Apricot-Almond Lara-Bars + Giveaway Winner!!

Thank you friends for entering our All-Canadian giveaway!  The winner of our Favourite Baked Treats and e-book, is (RANDOM.org generated) comment #11: Junia! We are so happy to send you some treats and our e-book! Please send us your mailing address by email to jac_909@hotmail.com


In other news, here's another treat to try out:


I’m sure you are familiar with the ever so popular Larabars. Dates are the main dried fruit used in these bars, however; I thought it would be interesting to use both apricots AND dates. They turned out slightly less sweet and had an earthier flavour. Apricots are lower in the glycemic index, while dates are QUITE high. Try substituting dried apricots for dates in your next recipe for a lower-glycemic treat.


I use un-sulphured apricots, they are the brown ones. (Tends to produce a richer more date-like flavour).

½ cup almonds, ground in food processor

½ cup apricots, packed

¼ cup dates, packed

¼ cup almonds, roughly chopped

2-3 tbsp oat flour

Pinch of salt

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp vanilla extract

Grind nuts in food processor, add dried fruit and process until combine, add in rest of ingredients and process until a dough forms. Form into a flat square about 1 ½ inches thick. Cut into bars and store in fridge and eat these on the go! Makes 6-7 bars.

And more news still! We were recently featured on Glamour's "Vitamin G Health and Fitness Blog" for our Pistachio Pudding! Check out the post here.

Our Favourite Bakes and Ebook Giveaway! For our fellow Canadian friends :)

Before school starts, we've decided to host a double dose giveaway. Over the summer we were especially into baking for some reason and created some really yummy treats. It's been just over a year now since we started blogging, we wanted to celebrate by sending one of our fabulous readers some of our favourite bakes! As well as a copy of our new e-book: Inner Ecology. So you can eat the treats, then detox out the sugar later with the ebook recipes...lol. Note: these bakes are not made in a dedicated gluten-free kitchen.

Included in the package (two have not been released on the blog yet):

 

Chocolate-Chia Macaroons (recipe not released yet)

Buckwheat Graham Crackers



Apple Cinnamon Soft Baked Cookies (recipe not released yet)



Chocolate-Banana Muffins (they will be mini muffins)



And of course our EBOOK!



Unfortunately the giveaway will only be open to Canadians! I know, for once eh? Just because we want the treats to be as fresh as possible. So to enter this marvelous giveaway all you have to do is leave a comment, any old comment will do!

For additional entries:

• Follow us on Twitter
• Follow us on Facebook
• Tweet about this Giveaway

(And let us know you did in a comment below)

The giveaway closes tomorrow at midnight!

Peanut-Butter Coconut Cookies

I'm on such a peanut butter kick you guys! I buy this brand: Maranatha, it's honestly the best peanut butter I've ever tasted. Straight out of jar? I think so... Unlike your average peanut butter cookies, these ones include coconut, so when baked it gets slightly toasty, yyyuum. Make sure to use natural peanut butter with nothing but peanuts and maybe salt in the ingredients list for optimal results.

½ cup oat flour  
¼ cup buckwheat flour      

¼ cup brown rice flour      

1 tbsp ground flax seed      

1 tsp baking soda      

Pinch of salt (don't add if salt is listed in peanut butter)

1 cup of natural peanut butter
1 cup coconut sugar
¼ cup coconut oil
½ cup shredded coconut
¾ cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix dry ingredients together (flour, baking, soda, flax and salt.) Set aside. Mix sugar, oil, peanut butter, water and shredded coconut in a large bowl. Gradually add in dry mixture and stir until you form a thick dough. Roll into balls and press with a fork into cookie shape. Bake for 12-13 minutes at 350F. If over bake them they will get dry, so keep a close eye on them.

These were very chewy, though not as dense as your usually peanut butter cookies. Still really good!

Banana Snack Cake w/ Peanut Butter Icing

My oh my banana pudding pie! I know this cake looks pretty simple, but it's so moist and tastes so good with the PB icing!

I was getting so excited over this snack cake, Jenn thought I was being weird, like she usually does when I obsess over silly little things like this. But hey, trust me, this is definitely something to obsess over.

I know what you're thinking, banana cake, isn't that sort of like banana bread!? No, it's not! It's lighter and sweeter in my opinion.

The icing went so well with it too. Really takes me back to pb and banana sandies. So the icing, when you add water to pretty much any roasted nut butter, the oil in the butter will coagulate and turn it whippy like. I usually do 1 part nut butter to 1 part water and then add a little stevia to taste.

If you're intolerant to peanuts, roasted almond butter, or even a chocolate-tahini icing would be a yummy alternative.


Avalanche of PB

1 cup buckwheat flour

1/2 cup gluten-free oat flour

4 tsp flaxseed meal

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

Pinch salt

1/4 cup coconut sugar

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup banana puree

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup water

Icing:

1/4 cup natural peanut butter

1/4 cup water (or enough for it to appear whippy (depending on type of pb))
Drops of stevia to taste

Preheat oven to 350F. Sift dry ingredients together into a medium bowl. In a larger bowl combine all wet ingredients + coconut sugar. Stir until combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, stir until further combined. Pour batter into ashallow casserole dish, bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and it's nice and golden brown on top. Leave to cool (Important! or else icing will turn more into a glaze, unless you like that...) Combine ingredients for the icing in a small bowl, Spread liberally onto top of cake. Top with chopped peanuts, bananas, chocolate chips, coconut, (sky is the limit for toppers).


Makes enough snackery for 6-8 people.

Coconut Curry Quinoa Croquettes

We recently received a very generous sampling of "Mary's" crackers in the mail. My favourite GF crackers ever! I went through a phase of addiction with these, for real, thank god they were gluten-free!! These crackers are so so crunchy, and all of the seeds and whole grains give it a nice varied texture and create different dimensions of crunch.
It was hard to think of a recipe that uses crackers as an ingredient, but then I remembered seeing "croquettes" on the food network once and then came up with the genius idea of making quinoa croquettes! Not to mention Coconut Curry Quinoa Croquettes.

2/3 cup quinoa, cooked
1 large carrot, finely shredded
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
Pinch of cayenne
1 1/2 tsp cumin
2 tsp psyllium husk (for sticky-togetherness)
1/2 tsp salt

For crumb crust:
1/2 cup mary's crackers, ground finely (or alternative gluten-free cracker)
1/4 cup ground unsweetened shredded coconut

Cook the quinoa in a small pot. Once it's finished cooking add the carrots, psyllium and spices and let it sit for about five minutes with the lid on. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until cool. Prepare the crumb coating. Roll quinoa mixture into balls and flatten slightly. Roll in crumb coating, brush both sides with water and then roll once more in the coating. Fry in coconut oil on both sides until golden. Serve with chutney or whatever sauce you fancy!

 I put ground up shredded coconut in with the cracker crumbs and it makes the coating toasty and golden.

Coconut Fields Foreva

Serve these little guys with a generous helping of mango chutney or whatever sauce you care for.

It's Daaaavey Croquette!

Vegan "Booster Juice"

I. Love. Booster Juice. So much so that I spent a good portion of my meal plan on them everyday during my year at University. Eventually I ran out of money, and had to lay off of them. I was so addicted, but they were healthy so that's okay right?

Booster Juice smoothies aren't vegan, although you can ask for one without yogurt. I don't drink them all that often anymore, cause I mean, come on, smoothie master over here! You can make smoothies at home that are cheaper and actually taste alot like the almighty booster juice: such as this recipe I have crafted up for any vegan longing for that frosty, thick, fruit-filled drink.

A key to really great smoothies, that I've recently discovered, is that by using half frozen and half fresh fruit, you get a more uniform texture and an easier blend. That's why the mango is unfrozen, by I'm sure you can use for example, frozen mango, frozen strawberries and fresh banana, or another combination as such.

1/2 ripe large mango (unfrozen)
4-5 frozen strawberries
1/2 frozen banana
Juice from one passion fruit (this is flavourful stuff!)
1/4 cup guava juice (I used this brand)
1/2 cup orange juice (or more to induce blending)

Stick everything in a blender and blend away!! Add more juice as necessary to desired consistency. Keep it as thick as you can, a straw is a must for this one!

This was a take on the Mango Hurricane, my absolute favourite! I would LOVE to see if anyone else can recreate their favourite booster juice, it was surprising how much it tasted like the real thing.

As seen in: Ricki's Wellness Weekends

Grilled (Cheese) Eggplant Sandwich

It all started about a week ago when my dad was having one of his barbecue dinners. He loves to barbecue, I suppose it's relaxing to be by an open flame grillin' away. I never understood it, but I leave the grilling to him.

He made burgers, and of course some yummy portabello mushroom burgers for us! :) But when he makes burgers they have to be the fancy kind, topped with carmelized onions, grilled eggplant, mushrooms and fancy relishes. Hey no complaining here!

The carmelized onions and eggplant are my favourites. It's amazing how much a vegetable can change from a bitter displeasing taste to a sweet, rich flavourful food.

The eggplant surprised me the most, I noticed it wasn't getting lots of attention against the onions, mushrooms and of course the ketchup and mustard. So I took a few for my burger, took a bite...and...cheese!

"Hey, grilled eggplant sorta tastes like swiss cheese." I guess that was enough for the rest of the fam to try some eggplant! Seriuosly though it tastes so much like swiss cheese, so much that Jenn and I just HAD to make grilled cheese with it!

1/2 an eggplant (for two sandwiches)
Sea salt
Sundried Tomatoes (or other veggies)
Hummus
4 slices bread (we used a sprouted grain gluten-free bread)

Slice eggplant in half vertically. Then each half in half again. Slice eggplant into 1/4 inch thick slices. Put  slices on a few layers of paper towel in a hollow pan or in the sink. Sprinkle on a hefty amount of salt (don't wory, you'll be rinsing it off later). Make sure both sides are salted evenly. Allow to "sweat" for at least 2 hours, the longer you wait, the better. Set oven to Broil, or if you don't have a broiler, set to about 450F.

Rinse of eggplant thoroughly, it may be a good idea to taste the raw eggplant, just to make sure you don't over salt it when you broil it. Dry off rinsed slices, arrange on a parchment/aluminum foil lined baking sheet. Brush each side with oil. Salt as needed (side facing up). Broil until roasted and beginning to carmelize. You can cut off the skins if you like for a more "cheese" like look.

Heat a frying pan with 1/2 tbsp oil. Assemble sandwich, place in frying pan and cook while pressing down with spatula. Flip once golden brown and continue cooking until ready.

Makes 2 scrumptious sandwiches!

Portrait of an eggplant

I know the eggplant part seems like a lot of work. But if you do it the day before and just store it in the fridge you could have grilled cheeses for the next few days!

We submitted this sandy to Ricki's Wellness Weekends this week, if you have your own wellness inspired recipe, hop on over there and submit it!!

No-Bake Orange Pistachio Cookies

Hey everyone! I just found a post that I forgot to publish! Because I published it first at One Green Planet, whoopsies, I love finding surprise posts, they make my day :)

Actual date made: July 27th...

Jenn, my little sister (Brooke) and I are obsessed with dreams, we love having dreams, waking up from dreams, telling each other about our dreams. Just everything about 'em.

Sometimes I bring my dream world into my everyday life, drawing on the inspiration and such...

Well, last night I had a dream I was making vegan cookie dough, I guess I'm subconsciously vegan too. lol. Anyways the cookie dough in my dream had raisins, buckwheat flour and almonds in it.

After I woke up I saw it as a sign to make some vegan cookie dough, and let my intuition go crazy! whoa!

Creativeness ensued, and these little gems were the result. Pistachio and orange are amazing flavours when combined together. Love it!

1/2 cup raw blanched almonds (ground finely)

1/4 cup pistachios ground fine (mine were roasted, and you can keep the skins on)

1/3 cup oat flour

Pinch of salt

1 tbsp agave nectar (we used raw honey, sorry not strict vegans :P)

2 tbsp coconut oil

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/2-3/4 tsp orange extract (depending on how orangey you like it)

Top with cacao nibs (this is good to balance the sweet flavour but not necessary)

Combine first four ingredients. Add wet ingredients and mix with hands until it forms a malleable dough. Tear off pieces and shape into cookie shapes, top with cacao nibs. Makes 6-7 cookies. 

I'm never doubting my dreams again because these cookies are amazing, I am definitely going to make them again, maybe in a baked version. They taste very elegant and fancy with the orange essence. Very yummy stuff!

I also submitted these to Ricki's Wellness Weekends! Mosey on over there and submit your own healthy recipes!!

Sweet Chili Heat Corn Muffins

No we didn't make muffins out of doritos....that would be taking it too far ;)

I was always weary of corn muffins until recently. It just sounded like a weird thing to make, but after trying these I now know the wonder of a hot corn muffin fresh from the oven with imaginary butter on top.

As they cooled they definitely got kind of crumbly, so serving them hot would be a good idea.

These are usually made with jalapenos but we didn't have any so we used chili powder which gave them a nice kick! After trying one I could only imagine how good these would be dunked in an actual bowl of chili. I'm officially converted to corn muffins!

1 cup of cornmeal
1/2 cup light buckwheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp ground flax seed
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/3 cup coconut sugar (or other cane sugar)
2 apples pureed with 3/4 cup water

Combine apple puree and coconut sugar in a large bowl. In a seperate bowl combine remaining ingredients. Gradually sprinkle dry into wet ingredients. Mix until fully incorporated. Spoon into a muffin tin lined with muffin cups. Bake at 350F for 20-22 minutes. (We baked ours a bit too long at 26 minutes, as you can see by the cracked tops)

It's cooorny collins!



Don't look at me like that

 

Buckwheat Graham Crackers

If you haven't gotten into buckwheat flour already...well...get on it! A gluten-freeer's best friend. I liken it to wheat flour except denser with less starchiness. You can substitute buckwheat flour for wheat flour in cookies, pancakes, and crackers without adding xanthan gum, potato starch etc. other gluten-free ingredients. Buckwheat can make your baked goods a little dry, as most gluten-free bakes tastes. But that's a small compromise for the ease and benefit that comes with using buckwheat flour (did I mention it's cheap?).

Buckwheat doesn't crumble like brown rice flour, it actually keeps its shape pretty well. Not as well as wheat flour mind you, but close enough.

I mostly use light buckwheat flour, cause the dark is well..dark and more gritty.

1 cup light buckwheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/3 cup coconut sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup water

Cream coconut oil and sugar together. Add vanilla extract. In a separate bowl combine all dry ingredients.
Add water sparingly until a doughy consistency is achieved. Don't add too much! Once you combine the dough with your hands you may find if becomes wetter that way. Form dough into a 1 inch round disc shape, wrap in plastic wrap and put in fridge. Roll out completely flat on a piece of parchment by placing plastic wrap on top and rolling it out with a rolling pin. Peel off plastic wrap. Cut into rectangles and poke a couple times with a fork. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes.

Slabs of graham

Graham-lita

These are literally exactly like boxed graham crackers. Wahaaaa!

We love our grahams!

We submitted these to Ricki's Wellness Weekend, submit your own recipe that promtoes wellness too!