This recipe came to me while I was working out, as many recipes do (I should be thinking about the workout and not food, I know!). I wanted to throw something together for an easy lunch and this is what I came up with. They are easy to make but taste like they were a lot of work. They’re moist but hold together well. Really yummy. I like serving them with avocado and Sour Un-Cream, or my Toasted Pepita Avocado Sauce as pictured.
I threw this together as a condiment for my BBQ Sweet Potato and Black Bean Patties and it’s delicious!
These babies were created when I just threw a bunch of pancake-related items in my Vitamix. I didn’t feel like measuring out the flour and I figured using rolled oats would work, blended along with everything else. And work it did! Yummy. Easy to make, healthy and delicious.
Feel free to add chocolate chips, blueberries or chopped/sliced bananas to the batter once it’s poured onto the griddle.
November 4, 2015
CHOCOLATE!
People are coo coo for cocoa.
Me? I like it. Sure.
But I wouldn’t consider selling my offspring for the last bar on earth as some people I know might. It’s good. I enjoy a quality piece of dark chocolate or a chocolatey dessert as much as the next girl, but when I like chocolate best is when it’s paired with something else, for example, peanut butter, raspberry, or in this case PUMPKIN!
If you’ve never had chocolate and pumpkin together, you’ve been missing out! The warm spices we associate with pumpkin taste great with the rich chocolate. This recipe calls for healthy whole foods like black beans and pumpkin, uses very little flour, and no refined sugar or oil, and no eggs or dairy of course. The only not-so-healthy part is the chocolate chips but we only use 1/4 cup. I really like to use the Wonderslim cocoa powder as it’s lower in fat and caffeine than typical cocoa powder.
Go ahead, make these.
And try not to eat the whole pan.
I dare ya.
August 28, 2015
I got a Waring-Pro double waffle maker a few years ago and have only used it twice. I just couldn’t find a waffle recipe to my liking. The first one was a disaster and the second just okay. For my third attempt I scoured the internet and found several vegan recipes but they either contained oil, had bad reviews or weren’t gluten-free. For the record, I don’t believe wheat/gluten is the evil food many people make it out to be but I seem to have a sensitivity so I go without, which is really no big deal. When done right, it really does force one to make healthier choices. Which is why most people feel better and lose weight after cutting it out of their diet; not necessarily because gluten was making them heavy or feel badly but because by cutting it out they eliminated processed foods and crap. But I digress….we are supposed to be talking about tasty waffles here, not gluten.
As I was saying, I couldn’t find a good waffle recipe so I took a chance and made one up, and man was I happy I did! These waffles came out crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I did have to spray the waffle iron with cooking spray – you just can’t get away from that; trust me, I know this from experience. So have at it! I hope these work out as well for you as they did for me.
This delicious, hardy dish has flavors similar to chili, with the texture and consistency of a thick chowder. I love it! Top with avocado and/or Sour Un-Cream.
I have made this using both canned black beans and beans I made from scratch with the pressure cooker. As is usually the case, I preferred the version with the homemade beans. If you have a pressure cooker, it’s SO easy. Soak 1 pound of dried black beans overnight or 6 hours (some say soaking isn’t necessary but I always do). Rinse and place in your pressure cooker and add just enough water to cover the top of the beans – the water should be just touching the beans. Add 4 cloves crushed garlic, a few bay leaves and 2 tsp cumin seeds. Cook at high pressure 14 minutes, and let the pressure come down naturally. Beans are done! Makes about 5 cups of black beans. Remove the bay leaves, stir and add the whole batch to the rest of the Chili Chowder ingredients.
I order my dried beans online from Rancho Gordo, a farm in Northern California. They are heirloom beans, which are open-pollinated seeds that can be planted and you’ll get the exact same bean. They tend to have a lower yield and can be much more difficult to grow but the pay off is in the unique flavors and textures that you don’t find with bland commodity beans. They are always fresh too, which is great. You never know how old the beans at the grocery store are, and old beans can take forever to cook. I highly recommend Rancho Gordo beans. It’s fun to experiment with all the different varieties they offer. Now get cooking!
Brown rice, sweet potato, kale and baked chickpeas topped with Tahini Sauce.
I first created this sauce to use with the kale chips I made in my new dehydrator (still learning and experimenting, but that thing is FUN!). They turned out great, btw, but I didn’t end up using all the sauce and shortly realized how delicious it was on steamed greens, and as a salad dressing. It packs a lot of flavor so a little really does go a long way.
June 16, 2015
One of my most favorite things about being a recipe blogger is getting review copies of cookbooks from publishers. I have a thing for cookbooks – it’s actually getting a bit out of hand. Need more bookshelves. Anyway, Plant-Powered Families by Dreena Burton, one of my favorite vegan authors, is one of the books I get to play with this time and it’s a real treat. I’ve always been a huge fan of Dreena’s but the one thing that bummed me out in the past was that I had to adapt her recipes to not include oil. I was thrilled to find she doesn’t use any in her latest work. Yay! One of the things I like most about Dreena is how considerate and detailed she is with her recipes. She clearly spends a lot of time tweaking and getting the ingredients and methods just right to make things as easy as she can for her readers, and she shares tips, tricks and alternatives for many situations. She adds notes to each recipe with her suggestions for kicking it up, mellowing it out, use this instead of that, or simply adjusting flavors for adults’ or kids’ tastes.
Dreena has 3 young daughters so she understands the challenges involved in getting healthy food into picky kids who are busy and on the go. Her recipes in this book are appealing to kids and adults alike with dishes like Sunday Morning Pancakes, Apple-Spice Hemp Muffins, Red Lentil Hummus, Zippy Chickpea and White Bean Dip, Cream of Cauliflower Soup, Umami Sun-Dried Tomato and Almond Burgers, Home Fries, Lemon-Kissed Blondie Bites and Banana Butter Ice Cream, just to name a few of many. The book includes mouth-watering photos, and is laid out really nicely beginning with a section on priming your pantry with plant-based staples, followed by color coded chapters such as Healthy Mornings; Lunch Fixes; Salad Dressings, Sauces and Toppers; Dinnertime; Sweet Treats. The back of the book has some cool resources like a section on Picky Eaters and how to manage them, School and Lunchbox solutions, Tips for Hosting and Attending Kids’ Parties, Sample Meal Plans and a FAQ’s section. She didn’t miss a beat with this book – everything is covered, and honestly, you could use this book and none other for your family and be set. My only complaint about this book is that it doesn’t include allergen notations for each recipe, which is pretty lame since it’s easy to do and most books have.
Everything I’ve made from the book has been excellent, and today I’m sharing one of the recipes with you – Saucy BBQ Chickpeas and Green Beans. I used broccoli because hubby hates green beans but otherwise I stuck to the recipe and it was delicious – and so simple! I will be doing a drawing to give away a free copy of this awesome book. Tune in to my Facebook page for details on how to win! https://www.facebook.com/PlantifulWellness Enjoy the recipe.
Soft, chewy, gooey and chocolatey – that’s what these cookies are. Best part is they are a sinful tasting treat without the sin (maybe just a little bit). Of course there is no oil or butter in these little gems, but I also tried to keep the flour, sugar and fat low. You’ll notice the recipe calls for 2 med-large bananas. As such there is a very small banana taste…very slight though. If you aren’t a banana fan (I simply cannot imagine!), try using only one banana and replacing the other with 1/2 cup applesauce. I haven’t tried this so I can’t say exactly what the end result would be, but it’s worth a try.
Enjoy your chocolatey goodness!
This recipe came to me while I was working out, as many recipes do (I should be thinking about the workout and not food, I know!). I wanted to throw something together for an easy lunch and this is what I came up with. They are easy to make but taste like they were a lot of work. They’re moist but hold together well. Really yummy. I like serving them with avocado and Sour Un-Cream, or my Toasted Pepita Avocado Sauce as pictured.
