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Vegan Blueberry Cheesecake Bar Recipe

Posted by Amina AlTai on March 20, 2017

Whether you're on a cleanse, eating low glycemic or clean, healthy desserts can be hard to come by. Even the pseudo-healthy varieties are usually loaded with sugar thanks to dates, syrups and other sugary fruit. Well, the search is over. These vegan, gluten-free and low glycemic blueberry cheesecake bars are the perfect treat that don't require a cheat day. Plus, you can make them your own by swapping out the berries and adding your own seasonings. All you need is:

6 ounces of raw cashews, soaked

1 cup of dried blueberries

1 cup of frozen blueberries

1 cup of hazelnuts

2 tbs of agave (optional)

2 tbs of coconut oil

1 tbs of lemon juice

1/2 a cup of berries of your choice for topping

Rinse the cashews and soak them for at least an hour. Once they're slightly softened, add them to a blender with the frozen blueberries, lemon juice and agave and blend on high speed until the texture is completely smooth. Place on the side.

Add the dried blueberries, hazelnuts and coconut oil to the blender and blend until it forms a paste-like texture. Press evenly into a rectangular 12 by 6 baking dish. Then smooth the blueberry filling on top. Freeze for one hour. Once firmed, cut into 12 squares, top with the berries of your choice and refrigerate until you're ready to serve. Enjoy!

Healthy Almond Butter Cups

Posted by Amina AlTai on April 21, 2016

When i'm not working from my home office, I can often be found at the local healthy coffee shop, typing away, and occasionally indulging in any vegan treats they might have that day,

Cleverly, the checkout counter is also full of other craving-inducing goodies such as lollipops, rice krispy treats and chocolate peanut butter cups. But it's the peanut butter cups that seem to taunt me the most. Having both a chocolate and peanut allergy, I haven't tasted the perfect balance of sweet and salty like that in years. Well this week, I decided I was going to be taunted for the last time and figure out a way to make tasty and healthy replacement. Enter: Healthy Almond Butter Cups with Strawberry "Jam" Filling.

Ingredients:

5 ounces of almond butter

3 tablespoons of melted coconut oil

1 scoop of vanilla protein powder

A dash of salt

Filling:

1/2 a cup of mashed strawberries, simmered in 1/4 cup of water

1 scoop of vanilla protein powder

1 sliced strawberry

Instructions:

Melt the coconut oil on the stovetop and whisk in the almond butter. Once you've achieved a well-mixed consistency, whisk in the protein powder. When it's all melted together nicely, separate the concoction into two, then spoon one tablespoon into silicone molds and pop in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Set the remaining half aside.

For the "jam" filling, add the mashed strawberries to the water and simmer until the strawberries breakdown. They whisk in the protein powder to thicken up the filling and add some extra protein. It's not a gorgeous color, but it tastes great!

Remove the frozen base from the freezer and spoon on the jam. You want a small amount, about the size of your fingertip, then top with a fresh slice of strawberry. Then cover with another tablespoon of the almond butter mixture and pop back in the freezer for another 20 minutes. Remove them and eat right away. I dare you to try and stop at just one! : )

Did Somebody Say Gluten-free Vegan Biscuits?!

Posted by Amina AlTai on March 21, 2016

Fun fact: I'm half British. Which among other things means I love the queen, double decker busses and high tea. But let me tell you, there is nothing worse than going to high tea only to be able to drink the tea. I stare longingly at the scones, clotted cream and other petit fours that would surely sabotage my digestive track. I fantasize about the day that, I too, will be able to stuff my face with such delectable goodness....and guess what?! That day has arrived! (sorta!)

After some experimentation in the kitchen, I've come up with a recipe for biscuits/scones that in this celiac's opinion, are pretty darn good. Here's the breakdown:

Ingredients:

1 cup of almond meal flour

2 cups of gluten-free all purpose flour

2 tbs of flax meal

1/2 tsp of xantham gum

2 tbs of gluten free baking powder

1/4 tbs of himalyan salt

Wet ingredients:

3/4 of a cup of almond milk (unsweetened)

1 tbs of lemon juice

1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Mix the wet ingredients with the dry and break the dough into halves.

Strawberry vanilla scones:

To make the strawberry vanilla scones I added 1 tbs of vanilla along with 3 tbs of brown rice syrup and then folded in the strawberries. Then you just roll out the dough out on parchment paper, using some additional flour to avoid stickiness, and cut them into biscuit shapes that are about 1 inch thick. Throw them onto a greased (non dairy) tray with a whack. Make sure they are about 1/4 inch apart and bake at 400F for 15 minutes. Mine were closer to two inches thick, so I cooked them for 25 minutes on 400F.

For the "kale" & cheddar scones

Take the second half of the batter and fold in one cup of vegan cheddar cheese ( I used Daiya). Then take 1 cup of kale, de-stemmed and torn and fold into the batter. Then you just roll out the dough out on parchment paper, using some additional flour to avoid stickiness, and cut them into biscuit shapes that are about 1 inch thick. Throw them onto a greased (non dairy) tray with a whack. Make sure they are about 1/4 inch apart and bake at 400F for 15 minutes.

Take them out of the oven and let them cool. Then you can serve them with almond butter, jam, and other delicious spreads you may have looming in your fridge.

Tagged "vegan"

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