Sunshine Spinach and Citrus Salad

The sun is shining, and it's a beautiful day...in February. So while I'm looking out at the beautiful sunshine, pretending it's a warm, spring day...I'll eat this salad to continue the facade in my mind! Citrus is in abundance in winter, making this a perfect, easy salad to throw together right now. 

The bright flavors are sure to perk up a bleak, winter day!

Sunshine spinach salad

Fresh spinach
Shredded carrot
Orange or clementine slices
Yellow or orange sweet bell pepper, diced
Unsweetened coconut flakes
Raw cashews
Sweet miso dressing

Dressing:
Equal parts white miso, apple cider vinegar and agave or coconut nectar. A spoonful of tahini, a dash of cracked pepper and water to thin to your liking. Whisk all ingredients together and pour over your assembled salad. 

No Bake Super Fudgy Brownies

These super rich, fudgy bars have been a favorite dessert of mine for years. If an energy bite and a devil's food cake had a baby, it would be these no bake brownies. I like to use Almonds or Cashews, but feel free to use any nut you prefer.  They also keep well in the freezer, making them the perfect make ahead treat. 

No Bake Super Fudgy Brownies

2 C. Almonds

2 C. Dates

1/3 C. Raw cacao powder (or regular cocoa powder)

1/3 C. Unsweetened shredded coconut

¼ t. salt

1-2 T. Brown rice syrup - You can sub maple syrup, but I like the way the brown rice syrup holds these together

½ C. creamy peanut butter (or any nut butter you like!)

½ C. Coconut butter (I make my own by processing unsweetened coconut shreds in my food processor until it becomes like buttah. Yum.)

1 ¼ C. Non-dairy chocolate chips or good quality dark chocolate bar, chopped

Line an 8x8 pan or 9" pie plate with wax paper or aluminum foil.

Put the almonds, dates, cacao powder, coconut shreds, brown rice syrup and salt in your food processor and process until everything is chopped and mixed and relatively dough-like. Press mixture into the bottom of your pan.

Melt together the peanut butter, coconut butter and chocolate chips until smooth. Pour over the almond mixture and refrigerate until set. Give it a few hours, at least. Slice and enjoy, or freeze for later!

Simple Curried slaw.

This curry slaw is easy to throw together, packs a powerful flavor punch, and is the perfect topper to a veggie burger, chickpea tacos, or eaten straight out of the bowl with a fork!

{super non-photogenic but delicious slaw}

Sweet and spicy curry slaw

1 12 oz. bag of slaw veggies (I get mine from Trader Joe’s)

⅓ C. Vegan Mayo

1 T. Maple Syrup

1-2 T. Curry powder, depending on how curried or spicy you like your slaw

¼ C. Raisins

¼ C. Sunflower seeds

½ C. Fresh Cilantro, chopped

Juice from ½ a lime

Pinch of salt

Pinch of black pepper

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. It’s ready right away, but I like to let it set for a couple hours to let the curry marry into the mayo a bit and strengthen the flavor.

Easy Skillet Pizza

Two things I keep handy at all times for times when, for whatever strange reason, my dinner plans prove incompatible with real life:

1. Chickpea (Garbanzo Bean) Flour
2. Jarred Tomato sauce  (this organic sauce from Aldi is oil and sugar free- and costs less than $2!)

Did you know you can make a quick and easy gluten free pizza crust with chickpea flour? It's packed with protein and comes together in a snap. I've played around with different flour combinations over the years, and you can certainly use chickpea flour on its own, but I feel like this combination most closesly resembles a true pizza crust and held together quite well. 

Easy Skillet Pizzas

Makes enough for 3- 5" skillets, or one 12" skillet

1/4 C. Chickpea flour

1/4 C. Cornmeal (any size grind is fine, although I prefer a fine or medium grind for this recipe)

1/2 C. Brown rice flour

1 t. Baking powder

1 1/2 t. Salt (My favorite is pink Himalayan salt)

1 C. Water

Olive oil, for skillets

Preheat oven to 375. Pour enough olive oil in each skillet to lightly coat the bottom and halfway up the sides. This will be about 1 t. for the small skillets, or 1 T. for a large skillet. Put the skillets in the oven to heat up while the oven preheats.

 In a medium mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix well.  Add the water and mix again.

Take the skillets out of the oven once preheated and pour your crust batter in. Bake for 12-15 minutes. 

Remove from the oven, top with your favorite pizza toppings, and place back in the oven for 5-7 minutes.

Banana Bread French Toast

Happy Labor Day weekend! We've been working hard to get the most out of our last weekend of summer break, and that included a lot of cooking, baking, and indulging in some special treats. 

This weekend I experimented with carrot puree. I ended up making carrot cake chocolate chip cookies and some carrot banana bread. The banana bread didn't turn out quite how I'd hoped and needs some tweaking, so I won't be sharing a recipe for carrot banana bread quite yet. 

However, what I ended up doing with the sub-par quick bread is definitely worth sharing! 

Cinnamon banana bread french toast with bananas and walnuts.

  Marie Catrib's here in Grand Rapids makes an out-of-this-world vegan french toast with carmelized bananas, peanut butter and cinnamon raisin toast. It's even available guten free. Amazing. 

So, for Vegan Mofo's restaurant meal theme today, I decided to put my own spin on this decadent breakfast treat. 

I slightly modified the french toast batter recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, Vegan with a Vengeance.

Ingredients:

1 loaf of day old banana bread or other quick bread (zucchini or pumpkin loaf would work great here, too!)
1 C. Non-dairy milk
1/4 C. Chickpea flour
2 T. cornstarch
1 t. Vanilla extract
1 t. Cinnamon
Sliced bananas and chopped walnuts, for serving

Directions:

Slice the bread in 1/2" thick slices. In a large, shallow bowl, whisk together the non-dairy milk and cornstarch until well blended. Add the chickpea flour and cinnamon and mix again. 

Preheat a skillet over medium-high heat. Dredge the bread in the batter and place on the skillet for a few minutes, flipping when you have a nice golden-brown coating on the bottom. 

Top with bananas, walnuts, maple syrup, and a dusting of extra cinnamon if you want! 

This french toast was amazing paired with a hot cup of vanilla chai tea. Enjoy!

Do you like tea? What is your favorite? I am a huge chai junkie and as soon as the weather gets a little colder, I'll be able to justify a daily partaking of this pumpkin chai deliciousness!

Vegan Month of Food (Vegan Mofo) 2015

Vegan Month of Food has arrived!  Every year since going to a plant based diet I have silently admired this celebration of vegan culinary pursuits across the web.  Bloggers get together to get the word out on how delicious, colorful and exciting vegan food really is.

This year I'm going to try my hand at participating in Vegan Month of Food! I'll be following along a set list of inspirations for posting different recipes or tidbits of info on the life of a plant based home cook.

If you'd like to follow along with the fun, hop on your favorite social media outlet (IG, twitter, etc...) and search #veganmofo or #vgnmf15 - You'll be sure to find such an abundance of mouth watering vegan meals, your head will explode. 

Today I am sharing what we had for breakfast this morning!  I didn't look at the Vegan Mofo prompt for today until this afternoon, but thankfully I'm constantly taking pictures of our food, and we happened to have a pretty great breakfast today; so it all works out and I'm excited to share it with you! 

This breakfast comes with a handy tip - always cook more grains than you think you need at one time. Whenever I make rice, quinoa, millet, etc...I make extra.  They come in handy for leftovers in countless ways; breakfast being one of them.

Cinnamon Cardamom Quinoa Porridge with fruit
This breakfast will will keep you full all morning, and satisfies your morning sweet tooth without loading up on sugar. The best part? You can use leftover quinoa and have a hot, satisfying breakfast ready in minutes! Perfect for fast paced weekday mornings!

Serves 4

2 C. Quinoa (cooked)
2 t. Cinnamon
1 t. Cardamom
1/4 Maple Syrup
1/2 C. Almond or other non-dairy milk

Fruit and toppings of choice (I like to top ours with homemade granola and hemp seeds for added protein)

Combine the quinoa, cinnamon, cardamom, maple syrup and almond milk in a medium sauce pan and cook on medium heat until warmed through. 

Serve and top with fresh fruit granola, nuts, seeds, cacao nibs...and whatever else your little heart desires! It's that easy!

Soba Noodles in Spicy Curry Peanut Sauce

Happy Monday!

It's a beautiful summer morning here in Michigan, and as I sit here looking out my window at the torrential downpour, (I happen to think rain is beautiful!), sipping on my hemp and beetroot smoothie, I realized that I never posted a recipe that I am absolutely in love with, and I can't believe I haven't shared it yet!


First I'd like to share that I have updated my Fitness page and am going to try to get better at keeping that current each week. This week is a doozy! I have a wedding to go to out of town this week, so I rearranged things so my rest evening would fall the night of the wedding.

 As you will see, I've incorporated Piyo workouts into my weekly schedule. I don't drink Shakeology (I prefer to make my own whole foods protein shakes), but I do really enjoy the Piyo workouts and would recommend them. Check out my schedule and feel free to follow along! Have you started Tone It Up yet? What are you waiting for! 


Alright, without further ado, here is the recipe!

These spicy curry peanut noodles are creamy, comforting, slightly coconut-y and just a smidge spicy. You can control the level of spice you prefer by adding in some of the jalepeno seeds, or leaving them out completely for less kick. It comes together very quickly, and can be doubled for a family portion or halved if you're cooking for one.

(Unfortunately, these noodles were sorely unphotogenic...trust me though, they taste delicious!)

Soba noodles in spicy curry peanut sauce (serves 2)

4 oz Soba noodles (if you are gluten free, make sure you get soba noodles that are pure buckwheat and do not contain wheat)

1 Large carrot, chopped
1/2 Large or 1 small jalepeno, diced, and seeded if you want it less spicy
1/4 C. Lite canned coconut milk. 
1 T. Peanut butter
2 t. Sriracha or hot sauce of choice
2 t. Tamari (gluten free soy sauce)
1 1/2 t. Curry powder
Juice from 1/2 lime
Cilantro to garnish (optional- but recommended!)

Prepare the soba noodles according to package directions, set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine carrot, jalepeno and sauce ingredients. Whisk together and heat on medium heat. Add noodles and stir to combine.

Garnish with cilantro and enjoy!