The post Day 4 Vegan MoFo: Salted PB Chocolate Shake + Spicy Oven Fries appeared first on Sprouts & Chocolate.
]]>
In high school, my friends and I would head down to the Wendy’s to get an order of fries with a Frosty. We didn’t eat the Frosty until our fries were gone and all individually dipped in the cool chocolatey mixture. While I wouldn’t eat at a fast food place now, the love of fries has not diminished.
I wanted to make oven fries since deep frying at home is pretty unsafe and I am sure I would set a small fire in my kitchen. At first, I was setting my oven a little too low for those really crispy fries that I wanted so be not afraid of cranking your oven up! Also it is important to make sure that you preheat your oven so the potatoes go into a hot oven to achieve maximum crispiness. You can omit the spice mixture and just use salt if you don’t like spicy foods.
The milkshake is simple and unlike diner-style milkshakes, this one does not have any dairy or refined sugars. The salted peanut butter and chocolate combination is the best as any Reese’s cup lover would understand. The bananas make the milkshake thick and creamy. What would we vegans do without bananas??
What weird food combos do you love?
4 recipes down, 26 more to go! See you tomorrow for Day 5: Best Sandwich Ever! Missed Day 3? Check it out here.
Stay connected on the daily by following me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Made this recipe? I would love to see it! Use the hashtag #screcipe on your social media.
- Salted PB Chocolate Shake
- 1.5 cups unsweetened almond milk
- 2 frozen bananas
- 2 tablespoons roasted peanut butter (I buy unsalted)
- 1 tablespoon cacao powder
- 2 pitted Medjool dates
- 8-9 ice cubes (more if your bananas aren't frozen)
- Add all the ingredients to a high powered blender. Blend until smooth. Serve and enjoy!
- 2 large russet potatoes, washed and cut into fries (peels on)
- 1.5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ancho chili powder
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a bowl, coat the cut potatoes with the oil, salt, and spices.
- Transfer the potatoes to the baking sheet and spread them out into a single layer.
- Bake for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through.
- Remove from oven once they are golden and crispy. Depending on how thick you cut your fries, the cooking time will vary. After you flip them, keep an eye on them. No one likes burnt fries!!
- Serve with the milkshake above or ketchup.
Related Posts
The post Day 4 Vegan MoFo: Salted PB Chocolate Shake + Spicy Oven Fries appeared first on Sprouts & Chocolate.
]]>The post Day 2 Vegan MoFo: 5 Nut-Free Afterschool Snacks appeared first on Sprouts & Chocolate.
]]>I hope these recipes will come in handy for those hungry kids after school!
Day Two is all about recreating a childhood meal. This one always hits close to home because my mother, a single parent, did not cook. The only time my family had a sit down meal together was around holidays or birthdays. I admit, reading narratives from other blogs about spending an afternoon with their family around their dining table making homemade ravioli or their Sunday traditional roast always made me a little jealous.My early life was not surrounded by homemade food and perhaps this is why I have committed my adult life to good and wholesome meals. This is no fault of my mother’s, she worked 2 jobs to support my sister and I and we never went hungry. Our meals were usually from a package so it was quick and easy for my mother to make between her two shifts that day.
My sister and I went to a Catholic high school so it let out an hour earlier than most, which meant our lunch hour was at 10:40am. By the time we got home, we were so hungry and could not wait for dinner. My mother, standing in the kitchen, wearing her server uniform, would be chopping apples, slicing cheese, and piling crackers onto a plate for us to eat as soon as we got home. We chatted about our day, my mother would tell us what she prepared for dinner and how to reheat it for later, we started our homework while my mother sipped Earl Grey tea, and then she kissed us goodbye to leave for her other shift.
This was our family time and I did not appreciate it when I was younger. I wanted the typical nuclear family that I saw on television, the kind that had pancakes from scratch on Sundays, and the mom that made cookies for bake sales at school.
I did not get that kind of mom. I got a fighter, a woman who sacrificed and pushed to make sure her kids had the best childhood she could provide. There were times that she and I did not see eye-to-eye but looking back now, I can see all the hardships she took on by herself.
This is not your typical childhood meal recreation. These recipes were not passed down from generation to generation on an old faded cue card. My mom did not make the best Mac & Cheese or the best chocolate chip cookies but she did make the best with the short time we had with us, which suits me just fine.
2 recipes down, 28 more to go! See you tomorrow for Day 3: Quick, Easy, and Delicious! Missed Day 1? Check it out here.
Stay connected on the daily by following me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Made this recipe? I would love to see it! Use the hashtag #screcipe on your social media.
- Avocado Sourdough Toasts:
- 2 slices sourdough bread, toasted
- ½ ripe avocado
- ½ teaspoon hemp hearts
- Fat pinch of fine grain sea salt
- Pinch of red chili flakes (optional)
- With a fork, smash the avocado onto the toasted sourdough bread. Sprinkle with hemp hearts, salt, and red chili flakes. Cut the toasts into halves or even sticks. Serve and enjoy!
- Fruity Pink Smoothie:
- ½ cup fresh or frozen strawberries
- 1 frozen banana
- ½ peeled orange
- 1 cup seed milk
- 2 tablespoons hulled hemp hearts
- Ice (if your fruit is fresh vs. frozen, you will need to add ice)
- Add all the ingredients to a high power blender. Blend until smooth. Serve with strawberry garnish and enjoy!
- Cinnamon Date Caramel:
- 10 soft medjool dates, pitted
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons melted coconut oil
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Water
- Pinch of salt
Apple wedges to serve
- Add the pitted dates, lemon juice, coconut oil, cinnamon, and a teeny pinch of salt to a high power blender. Turn on the blender and slowly add water, 1 tablespoon at a time until you have reached your desired consistency. I added about 7 tablespoons of water so the caramel would stick to the apples when dipped. Serve with apple wedges and enjoy!
- For the Nacho Dip:
- ½ cup sunflower seeds, soaked for 2-8 hours*, drained and rinsed
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- ½ red pepper, chopped fine
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon ancho powder (use regular chili powder for a flavourful but not spicy nacho cheese)
- ¼- ½ teaspoons fine grain sea salt
- 4-6 tablespoons warm water
Celery Sticks to serve
- Add all the ingredients to a high power blender and blend until completely smooth.
- Serve with celery sticks.
- Grapes
- Add the grapes onto the skewers.
- Place skewers onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet and place in the freezer. Once the grapes are frozen, serve!
The post Day 2 Vegan MoFo: 5 Nut-Free Afterschool Snacks appeared first on Sprouts & Chocolate.
]]>The post One Bowl Chocolate-Caramel Almond Balls {No-Bake, Vegan & Gluten-Free} appeared first on Sprouts & Chocolate.
]]>
Though it has been challenging thinking of new recipes to post 4 times a week there are so many bloggers who made this experience look easy. I am sure they are hustling and sweating behind the camera like the rest of us. Well at least I hope I am not the only one with shaky caffeine hands and a kitchen that looks like a bomb went off.
These are just a few of my favourite VeganMoFo bloggers:
She has turned the ghoulish into adorable (I mean terrifying…) vegan AND gluten-free Halloween treats for everyone to enjoy. Bravo!)
LOVE the Lazy Sunday recipe idea! Especially the Tempeh Bacon Quiche, the Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Rolls, all of them really!
I have drooled over these recipes and amazing photography.
I am glad someone loves movies and television as much as I do and then recreates it into amazing meals.
Burgers for an entire month? Sign me up! Thanksgiving, Irish, Eggplant Sriracha, Gyro….the list goes on!
To the fine creators of VeganMoFo, I applauded your hard work to build an annual vegan food-sharing community. Because of this event, I discovered sites and accounts that I fell in love with and have bookmarked to check on the regular. My hat goes off to you!
Now why would I include a borderline dessert as a staple? This is not just your average dessert since it has protein (from the hemp hearts) and omegas (from the chia seeds). I feel it is important that every kitchen have a little something-something kept the freezer for your work/school week because it always kept me from buying (although vegan) the not-so-good for you “snack foods” out there. I would be in a store after school or work and could tell I was getting a little hangry, I just needed something to get me home but thankfully with these guys in the freezer waiting for me I could talk myself out of grabbing a chocolate bar or a bag of chips. I would think to myself “Why waste the calories/money in a treat that I don’t really want?” and put that snack down and wait until I got home. Now I pack one or two in my dinner that I take to work since I don’t get a break (ever!) but need a little boost when it is blindingly busy or when a table is particularly rude to me.
They are quick, easy and can be made in one bowl. Hooray! Oh did I mention that they are vegan, gluten free and insanely delicious, especially right out of the freezer. The roasted almond butter melts as you chew it, revealing new flavours like coconut, nutty oats, caramel-y dates and chocolate. Swoon! For this recipe I used my One-Ingredient Roasted Almond Butter (another staple!) to make these balls however I am sure any almond butter of your choice will do.
So if someone asks why a little protein-filled dessert is considered a staple, tell them to try it first and if they still don’t get it, just stop talking to them. You don’t need that kind of negativity in your life. Haha! Saw that one on Pinterest and I felt it applied.
It has been such a pleasure for me to share with you some of my favourite recipes that I make every week. Thank you all so much for the lovely comments and blog love! I am so grateful for all the readers of my site and there is plenty more coming from my kitchen after VeganMoFo has ended. Check out Tuesday’s post for the final recipe of this month long vegan food fest. I have been saving the best for last.
Happy Sunday!
- ¼ cup black or white chia seeds + 3 tablespoons water
- ½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- 1 cup rolled oats
- ¼ cup hulled hemp seeds
- ¼ cup blanched slivered almonds
- 3 tablespoons mini vegan chocolate chips (Whole Foods 365 and Enjoy Life brands have vegan options)
- 3 Medjool dates, pitted and chopped fine
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil
- ½ cup almond butter (I used my One-Ingredient Roasted Almond Butter)
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- In a large bowl mix the chai seeds and the water together and let thicken for about 6 minutes.
- Meanwhile measure out the rest of the ingredients and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. When the chai mixture is gluey, add the rest of the ingredients together in the bowl and mix well, either with your hands or a wooden spoon. Using my hands was much easier so go on and get those hands dirty!
- When fully incorporated use a 1-tablespoon measuring spoon to measure out the mix and form them into balls. Transfer the ball to the lined baking sheet and continue with the rest of the mix. When completed, transfer the baking sheet to the freezer and freeze for at least 30 minutes.
- At this point they are semi-frozen and so delicious. Enjoy!
- I keep mine in an airtight container in the freezer for about 2 weeks.....if they last that long between Mark and I.
The post One Bowl Chocolate-Caramel Almond Balls {No-Bake, Vegan & Gluten-Free} appeared first on Sprouts & Chocolate.
]]>The post Moroccan Spiced Chickpeas: 3 Ways {Vegan & Gluten-Free} appeared first on Sprouts & Chocolate.
]]>Halfway there! It is kind of crazy how time flies by when you are having fun or when you are stressed out about deadlines for posts but for this first time MoFo’er it has been such a great experience. I am not sick of my kitchen just yet so it is full steam ahead in the second part of this month.
This recipe is inspired by my mother and her love for old black-and-white movies. When my sister and I were growing up, we did not have cable, just the old rabbit ears with tinfoil balls on their ends so we did not watch a lot of TV. My mother only enjoyed a select few cartoons like Animaniacs or Bugs Bunny (which I know them now to be incredibly violent!) so needless to say we did not watch a lot of kid-shows either. During my teen years when all my friends were obsessed with Dawson’s Creek, Friends and Passions (yes the soap opera) however my mother had no patience for 90’s teen TV characters complaining about how everything was just so tragic. “I will show you real tragedy,” she would say as you popped in a VHS tape. So I spent most Friday nights watching Gregory Peck in the Maycomb courtroom defending a wrongly accused man while Jem and Scout watched from the balcony, Audrey Hepburn in her trench coat, soaked and looking for Cat in the rain and of course Humphrey Bogart saying goodbye to his true love all for the greater good but meeting a friend along the way.
How I love Ilsa Lund’s (Ingrid Bergman) jewelry sparkling softly in the low lighting, the way she sipped champagne so elegantly, her large brimmed hats and her amazing capability to keep a white suit stain-free and glowing.
Rick’s Café Américain is what I thought every nightclub was like: large bandstand with talented musicians in white dinner jackets, a piano player playing beautiful love songs, fancy hats and gambling underground until I actually went to one and upon arrival some pimple-faced kid barfed near me, spattering it across my shoes. That place was no Rick’s.
Casablanca is still my favourite old movie as well my mothers. I imagine Morocco’s air to be full of warm spices, gin joints to get a stiff drink and having a grand but tragic romance with my true love. But in the meantime, I will just enjoy these Moroccan Spiced recipes with a drink in hand.
10 recipes down, 10 more to go! Woot!
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- Pinch of ground cloves
- Pinch of cayenne
- Mix all the spices together in a small container.
- 1-15 ounce can no salt chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 ½ -2 teaspoons Moroccan Spice
- ½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- ½ teaspoon extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil
- Dash of lemon juice (optional)
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with a layer of paper towels. While the oven is heating up, add the drained chickpeas to the paper towels in a single layer. Top with more paper towels and (gently!) dry the chickpeas by rolling your hands around the top layer of the paper towels. Wet chickpeas do not crisp up as nicely. Transfer now dry chickpeas to a medium bowl and gently toss with the oil, spice and salt until all the beans are coated. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper. Transfer oiled chickpeas to the baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 30 minutes, gently shaking the pan to flip the beans halfway through the cooking time. Remove from the oven and serve.
- When they are still really hot, I like to add a little bit of lemon juice to the hot pan, shaking the pan to coat the chickpeas. I think it brightens the flavour but it is optional.
- 2 tablespoons ground flax seed meal
- 3 large garlic cloves
- ½ cup roughly chopped red onion
- 1/3 cup lightly packed cilantro leaves
- 1/3 cup lightly packed parsley leaves
- 1-19 ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed thoroughly
- 2-3 teaspoons Moroccan Spice
- Pinch of cayenne pepper
- ¾ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 3 tablespoons chickpea flour
- ¼ cup hulled sunflower seeds
- ½ tablespoon toasted sesame seed oil
- ¼ cup tahini
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice (do not use concentrate!)
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 large garlic clove, peeled (minced if you don’t own a high power blender)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoons fine grain sea salt
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a food processor, add the garlic and pulse until minced. Add the chopped onion and herbs and pulse 8-9 times (one-second pulses) until the mixture is fine.
- Transfer mixture to a large bowl.
- In the now empty food processor, add the chickpeas and pulse 16-20 times (scraping down the mix as needed) until all the beans are processed but not hummus texture.
- Transfer chickpeas to the large bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until fully combined.
- With a 1-tablespoon spoon, measure out a two-tablespoon portion of the mixture and form a small patty. Place patty on the lined baking sheet and continue with the rest of the mixture.
- Bake for 30 minutes, turning halfway through the baking time.
- Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend until very smooth. Set aside until the falafels are ready.
- 1-19 ounce can no-salt chickpeas, liquid reserved
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1/3 Cup tahini
- ¼ cup fresh water (not from the can)
- 5 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp reserved can liquid
- 5 teaspoons Moroccan Spice
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste.
- Pinch of cayenne pepper (or more!)
- Olive oil, drizzle on top (optional)
- Moroccan Spice for garnish (optional)
- Add all the ingredients except the salt to the food processor and blend until fairly smooth.
- Add a portion of the salt to the mixture and blend until the salt is combined. Taste and add more salt if necessary. I use the whole teaspoon myself but you can adjust it to suit your taste.
- Transfer to an airtight Tupperware container and refrigerate.
- Lasts about 5 days in the fridge though it doesn’t usually last that long in my house.
The post Moroccan Spiced Chickpeas: 3 Ways {Vegan & Gluten-Free} appeared first on Sprouts & Chocolate.
]]>The post Super Food Energy Balls appeared first on Sprouts & Chocolate.
]]>A lot of it was breaking habits: Mark no longer got a beer after work, skipped his morning, afternoon and mid afternoon coffee and I no longer reached for fries at work as a snack. We both are in a weird sort of daily schedule since we both attend school in the day and go straight to work at the same restaurant at night so we are gone from 7:30am and don’t return home until well after midnight. Did I mention we don’t get a break at work? This is true from all restaurants I have ever worked in so whatever we want to snack on has to be super quick.
How many super foods can you fit into an energy ball? I counted 5! 5 super foods ah ah ah! (Oh how I miss the Count from Sesame Street) I Googled “super foods” and while it varied from resource to resource these five foods stayed fairly consistent: quinoa, chia seeds, hemp hearts, cacao (including cocoa powder) and goji berries.
I went to Pinterest (I am on there too!) and the site boasts a toooon of recipes for energy balls but a lot of them contained a serious dose of sweetener and nut butter. While I am not against these things I wanted to make a recipe that everyone could enjoy and that would give you tons of energy in a hurry. These Super Energy Balls (I thought about naming them Super Balls but Mark giggled so that was a no-go) are lightly sweetened, super chocolately and contain awesome nut-free, gluten free, oil free and refined sugar free ingredients for a little boost mid-day or at 7pm when the dinner rush is hitting you hard and you need to make a million hot waters with lemon.
Makes 20 1-tablespoon sized balls
- 1 banana
- 6 pitted Medjool dates
- ¼ cup chia seeds
- ¼ cup hulled hemp hearts
- 2 tablespoons raw cacao nibs
- 2 tablespoons goji berries
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ – ½ teaspoon kosher salt (start with ¼ and add more to suit your taste. The salt helps bring out the flavour of the cocoa)
- 1 cup puffed quinoa
In the bowl of a food processor or blender, add the banana and pitted dates and blend until well incorporated and makes a paste. Add the banana-date paste to a large bowl, add all the ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until combined. With a 1-Tablespoon measuring spoon, measure out the mix and roll in your hands to create a ball. They may seem a little soft at first but the chia seeds will firm them up. Continue with the rest of the mixture. Makes 20 balls.
The post Super Food Energy Balls appeared first on Sprouts & Chocolate.
]]>