dairy free, vegan (if not using honey!), gluten free caramel slice alternative.
Author:
Recipe type: Desert, Sweets, Raw
Cuisine: Raw
Serves: 15
Ingredients
  • Base
  • ½ cup Medjool dates
  • 1 cup almonds
  • ½ cup cashews
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • Caramel
  • ½ cup tahini
  • ½ cup maple syrup or raw honey
  • ¼ cup coconut oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • Large pinch Himalayan salt
  • Chocolate topping
  • 3 tbsp raw cacao
  • 1 tsp carob powder
  • 3-4 tbsp coconut sugar, rapadura sugar or agave syrup
  • ½ cup coconut oil
Instructions
  1. Grind pitted dates and nuts in blender. Add vanilla & blend until it’s sticky. If it’s not becoming sticky add an extra date.
  2. With a spatula or back of a spoon press mixture into a rectangular dish greased in coconut oil.
  3. Blend caramel ingredients together and pour over biscuit base and set in the freezer for 20 minutes.
  4. While the slice is setting, for the chocolate topping blend coconut oil and all other ingredients. The heat from the blender usually melts the coconut oil if it is solid.
  5. Then pour chocolate topping over slice and place back in freezer to set again.
  6. With a warm knife, cut into small squares to serve.

 

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Frozen yoghurt

Ingredients for Frozen Yoghurt

My girls love ice cream, and I love giving them things they love. I don’t love filling them with preservatives, sugar or colourants though, so when I spotted this recipe in one of our plethora of Dora the Explorer cook books for children, I thought it would be a great one for Ameli, my 3 year old to get involved in.

Welcome to the Festival of Food Carnival. This month, we celebrate foods with kid-appeal!  Hosted by Diary of a First Child and Hybrid Rasta Mama, you’re welcome to join us next time, or if you have a previously published recipe you’d like to share, add it to the linky below.

Smashing berries

I do find the raspberries a bit tart for my liking, but my oldest just loves the pink ice cream, as she calls it. She loves being part of making it too, so that’s helpful. My girls love ice cream, but I don’t really love the additives and chemicals that go into most commercial ice creams. Ice cream also has a lot of sugar and fat and while I don’t mind fat too much, the sugar isn’t necessary. We have a huge collection of Dora the Explorer cooking magazines that have built up over the last year or so, and we found this recipe in one of the early issues. It is really simple, and very tasty.

Mixing frozen Yoghurt

Of course it’s adaptable – I’d love to try it with a refreshing mix of summer berries, or even adding some mint leaves, but here’s the original for now.

Raspberry Frozen Yoghurt
 
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My girls love ice cream, and I love that this is a healthy alternative to commercial ice creams, and my children don't know the difference. I find the raspberry frozen yoghurt quite tart, and prefer strawberries or mixed berries.
Recipe type: Sweet, Desert
Cuisine: Healthy
Serves: 600ml
Ingredients
  • 500ml Greek Yoghurt
  • 300g Raspberries (or other berries)
  • 2 tbs Honey
Instructions
  1. Mash berries in a mixing bowl. (I put them in the Thermomix once my toddler had mashed them, to get the seeds broken up. Any blender will do this.)
  2. Pour yoghurt in with berries
  3. Add honey
  4. Mix well
  5. Place in freezer for one hour.
  6. Stir well to get rid of all icicles
  7. Freeze for another hour.
  8. Stir again.
  9. Freeze for one more hour.
  10. Take out of freezer for five minutes to soften a little, then serve.

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Please take a moment to visit the blogs of our other Festival of Food participants. The links in this list will be live by the end of the day, as participants are all in different time zones.

Stay connected! Be sure to “Like” the Festival of Food Carnival Facebook page.
 

 


Festival of Food Carnival

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Raw Strawberry Cheesecake

If you fancy a healthier cheesecake, you’ve come to the right place. This is a dairy free, vegan, sugar free cheesecake alternative. And it’s pretty darn good.Raw Strawberry Cheesecake

I make it in the Thermomix, but you can make it in any high powered blender. It’s both labour intensive and totally not. It’s a perfect dinner party recipe, especially for people not familiar with raw food. Check out The Rawtarian from time to time – this is an adaptation of her recipe.

Raw Strawberry Cheesecake
 
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Take this desert out of the freezer half an hour before you expect to eat it and don't forget to return it to the freezer when you're done. If it's for snacks rather than dinner, freeze in single portion sizes
Author:
Recipe type: Desert
Cuisine: Raw Food
Serves: 18
Ingredients
  • Crust ingredients:
  • 1½ cups cashew nuts
  • ½ cup pitted dates
  • ¼ cup dried, unsweetened coconut
  • 1 pinch sea salt
  • White cheesecake filling ingredients:
  • 3 cups cashews
  • ¾ cup lemon juice
  • ¾ cup agave or honey
  • ¾ cup coconut oil
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • Up to a ¼ cup of water, as needed for blending
  • Fruit topping ingredients:
  • 2 cups frozen strawberries
  • ½ cup dates
Instructions
  1. Sprinkle coconut into a large glass dish to serve as a base for your cheesecake.
  2. In your food processor, place 1.5 cups of cashews, salt and dates, and blend to a crumbed consistency.
  3. Pour into dish on top of coconut and press down to form a good, firm base.
  4. Next, blend together the 'cheesecake filling, adding as little water as possible and as required to make your blender work. In the Thermomix you shouldn't need to add much water at all. This needs to be smooth and creamy in consistency.
  5. Spread the mixture on top of the base.
  6. Freeze for about an hour to allow it to firm up.
  7. When you're ready for the last step, blend the berries and dates until they are nice and smooth. Pour this mixture on top and freeze again for another few hours at least.
  8. Take out of freezer about half an hour before eating, so that it's still firm, but edible.
Nutrition Information
Calories: 349.0 Fat: 24.9 g Carbohydrates: 31.6 g Sugar: 18.7 g Sodium: 65.7 mg Fiber: 2.2 g Protein: 5.4 g Cholesterol: 0.0 mg

Reposted from Diary of a First Child

 

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Crystallised Hazelnuts

20130504-200906.jpg There are few things in a kitchen that bother me quite as much as waste. And when the item about to be wasted is an expensive one, like hazelnuts, it bothers me even more. So, when you’ve made Hazelnut Syrup and strained the nuts off, rather than binning them: turn them into Crystallised Hazelnuts.

Because they’re made with Rapadura they’re not as bad for you as they would be with normal sugar, but they can also be made with normal sugar. I just prefer it this way.

You can keep these on hand for a light nibbley snack, they are so good, or you can use them as an ice cream topping, which is delicious. Try it with home made ice cream or frozen yogurt.

They add a perfect crunch and are simply delicious.

I must admit I’m not sure about the nutritional value after having been boiled for almost an hour and then dried out, and covered in sweet Rapadura, but it’s great.  And a fabulous way to make sure there’s no wastage.

Crystallised Hazelnuts
 
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I'm sure you can make these just on their own, but if you've gone to the trouble of boiling them in Rapadura or sugar, you may as well make syrup with the bit you pour off, then make this delicious snack.
Author:
Recipe type: Sweets, Ice cream topping
Serves: 250g
Ingredients
  • 250g Hazelnuts, lightly crushed, without skin
  • 500g Rapadura
  • 500g Water
Instructions
  1. Prepare as for Hazelnut Syrup.
  2. Once you filter to separate the syrup and nuts, put the syrup aside to cool.
  3. Spread the Hazelnuts over a baking tray
  4. Place in the oven at 90C /194F for 3- 4 hours until they are beautifully crystalised and crunchy and golden in colour.
  5. Use a spatula or spoon to move them around every half hour or so to make sure they don't burn.
  6. D'lish
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Home Made Hazelnut Syrup

20130504-165104.jpg

I adore hazelnut syrup in my coffee. It’s almost a weakness. It’s definitely a craving. I sometimes crave it. I’ll drive out of my way to pick up a hazelnut coffee at Starbucks. But the problem is, I don’t think they’re very good for you! In fact, whenever I haven’t had one in a while, and then I drink one, I can ‘feel’ the chemicals sticking at the back of my throat.

I’ve recently learned to make my own hazelnut syrup and since then, I’ve not looked back.

Ironically, since I have been drinking my homemade syrup, I’ve twice had occasion to try my old favourite and you know what? I don’t like it anymore! I find it overly sweet, and I find that chemical taste really prominent in the back of my throat now.

This recipe uses Rapadura in place of sugar, so while it’s still quite calorific, it doesn’t have the highs and lows of adding sugar to your coffee.

I made these in my Thermomix, but the recipe below is very easy to adapt to even basic kitchen equipment, you may just take a little longer.

Also, with the leftover nuts you can make gorgeous crystallised hazelnuts.

Fun Fact: This recipe, based on RRP, for organic ingredients, cost me £5.49 for just under 1 litre. My Starbucks favourite used to cost me £3.75 for 375ml.

5.0 from 1 reviews
Home Made Hazelnut Syrup
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Drinks, Sauces, Deserts
Serves: 1 litre
Ingredients
  • 500g Rapadura
  • 500g water
  • 250g Hazelnuts
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 160C/320F
  2. Roast the hazelnuts until they are just starting to colour, and you can smell their warm aroma.
  3. Remove from oven and turn off.
  4. Place hazelnuts in the Thermomix bowl on reverse speed 1 for about a minute. The skins should come off pretty easily. (If you don't have a Thermomix, or you need to remove more skin, agitate the nuts between two dishclothes.
  5. Separate the skins
  6. Place the hazelnuts back in the bowl and whiz for 5 seconds on speed 4. You want them broken up, but NOT powdered or turned to flour. Without a Thermomix, you can do this with a rolling pin.
  7. Place the Rapadura and water in the bowl/a large pot and bring to the boil. Add the hazelnuts and leave to boil until the mixture has reduced by about 25%
  8. You will need to stir it regularly to make sure it doesn't burn. If you're using a Thermomix, just keep it on speed 1.
  9. Once it's reduced, strain to remove the nuts, and put them aside for crystallised hazelnuts. Strain again to remove smaller nuts, and pour into the container you'll be keeping it in. Leave to cool before refrigerating.
  10. If you taste it straight away you'll be disappointed by how mild it tastes. Leave for about 24 hours before having your first sip of real hazelnut syrup. You won't be disappointed.

 

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Dandelion Fritters

20130504-184301.jpgI do so love Dandelions. Not only do they bring with them the promise of spring, of sunshine and of warmer weather, but they also provide a wonderful opportunity for getting outdoor with little people. My daughters love picking dandelions and ask if we can as soon as the sun peeks out in spring. We pop some water in the freezer, head out for an hour or so to pick dandelions, then come home and make fritters for dinner.

You can have them savoury with salt and pepper, and sweet, with lemon and sugar. Hold your dandelion by the green bit and eat the yellow, as you would with a strawberry. There’s nothing wrong with the green bit, it’s just a bit bitter.

IMG_1084

Dandelions don’t keep very long, so you need to cook them as soon as you get home. Once fried, eat them immediately.

Dandelions are high in loads of vitamins. Just for interest sake, a cup of dandelions contains:

Vitamin A 112%,

Vitamin C 32%,

Vitamin E
9%,

Vitamin K 535% of your daily requirements. So they’re pretty healthy, and a great way of getting good vitamins into yourself and children.

 

 

Dandelion Fritters
 
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My children and I love foraging for Dandelions! It's such a fun afternoon's activity, involving them in and leading to dinner. Pop some water in the freezer before you go out, pick just what you'll eat, pick at the flower as you don't need the whole stem, and don't eat much of the green bit (it's bitter). Always soak dandelions in salted water for a while to get the bugs out and use the coldest water you can to make the batter.
Author:
Recipe type: Foraged Food, Fried
Ingredients
  • 10 -15 Dandelion flowers per person trimmed so that there’s no bitter stalk, and washed
  • 1 medium egg
  • 225ml ice-cold water
  • 100g plain flour
  • Optional extras:
  • Lemon juice
  • Icing sugar
  • Mustard
  • Salt
  • Pepper
Instructions
  1. Beat the egg in a bowl and add the iced water. The water must be as cold as possible, as this prevents the batter from absorbing too much oil, keeping it light and crispy.
  2. Lightly mix in the flour with a fork and beat gently. Don’t worry too much about lumps.
  3. Dip the dandelions in the batter, and drop in hot oil. The oil should ideally be at 180C/350F for cooking dandelions; if the dandelions sink to the bottom of the oil, the temperature is too high.
  4. Fry till golden brown, then remove and place on paper towel
  5. For a sweet treat, drizzle lemon juice over, then dip in icing sugar. For a salty treat, dip in mustard, or our favourite, sprinkle over salt and pepper and enjoy!

Reposted from Diary of a First Child

 

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Ramson And Cheese Scones

Scones are so quick to make, and they are a great lazy morning breakfast, or tummy filler for toddlers and kids. Getting them to forage for the greens and help in the mixing makes the food a lot more appealing to eat too, so this is a great recipe for getting some greens into little people.

Ramson Scones

Ramsons are also full of vitamin C and iron, so great fortifiers for change of season protection against colds.

 

 

 
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Author:
Recipe type: Snack, Foraged
Ingredients
  • 175 g self-raising flour
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne
  • 25 g butter
  • 75 g mature cheddar cheese, finely grated
  • 1 large egg
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • 3 - 4 Ramson (wild garlic) leaves
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
  2. Place the flour, salt, cayenne, butter and three quarters of the cheese in a food processor and whiz until well blended.
  3. Beat together the egg and 2 tablespoons of the milk then add to the food processor.
  4. Pulse to form a smooth, soft dough. Chop up the Ramson leaves and mix them in.
  5. Form into six balls, and place on a tray in the oven for 20 mins.
  6. Out the oven, slice, butter, and enjoy!

Reposted from Diary of a First Child

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Ramson (Wild Garlic) Omelette Recipe

Here’s a simple little recipe to try with your Ramsons and a few bits and pieces from the fridge. It’s a great starting place if you’re not used to cooking with foraged food. Ramsons are a great source of Vitamin C and iron, and their pungent garlic smell makes them really easy to identify in the wild. They’re ideal for teaching children about foraging, and are very versatile in savoury food. You can also use them in sandwiches and salads – anything you would use salad, basil or other greens for.

Ramson-Omelette

 

Ramson (Wild Garlic) Omelette
 
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For this Omelette you’ll need as much of each ingredient as you think each person would eat:
Author:
Recipe type: Simple, Foraged
Cuisine: Breakfast, Dinner
Ingredients
  • Mushrooms
  • Onion
  • Ramsons
  • Eggs, 2 per person
  • Salt and Pepper to season
  • Cheese to taste
  • Tomato and any other vegetables (optional)
  • Chop the mushrooms and onion roughly and fry until tender.
Instructions
  1. Add the chopped Ramsons and cook for another minute or two, till they are wilted.
  2. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs till they are frothy. Lower the heat a little and pour directly into the pan. This will make the omelette light and fluffy.
  3. Add a little grated cheese and salt and pepper, and cover with a lid until the egg is cooked on top.
  4. Cut into as many pieces as you need and transfer carefully on to plates.
  5. Add a couple of Ramson flowers for decoration and enjoy with toast.

Reposted from Diary of a First Child