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It was my turn to bring a snack to my La Leche League meeting on Thursday morning, and I’d just found a great recipe from my local health food store - Goodness Me - so I thought I’d try it out. These were a big hit and SUPER easy to make - kinda like making rice krispie squares but easier. They’re nut-free and gluten free!

No-Nut Cereal Bars

No-Nut Cereal Bars

1 cup sunflower butter
1 cup agave nectar or honey
5 cups crispy brown rice
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup flaxseed

In saucepan, bring sunflower butter and agave nectar to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients. Pour mixture into a buttered 9 x 13 pan. Let sit a coupl eof hours in the refrigerator before cutting into pieces.

I didn’t have any apricot OR cranberry, so I chopped up dried mango and pineapple. Still very delicious!

I baked again yesterday! From scratch!

I feel so accomplished

They were some seriously yummy carrot cupcakes muffins. I modified this recipe to look more like this:

Carrot Muffins

1 cup spelt flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

4 eggs

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup applesauce

1/2 cup canola oil

2 cups grated carrot

1 1/2 cups grated apple

some raisins (most recipes say 1 cup)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Place paper liners in 24 muffin cups.In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon. In another large bowl whisk the eggs, sugar, and oil until slightly thickened. Fold in the flour mixture until incorporated. With a large rubber spatula stir in the grated carrots, grated apple, and raisins. Evenly divide the batter between the 24 muffin cups and bake about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean (mine took 18 minutes).

Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack. Sprinkle icing sugar and cinnamon on the tops of the muffins. Serve!

This recipe was super easy … the part that took the longest was grating the carrots! These received a big thumbs up from Brad and Gwen also really enjoyed eating some pieces … and because they’re so healthy, I think I’ll be making more of them without raisins and letting Gwen have them … I’m hoping to buy a mini muffin tin shortly so I can just give her a couple of those … unsugared of course! Next time I’m going to try substituting plain yogurt for the rest of the oil to see how they turn out …

I made cookies yesterday.

They are chocolate chip cookies from my new cookbook, Deceptivey Delicious. They. Are. So. Good. If I didn’t tell you, you’d never know there were chick peas in there for added nutrition, and I even substitued one cup of spelt flour to make them even better! Honestly, these cookies are great and I’ll be making them again and again!