Ingredients
1 cup apple sauce
1 cup pumpkin pureed (in a can or roasted then pureed, you could also use winter squash)
1 1/2 cup oat flour (you can just process oats in a the food processor until flour-like)
1 cup cocoa powder (we use dark cocoa)
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 cup agave syrup (or maple syrup)
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips (dark chocolate is what we use)
Directions
In a separate bowl whisk together dry ingredients. Set aside
In a food processor blend apple sauce and pumpkin.
In a mixer whisk syrup and eggs until foamy.
Add applesauce/pumpkin mixture and vanilla to the foamy mixture.
Beat until combined.
Fold in dry ingredients until just moist.
Fold in chocolate chips.
Spray muffin tins. Spoon into tins. Makes 12 regular and 12 mini muffins.
Bake regular muffins for about 25 minutes, mini muffins are usually ready after 15 minutes.
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Friday, October 2, 2015
Almond Pulp Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
I've been making a lot of nut milk lately. It's mostly been a half and half combo of organic almonds and cashews. In an effort to use the leftover nut pulp I scoured the internet for recipes and finally found one that's a keeper. Below is the slightly modified version of bars created by Brandi over at www.thevegan8.com.
Almond Pulp Chocolate Chip Bars
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup ground flaxseed (or flaxseed meal)
1 cup almond pulp or blanched almond flour (it helps if you leave the pulp in the refrigerator overnight to dry out a bit)
1 cup gluten-free whole rolled oats or quick oats
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup creamy almond butter (unsweetened)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS (you'll need two bowls for mixing)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Line an 8x8 (or 9x9) square pan with parchment paper for easy removal later.
In the first bowl, mix the maple syrup and ground flaxseed and set aside for 10 minutes to gel up (this is your egg replacement, and it's an important step).
In a second bowl, combine the almond pulp (or almond flour), oats, cinnamon and salt. Stir in the chocolate chips.
After the 10 minutes is up, stir in the almond butter and vanilla into the syrup and flaxseed mixture until very smooth. Pour over the dry ingredients and stir for a couple of minutes until very sticky and absorbed, pressing with the back of your spoon to help mix.
Add the dough to the loaf pan and spread out evenly and flat with a rubber spatula.
For dough using almond pulp, bake for 30-32 minutes until very golden brown and firm on top. For dough using almond flour, bake about 27-30 minutes until very golden brown and firm on top.
Important
Cool 1 hour before cutting, or they will fall apart. They firm up a lot as they cool. If desired, melt some chocolate chips and drizzle the tops for added sweetness or for presentation purposes. Honestly, they are plenty delicious without it, I just did it more for looks. Slice very carefully into 8 bars. Wrap each individually in plastic wrap and store in the fridge. They will hold their shape very well this way and it makes for an easy grab-and-go snack!
Almond Pulp Chocolate Chip Bars
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup ground flaxseed (or flaxseed meal)
1 cup almond pulp or blanched almond flour (it helps if you leave the pulp in the refrigerator overnight to dry out a bit)
1 cup gluten-free whole rolled oats or quick oats
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup creamy almond butter (unsweetened)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS (you'll need two bowls for mixing)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Line an 8x8 (or 9x9) square pan with parchment paper for easy removal later.
In the first bowl, mix the maple syrup and ground flaxseed and set aside for 10 minutes to gel up (this is your egg replacement, and it's an important step).
In a second bowl, combine the almond pulp (or almond flour), oats, cinnamon and salt. Stir in the chocolate chips.
After the 10 minutes is up, stir in the almond butter and vanilla into the syrup and flaxseed mixture until very smooth. Pour over the dry ingredients and stir for a couple of minutes until very sticky and absorbed, pressing with the back of your spoon to help mix.
Add the dough to the loaf pan and spread out evenly and flat with a rubber spatula.
For dough using almond pulp, bake for 30-32 minutes until very golden brown and firm on top. For dough using almond flour, bake about 27-30 minutes until very golden brown and firm on top.
Important
Cool 1 hour before cutting, or they will fall apart. They firm up a lot as they cool. If desired, melt some chocolate chips and drizzle the tops for added sweetness or for presentation purposes. Honestly, they are plenty delicious without it, I just did it more for looks. Slice very carefully into 8 bars. Wrap each individually in plastic wrap and store in the fridge. They will hold their shape very well this way and it makes for an easy grab-and-go snack!
Many many thanks Brandi for her fabulous and creative recipe!
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Pumpkin Waffles c/o Cookie and Kate
I stumbled on these tasty pumpkin spice waffles a few months ago. They have since become a weekend staple. They're perfect in every way. The recipe comes from Cookie and Kate, which is one of my favorite food blogs. I pretty much always double this, to ensure we have leftovers. They freeze nicely and make for a great breakfast on the run if you plunk a couple out and let them defrost on your way to work. I've pasted the recipe below for ease, but all the credit goes to Kate.
* 2¼ cups (200 grams) oat flour*
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* ¾ teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* ½ teaspoon ginger
* ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
* ¼ teaspoon allspice or cloves
* 3 large eggs
* Scant ⅔ cup milk of choice (I used plain, unsweetened almond milk)
* Scant ½ cup melted coconut oil or 7½ tablespoons butter, melted
* ½ cup (122 grams) packed pumpkin puree
* 3 tablespoons maple syrup
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* Suggested toppings: more maple syrup, nut butter and/or toasted nuts, coconut whipped cream...
Instructions
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the oat flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and all spice or cloves. Whisk to combine.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the eggs. Then add the milk, coconut oil or butter, pumpkin purée, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Whisk until the mixture is thoroughly blended.
3. Pour the liquid mixture into the oat flour mixture. Stir with a big spoon until just combined (the batter will still be a little lumpy). Let the batter rest for 10 minutes so the oat flour has time to soak up some of the moisture. Plug in your waffle iron to preheat now.
4. Once 10 minutes is up, give the batter one more, gentle swirl with your spoon. The batter will be pretty thick, but don't worry! Your waffles will turn out great. Pour batter onto the heated waffle iron, enough to cover the center and most of the central surface area, and close the lid. Once the waffle is deeply golden and crisp, transfer it to a cooling rack or baking sheet. Don't stack your waffles on top of each other or they'll lose crispness. If desired, keep your waffles warm by placing them in a 200 degree oven until you're ready to serve. Repeat with remaining batter and serve with desired toppings on the side.
*Make your own oat flour: Simply blend old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats in a food processor or blender until they are ground into a fine flour. You'll need to blend about 2¼ cups oats to make 2¼ cups flour.
* 2¼ cups (200 grams) oat flour*
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* ¾ teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* ½ teaspoon ginger
* ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
* ¼ teaspoon allspice or cloves
* 3 large eggs
* Scant ⅔ cup milk of choice (I used plain, unsweetened almond milk)
* Scant ½ cup melted coconut oil or 7½ tablespoons butter, melted
* ½ cup (122 grams) packed pumpkin puree
* 3 tablespoons maple syrup
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* Suggested toppings: more maple syrup, nut butter and/or toasted nuts, coconut whipped cream...
Instructions
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the oat flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and all spice or cloves. Whisk to combine.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the eggs. Then add the milk, coconut oil or butter, pumpkin purée, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Whisk until the mixture is thoroughly blended.
3. Pour the liquid mixture into the oat flour mixture. Stir with a big spoon until just combined (the batter will still be a little lumpy). Let the batter rest for 10 minutes so the oat flour has time to soak up some of the moisture. Plug in your waffle iron to preheat now.
4. Once 10 minutes is up, give the batter one more, gentle swirl with your spoon. The batter will be pretty thick, but don't worry! Your waffles will turn out great. Pour batter onto the heated waffle iron, enough to cover the center and most of the central surface area, and close the lid. Once the waffle is deeply golden and crisp, transfer it to a cooling rack or baking sheet. Don't stack your waffles on top of each other or they'll lose crispness. If desired, keep your waffles warm by placing them in a 200 degree oven until you're ready to serve. Repeat with remaining batter and serve with desired toppings on the side.
*Make your own oat flour: Simply blend old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats in a food processor or blender until they are ground into a fine flour. You'll need to blend about 2¼ cups oats to make 2¼ cups flour.
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Plastic tally
A few months back we took a trunk-full of plastic to the recycling center. It was several months worth of plastic--rather than having it whisked away weekly, we let it pile up--which resulted in an accumulated mass that was eye-popping and seemed so pointless. A bunch of plastic cartons to hold two tomatoes? We seriously bought those? To figure out exactly where we can reduce our plastic usage we did a little accounting as we emptied the trunk into the recycling dumpsters (x's for each plastic container):
Milk xxxxxxxxxxxxx (mostly half gallon)
Yogurt xxxxxxxx (some big and small ones)
Juice xxxxxxx (mix of half and full gallon)
Soaps xxxxxxx (cleaners, hand, body, dish, etc.)
Lettuce xxxxxx (the prewashed mixes)
Desserts xxxxxx (Mmmm)
Hummus xxxxx (mix of smaller organic and bigger non-organic ones)
Strawberries xxxxx (pints)
Tomato xxxx (mostly those awful two-tomato cartons)
Detergent xxxx
Cheese xxx
Olives xx
Cherries xx
Applesauce xx
Ketchup xx
Batteries xx
Qtips x
Mustard x
Butter x
Eggs x
Pita x
Tofu x
Below is how we're thinking of limiting plastic from the the sources above. Keeping it specific to the biggest offenders on the list will hopefully make the plan more manageable and give us a chance at sticking to it...
Buy big. For a number of products there aren't great alternatives (milk, yogurt, juice, detergent, cheese, ketchup, strawberries), and buying big will maximize the product:plastic ratio. This is probably the easiest solution to minimizing many of these plastics at the moment. We'll buy the biggest dish soaps possible and refill when possible. We need to be careful not to waste though, so we'll freeze half of the strawberries when we buy a big one. For milk, when we lived in Iowa the local co-op offered reusable glass milk bottles--in hindsight we did not make nearly enough use of that, and we haven't found it in central PA. So we'll replace our half plastic gallons of whole and 1% milk with a single full (still plastic) gallon, and alternate which kind. It's not eliminating the plastic, but it's an improvement in getting the same amount of milk with a little less plastic.
Go without. We can go without liquid soap and just use bars. For food, if we can't get it at the farmers market, then it's probably not locally sourced (olives, cherries, strawberries most of the year), and we'll reserve it for an occasional treat. When tomatoes are only available at the grocery store, we'll go without or...
Buy fresh, grow and make at home. Buy foods that haven't been pre-whatevered (washed, cut, bundled, etc.), buy at a farmers market, grow in the garden. These take more work and time, and are more rewarding--we'll use less plastic and get better food. And preparing fresh and homemade food is time well spent for mind, body, and spirit. We'll limit plastic lettuce bins by buying the damn head of lettuce, or greens at a market. Same story for tomatoes, berries, etc. We'll make our own hummus more often--one small (plastic) bag of fresh garbanzos made the equivalent of about four plastic hummus tubs.
These steps will hopefully put a dent in our plastic garbage patch.
Milk xxxxxxxxxxxxx (mostly half gallon)
Yogurt xxxxxxxx (some big and small ones)
Juice xxxxxxx (mix of half and full gallon)
Soaps xxxxxxx (cleaners, hand, body, dish, etc.)
Lettuce xxxxxx (the prewashed mixes)
Desserts xxxxxx (Mmmm)
Hummus xxxxx (mix of smaller organic and bigger non-organic ones)
Strawberries xxxxx (pints)
Tomato xxxx (mostly those awful two-tomato cartons)
Detergent xxxx
Cheese xxx
Olives xx
Cherries xx
Applesauce xx
Ketchup xx
Batteries xx
Qtips x
Mustard x
Butter x
Eggs x
Pita x
Tofu x
Below is how we're thinking of limiting plastic from the the sources above. Keeping it specific to the biggest offenders on the list will hopefully make the plan more manageable and give us a chance at sticking to it...
Buy big. For a number of products there aren't great alternatives (milk, yogurt, juice, detergent, cheese, ketchup, strawberries), and buying big will maximize the product:plastic ratio. This is probably the easiest solution to minimizing many of these plastics at the moment. We'll buy the biggest dish soaps possible and refill when possible. We need to be careful not to waste though, so we'll freeze half of the strawberries when we buy a big one. For milk, when we lived in Iowa the local co-op offered reusable glass milk bottles--in hindsight we did not make nearly enough use of that, and we haven't found it in central PA. So we'll replace our half plastic gallons of whole and 1% milk with a single full (still plastic) gallon, and alternate which kind. It's not eliminating the plastic, but it's an improvement in getting the same amount of milk with a little less plastic.
Go without. We can go without liquid soap and just use bars. For food, if we can't get it at the farmers market, then it's probably not locally sourced (olives, cherries, strawberries most of the year), and we'll reserve it for an occasional treat. When tomatoes are only available at the grocery store, we'll go without or...
Buy fresh, grow and make at home. Buy foods that haven't been pre-whatevered (washed, cut, bundled, etc.), buy at a farmers market, grow in the garden. These take more work and time, and are more rewarding--we'll use less plastic and get better food. And preparing fresh and homemade food is time well spent for mind, body, and spirit. We'll limit plastic lettuce bins by buying the damn head of lettuce, or greens at a market. Same story for tomatoes, berries, etc. We'll make our own hummus more often--one small (plastic) bag of fresh garbanzos made the equivalent of about four plastic hummus tubs.
These steps will hopefully put a dent in our plastic garbage patch.
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