Category: Refined Sugar Free

Cinnamon Spice Hot Chocolate

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Hey there! I’ve been really getting into the Christmas spirit this past week, and embracing the cozy winter vibes. And nothing says cozy winter vibes more than hot chocolate! So today I’m bringing you an amazing Cinnamon Spice Hog Chocolate recipe that is SO delicious and made with actual dark chocolate- not just cocoa powder.

That’s right, I used 3 squares of a Lindt 100% Dark Chocolate Bar in this stuff🥰 You can always sub for a lower cocoa concentration, but I find that the 100% gives the hot chocolate a nice, rich flavour. Plus, it doesn’t contain any sugar or dairy, so that keeps this recipe refined sugar free and vegan! I sweetened it by adding a bit of maple syrup, which is the perfect touch👌👌 It’s not too sweet, and allows the chocolate and the spices to shine through.

This recipe also contains some nice spices, namely cinnamon, ginger, and allspice. Working together, they make for a nice and aromatic cup of hot chocolate🥰 They’re the first thing I added to the pot along with the almond milk, proceeding to stir in the chocolate and maple syrup. Then I brought everything to a low simmer and poured it into my favourite mug. Winter heaven!!

I hope you enjoy this cozy recipe! I can definitely see it becoming a new weekend go-to for me:)

Cinnamon Spice Hot Chocolate

Serves: 2

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups unsweetened almond milk
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp ground allspice
  • 3 squares (about 2.5 grams) Lindt 100% Dark Chocolate
  • 1 tbsp maple syrup

Directions:

  1. Heat the milk, along with the spices, in a small pot over low heat.
  2. Stir in the squares of chocolate and allow them to melt. Add in the maple syrup and continue to stir.
  3. Bring the hot chocolate to a slight simmer, then remove from the heat and pour into your favourite mug:)
  4. Enjoy!

The perfect way to start a Monday! Can’t wait for more great holiday recipes coming soon😍 Also, I have an exciting announcement to make later in the week, so make sure that you stay tuned to my Instagram account- mydayisbooked_blog. See you Wednesday!!

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))

Roasted Winter Fruits

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Hello! I’m sure you’ve heard me talk about my love for roasted veggies before- honestly I think that I could eat them all day. They get so tender and caramelized in the oven, making them the perfect addition to bowls, or one of my favourite stand-alone sides. However, when we’re talking about raw, uncooked veggies, I definitely prefer fruit. So I was thinking, what would happen if I roasted fruit?!!??! And, ladies and gentlemen, I can assure you that what happens when you roast fruit is PURE MAGIC.

Seriously. Magic. You get ten times the caramelization that you get with veggies because of the higher sugar content, and everything gets all soft, bubbly, and sweet. I roasted some nice in-season winter fruits that you might not think to roast. We’re talking grapes, mandarins, and apples, all of which release some beautiful juices and get amazingly tender. It all feels so Christmas-y and heartwarming!

There is so little prep that goes into this- just washing some grapes, peeling some mandarins, and roughly chopping an apple. I tossed everything in some allspice before roasting for some extra holiday flavour. Then it all goes in the oven for about forty minutes; this is where the enchantment happens. Halfway through the baking time, I took a fork and smashed some of those mandarins and grapes, just to get the juices flowing. Other than that, you just let those fruits do their thing.

Not gonna lie, I sneaked a few of these fruits right off the pan. They would be amazing over oats, yogurt, ice cream, cake, pancakes, waffles- you name it, these would make it better!! Feel free to add some more spices if you like as well- I know that cinnamon would be a welcome addition to the flavour explosion.

Hope you enjoy these festive fruits!

Roasted Winter Fruits

Serves: 2-3

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 Gala apple, chopped
  • 2 mandarin oranges, peeled and split into segments
  • 1 1/4 cup red grapes
  • 1 tsp ground allspice

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Add all of the ingredients to a bowl and combine. Spread out the fruits onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
  3. Place the baking sheet in the oven and roast for about 20 minutes.
  4. At this point, remove them from the oven and use a fork to lightly smash the mandarins and grapes, just bursting them so that the juices can escape. Place the pan back in the oven and roast for another 20 minutes.
  5. Take the fruits out of the oven, serve warm and enjoy!

Have a great weekend everyone! Can’t wait for more holiday recipes coming next week:))

Yours Truly,

Olivia:)))

Ginger Oat Cookies

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It’s December, which means it’s time for the holiday baking to begin! I have yet to decorate my room which is kind of sad but last night I baked up some delicious cookies! Baking cookies is so fun and I haven’t done it in a while. I love cutting them out, and decorating them is just so relaxing! These Ginger Oat Cookies are made in one bowl and baked for 15 minutes so that you can get to icing them (my favourite part) in a snap.

I used so many tasty ingredients in this recipe! We’ve got ground walnuts, oat flour, maple syrup, and of course lots of ginger. The result is a golden-brown cookie that is deliciously crumbly and full of oat-y, Christmas-y flavour. And did I mention the chocolate icing?!!!??? It’s probably the easiest icing you’ll ever make- it only consists of cocoa powder, maple syrup, and almond milk. And it’s SO rich and delish! I piped it on to my little ginger-oat men (that’s what I’m calling them lol) and gave them cute faces and outfits:) You can adjust the amount of milk you add to it to make it thicker or thinner, depending if you want to spread it on like frosting, pipe on some details, or flood the whole surface. The chocolate goes so nicely with the warm spices in the cookie.

To start make these festive beauties, I simply mixed together all of my ingredients in a big bowl until it came together to form a nice dough; then I rolled it out, cut out my cookies, and baked them up. Super quick and easy! I cut my cookies into the shape of gingerbread men, but feel free to use any fun holiday-themed cutters:)

I love how healthy these cookies are too. They’re vegan, refined sugar free, and can easily be made gluten free if you use gluten free oats. The oat flour and ground walnuts can either be bought or easily made by throwing either oats or walnuts into a blender, which is what I did. The holidays are definitely about treating yourself, but if you’re looking for something a little lighter or that’s maybe a nice and nutritious Christmas snack, then these are for you.

I hope you enjoy these Ginger Oat Cookies! They’re so tasty and cute:)) I can’t wait to share more of my holiday baking with you guys so make sure to keep checking out my blog!

Ginger Oat Cookies

Serves: Makes about 12 Cookies (I used a cutter that was roughly 4 inches by 3 inches in size)

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Ginger Oat Cookies:

  • 1 cup ground walnuts
  • 2 cups oat flour
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp allspice
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup

For the Chocolate Icing:

  • 2 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 3 1/2-5 tsp almond milk (depending on how thick/thin you’d like your icing)

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Mix all of the cookie ingredients together in a large bowl. Use your hands to form it into a big ball.
  3. Place the dough on top of a large piece of parchment paper, and cover it with an equally sized piece. Roll it out with a rolling pin so that it’s about 1/4 of an inch thick. Remove the top layer of parchment paper and cut out shapes with cookie cutters, placing the cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
  4. When you run out of room to cut more cookies, collect all of the excess dough into a ball and repeat step 3. Continue to do this until you have used up all of the dough, and you have a pan full of soon-to-be cookies in front of you!
  5. Bake the cookies in the oven for 15 minutes, until golden brown. Remove and let cool completely.
  6. To make the icing, mix together the cocoa powder, maple syrup, and 2 tsp of the almond milk in a small bowl. Gradually add more milk until you reach your desired consistency.
  7. Scoop the icing into a piping bag and cut a small hole at the bottom. Use this to pipe decorations on to your cooled cookies.
  8. Let the icing on the cookies harden and proceed to enjoy! These can be stored in the fridge for about 10 days, or frozen and thawed when needed:)

Have a great rest of your week everyone! I’ll see you Friday with another great recipe:)

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))

Healthy Edible Cookie Dough

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Happy Friday!!! We are exactly five weeks away from Christmas- how exciting is that?!?! I’m definitely brainstorming some awesome Christmas recipes right now🙌 If you have any recipes that you’d like me to make, be sure to let me know because I want to have a plethora of holiday awesomeness available for you!

I think I’m about due for a dessert recipe because I haven’t posted one in a while. This is for all you people out there who like to lick the batter off of the spoon, or sneak a finger into the bowl of cookie dough. Which, let’s be honest, is probably all of us. I remember that I tried making this kind of edible cookie dough way back, but my blender wasn’t very good so I still had a lot of chickpea chunks leftover. No, I haven’t attempted edible cookie dough since, and yes, I said chickpeas. No typos around here people!

This Healthy Edible Cookie Dough mostly consists of chickpeas, and before you X out of this blog post, here me out. Chickpeas are actually a great base for any flavour you want to throw at them; they’re kind of the blank canvas of the legume world. Combine that with the amazing, dough-like texture you get when you blend em up, and you get the perfect candidate for a healthy, edible cookie dough base!

Of course, I added other ingredients to create that cookie dough flavour. We’ve got vanilla, peanut butter, cinnamon, a little bit of oats, some maple syrup and a pinch of salt. I blended my dough with some water as well so that everything came together nicely. After that it’s up to you to completely customize your dough! I suggest adding dark chocolate chips or chopped figs and cinnamon- that’s what I did and it’s SO GOOD👌 But really, anything works. It just depends what kind of cookies you like!

This “dough” can be eaten straight (very good) or used as a sort of dessert hummus (also very good), or you can use it to top your oats, toast, or smoothie bowl (really, anyway you eat it it’s going to be good). It makes a great snack or dessert! Hope you enjoy:)

Healthy Edible Cookie Dough

Serves: 2 as a dessert, 4 as a dip

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 1 tbsp natural peanut butter
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 2 tbsp rolled oats
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • A pinch of salt
  • 1/4 cup mix-ins like chopped dates or dried figs, dark chocolate chips, nuts, seeds, or fruit (optional)

Directions:

  1. Add all of the ingredients, except the mix-ins, to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth and creamy.
  2. Spoon into a bowl and mix in your mix-ins!
  3. Eat straight from the bowl or use as a dip or spread:)

Have a great Friday and an awesome weekend my friends! I’ll see you next week with more delicious recipes and my December Bullet Journal Set-Up❤️

Yours Truly,

Olivia:)

Tropical Baked Oats

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I want to travel or go somewhere really bad, but I don’t know if that will be happening for a while. Fortunately, if I close my eyes and eat these Tropical Baked Oats, I may be able to imagine that I’m on a beach somewhere. I just won’t think about the foot of snow outside, and I’ll throw on a heated blanket or something. Annnnnywaaays, on a more serious note, these baked oats are very healthy and delicious, and are a great recipe for breakfast meal prep!

This was my first time baking oats, and I was really surprised at the results! (In a good way I promise). They’re not super loose like stove topped oats, but they’re not completely set and structured like I expected. They’re at a perfect spot in between that’s in a league of its own. You can cut out even slices or just scoop out big servings (my preferred method) and then add toppings to your heart’s content! You probably already guessed that I added peanut butter. And you would be correct.

We’ve also got double the tropical fruitiness going on in these oats, because I added pineapple both in the actual liquid that the oats bake in, and on top along with some kiwi. Preparing the recipe was simple: I blended up a ripe banana, pineapple, vanilla and almond milk, then poured it over a ceramic baking dish full of oats mixed with allspice. After that I placed more fruits on top, baked it up, and boom, done! You get a delicious, nutritious, and fruity breakfast:) My favourite part is that the fruits on top get a bit browned and caramelized. They’re just so good!

Making a double batch of this recipe would be great for a week of meal prepped breakfasts. Each day just scoop oat a serving of oats and warm them up in the microwave, adding some delish toppings to spruce it up a little. You could also try freezing individual portions and make a top secret emergency oat stash. Ok I guess it doesn’t have to be top secret, but it’s more fun that way. Also then you don’t have to share. Bonus!

Make sure you try out these baked oats if you’re looking to switch up your breakfast routine! Keep your eyes out for new flavours because I’m loving this baking technique.

Tropical Baked Oats

Serves: 2-4 (I ate like half but you could also split it into quarters lol)

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 ripe banana
  • 2 cups pineapple, chopped or sliced
  • 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
  • 1/2 tsp allspice
  • 1 kiwi, sliced, or a few slices of frozen kiwi

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. In a blender, blend 1 cup of the pineapple with the ripe banana, almond milk, and vanilla. Set aside.
  3. Add the oats and allspice into an 8 inch ceramic (or glass) baking dish, and mix together. Pour in the blended pineapple mixture and stir until everything is combined.
  4. Top the oats with the remaining 1 cup of pineapple, and a few slices of kiwi. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
  5. Once the oats have been baking for 20 minutes, turn the oven to broil to get the fruit on top nice and soft! Broil for an additional 5 minutes.
  6. Remove the oats from the oven, scoop onto plates or into bowls, and add your favourite toppings before enjoying!

I love this little at-home taste of the tropics! Let me know if you try out these delicious Tropical Baked Oats:)) See you Friday!

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))