Monday, February 21, 2011

Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes

We officially have a new weekend tradition!  These yummy pancakes make us look forward to our nice, long breakfasts together on Saturday and Sunday.  They are perfect for our almost two-year-old too, who can easily pace us, gobbling down 2-3 pancakes all by himself!  This recipe was inspired by Tasha, aka The Clean Eating Mama, whose blog inspired me to start my own...check it out sometime!  I didn't need to change it at all.  I just added blueberries, one of our favorite foods.

Buckwheat is good source of protein, packing in 15g per cup of flour (as well as 12g of fiber)!  It is also gluten-free.  Although this recipe calls for whole wheat or spelt flour, I'm sure it would work equally well with a combination of oat and brown rice flours...in fact, I may be trying that out next time around!


Ingredients:
1 cup whole grain buckwheat flour
1 cup whole wheat or whole grain spelt flour
2 T flax seed meal
2 T turbinado sugar (or any healthy dry sugar - I used date sugar last weekend)
3 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
2 cups almond milk
3 tsp. vegetable oil (I use safflower)
1/4-1/2 cup. water

Directions:

1. Mix dry ingredients together in a medium bowl

2. Add wet ingredients, except for water, and mix well.  Then add water as needed.

3. Let the mixture sit for around 10min to thicken (flax seed meal needs a few minutes to set)

4. Drop batter onto a heated, oiled pan in desired-sized pancakes

5. Add blueberries right after putting the batter into the pan

6. Flip when you see the batter bubbling a little

7. Serve with a little Earth Balance and pure maple syrup!  Enjoy!
 


Today's Ingredients:
Bob Mills Whole Grain Organic Buckwheat Flour - Fred Meyer
Organic Whole Grain Spelt Flour - Marlene's bulk section (also available in Freddy's bulk section!)
Date Sugar - Marlene's
Organic Turbinado Sugar - Trader Joe's
Pacific Almond Milk, original flavor - Trader Joe's or Fred Meyer
Organic Golden Flax Seed Meal - Costco

Friday, February 11, 2011

Decadent Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Just in time for Valentine's Day!  This recipe is adapted from one of my new favorite books, The Kind Diet, by Alicia Silverstone.  These treats are vegan, and made with very little sugar, so they don't give you the crazy sugar highs and lows that you might expect.  They are still decadent though, and worthy of any special occasion.  Knowing that they're healthy makes me savor them even more!  Enjoy!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (around 10 graham cracker squares)
3/4 cup organic crunchy peanut butter or almond butter
1/4 cup maple sugar or other granulated sweetener
1/2 cup Earth Balance butter
1/4 cup light coconut milk or almond milk
1 package dairy-free, grain-sweetened chocolate chips - I prefer Sunspire brand
Some chopped almonds or extra graham cracker crumbs to sprinkle on top

Directions:

graham cracker crumbs
1. Line your muffin tin with paper liners.  I usually make a variety of small and medium-sized cups.

2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat

3. Mix in peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs, and maple sugar

4. Remove mixture from the heat

5. Spoon the mixture into the lined muffin tin

6. I usually put the peanut butter mixture into the fridge for 10-20 minutes.  If you don't do this, it is possible that the chocolate will sink through when you try to spread it on top

7. Stir the chocolate chips and coconut milk over medium heat until the chocolate melts - be careful to keep stirring the whole time so the chocolate doesn't burn (that would be so sad)!

8. Spoon chocolate evenly over the peanut butter mixture

9. Top with chopped nuts or crumbs and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving (it's pretty hard to keep them in the fridge that long around here!!)

10. Enjoy every bite! 


Today's Ingredients:
Earth Balance Baking Cubes - Marlene's, Whole Foods, or PCC
Sunspire Grain-Sweetened Chocolate Chips - Marlene's, Whole Foods, or PCC (or online!)
Organic Crunchy Peanut Butter - Trader Joe's
Health Valley Oat Bran Graham Crackers - Fred Meyer or Marlene's
Maple Sugar - Marlene's Whole Foods or PCC
Light Coconut Milk - Trader Joe's

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Maple Cornbread Muffins

This was my first time making these muffins and they were amazing!  So good, in fact, that they didn't really need any butter or honey (I still put a little Earth Balance on...).  This recipe is inspired by Alicia Silverstone's cornbread recipe in her book The Kind Diet.  I changed it a little and if I were to make these again, I might toss in some flax seed meal (maybe 1/4cup), just to hold everything together a bit more.  These could easily be gluten-free too - just swap out the whole wheat flour for brown rice, quinoa, or oat flour.  My favorite part about this recipe is that it turned out so moist!  We ate it with some Maple-Dijon Glazed Salmon (recipe coming soon), roasted broccoli and a green salad.  Delicious!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1 1/4 cups almond milk (soy or hemp would work as well, but almond is my favorite)
1/4 cup safflower oil
1 1/2 cups cornmeal (I used coarse grind)
2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour or whole spelt flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
**optional: 1/4 cup flax seed meal

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease a 12-cup muffin tin

2. Combine maple syrup, almond milk, and oil in a bowl and mix well

3. In a separate bowl, mix together the cornmeal, flour, baking soda and salt

4. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix until just well combined (this may look a little soupy, but that's ok)

5. Spoon the batter into the muffin tin and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  They will be golden brown.

6. Let rest for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack

7. Eat your muffins right away or store at room temperature for 2-3 days



 


Yummm....Salmon and Cornbread, one of my favorites!


Today's Ingredients:
Pure Maple Syrup - Trader Joe's
Pacific Organic Original Almond Milk - Trader Joe's
Bob Mills Coarse Grind Cornmeal - Fred Meyer or Marlene's
Bob Mills Whole Wheat Pastry Flour - Fred Meyer or Marlene's
-or- Organic Whole Grain Spelt Flour - Marlene's bulk section

Friday, February 4, 2011

Banana Berry Breakfast Muffins

Banana bread has always been one of my favorite breakfast foods.  My great-grandmother (who was apparently an amazing cook), has passed down many recipes, but I would have to say that her banana bread is one of the best!  I think the key is to use plenty of banana (duh) and to keep it nice and moist. 

Over the past year, my great-grandmother's recipe has been 'under construction.'  With a few tweaks, these muffins are now whole grain, vegan and don't have any white sugar.  We eat them for breakfast at least three days a week.  In fact, I make them so often that I have the recipe memorized and can mix them up in about 10min flat!  For breakfast, we usually cut a muffin in half, pop it in the toaster oven and butter it up (with Earth Balance, of course).  Although we make this recipe into six large muffins, they're great as smaller muffins, or even in a loaf of bread.  I hope you love them as much as I do!

Ingredients:
4 medium, overripe bananas (that have been previously frozen and thawed out)
1 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour or Whole Grain Spelt Flour
**Honestly, I usually do a mixture of something like 3/4c. spelt, 1/2c. oat and 1/4c. brown rice flour.  If you are gluten-free, these are delicious with 1 cup oat flour and 1/2 cup brown rice flour.
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup alternative dry sugar (maple, coconut, palm, turbinado or date sugar are all delicious!)
1/4 c. flax seed meal
1 tsp. cinnamon...or more if you want
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup safflower or canola oil
3/4 cup frozen berries


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Take bananas out of the freezer a few hours ahead of time and let defrost on the counter.  If you don't have time, then the microwave will work too.

2. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.

3. Smash the bananas with a fork or pastry cutter, then add the oil and applesauce and mix well.

4. Mix wet and dry ingredients together.

5. Add berries.

6. Taste to make sure it's sweet enough for you!

7. Distribute batter evenly between six greased muffin tins.


















8. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 min or until the tops are lightly brown.

9. Allow to cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

10. Enjoy!


 

Today's Ingredients:
Bob's Whole Wheat Pastry Flour - Fred Meyer
Whole Grain Spelt Flour - Fred Meyer bulk section or Marlene's
Alternative sugar - Fred Meyer or Marlene's
Frozen Blueberries or Triple Berry Mix - Costco
Bob's Golden Flax seed Meal - Fred Meyer or Marlene's
Organic Unsweetened Applesauce - Trader Joe's
Organic Rolled Oats - Trader Joe's