For those of you who don't know, I've been on the Whole30 for the month of January. 2 weeks in, 2 weeks left to go. The Whole30 is a diet that is meant to get you in the habit of eating healthy. It basically just cuts out all carbs (except for fruits & vegetables), dairy & any processed foods and added sugars. While I am determined to actually finish off the whole 30 days of clean eating, it seems I am not entirely built to go a whole 30 days without something sweet (aside from the abundance of fruit I've been shoveling down.) Over the summer, I made these "Healthy" twix bars, and they'd been sitting in my freezer ever since. After a week of being on the Whole30 I remembered having these, so I got them out. Now my sister and I have been unable to keep our hands off of these little cookies. They've been lifesavers. While they may not be entirely Whole30 compliant, they are almost. The only ingredients that are not compliant are maple syrup (no added sugar is technically allowed on the diet-- not even honey), oats (but in my opinion, oats aren't nearly as bad as regular flour), and vanilla (the whole reason vanilla isn't allowed is because of the alcohol in it. Yeah. It's not like I'm going to get drunk off of 2 teaspoons of vanilla.) 
These bars are great because they're gluten free, sugar free and vegan. Basically they fit all kinds of diets. Also they're pretty filling, so while you may not be able to stop yourself from eating more than one, you most certainly won't find yourself eating an entire batch and cursing your hungry stomach. 
Anyway, I got and slightly altered the recipe from here.
I like to use 1/4 cup cacao and 1/4 cup cocoa, because cacao is a superfood and is really good for you, but it's so bitter. I have a sweet tooth. If you're doubtful about the candies, yeah, so was I. But they're actually pretty good. 
The chocolate is decadent, the caramel delicious and the cookie has a great crunch. It's doubtful these could be this good because of the loss of gluten, sugar & all animal products, but they actually are really tasty. You have two options for keeping these bars. In the fridge or the freezer. The freezer is great because they're kind of ice cream-y (not actually but it's hard to explain. And in the fridge? They're less crunchy, but the caramel is so ​goey.  I love it. 
And now, here is the recipe for these wonderful "candy" bars.

Ingredients: 
Crust: 
2 cups oats
1/2 cup + 2 T coconut flour
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla

Caramel:
1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 cup maple syrup 
1/3 cup coconut oil 
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Chocolate:
1/4 cup cacao powder 
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
​4 T maple syrup

Directions: 
​Preheat oven to 350F/180C. 

1. In a food processor, process oats until they are powdered into oat flour. 
2. In a bowl, mix together the oat flour, coconut flour, coconut oil, maple syrup & vanilla until well combined. 
3. On a greased pan (I use coconut oil), spread the cookie dough out into a rectangle of about 1/2 an inch, or so. Poke with fork
4. Bake for 12-20 minutes, or until the crust if golden brown. Let cool completely. 
5. In  a saucepan over medium heat, whisk together all the caramel ingredients until fully combined and the mixture has thickened some. 
6. Pour "caramel" over the crust, spreading it out to the sides. Freeze 30 minutes. 
7. Mix together the chocolate ingredients. 
8. Pour over and spread out the chocolate on top of the "twix" 
9. Allow to harden in the freezer for about another hour
10. Cut apart and either freeze or keep in the fridge. 
Enjoy! 

Thanks for reading <3
Anj

I had to share this recipe just because it is so good and so fun to make. I highly reccomend trying these out some time. 

Recipe originated from here. 

Ingredients: 

For Rolls: 
¾ cup milk, warmed
1 TBS yeast
⅔ cup pumpkin
¼ cup butter, softened
⅓ cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt
2 egg
4 cups flour
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon

For the Filling: 
⅓ cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
2 TBS cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground allspice

For the Icing: 
4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ T milk
3/4 tsp cinnamon 

Directions: 
1. Dissolve your yeast in your warmed milk in a large bowl for about 3 minutes.
2. Add in your pumpkin, butter, brown sugar, salt, eggs, flour, nutmeg and cinnamon into your milk. Mix everything together.
3. When the dough starts to pull from the edges, knead for 5 minutes until a large ball is formed.
4. Remove your dough ball from the bowl and spray the bowl with nonstick spray. Put your dough back into the bowl and cover your bowl with a towel. Leave it to rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes until it doubles in size.
5. Lightly flour your counter top and roll your dough into a rectangle, about ¼ inch thick and about 16x22.
6. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
7. Coat your dough with your melted butter, covering completely.
8. Combine your brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice.
9. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over the surface of your dough covering completely.
10. Roll your dough from the top edge to the bottom edge (so the roll is 22 inches).
Carefully cut your roll into 1 inch slices and place them in a lightly greased baking pan.
11. Bake in preheated oven for 14-15 minutes.
12. While they are baking combine your ingredients for the frosting. Add a little more powdered sugar or a little more milk if you need to change the consistency of your frosting.
13. Remove the rolls from the oven when their done and allow them to cool for a few minutes before applying the frosting generously.

Thanks for reading! 
-Anj

As promised, here's a recipe from my fall pumpkin trails. This was Zia's first choice and near the top of my dad's list. It truly does have a heavenly taste to it. I especially enjoyed eating this (one of the few baked goods I make that I actually eat) in the mornings, toasted, before school. 

​Recipe taken from here. 

Ingrediants: 

15 oz can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup canola oil
2/3 cup water
2 cups sugar
3 ½ cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp cloves
¼ tsp ginger
1 tsp espresso powder (optional)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease loaf pans (or muffin tin) with cooking spray, and line with parchment paper. 
2. In a large bowl, combine pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water, and sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and espresso powder.
3. Fold the dry ingrediants in to the wet, being careful not to overmix
4. Pour into prepared pans, and bake for 50-60 minutes until an inserted toothpick can come out clean

Thanks for reading, 
-Anj 

By far, my favorite recipe I used this fall was the cinnamon cream cheese frosting. It is absolutely delectable with the savory cream cheese mixed together with the perfect amount of warm cinnamon. Also, it's super easy to make!
I used different variations of it depending on the dessert I was making (like the cinnamon roll had a different recipe), but this one has to have been my favorite. The cinnamon cream cheese frosting will most definitely be returning next fall. 

Ingredients: 
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp cinnamon 
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt 

Intructions: 
1. In a bowl, whisk together cream cheese and butter until fluffy, about 5-7 minutes (an electric mixer is reccomended, but not required
2. Mix in the cinnamon, vanilla and salt
3. Slowly add in the powdered sugar. 
​
Tada. You have made a delicious cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Congrats. 
Thanks for reading, 
-Anj

If you follow my food instagram, snapchat or are friends with me on facebook, you may have seen that I went a little pumpkin crazy this fall. I'm not really a pumpkin spice latte crazed kind of person. I've never actually even had one, but this fall I realized I was missing an important chance that only comes once a year. Making pumpkin desserts. Therefore, the next time I went to the store after this realization I bought out most of the gorccery store's canned puree pumpkin. Next, I began to bake a series of different pumpkin desserts. The purpose of this? One, because I love to bake, and two, to find the best pumpkin dessert for the fall. Here are the results according to my sister (Zia M. Cooper), and my father (David W. Cooper).   
I will be sharing a few recipes at some point, so stay tuned. 

1. Pumpkin Cupcakes 
These cupcakes are absotutely delectable. They're fluffy and moist (sorry if you don't like the word, but that is the correct one to describe food). They contain the perfect mixture of pumpkin and spice, and taste splendid with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. 
Side note: My field hockey team also loved these. 
​

A fact that I frequently find myself forgetting is that I love apple sauce. I just always forget my affection for it because we never really have it in the house. Well, I remembered my love of apple sauce and decided I should make some.
This recipe is super easy you really only need three ingredients and one of them is optional. Apples, cinnamon sticks and water. Done. Easy. (You don't even need to peel the apples!) 
Here's how to do it. 

Ingredients:
2 lbs apples, chopped
2 cinnamon sticks 
1/4 cup water

Directions: 
In a microwave safe container lay out the chopped apples in a single layer. Add in the cinnamon sticks and water.
Cover with plastic wrap and microwave for five minutes.
After 5 minutes take it out, stir it around and put back in for another 5 or until the apples are falling apart. 
When the apples are falling apart use a blender or food processor to blend up the apples into a sauce. If needed, add more cinnamon or any kind of sweeter you like. (I use coconut sugar, but usually don't need any.) 

Well, I hope you enjoy that easy recipe! Thanks for reading :) 
Anji

Key Lime Pie, a tangy, sweet and creamy pie with a crunchy graham cracker crust, and topped off with fluffy whipped topping-- what's not to love? For those of you who follow my food instagram (anjimcooper), you probably already know I went on a little baking spree recently, making a red velvet cheesecake, key lime pie(s), blueberry streusel muffins, soft frosted sugar cookies, sticky buns and cinnamon buns (the last two were never posted. Except for on Snapchat.) Basically I was really bored and wanted something to do. I was also going to the beach for a few days, so I figured why not bring some food up with me? Baking is always a good way to fill the time. 
These key lime pies were actually made using key lime juice from Key West that I picked up in the airport on my way home from Florida during spring break. (You can also buy a bottle of it for $6 on amazon)  The recipe is actually the easiest thing I've ever made-- the thing that takes the longest is the crust, the rest of it can be prepared and thrown into the oven in less than five minutes. It's fantastic. 

There were a couple of main reasons that I decided to finally try making Key Lime Pie. One of these reasons was just because I wanted to try making it, another is that I like Key Lime Pie, and the last (very large) reason is that I promised my father (who loves Key Lime Pie) that I would make him a Key Lime Pie if he bought me a food processor. I did end up getting a food processor (not just because of the pie promise), and I keep my promises, so tada. Pie. 
After doing a little bit of research, I was surprised to find that Key Lime Pie is pretty easy to make with very few ingredients. Seriously, the filling is only three ingredients. After looking around, I found a recipe that I liked best and that's the one that I'm sharing with you today because it worked well! Everyone who tried the pie (there were quite a few people) said they loved it, which was great. For anyone looking for an easy recipe that will taste great and also impress others, I highly recommend trying out this recipe for Key Lime Pie. It's fantastic. 
(While I did use key lime juice, if you can't get ahold of any, you can actually just use regular lime juice!)

For the graham cracker crust, you can either crush the crackers by using a plastic zip lock bag and crushing them with a rolling pin, or it's a lot easier, if you have a food processor, to just crush them up in that. 

Ingredients:
Crust: 
1 1/2 cups crushed graham crackers 
1/3 cup sugar 
6 T butter, melted
Pie Filling: 
2 14oz cans sweetened condensed milk 
1/2 cup light sour cream 
3/4 cup lime juice 
Whipped Topping: 
1 cup heavy whipping cream 
1/2 cup powdered sugar 
1 tsp vanilla extract 
lime zest for a garnish 

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. 
2. Mix cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter together until it forms a mixture that will hold together when squeezed tightly, and all the crumbs are coated in butter.
3. Press crumb mix into a pie pan.
4. Bake for 7 minutes, and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. In a medium bowl, whisk together sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, and lime juice until it is all fully mixed together and is thick.
7. Pour the pie filling into the prepared crust and bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until bubbles begin forming on top of the pie. 
8. Turn off oven and allow pie to sit in the oven for about 30 minutes. 
9. Chill in fridge for at least 3 hours. 
10. Beat heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla together until stiff peaks form. 
11. Decorate the top of the pie using the whipped topping and lime zest as a garnish. 

Well, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy this recipe just as much as I do! (Keep an eye out for a few more recipes to be posted soon) 
​-Anji

Recipe from here. 
​

This is a great recipe for the summer. It's a fantastic treat to bring to picnics or barbecues as a dessert, and the best thing about it? These ice cream pops are super easy to make as well as delicious. The pops are not only good to give to kids, but they're also great because they make it a lot easier to not accidentally binge eat a whole bunch of ice cream (which I am prone to do.) In this video I show you how to make two recipes, mint chocolate chip and chocolate chip cookie dough. While these are good in pop form they (obviously) are also good just eaten as regular ice cream! While you may not believe me when I say that they taste and have the same texture as real churned ice cream, I promise you, they do. If you still don't believe me, try the recipe out yourself. You'll be flabbergasted at how good the result is. 
I actually didn't come up with this idea, the recipes actually being to Gemma Stafford. I don't want to take credit for the recipe, the only credit I get is shoving the base into a popsicle mold. I just wanted to share this amazing find with all of you. 
Let me just tell you this now, mint chocolate chip ice cream made from fresh mint is incredable. 
Anyway, here's the recipe! 

Ingredients: 
14 oz condensed milk 
2 cups heavy whipping cream 
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions: 
1. Refrigerate the condensed milk, cream and the bowl overnight to get everything nice and cold. 
2. Whip cream on high speed until stiff peaks form. 
3. Mix in vanilla and condensed milk until stiff peaks form again. 
Tada! That's the ice cream base, simple, huh? If you just want plain vanilla ice cream then just freeze this mix overnight. 

Cookie dough Ice Cream: 
2 cups ice cream base 
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter (room temperature) 
3/4 cup brown sugar 
2 teaspoons vanilla 
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons milk 
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Cream together the butter and sugar 
2. Mix in flour, vanilla and milk. Do not over mix after the flour is added. 
3. Mix the chocolate chips into the dough. 
4. Set aside 2/3 cup of cookie dough and roll the remaining dough into small balls or chunks. 
5. Put the cookie dough chunks in the fridge to harden. 
6. Mix the 2/3 cup cookie dough to loosen it. 
7. Mix the base with the cookie dough. 
8. Fold in the cookie dough chunks. 
9a. To make regular ice cream, scoop this mixture into a container and simply freeze it overnight. 
9b. To make the pops, scoop this mixture into popsicle molds (tap on the bench to remove air pockets) and then freeze overnight. 

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream: 
2 sprigs of fresh mint
2 cups ice cream base 
1 1/2 cups mini semi-sweet chocolate chips 
(optional) green and yellow food dye 
(optional) 1/2 teaspoon mint extract

1. Chop the fresh mint finely 
2. Mix mint, chocolate chips and ice cream base. This is also where you would add in the extract and dye, if you wished to. The extract just makes the ice cream more minty, but it is not needed. 
3a. Scoop into containers and freeze overnight. 
3b. Scoop into molds, tap on counter to remove any air pockets and freeze overnight. 
Tip: I used my leftover mint chocolate ganache in these popsicles and it tasted great. drizzling a little chocolate into the molds before placing the base in it would just add to the already delectable flavor. 

Hope y'all enjoy! 
​-Anj

This recipe is both delicious and fairly healthy. It's also very easy to make. If you're also dairy free, you could also use a dairy free yogurt, or just leave the yogurt out entirely. The yogurt just adds a nice tangy flavor to the recipe, but it still has the texture of soft serve ice cream without the yogurt. The texture is due to frozen bananas. When frozen bananas are blended up, they make a texture that matches that of soft serve, It's quite handy when making frozen desserts. You can really just blend up frozen bananas for one ingredient soft serve, but I usually like to add flavorings to it. 
If you eat this immediately after blending it up, it will have a soft serve texture, but if you freeze it, the dessert will have more of a regular ice cream texture. Either way it tastes delicious and quite decadent. I highly recommend this recipe as a good, cold guilt free dessert for the summer. 

Ingredients: 

• ⅓ cup Cocoa Powder
• 4 tbsp Honey
• ⅓ cup Plain Greek Yogurt
• 3 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 3 Frozen Bananas

Directions: 

In a food processor or blender mix together all ingredients until no lumps remain. (You may need to stop and mix several times due to the frozen bananas and lack of liquid)

Place into an airtight container and put into the freezer for 8 hours or more preferably, overnight.

For more of my recipes visit: 
https://sortedfood.com/profile/227655

*Sorry for the lack of updates, the last bit of school was really stressful and overwhelming. Hopefully I'll post more now that it's summer

Yum! This is basically like an avocado pasta, and it is totally delicious. I love pasta and this sauce makes it extra tasty. You can use any kind of pasta, I usually use regular noodles, but last time I tried using rice noodles and it tasted just as good.

*Side note 
Sorry for posting so many recipes lately, nothing really interesting or worth blogging about has occurred in my life

​Recipe originates from here. 

Anyway, here's the recipe:

Avocado Pasta

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb pasta 
• 1 avocado 
• 3/4 cup spinach 
• 1/4 cup fresh basil (use a couple tablespoons of dry, but the fresh makes it taste extra good) 
• 1/2 cup pasta water (I like to use either coconut water or some kind of milk (almond, coconut or hemp) because I always forget to get the pasta water. Also, using the milk makes it creamy, which is great) 
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 clove garlic (can be substituted with 1 tsp of garlic powder) 
• 2 T slivered almonds 
• salt to taste 

Instructions: 

1. Cook pasta according to instructions 
2. While pasta is cooking, blend together avocado, spinach, basil, olive oil, garlic and almonds until smooth.
   1. The mix tends to thicken without liquid, so add your liquid (pasta water, coconut water or milk) a little bit of the time until the mix is thin enough to blend. Only add just enough liquid, you want a thicker sauce, not a thinner one. 
3. Drain pasta and put into a bowl. 
4. Gently mix sauce into the pasta. 
5. Enjoy