Chocolate Avocado Muffins

These muffins are for serious chocolate lovers only! Healthy and decadent at the same time! Icing not required! I just felt like making them look pretty :)  They turned out more fudgey brownie texture than muffin like texture! Let them cool very well before removing from wrapper and eating!

Ingredients:
1 cup of oat bran
1/2 spelt flour
1/4 cup hemp hearts
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons golden flaxseed ground
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cup soy milk curdled with
(juice of 1/2 lemon or orange)
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. maple syrup
1 avocado mashed
1 small zucchini grated (about 3/4 cup)

1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. chocolate chips

Method:
Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir wet ingredients into dry just until moistened. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon into greased muffin cups or use parchment baking liners. Bake in 375F oven for 18-20 minutes.

Tofu and Juice Pulp Veggie Burger

Since there's lots of juicing going on these days in the veggie prairie girl kitchen I've been looking for ways to use the leftover pulp besides nourishing the trees :)  I've found out that you can incorporate the pulp quite successfully into burgers and muffins. Here's an excellent veggie burger to try! Costco sells a very tasty organic tofu - Superior brand. Makes it even more economical to make a batch of veggie burgers!

Ingredients:

2 packages superior organic tofu  (350 gm each) grated and/or squished till smooth

pulp from 6 juiced carrots and 1 medium sized beet
2 1/4 cup quick oats
1/2 cup  hemp hearts
2 tablespoon flax seed
2 tablespooon nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 teaspoons yellow mustard
1 - 1 1/2 tbsp. veggie broth powder or no chicken bouillion

1 tbsp. oil
1 large onion finely diced
8 large white mushrooms finely diced
spices

1 tbsp. spelt flour
2-3 tbsp. soy milk

Method:

Saute onion in a tablespoon of olive, coconut or palm oil. Add desired spices. I used garlic powder, curry powder, chili powder, pepper and tumeric.  Add finely diced mushrooms. I used my magic bullet for mushrooms. A lil smushy but worked for this purpose. Simmer onions and mushrooms for a few minutes more. Sprinkle 1 tbsp. spelt over mushroom/onion mix.  Add a couple tbsp. soy milk. Cook until thickened. Set aside to cool. I like thickening the mushroom/onion mix as it seems to work quite well as a tasty binder for veggie burgers.

Mix smoothly squished tofu, oats, hemp hearts, flaxseed, ketchup, mustard, paul bragg amino and veggie broth powder or no chicken bouillion. Stir in your cooled mushroom onion mixture. Taste and adjust your seasonings as required.

Measure out equal portions of veggie burger mix - I used a 1/3 cup measure packed and I got 18 medium sized burgers from this recipe.

I flatten each 1/3 cup mixture slightly leaving them more thick than thin style patty using hands that have been greased with oil or vegan becel so they are automatically coated on both sides with it. I line my cookie sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 350. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Flip over and bake that long again. These work equally well eaten warm or cold! I love a container of these in the fridge for a quick anytime snack.

Breadland Organic Spelt Bread and G's Hummus

This post is strictly for those living in the Edmonton area!  Just wanted to give a shout out about my favorite lunchtime (or anytime) sandwich! It consists of Organic Spelt Bread and G's Hummus!  Both are locally made and tops in their category in my opinion! Give them a try and see if you agree! G's Hummus is loaded with garlic so be forewarned but I find this to be a super plus! I'm not concerned whether or not anyone can stand to be close to me! Seems to be keeping mosquitoes away from me as well so that's a good thing :) The Spelt bread is made by Breadland Organic Whole Grain Bakery and is as delicious as it is wholesome! They are located in Oliver Square at 11642 - 104 Avenue, Unit 642.  The G's Hummus is available at Planet Organic.

What is really amusing I was just googling G's hummus to see who carries it besides Planet Organic and I ran across foodie suz who did a review in 2008!  What amazed me was that the price of G's hummus was $5.49 then and it is still exactly at the same price point! And the taste is still as perfect today as it was then!! It's nice to have some things in life you can count on! Oh and as for foodie suz wondering who G was and if he was from Edmonton - it seems the mystery is solved! The label on the package now shows that the hummus was packed by Supreme Georgio's Fine Foods. I assume Georgio is likely the person behind the G! Georgio's is located at 7221 - 104th St and phone number is 780-439-8866 as far as I can see from googling it but this info could be outdated.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cups

Step One:  Put some mini paper cup holders into a small freezer friendly container. Use some if you care mini baking cups as molds for your peanut butter cups! These work excellent for this purpose as they are just the right size and are made of parchment paper so there is no sticking at all.

Step Two.  Melt together semi sweet chocolate chips with peanut butter and vegan margarine. I love cocoa camino the best! I measured out about 1/2 cup chocolate chips, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter and 1 tablespoon of vegan margarine. Melt and stir together.

Two vegan margarines I like are Becel and Earth Balance.

 Use the peanut butter of your choice! I have had a life long love of creamy smooth Kraft peanut butter! I recently discovered Earth Balance Creamy coconut peanut butter! Any peanut butter you love will do here. Crunchy would also be nice I'm sure!  

Step Three.  Spoon equal amounts of melted chocolate mixture into each mini paper cup holder. Let cool slightly - a few minutes or so.

Step Four.  I am a big peanut butter lover so these fit my need perfectly as it is used TWICE in this recipe!! So now get out the peanut butter one more time.  Using a little plastic baggie works great for this part. Snip a piece off the corner and squeeze little swirls on top of each of  your slightly cooled peanut butter cups. It will sink a lil but make sure to do enough of swirl so a lil sticks up. Top with one cheerio pressing down slightly.

Step Five.  Put in freezer till firm.  Enjoy!  These are best eaten straight out of freezer as they don't have enough hydrogenated fat to stay super firm for long at room temperature! That makes them super healthy - right? 

Happy Herbivore's Carrot Cake Cupcakes

This is one of the recipes that put Lindsay S. Nixon  "on the map as a vegan blogger"! I took out one of her cookbooks from the Edmonton Public Library and thought it looked interesting! I love simple and good! These definitely fit the bill on both counts! She has an awesome collection of cookbooks on the market as well as a very informative blog! The recipe for the carrot cake cupcake can be found here!

I followed it almost exactly: I added two extra tabblespoons mango/peach juice cause I thought batter looked a little thick but that's always an issue in baking! It makes a difference what brand of flour you are using and how you measure etc.! I did not have whole wheat pastry flour so I just  substituted 3/4 cup white organic flour and 3/4 cup regular organic whole wheat flour. It worked out perfectly! Very good muffin - you don't miss the oil at all - moist and lots of flavor! Taste good iced or not! I tried them both ways. The maple icing is easy to make and adds a nice touch if you enjoy sweet topping.

Potato & Broccoli Strata

Stratas are the best thing to happen to vegetables! You can't go wrong with any combination I'm sure. This one involved organic red potatoes in the starring role supported by broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, zucchini and onion! A super easy white sauce boosted with a scoop of nutritional yeast brings it all together! Precook all your veggies, make up a white sauce and have fun layering in whatever pan you like and put in the oven for a good 45 minutes at about 375.