Gluten free vegan black bean chocolate chip brownie

Brownies with a special surprise. These brownies taste amazing and have a great texture. Not at all what I expected from a gluten free, vegan, black bean brownie.

Adapted from this recipe by Chocolate Covered Katie

I’ve made it twice already and they get eaten up really fast. Luckily I got a picture of it before it this time.

Recipe for vegan gluten free black bean chocolate chip brownies:

1/2 cup rolled or quick oats, coarsely ground
1 1/2 cup black beans, precooked
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
2 Tablespoons Ground flax seeds
2 Tablespoons Carob powder (or cocoa powder)
2 Tablespoons coconut oil (or other vegetable oil)
2 Tablespoons almond butter (can substitute w oil, coconut or other non dairy milk, or any nut butter)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla paste (or vanilla extract)
1 teaspoon almond extract (or vanilla extract)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2/3 cup chocolate chips
+2 Tablespoons chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F
Oil a brownie pan (not necessary if using non stick – I use 9×9 deep pyrex glass so I lightly brush it with coconut oil).

In a food processor blend all the ingredients except for the 2T of chocolate chips). Blend on high until smooth.

Pour into baking pan and sprinkle remaining chocolate chips on top.
Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes (check after 15 minutes),bake until toothpick poked into middle comes out clean. If using smaller than 9×9 it will take a little longer because it will be thicker.

Cool before serving. Refrigeration makes it more firm, which is really good. Store in sealed container, preferably in a refrigerator if not eaten within a few hours.

Notes:
-I made this first with coconut milk instead of 2 T of oil, it took a few more minutes to cook, but came out the same.
-can also be baked in a muffin pan lined with parchment cups, fill about 1/4 high, if higher just bake longer. The batter will not rise but too thick may burn the outside before it completely cooks inside.
-quick or rolled oats can be coarsely ground in a food processor. I generally make 2 cups at a time because 1/2 cup is too little for my food processor.
– this recipe is thick so a food processor will work much better than a blender.
-if using a blender prepare to scrape down the sides frequently. A hand blender will work better than a container blender.
-if using canned beans be sure to drain them, if they have salt already in them you can omit the salt in the recipe.
-If cooking beans 1/2 cup dry should make 1.5 cups cooked. Be sure to soak the beans for a few hours to get rid of the excess gas. Kombu seaweed will reduce the gas as well. When I don’t have time to soak I always use a piece of kombu. I also always soak dry beans, sprouts, rice, etc, will about one tablespoon of 3% food grade hydrogen peroxide. The peroxide will make the soaking-sprouting process go faster and ensure that nothing contaminates the water, and if any beans had any type of bacteria it will clean it. While this generally doesn’t apply to black beans, it will cut down soaking time and reduce the gas of the black beans.

Love Granola

Inspired by the flavor of yesterday’s Gluten free vegan waffles my husband made, specifically the almond extract and cinnamon, I made a yummy granola. Perfect for this chilly Florida morning.
I call this love granola simply because I love it!

Dry:
4 cups rolled oats
1/4 C shredded dried coconut, can be toasted
2T sunflower seeds
2T pumpkin seeds
4T raisins

Wet:
1/2C warm water
2T cinnamon maple sugar (mine came from Penn Herb)
2 t coconut oil
1 mashed banana (can use frozen, just be sure to thaw it)
6T flax, ground
2T maple syrup
1T agave or other sweetener (honey works well but not suitable for vegans)
2T unsweetened chocolate powder
1t almond extract
1t raspberry extract
1t vanilla extract

Preheat oven on 325F
Mix all dry in a big bowl. Set aside.
On low heat, mix all wet ingredients in a pan, so the coconut oil doesn’t harden and this will thaw the banana if frozen.
Mix the wet into the dry. Mix well. All ingredients should be slightly moist.

Spread the mixture onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. This amount should take up about 2 baking sheet, or put some in baking cups. Lightly press it down. For a baking sheet make the layer 1/4-1/2 inch for granola bars, keep it thin so it cooks well. Baking cups will cook great on top and be crispy, the inside will be softer. For granola mix make the layer very thin, less than 1/4 inch.

Bake 20 minutes for bars or until the top is golden brown. Granola mix will take a few minutes less, stir it after 10 minutes to cook thoroughly.

Oatmeal chews

Great finger food for babies, toddlers and even older kids, and no oatmeal mess!

This delightful surprise came from a failed (in my opinion) batch of pancake batter. I decided to see what would happen if I put the batter in baking cups and bake it. My 1 & 5 year old ate them up! And the great thing, it’s healthy, very few ingredients and my son who is refusing to eat oatmeal was asking or more.

3 cups rolled oats
1 T baking soda
4 T ground flax
1 T cinnamon
1 t vanilla extract (or pure maple syrup)
1 T coconut oil
1 mashed banana
2 cuts water
1 t sea salt

Topping: 2 mashed ripe bananas
2 T agave nectar or sweetener of choice

Put all the ingredients (except topping) in a blender and blend until the oats break down, keep batter somewhat chunky though.

Fill cupcake cups 3/4 way. Bake one 350 F for 45 minutes, or until top gets golden brown.

Remove and transfer to a cooling rack.

Mix topping, and spread on top the chews.

Make sure it’s cooled before serving to little ones (these are pretty hot inside for a while). Also the topping can be put on anytime, it will actually dry out but still be a little sticky, but not runny.

Options: add raisins or other dried fruit.
1/2 cup of purred fruit can replace the banana in the batter (applesauce, pumpkin, sweet potato, mango)

Notes:
The chews without the topping are pretty bland (at least to me), but my 1 year old preferred them that way, my 5 year old only wanted the ones with the topping.
For chocolate lovers, spread some nut butter + chocolate powder (or carob) + liquid sweetener, on top.
Vegan cream cheese mixed with a little maple syrup would be a great “frosting”.

Oh and how about that photo?! Amazing what great pics I can get from my iPhone+Instagram+red Stamp. I’m trying to make all my pics more fun and appealing, hope its working. As soon as I am out of baby-phase (oh teething) and get good sleep, I’m going to be turning the really great pictures into something fun, but that’s a surprise for later, like in a year or two maybe 🙂

Vegan GF Scallion Pancake

Vegan and gluten free scallion pancakes.

My first food memory of California was the first day we arrived in San Jose, something so majestic about the Bay Area, we instantly knew this is where we wanted to live.
The restaurant, Garden Fresh on El Camino Real in Mountain View. I order the scallion pancakes and peanut sesame noodles. Sitting outside looking around at this beautiful place, and tasting this awesome vegan food, I fell in love with California.

These days I live in Florida, and while we have some good vegan restaurants here, my heart and taste buds will always love Cali.

I have tried many recipes and this one is pretty darn good. I only brush a tiny bit of oil on the griddle, so it’s not as oily, but still satisfies my craving.

2 tablespoons ground flax, mixed with 6 T water
2 cups oat flour, any gluten free flour will work
1.5 cups water
6 scallions (1 bunch) thinly slices short-ways.
1 tsp salt
Oil for cooking, coconut preferred.
Preparation:

Mix flax and water, let sit for 2 minutes, Mix all ingredients together and let sit for about 10 minutes.

On med-high, heat pan or griddle. Brush some oil on the pan.

Pour into pan a thin layer of batter. Batter should be a thinner consistency then regular pancakes.

Cook for 3-4 minutes until bottom is golden. Flip and cook 1-2 more minutes. Remove from heat.

Serve hot with soy or plum sauce.

Can be frozen or refrigerated, and the reheated in a toaster oven.

I feel like this without the scallions and with Italian seasoning would make a great personal pizza crust, until next time…

Granola bars

Granola bars are some of the simplest baked goods I’ve ever made. Truly all you need to do is use this base and add anything you like to it. Just be sure it’s not too wet.

Base makes approx 24 1″x3″x1/8″ bars

Dry:
3 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup oat flour or any flour of choice
4T seeds -nuts of choice, Finley chopped
1T chia seeds
1/2 C raisins or dried fruit of choice (finely chop if dried fruit is large). Can bring this up to a cup if you prefer.
3T sea salt (optional)

1/4 C toasted coconut, finely shredded

Wet:
1/2 c coconut sugar, or mashed dates
1 frozen banana, thawed and mashed
1/2 cup water (or apple juice for sweeter)
6T ground flax
2T unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)
1 T cinnamon (optional)
3T almond butter

Additional dry:
1/2 cup Puffed rice

Preheat oven 325
Mix first set of dry in large bowl.
Mix wet ingredients very well in small bowl, allow to sit. Be sure that any additional spices of your choice are added to the wet so they get full incorporated.
Mix the wet into the first set of already mixed dry. Mix until all ingredients are fully coated. Should not be too wet, not runny, and be able to ball up without falling.
Stir in the remaining dry ingredients- I leave the puffed rice for the end so it doesn’t get too wet, otherwise it will lose the puff.

Put the entire batter on a parchment lined baking sheet. Evenly spread it out and pack down with the back of a spatula. Or put another piece of parchment on top and roll with a rolling pin. Make 1/8 inch thick (can be as thick as you like)
Cut into bars with a pizza cutter.
Cook until golden brown.

Notes:
Using buckwheat flour will result in a richer flavor, cinnamon compliments this flour very well.
Rice crisps, corn flakes, or other cereal type grain can be used in place or addition to the puffed rice.
Can also be cooked into shapes using cookie cutters, kids love doing that.
Can also be baked in a silicon baking cup or silicon muffin tray. I made a few in my heart shaped muffin tray 3 inches thick, they only needed 3 min more the bars, I didn’t press the batter, only spooned it in.

Beautiful buckwheat vegan pancakes

Power pancakes full of yummy healthy goodness sure to make your insides and outsides happy. A happy body is a beautiful one.

1/2 C whole grain buckwheat flour
1 C oat flour (or brown rice flour)
4T all purpose gluten free baking flour
1/2 C almond milk
1T apple cider vinegar
1/2C water
1/2C agave
2T pure grade maple syrup
1T chia seeds, ground
1T hemp seeds, ground
1T hemp seeds, ground
1/2T baking powder
2t sea salt
2T Coconut oil
1 Ener-G egg replacer
1T cinnamon

Heat griddle or pan on med-high.
Blend Ener-G egg replacer, with all wet ingredients.
In a large mixing bowl combine all remaining ingredients (dry). Mix well.
Add the wet to the dry and mix.

Cook as you would pancakes.

Notes: the batter will be thick because of the chia and flax, this will make the pancakes thick and fluffy. I made the mistake of adding more water and it made them flat.
You can add fresh or frozen blueberries, chocolate chips or other ingredients, after the batter is fully mixed.
Make sure your pan is very hot before cooking, this way the first one cooks just as well as the rest.
No need to oil the pan if you are cooking on a non stick surface.

Simple granola

2 cup rolled oats
Dash cinnamon
Dash sea salt
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 cup chopped or slivered almonds

Mix all ingredients well. lay out on a baking sheet lined w parchment paper. Cook at 300f for 30-40 min, or until the top layer is toasted -golden brown.

No bake thumbprint cookies

Adapted from a Whole Foods recipe makes about 16 cookies.

2 C quick or rolled oats
3 T almond butter
2 T maple syrup
1/4 C dates, approx 3 large
1/2 C hot water
1/4 t sea salt (optional)
1/2 C fruit preserve

In a small bowl cover the dates with hot water and set aside for 10 minutes.

In a food processor, pulse oats until coarsely ground, transfer to large bowl and set aside.

Purée the dates and water in food processor until smooth. Add all remaining ingredients except fruit preserves, to oats.

Mix well to form a slightly wet dough. If too wet add more oats, if too dry add water.

Scoop approx 1T of dough into your hand and roll into balls, press down onto a parchment paper lined tray, to make a cookie shape, press the middle down and fill with fruit preserve.

Refrigerate for at least an hour, serve.

Notes: I don’t make this with salt, but that may be a little bland for some people.

While this cookie is great on its own, it’s a basic dough recipe, u can make it with most any other ingredients you would put in cookies. Just be sure to adjust the amount of water-oats as necessary.

Options:
Add spices, shredded coconut, raisins or dried fruit, fresh fruit instead of preserve (blueberries work great), juice of an orange w the zest (use less water or more oats in this case), chocolate or carob chips, any smooth nut butter will work, chopped nuts.

Raw version: use raw oats, raw almond butter, agave nectar or other raw sweetener and dates, soak the dates in warm water, use fresh fruit or dried fruit that has been softened w a little water for the filling.

Fat free pancakes

2 cups water
2 cups rolled oats or oat flour
2 Very ripe bananas
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp pure maple syrup

Heat a griddle on med-high.

To make oat flour out of rolled oat blend them in a food processor, does not need to be as fine as flour but not too coarse.

Put all the wet ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Add dry ingredients and blend until smooth.

Ladle batter onto a griddle, non-stick preferred. If using another type of pan you will need to add 1-2 Tbsp oil or replace the water with coconut milk.

Allow the batter to completely dry on the top before flipping, the edges will curl up. Cook both sides until brown, edges may get crispy-tastes best this way.

Note: if the batter doesn’t completely dry before flipping the inside will be mushy. These are not very fluffy but the flavor of the banana and syrup make them taste great even without adding syrup while eating them.

Optional: use dates or other dried fruit in place of the syrup, in this case use hot water and allow for the fruit to soften in the hot water for 3 minutes before blending.

Power pancakes

Pancakes

1/3 cup Oat flour – or finely ground quick or rolled oats
1 cup cooked Quinoa
1 Cup water
1 mashed ripe Banana
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp salt – optional
1 Tbsp oil – optional if using a non-stick pan

Combine Oat flour and Baking powder. In a separate bowl or blender, I prefer the VitaMix but any blender will do, blend the cooked quinoa, banana and water until smooth, mix in the remaining ingredients. The mixture may be thick, add 1/4 cup of water if too thick to blend, do not thin out too much of u will have very thin pancakes.

Cook on med-high heat on a griddle. Allow to cook until golden brown on each side.

The inside will be a little uncooked, flatten w a spatula just after letting the 2nd side cool a little. This will make the pancakes loose the fluffiness but they will be cooked, OR keep an over or toasted heated to 350 and only cook the pancakes to cook to light brown on pan, then cook in oven for 5 minutes. I use a flat griddle that can fold on itself, so I close it for a few minutes at the end of cooking.

Serve with syrup.

Strawberry Syrup

10 strawberries
3 Tbsp agave nectar or maple syrup

Mash the Strawberries and blend with the syrup.

Notes:

The batter doesn’t bubble as much as regular pancakes. Adjust the amount of water to ensure the proper pancake batter consistency. I left out the salt and sprinkled a dash on top just before I ate mine. I liked the flavor better with the salt, but no-one else seemed to mind.

We ate them up so fast I didn’t get a chance to take a picture with the yummy strawberry syrup on top. Guess that means I’ll just have to make them again!

For McDougall-low fat, eliminate oil, cook on non-stick pan.