Tag: breakfast food

Plant Protein Powered Breakfast Cookies!

Plant Protein Powered Breakfast Cookies

These cookies make a great breakfast or snack on the go.  Pair a couple of these with some fresh fruit and you have a delicious and nutritious start to the day!  Need a compact quick energy source while out on a hike or bike ride?  These will definitely do the trick.  Chock full of goodies like wheat germ, flax, pumpkin seeds, and hemp seeds, these babies pack a protein punch!  Not to mention the vitamin E, zinc, omega 3’s, and iron they bring to the party too!  You won’t miss the oil, eggs, or dairy here.  If you tend to be pressed for time, double the batch and freeze some of the baked cookies for when you need something quick on the go.

INGREDIENTS:

DRY
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2  cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup sunflower or pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup hemp seeds

5 Medjool (or 10 deglet noor), chopped

1 handful dried cranberries

WET

1 flax egg (1 Tablespoon flaxseed meal mixed with 3 Tablespoons water)

1/2 large ripe banana, mashed

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/3-1/2 cup sucanat (or organic brown sugar)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 Tablespoons almond milk

DIRECTIONS: 

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl, set aside.  Combine wet ingredients in a separate bowl.  Next, add the wet mixture to the dry one in the large bowl.  Mix well with a wooden spoon to combine.
  3. Drop by spoonfuls onto 1 or 2 parchment lined baking sheets.  Bake for 20 minutes, rotating the pans after 10 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.  Once they cool, if you want to put some  in the freezer for future use, now’s the time.  Otherwise, if you leave them out they’ll be all gobbled up before you know it!  Enjoy!!

 

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Lemon Raspberry Almond Muffins!

These are so great and summery, as the summer comes to an end.  The great thing is that with frozen raspberries, you can have a little bit of summer, all year ’round!  These muffins are moist, flavorful and delicious!  You’d never know they are dairy, egg, oil and fat-free!  All that’s left is yummy goodness!  They make a great snack, breakfast food or companion to a cup of tea or coffee.  My son loves to take them to preschool for a snack!   Enjoy!!

Yields 12 muffins

Ingredients

1 lemon

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup soymilk + 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 Tablespoon flaxseed meal + 3 Tablespoons water

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups white whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen, NOT thawed)

1/2 cup sliced almonds

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line muffin tins with paper liners.  Pour soymilk in a liquid measuring cup, add the vinegar and set aside.  In a separate small bowl, combine the flaxseed meal and water, then set aside.
  2. Use a vegetable peeler  to remove  all of  the yellow zest from the lemon,  in long strips.  Try not to get much of the bitter  white pith.
  3. In a food processor (or variable speed high powered blender), combine the zest and sugar.  Pulse until the zest and sugar are well blended together, and zest is finely processed.
  4. Add  soymilk and flaxseed mixtures, applesauce and vanilla.  Pulse until well blended.
  5. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  A wire whisk does a great job blending dry ingredients.
  6. Pour the liquid mixture into the the bowl  and fold the wet into the dry ingredients until almost blended.  Add raspberries and almonds and GENTLY fold to combine.
  7. Spoon equal amounts into each of the 12 muffin cups.  Gently tap the muffin tin on  the counter to release any air bubbles.
  8. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until tops are golden.  Give the muffin pan a half turn, after 10 minutes. 
  9. Let muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
  10. Enjoy!

FYI: If you try to peel a muffin from  the paper while it’s still warm, it will stick to the paper.   To make sure you get more of the muffin and leave less of it on the paper, make sure they are completely cool.  Or, just eat it right off the paper!

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Morning Glory Muffins

These are a favorite muffin around here.  They are lightly sweet and chock-full of great stuff like raisins, carrots, bananas and summer squash.   They also freeze very well, and are a great, healthy afternoon snack. 

If you have a food processor, this is one of those times that is worth dragging it out for.  It makes prepping the squash and carrots so much easier.  If you don’t have one, then a box grater can do the same job with a little more effort (aka “love”).

There is a small amount of coconut oil here, but it adds a LOT of flavor.  If you’d like to omit the oil, you could always substitute 2 Tbs. of applesauce or baby food prunes. Canola oil will also work; you just won’t get that coconut-ty flavor.  Enjoy! 

1 pound summer squash (zucchini, patty pan, or geode squash all work well) – seeds removed if necessary, and shredded (or cut into 1 inch chunks if using a food processor).

¼ cup + 2 Tbs. sugar (preferably raw sugar or evaporated cane juice)

2 large carrots, shredded or cut into 1 inch chunks if using a food processor

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup walnuts, chopped

2 Tablespoons coconut oil

1 ½ ripe bananas, mashed

¼ cup non-dairy milk (soy, rice almond, oat, hemp, hazelnut, etc.)

¼ cup flaxseed meal + ½ cup water, combined in a small bowl

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 375, spray 2 muffin tins with cooking spray

2. In a food processor, fitted with the “S” blade, process the zucchini and 2 Tablespoons sugar until zucchini is coarsely shredded (about 15 one second pulses).  Transfer to a mesh strainer and sit about 2 inches over a bowl to drain for 30 minutes (while you prep remaining ingredients).  If you don’t have a food processor, then just shred the zucchini using the large holes of a box grater to shred it.  Same goes for the carrots in the next step.

3.  Place carrot chunks in the food processor and process (again, about 15 one second pulses).  Transfer to a medium size bowl and set aside.  Now you’re done with the food processor, or box grater! 

4. In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, remaining ¼ cup sugar, cinnamon baking soda, baking powder, salt, and nuts).  In a smaller bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients (oil, bananas, milk substitute, flax/water mixture, lemon juice, vanilla and raisins).  Set aside.

5.  Squeeze any excess moisture out of the zucchini with a few paper towels.  Stir the zucchini and carrots into the flour mixture.  Once combined, add the wet ingredients and stir until just moistened. 

6. Scrape batter out of the bowl and into the prepared muffin tins.  Bake for 20-30 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick into the center of one and it comes out clean.  Don’t forget to rotate the pans half way through cooking, to insure more even cooking.  Once baked, cool in tins for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.    

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