Give me chocolate! No-Bake Gluten-Free Squares

Oh I am addicted to these squares!  I recall loving these as a kid!  I will eat these anytime of day.  The kids eat these for breakfast some days too.  I have been on a restricted food regime lately, including no cow milk, no sugar, no gluten.  Guess what, these squares are all within guidelines…not sure the quantity I can consume in a day is within the ‘rules’ though!  This one is so easy, I now have the recipe memorized:

1/2 cup organic butter

1/2 cup “milk”  ( I have used unsweetened almond or hemp or rice milk)

1/4 cup water

1/3 cup raw cocoa

Melt all above ingredients in a pot on low/medium heat.  Remove from element.

1/2 cup organic honey

1 teaspoon vanilla

2.5 – 3 cups oats (I get the organic GF ones) (Less if you like more chocolate-y!)

Stir the honey in until melted then pop in the other 2 ingredients.

You could add some peanut butter or almond butter.  I have done this in the past but then it is not school-lunch friendly.

Smooth it all into an 8×8 glass dish with a lid and pop in the freezer.  I think it tastes better straight out of the freezer and then it is out of sight, out of mind so I eat less!!

Tell me if your family likes this one!

Win a tiffin: Go Litterless Contest!

Go litterless this Fall!  Win a 3-tier tiffin for your lunch!

Post your answer:  “What yummy, healthy & organic lunch would you pack in this tiffin?”

The winner will be randomly selected next Thursday, September 26th, during Canada’s Organic Week!

Kelly you win! Your name was randomly drawn from the hat.
Yum! Do you have any favourite, child-friendly GF/DF pumpkin baking recipes you would like to share this Fall? I love pumpkin!!!
Please contact me to let me know when you can pick up your tiffin!
https://greenpleaseforyou.gostorego.com/contacts

Healthy Schools Day Canada

Healthy Schools don’t just happen!  They need your help!

Check out the list of ideas for a healthy school.  Suggest one to your kids’ school principle.

 

Yummy Protein Power Ball Recipe

O.K. week 5 of the Insanity Exercise Challenge & Food Detox (no chocolate eaten yet!!!) and I wanted some sort of quick, yummy, healthy protein bar (with a bit of sweetness) that I could pop in my mouth after boot camp or on the run for a hit of energy instead of chocolate!

As the sugar is off the food detox list, I asked some like-minded food friends if they had any receipes that fit my needs.

Here is a friend of a friend’s (who is a Type 1 diabetic) recipe that was originally passed to her from her naturopath and she has tweaked the recipe to make it soooo yummy, gooey and good!!  Thank you, thank you!!

> 1 cup brown rice syrup
> 1-2 cups hemp seed
> 1 cup almond butter
> 3/4 cup puffed rice cereal
> Nuts, seeds, raisins, you name it. (I threw in sunflower seeds, cashews & raisins…not on the In list for detox but the kids like them and 5 weeks in, what is a few raisins compared to handfuls of organic dark chocolate covered cashews!)

> She throws in some hemp protein sometimes, just to get the extra protein after a workout.  (My first batch I didn’t add any as I wanted it to be the most kid-friendly the first go round.)  One of my boys liked them!

> Mix, pour into pan, flatten and refrigerate. Cut into squares and keep in fridge or freezer.

Knowing these were gooey, I wanted to make them easier to eat on the run, so I rolled them into 1 inch balls and froze them! Just dip your hands in warm water when the rolling gets too sticky.

My friend usually doubles or triples the recipe, cause she can’t keep them in the house.  So understand!!  I can’t tell you how many I packed back yesterday afternoon!

My next go round, I am going to play around with replacing the nut ingredients with other to make them school-lunch safe.  Pumpkin or sunbutter and pumpkin seeds in place of the nut stuff.

Are You INSPIRED to GO GREEN?

Post your inspirational story with us right here and be entered to win fabulous green products monthly!!

Lunch tip, 3-Tier Tiffin Winners!

1)  Lisa Campbell:

My favourite lunch packing tip:
” A simple quinoa salad with chickpeas, chopped cucumbers, and chopped tomatoes. it keeps well in the fridge, makes a great mommy lunch as well, and covers three food groups all packed into one easy to carry container!

Awesome, thank you thank you thank you!!!  Thanks, Melanie, I will be filling that beauty up with quinoa salad sometime soon!”

2)  Leah S.:

“Here is my favorite healthy lunch packing tip: Keep it simple – fruit, vegetable, protein, water bottle – do not include any “treats” that could be chosen over the healthy lunch as these can be given after school and on weekends.”

“Thanks for having the contest :)”

Is this Gluten-free?

Oh it is back to lunch packing again next week!  Regardless of if you children are eating gluten-free or not, it is great to have a bit of a rotation of food ideas that are different from their routine.  I have a great info sheet on Gluten-free Diet Guidelines given to me by our Naturopath.  I was surprised to discover things like soy sauce and licorice contain gluten!  If you would like a copy of this list of  “Stop, Yield and O.K.” categories created by the Canadian Celiac Association, Manitoba Chapter, contact me and I will email you a copy.

Gluten-Free Diet Guidelines

Gluten Free…7 tips that are kid-approved!

So after a few months of tummy ache complaints from my son, we were off to the Naturopath to figure out a solution.

Sure enough, the blood test came back with Gluten, Dairy and Egg intolerances!!!   After 2 months of switching my son’s diet, this is what I have learned:

1)  Rice crackers make great mini-sandwiches!  Spread crackers with tuna or pumpkin seed and honey, top with another cracker and pop  them in the thermos jar for lunch.  My son said the tuna ones do get a bit “not crunchy” but the thermos comes back empty!  (Note:  I noticed that the organic ones that we have been buying come from Japan.  I believe Japan has halted food exports for now given the nuclear plant disaster.  I will have to find another source now.)

2)  “Gentle Grains” Pizza Crust & Blueberry Bagels:  As we eat organic food, it has been tough to find a bread/pizza crust that is both organic, gluten-free and my son will eat!  (I have not yet found a recipe that doesn’t crumble like saw-dust!!)  Then I found “Gentle Grains”, a local and organic bakery.  Top their pizza crust with sauce, veggies and daiya cheese (we are doing dairy free right now too!) and everyone is loving Friday night movie and a pizza night again. The bagels are overflowing with blueberries too.

3)  Thermos Food Jar:  My gluten-free customers love these containers (available at Green Please), as do I as it is so simple to pack heated up dinner leftovers for lunch.  Oh, how times have changed since I was in school and took PB and H sandwiches every day!

4)  Homemade Chocolate mud-pie (with local pea-flour)  worked perfectly as a half-birthday cake for the whole Grade 1 class!  Apparently only 1 kid didn’t like it!  For a dairy free twist, top it with “Coconut Bliss”  dark chocolate ice cream.  Yummy!  My kids love that on a cone too.  (Contact us if you would like the recipe.)

5)  At school, snack is provided for the kids, which they often make themselves.  I am so grateful that the teacher has provided a cupboard for the “food intolerance”  kids to bring in and store their own so their tummies don’t ache at snacktime.  Today, my son asked to take in a carton of vanilla rice milk to add to his snack stash!

6)  Hemp:  You have got to love this Manitoba-grown amazing grass!  We blend hemp protein powder in our smoothies but my new trick is sprinkling them in sandwiches!  My son did not actually notice that I snuck seeds inside his pumpkin seed and honey sandwich and he ate it all.  We will see if today’s lunch comes back polished off as he saw me sprinkling this morning!

7)  Gluten-free Tax Credit:  Someone told me I would be able to claim the Gluten-free food receipts come tax time.  I checked into the Canada Revenue Agency website for details.  It appears that people with Celiac Disease my claim their receipts.  It does not appear to apply to intolerances though.

“Growing Up Organic” program for Schools

After watching the movie, Fresh, here is one solution to getting more organic, sustainable foods into your kids, even at school for snack time!

Growing Up Organic

Why should we eat organic food?
Organic food is produced without the
chemical fertilizers and pesticides, plant
and animal growth regulators, hormones
and antibiotics that are commonly used in
industrial or conventional growing. Several
studies (www.cog.ca/guo.htm) have shown
that exposure to these agricultural chemicals
can affect the development of the cognitive
and motor systems of children as well as their
reproductive systems. Support local organic
production and keep our children and future
healthy!

A Healthy Balance…Going Green 1 Step at a Time

Knowing that you want to create a healthy home and instill healthy habits while figuring out where to start can certainly be at odds with raising a family, working and at the same time, trying to enjoy life to its fullest.  Making changes can be quite a challenge, but if you can start small and work your way to a particular goal you will find that it is much easier.

One place to start is to list out what is important in your life.  After all, awareness is the foundation for creating a more healthful and balanced lifestyle.  Then break this list down into a list of priorities.  This will help you begin to make deliberate choices that are realistic to your every day life.  One of the reasons that we don’t succeed in making changes is that we try to take on too much and then decide that it is easier just to go back to our old ways. Right?

The kids are back at it today, starting a new school year!  So, what about healthy lunches as the focus for step 1.  This can apply to the children going to school as well as the adults who could or should be taking lunch to work.  Already, your mind may be going in a thousand directions:  “I want to reduce the wrappers and quick to-go pre-packaged snacks, but I don’t know what else to pack” or “ I don’t have time to make a bunch of stuff” or “I am running out of ideas before we are even in the second week of school!”  or “I want to send them with a healthy lunch that they will eat!”

Healthy Lunches for School and Work:  No need to try to figure out the entire year just yet.  Let’s simply start with the basics:

Lunch Containers-Our cool Litterless Lunch products are a great place to begin.

• The containers are leach free and many have several stackable sections.  You can throw them in the dishwasher too!  The utensils and dinnerware are washable, durable and made with green-friendly products.
• Not ready to pack all homemade snacks and lunches- ok how about you just start with healthy snacks.  Why put grapes in a plastic baggie when you can simply toss them into a reusable container that will keep them from getting smushed and eliminates one piece of garbage.

***Already using stainless steel snack containers, but need some new recipe ideas?   Email me at melanie@greenpleaseforyou.com for my list of “Lunch Ideas”

If the only thing you change for the month of September or even for the first half of the year is to send lunches to school or the office in quality and earth-friendly containers and replace the plastic forks and spoons with bamboo or stainless steel ones- you are off to a great start!

Going green isn’t supposed to be a stressful journey, so don’t put so much pressure on yourself!