We’ve been making super simple {and healthy} strawberry creamsicles since Grae was a wee little thing, and they’ve always been a summer favourite. Today, with our fridge still brimming with freshly picked berries, we made our best version yet with the addition of a simple ingredient… dates!
I must admit that though I’ve known about the awesome sweetening power of dates for a long time now, I’ve been a little hesitant to jump onboard… But, I’m so glad I did! Using them in our cookie dough boys and our wholewheat strawberry shortcake recently has made me realize that they really aren’t all that intimidating. Simply soak, puree, and use like honey. Easy enough, right? Plus they allow these popsicles to be perfectly sweet even though they’re made with plain yogurt.
Healthy 3 Ingredient Strawberry Creamsicles
(makes 12 – 14 large popsicles)
- 3 cups of fresh strawberries, cleaned and hulled
- 4 majool dates
- boiling water
- 2 cups of plain organic yogurt, greek or regular
Before beginning this recipe, put the 4 majool dates into a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Let sit for 15 minutes.
Pop strawberries into a food processor (or good blender) and puree until smooth or nearly smooth. Pour the puree into a glass measuring cup and set aside.
Without worrying about washing your food processor or blender, blend your pitted dates and about a tablespoon of the soaking water until smooth (this may require you to stop the processor and scrape down the sides with a spatula a few times). Add the yogurt and blend to combine.
Using a large spoon, scoop some of the yogurt mixture into each of the popsicle moulds. Gently pour enough strawberry puree on top to cover the yogurt. Continue to layer the two until the moulds are full.
Freeze overnight and enjoy!
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The other night, I had the absolute pleasure of joining several other Vancouver mom bloggers at 
Here’s our lineup of ingredients…. Pecans, dates {soaked in water}, coconut, raisins, sea salt, cinnamon, coconut oil, and vanilla. Now, I have to say that the original recipe includes coconut manna (also known as coconut butter) and not coconut oil… In fact, our healthy eating specialist explained that coconut oil is just the fat squeezed out of the coconut meat, while coconut manna is the coconut meat and fat combined, making it much more nutrient-rich. The trouble is, our local grocery store doesn’t carry coconut manna, so we had to improvise. While maybe not as healthy, the recipe still turned out great!
Anyways, onto actually making the cookie dough boys! First up, we drained {almost all of} the water our dates had been soaking in and blended them in our food processor. (Word to the wise, be sure your dates don’t still have the pits in them before blending. Oy.)
We processed them until nearly smooth, but not perfectly pureed. Because it was such a small batch, it did take several rounds of stopping the machine, scraping down the sides, and then doing it again, but that just meant more jobs for my little helper, which she of course loved.
With the date paste saved in a separate bowl for later, Miss G added our coconut and pecans to the food processor. Call us lazy, but we didn’t even wash out the processor bowl in between as it seemed like sort of an unnecessary step.
Then we pureed the coconut and pecans until they were meal-like.
Next up, Grae dumped all of the other ingredients (save the raisins) into the food processor with the coconut/pecan mixture.
Then we processed it all until it started to come together in a mass.
Here’s what it looked like when done.
The last step was to mix the raisins in by hand.
With our dough complete, we rolled it into balls using about a tablespoon of the mixture at a time.
And because Miss G is no longer a huge fan of raisins, before mixing them in, we set aside a part of the mixture. To set Grae’s balls apart from the other, she rolled them in coconut, which was a lovely addition.
The verdict? Delicious! They’re sweet and satisfying just like a good dessert, but come sans all of the sugar and fat regular desserts have. A definite success!
Gracen and I have experimented with making many different versions of healthier peanut butter cookies – cream cheese ones, two ingredient ones, banana-based ones – but sadly, none have ever turned out really well. Late this afternoon, however, when she randomly declared that “We should make cookies! Yummy no sugar ones that Gracen can have – YEAAAAAAAAH!”, we came up with our first batch that actually taste like real peanut butter cookies. Only they’re much healthier. ☺ Here’s our new go-to peanut butter cookie recipe…
While I’m not ready to hand over the car keys or let her navigate her way across a busy road just yet, I am ready {and more than happy} to let her put together some of her own meals. Given the proper set up, it’s something she’s totally capable of and she’s so, so, sooo proud after having done so. A couple of days ago, she 
We’ve done this many times now, and what I’ve learned is that it’s best to let her create her pizza masterpiece directly on the parchment-lined baking sheet we’ll use to bake the pizzas. After that, I kind of just let her go. I’m a big fan of not directing our activities all that much (well except when it comes to safety, I guess), and really, it doesn’t matter which order the toppings go on in all that much. The finished product will undoubtedly be delicious no matter what. 
That being said, we’ve made 
Here’s her mini pizza, ready for the oven. I cook ours for about 5 to 8 minutes at 350 degrees, then crank up the temperature and broil them for just a minute at the end.
I can’t even explain how proud Miss G is after creating her meal on her own… She exudes pride. And my personal opinion is that when kids take part in creating food, they are much more likely to eat it.
The verdict? A total hit. A pizza assembling station is always a hit in our house. 
Based on my beginning 
It’s such a simple morning meal, but it’s healthy, can be made a ton of different ways, and almost tastes like dessert for breakfast. ☺ They change from one time to another, but here’s our usual line up of ingredients… 1/2 a banana cut lengthwise, plain organic greek yogurt (you could use sweetened yogurt if that’s what you’re used to), some almond butter (any nut butter would be delicious), a strawberry sliced up, and something to serve as sprinkles (today we used unsweetened coconut, but we’ve also used chia seeds and hemp hearts). 
This morning, I set out the ingredients as a little ‘build your own breakfast’ station and Miss G assembled her own banana split. Just as we’ve done together previously, she laid the banana pieces down first, added a couple of big scoops of greek yogurt, topped them both with almond butter and strawberry slices, then sprinkled the whole thing with coconut.
Breakfast is served!
With 1/2 a crate of mango in the fridge and our supply of 
Here’s our lineup of ingredients… Pineapple chunks (we used frozen because it’s what we had on hand, but fresh would be even better), mango chunks, a lime, one ripe banana, coconut milk, and Grae’s addition – unsweetened shredded coconut.
We began by juicing our lime and threw both the juice and the pulp into our food processor…
Along with everything else, except the shredded coconut.
Then we blended everything up until completely smooth while this little monkey gave our food processor some love.
Next, we added the shredded coconut and gave the mixture just a couple of pulses to mix it in. At this point, we had a little taste test and decided to add in a teaspoon of good honey because our mango was very tart (totally optional, of course).
Now while it does mean dirtying another dish, I always like to pour our popsicle mixture into a large measuring cup before filling the moulds. It’s so much easier and quicker than clumsy me attempting to pour straight from the food processor. Of course, if you use a blender, this won’t be an issue.
After I fill the moulds, Miss G’s job is to place a ‘stick’ in each one. When she was done, she desperately wanted a popsicle to eat (particularly, “the green and blue one on the riiiiiight”) .
Luckily, the disappointment that came with me telling her they’d need to sit in the freezer for several hours first was kicked to the curb with the offer of drinking up the leftover mixture, smoothie style.
Healthy Tropical Fruit Popsicles
Yesterday, when I told Gracen that we’d be celebrating Papa’s birthday soon, the first thing she said was, “We need to make a cake!” Then she went on about painting him party hats and getting 3 pink gifts, but I digress. Originally, I was thinking about doing two cakes. Something delicious and wildly unhealthy from 
Here’s the lineup of ingredients my little sous chef and I used to make our mini mason jar cheesecakes… Sour cream, cream cheese, lemon zest, pure maple syrup, pure vanilla, almonds, an egg, and coconut. Plus the mini mason jars themselves, of course. 5 of these little jelly jars works perfectly with this recipe.
To make our crust, we added some coconut, some raw almonds, a little bit of pure maple syrup, and a little bit of pure vanilla into our food processor and blended until it was thick and sticky.
Then we scooped the crust mixture evenly into our 5 jars, and Miss G used a cork to flatten them out.
This was the end result.
With our crusts ready to go, we switched our focus over to the actual cheesecake part. First, we added our room temperature cream cheese and egg into our mixer and beat until smooth. 
Next we added our sour cream, pure maple syrup, pure vanilla, and lemon zest, and mixed again.
Baking is ridiculously fun, wouldn’t you agree?
With our cheesecake filling prepared, we poured the mixture evenly into our 5 mason jars.
Then we placed them into a high-walled baking dish, filled it halfway up the jars with hot water, and baked the entire thing.
When they’d finished baking, I topped the ones for Gracen and I with stewed blueberries…
And the birthday boy’s with deliciously naughty Nutella. Of course the options are endless really… Fresh berries, shredded coconut, sliced bananas, or mini dark chocolate chips would all make yummy toppings too. 
The other night, Brad went out for Saturday night movie treats after G was in bed. I requested a fudgesicle, and he came home with a box of 18. Oy. Several fudgesicles into the box, I decided we’d better come up with a healthier version, stat.
Here’s our line up of ingredients… Frozen banana chunks, cocoa powder, pure maple syrup, and pure vanilla. Plus a popsicle mould of course.
To get started, we basically turned out frozen bananas into 
Next, we added some cocoa, a little bit of pure maple syrup, and a little bit of pure vanilla, and blended everything up again to create thick, chocolatey soft serve.
And that’s it. We simply scooped the soft serve into our popsicle moulds and popped them in the freezer overnight. 
This was the end result. Thick chocolatey banana pops that are bound to satisfy a sweet tooth or chocolate craving.
What does Miss G think? Well, after finishing her first one, she turned to see mine still almost whole, and said, “Mine’s a little bit almost all gone, Mama, so I want to trade wif you.” as if she was doing me a favour – hah! Thanks for thinking of your mama, Miss G.
Now that Miss G is a little bit older, we’ve definitely loosened up a little in terms of what she eats. While ‘treats’ in the past may have included 
First, the lineup of ingredients… Coconut oil, unsweetened cocoa powder, kamut puffs, pure vanilla, pure maple syrup, brown rice syrup, and cashew butter.
To start off, we added our coconut oil, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, and cashew butter to a large pot.
Of course finding a spoon licking volunteer wasn’t hard. 
Then Miss G measured out the kamut puffs into a large bowl…
While I stirred the wet ingredients over at the stove. Just as it started to form slow bubbles, I turned off the heat, added the vanilla, and gave it another quick stir.
Then we poured the wet mixture into the kamut puff bowl and Miss G mixed everything up well.
When it was mixed well, we poured the mixture out onto a parchment-line baking pan (my smaller one was already in use and this one was too big so we only used half of it) and used slightly wet hands to press everything down firmly.
After about 30 minutes in the fridge, we took our chocolately dessert out of the pan and cut it into squares.
The verdict? Gracen LOVED them (as did I). When I asked her how they were, her response was, “So, so, sooooooooo yummy!”
The other way I know they are decent? When I left for a 30 minute run around the neighbourhood, there were 10 squares sitting on parchment paper on the butcher block. When I got home? 3 and some crumbs – THREE! (Proof is in my Instagram feed – 
Oh my goodness. After our morning cooking class at 
Here’s the line-up of ingredients… Pure maple syrup, coconut oil, dried apples (we dehydrated our own, but you can just as easily buy unsweetened, unsulphered ones at the store), popping corn, cinnamon, and sliced raw almonds (not pictured because ours were toasting in the oven).
To start off, we added our coconut oil, popping corn, and cinnamon into a pot (thanks to my lovely friend 
When the popping has finished, we had a delicious, slightly coconut-y popcorn, evenly coated in warm cinnamon.
Next, we chopped up our apples, put them in a bowl, and drizzled our maple syrup on top. 
Then my freshly bathed sous chef dumped the mixture on the popcorn and mixed it all up with her hands.
The last step was sprinkling the generously toasted almonds on top and giving the popcorn one final mix. 
Depending on how much will power you have, you can either eat it immediately, or lay it out on a baking sheet and let it lose some of its stickiness for a few minutes – both ways are delicious (though we definitely know how the ‘served immediately’ kind tastes like better than the ‘wait’ kind).
When I asked Grae what she thought of it, she replied with “Nummy!”, “Sweet!”, and “Delicious!” in between ‘mmmmmmmm’ sounds. My guess is that she liked it every bit as much as I did.
Mama. Papa. Bubba. 