snacks Archives - dani california cooks

Coconut Oil and Cacao Muffins

March 14, 2016 by Dani 15 Comments

It’s snacktime over here at DCC! Barely sweetened with banana, these gluten free muffins are full of healthy fats and rich cacao!

It’s been raining non-stop here in San Francisco for the past week - I can’t remember the last time I saw the good ol’ California sun. That didn’t stop the fun this weekend, from Cassie’s birthday party to brunch with friends at Souvla to finally getting a COSTCO CARD!! <- major highlight of my weekend. But due to the rain, I decided not to go to the farmer’s market on Sunday and instead Whole Foods. As I walked home (it’s about a half mile away) my paper bags totally disintegrated in the rain and everything started falling out. I guess that’s karma for not bringing my reusable bags!

Anyways, I was standing on the corner of Market street with my groceries in a jumble in my arms, and shuffled over to the nearest store…which happened to be a marijuana dispensary. As I was debating what to do - should I take off my raincoat and load my groceries into it? - there was a nice homeless man outside who asked if I needed a plastic bag, and then proceeded to take one filled with shredded paper out of the garbage, empty it, and help me load my groceries. He told me how he begged for money around here sometimes, and I told him I definitely owed him something the next time I had cash for helping me out.

Even the trash bag disintegrated by the time I got home!

Lugging my Whole Foods groceries home in a trash bag after assistance in from of a dispensary just felt quintessential San Francisco to me - I kinda had to laugh. And I have no idea what I would have done if it wasn’t for my resourceful homeless friend who had the dumpster diving idea.

And since it was raining, it was definitely a baking day. These muffins are full of healthy fats - flax seeds, coconut oil, eggs - and have a ton of antioxidants from the cacao. They also have no sugar added, since they are only sweetened with banana. They somehow smell like ice cream! Happy snacking around this household all week.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Coconut Oil and Cacao Muffins

Author: Dani California Cooks

Serves: 9 muffins

Ingredients

¾ cup coconut oil, melted
4 tbsp cacao powder
2 eggs
2 cups rolled oats
¾ cup milk (I used soy)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp flax seeds
1 large banana
Dash of salt
Optional: coconut flakes for sprinkling

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
Put all ingredients in a blender, and blend until smooth
Pour into a muffin tin (use liners, or grease)
Sprinkle the coconut flakes
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a knife comes through clean

If you like these, you’ll love: Pumpkin Morning Glory Muffins

Healthier Sweet and Spicy Almonds

November 22, 2015 by Dani 13 Comments

This easy snack aims to please all tastebuds - they are salty, sweet, spicy, toasty, and crunchy! Make a large batch and serve them at your holiday parties all season.

Being back in DC this weekend felt…completely right. You know the feeling when you leave somewhere and you return all too soon and you just feel out of sorts? That happened to me when I graduated college in May 2012. We had an alumni reunion back on campus in October 2012 and it was just ALL TOO SOON. Felt wrong to be back on campus but not be a student, run into your ex-boyfriend, you know, the works. I had enjoyed most times I had been in DC since moving from here a year ago, but for some reason, I felt 100% like a visitor this time, and not just somebody who was pretending to live there again for a weekend.

Maybe it’s because SO MUCH HAS CHANGED IN A YEAR. They opened up a Soulcycle in a neighborhood that I remember going from down-and-out to underground and hip to now…Soulcycle-friendly. Also, about half of my girlfriends who lived here have since moved out of DC, or the ones that have stayed are moving forward with major life changes - getting engaged, new jobs, new apartments. Feels like everyone has moved on from the DC I knew - as have I - and it just felt really good to be here and see where everyone and the city is at these days.

Even the menu at Teaism - my absolute favorite casual restaurant in DC - had changed! But while I was sad to not order the salmon dish I was used to, I fully enjoyed their new salmon dish that had brown rice and indonesian swiss chard (cooked in coconut milk). Anyways, I write this to you just fondly looking back on these couple of days spent with good girlfriends, colleagues, enjoying the brisk fall weather. We’re off to the farm tonight, and in fact, Nate just landed so I should wrap up this post and hit the road!

For the next four days, you can find me hanging out with the chickens or reading Purity on the coach (hopefully covered in cats and dogs). Or you can find me cooking up recipes alongside Nate’s mom, who is a total kitchen inspiration (she makes her own bread and butter). I’m hoping to get a few good runs in there, but weather looks pretty cold, so who knows. I also have disabled my work pop up emails - didn’t realize how liberating that was going to feel until I did it.

These almonds! I was actually inspired by Nate’s mom for this recipe. She buys in bulk whole raw almonds and then roasts them on her own until toasty perfection. Seriously - slightly over-toasted almonds are just perfect. They become super buttery.

Looking forward to updating you from the farm this week! Happy Sunday, everyone!

Sweet and Spicy Almonds

Author: Dani California Cooks

Serves: 2 cups

Ingredients

2 cups raw whole almonds
2 tbsp honey
3 tbsp water
3 tbsp coconut oil
¼ cup coconut sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp plus 1 tsp salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350
Place almonds on a baking sheet, and put in oven for about 10 minutes
Make a small bowl with the coconut sugar, spices, and 1 tsp salt
Once the almonds have toasted, remove from oven. In a small saucepan, heat the coconut oil, honey, and water until boiling
Pour in the almonds and stir until fully covered
Spoon the almonds in the sugar mixture and stir around until all covered
Spread out on a baking sheet and sprinkle another tsp of salt
Let cool til room temperature, and shake off any extra sugar
Serve in small bowls, store in tupperware!

If you like this, you’ll love: Cinnamon Honey Roasted Chickpeas

Ultimate Breakfast Bars

August 16, 2015 by Dani 42 Comments

These healthy breakfast bars are packed full of the stuff that is going to power you through your day - quinoa, oats, almond butter, chia seeds - just to name a few. Keep these around for grab-and-go all week!

My poor boyfriend laments about his uphill battle of him versus the DCC fridge every week. I leave on Monday morning to travel for work, and he must work his way through all of the leftovers before they go bad, or before I restock the fridge with more creations! I don’t think he has had to buy groceries since we moved to San Francisco. Fortunate for him that the fridge is stocked full of healthy goodies. Unfortunate for him is that sometimes the recipe experimentation lead to some serious misses, and sometimes they are just not man-friendly. Thankfully Nate has the appetite of a bear who is about to go into hibernation and he seems to do a pretty good job with whatever I whip up! And thankfully, the recipes lately have been more hits than misses - like these breakfast bars.

I saw Nate eating dog food AKA fiber one cereal a couple of mornings before he went to work last week and I went all “BUT HOWEVER SHALL YOU GET YOUR PROTEIN” and then I realized that I’m not his mom. So I decided to just sneakily make him some breakfast foods that were packed with proteins and healthy fats and whole grains that he could bring to work. And I guess these got a thumbs up too by some of his colleagues (score!!)

I had seen Lindsay from the Lean Green Bean make these for her husband a bunch of times, and I loved the way they looked. I just am not a fan of baking with applesauce! I know it’s a great lower-calorie swap for oils, but for some reason, it just has never been a texture or flavor in baked goods that I’ve been a fan of. Although one of my earliest posts of Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Harvest Quickbread did have applesauce. My mom usually has tubs of applesauce in her fridge leftover throughout the year from our Hannukkah latke parties. So these breakfast bars do have coconut oil, but feel free to go more towards Lindsay’s recipe and use applesauce if you so choose.

I call these the ultimate breakfast bars because they are just packed full of everything you would need to get your day started. Everything from cooked quinoa to rolled oats to almond butter to chia seeds to a bit of sweetness from dates, it all somehow comes together in harmony! I also had all of these things in my pantry already, which made pulling these bars together a breeze. No trip to the grocery store required! And I used a very heaping teaspoon of cinnamon and my whole kitchen smelled amazing. I think cinnamon is my favorite of all spices!

I can see myself making these throughout the rest of the year, and if I was still a student, I know these would be awesome to have around on my way to class. I didn’t have a toaster in college, so for breakfast I would “toast” a slice of whole wheat bread in the oven and smear some PB on it on my way out the door. Sometimes I would have iced tea in a red solo cup. If only I had known about these bars back then (and the beauty that is black coffee)!

5.0 from 2 reviews

Ultimate Breakfast Bars

Author: Dani California Cooks

Serves: 1 dozen

Ingredients

½ cup cooked quinoa
½ cup rolled oats
½ cup whole wheat flour OR oat flour OR 1-1 gluten free flour
2 tbsp chia seeds
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 tsp cinnamon (I used a heaping tsp)
2 tbsp almond butter
3 tbsp melted coconut oil
½ cup chopped dates
3 tbsp maple syrup
¼ cup almond milk
Optional: ¼ cup sliced almonds, to press into top of bars

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F
Mix all ingredients together in a mixing bowl
On a piece of parchment paper, spread dough until forming a large square, about ¾ inch thick.
Optional - sprinkle and gently press the sliced almonds on top of the dough
Baked for 15-20 minutes, until the edges begin to brown
Remove and let cool completely before cutting
Store in fridge and enjoy!

If you like these, you’ll love: Coconut Almond Energy Bars

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Muffins

August 9, 2015 by Dani 32 Comments

Your favorite oatmeal raisin cookie - in a lightened-up muffin form! Packed full of whole grains, walnuts, and raisins, AND with no refined sugars, these may just replace your beloved dessert.

Whew - this past week was a whirlwind! And when you’re reading this, I’ll be in a different kind of whirlwind. We’re going sailing on the bay again this weekend to continue Nate’s birthday celebrations! This was one of those weeks where I felt particularly scatterbrained and all over the place. When I’m on the road and traveling for work, I feel like I have a very exact schedule - workout, work at client site, dinner, and then park my butt in my hotel room in front of the TV and keep working. It’s not very exciting. When I’m remote and working from home, I feel like I try and crunch so much into the week because I want to take advantage of being at home and in San Francisco! So every day there was a lot going on, from work to double dates with friends to demo-ing to becoming a Spinning instructor again (!!) to dealing with my computer crashing to blogging to celebrating Nate’s birthday to all of the errands I can’t get done while I’m on the road. And Nate started his new job this week, so there was just a LOT going on!

After his first day at his new job, it became apparent that the snack selection at the start up was insufficient for my ravenous, health-conscious boyfriend. So a lightbulb went off in my head and it is now my mission to supply him with healthy and filling snacks that he can bring to work, because he’s been shoveling the dry-roasted edamame like it’s his job and avoiding the pop chips and pretzels. Enter - these muffins. They take the best flavors of the ultimate oatmeal raisin cookie - walnuts, plump raisins, cinnamon - and put it into a whole grain, no refined sugar, dairy free snacking muffin. Perfect for his breakfasts on the go or to munch on throughout the day. I can’t wait to supply his colleagues with a never-ending supply of snacks! Better to send them off to work than to keep them around the house with me, that’s for sure.

On a completely random note, our family dog LOVES oatmeal raisin cookies. Sally the labra-beagle enjoys Trader Joe’s oatmeal raisin cookies almost as much as she loves a good crispy fish skin. It probably just goes back to the fact that these are just such a classic. Dogs and humans alike love a good oatmeal raisin cookie. That’s why I decided that these would transfer over well to healthy muffin form - it’s such a tried-and-true mix of ingredients, you can’t screw it up! These made my kitchen smell amazing. Too bad Sally doesn’t live with me in San Francisco, she would have been a happy pup.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Muffins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

30 mins

Your favorite oatmeal raisin cookie - in a lightened-up muffin form! Packed full of whole grains, walnuts, and raisins, AND with no refined sugars, these may just replace your beloved dessert.

Author: Dani California Cooks

Serves: 6 muffins

Ingredients

½ cup rolled oats, plus a couple extra pinches for dusting on the top of the muffins
½ cup whole wheat flour (or sub 1-1 gluten free flour, or use oat flour. If you use oat flour, the texture will be denser but that's how I like it!)
1 egg
¼ cup almond milk
½ cup raisins (I used golden and regular raisins)
¼ cup chopped walnuts
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
⅓ cup coconut oil, melted
¼ cup maple syrup
Coarsely ground salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F
Line your muffin tins
In a medium mixing bowl, mix all ingredients thoroughly
Fill each muffin tin almost all the way to the top
Sprinkle a little additional rolled oats over each muffin, and press gently
Sprinkle a little salt over each muffin
Bake for 20 minutes, until a knife comes out clean
Let cool and enjoy!
Store in the fridge

If you like this, you’ll love: PB&J Muffins

Trail Mix Truffles

June 18, 2015 by Dani 20 Comments

Take the best flavors of your favorite trail mix and turn them into an extra portable, gluten free snack - great for lunchboxes or hikes! Now only if I had remembered to bring them with me to Big Sur last weekend…

Sigh…I wasn’t fibbing when I said I forgot these last weekend on our big trip to Big Sur. Since I travel every week for work and I wasn’t getting in until Friday night last week, I had to rely on my fellow hikers to pull together all of the food for the trip. Let’s just say that this food blogger was very upset that she couldn’t have all the control over what was brought on the trip, so she made a bunch of snacks to bring the week prior, froze them, and then promptly forgot ’em. However, for once it was kind of nice having someone else make all of my food decisions for me and there really is nothing better than a PB&J on the trail. I couldn’t have planned it better myself!

These snack balls/bites pack the best of a solid trail mix into one chewy mouthful. They are full of nuts, whole grains, dried fruits, and the addition of dark chocolate is simply a must. Rolling these babies in coconut or cocoa powder just kind of elevates them to the next (delicious) level. They would have been perfect for the trail, but they are also awesome all of the time. For a snack, for dessert, before a workout, after a workout, scarfing a few before bed, you know, whatever works. And lucky for me, we are doing an overnight sailing trip this weekend in the SF bay and I know these are going to be the perfect grab and go snack option in between tacking (…and mimosas).

These balls/bites/truffles are food processed to perfection, meaning that there are still big nuggets of almond and chocolate and date - they aren’t too blended at all. Up to you though if you prefer a smoother consistency however! Bah - I just realized that a lot of these photos with the black background kind of look like the truffles are spread out in a starry night sky. Guess I was already thinking of the wilderness and being on the trail in my subconscious! Although we drank enough wine during our camping trip to not even really pay attention to the constellations. Truth.

On a different note, I started using Adobe Lightroom to edit my photos for the first time with these truffles. I had been using the free program GIMP before, and it’s definitely taking some getting used to with using this new program. Any advice for lightroom or tutorials that you like? Google is certainly my best friend when it comes to anything technology-related when it comes to the blog!

5.0 from 2 reviews

Trail Mix Truffles

Take the best flavors of your favorite trail mix and turn them into an extra portable snack - great for hikes or your lunchbox!

Author: Dani California Cooks

Serves: 1 dozen

Ingredients

⅓ cup rolled oats
⅓ cup chopped dried dates
⅓ cup almonds
2 tbsp peanut butter
¼ cup chocolate chips
Optional: Cocoa powder and/or coconut flakes
Optional, if needed: Warm water and/or honey

Instructions

Put all ingredients into a food processor, and pulse until a ball starts to form
If the mixture is having trouble sticking together, you can add a little warm water or honey
Roll into a ball and cover with plastic wrap
Stick into the freezer for 10 minutes
Remove and roll into bite size balls
Dust on cocoa powder or coconut flakes for variety!

If you like this, you’ll love: Coconut Almond Energy Bars

How to Make Dried Fruit in the Oven + Third Cooking Resolution!

April 14, 2015 by Dani 2 Comments

Making pliable, chewy dried fruit in the oven is totally possible, and can save you lots of sugar from store-bought products. Check out the results of my cooking experiment using three different fruits below!

For those who are unfamiliar with my “conquest”, I set out at the beginning of 2015 with a new cooking resolution for every month - January was making homemade Larabars and February I took on making fresh spring rolls. So I was super excited to try out experimenting with making dried fruit in the oven because I LOVE DRIED FRUIT. When I was in Turkey and Israel this past year, I pretty much subsisted off dried dates and dried figs. I really can’t keep them around the house. However, most store-bought dried fruit contains a lot of extra sugar and preservatives to keep it chewy, fresh, and sweet. Trader Joe’s have some awesome unsulfured, unsweetened dried fruits, and I figured I could try and recreate them at home so I wouldn’t have to buy it any longer!

How to Make Dried Fruit in the Oven | danicaliforniacooks.com So I chopped up my experimentation subjects (ew?), and set my own to a low, low temperature of 140 degrees. And then I let the fruit sit in their all day. I turned it every so often. The mangoes were the first to dry properly, and I removed them at 8 hours. The apples, I took out after 12 hours but they crisped up once removed from the oven and turned into apple chips, but then became more pliable the next day. And the strawberries? I cranked it up to 190 degrees after removing the apples and those guys probably could have stayed in the oven for another couple hours but I took them out after 14. The fruit shrinks down like CRAZY, so make sure to slice relatively big pieces of each and choose large strawberries.

How to Make Dried Fruit in the Oven | danicaliforniacooks.com I went to Trader Joe’s to see how much money I was saving by making my own dried fruit, and that’s when I was thoroughly disappointed. A bag of unsulfured, unsweetened mango cost only $2.99! The mango itself cost about that much, and I spent all day tending to it’s needs in the oven! So I set out to write this blog post about how disappointed I was in my dried fruit experimenting. I wasn’t sure if it was worth it. And then I actually sampled my test subjects.

How to Make Dried Fruit in the Oven | danicaliforniacooks.com The apples had the most unbelievable flavor and texture. The strawberries were better than gummy candy, and were sweet and tangy at the same time. The mangoes tasted exactly like one’s from Trader Joe’s. My mom and I were both kind of surprised with how truly DELICIOUS these homemade dried fruits were! I think I’ll stick to buying Trader Joe’s dried mangoes when my self-control allows me to have dried fruit around the house, but I’ll definitely make the dried apples and strawberries again. I have grand visions of the snacking on the dried strawberries during movies instead of Twizzlers…

Bringing the snacks to some taste testers…

How to Make Dried Fruit in the Oven

Making dried fruit in the oven is possible, and can save you lots of sugar!

Author: Dani California Cooks

Ingredients

Mango, peeled, cored, and sliced
Large strawberries, stems removed
Apples, cored and thickly sliced

Instructions

Turn your oven as low as it will go. For some, it is 200 degrees F and for others it is 130 degrees F. The lower the heat, the more time it will take to dry the fruit but usually better the texture
I set my oven to 140, and then cranked it up to 190 when I took out the mangos
Place the fruit on a baking sheet, and do not allow each piece to touch
Put in the oven, and let them start their long drying process
After a couple hours, check in on your fruits. You will likely want to flip the mango and the apple slices
Continue to monitor the fruit for texture and dryness that you're looking for. Most fruit will take 8-12 hours to dry, depending on the heat of your oven and the thickness of your fruit
The mangos took 8 hours
The apples took 12 hours
The strawberries took 14 hours
Remove from oven once finished drying, and store in a glass jar or plastic bag.
They will last for months!

Sunday Set Ups: Chocolate Banana Bread Snack Balls

February 8, 2015 by Dani 4 Comments

Never have 3pm snack anxiety again when these are around. They are gluten free, vegan, contain no processed sugars, and are full of healthy fats and complex carbs. And did I mention they taste just a little too much like chocolate banana bread?!

I have to say…I really tried to come up with better names for these. Writing “balls” and “snack” in one sentence felt…food pornographic? But hey, that’s a thing. #Foodporn is even a well-used hashtag. #Balls4Snacks - let’s make it happen, people.

Now I’m taking my head out of the gutter. The 3pm snack time can be a hazardous zone. How many of us have eaten healthy breakfasts, packed wholesome lunches, and then it just is pushed to the wayside in the afternoon when they put out the leftover cookies and sandwiches from that meeting in the break room? My issue is that I assume that the healthy brown bag lunch that I pack will be enough to hold me over until dinner, and then I’m famished by 4pm. I often find myself searching around for a snack and everything seems enticing - even foods that normally wouldn’t meet my nutrition standards. So that’s how this recipe came intro fruition. I really wanted to make sure that I have healthy, unprocessed options to reach for if hunger strikes in the afternoon, and that I can easily stash in my bag.

These will power you through until dinner, through a workout, and distract you from your end-of-day meeting. They take only a few steps to make, use whole ingredients that we all can recognize, are 100% portable, and are even vegan and gluten free. And they taste just. like. dessert. I ate five four dessert the other day. Whoops!

Your base ingredients are as follows - almonds, oats, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and a banana. That’s all folks. Pulse all of that up in your food processor, roll into a ball and refrigerate, and then roll into littler balls (mine were bigger than one of those large gumballs). Take 2-3 of these with you to work every day, and when you need a pick me up in the afternoon, you know that you brought something good for you that you can munch on. Balls to munch on for all!

Other bonuses to making these awesome snacks throughout the week:

Pre-Workout Fuel: They are the perfect thing to eat before an early morning workout, if you don’t want to chow down a full breakfast but don’t like to sweat on an empty stomach
Healthy dessert: They are also decadent-tasting enough to be a no added sugar dessert after dinner!
Portion Control: Limiting yourself to 1 or 2 is easy since they are pre-proportioned
Weight Loss Friendly: At <50 calories each, you can have more than one

It’s always frustrating when you have a solid breakfast and lunch, and then feel unprepared for snacktime. Hopefully I’ve given you an idea on how to resolve this for your week ahead! Oh - and they freeze beautifully. So even if you don’t eat them all in one week (and this recipe makes a lot!) keep em in your freezer until hunger strikes.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Chocolate Banana Bread Snack Balls

Prep time

30 mins

Total time

30 mins

These no-bake,portable treat are made with whole foods, taste like dessert, and will power you from 3pm to dinnertime!

Author: Dani California Cooks

Serves: 18

Ingredients

½ cup whole almonds
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup date paste (or use whole, dry, unseeded dates)
½ banana
⅓ cup rolled oats

Instructions

Place ingredients into a food processor
Pulse until a dough ball forms
Cover dough ball in saran wrap and place in refrigerator
Let harden in the fridge, about 20 minutes
Remove, and form into bite size balls
Store in the fridge or freezer (depending on the texture you'd like!) for up to one week

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 1 ball Calories: <50