Add these three recipes under “Healthy Holiday Fun!”. 🙂

Strawberry Santas

1. Remove stems from strawberries by slicing it off (that way the Santas have a flat, balanced surface). Cut the tip off of the strawberry.
2. You can use either whipped cream or cream cheese as filling. If desired, sweeten to taste with stevia or your favorite healthy sweetener. Optional: add a flavor extract such as vanilla, coconut, or maple. Fill strawberries and add the tip back on with a dollop of cream on top (you can use fancy frosting tools or do it old-school by cutting the tip off the side of a sandwich bag and squeezing the cream out that way).
3. Add cream buttons and chia seed eyes (or black sesame seeds, chocolate chips, or even small blueberries).

Spicy Nuts

1.  Soak your favorite nuts in a glass bowl with filtered water and a dash of sea salt (water should be an inch or two above nuts) for 7 hours or overnight.
2. Drain nuts in strainer for 5 minutes.
3. Pre-heat oven on lowest setting, between 170-225 degrees.
4. Spread nuts evenly on cookie sheets, preferably ceramic or glass rather than teflon. Try to prevent lots of overlap for faster cooking time.
5. Add your favorite spices: plain salt, spicy blend (cayenne pepper, thyme, rosemary), or sweet spicy (cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander or cardamom) and bake for 8-12 hrs. They’re done when they are crunchy and crispy (not chewy at all).

Gingerbread Cookies

We tried these gingerbread cookies on my Mom’s birthday and LOVED them. We slightly modified Maria Emmerich’s recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup vanilla whey
• 3/4 cup almond flour 
• 1/4 tsp Celtic sea salt
• 1/4 cup butter or coconut oil
• 3-4 drops plain stevia extract
• 1-2 TBS water (just enough to hold dough together)
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

How to:

1. Add all the ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Melt butter on low heat and add to other ingredients.
3. Mix until well combined (I just used my hands), then slowly add water just until the dough is soft, yet able to roll out. Form into a tight ball and cool in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Place the dough onto a sheet of parchment paper, then top it with another piece of parchment paper. Roll the dough out into about 1/4 inch high. Cut the dough with cookie cutters, and place onto a baking sheet (preferably ceramic).
5. Bake the cookies for 7 minutes, or until light brown. Then turn off the oven and leave the cookies in for an additional 10 minutes to create crispy cookies. Makes 12 cookies.

We frosted our gingerbread cookies with cream cheese with vanilla stevia extract and allspice (to taste). You could also add raisins for buttons and eyes if you wanted to, but we didn’t want all that sugar. They were so delicious!

Happy & Healthy Holidays!!!