5 medium bananas, very ripe (Should be almost all brown and squishy)
1 cup unpacked brown sugar (dark is better but light will work)
½ cup regular sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ tablespoon baking soda
3 tablespoon ground flax + 8 tablespoons HOT water (mix well and let set 5 minutes)
¼ cup grape-seed oil (you can use olive oil if you prefer)
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (the real stuff only please)
¼ cup nondairy milk mixed with 1 teaspoon white or rice wine vinegar ***(see note)
2½ cups wheat flour (you may need more or less)
slightly less than 1 cup nuts, chopped **(see note)
Instructions
In a small bowl add your ground flax seeds and HOT water (I cannot stress how important HOT water is), stir well so there are no lumps and let set aside for about 5 minutes. Also preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 Celsius or gas mark 4).
In a large bowl, combine your bananas, sugar, vanilla, salt, applesauce, baking soda, oil, and nondairy milk. Using your hands (which I did) or a potato masher; mash until the lumps are less than 1 centimeter (1/4 inch) or til desired smoothness. I like to leave tiny lumps so you get bites of banana, but this is up to you.
Check your flax "eggs", if they are snotty in texture and thick; they are ready to go in the bowl. If they are not, let set another couple minutes, then add to large bowl.
Mix in your flax eggs well. Now start to mix in your flour ½ cup at a time using the folding method. I suggest using a flexible spatula for this. Circle your bowl to scrap the sides down, and cut through the middle until your flour disappears and there are no huge pockets of flour in the mixture. Repeat this for 2 cups total of flour. Now look at your mixture, is it thick, kinda snotty and holds together well? If the answer is yes, then stop. If you think it needs a little more then add the remaining ½ cup of flour. If for some reason your bananas were huge and its still too moist, add ½ more flour. There really is no reason to use more than 3 cups. Once your batter looks ready, fold in slightly less than 1 cup of nuts, your choice; make sure they are evenly distributed.
Get two regular sized loaf pans and spray generously with oil or grease well. Failure to do this will result in a bread you can't pry from the pan with a crowbar, you were warned.
Divide the mixture evenly between the two pans and lightly tap on the counter to remove air pockets. Bake at 350 for about 60 - 75 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the middle of the loaf should come out almost clean (like 90%) if you wait for it to be completely clean, the bread will be crumbly and dry. Good with milk, not so much on it's own. Mine took 65 minutes.
At this point you can store them at room temperature (cool completely before putting in a container) or freeze them. My grandma used to wrap her breads in aluminum foil, then plastic wrap. Don't forget to date them. I wouldn't keep them in the freezer more than 3 months for best results. Thaw at room temperature completely before serving.
Notes
* A word on flax seeds. If you are baking for someone with an allergy you can use regular whole large sized eggs. Egg replacement powder isn't that great of an option here and extra bananas will not work either. Sorry =(
** A word on choosing nuts. I used pecans, which is all I had left. Traditional banana nut bread is made with walnuts, however you can mix and match to your taste. Try a combination of both or go for something different all together. You could also use sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds if someone is your family has a tree nut allergy. Better safe than sorry!
*** A word on nondairy milk. In this recipe I used a homemade brown rice milk that was just rice and water with some vanilla, however you may use any type of nondairy milk. Be careful if choosing a strong flavored milk like mung bean or hemp milk. These will alter the flavor of the end dish. Also, coconut milk should be avoided unless you want coconut banana bread. (that does sound good though! 😉
So today I went to my local cupcake bakery and they had handmade marshmallows so you know I HAD to buy one. They were so freaking awesome, but who just eats marshmallows by themselves? I know I don’t! So I had to make me some hot chocolate (I used carob though) that was equally as tasty as my marshmallow. This recipe makes 1 serving, its about 200 calories (more or less depending on which ingredients you use. Plain nondairy milk will be less). Its naturally gluten free and vegan depending on the ingredients. Of course, you can use regular milk, and cocoa powder. Its just up to you. Feel free to double or triple this recipe!
Ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa or carob powder
1 1/2 tablespoons (or more or less) sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 cup nondairy milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
small pinch salt
Marshmallows (optional)
Directions:
In a saucepan on medium heat add your cocoa powder (or carob), sugar, water, vanilla, and salt. Mix with a whisk until combined and it just starts to bubble. Add in your milk and mix well. Heat until just before boiling and transfer into a glass. Top with optional marshmallows and enjoy!
Alternative prep #1: This can be made in a microwave. Heat up your milk on high (700 watts) in bursts of 30 seconds until hot. Milk in rest of your ingredients and stir until combined. Reheat if necessary, and serve hot. Enjoy!
Alternative prep#2: This can be made in a blender, which will prevent any clumps of powder. You will need to warm up the milk and the water in a suacepan or use a microwave on high (700 watts) using 30 second bursts of heat, stirring after each burst until hot. Add liquid into blender first, then rest of the ingredients, blend on high until combined. This method works best for doubling or tripling this recipe. Enjoy!
PLEASE TAKE NOTE: If you are making this and/or cooking for someone with gluten allergies or celiacs disease. Make sure to purchase ingredients that are certified gluten free, and clean your utensils very well. Better safe than sorry.
Usually when I chat to new people about being a vegetarian or vegan they automatically think of hummus and pita chips; I usually explain to them its more than that. However, hummus Is a super tasty and easy dish to make. Should be eaten in moderation since about 55% of its calories come from fat, you don’t want to get a tummy ache. You can customize this to meet your personal tastes and needs. Thin it out with water to make a salad dressing (honestly, its good!), toss with warm pasta for an interesting sauce, use instead of tomato sauce on pizza, or just dip chips into it for a super quick and satisfying snack.
Ingredients:
1 15 ounce can chick peas (garbanzo beans), rinses thoroughly and dried
1 1/2 cups cooked great northern beans or 1 15 ounce can, rinsed thoroughly and dried (any white bean will work though)
1/4 – 1/2 cup tahini paste
4 tablespoons olive oil or grape-seed oil
8 garlic cloves, sliced (must be fresh garlic, no pr-echopped from a jar!)
pinch salt or to taste
1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce (optional) or to taste
1 tablespoon sriracha hot sauce (rooster sauce) or to taste/optional
2 tablespoons dried herbs (I used chives) or to taste/optional
Directions:
In a small saucepan or skillet add your oil, pinch of salt, and sliced garlic cloves. Set stove to low (mark 3 on most stoves) and let cook for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. The oil and garlic should just be hot enough to bubble slightly around the garlic and let it get crispy but not really dark colored.
After about 10 minutes your oil will be very perfumed. You can either use the garlic cloves in your hummus or you can just use the oil. I Love strong garlic taste so I used the cloves as well.
Add your beans, 1/4 cup tahini paste, garlic (if using), sriracha, and soy sauce in a food processor. Turn the processor on and pour in oil while machine is moving. Let your machine run for 2-5 minutes, scraping down sides as needed. You want it to be super smooth. You can add more tahini paste or more oil to make it creamy. If you want to keep the calories down, you can add some water but keep in mind it will lose the creamy texture if you add too much.
When your beans are smooth enough for you; give them a taste test. If it needs more spice, add more of your rooster sauce. If it needs more salt consider adding more soy sauce; it adds a nice salty flavor and add an extra element of flavor. Now is also the time to add any extra herbs. I put in 2 tablespoons of chives.
Put in serving container and chill in fridge for at-least an hour to develop flavor. Optimally you’d want to go overnight, but we’ll understand if temptation is too hard! Consider adding extra olive oil on-top , herbs, or sriracha like I did. It adds an extra punch to some of your pitas or veggies and makes it look pretty. Enjoy! 😀
**Yes in the photo my hummus is really thick, however thats how I wanted it, If you add extra tahini, oil, or water It will have the traditional texture**
PLEASE TAKE NOTE: If you are making this and/or cooking for someone with gluten allergies or celiacs disease. Make sure to purchase ingredients that are certified gluten free, and clean your utensils very well. Better safe than sorry.
So I bought a new product the other day at Whole Foods; this vegan gluten free cheese called Daiya. I’ve seen many a vegan rave about this stuff claiming it tastes “EXACTLY” like real mozzarella cheese. Well I won’t go into huge detail about it (review coming soon!); however I will say its much better cooked than not. I started out making a crust which is hard to see since I like thin crust. Sauteing some soy chorizo, prepped all the veggies. Rolled out my crust on a silpat, flipped into a pan. Pre Baked at 375 for 6 minutes, and ladies and gentlemen the rest was history. Now, in my house I have 1 die hard meat eater, and my husband who is more of a flexitarian like myself, however, this pizza has my step son fooled it was meat and my husband shocked it was gluten free AND vegan. Best of all, my stomach didn’t freak out from the milk or the gluten and at the end of the day we were all happy people. The following is the recipe as close as I could guess (I freehand all my recipes) because originally, I didn’t plan to post this, but it was so amazing I couldn’t resist. Depending on your flour brand and climate you might need more water or more flour.
Pizza:
1 pre baked crust (listed above)
1 medium (or 3/4 Large) bell pepper, I used red
1 cup green onion tops
small handful cilantro leaves
1/2 can of black olives, drained and rinsed well
1 bag Daiya mozzarella flavor cheese shreds
1 tube Cacique soy-chorizo (or 8-10oz any vegetarian chorizo)
1-2 cups your favorite pasta sauce or see note below**
Directions:
I started with the chorizo. You’ll want to follow the directions on the package because they vary, but you want to cook it over medium to medium high until the color darkens and it gets crispy. You might have to go a few extra minutes. Great thing is, you can precook this an hour in advance or a few minutes like I did.
For the crust: In a food processor put your water, salt, yeast, sugar, and oil. Pulse until the yeast is blended in well and let set 5 minutes giving it time to “bloom”. We will not be letting this dough rise, however, blooming the yeast will give it the traditional taste of pizza crust without the hassle.
Once your yeast starts to bubble and look like a science experiment. Take 1 1/2 cups of flour and add it to your food processor. Turn it on and let it blend. Slowly add more flour until the mixture comes together and looks like dough. You might need 2 cups or 3 cups of flour, it just varies. If you add a bit too much, don’t worry you can always add a splash of water.
At this point, preheat your oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit. Get a silpat or a piece of parchment or wax paper and put it on your counter. Put your dough on the counter and roll it to your desired thickness. We went for thin crust which only needs to prebake for 6 minutes, however; if you want something thicker you’ll want to 2X or 1.5X this recipe and prebake it for 12 minutes. Optionally you can take a pinch of corn meal at this point and dust on-top of the dough all over, this will prevent sticking later. If you prefer you can use nonstick spray on the pan. A good tip for transferring the dough is to put the pizza pan ontop of the counter with the dough sheet, slide your hand under the paper (silpat) and center it. Now in a rather quick, but smooth motion, flip the pan right-side up while holding the dough in place. Carefully peel off the paper or silpat and its that simple. Prebake your pizza until the top starts to firm up.
While crust is prebaking, prepare the toppings. Cut up bell pepper into 1/4 inch pieces. Halve the black olives, slice the tops off green onions, finely mince cilantro leaves, take the cheese out of the fridge, get your pasta sauce (see note if you don’t have**), and let your chorizo warm up if pre-made.
Take out the crust; spread your sauce on. I don’t like a lot of sauce, but use more if you want. Add the bell pepper, half the green onions, cheese, chorizo, other half of green onion tops, black olives, and cilantro. Adding the toppings in that order ensures the veggies cook enough to be tender and the chorizo is still crisp.
Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes depending on how well you want the crust and the toppings cooked. If your oven runs hot, starting checking at 15 minutes. When done you’ll have what I nicknamed the “Monster Pizza”. Over flowing with melted gooey cheese, “sausage”, lots of veggies and crazy amounts of flavor. You can’t tell its vegan, you can’t tell its gluten free, but you can tell its awesome, and kid approved! 😉
**Note: If you don’t have pre-made pasta sauce an easy substitute is to keep canned tomatoes on hand. I prefer any fire roasted canned tomato product. Take chopped roasted tomatoes, strain liquid, and pulse in food processor a few times to blend part of it up and then use that in-place of sauce. Its super simple and quick for those pizza emergencies. (this also works as a tasty quick pasta sauce!)
*Also: If you don’t happen to like the toppings I’ve chosen, feel free to change them. I was just using what I had in the fridge at the time.
PLEASE TAKE NOTE: If you are making this and/or cooking for someone with gluten allergies or celiacs disease. Make sure to purchase ingredients that are certified gluten free, and clean your utensils very well. Better safe than sorry.
TIME SAVING TIP: You ever tempted by those ready-bake pizzas you buy at the grocery store, well never again! Make the crust, prebake and let cool down. Top with all your toppings and shrink wrap and store in freezer. Pizza will keep for 3-6 months. To bake just add 5-10 extra minutes onto cooking time. Try making mini pizzas and let your kids top their own, fun for the whole family!
(Nutritional information assume you used the same ingredients and serving size is 1/8th)
Making homemade granola these days is not selective to hippies guys! I love to make granola and other breakfast treats all the time and its super simple, but best of all, you tend to save tons of money! What could honestly be better than that. If you have 30-35 minutes, granola is easily within your reach. This recipe is also very basic, you can add 1/2 cup crushed up nuts or seeds (flax and walnut is a great combination), you can toss in dried fruits when the granola is done or you can leave it plain for sprinkling ontop of yogurt. (that’s what I like to do! =)
Ingredients:
4 cups old fashioned oats (not oat groats, not quick cooking oats, not steel cut oats)
1/4 cup olive oil
pinch salt (optional)
1 T vanilla extract (use the good stuff, you’ll thank yourself later)
1 T evaporated cane sugar or raw sugar
1 /4 cup + 1 tablespoon honey  (5 tablespoons total)  (use maple syrup for vegan version)
2 tablespoons water
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).
In a large bowl add in everything except the oats. Mix well. Add your oats 1 cup at a time and stir well. (don’t be afraid to use your hands, it really works best) After you have all your oats mixed in, let it sit for a couple minutes. 2-5 minutes is a long enough, very easy to do while your oven preheats.
Once your oven is preheated, take a full sheet pan and evenly spread your oat mixture on it. Pop it in the oven for 15 minutes.
(Above photo is granola mix about to go into the oven)
After 15 minutes take the pan out of the oven and stir/flip the oats with a flat spatula. Put it back in the oven for 15 more minutes.
(Above photo is granola mix after 15 minutes in the oven)Take the granola out of the oven again and stir.
(Above photo is granola after 30 minutes, some dark bits and perfect for me)
Depending on your personal taste you can stop now. If you want it darker, continue cooking in 5 minute intervuls instead you reach your desired doneness.
Prep time: 2-5 minutes  Cook time: 30-40 minutes Serves: 4 cups
allergies: honey***, oats**
**Can be gluten-free if you make sure you purchase gluten free oats!
***vegan friendly if you it without honey, maple syrup instead.
And you’re done! See how easy that was. You now have a healthy breakfast treat that costs next to nothing to make and little time spent. A traditional basica granola in a health food store costs $4.99 a pound, YIKES! However, this granola only cost me :
Oats: 53¢
olive oil: 25¢
salt & Sugar: 5¢
vanilla (homemade): 5¢ (store bought would be more like 40¢)
honey: 45¢
Water: free (my water bill is paid)
If we total that up we’re looking at a grand total of….  $1.33 for 4 cups of granola. Talk about saving money. That’s an approx savings of  $8.50! Even if you add in nuts and seeds, you will still save money compared to the granola at the health food store.  Assuming you used 1/4 cup of both flax seeds and walnuts and they were organic, you’re still only looking at about 1.50-2.00 more dollars. Oh and all the above ingredients were purchased organic except my homemade vanilla (purchased many years ago before I cared about organic, and bought in bulk. I got 5 pounds for only 25.00!)
I hope you will try this easy granola and let me know in the comments what YOU would put with it. Me personally, I enjoy my granola with some unsweetened almond milk or on-top of organic Greek yogurt with fresh seasonal fruits, yum yum!
