Spoonful of Sugar Free

Registered Dietitian

Chocolate

I’m in Love

By

With peanut butter and chocolate.

One of my first recipes on this blog was a Butter Cup recipe made with coconut oil. While that recipe is still rather tasty, nothing is better than straight up peanut butter and chocolate. This is better (and better for you!) than Reese’s.

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Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

~Vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, and, of course, sugar-free!

Ingredients

  • 4 oz. unsweetened chocolate (I used Baker's chocolate. Found in the baking aisle)
  • 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (Check to make sure your peanut butter does not have added sugar or hydrogenated oils)
  • 1/4 cup non-dairy milk or water

Instructions

  1. First, line a muffin pan with liners.
  2. Then, melt the chocolate on low temperature until melted.
  3. Fill the bottom of each muffin with a smear of melted chocolate and spread the chocolate on the sides. Freeze for five minutes or until solid.
  4. Whip the peanut butter with the non-dairy milk or water until fluffy. Put a little dollop into each muffin pan. Then, top with extra melted chocolate and freeze for another five minutes or until chocolate solidifies.
  5. Take off the liners and Enjoy!
https://www.spoonfulofsugarfree.com/2011/04/28/im-in-love/

 

 

 

 

Health Benefits

  • Chocolate: Click HERE for a post I did about all the benefits of chocolate.
  • Peanuts: These legumes are full of protein with 7g per ounce. They also have a great monounsaturated fat content that helps your heart and brain. Peanut is a good source of Coenzyme Q10 which protects the heart during the period of lack of oxygen example high altitudes and clogged arteries. It also has a high antioxidant and high niacin content that helps in the recovery of cell damage and provides protection against Alzheimer’s disease and age-related cognitive problem.
Totally in Love.

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

What are you lovin’ right at this very second. Answer quick!

Also, Congratulations to Lori from Pure2Raw for her recent engagement! You are going to be a beautiful bride 🙂

There’s Peanut Butter on My Chocolate!

By

Hello everyone! Did you all have a fantastic week? Can you believe it is Friday already?!

And you know what Friday means…..Cupcakes!

Well, it doesn’t actually mean cupcakes, but who doesn’t like a good baking day to relieve any stress built up from the week? These are the cupcakes I tempted you with last week.

 

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

~These cupcakes are based off of my Grain-Free Fudge Brownie Recipe. Gluten-free (grain-free), dairy-free, soy-free, and, of course, sugar-free!

Chocolate Cupcakes

  • 3/4 cup coconut flour***
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 eggs
  • 5 dates
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup milk or milk-substitute (I used coconut milk)
  • 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

***If you don’t eat grains or you cannot find coconut flour, oat flour can be substituted. To make oat flour, grind oats in a food processor or blender until flour-like.

Preheat oven to 375*. In a bowl, whisk the vinegar and milk together. Let sit for 5 minutes. In the meantime, mix together dry ingredients.

Blend the dates into a paste in a strong blender or food processor. Add the milk and eggs into the blender and blend until smooth. You may either mix the dry into the wet by hand or blend until smooth.

Lightly grease your muffin tin or line with paper, and pour the batter into each muffin space 3/4 full. Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on rack.

 

Peanut Butter Frosting

~This frosting is very simple and smooth. If you like it sweet, add the date. Personally, I like the peanut butter frosting to be more rich and savory, so I omit the date.

  • 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup milk substitute
  • optional: 1 date ground into paste

Either mix the frosting by hand, or place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Psst! Or try Katie’s wonderful Banana Butter to make it a banana-chocolate-peanut butter cupcake! You all know how much I like that combo 😉

 

Assemble

Pipe the Peanut Butter Frosting onto the Chocolate Cupcakes in any way you wish. I didn’t have any fancy tips, so I simply placed my frosting in a ziplock bag and cut a hole in it. Then, I topped it with shaved, unsweetened chocolate and placed a peanut half on top.

Health Benefits

  • Chocolate: Click HERE for a post I did about all the benefits of chocolate.
  • Peanuts: These legumes are full of protein with 7g per ounce. They also have a great monounsaturated fat content that helps your heart and brain. Peanut is a good source of Coenzyme Q10 which protects the heart during the period of lack of oxygen example high altitudes and clogged arteries. It also has a high antioxidant and high niacin content that helps in the recovery of cell damage and provides protection against Alzheimer’s disease and age-related cognitive problem.

 

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

If you celebrate lent, did you give up anything?

I’m not Catholic, but I do think it is a great idea to give up something that you love. I usually don’t give up anything, but I decided to give up something this year…..Peanuts! You heard right. This Peanut-Loving girl can’t have any peanuts or peanut butter for the next 40 days. These cupcake pictures are leaving me in agony…

 

Bitter Chocolate Love

By

Wow! I am amazed by the number of people who enjoyed my Grain Free Bitter Chocolate Cake for One! Thank you to all of you who “manned up” to the bitter chocolate cake (and actually liked it!).

Katie from Faith Food & Fitness
Kristi from Lighter Portions
Heather from Heather Eats Almond Butter
Jen from The Grocery Goddess

Alison from Mama's Weeds
Natalie from Lil Runner
The Lovely Locavore Ladies of Boston

Now, here is another idea for the chocolate cake batter:

Grain Free Bitter Chocolate Pancake Stack

~Using the recipe from the Bitter Chocolate Cake, you can make your own Bitter Chocolate Pancakes!

  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 2 Tablespoons of squash puree, like pumpkin, sweet potato, or butternut squash
  • splash of vanilla extract
  • 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
  • water

Mix all ingredients thoroughly and add a dash of water to make the right consistency. The batter should be thick. Make pancakes by pouring the batter onto a greased pan on medium heat. Flip when the pancakes get bubbly. Layer with chocolate mousse (recipe below) and top with cacao nibs!

Bitter Chocolate Mousse

  • 1/2 cup milk substitute (like almond milk)
  • 1 Tbs cocoa powder
  • pinch xanthan gum
  • ice

Blend ingredients together.

Alternatively, make Agar mousse. Recipe HERE.

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

Have you tried bitter chocolate yet?? If not, get on it!

What chocolate recipe would you like me to make next?

 

Raw Christmas Cookies

By

Hello everybody! Christmas is only four days away, so that means it is time to bake Christmas cookies!

Or should I saw it is time to “unbake” Christmas cookies?

Raw Cookies and a glass of almond milk for Santa! Santa might be losing some of his belly this year...

Santa Clause will love these little gems, and so will all of your friends and family members! I am making a huge batch to give to close friends.

This picture is stolen from Katie...Sorry, Katie, but your picture is just too cute! Also, I ate all of my cookies before pictures were taken, and then I ran out of almonds to make more 🙁

Raw Gingerbread Men or Ginger Snaps

  • 5 dates
  • 1 cup almonds
  • 1/4 tsp ground or minced ginger (fresh or powdered)
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp nutmeg
  • pinch of salt

Place all in a food processor or strong blender and blend until smooth. I usually don’t measure the ingredients and just taste test until I find the right flavor, so feel free to add more or less of what I stated above. Shape the dough into cookies or roll out on parchment paper and stamp gingerbread men out. I find that it is easier to work with the dough when it is chilled, so you may want to refrigerate the dough for ten minutes before shaping it. I also think it tastes better chilled, too 🙂

Remember Girl Scouts cookies? My favorite was the thin mint! Well, these taste just like raw thin mints!

Raw Mint Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

  • 5 dates
  • 1 cup walnuts
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/8-1/4 tsp peppermint extract
  • pinch of salt

Place all ingredients in a food processor or strong blender and process until smooth. I like the walnuts to stay a bit chunky, but this is up to you. SHape the dough into balls or cookies and enjoy!

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

What is your favorite Christmas cookie? I don’t necessarily have a favorite, but I do like making sugar cookies to decorate. I love making cookies, just not eating them.

Also, did you set out cookies for Santa when you were a kid? We always did (do!). We make set out cookies, milk, and a note for Santa. Then we sprinkle oatmeal, sparkles, and carrots in the front yard for the reindeer.

Personal Note: I am going to spend Christmas with my grandparents in Arizona! I am leaving the 23rd and will be there for a week. Therefore, I might not be able to reply to my comments until I get back (I will be having too much fun to sit on a computer!). However, please comment away! I will get to them when I come back home. Also, I have posts set up throughout the week for you all to read! There will be a couple of recipes, and Christmas story (remixed).


Twelve Days of Christmas Recipes

By

I present to you “The Twelve Days of Christmas” by Alex.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me:

Twelve Pick-a-Fruit Crisps,

Eleven Grain-Free Pumpkin Spice Breads,

Ten Baked Banana Oatmeals,

Nine Raw Coconut-Iced Barks,

Eight Sugar-Free Monsters,

Seven Peanut-Chocolate Truffles,

Six Healthy Pumpkin Rolls,

Five Leftover Salsa Bowls,

Four Apple Pies in Bowls,

Three Hobo Dinners,

Two Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes,

And a Grain-Free Bitter Chocolate Cake for One!

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

Do you have any recipes planned for the Holidays yet? I actually have a lot more Christmas-y recipes to post, so I better get them up before the Holidays pass by!

What is your favorite Holiday song? There are so many of them, but I think I would have to choose Greensleeves! It is my favorite one to sing!

P.S. Don’t forget to enter my Agar Agar giveaway! Today is the last day to enter!


Crazy for Agar Agar

By

I finally found it! I have been on a quest to find agar agar flakes/powder ever since Katie wrote about the wonderful pudding and creams you can make.

While I was playing in a tournament over Thanksgiving, I came across a wonderful Hong Kong Market. They sold anything imaginable there: spiky fruits, seafood, dried seafood, chopsticks, and even purple sweet potatoes (we’ll talk more about this one later)!!!

I scoured the aisles for agar, and I found it for a good price. At the health food store they were going to charge me $20 for a package of agar agar, but at the Hong Kong market I bought it for $1.50. Yeah, I definitely bought more than one pack!

Agar Agar Base

~This is the base you use to make any of the treats listed below!

Ingredients

  • 1 teaspoon agar agar powder (if you are using agar agar flakes, use 1 Tablespoon)
  • 2 cups of liquid (juice or milk substitute)
  • Optional: add ins like vanilla extract, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, fruit chunks, nuts, be creative!

In a saucepan, heat up the liquid (not boiling), then add the agar agar. Stir well and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, and simmer, stirring often, for about 5 minutes or until the agar has dissolved.

Next, pour the liquid into a container and place in the refrigerator. Let the agar base set for about 20 minutes until jelly-like.

Note: It does not thicken while heated. The mix only thickens if chilled. The first time I made this I expected it to thicken like regular pudding, so I kept adding more and more agar agar. When I put it in the fridge, it was rick-solid!

You can make Vegan Fruit-Sweetened Jello…

Orange Jello with fresh citrus. I made this by using orange juice as the liquid and adding fresh clementine chunks.

You can make Pudding…

Chocolate pudding. Made by making a vanilla-base and blending in cocoa powder after it was set.

You can make Whipped Cream…

Strawberry Cream atop Bitter Chocolate Cake for One. I made this cream by blending frozen strawberries into the agar base.

 

You can make Vegan Yogurt…

Meg made this wonderful vegan yogurt by mixing a probiotic capsule into the agar base. Brilliant, Meg! Can’t wait to try this!

You can make some yourself…

I am going to giveaway one of my packets of agar agar powder to one lucky winner, so you don’t have to score the aisles of every grocery store. Each packet contains  25 servings of agar. This will make about 13 cups of jello, pudding, yogurt, or whipped cream. Think of this as a Christmas giveaway 🙂

To enter:

  1. Leave a comment telling me what you would make first with the agar agar powder
  2. Become a fan of Spoonful of Sugar Free on Facebook, and leave a comment back here telling me.
  3. Subscribe to me by email by entering your email address in the box to the right. Leave a comment here telling me you did.
  4. Answer these questions for fun and more entries!
    1. What is your favorite holiday treat?
    2. How are you spending the Holidays?

The Giveaway ends this Friday the 17th. Good Luck! THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.