Caven Nutrition Group

Ottawa’s Experts in Weight Loss Nutrition, specializing in healthy and sustainable weight loss, digestive issues, hormonal health, and stress

chickpeas

School Lunch Swaps on CTV Morning Live

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School lunches can be tough when you are trying get your kids to eat a bit better. Here we have some great alternatives to some of the lunch box regulars!

Rice Krispie Squares with a twist!

Ingredients:

Rice Krispie Cereal (approx. 6 cups)
1 Bag of marshmallows
2 Tbsp. of butter or coconut oil
1/3 cup chia seeds (white or ground ones hide better)
1/3 ground flax seeds
1/3 cup hemp hearts
Splash of vanilla
Handful of mini chocolate chips

Directions:
Melt the marshmallows and butter in a pot, slowly add the rice krispies to mixture. Once incorporated add the chia, flax and hemp seeds. Stir. Grease a 9×13” pan with coconut oil. Sprinkle in a few chocolate chips, give one last stir and place mixture into pan. A greased spatula or your fingers works well to keep the mixture from sticking. Allow to firm up, cut into squares and Enjoy!!
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Apple Slices with Cinnamon! All you need to do is cut up an apple to and sprinkle with cinnamon!

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Chummus or Chickpea Hummus

Ingredients:
1 can organic chick peas (drained and rinsed)
3 TBSP of unsweetened cocoa
2-3 TBSP of maple syrup or honey (to taste)
¼ tsp. celtic sea salt
½ tsp. of vanilla
¼ cup water or almond milk
Optional: coconut, mint, slivered almonds

Directions:
Place all the ingredients in your food processor or blender. Blend until smooth. Add water/milk a small amount at a time until desired consistency is reached.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with Chickpeas:

These are a great addition to your children’s lunch, they are quick to make, and are loaded with protein. This is very important for school age children as protein helps, with brain function, growth, energy and muscle
maintenance

Ingredients:
¾ cup of coconut palm sugar
¾ cup of butter
1 egg
2 tsp. of vanilla
1 can of chick peas 15 oz. (drained and rinsed)
2 cups of whole wheat flour or gluten free blend
½ cup oats
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. Himalayan salt
½ – ¾ cup of chocolate chips

How we do it:
Pre-heat oven to 350.
Mix butter and sugar in a bowl, beat in an egg. Add the vanilla.
Drain and rinse one can of chick peas, blend in your food processor until creamy.
Mix into sugar mixture. Add in flour, oats, baking soda and salt. Mix until a creamy batter is obtained.
Sprinkle in your chocolate chips and give one last stir. Place round balls approx. 1” in diameter on cookie sheet, you may have to flatten with a spoon, as they don’t spread very much.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, allow to cool and then Enjoy!!

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Watch the segment here:

http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=723628&binId=1.1487308&playlistPageNum=1

Roasted Chickpeas are a perfect snack and these Maple Roasted ones are a hit!

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Crunchy Cinnamon and Maple Roasted Chickpeas

These are so delicious! All of my kids were not so patiently waiting for them to come out of the oven. (And my oldest hates chick peas) More than one of them came into the kitchen saying, “what smells like cinnamon buns! Can we try those?” As we all know smell is the so important in what we choose to eat! They are so simple to make but pack a nutritional punch. Chick peas are a great source of protein, high in iron, rich in fibre and can help to stabilize blood sugar levels. These little babies are great warm out of the oven, cold on their own, or put into a snack mix for school. The only downfall was we only had one can, and they only lasted a few minutes.

Ingredients:
I can organic chick peas
2T coconut oil
2T maple syrup
2-3 tsp. of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Drain and rinse chick peas. Pour onto a baking sheet. Melt coconut oil, mix with maple syrup and pour over chick peas. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Place in oven for 40 to 50 minutes, shaking pan every 10 minutes to prevent them from sticking. Allow to cool for a few minutes before eating.

Mix them up with some snacks for kids! Our nutritionist Jen Wright always has awesome idea for snacks! photo 3-7

12 Days of Healthy Christmas Joy- Day 2 Chickpea Cookies (with mint) and they are flourless too!

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These cookies are great and soft!
Chickpeas make the base of this cookie and have the benefits of calming magnesium, some Vitamin C for the winter times, and are a vegan source of protein!

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Chickpea Cookies?!

Ingredients
-1¼ cups canned chickpeas, well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel or towel ( One can of regular chickpeas works they are usually the right size (425 grams is good but I have used 400 grams) Eden Organic has a good kind to purchase.

-****2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or Mint Extract but use less as you might have to taste test so it’s not too overwhelming)
-½ cup of nut butter I used Rainforest Nut butter with coconut oil in it, but any natural nut butter works, you want it to be natural, I don’t think this will work with that PB with the bear on it…, plus you should not be eating that anyway!
– 2 tbsps of cacao or cocoa powder or MORE if you love chocolate
-¼ cup Xylitol and 1 tsp of honey (if you think the honey is needed)
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-a pinch of salt if your nut butter doesn’t have salt in it
-½ cup broken up 85% to 90% Lindt chocolate or Krisda chips
–Optional-
1 Tbsp of Yoso Unsweetened coconut yogurt as well. Adds beautiful texture and softness.
If you wish to omit the cocoa just use more nut butter and extra yogurt.

Directions
Preheat your oven to 350°F / 175°C. Combine all the ingredients (including your extra options like yogurt or extra nut butter if you wish) but make an exception for the chocolate pieces/chips as it’s the last step. Pulse in a food processor or really good blender and process until very smooth. Make sure to scrape the sides and the top to get the little chunks of chickpeas, you will be able to see them! It will be quite mushy.
Put in the chocolate chips/chocolate and stir it if you can, or pulse it once or twice. The mixture will be very thick. You can also just mix it with spatula.
With wet hands, form into 1½” balls. Place onto a pan with a piece of parchment paper lining it. They are soft so don’t flatten them too much.

Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes. The dough balls will still be very soft when you take them out of the oven. They don’t set really but the bottoms will be baked, you can check the underbelly!

Store in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge!

Try these an a tasty option for your Christmas Cookie plate! All in one bowl or blender! You can make these refined sugar free by omitting the Lindt chocolate 🙂

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