Starbucks "Christmas" Gingerbread Loaf

Alright...no photo yet of this one since it gets gobbled up WAY too quickly! However, I can guarantee that the majority of you know exactly what loaf I am talking about that Starbucks carries this glorious time of year! It's amazing. I tweaked with this recipe last Christmas season when the loaf was reintroduced to me through Starbucks.

I knew that I could not fully enjoy their version of it for two reasons. One, I had my baby weight from Levi to deal with. Two, I knew theirs had zero nutritional value in it!

It's wonderful and amazing, with tea or coffee or steamed milk...and makes a wonderful hostess gift (especially when topped with a thin layer of cream cheese frosting and chunks of candied ginger!)

This is one of those Christmas recipes that I limit myself to making only during November and December to keep it special...it's that good!

Starbucks "Christmas" Gingerbread Loaf

1 1/2 cups spelt or whole wheat flour
2 tsps ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground cloves
2 tsps ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, or coconut oil, softened
1/2 cup maple syrup or agave
1 cup applesauce
1 tsp baking soda

FROSTING (OPTIONAL)
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan.
In a medium bowl, mix together flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and salt.
Then set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and syrup until fluffy.

Mix baking soda into applesauce and stir into creamed butter mixture.
Add flour mixture. Mix until smooth.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes or until a
toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

FROSTING:
Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Slowly beat in confectioner’s sugar.

Once the cake has cooled, evenly spread the frosting on top. Decorate with chopped candied orange peel or candied ginger .

Rustic Pasta

Hands down the favourite supper in our house for the past six months..it's amazing! As Jay would say, it's the "most manly vegan meal he's every had"! I've entertained with it...and they've loved it....I've cooked it for my entire family while visiting in Ontario...and they all loved it! It's flavours are so unique, that you just have to try it yourself! Weekends begin in our house on Thursday night....so we find ourselves having this almost every Thursday evening, once the kids are in bed (although Noah gobbles it right up too!), with a nice glass of red wine.

I got this recipe from Alicia Silverstone's book The Kind Diet....GREAT book if you haven't taken a peak at it yet...have made almost every recipe in the book...love it:)

I should also add that we usually eat this dish with fresh parmesan on top...cheating a little I know...so it's not entirely vegan when consumed that way:) (But is just tastes SO good!!)

Also...side note...I know the quality of the photo is brutal...sorry:)

Rustic Pasta

1 pkg of long pasta....we use Brown Rice Pasta..always:)
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 large onions, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced on diagonal
1/4 cup shoyu or tamari (good quality soya sauce)
1 head of cabbage, thinly sliced (red or green...both taste amazing)
5-6 Tbsp marinara sauce (good quality organic pasta sauce)

Cook package of pasta until just al dente, drain and set aside. Meanwhile, heat the oil, add the onions and cook on medium heat until softened, try not to let them 'fry brown'...about 7 minutes. Then add the garlic and celery, suate for another 2-3 minutes. Stir in the shoyu, then add the cabbage, saute covered for about 10 minutes or until all the onions and cabbage appear well cooked.

Add the pasta to the skillet with the marinara sauce and toss together. Cook for another minute or two and serve!

Fun Shaped Graham Cracker Cookies!

Okay...so this new healthy recipe was supposed to be a lovely addition to Levi's Giraffe Themed FIRST Birthday Party we hosted on Sunday...but..the whole idea of a giraffe cookie cutter just isn't a good thing I realized very quickly! WAY too long of a neck and too skinny of a tail! After about half a dozen, I gave up! Still needed to use up this wonderful dough that I had made...so I grabbed my TWO boxes of cookie cutters (used to teach Kindergarten...kinda goes with the trade!)..and told Noah to pick out his favourites...and that he did! It was a fun event for both of us! The picture isn't too wonderful, but the cookies taste great...were pretty simple to make, and are now a fun and healthy homemade snack for Noah to look forward to! He loves choosing between trains, airplanes, buses, circles, hands or cars to eat!

Graham Cracker Cookies

2 1/2 Cups Spelt Flour
1/4 Cup Dark Brown Cane Sugar, packed
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Cup Butter, chilled & cubed (sub in Coconut Oil and these are vegan)
1/4 Cup Honey
1/4 Cup Water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a food processor or mixer combine the first 6 ingredients.
3. Add cubed butter to the mix and pulse/mix until it resembles coarse meal.
4. Add honey and water and continue to mix until it all combines.
5. Remove and shape the dough into a flat disk
6. Roll dough out until 1/4 inch thick. Cut into crackers or shapes.
7. Bake for 12 minutes.
8. Cool and serve

These would freeze really well too!

Garden Vegetable Rose Sauce

Last week was so sunny and warm here, considering it's October! Noah and I headed out to do some yard clean-up...and stumbled upon MANY great finds in our garden still! Take a look...there was even a handful of strawberries...those just didn't last long enough with Noah around to be in the picture!



The rest of the day kinda got away on us...and all of a sudden it was 6:30pm and I found myself realizing I had planned nothing for dinner! That is not like me....I usually am thinking about dinner before I eat breakfast!! So...the boys had already eaten and were about ready for bed...it was only Jay and I that I needed to worry about. Moments like this I usually resort to Black Bean Quesadillas...that's kinda our "go-to" meal...but we were missing a few key ingredients. I took a quick look at this beautiful assortment of veggies and realized they needed to be enjoyed! This is what I came up with!



Eliminate the last step of stirring in the spoonful of cream cheese...and don't garnish your bowl with parmesan...and you've got a beautiful vegan supper!

Garden Vegetable Rose Sauce with Brown Rice Pasta

2 cloves of garlic, minced
Handfuls of fresh tomatoes coarsely chopped...canned would work too
1 large zucchini, sliced
1 large bag of spinach
1 heaping spoonful of cream cheese
handful of fresh basil...or dried basil works too
salt and pepper if desired

Heat up saucepan with a drop or two of olive oil. Add garlic and let cook for a minute or so. Add zucchini and let cook for another minute or two. Add tomatoes until well heated. Add spinach and basil. Cover pan and let spinach cook down. Stir in cream cheese...voila you have rose sauce, minus the heavy cream!

Cook Brown Rice Pasta as directed on bag...spoon over top and add a little parmesan..ENJOY!...oh...and of course it always tastes better with a lovely glass of red wine:)

A very affordable, FAST dinner that you could add some chicken breasts to if desired...and even use for entertaining!

Pumpkin Millet Muffins

So...if you made the "Pumpkin Scones...Starbucks Style" earlier this week, like I did...then you're probably wondering what you could do with the leftover pumpkin puree in your fridge!? The last thing you want to do is waste such a wonderful thing! Noah and I whipped these muffins yesterday morning while Levi was napping. There is something so wonderful about the smell of pumpkin spice in your house on a fall day!



I have to say...as convenient as the canned pumpkin is, there is nothing quite like pumpkin pastries made from fresh pumpkin! Those fresh ones will be saved for November 1st, when it's time to take the pumpkins off the front steps...and make room for Christmas decorations!


Pumpkin Millet Muffins

1/2 cup coconut oil
1 cup almond milk (or milk of choice)
3/4 cup sweetener (maple syrup, agave, honey, cane sugar)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup millet, toasted (flax seed works too!)
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1 3/4 cup spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine oil, milk, sugar, vanilla and pumpkin in a large bowl and mix together. Stir in the oats. Toast millet in a hot dry skillet until lightly brown and fragrant. Toast the pumpkin seeds and add the millet and seeds to the bowl. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients together. Add the dry mix to the wet mix and gently stir to combine.



Fill lightly greased muffin cups generously with batter. Sprinkle tops with pumpkin seeds and bake for 20 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. The will make 12 large sized muffins. ENJOY!

*You will notice in the picture above that my muffins are missing the pumpkin seeds on top...we were all out!! They still tasted yummy...just didn't look as festive!

Noah got the first taste test of these Pumpkin Muffins...fresh from the oven...I think he liked them:)



And we don't want to leave Levi out! Although he won't be enjoying these muffins for a little longer yet, he sure does look like he's having fun in his new rocking chair from Nana & Papa...an early birthday present:)

Blackberry Yogurt Muffins

Surprisingly we still found Blackberries this past weekend at the Farmer's Market! I should add VERY RIPE Blackberries...so we knew that we needed to do something with them asap, other than freezing them that is. Skimming through my new favourite cookbook, SLICE, I stumbled upon Raspberry Yogurt Muffins...made a few changes (other that the obvious, blackberries for raspberries that is!)..and came out with these!!

Levi got first dibs on the fresh berries...too cute to resist!



A little measuring and mixing gave us this tempting 'before' shot...



And approximately 20 minutes later...this yummy result!



Easy...incredibly moist...healthy...and fun:)
ENJOY!

Blackberry Yogurt Muffins

1 1/2 cups spelt or barley flour
1 cup oats
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup plain yogurt (get your hands on some coconut milk yogurt and these become vegan)
1 cup mashed bananas
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup blackberries, cut in half, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin pan. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients. Puree together wet ingredients. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Gently fold in blackberries. Divide into muffin pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until an insert toothpick comes out clean. Makes one dozen muffins.

Pumpkin Scones...Starbucks Style!

Here's a taste of what I whipped up at breakfast today for our houseguests! My sister-in-law Jen and her two boys are staying with us...and we thought this would be a nice treat for a 'cool' fall morning breakfast. The funny part is that I actually got this recipe from Jen last fall after a conversation about the temptation of Fall treats at Starbucks! Is it wrong to feed a houseguest her own recipe??! Hmm..I don't think she minded!! Oh..and the boys gobbled them right up too!

Pumpkin Scones

2 1/4 cups spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup maple syrup, agave, honey (or something sweet of your choice!)
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup almond milk
2/3 cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup coconut oil

Mix wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls. Combine mixtures. Pour out into pan...it will look a bit runny...that's okay! Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Take out and cut into shape of your choice! Great with a little maple syrup or jam drizzled on top!

*The original recipe had buttermilk rather than almond milk...and butter rather than coconut oil. Go ahead and use any combination...the way I posted the recipe makes it vegan friendly though:)

ENJOY!