Banana Junkie

So yesterday in my Tylenol with codeine induced haze (I had my wisdom teeth out, I don’t just pop it for fun), I made a delicious discovery.

The discovery of banana bread. No sugar added, oil free, heavenly banana bread.

The recipe can be found over at Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. I swapped the chocolate chips for an ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate all chopped up and used a mixture of all-purpose and wheat flours. This recipe was easy to whip together, popped right out of the pan and tastes like a dream. Dreena is a genius. I’m putting her cookbook on my wish list for Christmas.

In the meantime I will devour this banana bread. And perhaps share with Kyle. =)

Eat your Oats!

Short post today. Supershort.

Let me just say that vegan overnight oat parfaits are perfection.

Oh yes, perfection.

Whether it’s your first attempt (chocolate) and it’s too liquidy..

Or your second attempt and it’s just right..

This Goldielocks is one happy camper!

All thanks to Angela over at Oh She Glows.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Here a Bake, there a Bake..

For the past two weeks I have been obsessed with bakes. It all started over the Edible Perspective with her baked buckwheat post.

If you haven’t stopped by her site yet, I suggest you do. Her bakes have been popping up all over the blogging world, as well as the rest of her fabulous recipes. My breakfasts just haven’t been the same since I started reading oh-so-long ago.

There’s been a few flops before I really got it right here. Then I purchased an Italian made soup crock and started experimenting outside of buckwheat (mostly for fear of running out..).

I’ve had 3 major successes. All have been inspired by Ashley’s original recipe.

The first is a blueberry kamut bake.

Stuffed full of wild blueberries and topped with vanilla bean coconut butter!

Blueberry Kamut Bake
1/4 cup raw kamut, ground finely
1 tablespoon flax meal
1 tablespoon raw buckwheat groats
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 banana, mashed
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons soy milk (or other non-dairy milk)
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 flax egg (1 tablespoon flax meal + 2 1/2 tablespoons water)
1/4 cup wild blueberries (for filling)

Preheat your oven to 350 and grease your soup crock (or whichever baking vessel you choose to use). Mix up your flax egg and let that sit to the side while you’re working. Mix together your dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the banana, pumpkin, milk and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well. Add in the egg and mix again.

Spoon half of your mixture into the baking vessel and flatten with a spoon. Arrange the blueberries on top of the batter so there’s a slight border around them. Spoon the rest of your batter on top of the blueberries and flatten. Bake for 30 minutes and top with whatever your heart desires. As is the case with most bakes.

Next up is a Mexican Cocoa Bake.

I used the leftover “filling” from my Blueberry Lime Cheesecake from the other day as a filling for my bake. Can you say YUM?!

Mexican Cocoa Bake
1/4 cup chickpea flour
1 tablespoon raw buckwheat groats
1 tablespoon flax meal
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 – 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 flax egg
1/2 banana, mashed
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons non dairy milk
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

Following the same procedure as above, whip those ingredients up and stuff the bake with whatever you choose. Be it leftover “cheesecake”, coconut, berries or even just leaving it unstuffed; all options would be wonderful!

The last (but certainly not the least) bake I have for you today is of the savory variety. I enjoyed the bakes so much I started to wonder why I couldn’t make them for dinner, too! So experiment I did!

In my opinion it turned out extremely well. So well that I think I’ll make a larger version for Kyle and I to share sometime. Comfort food: Indian style!

Stuffed Indian Chickpea Bake
1/4 cup chickpea flour
1 tablespoon lentils
1 tablespoon flax meal
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (optional)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1/8 – 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Pinch ground cloves
1 flax egg
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
3 tablespoons non dairy milk
2 cloves garlic, crushed

For the filling:
1 pitted date, diced
1/4 cup chopped frozen spinach
3 mushrooms, sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch cumin

Saute the date, spinach, mushrooms and spices in a drizzle of olive oil over medium heat. Cook about 5 minutes or until the mushrooms start to brown a bit. Remove from heat, mix up your flax egg and get to mixing up that batter! Layer the ‘shroom mixture into the bake and stick that sucker in the oven!

This guy needs a little more oven time, so bake him for about 35-40 minutes.

I topped this bake with a little savory almond butter and a cranberry/chipotle/strawberry jam I threw together a few mornings ago.

I hope maybe there’s a bake that strikes your fancy in that list! I know I can’t stop with the bakes.

Once you start, you won’t be able to stop either..

I hope to be back tomorrow night for some exciting news!!

Oat Fanatic

That’s me.  The oat girl. I can’t get enough.  

Morning oatmeal, overnight oats, granola.  I adore granola.  I rarely make it because I can’t stay away.  Really.  I’ll eat the entire thing if you let me.  Before it’s even cooled.

Since I used my last cup of rolled oats, I had to be sure to save some for breakfast.

Spicy and chewy, yet crunchy with a hint of sweetness from the banana. It was difficult to resist.

Good thing the book I’ve been jonesing for became available at the library! It might keep me occupied for a bit.

Spicy Banana Granola
1 banana
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons flax meal
1 tablespoon oil (I used spicy sesame oil)
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup dried blueberries
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon anise seed
1/8-1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
dash of nutritional yeast (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, toss together oats, blueberries, coconut, cinnamon, anise seed, cayenne and nutritional yeast. Set aside. Puree banana, water, oil and flax, then add to the dry mixture and combine well. Spread evenly on a cookie sheet (I’m stubborn and didn’t grease it but it might be easier if you did) and stick that sucker in the oven. Using a spatula, I broke up the granola “sheet” into pieces about 15 minutes in, then checked on it every 10 minutes or so until it was crispy to my liking. Cool completely before storing or it won’t have any crisp to it!

Coconut Banana Macaroons

I got an email for this amazing recipe from my Oh She Glows subscription the other day.

I immediately fell in love with the idea. As I do with most of her recipes..

Unfortunately I knew I didn’t have enough coconut for the recipe. At first I was going to just reduce it by half.. then that changed to a quarter of the recipe. That just got way too complicated so I started tweaking.

From all the crazy tweaking came the following amazing recipe. My only problem was that I could not puree the coconut quite enough to make it into smooth butter. My food processor doesn’t quite get the job done – it’s on the list for an upgrade! Despite that one tiny problem, the dough came together pretty nicely.

I brought these little gems into work today and everyone that tried them LOVED them. There were only a few left and I stashed them in my drawer so I would always have an emergency snack available. Well.. for as long as they hold out.

=)

Coconut Banana Macaroons (adapted from Oh She Glows)
1 cup unsweetened coconut
3 dates
1/2 banana
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup rolled oats

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Toss the coconut into your food processor and whip that sucker until you get a beautiful creamy coconut butter (or until your food processor can’t take it anymore..). If you would like a tutorial for making coconut butter, check it out here. Add in the dates, banana, vanilla bean paste and salt, pureeing until a smooth batter forms. Pulse in the rolled oats until just fully combined.

Scoop dough out by the 1/2 tablespoon and form into balls. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake 10-15 minutes or until just golden on bottom. Cool completely on the cookie sheet and devour!

Oh greens, how I love thee..

I have been craving greens something fierce. You know how those chocolate cravings can get at *ahem* certain times? It was THAT strong of a craving. So strong that 90% of everything I bought at the store was green. Included in that “everything” were some chard leaves. Some time back I was floored by a unique breakfast creation on The Edible Perspective. Ashley cleverly created the green wrapped breakfast.

I couldn’t wait for this morning to come so I could chow down! I will tell you, these were A.M.A.Z.I.N.G and they kept me full through work. All four hours of it. Aaah banking hours..

Chard Wraps (adapted from The Edible Perspective)
2 large swiss chard leaves, washed and de-stemmed
1 tablespoon cocoa walnut butter
1 tablespoon unsweetened coconut
1 tablespoon flax meal
1 tablespoon dried blueberries
1/2 tablespoon maple syrup
sprinkling cayenne pepper (optional)
1 banana, halved

Split walnut butter in half and spread evenly on both chard leaves. Sprinkle coconut, flax, blueberries and maple syrup evenly between leaves, followed by cayenne. Place banana halves in leaves, closest to the tip, and roll ‘er up! I can’t wait to make this again!

This afternoon Grams and I lunched at Baker’s Square. I have never had a bad experience in the many years I’ve enjoyed going there. The waitress was wonderful and kindly wrote down the substitutions I made to my order (the butternut squash salad) to veganize it (leaving out the chicken and bacon while adding avocado, tomato and olives with a teeny side of hummus). My options when wanting to dine out are pretty limited around here so it is key to have a waitress that pays attention and gets the job done. She definitely got an extra tip. =)

To add to my already fantasmic day, Kyle made dinner!

He’s learning to cook in general and picked out a recipe from Peas and Thank You for Roasted Chickpea Tacos. I’m pretty sensitive to salt so we would use a bit less next time, but the flavors were right on point. How great is that? Chickpeas in a taco! Love it!

As an added surprise, Kyle surprised me with a bottle of perfume I’ve been lusting after for a few years. And momma surprised me with a new book to read!

I just finished Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi on Thursday. Not for the faint of heart, this book was everything I expected it to be; beautiful, real, heartbreakingly brutal and captivating. I couldn’t put it down.

This was the randomness of my rambling mind about my fabulous day. Over and out!

How Corny!

So Tuesday morning I checked out some more vegan cookbooks from the library. SCORE! I’ve already come across about 30 recipes I have got to try! Some of those I will be posting about after this weekend. It is Annivalentinese New Year celebration weekend for Kyle and I! Greek themed, even! I had to be different.

In the Moosewood Restaurant: Cooking for Health cookbook, I found a recipe for corn bread. Now I’m a cornbread spaz. I can’t get enough. This recipe looked so good I just couldn’t wait until I had all the correct ingredients to try it. So what did I do? I improvised.

This is what came out of it:

Warmed up and topped with my cocoa walnut butter and some sliced nanners, of course!

Chipotle Buckwheat Cornbread (adapted from Moosewood Restaurant: Cooking for Health)
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
3/4 cup almond milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly oil a 9-inch metal pie plate and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, mix together buckwheat, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and chipotle powder. In a separate bowl, whisk together vinegar, oil, maple syrup and almond milk. Slowly pour wet mixture over dry mixture and stir until just combined. Pour the batter into the pie plate and bake 15-20 minutes or until the center is just set and the edges are slightly pulling away from the side. Allow to cool overnight before slicing.

This was so yummy! I made it with 1/4 teaspoon chipotle but I think I would up the dosage to 1/2 teaspoon or more the next time. I like some kick!

Yesterday I also received an exciting package at work! I recently won a contest on The Kind Life’s website. I was in dire need of some new makeup tools and a makeup bag! Plus I have two extra bags I can set aside!

Sweet!

You got butter on my oats!

I squealed with happiness last night when I finally, FINALLY got my walnut butter to be the right consistency! How exciting IS that?? Well.. if you don’t like walnut butter probably not very.. but I love the stuff! It is a nice break from peanut butter once in a while. Not that anyone really needs a break from peanut butter. Just to clear the air there. =)

Cocoa Walnut Butter
2 cups walnut pieces, unsalted
1/2 cup cashews, unsalted
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 teaspoons dark cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

All I did was roast the walnuts at 350 degrees until one burned my tongue when I tried it. Yep that was my judgement. I forgot to time them. It was probably about 8-10 minutes. I did the same for the cashews and then spun them in the food processor until they were perfectly smooth and glossy! Fantastic!

I did the best thing I could think to do with my perfect butter: I dripped it on my oats! Well gobbed it on, rather. I make oats nearly every morning. The only time I don’t have oats is when I have toast and fruit or use Ashley’s yummy recipe for Vanilla Bean Brown Rice. This morning my oats looked something like this:

Matcha Oats
3 tablespoons rolled oats
2 tablespoons wheat bran
1 tablespoon flax seed
2 teaspoons matcha powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 banana, sliced
3/4 cup almond milk
1/4 cup water

Bring the milk, water and banana up to a simmer over medium/low heat. Mix together oats, bran, flax seed, matcha and cayenne, then whisk into the simmering milk mixture. Cook over low heat until the oats get thick, whisking occasionally. Pour into a bowl and top with yumminess! I topped mine with the cocoa walnut butter, a sprinkle of unsweetened coconut and some maple vanilla granola. Mmmmm!

Enjoy!

Ramblings of a pumpkin deprived mind…

Tastes like fall!

Tuesday: the craving hits. (Well actually it hit about 2 weeks ago and just got out of control Tuesday)

The weather is cool and fall is here fast approaching. I want what every hot blooded woman wants at this time of year. That luciously versatile and full bodied fall treat. Pumpkin.

More specifically, I thought my favorite banana bread recipe would be the perfect experimental jumping point. My craving led me to scour six (yes SIX) stores for any sign of pumpkin. Of these six, I found only one that had the goods. My fantabulous little Kankakee Natural Foods! They always seem to come through for me.

Go K3NF!

I hurried home with my purchase and promptly threw together a batch of banana bread! Aside from being a little dry (next time I think I’ll add in some milk or some extra pumpkin), it tasted just like pumpkin pie. Now I’ve got enough for the week and hopefully this will cure some of my pumpkin crazies.

Of course, if that doesn’t cure it, there’s always this nifty little surprise Kyle picked up for me the other night…

I cut it up and I now have a metric butt-ton of pumpkin to nosh on!

Choppy, choppy!

SCORE!

Pumpkin Banana Bread
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
3 mashed bananas
1/2 cup liquid egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside. Combine pumkin, banana, extract and egg whites and add mixture to dry. Stir until just combined, then pour into a lightly oiled loaf pan. Bake 45-50 minutes and allow to cool completely before attempting to remove from the pan. I know its hard, but we don’t want it to crumble into a million pieces do we??

Enjoy!

Best. Banana Bread. Ever.

Oh my. I have found my MUST HAVE banana bread recipe. And guess what? It has NO REFINED SUGAR! I adapted this recipe I found over at Sweet Tooth, Sweet Life to suit my needs.

Normally I like a good banana bread but this one sends me through the ROOF! It’s so delicious! The only changes I made to her recipe:
-Using the full 1/2 cup of applesauce in place of the oil, applesauce, yogurt combo (though since I found no applesauce in my house I used blueberry pear baby food)
-Completely omitting the sugar, I found the bananas to be plenty sweet for my taste
-Trading 1/4 cup of the whole wheat flour for 1/4 cup of wheat bran
-Swapping the blueberries for chopped up strawberries (Kyle isn’t fond of blueberries)

I’m drooling just thinking about it. So delicious piping hot with some Brummel on it. Mmmmm…

My only problem was I couldn’t wait longer than 15 minutes to dig into it and tried to take it out of its happy little loaf pan too early. It fell apart on the bottom. So it doesn’t look so pretty. But that’s ok – I’ll devour it anyway!

Mmm... nanner bread...

NOM!