Zesty Chocolate-Orange Oats (Vegan, GF)

Oats, plan B breakfast when we're not feeling a smoothie. I'm glad I wasn't in the mood for a smoothie this particular morning when Jenn made Orange-Chocolate oats! We used Navitas Naturals Raw Cacao Sweet Nibs, which are pretty much raw chocolate chips, yum! We love Navitas and how they make eating nutrient dense foods so simple and easy. Their website is also extremely easy to use too, check it out! I think this is my new favourite breakfast. Why does chocolate go with pretty much everything? Except lemon...perhaps.

Navitas Naturals Sweet Cacao Nibs

1 1/2 cups water
2/3 cups oats (Pure)
3 tbsp agave syrup or honey
2 tbsp sweet cacao nibs
zest of one orange
1 tbsp ground flax seeds

Bring oats and water to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add in agave or honey, nibs, zest and flax seeds. Pour chocolate sauce on top. Indulge!

Chocolate sauce: we just threw together raw cacao powder, honey/agave, and water.

Raw Green-Chocolate Pudding w/ Stevia (Vegan, GF)

Another pudding, this time with a super healthy spin. SPIN-ACH. Spinach blends nicely in puddings, the leaves are very soft and full of moisture so there's no obvious green taste or texture. Great for breakfast or post workout protein pudding. Yes it looks like swamp sludge, but it's nutritious, delicious swamp sludge. AND I finally found stevia that doesn't taste weird! I contacted the vice president of NuNaturals and asked if there's any corn or soy in the glycerine, it's made from only coconut...cool.

1 avocado
handful of spinach
2 tbsp raw cacao powder
1 tsp maca powder
1/3 cup chia gel
1 scoop hemp protein powder
8 drops NuNaturals vanilla stevia
Pinch of sea salt

Combine ingredients in food processor or blender. If you like your pudding sweet add in some dates or agave/raw honey.

-Jac

Raw Granola + Almond Milk (Vegan, GF)

We got a dehydrator! Whoo! But don't worry we will still make the majority of our raw recipes dehydrator-free for people who live the cheap and cheerful student life. We'll mostly use it for dehydrating soaked nuts and drying fruit.

Here's a recipe for raw granola that I sort of made up as I went along. It's a great base that you can add to. I added jungle peanuts, goldenberries and cacao nibs. Jac was not a fan of the jungle peanuts for some reason...I guess even though we're twins we don't agree on everything...And the goldenberries were a bit too sour. Next time I'll add a sweeter fruit like blueberries or grapes.

1 1/2 cup finely chopped soaked almonds

1 cup raw pecans, soaked (from More than Alive)

2 tbsp ground flax seeds

1 tsp cinnamon

1 apple, peeled and chopped

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup agave syrup/raw honey/maple syrup (or any other sweet syrup)

1 chia egg (1 tbsp chia seeds mixed with 3 tbsp water)

Start off by chopping the soaked almonds (You could also pulse them in a food processor). You want to make sure they are finely chopped but not into a puree. Put almonds into a large bowl. Finely chop 1/2 cup of the pecans and throw in the bowl with the almonds. Add in ground flax, cinnamon and salt, set aside. 

In a blender or food processor, puree the apple, agave syrup, chia egg and 1/2 cup of soaked pecans. Add to the almond mixture. Add in any nuts or fruit you desire. Spread onto a dehydrator sheet and dehydrate overnight. (We did ours for 17 hours, but you can just see how dry it is the next morning and decide how much more you want to dry it for). Flip over and break into pieces half way through dehydration. Eat!

How to make Almond Milk:

1 cup of soaked almond

2-3 cups of water (2 cups will make it more creamy and 3 cups will be more like skim milk)

1 tbsp of raw honey/agave syrup or a couple dates (optional)

Blend together all ingredients and squeeze through a nut milk bag or sieve. We used reusable produce bags that Jac found for really cheap at the grocery store. You could also use cheesecloth.

This is our first time making almond milk from scratch and I can't believe we didn't do it sooner. It just tastes so much more fresh and pure, unlike the boxed almond milk that tastes stale and processed. And you can use the pulp for making gluten-free almond flour which is always so expensive. It's 2 for 1!

GF Vegan Breakers! Cream of Buckwheat + Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

Don't be scared yet! I was standing in the cereal aisle with a bag of oats in one hand and cream of buckwheat in the other. Should I dive into the unknown world of cream of buckwheat? What if it's horrible, and tastes nothing like cream of wheat? I shoveled out the four dollars and decided to try it. I made a bowl of it this morning and was thouroughly impressed! It doesn't taste exactly like cream of wheat, but it's pretty darn close. And it's the perfect canvas to add flavourings such as nuts and fruit, etc. I had a small bowl of this and seriously could not bring myself to eat lunch and barely even dinner, it's sooo filling. Cream of Buckwheat would be a good thing to have around when you find yourself on a rampage pecking at every edible thing in sight. It stops hunger in an instant.

Added in: vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, honey, pistachios, pinch of salt

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

We made the best pancakes yesterday! Courtesy of apple and cinnamon:

1/4 cup applesauce

1/2 cup almond milk

1 cup Gluten-free flour blend (see substitutions tab)

2 tbsp safflower oil

1 flax egg

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Chopped apples

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Set aside. Mix together almond milk, oil, egg and vanilla. Mix into dry ingredients. Fold in applesauce. Spoon onto frying pan. Place thinly sliced banana on each cake. Cook on low heat (this is important or else they will fall apart easily) until golden brown. Makes 5-6 large pancakes.