11 Days of Healthy Stocking Stuffers - Day 4: Tia's Bakery

Wow this week went by fast. Today's stuffer comes from Tia's bakery; a gluten-free bakery that makes super yummy cookies and cakes. We had the opportunity to try the oatmeal raisin and peanut butter cookies and man were they good! They had that chewy texture of a freshly baked cookie that I've really been missing since going gluten-free.

Our favourite was definitely the peanut butter:

Santa doesn't need these....;)

Nothing is better then cookies in your stocking!

Here's some pics of what we've been eating lately. (No recipe today :( )

Cocoa-berry pudding: Avocado, frozen cucumber, cocoa, berry powder, stevia

Zuchinni noodles cooked in marinara sauce

Tempeh on salad w/ creamy tahini sauce

11 Days of Healthy Stocking Stuffers - Day 2: SENCHA Green Tea Mints

It's funny I went through this phase in elementary school where I was obsessed with gum and mints. I always had to have them on me. I for some reason had this goal of trying every single flavour of "Trident". I was also obsessed with wintergreen lifesavers. Oh to be young again....

Now that I've discovered that the gum I used to chew when I was little has asparthane in it I've made the switch to more natural ways of freshening my breath and keeping my chewing muscles strong.

This is where SENCHA GREEN TEA MINTS come in!

These mints come in a little zippy pencil case thing...re-usable much?

These mints use xylitol for sweetness instead of that sketchy asparthane stuff

Am I spelling asparthane right? There's no suggestions in spell check...

Ooops it's aspartame.

Lot's of different flavours too! Pear is our favourite.

I made some ginger-molasses granola the other day and thought what a great homemade gift that would be! Just pour your homemade granola into a jar and tie with a ribbon!

Ginger-Molasses Granola (this is for our e-book so sorry no recipe!)

More granola recipes to give:

Hazelnut-Hemp Granola

Raw "Superfood" Granola

Pomegranate-Coconut Granola

Buckwheat Granola

11 Days of Healthy Stocking Stuffers - Day 1: Anita's Organic Mill

We decided to do 11 days of Healthy Stocking Stuffers! Hopefully these posts will give you guys ideas on what to give the hard core health freak foodie for Christmas. You guys probably could tell we are product fiends. Every time there's something new at the health food store we simply HAVE to try it. We don't post products that we don't believe in and we hope you guys enjoy looking at all the obscure, new health foods we've been discovering.

So first on the docket:

ANITA'S ORGANIC MILL BREAKFAST BOOST!

We are loving this breakfast boost! It has buckwheat groats (for crunchiness) Chia and Hemp seeds (for omegas) sunflower seeds (for heartiness) and dried cranberries and currants (for sweet chewiness)

I love how there's no added sugar to the cranberries, it's just purely dried.

We found lots of ways to use this booster:

Pumpkin Pudding: pumpkin puree, banana, vanilla brown rice protein powder

Bananas and apples w/ tahini and breakfast boost!

Any self respecting health foodie would jump for joy if they found this in their stocking! I know I would.

Watch out tomorrow for another stocking stuffer! :)

Nacho Supreme Quinoa Bowl + TruRoots

You guys are gonna think this is so weird, but I had a dream last night that I made this and since I had a day off today I decided to follow my dreams and literally make them come true.

And I've recently discovered the BEST and EASIEST vegan cheese sauce. I tried it on noodles and it definitely wins for the best "Mac and Cheese" substitute. Better than our hummus and sweet potato versions.

So what are the ingredients?

Super easy.

Pumpkin Cheese Sauce

Equal parts:

Canned pumpkin puree
Tahini
Nutritional Yeast and
Water
+ a hefty pinch of sea salt

For the bowl I used about 2 tbsp of each as well as a little bit more water cause I wanted to be able to drizzle it. This would equal about 1 serving I'd say.

Here's the sauce mixed w/ some noodles, KD style

But this isn't what you came here to see!

Presenting the Nacho Supreme Quinoa Bowl


1/2- 3/4 cup of cooked quinoa
1 tsp chili powder

Chopped red pepper
Chopped green onion
Black beans
Salsa
Diced avocado
1 sprouted corn tortilla (Baked in a 350F oven for about 10 minutes and crumbled)

1 serving of Pumpkin Cheese Sauce (recipe above)

First you layer the quinoa that has been mixed with chili powder on the bottom of the bowl. Next add your veggies, salsa and avocado (Add vegan sour cream if you're into that kind of thing). Top with tortilla pieces.

Drizzle on cheese sauce and garnish with a lime.

Yum!!!

I didn't have black beans so just pretend they're there

Na na na

Quinoa peeking through

If you don't have sprouted corn tortillas just use crumbled tortilla chips.

Tru Roots sent us some Sprouted Quinoa! You can really tell the difference when the grain is sprouted. It's a more hearty grain. Perfect for bowls!

I was also thinking you could put in some other nacho-ish stuff like maybe some smoked tempeh or shredded lettuce.

Cheezy Steamed Potatoes + Sunwarrior Protein Puddings

There's nothing like a rainy sunday. It's one of those "do-nothing" days and the perfect time for some comfort food. How about some cheezy potatoes? It's very simple and very yummy. All you need is tahini and nutritional yeast and water to thin it out.

I didn't measure exactly when I made the sauce but this is around how much I used:

2 tbsp tahini
1 1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/4 cup water
Generous pinch of sea salt

About 3 medium red potatoes, steamed

Serve on a bed of greens.

Simple and Easy

We tried SunWarrior Protein Powder for the first time and loved it! We received a chocolate and a vanilla in the mail. I of course made protein packed puddings with them.

Avocado, Frozen cukes, vanilla protein powder. Topped with buckwheat groats and hemp seeds

Avocado, Frozen cukes and chocolate protein powder. Topped with almonds and hemp seeds.

I love how it's raw and contains no sweetener except stevia. It had a really natural taste and it wasn't chalky like I expected.

Thanks SunWarrior!

Chili-Lime Guacamole Mac + RISE bar

Hello lovely readers! We've been receiving some great stuff to review lately including these RISE bars which is the old pranabar "reinvented", hope you don't mind all the products. We're kind of nerds that way, we could spend hours browsing the aisles of health food stores. It's the packaging that gets us! Why is health food always in such pretty packaging?... I think they're onto something marketing wise...

I made the most random weirdest dish because I was basically out of normal food and all I had was an avocado, brown rice noodles and limes. So what did I make??...

Chili-Lime Mac!

I know I know, it's almost like we make an effort to be weird...

It was pretty good! Basically like guacamole mixed into pasta.

For the sauce:

1 large avocado
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1 lime
A very generous pinch of salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Whizz up in your blender (I used my magic bullet of course)

Enjoy over some piping hot pasta!

Oh and one more thing, we received a whole package of rise bars in the mail!

What could be inside!

These are comparable to lara bars except they have more of a texture to them. They are primarily comprised of fruit and nuts with some popped amaranth for extra chewiness.

Lots to choose from!

Our favourite was definitely the coconut-acai and we loved how unique the flavour combos were.

Flickering in close up 

Order your own box of RISE bars HERE

Miso-Tahini Pumpkin Noodles + Pudding + King Soba

You probably already know we are big fans of tahini. 1. because it's cheap 2. because it has a low glycemic index and 3. because it actually tastes really good! I made a super yummy asian inspired miso-tahini sauce that you can use as a dressing or poured over top of noodles. In this case I used King Soba's Pumpkin-Ginger Noodles. We love this gluten-free noodle company (especially the packaging) and they're organic too! Double score! They sent us some other noodles to try so we'll also be posting recipes for those when inspiration strikes.

So to make your noodle dish first mix together the sauce:

2 tbsp of tahini
1 tsp miso paste
1/4 cup hot water (or more depending on consistency of tahini)

Mix together the miso and hot water. Add in tahini and stir until well combined. It should have a dressing consistency.

Pour over cooked noodles and wilted spinach or arugula (or whatever greens you'd like). Toss in the dressing. Eat!

Into the miso abyss

Greens!

I hope you guys don't mind the simplicity of the dishes we've been making. Hopefully when the holidays come we'll get a bit more crazy.

King Soba! 

Here's a pudding I made...guess what's in it...

It's avocado and kiwi! (w/ cinni and hemp seeds on top). Simple, low-glycemic and filling. We love our avos!

Raw Apple-Cinnamon Overnight Buckwheat + JOVAN'S

Good morning! It's a bit of a dreary day today but that's expected after yesterday's beautiful fall weather. I can't believe it hasn't snowed yet in Canada this is just insanity!

I made a fall-inspired breakfast this morning, actually I made it last night and just dumped it in a bowl and sprinkled on some apple pieces, super simple.

2 tbsp of hemp seeds blended w/ 1 cup of water (or 1 cup of nut/seed milk)
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp chia seeds
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp raw buckwheat groats

Combine all ingredients in an air tight container and store in the fridge over night

Awaken to a yummy low-glycemic cereal! Sprinkle with apples.

 We got to try these yummy whole food veggie crackers from JOVAN'S. The ingredients are so pure and natural which we are of course big fans of.

The Zesty Tomato was our favourite

Zesty Tomato and Taste of Tuscany Crackers. Crunchy

That's all for today! :)

CLOSED: iHerb 60$ worth of Madre Labs Giveaway! + Fruit Salad + Banana Tiramisu

Hey guys! We've got an awesome giveaway for you courtesy of iherb.com and Madre Labs. I'll get into the details and how to enter in a moment. Let me just share with you first what we've been making!

A slice of berry life

Fruit Salad with Berry Syrup

Just mix together 1/2 tbsp of berry powder with 1 tbsp of agave syrup and 1 tbsp of water and drizzle over your favourite fruit!

We used Eureka Berries which literally contains every berry in existence!

Every berry under the sun in one container

We also got to try out a coffee mushroom blend called Cafeceps and used it to make tiramisu. Instead of cookies
though, we used bananas and soaked them in the coffee until they were completely buzzed.

Bobbing for bananas

 Banana Tiramisu

1 large banana, sliced vertically and cut into three (you'll have 6 pieces)
1 tbsp Cafeceps + 1 1/2 cups of water (or 1 1/2 cups of coffee)
chopped almonds
1 can of full fat coconut milk, chilled in the fridge
1 1/2 tbsp of agave nectar or maple syrup

Soak the bananas for around 15 minutes, or more if you want them extra strong. Spoon about a 1/2 cup of the chilled coconut milk into a blender (I used a magic bullet) and whip until it is the consistency of whipped cream. Fold in syrup. Layer half the bananas on the bottom of a ramekin or dessert bowl. Sprinkle with chopped almonds. Spoon on the coconut cream and top with another layer of bananas and finally layer the rest of the coconut cream on top.

The coconut cream is so fluffy and soft. Sprinkle with cocoa.

Ok so now for the good stuff.

To enter the giveaway you can do a multitude of things! (make sure you post a separate comment for each thing)

1. Post a comment telling us your favourite recipe on Sketch-free Vegan

2. Like Sketch-free Vegan on Facebook

3. Like iherb on Facebook

4. Tweet about this giveaway (make sure it links back to this page)

5. Leave a comment on our Facebook page!

What will you win? 60$ worth of any Madre Labs products of your choice which will be shipped to you from iherb.

This contest will be closing Halloween (October 31st) at midnight.

Coconut Water Chia Pudding w/ Tropical Fruit + PRANA

Are there any chia fans out there? I will admit I've never tried to make a chia pudding before today. We've used chia seeds as an egg replacement and to make raw jam and sprinkled on top of salads. But never pudding...and after seeing the many chia puddings on pure2raw (one of our fav blogs!) I figured it was finally time!

For this pudding I used half coconut water and half hemp seed milk. You can use any kind of nut milk you'd like, or even coconut milk! That would make sense now wouldn't it? The coconut water is naturally sweet so I didn't even add any syrup or stevia. There's no need! 

1/2 cup coconut water

1/2 cup hempseed milk (or other nut milk)

1/4 cup chia seeds

Combine all ingredients in a bowl or container and store in the fridge overnight. Top it off with fruit. I used mango, kiwi, banana and papaya because they go well with coconut.

A taste of the tropics!

The chia seeds we used was from a sample sent to us from PRANA. They also sell trail mix, nuts, superfoods and snack mixes. And get this, everything is gluten-free and vegan! 

They also have an online boutique that sells hard to find dried goods. A lot of which I've never even heard of like dried barberries, dried jujubes and golden cherries. We also got to try two of their flavoured nut varieties: Tamari Almonds and Maple Nuts. Naturally the maple nuts were our favourite. Just can't help that sweet tooth! 

I didn't even notice that japanese style house in the background!

The maple nuts were the perfect addition to this creamy avocado-pear pudding. 

This is just avocado, pear and banana blended up. I'm not a baby I swear!

Seeds from Blackbird Naturals + Fruit + Lucuma Pancakes

So Jac and I ordered seeds from Blackbird Naturals and they finally came! I realize that it's kinda too late to plant a vegetable garden. But I'm gonna experiment with planting some of the greens inside by the window and we'll just save the seeds for spring. We are just in LOVE with the packaging! (so typical) I ordered the "greens collection" and some seeds from the superfood collection and Jac ordered the "veggie patch collection". We aren't affiliated with Blackbird or anything, we we're just really impressed with the company and like how they promote growing your own organic heirloom veggies!

Greens Collection and Superfood Seeds

Veggie Patch Collection in a little wooden box. Perfect gift eh?

The seeds are already "planted"! Trippy....

Superfood seeds. Wild Cherry Tomato, Holy Basil and Goji Berries

We also made pancakes this morning with lucuma powder. They tasted all caramel-y and shortbread-y. And what's a pancake breakfast without a huge plate of fruit! 

Fruit! Cantaloupe, grapes, oranges and pine

Lucuma pancakes.