Toasted Granola (Vegan)

Breakfast. It’s considered the most important meal of the day, and is only challenged as my personal favorite by dessert. Lets be honest chocolate basically trumps any other food. Interesting enough my great appreciation for all things breakfast-y started about a year ago, while before I saw it as a meal that wasn’t really necessary.

 When going vegan for a week I suddenly found myself interested in making my own food and one of the most successful discoveries over this time was home-made  toasted granola. It is so ridiculously simple, cheap and delicious that I’m surprised more people don’t have it as a staple in their home.

It seems silly to include a recipe, as you can basically add anything to personalize the granola to your liking from coconut milk, honey, dates, macadamias or chia seeds! Also this recipe is not only flexible in ingredients but quantity as well, so if you are unsure how a batch may turn out try making a bowlful or two before making it in bulk.

Here is the basic recipe;

4 Cups of whole oats (the larger the oats the healthier and crunchier it is!)

1 Cup of Buckwheat

2 cups of nuts/seeds

½ Cup dried apricot

1 T Cinnamon

1 Cup of dates soaked and drained in boiling water

¼ Cup Water

2tsp Vanilla Essence

Method;

1. In a large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients apart from the cinnamon spice.


2. Using a blender, blend the dates, water, vanilla essence and cinnamon spice into a smooth, thick sauce

3. Pour the sauce into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir until all the dry ingredients are well coated.

4. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees. Transfer the mixture to a baking tray lined with parchment paper and spread into a thin, even layer. Bake for 25-35 minutes, gently stirring every 10 minutes to ensure even browning. 

Allow to cool completely before storing in an air-tight container in the fridge or at room temperature. Will last for up to 3 weeks

Again this is so flexible so add in whatever flavour you love like almonds, cacao powder, pistachio nuts or cranberries! Also feel free to swap the dates for another sweetener like maple syrup or honey for the non-vegans out there.

So if you are as busy as I am whip a large batch of this in the weekend and add yoghurt bananas and milk for a quick breakfast on the go!

Cafe Adventures: Little Bird Unbakery

Although this was my first visit, this beautiful raw café needs no introduction. The little bird unbakery has been tucked into Summer Street off Ponsonby for some time now and although I have checked out their Kingsland store I was told that it barely compares to the delicious treats served here.

Looking back its weird how long it took me to pay this legendary little café a visit, but it was worth the wait as I enjoyed one of the top best meals I’ve had all year.

While the toss up between the kumara gnocchi and raw nachos was a tough one I couldn’t go past the tempting sound of crunchy thin tortilla chips covered in avocado. And of course there is always room for dessert, which in this case happened to be the most amazing chocolate hazelnut torte, which was probably meant to serve two people… whoops.

 With beautiful interior, friendly staff and an impressively large range of foods on the menu Little Bird is sure to leave you feeling healthy and happily stuffed.

Although they don’t serve coffee the only criticisms is that a certain level of willpower must be possessed in order to walk past the gigantic cabinet filled to bursting with a banquet of sweet raw treats without purchasing the whole lot.

I also got a chance to try out my new Fuji-Film X-E2, just out of its box it worked like a dream. So if you’re looking for a new camera, it’s portability and high quality images are totally worth the investment!

Date and walnut Oatmeal cookies (vegan)

There is something about rainy weekends and cookies that is just so damn right. Saturdays in particular are the best, where you wake up and savour a little sigh of relief as you remember that today there is no alarms or early mornings, no sports or extra curricular or assignments to be done. Combine that with a moody overcast weather that practically demands you to stay inside drinking tea, eating cookies and watching t.v. in your pyjamas.

I have posted a chocolate chip recipe on here before, but since then I’ve gained a appreciation for slightly healthier alternatives so when I found a recipe on the amazing ‘Oh She Glows’ blog I was desperate to try it. The original recipe, which is fully vegan, is here. Although I made some changes to the amount of sugar/oils written below.

Ingredients:

- 1 + 3/4 cups walnuts/almonds

- 2 cups rolled oats (try using the largest oats possible, as they will be made finer when put in the food processor)

3/4 cup Whole meal flour (I used Pamela’s brand, see note)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

1/2 cup pure maple syrup (Although today I used honey)

2 tablespoons coconut oil

2 tablespoons almond milk

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Heaping 1/3 cup pitted dates, diced (softened with 1/4 C boiling water)

1/2 cup mini dark chocolate chips (use large chocolate ‘drops’ for a chocolatey-chunky cookie)

Directions:

1. Add nuts into food processor along with 1 cup of oats and process until coarsely chopped with some fine powder (see photo above) . Be sure not to over process or it will become too fine.

2. In a large bowl, stir the nut/oat mixture, the remaining 1 cup rolled oats, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

3. In a medium bowl, stir together the maple syrup (or honey), melted coconut oil, milk, and vanilla. Pour the wet mixture on the dry ingredients and stir until combined. The coconut oil will begin to harden so the mixture will start to feel quite firm, try to resist the temptation to add more liquids.

4. Want a quick handy tip for cooking with dates? Coat the chopped dates in a teaspoon of flour to prevent them from sticking together. Fold dates and chocolate chips into the dough.

5. Take about 2 tablespoons of dough, roll it into a ball, and then press down on it with your hand to flatten it on the baking sheet. Space cookies a couple inches apart. These cookies will not spread so I was able to fit 16 small cookies on one tray.

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 3180F until the cookies are golden brown on the bottom. They may appear very soft but will firm once cool.

*7. Once cooled attempt to photograph warm gooey oaty drops of heaven with a cold glass of almond milk without eating any

*8. Fail miserably and eat ½ the batch without a single regret