Secret Ingredient Healthy Blondies

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It has been a rainy weekend here in Reykjavik, the perfect kind of weekend to curl up with a good book and just relax. What makes a rainy day even better? The perfect treat.
Chocolate Chip Blondies
Even better than a tasty treat, a healthy one! These blondies have tricked my girlfriends, co-workers, they even have passed the taste test of H and his friends. Trust me, make a batch of these and no one will suspect that the secret ingredient in these healthy treats… chickpeas!

cookie_bars
These blondies will more than satisfy any sweet tooth and are a great treat to bring to parties. Better yet these delicious blondies are low in calories, rich in omega-3s, and gluten-free, a win win!

Secret Ingredient Healthy Chocolate Chip Blondies
Adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie

Ingredients:
▪︎ 1 1/2 cups chickpeas or white beans (1 can, drained and rinsed)
▪︎ 3/4 tsp baking powder
▪︎ 1/8 tsp baking soda
▪︎ level 1/4 tsp salt
▪︎ 1/3 cup brown sugar (if you prefer sweeter treats add another 1/3 cup)
▪︎ 2 tsp vanilla extract
▪︎ 1/4 cup quick oats
▪︎ 1/4 cup coconut butter (you can also use peanut butter)
▪︎ 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Blend all ingredients (except chocolate chips) until very smooth in a food processor. Mix in chocolate chips, and scoop into a greased (I like to use coconut butter to grease my pan) 8×8 pan. Bake for around 30 minutes. They’ll look a little undercooked when you take them out, but they firm up as they cool, and you don’t want them to get hard.

Makes 15 squares, 95 calories per square

healthy_blondies

Enjoy!

Question of the Day?
What is your favorite thing to do on a rainy Sunday?
What secret ingredient do you use?

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Easy Almond Butter Recipe

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Part of being an expat is that you miss certain comforts from home. Trader Joe’s is one of those comforts I dearly miss, that place is my food heaven. I love nut butters and Trader Joe’s Almond Butter is the jam, I dream about it all the time.

While searching the stores in Iceland I have only found almond butter once or twice with the price tag of $15 or more for a tiny jar, ya not happening. Enter in a food processor for Christmas and I am back in almond butter business.

Almond Butter

This is such a simple recipe with just one star ingredient and an endless variety of versions depending on what you want to add in. I prefer just plain almond butter but it is easy to add in whatever you would like when the almonds are blending. For my batch this was what I did.

Place 2 cups of raw almonds on a baking sheet and put them in the oven for about 10-12 minutes to give them a bit of a roasted taste and to speed up the blending process.

Once the almonds are out of the oven put them straight into the food processor while they are still warm. In the food processor use your S blade to blend the almonds.

Almond Butter

Now all that is left to do is be patient and wait. It can vary depending on how large of a batch you are making and how powerful your food processor is but I promise even when it seems hopeless the almonds will magically turn into a creamy delicious butter.

Almond Butter

After about 10 minutes the almonds go from a fine powder to a thicker dough type shown in the top right picture.

Another 5 minutes and the almonds turn into a thick crumbly dough shown on the bottom right picture

Almond Butter

Once you see this smooth consistency you know your almond butter is ready to enjoy.

Almond Butter

I love using my almond butter with my morning oatmeal, with a banana for a snack, or just straight from the jar, either way its delicious and full of healthy fats that will keep you full.

I hope you enjoy this simple recipe as much as I do. If you feel like experimenting try adding in some maple syrup, honey, cinnamon, or whatever creative creation may come to mind. Enjoy and get your snack on!

Question of the Day?
Are you a nut butter fan? If yes what kind, peanut, almond, cashew??

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Coconut Banana Bread For The Win

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Our weekend fun started on Friday with a day full of showing our friends visiting from London around Iceland. As we headed out to the Golden Circle Friday morning this was the view of what we were driving into.

Friday DriveNeedless to say it was one very wet stormy day outside. We braved through it though and spent the day visiting all the stops along the Golden Circle. I tried to keep up my enthusiasm for the trip for our guest but by the time we got home I was wet, cold and a bit cranky.

It was pretty terrible weather on Saturday as well so I was more than happy with the fact that our friends decided to take it easy and just meet up for dinner and drinks. H and I spent the afternoon shopping the book sales, sipping on coffee, and discovering that none of the sushi restaurants in town open until 5 in the evening so my sushi craving has yet to be satisfied.

SundayBy Sunday I felt the effects of my Friday jaunt in the cold and would have liked to spend the entire day in bed watching my latest addiction, Orange is the New Black. Instead though H and I headed off for my second “baby naming” party here in Iceland. I am still waiting to go to one of these parties and have a Lion King moment, maybe next time.

At the baby naming party (I need to figure out the proper name for these things) the parents revealed the name through a quiz. The guest were given a 10 question quiz with each answer giving a hint to the baby’s name that you could then try and guess. We were way off with our name guesses but it was still such a fun way to reveal the baby’s name. And the food spread at these parties, they are insane. Seriously there must have been over twenty cakes and its like your eating at Hogwarts, as soon as some food is finished it is instantly refilled, its amazing.

As if I hadn’t already gotten my fill of cakes and sweets at the party I came home and went on a baking spree. A few of my experiments were a bit of a fail, but this coconut banana bread inspired by this recipe from Peanut Butter Fingers was a big hit in our house.

Coconut Banna Bread

Coconut Banana Bread
Makes one loaf

Ingredients

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
  • 2 tbsp chai seeds
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 1 egg
  • 3 very ripe bananas mashed
  • 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray loaf pan with cooking spray
  • Combine flour through salt in a bowl and set aside
  • Mix remaining ingredients together until batter is relatively smooth with a few lumps from the mashed bananas
  • Mix flour mixture slowly into banana mixture
  • Once batter is fully mixed, pour into loaf pan and bake for approximately 50 minutes
  • Cool, slice and enjoy :)

Question of the Day
What did you get up to this weekend?

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