Sugar Swings! Serve Some: January 2017

Sunday, January 22, 2017

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
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!

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Star Wars Valentines Day Chocolate Boxes

Star Wars Valentines - no dip chocolates

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 from ice cube tray mold

Star Wars chocolates of course!


Star Wars Chocolates from ice cube tray mold

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.


make star wars chocolates from ice cube tray mold

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.  

make star wars chocolates from ice cube tray mold

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!

Star Wars Valentines boxes

Aww don't they make a cute couple?

Star Wars Valentines chocolates

Who can say no to Vader??

darth vader Valentine chocolate

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



Star Wars No Dip Cake Bites
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 hoursYield: about 20-25 cake bites