There is something special about a season changing; when the green leaves start to turn bright colours, ice cold glasses of fizzy kombucha turn into mugs of steamy tea, and we all get cozy in our thick knit sweaters. I hate to see Summer end but I love when Fall begins. The farmer’s market changes from berries, peaches, and corn to squash, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes. I no longer fear of turning on my oven and welcome roasted vegetables.

When I think of Autumn, I think of pumpkins. I don’t love roasted pumpkin so I usually stick to the canned version to make dessert or lattes. Raw canned pumpkin reminds me of baby food but when cooked in a recipe with lots of spices, it turns into a favourite. What else is my favourite? Chocolate.

Brownies may not seem like an Autumn Equinox recipe but when paired with pumpkin and warm spices, it gives me reason to celebrate shorter days and cooler weather. Mark, who claims not to love chocolate or pumpkin, loves these brownies. They are rich, fudge, and spiced with seasonal favourites. What isn’t to love about that?

What are your favourite Autumn eats?

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Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Brownies

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

36 mins

Total time

51 mins

 

Fall and baked goods go hand in hand. Perhaps because we no longer fear turning on our ovens now that it has cooled down. I love the mixture of chocolate and pumpkin spice, the spices enhance the chocolate taste. These guys are rich, warming, and crazy good. The total time does not include the cooling time and I know it is hard, but don't be tempted to take them out of the pan until they are fully cooled. I promise it is worth the wait! This recipe is vegan, gluten free, and soy free.

Author: Jessica DeMarra

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Vegan, Gluten Free

Serves: 12-16

Ingredients

• 3 ounces vegan dark chocolate, chopped
• 5 tablespoons coconut oil + more for greasing the pan
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla
• 1½ tablespoons ground flax seed + 4 tablespoons warm water
• ⅓ cup + 2 tablespoons pure pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 cup organic cane sugar
• ¾ cup Bob Mill's 1:1 GF Flour Blend
• 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder or cornstarch
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice blend
• 1 cup raw nuts (I used a mixture of pecan and almond), ground into a course nut flour

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease an 8×8 inch pan with coconut oil. Create a sling using two pieces of parchment paper placed perpendicular to each other in the pan. Set aside.
2. In a non-reactive bowl, add the chopped chocolate and set over a pot with a few inches of simmering water. Melt the chocolate until almost all the chocolate is completely melted. Add the coconut oil, cocoa, and vanilla. Stir until completely smooth and mixed. Set aside to cool.
3. Meanwhile, add the ground flax seed and water together in a large bowl, mix, and side aside until it becomes gel-like. Add the pumpkin puree to the flax mixture and stir.
4. Add the cooled chocolate mixture to the bowl and stir until fully combined. Add the sugar and stir again.
5. Add the flour, cornstarch or arrowroot, baking soda, salt and spices. Gently fold these ingredients into the chocolate mixture. Add the ground nuts and fold until completely combined.
6. Transfer brownie batter to the prepared pan. Using your fingers, smooth out the batter until it is evenly distributed. Bake for 36-38 minutes.
7. Allow the brownies to cool completely but taking them out of the pan and cutting. The batter is very soft when warm so this recipe needs some time to cool down.
8. Serve with a Creamy Vegan Pumpkin Spice Latte if you fancy!

Notes

**This recipe is adapted from The First Mess "Salted Coconut Caramel Brownies"

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The post Day 23 of Vegan MoFo: Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Brownies appeared first on Sprouts & Chocolate.

I personally want to say a huge THANK YOU to John from Minimalist Baker who created a series of amazing videos all about setting up Foodie Pro theme from Genesis. I knew doing this on my own would be almost impossible since I am computer-illiterate but John makes it easy; it was like he was right on my computer with me saying, “Ok Jess, this is how we technology…” and with his guidance I felt empowered over every little widget, plugin and coding that I set up. Technology can also be a verb right? This just shows how un-techy I am. If you want to switch up your theme to Foodie Pro, I cannot stress it enough to check out his step-by-step guide.

There are a few other changes around S&C that I have been fiddling with over the past week and I hope that everyone is ok with. First, there are now ads on my static page. If you do see any ads that are about “diet pills” or “sexy singles in your area” or anything explicit please email me at: jessica [dot]demarra[at]gmail[dot]com. I have blocked these ads from my Google AdSense account but if you see an ad that is offensive or explicit, email me! Side note: There are no sexy singles in your area, sorry. This ad placement is just to cover the cost of my domain hosting. Blogging does have its expenses besides the food, photography, props etc. so the mere few dollars I make off the ads is not for a profit in the least. Secondly, a subscription sign-up has been added. It took me forever to figure out how to do this and now I feel silly over how easy it was. If you want to be notified about new post, just sign up on the sidebar! P.S. This also guarantees you will receive your free copy of my eBook coming out this summer!

With that technical stuff done, let’s get to the part I actually enjoy…the food!

You know what grinds my gears? Secret recipes. I loathe it when I am at a function of some sort and I try something I love but the maker of the delicious treat coyly smiles and says, “Oh it is a secret recipe.” On the outside I may say, “Oh I guess I have to eat my fill now!” but on the inside I am giving them two thumbs down and blowing a raspberry in their face. To me, recipes are meant to be shared, enjoyed and passed along to a friend who passed it along to their friend etc. I call BS on secret recipes. I personally think that the maker of the infamous secret recipe is really just doing it for attention, their teeny moment of stardom amongst the Christmas Cookie Exchange or potluck dinner. Sharing is a good thing so don’t be selfish. Instead of the title of “Oh, she makes the best cookies but it is a secret,” people will say “I got the best recipe for cookies from so and so.” See? It is still nice and I promise I won’t give you cut-eye from across the room when you aren’t looking. Just to be clear, I am not very good at party going.

I recently purchased a cookbook that a popular vegetarian restaurant published; I flipped through their pages and happened upon one of their most famous dishes. I got really excited since this restaurant is nowhere near my home but I could still enjoy their recipe. I read the notes of the recipe and it said, “This recipe is similar but not exactly the recipe we use in our restaurant. We are keeping that one a secret.” Excuse me? The rational side of me says, “Oh ok, I mean they are a business blah blah” but my irrational side was shaking my fist at the book. I was so cheesed! Damn the secret recipe!

Recipes evolve from sharing, how you change them to suit your taste or add in an extra ingredient or two to make it someone else’s favourite. I would be nowhere without people sharing recipes with me, especially with baking. I am a better cook than a baker and without shared recipes I would not know where to begin to make any sweet treat. Sharing recipes is not about “giving up something” since the recipe is still yours but you are simply allowing someone to create something that you love as well. A big thanks to those who share their recipes, without you I would be starving. 

No Bake Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Dough Balls {Vegan & GF}

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

Quick, easy and delicious oatmeal cookies with no oven required. Kids will have a great time forming these into balls of cookie dough that they can eat right away since it does not contain any raw eggs. I found myself eating a lot of it right out of the bowl! This recipe can be made gluten free by purchasing certified gluten free oats and nut free by replacing the cashew butter with your favourite brand or homemade sun butter.

Author: Jessica DeMarra

Recipe type: vegan, no bake, gluten free

Cuisine: Vegan

Serves: 15-16 balls

Ingredients

• 2 cups rolled oats, divided (gluten free if necessary)
• 2 tablespoons raw cashew butter
• 2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil
• ¼ cup agave or pure maple syrup (I used agave)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Pinch of nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
• 1 tablespoon ground golden flax seed
• 3 tablespoons raisins or another dried bite-sized fruit (I used golden raisins and dried cranberries)

Instructions

1. In the bowl of a food processor, process 1.5 cups of oats until fine flour forms. Add the rest of the oats and pulse 3 times. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the cashew butter, oil, agave, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together until completely smooth. Add the oats, flax and dried fruit. Stir with a wooden spoon until completely combined. Let the mixture sit in the refrigerator for 5 minutes before forming into balls; I found the mixture to be too warm and sticky to form right away.
3. Take the mixture out of the refrigerator, measure out with a measuring tablespoon, form and continue with the remaining dough. I store the cookie dough in a sealed container in the fridge since slightly chilled cookie dough tastes amazing.

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The post No Bake Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Dough Balls {Vegan & GF} appeared first on Sprouts & Chocolate.

This process happened slowly then all at once, much like falling asleep as described by John Greene in A Fault In Our Stars. This decision has been weighing on me for a while now and I constantly questioned my choice of going back to school to get a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition from a prestigious university in Toronto. I had the grades to get in, dare I say excellent grades that would have landed me a few bursaries but (and this is a huge BUUUT) after auditing a few classes, I simply do not want to do it. It is not that I am lazy or find it too impossible a task but I just lacked any drive or passion to sit in a huge lecture hall to discuss the structure of proteins, carbon bonding and take not one, not two but THREE statistics classes?

On a dark early morning a few days ago before I headed to my Advanced Functions class, I sat on the edge of my bed and wept; we are not talking about a single rolling tear down my cheek but sobbed so hard and long that I had to catch my breath. I was alone, Mark had already headed to school, and I felt helpless, overly dramatic and cursed myself for letting my emotions get the best of me. I wiped my tear-streaked face dry, put on my coat and headed to class. This was the first sign of my need to change.

 With Advanced Functions, I am also retaking my Grade 12 English credit to increase my grade average (oh how I could shake my 18-year-old “my-boyfriend-is-the-most-important-thing-in-my-life” self) and my English teacher asked me why I was headed back to university.

“To get my BSc for Nutrition,” I replied.

“What for?”

“I don’t know…” this quick reply even stunned me. I really didn’t know. I said I have a vegan recipe blog and it went hand-in-hand. “It would be beneficial to the site, I guess…it would benefit my readers, I guess…I think I might be good at it, I guess…” I stumbled over my words trying to justify to my teacher a good reason about why I was upgrading my credits to obtain my nutritional degree, feeling the blood rush to my face out of sheer embarrassment. There sure was a lot of guessing for such a commitment. This conversation was the second sign.

The third and final sign of my decision was actually inspired by the writer of Orangette, Molly Wizenberg. I was looking for a book to read on the subway to go to school and saw A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table sitting on my shelve, quickly shoved it in my bag and headed to school. I have read this wonderful written book twice previous to this but this time her book hit me hard, as all good books do. When I read these memoirs of Wizenberg’s life it is like I am sitting with her at her kitchen table and she is telling me these stories herself over a cup of coffee and maybe a fat piece of pain au chocolat. I cried in public while reading her book detailing her father’s cancer and passing, I giggled over her early love affairs in Paris and swooned over the pages when she met Brandon, her now-husband.

One entry of her book hit me the hardest and made me look at my own life in a new light. She describes going back to Paris to research power study and the body for graduate school but after awhile she realized that this work bored her stiff. Wizenberg states, “Paris has a way of getting your priorities straight,” since she spent most of her days reading cookbooks, visiting pastry shops and kitchen supply stores and decided to quit graduate school. Shortly after this, she started her blog.

This was a sort of revelation to me. I didn’t need a degree in Nutrition to be a food blogger. To me, it has always been about the food: the smell of roasted garlic cloves on a warm piece of baguette, the fresh taste of a perfect smoothie combination, the sweet transformation of slow-roasting tomatoes, the cool creaminess of a cashew cheesecake and not the dephosphorylation of adenosine triphosphate (though it is important).

I think I went through all the stages of grief in a single day. I tried to convince myself out of making this decision, I imagined myself getting my acceptance letter and the feeling of pride that comes with it, questioned my sanity and all the while I just wanted to get back into my kitchen and maybe bake something. I laugh at that thought now, having a mental breakdown about my life and future but wanting to bake. How clear my priorities are now.

The academic upgrading was not for nothing and I will continue taking English with the stress of mathematics and unhappiness lifted off my shoulders. Damn, I feel better already.

The post One Bowl Gluten Free Chocolate-Cherry Muffins appeared first on Sprouts & Chocolate.

Happy (almost) Valentine’s Day! I am sure all you couples are making plans, dinner reservations and the whole lot. Mark and I work in the service industry so we dread every February 14th on our calendar. We rarely do anything for the occasion since we are both fairly sick of it post-Valentines madness but I wanted to make us a special little something to share.

Sometimes I don’t give him enough credit and I can be a real gump with him when he tries to be kind when I am in a bad mood and I just blow him off, a real dick move. I am trying to be more patient, more relaxed when things don’t go my way and appreciate him for all the very sweet, wonderful, and loving things he does for me. He gave me the extra shove I needed to get up the courage to make this site and stick with it despite many failed recipes. When recipes don’t go as planned, we have a little dance party in the kitchen to some good/bad music (favourites include Shake It Off and Miami which he knows all the words to both) just to keep in check that I don’t take myself too seriously. This recipe had a downfall before it was published.

Now Mark “says” he doesn’t love chocolate but once I made Chocolate Chip Brownies from Kristy Turner’s “But I Could Never Go Vegan!” Cookbook he was ringing a very different tune. I wanted to adapt her recipe for this Valentine’s Day post and make it gluten-free. My first batch tasted great: rich, chocolately and with dots of nutty pecans but I couldn’t get them to stand up on their own; the batter was way too soft. Mark and I ate them straight from the baking pan so I knew I had the flavour bang-on. The chocolate was still melted in the middle and the batter was still a little undercooked. This recipe loosely reminds me of a Molten Chocolate Lava Cake from chain restaurants but vegan, gluten-free and not pre-baked then microwaved. I halved the adapted recipe and baked the batter in these gorgeous ramekins I got for Christmas. Chocolate heaven came out of the oven. Though these brownies did not turn out as those fudgey squares I had expected, you just got to make it work and go with it.

For this chocolate sauce, I used Fork and Beans Raw Chocolate Sauce and I topped this dessert with Coconut Bliss Salted Caramel and Chocolate Ice Cream, which are both gluten-free.

There is still time to enter my giveaway for a copy of Kristy Turner’s But I Could Never Go Vegan! 125 Recipes, Zero Excuses. Current fav recipe: BBQ Cauliflower Salad with Zesty Ranch Dressing. An awesome gift for your Valentine?? xoxo

The post Chocolate Lovers’ Brownie Cups { Vegan & Gluten Free} appeared first on Sprouts & Chocolate.

In my previous post, I have decided to write out some birthday goals that I want to accomplish before my 29^th birthday. My friend Kristen who is big on journals keeps a small notebook and a fancy pen that is only used for the purpose of writing down goals, accomplishments or story ideas when they come to her instead of sitting down and trying to think of everything all at once. I used her method and it has been successful. Instead of the mental note of “Oh I will remember that” it turns more proactive and in ink! When I am at work I keep it in my server apron and write down any ideas that come to mind. It is encouraging to see these goals written down and an even better feeling checking them off the list. I also keep little journal entries every week titled “Progress so far…” just to keep on track. Every check by a goal is a small victory to me and keeps me focused on the bigger picture.

Some major goals I have for this year are:

-Write and develop an e-book

-A full layout redesign including my recipe index

-Posting more frequently (this will much easier when I am not in school full time)

-Taking more photographs besides food

-Find a form of exercise I enjoy (just signed up for a ballet class! Yes I am going to be terrible but that’s ok!)

-Take an overseas trip

-No more buying coffee (especially since I buy excellent coffee beans for home)

-Get my drivers’ license (yeah I know…)

 I am most excited for the e-book but more on that in the next few months….

There is a time to plan and a time for cake and champagne, its time to bust out the desserts and bubbly!

I asked my beautiful talented friend Holly from hollybowmanxo.com to help me out for this special occasion, it being my champagne birthday and all. Despite being 15 weeks pregnant, she was all for it and especially excited when I texted her “Think pink and sparkly” when she asked about a theme. I wouldn’t normally be pegged as someone who likes all things glittery since I have been known to wear all black mid-July but I like to bring out my girly side for such festivities.

I went over to Holly’s apartment, conveniently located across the street and was blown away by her creative eye and gorgeous styling for the dessert/champagne table with my Dark Chocolate Cake as the centrepiece. My favourite part was all the sparkly champagne bubble background. 

Champagne for me, sparkly pink lemonade for the expecting mama! I also dipped Oh She Glows: Cookie Dough Bites from her amazing cookbook in dark chocolate and pink-tinted vegan white chocolate, dipped some pretzel rods in the vegan white chocolate to roll in coconut flakes and chocolate dipped strawberries. 

Holly had made a pearly champagne and pink balloon backdrop for some solo birthday pictures. Getting in front of the camera was the most nerve wracking part since I very seldom take photos of myself (I am not exactly a selfie girl). Thankfully Holly is also a professional actress and had full charge of putting my arm here or my head tilted there to make sure I looked my best. With a little “friendly” encouragement every now and then that only a close friend would give you: “Jess what are you doing with your face? Why are you standing like you are in the military? What is going on with that arm?” All in good faith with plenty of giggles. I complained about looking like a goblin in photos but Holly was also very encouraging, “You don’t look like a goblin, this is your face and you aren’t going to have a new or different one so make it work girl!” Champagne helps with the confidence factor when it comes to having one’s photo taken.

If you can’t take silly pictures with your friend on your birthday then what is the point?? A huge thanks to Holly for making my birthday a little more sparkly and a lot more glamorous. To check out Holly’s personal blog check out www.holbowmanxo.com and on Instagram. 

Now for the good stuff:

In my family it is tradition to give a gift to someone else on your birthday so this year I decided to give a gift to a reader with a But I Could Never Go Vegan!: 125 Recipes That Prove You Can Live Without Cheese, It’s Not All Rabbit Food, and Your Friends Will Still Come Over for Dinner by Kristy Turner GIVEAWAY! I have been following Kristy’s blog Keepin’ It Kind since going vegan almost two years ago and upon first reading it, it became an instantly bookmarked website and I check it every week. I ordered the book before my birthday as a little Treat Yo’ Self pre-birthday gift much to Mark’s dismay since when he asked me what I wanted for my birthday I said “oh nothing…I can’t think of anything!”

This book is great for newbie vegans and ones with a little more experience in the kitchen. It has easy to read recipes, gorgeous photos and dishes your non-vegan friends will adore and ask for seconds (always the most flattering thing!). Did I mention the entire chapter dedicated to vegan cheese recipes AND a whole section with all chocolate recipes?? The chapters and recipes are dedicated to all the excuses of not going vegan and turns that negative attitude into delicious, mouth-watering, crave-able, filling vegan food. No more excuses, just get eating!

Recipes include:

• Citrus-Herb Roasted Beets with Macadamia Ricotta
• BBQ Cauliflower Salad with Zesty Ranch Dressing (omg this one is a fav!)
• Chickpea Scramble Breakfast Tacos
• Cashew Blue Cheese (it really does look like blue cheese!)
• Flourless Chocolate Decadence Cake (swoooon…)

The giveaway contest is open to anyone in Canada and the United States and check out the Rafflecopter below on ways to enter! This contest will be closing Monday February 9^th at 9am. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post S&C: A Champagne Birthday + GIVEAWAY! appeared first on Sprouts & Chocolate.