These little peanut butter balls make for a great after school treat!  They have protein, good fat, and they are sweet as ever!  Equally awesome was the fact that my children have told me they don’t like coconut, yet they didn’t say a word as they ate these little coconut peanut butter balls.  In case you haven’t heard, people have been buzzing about coconut joining the healthy food family.   We are always experimenting with some healthy snack recipes, and this one was definitely a winner!

COCONUTTY BALLS

• 1 Cup all natural nut butter (I used peanut butter)
• 1/4-1/2 cup honey or agave
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup raisins (optional)
• Any other add-ins (seeds, nuts, etc.)
• Unsweetened Coconut

Mix peanut butter, sweetener, vanilla, and raisins.

Spread unsweetened coconut on wax paper.

Drop peanut butter mixture onto coconut and roll.  Chill for 1 hour or longer.

Just keep in mind, as with our Peanut Butter balls, if you use commercially sweetened peanut butter, these things are going to be super duper sweet!  Same with the coconut.  There is no reason to use sweetened coconut flakes.  The peanut butter balls are already sweet!

Caution:  If you are weak over anything peanut butter, you may want to cut this recipe in half.  They could be addicting   And don’t forget to save some for the kids.  Just because it’s healthy, doesn’t mean you should eat the whole batch!!

This is my final wrap up to some Japanese children food culture.  I promise to be back next week with some healthy things that may be a little more appealing to your little American darlings!

SNACKS:

• I wanted to write a whole post about what Japanese children snack on, but they said they don’t do much snacking.  After school they are either in clubs, or if they go home after school they are helping with meal preparation or doing homework.
• They said, “I guess if kids snack, they would eat the packaged food”.   And normally it wouldn’t be a sweet snack, just salty.  While not super healthy, we could probably compare the size of their packaged foods with ours.  I don’t know if you can tell from the photo, but these chips are super duper mini versions of pringles.

• And then, while at our house, I found the girls snacking on this.   They had a bowl of rice that they were spooning into seaweed paper and folding over and munching on.  For the record, none of us tried it.  We aren’t Sushi eaters over here.

BREAKFAST

• As I mentioned before, they aren’t accustomed to sweet things for breakfast.  Although they admit that children today are starting to eat more sweet things, my girls grew up with grandparents close by and more traditional customs. 
• They would eat rice and miso soup (always soup at breakfast) with grilled fish… for breakfast!  They’ve never tried oatmeal!
• While with us however, they made this little breakfast sandwich pictured below.  They “bread” for it was rice pressed into a bun.  Great gluten free idea for those kids who can’t,  or shouldn’t eat bread.  They put in the center a cooked egg and sliced sausage.

They also had rice balls with tuna in the middle for breakfast (they did prepare their tuna with mayo)

And one morning they had fried rice by adding a little soy sauce to their egg before cooking. And then adding those tiny chopped carrots and rice.

One more observation: Eating local, and in season.  Fumiko said she didn’t like fish, and I commented that I thought everyone in Japan liked fish.  She said matter of factly, that it was because she lived in the mountains, not by the sea!   I’ve been thinking about this since Morgan noted in her comment the other day how interesting it is that we are so different considering it seems everyone has access to everything.  I’m sure Fumiko can get fish, just as fast as we could, yet she is still eating local!

Well, that’s it for Japan! We love you Anna and Fumiko and miss you! Thanks for sharing your culture with our family!!

I was thumbing through this book at Costco, and these “Guacamole Cones” caught my eye.  If your kids like chips and guacamole, they’ll also like these cones!

So, the way we made ours was to

• take 6 inch whole wheat tortilla’s (you could make your own)
• Then we sliced the tortilla in half 
• Then rolled them into a cone, secured with a toothpick.
• Placed on parchment paper
• Brushed with olive oil
• sprinkled with chili powder
• Baked at 350 for about 7 or 8 minutes.

   Our guacamole recipe is

• Mashed avocado
• 1 tsp lime juice
• salt and pepper to taste.

Do you add anything else to your guacamole?  My kids seem to like it plain, and so do I.

Really? Almocot bars? Should I just give up on naming food?  Any creative food names I’ve ever had on this blog were either thought of by Emily (my neighbor), or Erica (my 9 year old).  When I name things, you’ll know.  Cause I’ll have words like, “Almocots”.

Anyway- Who cares, right? These Apricot Bars are tasty! They are super sweet though.  Definitely a hiking treat, when you’ll have time to burn off some of the glucose here.

One of my all time favorite books is The World’s Healthiest Foods by George Mateljan. There is almost 900 pages of whole foods in every food category- fruits, veggies, grains, meats, beans, and herbs.  Each food has 3-5 pages with descriptions of the food, storage ideas, the health benefits, and recipe ideas for each.  Although I wouldn’t consider it a cookbook, I use it in cooking a lot!!

So, this recipe came under the section for Apricots.  My mom gave us a whole box of apricots, and I’m trying my hand at drying them in the sun.

So here it is:

Apricot Snack Bars

• 1/2 cup cream honey (I used cinnamon flavored cream honey)
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 1 1/2 tsp almond extract

Mix altogether in bowl with a spoon.  Then stir in (you may have to use your hand)

• 1 cup chopped dried apricots
• 1/2 cup granola
• 1/2 cup chopped or sliced almonds

Mix all ingredients.  Press into loaf pan and chill in the fridge. (Gluten free, but not vegan unless you used something besides honey)

The almond extract really makes these things yummy. The kids ate them, but all I got was a token, “They’re not bad.”  I guess that’s better than, “They’re not good,” right?

I was checking my archives, and couldn’t believe I didn’t have any posts about the health benefits of apricots!

• Rich in beta caroten and beta cryptoxanthin (Precursors to Vitamin A)
• Only 17 calories per apricot!
• Dried apricots are high in Magnesium!!

Boy has this blog come a long way!  My first attempt at frozen bananas was a disaster!  And the picture was even worse!

Didn’t I know anything about cameras?? How embarrassing!  Anyway- This time was much better!

One tip on dipping bananas, whether you dip in yogurt or chocolate, is to freeze the bananas first.  So we punctured half a banana with a stick, layed them on wax paper and put in freezer for an hour or two.

Then, we dipped each frozen banana either in yogurt or semi sweet melted chocolate.

Then, we rolled in a topping of our choice and froze again.

Toppings for our frozen bananas were:

• sliced almonds
• chopped pecans
• Flax meal
• sprinkles
• unsweetened coconut
• Chopped walnuts

Other topping ideas that kids might like on their frozen bananas

• Granola (especially on the yogurt one)
• Peanut butter or almond butter
• Crushed graham crackers
• Crushed peanuts

Speaking of the Banana Stand, does anyone here miss Arrested Development?  We loved that show!

These little energy bars are perfect for the active family!  I’m actually super excited that I made them. I had several reasons for trying my own energy bars!

• We love to go hiking
• My husband and I are headed out for a 22 mile trek in the desert with teenagers from my church (and I wanted some healthy food to take along for me!)
• I’m headed out for a 17 mile run this morning, and I’m tired of fueling up on processed energy bars!  ACKK. You read that right!. 17!  My running partner is trying to kill me!
• I went to the health food store and spent $1.49 on a bar (Larabar) that had 2 ingredients! Cashews and dates.  I thought to myself.. how hard can that be?  Not hard at all!

I used for this Energy Bar recipe

• 1/2 cup cashews
• 8-9 dates
• (Then I added a drop.. just a drop of agave to make it more appealing for the kids. You could also add honey)

Blended it all up in a food processor.  Because My food processor is quite small, I only turned it on for short bouts and came back to it. I didn’t want to ruin my food processor.  Once all combined, I pressed it into chunks.

After we decided we liked it, we began to experiment by adding:

• non sweetened coconut
• sesame seeds
• Hemp seeds
• pumpkin seeds

What I love: They are gluten free, full of fiber, they are non-dairy, vegan, and they pack a bunch of calories and healthy fat right into a tiny little bar.  Not for your average snacking- but perfect for hiking and long stretches of time when you don’t want to carry much food.

Need more snack ideas? Don’t forget to enter the giveaway! 

Today’s giveaway- Funky Monkey Snacks (head over to the giveaways to enter)

ALSO, in SHK news, Nisha at Healthy Mom’s Kitchen is giving away TWO Healthy Habits Plates! If you don’t have yours yet, go enter today!

Now our snack of the week!  Watermelon Salsa.  We must hurry with the watermelon because it will soon be out of season.  Buying watermelon in season is literally the only time to buy it.  In season, you’ll pay under 0.20 per pound, as opposed to $3 per pound, not in season… if you can even find it at all.  So, we are eating ours furiously and quickly.

Of all the Watermelon Salsa recipe’s I’ve tried, I like this one the best.  More watermelon (much to the delight of my kids), and less weird stuff (as they say).  The simple recipe is:

• 3-4 cups diced watermelon
• 1 TBL cilantro
• 1 TBL very very very finely diced red onion
• 3 TBL lime juice
• sprinkle of salt.

Add baked corn chips and enjoy.  We are!  And, from a mom- it’s less messy than watermelon wedges, dripping all over my kitchen floor until I yell for them to eat their watermelon outside.  Then they drip through the house as they make it to the door.  And by then, it’s also all over their sticky little hands and faces

Head over to Maria’s blog for a watermelon salad recipe that looks great!

Getting active this weekend:  Our local fire department put a fun event on for the kids. They called it Foam day. They sprayed foam from their hoses for like two hours!  Hilarious, right?  The kids had a blast! 

Head over to the giveaway page to win a $60 gift card to the CSN Stores.

What child doesn’t like chips? Right?  I tried making sweet potato chips THREE times!  First time, they turned black almost immediately (cooked at 425). Second time, not cooked long enough.. too chewy (at 250).  Third time was a charm (except for the part where I grated my finger prepping the potatoes).  Other than that..wink.. these couldn’t be easier.

Procedure:

• Take a sweet potato
• Grate or cut thin slices
• Place on baking sheet and slightly salt
• Bake at 250 for 1 hour (moving the potato slices around every 15 minutes.
• There is a fine line between not cooked enough and burned.  If you can land at that crispy- still orangish brown stage… They are delicious. 
• If you don’t cook them long enough, they are chewy, and my kids didn’t like them.  The crispier for us the better!!  And at crispy… MMMMM..MMMM

These sweet potato chips make a delicious lunch side or snack.  You can make ahead and store in an airtight container or baggies.

Sweet potatoes are terrific because they are

• They contain Vitamin A!!  262% of the Daily Value in ONE small sweet potato!!
• High in Vitamin C.  29% of the Daily Value in ONE small sweet potato!!
• Beta – carotene 23,018 mcg!!  (I don’t think there is a Daily value for beta carotene, but 23 thousand mcg seems like plenty!
• 
  

  Twice as high in fiber as regular potatoes

Other things to do with your sweet potatoes:

• Sweet Potato Crescent Rolls
• Mashed Sweet potatoes
• Sweet potato Fries

OK, really these are Johnny cakes, but I renamed them for TJ (Timmy Cakes).  Corn is coming into season around here in Utah, and we are loving it!  Our corn isn’t quite ready yet, but you can buy some fresh, picked this morning corn, on every corner around my town.

Johnny cakes (as they are originally called) are from the South.  The original Johhny Cakes, recipe consisted of:

• White corn
• salt
• boiling water
• bacon drippings

Our Timmy Cakes however had:

• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup low fat milk
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup corn meal
• 1 cup corn (I wish you could see the whole kernels of corn in these. Although you can’t see them in the photo, they are there)
• 1/4 tsp sea salt

Mix all ingredients together with enough liquid to pour easily.   Pour 1 TBL batter onto a buttered skillet.  Cook till browned.  (These are Gluten free, low-fat, whole grain)

These corn cakes make a nice side dish for dinner, but we ate them as a snack!  These can totally be a finger food.  They are really good with a little agave syrup or honey spread on top.

Speaking of the south, has anyone read “The Help”?!!!  I can not put it down, and I’m really not much of a fiction reader.  But this book is wonderful!!

Good morning!

I’ve got some basic banana bread for you this morning, that was a big hit with the kids (although my husband didn’t think it was sweet enough).  But come on honey, it’s not cake!  So anyway, my kids liked it, and that’s what this blog is about anyway… right?

BANANA TEA PARTY BREAD

• 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/3 cup brown sugar

In a separate bowl, I mashed and combined

• 2 bananas
• 4 TBL canola oil
• 4 TBL plain yogurt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

I didn’t mash the bananas super well, and there was chunks of banana in the bread.. which we liked!   Then combined the wet with the dry ingredients.

Pour batter into loaf pan 9X5.  Sprinkle

• Dried, chopped banana chips
• Brown sugar

over the top! Crunchy and yummy topping for the bread.

Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes (or until knife comes out clean)

(printable recipe)

And then of course, sit down to a lovely tea party.  It makes all the food you’ve made for the kids tastier!

Healthy benefits of bananas:

• Good source of potassium!  They can literally lower blood pressure (high blood pressure is becoming more common in CHILDREN today!
• Do your kids get heart burn?  Bananas are a natural antacid!
• High in B vitamins (improves nerve function)
• Good source of fiber.  So many kids have bowel trouble, fiber is a great way to relieve that.

Recipe notes:

• This recipe started with one from the book Good For Kids by Dr. Penny Stanway.  Her first ingredients called for 1 3/4 cup self rising wholemeal flour.  To make your own whole meal flour, add 1tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt for every cup of whole wheat flour.