May 12th, 2012
Ok, let me first admit that I can’t even remember the last time I had a real Orange Julius – there’s a good chance it was 2 decades ago – so I really have no idea whether or not this tastes like the real thing. But it tastes just like how I imagine an Orange Julius to taste – frothy, cold, creamy, and full of orange flavor. And this version is super healthy!
Healthy, vegan Orange Julius (serves 2-3)
4 oranges, peeled, sectioned and seeds removed
2 cups soy milk (or other non-dairy milk)
2 cups ice
1 tsp vanilla extract
sweetener to taste (I used 4 drops stevia, maple syrup or agave would also work – I would start with 2 tsp)
Put everything in your blender and blend away. Taste, adjust sweetness if necessary and enjoy!
Submitted to Ricki’s Wellness Weekend
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April 13th, 2012
These are sooooo good!
This is actually my first time making crackers. Now that I’ve made some, I have no idea why they always seemed so intimidating. I think it was something about spreading them out thin enough that always scared me off. These crackers are a snap to make (hehe) and make an excellent afternoon snack. They are also seriously healthy – packed with nutritious seeds they provide lots of omega 3 fatty acids, calcium and fiber.
They’re actually quite addictive. Lightly sweet, toasty and super crispy. They remind me a little bit of a healthified sesame snap.
I’m sure you could also make these raw by dehydrating them instead of baking them. I haven’t tried that yet but I likely will this summer when it get too hot to cook so I’ll report back then!
I’m also submitting these to Ricki’s Wellness Weekend!
Cinnamon Sugar Seed Crackers (Adapted from Angela’s Endurance Crackers)
¼ cup chia seeds
¼ cup whole flax seeds
¼ cup ground flax seeds (also called flax meal, I make my own in a coffee grinder)
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup sesame seeds
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ cup maple syrup
¾ cup water
optional 1 tbs cane sugar for toppping
Preheat oven to 325 F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the maple syrup and water and stir to combine. Let sit for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until all the water has been absorbed. The mixture will be wet but there shouldn’t be any standing water. Spread mixture evenly over the lined baking sheet. I just used the back of a wooden spoon to spread it out and because the mixture is wet it spreads very easily. It should cover the whole sheet. Bake for 30 minutes. If you want the optional sugar topping, take the crackers out after 20 minutes and sprinkle evenly with the cane sugar then return to oven. Take out of the oven and using the parchment paper, carefully flip over the entire sheet of crackers. Peel off the parchment paper and cut into squares (I used a pizza cutter and cut into 24 squares). Return to oven and bake for 20-25 minutes more or until all the crackers are lightly golden brown. Remove from baking sheet and let cool completely on a baking rack.
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March 30th, 2012
Sorry for being a bad blogger! I did some work for the Green Party over the past few weeks so life was a little busier than normal.
We had a little taste of summer last week and it sort of felt like coming out of hibernation. All the snow melted, I put my winter boots away and broke out the flip flops. It was blissful (at long as I didn’t think about the looming devastating effects of climate change….). With the warm weather I was craving all things cool and creamy. I’m a big fan of banana ice cream and I sometimes like to play around with other fruits. Mango is one of my favorites as it always blends up nice and creamy. I’ve always loved the combination of mango and coconut so I put the two together for this incredibly yummy treat. I used reduced fat coconut milk since it was all I had on hand and it was still lusciously creamy. But I’m sure it would even better if you used the cream from the full fat milk.
Mango Coconut Ice Cream
2 cups frozen mango cubes
⅓ cup + 2 tbs chilled coconut milk (from can, can be full or reduced fat)
2 tsp maple syrup or agave (can be replaced by stevia)
Put your coconut milk in the fridge an hour or two before you want to make the ice cream. Add mango and sweetener to a food processor fitted with the s blade. Start the food processor and slowly pour in the coconut milk while it’s running. Start with the ⅓ cup and add more until it’s light and creamy but not at all liquidy. Enjoy! (I’m sure a squeeze of lime juice would also be yummy!)
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February 16th, 2012
I am completely in love with these muffins! A few weeks ago I was craving a muffin that had the sweet deliciousness of banana combined with the taste and texture of oats. I really wanted to use oat bran because I love the texture it gives to muffins. I couldn’t find any recipes out there that had what I was looking for so I got started on making my own. It took me a few tries, but it was well worth it, because these are my new favorite muffin!
These muffins have been submitted to Wellness Weekends over at Diet, Dessert and Dogs.
Banana Oat Muffins (Adapted from Choosing Raw)
2 tbs ground flax seed + 4 tbs warm water
1 ½ cup whole spelt flour
½ cup oat bran
1 cup oat flakes
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ cup almond milk
1 cup mashed ripe banana (2 large or 3 small)
½ cup maple syrup
⅓ cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 F and line or oil your muffin tin. This recipe makes an awkward number of muffins, 14 regular or 12 regular plus 6 mini-muffins. Don’t try to fit all of the batter into 12 or they will be over filled and fall after baking! Mix the ground flax and warm water together in a small bowl and whisk with a fork until well combined. Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix the wet ingredients together in a smaller bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix gently until just combined. Pour into prepared tins and bake 23 minutes for regular muffins or 15 minutes for mini muffins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes in the pan and then remove the muffins and let them cool on a cooling rack.
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November 22nd, 2011
Apple Butter Chia Seed Pudding (using white chia seeds)
A few people have asked me about chia seeds lately. They know that chia seeds are super healthy but just aren’t sure how to eat them. So I though I would share how I’ve been loving my chia seeds for the past few months.
For those who don’t know, chia seeds are packed with omega 3 fatty acids, calcium and iron. And yes, they are the same seeds that grew hair on our Chia Pets when we were kids!
I’m a huge chia pudding fan. It’s quick and easy to make, yummy, and incredibly healthy. There are two main ways to make chia pudding, blended and unblended. I used to be all about blended chocolate chia puddings but lately I’ve been making a plain chia pudding in the morning and stirring in different mix-ins based on what I’m in the mood for that day. I find this is faster to make and I don’t have to struggle to clean stuck on chia seeds out of my blender! The consistency of an unblended chia pudding is similar to tapicoa pudding.
For the basic chia seed pudding, put 2 tbs of chia seeds in a bowl or container. Add 1 cup of non-dairy milk and give it a good stir with a fork. If you use unsweetened milk, add a bit of sweetener. I use 2 drops of liquid stevia. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes and then give it another really good stir with the fork and break up and clumps. Ideally, let it sit for at least another hour before you plan to eat it. I make it in the morning before school and bring it with me for my afternoon snack.
Now it’s time to choose a mix-in. If you use a good quality non-dairy milk, the pudding will be yummy on it’s own, but it’s always more yummy with a mix-in! Here are some things that I like to mix in:
- 100% fruit jam
- left over cranberry sauce
- apple butter
- chocolate almond butter sauce
- chopped up fruit (peaches, frozen berries, bananas)
- chocolate chips or cocoa nibs
The options are really endless! I guess I sort of treat it like a plain yogurt.
Do you guys have any other mix-in ideas?
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November 12th, 2011
I’d like to admit an addiction – dried mango. I can’t stop eating it, it’s just so freaking tasty. It’s also one of my fav movie snacks. But, I’m very picky about my dried mango. Most dried mango contains a lot of added sugar and sulfites so it’s hard to find a brand that is just mango. And even when you do find an all natural brand, sometimes the mango is way too dry, hard and impossible to chew. I recently discovered a new brand that is perfectly soft in addition to being both organic and fair trade so I just had to share!
Level Ground produces fair trade coffee, sugar and dried fruit from a few different countries. I love that they give you information about where the products come from as well as the growers and producers. I first got hooked on their dried mango but now I’m also addicted to their dried golden berries. I thought golden berries were some crazy foreign new fruit but it turns out they are also grown right here in Ontario but we call them ground cherries. The dried version tastes nothing at all like the fresh fruit. These dried berries are incredibly tart and sour and I love them! (in fact, I ate the entire bag before I even got around to taking that picture!) If you like sour, you must try these! Their third flavor is a tropical mix of mango, coconut and banana. This mix is good, but I’m not a huge fan of eating dried coconut on its own, so I’ll probably stick to the mango and golden berries. They also have dried pineapple but I have yet to try that flavor.
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November 6th, 2011
Well it looks like I needed a bit of a blogging break after Vegan MoFo since I haven’t posted in a week! It was a busy week and I really didn’t cook much. But I’m back with a marvelously fast and easy recipe!
We stalked up on Honey Crisp apples at the last farmer’s market of the season and, despite eating them like mad over the past week, we still have a crisper full of them. One of my favorite snacks is a sliced up apple with almond butter. The problem is that I can eat close to a ¼ cup of almond butter with an apple. And, although almond butter is healthy, ¼ cup is way too much for a snack! I remembered seeing a recipe for an almond butter dip that was thinned down with almond milk over at Oh She Glows which inspired me to make a chocolate version. The result is super rich and creamy, I think I actually like the texture of this more than almond butter on its own.
Chocolate Almond Butter Dip or Sauce
1 tbs + 1 tsp cocoa powder ( I used raw cocoa powder)
1 tbs maple syrup
½ cup almond milk
½ cup almond butter
In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, maple syrup and almond milk until combined – this may take a minute or two. Add the almond butter and whisk until combined.
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June 24th, 2011
This is my entry to the
Sweet or Savory Kitchen Challenge hosted by Ricki over at
Diet Dessert and Dogs. The ingredient for June is blueberries! I love the combo of blueberries with coconut and I have about 5 bags of shredded coconut that I bought on sale and need to use up! So I decided to make a blueberry chia seed pudding with homemade coconut milk. The coconut milk was amazing, and so was the pudding. I tried this two ways, straining the coconut milk, and leaving the fiber in. The end result is a lot creamier if you strain the coconut milk. If you don’t have a nut milk bag or you’re just too lazy to strain it, you’ll still get a yummy pudding, it will just be a little bit fibrous.
Blueberry Coconut Chia Pudding (yields 2 servings)
½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 ½ cup water
Sweetener to taste (I used 2 drops of liquid stevia extract)
¾ cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
¼ cup chia seeds
Blend coconut with water and sweetener until completely smooth. Strain through a nut milk bag or cheese cloth. Give your blender a rinse and add the coconut milk back to the blender. Discard the coconut pulp (it would probably be yummy in some sort of raw cookie). Add the blueberries to the blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl and whisk in chia seeds. Transfer to the fridge to let the chia seeds absorb the liquid. Let sit for at least an hour, but 3-4 hours is preferable. Top with fresh blueberries and shredded coconut to serve.
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November 4th, 2010
A friend of mine had a pumpkin carving party last week. I think we carved 7 or 8 pumpkins in total.
During my breaks from carving, I went through the large bucket of pumpkin guts to dig out all the delicious seeds. No seeds were going to waste on my watch!
I baked up two baking sheets worth of roasted seeds during the party and everyone devoured them.
There was still a bunch left over so I took them home to experiment with. I finally got around to it this evening and decided to make Cajun and salt and vinegar flavours.
The salt an vinegar ones were inspired by Peas and Thanks You. I wanted a more traditional flavour so I used white vinegar instead of balsamic.
Cajun Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds, washed and dried
1 tsp Cajun seasoning
1/2 tsp seasoning salt
1 tsp refined coconut oil
Salt and Vinegar Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds, washed and dried
2 tbs white vinegar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp refined coconut oil
Preheat oven to 375 F. Mix ingredients together and spread on a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Bake for 20 minutes for Cajun and closer to 30 minutes for salt and vinegar, stirring a few times during baking.
I really liked the Cajun ones. I found the salt and vinegar ones lost most of the vinegary zing during baking and they didn’t seem to get as crunchy because of the extra liquid. So I probably won’t be making them again! Does anyone have any ideas on how to make them zingy and still crunchy?
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