Outrageously Good Paleo Maple & Blueberry Cranberry Muffins

Good morning sweetpea's!

I promised some tasty treats and I is here to delivah! Hehheh

But first, a little bit of me.

My son has left for a month long trip to Indonesia, and as per his usual, he waited til the last minute to get stuff done. He did start early but faltered near the end. It came to packing and travel snacks; this is where we are polar opposites. 

I am a planner and I like to be well ready, waaaaaay before hand. Like, packed suitcases 2 weeks before with lists, photocopies of important documents, snacks & food stuffs prepped for a quick throw it all together and bake it up the night before, and all meds/necessities Ziploc-ed and good to go. I even buy the book(s) I am going to read 2 weeks before and torture myself by keeping them in plain view, while not allowing myself to even have a sneak peak read. It makes the travel day extra fun to look forward to, along with the actual trip of course. 

Not my son. 

We had planned on pre-prep a week before, he said all was fine. Yeah right.

2 days before, I get a call with a need for help, suitcase, locks, Ziploc bags, face cloths, and drumroll please...

"Mom, do you have any yummy snacks for travelling? Like those muffin thingy's you were talking about?"

My son, 23 and still flying by the seat of his pants. He also trains a lot and lkes healthier and gf options. 

Good thing I had just made myself a batch of muffins and had frozen cookie dough on hand-just in case. Turns out neither items made it to flight, apparently both were too tasty to resist. He even exchanged one of the muffins for a free java jolt from one of his friends who works at a coffee shop. She texted him a while later exclaiming their "soooo good" tastiness. 

I guess next time he'll plan better. Hahahaha hahahaha- whoo, that was a good one. ;) 

This is my son and I, two days before take off:

We were having fun being silly, taking selfies or togethers? Meh. You get the point.

We caught up on life moments, cracked jokes, talked street food and safety stuff for travel. We were both excited for his first, long, far away, travel adventure. I prayed so hard for his safety and continue to do so, he landed safely and has begun to have fun. I need a vacation. Maybe baking travel muffins will kick-start my next get away. Sooner than later, I hope. Pb, we need to get this wagon train a movin'.

Okay, back to food.

Well, this Paleo muffin recipe is one I make the day before I get on a plane. There are no refined sugars, no soy, no dairy, and it is vegetarian. I like that it has loads of fiber, good fats, protein, and tastes outrageously good. I kid you not, whenever I go to Poppa Bear, these come on flight with me. Pb likes to munch on the remaining one's and looks forward to eating these nom nom's of delight. He always asks if I am bringing them with when I come see him. 

They are not a light and fluffy, cake muffin, like you are used to. These are more compact, smaller, more dense, and nutritionally sound-also filling. They are a perfect travel food and have helped me when stuck places where allergy-free items are not available. 

This recipe comes from my mother, she found a recipe somewhere, didn't like it, and gave it a great makeover. 

Typical pastry Chef, I get it from her honestly. 

I further tweaked the recipe, I reduced the eggs and upped the flax. These are not nut-free, they contain almonds, you can try with different nuts if you like. 

Here goes, and as always there are pics to guide you down below.

PALEO MAPLE BLUEBERRY & CRANBERRY MUFFINS

Ingredients:

1 Cup Almond flour aka ground almonds

1/2 Cup Flax seed ground 

2 Flax "eggs" (mix 1 Tbsp ground flax with 3 Tbsp water, mix & let sit for 5 minutes until gummy) 

1/2 Cup Coconut flour

2 tsp Baking powder

2 Tbsp Walnut oil

2 Tbsp Coconut oil

2 Eggs

1/2 tsp Sea salt

3/4 Cup Maple syrup grade B

3/4 Cup Blueberries frozen

1/2 Cup Cranberries frozen and chopped in half (can add up to 3/4 Cup) 

Method:

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

-Keep fruit until very end, do not add until all else is mixed, use from frozen

-Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners

-In a bowl mix dry ingredients

-In a seperate bowl mix wet ingredients

-Mix together until well combined, add in frozen fruit, stir until just incorporated. 

-Drop by large scoopfull into liners and once full, place in middle rack of preheated oven

-Bake for 20 minutes, turn tray halfway and bake for another 15-20 minutes. 

-Only remove from oven when golden brown, allow to cool in tray.

-Remove from tray and enjoy!

-Store in an airtight container in fridge for up to 5 days, can freeze up to 2-3 weeks. 

Mixing flax eggs to sit as I prep the dry and then wet ingredients.

I mix with a fork and quickly incorporate the frozen fruit, I don't want the dough to change to a blue colour so no over mixing. Which btw, is why people often end up with rock hard muffins in regular, gluten-filled baking. Over stirring toughens up glutens and gives a dense hard brick muffin. Chef tip of the day ;)

These get a light golden brown on them, they are perfect when they look like the above pic on the left. It is as I stated before, a more dense, not high baking, empty calories, sugar laden fluff.

They are healthy but remember that these are high in good fats, and too much of anything is not a good thing. 

Eat max 1 or 2 per day, you will be fine.

Bonne appétit!

Any questions or comments can be left down below, I like hearing from you, and feel free to test these on your next trip and tell us all about it! 

Abba bless you & yours...

Misty Morning Green Smoothie, Day 24 of the 30 day Self-Love DetoxChallenge

Morning Lovelies,

We are nearing the final stretch of this 30 day challenge and I do want to put up some more health info, today is a simple smoothie to start your day off right. It gets protein in via almond butter & almond milk, Spirulina and I added extra green iron yumminess thanks to good ol' spinach. It is a nice mild taste for those of you who have a tough time with too much green strong flavours, in some of the more intense smoothies. I likes that I felt satiated for several hours after drinking this one and it went down smoothly. It does have banana in it, some people cannot do banana as it is difficult for them to digest. I recommend replacing it with 1/1 a ripe avocado an increasing the apple by another whole one. It won't taste exactly the same but it will still be smooth and filling; with the added bonus of more healthy fats!

It was grey, misty kind of raining when I made it and decided the name was apropos. 

MISTY MORNING GREEN SMOOTHIE

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1 medium size ripe banana

1 apple

Handful of spinach leaves

1 generous tsp roasted almond butter

1 tsp maple syrup

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp Spirulina powder

1 1/2 Cups unsweetened almond milk

Method: 

-Place all in blender and blend for 30 seconds or until all is smooth

-Serve immediately over ice or just drink it straight.

Enjoy!

Don't forget to subscribe & leave any comments or questions down below, I like hearing about your kitchen adventure's. God bless!

Vegan Carrot Ginger and Coconut Soup

I love how the slice of ginger came out looking like a cute heart, totally unintentional and sweet.
Yup, I have tons of organic carrots needing to be used for something other than juicing and I thought this soup was the answer. It came out so delicious, smooth, flavour punch to the taste buds, and kept well in the fridge. It also met the dairy free criteria, so I was happy. The family enjoyed it and I did not have any difficulty eating it several times in a row. I am not big on leftovers past a day or two. This recipe is also good for the coconut series the Kinky Coconut is focusing on at the moment, if you are hearing about it for the first time, feel free to click on the links below for great coconut information:

Here's the easy soup recipe, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

VEGAN CARROT GINGER AND COCONUT SOUP:

Ingredients:

12 Organic carrots, peeled & chopped (I am going to insist on organic for this recipe)
1 Celery stalk, peeled & chopped
1 Shallot peeled & chopped
1 Onion peeled & chopped
4 Cups Vegetable stock (feel free to use chicken if you prefer but no beef-this makes it no longer vegan - duh)
3 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Tbsp Vegan margarine
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp fresh pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbsp Ginger grated
2 Bay leaves
1/4 Cup coconut creamer
1 Tbsp Rice miso
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
Method:
-In pot, heat oil and margarine until hot, then add shallots and onion. Cook until translucent.
-Add celery and carrot, cook 5 minutes and stir often.
-Add seasoning but not the miso and stock, bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and allow to cook until carrots are soft. About 25-35 minutes.
-Remove from heat, remove Bay leaves, stir in miss, nutritional yeast and then allow to cool.
-Once completely cool, blend in blender until smooth.
-Add coconut cream, stir thoroughly and place back on heat. Warm up the soup and test to see if you need to add some salt and pepper to taste. That's it, all ready to serve!
Share this recipe with someone you love, leave your comments down below and don't forget to subscribe.

Raw Vegan Pumpkin Spice Crackers & Day 5 of the 30 Day Self-Love Detox Challenge

           

Bonjour!

Je suis la avec des citrouilles aka I am here with ze pumpkins.

It's Tasty Tuesday and that usually means a scrumptious recipe. I am still prepping you for our vegan week love fest leading to our juice cleanse in 2 weeks. I will continue to bring it up as I want us all to be mentally preparing ourselves for the awesome experience of juice fasting! 

Today though we explore the humble pumpkin and that lovely pumpkin pie spice that most of us have put away ever since the fall/winter days have begun to fade. I am including this now though because it is a mostly raw recipe and I had some homemade pumpkin mash left and was going to lose it. I also had seeds and decided to make a yummy raw dehydrated cracker; what goes great with pumpkin? That's right, pumpkin spices! You so clevah ;P

So here you are a delightful recipe for a mildly sweet snack that I like crunching on with a tall glass of cold almond milk. 

U used Tumeric & Boabab in this recipe, both considered to be super foods; so before I go further I am going to drop some knowledge on yah. The recipe follows.

       

                

Apparently Organic Burst is one of the best on the market, I have an organic raw one I got on special at the health food store, you can see it in the pic as part of the cracker breakdown how-to. This is Organic burst's:

                                  

                             

                               

                             

          

RAW VEGAN PUMPKIN SPICE COOKIES

Ingredients:

1 Cup pumpkin purée 

1 1/2 Cups Raw sunflower seeds soaked 6 hours, drained and well rinsed. Blend them with 3/4 Cup almond milk or coconut water.

1/2 Cup Raw sunflower seeds for sprinkling

1 Tbsp Boabab powder

1/2 Cup Date paste (Recipe link follows)

1/4 tsp Tumeric ground

1 1/2 Tbsp Spice mix of choice (I make mine but pie spice mix is great)

3 Tbsp Maple syrup grade B

1 Tbsp Tiger nuts ground

1 tsp Extra virgin olive oil cold pressed

1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon ground

Method:

-Add all dry ingredients to wet and mix until well combined.

-On a teflex or parchment lined Excalibur dehydrator tray, spread dough out to about 1 inch thickness, square off edges.

Place in dehydrator on rawfood 105 degree setting, for 2 1/2 hours, remove and score with a knife into square crackers. (See the pics down below) Put back in the dehydrator for 6 hours.

-Check to see if the crackers are getting to a medium dry consistency, you need to make sure they are not too wet because they must be flipped onto a new Excalibur tray lined with the regular white tray sheet it comes with; you need the air to circulate over and around the crackers so they dry properly. 

-Place an Excalibur sheet lined tray (Do not use a teflex sheet, just the regular plastic white sheet the trays always come with) over the top of the crackers and quickly flip the tray over. You will be able to gently and slowly remove the teflex sheet or parchment paper. (Don't force it if they are not ready, place them back in if it is too hard to remove)

-The score marks will be evident, the crackers go back in the dehydrator for another 8-12 hours depending how crisp you like them. I left my crackers in for a total of 24 hours.

-Once dry, remove from the tray and gently break the crackers where the score marks are. Store in an airtight glass jar. These will keep for several weeks, if they don't all get eaten first! 

As always, pics follow below to help guide you along. Leave any questions or comments down below, I love to hear about your kitchen adventures.

             

              Spread the mix evenly.

             

              Sprinkle across the top with seeds. 

             

              Score those pumpkin yummie's!

               

              Once dry you can gently break them up.

                 

              See how nice and crisped thin they are.

             

I hope you enjoy these, they taste seriously good with cold almond milk-unsweetened of course!

             

Leave your comments or questions down below, don't forget to subscribe & have a blessed day!

                                       

The Best Rawfood Vegan Apple Pie Crackers Day & Day 7 Prep for 30 DaySelf-Love Detox Chllenge

             

Oh my gaaaah! These are amaze bombs, like addictively good!

I cannot get enough of these and my family keeps sneaking or asking for more. Crackers that are slightly sweet, with a delectable crunch, chock full of yum scrum ingredients, and taste apple pie-esque. You had me at raw vegan baby, heheh.  

I highly recommend making a triple or even quadruple batch because they are the first to go at our house & it may well be the same in yours. Feel free to switch up the apples for strawberries, carrots or zukes.

THE BEST RAWFOOD VEGAN APPLE PIE CRACKERS

(I prefer organic ingredients for rawfood dehydrated items but do the best you can, no judgement.)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Grated Large apple with no peel (I used Spartan apples, try to get organic, keep the peel if you like that sort of thing)

1 Cup Almond pulp from making raw almond milk (recipe link follows)

1/4 Cup Hemp seeds

3 Tbsp Ground golden flax

3 Tbsp Ground tiger nuts

1 1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon

Pinch pink sea salt

1/2 tsp vanilla pods or 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 Cup Maple syrup grade B

1 Cup Almond milk (recipe link follows)

1/4 tsp Walnut oil (DO NOT use more)

Method:

-Add all dry ingredients to wet and mix until well combined.

-On a teflex or parchment lined Excalibur dehydrator tray, spread dough out to about 1 inch thickness, square off edges.

Place in dehydrator on rawfood 105 degree setting, for 2 1/2 hours, remove and score with a knife into square crackers. (See the pics down below) Put back in the dehydrator for 6 hours.

-Check to see if the crackers are getting to a medium dry consistency, you need to make sure they are not too wet because they must be flipped onto a new Excalibur tray lined with the regular white tray sheet it comes with; you need the air to circulate over and around the crackers so they dry properly. 

-Place an Excalibur sheet lined tray (Do not use a teflex sheet, just the regular plastic white sheet the trays always come with) over the top of the crackers and quickly flip the tray over. You will be able to gently and slowly remove the teflex sheet or parchment paper. (Don't force it if they are not ready, place them back in if it is too hard to remove)

-The score marks will be evident, the crackers go back in the dehydrator for another 8-12 hours depending how crisp you like them. I left my crackers in for a total of 24 hours.

-Once dry, remove from the tray and gently break the crackers where the score marks are. Store in an airtight glass jar. These will keep for several weeks, if they don't all get eaten first! 

As always, pics follow below to help guide you along. Leave any questions or comments down below, I love to hear about your kitchen adventures.

http://thekinkycoconut.blogspot.ca/2015/07/vanilla-bean-almond-milk-rawfood.html  

                     

 Crackers all done, I stored them in glass mason jars and have been watching them fade away as they get munched away.

                           

                          

                           Mix it up!

                         

                          Dehydrator time!

                        

                         Score those bad boys!

                       

                        Break them up

                       

                        Light & crispy

                       

                       Nice because not too thick.

                      

       Enjoy darlings, and come back for more tomorrow! Have a lovely & blessed day.

             

The Best Raw Vegan Banana Bread Sticks Day 5 Prep for 30 DaySelf-Love Detox Challenge

                        

Yipeeee!

Nana bread lovey's, and she be rawfood vegan goodness! Wait, she be awesome with a cape on yo banana goodness! Teehee...

I came up with this recipe this week because I had so many bananas in the freezer that I had to do something with a few of em'. 

I need to cop to something, I usually dislike banana anything in rawfood except for eating a real banana alone or bananas that are dried in lime juice-will post that recipe another day. Yep, banana dehydrated stuff is not my cup of tea but like I said, there was an avalanche of bananas to contend with. These breadsticks are super deelish! It was a pleasant surprise that they came out so yummy and they were liked by all who tried them, double win!

                         

It made a full tray, I didn't dare make more in case I did not likey. Now I know and will be "unbaking" them more often, you need to get the kids in on making these as they will enjoy smashing up the bananas; there is also no "cooking" involved so let them have fun. One of the things I appreciate about rawfood is that old and young alike can make this food.

This recipe is part of stocking up your pantry in prep for the 30 Day Self-Love Detox Challenge, there will be some more lovely recipes this week so you need to come back and you should subscribe to get them sent directly to your inbox, in case you have not already.

Without further ado, banana bread crisped delightfulness.

THE BEST RAW VEGAN BANANA BREAD STICKS

makes 1 Excalibur tray

Ingredients:

(I use organic, try to do the best you can with what you can afford. The coconut oil really does need to be cold-pressed though.)

2 Very ripe bananas mashed

3/4 Cup almond pulp leftover from making almond milk (recipe link below)

1/2 Cup Brown flax ground

1 tsp vanilla

1/8 Cup coconut flour

1/2 Cup date paste (recipe follows below milk recipe)

1/2 tsp Fresh scraped nutmeg

1 Tbsp coconut oil cold pressed unrefined

3 Tbsp Dark Maple syrup (grade B)

1/8 tsp Walnut oil (DO NOT use more!)

1 Cup Raw Sunflower seeds, soaked 2-3 hours, drained & rinsed well

2/3 Cup almond milk mixed with 1/4 Cup water (almond milk recipe below)

Method:

-In a blender mix sunflower seeds with almond milk & water mixture until a thick paste forms. Place in a bowl with mashed bananas, maple syrup and vanilla.

-Add date paste, nutmeg and coconut oil, mix together well.

-Add all dry ingredients to wet and mix until well combined, the flax seeds will give you a very thick dough.

-On a teflex or parchment lined Excalibur dehydrator tray, spread dough out to about 1-1 1/2 inch thickness, square off edges.

Place in dehydrator on rawfood 105 degree setting, for 2 1/2 hours, remove and score with a knife into rectangular "sticks". (See the pics down below) Put back in the dehydrator for 10 hours.

-Check to see if the sticks are getting to a medium pliable bread consistency, you need to make sure they are not too wet because they must be flipped onto a new Excalibur tray lined with the regular white tray sheet it comes with because you need the air to circulate over and around the sticks so they dry properly. 

-Place an Excalibur sheet lined tray (Do not use a teflex sheet, just the regular plastic white sheet the trays always come with) over the top of the sticks and quickly flip the tray over. You will be able to gently and slowly remove the teflex sheet or parchment paper. (Don't force it if they are not ready, place them back in if it is too hard to remove)

-The score marks will be evident, at this point you can take some of the pieces and use them as warm bread for breakfast with nut spread and fruit if you like. Otherwise the sticks go back in the dehydrator for another 8-12 hours depending how crisp you like them. I left my sticks in for a total of 24 hours.

-Once dry, remove from the tray and gently break the sticks where the score marks are. Store in an airtight glass jar. These will keep for several weeks, if they don't all get eaten first! 

As always, pics follow below to help guide you along. Leave any questions or comments down below, I love to hear about your kitchen adventures.

 

http://thekinkycoconut.blogspot.ca/2015/07/vanilla-bean-almond-milk-rawfood.html 

http://thekinkycoconut.blogspot.ca/2015/08/date-paste-rawfood.html

                           

This is a thick mix, it spreads well though. The first 2 pics are before dehydrating and the last three in the pic are after the first few hours.

                            

Take your time lifting, these are delicate, if they stick too much then they are not ready to be peeled off. Place them back in the dehydrator for another hour or two, then try peeling them again.

                           

They come out dark & delicious, I tested one to be sure you would not have to. I know, I am nice like that. Pffffft.

                           

                          

                                                     Broke em' all up for storing.

                          

                                                                 So good!

                           

Notice the thickness, I like them like this but feel free to go thicker or thinner. I think these would also make a great cereal, feel free to score them into little bite sized squares and use them for breakfast or crumbled on coconut yogurt.

                            

                                Have fun making these and God bless you and yours!