We are so excited to welcome the energetic and informative Liana Werner-Gray to guest blog for us. Liana is the author of The Earth Diet and 10-Minute Recipes. She is a wonder when it comes to teaching and preaching holistic and natural health, and her mission to help people heal with nutritional and lifestyle choices is a perfect pairing for our Sovereign Life Community.
Liana is a long-time consumer and advocate of Sovereign Silver products and we are very excited she is sharing her best back-to-school recipes with us. These recipes and ideas are sure to help busy parents provide healthy snacks that their kids will actually eat! So be sure to save this link because you’re going to want to reference these over and over this school year (actually adults will love these too)!
Enjoy.
Hi friends!
Here are some natural and healthy back-to-school recipes that I hope will help you save time, create some fun, sneak some more healthy foods into your kids diet and assist in boosting the immune system. The kids will love them!
How these recipes came about
When I finished school and left home to go to university, I suddenly found myself in control of my food choices. I quickly discovered quick convenient fast foods and junk foods, all highly processed and a typical day for me would look like chocolate biscuits for breakfast, fried chicken for lunch and burgers with fries for dinner. Needless to say this kind of eating is not sustainable (although fun for the first five minutes of eating it with all that serotonin rush in the body), and I found myself incredibly sick in hospital at 21 years old. This forced me to have to change my diet and find replacements for the foods I was craving. The very first recipe I made was this chocolate ball recipe! I picked up wholesome ingredients from the health food store: almond flour, maple syrup and cacao powder. I was blown away by this chocolate brownie bite ball, so tasty and fulfilling but also so healthy, high in magnesium and loads of antioxidants. Kids love making this recipe too! It’s a fun activity for them to get in the kitchen and add the ingredients to a bowl and then roll them into balls.
I am so happy to share this recipe with you and your kids. Hope your kids love them as much as I do! Happy rolling!
Raw Three-Ingredient Chocolate Balls
This recipe is made with just three ingredients, so it will be easy for you and the kids to remember how to make it for the rest of your life. It’s a great base recipe too. Feel free to add any other flavors you like! You can add many other ingredients to make different flavors, like a splash of vanilla extract, a smidgen of sea salt, a drop of mint essential oil, add some peanut butter, almond butter (or Sunbutter if any nut allergies), add some coconut oil, roll them in coconut or organic chocolate chips! They store well in lunch boxes and don’t melt! You can keep them in the fridge for up to 14 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Making healthy chocolate is easier than you may think.
Total time: 10 minutes
Makes 12 balls
INGREDIENTS:
- One cup almond flour (I use the Bob’s Red Mill Super Fine almond flour, it doesn’t have the almond skins so it makes an incredibly smooth and delicious brownie consistency). If you have nut allergies you can use Tigernut Flour instead.
- ¼ cup cacao powder
- Three tablespoons maple syrup or raw honey
ACTIONS:
Mix all ingredients in a bowl, and then roll mixture into 1-inch balls with your hands. If dough sticks to hands, add more nut meal. If dough is too dry, add water.
TIPS:
- Add ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract for enhanced flavor.
- You can use this mixture to make brownies (just make square forms) or a dessert pie (simply press into a pie plate with your fingertips).
- Best stored in fridge for up to 14 days, or freezer for 3 months.
VARIATIONS:
- Chocolate Vanilla Balls: Add ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract.
- Salty Chocolate Balls: Add ¼ teaspoon salt.
- Chocolate Mint Balls: add 1-2 drops of mint essential oil
- Roll them in coconut shreds for Chocolate Coconut Balls
- Add 2 tablespoons of organic chocolate chips for Chocolate Chip Balls
1 ball = 1 serving
Calories: 106 | Total Fat: 7g | Carbohydrate: 13g | Dietary Fiber: 4g | Protein: 4g
All-Natural Fruit Leather
This next recipe is what I created to replace my craving for candy and gummy bears. It might not be realistic to tell your kids they can never eat gummy bears ever again, so a healthier option is to make these Fruit Leathers, they are delicious and sweet but you don’t have to worry about any of the ingredients as they are just fruit! I roll them into balls to get that bouncy “gummy bear” consistency. So this is for all the candy lovers! You can satisfy your candy cravings and feel fulfilled as a cook in the process by making homemade Fruit Leathers. Simply puree your favorite fruits and flavors, then dehydrate them in flat sheets until they are sticky and sweet like candy. Each one takes less than 10 minutes of hands-on time to prepare, but they do need to be dehydrated for a few hours. The Cherry Leather is my favorite fruit leather!
Basic Fruit Leather Formula
- Add your fruit ingredients to a food processor, and blend until smooth.
- Dehydrator method: Place parchment paper on the mesh screens in your dehydrator. Pour the fruit mixture on the paper to ¼ inch thick. Dehydrate at 115˚F for 8 to 12 hours, or until no longer wet.
- Oven method: Bake in your oven at 150˚F for 4 to 6 hours.
Strawberry Banana Leather
INGREDIENTS:
- 3 cups strawberries
- 4 bananas, peeled
Calories: 69 | Total Fat: 0.2g | Carbohydrate: 17.5g | Dietary Fiber: 2.8g | Protein: 0.8g
Strawberry Kiwifruit Leather
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 cups strawberries
- 10 kiwifruit, peeled
Calories: 75 | Total Fat: 0.6g | Carbohydrate: 18g | Dietary Fiber: 4.5g | Protein: 1.2g
Cherry Leather
INGREDIENT:
- 8 cups cherries, seeded
Calories: 91 | Total Fat: 0.2g | Carbohydrate: 23g | Dietary Fiber: 3g | Protein: 1.5g
Strawberry Apple Leather
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 cups strawberries
- 4 apples, cored
Calories: 51 | Total Fat: 0.1g | Carbohydrate: 13.6g | Dietary Fiber: 3.3g | Protein: 0.2g
Strawberry Nectarine Leather
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 cups strawberries
- 4 nectarines, seeded
Calories: 41 | Total Fat: 0.3g | Carbohydrate: 9g | Dietary Fiber: 2g | Protein: 1g
See several more fruit leather variations in 10-Minute Recipes.
SMOOTHIE BOWLS
Here is another fun one to do with your kids! Make a delicious and refreshing smoothie, pour it into a bowl and then add fun toppings. This is a great way to empower your kids to make healthy choices as they can choose their own toppings and sprinkle it over a smoothie. Smoothie bowls are a great start to any school day and also give you and your kids an opportunity to express themselves creatively. Plus it’s a sneaky way to add more greens or protein into your kid’s diet, because you can add it to the smoothie without them being able to taste it! Toppings can be fruits, nuts, seeds, berries and even organic chocolate chips.
IMMUNE SUPPORT TIP*: Pair a smoothie bowl with your daily dose of Sovereign Silver Bio-Active Silver Hydrosol™ and you have the PERFECT start to any school day.
Total time: 15 minutes
Serves 2
INGREDIENTS:
Smoothie:
- ¾ cup Almond Milk
- 2 frozen bananas
- 3 seedless dates (or 1 tablespoon raw honey or maple syrup)
Toppings choose from:
- Nuts: Walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, almonds, cashews, peanuts, pistachios
- Nut butter: Peanut Butter or almond butter
- Sunbutter Sunflower seed butter
- Berries: Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries or blackberries
- Dried berries: Goldenberries, goji berries, cranberries or mulberries
- Fruit: sliced kiwi fruit, grapes, sliced oranges, dates, figs, sliced banana, mango
- Shredded coconut
- Organic chocolate chips or cacao nibs
ACTIONS:
- Blend the smoothie ingredients together, then pour into bowls.
- Add toppings and enjoy!
Calories: 263.3 | Total Fat: 6.4g | Carbohydrate: 52.4g | Dietary Fiber: 7.7g | Protein: 3.8g
TIPS:
- Be creative with how you serve your smoothie bowl. If you are making your smoothie with a fruit that has a rind or a shell, like a watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple, or coconut, you can serve it inside the rind or shell.
- Use the toppings to make a Kids Happy Face Smoothie Bowl with a happy face on each bowl by using the sliced strawberries as the smile, the sliced kiwifruit as the eyes, the grapes as the eyeballs, and the blackberries and walnuts as the hair, and the sliced orange as the ears!
Thoughts on Boosting Immunity During the School Year
To reduce inflammation and boost immunity in general, incorporate more anti-inflammatory foods in your diet and avoid things that cause inflammation and weaken the immune system. When we eat more whole foods that come straight from nature (our own backyard or organic farming without pesticides) we end up being more energized, less stiff, have fewer aches and pains, sleep better, get fewer colds and feel more positive.
I hope you join me in making these recipes for children and sharing them with your community. I wish I had known about these types of recipes when I was kid, and I could have avoided a lot of unhealthy eating and health issues. I love teaching these recipes to kids at school and see their faces light up when they learn how they can enjoy chocolate for the recipe of their lives – but in a much healthier way!
Love,
Liana
Follow Liana on social:
- Facebook: Facebook.com/TheEarthDiet
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- Pinterest: Pintrest.com/TheEarthDiet