Guilt-Free Friday-Turned-Saturday: Pop-Tarts / Breakfast Pastries

Here's little man with Daddy at the Red Bud Lighted Parade

I was doing good for awhile there, posting Guilt-Free FRIDAY recipes on FRIDAYs.  But, I've been on a slight bit of overload lately, and yesterday just slipped out from under me.  The new house has finally been picking up a little more momentum and Harlee started potty training - he's been at it for a little over a week now and he has been doing AWESOME - spent the last two days going potty all by himself without me having to ask him.  Goodbye diaper days!!  I can honestly say I don't understand those parents who get all teary about their kids growing up - I LOVE it.  I love all these new phases and next steps he enters into.  Like lately his imagination has been developing.  He'll sit at the stove with me and play with utensils over an empty pan and say he's cooking eggs.  He'll ask me to "taste" them but warn me that their "too hot".  THIS is what I've been waiting for.  I'm not really a newborn kind of person.  But this imaginative toddler thing?  LOVE it.  I don't miss those baby days at all but I made sure to savor them while they were there, just as I am doing with these days, and I can't wait for all the new adventures his little life brings us.

But on top of all that, I've been needing to get ready for the Christmas home tour put on by the Red Bud Chamber of Commerce.  No, the new house is not on the tour - that seems to be the popular question - the current house we live in is on the tour, in hopes that somebody might be interested in buying it, as it's for sale.  Since we have to move and all.  But I wasn't sure if the move would happen before Christmas or not, so to be on the safe side (and not have to unpack and repack and unpack and repack a whole bunch of Christmas decorations) I decorated for Thanksgiving.  But before we did that we had to pack up the majority of our junk and start hauling it out to the new house.  It's insane how much stuff a small family can accumulate through a few short years.  So many boxes are moved out to the new house and I don't even miss any of it... I think I'm just going to have a huge garage sale or something just so none of it has to come into the new house once it's finished.  But anyway.  It was a lot of work, balanced amongst Justin working 13 hour shifts 7 days a week for a month and a half, me picking up more clients at my business, and trying to run the household as we know it.  Craziness!  Needless to say I rejoiced when Justin got laid off from this last job.  Whew!  Mostly because he cleans better than I do... :)  We packed and moved and cleaned and scrubbed and I got it all pulled together today while Justin sat in a tree waiting for the right deer to walk by, and I must say I'm pretty pleased with it.

Last night was the Run Rudolph Run 5k and the Red Bud Lighted Parade (see picture above of my cute hunters watching the floats go by), on top of a busy day at the office and preparing for the tour Sunday.  So needless to say Guilt-Free Friday did not happen.  But it's happening now!  Better late than never!  I have so many recipes... double chocolate cake cookies, cranberry orange brownies, peanut butter birthday cake with chocolate fudge icing - all big hits with requests to share the recipes - but this has been sitting in my archives the longest, and since creating the first recipe I've come up with two flavor options, so I figured I better get this one out of the way first.  Plus everyone who's sampled these have begged me to post, so here it is!


Okay so sticking a Kellogg's Pop-Tart in the toaster and eating it is really WAY easier than making these guys by hand, but they're sooooooo bad for you... I'm so embarrassed at the thought that I'd consider Pop-Tarts an actual breakfast even into my early adult years.  Thank goodness I discovered Paleo/clean eating and put a stop to that thought process!  Yeah they're pretty tasty, I'll give them that, but NOT breakfast.  Processed pastry crust with processed sugary "fruit" filling with artificial colors and ingredients... why would anyone want to start their day on that?  Why is that considered okay?  Probably because it's quick and easy.

Unfortunately, these are not quick... they're not too difficult but I still can't say they're easy either.  But they're REALLY good, and they're WAY better for you than those totally unhealthy Pop-Tarts.  So just make up a bunch of them when you're feeling ambitious and stick them in the freezer to save for those rushed on-the-go days!  Because they can't get any easier if they're already pre-made!

So, set some time aside, clear some space in your kitchen, and get cracking!

Crust: (adapted from a sugar-cookie recipe from Elana's Pantry)

3 cups almond flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1/4 cup honey
1 egg

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl with a hand mixer (or whatever you've got on hand) until a dough forms.  Press half the dough out between two pieces of parchment paper and roll out to about 1/8" thin.  Cut with a pizza cutter into 2"x3" rectangles and place in the freezer.  Don't skip the freezer part - this dough is super sticky and impossible to work with unless it's set up in the freezer a bit.

Filling:

4 cups fruit (berries, diced apples, etc)
3/4 cup water
3-4 tbsp maple syrup (depending on how sweet you want it)
*If you're using apples, add 2 tsp cinnamon

Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until thick and bubbly and jam-like.

Pop-Tarts / Pastries:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Take your crust out of the freezer, place one of the sheets of parchment paper on a baking sheet and carefully transfer half of your cut rectangles onto the sheet.  Spoon a bit of filling onto each rectangle, take one of the remaining rectangles and place over top and pinch the edges down with a fork.  Place in the oven a bake for 8-10 minutes or until crust is golden brown.  Eat warm or let cool and enjoy!

 Or you can press the dough into muffin cups and fill them that way - they make cute little mini pies!  Bake about 10-15 minutes.