Lucuma Spice Muffins

I'm back! It's been a looooooong food blogging hiatus, for good reason. I've been busy with my now 9-month old! She is absolutely, positively, scrumptiously adorable and the love of my life, and the past 9 months have been incredible. And incredibly busy, since I've also started a new job. I have still been able to squeeze in some cooking and baking, although not as much as I used to of course. Over the long weekend, baking was on my to-do list, along with using up some of my lucuma powder. And so... along came this sweet but healthy little muffins!

Power Energy Bites and "Super Foods"

These little bites are packed full of nutrients. Small and mighty. Easy grab & go. A little bit chocolatey, chewy, and just a hint of sweetness. Perfect for popping before a trip to the gym, a long run, or just when you need a little energy kick.

Birthday Sugar Cookies

Some of our good friends had a birthday party for their one year old last weekend, so I brought along these sweet frosted treats to help celebrate! These roll-and-cut sugar cookies are easy to make and fun to decorate. They taste sweet and sugary, and just a little buttery, with just the right crunch-to-chewiness consistency.

Vegan Candy Corn and Chocolate Candy Corn

Candy corn seems to be one of those polarizing things. You either love it, or you hate it. For me, it's always been the former. Until I eat too much of it and then I hate it- for a few hours, anyway. But no matter how much I may OD on candy corn in October, every year when Fall rolls around, I look forward to its return, right along with the falling leaves, crisp air, and cozy sweaters, of course. No matter which candy corn camp you're in, you have to admit, these little candies, with their uniquely sweet texture, are a Fall candy staple. So of course I needed to make vegan candy corn!

Persimmon Pumpkin Cookies

Hello persimmons. Meet pumpkin. I think you two will work well together...

The last pumpkin cookies I made were soft little bites filled with melty chocolate chips. But the pumpkin didn't shine quite as much as I wanted it to. I wanted pumpkin cookies that SCREAMED pumpkin. I wanted to up the PUMPKIN ANTE...

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies & Other Weekend Treats

As promised, we're leaving the tropics behind and moving on to Fall-themed recipes. I ran around the Farmer's market this weekend excited to find squashes and persimmons (yes! it's persimmon season again!) in addition to my usual leafy greens. I whipped up these pumpkin cookies Friday night, and they reminded me a little of my mother's pumpkin bread, in cookie form, with mini melty chocolate chips. Well hellllloooo there Fall, I didn't realize I'd missed you so much!

Candied Cacao Nib Cookies

Want something a little nuttier than your typical chocolate chip cookie? Try these on for size! They're chewy, sweet, and a little crunchy.

Kamut-Apricot Bars

Have you tried Kamut? It's one of those "ancient grains" - a type of wheat called khorasan wheat, and has more fiber, protein, and vitamins that your average "modern day" wheat. I've had pasta made with Kamut before (which I also recommend trying- it makes for a nice- and healthy- change), but hadn't tried other Kamut products. When I saw a bag of Kamut puffs at my grocery store, I knew I had to try them. And it got me inspired to try a new variation of my snack balls & bars.

Parfait! -and non-dairy yogurt info

Yogurt, fruit, and granola makes for a delicious snack or breakfast. I used to eat at least a yogurt a day before going vegan. Since January, I've pretty much stayed away from the non-dairy yogurts, as my initial impressions of them were not so great. Grainy, odd-tasting soy yogurts were what I'd experienced. But, there are a lot of new products that are actually really good (it may just take some trial & error to find the one(s) you like).  Read on for my explorations in the non-dairy yogurt world.
**For my granola recipes, see these links:
Maple-Banana Low Fat Granola
Healthy Tropical Granola

Vitamin C Pie!

I never get sick. At least, I say I never get sick. This week, after coming back from a long weekend away with too little sleep, I felt it coming on. I downed one of those vitamin C smoothie drinks, along with some Cold-Eeze pills, but it was useless. Hellloooo cold/flu from hell. The last time I was sick (about 3 years ago), I remember my sister giving me kiwis, because they contain more vitamin C than an orange. And then I thought of this fruit-filled raw pie, and how refreshing it would be to soothe my sore throat, and I was on my way to kiwi pie heaven...

Homemade Chocolates with Sugar Filling

Every week there's at least one food picture I find online that makes me say, "I HAVE to make that!" These Easter Egg Peppermint Patties were it this week. I thought it'd be fun to try my hand at making my own chocolates- specifically, my own peppermint patties! But, as I tend to do with most of my desserts, I made a few different variations...

Mango Mini Muffins

I LOVE mangoes. Love, love, love them. When I saw this recipe for mango bread, I was totally inspired, since I usually don't do much with mangoes besides just plain eat them. Speaking of which... I have a little mango story. We'll get back to that after the recipe, though.

Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites and Stuffed Pretzels

Soft pretzels are hands-down one of my favorite things. I've found two places with THE BEST soft pretzels ever. First: anywhere in Germany; there is nothing as good as a fresh, German soft pretzel- all buttery, salty, perfectly chewy, and delicious. Second: the Carmel Bakery in Carmel, California. I had actually been considering breaking vegan for that Carmel pretzel after my marathon in April, simply because it ends in Carmel, and, well, I will have run an entire 26.2 miles. The thought of walking by that bakery, or never having another German soft pretzel, was just too much to take.... until now.

Healthy Snack-Balls and Bars

I realize there are about a million recipes for these little snack-bites out there... but I thought I'd still share mine, for my friends & family who haven't seen them yet, and to hopefully provide some new ingredient ideas. If you haven't ever seen or tried these little bites, they basically taste just like cookie dough, but are healthier. These little bites are also incredibly quick & easy to make, and can be varied in hundreds of different ways. It's impossible not to love them. Call them bites, babies, or balls.... whatever you name them, they taste great!

Vegan Superbowl Spread and Cookie Mania

 

Well, we didn't end up hosting a party as I'd hoped, but we did go to a great one, and I brought tons of treats. Since we were traveling with them, I put these awesome pretzel & cheese bites (to veganize) back on my to do list, and instead picked some more portable pop-'ems I've been wanting to make.

On my menu: 1) Vanilla & Spice's Black Bean Cups with Plantain Guacamole, 2) No Bake Chocolate Oat Cookies, and 3) what I'm calling "Not-So-Chubby Hubbies"

Date & Oat Bars

This is a variation on the homemade banana oat & fruit bars I posted earlier, but they are slightly nuttier tasting due to using a little more flax seeds. Easy to make, healthy, and maybe better than store bought (?!) . . .

The Smart Cookie Remake Attempt

Recently I had a cookie made by The Cookie Department - "The Smart Cookie." It is made with sweet potato, cranberries, oatmeal, and molasses, and sprinkled with a little bit of sea salt. It's big, sort of flat, and soooo chewy. It is AMAZING. And they sell it at the coffee bar across the street from me. This could be trouble.

Check it out here.

Oh yeah, and it's vegan.

I decided I had to attempt to make it myself. Anything that good, I wanted in my recipe arsenal.

Homemade Oat & Fruit Bars

I've been wanting to make my own 'larabars' for a while, and since I just got a new package of Medjool dates, I figured now was the time to do it! 

Recipe inspired by the banana bread bars from Kabocha Fashionista. 
Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup Trader Joe's blueberry muesli (you can sub with plain oats)
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 cup chopped, pitted dates (I used fresh Medjool) 
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 Tbsp roasted flax seeds (optional, for added protein)
• 1 medium, ripe banana 
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/8 tsp pumpkin pie spice (you can sub with cinnamon)
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup roasted pumpkin seeds (I used salted, store- bought, but you can always make your own)

Ingredients for paste

Fruit paste

Oat & nut flour

Pre-cut bars

Steps:

1. Add the muesli, oats, seeds, and nuts to a food processor and blend until they make a coarse 'flour.' Transfer into a bowl so you can use the processor for the other ingredients. Optional: Leave out about 1/4 cup of the muesli from processing here, for a little added texture to your bars. I recommend! 
2. Add the dates, banana, raisins and spices to the food processor after removing the flour, and blend into a paste. You may need to scrape the sides during the process.
3. Mix the paste & flour well. You may want to add extra muesli or oats here, depending on the paste:flour ratio (I did; the original recipe only called for 3/4 cup oats - I upped the ingredients above to a total of 1 and 1/4 cups oats +muesli, but you can always edit as you go by adding more dry ingredients at this stage).
4. Line a baking sheet or flat pan with some wax or parchment paper, and form the dough into a large rectangle. Store overnight or 24 hours.
5. Check the hardness of your bars- if too moist, you can try putting in the oven at 300 degrees for about 10-15min, and then putting back into the fridge for a few more hours. I'm not sure the baking actually helps to solidify them, so it may be best to just leave in the fridge longer. 
6. Cut into bars & wrap in tin foil to save for later. I store mine in the fridge. I also cut mine into little bite-sized squares, rather than full-bar sized, so that I can grab them for a little snack whenever. 

Notes:
It's hard to go wrong with the flavors here. These are easy to make and delicious! I love the addition of the pumpkin seeds too. These could easily be altered to different flavor varieties- using figs, golden raisins, dried cherries, etc! I liked using the blueberry muesli here because it has dried blueberries in it, which go very nicely with the other fruits. If you are looking for something packed with even more nutrients, you could always add more flax seeds, or add bran, chia seeds, almonds... the options are endless!

Chia smoothies

 Happy Vegan MoFo! (that's MOnth of FOod). To kick it off, here's a chia smoothie...

Until a few months ago, I had never heard of Chia seeds. If you would have said "Chia..", I would have said, "pet." But, apparently, they are all the rage in the vegan blogging world. So, since everyone else was jumping off the bridge, I thought I would too.

So here's my first try using Chia seeds, inspired by this recipe from HappierHealthierJeffie and a little bit from posts on Running with Spoons.

Ingredients:

• 1 scoop chocolate Spirutein
• 1 cup vanilla unsweetened almond or other non-dairy milk (I like Trader Joe's almond milk best! or Silk lowfat vanilla soymilk)
• 1 frozen banana 
• 1 Tbsp chia seeds

Blend to enjoy!

Notes:
So.... how did it taste? Pretty much just like it would without the seeds, but a little thicker. I also really liked using the frozen banana - it's a nice way to get added thickness and coldness, without using ice (which never blends fully in my not-so-great blender).

It seemed like most of my chia seeds ended up on the side of the blender or my cup... after looking up some information online (ummm, AFTER making and drinking my smoothie), I realized that perhaps it's best to soak the chia seeds first. Since I was only using 1 Tbsp of the seeds, it's fine to do as above, but it seems it's recommended to drink water if you are having unsoaked chia seeds, since they can absorb water within your body, which could lead to dehydration (after reading this, I ran to my Brita). Next time, I think I will let the chia seeds sit in the milk for a little while, or else soak them in water for 15 minutes, whisk, and use the resulting "chia gel" - chia seeds soak up to 9 times their weight in water.

An update: when I did this the next day, it worked much better! It's also just kind of cool to see the gel form and the tiny little seeds transform. Using the gel makes the consistency of the smoothie better as well. I put 1 Tbsp of chia seeds in a small bowl and added enough water to cover them. I stirred a little bit, and 15 minutes later, voilà! Gel!

Chia gel

Alternate smoothie flavor versions:

• Fig-a-licious: sub a few ice cubes and 1 chopped fig for the banana. This tatstes a little like a fig newton, and is slightly lower in calories than using the bannana. 
• Fresh fruit: blueberries and strawberries also go well with the Spiru-tein powder.
• Other Spiru-tein flavors: (Spiru-tein is just a protein powder) they have 20 different flavors, but the easiest to find are usually (in addition to the chocolate) vanilla, banana, tropical fruit, and strawberry. I've only tried vanilla, tropical fruit, and chocolate; I think using something fairly neutral is good bc it gives you more options for mix-ins with fresh fruit, but the cookies and cream and cookie dough flavors do sound a little enticing!

Chia seed information:
They call chia seeds the "Aztec superfood," and the nutritional benefits list of these seeds is long- they are high in fiber, omega-3s, protein, and calcium. They are also reported to control appetite and sugar levels, keep you hydrated (that is, when soaked), and aid endurance. That's one powerful little seed!

In addition to smoothies, chia seeds can be added into oatmeal, or the chia gel could be used in baked goods. They seem to be a great way to get additional nutrients, especially if you are on a diet that prevents you from getting these things from other natural sources.

Chia seeds soaked in water: chia gel

Bannana-berry Smoothie

It's a hot day, so my husband and I whipped up this refreshing smoothie for breakfast:

Ingredients: (I actually didn't measure anything, so these are estimates) - makes enough for 2 large smoothies.

• 2 small-medium ripe bananas 
• 1 cup fresh sliced & washed strawberries
• 1/2 cup fresh washed blueberries
• 1/2 cup Kefir (or sub: vanilla yogurt)
• 1/4 cup lowfat vanilla yogurt
• 1 Tbsp agave syrup
• 2-3 cups ice cubes

Blend to enjoy!