Cashew Cream

Cashew Cream
If you’ve never tried this, you are missing out big time, this is the creme
de la creme, when it comes to cream, it is sugar free and loaded with
niacin (B3) rich cashew nuts, and tastes sweet and creamy like, well, erm,
cream. Pouring cream that is, which I never used to be a fan of (as a
vegetarian) but this delicious and vegan and my kids love it too.
Ingredients:
1 cup raw cashew nuts
8 pitted neglet nour dates
water or dairy free milk of choice.

Put them in the blender for a couple of minutes until smooth.
You will need to judge the amount of liquid you add based upon your
cream preference, some like it runny some a bit thicker, I don’t care with
this, its always been good whatever the consistency.

And hey, if you try this and you don’t like it (although that’s not very likely, in my opinion)
you can always just add it to a smoothie, it’ll add a creamy sweetness and
a bunch of extra nutrients to your smoothie, its a win-win.

Oatmeal Pancakes with Fresh Strawberries, Banana and Cashew Cream

What I love about these “Pancakes’ is that they are just two ingredients, banana and oats. That’s it. Don’t get me wrong, we love regular pancakes or waffles made with Flour and all that jazz, but I like these as a substitute for oatmeal when I feel like eating pancakes, or when my very fussy eater needs to eat some oats

Avocado Chocolate Pudding with Coconut Whipped Cream (Vegan and Gluten Free)

I’m so excited that I figured this one out. I’ve been experimenting with chocolate mousses/ puddings and creams for over a year now, and this one was truly delicious. The dessert was great as a whole, but also would work separately. It’s basically a chocolate pudding with whipped cream.  And the best thing is that it is pretty healthy,  100% vegan,  gluten free and it only took 10 minutes to prepare and you can eat it right away, which is great when you need to rustle up a quick dessert.

I started out with the cream. I used a cold, upside down can of unsweetened coconut milk (I keep one in my fridge now as a staple, if you turn the tin upside down and leave for a day or two in the fridge, the contents separate so you end up with the cream at the top and the watery bit settles to the bottom.

Scoop out the cream with a spoon, I put it straight into my trusty Nutribullet, added half a very ripe banana and half a teaspoon of liquid sweetener. Blend until smooth,  about 1 or 2 mins. It should come out at the perfect consistency for whipped cream.

For the chocolate mousse I used 2 ripe avocados, straight in the bullet, 1/2 banana and a table spoon of the coconut milk, a generous tablespoon of liquid sweetener and cinnamon, blend until smooth.

Serve over fresh fruit (I used sliced banana) Strawberries or raspberries would be great too. We added a few vegan chocolate chips and topped it off with a vegan marshmallow (honestly, I haven’t eaten a marshmallow in 20 plus years, but I tried these and they were so good, but they are not something I no really buy, but if you’re going to have marshmallow might as well make it a healthier version,   dandiesmarshmallows.com and honestly you cant tell. They are pretty addictive thought, don’t be surprised if they inexplicably make their way into your mouth with out your full permission 😉

That’s enough about these delectable cloud of fluffy deliciousness. Enjoy your dessert x x 😉

Peanut Butter Chocolate Mousse – Vegan, Gluten Free, and Oh so Yummy :)

I can’t even tell you how good this dessert is. This is chocolatey and creamy and peanut buttery, so so good. And the best part is it’s super easy to make.

What you’ll need:

Some Vegan Chocolate Chips about 1/2 a cup

Organic Firm  Silken Tofu – 1 Carton

Peanut Butter (Preferably raw, all natural with no added nasties) about 2 tablespoons

A Blender (I use a Nutri-bullet)

How to make it:

Melt your chocolate chips. Add your Tofu into your blender, then add chocolate chips and blend. Once blended add in your peanut butter and blend again until smooth and all blended well. Portion into small bowls or whatever you decide to serve them in and refrigerate for about an hour (Or you can just eat it if you like). You can even freeze it and make it into Ice-Cream…..You could add some brownie pieces or fudge or chocolate chips, let your imagination run wild…..but if not, it is great just the way it is….. x

B.L.T (Vegan, with Tofu ‘Fried Egg’ and Green Peppers)

There is nothing better than a good sandwich, and this was a Gooooooood Sandwich! To say the least. I am salivating just thinking about it again! Tee hee. The picture does not do this delicious treat any justice quite honestly.

Ingredients:

Bagel (We used Organic Millet Bread, but you can use any of your preferred breads for this)

Bacon, We used ‘Benevolent Bacon’, not the healthiest choice, also not the unhealthiest, if you want this to be a healthier meal opt for Tempeh, you can get bacon flavored.

Egg – Organic Firm Tofu. Sliced into rectangles. It’s not going to fool anyone that it’s a real egg, but it’s as close as you’re gonna get for a vegan substitute.

Green Peppers – Sauteed

Onions – Sauteed

Portabella Mushrooms – Sauteed

Mayo – Any of your favorite vegan mayo (mix in a little garlic powder to make it even more amazing).

Romaine

Tomato – sliced

Liquid Amino Acids

Coconut Oil

Garlic

Method

Sautee Green Peppers, Onions and Mushrooms in a pan, add a little garlic. You can use powder, Fresh or pre-chopped in a jar, it depends on your preference really. You can use the same pan for the Tofu and ‘Bacon’. Slice the tofu lengthways, to make a long rectangle. Add some liquid aminos, this gives a lot of flavor to the tofu, trust me, it will not be the same without it, last but not least cooked your bacon.

once everything is cooked you’ll need to add some mayo to your bread (You can use hummus instead as a much healthier version), Then load up your sandwich, and enjoy, if you do it right lots of the filling will fall out of your sandwich, but that adds to the messy fun!

We don’t do BLT’s often, but when we do, we do them good. You can omit the tofu if you like, but it really gives you a sense of fried egg in your sandwich, like I said, It won’t fool anyone, but if you miss eggs as a vegan, you will love this replacement, well, we do 😉

Baked Chickpea Cakes with Guacamole Salad

If you want a light dinner or a hearty lunch, this is the perfect meal, with a healthy dose of nutrient rich greens on the side, you can’t go wrong with this.

I have made many, many mistakes whilst trying to perfect this recipe, and I think I finally cracked it, wahoo!! I normally fry these, so baking these, I wasn’t sure how they would turn out, but they were delicious.

Ingredients – For Chickpea Cakes

2 Flax Seed Eggs

3/4 Can Chickpeas

1 Cup Coconut Flour

1/4 cup Coconut Oil

1 cup oats (blended into oat flour)

1/2 tsp Cumin

Pinch Salt

Pinch Pepper

1 Tbsp Low Sodium Tamari

Pinch Ginger Powder

Method

Make up your flax seed eggs buy adding 1 teaspoon ground flax seeds to 3 tsp water. Leave for about 5 mins until they reach a thick consistency abit similar to egg white.

Use a bit of the coconut oil to grease the baking sheet (so they don’t stick)

In a separate bowl add mash up your chick peas, its ok to leave some completely whole too, this is a personal preference. Add all the ingredients, except the coconut flour, and combine well, once combined add the coconut flour slowly. You are aiming for a dryish mixture, that is easy to pick up and holds together nicely, if it crumbles in your hands add some water or dairy free milk. If it is squidgy then you need to add more flour. Make them into balls and place on making sheet, press down to flatten. Bake in oven on 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15 mins until cooked through and started to go golden on top, you can adjust the temp and duration according to your oven and how much moisture you ended up adding to your cakes.

Guacamole Salad

1 Diced Avocado

1 Diced Tomato

1/2 a small red Onion – Diced

1/4 can Chick Peas (I used this much cos it’s what I had left over from the Chick Pea Cakes, but you can use more if you like)

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Thyme

Combine all ingredients, Leave to stand for flavors to infuse for at least 10 minutes prior to serving. Best served at room temp.

Put the Cakes and salad over a bed of spinach. We added some hummus and sour cream (I just use Unsweetened Coconut Yogurt for that) and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and voila. Just a side note, the cakes are on the dry side, so they do need some kind of dip with them. The ones we used worked great, but you could also serve them with a Thai Sweet and Spicy Sauce, Olive Oil and Salt or another dressing of your choice. The cakes have a very mild flavor so they could pretty much handle any flavor dressing. Enjoy x

 

 

“Delicious Vegan Nice Cream” (Banana, Mango and Coconut)

This is basically 4 ingredients, and might I add, the best Nice Cream I think I have ever tasted. It was delicately flavored, not too sweet and so yummy. The only mistake I made was not making enough 😉

This was seriously simple to make and took all of 5 minutes, quicker if I am honest, than hacking the regular ice cream out of the container. Vegans, Vegetarians and Carnivores can come together over this one, its so good, and a great way to get more fruit and veggies into your (and especially your kids) diets. I used coconut milk to make this so creamy, and it really was. Just be sure to chill the coconut milk at least 2 hours ahead of time, if you can refrigerate over night. Scoop out the top half which should be thick and creamy, this should have seperated from the liquid, which you can save for another recipe or stick in a smoothie). I now keep a can of coconut milk in my fridge all the time, just in case I need to make this Nice Cream in an emergency 😉

Use Organic Ingredients where possible and enjoy 🙂 You can also freeze this in a Popsicle or Ice Lolly Mold and you have a delicious and nutritious mango creamsicle. Also, feel free to experiment with flavors. The basic ingredients for this Nice Cream are the Coconut Milk and any flavor frozen fruit. The Coconut milk is going to give it the creaminess, the frozen fruit will add flavor, but also add the texture that you need for Nice Cream. So be creative x

Ingredients

2 Bananas (not frozen)

1 1/2 Cups Frozen Mango

Half can coconut milk (Chilled – Put it in the fridge about 2 hours ahead of time)

1/4 cup of Agave Syrup (Honestly, you can leave this out as the Mango and Banana’s are sweet enough)

Blend and Serve – enjoy x

Raw Vegan Chocolate Cake

The recipe for this simple chocolatey goodness is similar to that of the Chocolate Balls that I make. It’s a super simple prep time, although what we did find was that the oats in this were a little tough. Maybe because they were the thick rolled oats. So maybe we should opt for the regular ones next time. Instant oats would work too, but as they lose nutrients in the refining process, we choose not to use them. That being said, the cake was much nicer the day after it was made, according to my 4 year old son, I have to take his word for this, as we did not get a look in. Once again, I like this recipe, because it satisfies my chocolate cravings and is pretty nutrient dense, which is always a good thing.

 Ingredients:

1 cup Peanut Butter (Organic and No Sugar or High Fructose Corn Syrup Added)

2 Scoops of Chocolate Protein Powder or Cocoa Powder.

1/2 Cup Organic Agave Syrup

1 Cup Organic Rolled Oats (Use Gluten Free for a GF version)

1/2 cup Organic Flax Meal

1/2 Cup Organic Chia Seeds

(Nb, You don’t need the Chia or Flax Seed meal in this recipe for it to work, I just add these to it for added nutrition. In my opinion, it doesn’t change the flavor at all either, so why not. They are both a great source of Omega 3’s amongst many other beneficial nutrients).

Recipe: Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl. (If your mixture is too dry, add in a little more agave or peanut butter, if it is too wet add another scoop of chocolate powder or some more oats). The consistency should be firm-ish, you are going to refrigerate it to get it to be firm enough to slice and pick up. Line a bowl or baking dish with parchment paper or foil and press the mixture in firmly to the ‘mold’. Cover and place in fridge, preferably overnight. Slice, serve and enjoy. (Another thing to note is that once this dessert is up to room temperature, it’s going to lose some of its firmness, so only remove it immediately before you serve it, especially on a  hot day).

Homemade Vegan Choco-fudge Popsicles – Dairy & Gluten Free

Homemade Choco-fudge Popsicles with more than 20 whole foods, dairy and gluten free. Ok, so I don’t know what you would call these here in the U.S, but back home they are pretty similar to the chocolate flavoured milk ice lollies that had cows on the wrapper, if you are from the UK, you’ll know the ones……. anyway, they are yummy, these ones contain 20 wholefoods in the form of a really good, vegan protein source and best of all my 4 year old loves them…..and I love it when he asks for more (Of course you can have a second popsicle dear, beacuse this one is actually good for you, you don’t have to disclose this information Lol). 

Ingredients:

2 Whole Banana’s

1 Scoop Chocolate Complete Protein Powder

Dairy Free Milk (You’ll only need a little, so it depends on how good your blender is)

Directions:

Add all ingredients to your blender/smoothie maker/vitamix, you dpnt want them to be too runny but just enough (like a thick smoothie or ‘thick shake’ consistency, poor into to molds and freeze (Over night is preferable).

Chocolate Cake – Gluten Free, Diary Free, Egg Free

Ok, so this recipe is not quite perfect, yet anyway….I have been attempting to make, not the perfect chocolate cake, but an edible chocolate cake that tastes like cake but using healthier alternatives to the traditional ingredients….. I did not make mine gluten free, but only because the oats I used weren’t gluten free, but if you use gf oats the recipe is exactly the same (I used to think that the gluten in the oats is what makes them so ‘gluey’….but this is actually not the case, the reason that oats are ever considered not gf is due to cross contamination in the growing and harvesting product and not something in the oat itself).

I have made this cake twice now, and please note that I am not much of a baker, I am a cook, a chef whatever you wish to call me, I like to make it up as I go along, I do not like following the rules, so please bare with me as I try to recall my ingredients list and the amounts that I use……it’s probably helpful to note that I make my recipes a little different everytime, I measure by eye, not by weight or cups…..so you will need to use your own judgement when making this recipe your own and adapt it to suit your needs and tastes…. so here goes….. (Note, I will update this recipe as I continue to perfect it, but for now its still pretty good)….

Ingredients:

3 Chia Seed eggs (3 dessert spoons of chia seeds in 9 dessert spoons of water)

2 Ripe Bananas – The Riper the Better

2 Cups of Rolled Oats (Organic and GF Oats are best…..blended to make oat flour

1 Cup Raw Almonds (Blended to make Almond flour, you can of course just use premade flour)

1/4 flax seeds (ground) (Not required, but they are an extra source of nutrients including Omega 3’s.

1/2 to 1 Cup of Cacoa powder (Raw, Organic)

3/4 Cup of Maple Syrup/Agave Nectar or sweetener of Choice (If you use a non liquid sweetener you’ll need to add more water to the recipe)

1 – 2 Teaspoon (s) Baking Powder

Other things you could add:

Salt (this will bring out the chocolate flavor, I only didn’t add this as I wanted it to be baby friendly).

Vanilla Essence or Vanilla Bean – I just didn’t have any in)

Recipe

1. Make Chia Seed Egg and put in fridge for 5 – 15 mins
2. Blend Rolled oats into a flour (I just throw mine in the nutri bullet)
3. Mix in all Dry ingredients
4. Then mix in all wet ingredients
5. Grease a baking tin, (I used a round 9″ baking tin)
6. Add Mixture, it should be a little wet, but not too runny
7. Bake in oven at 350 Degrees for about 20 – 30 mins
8. Top whole cake with chocolate frosting (Coconut Milk (From a tin, cool in fridge overnight and turn upside before opening), Melted vegan chocolate chips and a splash of dairy free milk, a tablespoon of cacao powder and blend in food processor)
9. Decorate with fresh  organic strawberries, banana’s and Organic shredded coconut.

Store this in the fridge until you are ready to eat, as it does melt pretty quickly.

Enjoy 🙂