Arugula Pesto Stuffed Shrooms

12 Crimini or Baby bellas
1 colored bell pepper
2 c arugula
1/2 c pecans
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 cloves garlic
1/4 small red onion
1 T hemp oil
1 T miso
mushroom stems

Place all the ingredients, except the mushroom caps and 1/2 of the bell pepper, into food processor and blend until smooth. Fill caps with the smooth pesto and place in a glass dish with a touch of water for moisture. Make at 400 for 15 minutes. dice the remaining 1/2 of the bell pepper and use as garnish.

Avocado Chocolate Truffles

Say what? Chocolate Avocado Truffles don't sound so good to you? Allow me to explain.

First, stop thinking about guacamole. Think smooth, simple, creamy, fatty, avocado. Thats the base for the creamy center of these truffles. Avocado, blended with cocoa, vanilla, maple syrup.. til it forms the consistency of a rich chocolate pudding. Way healthier than Russel Stover. Healthier means more bio-available nutrients, good fats that quickly burn into energy, plus its easy to metabolize & digest. Okay? Great!

This concept was 1st introduced to me 3years ago by a dear friend & uber talented culinary classmate, Ms. Kristy Butts. Many thanks to Ms. Butts for the many truffles she fed me over the 2years I lived in Austin.

         frozen avocado creme before being dipped in melted chocolate

Chocolate Avocado Truffles
4 small-med avocados
1/2 c cocoa powder
1/2 c almond milk
1/4 C maple syrup
1 vanilla bean
1 T cinnamon
pinch salt

1 bag high quality chocolate chips

Blend everything except the chocolate chips in a food processor until smooth. Set a peice of parchement on top of a cutting board or tray (somthing that will fit in your freezer) and place small 1/2 T size dollops the mixture onto the parchement. Place in the freezer for an hour.
Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler or in the microwave for 10second intervals, stirring between each interval.
Once the avocado creme has set in the freezer & your chips are melted, carefully drop the avocado centers into the melted chocolate, one at a time, then place on a clean sheet of parchment. They'll take another minute to set, then are ready to eat! Store in the fridge or freezer.

Hot N Spicy BBQ Kale Chips

2 Bunches Curly Kale
1 c cashews, soaked 1-3 hours
enough water to cover cashews in blender
1.5 cloves garlic
2 T nutritional yeast
1/2 lemon, juiced
chili powder blend to taste
1.5 T maple syrup or honey

Wash and de-stem the Kale, trying to keep the leaves large and intact. Combine the rest of the ingredients into a high powered blender until smooth & creamy. In a large bowl, massage the cashew mixture into the kale, and then place the leaves onto Dehydrator trays.  Its okay to have them overlapping. Overnight in the dehydrator should do it. Try to keep the temp under 120deg to keep the living enzymes intact.
These chips are crispy, crunchy, and absolutely packed with flavor.

Brown Rice Crispy Treats

I discovered this recipe from a fellow Vegan Food Blogger named Angela Liddon. Her site is ohsheglows.com. I really love a lot of her recipes & I think we have a similar cooking style, so I occasionally check in to see what she is up to! I've made a couple substitutions from her original recipe, my rendition is as follows:

1/2 c almond butter (or other nut butter)
1/2 c brown rice syrup
1 fresh vanilla bean or 1 T extract
1 T coconut oil
1/2 t salt
3.5 c Puffed Brown Rice Cereal
chocolate chips, melted, to drizzle

Line an 8 x 8 dish with parchment paper.
In a pot, combine almond butter, brown rice syrup, coconut oil, vanilla bean (just the scraped seeds or extract) and salt. Stir until heated through and well combined.

Remove from heat, transfer to larger bowl and stir in brown rice cereal until completely coated.

Spoon the mixture into the parchment lined dish and push down firmly, so that it fills the pan & has a flat surface. Let it set in the fridge for 30minutes-hour, then cut and drizzle with melted chocolate.

Popscicle Bliss

Chances are if you know me well or have spent much time in my kitchen you know that my ice cube tray never gets used for making ... ice. Normally they're used for freezing soup stocks, broths, pesto, citrus juice, herbs and most recently these beauties.

Balsamic Berry Banana
I started these by making a jam.
Strawberries, raspberries and blueberries into a pot. Add a pinch of salt, a squeeze of lemon and a splash of balsamic vinegar and let it reduce. Let it cool, mash with banana and spoon into your tray.

Chocolate Banana
Straight up cocoa powder and mashed banana. I added a touch of maple syrup for good measure.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana
I've been buying PB2 lately. Have you heard of it? Basically they smash the oil (fat) out of the peanuts and dry the nuts into a powder. You rehydrate the powder into a paste.. now you've got peanut butter w 85% less fat & calories. I totally dig it.
For these pops I made the above choco-banana recipe plus PB2. so easy.

Seed Crackers

  

  I love having a stocked pantry!
Its super important to me to keep a good
inventory of nuts, seeds, grains, beans and more.
This recipe is a good example why.
I stopped eating bread about a year ago and now I find myself craving a vehicle for spreads & building sandwiches & such. For the time being, these crackers have conquered my craving.

In a large bowl combine equal parts of seeds. In the above photo I have about 2 handfuls each of pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, flax & chia. Chopped nuts would also work. The flax & chia are the most important, because once they get wet they will act like glue to bind the other ingredients together. You dont have to have both, one or the other would be just fine.

 Get 'em wet and season 'em up. Use garlic, onion, dulse, soysauce, herbs.. what have you. The flax and chia soak up water & become a bit sticky or mucilaginous. Go easy with the water, obviously you don't want to add too much, after a couple minutes it should all be soaked up & you can spread the mix in an even layer onto a baking sheet.

Make sure you spray the foil or parchment paper before you spread the seeds. Bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes, flip or break up into smaller peices, then bake another 10-15 minutes. Let it sit out to cool then it'll break into nice rustic chunks. 

This afternoon I enjoyed the crackers with banana, homemade almond butter & concord grape jam. One of my best friends, Billie, made the jam early this fall. Thanks Billie. It's AWESOME!

Granola with Cinnaroll Sauce

Send help! I can't.. stop... eating.. GrAnOla!! Actually, this happens about once a year... I should be able to get through it. As long as I stay hydrated & eat my greens, then granola 2-3times a day can't do any harm. Hey, its probably more whole grains & fiber than many people get a day. There ya go, I justified it. Easy.

Granola
3 c rolled oats
1/2 c raisins
1/2 c coconut
3/4 c chopped walnuts
1/2 c chopped pecans
1.5 T cinnamon
pinch sea salt

Cinnaroll Sauce
Maple Syrup 3/4 c
Dates 10-12 pitted
1/4 c water
1/2 T cinnamon
1 vanilla bean
2T Coconut oil
pinch sea salt
pinch nutmeg

Place all of the Granola ingredients into a large bowl. All of the Sauce ingredients go into a high-speed blender. Once the Sauce is creamy smooth, pour 1/2 of it onto the dry granola ingredients. Save the rest because it is freaking awesome.. and if you don't eat it all w a spoon right away, you'll find many ways to enjoy it over the next few days.

Heat the Oven to 300. Mix the sauce into the oat mixture well. Then spread it out onto a baking sheet in an even layer. Bake the mix for 25minutes, stirring a couple times. If it still seems a little wet, no worries, once it cools down it will crisp up.

I've been eating this granola with fresh banana & cashew milk. In the above photo its served with almond yogurt, cinnaroll sauce and a baked banana. Enjoy!

Homemade Pumpkin Butter -low sugar

I am so excited about this! I'm excited about Autumn in Missouri, leaves on the ground, the drop in temperature aaaand local fall produce. The garden has been turned down, the house decorated, pantry stocked, we're ready for winter. My mind has been racing with the flavor possibilities this season has to offer.

I first tried pumpkin butter a few years ago while working at the Root Cellar in Columbia, MO. It drove me wild. I needed another jar almost immediately. At the time I was eating dairy, and spread it on cream cheese. It was near perfection. Now, as a lactose-intolerant vegan food enthusiast I am looking forward to more creative ways to delight in my beloved pumpkin spread.

Makes 5 cups

2 pie pumpkins (also called sugar pumpkins)
2T pumpkin pie spice (blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice & ginger)
1/2 c apple juice or water
1/2 c coconut sugar (or what have you)
1 t stevia
2T maple syrup

Start by roasting 2 pie pumpkins. You can follow my simple instructions by clicking here.
Take all the flesh from the pumpkin and puree it. For this step you can use a high-speed blender, food processor, immersion blender or food mill. Any of these will work fine.

Transfer the pureed pumpkin to a pot and stir in the remaining ingredients. Simmer on low, with a lid tilted so that steam can escape, for 2 hours.Stir the pot about every 10 minutes or so.

Look forward to upcoming posts about different ways to use the pumpkin butter! I'm thinking I'll use this in a smoothie with almond milk, spread on toast or a tortilla with banana, stirred into my morning oatmeal, and as a dip for pears. You could also spread it onto baked goods like a bagel or muffin, it'd be delicious on pancakes or waffles.. use your imagination! I'm sure once its in your fridge you'll find all kinds of excuses to eat it. Enjoy

These are the sweeteners I used: Coconut Sugar, Maple syrup and Stevia.

This is my first time using Stevia. I am very interested in cutting back on sugar in my diet, especially since I eat so much fruit & have no interest in cutting back on that! I decided not to use Stevia as my ONLY sweetener in this recipe because I am new to it and I understand that it can result in a bitter flavor.

Coconut Palm Sugar is a minimally processed, highly nutritious and sustainabily harvested sweetener. What more could you want?? Maybe some maple syrup...? yeah. me too.

Nacho Kale Chips

These went too quickly to get a finished photo!! aahh!! Ill have to be more careful next time.

1 c sunflower seeds
1/4 c pine nuts
water, about 1/2-3/4 cups
1/4 c nutritional yeast
carrot, 2in chunk
red bell pepper, a 1/3
1 t mustard
tumeric, a pinch
onion, 1/8 c
garlic, 2 cloves
1 T miso
1 T applecider vinegar

Throw all of the above ingredients into a high powered blender.
Strip 2 bunches of Kale from their stems, keeping the leaves in large pieces.
Rub the leaves liberally with the Nacho dressing, then place in the dehydrator at 109 for at least 1 day.
Flip half way through.
Youll need to keep them in a sealed container once theyre dry or else theyll rehydrate & get soft.

Avocolada Chia Pudding

pineapple, about 2 1/2-3 cups
coconut water, 2 cups
2 bananas, keep separate
avocado, save the pit
2T coconut butter
pinch of salt
juice of 1 lime
3T chia seeds

 Place all the ingredients, except the chia and 1 banana, into the blender and puree. Then, stir in the chia seeds, the avocado pit and the other banana sliced. The pit will help keep the avocado fresh for a few days. Place in the fridge and enjoy a few hours later.

raw Blueberry Dream Chia Pudding

1 pkg fresh bloobs
1 banana
3 oranges, juiced
2 T chia seeds
vanilla

Toss the bloobs, banana and oj in the blender and blend on low. You dont want a perfect puree (or do you?) so leave it a little chunky. Stir in the vanilla and chia seeds. Refrigerate and enjoy a few hours later. I sprinkle a little Bee Pollen on mine.

raw Strawberry Banana Chia Pudding w Coconut Cashew Creme

A treat any time of day, garnished with Bee Pollen

Good Goddess, this was a stroke of kitchen genius. Thats what happens when you spend over 35hours a week in your own kitchen.. genius. It went something like this...
Uh oh these strawberries are gonna go bad if I don't use em soon. I'm not a huge fan of fruit smoothies.. so that's out. I dont want to just eat em on their own... thats too easy.  I want to make some strawberry fruit roll-ups in my dehydrator but cant find my "fruit roll-up trays" aaaanywheeere. Hey.. its been a while since I made a chia pudding. Theres bananas in the freezer. I bet a strawberry-banana chia pudding would rock. YES IT DOES. yep.

WHY CHIA SEEDS? Theyre a source of complete protein, iron, calcium, B vitamins and polyunsaturated fats. They're dry little seeds until you add some liquid then they plump up and soften like tapioca, only theyre more gel-ly. A good ratio to work with is 9parts liquid- 1 part chia seed. 

Strawberry Banana Chia Pudding
1/2 c fresh apple juice
10 strawberries
1 1/2 frozen banana
2-3 T chia seeds
vanilla, a dash

Blend all of the ingredients, besides the seeds. I left my mix a little chunky for texture. Add the seeds after blending then let it sit over night. Once morning comes... dig in.  

Coconut Cashew Creme
1 c cashews, soaked 2-3 hours
3/4 c cream from can of coconut milk
vanilla, 1/2 bean seeded
maple syrup to taste

Blend all the ingredients well, until super smooth. It may be a little thin, but it will set in the fridge and get super thick, rich and creamy. The cream from the top of a can of coconut milk... isnt exactly raw, but I had it on hand and it was perfect. Alternatively you could scoop out the flesh of a young coconut and use that.

Just Bake a Banana!

Craving dessert, but don't have any cookies? Or maybe you don't think you deserve a cookie?? Just Bake a Banana! This has been a favorite some friends and I for several years. I can't remember why or when we came up with it.. but I think it was my first of 3years living on Anthony St. in Columbia at the time.You wont believe how good it is until you try it. It needs no topping.

Lay a piece of foil on the counter, put the banana in the center, and curl up the sides. Some juice is going to cook out, and you dont want it ending up on the bottom of your oven.

Bake at 350 until the peel is black and it starts to juice. It's ready! Carefully peel, then enjoy!

Zucchini Baarrsss!!

This is a recipe from Anna's Family Cookbook, called Tempting Thelen Tasties. WOW, they're good!!!

3c flour
1 1/2t baking soda
1t baking powder
1t salt
1/8t cloves
1/8t nutmeg
3/4c margarine
1c brown sugar
1t vanilla
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
1c grated zucchini
1/2c chopped walnuts
1/2c raisins
1. Sift together the first 6 ingredients; cream together the next 5. Combine both mixtures, then gradually add the rest of the ingredients.
Pour into greased 10x15in pan. Bake at 350 for 20-25min.

I made a cream cheese icing for this.. which was 1/4 stick margarine, 5oz cream cheese, and about a cup and a half of powdered sugar beat together.