Fat Free Vegan Cranberry Raisin Bran Muffins

 

I made a fat-free(or more accurately "no added fat") low sugar version of my raisin bran muffins and they turned out pretty good. I baked for 20 minutes but I think 18 would be better. 

Cranberry Raisin Bran Muffins

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup dried cranberries

place dried fruit in small bowl with warm water while you get everything else together. 

 

Mix dry ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup oat flour (fresh ground oats)

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup Zsweet (erythritol)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon 

Add 3/4 cup unprocessed wheat bran and a

handful of raw sunflower seeds

Mix wet ingredients:

1 1/4 cup almond milk

1/2 cup applesauce

1-1/2  tsp vanilla

 

Add wet ingredients to dry and stir til combined. Add raisins and cranberries. 

Fill 12 muffin cups almost full. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes. 

Vegan lentil "sausage" recipe

Made the lentils again yesterday and wrote down the ingredient amounts. The spice mix is for 2 cups of cooked lentils. 

1 clove garlic, minced. 
Saute this in a little water for 30 seconds. Add lentils to pan and stir. Add spice mix and heat through.


 Italian spice mix:

1/2 tsp fennel seed
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp tomato powder (ground sun dried tomatoes)
pinch smoked paprika
pinch of ground fennel powder (or more to taste) 

And since this is an unprocessed whole food delicious recipe - I sent it in to the new blog party here: Healthy Vegan Fridays

Head on over and see what else is cookin'!

5 minute fat free vegan Italian "sausage" crumbles

Yes, I realize the photo is not the best- my computer just came home from the computer hospital and I can't edit my pics. (Have to call them on Monday for help). 

After reading a post from the Healthy Librarian http://www.happyhealthylonglife.com/happy_healthy_long_life/2012/02/chorizo-lasagna.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Fhappyhealthylonglife%2Fhappy_healthy_long_life+%28Happy+Healthy+Long+Life%29&utm_content=Google+Reader about Chorizo it got me thinking of how to make some quickly without flour or gluten. I've been avoiding flours and added sugars for about 6 weeks now.

So I remembered that I use lentils with taco seasoning as the "meat" in taco salads. 

So why couldn't I use them for other "meats"? Turns out I can! I used some cooked lentils that were in the fridge (or try Trader Joe's steamed lentils)
and added some spices and WOW! This was really good! 

I mixed it with some quinoa and arugula and should have added some kind of sauce but it was still really good.

 Next time I will measure everything but I used fennel seeds, black pepper, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, oregano, italian seasoning, a minced garlic clove, some sun dried tomato powder, salt and garlic powder

 I don't see why you couldn't use the lentils with other spice combos to make Chorizo or other flavored crumbles.

 I can't wait to make another batch and use it for some kind of lasagna (not using flour remember- so maybe a potato, sausage and chard lasagna with marinara sauce? 

Dinner Party at Nancy's

Just look at this beautiful table!

A few weeks ago my good friend Nancy had a small dinner party. She made a wonderful curried quinoa, some roasted beets, broccoli roasted with garlic and nutritional yeast.

The quinoa was delicious! And I'm not usually a curry fan. 

I made the salad with some roasted butternut squash, yellow peppers, grape tomatoes, toasted pepitas, and pomegranite seeds. There was going to be avocado as well, but the avocado was brown inside.

 Dessert was a chocolate mousse made with coconut milk "cream", silken tofu, cocoa and Zsweet. It would have been better if it had a chance to chill a bit more. It was more like chocolate soup ~ but still was pretty good.

Great food, good friends, a little wine.... what could be better?

Simple Salads

Spinach, lemon dressing, braggs roasted pepitas

Portabello "gyro" slices, quinoa, baby lettuce, tomato and cucumber sour cream dressing

For the lemon dressing I just put about a tsp or two of tahini hummus in a small bowl along with a big splash of lemon juice a little water and a few drops of Braggs.

Amazing Chocolate Dessert Hummus

So what's a girl to eat for dessert when trying to follow a whole food, sugar free, oil free, flour free diet? And she's a baker?!

This: 

The idea for ingredients came from this delicious fat free cookie recipe:
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/02/valentines-treat-chocolate-cookies-two.html
And thanks to Dr. Greger for his video on a harmless sugar substitute (that actually tastes good). http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/a-harmless-artificial-sweetener/ 
I really want to like Stevia, but just can't get paste the bitter almost metallic taste.

I made this the other night and had to stop myself from eating the whole batch at once. I may play around and refine the recipe a bit but here's what I did.

Chocolate Hummus

1 1/2 cups chickpeas 
5 pitted prunes
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 T date paste (or use 3 dates and 1/4 cup warm water)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 T Z Sweet (or other sugar substitute)
splash of balsamic vinegar (optional)
1 T soy or coconut creamer


Process chickpeas and prunes in food processor. Add rest of ingredients and process til smooth. Add a bit more creamer as needed to get to the texture you prefer. I had this one night with a banana, then the strawberries, and also with a spoon. It would be great with cinnamon pita chips, or even those chocolate tortilla chips. Any other ideas?

Chocolate Hummus

I really thought I had a new idea when I thought of making Chocolate Hummus! Little did I know there were recipes floating all around the internet. 

However....

I began thinking about Fat Free Vegan's Balsamic Fudge Cookies and created a delicious chocolate hummus with prunes, cocoa, chickpeas, balsamic vinegar and cinnamon. 

I want to try another version with black beans or maybe 1/2 chickpea and 1/2 black bean.

Recipe and pics to follow.