Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

These cookies are easy and make a great dessert or quick snack to grab-and-go. Ashley loves these before a morning run.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rolled oats*
• 2 bananas, mashed
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

1. Mix together all ingredients.
2. Form cookies and place on a cookie sheet (use a silpat mat or parchment paper). You can flatten them or keep them more dome shaped depending on how chewy you like them.
3. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

*You can keep oats whole, or grind partially or completely in a blender first to change consistency of your cookies.

If you like these cookies, check out another variety of oatmeal cookies: Chunky Monkey Cookies.

Enjoy 🙂

Chef AJ’s Brawnies

If you love fudgy chocolate, this is the dessert for you!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups walnuts
• 2 cups pitted dates
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp alcohol-free vanilla extract

Directions:

1. In a food processor fitted with the “S” blade, process walnuts into a powder. Do not over process into a nut butter.
2. Add the cocoa or carob powder and process again.
3. Add the dates until a ball forms.
4. Then add the vanilla and briefly process again.
5. Place in an 8”X8” square pan and freeze until firm.

Chef’s Note: You can use any raw nut or seed (or combination) instead of the walnuts.

 

We keep these stored in the freezer, no thawing before eating necessary!

Enjoy 🙂

Raspberry Lemon Chia Pudding

Want a healthy, sweet treat? Try this tasty fruit filled chia pudding.

This recipe was found on Esther’s Kitchen FB page by Esther’s Executive Chef Deb Gleason.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
• 1 cup plant milk (rice, almond, soy, etc.)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 4 large Medjool dates
• 5 Tablespoons chia seeds

 Directions:

1. Blend everything except for the chia seeds in a blender or food processor (I used my Vitamix) until smooth.
2. Pour into a bowl, stir in the chia seeds and allow to sit overnight or at least 4 hours in the fridge.

Enjoy 🙂

Almond Poppy Seed Cake

This is a great recipe when your in the mood for a treat!

This recipe is from Straight-Up Food:

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups non-dairy milk
• 12 Medjool dates, pitted
• 1½ teaspoons almond extract
• 1¼ cups rolled oats, ground into flour
• ¾ cup dry/uncooked millet, ground in flour
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest (from 1 medium lemon)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325. Line a standard 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper (or use a silicone baking pan). In a small bowl, place the chopped dates, non-dairy milk, and almond extract, and set aside (so dates can soften).
2. Grind the oats and millet together into flour in your blender, and place into a mixing bowl. Add to this the baking powder and poppy seeds, and mix with a fork.
3. Blend the dates, non-dairy milk, and almond extract until smooth. Pour into the bowl of dry ingredients, along with the lemon zest, and mix just until all of the dry ingredients have been incorporated.
4. Pour batter into pan and bake for 55 to 60 minutes uncovered. It will be done when it is an even medium brown and has some cracks on the top. Let cool before serving as is or with Lemon Frosting (below).

Lemon Frosting Ingredients:

• 4 or 5 Medjool dates, pitted
• ¼ cup water
• 2 tablespoons unsalted cashews
• Juice from 1 medium lemon (about a ½ cup)

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients into a blender and set aside for 15 to 20 minutes (so that dates and nuts can soften).
2. Blend until very smooth. Frost just before serving.

Enjoy 🙂

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The last 2 posts have been for dog cookies. They are made with people food so you can enjoy those with your dogs but, we thought we’d share one of our favorite cookies for people so you can enjoy a tasty treat too!

This recipe is from Detoxinista:

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups raw walnut halves
• 1 cup medjool dates, pitted (about 12)
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flax or chia seeds + 3 tablespoons water)
• Optional: ½ cup dark chocolate chips (We use these unsweetened kind so there is no added sugar)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.
2. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with an “S” blade, process the dates and walnuts together until a crumbly texture is formed.
3. Add in the baking soda, vanilla, and flax egg and process again until the batter is relatively smooth. Add in the chocolate chips and briefly pulse, just to combine.
4. Spoon the batter onto a lined baking sheet, and use your hands to gently flatten the cookie dough. (Tip: Wet your hands with water to prevent sticking!)
5. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the edges are slightly golden. Allow to cool on the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Serve immediately, and store the leftovers in a sealed container in the fridge or freezer for best shelf life. These cookies should last a week in the fridge, and a month or more in the freezer.

Instead of chocolate chips try: cacao nibs, raisins, shredded coconut, chopped nuts, etc.

Instead of walnuts, you can also try pecans.

Enjoy 🙂

Raw Apple Crumble

This past summer we went to our 2nd year of Vegetarian Summerfest! An amazing educational event with delicious food! There is a raw bar that everyone loves and this was one of our favorite desserts! We wanted to make this at home and asked for the recipe and they kindly shared with us. We’ve made this for potlucks and it goes so fast! This recipe is simple to make and definitely worth it!

This recipe is from VeganFusion:

Apple Layer

• 4 cups thinly sliced apple, cut into bite size pieces
• 1 cup raisins
• ½ cup pitted medjool dates
• ½ cup water
• ¾ cup freshly squeezed apple juice or orange juice
• ¼ tsp orange zest
• ¼ tsp cinnamon
• pinch ground nutmeg
• pinch allspice

Crumble

• 1 ¼ cups chopped walnuts
• ¼ cup pitted medjool dates
• 2 tablespoons dried shredded coconut
• pinch cinnamon
• pinch ground cardamom

Directions:

1. Place the apples, and raisins in a bowl.
2. Place the dates, water, apple juice, orange zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice in a blender and blend until creamy. Add to the bowl and mix well. Transfer to an 8 inch by 8 inch casserole dish.
3. Prepare the crumble by placing all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse chopping until the walnuts are finely ground. Do not over process. Sprinkle on top of the apple layer just before serving.

Chunky Monkey Cookies

We love this cookie recipe! The cookies are easy to make and tasty.  If you have ripe bananas, we highly recommend these cookies!

This recipe was adapted from here:

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe bananas
• 2 cups rolled oats*
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Mash bananas in a large bowl.
3. Stir in all other ingredients.
4. Let sit for about 20 minutes to allow the oats to soften.
5. Shape batter into cookies of desired size and place on cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

*We like to put the oats in a vitamix and pulse a few times so the cookies don’t have huge oat pieces.

One thing we love about this recipe is you can adapt it to be different flavors each time.  Here are just some examples:

1. Use a different nut butter instead of peanut butter
2. Add raisins or other dried fruit
3. Omit the PB and cocoa and add pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice

If you like these Chunky Monkey Cookies, check out these simple Oatmeal Raisin Cookies!

Chocolate Chia Pudding

Craving something sweet? Make this chocolate chia pudding! It uses dates as a natural sweetener to satisfy that sweet tooth and cocoa powder for those chocolate lovers! We have made this multiple times for family members and they love it!  In fact, they now make it themselves 🙂

This recipe was adapted from here:

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 2 tbsp chia seeds
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder (can also use carob powder)
• 4 Medjool dates, pitted
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a high-powered blender* and blend until smooth and creamy.
2. Pour into two serving dishes and fridge overnight, or at least 30 minutes before eating.

*A high-powered blender will give you the creamiest texture and make sure to grind those chia seeds completely.  However, any blender will combine all ingredients but you may have more of a tapioca texture with the chia seeds.

Enjoy this right away or refrigerate for several hours or overnight (if you can wait) for a colder, thicker texture.

This pudding can be enjoyed plain off a spoon, or with fruit.  We love strawberries and bananas!

Ashley wants to try using this recipe as a chocolate sauce to swirl into banana ice cream as a decadent dessert!

Dr. Furhman’s Chocolate Cake

If you have never tried this cake, you must! This chocolate cake is very different than your typical high sugar, high fat, unhealthy cake.  This cake contains vegetables and is a healthier alternative to the typical “chocolate cake”.  Even though this is a healthier cake, you still need to watch portions as there are a lot of dates and nuts in this dessert.

We found the recipe to this cake here.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 1 2/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or quinoa flour for gluten free cake)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons baking soda
• 3 1/2 cups pitted dates, divided
• 1 cup pineapple chunks in own juice, drained
• 1 banana
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup shredded beets
• 3/4 cup shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup shredded zucchini
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup currants
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Chocolate Nut Icing:

• 1 cup raw macadamia nuts or raw cashews, unsalted
• 1 cup vanilla soy milk
• 2/3 cup pitted dates
• 1/3 cup brazil nuts or hazelnuts
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions for the cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a small bowl.  Set aside.
3. In blender or food processor, puree 3 cups of the dates, pineapple, banana, and applesauce.
4. Slice remaining 1/2 cup dates into 1/2 inch thick pieces.
5. In large bowl, mix sliced dates, beets, carrots, zucchini, cocoa powder, currants, walnuts, water, vanilla and flour mixture.
6. Add the blended mixture and mix well.
7. Spread in a 9.5″ X 13.5″ nonstick baking pan.
8. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Directions for the icing:

1. Using a high powered blender*, combine all icing ingredients until smooth and creamy.
2. Allow the cake to cool before spreading the icing.

* A food processor may be used to combine icing ingredients but the icing will not be as smooth.

This cake is best the next day, cold, straight from the fridge!

Can you believe these ingredients can be turned into a cake!?

Don’t let the ingredients frighten you into trying this cake.  It contains so much natural sweetness from the fruit and dates, you will still be able to satisfy your sweet tooth, and get a serving of vegetables at the same time 🙂

Date Paste

Dates are known as nature’s candy.  That is because they are naturally sweet.  Whenever we are craving something sweet, we eat a date.  They are especially good stuffed with a little nut butter!  We use dates, or date paste, as a natural sweetener whenever we bake.  Since dates are a whole food, they are a much healthier alternative to processed sugar.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound pitted dates
• 1 cup water

Directions:

1. Soak dates in liquid overnight or for several hours until most of the liquid is absorbed.
2. In a food processor, process dates and liquid until completely smooth.

We store the date paste in a mason jar in the freezer where it will last longer and since it doesn’t freeze solid, we can just take it out and use it as soon as we need it.

This recipe yields 2 cups.

We usually make date paste to add in baked goods, but occasionally we’ll spread some date paste on top of an apple.  It tastes like a caramel covered apple! Delicious!