Two Delicious GUILT-FREE Chocolate Recipes

Feel like having a treat, but rather avoid the extra calories? Try one of these delicious, chocolate filled recipes! Both contain healthy ingredients and are super easy and quick to make. Guaranteed to satisfy your cravings :)

Skinny Double Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients (for 12 muffins):

1 3/4 cup oats - I used the smaller 'quick' oats

3 egg whites

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup vanilla greek yogurt 

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup hot water

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup honey

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

coconut oil for greasing the pan - any oil with little to no flavour will do

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350°.

Grease the muffin/cupcake pan.

In a large bowl, simply mix all the ingredients together, except the chocolate chips.

When the mixture is blended, stir in 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.

Scoop the mixture into the pan, dividing it evenly over the 12 cups.

Bake for 10 minutes.

Take the pan out of the oven and sprinkle the left over chocolate chips (1/4 cup) on top of the muffins. Place the pan back into the oven and let it bake for 5 more minutes.

Take the muffins out of the oven and let them cool in the pan. When cool enough to touch (after about 20 minutes) take them out of the pan and place them on a cooling rack. 

Muffins freeze well.

Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients (for 12 cookies):

1/2 cup oats

1 cup whole wheat flour 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup vanilla greek yogurt 

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons honey

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350°.

Prepare baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix together the oats, flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside

In a small bowl, mix together the yogurt, applesauce, vanilla, honey and sugar. When blended and smooth, poor the mixture onto the dry ingredients and stir until you have a lumpy, sticky dough. Dough will be quite dry.

Fold in the raisins and the chocolate chips. 

Scoop 12 balls onto the baking sheet and slightly flatten.

Bake for 12 minutes.

Take the cookies out of the oven and let cool on a cooling rack.

Cookies freeze well, or store in an airtight container.

Snowflake Sugar Cookie Recipe

We've been busy making Christmas cookies this weekend! They are delicious and totally got us into the holiday spirit. 

We find it easiest to make the dough ahead of time because it needs to cool for at least 2 hours before it can be rolled. Also, if you plan on decorating the cookies with royal icing, the cookies need to be completely cooled. So we made the dough and the baked the cookies on Friday with the following sugar cookie recipe.

Ingredients for the Sugar Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup salted butter (at room temperature)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon yogurt
1 1/2 tablespoon water
powdered sugar

Tools

medium bowl
2 small bowls
electric mixer + bowl
spatula
parchment paper
rolling pin
cooling rack

Directions for the Sugar Cookies

Sift together the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl and set aside.

Beat the egg with a whisk or fork and set aside.

Mix the yogurt and the water and set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and mix on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add in the beaten egg and the yogurt/water mixture. Once combined, set the mixer to a low speed and gradually add the flour and baking powder. Occasionally scrape the sides to make sure all the ingredients get mixed properly.

The mixture should come out very dry and just be wet enough to create a ball of dough. If you find the mixture in too dry, add some more water. If it's too wet, add some more flour.

Divide the ball in two pieces, wrap the two pieces in parchment paper and flatten them a bit. Let them cool in the fridge for a minimum of two hours.

Preheat your oven to 350°

Take one piece of dough out of the fridge and sprinkle some powdered sugar onto the surface where you want to roll it out. Also, sprinkle some powdered sugar onto the dough and the roller and start rolling until the dough is about 1/2 a centimetre (flipping the dough while rolling it helps it from crumbling and flaking).
Once you have an even sheet of dough, cut out the shapes you want and carefully place them onto a baking sheet. Combine the leftover dough into a ball and start repeat rolling and cutting until all your dough is gone.

Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 3 minutes, then turn the sheet around and bake for another 3 minutes. Check the cookies every 30 seconds, they are done when the sides are starting to brown. They will appear very light and will still be a little soft, that is ok as long as they are firm enough to hold their shape. Carefully place the cookies onto a cooling rack, you will notice that they harden as they cool. After 10 minutes place the cookies in a sealed container to prevent them from going too hard.

Ingredients for the Royal Icing

4 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons meringue powder

8 tablespoons water

Tools

electric mixer + bowl

spatula

piping bag

squirt bottle

Directions for the Royal Icing

In the bowl of your mixing, sift together the powdered sugar and the meringue powder. Add the water and mix on low speed until the ingredients are combined. Make sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl occasionally.

Place a piping bag in a glass (so it stands up) and poor/scoop in the icing. From the piping bag, transfer the icing into a squirt bottle.

You're ready to start decorating your cookies! To decorate you can use just the icing, or add some little silver balls, sugar, silver powder, etc. just make sure to place them on before the icing sets.

Recipe: Leek Potato Soup

My husband has caught the flu and I wanted to prepare something light and easy to digest for him. Usually he is the chef of our household, but today it was my turn to take care of him. I prefer to stick to the easier recipes and this one definitely qualifies, plus it's delicious. I served his soup with plain toast, but made some roasted garlic and herb butter for mine (see recipe below).

Ingredients: 

2 tablespoons of canola oil or light olive oil

2 leeks

3 big potatoes

1 white onion

2 cloves of garlic

2 bay leaves

3 vegetable bouillon cubes

greek yogurt

pepper

salt

Tools: 

Soup pan 

Hand blender

Directions: 

Place a big soup pan on low-medium heat, warming up the oil.

Wash the leeks and cut them up into small pieces (if you prefer the soup to come out light, only use the white part of the leeks). Put them in the pan, stirring occasionally.

Cut up the onion and garlic and put them in the pan with the leeks. Keep the pan on low-medium heat and sweat the leeks, onion and garlic, making sure they don't brown.

Peel the potatoes and rinse them. Chop into small pieces and add to the pan.

Put in the bouillon cubes and add water - enough to cover all the ingredients under about an inch. Add the bay leaves, cover the pan with a lid and bring to the boil on high heat, stirring occasionally.

Once the soup is boiling, turn it down to low heat and simmer for 40 minutes with the lid on. Once all the ingredients are soft, take out the bay leaves and blend the soup using a hand blender.

Plate the soup and scoop in one or two teaspoons of greek yogurt. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Homemade Garlic Herb Butter

Ingredients:

1/2 cup salted butter

1 tablespoon dried parsley

pinch of salt

3 cloves of roasted garlic

Directions:

Make sure the butter is at room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 350°.

To roast the garlic, place the cloves on a sheet of aluminum foil. Sprinkle some oil and salt onto the cloves and loosely fold the foil around the cloves. Place the package in the oven and let it roast for 30-40 minutes.

Once the garlic is roasted, take it out of the oven en unfold the foil to let the garlic cool slightly. The inside of the clove should be soft (if this is not the case place it back in the oven for another couple of minutes). When cooled, squeeze the soft garlic out of the cloves into a small bowl.

Add the butter and parsley. Mix together until everything is combined. Taste and add some salt if needed.

Recipe: Healthy Banana Bread with Walnuts and Flaxseed

This delicious banana bread recipe is easy and quick to make. It's healthy and packed with fibre and omega-3s. Great for breakfast or a quick snack!

2 Ingredients: 

2 eggs

2 ripe bananas

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup ground flaxseed

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup or 100 grams walnut pieces

Tools:

Blender, food processor or hand-blender

bread pan

medium bowl

Directions: 

Preheat your oven to 375°.

Blend the coconut oil and maple syrup until mixed and creamy. Add one egg at the time. Add the bananas. Blend until everything is combined.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, flaxseed and baking soda. Add the banana mixture and walnuts and stir all the ingredients together until smooth.

Grease your bread pan with coconut oil and scoop in the mixture.

Bake for 40 minutes.

Take out of the bread pan and let cool on a cooling rack.

Enjoy!!

Recipe adapted from www.fitsugar.com