Vegan Banana Coconut Walnut Muffins

A. I love bananas.

B. I love coconut.

and C. I love walnuts.

So obviously this recipe is a little slice of heaven to me. I also like muffins because they are kind of like cupcakes, but you can get away with eating them at breakfast because they aren't technically cupcakes. Score! Kind of feels like you're cheating at life, right?
*I had extra batter and made some mini muffins with it. Also the larger muffins took much longer than 20-25 minutes because of high altitude, but you can adjust the recipe to change that.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I did a mix of half whole flour and half all-purpose flour)
• 4 ripe bananas
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup raw sugar
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup dairy free milk (original recipe calls for So Delicious Dairy Free Original Coconut Milk, but I used unsweetened almond milk)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole walnuts and/or walnut pieces (original calls for pecans, but any nut will work)
• 1/2 cup coconut flakes

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine all flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl
3. Mash the bananas
4. In a larger bowl combine the sugar with olive oil, then add mashed bananas. Next add the non-dairy milk and vanilla extract to the wet mixture.
5. Add in dry mixture to wet mixture
6. Lightly stir in the walnuts and coconut flakes
7. Fill muffin pans 3/4 the way and cook for 20-25 minutes

Muffin much going on here. 

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Lemon, Vanilla, Ginger, Date Snack Bites

Continuing with the recent obsession with date snacks in spherical shapes, I have found a ginger, lemon, vanilla, almond, snack bites recipe! With exams happening currently, I've been trying to find healthy snacks to have on hand and these are perfect and delicious! 

Ingredients:

• Pitted dates
• Lemon zest and juice
• Vanilla Extract
• Almonds, or other nuts (or make it all fancy like with a mix of different nuts)
• Grated Ginger
• Coconut oil (if needed to make more sticky)

Process all the ingredients together and roll into snack bites! Freeze for an hour and store in the fridge.

Food pun for the win!

Strawberries & Coconut Milk Popsicles

I've recently started getting into a popsicle craze and as I've started to notice quite a few people are joining me as we enter quite the popsicle fad! 

The gourmet popsicles I recently got with my roommates were $3+ a pop(sicle)! Ohhh the puns! 

So I've decided to invest in a high end popsicle mold at a whopping $2! You can say the purchase broke my bank. 

Other than the financial investment of the mold, these things come out quite cheap when made at home! Shocker, the homemade popsicles are substantially cheaper than the gourmet shop ones!! Who would believe that one?

All that is in these popsicles is pre-frozen strawberries and coconut milk! Blend together to your desired consistency and pour into your popsicle mold! Leave in the freezer for a few hours. I know the waiting time is painstakingly long. 

Cue the angels singing! 

Boom these popsicles are poppin'!! (I'm sorry the puns just keep coming.)

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Veggie Burger

I LOVE MY SWEET POTATOES! 

And I'm running low on food supplies, due to leaving town in a few days. I used one sweet potato, 1/2 cup of oats, 1/2 a can of black beans, some onion, cilantro, and spices. I made a half recipe and was able to make 5 patties, which I can save for the next few days! 

Original recipe is from Cookie and Kate, found here: http://cookieandkate.com/2013/sweet-potato-black-bean-veggie-burgers/

Ingredients:

• 1½ pounds sweet potatoes (smaller potatoes cook faster)
• ⅓ cup millet
• 1 cup old fashioned oats (use certified gluten-free oats if you are avoiding gluten)
• 1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained (or 2 cups cooked black beans)
• ½ small red onion, diced
• ½ cup lightly packed fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
• 2 teaspoons cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon chipotle powder or smoked hot paprika (I omitted)
• ½ teaspoon cayenne powder (optional, to taste)
• ½ teaspoon salt

1. Remove skin of the sweet potato and cut up into cubes. Boil a pot of water and add the sweet potatoes and boil until soft and able to mash. 

2. Grind the oats into a flour.

3. Dice the onion and chop the cilantro. 

4. Add the onion, cilantro, sweet potato, black beans, and spices together. Lastly mix in the oat flour.

5. Make patties out of mixture and cook in pan with oil until browned.

Process the oatmeal into a flour

Boil the sweet potatoes until soft

Dice the onion and chop the cilantro

Mix all ingredients together

Make into patties

Cook in pan with oil

Falafel with Tahini Sauce

I've been looking for a good falafel recipe and I've finally found one thanks to Just A Taste, recipe found here: http://www.justataste.com/2011/08/homemade-falafel-with-tahini-sauce/! 

For this recipe I would suggest making it ahead of time because I did not do that and I ended up saving the mix in the fridge overnight because we were too hungry to wait the hour of chilling time. (oops!) 

I also only made a half recipe and it was plenty! I had enough for lunch with some patties left over for my roommate and dinner, again with falafels left over! 

For the Falafels:

• 2 cups roughly chopped white onion
• 2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained
• 6 garlic cloves
• 1 cup lightly packed parsley leaves
• 1 cup lightly packed cilantro leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon chili powder
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• Canola oil, for sauteing

For the tahini sauce:

• 1¼ cups plain yogurt 
• ¼ cup tahini 
• 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Instructions: 

1. Mix the garlic and onion in a food processor until finely minced. Set this mixture aside. 

2. Mix the chickpeas, parsley, and cilantro along with the spices in the food processor  until blended (Do not puree!)

3. Add the garlic and onion mixture back to the food process and add the flour and baking powder until the mixture starts to form a ball and is not sticky. 

4. Allow the falafel mix to chill, while you prepare the tahini sauce by combining together the yogurt, tahini, and lemon juice. 

5. Roll falafel mixture into balls (I used tablespoon to have some unity in their sizes.)

6. Sautee the falafels in canola oil, or the like, until brown on both sides. (About 3 minutes)

Mix the cilantro, parsley, and chickpeas in the food processor

Mix the onion and garlic mixture with flour until it becomes doughy. (I had to play with the measurements a little for this part, but I don't know if I did it right. The end product came out great so it worked out in the end!)

Roll the mixture into balls (I used a tablespoon measurement.) and saute in a pan with oil.

I ate mine on a wrap with the tahini sauce 

Arugula, Quinoa, Apricot, and Avocado Salad

I've been trying to get more into avocados for the health benefits, which include multiple vitamins and minerals. So I've found some salad recipes with avocados in them!

 This one has cooked quinoa, dried apricot, almonds, and avocado on arugula lettuce.

All you need to do is rinse some arugula, toast some almonds, cut up some avocado, and chop some dried apricots and throw it all together! 

This salad is super healthy and super quick to make! 

*Also fun fact: when I was little I once mispronounced avocado and called it an avochato and my family has still not let it go. Just goes to show you mispronounce something with a complicated name at a young age once and your family will never let you live it down. 

Try to experiment with other combinations of ingredients with this recipe! I've tried this recipe with grapefruit pieces before and it was delicious!

Grapefruit, avocado, almond, and arugula salad

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Ginger Bok Choy

So I have a bok choy and soba noodle recipe that I love, but since I'm currently away at school and apparently soba noodles are such an obscure ingredient in this town and no grocery store has them in stock, I had to make do and find another bok choy recipe minus the soba noodles for the bok choy I bought early on in the week. BUT I found this lovely ginger bok choy! (Bright side to this story!)

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (except extra virgin olive oil)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon ginger, freshly minced
• 1 1/2 pounds bok choy, washed 
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

1. Put vegetable oil in saute pan and add garlic and ginger.

2. Add in bok choy and saute for a few minutes. 

3. Add in soy sauce.

Clean bok choy and cut the root ends off 

Heat oil in pan and saute garlic and ginger. Add bok choy to cook.

Add soy sauce and mix

I finished mine off topped with peanuts

Original recipe found here: http://eugeniekitchen.com/sauteed-bokchoy/

Roasted Chickpea & Cauliflower

Two things to know about me: 

1. I love cauliflower.

2. I love chickpeas.

a lot. Like almost a little too much (just kidding there is no limit or law on how much you can love and/or consume cauliflower and chickpeas). So as you can image I love pairing these two together and particularity roasted. This one requires little ingredients. All the powder and spices are kitchen staples that I use on the regular and you can guarantee will be used on the regular, are cheap and make dishes taste better so why not invest in buying some? Other than the spices all you need is a can of chickpeas and some cauliflower. 

Ingredients: 

2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder (I omitted)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon water
1 (15 oz.) can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 small head cauliflower, washed and cut into bite-size florets

Okay so, 

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Mix all the seasonings together and stir in cauliflower and chickpeas

3. Spread cauliflower and chickpeas on a baking sheet for roasting

4. Roast for 30-35 minutes 

The original recipe was made to be a taco filling, but I made mine with quinoa. 

Cut cauliflower and rinse

Pour the mixture of spices over and cover chickpeas and cauliflower

Spread on a baking sheet for roasting

Original recipe is from Two Peas & Their Pod from here: http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/roasted-cauliflower-and-chickpea-tacos/

Coconut Date Balls

I'm always looking for new snacks to try and I found this one thanks to pinterest! They are PERFECT for snacks to take to class! And super easy to make, probably take about 10 minutes! 

Recipe can be found at Donna & Tora, here: http://www.donnaandtora.com/vegan-snacks-coconut-balls-with-bounce/

Ingredients

• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 cup almonds
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 2 cups soft pitted Medjool dates
• 2 Tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp Celtic sea salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Put the dates in boiling water to soften

2. Blend dates, walnuts, and coconut in food processor or blender

3. Blend in coconut oil, sea salt. and vanilla extract 

4. Roll into balls and roll in shredded coconut 

5. Put in freezer for a little to firm up

Process the almonds and coconut 

Add the dates and remaining ingredients

Roll into snack balls and roll in shredded coconut

This is an easy to go snack! Perfect for students or anyone with a busy lifestyle!