heartyspoonful

"Life is full of banana skins. You slip, you carry on."

- Daphne Guinness

• 1/3 cup soy yoghurt
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 chia egg (or any other egg replacer)
• 3 ripe, spotted bananas, mashed

• 1.5 cups whole wheat flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt 
• Handful of chocolate chips, optional
• 1 banana, optional

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, mix together soy yoghurt and brown sugar until creamy. Add chia egg and mashed bananas. Once incorporated, add in whole wheat flour, baking powder and salt. Careful not to overmix. Fold in chocolate chips if desired.

Pour into prepared loaf pan. If desired, slice a banana lengthwise into two. Top off the mix with the banana.

Bake for 45-60 minutes. Once baked, let cool on a wire rack before slicing.


Enjoy! xx

P.S.
* - I really, really don't like soy yoghurt. I was reaching for unsweetened coconut yoghurt, but alas, that was not to be. If you follow my Instagram (Ccarlamiel), you'll notice I did manage to eat some with my chia seed parfait.
** - One of the last books I read was Seeing What Others Don't by Gary Klein. After reading this book, I couldn't help but notice my patterns. And so now, I go with the flow. I believe there's always something out there to discover, but you just have to let it come to you. You might even end up making something beautiful (or delicious) with something you don't like. 

"Christmas isn't a season. It's a feeling."

- Edna Ferber

• 1.5 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 2/3 cup coconut oil, melted (or use vegan butter or canola oil)
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar 
• 1/2 cup almond milk (in room temperature if using coconut milk)
• 1.5 tbsp apple cidre vinegar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3 plums, sliced in small chunks
• 2 plums, slices for topping
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chip 

Line a round cake tin with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350F.

In a small bowl or cup, pour room temperature almond milk and apple cidre vinegar. Do not stir. 

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, ground cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Then, add the coconut oil or butter and mix gently. Once mixed, add in sugar and mix again. Fold in plums and dark chocolate chips.

Add baking soda to the almond milk mixture and stir until frothy. Pour into batter and mix. Don't overmix.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin. Line the top with the remaining plums and add some chocolate chips if desired. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before removing from the pan. Serve warm.

Enjoy! xx

"Let them eat kale!"

- Definitely not Marie-Antoinette

• Kale
• Asparagus
• Carrots
• Broccoli
• Sweet potato
• Avocado
• Cherry tomatoes

In a pan, heat olive oil.  When hot enough, stir in asparagus. Add desired herbs (my favourite are rosemary and basil). Then, once asparagus are halfway cooked, mix in broccoli. Stir. Add shaved carrots and a dash of tamari to taste. Once all veggies are cooked to desired softness, remove from heat.

Steam sweet potatoes for 20-30 minutes, depending on size. After, steam kale for 5-10 minutes, until soft and easier to chew.

To prepare a bowl, add a serving of the veggie stiry fry, steamed sweet potato, kale, sliced cherry tomatoes and avocado. For the dressing, I prefer pure balsamic vinegar or tahini.

Enjoy!

xx

P.S. I told you, I really am not precise with recipes.

"Number one, I absolutely love making chocolate chip cookies. I mean, it's fun. It's exciting. Beyond the fact I love making them, I love eating them."

- Debbie Fields

Truth be told, I'm not a cookie baking afficionado. From my multiple past experiences, I burn cookies more than I actually bake them. I blame it on my oven, but that's a whole other story. So, of course, an amalgamation of past failure baking experiences only reinforces my aversion to baking chocolate chip cookies. Until of course my mum made too much pumpkin puree and we were stuck with a dilemma. She didn't feel like having pumkin bread, only because I had already baked a banana bread the previous day. She also didn't want pumpkin pie - she hates pies. Unless it's apple pie. Then, again, that's a whole other story. I had to rely on, as Poirot would describe, the little grey cells. As if I've just come into an insight, I opened all my cupboards and checked what's aplenty. Chocolate chips. Flour. Coconut oil. Brown sugar. This might be a good time to try cookies. Again.

Another issue that arose was, although I had set my heart into baking cookies, I didn't actually have a vegan pumpkin cocolate chip cookie recipe (phew, that was a mouthful). Already tired from work that day, I had to come up with a recipe. But hey, that was a breather compared to what my actual profession entails. This is more exciting. All the possibilities! The eyeing of measurements and adjustments to be made. Because, let me tell you, if you bake often enough, you can eye just by th texture of your dough or mixture how your bread or cookie or cake will turn out once it's baked. Experience is the best teacher, as the saying goes.


Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes approx. 15 cookies

Wet ingredients:

• 1/3 cup + 2 tbsp pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mixture)
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted *
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar

Dry ingredients:

• 1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour **
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bakin soda
• 1.5 tsp cinnamon
• Dash of nutmeg
• Pinch of salt
• Chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, mix together all dry ingredients except for chocolate chips. In a separate bowl, mix together all wet ingredients. Then, gradually add in dry into wet ingredients. Be careful not to overmix. Add in chocolate chips and mix until incorporated.

Roll into spoonful size balls. Bake for 8-12 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies. Once baked, cool for at least 15 minutes.

Enjoy xx!

• 1.5 chia egg (1.5 chia seeds plus 4-5 tbsp of water)
• 2 ripe medium-sized bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar or brown sugar
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

Dry Ingredients

• 1 cup sweet sorghum flour *
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• Dark chocolate chunks 
• Coconut flakes, optional

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking dish with parchment paper (I used a round pan - a regular loaf pan would work, too).

In a small bowl, mix together all wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, sift together all dry ingredients, except for dark chocolate chunk. Pour wet into dry and mix until all is incorporated. Be careful not to overmix. Fold in dark chocolate chunks.

Pour into baking dish and top with coconut flakes if desired. Bake for 30-45 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes before slicing.

* - You can also try a regular gluten-free flour blend and adjust wet ingredients accordingly. I usually just eye it.

Enjoy xx 

"... I have no time left except for people I'm crazy about."

- Edna St. Vincent Millay

• 2 cups gluten-free oats
• 2 tbsp coconut flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 4-5 medjool dates, chopped
• 3/4 cup unsweetened dessicated coconut
• 1 medium ripe banana
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 cup coconut nectar (or maple syrup)

Preheat oven 275F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together mashed banana, melted coconut oil and coconut nectar.
Then add in the remaining dry ingredients. Make sure that all of the oats are evenly coated.

Pour the mix on the baking sheet. Bake for 45-55 minutes, making sure to stir at least twice.

Store in an air-tight container once cooled completely.

I've got two tubs of coconut yoghurt and the Game. Is. On. 

Enjoy xx 

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."

- Anne of Green Gables

I grew up in a country where there were only two seasons: dry and wet. And I was miserable. I needed more colour and I definitely could have lived with less grey all around. So when we finally decided to move to Canada, I was ecstatic. Four seasons. Four different colour schemes. Autumn, it was my calling.

I don't kid you when I saw the transformation of nature when autumn breeze finally said hello. All the yellow and orange and red, an artist's dream. I didn't even mind the weather. Or the need to rake leaves every two minutes. My inner poet comes out in the fall. I just want to string beautiful words together and pour my heart out. But that has already gotten me in trouble already.

But I digress. The point of this post is not only to emphasise just how much I love layers and knits and chunky sweaters, but to also present you my vegan pumpkin bread recipe. I whipped this baby up one night, panicking because I had previously promised a friend I'll make pumpkin bread... but with no recipe. So I tried again, trying to retrace my steps. Ha-ha, not very easy when I sometimes don't even remember if I had tied my hair or not.

Again, I digress. I hope you like the recipe!


Vegan Pumpkin Bread with Dark Chocolate Cheese 
Serves 8-12

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
• 2 tbsp coconut nectar
• 3 tbsp-4tbsp water or almond milk
• 1/2 cup chocolate of choice

Preheat oven to 350F

In a bowl, mix together all dry ingredients (flour to nutmeg). In a separate bowl, whisk together all wet ingredient (pumpkin puree to water). Then, add wet to dry ingredients, careful not to overmix. Fold in chocolate chips.

Pour mix in a loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes. Once baked, let cool on a cooling rack.

Serve!

Enjoy xx