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. =)

Revamping Strawberry Shortcake

A few Sundays ago, Kyle and I packed up to go to Carole and Dave’s house for a brunch. Brunch. It’s perfect for Sundays. Especially when you’re surrounded by family friends. One particularly awesome family friend (Miss Carole, that’s you!) who doubles as my personal seamstress. Carole is altering a dress for me to wear to a wedding we’re attending in Cincinnati. I’m totally stoked! Yes, stoked! I’ve never been to Cincinnati and we’re planning a trip to Three Sisters on our way through Indianapolis since they serve some hip looking vegan options.

Right.. back to the food!

Brunch consisted of an old favorite of mine from childhood. Skinnies. Skinnies are pretty much crepes that we stuff with chocolate chips, syrup, jams, jellies and anything else we can find. They skinnies are hot enough to melt the chocolate and they are a beautiful thing! I wrestled with myself for a bit on whether I should actually have any as they are not vegan. A few weeks ago I was reading some blogs that talked about just that situation. Sometimes there are more important things in life than the fact that I’m a vegan. I deemed this one of those times and told myself I should have one skinny. With chocolate chips and apricot jam.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think skinnies should be the next “big deal” recipe I adapt to be vegan.

Even though I told myself I was going to be eating a skinny, I decided to bring a brunch item of my own to share. The idea came to me almost immediately. I was going to revamp the strawberry shortcake. Modernize it if you will.

The idea started with coconut. I wanted to make a coconut butter and serve it with strawberries. I wanted to thin out the coconut butter to make a whipped cream consistency. After emailing Ashley from the Edible Perspective, I discovered it just wasn’t going to work the way I wanted. She suggested that canned coconut milk was the way to go. I had seen the recipe on her blog and was entranced by it. Before seeing her “cool whip” I had never thought that you could whip coconut milk into submission like that. Oh you sure can my friends.

Instead of going with a biscuit or cake for the “shortcake” part of this treat, I went with granola. Peppered balsamic granola.

The trio of flavors; pepper, coconut and strawberry; left me utterly speechless.

Carole and Dave loved the combination as well. We even put the coconut “whip” into our coffee. Kyle enjoyed his first skinny experience. After being “called out” on only having one skinny I found the diplomatic way to bring my veganism to the table.

It was accepted warmly.

No wonder I love these guys!

Strawberries and Granola with Coconut Whip
1 pint fresh strawberries

For the granola:
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
3 tablespoons flax seed
3 pitted dates
1 heaping tablespoon freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons olive or grapeseed oil
2 tablespoons apple juice (or water)
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (I used pomegranate flavored)

For the coconut whip:
1 can full fat coconut milk, chilled overnight in the fridge (out of the can)
3 teaspoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

The night before and preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Stick a metal bowl in the freezer along with your whisk. I used my Kitchen Aid bowl and whisk attachment.

In a blender, puree 2 tablespoons of the flax seed, dates, pepper, 2 tablespoons of the oil, apple juice, water and vinegar until smooth. Mix together oats, coconut and remaining tablespoon of flax seed in a large bowl, then pour in the wet mixture. Stir until evenly combined, then stir in the remaining tablespoon of oil.

Spread the granola mixture onto a nonstick baking sheet and bake for about 25-30 minutes. I’m not sure exactly how long I baked the granola. I kept a very close eye on it (I burned my first batch), stirring it every 10 minutes, until it was lightly brown. Cool completely and store.

The next morning, rinse and quarter your strawberries. Set aside (not in the fridge) and get to work on that coconut whip!

Remove the coconut milk and whipping equipment. Whip the coconut milk on high until soft peaks start to form. Add in the sugar and extract, whipping for another minute until the sugar is well incorporated. Store in the fridge until ready to serve.

When you’re ready dig in and ENJOY!!

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!

Neat-o Cool!

I want to start off this post by saying that tonight I had the best “neat”loaf I’ve ever had. Technically it’s also the first I’ve ever had, but it will not be the last! The best meatloaf prize still goes to Kyle’s mom. =)

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!

This is how the crumble.. crumbles..

A flash in my mind’s eye while leaving work last night. Why couldn’t I make a savory crumble? I’d never made a regular crumble but that shouldn’t stop me.

So you know what?

I made one.

Oh yeah.

And it was delicious!

I think I’ll end up making another one at some point. I’ll change it up a bit and use different veggies. The possibilities are endless!

Poblano Corn Crumble
1 onion, sliced
1 large poblano pepper, chopped
1/2 cup tightly packed chopped collard leaves
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup black beans, cooked
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons non dairy milk
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large skillet over medium heat, heat olive oil and saute onions until they start to turn clear. Add in poblano pepper and salt and cook for about 5 minutes. Toss in the garlic, corn, collards and black beans, reduce heat to low, cover and cook 5-10 minutes, stirring twice. While that’s cooking, whisk together nutritional yeast and milk. Turn heat off and stir in milk mixture. Spread the veggies in a pie plate, set aside and mix up the crumble topping.

In a large bowl, mix together the following:
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup buckwheat flour
2 tablespoons cornmeal
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon maple syrup (I opted for a locally made honey mustard blend since I’m ok with eating honey)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Mash a fork around in there until everything is good and wet. Sprinkle the crumble topping evenly on top of the veggies. Bake 35 – 40 minutes and serve hot.

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!

Ole!

A quick morning dose of chocolate to start off your hump day!

I made up this dough last night because I just needed to make dough. Do you ever have that problem? You don’t want to actually bake, you just want to whip up the ingredients leading up to it? Maybe I’m just odd. That’s a possibility.. My other reasoning for making the dough last night – my last experiment with dough refrigerated overnight was a raging success. I wanted to try again with oatmeal cookies!

This recipe was inspired by two separate recipes: a basic oatmeal chocolate chip cookie one and a mexican chocolate cookie one. A few weeks ago Amanda and I whipped up and scarfed a recipe for mexican chocolate cookies with a big ol’ bottle of red wine. Mmm, mmm, mmm… I’ve been craving them ever since! Why the oatmeal? Well who doesn’t love oatmeal? Besides, since the cookies have oatmeal in them you could eat them for breakfast right?

Happy Hump Day everyone!

Mexican Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons canola oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon half and half (or milk)
1/2 cup dark rye flour
1/2 cup bread flour
2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (heaping)
cayenne pepper, to taste
black pepper, to taste
1 cup oats
1/3 cup chocolate chunks

Using a stand mixer, cream together sugar and oil; add egg, vanilla and milk and cream until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and peppers. Slowly add dry mixture into wet, mixing well after each addition until smooth. After the flour mixture is completely combined, add in oats and chocolate chunks.

Refrigerate overnight.

The next day preheat your oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and drop dough by the tablespoon (using your nifty little cookie dough scoop if you’ve got one) about an inch apart and lightly press down on dough. Bake about 15 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.

X-TREME overnight b-oats!

Lol I’m calling these extreme because.. well..

Just look at the color of them!

Beeeeeeeeet iiiiiiiiit!

This photo has not been altered. Please don’t adjust the color on your screen.

I’ve been a bit obsessed with overnight oats lately. It’s so EASY to just throw stuff together the night before and dig it out right before work. Love, love, LOVE ’em! I picked up some fresh beets at the farmers market last Saturday and roasted a few up. Oh boy those things are yummy! They do a number on my poor tummy, but I can’t stop eating them! I decided to incorporate them into my oats b-oats. Topped em with onee of the yummy date cookies I made last night and some PB. Nom, nom, nom!

Overnight B-oats
1/4 cup steel cut oats
2 tablespoons flax meal
2 tablespoons rolled oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
~1/3 cup roasted beets, diced
1 cup skim milk

Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate overnight. Scarf down in the AM topped with whatever you’d like!

A new favorite!

Oh my. I’ve found a new favorite. I daresay its even better than chocolate (though I DID eat my cookie topped with some chocolate sorbet…).

Yeah, you read that correctly.

Better. Than. Chocolate.

In fact, Kyle just went back for his third fourth cookie. And he’s only been home for 20 minutes.

That’s what I’m talking about.

Date-y!

See, I love dates (the fruit, of course. Though the other kind is nice when certain people plan them out… nudge nudge). This is a fairly recent development. I’ve had some of these gems sitting in my fridge for about a month, hidden so I wouldn’t scarf them all in one sitting.

Then today, by sheer luck, I stumbled across a recipe for date cookies over at Eating Out Loud. I used the recipe as a base and ended up spinning it into my own. And what do you know, they’re even vegan!

Date Oatmeal Cookies
3 tablespoons canola oil
1/4 cup sugar (next time I might cut this down to 3 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon molasses
1/2 tablespoon flax meal (mixed with 1 1/2 tablespoons cranberry juice concentrate)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup dark rye flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup chopped dates

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In your stand mixer, whisk oil, sugar and molasses until well combined. Add in flax mixture and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, combine flour, soda, salt and oats. Add slowly to sugar mixture and allow to mix well before adding dates. Drop dough onto cookie sheet with a cookie dough dropper (yep, that’s a technical name) and flatten a tiny bit with the back of a spoon. If desired, sprinkle with extra kosher salt. Bake about 10-14 minutes or until they start to get crispy brown looking around the bottom edges. Be sure to share. 😉

Peanut Butter and Ginger

Category Archives: oats