Spicy Tempeh Hash

I love a good breakfast. But who doesn't? Growing up in the South, a staple for breakfast was always potatoes, some kind of meat, a bread with gravy and eggs. Sometimes fruit. Now that our family eats plant based, I usually make pancakes with a smoothie for breakfast. I can hide so many healthy ingredients in pancakes! But having the same thing over and over again definitely gets boring. So when I came across this recipe in the Vegetarian Times, I was overjoyed. We don't eat much soy, but every so often I"ll cook with organic tempeh.

I pretty much followed the recipe as written, I just added sage and more paprika, peppers and onions. I also used organic coconut oil instead of canola. I doubled the recipe for our family of 5. I served it with some Ezekeil sprouted toast and fruit and fresh juice. It was a hit. And very easy to make.

Cookies and "Cream"

ChocoChip-Pecan Cookies and

Vanilla-Banana Ice "Cream"

I really have to watch my sweet tooth, it gets easily carried away. But every once in awhile, I give in to my inner child and make cookies… and ice cream. And besides, these cookies have quinoa and no refined sugars.

ChocoChip/Pecan Cookies

You'll need... 

1 c sprouted, whole wheat flour or brown rice flour for GF

1 c oat flour*

1/4 c quinoa flour*

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla bean powder or 1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 c coconut oil

1/2 c applesauce

1/2 c coconut sugar

2 Tbsp maple syrup

1/3 c nut milk

1/2 c chocolate chips

1/2 c chopped pecans

*you can grind whole oats or quinoa in a high-speed blender

*may sub different flours, if needed

Let's get started!

Preheat your oven to 375*. Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix all of the wet ingredients in a small bowl and then add to the dry. Combine and then fold in chips and pecans. Scoop spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. 

Vanilla-Banana Ice "Cream"

2 cups frozen bananas

1/2 c nut milk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder

Mix all ingredients in a high speed blender until creamy. Simple as that. 

Sweet Nut Milk

I use nut milk almost daily. In smoothies (like this one), on granola in the morning, in coffee or herbal tea, and basically anywhere dairy milk would be used. This is a sweet, indulgent milk. I like to use a combo of the nuts mentioned below, but sometimes I just use one. 

You'll need...

1 c raw, soaked and rinsed nuts

(such as hazelnuts, cashews, almonds, macadamia, peanuts or brazil nuts)

3 dates, soaked and pitted***

1 vanilla bean, soaked if necessary (or 1 tsp extract)

cinnamon (optional)

6 c of water

*** Or you can use 1 Tbsp sweetener of choice, such as maple syrup or coconut nectar
*** For an un-sweet milk, just blend the nuts with water

Nut milk bag, fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth

Let's get started!

Blend all of the ingredients in a high-speed blender until smooth. Grab your nut milk bag and a large bowl. Hold the bag open over the bowl and slowly pour the milk in, squeezing when necessary to get the milk out. 

Keep pouring the milk in to the bag, and squeezing the milk out until only dry pulp is left in the bag.

I like to pour my milk back into the blender, to make it easier to pour into a jar. Make sure you label your jar, it wouldn't be very fun to mix your nut milk and your ranch. You can save the leftover pulp and add it to muffins, smoothies, or cakes, or you could dehydrate it into a nut flour.

I just love how you can see the vanilla beans floating at the top.