gluten free – Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic

Food November 4, 2014

Vegan Everything Bar

If you live in Houston and haven’t tried Sinfull Bakery, you are truly missing out. I first tried their delicious treats at Catalina Coffee, when I grabbed a vegan Everything Bar while checking out. i intended to eat only half at first, but on that specific day, I learned a very important lesson: It is impossible to only eat half of an Everything Bar.

Last weekend, Isla and I ran into Catalina while Sasha was at Martin’s Tailors (best in Houston!) getting new pants hemmed. Recognizing the fact that I could not get a coffee without reaching for the Sinfull treat, I grabbed a bar and decided that I would share it with Sasha (ha, well he ended up getting 1/6th). I looked at the ingredients on the back – all healthy, but some ingredients that I avoid from day-to-day, like flour and brown sugar. After church on Sunday, I thought to myself, ‘Why don’t I make an everything bar?’ After all, these desserts are supposed to be just a gathering of lots of healthy ingredients from one’s pantry.

Alas, my everything bar recipe. This first attempt included a lot of: ‘Oh, that needs some salt…’ and ‘Yikes, too dry… needs coconut oil.’ Once they came out the oven, Sasha and I couldn’t keep our hands off them. I’m pretty darn proud of this Ailee-invented-Everything-Bar (as always, vegan and gluten and refined-sugar free). Please try it at home and let me know how it goes!

Recipes October 21, 2014

Healthy Vegan Crustless Apple Pie

I have been toying with the idea of a healthy apple pie for ages now, as anyone close to me knows I adore stewed apples. What exactly is a stewed apple? Simple. It’s when an apple is skinned (optional), cored, diced and popped into the microwave for about 2 1/2 – 3 minutes. It comes out soft and sweeter (how? I have no idea). I eat a stewed apple almost every single night after dinner. It’s the best dessert.

After scouring the internet, I found a lot of vegan apple pie recipes online, but none of them were to my liking (i.e. healthy enough). You don’t need all of that added sugar if you bake with a delicious apple (namely Honey Crisp).

I baked three batches of these vegan, gluten-free, refined-sugar-free, crustless apple pies, adjusting little things each time, and the recipe below is the winner. The ingredients make two servings – baked in little ramekins (I used these from Sur La Table).

PS Isla’s nursery is one of the finalist for Project Nursery’s project of the month! I would love your vote.

Food October 7, 2014

Healthy Vegan Banana Nut Bread

I’ve been playing around with vegan recipes for ages now, trying to bake healthy snacks that actually taste good. I’ve attempted to create a healthy version of Sasha’s favorite dessert – banana nut bread. After many failed tries, I baked a delicious loaf that is vegan, gluten-free and refined sugar-free. And yes, it tastes amazing! I have made it successfully three times now – twice with a loaf pan and once with a muffin tray. Sasha and I both agreed that the muffins were the most moist, but both are good.

I highly recommend this banana nut bread if you’re tagged for bringing a dessert to a party or even if you’re hosting one yourself. This dish works for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Sasha loves to top it with his favorite jam – Bonne Maman Raspberry Preserves, and I love it plain.

Personal September 2, 2014

Week 7 in Durango

Week 7 has come and gone very quickly, with the holiday weekend and my parents arriving in Colorado. We are going back to Houston in one week from today – I am so ready to hug (i.e. squeeze to death) my friends, but so sad to leave this gorgeous weather and valuable family time.

In the past week, we hiked up to Fort Lewis College every morning, tried a new restaurant (Chimayo – amazing and will definitely be on my updated Durango Travel Guide), went to the Saturday farmer’s market (delicious hatch peppers and tasty wheat grass drinks!), made some crepe paper peonies (DIY here), baked more vegan black bean brownies as well as these amazing and healthy cookies, ate even more Cream Bean Berry, watched Isla play with her ‘Mimi’ and ‘Papa’, dominated my parents in Taboo, and practiced playing bean bag toss (I’m awful). The only low point of the week was getting stung by a wasp twice (in my hand and leg) – totally unprovoked on my end! Not fun.

Lastly, I recently set up a Facebook page and Instagram account for Snapshots & My Thoughts. I would love if you were to follow along so I can follow you too! Thanks for reading. xoxo

Read about our time in Durango here: Week 1 | Week 2 and 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6

Food August 4, 2014

Vegan Black Bean Brownies + The New York Baking Company

Ever since my vegan chocolate beet muffin success, I’ve felt a little braver in the baking department. Rizzi from The New York Baking Company (Facebook page) asked me to review their brightly colored silicone baking cups, which you can buy on Amazon here. After doing some research, I decided to try baking vegan, gluten-free black bean brownies. I found a number of different recipes online, and adapted them to make our own unique blend (mainly adapted from The Minimalist Baker’s recipe here). Sasha and I devored them within minutes – they are that good (and we’ve made them multiple times in the past week!). Did I mention they are flourless and have no dairy products? It’s definitely seems too good to be true. I have included photos and the recipe below – I highly recommend you make these if you’re trying to satisfy a sweet tooth.

The baking cups worked like a charm. They cost $9.95 and are worth every penny. Not only are these colorful cups BPA free, they are easy to clean – just rinse them and pop them into the dishwasher. The cupcakes came right (without any difficulty!) and into our mouths. Delicious! If you enjoy baking but hate peeling cupcakes, brownies, and muffins out of wrappers, I highly recommend you buy these cups.

Ingredients

1 can black beans
2.5 tablespoons flaxseed meal + 6 tablespoons water to create a flaxseed ‘egg’
3 tablespoons of melted coconut oil
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup of Truvia sugar blend
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 bar of vegan, gluten free chocolate (I love this one!)

Steps

Turn oven to 350 degrees in the bake setting
Mix 2.5 tablespoons of your flaxseed meal with 6 tablespoons of water and set aside to settle
Add together all of your dry ingredients (sea salt, cocoa powder, sugar blend, baking powder) and mix
Add the melted coconut oil and vanilla extract and stir well
Melt the chocolate in the microwave for 1 minute and add to the bowl
Add your flax egg – the batter should be icing-like texture at this point
In a separate bowl, add the drained, clean black beans and grind them until they are a soft, blended texture (you can do this in a blender or food processor, but my parents don’t have one in their house in Durango – it works easily by hand too)
Add the ground beans to the batter and mix well
Line your muffin tray with the baking cups and add the batter to each cup – these don’t rise much, so you don’t need to leave space
I added some almond butter to the batter for the last few muffins for a little extra kick – delicious!
Allow the brownies to bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the outside is slightly crispy, then wait until they cool off and enjoy!

Et voilà – the final product below!

One happy mouth

Recipe adapted from The Minimalist Baker

Baking cups provided by The New York Baking Company – all opinions are my own

Photos by me!