Banana Nut Granola

A delicious granola to snack on, eat like cereal or top your favorite non-dairy yogurt or ice cream.

• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 2 Tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 banana, mashed well

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 3/4 cup chopped raw walnuts
• 3/4 cup chopped raw pecans
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp flax seed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small sauce pan combine maple syrup and coconut oil and gently heat on low until melted.

While that’s heating, combine oats, walnuts, pecans, salt, cinnamon and flax seed in a bowl and stir well.

Once the coconut oil has melted, add vanilla and banana to the sauce pan and stir well.  Pour liquid mixture over oat mixture and stir until well coated.

Prepare a baking pan with parchment paper.  Spread granola mixture over pan (if it’s too crowded, use 2 pans to help it crisp up better).  Bake 23+ minutes or until slightly browned and crisping up, breaking up and mixing around about half way through.  If you need to bake longer, check every minute or two as it can burn quickly.  Allow to cool on pan.  Once completely cool, transfer to glass bowl and store covered.

Cinnamon Rolls with Dates

A great way to start a special morning – Christmas, New Years, a birthday – whatever!  Do everything the night before and then bake in the morning for delicious, fresh cinnamon rolls!  Modified from this recipe.

• 2 Tbsp warm water
• 1 Tbsp dry active yeast
• 1 cup non-dairy milk of your choice
• 1 Tbsp coconut oil (or oil of your choice)
• 1 Tbsp succanat or sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 1/4 cup spelt flour

• 3 oz dates, pitted and chopped
• boiling water for soaking
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2+ Tbsp maple syrup (2 Tbsp makes the rolls mildly sweet; Add more if you want them sweeter!)

• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• non-dairy milk of choice, a tsp at a time

In a small bowl, pour 2 Tbsp warm water and dump yeast on top.

In a small saucepan, combine non-dairy milk, coconut oil, succanat/sugar, and salt.  Heat gently on low until JUST lukewarm.  DO NOT overheat.  If you do overheat, you MUST cool it back to lukewarm before proceeding.  Otherwise, you will kill the yeast.  Trust me.  I experienced this.  😦

Once you are sure the milk is a good lukewarm temperature (like body temp or so), pour the water and yeast into it and mix well.  Allow to sit 5 – 10 minutes until it gets foamy.  If it doesn’t foam, your yeast is not activating.

While the yeast is activating, boil some water and pour on top of dates in a bowl.  Set aside to soften.

In a large bowl, combine both flours.  Once the yeast mixture is foamy, pour in with flour.  Stir well with a wooden spoon until well combined.  (Add more flour if needed.)  Dump out onto a floured surface and knead well.  Allow to sit for 10 minutes.  Wash out your dough bowl and dry completely.  Then, grease the bowl with some oil.  Place dough ball in the oiled bowl.  Cover with a damp towel.  Set a timer for 1 hour for rising time.

Shortly before the hour is up, drain dates.  Using a fork, smush apart the dates so it forms a paste.  Add cinnamon and maple syrup and smush some more.  You could use a small food processor at this point, but I didn’t bother.

After an hour of rising time, the dough should be doubled in size.  Dump it out onto a floured surface.  Roll into a rectangle that’s about 12″ x 15″.  Spread the date mixture on it.  Roll it up and slice it into about 12 pieces.  Grease a 9×9 pan and arrange the 12 rolls in it.  Cover with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning… preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake uncovered for 25 – 30 minutes.  While it’s baking, prepare the glaze by mixing powdered sugar with a small amount of non-dairy milk.  Add the milk in small increments as you stir with a fork until the desired consistency is reached.  Drizzle over hot cinnamon rolls and serve immediately.

Hearty Healthy Pancakes

My daughter has a bit of a cold and hasn’t been eating much recently.  We had a lazy morning today and I decided to make up some uber healthy pancakes since she’ll ALWAYS eat pancakes!  And she did – she ate 4 good sized pancakes in addition to her smoothie this morning and I’m happy knowing she got a great start to her day!  I think I should make some bigger batches of these next time and freeze them in breakfast size portions for easy school mornings.

• 3/4 cup almond meal (or ground almonds – I processed about 1/2 cup raw almonds to make 3/4 cup ground almonds)
• 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 3 Tbsp succanat (or sugar)
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 2 Tbsp flax meal
• several shakes of cinnamon, optional
• 1 Tbsp olive oil, or oil of choice, or omit
• heaping 1/2 cup pureed zucchini (peel and all) or other veggie of your choice (pumpkin, beets and eggplant have all disappeared into the pancakes)
• 1 banana, mashed or pureed
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup almond milk, or more as needed depending on which veggie you choose
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• frozen or fresh blueberries, for adding to pancakes once you put them on the griddle, optional

In a medium mixing bowl, add all the ingredients except blueberries in the order listed above, mixing thoroughly after all of the dry ingredients and then mixing until well combined after all the rest of the ingredients**.  Heat a griddle over medium-low heat.  Using a 1/2 cup measuring cup as a scooper, make 2 pancakes for every 1/2 cup (so 1/4 cup each).  After pouring 4 pancakes onto a griddle, add blueberries (frozen is fine) to each pancake.  Allow to cook until bubbles stay open (until holes begin to form from the bubble), then flip.  (Or just peek at the other side if you aren’t sure whether to flip them.)  Cook a few minutes more (a little less than the first side) on the second side.  Serve onto plates and serve with warmed maple syrup or fresh fruit or just plain (that’s my way!).

**Chef’s Note:  If you want to let a blender do a lot of the work for you, combine the milk, banana, applesauce (or raw apples), veggie, and vanilla and blend until smooth.  If you have  Vitamix or high speed blender, you can use whole flax seeds instead of flax meal and blend in those too!  Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, mix well, and then add the pureed contents of the blender.

Bagels

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My friend Elizabeth shared this recipe with me and it turned out great – and not difficult at all!  It’s a little time consuming because of the waiting between steps, but not much work involved so as long as you plan on being home for 2 hours or so, you can bang these out with little effort.

I also used the “dough” option and blade on my food processor for the first time with this and it worked great!  I would imagine that you could do this by hand with a wooden spoon and/or your (floured/greased) hands with a bit more effort.

Next time I may experiment with flavored bagels.  Elizabeth says if you want onion, to add /12 cup onion flakes to the dough.  I would like to try some seed bagels, trying to dip the bagels in seeds after the boiling step.  And adding cinnamon and raisins to the dough would be fun, too!  I wonder what would happen if you try with some frozen blueberries….???

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 cups white all purpose flour (or bread flour if you have it)
• 1 Tbsp vital wheat gluten
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp olive or vegetable oil, optional
• 2 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm water

For later:

• 1 Tbsp baking soda

Combine all ingredients in a food processor with a dough blade or an electric mixer with a dough paddle.  Mix until one big blob/ball is formed, scraping sides if needed.

Lightly grease a cookie sheet.  With greased or floured hands, split the dough into 9 – 10 or so balls.  Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit for 20 minutes.

Poke a hole in each to form a bagel shape.  Cover again and allow to sit for another 20 minutes.

Boil a wide pot of water.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Once boiling, add 1 Tbsp of baking soda, and then drop in several bagels, being sure they have enough space to get bigger.  (Don’t crowd them.)  Boil 1 minute each side.  Prepare a clean dish towel with a sprinkling of corn meal.  Once the bagels have cooked 1 minute per side, scoop on the prepared towel with a slotted spoon.  Continue cooking the bagels this way in batches.

Sprinkle some corn meal on the cookie sheet.  Bake bagels in batches for 20 minutes.  Remove and cool on a cooling rack.  Cool completely and then cut in half and freeze for easy breakfasts!

Peanut Butter Banana Breakfast “Cookies”

These are healthy but fun “cookies” that you’ll feel good about giving your kids (or yourself) as part of breakfast or as a snack.  Kinda reminiscent of banana bread – a soft chewy cookie.

• 1 cup spelt flour (or whole wheat pastry)
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats (I used quick)
• 1 super ripe banana, smushed
• 1/3 cup peanut butter (or nut/seed butter of your choice)
• 2 Tbsp pure maple syrup
• 4 oz (scant 1/4 cup) unsweetened applesauce*
• 2 Tbsp unsweetened original almond milk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir until well incorporated.  Grease a baking sheet.  Spoon dough onto a baking sheet.  You can crowd them – they won’t spread out hardly at all.  Bake for about 13 minutes or until browning a bit on the bottom.

*CHEF’S NOTE* I keep the individual 4 oz applesauce packs in my pantry for baking

Banana French Toast

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Ok, this is YUMMY!!!!  Wow, I’m so excited.  I never liked standard french toast (with eggs) and I had tried a different vegan french toast and wasn’t impressed.  This, however, was delicious!  The sweetness of the bananas was wonderful.

This quantity is for breakfast for 4, scale as you wish.

• 10 slices of bread (I used Rudi’s 100% Whole Wheat)
• 3 ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup non-dairy milk of your choice (I used unsweetened original almond milk, but sweetened vanilla ones would be yummy, too)
• 3/4 tsp vanilla
• oil for greasing pan
• cinnamon
• maple syrup, if you wish (I didn’t use any, but the others did)

In a blender, combine bananas, almond milk, and vanilla.  Puree.  Pour into a large, shallow bowl.

Heat a griddle on medium-low heat.  Spray with some oil or drizzle and wipe it to grease it.  You must do this again before cooking another set or it will stick!!

Drop a slice of bread in the banana mixture and saturate on both sides, place bread on griddle and repeat until griddle is full.  Sprinkle each slice with cinnamon.  Cook on low or medium-low for about 5 minutes each side, carefully peeking every now and then to see how it’s doing.  You want it to cook slowly so as to not overcook the surfaces while leaving the insides soggy.  Getting the sides a little blackened is desired – it’s really yummy when the banana getting blackened!  Once you flip, sprinkle with cinnamon again and cook for another 5 minutes or so.  Serve as is, sprinkled with more cinnamon, with maple syrup, and/or topped with sliced fresh fruit.

If you have more to cook, scrape the griddle a bit and GREASE AGAIN!

Champion’s Breakfast

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This breakfast requires a little forethought the night before, but is super easy in the morning and will guarantee that you start your day strong!  Forget processed cereal “junk,” this is the real deal.  (I have a reminder set on my apple devices at 8pm every night to remind me to go soak my oats!)

This makes one very good sized serving.  I eat a huge breakfast, though.  🙂  You might start with rolled oats and get used to that texture first before moving on to steel cut.

• 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats or 3/4 cup steel cut oats
• 1 1/2 – 2 cups unsweetened almond milk

Topping ideas that you can add the night before:

• Honey, drizzle (I used to need this to enjoy this, but I have slowly weaned myself off of it)
• Raw almonds, handful
• Frozen fruit – I use blueberries all the time

Topping ideas to add in the morning:

• Sunflower seeds
• Dried apple-juice sweetened cranberries
• Peanuts
• Sliced Banana
• Sliced strawberries
• Blueberries
• Diced apple, microwaved for 30 sec – 1 minute to soften if you want
• Cinnamon
• Ground flax seed
• Chia seeds

The night before, put the oats and almond milk in a bowl in the fridge, with perhaps some of the toppings.  In the morning add the rest of your favorite toppings and enjoy!  No cooking necessary!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie

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This smoothie tastes like a treat but really is good for you and has no added sugars!  It’s so good, it’s impossible to photograph a full cup!  😉

In a blender or a 2 cup measuring cup (for using an immersion blender), combine:

• 1 Banana
• 1 Heaping spoon of Peanut Butter
• 1 Spoon of Cocoa Powder
• Fill up to 2 cup mark with unsweetened Almond Milk

Blend well.  Serve cold.

Banana Smoothie

This is what my 4 year old has as part of her breakfast every morning.

I don’t measure exactly, but I use a small spoon to do my scooping….

• 1 ripe banana
• 1 prune, cut in half
• 1 scoop almond butter
• 1 scoop peanut butter
• 1 scoop nutritional yeast
• 1 – 2 scoops ground flax seed
• Fill to 2 cup mark with unsweetened almond milk

Optional ingredients that I sometimes included:  some leaves of spinach or other green, a few scoops of (unsweetened) applesauce, chia seeds

Puree with an immersion blender.  (Or, throw this all in a regular blender.)  I just serve it right in the measuring cup that I make it in, with a straw.  A good way for a kid to learn some fractions as they drink!

Banana Pancakes with Blueberries

My husband has always been in charge of weekend pancake making.  He has kindly evolved his recipe over the years to meet my dietary requirements.  From the switch of all white flour to half white/half whole wheat and recently the omitting of eggs, milk, and butter, they have slowly gotten a lot healthier!

• 1/2 cup white flour
• 1 cup whole wheat (pastry) flour
• 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• optional: 1 1/2 Tbsp ground flax seed
• several shakes of cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil (can omit if you are following a non-oil diet)
• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• 1/4 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
• 3/4 cup almond milk (unsweetened original)
• 3/4 cup water (don’t add it all – add rest as needed to get a good consistency)
• frozen or fresh blueberries, for adding to pancakes once you put them on the griddle

In a medium mixing bowl, add ingredients (through water) in order above, adding the water slowly to achieve a good pancake batter consistency.  Heat a griddle over medium heat.  Using a 1/2 cup measuring cup as a scooper, make 2 pancakes for every 1/2 cup (so 1/4 cup each).  After pouring 4 pancakes onto a griddle, add blueberries (frozen is fine) to each pancake.  Allow to cook until bubbles stay open (until holes begin to form from the bubble), then flip.  Cook a few minutes more (a little less than the first side) on the second side.  Serve onto plates and serve with warmed maple syrup or fresh fruit or just plain (that’s my way!).

You can see this batch had some for our daughter – a snowman pancake and a mini-pancake!