Desserts - better tasting, better for me!

There was just no way I was going to give up dessert during the hardest part of the winter, so I needed to find a different approach. Dessert knocks out my energy and makes me feel like crud usually and I couldn't take much more of that during these dragging winter months, but giving it up entirely? Please.

So I started searching Pinterest for sweets made from more nutritious ingredients and collecting them on a new board. Then testing was necessary. Some have turned out tasty, some very good, and my newest one . . . I've struck gold. I'm going to share all three recipes below, from tasty to GOLD.

I've adjusted all of the recipes as I go to better suit my tastes or available ingredients, I'll link the originals to all three I'm sharing today at the end of my version of the recipe. The pictures are not amazing because I just have no patience for working to make food all pretty and perfect only to consume it, but their nice enough to give you the idea. Now, the sweet treats!

First up the very functional daytime treat, the pumpkin cookie dough with chocolate chips. I'm doing a daily core workout every morning this month and I wanted to have a mid-morning snack that would be high in protein to feed my muscles and please my sweet tooth. Hence, this is a protein powder based treat. This is the one that's a nice tasty mid-day snack.

Pumpkin Cookie Dough

1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/2 cup vanilla protein powder (I used vegan pea-protein powder)
1/2 cup almond flour
2T nut butter of choice (I've used peanut and almond, it turns out about the same)
2T maple syrup
1/2 tsp nutmeg pwd
1 tsp cinnamon pwd
1 tsp vanilla extract
dash of salt
milk of choice, 1T at a time as needed

dark chocolate chips (optional)

Throw all of the2 ingredients other than the milk and chocolate in the food processor. To get a nice smooth consistency add 1T of the milk of your choice at a time to the "dough". Once it's the texture you like it's ready to enjoy.

I like to divide it between four 4oz Ball canning jars. I'll put about a half dozen chocolate chips in the bottom of each jar, spoon the "dough" in, then top with half a dozen more chocolate chips or so. Screw on the lids and then refrigerate. I've kept them in the fridge up to five days and had it still be fresh.

The original recipe can be found here:  http://thebigmansworld.com/2015/09/20/healthy-pumpkin-cookie-dough-for-one/

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Next up, FUDGE. Now, I am not a fudge fan, but this has the right texture and is, in my opinion, so much better. This just melts away in your mouth and a small piece can create a whole lot of satisfaction after a meal. And the color is so pretty!

Blackberry Almond Fudge

1 - 7oz can of creamed coconut (I use this one, available at Common Ground Food Co-op)
1 cup of blackberries or black raspberries (you can use fresh or defrosted frozen ones)
2 T maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla paste or extract (paste has a better flavor)
1/4 tsp almond extract

Break up or cut up the creamed coconut if it is hard as a rock and put it in the food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients and process with a regular S blade. Leave the processor running for several minutes. Pour the resulting delightful magenta goo into a bread loaf pan or similar sized container, use a rubber spatula to get all of the goo out of the food processor bowl and into the container. Lid or cover with foil, then place the container in the refrigerator to set. It will be firm and ready to eat within an hour or so, it cuts easily with a butter knife. Stores well in the fridge at least five days. I pre-cut it into 1.5 inch squares so I can just pop in the fridge and grab a small square when the sweet tooth strikes, that's all it takes to satisfy me because this is just so darn good, I close my eyes and enjoy the melting texture.

The original recipe can be found here:  http://mywholefoodlife.com/2014/08/13/blueberry-bliss-bars/#sJ6skgQrGu5MkYU2.32

The first time I made these I used fresh blueberries as recommended but found the flavor of the blueberries is so mild that the final product just tasted like coconut. Nothing wrong with that if you love straight coconut flavor but I've found the blackberry version with a hint of almond is a whole higher magnitude of yummy.

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And now, for dessert gold. I do not exaggerate. As much as I love the blackberry almond fudge, I admit there are desserts full of a lot more sugar and made with flour, butter, etc that I love even more. This next dessert is sincerely among my top desserts in the world, I'm a texture person and the texture of this, along with the rich chocolate flavor, is just a knockout.

Dark Chocolate Mousse

2 ripe avocados
1/2 cup of high quality cocoa powder
1/2 cup maple syrup
3 T coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla paste (or extract)
1/2 a can of coconut milk (shake well before opening, you want it well mixed)

You know what to do - put it all in the food processor with a standard S blade and let it process for several minutes until silky smooth. I portioned this into five 4oz ball jars but it could easily be spread into six such jars and then served topped with a few raspberries or sliced strawberries. Once it's portioned out chill it to set, the texture magic happens after this has chilled for an hour or two.

This is excellent just like this, but I am tempted to cut the maple syrup to 1/4 cup next time and see if the results are still as pleasing, I am suspecting they would be. The original recipe had you chill the can of coconut milk and only use the thick cream layer that forms at the top of the can, tossing the watery remainder. This is just more headache than necessary and renders the rest of the can practically useless. I just upped the coconut oil and then used the well mixed coconut milk so the rest of the can is still perfect for using in other treats or curries. Don't have an immediate use for that other half a can? Put it in an ice cube tray and once it's frozen pop the coconut milk ice cubes into a zip lock. These are great in coffee or defrost them as needed for recipes (most standard ice cube trays make cubes that are about 2T of fluid when defrosted.)

This stuff is MAGIC, I can motivate all day if I promise myself one of these at the end of the day. So good.

Oh, and here's the original recipe:  http://www.naturallyloriel.com/creamy-dairy-free-chocolate-mousse/#_a5y_p=2658851

I'm tempted to add just a hint of mint extract to this next time, but I'm a little afraid to mess with a good thing. We shall see!

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So I'm not giving you the speech about dessert and moderation and all that. I'm just happy that my sweet treats as of late have been more nutritious and honestly, more satisfying. I love going into the fridge and seeing these cutely portioned little dessert options so I can treat myself any time I feel the need and still feel awesome afterwards. None of these make me feel the sleepy, cranky way I feel after most desserts, and I cal that a win.

Chickpea Omelettes from Mediterranean Heaven

Finally, I have conquered.

Chickpea flour has always *sounded* like a good idea. I've been meaning to try it out. I'd read several recipes making pizza crust with chickpea flour. It sounded easy.

From this assumption came the Chickpea Pizza Crust Disaster of 2014.

I put "chickpea crust pizza" on my cooking list for our summer vacation with friends in Michigan. I'm a pretty experienced cook so I thought, despite me never having made a single chickpea flour recipe that it would be a breeze. The doughy mess that took much, much too long to make that left us everyone forlorn and hungry that resulted turned me off from ever cooking with chickpea flour again. Well, I did try again, a chickpea flour pancake. Which was heavy and flavorless. DONE.

But I got lured in one more time when I saw this recipe for chickpea omelettes. I was looking for new meal ideas. I found several surfing around the internet and this one was my lowest choice, but it made it onto the list. We still had a bunch of chickpea flour from my brick-like chickpea pancake experiment, might as well try to use it up.

And the results were wonderful! These are soooo quick and easy, much quicker and easier than it even sounded to me in the recipe. It's truly like making pancakes, really quick ones.

This powdered mix does not look particularly promising, but the results are actually awesome!

My first deviation from the recipe is was pre-cooking all my vegetables. The author suggests there is no need to pre-cook the veggies but I disagree, they will release a lot of water and I prefer they do it before I put them into my omelette. My second deviation was the addition feta. These would be great vegan as well, but the addition of the feta was lovely. Last, we added sauce. The sauce made these pop. For the filling you can really used a 1/2 cup to 1 cup of any cooked vegetables minced up fine.

You can find the original recipe here:  http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2014/12/chickpea-omelet-mix.html

I love Organic Valley and I love feta. It takes such a little bit to add a lot of flavor, making it long-lasting and economical to use. 

Most important, make sure the batter is thin and spread the mix out super thin in the pan, like this:

The results:

Mediterranean Chickpea Omelettes

The omelette mix:

• 1 1/2 cups chickpea flour
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 3 tablespoons ground flax seed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground sumac
• 1 teaspoon salt (if desired)
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

The filling:

• 1 T of canola or olive oil
• 1/3 of a red onion, minced fine
• 2 big handfuls of baby spinach, then mince 
• 10-12 kalamata olives, minced

The sauce:

• 1/2 cup tahini 
• juice of one lemon
• salt and pepper
• pinch of cayenne 

Toppings (optional):

• 1/2 cup of diced tomatoes
• 3 oz of feta

Put all the dry ingredients for the mix in an air tight container and mix well with a fork. Set aside. 

Put the oil in a frying pan and heat over medium heat. Once the oil is hot add the onion, cook for two minutes, then add the spinach and olives. Cook another minute until the spinach is fully wilted. Set aside. 

For the sauce put all of the ingredients in a mason jar and mix with a fork or lid and shake until well combined. The resulting sauce will be like a clotted cream, if you'd like it thinner add a tablespoon of water and mix in well to thin the texture. 

Mix 2/3 cup of the omelette mix with 2/3 cup water, mix together well with a fork. Add in the pre-cooked vegetables. The texture of the mixture with the veggies are in it should be like thin pancake batter. If it's not, add another tablespoon of water and mix in. Keep adding a little water at a time until you have that thin pancake batter texture, it's important that the batter is thin, this is key. 

If your fry pan is not non-stick or a very well seasoned cast iron, oil the pan with a tsp or two of oil. Heat the pan over medium high heat for a minute, then add 1/4 of the omelette mix to the pan. Working quickly, use the back of a spoon to spread the mixtures as thinly as possible. Let the omelette cook for a minute on one side then check the bottom with a spatula. You're looking for the bottom to be lightly browned. Once it is, flip it and cook on the other side for another minute or so until both sides are lightly browned. Put on a plate and cover to keep warm until all omelettes are complete, four in all. 

Crumble the feta over the omelettes then spread out the chopped tomatoes evenly among the omelettes. Place a generous dollop of the sauce on each omelette. Enjoy!

Again, this sounds so much more complicated than it is, it's very quick! And the powered mix can be kept covered in the fridge pretty much indefinitely, just add the water and cooked veggies and fry up like pancakes, topping optional!

The delicious results. So, so good. So cheap. 

Walnut tacos?

It's been a long time and all of that. I don't know about anyone else, but I just don't enjoy those long, chatty intros when what I want is the recipe, so I'm going to get down to it.

I keep seeing recipes for tacos with walnuts as the basis for the protein "meat" main topping. It sounded well, weird, but I got more and more curious. So I read an few and then tweaked and changed here and there. Here's what I came up with:

Walnut taco meat:
1 cup raw walnuts
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, soaked
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp dried chipotle powder OR 1/2 of 1 canned chipotle
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 T oil (I used a canola/olive blend)
4 oz fresh white mushrooms, sliced or diced

Soak the sun dried tomatoes in some very hot water for 20 minutes.

While those are soaking, put the oil in a small frying pan and heat it a bit over medium heat. Add the mushrooms to the pan with a pinch of salt and fry for 3 minutes, stirring once. Turn off the heat.

Drain the sun dried tomatoes and discard the soaking water. (Or keep it for soup if you're making some soon, it's yummy) Put the sun dried tomatoes, the walnuts, the spices, the salt, and all the mushrooms in the food processor. Run for 3 seconds with a regular blade, then check the texture. We're aiming for a texture similar to ground beef. I usually have to scrape the sides down and run it one more time for 3-5 seconds.

And that's it. We served this up on tortillas with tomatoes, green onions, minced cilantro, hot sauce, and I added some plain unsweetened yogurt to mine (I like it just as well as sour cream and don't keep that stuff in the house, so yogurt it was.) We thought these might need refried beans on them as well but it was totally unnecessary, these were delicious as is! It's so nice when something so good for you turns out so tasty. Mike and I give this two thumbs way up, plus it was easy so we'll actually put this one into work day rotation. Next time I'll just start the tomatoes soaking in tap water in the morning and let them soak until I'm ready to make dinner, which will make this even faster, maybe 20 minutes tops to pull together. This is enough filling for 8-10 small tacos.

The walnut meat after processing. 

The delicious end result!