Raw Cinnamon Raisin Cookie Dough Balls

Yet another fantastic Vegan & Gluten-free recipe for your sweet tooth from Texan Erin!

 Ingredients:

For the balls:
• ¾ cup (75 grams) walnuts
• ¾ cup (67 grams) rolled or traditional oats (non-contaminated for GF)
• 1 cup (180 grams) dates
• ¾ cups (180 grams) raisins
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• ½ - 1 cup (60 - 120 grams) oat bran or more oats
• ½ - 1 cup (45 - 90 grams) rolled or traditional oats
  
For the frosting:
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil, softened but not melted
• 2 tablespoons honey (agave for vegan)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. In your food processor, grind the walnuts and oats until there are no more large chunks and then set aside. Add the dates and half of the raisins to the food processor and process until it's smooth, and then add the vanilla and cinnamon.
2. Process until thoroughly combined and then add the oat and nut mixture. Pulse. At this point, you can start adding oat bran and more rolled oats.
3. Add ¼ cup of each, pulse, see if you like the consistency, and if you want even more bran and oats, add more, a little at a time. You don't want them to get too dry.
4. Roll tightly into balls. You'll have to squeeze them together to get them to stick, but it'll work.
5. For the frosting, stir everything together and pipe onto the balls or just spoon a little bit over. These are already pretty sweet so you might not want it.
   
   *I actually made the frosting and preferred the balls without it, so I just ate them the way they were with a couple carob chips on top.   I also didn't blend in all the raisins as instructed in Step 1, I added some to the mix at the end before I rolled them into balls.  YUM!

Vegan Girl Scout Samoa Wannabes

I've been trying some Paleo dessert recipes lately, most of them also happen to be Vegan or easily Veganizable!

 
The awesome thing about these raw/no bake dessert recipes is they are SUPER quick and they make small batches.  So, they're ready in a jiffy and you there's no pressure to over-indulge since they make only 6 - 12 tasty treats per recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup pecans, plus 8 extra whole pecans
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut, plus some additional for rolling
• 1 cup of pitted dates, about 12
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1/3 cup Vegan dark chocolate chunks (available at Whole Foods)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Add pecans to the food processor and process until they are fine but not clumping.
2. Add remaining ingredients in order above.
3. Roll into 8 balls.  Roll in shredded coconut and press one pecan into the center of each ball.

In the event the balls don't stay together well, you can add a tablespoon of coconut oil to the mix.

Enjoy!

Delicious Vegan Strawberry Pie Recipe

Josh & I went strawberry picking a couple weeks ago and I made him these miniature strawberry pies.

 

They turned out really delicious.  I veganized this recipe and also made my own graham cracker crust using Organic Graham Crackers.  I was horrified after inspecting the labels on the pre-made graham cracker crusts and the pre-packaged graham cracker crumbs.  All of the leading brand graham cracker crusts and crumbs contained multiple hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup = transfatty, GMO yuckiness!

Heavenly Tropical Fruit Salad

I've been trying to cut back on snacking on dark chocolate and other sweets that may be hiding in the pantry, so I made a nice big bowl of fruit.  It turned out so pretty that I couldn't resist posting a photo.

YUM!  This salad made a great little after dinner treat.  I cut up half of a cantaloupe, some fresh local strawberries (hand picked by yours truly), a mango and a kiwi.  Everything was ripe and so sweet - it was the perfect healthy dessert!

Super Yummy Vegan protein shake!

Based in a suggestion from my personal trainer, I decided to experiment with making a new kind of afternoon snack and boy was it tasty.

I based my shake off of a Nutribullet recipe. It was tropical, sweet and I couldn't get enough!

Delicious Vegan Apple Crisp

We had family from Connecticut to our house last night for a big plant-based dinner.  Everyone complimented how delicious the food was.  We served the Chipotle Bean Bowl, Cuban Garbanzos as well as this yummy Apple Crisp.

Thanks to the Hell yeah it's Vegan! blog for the recipe.  I followed it exactly, except I

Mom's Plant-Based Pumpkin Bread

It's been awfully quiet on the Plant Based Happiness Blog this month.  I've been consumed with Christmas prep - the shopping, the wrapping, the decorating, the baking, gathering of friends and loved ones, etc.  Here's a recipe that I've been experimenting with and I believe I've finally perfected it.

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Mousse? Yes, please!

I made this mousse this weekend for my Mom.  I was pretty skeptical of using tofu in a dessert recipe but I gave it a shot.  The verdict - it was AMAZING.  Mom, who hasn't eliminated dairy products, really enjoyed it too. 

I scoped out a few different online recipes and here's what I ended up doing:

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Mousse 

These little morsels did the trick!

We allow ourselves to splurge a little bit on the weekend and I was really craving something sweet and cookie-like this weekend.  I came across this recipe on Pinterest a few weeks back and was SUPER skeptical.  The main ingredient ... chickpeas.  I know what you're thinking because I had the same thoughts. 

OMG Plant-Based Ice Cream

I found this fantastic recipe on Pinterest for dairy free ice cream and was so excited to try it tonight. Ice cream is probably my biggest weakness which made eliminating dairy pretty painful at first.

Peanut Butter Cookies (Vegan)

We tried these peanut butter cookies a couple months ago and they were really good.  If you know anything about Vegan desserts, they are often very involved, time-consuming and include special ingredients.  This recipe is awesome because it's quick and easy and it doesn't have any uncommon ingredients.  I'm anxious to try substituting the applesauce with bananas (Heather's idea, not mine).

Thank you Chocolate Covered Katie for the recipe!


Peanut Butter Secrets
Delicious peanut butter cookies!

• 1/2 cup peanut butter 
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3 tbsp whole-wheat pastry flour (or white or a gf mix)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp coconut sugar or brown sugar (Brown Sugar is not vegan)
• 2 tbsp applesauce
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• optional: pinch salt (Taste the batter to decide.)

Mix dry ingredients very well. Then add wet and form cookie balls. If you want soft cookies, fridge the dough for at least an hour. Then bake in a preheated oven (350F) for 8 minutes. They’ll look underdone when you take them out, but that’s ok. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before removing from tray.

To keep them soft, store leftover cookies in a plastic container. This recipe will make about 15-22 cookies, depending on how big you roll them. (For 22 cookies, they’ll have 50 calories per cookie.)

http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/12/11/secret-peanut-butter-cookies/