No oven required

For Peanut Butter, Chocolate, Oatmeal No Bake Cookies! Not the same ol' fatty, refined-sugar no bakes. I love these and have rewritten the recipe with health in mind. These are dairy free, gluten free, and glycemic friendly no bakes! Keep away if you have nut allergies! Everyone else, take a good look at these -

 

Don't they look yummy?!!! Is your mouth watering yet? Don't you wish you could reach into this post and grab one to eat right now???

 

The procedure is the same but the ingredients have been cleaned up. Here we go:

 

Cleaned Up No Bake Cookies

                             -by Pamelyn Baim

                

In a saucepan, mix and bring to a boil for 1 -2 minutes. Then remove from heat.

2/3 c agave nectar

1/4 c almond milk

1/2 c coconut oil

1/4 c cocoa powder

 

Add and quickly stir in:

1/2 c peanut butter

3 c quick cooking oats

1/2 c flaked coconut

1 tsp vanilla or almond extract

 

Drop by spoonful onto cookie sheet lined with waxed paper. It may seem like they won't stick together but they will when they cool down. Best when cooled and stored in the fridge. Makes about 24 small or 15 large cookies.

 

The agave nectar is easy on your glycemic index. It's less likely to spike your blood sugar levels.

Almond milk is plain delicious and a no-brainer for using instead of dairy milk.

Coconut oil is being discovered as an amazing, healthful substitute for butter or crisco. 

Rolled oats is embraced by some gluten free eaters and avoided by others. 

Vanilla can have gluten in it. 

 

Always check ALL your ingredient labels! :) 

 

These smell great. They taste great. They are a wonderful dessert to make, especially if you don't want to stoke up the oven in the heat of summer. Give them a try and tell me what you think.

Summer Dinner - Veggie Style

Even though it is September, the farm stands will continue to offer delicious, fresh, clean food for many more weeks. I made a stop to one today and picked up corn on the cob, tomatoes, a bunch of green onions, and some peaches. Everything there looks beautiful and delicious, how can you put up with grocery store "freshness" in comparison?

Mission #1 - have corn on the cob for dinner. I am a big fan of this stuff. Loved it all my life. When I was growing up, we used to have that for our entire meal from time to time. This was easy for us since we grew acres of the stuff and didn't want it to go to waste. My cravings for it begin early, usually before it is ready for harvest. I get a dozen ears, steam half of them today, and save the other half for another day. Doesn't it look fantastic? Oh, my mouth is a-waterin' just looking at it! It tastes so good as it is, we keep it clean without butter or salt.

Eating corn alone doesn't fly in my house. It can certainly be the main attraction on the plate, but I have to come up with a side dish to go with it. I vamped up a recipe I found from Engine 2; they inspire me! Striving to eat clean is so worth the work. Everything tastes great and the health benefits are phenomenal. Here's a vegetable dish you can make and serve hot or cold.

Gnocchi with Veggies
Serves 6

In a non-stick pan, cook a diced onion with broth or white wine until it begins to be tender. Add 4 chopped carrots and 4 chopped celery stalks. Stir and cover for a few minutes until the veggies begin to soften slightly. Add 16 ounces can of no-salt added chick peas and a cup of green peas. Stir and cover to steam everything until hot. Sprinkle with Mrs Dash and ground black pepper. Set aside.

Cook the potato gnocchi (frozen kind for the low sodium factor) until done. Add to veggie mixture and serve topped with parsley.

This is a gorgeous meal. Colorful and healthy. You almost don't want to eat it, until you try the first bite, that is! Pour some seltzer in a glass and drop in some frozen fruit for flavor. You may want to include a swizzle stick so you can get every last berry out of the glass.

Clean summer eating at it's best! Try it; I bet you'll like it!