vegan vanillaness
/Today was extremely productive! I have so much to get done [or that I want to get done] before leaving on Thursday for the Healthy Living Summit.
Here are some blog updates:
- recipes are current
- page tab names are all 1 word [trying to look cleaner!]
- popular is a new page
- “spot me” has been renamed to spotted and is updated
- “things I dig” has been renamed to “kitchen” because it includes all of the products + food I have in my kitchen!
- “barefoot running” –> “barefooting”
- you can now subscribe to the blog by email [left sidebar]
- I took a few widgets out of the sidebars as it was looking too busy!
I still need to update my FAQ page. Any questions you want answered? :)
Breakfast.Yum.
Chia Stuffed Oat Bran
- 2/3c water
- 1/2 banana
- 1t cinnamon
- 1T chia seeds
- 1/3c oat bran
- 1/4c milk of choice
- Boil water.
- Add sliced half banana, cinnamon and milk. Boil for ~1min breaking up the banana.
- Stir in oat bran + chia, reduce heat to simmer.
- Cook 3-4min, until desired consistency is reached.
Topped with fresh fruit + walnuts. Can you believe I’m OUT of nutbutter. Like, completely out. I have piles of nuts but haven’t had time to make any.
I took a stab at vegan cupcakes today, and I must say, I was blown away.
These are the best tasting vanilla cupcakes I have ever eaten. The texture was thick, moist + cake like. There were no crumbs left behind with these!
They may have baked up a little funny, but don’t let that fool you. Anyone ever have cupcakes bake like this? There was one that turned out normal, with no weird lip around the edge.
Oh. And I’m working on a vegan coconut milk frosting that will knock your socks off. The flavor was great but I couldn’t get the right consistency yet.
Frosting ingredients:
- full fat coconut milk
- organic powdered sugar
- vanilla bean paste
- coconut oil
I demolished two of these and plenty of batter. Chris loved them too!
They were in the oven in 15min flat. Easy. Promise.
Vegan Vanilla Bean Cupcakes [adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World]
- 1c hemp milk
- 1t apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/4c unbleached organic all-purpose flour
- 2T arrowroot starch [Bob’s Red Mill]
- 3/4t baking powder
- 1/2t baking soda
- 1/4t salt
- 1/2c + 2T organic pure cane sugar
- 1/3c safflower oil [or other light oil]
- 2t vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 1/4t almond extract
- Heat oven to 350* and line muffin pans with liner or spray with oil/flour spray.
- Stir milk + apple cider vinegar together and let sit for about 5-10min. This creates a vegan buttermilk. It should curdle a bit. You can use a non-dairy milk that has protein in it [almond + rice milk would not work as well]. I recommend hemp milk, oat, or soy milk.
- Sift together flour, starch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Beat together the oil, sugar, vanilla, almond, and milk mixture in a large bowl.
- Pour in the dry to the wet and beat until there are no lumps. Be careful not to over beat.
- Pour batter into the muffin tins 2/3 of the way full. You should get 10-12 muffins.
- Bake for 20-22min. Toothpick test.
- Take out of the oven and set on a cooling rack. After 10-15min set muffins directly on cooling rack.
*If you don’t have arrowroot starch or can’t find it, you can use corn starch instead.
The tiny amount of almond extract really brought out a lot of flavor. I might try a little lemon extract next time for a fun twist. Seriously, these were so cakey + delicious. The most flavorful vanilla cupcake I’ve ever eaten. It’s funny because I’ve had fancy cupcakes around here in Denver. Cupcake shops that are supposed to be the cream of the crop. And I can definitely say, this was better. I’m not taking credit for it, but I’m so glad I found it!
I wanted to give these a try before trying to health them up at all. I did knock down the sugar by 2T and they were definitely still sweet enough. I wonder what a little whole wheat pastry flour and applesauce would do to these? :)
I think I might just stick to the real deal.
Night!
Ashley
