Lego Minifigure Healthy Energy Snacks - No nuts or refined sugar

One of my new years resolutions this year was to eat healthier - as I'm sure many of you are trying to do in 2017.  The problem is, I have a major sweet tooth (hence the blog) and I especially need a little sweety sweet at the end of the nite after dinner.

After doing some googling and a lot of pinterest searching, I found my latest obsession. 

Energy balls!

I know it sounds weird and funny at the same time, heck I don't even like calling cake balls - cake balls.  It just sounds wrong to me - but semantics aside, I love me some energy balls! They are perfect little sweet snacks.  Usually bite sized for some on the go healthy treats or post-workout energy boosters and made with all sorts of combos of the good stuffs for you - protein, no refined sugars or preservatives.  And many recipes have all the trendy foods like chia seeds, spirulina, flax seeds, hemp - pretty much whatever the current healthy food of the day is - you can toss into an energy ball.

I've made so many batches over the past couple of weeks.  They are just perfect bite sized little treats and I love the recipe I use especially when rolled in a variety of coatings to mix the flavors up a bit.  Many of them use nuts or nut butters but since 2 of my kids are allergic to nuts the recipe I have below is nut free.

AND

I found a way to make them even more fun! Add the mixture to silicone ice cube trays.  Here I used one of my favorites - a Lego minifigure ice cube tray mold. 

I left some apricot energy ball mixture plain then tinted some with powdered freeze dried raspberries and blueberries to give the Lego men colors. 

You can also use an energy ball recipe and not bother with the tinting.  You still get super cute little snacks!

Or use any silicone ice cube mold.  Once you pack the molds, freeze them for about an hour then pop the energy bites out for some super fun sized snacks! I bring them to work with me for an after lunch treat.

I've used the ice cube trays a bunch of times before when making sweet treats and I'm always looking for new ways to use them.  And although my hubby told me these guys looked a little like Dead Pool after his experiment to rid him of his cancer - I still think they look super cute!

Like I said I cannot get enough of these energy bites and I've been making a batch a week to bring with me to work and for after dinner.  I actually do think they make cute treats too.  Pack a bunch up for your next party or get together. 

 See perfect little sweet and healthy treats. And just maybe in fun forms you can get your kiddos to try them too!

Lego Minifigure Energy Snacks

by Michelle Clausen January 22 - 2017

Ingredients

• 1 cup dried apricots
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/4 cup freeze dried raspberries
• 1/4 cup freeze dried blueberries
• Lego minifigure ice cube tray

Instructions

1. Add 1st 4 ingredients to a food processor.  Blend until ingredients are well chopped, moist  and sticks together (you can roll it into a ball with your hands).  If too dry add a little more coconut oil until its the right consistency.
2. Divide mixture into 3 bowls.
3. Crush raspberries into powder and add to one of the bowls.  Mix well.  If the mixture seems too dry add a tad more coconut oil.
4. Crush blueberries into powder and add to one of the bowls.  Mix well.  If the mixture seems too dry add a tad more coconut oil.
5. Add the yellow mixture to the head section of the ice cube tray.
6. Add the red mixture to the body section of the ice cube tray.
7. Add the blue mixture to the leg section of the ice cube tray.
8. Once all colors are added - add additional as needed to make sure the sections are packed well.
9. Freeze tray for an hour then pop energy bites out of the mold.
10. Refrigerate if not eating immediately - you can also freeze them and take with you as needed.

Prep time: 45 minutes Yield: about 20-25 energy bites

  

See these other ice cube tray ideas!

Lego and Super Hero Yogurt Pops

Lego Men Candy Tutorial

Lego Themed Valentines

Back to School Graham Cracker Snacks

Lego Halloween Themed Pops

    

Lego Men Frozen Pudding Snacks

Star Wars Valentines Day Chocolate Boxes

Happy 2017 all! Can you believe it's officially 2017? 

We celebrated the new year away from home and up in Maine on a snowboarding and ski trip with some good friends.  It was so nice to get away and detach from the usual routine.  It was also really cool to come down a mountain as a family! My hubster, oldest kiddo, and I all snowboard and the twins ski.  The kids can all get down most blues and greens and I have to say one of my favs from the trip was looking around and seeing my kids coming down on their own with us next to them.  It was really amazing.  One of my new years resolutions is to make sure I take time to enjoy these special moments many that happen everyday.

OK enough of the mushy reflectiveness, onto the treats! 

As you know we are huge SW fans so we went to see Star Wars Rogue One recently.  Can I say I loved this movie without sounding biased?  I mean I think I loved it more than The Force Awakens.  Rogue One is the story in between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.  It basically tells the story that depicts the infamous opening movie crawl and provides context on how A New Hope (the first Star Wars movie) came about.  My oldest kiddo, a self proclaimed Star Wars nerd, also loved it as much as I did.

And what do you get a Star Wars nerd for Valentine's Day?

Star Wars chocolates of course!

I seem to have collected a plethora of shaped ice cube trays and that includes many Star Wars themed ones.  Great for jazzing up your drinks with fun cubes but even better as molds for treats.

Since one of my least favorite things to do is dip cake bites/pops into melted chocolate, I use these molds to make no dip cake bites too.  It's pretty simple.  Add melted chocolate or candy melts to coat the mold, let candy harden, add some cake bite mixture, cover with more melted candy and let harden.  

Pop the candy out of the molds spray with some color mist or similar spray food colorant to add some silver accents.  Darth Vader is done with milk chocolate, stormtroopers with vanilla candy melts, and Han Solo in carbonite (no cake mix in center) with dark chocolate.  Add the trooper detail with a black edible food writer.

Use Pearl or Silver spray!

If you have some heart shaped boxes you can add them and make some super special Valentine's for your favorite Star Wars fan!

Aww don't they make a cute couple?

Who can say no to Vader??

Happy 2017 everyone and I hope you are off to a great start to your year!

Star Wars No Dip Cake Bites

by Michelle Clausen January 11 - 2017

Ingredients

• 2 cups of chocolate chips
• 1 cup vanilla chips or melting wafers
• 1 and 1/2 cups of cake mixture (1 and 1/2 cups of crumbled cake and 1-2 Tablespoons of frosting)
• Black food writer
• Silver Color Mist spray

Instructions:

1. Melt each flavor of chips/wafers in microwave safe bowl in 10-20 second intervals until candy is melted.  Add to quart sized freezer bag.  Snip an end and coat mold with candy (ensure thick enough to coat all sides of mold but leave a space to allow for filling).  Tap mold to remove air bubbles and to make sure all parts of mold are coated well.  Reheat candy as needed.  Freeze mold for 5 minutes.
2. Remove mold from freezer and fill cavities with small ball of the cake mixture.  Press to cake fills mold cavity (see photos).  Cover with more melted candy.  Tap to cover evenly.  Freeze for 10-15 minutes.  
3. Pop cake bite out of mold.  
4. Add detail to Stormtroopers with black edible food writer.
5. Spray with color mist.  Let dry 10 minutes.
6. Add to Valentine's day boxes.

Prep time: 1 and 1/2 hours Yield: about 20-25 cake bites 

Super Hero Villain Gingerbread Men Cookies

Hey all, it's only 5 days to Christmas! My kids are already so excited that they already are too excited to go to sleep and feel like everyday is taking forever.  I miss that feeling - I'm in a bit of a panic as I still feel like I have a bunch of stuff to run around and get.  The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas flies by faster and faster every year.  I guess I'm just old now!

That said, I did make time for gingerbread men as that's always a request from my kiddos this time of year.

I do them every year with a new theme, this year is:

Super Hero Villains!

I've done super heroes before here so figured it was time to give their arch enemies some equal blog time.

I started with my favorite blank canvas - gingerbread men cut outs.  I used a gingerbread cookie mix to speed up the process, but of course you can use your favorite homemade recipe as well.

Do some prep work with royal icing and then add detail with melted candy wafers (I have almost every color they come in) and various sprinkles and edible food writers for more detail.

I just googled pictures for all my favorite villains - like the rebooted duo of Harley Quinn and Joker from Suicide Squad!

Mystique from X-Men is one of my favs too - escorted by Thanos and Magneto of course.

It's actually hard to pick a favorite villain.  I mean who would you pick? Cat Woman, Poison Ivy, or the Riddler?? They are all so unique and fun.  I was only going to do a handful but then had a hard time narrowing them down!  Go figure.

Ultron got a little funky but I love Venom's red tongue!  I don't know Red Skull as well but one of my kids said he was a must - he's the archenemy of Captain America, apparently.

And of course the trio from Batman.  (The Penguin's umbrella is a candy coated pretzel stick!)

A couple of docs (as in Doom and Octopus) and Loki - Thor's evil brother - is he really evil or just misunderstood?? Don't really care and I love him regardless!

And for those of you that can't blend comic book universes (you know who you are!), here they are with their own "kind"!

Marvel Villains

And

DC Villains

I've been making gingerbread men over the past few years so it's kind of a tradition now.  Who would you do next in gingerbread form?

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great week!

P.S. Take a look at past themed gingerbread men and ladies!

Super Hero Gingerbread

Charlie Brown Peanuts Gang Gingerbread Men

Star Wars Trooper Gingerbread Men

Rainbow Gingerbread Men Sandwich Cookies

Star Wars Gingerbread Cut Outs

Disney Frozen Gingerbread Men and Ladies

Disney Princess Gingerbread Ladies

Father's Day Gingerbread Men

Mint Chocolate Chip Cut Out Men

Holiday PEEPS Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

My edible crafting with marshmallow PEEPS continues! 

The fun people that work with the PEEPS brand were kind enough to send me some of their latest seasonal flavors! Sugar Plum Delight, Cinnamon Roll, Red Velvet, and Sugar Cookie. How fun are they?? 

Although they are already very festive, you can add some easy details and make them really ready for any holiday or Christmas party.

 Make them into wintery polar bears!

Or give them fun little Christmas hats!

Birds get cold too so add some tiny ear muffs!

Or turn them into reindeer - or go directly to the most famous reindeer of all

I usually add PEEPS to cupcakes (which would be A.DOR.A.BLE) but this time went with a Christmas-y chocolate chip cookie cake.

I mean who can resist a huge chocolate chip cookie during the holiday season??

The cookie cake disappeared in no time flat last nite!

Holiday PEEPS Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

by Michelle Clausen December 18 -2016

Ingredients

• PEEPS chicks in assorted flavors (I used red velvet, sugar plum, sugar cookie, and cinnamon roll)
• 1 roll of refrigerated cookie dough ( I used chocolate chip)
• Assorted sprinkles and candies for decorating: orange candy coated sunflower seeds, green m and m's, black and green dot sprinkles, holly and berry sprinkles, red-green-white candy corn, vanilla tootsie rolls, large red ball candy, 
• Purple candy melting wafers (cut in half)
• 1 cup of vanilla candy melting wafers
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips (or chocolate candy melting wafers) and green candy melting wafers
• Green and red food writers
• Vanilla buttercream (tint some red and green)
• More holiday sprinkles for cookie cake

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. For Rudolph Reindeer PEEPs: Melt chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and add to a freezer bag.  Snip an end and pipe antlers onto parchment paper.  Let harden 5-10 minutes before moving. Attach to cinnamon roll chick with melted chocolate.  Attach large red candy to with melted chocolate as nose.  Use melted vanilla candy and add detail around neck and add green sprinkle in center.
3.  For Polar Bear: Melt vanilla wafers in a microwave safe bowl and add to a freezer bag.  Snip an end and pipe ears and nose onto sugar cookie flavored chick.  Attach black buttons and nose detail with more melted candy. Soften vanilla tootsie roll for 7 seconds in microwave.  Roll out long strip for scarf.  Cut to size with clean kitchen shears.  Color with red and green food writers.  Wrap around chick as scarf.
4. For Bird with earmuffs: Attach green m and m's to side of chick with melted candy. Add white band with more melted vanilla candy melts.  Attach orange candy coated sunflower seed with more melted candy.  Attach 1/2 of purple candy melt wafer to side as wings.
5. For Red Velvet chick with hat: Melt green candy wafers in a microwave safe bowl and add to a freezer bag.  Snip an end and pipe small discs onto parchment paper.  Add christmas candy corn.  Attach small red ball sprinkle on top of hat with more melted candy. Let harden 5-10 minutes.  Use more melted candy and attach holy around neck of chick.  Add holy berries for detail.  Attach hat to top of chick with more melted candy.
6. For cookie cake: Add cookie dough to a 9X3 springform pan.  Spread cookie dough evenly.  Bake for 30 minutes or until top of cookie is just browned.  Let cool completely.
7. Remove cookie cake from pan and pipe buttercream around the outside top edge.  Add christmas or holiday sprinkles. 
8. Add decorated PEEPS on top.  Slice and serve.

Prep time: 60 mins Yield: 1 - 9 inch cookie cake