Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Pumpkins, eggs, and oil in the mix makes for a moist, flavorful pancake with a crepe-like texture.  Credit is due to the wonderful book Practical Paleo for the recipe.  Easy, healthy, and delicious, these pancakes have become a Sunday morning staple in Veggie Wonder-land.  They're also grain-free and paleo, with lots of fiber and protein to boot.  

Most pumpkins and squashes will do, and the recipe works especially well with a butternut squash base.  The brand and texture of squash mixed in does influence the taste - the Kroger organic brand I tried this morning resulted in a thicker, more substantial pancake than the standard Libby's brand version.  

Enjoy!

You will need:

• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup canned squash (pumpkin or butternut squash work very well)
• 2 spoonfulls of melted butter or oil
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• dash vanilla
• equal amounts of pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon, to taste
• sweetener to taste (maple syrup recommended)
• chocolate chips or chunks (optional)

1. Mix wet ingredients, and then stir in the dry ingredients.
2. Fry in greased or nonstick skillet on medium heat.  A 2-3'' diameter cake works well.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips if desired.  Flip after a few bubbles appear.
3. Enjoy!

Super Fudgy Steel-Cut Oats

Nutty + chocolatey +... healthy?  Yes!  Cocoa + coconut oil work so well with the steel cut oats here.

Steel cut oats have a wonderful nutty flavor and a satisfying crunch.  While I generally prefer them to the standard rolled variety, I would avoid them because they were too much work.  That is, until I realized I could make steel cut oats easily in my single serving rice cooker (stay tuned for some more details in a future post!).

To make these chocolate oats, you will need:

• Plain oats of choice, cooked as you like them and warm (steel cut oats are wonderful!)
• Unsweetened cocoa powder, to taste
• Sweetener of choice, to taste (I used Splenda)
• Coconut butter, a small dab for richness or to taste

1. Mix everything together.
2. Taste and adjust ingredients as necessary.
3. Enjoy!

Hard Breakfast Oatmeal

 This morning I used up the last bit of my beloved almond milk to make oatmeal.  There wasn't enough milk left to put in almond milk in the usual ratio of 2 parts milk to 1 part oats, so I improvised and just used what I had on hand.  I think the ratio was 1 to 1.5 parts milk to 1 part oats.  The result was a delicious oatmeal, in which the oats were nicely cooked and somewhat moist and yet I could taste each oat separately.  What a tasty textural variation on the standard breakfast oatmeal!  I will definitely be making oats this way again!

To follow suit, you will need:

• rolled oats
• milk of choice (I used unsweetened almond)
• cinnamon (optional)

1. Mix rolled oats and milk in a ratio of approximately 1-1.5 parts milk for each part oats.
2. Microwave for 2 minutes, or until oats achieve desired level of doneness.
3. Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired.
4. Enjoy!

Coconut Quinoa Pudding

This is a healthy, creamy breakfast pudding, reminiscent of a rice pudding.  Unlike standard white rice pudding, this pudding is made from nutrient-rich quinoa, so comes with loads of protein and fiber.  The flavors are pretty comparable, and the texture is a little more creamy than standard rice pudding.  To make the pudding, you will need:

• Quinoa of choice, uncooked (I used basic white quinoa)
• Milk of choice (I used unsweetened almond)
• Coconut flakes
• Sweetener of choice (I used a mix of stevia and agave)
• Ground ginger
• Vanilla (optional)
• 2-3 Green cardamom pods

1. Fill small (1.5 quart) crockpot until 2/3 full with quinoa and milk, with approximately 1 part quinoa to 3 or 4 parts milk 
2. Stir in remaining ingredients to taste
3. Cook on low overnight or on medium or high heat for a few hours, until the pudding is soft and creamy.
4. Taste and adjust seasonings; sprinkle with some extra coconut flakes.
5. Enjoy!

Pancake Milk Shake

Behold the ultimate healthy comfort food: the pancake milkshake.

This thick and creamy, high protein, sugar-free maple shake was born out of a mostly empty kitchen and some desperation.

It's been a busy few weeks, with less time than usual for fiddling around in the kitchen.  I also hadn't been able to go food shopping as much as I would have liked to, either.  So left without my go to breakfast cereals, limited time, and an overwhelming craving for comfort food, I began to experiment.  This shake is the delicious result of a few quick minutes of mixing one morning.  I highly recommend this shake!

You will need:

• Milk of choice (I used unsweetened almond)
• Unsweetened soy protein powder (either plain or vanilla would work)
• Maple syrup of choice (I used a sugar free variety)

Stir everything together and enjoy!  If desired, swirl in some extra maple syrup after you have mixed everything together.  The soy protein powder has a dry and flour-y consistency that makes this shake thick and satisfying.

Creamy Cinnamon Sugar Breakfast Quinoa

This is one of the healthier, more filling breakfast meals I have had in a while.  Quinoa is a delicious seed that tastes a lot like a grain.  The consistency of this quinoa dish is much more like a porridge or oatmeal than a traditional quinoa.  Imagine wholesome, nutty quinoa, just more creamy than you might be used to, and mixed with cinnamon and sugar.  Yum!

Surprisingly, it's also one of the easier hot breakfasts to put together.  You will need:

• Quinoa
• Cinnamon, to taste
• Sweetener of choice, to taste (I used stevia)
• Salt to taste (a dash is usually enough)
• Milk of choice (I used unsweeteend almond milk)
• Fruit topping (optional, I used grapes)

1. Inspect and rinse the quinoa (some boxes come pre-washed, and if so this step is unnecessary).
2. Combine all ingredients in a small slow cooker (I used a 1.5 quart slow cooker).  You will want to use more milk/liquid for each serving of quinoa than recommended on box instructions, probably 1.5 to 2 times as much and possibly even more than that.  
3. Cook on low overnight or until creamy.  Overcooking a bit is okay, just make sure that your cooker is sufficiently fully (2/3+) so that nothing gets burnt.
4. Adjust seasoning.  Serve with sliced fruit, if desired.
5. Enjoy!  It's yummy hot or cold.

I ate the entire portion, but it did make quite a lot, and I would imagine for those with smaller appetites or serving bowls it might serve two.  If you have any leftovers, this should keep for 2-3 days in the fridge, and tastes pretty good cold as well.

Three Ingredient Quinoa Biscuits

These biscuits are delicious served warm and topped with coconut butter.

These biscuits are easy to make and quite good. They come out of the oven quickly and have a lovely golden color, a soft and crumbly texture, and a mild flavor.  Oh, and they happen to be pretty healthy too - each biscuit has approximately 130 calories!  You can make the biscuits in muffin tins (this was originally supposed to be a muffin recipe but the result was more biscuit like).  The biscuits require only three ingredients: quinoa flour, baking powder, and Sprite.  The Sprite works surprisingly well here - it has hints of citrus which make the biscuits taste a bit lighter than they might have otherwise, as they contain dense quinoa flour.  You can easily make a lower-calorie version if you substitute a sugar-free or diet soda for the Sprite.

You will need:

• 3 cups of quinoa flour (you can make your own if you can't find it)
• 2-3 spoonfuls of baking powder
• Salt to taste (optional, recommended)
• 12 oz of Sprite (I used one of the glass bottles where the soda is made with sugar rather than corn syrup.  Any lemon-lime or citrus flavored soda, including diet, would probably work well here)

1. Preheat oven to 325 F.
2. Mix the dry ingredients.
3. Add Sprite and stir until blended.  You should get a pretty thick dough.  If you don't plan on serving topped with some melted butter or oil, you may want to mix some into the batter as well.
4. Pour batter into 12 lined or greased muffin tins.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
6. Enjoy!  They taste even better the next day.  You can split a biscuit with a knife, then nuke the biscuit halves in the microwave for 20 seconds or until warm, and then spread with some coconut butter, or better yet a salted coconut butter!

This stack of biscuits was actually much more stable than it looked!

See the nice, crumbly golden tops?

Nice texture.  Yum!

Biscuit, unwrapped!

Really, the best way to serve them - with melted salty coconut butter on top!

Bittersweet Banana Muffins

 This is banana bread in a muffin, suitable for snack time and much less sweet than than a standard banana bread.  And really, bananas are sweet enough, don't you think?  Banana breads needn't have so much added sweetness to taste delicious.  Breads for dinner and snacks can have less sugar and still have delectable taste.  I liked this variant on bananas in baked goods.  If you want a sweeter and more moist muffin, however, you can try adding some extra mashed banana or sugar to taste.

You will need:

• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• 3 cups of oat flour
• 1-3 tablespoons of baking powder
• 1 bottle of mild-flavor beer (for a gf muffin, you can use gf beer)
• cinnamon and sweetener to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Mash the banana.
3. Fluff the oat flour with a spoon, along with the baking powder.
4. Mix together the banana mash and flour mixtures, along with the beer.  Stir until the clumps of flour get dissolved.
5. Add cinnamon and sweetener to taste.
6. Pour batter into lined or greased muffin tins.
7. Bake for ~20 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.
8. Enjoy!

Makes 12 standard size (whole grain, gluten-free, vegan, 100 calorie) muffins.