Strawberry Chocolate Smoothie {RECIPE}

A Valentine's Day treat from 12-year-old homeschooler, Angelica!

Strawberries + Chocolate = Valentine Smoothies!

These smoothies are easy, sweet and colorful! Adding small chocolate hearts only make them cuter, don’t ya think? 

Use frozen fruit instead of ice to boost the nutritional value, thicken the smoothie naturally and avoid using sugar.

Strawberry Smoothie

By Angelica Rodriguez 

• 2 cups frozen strawberries
• 1 ½ cup milk
• ½ cup yogurt
• 1 tbsp agave or honey
• ¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips

Place all ingredients in blender (except chocolate). Blend until smooth.
Place chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl.
Microwave in 30-second intervals until chocolate is melted.
Use spoon to make hearts on parchment paper.
Refrigerate until ready to garnish your smoothie.

Makes 2

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Angelica is a 12-year-old homeschooler with dreams of becoming a pastry chef.

Addicted to comics, food network, and carnival rides, Angelica loves taking over her mom's kitchen. She is currently working on perfecting her piecrust while her family reaps the benefits. You can find her sharing her baking skills over at Sweet Life.

Quinoa Cookies {RECIPE}

Today's post is written by our 12-year-old homeschooled contributor, Angelica.


Cookies are a great way to introduce your kids to Quinoa (keen-wa). This is how my mom first served up this little grain, smart.  With a tall glass of cold milk, my sister and I quickly gobbled them up! As we enjoyed our cookies my mom began to share the history of quinoa and its healthy benefits.   

Quinoa contains more high quality protein than any other grain. It is called a complete protein which means it provides your body with all nine essential amino acids.

Helps to increase tissue growth and repair. A great source of magnesium and iron.

Quinoa is gluten free.

The Incas considered Quinoa a sacred food.  A staple in their diets, these warriors turned to quinoa to fuel their bodies for war, hunting season, and when the tribe relocated their families. Known as the “mother seed” quinoa had been cultivated in the Andean mountains for 5,000 years.  In an effort to control the Incas, the Spanish Conquerors destroyed every field where quinoa was grown. The Conquerors ended the cultivation of quinoa by sentencing death to anyone who tried to grow quinoa. 

Quinoa was not grown until the 1980’s in Colorado. In the hopes of giving back a bit of the Inca history, two Americans began to cultivate quinoa.  These Americans realized that quinoa grew well in drought.  Soon quinoa would be considered a super crop, helping the United Nations feed the hungry. It was also served by NASA on long flights in space.    

New Moon Quinoa Coconut Cookies

By Simple Spoonful

January 9, 2009

1/2 c natural peanut butter

1/3 c raw agave nectar

2 T freshly ground flax seeds

2 c cooked quinoa, completely cooled (Make sure this is not too wet or the cookies won’t hold together. It should be on the dry side and fluffy. If yours is pretty saucy, make sure to cook it a bit longer to evaporate the excess water.)

1 c rolled oats

1/2 c dried, shredded, unsweetened coconut

1/4 c raw cacao nibs (Optional) I did not use them

Preheat the oven on its lowest setting. Mine was 170 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. The parchment paper is non-negotiable. (FYI, you could easily pull this off in a dehydrator or solar oven, if you have either.)

In a bowl, mix together the peanut butter, agave, and ground flax seeds. Mix in the quinoa, oats, and coconut. Fold in the cacao nibs if you’re using them. Your mixture should be pretty clumpy, as shown below. If your quinoa was a bit on the wet side when you started, it may not want to hold together at this point. If that’s the case, toss in a bit more flax and peanut butter and see if that helps.

Next, scoop tablespoons of delicious quinoa goop onto the parchment paper and flatten them with your fingers. Lick your fingers off. Continue the process until you’ve used up or surreptitiously managed to eat the entire batch. Make sure the cookies have decent structural integrity, as they’ll dehydrate slightly in the oven and small weak spots will become bigger. In other words, make sure they’re pretty tightly formed.

Put them in the oven and let them set up for about an hour. (my cookies took 1 ½ )

Make sure to store leftover cookies in the fridge and consume them within a week.

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Angelica is a 12-year-old homeschooler with dreams of becoming a pastry chef.

Addicted to comics, food network, and carnival rides, Angelica loves taking over her mom's kitchen. She is currently working on perfecting her pie crust while her family reaps the benefits. You can find her sharing her baking skills over at Sweet Life.

Mexican Hot Chocolate {RECIPE}

by Angelica

We’re gearing up for Las Posadas!! We’re gearing up for Christmas!! How fun!!

Can you tell I’m excited? I love Christmas. In the first two weeks of December our house swings into Holiday mode decorating, baking, wrapping and shopping. I enjoy decorating and baking, but following my mom from store to store is not my idea of a fun day.

Mid December we begin our wind down. We cut back on school, activities, and outings and turn to family. Family arrives for extended visits, we watch holiday movies and we prepare for Las Posadas.

Las Posadas begins on Dec 16^th. These days are dedicated to sharing the journey of Mary and Joseph as they searched for shelter in Bethlehem. Every year we take part in Las Posadas with our church and community. The Peregrinos will walk from house to house seeking a place to stay the night. Three homes are visited, but only the third will allow us in. This house will host the Posada that evening.

A posada celebration consists of tamales, ponche navideno, hot chocolate, sweet bread and atole. Traditional Mexican songs will play as the children bang on a piñata hoping to fill their bag with candy. Small bags of oranges, apples, candy canes and peanuts are given to the children at the end of the evening.

Tamales taste even better with hot chocolate. I would like to share one of my favorite hot chocolate recipes with you today. Happy Holidays!

Mexican Hot Chocolate

Los Barrios Family Cookbook

serves 3 or 4

3 cups milk
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tablet Mexican Chocolate (such as Nestle Abuelita or Ibarra brand), broken into pieces
Sugar to taste (optional)


1) Combine the milk and cinnamon stick in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until the milk is hot, but not boiling. Add chocolate and stir until melted.

2) Remove and discard the cinnamon stick, and sweeten with sugar, if desired.

Read more at Sweet Life Bake.

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Angelica ~ A 12yr old homeschooler with dreams of becoming a pastry chef.
Addicted to comics, food network, and carnival rides, Angelica loves taking over her mom's kitchen. She is currently working on perfecting her pie crust while her family reaps the benefits. You can find her sharing her baking skills over at Sweet Life.

Spicy Chocolate Bark, A Recipe

Today, I am overjoyed to introduce to you another new and amazing contributor to MommyMaestra. Angelica is a 12-year-old homeschooler from Texas who dreams are filled with pastries and chocolate. She has agreed to contribute to MommyMaestra once a month, thereby fulfilling her writing requirements in a fun and creative way. The photo, article, and recipe below are her own original work.

I love baking, cooking, and creating recipes with chocolate. I cannot imagine walking into the kitchen to bake and not have access to chocolate. Chocolate makes everything sweeter. Ask any kid. I have never met any kid or adult that would turn down a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie, steaming cup of hot chocolate, or chocolate covered strawberry.

We recently researched chocolate as part of my baking curriculum and what I learned really changed my outlook on this amazing ingredient. We all know of how chocolate was brought to Europe by the conquistadores. The Aztecs idolized chocolate. Chocolatl derived from the Nahuatl word Xocolatl was served during important ceremonies and was given to the soldiers to improve their stamina, helping to fight off fatigue. What I wanted to find out is how chocolate found its way into our kitchen.

Chocolatl derived from the Nahuatl word "xocolatl" made up from the words "xococ" meaning sour or bitter, and "atl" meaning water or drink. 

What I learned is that between Central Mexico and western Honduras cacao was taken to another level for cooking. At the time the only part of the cacao that was eaten was the white pulp. Not wanting to waste any part of pod, the seeds were treated as they would treat all produce. The pumpkin seeds, chiles, and extra corn left from harvest were left in the sun to dry, and then roasted on a comal to grind for cooking. A technique used for produce transformed cacao from a bitter taste to sweet paste. The heat from the sun and the roasting on the comal released the natural oil from the beans. Grinding the beans with its oil created a sweet paste that was formed into little balls to dry for later use. This development opened the window for experimenting with chocolate. Herbs, flowers, spices, and honey were added to create new flavors of chocolate. This method is still used today in Mexico.

How lucky we are to have this gift from our past. For our past to give us a wonderful treasure to enjoy daily makes me treasure chocolate even more. I wanted to share a simple recipe that highlights the flavors of that day when cacao was first laid to dry in the sun next to pumpkin seeds and chiles.

Spicy Chocolate Bark

12 ounces dark chocolate or semi sweet chocolate
¼ teaspoon cayenne
¾ teaspoon Mexican cinnamon, grated with a zester
¾ teaspoon ancho chile powder, plus more for garnish
½ cup pumpkin seeds

On a baking sheet toast pumpkin seeds at 350 degrees for 4 minutes. Cool.

Melt chocolate. Add spices and more than half of the pumpkin seeds.

Stir to incorporate the spices. Spread chocolate on wax paper. Lightly press the left over pumpkin seeds and sprinkle ancho chile for color.

Freeze for 5 minutes or until chocolate sets. Break into pieces. Serve.

Store in fridge.



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Angelica ~ A 12yr old homeschooler with dreams of becoming a pastry chef. 

Addicted to comics, food network, and carnival rides, Angelica loves taking over her mom's kitchen. She is currently working on perfecting her pie crust while her family reaps the benefits. You can find her sharing her baking skills over at Sweet Life.