Pumpkin Granola

Hopefully you aren't too pumpkin-ed out yet! The Holiday season is officially in full-swing, and I'm still lovin' me some pumpkin! Especially when it's incorporated into my favorite breakfast/snack food of all time. Yep. I'm talkin' about granola.

Pumpkin Granola

• 5 cups GF rolled oats (not quick cooking kind)
• 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 2 Tbsp. coconut oil melted (or EarthBalance butter, or canola oil)
• 1.5 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (or agave)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1.5 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. In a large bowl, mix the pumpkin, coconut oil, maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla, and applesauce.
3. In another bowl, mix together dry ingredients (except the almonds and pumpkin seeds) and spices. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones in the large bowl.
4. Stir, coating well. Spread mixture over two baking sheets lined with parchment paper. 
5. Bake in preheated 325F oven for 20 minutes. Remove and stir. Add in the pumpkin seeds and sliced almonds. Place back in oven for another 20 minutes. If it doesn't seem crisp enough yet, don't worry. It will crisp up as it cools down!

Apple Pear Crumble

Keeping with the fall season theme of my past few posts, I present to you the tastiest dessert chock-full of my favorite fall-time fruits: apples and pears!

For this oat and almond based crumble, I used organic Golden Delicious apples and organic Bartlett pears. Sooooo tasty! 

For the crust/base, I used a mixture of oats, oat flour, and almond meal. I'm sure you could substitute another kind of nut for the almonds, like pecan, hazelnut, etc. 


What you'll need:
adapted from Gluten Free Hope's Maple Peach Crumble

• 3 organic apples, sliced thinly
• 1-2 pears, peeled, sliced

• 1/2 cup almond meal (I just put 1/2 cup almonds in the food processor and pulsed until coarsely ground)
• 1/2 cup GF oats
• 1/2 cup GF oat flour
• 1/4 cup brown rice flour
• 1/4 cup tapioca starch/flour
• 1/2 cup sucanat
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon, plus extra for sprinklin'
• 1 Tbsp. flax meal
• 1/2 cup vegan butter, Earth Balance, melted
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. coconut oil (or more butter)
• Poured over top: 
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 3 Tbsp. maple syrup

Oat and almond base.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

1. Mix all dry ingredients together in large bowl. 
2. Melt vegan butter in microwave, then add 1 tsp. vanilla, stir.
3. Add the melted butter to the dry ingredients, along with the coconut oil. Press into bottom of a lined 9x9 inch pan. 
4. Take your sliced fruits and arrange them however you like on top of the base. 
5. Now, mix the apple juice and maple syrup together. Pour over the top of apples and pears. Sprinkle with more cinnamon!
6. Bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes. 

*** Serve with coconut ice cream, or eat as is! ***

Chocolate Granola (GF,V) - Vegan MoFo continues...

I eat granola for breakfast every.single.day. I do get a bit tired of it every now and then, and with the colder weather creeping up on us... I'll probably switch to making oatmeal in the morning. For a little bit. I am just simply not a morning person and the last thing I want to do when I wake up is cook. Even if it does just mean boiling some water and stirring. 


But I always come back to my favorite breakfast food of all time. Tried and true, reliable and crunchy.  GRA-NO-LAHHH

Ingredients

• 4 cups GF rolled oats
• 1/4 cup flax seeds
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds (optional)
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup chocolate hazelnut butter (optional), if using this, omit salt
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

2. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients. In small saucepan, heat up all liquid ingredients until peanut butter is melted. Add vanilla extract at end after removing pan from heat. 

3. Pour heated liquid ingredients into bowl with dry ingredients. Mix well. Spread onto prepared baking pan. I use a 9x13 cake pan lined with parchment paper. 

4. Bake for 35-40 minutes, making sure to stir at about 20 minutes. Add chocolate chips after the granola has cooled. Unless you like that melted chocolate sorta thing ; )

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

After a damn-near 2-month absence from my blog, I present you with: more peanut butter awesome-ness! These cookies are seriously addictive! And I am seriously addicted to peanut butter. Sorry. Not really ; )

Based off a peanut butter ball recipe in the 30-Minute Vegan cookbook, which calls for spelt flour (which isn't really gluten free, right?), I subbed some oat flour and brown rice flour for the spelt. So, here we go:

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups peanut butter
• 3/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1.5 tsp. raw apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup GF oat flour
• 1/4 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 cup GF rolled oats
• 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (NOT optional)
• I use Enjoy Life brand GF choco chips

L: liquid ingredients, melted together
R: dry ingredients

Directions

Nom nom.

1. Preheat oven to 350F. In a small saucepan, mix together the peanut butter, maple syrup, and apple cider vinegar. Place on stove over low heat until the peanut butter is melted and mix together. Add vanilla extract. Stir. Remove from heat.
2. In a bowl, mix together the oat flour and brown rice flour along with the baking soda, GF oats, and chocolate chippies (if using).
3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients.
4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Or lightly spray a nonstick aluminum baking sheet. Scoop out your desired amount of "dough" and form a small ball. 
5. Place on cooking tray. Flatten the ball just a bit, because it will not melt down in the oven (according to the original recipe). 
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes. I know that seems like such a short period of time. I thought the same thing but I took mine out around 10 minutes and they were ready. You may have to experiment a bit.
7. Cool before eating. 

Choc. Chip Banana Oat Cake (GF,V)

FYI: Extremely ripe black bananas are needed for this recipe! Yellow ones simply will not do.


I remember when I was little how my mom would always have some black bananas laying around the kitchen. I was always so disgusted by them. Little did I know that these same bananas were the ones that went into my mom's awesome banana bread that I just could not get enough of.

But this isn't a recipe for banana bread. Put those too-ripe-bananas to good use in this recipe from Oh She Glows. I found myself eating slices of this "cake" for breakfast. It definitely didn't disappoint!

Ingredients

• 2 cups GF oats, processed into a flour (I actually just used 2 cups of GF oat flour)
• 1/2 cup GF oats (not processed)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/8th tsp. nutmeg
• 2 Tbsp. whole cane sugar (or sucanat)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
• 2 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted
• 2 medium RIPE bananas, peeled
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup soymilk or almond milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• Fold in: 
• 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life brand)
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease an 8" cake pan or a pie pan. If you are processing your oats into flour yourself, do that now.
2. In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients together well. 
3. In another bowl, mix together the oil, applesauce, almond milk, and vanilla. Add in the two peeled bananas and smush into the wet ingredients.
4. Add the wet mix to the dry and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
5. Spread into prepared pan and bake for 36 minutes at 350F, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before cutting.
6. Once cooled, top with PB Banana Glaze. Store in the fridge for up to 3 days.

PB Glaze

• 1 ripe banana
• 2 Tbsp. peanut butter (I used crunchy, but I don't recommend it!)
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Mash banana in a bowl until smooth. Add in PB and mix until combined. Try microwaving the peanut butter first. Add the powdered sugar and stir until smooth and fully combined. Store in fridge. 

Chocolate Oat Walnut Bars

This is a recipe I found over at (never home) maker. These tasty bars are full of good-for-you fats found in walnuts and coconut oil. The walnuts provide you with a healthy dose of omega-3 fatty acids (anti-inflammatory), and coconut oil has been found to support thyroid and immune system function. About 50% of the fat in coconut oil is a type called lauric acid. You can read about coconut oil and its benefits here.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup steel cut oats, processed until powdery
• 3/4 cup walnuts, processed into a meal
• 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
• 2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup honey (or maple syrup)
• 2 Tbsp. coconut oil
• 1 cup vegan chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup peanut butter (or almond butter)

For this recipe, however, I didn't have any steel cut oats on hand so I ended up using plain rolled oats. I think this may have been the reason as to why my bars ended up a bit dry and powdery. I had to store them in the fridge to keep them more solid. 

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
2. Whisk together the processed steel cut oats, walnut meal, cocoa powder, and coconut flakes.
3. In a separate bowl, add honey (or maple syrup), coconut oil, and peanut butter. Stir with electric mixer. Then add in the chocolate chippies.
4. Lightly oil an 8x8 pan with coconut oil. I used a bread loaf pan. Pour in the mixture and press down.
5. Bake for 20 minutes. Then, remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
6. Put the dish BACK IN THE OVEN for another 15-20 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove and let cool. 
7. Store in refrigerator to help them solidify a bit more. 

Enjoy with a glass of ice-cold soymilk 

(or almond milk, coconut milk...you get the idea)!

Sesame Seed Granola

I could live off granola. For realz. Whenever I go shopping the thing that is always the most expensive on my receipt is the (lbs. of) granola . There are two mouths to feed in this apartment... y'know. I've attempted homemade granola a few times in the past, but I had always used the cheap and shitty economically feasible quick oats. This time I got some rolled oats from the bulk bins at Whole Foods (which I'm sure are contaminated with gluten in some way, but I'm not rolling in the cash, so these will have to suffice...)

Some of the ingredients before baking.

I had some raw pumpkin seeds that have been sitting around the kitchen for far too long and threw those into the mix. The granola could use a little extra iron anyways.

Umm... also notice the abundance of sesame seeds in my mixture photo above. Although there are others nuts and seeds in this granola, the majority of the seeds are indeed... you guessed it - sesame seeds. Sesame seeds are chock-full of nutrients including magnesium, iron, manganese, and calcium. They are also a great source of copper, which plays an important role in collagen formation, among other things.

Ingredients

• 4 cups rolled oats (not the quick-cooking kind)
• 1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1/2 cup raw cashews, chopped
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup ground Flaxseed Meal
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar or sucanat
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt

        Liquid-y Ingredients (to be melted in small saucepan on stove, or microwave)

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup honey or agave nectar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup almond butter (or some other nut butter)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. In a huge bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients. 
3. Place all the liquid-y ingredients in a saucepan. Heat over medium heat until it starts to boil and is mixed. Remove from heat and add to the oat mixture.
4. I split the mix onto two baking sheets, and baked for 30 minutes. 
5. After the first 30 minutes, remove from oven and stir. Bake for 15-20 more minutes until golden in color. Yum!