Today I’m at Simple Organic sharing a few tips for making simple real food changes your family won’t even notice!

Come check it out:

Simple Real Food Changes That Make a Big Impact

Let me know if you are doing any of these things already.

Top image credit

The thumbprint cookies pictured above are delicious (and healthy, too). They are a little different to regular thumbprint cookies, with a splash of lemon and a sprinkling on ground almonds.

I’m sharing the recipe and a few tips for baking with whole wheat flour at Simple Organic today.

Here’s an excerpt:

The holiday season often finds us in the kitchen baking treats or at gatherings eating treats!

One way to take the load down is to replace ingredients with whole food alternatives. For example, substituting butter in place of margarine, exchanging canola oil for the healthier coconut oil, and including natural sweeteners whenever possible are all excellent methods for making sweets a little healthier.

Trading bleached, white flour for whole wheat is another recipe tweak that will bring some extra nourishment to desserts and snacks.

Read the rest here.

And it’s made with whole wheat flour! Woo hoo! (Recipe below)

Thanks to Smart Sweets we have an abundance of healthy treats available that actually taste good. And I don’t have to cringe as I pass the cookies!

Isn’t it nice to serve (and eat) sweets that are made with real food ingredients?

It certainly gives me peace of mind knowing my kids are eating treats that have some nourishment factor!

My favorite thing about Smart Sweets is that it is for everyone. Katie provides so many options that the die-hard natural foodist will be happy while those still using white sugar here and there will have plenty to work with.

Smart Sweets is a great educational tool rather than a simple collection of recipes.

Katie clearly explains each type of sweetener and also shares details about different flours.

After each and every recipe Katie shares variations, faqs, and notes from the kitchen. These sections offer a lot of detailed information. I mean a lot!

For example:

• After the coconut macaroon recipe, you’ll find links to recipes for using the leftover egg yolks.
• After the Sourdough Chocolate cake recipe you’ll find out how to make a dairy free version.
• After the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, cookie dough lovers will be warned that using sucanat will not make a pleasing dough for muching on!
• And so on. . .

I hope I’m conveying the message that this book doesn’t skimp on details!

Smart Sweets doesn’t skimp on recipes either. There are 30 recipes in this book. For me it is a great mixture of new and delicious treats and healthier versions of beloved favorites.

Some of the recipes that caught my eye:

Cider Doughnut Spiced Cupcakes
Fudgy Brownies with Chocolate Chips
Peanut Butter Bars
Kelly’s Probiotic Fudge Bars
Pumpkin cookies (my daughter and I made these yesterday. They just melt in your mouth! Really yummy).

And these three are perfect for gift-giving:

Peppermint Coconut Bark
Dark Chocolate Truffles
Peanut Butter Kisses

See the complete list of recipe here.

Now, onto the cookie recipe and giveaway:

Isn’t that some good looking dough?

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
(from Smart Sweets by Katie Kimball)

Makes about 30 cookies

1 ½ cups sucanat ( or ¾ cup white sugar and ¾ cup brown sugar, packed)
½ cup butter,
½ cup unrefined coconut oil, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup chocolate chips
optional: ½ – 1 cup walnuts (or pecans – our addition)

Method

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cream sugar, butter and oil in a large bowl until light and fluffy.

Add egg and vanilla and beat again until well combined.

Add flour, baking soda, and salt, beating again until evenly distributed. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Drop rounder teaspoons of dough onto ungreased cookie sheet, leaving about 2 inches between cookies.

Bake for 8 to 12 minutes (we rarely went over 8 minutes) until light, golden brown. Take out of the oven and allow cookies to rest on cookie sheet for 2 minutes before moving each cookie to a cooling rack.

The Giveaway

To enter: leave a comment on this post.

For Optional Bonus Entries (please leave a separate comment for each ):

• Check out the table of contents and tell me which recipe you’d most like to try.
• Download the free Apple Crisp recipe from the book.

Giveaway will end on Monday at 5pm PST.

A Discount Code

If you’d rather not wait and want to get baking right away, use discount Code Delightful25 to get 25% off. Code expires Dec. 23. 2011

https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=1018358&c=ib&aff=121480&cl=114298

Disclosure: I received a free copy of Smart Sweets for review. I baked recipes from it and I liked it
This post contains affiliate links.

This month, Hyacynth posted a Simple Swap challenge that was right up my alley: Swap out unhealthy fats for healthy ones (replace with coconut oil, if possible).

As you may (or may not) know, I like to use coconut oil in cooking and baking. For some reason I still get a little nervous each time I try it, even though it usually works very well. I hate to waste ingredients!

For this swap I chose to update a banana muffin recipe and replaced canola oil with coconut oil. I also couldn’t help switching the brown sugar for sucanat.

I know that canola oil is portrayed as a healthy oil, but I don’t believe it is! (I plan to write a post on why. But for now, read this).

On to the recipe:

Healthy Maple-Banana Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (sprouted flour would be even better)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup sucanat (sugar)
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
4 mashed bananas
Optional extras:
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 – 1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried raisins
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Grease muffin pans with coconut oil.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, and cinnamon. Stir to combine well.

In a medium-sized bowl, place the maple syrup, sucanat, milk, vanilla, oil, and eggs. Whisk to combine.

Add the mashed bananas and stir to thoroughly combine.

Add  wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Fold in any extras (like walnuts). Don’t overmix the batter – it will result in tough muffins! No one wants tough muffins.

Pour batter into muffin tins, filling to just under the brim.

Bake for about 20 minutes (up to 30 minutes), until golden brown.

Take out of the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the muffin pan.

I’m sharing this post at Healthy 2day Wednesdays @ Day 2 Day Joys

Up until a few years ago, I had no idea!

It was a wonderful discovery, because coconut oil is one of the healthiest oils on the planet.

I’m sharing a rundown of the benefits of coconut oil, tips for using it in baking, and lots of recipes over at Simple Organic today.

I’d love to know if you use it in baking and if so, how?

Read the post here: How to Bake with Coconut Oil

The above pictured Chocolate Coconut Oat Bars are made with coconut oil. They are delicious.

This cake-like fall cookie is fairly healthy (as far as cookies go). Made with wholewheat flour, applesauce and coconut oil, it provides some decent nutrition along with some sweet satisfaction.

Pumpkin Gems

This recipe has been adapted from Sue Gregg’s Frosted Pumpkin Gems recipe in her book: Desserts.

Ingredients

1/3 cup coconut oil, softened slightly (or use solid, just beat a little longer)
2/3 cup honey
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3 teaspoons cinnamon
3 teaspoons allspice
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Optional extras: chocolate chips or dried cranberries

For the frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup honey
optional extra: 3/4 teaspoon orange extract

Method

Beat together the coconut oil and honey.

Add eggs, pumpkin, applesauce and vanilla, then beat until smooth.

In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients then add to the liquid ingredients. Stir to blend.

Drop slightly heaped tablespoons of dough into a lightly greased cookie sheet (coconut oil works well for greasing). Leave about an inch between each cookie.

Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly brown.

Remove from cookie sheet and allow to cool completely.

To Make the Cream Cheese Frosting:

Blend the cream cheese, butter, and honey together until smooth. If using the orange extract, add it now and blend to distribute.

Once the cookies are completely cool, frost each with the cream cheese frosting. Decorate with a small piece of pecan, if desired.

Enjoy!

I’m sharing this recipe at Beauty and Bedlam’s, Tasty Tuesday.

It’s no secret that I love herbs. They have so many uses!

The holidays are a wonderful time to enjoy herbs and spices. There are so many opportunities to use them in baking and cooking as well as medicinally.

On Friday I shared how to use 11 different herbs and spices this holiday season at Keeper of the Home.

I probably went a little overboard with this post! Click over and see for yourself.

Top image credit

I enjoy dessert even more than usual when its made with real food ingredients.

In fact, when dessert is made with real food ingredients I just get plain excited about the whole thing. Nourishing my family with dessert . . . what could be better?

Kate of Modern Alternative Mama has written a wonderful eBook that shows you how to make dessert using real food ingredients. I just love it.

You won’t find any white flour, white sugar or crisco in this book!

The recipes in Treat Yourself are made with ingredients such as sprouted flour, almond flour, maple syrup, honey, and butter.

There’s even a few grain free recipes.

The recipes are also low-sugar. Yay for that.

Check out the list of recipes included (the ones marked with an asterisk * are grain free):

Cakes and Frostings

• Vanilla Cupcakes*
• Chocolate Cake I
• Chocolate Cake II*
• Vanilla Sponge Cake
• Lemon Cake*
• Spice Cake*
• Carrot Cake I*
• Carrot Cake II
• Cream Cheese Frosting*
• Chocolate Frosting/Sauce*
• Whipped Cream*
• Vanilla Bean Cheesecake*

Cookies

• Brownies*
• Chocolate Cookies*
• Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Butter Cookies
• Chocolate-Mint Filling*

Ice Cream and Frozen Treats

• Strawberry Yum Yum
• Chocolate Gelato*
• Mocha Gelato*
• Strawberry-Peach Frozen Yogurt*
• Strawberry Ice Cream*
• Strawberry Lemonade Freeze*

Other

• Cinnamon Rolls
• Crepes
• Chocolate Éclairs
• Scones*
• Pie Crust*
• Strawberry Pie*
• Chocolate Pie*
• Strawberry Short Cake*
• Chocolate-Hazelnut Sauce*

Yum!

To be entered to win a copy of Treat Yourself: Real Food Desserts, simply leave a comment below.

For extra entries do any of the following and leave a seperate comment for each:

·         Tell me which recipe you’d like to try.

·         Tweet the giveaway

·         “Like” A Delightful Home on Facebook

·          Follow MAM on Twitter

·         “Like” MAM on Facebook

If you don’t want to wait and would like to buy the book right now, use the code HOMETREAT to get 25% off the book (Making it $5.96) Code expires on: 11/3/11.

Giveaway ends 10/31 at 8 pm PST

Good luck!

Sweet apples and tangy cranberries. Yum.

This dessert is a real fall treat.

I’m sharing the recipe at Keeper of the Home today. Go and take a peek.

UPDATE: There have already been a few comments from people who made this cake over the weekend and loved it. I wish I could tell you just how good it is. It’s good. It’s really good.

I’m sharing this post at Tasty Tuesdays.

This is the quickest yeast bread recipe I have ever come across. It only requires one rising instead of two, which means I can go from grain to hot, yummy bread in about an hour! (I also use a Bosch mixer which speeds things up a little.)

From my studies it seems that sourdough is one of the most healthful choices, but I am still learning how to make it with whole wheat flour (I only know how to successfully make it with white at the moment). So for the time being, the following is a regular feature in our home. It makes great toast and sandwiches!

Quickest Whole Wheat Bread

(Makes 2 loaves)

I use hard white wheat grain for the whole wheat flour. It has a lovely mild flavor and is one of the best choices when first transitioning the family over to whole wheat.

Ingredients

3 cups warm water

2 tablespoons gluten

6 tablespoons sugar/sucanat/honey/molasses

6 tablespoons oil  (I use safflower or melted coconut oil)

7 cups whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon yeast

Method

In a 1 cup-measuring cup add 1 tablespoon honey or sugar/sucanat , yeast and ¼ cup of warm water. Stir to combine and allow to sit for 5 minutes.

It should look a little like this after 5 minutes (probably less puffy. I had to hunt for my camera after the 5 minutes was up. So this got a little out of control):

Meanwhile, place 4 cups flour, gluten, and  salt into a large mixing bowl.

Next add the remaining sugar or honey, remaining water, and oil.

Turn on mixer briefly to allow all ingredients to combine.

Add the yeast mixture.

Turn on the mixer and begin adding the remaining flour a ½ cup at a time.  Do this until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. You may use all 7 cups of flour, but you may use a little less or a little more.

You will know you have the right amount of flour once the sides of the bowl start to look clean. Like this:

Once you reach this stage, knead the dough for another 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, turn the oven to 200 degrees F. Once the temperature has been reached, allow to remain heated for 2 minutes, then turn oven off.

Shape dough into two loaves and place into two greased loaf pans.

Place loves into the warm oven and set timer for 15 minutes.

Once timer goes off, the loaves should be doubled in size. If not, leave for another 5 minutes.

Turn oven to 350 degrees F and bake bread for 25 minutes.

Remove bread from the oven and rub the tops of each loaf with butter. This is optional, but so yummy.

After a few minutes, take loaves from pans and place on a cooling rack.

Enjoy!