Pin It Chocolate Balls! Two Kinds!

I have been really annoyed with the prices of pre-packaged bars. But they're so darned convenient! And I consider Lara Bars a pretty healthy, quick snack for Toddler V. Soooo, I decided to take a crack at these at home. I rolled them all into little balls, or shaped them into square-ish "bites." I'm happy to say, it was easy as pie to make, delicious, and portable! V loved them. Just firmed them up in the fridge and then put a few in a ziploc bag at a time and popped it in my bag. They came out tasting ridiculously similar to fudge. Success.

But.

Then.

I had an idea.

I was wondering what I should do with my leftover almond flour. Before I knew it, I was just mixing ingredients like a madman. And heck, I ended up somehow with a super indulgent-tasting, gluten-free (as far as I know), high protein snack that tasted JUST like peanut butter brownies!

Here are the recipes.  Remember-- First set of balls: Fudgy! Second set of balls: Brownie-y! Both gluten-free as far as I know!

You'll notice that the "brownie" kind uses peanut butter as a binder, and the "fudgy" kind uses dates as a binder. However, you can just add a couple tablespoons of peanut butter to the "fudgy" recipe if you want, too. It's quite versatile.

And sure, you can make either of 'em "salty" if you want. ;) Just add a pinch or two.

I'm including just a pic of the "Lara" balls, since they both looked EXAC the same. And I totally didn't get a pic of the other one. Gobbled them up, I did.

Oh, and you TOTALLY don't have to go out and buy packaged almond flour. Suuuper expensive! Just throw almonds in the blender-- just don't blend too long, or it becomes a paste -- and you don't want that. Why am I writing like a valley girl today? No idea. Sorry about that.

"Lara" Balls

About 10 pitted medjool dates
1/4 cup walnuts (optional, but pretty essential to deliciousness)
3 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
Optional: chocolate chips, mint extract, peanut butter to taste

Blend together in blender or food processor. (You could actually chop and mush it all up without either of those devices, to tell you the truth.) Form into balls or more sufficiently chaste shapes. Suuuper easy. There I go again...


Brownie Balls

2 cups almond flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tbs peanut butter (or to taste)
1 tbs vanilla extract
1/4 cup agave syrup (or to taste)
Splash of milk (soy, almond etc) or water if needed

Mix everything in a bowl. You're gonna have to put your back into it to get that peanut butter all up into everything. Work it, 'cause it's worth it.

Form mixture into balls and pop into fridge.


Both recipes should keep for a few hours in a ziploc bag at a reasonable room temp.

Pin It An Early Vegan Thanksgiving!

If I was hosting a vegan thanksgiving this year, this would absolutely be on the menu. I was inspired by the ingredients in my fridge to create a yummy protein-filled dish inspired by Angelica Kitchen's famous, and fabulous, open-faced tempeh sandwich. (This awesome vegan restaurant has a cookbook, available on their site, and their recipe is on p.175.) I merely tweaked the marinade a bit, subbed mashed cauliflower for the mashed potatoes, and used a different gravy recipe using chickpea flour instead of rice flour.

This could easily be converted to gluten free by subbing in a wheat-free soy sauce. Everything really came out delicious -- the tempeh had sort of a buttery quality (in a good way), and the cauliflower tasted sublime with the gravy. I'm gonna pat my back on this one -- *pat pat* -- even if it wasn't totally my recipe -- what a feast! And meat-luvr Husband V actually devoured it -- and he hates tempeh. So yeah, awesome all around! Well, Toddler V was too picky to eat this, but back in the day, he LOVED this mashed cauliflower so I would try feeding it to your littles.

Note: If you're big eaters at all, I'd definitely double the recipe. My husband the human vacuum cleaner was licking his plate clean and sad when we ran out. And that was with me holding back a bit...not cool, not cool.


Marinated Tempeh with Mashed Cauliflower Platter

Prepare the following:


Marinated Tempeh

1 lb tempeh
1/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce, tamari, or Bragg's aminos
2 tbs agave syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice the tempeh into thin slices. Place the slices in a single layer in a glass lasagna pan. Pour marinade over it. Bake until the marinade is all sucked up, about 35 minutes. The tempeh will look nice and brown.

Meanwhile, prepare both of the following:


Mashed Cauliflower

1 large head Cauliflower
1/2 cup Earth Balance or to taste
1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast or to taste
1-3 cloves garlic, whole (opt.)
salt or garlic salt to taste
ground pepper to taste

Rinse, and take the leaves and core off of cauliflower. Cut an "X" into the bottom, and place it into a small amount of water in a large pot. Cover and steam on medium low until soft. Add whole cloves of garlic to the water if desired. Place cauliflower and optional garlic cloves in a large bowl. Mash with a potato masher, add Earth Balance and mash some more. Add all seasonings and mash until smooth. You can use a blender if you want this reeeaallly smooooth.


Vegan Chickpea Flour Gravy

I used this recipe, with the following changes:

---Reduced the veggie broth amount to 3 cups
--Eliminated the ginger.
--Didn't use unsalted veggie broth, coz I kind of love salt.
--Added a few tablespoons of nutritional yeast
--Threw in some parsley
--Some more specific cooking directions: after adding broth, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer gently until desired thickness is reached, slowly. This is so good, you will want to eat the leftovers with a spoon (ahem...not that I did that..)

To assemble the platter/feast:
Place a scoop of mashed cauliflower in the center of the plate with tempeh slices coming out of it like spokes of a wheel. Cover cauliflower with gravy so that it runs down into the plate for tempeh dipping. Garish with dried or fresh parsley.

And have a Happy Thanksgiving! Just kidding.

Pin It Breakfast of Champions...Chocolate!

Autumn is upon us, and for me, that means I'm starting to get the baking itch. That doesn't sound too appetizing, but...things are going well so far, anyway. I've been trying to up my protein level, and experiment with gluten-free recipes...and this one does great on both fronts. Bob's Red Mill Almond Flour was on sale for $2.50 a bag, and so was the 24 oz tub of Whole Soy & Co. Vanilla Soy Yogurt, so I decided to throw them together into a hi-pro snack. I call them Breakfast Muffins, but if you look at chocolate for breakfast as verboten, then just think of them as snack muffins. They are full of protein and all sorts of nutritional goodness, so they are a great way to start the day or get a boost during the day and really feel full. I really liked these, and Toddler V, who lives on air, kept asking for more! They didn't last this time, but when they do, I'll put them in some ziploc bags for some to-go snacky power-ups. For mom, too.



My sad, last muffin enjoyed with stovetop espresso

High-Protein, Gluten-Free Chocolate Breakfast Muffins


1 cup almond flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup Vanilla Soy Yogurt
1/4 cup agave
1/4 cup sugar

Mix wet and dry ingredients separately and then combine. Spoon evenly up to 1/2 of the level of a lined muffin tin. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Makes a dozen or so small muffins.

Almondy.