Blueberry oat bars

What a crazy past few weeks! I was so busy staring at my computer screen and writing, writing, writing, as the semester wound down that the last thing I wanted to do was get back on here to write something else. I'm very happy to report that I've successfully finished my first semester of my program! I'm enjoying this short and much needed break by visiting with friends and family, baking stuff for the freezer, working on a knitting project, reading the Hobbit, and basically just hanging out with Estes in my pjs.

Today I left the house to pick up some groceries and something exciting happened - blueberries were on sale at Sprouts! Four packs for $5! This was hard to pass up, even though I know blueberries aren't in season. Of course I bought them and then came home to browse the web for good blueberry recipes.  I quickly found this one and decided to make it this afternoon. I like the use of oats in the recipe because it's something that would be really good for breakfast as well as for snack or dessert. Michael and I have been trying to eat more oatmeal for breakfast and sometimes the regular bowl of oats just doesn't cut it, I get bored. This morning for example, I made Dreena Burton's "Breakfast Cookies" from Let them Eat Vegan! and they definitely covered the wholesome oatmeal breakfast I was looking for but with the shape and taste of a cookie. Yum! I'm also trying to do more oat things or less flour things so I can pass along recipes to my gluten free friends! I like these blueberry bars because there is no flour, just oats and ground up oats. If you're gluten-free just make sure the oats are certified gluten-free. Anyways, here is the link to the original recipe, from FatFree Vegan Kitchen. The nutritional facts won't stay the same for my version because I added and took away things - I tweaked the recipe based on the ingredients I had and didn't have at the house.

Ingredients:
1 pint blueberries
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbs cornstarch, mixed with enough water to make a smooth paste
3 cups oatmeal (regular, not instant), separated
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 pack apple sauce
3 Tbs olive oil (or oil of your choice - I really like the taste of olive oil in some sweet recipes. Give it a try!)
1 tsp lemon zest
6 more Tbs agave nectar
6 Tbs water
1 more tsp vanilla

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Oil an 8x8-inch baking pan (I think mine was 9x9 because the batter was a little bit of a stretch to fit in the pan but it worked out anyways).

2. In a small saucepan, combine the blueberries, agave nectar and juice. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. When it boils, stir in the vanilla and cornstarch mixture. Continue to stair as the mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat and set aside.

3. Put 1 1/2 cups of the oatmeal into a food processor and grind it to a fine powder. Pour into a medium-sized mixing bowl and add the remaining oatmeal, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and lemon zest. Mix well. Stir in the apple sauce, olive oil, agave nectar, water and vanilla, and mix well.

4. Spread half of the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing well to cover the  bottom of the pan. Spoon the blueberry filling over the batter, and cover the blueberries with the remaining batter. I did this with spoonful drops of the batter that I spread as I went so it stayed on top of the blueberry layer.

The white in this picture is the sun shining in from the west. Another sunny day in Colorado:)

5. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned. Allow to cool before cutting into bars.

You can enjoy these for teatime or for breakfast and they would also make a delicious dessert with some vanilla ice cream!

Peanut butter and banana toast

This is a super easy and very filling breakfast (or lunch or snack). My cousin made something similar to it last year when we were all in Florida and it inspired me to make this version. I was prepping for a big jog (woo! I'm running again!) and wanted a good breakfast in me.

Ingredients:

2 pieces toast (I used Ezekial brand)
1 banana
1-2 Tbs peanut butter
honey
cinnamon

Make your toast. Spread peanut butter evenly over each slice. Then, thinly slice the banana on top of the peanut butter. Drizzle honey and sprinkle cinnamon on top.

So easy. I have a few other posts up my sleeves but have been having trouble getting them up because of our lovely little puppy and her crazy schedule. Right now she's sleeping on the stairs so I thought I'd get a quick post in. More to come!

On a running note- for you locals, there's a 5K at Grimm Brothers Brewery in Loveland on July 4th. Free pint after the race! Michael and I are running in it! This will be my first race post knee injury so I'm excited and glad that so far the running has been going well. If this goes well we'll see about the 10K I have on my wish list for the end of July...

Brahms and cinnamon apple slices

I sing with the Larimer Chorale and we are performing Brahms' requiem in Fort Collins on Sunday. Check out the program notes on the link and you'll see what kind of piece it is. Usually I've sung alto 1 or alto 2 but the director of the group put me on soprano 2 for this piece (basically this just means I'm singing a part that's much higher in pitch and has the melody more often). For those of you who don't sing, performing the soprano part of Brahms' requiem is like running a marathon with your voice. We rarely go below the C above middle C and there are lots of G's, A's and even a Bb (basically, really high notes). The piece is long and the text is so meaningful- even singing the text on low notes would be exhausting. On high notes you just really have to save your voice but give it your best effort at the same time- even when you're exhausted after just the first movement (there are 7 movements).

So why do I mention Brahms on my blog (other than as a shameless plug for my concert)? Well, at the end of our 3-hour rehearsal last night I was physically exhausted, but not so exhausted that I couldn't keep going. Yes, my back ached, my feet hurt, my brain hurt and forget about my voice, but normally after a marathon rehearsal I just want to sleep. I can barely keep my eyes open and I feel like I've just had a hard workout at the gym. I started thinking about how I've been using food lately to help fuel my body which is my instrument. Athletes take care of their body and fuel it accordingly and reap the benefits of higher energy, better performance, higher concentration, etc. Why not singers? (Or pianists? violists? trumpet players? etc.). For those of you non-musicians out there this might sound crazy- what do you mean? You're just standing there? Well, performing is hard work- it takes every ounce of concentration and energy you have, especially when you're performing Brahms.

So here's where I'm going with all of this: I strongly believe that food affects energy and performance. I've been taking better care of myself- eating balanced meals, high energy snacks and lots of fruits and veggies and I know this is what works for me to feel my best. Yesterday, for example, I made some whole wheat carrot snacking bread (recipe here) and I snacked on apple slices and nuts before rehearsal, had a balanced breakfast and lunch and I had good energy to work through my long rehearsal. If you are a musician you need to take care of your body and fuel it with whole, healthy food, just as athletes do. Your body is your instrument (or the instrument is an extension of your body) and playing music is a whole body experience.

So Cinnamon apples:

Photo courtesy of "Fresh Squeezed Nutrition"

A snack! I discovered a wonderful way to eat apples. Slice them thinly, place in plastic bag and sprinkle cinnamon and maybe a bit of coconut sugar or toasted crushed almonds. Shake around in the bag to evenly coat and voilà! Easy snack, great for kids and adults alike.

Thanks for reading through! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Chai coconut breakfast cake

I recently discovered a new vegan blog and have been bookmarking lots of recipes from the site. This is one I made this weekend- coconut chai breakfast cake from Fat Free Vegan's blog. Lots of yummy and healthy-looking recipes here! This cake is pretty tasty and is perfect for something to go along with your afternoon tea or to enjoy for breakfast.

Ingredients:

1 cup strong chai tea (use 2 teabags and let them sit in the water until it cools)

1/3 cup uncooked quick (not instant) oatmeal

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup unbleached white flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger 

3/4 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup coconut sugar, 1/4 cup white sugar)

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 Tbs apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup coconut flakes, 2 Tbs reserved

1. Prepare the chai ahead of time. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan, or a rectangle pan like I had.

2. Combine the dry ingredients (oatmeal through sugar) in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add the chai, applesauce, vinegar, extracts and all but 2 Tbs of the coconut. Mix well and pour the batter into the prepared pan.

3. Sprinkle with the reserved coconut and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.

This cake goes really well with your favorite cup of tea- it need not be chai!

Chocolate peanut butter crispy rice treats

I meant to take a picture of these and post about them right after I made them but as you can see, they were devoured pretty quickly. I couldn't come up with a  better picture than this- sorry! These tasty treats are super easy to make and a real crowd pleaser. The recipe comes from Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet. She recommends taking them on trips with you (they're really filling and are a much better alternative to processed desserts and snacks) and we took some on our really long hike last weekend- a very nice hiking fuel as well! They taste like chocolate peanut butter rice crispy treats- the ones you had as a kid. They're ooey and gooey and taste marshmallowy without any marshmallows. 

I tweaked the original recipe a bit, just to satisfy my own tastes but go buy the book and get the original recipe and its modifications.

Ingredients:

1 box brown rice crisps cereal (check the gluten free section of your grocery store if you can't find them in the regular cereal aisle
1 3/4 cup brown rice syrup
3/4 cup peanut butter (I use Justin's - a local for us and a great product!)
1/4 cup cocoa powder, unsweetened

1. Pour the cereal out into a large bowl and set aside.

2. In a small to medium sized saucepan, heat rice syrup over low heat until it gets melty. Stir in the peanut butter and mix with a spoon over the heat until it melts together. Add the cocoa powder and stir until this is incorporated.

3. Remove from heat and pour over the cereal. Mix together until evenly coated. Press mixture into a 9x13-inch baking dish, wetting your hands or the spoon to help press it down and flatten it out so it doesn't stick to your hands or the spoon.

4. Chill in the fridge for an hour before cutting and serving.

Carrot spice muffins

Another Oh She Glows favorite of mine! These muffins are made with no oils and are full of yummy and good-for-you carrots. I made a batch last week and meant to blog about them but then I ate them all and got really busy and time kind of flew away from me. I made them again today, this time fixing what I did wrong last time and here they are. Angela got the recipe from Fat Free Vegan and I kind of did a combo of both versions, sticking to only the non-white sugar sweeteners. The first time I made them with vegan white sugar (did you know some white sugar is processed with animal bone char?!) the first time and they were lovely but since I recently purchased coconut sugar and have been meaning to experiment with that I went for it. The coconut sugar is so tasty here! It has a brown sugar kind of flavor and really makes this batch of muffins better than the last (even though the last was blog-worthy!).

Ingredients:
Dry:
1 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup natural sugar (again, I used coconut sugar)
1 Tbs ground flax seed
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt

Wet and mix-ins:
1/3 cup agave nectar (or maple syrup- add 2 Tbs)
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup soy vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups grated carrots (about 3 medium carrots)
1/2 cup raisins, soaked in water and drained (I omitted these because Michael and I aren't fans of raisins in baked goods
1/3 cup chopped and toasted walnuts (the toasting step is key!)

1. Toast the walnuts on a baking sheet for about 8 minutes at 300ºF. Remove and set aside. Pre-heat oven to 375ºF and line a muffin pan with liners. If using maple syrup instead of agave, pre-heat oven to 400ºF.

2. Whisk all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients (agave nectar, applesauce, yogurt, water and vanilla). Add the wet to the dry and mix until just incorporated. The batter might be a bit thick.

3. Fold in the carrots, raisins (if using) and walnuts. Scoop batter into the muffin liners, filling batter to the top. Bake for about 18 minutes (but check after 15 to be sure they're not overcooked) until a toothpick or knife comes out clean. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes.

These freeze really well- I froze all but 4 of the ones I made today (this recipe makes 12 muffins). I plan on eating them throughout the week for breakfast with my green smoothie!

Fig and pear pop-tarts

I don't know why I was craving pop-tarts all of a sudden today but I was, so I googled some vegan pop-tart recipes. They're a lot easier to make than I thought! I opted out of the frosting on mine because I don't love frosting, but please feel free to make it and try it on top. I used fruit-sweetened fig and pear jam- 3 of each. I got the recipe from here and only altered a few things. The recipe makes 6 pop-tarts.

Ingredients:

For the dough:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) Earth Balance
1/4 cup cold plain almond milk

For the filling:
your favorite jam- I used 2 kinds: pear and fig

For the frosting:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 heaping Tbs jam
1 Tbs almond milk, plus more as needed

1. Preheat the oven to 450ºF. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silpat and set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour and salt. Using a pastry cutter or your hands, cut in the soy margarine until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the almond milk gradually, mixing until the dough just comes together and is neither sticky nor crumbly and dry.

3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until 1/8" thick into a large rectangle. Using a lightly floured pizza cutter, cut the dough into 12 equal rectangles. Using a lightly floured spatula, transfer 6 of the rectangles to the prepared sheet. Spoon about 2-3 Tbs of the jam to the middle of the rectangles, leaving about 1/4" border around the preserves. Place the remaining rectangles on top and gently pinch the edges, crimping until sealed. (You can dab a bit of water on the corners if this helps.) Bake for 7-10 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned. Transfer the pan to a wire cooling rack and allow the tarts to cool for 10-15 minutes before icing.

There's one missing because I ate it... :)

4. Meanwhile, make the icing. In a mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer, combine the powdered sugar, preserves and almond milk, blending until smooth and adding soy milk as necessary. After the tarts have cooled for 10-15 minutes, ice the tops with the icing and allow to cool completely. Freeze and then re-toast pastries in the toaster when ready to enjoy, or just enjoy at room temperature! These do not come with microwave directions like regular pop-tarts do;)

Chickpeas and nut butter

I'm sitting around the house this morning, doing some blogging and listening to recordings from an amazing food conference that happened this weekend, the Conscious Food Summit. It's free and full of great information without being preachy. If there's one thing most people can't tolerate, it's preachy vegans. Anyways, feel free to check it out. I got hungry for my morning snack as I was listening and I remembered that I have tons of chickpeas in the fridge (from a big batch I soaked and cooked on Saturday night). On Oh She Glows (yes, this one again!) there's a great recipe for a quick, filling snack with chickpeas "Chick P's and P.B.". I tweaked the recipe a bit based on what I have on hand in our kitchen. It was pretty tasty and definitely a good snack idea to have in the repertoire. This recipe makes one serving.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cooked chickpeas (if canned, rinse and drained)
1 heaping Tbs nut butter (I used almond)
1/2 tsp agave nectar (or maple syrup)

Mix the nut butter and sweetener in a bowl and add the cooked chickpeas. Mix until evenly coated. Enjoy as is or with a piece of toast or soft bread.

Kale chips

For non-believers these are some of the "hippiest" food items. Yes, they're chips made out of a really healthy green and a lot of hippies eat them but only because they're delicious! Kale chips are so easy to make and you can play around with different spices on them. If you're trying to eat healthier and you love potato chips, give these a try. They are obviously not potato-y but they do come out crispy, salty and flavorful and will definitely curb a chip craving. We have them as a side dish pretty often but they also make a great snack!

The recipe here is inspired by this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 large bunch kale
1 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder

1. Pre-heat oven to 350ºF and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Or use a silpat!

2. Remove the leaves from the thick stems on the kale and rip into chip-sized pieces. Place pieces in a gallon-sized plastic bag and add the olive oil, salt and seasonings, seal tightly and shake until uniformly covered.

3. Spread evenly on the cookie sheet and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until browned but not burnt. Enjoy immediately.

Sweet potato fries

These are so easy to make and are healthy-ish because they're baked instead of fried. The spices on these really bring out the unique flavor of the sweet potato. You can make these with orange fleshed sweet potato or yams too, if you'd like! These are what I could find at the store. The recipe is from "Oh She Glows". We ate these tonight for dinner with crispy breaded tofu.

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato, sliced into fries
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cumin
pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF and line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and grease.

2. Place the cut sweet potato with the rest of the ingredients in a gallon-sized plastic bag and seal tightly. Shake to coat evenly.

3. Spread out on the cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes then flip and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Carefully broil for another 5 minutes, watching to be sure they don't burn.

These were really delicious and were a perfect side to our crispy breaded tofu.

Granola

My mom just sent me this recipe. I had no idea my parents were making their own granola! Michael told me that this means they're just as hippy as I am haha. I guess the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree! This recipe came from a magazine in our local dentist's office- not sure which one so if anyone can find out so I can give proper credit, let me know!

This recipe is really easy and yes, it does contain honey which is a hot topic issue among vegans. Without getting into it, I eat honey and enjoy it but I stick to local honey and not the "honey" stuff that's coming as far away as China. Local honey is supposed to help with local allergies. I'm not a doctor so don't quote me on it. I see honey as a natural sweetener that is a much better choice than white sugar. That being said, feel free to use agave nectar (use less than what's called for) or maple syrup. I'd like to try this next time with maple syrup but it's so expensive.

Ingredients:

4 cups regular oatmeal (not quick or instant) a GREAT way to use up a 9 lb box of oatmeal
1/2 cup wheatgerm
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 cup almonds, chopped
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup honey or syrup
2 Tbs canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
*1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped (not too fine)
1/2 cup dried cranberries (my mom uses raisins)

1. Pre-heat oven to 350ºF. Spray cookie sheet with cooking oil (I use a 13x9 inch pan and grease lightly with cooking oil).

2. Mix all ingredients except dried fruit. Place in the pan.

3. Bake 30-35 minutes (stirring every 10 minutes) until lightly brown. Remove from oven and cool.

4. Add dried fruit. Store in sealed container in cool place. Keeps for about 3 weeks.

This is a terrible picture but it is browned and our house smells really yummy!

Feel free to use this as a base for granola and play around with different spices or additions. I bet shredded coconut or some cocoa powder or chocolate chips would be lovely. It's pretty sweet but I haven't had granola in awhile so maybe all granola is pretty sweet. When I have granola with milk for breakfast I usually sprinkle on a few plain oats just to make it less sweet.

*I used dates as I didn't have any apricots or cranberries on hand.

Whole wheat pan bread

I'm always searching for new bread recipes. Making your own bread is so easy and you really should give it a try. If anything, it makes your living space smell amazing:) When I was visiting a local bookstore in Fort Collins, Old Firehouse Books, I picked up a brand new copy of this book for only $4.99. Today is the first time I've tired any of the recipes and so far I think I like this one. Well, I like it enough to blog about it. The recipe is "White (or Whole-wheat) Pan Bread" from 100 Great Breads by Paul Hollywood.

It was pretty easy to make, as far as breads go and the flavor is more complex than I expected. We'll see how this pan bread holds up after a day or so. I'll also freeze one of the loaves and see how that goes. If anything, I think these would make fantastic bread crumbs. I'm going to try his "Beer Bread" next.

Ingredients:

scant 2 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
2/3 cup white bread flour (unbleached!!!)
1 Tbs salt
1 Tbs instant yeast
1/2 stick Earth Balance, softened
generous 1 1/4 cups water

1. Put the flour, salt, yeast and Earth Balance into a bowl, then add the water, little by little, folding in with your hands until all the flour has been picked up. Tip out onto a lightly floured counter and knead for 5 minutes, or until you have a pliable, soft dough. Put the dough back in the bowl and let rest for 1 hour.

2. Oil the loaf pan or pans. Shape the dough to fit the pan(s) and let rise for 1 hour.

Before rising. I forgot to take a picture before they were in the oven. They didn't rise as much as I thought they would- I might let them rise for an hour and a half next time.

3. Preheat the oven to 450ºF. Just before you bake the loaf, dust the top with flour and, using a knife, make slashes across the top. Bake for 30-35 minutes, then turn out of the pan(s) onto a wire rack to cool.

I enjoyed the heel with some fig jam. Yum!

Popcorn cauliflower

Wegmans is the best grocery store. Who knew they also had recipe ideas on their website!? I was doing some browsing for recipes, as I usually do, when I stumbled upon this recipe for popcorn cauliflower. I don't particularly love cauliflower but we had leftovers from when we had people over last week for the Super Bowl. I made this recipe the other night and it actually smells like popcorn! It was a tasty side to dinner and would even make a tasty snack.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs cauliflower florets, trimmed to bite-sized pieces.
2 Tbs olive oil (the site calls for Wegmans basting oil- sigh but I can't get that where we live)
garlic powder and nutritional yeast to taste
salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 450ºF. Toss the cauliflower in a large bowl with the oil and spices and salt and pepper.

2. Spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with a silpat.

3. Roast on center rack of oven about 15 minutes. Carefully turn cauliflower halfway through baking.

4. Remove from oven.

Yum!