Blueberry raspberry mini muffins

 I've got a thing for muffins, they are a delicious comfort food. After a night up with a cranky toddler I decided to make some muffins. I strongly dislike overly sugary muffins that leave you with a sugar high after eating them. With Orions allergies I have to make sure these are dairy and egg free as usual, I find it is helpful to look for vegan recipes. As usual I can never find a recipe that I like so I altered one to suit my purposes. I can't ever decide which type of berries to use, so I used them both! Mini muffins are perfect for portion control and for toddler hands. My toddler has such a short attention span, I was forever finding full size muffins with one bite taken stashed in creative places. FYI a stale month old muffin can double as a cat toy at the most inopportune moments. Enjoy these we certainly did :)

Original unaltered recipe here at egglesscooking.com





1/4 cup Ground Flaxseed

3 tbsp hemp hearts
1 and 3/4 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons  Alumininum free Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 teasspoon epicure gingerbread spice
1/4 teaspoon  salt
1 cup Coconut Milk
1 tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4 cupVegetable Oil
1/4 cup Maple Syrup

1/4 cup Local Honey
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1  cup Blueberries (fresh or frozen)

1/2 cup raspberries


Preheat oven to 375F/190C for 15 minutes. Line a muffin tin with paper liners and grease it well with non stick cooking spray.
Mix together the  milk and vinegar; set aside.
In a large bowl combine together the ground flax seed, hemp hearts, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, gingerbread spice and salt.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, oil, milk mixture, vanilla extract and orange zest.
Make a well in the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients with a rubber spatula until just moistened. Fold in blueberries and raspberries

Scoop into mini muffin pan, fill each cup 2/3 full.

Bake for 12 minutes

Vegan fudgey brownies

This is the first baking recipe I have ever created from scratch. I originally wasn't going to make up my own recipe for brownies but I couldn't find a recipe that had all the elements I wanted in it, so I made up my own. It isn't a huge sugar overload but still will satisfy your cravings for fudgey brownies. This recipe makes 20 brownies.

2 cups Whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup Sugar (I used white sugar for this one)
1 cup Cocoa

1 small mashed over ripe banana (I always keep some in my freezer)
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 strong brewed coffee
1/2 cup soy milk (Or any other dairy free milk)

1/3 cup vegan chocolate chips + 1 tsp coconut oil
1/4 cup Hemp hearts


 Preheat oven to 350F
In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients together making sure to break up any clumps
In a smaller bowl blend the dry ingredients until a uniform texture in reached.
Make a small well in your dry ingredients and stir in your wet, mix until there are no large clumps and batter is smooth, it will be really thick. Spread in a greased 8x8 pan and bake for 30 minutes.

Melt the chocolate chips and coconut oil in the microwave (Don't burn it like I did the first time)

Spread over baked brownies and sprinkle hemp hearts,
Cool cut and serve

Vegan Chickpea curry

It has been a busy December this year! I went into it with all the intentions of continuing to post every week. Then some of my recipes flopped, I didn't have the time nor the inclination to make them over to figure out what went wrong, though I do have some suspicions. We celebrated Orion's second birthday early in the month with extended family we see about once a year. We were lucky enough to be graced by the presence of the "Yuletide Flu" which ate up a little over a week of our month. Then preparations for Yule took over, 4 days later it was Christmas. Now it is Boxing day and we can settle back into our normal routine. We have had an overdose on all things white and refined this season, too much white flour, white sugar, white rice and too many treats for all of us (Too many "Fruit" snacks for Orion and too much dairy containing chocolate for me)  The inspiratation for this meal comes from my book club book, "The secret daughter" While it makes me cry regularly as I'm reading it, it also leaves me with a longing for curry, specifically vegetarian curry. So I got up last night at midnight to dig dried chickpeas out of the cold room to soak for today. I have taken my recipe for butter chicken and changed it bit to make a chickpea curry. If you are used to traditional Indian food this is by no means the recipe for you. If you just want something tasty that has curry flavour, yet is mild enough for kids you have found the right recipe. Enjoy!

2.5 cups dried chickpeas (Soaked over night)
1 onion diced
8 garlic cloves, minced
4 Tbsp coconut oil
4 tsp ground cardamom
6 tsp mild curry powder
6 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground ginger
2.5 cup coconut milk (I use coconut dream, if you use a canned milk leave out the cornstarch)
2 Tbsp corn starch (Feel free to substitute for any other type of thickening starch)
1 small can tomato paste


3 cups chopped fresh Baby spinach
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 cup plain Coconut milk yogurt plus 1 tbsp lemon juice (So nice makes a great one) (Reserve for just before serving)


Turn crockpot on high, put Chickpeas in, cover with coconut oil.
In a measuring cup whisk together, coconut milk, tomato paste, lemon juice and corn starch and spices. Pour over everything. Cook on high for 2-3 hours then turn down to low for another 4 or so, Stir occasionally.


15 minutes before serving stir in yogurt, lemon juice and spinach. Serve over rice with fresh Naan (I used this recipe and it was great!  I made it with 100% whole wheat pastry flour) on the side

Roasted garlic and red pepper hummus

It is Grey cup Sunday here in Canada. While I'm not much of a football fan I do love using it as a excuse to spend time with family and eat appetizers for dinner. Every year my mom asks me to make hummus, for some reason hers never turns out like mine. With her kids grown and flown the coop my moms food processor gets little use these days except for making hummus. Since she prefers my hummus she has passed on the food processor and the hummus making duty to me. I find that the key to a good hummus is using good beans. I have never had good hummus from no name brand beans. I will ONLY buy Scarpone canned beans. I have tried cooking the garbanzo beans myself and they just leave something lacking. Since Orion has a sesame allergy I substitute sunflower butter instead, you could leave it out but I find it lacks something in flavour without it. This year I am switching it up a little and making red pepper hummus.

Roasted Garlic and red pepper Hummus
1 medium pepper cut in half
1 head garlic peeled
Scant 2/3 cup lemon juice
2 little cans  (Just under 600ml total)Scarpone Garbanzo beans drained with 4 tbsp of liquid reserved
1/4 cup Sunflower butter (If you run the measuring cup under hot water before measuring the sunflower butter it will slide out easily)
1/4 cup EVOO
1 tsp Himalayan salt
1 tsp Black Pepper
Paprika to garnish if you would like

Preheat oven to 400F
Take pepper halves and spray with Olive oil, Wrap head of garlic in foil. Bake in oven for 1 hour. Let cool.
Put beans, liquid, peppers and garlic in food processor and process until chopped,  Dump in Sunflower butter, lemon juice, blend again. while food processor is going drizzle in olive oil. Taste, then add salt and pepper (Some beans are saltier then others) (I find that  by not rinsing the beans you don't need much other flavourings.
Let sit at least an hour before serving

Vegan chocolate shortbread bars

I was reading the Presidents choice insiders report today, it always makes me crave all sorts of things. Since I already had supper in the crockpot, I decided to indulge my sweet tooth and bake. I have a sink load of dishes waiting to go in the dishwasher so I didn't really want to make a huge mess. I settled for something simple, quick and chocolately. This is in no way shape or form anything that resembles healthy. It is full of white flour, refined sugar and chocolate. Sometimes you have to live a little though, ;) Everything in moderation right?. I couldn't find any recipes that were vegan, so I just winged it and substituted it a bit.

Here is the original recipe "non vegan recipe" from About.com

Here is my version:

Vegan Chocolate chip shortbread bars

2-1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup white sugar,
1 cup Earth Balance shortening, cold and cut into cubes
1 cup Dairy free chocolate chips,  (I used 1/2 cup Enjoy life chocolate chips, 1/2 chopped Lindt Dark chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Place flour and sugar in large bowl. Mix with wire whisk. 

Add cut shortening. toss lightly with your hands or a fork to coat the cubes.

 Use a pastry cutter, to blend shortening into flour/sugar mixture until crumbly. 

Hand stir in the mini chocolate chips. 

Dump mixed ingredients into 9x13 pan. Press firmly with fingers and level-out.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until lightly brown on top.

 Remove from oven.  Cool for 5 minutes then cut shortbread into squares, DO NOT REMOVE FROM PAN

Cool completely before serving.

Hot out of the oven!

Mini Pumpkin bread with chocolate chips

Like I said last week I love pumpkin bread. Actually I love almost every baked good there is. I've been thinking about making some pumpkin bread since last week. Time just hadn't allowed me to do so, finally I got a chance today and seized it! I'm fairly confident when it comes to making cooking recipes up from scratch, baking is another story. I usually will alter a recipe but I have had my fair share of hockey puck blobs so I don't venture off to creating my own baking recipes. I googled for a vegan pumpkin bread recipe and found one that looked great at the "Happy Herbivore."  I have a thing about chocolate chips and baking, I like to add them to just about everything I make (Enjoy life makes awesome dairy free chocolate chips and chunks)  Since I was adding chocolate chips I needed to adjust the sugar down. I also like have extra of baking to freeze. I recently bought some mini loaf pans from Epicure and love them! 4 of them equal one large loaf, they  make loaves  the perfect size to freeze and look so cute! When using them I have to adjust the baking time since they are smaller.
What is your favourite baked good?

So without further ado here is the altered recipe:




 Mini Pumpkin bread with chocolate chips (Original unaltered recipe here)

• ¼ cup plant-based milk (I used coconut)
• ¼ tsp lemon juice
• 2 cups pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp Maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp Epicure Pumpkin pie spice
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup dairy free chocolate chips
• 
  

Preheat oven to 350F. 

Grease or spray a standard bread pan. 

Whisk non-dairy milk and lemon juice together until bubbly and set aside. 

In a medium mixing bowl, cream pumpkin, sugar, syrup and extract together.

In a large bowl, whisk pumpkin pie spice, flour, baking soda, chocolate chips and baking powder together. 

Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and stir until just combined. 

Pour into bread pans (I used silicone mini loaf pans), using a spatula to evenly distribute and smooth out the top. Grab a large piece of aluminum foil and make a tent over the pan. 

Bake for 1 hour for one large loaf or 30 minutes for 4 mini loaves, To test doneness insert a toothpick in the center, when the it comes out clean it is done. 

Once the bread has cooled but is still slightly warm, gently remove it from the pan and on to a serving plate.

Four mini loaves cooling

Easy crockpot tortilla soup

I love Tortilla soup, it is filling and so delicious. It  really hits the spots after a long day canning. It is also really easy to toss in the crockpot. Clay and Orion loved it as well, they enjoy just about any soup I make.

3 cups cooked black beans (I used my recipe for Pinto beans and just used black beans instead, just remember to watch them to see if they need more water)
1 cup of corn
1 litre Chicken or vegetable broth
1 minced jalapeno
1 onion, diced
1 diced bell pepper
1 can organic tomato sauce
1 tbsp garlic powder
4 tbsp lime juice

Chili powder to taste, I used chipotle chili powder, I didn't measure. The amount will really depend on your families taste buds, I just taste the broth and added enough to make it just spicy enough.

Toppings:
Corn tortilla chips or fried tortilla strips
Chopped cilantro
Avocados, sliced

Put everything in the crockpot except for the toppings, cook on high for 5 hours or on low for around 8. I usually wait until about an hour before serving to put the bell pepper in, I don't like them mushy. Serve with fried tortilla strips on top and cilantro and sliced avocados.

Crock pot pumpkin pie oat pudding

Yesterday was Samhain. We celebrate it together as a family with a special meal and family time, I had all sorts of plans to make pumpkin tarts with the pumpkin puree from the other day. I ran out of time so I thought for a minute and came up with this recipe, it is like a rice pudding but made with steel cut oats. It isn't very sweet, so if you like your desserts really sweet add some more maple syrup :) I didn't take any pictures of the steps this time as I was all about spending as much time with our family as possible.

Enjoy!

What is your favourite special dessert?

Crock pot pumpkin pie oat pudding


1/2 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup cut steel cut oats
1 apple diced
1/4 cup organic unsweetened raisins
4 cups non dairy milk  (I used half Quiona and half coconut)
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (Epicure makes a really great one)
2 tbsp maple syrup

Whisk pumpkin, spice and maple syrup into milk,
Put milk mixture into Crockpot
Place in Crockpot, Heat on high for 2 hours (If on high make sure you stir often) or low for 4-6

Alternate: For gluten free just make sure your oats and spice is gluten free :)