Chocolate Almond No Bake Cookies

One of my favorite parts about the holidays are the sweet treats.  It's fun to make them and fun to eat them!  And these chocolate almond no bake cookies are one of our new favorite holiday desserts!

They have the perfect amount of chocolate, and the almonds give them a nice, little crunch.  You can really 'pretty them up' and make them fit any holiday by adding colored candies or almonds on top.  And they only take 30 minutes to make!

You can also easily convert this chocolate almond cookie recipe to make it compatible with many different food allergies or sensitivities (which is perfect for our family since we have several!).  It is already peanut-free and egg-free, and it can easily be converted to be gluten-free and dairy-free as well!

Below I have posted affiliate links, which means that I may make a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking on those links. Please see the disclosure page for more info!


Chocolate Almond No Bake Cookies
Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Egg-free, and Peanut-free

Yield: 2 to 2-1/2 dozen cookies 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup all natural almond butter
3-1/2 cups old fashioned oats
3/4 cup slivered/sliced almonds
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups sugar (I use coconut sugar)
1/2 cup butter (I substitute unmelted coconut oil)
1/2 cup milk (or almond, coconut, or soy milk)

Directions:

1.  Mix the almond butter, oats, and almonds in a large mixing bowl until evenly coated.  Mixture will be very dry.  Set aside.

2.  Place the cocoa powder, sugar, butter/coconut oil, and milk in a medium saucepan and put it on medium/low heat on the stove.  When it begins to boil, constantly stir for 1 minute.

3.  Pour hot liquid cocoa mixture into dry oats mixture.  Mix until all of the oats are evenly covered.

4.  Lay out wax paper on a cookie sheet (or a pan that can fit in your refrigerator).  Drop spoonfuls of the cookie mixture on the wax paper in a single layer as seen in the picture below.

5.  If desired, decorate cookies with colored candies or sliced almonds.

6.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes - 1 hour.  Once hardened, you can layer cookies on top of one another with wax paper inbetween them. 

7.  Serve immediately after taking them out of the fridge.  Refrigerate and cover leftovers.

Notes:

Gluten-free:  Use gluten-free old fashioned oats.

Dairy-free:  Substitute coconut oil for butter and soy, coconut, or almond milk for cow's milk.

For this to be truly allergen-free, you must always check food labels to make sure they do not contain any allergens prior to use.  Not all food products are made or processed equally!

I hope you enjoy these chocolate almond no bake cookies as much as our family does!

What is your favorite Christmas cookie to eat and give as a gift?

Now go check out all of the other awesome cookie recipes in the Cookie Exchange Blog Hop below!  I definitely have several new recipes I want to try out this holiday season!  Yum!

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I've teamed up with 7 other fabulous bloggers for a Cookie Exchange Blog Hop!
Check out all of our delicious holiday and Christmas cookie recipes below!

Keri Lynn Snyder: Holiday Cookies

Polka-Dotty Place: Brookies

Wife Mommy Me: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sweet Little Ones: Chocolate Almond No Bake Cookies

Waltzing In Beauty: Biscotti Cookies

Chasin' Mason: Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies

The Adventure Starts Here: White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

Our Pretty Little Girls: Frosted Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

What is your favorite Christmas cookie to eat and give as a gift?

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Feast Day Celebrations: St. Francis of Assisi

We love learning about the saints with our kids!  Celebrating their feast days with food, activities, and fun are a great way to teach the kids about these holy men and women's beautiful lives for Christ.   

And October 4th is St. Francis of Assisi's feast day!

Francis was born in 1181 in Assisi, Italy to a cloth merchant.  He lived a life of luxury and loved to spend money.  One day as a young man heading off to war, everything changed.  He was taken captive and became ill.  He was imprisoned for over a year and during this time he realized that the glory of battle was nothing compared to the glory of Christ.

After returning home, he visited an old, dilapidated church.  He heard Jesus on the Crucifix say to him, "Francis, go and repair my house, which you see is falling down."  He quickly went about doing this in any way he could (which got him in a lot of trouble with his family).  He rebuilt the physical church but came to realize that it was not just the physical church that Jesus asked him to help rebuild.  He was called to care for the spiritual well being of the people of His Church.

Over the next several years, he began living an austere life, following Matthew 10 as an example.  He took care of lepers, was a true friend of animals, preached repentance and the Gospel, was a writer and stigmatist (he was given the Wounds of the Crucified Christ), and lived in complete simplicity and poverty.  His way of life began to spread and many men joined him then and still do today.

I have completely glossed over this incredible saint's life - he is amazing and this blog post would be way too long if I included everything!  So I hope you'll read more about St. Francis of Assisi here or here.

Ok, on to the celebration of his holy life! 

Here are some fun and simple ideas to celebrate the feast day of St. Francis with your family:

St. Francis and Franciscan brothers have a very different hairstyle, which is called a tonsure.  Franciscans have tonsures as a sign of religious devotion and humility.  So we'll be eating tonsures today in the form of donuts!

Below I have posted affiliate links, which means that I may make a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking on that link. Please see the disclosure page for more info!

To learn a little about the life of St. Francis of Assisi, we'll watch our CCC of America animated movie Francis: The Knight of Assisi.  It is a really fun one, especially for little boys.  I think it really shows the adventure of living a life for Christ.

We'll also read The Song of St. Francis by Tomie dePaola.  We just love his books, especially the ones on the saints.  They are so colorful and beautifully written!

Moving on to some fun little activities!  Here are two that we're going to do: this coloring page...

...and this St. Francis Peace Prayer activity.

Another important aspect of St. Francis's life was his love for animals!

He was a true friend of animals - he had a tremendous love for all of God's creation in nature.  There are many stories of how he loved and was able to talk to animals.  It's very common practice in and around his feast day for there to be a blessing of animals and pets.

Well, we don't have any pets, so we are going to say the blessing for our stuffed animals instead!

Some other fun ideas for celebrating St. Francis's love of animals:

Go to the zoo, take a hike in the woods, or wear clothes with animals on them (even Mickey counts!).

And make bird seed cakes - these were so fun to make with the kids!

Bird Seed Cakes
(adapted from Living My Life on Purpose)

Ingredients and Materials:

3 cups bird seed
1 cup boiling water
2 packets unflavored gelatin
Muffin tin or mold
Yarn or string
Straws (cut into 2-3 inch pieces)

Directions:

1.  Boil 1 cup of water.

2.  Add packets of gelatin slowly and stir until (mostly) dissolved.

3.  Add bird seed and stir until seed is covered.  It will be pretty wet.

4.  Spoon bird seed mixture evenly into your greased mold or muffin tin.  (I used cooking spray to grease the pan.)

5.  Place a straw an inch down from the top.  Let the cakes set overnight.

6.  When the bird seed cakes are hardened the following day, pull out the straw and string yarn through the hole.  Tie the yarn and then it's ready to hang up for our feathered friends!

Notes:  A donut mold would be perfect for this!  Then you wouldn't need the straws and you could just string your yarn through the donut hole!

Also, I made these bird seed cakes for the first time yesterday - so I'll let you know how they hold up!

We have really loved learning more about the lives of the saints this year through celebrating their lives as a family.  Their words and actions point directly to Christ!

Happy Feast of St. Francis of Assisi!  Like this amazing saint, may we live lives of generosity and simplicity and may we always build up His Church in the world and within our own home in everything we say and do.
 

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Amish Strawberry Shortcake

It's strawberry season!

We have a strawberry patch in our own garden so every year we get tons of fresh homegrown strawberries.  And while they are amazing to eat all on their own, they are also amazing on shortcake!

I found this Amish Strawberry Shortcake recipe a few years ago, and it is our family's absolute favorite.  It's definitely the crumbly and sugary streusel-like topping that really makes it stand out!

Below I have posted an affiliate link, which means that I may make a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking on that link. Please see the disclosure page for more info! 

Amish Strawberry Shortcake
(Modified from Tastes of Lizzy T's Amish Strawberry Shortcake recipe)

Ingredients:

Shortcake:
2 cups flour (I use 100% whole wheat pastry flour - Bob's Red Mill is my favorite)
4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup applesauce

Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour (once again, I use 100% whole wheat pastry flour)
3 Tbsp. cold butter

Strawberries:
2 lbs. strawberries, cleaned, hulled, and sliced
1/4 cup sugar (or to taste)

Directions:

1.  Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar) together.  Add butter and combine until crumbly.

2.  Add milk and applesauce, and mix until just combined.  Mixture will be very thick and sticky.

3.  Spread batter evenly into a greased 8x8 baking dish.  Set aside.

4.  For the shortcake topping, mix together the flour and sugar in a separate mixing bowl.  Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the mixture.  Use a pastry blender (or two knives) to cut butter into the flour/sugar mixture to create crumbs.  (Crumb topping should look similar to what is pictured above.)  Sprinkle on top of the batter in the baking dish.

5.  Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the middle of the cake comes out clean.

6.  While the shortcake is in the oven, pour 1/2 cup of sugar on top of the sliced strawberries in a bowl that can easily be covered and put in the refrigerator.  Gently mix until the strawberries are covered with the sugar.  Refrigerate strawberry topping for at least 3 hours. 

7.  Allow shortcake to cool completely before serving.  Serve topped with strawberry topping, milk (my husband's fave addition!), whipped topping, ice cream, etc.

Notes:

We use applesauce as a substitute for eggs since our son has an allergy.  If you prefer, use 1 egg (beaten) instead of the applesauce in this recipe.

Also, you can add more sugar to the strawberries to suit your family's tastes.  1/2 cup is a good starting point.

A nice strawberry "juice" will start to surround the strawberries after some time in the refrigerator.  We love pouring that on top of the shortcake as well!

Do you grow your own strawberries or go strawberry picking?  What are your favorite strawberry recipes?

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