So this week, I found myself with a little free time over the weekend and a free house so as I had free range of the kitchen, I decided to do a little baking. It’s been a while since I last made some treats and I have been flooding my Pinterest with ‘healthy treats’ or ‘refined sugar-free treats’ so it was now time to finally try out a couple recipes.
The Good - Banana Chocolate Chip Ice-cream cups
As the sun was shining this week, I thought I’d be the best coach ever and make some frozen treats for my girls team. Enter Pinterest! I had pinned some banana and chocolate ice cream cups that sounded amazing and relatively easy, so I gave them a go. The girls absolutely loved them, and the parents also agreed however I did find out that a lot of kids don’t like bananas…opps. However, if you do like bananas and want a delicious frozen treat for the summer that is also pretty healthy here’s what you will need;
6 ripe bananas
¾ cup mini chocolate chips
Yes, really that’s it, just two ingredients. Firstly, slice your bananas into inch thick pieces and lay them flat on a parchment-lined baking tray. Cover with cling film if you wish and then place them in the freezer for 1-1½ hours. I only left mine in for an hour and they turned out fine but if you have more time I’d recommend leaving for the full hour and a half.
Remove these from the freezer and allow them to sit for just a couple minutes before blending. You will find that once you begin blending, the bananas will start to look like a very soft ice-cream, and this is the consistency that you want.
Next add ½ cup of the mini chocolate chips, leaving the rest for later. I used chocolate chunks in my recipe as they were all I could get from the shop, but it made no difference.
Grease a mini muffin pan and fill each cup with the banana ice-cream mixture. Once all the mixture is used, sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips on top of each one.
Freeze these for another hour or a little longer if you have time.
Enjoy!!!
Store these in air-tight container making sure to use parchment paper in between layers, otherwise your ice-cream bites will stick together. The bites will last in the freezer for 2-3 months (if they last that long).
The Bad - Oreo Truffles
Now don’t be put off by me calling these ‘the bad’, they are absolutely delicious however they aren’t particularly healthy which is why I have labelled them ‘the bad’. I had some spare time before the girls football match on Saturday morning, so decided to earn some more brownies points by making these delicious Oreo Truffles for them to enjoy. This is another quick and easy recipe and no baking is actually required as they are no-bake truffles. For these you will need;
3 packets of Oreo, crushed (can use whichever flavour you prefer)
100g cream cheese, softened
200g white chocolate, melted
If you haven’t already, crush your Oreos so that they are just a powder. There will be some parts that stick together because of the filling but this is fine. Remove 1-2 tablespoons of Oreo crumbs, and keep this aside until the end. Add the cream cheese to the Oreo powder and mix until it form one big ball. Add more cream cheese if the mixture is too dry. Using your hands, roll out inch sized balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Freeze these for about 15-20 minutes as this will make the next step a lot easier.
While they are freezing, melt down your chocolate. I used white chocolate but you can use whatever you like really. In America they have this stuff called Almond Bark, which is really thick vanilla flavoured chocolate, it’s delicious, however I don’t think we have that here unfortunately. White chocolate worked just fine though and tasted amazing! Once the truffles have been freezing for 15-20 mins, remove them from the freezer and dip each one in the melted chocolate. I find the best way to do this is with a fork and your hands. Yup, it’s messy but oh well, that’s half the fun! Once you have coated them all, place them back in the freezer for another 15-20 minutes. Repeat the coating process until all your melted chocolate has been used and the truffles are fully coated. However, on the last time, before you place them back in the freezer, sprinkle the tops with the Oreo crumbs that you kept to one side. If you want to serve them quickly, place back in the freezer for another 15-20 minutes and serve immediately. If you have more time though, just place them in the fridge. This is good if you need them for an event later that day, as it means they won’t be too frozen when you serve them, but the chocolate will still set.
The girls absolutely loved them, as you can see from their faces! We also won 8-3 so they must have given them super scoring energy!
The Amazing – Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies
Now this was another recipe that I have been wanting to try for a while but just couldn’t find the time. These were also what I was originally going to make for the girls however a lot of them don’t like peanut butter which is why I went with the Oreo Truffles. This recipe is a vegan recipe which is also gluten-free and completely refined sugar-free. So here’s what you need to make these amazingly healthy and delightful treats;
1 ¼ cup chickpeas, canned (one can will be just over what you need)
¼ cup maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla extracts
â…” cup natural peanut butter
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
½ cup dark chocolate chips
The first step is the preheat the oven the 175C/350F and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Then you will combine all the ingredients, except the chocolate chips in a blender or food processor. You want a really smooth texture here, so don’t worry if this takes a while. Stir in the chocolate chips. The dough will be very sticky but this is what you need so don’t panic.
Wet your hands and then form inch-sized balls and place them onto the parchment-lined baking tray. Bake these in the oven for 10 minutes.
The cookies won’t rise much and will stay quite gooey, but this is the look we are going for so it’s all good!
Store this in the fridge in an air-tight container for up to 1 week, mine definitely won’t last this long though!
Make sure your peanut butter is natural and not full of sugar and oil as this will not work in this recipe. You can also substitute this for any other nut butter if you wish, but just ensure it’s natural. Also next time I make this I am going to add a few salted caramel chips as well as some chocolate ones, as I think this will be delicious. I know it will add a bit of sugar to the recipe but I think it will be worth it!
Well I hope you enjoyed this week’s blog, it’s now time for me to meal prep followed by painting my nails with this week’s polish. Just a couple more weeks left until I reveal my nail polish results…keep looking out for that!
Peace out for now!
