Zucchini Banana Bites- Gluten Free

OK, harvest is here as well as school starting. So let's keep those lunch box snack ideas rolling in! Here is a modified version of our Zucchini Apple Muffins we have in Squeaky Gourmet. These were so wonderful and delicious--we shared them with athletes at the NAS Nationals and received rave reviews on the flavor, texture and the fact they did not weigh you down!

Zucchini Banana Bites
makes 12 small muffins
1 cup oat flour
1/2 cup old fashioned oatmeal
1 large egg
5 large egg whites
1 medium banana-mashed
3/4 cup shredded zucchini
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon zest
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray your Muffin pan with non-stick spray. Add all the ingredients to the mixer and blend thoroughly. Fill each muffin tin about 2/3 full and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Other Good Ideas-
--use pumpkin instead of banana
--add in raisins or other dried fruits
--add in walnuts

These are so good and so easy to prepare you can make them ahead of time and freeze for the winter snacks. Also makes an excellent zucchini loaf!

Calories Per Muffin- 60
Carbohydrates- 9 grams
Fat- 1 gram
Protein- 4 grams

Strawberry Mousse Low Carb Delite!

Surfing around the blogs for healthy foods I found one called "Healthy Indulgences" which ended up being a super cool landing page for those of you doing Atkins style dieting( Hi Marvin!) or for others who have joined the bandwagon who feel sugar in all forms are forms of the devil herself. The recipe on her page called for sugar alcohols or splenda--but that is not how we want to prepare our recipes so I decided to try her recipes with a Squeaky adaptions to it. I added more fruit, more lemon and more gelatin to make up for it being less "sweet". Kids loved it!

Strawberry Mousse
1 lb fresh strawberries-hulled and chopped
1 cup heavy cream
3 tbls lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest
1 tbls Vanilla
2 tbls unflavored gelatin
1/4 warm water

Set gelatin in a bowl and add the warm water and allow it to melt. In a food processor or blender add strawberries lemon juice and zest and blend thoroughly. Add this fruit puree to a sauce pan and heat until warm--adding in the gelatin stir to let it full dissolve. Cook for 5 minutes--then remove from heat to cool. While the strawberry mixture is cooling add 1 cup light whipping cream and vanilla to a bowl and whip on high heat until very stiff peaks are formed. Fold in the cream with the now cooled off berry mixture. Once the berries and cream are fully incorporated set in the fridge for 2 hours which allows the gelatin to do its job.
Other good ideas:
--Serve over Angel Food Cake
--Serve with our Protein Waffles as a dessert
--Serve with fruit compote





Calories Per 1 cup Serving: 94
Carbohydrate: 6 grams
Fiber: 2 grams
Fat: 7 grams
Protein: 2 grams

Go eat Dirt Balls! Only 100 calories a pop.

When I was a little girl I would play in the sand box for hours on end. I would create mud pies, mud cakes--6 course mud meals even! Sadly, no one would eat them for me but that did not stop my creations!

In our book , Squeaky Gourmet, we have a recipe called "Dirt Balls" which pulls on the little girl heart strings--reminding me of the sand box and all those hours wasted on mud food when I could have been making dirt balls that everyone would eat. (This recipe was recently mentioned on the NPR show on KAXE--listen here to the interview) So I enlisted the help of my own little girls to help me make Dirt Balls as a wonderful gluten free snack for the kids (and adults who long for the days of mud pies!) These were devoured by all of the kids soon after we made them.


Dirt Balls
serves 14
1/4 cup toasted oatmeal(old fashioned)
2 tbls sunflower seeds
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
2 tbls unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chopped fine
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbls roasted almonds chopped fine
1 pack stevia or 3 tbls raw honey


Toast the oatmeal in a non-stick skillet set on medium heat until they are browned. This was a great job for my 6 year old to work on since it is not highly explosive or flammable or anything and she felt like a big girl using the stove with me.


Setting the almonds aside; use your kitchen mixer add the remaining ingredients and blend well. We used raw honey in our mix because we have some allergy sufferers in the family and raw local honey helps build your own immunity to allergy triggers--but it has to be local honey to get the benefit. Once the oats are toasted to your liking you can add them to your coffee grinder or food processor to chop them up a bit before adding to the mud like mixture on the mixing bowl.


Make small balls about 3/4 in diameter , roll in your hands and then roll in the almonds. Now, this is where the fun came in for my 5 year old daughter as she was enlisted to create the dirt balls from the mud/mortar like substance we had created. Of course she did not want to roll them in the almonds, she preferred sprinkling the almonds on so they lost a bit of the rock effect.



Other Good Ideas:
--Add in dried cherries, coconut, puffed rice, crushed bran flakes,powdered milk or even protein powder
--roll in cocoa powder or cinnamon
--use different nut butters


Calories Per Serving: 92
Fat: 7 grams
Protein: 3 grams
Carbohydrates: 7 grams






Check out Fight Back Friday for more Real Food tips, recipes and more!

Hawt and Spicy Nuts

These sweet and crunch almonds have just enough kick to them to make your eyes light up but not have you dialing 9-1-1 to put out the fire!




Hot and Sweet Almond Slivers (serves 6)
2 cups raw almond slivers
1/2 tablespoon Olive Oil
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Mexican Chili powder
1 teaspoon green Habanero sauce (red if you like it HOTTER!)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place all ingredients in a bowl and stir till the slivers are evenly coated. Lay nuts out evenly on a non-stick baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes stirring them a few times to prevent burning.

Allow nuts to fully cool before serving.

Calories- 279
Fat- 25 grams
Protein- 3 grams
Carbohydrate- 11 grams