Category Archives: Kid Friendly

Chocolate Dipped Caramel Apples

All the flavor of caramel apples & none of the guilt!

Make Caramel Chews and when mixture tests firm remove from heat and using a fork or tongs dip apple slices into caramel. Place on wax paper or oiled aluminum foil or cookie sheet. When caramel has cooled dip in chocolate sauce from Chocolate Dipped Cherries. Place back on wax paper and until chocolate has cooled.

Candied Maple Nuts

1 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 cups walnuts and/or pecans (preferably toasted)

In a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat stir together maple syrup, cinnamon, butter and salt.

Cook and stir until syrup becomes darker and starts to thicken. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Toss syrup with walnuts until evenly coated. Pour onto waxed paper or lightly oiled baking sheet. Let cool before storing in airtight container.

Coconut-Almond Toffee Bars

No, you haven’t stumbled into another dimension – these really are sugar-free, delicious, easy to make – and yes, this is still the third rock from the sun in the year 2013. Check out the Tropical and budget Oatmeal versions.

These can be stored in an airtight container up to 1 week or frozen for up to 1 month.

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded dried coconut
1/3 cup sliced almonds
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup unrefined sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup coffee
1 tablespoon honey or agave nectar
12 ounces grain-sweetened chocolate chips
2/3 cup chopped almonds or coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spread coconut and almonds on a cookie sheet and bake until golden, 5 to 7 minutes; stirring 2-3 times. Remove from oven and turn oven up to 400 degrees.

Pour coconut and almonds into a medium bowl and add the butter, sugar, vanilla, coffee and honey, stirring until well blended.

Wipe the cookie sheet with the butter wrapper or spray with cooking spray. Pour nut mixture onto buttered cookie sheet and bake about 18 minutes, until toffee is brown and bubbly. Remove from oven.

Sprinkle  chocolate chips over toffee. Let stand 10 minutes until chips are melted. Using a buttered metal spatula spread chocolate evenly over toffee then sprinkle with chopped almonds.

Cool completely. Cut into squares. Store tightly covered in a cool dry place.

Tropical Toffee Bars – use fresh orange juice in place of water, (add 1 tablespoon orange curacuo to toffee mixture before baking), mix 1 tablespoon finely diced orange zest into final topping of almonds or coconut.

Oatmeal Toffee Bars – in place of almonds and coconut use 28 ounces instant oatmeal (toast first), (apple or white grape juice instead of water), 1 tablespoon vanilla instead of 1 teaspoon, add 1/2 teaspoon salt to oatmeal mix, top with any chopped nuts that you have around.

Honey Popcorn Bars

It took me five years, but finally I’ve come up with an UnDiet version of one of my favorite treats – Marshmallow Rice Krispie Bars. You won’t believe how close these taste to the snap, crackle and pop version that we all grew up with.

If you’re making these for Halloween in the final step use your hands to shape them into popcorn balls instead of bars. You can even add a few sugar-free cinnamon candies or grain-sweetened chocolate, white chocolate or peanut butter chips.

2 cups butter
1-1/2 cups honey
6-8 cups popcorn (preferably air-popped)

Bring butter and honey to a boil over medium heat in a large heavy bottomed saucepan. Stir frequently while bringing to a boil, then stop stirring while mixture continues to boil until it turns a dark golden brown about 7-10 minutes. Use your stirring spoon to drop a small glob of syrup into a glass of very cold water. If mixture forms a soft ball after hitting the water it’s ready. If it floats to the bottom of the glass in threads boil a few more minutes without stirring and test again.

Remove from heat and stir in popcorn so that it’s all well coated. Allow mixture to rest 5-10 minutes until the popcorn collapses from soaking in the syrup, then press into a buttered cookie sheet or onto a large sheet of waxed paper. Using buttered hands or the back of your stirring spoon press the mixture firmly to further collapse the popcorn.

Variations:
Cut cooled mixture into shapes with knife or cookie cutters.
Add 1 teaspoon vanilla to mixture after removing from heat and before adding popcorn.
Add 1 teaspoon flavoring extract (try peppermint, coconut, chocolate, butterscotch, rum) to mixture after removing from heat and before adding popcorn.
Add 1 cup chopped nuts, dried dates, raisins, grain-sweetened yogurt or chocolate covered raisins, or grain-sweetened chocolate (or peanut, or espresso) chips to mixture when you stir in the popcorn.
Instead of popcorn use whole grain, sugar free air puffed cereal.

One for you, two for me! That’s what you’ll be saying to trick-or-treaters this Halloween season when you have these UnDiet treats around. So when someone says “trick or treat”, smile and hand them a Snickers bar while you reach for an UnDiet Halloween treat – or two – or three. I won’t tell.

Citrus Chews

Using a vegetable peeler, remove large pieces of peel being careful to leave the bitter white pith with the fruit. Try one or more of the following:

oranges

lemons

limes

grapefruits

Use a small sharp knife or cookie cutter to trim the peel into interesting shapes (stars, moons, bones, bats, cats …), then in a small saucepan over low heat, simmer peels and

1 cup honey for every 6 pieces of whole fruit

Stir frequently for 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, tongs, or collander remove peel from honey. Cool on foil or saran wrap lightly sprayed with a light coating of cooking spray, or use a large piece of wax paper and no cooking spray.

Chocolate Coated Cherries

Chocolate dipped fruit is one of the simplest, tastiest, healthiest desserts with the potential for an infinite number of variations. I use this basic recipe for many UnDiet holidays, varying it to suit the season.

2 cups grain-sweetened chocolate or carob chips

4 tablespoons butter

fresh cherries with stems, or strawberries, grapes, raisins, dried date nuggets …

In a small heavy saucepan over very low heat, stir chocolate and butter until melted and smooth then remove from heat. You can also microwave the chocolate with the butter until it is melted.

Using a fork dip cherries one at a time, into melted chocolate. Place chocolate-dipped cherries on wax paper-lined cookie sheet. Refrigerate for 15 minutes to set chocolate. If the kids are bugging you for a quick snack you could place a few pieces in the freezer to speed up the process, but don’t put the whole batch in the freezer; the chocolate will develop a white film.

Liqueured Up Cherries

Soak cherries overnight and up to 4 days in your choice of liqueur. Pat dry before dipping in chocolate. Caution: don’t dip and drive

Oatmeal Candy

4 cups unrefined sugar 

6 tablespoons cocoa or carob powder (use carob if you’re losing weight, cocoa if you’re maintaining) 

1/2 cup butter

1 cup cream, nondairy milk, or mix of cream & nondairy milk 

1 cup nut butter

4-1/2 cups oatmeal, not instant

Mix sugar, cocoa, butter and cream in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.Remove from heat. Add nut butter and stir until smooth. Add oatmeal and stir until well blended. Drop by teaspoon or tablespoon onto wax paper or lightly oiled cookie sheet. Cool and eat!

Shaped Candies: dump the candy mixture onto a buttered cookie sheet. Use a spatula to smooth the top so it’s all level. When the cookies are cool cut them with a small sharp knife or cookie cutter into whatever shapes you like. If the knife or cookie cutter sticks to the candy, dip the cutting instrument in vegetable oil or spray with oil.

Caramel Chews

Eat these as is or use them to make many other goodies such as Chocolate Dipped Caramel Fruit.

1-1/3 cup honey or agave nectar

2 cups heavy cream (or 1/2 cup cream & 1/2 cup soy/nut/seed/rice milk)

1/2 cup butter

1 cup heavy cream (or 1/2 cup cream & 1/2 cup nondairy milk)

Combine honey, 1 cup heavy cream and butter in a medium-size heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Do not stir. Cook until the mixture begins to get dark and thick. Add 1 cup heavy cream, stir to combine and continue to boil without stirring.

After about 5 minutes use your stirring spoon to drop a small glob of syrup into a glass of ice-cold water. If the mixture forms a firm but not hard ball after hitting the water it’s ready. If it floats to the bottom of the glass in threads boil a few minutes more and test again. When mixture is ready, pour it into a well buttered square pan. When cool, cut into squares.

Note: sometimes a caramel recipe just doesn’t harden like you would like it to. If that happens, don’t despair, you can use this as a caramel sauce or to dip caramel apples into.

Pecan Raisin Clusters

1 cup grain-sweetened chocolate chips

1/2 cup roughly chopped toasted pecans and 1 cup raisins or chopped dates

In a microwave or double boiler melt chocolate chips until smooth. Dump in pecans and raisins, stirring until well blended. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper lined baking sheet. Refrigerate 30 minutes, until set. Store in airtight container in cool place, but they don’t need to be refrigerated.

Stay tuned – I have lots more Halloween recipes coming over the next few weeks.

In our household we’re forever buying healthy cookies and baked goods and at least half the time, we take one bite, spit it out and the rest of the package sits in the cupboard until it draws ants and I throw it away. This time though I decided that we weren’t going to throw out any more food, just because we didn’t like it. So we started experimenting and came up with quite a few really quick and easy microwave dessert recipes that the kids can make on their own. In fact, once they saw what I was doing they began experimenting and came up with some of their own recipes.

Warning: these aren’t all perfect UnDiet recipes since some of them use leftover Halloween and Easter candies.

Chocolate Tapioca

3 cups non-dairy milk
1/4 cup tapioca pearls
1/8 teaspoon salt (a couple of shakes or grinds of the salt shaker will work)
1/2 cup grain-sweetened chocolate chips
1 tablespoon unrefined sugar (optional)
chocolate or peanut butter flavored baked goods that nobody likes

Place milk and tapioca in a large glass bowl or measuring cup. Microwave for 3 minutes, stir and continue microwaving and stirring in 1 minute increments until tapioca is translucent, about 3 more minutes. Stir in chocolate chips and salt. Let cool until still hot but cool enough to taste. Taste and add optional sugar if needed.

Break up baked goods and use to line the bottom of a large container. Pour pudding over baked goods. Refrigerate until cool enough to eat. Carefully tir before serving if needed to break up the tapioca but being careful not to disturb the bottom crust.

Granola Pudding Bars

Next time you have a package of granola bars that nobody will eat, make up a batch of this pudding cake and you may even buy more granola bars, just so you can make this again.

6 to 8 granola bars

one 3.4 ounce package vanilla or butterscotch sugar-free cook and serve pudding

3 cups skim or lowfat milk

Place granola bars in an 8″ x 8″ pan.

In a large bowl (or even better a large measuring cup) whisk pudding mix into the milk. A measuring cup works great for kids because it has a handle that makes is easy for them to move the pudding mixture into and out of the microwave.

Microwave about 8 minutes totial or until the mixture comes to a boil. You’ll need to take it out of the microwave every 2 minutes to stir. Once it comes to a boil, remove from the microwave, stir and pour over granola bars. Refrigerate overnight or for at least 6 hours.

Brownie in a Cup

I’m always trying different brands of instant coffee, trying to find one that I actually like. What ends up happening is that I have a cupboard full of instant coffee that is only suitable for baking or adding to smoothies. You can also use this recipe to use some of the chocolate or marshmallow candies left over from Halloween or Easter.

Be sure that the mug you’re using isn’t one of those that gets hot in the microwave. I’ve burned my fingers on many such a mug so many times that I took them from my kitchen cupboard and now use them in my bathroom to hold makeup brushes, q-tips, cotton balls and such things.

1/4 cup white whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup Splenda for baking
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
small pinch or 1 grind of sea salt
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2 tablespoons coffee
2 tablespoons chopped chocolate or marshmallow (optional)

In a mug, stir together the dry ingredients. Stir in the oil and coffee, then the the chopped chocolate or marshmallow, if you’re using them.

Microwave on high for one minute, but check it after 30 seconds. It’s done when it’s springy on top but still a bit gooey. Let cool until warm and then dig in.

Candy Pie

This one is so decadent and so not an UnDiet recipe, but the kids will love it and I feel good because at least half of it is a whole grain sugar free cereal.

1 to 2 cups cereal or baked goodie such as cookie or cake

1 to 2 cups chocolate candy, any type, even M&M’s will work

Lightly oil a glass pie plate or microwavable shallow dish. Spread your cereal or baked goods over the bottom of the plate. Evenly arrange the candy over the “crust”. Microwave for 1 minute. Use a spatula to gently stir the candy without disturbing the crust. Microwave for another 30 seconds to 1 minute. If needed gently stir the candy layer again. If all of the candy has melted then remove from microwave. If needed though continue microwaving in 30 second increments until the candy has melted. Remove from microwave and allow to cool until warm. Cut into slices and serve or just gather around and dig in with spoons.