Raw Peppermint Brownies (vegan + gluten free)

I use a wonderful recipe by Oh She Glows to make these amazing raw brownies whenever Ryan gets a sweet tooth. I love her recipe as is, but like it even better with the addition of some peppermint! I made these for a party awhile ago and everyone said they taste like Fannie May chocolate mint bars.

Oh She Glows is also an amazing photographer, so I'll toss in one of her photos since they are so much better than mine:

Mine aren't nearly as pretty, but are even tastier! Ryan doesn't really like walnuts, so I process them all until they are powdery rather than leaving some as chunks.

The only issue I've had with these is that sometimes maple syrup doesn't want to stay combined with the top layer. It seems less likely to separate if the bottom layer is nice and cold before you put the top layer on, and if you mix and add the top layer quickly.

Raw Peppermint Brownies:
Serves 16 (or 2... depending on if you want to share ;)

FOR THE BROWNIES:

• 1 cup raw walnut pieces
• 1/2 cup hulled hemp seeds
• 1.5 cups pitted Medjool dates* (approx. 275g)
• 1/2 cup raw cacao powder or dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt or fine grain sea salt

FOR THE HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE TOPPING:

• 1/2 cup virgin coconut oil
• 1/2 cup raw cacao powder or dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup (or agave nectar for a raw sweetener)
• small pinch pink Himalayan sea salt (or fine grain sea salt)
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp peppermint essential oil or extract (I used Young Living Essential Oil)

Directions:
1. Put walnuts through a food processor until they are very small pieces, almost sand textured.

2. Add the dates and hemp seeds and process until fine and sticky. It should look like a larabar consistency. Add cocoa powder, vanilla and salt and process until combined. 

3. Line an 8x8 square dish with parchment paper. I find it easiest to make a 10x10 square of parchment and cut in 2 inches at each corner towards the middle. Then the parchment edges will overlap and fit perfectly into the dish. 

4. Put dough into the parchment line dish and spread out and press into an even layer with a spatula or your fingers. Put into the freezer for at least 10 minutes.

5. Melt coconut oil over low heat on the stove or for about 15-20 seconds in the microwave. Add all other ingredients and stir to combine. Pour over the brownie layer and put back into the freezer for at least 1 hour. 

6. To serve, lift brownies out of the dish by lifting the parchment paper. Cut slowly with a sharp knife that has been run under hot water to warm the blade. This will keep the top layer from cracking. Instead it will melt through the top layer where you want the pieces cut. 

Keep the finished brownies in the freezer, or the top layer could melt and separate!

Vegetable Alfredo Lasagna (vegan + gluten free options)

 

 A few weeks ago Ryan and I were wandering around the grocery store, wondering what the heck we wanted for dinner. We really didn't know what to make, but whilst strolling past the pasta I got the idea to try making lasagna. I had never made lasagna before. I had never even really liked lasagna, because I don't usually like anything with tomatoes or tomato sauce. I did, however, used to like the stouffers vegetarian lasagna with alfredo sauce. So, I knew I had a great alfredo recipe, and figured I could improvise the rest. Luckily, Ryan trusted my musings and we snatched up some organic lasagna noodles and a bunch of veggies to use. He also grabbed some vegan mozzarella shreds and already had some Tofutti ricotta at home in the fridge to use. You could really use pretty much any veggies that you like. We decided on broccoli, red onions, zucchini, red bell pepper, mushrooms and spinach.

 Layering the pasta was easier than I expected. Just make sure you put a layer of the sauce on the bottom of the pan before you add the first layer of noodles. Otherwise the noodles will stick to the bottom and make it super hard to get them out after it bakes.

Then add a layer of veggies, then more sauce, then the ricotta mixture. Then do the next layer of noodles and repeat. Finish with a last layer of noodles on top, pour on the rest of the sauce and sprinkle with the rest of the mozzarella.

Bake, and remove when the noodles are browning an the cheese is gooey. I suggest putting a cookie sheet underneath the baking dish, just in case the sauce bubbles up over the edges at all. That way it'll just drip onto the cookie sheet and not the bottom of your oven!

Vegetable Alfredo Lasagna:
Serves 12
1 box lasagna noodles (gluten free if you wish!)
2 batches of Alfredo sauce (recipe follows)
8 oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1 red onion, sliced
1 head broccoli, cut into small florettes
1 container vegan ricotta (I used Tofutti)
1 8oz bag vegan mozzarella shreds (I used Daiya)
3/4 cup almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
3 cups spinach, chopped

Vegan Alfredo: (make 2 batches for lasagna!)
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1-2 cups low sodium vegetable broth
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
6 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 cup raw cashews
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 heaping cup nutritional yeast
- Saute onions until translucent, adding broth as needed to keep from sticking. Add garlic and saute one more minute. Add onion and all other ingredients, excluding 1 cup of broth, to a blender and puree until smooth. Add broth as needed to reach desired consistency.

1. Make sauce and preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. Prepare veggies.

3. Prepare ricotta mixture: combine ricotta, half the bag of mozzarella, spinach and milk and stir to combine.

4. Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions, 4 at a time. Cook until softened but not so soft they easily tear.

5. Assemble the lasagna: Pour a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the 9x13 pan and spread out evenly. Put in the first layer of lasagna noodles, followed by half of each of the veggies, a little less a little less than half of the sauce, then half of the ricotta mixture. Add the next layer of noodles and repeat. Put one last layer of noodles on top, along with the last bit of the sauce and sprinkle with the rest of the mozzarella. Put into the oven and bake for 40-50 minutes*. Remove when the top noodles start to brown and curl up at the edges and the mozzarella melts. Serve hot.

*I advise putting a cookie sheet underneath the baking dish so if the sauce bubbles over at all it has something to fall onto that is easily cleaned.

Chili Lime Brown Rice Bowl, + perfect brown rice! (vegan + gluten free)

 

I am trying a new way of eating recently. I'm trying to stick primarily to whole foods, and also eating mass amounts of fruits every day (like an 8 banana and 5 dates smoothie for breakfast!). I'm sticking to raw foods until dinner each day as well, and then having a nice high carb dinner each night. This week's creation was this tasty Chili Lime Rice bowl! A friend of mine recently gave me a bunch of organic rice, and I just used other things I happened to have in my fridge to throw this easy dinner together. 

A while ago I was telling one of my coworkers how I have never been able to get my rice to turn out right. It was always either too watery and mushy, or too little water and crunchy. I could never seem to get the amount of water right. Then my coworker told me this trick that he uses, and his rice always turns out perfect. White or brown rice. I have only tried it with brown rice thus far, but he said he usually make white rice so it should work with that too. All you do is rinse your rice first, then when you put it in the pot and fill it with water, you just fill it to about 2 centimeters above the rice. He showed me as the length of the tip of his finger to the first knuckle, but my hands are bigger than his so I couldn't just go by the "one knuckle" measurement. It looked like he was showing about 2 centimeters though, and when I tried that it turned out perfectly. This is a trick I'll be using for every rice dish from now on!

I made this late one night, so the photos are a bit darker than usual. Also, I was using my cute "Namast'ay in bed" wine glass to drink my berry tea kombucha. Here is my chopped up cilantro and big o'e pile of garlic.

 Saute the onions and garlic while the rice is cooking to speed things up a little.

 Once the rice is done, it can be added to the onions and garlic, and toss in the fresh chopped cilantro last.

Chili Lime Brown Rice Bowl:

Serves 3-6

2 cups brown rice, uncooked

2 medium onions, diced

5-6 cloves garlic, diced

1/4 cup lime juice

1 cup cilantro, chopped

1 tsp salt

6 cups spinach, torn into smaller pieces

2 avocados, mashed

4 tbsp Poppyseed vinaigrette (recipe follows)

Poppyseed Vinaigrette:

1/3 cup cane sugar (or coconut sugar)

1/2 cup white vinegar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dry mustard powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tbsp poppyseed

1 cup water

1/4 cup ground flax seeds

 - Combine all ingredients in a jar and shake together to mix. Allow to sit at least 20 minutes for the flax to thicken the water.

1. To make the brown rice, first rinse the rice in a fine mesh strainer for 30 seconds. Put into a pot with a tight fitting lid, and add enough water to cover the rice and go about 2 centimeters above the rice. Bring water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and put the lid on. Allow to simmer for 45 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit for another 10 minutes before removing the lid. Then remove the lid and fluff the rice and add it to the onions. 

2. Start onions while the rice cooks! Saute onions on medium high, adding some of the lime juice whenever they start to stick to the pan. Once they are starting to become translucent add the garlic and the rest of the lime juice and saute another minute. Turn off heat and set aside until the rice is done.

3. Once the rice is done add it to the onions, along with the salt and cilantro.

4. To serve, serve the hot rice onion mixture and top with the spinach, avocado and dressing and mix together. People can scoop out however much rice they want and top with as much of the other toppings as much as desired, rather than mixing it all together first.

Tater Tot Hot Dish (vegan)

Tater Tot Hot Dish (or Casserole to non-Minnesotans) is a classic dish to those of us in the mid-west. Dense and full of veggies and cream of mushroom soup, along with ground beef, cheese and tater tots, this is a dish anyone in Minnesota especially was always excited to see for dinner in their childhood (heck, adult life too). I have been making this vegan for a couple years now, sometimes with sweet potato tots, as well as with homemade hashbrowns on top instead of tots to health it up a bit. This time I changed it up by making my usual mushroom roux/gravy (to replace the cream of mushroom soup) with NO OIL! This drops the calories of the dish by about 500 calories. This makes the fact that I'm still eating tater tots a bit less guilt inducing. Plus, if you divide the dish up into 12 servings you're really only eating one serving of tots and a bunch of veggies. Not too shabby!

Typically, a roux or gravy is made with a 1:1 ratio of flour and oil (or butter) cooked together until it stops smelling like playdough and smells more like pie crust. Then you add broth or water to turn it into a gravy. I didn't want to use a bunch of oil if I could avoid it, so I used a Dry Roux method to get the same taste. Instead, you just bake the flour to cook it then use it with the broth to thicken it and still give it that great roux flavor. 

Plus, like I said, you could always make some hashbrowns with just a little oil and cut the calories down even more. It all depends on how much work you want to put into it. The gravy takes the most time to make, but the rest is super quick. Just line the bottom of the baking dish with whatever beef replacement you want, top with 20 or so ounces of frozen veggies, pour the gravy over it all, sprinkle some dairy free cheese, top with tots and another sprinkle of cheese and bake!

I usually use the vegan ground "beef" from Trader Joe's, but this time I used some from the new vegan butcher shop in the Twin Cities called the Herbivorous Butcher. You could also just cook some lentils and use them in place of veggie grounds. I like to use a basic organic frozen veggie mix of carrots, peas, and green beans. I also used Daiya cheddar cheese shreds, but you can use whatever type you want, or could skip the cheese altogether.

Feel free to toss in any herbs or spices you like as well! Sometimes I'll top this with chives, smoked paprika, chipotle, parsley, or any other flavor that I'm craving. You could also add a smidge of liquid smoke to the gravy once it is done to give it a slight bacon-y flavor.

When you bake the Dry Roux flour, it will look like this when you take it out of the oven.

 

The thickened gravy:

The finished hotdish! Look at those tasty veggies!

Tater Tot Hot Dish:
serves 8-12

12oz - 1 lb veggie "beef" crumbles (any brand)
20-24oz frozen vegetables (any you'd like, but traditionally carrots, peas and green beans)
1 package vegan cheddar cheese shreds
1 small bag of tater tots
1 cup green onions, chopped
1 jalapeno, diced
1 batch mushroom gravy
 
Mushroom Gravy:
1 lb baby bella mushrooms (also known as crimini mushrooms), sliced
1/4 c Dry Roux flour (recipe follows)
1/4 c nutritional yeast
2 cups vegetable broth 
1 small yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 cup Marsala wine
salt and pepper, to taste


To make the gravy:
1. Dry Roux: Make this before starting the onions! Bake 1 cup of flour spread out on a parchment lined cookie sheet at 400 degrees F for 45 min to 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes, until light brown, and remove from oven. It should be a little lighter than peanut butter.*

2. Water saute the onions until golden by cooking them on medium high and adding 1 tbsp of water when needed to keep them from sticking to the pan. Add garlic and continue to water saute another minute. Add mushrooms and allow to cook down, stirring occasionally, until the liquid that  comes out of the mushrooms is mostly gone.

3. While the onions, garlic and mushrooms cook, bring 2 cups of vegetable broth to a boil, and then add the flour and nutritional yeast. Whisk until combined to make sure there are no lumps. Bring to a boil and continue to whisk occasionally until thickened. It will be a little thin, but it will continue to thicken as it cools.

4. Deglaze the mushrooms: add the marsala to the mushrooms and cook on medium, stirring to loosen the cooked down parts that were stuck to the pan. Cook until about half of the liquid has evaporated, then add it to the gravy.

5. Stir mushroom mixture and gravy mix together and add salt and pepper to taste. It helps to be a little on the salty side, since it will be spread over all the vegetables as well.

To assemble Hot Dish:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degress F. Cook ground "beef" according to packaged instructions, then pour it to line the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.

2. Pour frozen vegetables over "beef" and evenly spread them out. Sprinkle on the green onions and diced jalapeno as well.

3. Pour mushroom gravy over vegetables and evenly spread it out as well.

4. Sprinkle half the bag of vegan cheese over everything evenly.

5. Line the frozen tater tots in rows over everything evenly, trying to fill in all gaps.

6. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the tots and put into the oven to bake for 50 minutes, or until tots are golden and cheese is gooey. Serve hot, with ketchup if you wish.

* You could make just the 1/4 cup of flour in the oven, but I like to make more at once so it is ready the next time I make hot dish or gravy. If you just make 1/4 cup it won't take as long to cook.