The Bunny Battle


The Easter Bunny was a little different this year. See, my four little sweethearts have been battling colds, coughs and congestion for far too long. I thought it would be unloving and unwise to pour bunny shaped garbage down their precious throats at this time. Hoards of sugar is the last thing they need right now...or ever really...but especially now. Being Mom however, that presents a dilemma...my kids won't have "fun" with treats this Easter weekend! What is a mom supposed to do in situations like this!? She diligently seeks out yummy and helpful recipes...and I did.

One is a tried and true chocolate pleasure that I have been experimenting with, but really needs no alteration...just about perfect on it's own. Mindy from The Purposed Heart is to be thanked for this wonderful new staple in my kitchen. I copied this recipe right from her blog, but you can visit it anyway:

I always add unsweetened coconut to the base and sometimes nuts, raisins, or on indulgent days...cherries. Next year I just might buy some little bunny or egg molds to be a little thematic...and hearts for V-day...trees for Christmas...you get the idea.

Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Prepare a muffin pan with 10 muffin liners.

Put all ingredients in the bowl of your food processor. Pulse a few times until everything is smooth and nicely combined. (It will be very liquid-y.) Don’t over-mix.

Pour the liquid fudge into the prepared muffin liners dividing evenly between the ten of them. There will be about a half inch of fudge in each muffin liner.

Place the muffin pan in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or until the fudge has hardened. (Sometimes I use the freezer and it only takes about 10 minutes)

Remove the muffin liners from the pan and enjoy your delicious, healthy fudge! Store in the refrigerator.


The other delight this weekend was cream puffs. My family LOVES cream puffs. I had a generic recipe for the puffs but had a to experiment a bit with the cream. They were a big hit, even with the "well" people who visited for Sunday lunch. I tried using coconut milk instead of cows, for the sake of their congestion, and it worked pretty well, but I added a LITTLE whipped cream in the end for better consistency.


Cream Puffs

1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup butter
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup flour
4 eggs

Combine water, butter and salt...boil...add flour all at once. Stir vigorously until it forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Remove from heat and add eggs one at a time beating thoroughly after each one. Drop by spoonfulls on greased pan and bake at 425* for about 20-25 minutes. Slightly browned and full, they will drop a bit upon cooling. inject cream, or just cut the top almost off and fill. Drizzle the previously mentioned chocolate fudge on top if desired.

Cream

2 cans (398ml) coconut milk
3 tbsp cornstarch
1 egg
1/4 tsp Stevia extract (or a LITTLE more if you like it)
1 tbsp sugar (optional)

Boil until thickened, then add a chunk of butter and some almond or vanilla extract. I added about 1/2 cup of whipping cream and combined it with beaters after it had cooled. You might have to play with the amounts, depending on how thick or runny you like it.

Big hit...loved them...low sugar treat :)


Once they are all well again, I might break out the junk that I bought in a weak moment and ration the bunny in a more responsible and timely manner. The kids were just happy that their Easter themed treats didn't amount to carrot soup and scrambled eggs :)

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