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Strawberry Yogurt Hemp Protein Smoothie. Vegan Glutenfree Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Richa) — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 18:28:00 +0000

Phew. The last 2 weeks has been a bit crazy. We are trying to move the blog to wordpress from blogger and the issues just keep piling up. Thankfully I am not doing the transfer, or I would have had a head of gray hair already :) with all the issues of maintaining the urls, images, posts, feed. It is difficult to let someone else do it. For me, its either I do the entire thing, or not do any little bit, else I get sucked into fixing things on my own. Which is not an option right now.

So I am trying to get back to the regular blog posting schedule (I have too many drafts!)and also focusing on the cookbook and most likely bugging hubbs to figure out some of the issues with the transfer this weekend.

Here is a quick and simple Smoothie. This is a basic smoothie which you can change up to taste and add other things. Change this to a smoothie bowl topped with granola, strawberries, nuts or seeds and a dollop of peanut butter.

Hubbs dislikes most protein powders, or rather has not yet developed a liking to the chalky taste and texture. So I have to get creative with the protein smoothies and add a lot of strong flavors. After this Blueberry Hemp Chocolate Smoothie, this simple one is a favorite. this smoothie works because I add the protein powder to half the serving and swirl it in but not mix it completely. So after a protein-y mouthful, the next one is just fresh berry smoothie. :) The gorgeous pink mixed with the pink + green (protein powder). Also makes for a prettier color than an all brown smoothie :)

I used So Delicious plain Almond Milk Yogurt. So Delicious now has plain (not greek) cultured Almond Milk yogurts too and they are all carrageenan free. There are a lot of other flavors as well and they all taste fabulous! The biggest problem I had with plain unflavored non dairy coconut milk yogurt was the taste. It tasted coconutty, was a bit too thick and had some after taste from the additives. The soy milk versions from other brands I tried also had a lot of soy after taste.

Now the almond milk version is much fresher, not thickened too much and tastes great when eaten as is. Yes, even the plain ones. I used to love eating fresh plain yogurt between meals and these new yogurts by So Delicious solve that problem!

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Hot Cocoa Snickerdoodles from Decadent Gluten-free Vegan Baking Book. Review + Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Richa) — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 07:08:00 +0000

It has been an amazing year with fantastic cookbooks coming out and each one is special and wonderful. The book I am reviewing today, Decadent Gluten-Free Vegan Baking: Delicious, Gluten-, Egg- and Dairy-Free Treats and Sweets, brings you what Cara's philosophy has always been about. Dietary restrictions, food allergies, other reasons or not, you should be able to enjoy whatever you want to!

Cara, who surprises us all with her every post on Fork & Beans blog, brings all of that and more to her cookbook. The book is filled with delicious treats for anytime, for holidays and events, childhood favorites and so much more. There are many ideas that you can apply elsewhere and personalize.

The book is entirely is gluten-free and vegan. The chapters cover
Childhood faves (Thin mints, Tagalongs, Oreos, Cheez its!)
Cookies, Bars, Brownies (biscotti, blondies, graham crackers)
Donuts, Muffins, scones, biscuits
Cupcakes, Cakes (black out, german chocolate!)
Breads, pastries
Sauces, toppings, frostings (even some natural colors, icing and sprinkles. Whats food without some bright colors right. )

There is something for everyone in this book!

I made the Chocolate Chip Blondie Sundae. I mean look at it below and you will know why I made it. Topped with Hemp vanilla Ice cream from Full tilt and vegan caramel sauce from hot cakes. all local seattle fare.

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Triple Layer Chocolate Mousse Cake. Glutenfree Vegan Recipe. No Bake, No Palm oil

noreply@blogger.com (Richa) — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 10:00:00 +0000

I told you. This year is going to be chocolatey. Be ready for a Chocolate Coma.
This insanely delicious and decadent chocolate mousse layer Cake or Pie has a chocolate oat almond crust, a dark chocolate mousse layer and a lighter chocolate mousse layer. Top it with vanilla ice cream for the best every dessert.

The entire cake has 7 oz of cocoa/cacao butter which is what keeps the mousse solid enough to not be liquid. The chocolate I used is Theo's dark chocolate which also uses cocoa butter and no other random oils. So There is no palm oil in this huge cake! I used a bit of tofu to add volume, which can be easily replaced by very thick cashew cream. The 7 oz Cocoa butter is enough to set the mousse layers. If you do not want to eat anything other than mousse, skip the crust and make 2 layers mousse cake.

Death by Chocolate Mousse!

You can use a baked chocolate cake/torte like this one or this one, as the bottom layer instead of the Oat almond layer. That will be an even taller mousse cake. This is quite a decadent dessert and can easily serve a party of 10 to 12.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to finish off this piece before the Ice cream melts.

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Chickpea Chorizo, Quinoa Shells in Tomato sauce. Vegan Glutenfree Pasta Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Richa) — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 17:36:00 +0000

This pasta, all loaded up with spicy chorizo crumbles of chickpeas and tomato sauce. Makes for a Super easy weeknight meal! No store bought sausage, no vital wheat gluten! Chickpeas are roasted up with spices and herbs, added to pasta and sauce and finished off with nutritional yeast and fresh basil. yum! You can also make this with other beans, crumbled steamed Tempeh or Pressed super firm tofu. Change up the sauce, add veggies. lots of variations. I used small quinoa shells for this pasta. use any regular shells or penne.

Its way too hot in the PNW today. So the plan for the day is to keep spraying water on myself and on chewie, who dislikes the spray but then goes to sleep as he cools down. Poor thing keeps panting non stop after a walk. Hubbs tells me that it is a pleasant (86 deg F). Well yeah, it is for people working all day in Air conditioned buildings :P

While you are here, please do check out the awesome work done by Wildlife Waystation, LA based non-profit 501(c)3, sanctuary dedicated to holding, rehabilitation, medical and problem solving refuge for native, wild, and exotic animals. One of their Chimps started a campaign to help the sanctuary.
Sha sha the Chimp rescued from Bio medical research has an Indiegogo campaign to help support her living costs. Read more about her here.

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Banana Nut Snack Bars. Vegan Glutenfree Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Richa) — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 02:21:00 +0000

One of my favorite snack food bars, Banana nut bars from odwalla suddenly were out of stock everywhere for 2 months or so. And I started snacking on nuts on the road or everyday snack time. Too many nuts and me do not go well together. Breakouts and jiggly arms. nuff said.

So I decided I needed to make some snack bars. So here are these snack bars. Bananas, Oats, Dates, walnuts, cashews, hemp, spices. done.

Make a batch and keep these handy. I kept these very simple. You can add in other dried fruit like cherries, apricots, strawberries, blueberries etc. Add other seeds and nuts.

These granola bars are refined sugar free, can be made oil-free.

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