Clean Eating Guacamole Crostini

Creating a savory shared appetizer for non-vegans is harder than it might seem. When I was invited to a holiday networking mixer with some ladies who work in my industry I immediately signed up to bring a savory shared appetizer. I knew I didn't want to make anything obviously vegan with meat substitutes or fake dairy products. Instead, I wanted to make an appetizer that was simple and highlighted great local ingredients. This guacamole crostini honestly came out even better than I expected. I may or may not have stuffed a few pieces in my mouth before walking through the door... 

Ingredients

• 1 french baguette, sliced into 1/2 inch slices
• 3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil 
• 2 avocados
• 1 clove garlic, finely minced 
• 1/2 limes juice
• 1 large tomato, diced
• 1/4 red onion, finely diced
• Sea Salt, to taste
• Paprika, to taste
• Cilantro, chopped

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350. Slice the baguette into 1/2" thick rounds, lightly brush olive oil on both sides of each slice and place on a baking sheet. Bake around 5 minutes until golden brown. Remove and set aside while making the guacamole.

Cut each avocado in half, removing the seed and with a spoon scoop out the pulp and place in a bowl. With a fork, mash the avocado with the garlic, lemon juice, red onion, tomato, paprika and sea salt. Evenly spread an equal amount of guacamole on each slice and top with chopped cilantro. Place on a serving platter garnishing with extra cilantro and enjoy!

Banana Cinnamon Smoothie - Clean Eating

I must admit that I'm a bit of a smoothie fanatic. I just love the refreshing feeling I get after drinking a nice cold smoothie in the morning. Being the smoothie connoisseur that I am, I've experimented with lots of different combinations and this one has to be one of my all time favorites. This banana cinnamon smoothie is simple and requires minimal ingredients but tastes amazing and is also pretty healthy. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! 

Ingredients 

• 2 Ripe Bananas 
• 1 Cup Unsweetened Plain Almond Milk or Dairy Free Milk of your preference
• 1 Tsp Cinnamon 
• 1 Tbsp Vega Vanilla Almondilla Protein Power (optional)
• 1 Tsp vanilla
• 4 Ice Cubes

Place all ingredients in blender and blend till smooth. Add less or more milk as desired to get a the consistency you prefer.  

Cookie Dough Brownies

I had posted this recipe years and years ago on my old blog from a modified recipe that was originally on VegWeb but has since been deleted. I modified the original version with the help of my friend Nancy (she created the cookie dough recipe) who owns a totally amazing vegan bakery in Dallas called Reverie Bakeshop. This is one of those desserts that I make to wow non-vegans and let me tell ya it totally works! I'm not going to lie, the calorie count on these babies is off the charts but come on it's layers of brownie, cookie dough and ganache amazingness, well worth the calories in my opinion!


Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups unbleached flour, divided
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 2 cups brown sugar, divided
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cups brewed coffee
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
• 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons soy milk, divided
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

Remaining Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup vegan white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegan margarine, softened
• 2 cups vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
• 1 tablespoons oil, shortening, or vegan margarine

Directions:

To Make the Brownies:
1. Pre-heat oven to 325F. Prepare a 9×9 pan by greasing it and then lining it with parchment paper.

2. Sift together 1 1/2 cups flour, cocoa, 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, stir together the coffee, 2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 3/4 cup soy milk, and vegetable oil.

4. Combine the wet and dry mixes and stir well. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 25 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

5. Cool on a wire rack completely.

To Make the Cookie Dough:

In a large bowl, combine remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar, white sugar, and 1/2 cup margarine; beat until light and fluffy. Add remaining 2 tablespoons milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla; blend well. Lightly spoon remaining 1 cup flour into measuring cup. Add flour; mix well. Fold in 1 cup chocolate chips. Spread over cooled brownies. Refrigerate while preparing glaze.

To Make Ganache:

In the top of a double boiler or in a microwave-safe bowl, melt remaining 1 cup of chocolate chips and 1 tablespoons of oil, shortening, or margarine. Stir until completely melted and smooth. Carefully spoon over the cookie dough layer; spread evenly. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before cutting and serving.

Crispy Kale Chips - The Right Way!

Before last week I can't say that I had ever tried kale. While I was at a local juice bar with a friend, I decided to buy a bag of kale chips since I had been hearing so much about them from nearly everyone around me!  So I caved in and ate my first piece of kale ever and you know what... I actually really really liked it! Needless to say, I ate the whole bag in one sitting and with the price tag on most bags of kale chips I knew I needed to figure out how to make these bad boys myself. 

This recipe can vary in a million ways depending on the topping you choose. The most important thing with this recipe is to keep the cooking temperature VERY LOW. You are really trying to more or less dehydrate the kale in your oven, not cook it! If you go any higher than 250 degrees you are going to risk burning the chips. So keep it low and slow! 

Also when using the vinegar it's going to seem like a lot, but most of that flavor is going to burn off in the cooking process. So don't worry! 

Ingredients

Curly Leaf Kale - washed and patted dry with a paper towel

1 cup Sunflower Seed Kernels - deshelled (you just want the meaty inside) 

1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast 

3/4 - 1 cup White Vinegar

Sea Salt - to taste

Directions

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees and spray your baking sheets with baking spray or olive oil. In a food processor/blender or with a hand blender combine sunflower kernels, nutritional yeast, white vinegar and salt. Add more vinegar if needed to get a paste-like consistency. Once you have the right consistency toss kale with the topping you just made. I had to use my hands for this part to get everything evenly coated. Once you have the kale chips coated place them on your baking sheets side by side and cook them in the oven for 2 1/2 to 3 hours until crispy.

Clean Eating Mushroom Soup

There's nothing I love more than mushrooms and dill in a soup. Not only is this soup totally delicious but also super healthy! If you want the soup to be a little more hearty chop some potatoes or other vegetables of your choice and throw them in with the rest of the ingredients. You can also cut down the calories by making your own cashew sour cream or leaving it out all together.

I found this recipe several times online from the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen and made my own vegan version.

Ingredients

I large red onion, sliced

Olive oil cooking spray for cooking mushrooms, onions and garlic

3 10 oz packages fresh button mushrooms, sliced

1 clove minced garlic

1 tablespoon tamari or light soy sauce

1 tablespoon Hungarian paprika

1 to 2 teaspoons dillweed, divided
3 cups vegetable stock or water, (if using water add vegan bullion cube)
2 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 cup cashew sour cream or store bought brand like Toffuti
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/4 cup freshly chopped parsley, for garnish

Directions

In a skillet, saute the onion in pan sprayed with cooking spray.  Once the onions are slightly translucent, add the mushrooms and minced garlic dusting flour over while stirring to thicken the juices. Place cooked mushrooms, garlic and onions into the crock-pot add tamari and paprika, 1 teaspoon of the dill and 1/2 cup of the stock or water with bullion cube. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Just before serving, add the lemon juice, vegan sour cream, salt and pepper, to taste, and remaining dill, if desired. Garnish with the parsley, if desired, before serving. Cook on low for 6-8 hrs in the crock-pot. 

Super Moist Banana Bread

To tell you the truth I've never really been a fan of banana bread. I just find them typically lacking in flavor and super dry. Cooking breads in the crock-pot makes them super moist, which is ideal when making a recipe like this. Wesley, my husband, gave his seal of approval saying that it was "awesome" and eating half of it before I could even take a bite. 

Feel free to modify the recipe by adding walnuts or chocolate chips to the mix or as a topping! 

For those who want to use their oven instead of the crock pot cook at 350 degrees for 1 hr or until toothpick comes out of the center clean.

Ingredients

4 ripe bananas, mashed with fork
1/3 vegetable oil
3/4 brown sugar
1/4 cup silken tofu (pureed)
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon almond extract (optional)
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
1 1/2 cup of flour

With a spoon, mix vegetable oil into the mashed bananas in a mixing bowl. Mix in the brown sugar, silken tofu, vanilla and almond extract, spices, baking soda and salt.  Add the flour last and mix. Pour the batter into a sprayed bread/loaf pan (I used Bakers Joy spray). Now add two cups of water to your crock-pot and place the pan into a crock-pot. Cover the top of the crock-pot with eight-ten paper towels to trap condensation and keep the bread from becoming mushy. Place the crock-pot lid on top of the crock-pot making sure the paper towels are arranged so that they don't fall into the pan and bake on high 2½ to 3 hours.

Vegan Pumpkin Bread

Nothing says fall to me like drinking hot tea and having a slice of pumpkin bread. I found this recipe several times while pinning on Pinterest and modified it to be vegan but feel free to fool your friends because nobody will know the difference! I personally prefer the use of silken tofu in my cake-type baked goods as an egg replacer because it's flavorless, easy to find and doesn't leave the mixture as dry but feel free to experiment with other alternatives like and share in the comments section below.

You can make this in the crock-pot or in the oven. The crock-pot will leave the bread a bit more moist and fluffy than the oven and also uses a lot less energy (3-1 ratio) for those who are also broke college students like me!

I got the original recipe from this site and modified the ingredients to make it vegan.

For those who want to use their oven instead of the crock pot cook at 350 degrees for 1 hr or until toothpick comes out of the center clean. 

Ingredients

½ cup of vegetable oil
½ cup of sugar
½ cup of packed brown sugar
1/4 cup silk tofu (pureed)
1 15oz can of pumpkin
1½ cup of flour
¼ tsp. of salt
½ tsp. of cinnamon
½ tsp. of nutmeg
1 tsp. of baking soda

Instructions

Blend the oil and brown + white sugar into a mixing bowl.
Then, stir in silken tofu and canned pumpkin. Add the remaining dry ingredients (flour, salt, spices) and mix thoroughly. Pour the batter into a sprayed bread/loaf pan (I used Bakers Joy spray). Now add two cups of water to your crockpot and place the pan into a crock pot. Cover the top of the crockpot with eight-ten paper towels to trap condensation and keep the bread from becoming mushy. Place the crock pot lid on top of the crockpot making sure the paper towels are arranged so that they don't fall into the pan and bake on high 2½ to 3 hours.