Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread Bars

Hope everyone had a great new year! Naturally here in New England we had a snowstorm to start off 2014, so I was stuck inside all day. As much as I hate being cooped up inside, it was a good opportunity for my sister and I to bake these chocolate peanut butter banana bread bars because they take a little bit longer to make with all of the different layers. It was so worth it though-- I can’t think of a better combination than banana bread, peanut butter and chocolate!

Banana Bread Layer
Ingredients:

-1 cup oat flour (rolled oats ground into a flour)

-1 tsp baking powder

-1 tsp baking soda

-1/2 tsp sea salt

-1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

-1/4 cup sugar-free maple syrup (can use regular)

-1/3 cup almond milk

-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

-2 ripe bananas, mashed

-1 tsp cinnamon

Directions: Preheat oven to 325. Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ingredients in another, and then mix wet into dry. Pour into a baking pan sprayed well with non-stick spray (we used a 9” round cake pan..a square pan would probably be better). Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for at least 20 minutes.

Peanut Butter Layer

Ingredients:

-1/4 cup natural peanut butter

-1 tbs coconut oil, soft but not melted

-2 tbs almond meal

-2 tbs sugar-free maple syrup

-pinch of sea salt

Directions: Mix ingredients and spread evenly on top of banana bread layer. Put pan in the freezer for 45 minutes to an hour.

Chocolate layer:

-1/3 bag of dairy-free chocolate chips

-1/2 tbs coconut oil

Directions: Heat oil on medium-low until melted. Then add the chocolate chips and stir until completely melted. Pour on top of peanut butter layer and freeze for an hour. 

Cut into squares and enjoy! :)

*These are vegan-friendly and have no added sugar. They can be gluten-free if you use gluten-free oats for the flour, or a different gluten-free flour. They're also dairy-free if you use dairy-free chocolate chips, such as Enjoy Life brand. 

Healthy Snickerdoodle Cookies

So I'm not going to lie, I've actually never had a real snickerdoodle cookie before! So I'm not exactly sure what they taste like. When I made this recipe, I actually didn't really have a flavor in mind. After I tasted them, I decided that they must be snickerdoodle because they had a sweet, buttery taste and when I typed snickerdoodle into google that's how it's described..haha. So if anyone ends up making these, let me know if I was right! Either way, they're delicious. They're also paleo, vegan, and gluten-free. There's no eggs, no dairy, and no grains, so they're very allergen-friendly!

Ingredients:
1 cup cashew flour (you can also grind up cashews in a food processor, or try almond flour)
2 tbsp melted coconut oil
1 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
1 tbsp unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or milk of choice)
1/4 cup baking stevia (or sweetener of choice)
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp butter extract (use more vanilla extract if you don't have this, but I highly recommend using it!)
pinch of sea salt
cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine cashew flour, stevia, baking soda, and sea salt in one mixing bowl. Mix the coconut oil, applesauce, milk, vanilla extract, and butter extract in a separate bowl. Then pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well. Form the dough into balls about 1 tbsp big, and sprinkle with cinnamon. Then place on the baking sheet. Flatten each dough ball slightly. Bake for 8-10 minutes. They will be very soft when they come out of the oven, so let them cool for a while before transferring them from the baking sheet. They end up being soft on the inside, and firm on the outside!

Cauliflower Bun Chicken Sliders

Trade in your high calorie, high carb bread burger buns for low calorie, low carb, gluten-free, dairy-free, and grain-free cauliflower buns! These sliders were not only clean and healthy, but they were delicious and so cute too!  I made this dairy-free by using a vegan, dairy-free cheese because dairy doesn't really agree with me, but you can definitely use any low-fat cheese of your choice in place of the cheese I used.  

Ingredients:

-1 cup of cauliflower, riced

-2 egg whites

-2 tbsp daiya cheddar cheese (this cheese is vegan friendly...it's dairy, gluten, and soy-free and still tastes so good!)

-1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast

-Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb and Italian Seasonings (or you can use garlic powder, regular italian seasoning, salt & pepper if you'd like)

-Any chicken of choice, already made. I always have extra lean chicken already made from meal prep

-2 leaves of baby spinach

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425F.  To rice the cauliflower, I use my food processor or you can use a blender.  Combine the riced cauliflower, egg whites, cheese, nutritional yeast, and seasonings in a bowl (I don't usually measure seasoning I kind of just eyeball it...but probably 1/2 tsp each) and mix.  Take a muffin pan and spray 2 of the muffin cups with non-stick cooking spray.  Divide the mixture into 2 portions and pour into each muffin cup.  Cook for 15 minutes, then broil for 4-5 minutes.  Let cool, then cut the two "muffins" in half, creating a top bun and bottom bun for each.  Heat up your chicken and put it on the bun, then add the spinach.

This makes two sliders, so feel free to double the recipe or adjust it to make more! For 2 sliders (just the buns...with the chicken it varies depending on what you used) it's 135 calories, 3g fat, 8g carbs, 2g fiber, 12.5g protein.