gluten-free, vegan, mostly-raw chocolate "cupcakes"!

I got a Vitamix. It came in the mail yesterday. I could NOT WAIT! to make something in it. I always love raw cakes made in food processors and vitamix blenders, so I decided to try my own.
As far as the "mostly-raw" comment goes...these are not 100% raw because the peanuts I used are honey roasted. I LOVE the flavor this adds, but if you are raw, by all means substitute that 1/3 of a cup of peanuts with any other raw nuts!

Crust ingredients:
1 cup pecans (soak for about 10 minutes, then drain)
1/3 cup honey roasted peanuts
3 tsp maple syrup
1/2 cup cacao powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

"Cake" ingredients:
2 cups cashews (soak them while you make the crust)
1 cup coconut milk (NOT low-fat)
1/2 cup coconut sugar syrup (this is an alternative sweetener. you could also use agave or maple syrup, etc)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cups cacao powder

Directions:
Place all crust ingredients in blender. Mix until it sticks together! You may have to add slightly more nuts or cacao powder if it comes out too liquid-y.
Put cupcake liners in cupcake pan. Press "crust" mixture into the bottom of the cupcake liners (roughly 1/3 inch thickness).
Place all "cake" ingredients in blender. Move to "high" speed very quickly and blend until completely creamy.
Pour "cake" mixture into cupcake liners!
Optional: Dust with vanilla powder (or mesquite, maca, lucuma, etc)!
Stick cupcake pan in freezer. Let them set for a while before eating it (it truly tastes better after it cools completely).

NOTE: Because I use 1 cup coconut milk instead of 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup coconut oil, these do not "set" the way other raw cakes do. These must be kept in the freezer until you eat them! If you're trying to take them somewhere to enjoy with others, you may want to do the water and oil method instead. I just do the coconut milk because 1/2 cup of coconut oil costs about $5 (or more), plus the nuts in this recipe already contain a lot of fat...the coconut oil is a little bit overkill for me.

vegan snickerdoodles!

Jonathan was talking about how delicious snickerdoodles are. I decided I better make some.

I don't have cream of tartar on hand, so I substituted it out. I think it is better this way, anyway!

Ingredients:
1 cup softened earth balance (two buttery sticks)
1 1/2 cups organic unrefined sugar
ener-g egg replacer for 2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups organic all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (or a little more!)

Topping:
2 tablespoons organic unrefined sugar
a pinch of vanilla powder (not necessary)
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
(I like to add a pinch of cardamom, ginger, and nutmeg individually too)

1.) Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit
2.) Cream together earth balance, unrefined sugar, egg replacer, and vanilla extract
3.) In a medium sized bowl, mix together all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt
4.) Add dry ingredients to the creamed mix
5.) In a very small bowl, mix together the topping ingredients
6.) Roll dough into one-inch balls; roll the balls in the topping mixture
7.) Place on baking sheet, bake for 8-10 minutes
8.) Remove cookies from baking sheet ASAP and put on cooling rack
9.) ENJOY!

Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Brownies!

We're discontinuing one brand of peanut butter at work, so it's super cheap, and I bought a ton so I could experiment with more recipes!
So.......
These are seriously so yummy. It's ridiculous.

1/4 cup earth balance (room temp)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup organic unrefined sugar (I used turbinado sugar)
ener-g egg replacer for 2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (singing dog is the best!)
1 1/2 cups organic unbleached white flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup non-dairy milk or silk creamer
3/4 cup chocolate chips (guittard makes vegan fair trade ones now!)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
2. Cream together the earth balance, peanut butter, and sugar.
3. Add the egg replacer and vanilla extract.
4. Mix together the flour and baking powder.
5. Add some of the dry mix to the buttery mix.
6. Add the non-dairy milk and the rest of the dry mix.
7. Add the chocolate chips.

Spoon the mixture into greased cupcake liners (in a tin).

Bake 20 minutes. If you stick a knife/toothpick into the brownies, it will not come out totally clean but that is o-k!

Let them cool for a while, and if you want, frost them to make brownie cupcakes! I found they didn't need frosting because they are already so sweet and rich.

roasted root vegetables

This is one of my all-time favourite dinner dishes. My mom and I have been making this throughout the winter for the past few years and it has never failed to be delicious.

Ingredients (pick as many or as few as you like from this list):
beets (red and golden)
sweet potatoes (hana, garnet)
garlic (whole cloves)
garlic (minced)
red potatoes
yukon gold potatoes
purple potatoes
fingerling potatoes
russet potatoes
parsnips
carrots

Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.
Cut up root veggies into small/medium pieces. Place beets in glass oven dish and pour olive oil in (so beets are coated). Roast for about 15-20 minutes. Add the rest of the veggies (including whole cloves of garlic). Add olive oil generously. Roast for about 15 minutes. Add minced garlic and salt veggies. Roast until veggies are soft/cooked to your liking!

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!

Southwestern Pizza

Today at work I got a free Alvarado Street Bakery sprouted whole wheat pizza crust!
Jonathan doesn't like tomatoes and I don't like pesto, so I had to get creative. Here's the result!

Ingredients:
1 Alvarado Street pizza crust (make sure you get the cheese-less one)
refried black beans (with salt)
corn
jalapeños
daiya pepperjack (vegan) cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees fahrenheit. Heat black beans (I made my own with delicious spices...which I certainly recommend) with corn. Sauté the jalapeños in a little bit of oil (this is not necessary, but I prefer the flavor this way). Spread beans/corn onto the pizza crust and cover with daiya cheese. Then add jalapeños! Cook for about 10 minutes.

I found this surprisingly good and I hope you do too!

Note: The vegan cheese tastes a thousand times better than it looks, and I'm the only vegan that ate this tonight and certainly not the only one that was a fan of it.

peanut butter chocolate chip cookies!

A little while ago, I bought some peanut butter and was disappointed by the lack of deliciousness. But I kept it, figuring that it would taste fine (or delicious) in some peanut butter cookies! How right I was :)
Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup earth balance
1 cup peanut butter (crunchy is best)
1 cup sucanat
1 cup organic unrefined sugar
ener-g egg replacer for 2 eggs
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (it is easier to get vegan ones than you think. while I obviously recommend the organic ones you'd find at a health food store, ghiradelli, for example, makes vegan ones. just check the ingredients!)

1. Cream together the earth balance, sucanat and unrefined sugar, and peanut butter. Then add in the egg replacer.
2. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the flours, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
3. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Add in chocolate chips.
4. Put dough in refrigerator for at least an hour.
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit. Roll dough into one inch balls and place on a baking sheet (if you have a silpat, definitely use it!). Flatten ball slightly with a fork in the classic criss-cross fashion. Don't over flatten, because you will have a lot of difficulty getting them off the baking sheet if you do.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Do not over bake. It may be extremely difficult to get them off the baking sheet and onto a cooling rack at first, so wait a few minutes.

ENJOY!!!

Hamburger Buns!!

I make these awesome veggie burgers with millet and quinoa sometimes, and tonight I decided that I might as well make the hamburger buns from scratch as well.
They turned out great and were pretty darned easy!
Here's the recipe!

To make 6 buns:

1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon earth balance
1/2 tablespoon sucanat (if you don't have sucanat you can use sugar)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 an envelope of dry yeast (.125 oz)
small handful of sesame seeds (optional)

Step 1:
In a small saucepan, combine the soy milk, water, earth balance, sucanat, and salt. Heat until thoroughly melted and mixed. Remove from the heat and let cool until lukewarm. If the mixture is too hot when you add it in step 2, it will kill the yeast.
Step 2:
In a medium-large bowl, combine the flour and yeast. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir until the dough pulls together.
Step 3:
If you have a kitchen aid, use the dough hook attachment to mix for 7-8 minutes.
If you do not have a kitchen aid, knead the dough on a floured surface for 10-12 minutes (don't add too much extra flour though!).
Step 4:
Place dough in a greased bowl and turn it to coat. Cover and let it rise for 1 hour!
Step 5:
Punch down the dough and divide into six balls. Make tight balls out of the dough by pulling the dough tightly around and pinching it at the bottom. Put the sesame seeds in a saucer. Using a pastry brush, glaze the tops of the dough balls with water and then roll the tops in the sesame seeds. Place on a baking sheet lined with a silpat (or parchment paper). Let sit for 1-2 minutes. Flatten each ball with the palm of your hand until they are about three inches wide. Set rolls aside to rise again for about 45 minutes.
Step 6:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.
Step 7:
Bake for 15 minutes. As soon as you remove them from the oven, glaze the tops of the buns with earth balance. Place on a cooling rack.
Step 8:
ENJOY!!



And here's Jonathan's veggie burger...with vegan mashed potatoes!