Chocolate Malt Ice Cream

This ice cream is super smooth and creamy with the addition of fresh coconut meat. I really enjoy it without all that extra sugar that store-bought ice cream seems to have. The last container of Vanilla Rice Dream I bought, I ended up tossing. It was just too sweet.

I have to admit that the ingredients for this ice cream are not everyday items in your refrigerator or kitchen cupboards. But this is such a delicious, creamy ice cream that it is totally worth it to search them out and learn new techniques – like opening a young coconut. Once you do it, you will see that it is very easy and rather gratifying. When you make this recipe, don't get too hung up on quantities. Just use whatever meat and water that you get from the coconut. If you don't get a full cup of either the water or meat, that's okay. You can top off the coconut water with non-dairy milk. I've made this recipe twice and each time I got one cup of water and meat from the coconut.

The maca powder is considered a "super food." You can find it online at Amazon or at a natural food store. You could probably substitute the maca powder with malt powder but it just so happened that I had some maca powder that I use for my smoothies.

Ingredients
1 cup cashews, soaked overnight and drained
1 cup fresh coconut meat, chopped
1 cup coconut water (from the coconut)
1 cup non-dairy milk
2 TB maca powder
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup plus 2 TB cocoa powder

Directions
Combine ingredients in VitaMix or other high powdered blender. Blend until smooth. Chill for 24 hours and process in ice cream maker.

Young Thai coconut.

Unbaked Brownies for Two – My New Obsession

These are just so freaking delicious. I've pretty much stayed away from the "raw" desserts mainly because they seem so complicated and heavy on nuts and dates. But when I saw this recipe for unbaked brownies I just had to try it. And then I had to make it three times in rapid succession to vary the ingredients and be sure that it really was so tasty. And it is! This sum of this brownie is so much more than its parts. I rarely use walnuts or dates in my baking and cooking. But when you process walnuts, medjool dates, and cocoa – WOW! And you don't even have to cook it. Talk about instant gratification. I cut the original recipe down to two servings. Here is a five-minute video and recipe link if you'd like to watch Julie Morris make a full batch of these scrumptious, chocolate brownies.

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup raw walnut pieces
1/4 cup medjool dates, pits removed, chopped
2 TB cacao powder
pinch sea salt
1 tsp raw cacao nibs (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
Get out your mini-food processor. Place walnuts in processor bowl and grind to form a coarse flour. While machine is running, add pitted dates, cacao powder and salt, processing until a moist, crumb-like dough has formed. I like to taste a pinch and if it's not quite sweet enough add a little squirt of agave syrup.

Spoon into a small container of some sort; I used a small silicone bowl. Sprinkle with cacao nibs, and press firmly into a solid brownie layer. Turn out onto plate, cut in half and serve. For a special treat you could drizzle some raspberry sauce over the top.

Chocolate Chip Oat Crispies

This recipe is adapted from the Monster Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies in Big Vegan. It is not my style of cookie but my group of tasters seemed to really love them. They are very light, airy, crispy and sweet.  They would probably be a great cookie for people who are suspicious of vegetarian/vegan foods. The original recipe also included a cup of raisins and a half cup of chopped walnuts. I just kept it simple.

Ingredients
2 TB ground flax seed
1/4 cup water
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1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
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1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
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1 cup rolled oats
3/4 to 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions
Get out your stand mixer. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a couple of cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.

Beat together the flax seed and water. If you have a little pesonal or Bullet blender, use that and "whiz" for 30 seconds or so. If you don't have one, no worries. Just mix it up and let it sit for several minutes.

Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

In your stand mixer, beat the sugar, oil, vanilla and flax seed mixture until it's rather fluffy. Add the flour and mix. Add the oats and mix. Incorporate the chocolate chips. Don't worry if they don't all mix into the dough. Not a big deal.

Scoop tablespoon size blobs onto cookie sheet. Flatten. An alternative is to make 12 really big cookies; that was the author's original intention. If you have leftover chips, press them in here and there. Bake for 8 minutes and rotate pans. Bake for another 6 to 8 minutes until lightly browned. Cool on wire rack.

Cranberry Almond-Quinoa Muffins

These are so delectable. Lots of whole wheat goodness with the nutritional punch of quinoa. Everytime I make muffins with cooked quinoa, I marvel at how tasty they are. These are lightly sweetened with maple syrup and chopped Craisins. I'm sure you could use fresh cranberries if you added more sweetener. This recipe is adapted from the Almond-Quinoa Muffins in Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. It is The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook that everyone should have in their collection. It is a well rounded cookbook with lots of "how to" information and plenty of original, tasty recipes. Makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients
1 cup soymilk
1 TB ground flaxseed
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1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
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1-1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup almond meal or flour*
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
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1-1/4 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 cup chopped Craisins

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare muffin pan. Combine milk and flax seed, whisk together and let sit for a minute. Add oil, syrup and vanilla extract. Set aside.

In large bowl, combine dry ingredients and mix together. Stir in wet ingredients and mix until barely combined. Fold in quinoa and Craisins and stir until just mixed. Do not over mix. Spoon into muffin tin and bake 20-23 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

*Almond meal and/or flour is ridiculously expensive. I just whiz whole almonds in a small blender until it makes a coarse flour. Be sure not to make almond butter!

Mixed-Grain Hazelnut Thumbprint Cookies

This is my nod to Valentines Day. Bake your sweetie a batch of these. Not too sweet and made with healthy oils and a mix of whole wheat pastry flour and all-purpose flour. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of hazelnut butter which I've never seen on the shelf and if it was it would be prohibitively expensive. You can substitute with cashew butter or follow my directions below to make your own hazelnut butter. Believe me, it's a whole lot cheaper.

Ingredients
1/3 cup canola or walnut oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup hazelnut or almond butter*
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1/3 cup nondairy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
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3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup unbleached, unbromated all-purpose flour
2 TB arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
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1/2 cup hazelnuts, finely chopped**
1/3-1/2 cup raspberry spread

Directions
Make this easy on yourself and get out your stand mixer. Add the first three ingredients: oil, brown sugar and nut butter. Mix well. Add the milk and extract and mix some more. In another small bowl, have mixed together the flour, arrowroot, salt, and baking powder. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Cover and let chill in refrigerator for an hour or so. It will be easier to handle that way.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scoop out a tablespoon, roll in a ball, and roll in the chopped nuts, pressing down to flatten. Place on baking sheet lined with parchment and make an indent in each cookie and spoon some raspberry spread into each cookie. Bake for 18 minutes until lightly browned. Cool on rack.

*Make your own hazelnut butter
Put a very generous 1/2 cup of whole hazelnuts into small blender (I like to use a Tribest Personal Blender for this) and blend until it turns into butter (or as close to that as possible).

**Chopped nuts
Use that same small blender and pulse the nuts until finely chopped.

Banana Peanut Butter Breakfast Muffins

Somehow I ended up with 2 opened jars of peanut butter in the fridge. I've been trying to use them up because I have a third (!) jar in the cupboard. This recipe keeps crossing my path so I decided to make it. The author of this recipe Chinmayie Bhat of www.lovefoodeat suggests a cup of coffee with one of these tasty muffins. And she can't be more right! These are quite delicious with just a hint of peanut butter and banana. They have a subtle sweetness. Her interesting commentary also includes a link to make chocolate peanut butter to spread on them. I'm thinking of making these again and perhaps adding a 1/2 cup of vegan mini chocolate chips. Makes 12-15 muffins.

Here is her recipe. I've just changed the order of things to organize it the way I cook.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp ground flax seed
4 tbsp water
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1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup quick-cooking oatmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
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2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar

1 cup mashed banana
6 tbsp peanut butter
1 cup water
2 tbsp flax seeds (for topping, optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare your muffin pan.

Mix flax seeds and water, set aside. Combine all the dry ingredients and mix well.
In a separate bowl, stir oil and peanut butter. Now add the mashed banana, flax seed and water mixture, 1 cup water and mix well. Pour the wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix till everything is combined. Do not over mix.

Spoon them into muffin tray and top each muffin with few whole flax seeds.
Bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or till the toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Wow Beans (Refried Pinto Beans)

Refried beans are a pretty pedestrian thing to make. I make my own for bean burritos to keep in the freezer. I've been reading a lot about umami, known as the fifth taste. The other four are sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. Umami imparts a more "delicious" and "savory" taste to food. There are certain ingredients you can add to a recipe to add to the "umami." I decided to apply those principals to my refried beans. Really, the beans I usually make are rather bland even with the spices and salsa I add. Wow! What a difference a bit of tamari and umeboshi vinegar made to my beans. I sat down and ate a small bowl, scooping the beans with some baked tortillas. No salsa, no nothing. It was really that good! I also like to add kombu to the beans while I cook them. It's said to reduce the "flatulence" factor and it does have some nutritional value. Something to keep in mind if beans make you toot!

Ingredients
1 cups dry pinto beans, picked over and soaked overnight
1 piece of kombu
1 TB olive oil
1/4 cup red onion, sliced and chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
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3/4 tsp cumin
1/2 sp garlic powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
3/4 tsp Summit Spice Susitna Chili Blend or your favorite chili powder blend
1/2 tsp cilantro, dried
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1/4 cup good beer, I used Sleigher Double Alt Ale, a rich dark beer
1 TB tamari* (Japanese soy sauce)
1 TB umeboshi plum vinegar*
1/2 tsp salt, to taste

Directions
Drain and rinse beans, place in pot and cover with water. Add kombu and cook for 1-2 hours until beans are well done. Drain cooking water and reserve a bit if you prefer not to use beer. In medium size saucepan, heat about 1 TB olive oil and saute onions for several minutes. Add garlic and saute a bit more until everything starts to get a bit brown around the edges. Add dry spices and saute for a minute. Deglaze pan with beer or reserved cooking water. Add the drained beans. Mash the beans and cook down a bit. Add tamari, vinegar, and salt. Taste and adjust salt if necessary.

*The tamari and umeboshi vinegar contribute to umami flavors so try not to omit.