“The ones with treats are better”

I once read a book by Janene Wolsey Baadsgaard where she said something to this effect: “There are two types of family home evenings – those with treats and those without. The ones with treats are better.”

If you agree, you’re in the right place! While I don’t require myself to make sure we have treats for every family night (most are treat-less), my family sure loves it when we do have them. My kids’ most requested family home evening lesson is “the one with the root beer floats”. 🙂

Super Fast Family Home Evening Treat Ideas

So here are four fast family home evening treat ideas: 5 minute blender ice cream, Nutty spiced apples, Fast Fruit Salad, and Box Brownies or Fudge.

5 Minute Blender Banana Ice Cream

Blend:

• 4 frozen bananas, cut in chunks so your blender doesn’t fry.
• 1/4-1/2 cup liquid of your choice such as milk, water, almond milk, or coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Toppings if desired: chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, nuts, shredded coconut, berries, fresh or frozen fruit, etc.

Blending frozen bananas makes an amazing “ice cream”. The consistency is absolutely perfect and with some chocolate and nuts, well, it’s pretty darn delicious.

Nutty Spiced Apples

Ingredients for 4 people:

• 4-8 apples, spiralized (preferred) or chunked small enough that nobody cares if you don’t peel them. We’re going for speed here. Peeling is not conducive to speed. The apples should nearly fill a 2 quart-sized pot.
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, or other sweetener. This will vary depending on the natural sweetness of your apples
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon and/or a couple of drops of cinnamon oil
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Toppings such as pecans, walnuts, almonds, raisins, craisins, other dried fruit, and shredded coconut. Cream, half and half, or coconut cream is particularly good!

Directions: Cook the apples, sugar, and spices together till the apples are just soft. Stir in the vanilla. Sprinkle on toppings or let everyone put on their own. Add cream if you can. It makes it extra delicious.

Fast Fruit Salad

• 4 cups frozen berries, thawed or partially thawed
• Cream, coconut cream, or non-dairy creamer.
• Cane sugar, stevia, or sweetener of your choice to taste. I prefer NuNaturals’ Vanilla Stevia for this recipe.

Directions for cold berries and cream: The main thing is to remember to thaw the berries ahead of time. If you forgot this step, just heat the berries slowly on the stove top or on low in the microwave until just thawed. Add the cream and sweetener. I like to use 3-5 drops of NuSweet’s vanilla stevia; my husband likes to use about a teaspoon of sugar. Stir until the cream turns pinkish purple or your berries’ color.

Directions for warm berries and cream: If you want a warm dessert, like berry pie filling or berry cobbler, heat the berries on the stove or in the microwave. If the berries are straight from the freezer, rinse off any ice crystals. This almost always prevents that freezer burn taste some frozen foods take on.

Box Brownies or Fudge

Sometimes, you just want chocolate. Warm, gooey chocolate. So have a boxed brownie mix on hand and if you don’t want to cook them, try making them into fudge! I do this by using coconut oil for whatever oil is called for. You can omit the eggs if you want to. My favorite brand and kind for fudge making is Ghirardelli’s Dark Chocolate Brownie mix. Here’s a blog post I wrote when I accidentally made this fudge for the first time. What a delightful surprise!

With or Without Treats

Whether you include treats or not, I wish you …

Happy Home Evenings!