Graham Crackers

Well, I've been scouring the internet for a whole wheat graham cracker recipe that is very simple and not containing any milk, egg, or soy and preferably very little or no sugar.  I didn't have much luck, so I tried to go with the basic idea that I saw from others recipes.

Here is what I came up with.  It needs some improving.  Mostly, I needed to roll the dough much thinner.  I was using a glass to roll them out.  I should probably just buy a small rolling pin!  I also need a silpat mat that actually fits on a cookie sheet.

Whole Wheat Graham Cracker Recipe
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cups honey
A splash of water to make the dough a little stickier.

Melt the coconut oil and then mix everything together.  Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.  Cut them right when they come out of the oven and the will harden up as the cool off.

These have a pretty nice flavor. Not super graham crackery though.  And WAY too thick.  Will have to try these again.  Anyone, have any ideas?

I ate several these while still warm with a cup of tea.

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins - with NO sugar!

I've been trying to switch over all my bread recipes to whole wheat and cut way back on the amount of sugar we eat.  Most recipes call for SO much sugar.  What is the point of "homemade" if it isn't any healthier than store bought?  Today I experimented by making whole wheat banana muffins...  without sugar!  Say whaa?

Yep, that's right.  The best part is that they actually tasted good AND my kids loved them too!  Win-win!

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3 tsp Ener-G egg replacer mixed in 4 Tbs water.  (or just use 2 eggs if you can)
• 3 bananas
• 1/4 cup honey (this is still healthy right? :D)
• 1/2 cup plain soy yogurt
• 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  I mixed all the wet ingredients together then added the dry ingredients one at a time.  I didn't mixed it up super well.  Then pour batter into your muffin pan.  I used my mini muffin pan because these muffins are mostly for the kiddos.  I baked them for about 12 min.  My oven tends to bake things pretty quickly.  Keep an eye on them and they will come out perfect!

This recipe made 39 mini muffins.  Probably would have made 40 if I could have stopped myself from eating the batter...

Mr. T approves!

Eating Eden

One of my new favorite blogs about eating food the way God intended it is by my friend, Mindy, over at Eating Eden. 

 Today, she asked me to guest post my recipe for granola.  Check it out!  Thanks, Mindy, I'm honored!

I've been making several of her recipes and one that I actually took pictures of is of her simple yet delicious idea for Banana Cookies.  My kids love them! (and so do I)

Here is how ours turned out.  Hers look a lot prettier than mine.  :D

Now, I just need to try making whole wheat graham crackers...

Last night I made magic!

Magic shell ice cream topping that is.  I sometimes (always) crave sweets.  Last night I really wanted magic shell topping.  Of course, Miss K can't eat it because it contains milk (or at least I am assuming so).  Anyway, I got what I thought was a wild idea to make it myself using chocolate chips and coconut oil.  I googled it to see if anyone else was crazy enough to try something like that, and sure enough I found an endless number of methods for making homemade magic shell.

I didn't follow any one specific recipe as they were all slightly different in there chocolate chip to coconut oil ratio and method.

Here is what I did:
1/2 cup
1 Tbs coconut oil
Melt in microwave.  Pour over ice cream.  (Almond ice cream in our case.)  Easy!

This turned out YUMMY!  It has been quite a while since I've had the real stuff, but this satisfied the craving.  Perhaps it was even a bit healthier!  It was certainly a healthier portion than I would have eaten a few years ago, prior to spending $6 on a tiny container of almond ice cream!

Crunchy Granola and Goat Cheese Day

Today, I made granola and a goat cheese pizza.   I never really liked granola until I started making it myself.  Now I LOVE it.  I eat it nearly every morning for breakfast. 

Here is the lose recipe that I use (this changes a little every time I make it)
3 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup honey
2 Tbs of brown sugar
handful of almond slices
handful of sprouted pumpkin seeds (not sure why sprouted, but that is what Wegmans had)

Line a pan with parchment paper so you don't have to chisel out the baked on granola later.  Bake granola at 350 degrees for um...  well.... no idea, as I rarely remember to set a timer.  I'm thinking it takes about 20 minutes.  Just until it is kind of golden.  As it cools, I like to stir it around in the pan a few times to break it up.  Otherwise it will turn into a big granola brick, which can be a little tricky to eat.

Assuming Mr. B doesn't eat it all, I like to put it in a jar and eat it with soy milk, cinnamon, and raisins or maybe some cocoa nibs. 

Tonight I also tried out goat cheese on Miss K.  I'll admit it was a little risky and I was pretty nervous about letting her eat it.  I rubbed it on her back a few hours before she ate it.  She didn't react at all, so I let her eat some on her pizza.  So far so good!   She was SO excited to be eating "cheese".  I think she liked it!

Miss K also can't let go of Valentine's day. She wanted her pizza in the shape of a heart.  Must be her favorite holiday. 

For the crust I used the whole-wheat crust recipe from one of my new favorite food blogs 100 Days of Real Food.  She has been very inspirational in motivating me to feed my family only real food.  It is a long journey from growing up on hot dogs and soda to eating only "real" and unprocessed foods.  We have been forced to give up a lot of processed foods in the past few years due to my kids allergies, and I really don't miss a lot of it. 

Do you taste that?

Tonight I made brownies... with a can of black beans.  Cue evil laughter.  Yes, I fed my family black bean brownies.  Seems cruel, but we can't use eggs around here due to food allergies.  I am also trying to move our family slowly toward eating only real foods.  And, yes, I know the brownie mix I used does not count as "real" food.  But I'm not going to throw away everything in our pantry just to start anew. 

I used an organic brownie mix and 1 can of black beans.  I rinsed and blended the black beans with a little water, then added them to the brownie mix.  I baked them for 35 min at 350 degrees.

And, no, I can't taste the beans at all.  The only thing I noticed was a slight beany texture, but I wonder if I would really think that if I hadn't known what was in them.  The only draw back to these brownies is that they will likely make me gassier than regular brownies...   :D

A Birthday Cake

Tonight we are having a small first birthday party for Mr. T and a buddy of his who was born just a week before him.  I decided to make the cake for it.  And of course, it is milk and egg free so big sis miss K can enjoy some cake too!

I'll admit I've watched my fair share of Cake Boss episodes, but this is the first time I have worked with fondant, so I decided to go simple because I wasn't sure what to expect.

I made two 9 in rounds of white cake and one 9 in of chocolate cake.  I used premade white fondant from Wilton which appears to be milk and egg free.  (I'm crossing my fingers that I didn't over look something. I might just pull the fondant off of her piece just to be sure!)

Unfortunately, I didn't take pics of all the steps I did.   But, I piled up the layers with icing in between and did a"crumb coat" all over it (learned from watching Buddy!  haha).  Then I worked up a sweat rolling out that brick of fondant into a nice thin layer.  It is super hard to get a nice solid piece without any folds or cracks.  But I rubbed away most of the cracks away with a little water. 

I dyed a few chunks of fondant red, blue, yellow, and green to make some flags.  Then cut them into triangles. 

I also wanted to try making a monkey, since Mr. T's buddy likes monkeys!  So, I found a tutorial here.

I'd say he turned out pretty good for my first attempt.  It took forever to get a decent shade of brown too!  My hands are a lovely rainbow now!

Miss K wanted to play with the fondant too.  Here is her creation.  No idea what it is!

Miss K told me he needed a party hat so we ended up putting one on him. 
 

 Here is the finished cake!

Now if only I could learn to write with those darn Wilton canisters of icing!  They are so hard to push and don't come out evenly.  So, please don't judge the writing!

Pretty Pink Vegan Doughnuts

We're finally getting some snow.  And a snowy morning calls for doughnuts!  At least this snowy morning did.  So, I put my doughnut pan I got for my birthday to use.

Here is my recipe:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla
Energ-G egg replacer for 1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 tsp salt
couple dashes of nutmeg
couple dashed of cinnamon

Mix all together and bake at 350 degrees for 10 min.
They will be really soft so make sure to let them cool completely before taking them out of the pan.
Then glaze! 

This recipe actually made 8 doughnuts but they were going pretty fast.  It was hard to catch a picture.