Peanut Butter and Veggie Chocolate Dessert Bars

After the long wait for the DVD to come out, we finally get to watch Moana again, and my kids are super excited. My oldest requested to accompany our Moana movie night that I should prepare "popcorn and lots of chocolate" like in the movie theater....hahahaha....

Since we couldn't do a grocery store run to get the chocolate he requested, I decided to make my own Peanut butter chocolate dessert bars with a slight veggie twist to it, that you won't even know is there.

I started by roughly crushing some oat square cereals in my food processor, transferring the crushed cereal into a bowl and mixing it with melted butter, powdered sugar, peanut butter, and some veggie powder. I then transferred the mixture into a parchment lined 9x9 pan.

Next, I melted some chocolate and mixed in some more veggie powder, then poured it on top of the cereal peanut butter layer in the pan. I let the bars cool in the freezer until it was time to serve them up while watching the movie.

This time around I used my homemade pumpkin powder in this recipe, but you could use any powder you have in your pantry. Or if you don't have any homemade veggie powders, you could also use greens powder such as Spirulina powder, etc. Note that different veggie powders have different intensities of flavor and smell, so if you were to use spirulina powder, you may want to reduce the amount you put in, if your family isn't familiar with the flavor yet. I personally have used spirulina powder in many of my recipes and my kids seemed to be fine with the flavor so far.

Also, in retrospect, since we were watching Moana, perhaps I should have used some coconut oil in place of the butter, to give it a little bit of an island taste. Perhaps I will give that a try in the future to see how if would turn out :)

Peanut Butter and Veggie Chocolate Dessert Bars

2 c oat squares (roughly crushed in a food processor)

1 stick of butter (melted)

3/4c powdered sugar

3/4 c peanut butter (or other nut butter)

1/2 tsp pumpkin powder (for peanut butter mixture)

1 c melting chocolate

1/4 tsp pumpkin powder (for the chocolate mixture)

Mix the crushed oat squares, melted butter, powdered sugar, peanut butter, and pumpkin powder in a bowl until well combined. Transfer to a parchment lined 9x9 pan and set aside.

Melt the chocolate and stir in the pumpkin powder, then pour on top of the peanut butter mixture.

Let set in the freezer. Serve.

Here is a printable version of the recipe.

Cottage Cheese Carrot Easter Bunny Pancakes

All week we've been having fun making Easter-themed recipes and the kids and we have been having a blast.
This morning we made some yummy and healthy cottage cheese carrot Easter bunny pancakes. The kids had fun decorating them and eating them (mostly eating the decorations...hahaha)...

I started by blending all the wet ingredients (cottage cheese, baby food puree, banana, eggs, honey, and a few splashes of V8 carrot blend juice) until smooth. I used the biggest blender cup in my Ninja blender system.

I used banana-carrot-mango baby food puree and the carrot mango V8 veggie blend for the carrot components, in keeping with the Easter bunny theme.

Then I added the oats and blended the mixture again until smooth.

All you have to do next is cook them like you regularly would cook pancakes in an oiled and heated pan.

Next comes the fun part of turning them into Easter bunnies and decorating them. Each bunny is made of two pancake circles. One is for the head, and the other circle is cut into three pieces: 2 ears and a neck.

I happened to have some marshmallows and raisins, so that's what the kids used to decorate the bunnies with eyes and mouths, but you can use anything you want such as nuts, dried fruits, candies, etc.

Cottage Cheese Carrot Pancakes

1 and 1/2 cup cottage cheese

1 banana

2 eggs

1 tub banana-carrot-mango baby food puree (4oz)

1-2 tsp (or more) honey to taste

1-3 splashes of V8 carrot mango veggie blend juice

6 pouches oatmeal (about 1 and 1/2 cup oats)

Blend all the ingredients together except the oats until smooth, then and the oats and blend again until well mixed. Cook pancake circles in a heated and oiled pan until done.

Here is a printable version of the recipe.

Easter Granola Eggs

Last week we bought some plastic eggs in preparation for Easter, and since then my kids kept wanting to play with them. They hide little lego pieces in the eggs, calling them Easter surprise eggs and take turns opening the eggs to see what surprises are in them. They even had fun mixing an matching the colors of the bottom and top and bottom parts of the plastic eggs to create new color blends.

Since the plastic Easter eggs are always lying around the house anyway and the kids have so much fun playing with them, I thought of putting them to good use by making some Easter granola eggs for the kids to snack on as well.

I used my basic veggie granola bar recipe and shaped them into Easter eggs rather than the usual square shapes I typically make.
In keeping with the Easter theme, I used the carrot-mango-banana baby food puree this time around, but I've used several different kinds of baby food purees in this recipe in the past, and they have all worked great.
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The recipe is very simple. I like to pre-toast my oats before mixing in the wet ingredient mixture.

Before shaping the granola mixture into the plastic Easter eggs, I oiled the inside of the plastic eggs to prevent the granola from sticking. Alternatively, you can also use cooking spray to coat the inside of the eggs.

To shape the granola, I filled both halves of the eggs with the granola mixture, making sure that one of the halves is filled a little higher than the rim so that when we press both halves together to close the plastic eggs, the granola mixture in both halves will stick to each other and not create a gap in between them.

I refrigerated the filled eggs for a few hours for the mixture to set into the egg shapes.

The hardest part for my kids is to wait patiently for the time that they can eat these :)
These are fun healthy snacks not just for Easter time, but all year round.