Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic
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Recipes

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Food

5 Ingredient Raw Vegan Brownies

I am not a baker. But seriously, every vegan dessert I try fails (except these beet muffins – yum!). So when I came across a recipe for a simple, raw vegan brownie bite recipe, I jumped at it. I made some slight adaptations to the version I found online, and both Sasha and I love the result! These have five ingredients – raw cashews, organic honey, pitted/chopped dates, coconut oil, and unsweetened cocoa powder. They take five minutes to prepare (minus recommended refrigeration time) – and they are healthy-ish (no refined sugars!). Perfect tiny snack to fill your sweet tooth cravings!

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Ingredients: 1 cup of plain cashews, 1 cup of pitted or chopped dates, 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder, 1.5 tablespoons of coconut oil, 2 teaspoons of honey

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Step 1: Add 1 cup of raw, unsalted cashews to your blender and pulse until finely chopped

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Step 2: Add pitted or chopped dates to cashew powder and pulse until completely mixed (should get kind of solid)

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Step 3: Add 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

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Step 4: Add 1.5 tablespoons of coconut oil and 2 teaspoons of honey to the blended mixture – may have to stir with spoon vs. blend (depending on how strong your blender is!)

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Step 5: Lay down stick-free parchment paper or aluminum foil and make into small brownie bites

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Optional (but I recommend) Step 6: Add to fridge for an hour so the coconut oil hardens – then enjoy!

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If you try them, let me know how they turn out!

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Décor

Valentine’s Crafting + Baking

Last weekend, I headed over to Christie of KiKiMac‘s gorgeous house with Danielle of Goat and Spoon, and we had a perfect “Galentine’s Crafternoon.” She had posted some Valentine’s craft ideas here and here. As you’ll see in Christie’s post, we ended up creating these pretty hearts. Please soak in all of her gorgeous touches – like the place settings, menus, and delicious vegan, gluten free food!

Of course, with this festive holiday approaching us quickly, there are lots of DIY and decor inspirations posted across the web. Oh So Beautiful Paper’s Valentine Crafting Party ideas include some of my favorite! I adore these printables from Oh So Pretty x Sugar & Cloth.

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If you’re looking to have or host a Valentine’s girl’s brunch, be inspired here. This Glitter Guide get-together is seriously perfect. I love the bubbly bar and the glitter LOVE letters.

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Another gorgeous Glitter Guide crafty party is featured here. Every single detail (and craft) is perfect. Every one.

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I also love this cupid’s arrow cake idea! Sasha and I would never finish that big of a cake, but I think a scaled down version would be perfect. I could even use our new favorite vegan chocolate beet muffin recipe for the cakes!

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Another fun vegan Valentine’s Day recipe are these chocolate cake balls. I love finding vegan and gluten free recipes – perfect for a dinner with me and my brother-in-law, Carl, who has Celiac disease.

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Food

Vegan Chocolate Beet Muffins

I think that everyone needs their signature baked good. Unfortunately for me, I’ve never had one, and as a health-focused vegan, it has been hard to find recipes that fit the bill for nutrition while tasting delicious. That is, until I came across Minimalist Baker. This blog is my everything! I found two chocolate beet muffin/cupcake recipes and have fallen in love (as has Sasha, my toughest vegan critic!). I slightly adapted this one – replacing the all purpose flour with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free flour, using Stevia vs. sugar, canned beets, and adding Attune bar chocolate crumbles. Sasha gave them two big thumbs up. I highly recommend you give this recipe a try! If you do, please let me know what you think.
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Ingredients
  • 3/4 can of beets (pureed)
  • 1 cup unsweetened soy milk
  • 1 tsp white or apple cider vinegar
  • 
3/4 cup baking Stevia (or coconut sugar)
  • 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
  • 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup + 1 heaping Tbsp gluten-free flour (or regular all-purpose if you don’t want them GF)
  • scant 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • pinch salt
  • 3 vegan Attune bars (found at Central Market or Whole Foods next to probiotic yogurts)

 Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F
  2. Open can of beets and puree them until they are in liquid form. Measure out 1/2 cup and set aside.
  3. Line a muffin pan with paper liners.
  4. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the Stevia, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and 1/2 cup beets and beat until foamy.
  5. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to a sifter and slowly sift it into the wet ingredients while mixing with a hand-held or standing mixer. Beat until no large lumps remain.
  6. Put vegan Attune bars (amazing chocolate filled with antioxidants!) into Ziplock bag and break into small pieces with a wooden spoon. Pour small chocolate crumbles into the mix.
  7. Pour batter into liners, filling 3/4 of the way full. Bake 22 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Do not try and unwrap them or they’ll stick to the wrapper.
  8. Once cooled, store in an airtight container to keep fresh. Optional: Dust with cocoa powder.Vegan-Chocolate-Chocolate-Chip-Muffins-minimalistbaker.com-vegan-chocolate

Recipe adapted from The Minimalist Baker (obsessed with her recipes!), and pictures are from here and here. If you try them, please let me know what you think!

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Food

Black-Bean-Beet Burger

I love black bean burgers (especially Adair Kitchen’s), and I love beet burgers (especially Tiny Boxwood’s). So the other day, I began to search the internet for the perfect black bean and beet burger. I found a number of recipes, but this one stuck out. I tried it. The burgers are heavenly. I made one swap – I replaced the rice for barley, and oat flour for quinoa flour. They still taste amazing. While I’m a full time vegetarian, Sasha only observes Meatless Mondays, so 3 black-bean-beet-burgers are packed in his lunchbox today. Pair them with whole wheat buns (for him), or bunless (for me), with a grilled veggie salad, and you’ve got the perfect meal.

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Patties (makes 6):
8 ounces beets, steamed or roasted and peeled*
1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, washed and drained
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, washed and drained
1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1/4 cup rolled oat flour**
1/2 red onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon sumac
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
Salt
Pepper

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Pulse beets in a food processor until roughly chopped. Add beets to a large bowl, along with the garbanzo beans, black beans, brown rice, oat flour, red onion, garlic, sumac, thyme leaves, ground cumin and ground coriander. Mash with two forks until all the beans are incorporated. Salt and pepper to taste. (I added about one teaspoon of kosher salt and half of a teaspoon of pepper.)

Using a half cup measure, form six patties. Cover them with plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes. (Since we aren’t using egg to bind the mix, this step helps the patties hold together.) Melt butter or olive oil in a non-stick skillet. Toast the hamburger buns for 1-2 minutes. Remove and set aside. Add more butter or olive oil if needed. Add the patties and cook on both sides for 3-4 minutes and until the tops are lightly golden brown. Optional: Place slices of cheese on top of each burger and cook for 1 minute longer, until cheese is melted.

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Sprouted Kitchen: Almond Date Truffles

I absolutely adore cooking. I make Sasha dinner from scratch every single night. Since I’m a vegetarian and he’s not (except for Meatless Mondays), I’ll make the same dish for us, but add chicken, shrimp or salmon to the top of his meal, which makes life much easier. While I’m not a vegan, I don’t eat eggs, so baking has never, ever brought joy to my life like cooking has. I recently stumbled upon Sprouted Kitchen, the most amazing food blog ever, and found a host of amazing meatless recipes and eggless desserts. I am thrilled. The Almond Date Truffles, shown below will definitely be my first trial.

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Almond Date Truffles  // Makes 18

  • 20 Medjool dates, seeded and halved (plump and slightly glossy)
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup creamy almond butter
  • 1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
  • 1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp. natural cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tsp. sea salt
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/3 cup toasted almonds, well chopped

Put the dates and vanilla in a food processor and run until a chunky paste forms. Add the almond butter and pulse a few more times. Add the coconut, cocoa powder, salt and cinnamon and pulse a few more times. The mixture should be a tad crumbly, but press between your fingers and stick together. If it seems too wet to hold in a ball, add more coconut, if too dry, add a touch more almond butter or a splash of water.

Roll a heaping Tbsp. of the mixture between your palms to form a ball. Repeat with remaining mixture. Put your chopped almonds on a plate and roll each truffle in the almonds (apply a bit of pressure to get them to adhere). Place the plate in the fridge to chill for at least an hour. Truffles will keep covered in the fridge for a couple weeks.

 

Recipe and pictures via Sprouted Kitchen

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