Earl-Grey Vanilla-Bean Cookies

Soft. Chewy. Natural sweetened. Caramelly.  Crumbly. Tasy. Healthy. Wholesome. Vanilla-y. Early-grey-y. Okay so the last ‘adjective’ is a bit of a mouthful, but I mean Earl-grey vanilla-bean cookies...a double hyphenated recipe has gotta be good.... 

Absolutely loving my new copy of the infamous ‘Monday’s Café’ cook book, but being in India for the past 6 weeks lent very little time to explore Eleanor Ozich‘s beautiful recipes. Home at last, and a dedicated earl-grey tea drinker, these were top of my list.

Healthy, natural sweetened and wholesome, yet deliciously moreish these cookies are pretty awesome, especially with a glass of cold soy/almond milk.

Although, high in nutrients and high in fiber I found these cookies went even more perfectly broken into a bowl of muesli, topped with softened dates and Greek yoghurt for a slightly more special start to the day. I mean who doesn’t love eating baking for breakfast…? Crazy people, that’s who.

These cookies are free of saturated fats, processed sugars and all those nasty things our body doesn’t really enjoy, why should you care? Well not only does it mean guiltless delicious cookies that fuel your body, it also means a recipe that is so ridiculously simple, even a dad could make it.

100g butter or coconut oil, melted

60ml milk or coconut milk

2 cups amaranth flakes

2 tbsp earl grey tea leaves

1 1/4 cups coconut sugar

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 cups rice flour

2 free range eggs

1 tsp baking soda

a pinch of sea salt

Preheat the oven to 180 C, line a baking tray with paper.

Add all ingredients in to a large mixing bowl, and mix until well combined. (yeah.. that’s literally it…)

Place heaped tablespoons of the mixture on to the prepared tray about 4 cm apart.  Using your hands, flatten each cookie in half.  Bake for around 10-12 minutes, or until nice and golden.

Leave to cool. Makes approximately 20 cookies.

Chocolate Fudge Thickshake (V)

So it's all fun and games on the blog most of the time, but today things are gonna get serious for a moment and I’m going to be honest… I never ate fruit until I was 16 years old! *Collective gasp from the audience, with many fainting from shock*

I know that may not seem particularly insane, but just think about it for a second, really let that sink in. A childhood without any fruit No juicy watermelons, pears, oranges or mandarins. No vibrant purple plums, sour lemons, grapes or sweet dates. But most importantly, 16 years with no bananas or avocado. Although I’m yet to make peace with any type of berry (which still disgust me), eating more than one type of fruit is still relatively new and exciting for me with the introduction of both the banana and avocado being nothing short of life changing.

Now you may be thinking, ohmygod as a result of her many many many hours of productive exam study (ha), Sarah has lost what little sanity she had left, because an avocado is most definitely a vegetable. Poor thing. Well if that was what you thought then it looks like I’m not the only one who is going to be learning a thing or two today, because like the sneaky tomato, the avocado is actually scientifically considered a fruit!

So in celebration of my new-ish found appreciation for most things fruity I decided to share with you my super-weird but actually amazingly delicious recipe for a chocolate Avocado Thick shake! This recipe is a bit of an estimate of what I use because I’m hardcore and I don’t follow a recipe… also because I usually never have all of the ingredients…

And I don’t know about you, but nothing annoys me more than when someone tries to convince me that a couple of nuts can curb any chocolate craving. Usually because I’ll attempt to do just that, and end up eating 4kg o salted peanuts nuts while still starting longingly at the 1 square of milk chocolate that I originally wanted (which I will then still eat 10 minutes later). So when I feel like chocolate, this thickshake is my number 1 go to, as the kale and avocado will keep you feeling healthy and full for hours while the cacao powder adds a rich chocolate flavor to satisfy the strongest of sweet-tooth’s.

Chocolate Avocado Smoothie (Vegan) – Makes 1 large glass

- 1 frozen banana (Cut the banana into slices before freezing for easier blending)

- ½ Ripe Banana (the riper the banana, the sweeter the smoothie)

- 3 ice-cubes

- ¼ Avocado

- 2 T Cacao Powder

- 1 ½  C Water/Coconut Water/ Soy Milk (Depends on your taste/richness preferences)

- 2 stems Kale (optional) 

          1.   Add bananas, ice-cubes, kale, cacao powder and avocado into blender

          2.   Add ½ C of liquid into the blender, steadily add more until it is your preferred consistency  

         3.   Blend on high until the thickshake is totally smooth. I have an industrial blender and will usually leave it on high for at least 1 minute to ensure that the kale is totally incorporated. If it is gritty/leafy then you have not blended it long enough or on a high enough setting!  

        4.   Store in fridge until ready to drink (best consumed within a few hours of making)

      Happy Monday Everyone :)

 Happy Monday Everyone :)

Almond Chocolate Coconut Bars (Vegan)

I’m going to get straight to the point. Peanut butter. Chocolate. Caramel.

Not only is this the most delicious vegan, healthy dessert. Ohhhh no no no, this is much better than that.

This is one of the best, delicious desserts I have ever made in all my years of cooking. “The best”. I know it’s a bit of a statement but creamy, crunchy and the perfect combination of salty and sweet this recipe deserves the every superlative in the book.

 So let me take a moment and break it down for you.

One perfectly proportioned slab of base formed from a mixture of warm earthy oats, crushed almonds bound together with dates soaked in coconut milk so sweet it would make your heart sing.

Next the filling, creamy peanut butter sprinkled with crispy rice cereal and softened to perfection with a touch of coconut oil. Possibly one of the reasons I was tempted to re-name this recipe “Dessert Slab of the Gods”.

Finally, because salty sweet peanut butter and a moist caramel date base is not nearly decadent enough for me, we are going to seal the deal with a layer of dark chocolate so soft and bittersweet it would make a grown man cry pure tears of joy. 

So now that you are appropriately drooling and attempting to lick your screen I’ll reveal the recipe, which is from the amazing healthy blogger none other than “Oh She Glows” with link here.

I made these for my brother and sister’s friends while they went to the beach house for the weekend and it was gone within the first 2 hours. Even better, not a one of them realized it was vegan and free of any refined sugars or saturated fats! 

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

Healthy Blueberry Muffins

Let me be honest with you, I hate math… and science.  Give me a camera, set of paints or pencil and paper then I’m entertained for hours, even days at a time, as long as I can remain a safe distance away from calculators and simultaneous equations.

The addition of ¼ cup and ¾ cup of flour and converting Fahrenheit to Celsius is probably as close as anyone will ever find me to algebra or calculus.

 So today in celebrations of my strong dislike for all things highly mathematical, or academic, I’m going to keep the math reeeeeeeal simple.

Winter day + day off school + fresh warm blueberry muffins = good

Winter day + day off school – fresh warm blueberry muffins = bad

Now that was relatively painless wasn’t it? So lets get to the important part…

Ingredients

•                2 cups whole wheat flour

•                ½ cup bran flakes

•                1/3 cup mejool dates soaked*

•                3 teaspoons baking powder

•                1 teaspoon salt

•                ¾ cup Almond milk/ Skim milk

•                1/2 cup canola or light vegetable oil

•                1 egg

•                Zest of one lemon/orange

•                1 cup fresh blueberries

•                ¼ cup buckwheat and linseed (optional)

•                Raw or turbinado sugar

(Makes 12 Muffins)

* If you have time to prepare, these dates are delicious when soaked overnight in a bowl with a can of light coconut cream. Over a few hours the dates absorb up the cream to create these large, sweet, soft coconutty dates. Although if you are short of time soak them in a bowl with boiling water for a few moments

 Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12 muffin cup tin with paper baking cups, or grease muffin cups.

In a medium bowl whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

In large bowl whisk together milk, oil, egg and lemon zest. Pour dry ingredients, all at once, into wet ingredients, and stir together until dry ingredients are just moistened (batter will be lumpy). Do not over mix This is the most vital step, as if you just whisk instead of fold the muffins will turn out tough and small.

Fold in blueberries gently. Scoop or spoon the batter evenly into muffin cups, they will not rise too much so fill the cups quite high.

Sprinkle with raw sugar. Bake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Immediately remove muffins from pan to cooling rack.

Vegan Banana Ice-Cream

Okay so a recipe as amazingly simple yet satisfying as this deserves an equally uncomplicated and straight forward blurb, so lets cut the small talk and get right down to business.

Creamy, thick, smooth, sweet and unbelievably healthy and don’t forget vegan as well, this is a dessert that is sure to become a favorite so start stocking up on those bananas.

Ingredients;

- 2 Frozen Bananas

- 1/4 C Soy Milk

- 3-4 Cubes of ice 

Add all Ingredients into a high powered blender to ensure a smooth ice-cream, and blend for 30-60 seconds.

Now the basic recipe is nice but quite plain so feel free to add whatever flavours you want to make your own personal healthy ice-cream sunday. Here are a few of my favourites to get you started; 

- Dates soaked in coconut milk
- Malt extract 

- Almonds and honey

- Caco powder and coconut milk

- Frozen berries and caco powder