Goji Green Tea Raspberry Muffins

Ah, Saturday.  Unfortunately there is no sleeping in when one has an energetic 2-year-old, but at least it is a day of slower pace for me.  No rushing to get out the door and squeeze into an over-capacity subway train on the commute to work.  Not on Saturday.  I can relax and enjoy my 3 feet of personal space and fresh air today.

My Saturday started at 6:30am today.  As I said, it's hardly sleeping in, but the "Mommy, I'm hungry"chant over and over drove me out of bed and into the kitchen.  While Preciosa devoured a cup of soy yogurt, I made myself a cup of goji berry green tea and was inspired to incorporate the tea into a batch of muffins.

I've used tea in muffins before and I had a bag of frozen raspberries begging to add their intense flavour and natural sweetness to a sugar-free weekend treat. 

Goji Green Tea Raspberry Muffins
2 cups unbleached white flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 packets Stevia
2 tbsp agave nectar
3 tbsp ground flax + 6 tbsp water
1/2 cup hot water with steeped tea
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup oil (I used olive oil)
3/4 cup (frozen) raspberries

Preheat oven to 400F.  Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and stevia in a large mixing bowl.  In a seperate bowl, combine all remaining ingredients except raspberries.  Pur wet mixture into dry, and stir until just mixed.  Fold in berries.  Pour into lightly oiled muffin tin and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove from muffin tin, and cool on a cool slightly before devouring.

 

Preciosa could hardly wait for them to cool before she got her hands on one.  Halfway through eating her warm muffin, she asked me to put peanut butter on it.

And just a recap and some photos from my recent 10k run that I mentioned in a previous post:  I was one of 50,000 people that came out for the Sun Run on Mother's Day, May 9th.  At the finish line there was plenty of fresh bananas, oranges, water, juice, and live music.  And a very cute little girl waiting for her mama.  It was the perfect Mother's Day gift.

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Almost Sugar-Free Blueberry Mint Ice Cream

We've had a hot spell of weather this week and it's the perfect opportunity to get the ice cream maker going.  There are so many endless combinations to try!  I had purchased a huge basket of blueberries and they were begging to be paired up with fresh mint sprigs to make this ultimately refreshing treat.  And who knew coconut milk and agave nectar could make light fluffy ice cream that is the bomb-diggedy? If you don't know, now you know!

 

Blueberry Mint Ice Cream
2 cups blueberries, rinsed
1 can (400ml) coconut milk
1/3 cup agave nectar
1-2 leaves, fresh mint

In a blender or food processor, combine ingredients and process until smooth.  Pour into ice cream maker and turn on for 30 minutes.  Enjoy!

Holiday Yummies

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, whatever you prefer.  I wish all of you a joyous holiday season and may you be blessed all year with good friends, family and yummy FOOD!

I've had to miss a couple of days of work due to some bad weather.  In fact, my flight to be with my family for Christmas was cancelled, so I'm spending the holiday with friends and hoping that my rescheduled flight on Boxing Day doesn't get cancelled. 

On the bright side, being snowed in and stuck at home leaves lots of time to bake some old favorites for our guests. 

I made a batch of Almost Sugar-Free Peanut Butter Cookies subbing in almond butter...

And I made some of Dreena's Chocolate Mint Melties.  These are soooo good.  If you've never made them, you must find any excuse to do so.

And I also made a carrot cake.  I had an abundance of carrots from my weekly produce bin (Green Earth Organics) so carrot cake was the perfect way to use some of them.  I used a recipe from Martha Stewart's website and made a few substitutions.  You can refer to the original recipe here, but I'll list it with my substitutions below:

  

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 tbsp ground flax + 6 tbsp water

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 cup finely shredded packed (about 2 medium) carrots 

Quick Glaze, or confectioners' sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly oil an 8 inch round baking pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk flax/water, sugars, almond milk, and oil until smooth. Gently mix wet mixture into dry ingredients until moistened; mix in carrots. Transfer batter to prepared pan.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes (if browning too quickly, tent cake with aluminum foil). Cool in pan, 15 minutes. Turn out of pan, remove paper, and cool completely on a rack, right side up. Apply glaze, or dust with confectioners’ sugar. 

 Right now I've got a batch of Lavash baking, and I'll be making some lemon-dill hummus to go with it.

Pumpkin Spice Bread

I absolutely love the scent of cloves, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg, especially when they are coming from my kitchen!  I call this group of fragrant spices my "autumn spices" because when I smell them I think about a cold rainy day when red and orange leaves are dropping from the trees outside. They just smell like autumn.  I  morphed a banana loaf recipe into a pumpkin counterpart and of course after making substitutions and additions, the final recipe is nothing like its original.

If you're familiar with my baking at all, you already know that this is super healthy, with no almost no sugar or fat, but don't worry, it's definitely full of flavour.

Pumpkin Spice Bread

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped pecans

4 packets of stevia

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp cloves

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp allspice

1/2 cup agave nectar

4 tbsp ground flax + 6 tbsp water

1/4 cup unsulphered, blackstrap molasses

1 cup pumpkin puree

Combine the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.  In a small mixing bowl, stir together the remaining ingredients.  Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just mixed, do not over mix.  Pour batter into a lightly oiled loaf pan .  Sprinkle a handful of pumpkin seeds on top if desired, and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Platinum Waffles with Blackberry-Lime Syrup

With the absence of banana, sugar, and dark vanilla, these waffles are not a familiar golden brown, but instead, a delicate platinum hue.  It creates a stunning contrast for the rich color of the blackberry-lime syrup.

PLATINUM WAFFLES:

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
3/4 tbsp stevia
1 1/4 cups unsweetened almond milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp oil (canola, olive...)
3 tbsp ground flax
3 tbsp water
1/2 tsp white vanilla

In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sea salt, and stevia.  In a seperate bowl, mix together almond milk, vinegar, oil, flax, water and vanilla; add to dry ingredients and stir until blended.  Pour onto lightly oiled, hot waffle iron.

BLACKBERRY-LIME SYRUP

2 cups blackberries, strained
1 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 cup agave nectar

Simmer all three ingredients in a small saucepan over medium-low heat for 15-20 minutes or until thickened.  This is great on pancakes and waffles, and even ice cream!

Almost Sugar-Free Blueberry Rooibos Muffins

I have become fascianted with using tea in unlikely places.  So today when I was making muffins and I discovered that I had no more "milk" I happily used tea instead.  If I was to make this recipe again I might steep the tea in almond or soy milk rather than plain water but I'm still happy with the way these turned out.

This recipe is as sugar-free and fat-free as I could manage.

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup unbleached white flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp stevia

2 tbsp ground flax
2 bananas, mashed
1 cup water, boiled and steeped with Rooibos tea, then cooled to room temp
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp agave nectar
3/4 cup fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 (F).  In a medium mixing bowl, combine flours, baking powder, cinnamon, sevia and flax.  In a seperate bowl, mash bananas and stir in tea water, agave nectar and vanilla.  Add wet ingredients to dry until just mixed, then fold in the berries.  Scoop into ceramic baking tray or lightly oiled muffin tin.  Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown.  Makes 12 muffins.

Almost Sugar-Free Peanut Butter Cookies

Sometimes traditions need a little bit of an alteration.  Like the one where my dad always stops at a fast food place or gas station and buys peanut butter cookies for a road trip.  They are full of hydrogenated fats, animal ingredients and other things that are not healthy.  But it's just not a road trip without his beloved peanut butter cookies.

So I baked a batch of organic cookies for him to take along on his trip that are lower in fat, and way lower on the glycemic index than their sugary cousins at the convenience store.  Stevia has 0 calories and registers 0 on the GI.  Agave nectar is quite low as well.

I used a recipe from La Dolce Vegan as a base, but only followed it halfway as I needed to make these more diabetic-friendly and lower in fat.  Plus, I didn't quite have enough peanut butter so I topped up my measuring cup with tahini. (it was either that or pumpkin seed butter, which I might try next time)  The result is a moist cookie that is not overly sweet.  If you like your cookies sweeter, it's probably better to stick to the original La Dolce recipe, which I have made before and I can tell you they are really good. 

Almost Sugar-Free Peanut Butter Cookies
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground sea salt
1 "flax egg" (2 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water)
2 tbsp stevia
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup tahini (or other nut/seed butter)
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup semi-sweet vegan chocolate chips*

Preheat oven to 375.  Combine flour, baking soda, and salt and stevia in a medium bowl.  In a seperate bowl, stir together "flax egg," peanut butter, tahini, agave nectar, vanilla and water.  Add wet ingredients to dry, and stir until mixed, adding in the chocolate chips last.  Spoon onto a baking stone or lightly oiled baking sheet. Press cookies down a little bit and bake for 12 minutes.  Makes 16 cookies.

* I wouldn't recommend carob chips for this recipe as they tend to be bitter and may not compliment the subtle sweetness of the other ingredients.

Peanut Butter & Banana Beverage

I wasn't too sure if this could be classified as a smoothie because it's got some crunchy nuts in it, so I'm calling it a "beverage" for lack of a better name.

1 banana

1 tbsp crunchy peanut butter*

1 cup unsweetened soy milk

1 packet stevia

1 tbsp chopped walnuts

Blend first 4 ingredients in a blender or food processor. Pour into drinking glass and garnish with walnuts.

*be sure to use a natural peanut butter, not the kind that has hydrogenated oils and sugar added.

This is a versitile recipe - you can use another kind of nut butter like almond or hazelnut, and use cashews or pecans instead of the walnuts. I wanted to add another tbsp of peanut butter, but I'm trying to get back to my pre-baby body so I'm foregoing such luxuries. Also, if you have vanilla soy milk or one that is already sweetened you can omit the stevia.

Lemon-Mango Sorbet featuring Stevia

Well, after a brief (and I mean brief) spell of warm weather, I was craving something ice-creamy but without the calories. I've had an ice cream maker since last summer but haven't really experimented too much with it. Until now. This was SO GOOD. I can't wait to see what else can be made with it. The consistancy needs a bit of work as it wasn't really scoopable, it more like a thick slush I would say. But the taste was out of this world.

3/4 cups freshly squeezed organic lemon juice
2 cups cold water
1/2 cup organic mango, diced into small pieces
1 organic peach-applesauce cup (about 1/4 cup)
8 packets of Stevia

Put all of the ingredients into the ice cream maker and let it do its thing.