OhYaGood

Whole Food Lover + Recipe Hacker

Raw Chocolate Pecan Cookies

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Chocolate Pecans Cookies

My Grandma used to say “If you aren’t having fun, it’s your own damn fault.” Well, it’s Halloween tomorrow and what I consider the fun part is eating enough sugar your teeth curl. With my dietary restrictions, Halloween candy is in general a no-no, so I made my own sugary delight.

This is NOT my creation but instead a recipe from my favorite vegan chef, Isa Chandra and her book Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. It’s THE BEST if you are looking for dairy-free treats of all kinds. Her website, Post Punk Kitchen is a great source too. If you don’t like pecans, I’m sure almonds or macadamias could work just as well. Hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween!

Chocolate Pecan Cookies
 
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Recipe type: Cookies
Cuisine: American
Serves: 16 cookies
Ingredients
  • 2 cups pecans, divided
  • ½ cup brown rice syrup
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup chocolate chips, melted (Enjoy Life is dairy free)
Instructions
  1. Place 1 cup of the pecans in a processor into coarse crumbs
  2. Roughly chop the other cup
  3. In a medium bowl, use a fork to mix together the rice syrup, salt and vanilla
  4. Mix in the pecan crumbs and chopped pecans
  5. Add the melted chocolate
  6. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto it
  7. Place the cookies in the fridge for one hour to set. If it's warm outside, keep them refrigerated, otherwise they should be fine at room temp

 

Vegan Pumpkin Smoothie

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Pumpkin Smoothie

I guess I am a little fall-obsessed right now. I think it’s because of the beautiful weather we’ve been having. In the past, it’s always felt like immediately after my birthday (10/13) the weather takes a giant poo and it’s cold and rainy till the inevitable snow. Not this year friends. It’s been 60 and gloriously sunny here in Minnesota. That means being outside as much as possible.

All week I’ve said to myself-

“Clean up the kitchen or go outside?”

“Fold laundry or go outside?”

“Put on some decent clothes or go outside?”

No joke. We just go outside. Decent clothing not required.

This explains my short recipe this week. It’s inspired from a Whole Foods Pumpkin Smoothie recipe that I tweaked. If you don’t like pumpkin pie or anything pumpkin, I’d steer clear friend. If you do, drink on up!

Pumpkin Smoothie
 
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Recipe type: Smoothie
Cuisine: American
Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • 1 cup of pumpkin puree
  • 1 ripe banana
  • ¾ canned coconut milk (I used TJ's coconut cream)
  • ½ water
  • 1-2 T maple syrup depending on your sweetness preference
  • 1 T ground flax seed
  • 1½ t pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 t vanilla
  • juice of one lemon wedge
  • 5 ice cubes
Instructions
  1. Place all ingredients into blender and blend

 

Monster Noodles

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Monster Noodles BologneseI’ve never eaten so much zucchini in my life. I love these little “monster” noodles and they are so damn easy. I should clarify, I named them “monster” so my kids would eat them and I think it helped. I did the same with broccoli calling them “little trees” which for some reason made them eat them like candy. I guess it’s a form of playing with their food.

Here’s the the recipe for the bolognese sauce minus the slivered almond garnish.

Monster Noodles
 
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Recipe type: Staple
Cuisine: American
Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • Oil of choice (I prefer coconut)
  • 3 med size zucchini
  • salt
Instructions
  1. Trim off zucchini stem
  2. Spiralize zucchini into a bowl
  3. Salt the zucchini with a few shakes and let sit for 30-60 minutes (This step helps eliminate some of the water from the zucchini so it's not so soggy after cooking)
  4. Press the zucchini with a few paper towels
  5. Use a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat
  6. Oil the pan
  7. Sauté the noodles for 5 minutes

Here are a few extra shots showing the spiralizer I have. I like it because it takes up little cupboard space and super easy to clean.Monster Noodles In ProgressMonster Noodles Finished

Roasted Acorn Squash

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Roasted Acorn SquashFall fare can be so lovely but I think I over due it every year and by Thanksgiving, I’m over it. I watched this Whine About It about Fall—ROFL “Pumpkin is like putting cinnamon on a sandcastle.” Matt Bellassai is pretty hilarious and his points are valid but I still embrace it. I won’t be drinking rum and cider—–yet, but I’m using a lot of this autumnal vegetable, acorn squash. It’s so warming on my belly. I love it and so do my girls.

If I could eat cheese, I’d top this with some pungent blue cheese or gorgonzola. If only..

Here’s a quick tip. Partially cook the squash in the microwave before roasting it in the oven to save some time. With this recipe, it saves about a half hour of cook time.

Roasted Acorn Squash
 
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Recipe type: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Serves: 2-4
Ingredients
  • 1 acorn squash, cut length-wise and seeds removed
  • 1 T of pecans, chopped
  • 1 T of pomegranate seeds
  • coconut oil
  • maple syrup
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F
  2. Rub each half of the squash with coconut oil
  3. Place the squash on a microwave safe plate, face up and cook for 10 minutes
  4. Transfer the hot squash to an aluminum pan, face up
  5. Add more coconut oil and the pecans to each half
  6. Roast in the oven for an additional 10-15 minutes
  7. Dress with pomegranate seeds
  8. Drizzle with maple syrup

 

Chocolate Pumpkin Loaf

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Chocolate_Pumpkin_LoafIn honor of National Kale Day, I’m not posting anything kale. Heck, it was our 8th anniversary yesterday so there was cause for chocolate and celebration in our house. I read a great quote recently by Oprah “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate” Wouldn’t it be fun if we celebrated even small victories everyday? I like that idea. I think that’s why I like making birthdays such a big deal. Why not?! We are here. We are living. Let’s celebrate. Just not with Kale.

This recipe is derived from Post Punk Kitchen’s Chocolate Pumpkin Loaf. I just tweaked a few ingredients to make it not so sweet and gluten free.

Chocolate Pumpkin Loaf
 
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Recipe type: Bread
Cuisine: America
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil (or canola oil)
  • ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ⅓ cup + 2 tablespoons boiling water, divided
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • ½ cup maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1½ cups gluten free, all purpose flour (I used King Arthur's)
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
  • ¾ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup chocolate chips
  • sea salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F and lightly grease an 8 inch loaf pan.
  2. Put applesauce, coconut oil and cocoa powder in a mixing bowl.
  3. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, spices, baking soda and salt.
  4. Measure out ⅓ cup boiling water and pour into the bowl with the chocolate mixture, mixing quickly to make a smooth chocolate sauce.
  5. Add pumpkin, sugar and vanilla and mix well.
  6. Dump about half of the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture and gently stir just to incorporate, then measure out 1 tablespoon of boiling water and stir again.
  7. Now add the rest of the flour mixture and another tablespoon of boiling water and stir just until smooth. Do not to overmix.
  8. Fold in the chocolate chips.
  9. Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
  10. Bake for 55 minutes to an hour.
  11. Let cool for 10 minutes, then invert pan and place loaf on a cooling rack to cool most of the way.

 

Beet Smoothie Bowl

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Beet_Smoothie_BowlThis was my most popular post while doing the Whole30. I guess it’s been a bit of a craze on IG and I think it’s also quite pretty. When I began Whole30 I had just quite coffee cold turkey. My stomach always felt unsettled after I drank it and I had an occasional arrhythmia from it. Obviously my body was trying to tell me something. So if I wanted my guts and my nervous system to be back to normal, I’d need to go back to drinking coffee as a treat. Sure I missed the warm drink and substituted with green tea but what I really missed was that little teaspoon of sugar I would add to it. Morning smoothies have helped that craving. Smoothie bowls, well they are like eating cereal without the grains and surprisingly filling too.

Beet Smoothie Bowl
 
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Recipe type: Breakfast
Cuisine: American
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • SMOOTHIE
  • 1 large beet (frozen or fresh, Trader Joes has packaged versions in their produce section)
  • ½ frozen berry mix (I like Trader Joes)
  • 1 celery stick
  • 2 kale leaves, stems removed
  • ½ c. carrot orange juice (no sugar added)
  • ¼ c. water
  • TOPPINGS
  • Pecan pieces
  • Pistachios
  • 2-4 Mint leaves
  • 1 T chia seeds
Instructions
  1. Place all ingredients in a blender and blend
  2. Sprinkle with toppings

 

Cauliflower “Rice”

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Cauliflower Rice

Did you know if you plug your left nostril and breathe in through the right and exhale through the left for about 10 long breathes you will instantly feel energized? I’m not even joking. Try it and tell me it doesn’t work. I just did it myself because I was feeling very unmotivated to do anything after a long morning.

Now back to the food part. This is my new favorite side dish. It’s what I would consider pretty quick to prepare and even quicker to cook. Plus, I love that I can make different variations like coconut rice, lime cilantro rice, or fried rice. (recipes to come) For now, try this one out and enjoy it with whatever main dish you’re hearts desire. Bonus, my kids haven’t even noticed it’s not really rice.

Cauliflower "Rice"
 
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Recipe type: Side Dish
Cuisine: Paleo
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • medium head of Cauliflower, cut into small florets
  • 2 Tablespoons of coconut oil or your fat of choice
  • 1 small onion or shallot, diced
  • 1 wedge of lemon
  • salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Place the cauliflower in the food processor or blender and pulse till it's in rice like pieces.
  2. Heat oil in a sauté pan to medium heat and add the onion.
  3. Cook until translucent, about 5 minutes
  4. Add cauliflower pieces and sauté for about 5 minutes on medium heat.
  5. Cover with a lid and allow to cook for 5-7 minutes or desired doneness.
  6. Squeeze lemon over rice, salt and pepper.

 

 

Coconut Bars

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coconutbars

I am most certainly a human with very human needs. Chocolate is one of those very human needs. After finding out I was lactose intolerant many moons ago, I was forced to get creative with baked goods and sweets. And while I may have gone over board from time to time (I have Isa Chandra’s Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar to thank for that), I think I’ve finally maintained a healthy amount of indulgences.

I’ve been following pretendhealthfreak’s drool-worthy Instagram for a few months and came upon her recipe for Bountylicious Slice. This coconut bar recipe derives from hers. Mine is VERY similar because her’s is that good, but I did make some alterations.

 

Coconut Bars
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Serves: 16 squares
Ingredients
  • BASE
  • 2 Medjool dates, soaked in water for 30 minutes
  • ½ cup pecan meal
  • ½ cup coconut flour
  • 2 T coconut oil
  • 1 T cocoa
  • 1 T coconut cream
  • COCONUT LAYER
  • 1½ c shredded coconut
  • 1½ T coconut milk
  • 1 T coconut oil
  • 1 T brown rice syrup
  • TOPPING
  • 3 T coconut oil
  • 2 T brown rice syrup
  • 1 T cocoa powder
  • ½ T coconut butter
  • Sea Salt
Instructions
  1. Line square pan with parchment
  2. Combine base ingredients and press into pan
  3. Refridgerate for 30+ minutes
  4. Mix coconut layer together and spread on top of layer
  5. Freeze for 30+ minutes
  6. Combine topping ingedients and pour over coconut layer
  7. Sprinkle with sea salt
  8. Freeze for 30+ minutes
  9. Cut into squares