Gluten Free Vegan Lemon Coconut Bars May 27, 2012

 

Happy Memorial Day! I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend! We had a nice little get together and BBQ at our house on Sunday. It was the first of (hopefully) many outdoor shin-digs at our new house! We had a ton of fun grilling veggie burgers, chatting with friends, letting the kids get soaked in the kiddie pool, and enjoying the sunshine! One of my favorite parts of the day were these lemon-coconut bars. They are so so good! Nobody could tell they were vegan or gluten-free!

 

There are two things that make these bars unique. The first is that the filling has tofu in it! So not only are these bars much lower in fat the the real deal, they are also much higher in protein! For those of you trying to avoid soy, you can try subbing coconut cream in for the tofu. The second unique thing about these bars is that the shortbread crust has no butter OR margarine it it! Instead I use a mixture of coconut oil and coconut butter. For those who have never used coconut butter before it is heavenly! I highly recommend it! It is great in smoothies, used as a butter substitute, or just spread on a piece of toast with a drizzle of agave and sprinkling of cinnamon! YUM!

 

Anyways, back to my bars…

 

Gluten Free and Vegan Lemon-Coconut Bars

by Katie Barlow

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

 

Ingredients (24 bars)

For the crust

• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose gluten-free flour
• 2/3 cup organic powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup coconut butter
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For the filling

• 1 cup silken tofu
• 2 cups organic cane sugar
• Zest from 3 lemons
• 2/3 cup lemon juice (about 3-4 lemons)
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• coconut flakes (to sprinkle on top)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350degF and lightly grease a 9x13inch baking pan.

For the crust

Pulse the flour, sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a food processor.

Add the coconut oil and coconut butter a tablespoon at a time and pulse until mixture resembles a coarse meal.

Add the mixture to the baking pan and press firmly into an even layer.

Bake for 20 minutes (you want the crust to be slightly under-done because it will continue to bake with the filling).

Remove from oven and let cool.

For the filling

Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth and well mixed.

Pour the filling over the shortbread and sprinkle with coconut flakes.

Bake for 40 minutes or until the center is firm.

Remove from oven and cool to room temperature.

Allow the bars to cool in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before slicing into bars.

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Whole Wheat Meyer Lemon Cake May 13, 2012

 

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mother’s out there! I hope your day was special! Mine sure was! The hubs took the baby in the morning so I could sleep in, which was marvelous! Then he made me this for breakfast. YUM! Sooo good! After breakfast we took Harper to the pool and she had so much fun! Finally, we ended the day with a lovely dinner that Eddie and I cooked for his mom! For dessert, we made this whole wheat meyer lemon cake. 

 

I. Love. This. Cake.

 

Whenever we make this cake I eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sometimes all in the same day. And it just gets better as it ages.

 

I wish I could take credit for this cake, but I cannot. Eddie made this for me for my birthday, and I have been hooked ever since.

 

This recipe is adapted from the recipe over at the Always With Butter. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Whole Wheat Meyer Lemon Cake

by Katie Barlow

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 35-45 minutes

Keywords: bake dessert vegan vegetarian meyer lemon cake

 

 

 

 

Ingredients (8-16 Servings)

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup almond flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 cup coconut oil
• 1 cup organic unbleached cane sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground flax seed
• Juice from 1 meyer lemon
• Zest from 2 meyer lemons
• 1 teaspoon vanilla powder (or vanilla extract)
• 2/3 cup tofu

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and oil and flour a cake pan

Place the tofu in a blender and blend until creamy. Add water until the consistency of the tofu is that of sour cream. Set aside.

Combine all dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside

In a large bowl, cream the coconut oil and sugar

Add the ground flax seeds, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla and mix

Gradually mix in dry ingredients

Fold in creamed tofu and pour batter into pan.

Bake 35-45 minutes or until knife comes out clean.

Cool 5 minutes then remove cake from pan by flipping upside down onto a rack and cool completely.

Serve with fresh blackberries.

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Cherry Chocolate Teff Muffins May 1, 2012

 

Ahhhhhh….it is amazing how life happens and before you know it four months have just flown by! Well I am back and with a really yummy recipe. I got the idea for these muffins from this recipe here on the Wholefoods website. However, I wanted to make mine vegan (of course) and sugar free. To do this I replaced the eggs with flax seed and the sugar with date paste and Vanilla Sunwarrior protein powder. I was a little skeptical of how it would turn out but was surprisingly pleased! You can of course, substitute the  protein powder for stevia, which I think would work well also.

 

These muffins are earthy, surprisingly moist, with just the perfect amount of sweetness from the chocolate chips and tartness from the dried cherries. The combination of the date paste with the protein powder makes these muffins decadent enough to be eaten as dessert but healthy enough to be enjoyed guilt free as a breakfast on the go. I am really happy with how they turned out and this is definitely a recipe I will make again!

 

One note on this recipe, it does call for a little bit of whole wheat flour but if you are gluten free you can probably easily substitute a gluten free flour blend and add 1 tsp of xanthan gum!

 

 

 

   Chocolate Cherry Teff Muffins

Makes 12 Muffins

(Vegan, Sugar Free, Egg Free, Dairy Free)

 

Ingredients:

1 cup teff flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or a gluten free flour blend)

1/2 cup almond flour

1 scoop Vanilla Sunwarrior Protein Powder (optional, you can replace this with stevia or just omit)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup dates, soaked in boiling water for about 15 minutes

2 tablespoons ground flax seed mixed with 6 tablespoons of water

1/2-3/4 cup water

1/4 cup coconut oil

8oz dried cherries

1 cup mini chocolate chips (I used the Enjoy Life brand)

 

Directions:

1 Preheat oven to 350degF and grease your muffin pan.

2. Soak your dates and mix your flax seeds with water.

3. In a medium bowl combine the teff flour, whole wheat flour, almond flour, protein powder (or stevia), baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt and mix to combine.

4. To make the date paste, place the soaked dates in a blender and add just enough of the soaking water to cover the dates. Blend until smooth. Add the date paste to a separate large bowl.

5. To the date paste, add the ground flax seed mixture, 1/2 cup water, and coconut oil, and mix to combine.

6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold with a spatula until just combined. If the batter seems too dry add the extra 1/4 cup of water.

7. Gently fold in the dried cherries and chocolate chips.

8. Spoon mixture into muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick or knife comes out clean.

9. Remove from oven and let the muffins sit for 5 minutes, then take them out of the muffin pan and cool to room temperature.

Kitchen Sink Bars September 23, 2011

 

We are going camping this weekend! Ok we are bringing an RV, does it still count? As always, I am in charge of the food. Camping food should be portable, simple to make and eat, and filling. Since we have an RV we have a little more flexibility because we have an oven, a stovetop, and a microwave. I know, we are totally cheating!! Although, I do not really plan to use anything except maybe the microwave. Here is what we are bringing for food for our two day camping trip:

 

Chia Oatmeal

Bananas

Tons of Fruit

Rainbow Kale Salad

Field Roast Sausages

Sprouted Buns

Hummus and raw veggies

sweet potatoes

Sprouted bread

peanut butter

jelly

Collard greens (For banana peanut butter collard wraps)

vegan marshmallows

chocolate

vegan graham crackers

and these bars…

 

I call them the kitchen sink bars because they have so many different things in them. I kind of love that about them. They are also moist unlike most energy bars, and the best part is they have no sugar! They are sweetened with date paste and a little bit of brown rice syrup! These are definitely bars I feel good about eating and giving out to the people I love!

 

One note about these bars, I used dried cherries and apricots because that is what I had on hand and I do not love the combination. Especially with the little bit of chocolate I put in these bars, it is a bit too tart. Next time I might just do cherries and leave out the apricots, or do apricots and leave out the chocolate, or make them tropical with some papaya and pineapple!

 

As always, the measurements here are approximate. I am really bad about actually taking the time to measure out specific ingredients so take this recipe as a general guideline and feel free to add less or more of something to suit your preference and taste! Also, substitutions here are really easy! The only think I would not change is the dates and the quinoa flakes/oats measurements. Everything else is fair game!

 

Kitchen Sink Bars

Vegan, Soy Free, Gluten Free, Can be Raw

Makes 16 Bars

 

8oz pitted dates

1 1/2 cups quinoa flakes or old fashioned oats, finely ground

1/2 cup hazelnuts, finely ground

1 cup pecans, finely ground

2 small handfuls dried cherries, chopped

2 small handfuls dried apricots, chopped

1/4 cup hemp seeds

1/4 cup sprouted buckwheat groats

1/4 cup coconut flakes

1/4 cup vegan chocolate chips (I use enjoy life brand)

2 dashes cinnamon

3 tablespoon brown rice syrup

 

1. Cover the dates with water and let sit a couple of hours until plump and soft.

2. Place the dates and water in a blender and blend until smooth.

3. Add the date paste and the rest of the ingredients to a large bowl and mix well.

4. Heat the oven to 350degF and grease an 8” square pan with coconut oil, or line it with parchment paper.

5. Pour the mixture into the pan and spread evenly. Bake for thirty minutes until dry but not hard. Cool to room temperature before slicing into bars.

 

Raw version: replace the flakes/oats with buckwheat groats and dehydrate in a dehydrator until firm.

Vegan Bake Sale for Japan! April 18, 2011

Come visit us at Lassen’s in Ventura from Noon- 4pm on April 30th. We will be selling vegan cheesecakes and other baked goods to raise money for Japan!

Socca pizza!! March 9, 2011

 

Never heard of it? Neither had I until I found the Pure2Raw blog. Michelle and Lori are kind of obsessed with socca. They even have a socca tribute on their blog. check it out here.

 

As soon as I read about socca on the Pure2Raw blog, I knew it was a recipe I had to try. What I like about this recipe is that it is really simple to make, uses minimal ingredients, and is so versatile. This recipe is easily adaptable to be sweet or savory and can be customized in an infinite amount of ways. The only specialty ingredient that is called for is Garbanzo bean flour, which can be found at your local health food store and is actually very cheap!

 

So I immediately put this on my list of “recipes I must try soon!” and, of course, forgot about it! Then I saw this post on The Edible Perspective and thought “What a perfect way to try my first Socca! Make a Pizza!” So I went to the store bought some garbanzo bean flour and made my first socca!

 

 

This is my Socca Crust fresh out of the oven! I decided to top my socca pizza with homemade raw pesto, Field Roast sausage, and sun-dried tomatoes.

 

 

The result? YUM! Eddie just thought is was okay. He thought it was a bit bland and a little too dry. Personally, I loved the texture. It was a bit bland, but I did that on purpose. I wanted the toppings to really stand out on my pizza, not be overshadowed by the crust. Like I mentioned above, this recipe is so customizable, so you can easily add herbs and spices to make the crust more tasty!

 

I cannot wait to make socca again. And with how easy it is, I will probably make it again soon! Next time I am going to try a breakfast socca topped with bananas, almond butter, coconut, and some maple syrup! How amazing does that sound?!!

  Socca Pizza

Makes two 9 inch crusts

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

 

1 1/2 cups Garbanzo Bean Flour

1 1/2 cups water

1/4 cup olive oil

2 pinches salt

Any pizza toppings you like

 

Directions:

 

1. Add all ingredients to a mixing bowl and whisk until combined. The batter will be very watery.

2. Pour into two well buttered 9” cake pans and bake at 400degF for 40 minutes.

3. Allow crusts to cool slightly, about 15 minutes and decrease oven temperature to 350degF.

4. Remove crusts from cake pans onto a large baking sheet. Add pizza toppings and place back in oven for another 10-20 minutes until toppings are cooked through. Serve immediately.

Decadent Gluten Free Vegan Brownies March 4, 2011

These brownies are insane!!! Rich, gooey, intensely chocolatey, everything you could want in a brownie. You would never know these are vegan, let alone gluten free! We make these brownies almost every time we have company for dinner because they never disappoint! Vegans and Omnivores all RAVE about these brownies.

 

There are a couple secrets that make these brownies so rich and fudgy. First, I use Authentic Foods Bette’s Featherlight Rice Flour Blend for the gluten free flour. This flour is super-fine and makes the dough extra creamy and smooth and leaves no funky taste. All you taste is rich chocolate! You can find this flour at Whole Foods or order it on Amazon.

 

The second secret is using coconut cream. Coconut cream is different than coconut milk. Coconut milk is what you get when you buy a can of coconut milk at the store and shake it really well. To get coconut cream, buy a can of coconut milk (I like Thai Kitchen brand), and DO NOT SHAKE IT! Open it up and the extra thick

paste-like cream at the top of the can is the coconut cream. You only want this part! Scoop it out into a measuring cup and use it in the recipe. What will be left in the can after you have scooped out all the coconut cream is a thin milky watery substance, this is the coconut water that separated out of the coconut milk. I like to save it and use it in smoothies.

 

Now go get yourself to whole foods and buy some gluten-free flour and a can of coconut milk and make these brownies NOW!!

 

  Decadent Gluten Free Vegan Brownies

Yields an 8" square pan

Printable Recipe

 

Ingredients:
3/4 cup Authentic Foods Bette’s Gourmet Featherlight Rice Flour Blend
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup Thai kitchen full fat coconut cream (The thick part scooped out of the top of an unshaken can of coconut milk)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

 

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 8" square brownie pan.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. Whisk together the coconut cream, vegetable oil, sugar and vanilla.

4. Fold in the dry ingredients until just combined.

5. Fold in the chocolate chips.

6. Pour into your prepared pan — the mixture will be somewhat thick, so use a spatula or your fingers to make sure the mixture is distributed evenly to the edges of the pan. Bake 15 minutes if you like really gooey brownies, 20 minutes if you want them to be a bit firmer — the top will be set, but a tester should still have a bit of fudgy goo instead of set crumbs.

7. Remove from the oven, let cool, and devour. Like most brownies, these are best when they’ve set for at least an hour.

Valentine’s Day! February 15, 2011

I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day! We kept it low key. With a newborn baby in the house we do not really have time to do anything elaborate! We stayed home, of course, and just had a simple dinner. Although, I would have loved to come up with some elaborate five course dinner, it was just not going to happen this year! We did, however, find time to make cheesecakes!!

Raw Vegan Chocolate Covered Strawberry cheesecake

 

  Vegan Cookie Dough Cheesecake

 

Both turned out really well and tasted delish! I wish I could share the recipes with you, but for now these yummy pictures will have to do.

 

How did you celebrate your Valentine’s Day?

 

Cheesecake!!!!! January 10, 2011

During our pre-vegan days, Eddie and I really enjoyed making cheesecakes. It became our signature dessert and we made darn good cheesecakes! The cheesecake we ended up making the most was a peanut butter cup cheesecake with a chocolate cookie crust, layer of peanut butter cups, and the creamiest plain cheesecake layer you ever tasted. We even perfected how to bake the cheesecake without cracking it!

 

Over the holidays Eddie started making his cheesecakes again for some friends as a Christmas present. He has wanted to try a vegan version for awhile, but I have been resistant. There is NO WAY a vegan cheesecake would even compare to the original… or so I thought!!!

 

Well, we were bored the other night so we decided to bake something. Eddie decided to veganize his famous cheesecake recipe and I decided to try my hand at a raw cheesecake. After a bit of research, we both had our recipes in hand, and off to the store we went to get the needed ingredients. We spent the rest of the night baking away.

 

These were the results:

 

Eddie’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

 

  Katie’s Raw Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

 

As you can see by the photo of Eddie’s cheesecake above, it turned out AMAZING! Not only did it look amazing, it tasted amazing! It was so close to real cheesecake I could hardly tell the difference. I cannot even begin to describe how amazing this cheesecake was. Unfortunately, the recipe is an “Eddie original” and I cannot share it with you today on this blog. We will, however, definitely be using this recipe over and over and over again and we are eager to try different versions! Chocolate Mint anyone? How about a turtle cheesecake? cookie dough? dulce de leche? The possibilities are endless!

 

As for my raw cheesecake, it also turned out extremely well. It does not really have the taste of traditional cheesecake but it has a super creamy texture and a really great taste of its own. The adapted a recipe from the Vegetarian Times. It was super easy to make and I can see doing different variations of this cheesecake as well. It would be really easy to adapt this recipe to make a chocolate cheesecake or a mint cheesecake. The only change I would make next time is to double the filling recipe so you have a thicker filling than crust. I have reprinted the recipe for you below. Enjoy!

 

Some notes about the raw cheesecake:

 

1. The original recipe said to soak the nuts for the crust, I did not do this, I prefer the crust to be crunchy and was afraid soaking the nuts would make it too soft.

2. I used lemon juice in my recipe but the original recipe calls for lime juice, use whatever you have on hand or prefer.

3. For the filling, I blended it in my high speed Vitamix to get a super smooth texture. If you don’t have a Vitamix, use a food processor instead and add 6 tablespoons of water.

4. I used vanilla bean powder in my recipe, if you don’t have this, just use the seeds from one vanilla bean pod.

5. For the crust I used brazil nuts because the is what I had on hand. The original recipe calls for macadamia. I think it turned out great with brazil nuts but I will use macadamia nuts next time.

6. I doubled the filling in the recipe below.

 

 

Raw Cashew Cheesecake

Adapted from The Vegetarian Times

Serves 12

 

Printable Recipe

 

3 cups cashews

2 cups macadamia nuts

1/2 cup medjool dates

1/4 cup dried coconut

3/4 cup coconut oil, warmed

1/2 cup lemon or lime juice

1/2 cup raw agave nectar

1 teaspoon vanilla bean powder

3 cups mixed fresh berries, such as raspberries and blueberries

 

1. Place cashews in a separate bowl and cover with cold water. Soak nuts for 4 hours, then rinse, drain, and set aside.

2. Pulse macadamia nuts, dates, and coconut in a food processor to a sticky crumb-like consistency. Press crust mixture into pie or tart pan.

3. Place cashews, coconut oil, lime juice, agave nectar, and vanilla bean into a high-speed blender and puree until smooth. If using a food processor, add 6 tablespoons water. Pour mixture onto crust, and freeze 1 to 2 hours, or until firm. Remove from freezer, slice while frozen, and transfer to serving platter. Defrost in fridge 1 hour, or on countertop 30 minutes, top with berries and serve.

Hello! And Welcome to My New Blog! September 6, 2010

 

I’ve been wanting to start blogging again for some time but life and such always seemed to get in the way. I moved from San Francisco down to Camarillo, CA and my whole routine got turned upside-down. Once things got settled, I got a job as a chef cooking lunch for a small 8 person company. That was so much fun and I would have loved to blog about it but I couldn’t take pictures of the food I made and I was so exhausted after work that I just never could get myself motivated to start a blog. When I ended up getting an office job after my short stint as a chef I was determined to start writing a blog again… but then I got pregnant… and with this incredible and exciting news came horrible morning sickness. I did not even want to go near a kitchen to save my life, let alone cook, take pictures, and write about food! Well, I am now 21 weeks pregnant, the morning sickness has finally gone away, and I find myself with  a renewed sense of energy and motivation! So here…finally…is my new blog where I will chronicle my life of delicious vegan food, eco-friendly living, puppies, and becoming a new mom!

 

This labor day weekend was a pretty productive one for me! My friend Michelle came over and we baked up some vegan goodies! We are experiment and perfecting some recipes in the hopes that we can start selling vegan, raw, and gluten free goodies at the farmers market soon! This weekend I made some mini vanilla cupcakes with chocolate ganache:

 

Excuse the picture. I have not used my camera or Photoshop in a little while and I am RUSTY! This is definitely a recipe-in-progress. This is the second batch I made and they definitely turned out better than the first batch which completely sunk in after they were finished baking! However, these little guys still need work. I can’t wait until I perfect this recipe because next on the list is gluten-free cupcakes!

 

I also made some gluten free zucchini chocolate chip loaves:

 

I made the non-gluten free version last week and they came out great! For this version I used Bob’s Red Mill gluten free all purpose flour and it came out better than I thought but I’m not a huge fan of this brand of gluten free flour. Anyone have any brands of gluten free all purpose flour they like to use? Or any advice on how to make your own?

 

 

On another note, I decided to start my own herb garden this weekend as well! I planted organic heirloom tomatoes, chives, dill, parsley, and basil. My dog decided to dump out the dill pot, I replanted it, and he dumped out all the soil again! So I have no idea if that one will produce any sprouts but I hope so! I am completely new to gardening and really have no idea what I am doing so this is a learning experience for me and I will definitely let you all know how it goes and share the tips I learn along the way. Any tips from all you experienced gardeners out there are greatly appreciated!

 

This little guy is a pepper plant my mother-in-law gave to us about a month or so ago and it was growing very nicely in the pot in front of the window of our kitchen. It finally outgrew the pot so I decided to replant that one in our backyard in the ground. That was an adventure! We had a little area with dead rosebushes so I dug out the rosebushes (wow was that a task!) and then loosened up the soil and mixed it with some organic potting soil and transplanted the little plant to the ground. We watered it really well to make sure the soil is moist enough for the roots to grow. I really hope this little guy thrives but with the soil being so barren and not much sun hitting the area where he now lives, I think he is going to have to be strong! I’m hoping with some tender love and care he does well.

 

Well I got some vegan chocolate chip cookies in the oven ready to come out and this post is long enough as is so I hope you all had a great labor day weekend and I will try to write again soon!