Almond Butter Fruit Dip

Sometimes unexpected things happen in the kitchen.

Sometimes they are more of the unwelcome variety. For example, this morning I was getting supper ready to go in the slow cooker. I quickly reached into the refrigerator to grab a box of chicken broth and immediately started shaking it up. Suddenly everything was covered! If I had been a little bit more careful and had payed any attention to what I was doing at all, I would have noticed that the little tab was not secure. So I totally covered not only the kitchen, but also my poor Little Monkey who happened to be standing right in the line of fire. And let me tell you, she did not appreciate it either. I, being the very picture of maturity, thought it was pretty darn funny; and proceeded to teasingly tell her I was going to eat her since she smelled so delicious.

That probably didn’t help her feel better about the situation. Oh well. The Dude would have appreciated it, but she was at preschool. Le sigh.

So there are the not so great unexpected kitchen happenings, but there are also some delicious ones.

Remember back when I made this breakfast cake? Well, when I was tasting as I went along making that cake, I found out something quite unexpected.

There is a second little recipe hidden inside.

A tasty fruit dip recipe.

Oh yes.

If you stir together a little almond butter, Greek yogurt, brown sugar, and vanilla; bam! Sliced fruit just turned into a more interesting and filling snack.

This stuff is crazy good. Super rich and nutty (duh!) from the almond butter, with a little tang from the yogurt. It is sweet, obviously, but not so much that it overpowers the sweet fruit slices you have going on. And it really does make a filling snack (ahem…or lunch..oops), thanks to all of the protein and healthy fats that are packed in from the almonds and yogurt. Score!

Almond Butter Fruit Dip

3/4 cup almond butter (you can whip up my recipe found here)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon vanilla

Stir together almond butter and brown sugar until well combined.

Fold in Greek yogurt and vanilla.

May be served immediately or after a couple of hours left in the refrigerator to chill with fruit slices, graham crackers, pretzels, etc.

Cherry Almond Butter Breakfast Cake

My mom was always the coolest. Whenever we had some leftover, she let my sisters and I  have cake for breakfast.

I guess she figured that cake really wasn’t any worse for you than most sugary cereals out there. I actually agree with her on that one, yet I have never given The Dude cake for breakfast. Mainly because there is no amount of coffee in the world that could help me power through Sugar Dude first thing in the morning. Scary thought.

This weekend though, I decided I wanted to be cool like my mom. The Dude stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing her sleepy eyes as I was feeding Monkey some breakfast. I gave her a big hug and asked her what she would like to eat, “Monkey is having cake. Would you like some too?”

“Waaaahht?! Cake for breakfast?!”

Needless to say, she was game; and I felt like the cool mom. Mission accomplished.

This here is a cake you don’t have to feel bad about feeding to the wee ones.

I am billing it as a breakfast cake because it runs circles around cereal (or leftover birthday cake, for that matter) in terms of nutrition. But really, it is great any time of day. It makes a nice mid day snack, or a grab and go lunch for anyone who has to chase around after kids who have boundless energy.

It is full of fruit, oats, whole wheat flour, Greek yogurt, flax seed, and as promised, the fabulous almond butter that we made over the weekend.

You will notice that for this recipe, I let my oats soak for a little while before I combined them into the batter. Basically I did this because The Dude has texture issues. Many times, if she sees oats peeking through baked goods, she picks them out and declares that “nuts are yucky.” I have never been able to convince her that the oats she sometimes finds are not in fact nuts. So a lot of times what I will do is soak them in milk for a bit before I bake with them. It helps the oats dissolve into the batter and adds a bit of softness to the whole wheat which can sometimes be a little grainy.

Here are my oats pre-soak.

And here they are after about 45 minutes.

And just a little heads up, this is not a very sweet cake so I made a little sweet drizzle to go over the top.

Come on now, even though it is healthy cake we have to have a little bit of fun. I mean…I am the cool mom after all…

Cherry Almond Butter Breakfast Cake

1 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 cup almond milk (regular dairy milk is fine too)

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 tablespoons milled flax seed

3/4 cup almond butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

1/2 tablespoon vanilla

1 cup dried cherries

Stir together oats and almond milk in a small bowl and let sit for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium bowl stir together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and flax seed. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine almond butter and brown sugar.

Fold in Greek yogurt and vanilla.

Stir softened oats into the almond butter mixture.

Add the dry ingredients to wet.

Fold in the dried cherries.

Press batter into a greased 8×8 in pan (it tends to be pretty thick and sticky, so you may want to press it down with your hands) and bake for 30 minutes.

Let cool completely before drizzling with glaze (2 tablespoons powdered sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons almond milk) and cutting into squares.