Homemade Nutella

I have had this recipe on my “to try” list for a long, long time from Katherine and it’s so so so so good. If you’ve ever had store bought Nutella, obviously this isn’t going to be as creamy as the stuff made in a factory, but it tastes just as good and it’s so much cheaper and better to make at home! Plus my food processor isn’t the best and I have to stand there with my finger on “pulse” and I was getting sick of standing there to be honest….and was really anxious to just try it 🙂

Ingredients (makes a half pint, 16 tablespoons, 8 servings):

• 6 oz of raw hazelnuts
• 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tsp honey
• 1- 1.5 Tbsp coconut oil (melted)

Preheat oven to 350F. Place nuts on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, stirring the nuts halfway through. Remove from oven.
Raw hazelnuts will come with the skins on, which apparently can be bitter. I just dumped the nuts into a kitchen towel and folded the towel over them and rubbed them around on the counter. Not all of the skin will come off, but getting most of it off should be fine. Place nuts back on the baking sheet and bake for another 5 minutes (to heat them back up). Remove and pour nuts into food processor.

Grind, grind, grind. Once you’ve got a powder, add the rest of the ingredients, except only 1 tbsp. of the oil. It will first become a powder but it will eventually start getting creamy. This is where I lost my patience with just holding the “pulse” button on my mini food processor.

Keep grinding the nuts. The heat from the friction will release the natural oils and it WILL become creamier. If you want, slowly drizzle in more oil, and grind, grind, grind.

Place in a plastic container with a lid or a glass canning jar with a lid. This needs to be kept in the refrigerator because there are no preservatives.

Next time I would like to try to add some sort of dairy in it to just try, like non-fat half and half, just to see what I get in terms of it maybe being creamier?

Nutritional Info (2 Tbsp):

Calories: 167

Fat: 15.7g

Carbs: 5.7g

Protein: 3.4 g

Roasted Chick Peas

Probably one of the most delicious snacks I’ve made. I cannot say how much I absolutely love these. If you like corn nuts, pretzels, chips or anything salty and crunchy, these are for you. I plan on flavoring them a lot of different ways. I made TWO CANS worth of them and my kids and I ate them ALL within 15 minutes.

I got the instructions from Steamy Kitchen. This batch I made from canned chick peas but they varied in such size and some not even being whole that I bought 2 pounds of dried chick peas in bulk yesterday and those peas are more uniform in shape and size to ensure even baking. Honestly, it’s like an eight of the price. Just let them soak overnight. I let these bake 30 minutes, next time I’ll up it to 32 minutes. Some were crunchy, but some were still soft but still tasted so good!

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups chick peas (re-hydrated if using dried or drained and rinsed if using canned)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• salt
• seasonings of choice (I used just seasoning salt on this batch)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Drain the can of garbanzo beans in a strainer and rinse with water for a few seconds to clean off the beans. Shake and tap the strainer to rid of excess water. Lay paper towel on a baking sheet, and spread the beans over. Use another paper towel to gently press and absorb the water on the beans. Roll the beans around with the paper towel to also remove the thin skin from any of the beans. Discard the skins and the paper towels.

3. Drizzle the olive oil over the beans and use your hands or a spatula to toss around and coat. Roast for 30-40 minutes until the beans are a deep golden brown and crunchy. Make sure that the beans do not burn.

4. Season with salt and spice blend.

 

I want to try lemon pepper, honey roasted, soy & ginger or paprika & garlic next

Nutritional Info (1 serving = half of batch):

Calories: 184

Fat: 3.8 g

Carbs: 27 g

Fiber: 9 g

Protein: 9 g

 

 

“Clean” Blondies

This recipe is from DAMY. I wasn’t too too impressed but I think there are things that I could have done differently to make this a success. First, I’m not a fan of almond butter but I have a jar of it that I needed to go through. I think if I had used peanut butter (huge fan of that! who isn’t??) these would have been less “blah” to me. Second, about a month ago I slam dunked my blender into the trash can after I got fed up with the piece of junk and I only have a 3 cup food processor so I processed the chic peas alone, which is dry and so they didn’t come out as smooth as I think they would have it I was able to blend everything at the same time. <—wow run on sentence, glad you made it to the end. I will be making these again, hopefully with a new blender or food processor.

Yield: Makes 12 Brownies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup Pure Pumpkin Puree
• 1/2 Cup Natural Nut Butter (Almond or Peanut Butter)
• 1/3 Cup Honey (Agave, Maple or Stevia)
• 1 Egg
• 1/4 Cup Egg Whites
• 1/4 Tsp Salt
• 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
• 1 1/2 Cup Chickpeas
• 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 1/2 Tbsp (or more – to taste) Cinnamon

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Place all Blondie ingredients in the food processor and blend until smooth (stopping to scrape down the sides).
3. Spray an 8×8 baking dish with a healthy, non-stick oil.
4. Spread blondie batter evenly in dish.
5. Sprinkle with cinnamon if you want.
6. Using a knife swirl cinnamon.
7. Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and let sit in the baking dish for 10 minutes.
9. Cut into brownie size pieces.
10. Place on a cooling rack and enjoy!
11. Storage tip – Place these brownies in a sealed-tight container and store in the refrigerator.

In the photo, I topped it with 1 tsp of sugar free caramel topping but I also plan on eating them with some chocolate PB2 and some natural peanut butter since they were a little “blah” for me liking.

Nutritional Info (1 square):

Calories: 138

Fat: 6.5 g

Carbs: 16 g

Protein: 5.8

 

If you add the caramel topping (1 tsp) add another 45 calories.

Peanut Noodles

This recipe is from Jen’s Fit Playground and is one of her free recipes. I really love peanut noodles and I really prefer them cold so this was a great option for lunch for the week. I just changed a few things up from her recipe.

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 8 oz whole wheat spaghetti
• ¼ cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tbs lime juice
• 2 tsp powdered ginger
• 1.5 Tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tbs organic chunky peanut butter
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 lb boneless chicken breast
• 4 stalks green onions
• 1 can sliced water chestnuts
• 1 large peeled carrot
• 1 cup broken broccoli
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1 tbs worcestershire sauce
• 3 tsp Bragg’s Amino Acid’s or soy sauce

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package instructions.
2. Heat large skillet over medium. Add oil. Cube chicken and saute in oil for 3-5 minutes until nearly cooked through. Be sure to stir so all sides are coated.
3. Slice onions, grate carrots, and chop broccoli.
4. Add ginger, garlic, carrots, water chestnuts and peas (not the green onions) to the pan and stir. Heat through for a couple of minutes. Add chicken broth, lime juice, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and peanut butter and stir til combined.
5. Add in cooked pasta. Coat lightly, cover, reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for another 5-10 minutes until ready to serve.
6. Top with sliced green onions
7. Either serve right away or put into 4 individual contains and put in the fridge for lunch.

Nutrition:

• Calories 292
• Total Fat 7.52g
• Sodium 309.69mg
• Total Carbohydrate 25.4g
• Sugars 2.22g
• Protein 32.21g