A recipe from a friend:

Jenny’s Banana Nut Muffins/Bread
Ingredients:
2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup honey or agave nectar
1/2 cup of ground flaxseed
3 eggs
1 mashed banana
Only a little bit of baking soda (dash)
Little bit of salt
2 Dates

Instructions:

1. Mix ingredients in food processor

2. Line pan with wax paper and pour ingredients in (or into lined muffin tins)

3. Bake: 30mins for muffins and an hour for bread at 350 degrees

*You can also put a little bit of cinnamon on top… or any topping of your choice

Cheesecake Pudding

Ingredients:

1 cup raw cashew butter

1/3 cup agave or honey

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/3 cup lemon juice

4 dates

1/2 tsp. celtic sea salt

Directions:

1. Blend all ingredients until smooth

2.  Top with almond powder (ground) if desired, and/or swirl in some melted dark chocolate!

Makes 2 cups

Lemon-Almond Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C blanched slivered almonds

4 eggs, separated

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

4 Tbsp agave nectar

5 tsp lemon peel

pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375

2. Grease/flour (with gluten-free flour) 9×15 cake pan and line with wax paper

3. Finely grind almonds with 1 Tbsp agave in food processor

4. Combine yolks, 1 Tbsp honey, lemon peel, cinnamon, and salt

5. Beat mixtrue until thick/smooth

6. Stir in almond mixture

7. Beat egg whites in large bowl (until soft peaks)

8. Fold in egg whites by spoonful to the rest of the mix

9. Transfer to pan and bake about 35 minutes

10. “Toothpick test” the cake (to make sure it comes out clean); remove and let cool

Bon appetite!

Avocado Soup

Chilled soups are wonderful in the spring and summertime, and they tend to be incredibly easy to prepare. This creamy avocado soup is no exception.

Yield     4 servings
Time     15 minutes
Tools    
* knife
* blender (able to crush ice)
* spoon
* large frying pan
* paper towels
* 4 bowls
* ladle

Ingredients  

* 3 limes
* 3 c water with ice
* 3 avocados, halved and pitted
* 1 glove garlic, minced
* 1⁄2 small jalapeño pepper with seeds, chopped (optional but a good addition)
* 1 t coarse salt
* 21⁄2 T olive oil
* 1 large corn tortilla, cut into strips (optional)
* fresh cilantro or parsley, chopped (garnish)

Directions  

1. Cut half of one lime into wedges and set aside. Squeeze the other 21⁄2 limes into blender and add ice water, avocado (use a spoon to scoop out the flesh), garlic, jalapeño, and salt. Blend until smooth and place in refrigerator while you prepare tortilla. (if desired)

2. Heat oil in pan over medium heat. Fry tortilla strips about 2 minutes, until crunchy. Place on paper towels to drain and sprinkle with salt.

3. Ladle soup into bowls, followed by tortilla strips and cilantro. Serve immediately, with lime wedges on the side for looks!

I made these DELICIOUS “Carrot Fries” two nights ago – and ate them up so very fast!

It’s an extremely simple recipe and quite good. You can add cumin or pepper or mint – whatever flavorful addition you so desire. The great thing is, they still taste good with ketchup!

Carrot Fries

Ingredients:

one large bunch of raw carrots (the bigger the better, although you could conceivably make this with baby carrots – they just shrink a lot when you cook them, so the longer strips seem to work better… otherwise you may have carrot “bites”! )

sea salt and/or kosher salt (bigger grains)

olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 475 

2. Slice carrots several times (I did once in half, then down the middle, then down the middle of those two halves, and sometimes more – I like them skinny)

3. Toss carrots in a bowl with olive oil (as much as necessary to give them a light coating) and sea salt

4. Line them up (you can cut and use quite a few!) on a baking sheet and lightly salt with larger salt granules

5. Bake for 30 minutes+ (I baked them and took some out as they became crispy… they do not all cook for the same amount of time, necessarily) until golden brown/desired texture (crunchy – for me!!)

6. Remove and enjoy with katsup, spice of your choice, or just simply plain – they are yummy! (and taste very little like carrots… this is a great substitute for McDonald’s fries!)

Enjoy!

1/4 cup pure cocoa powder (Green&Black is my fav) 1/2 cup almond milk

1 coconut or 1/8 avocado 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 trays ice 8 packets stevia or sugar/honey to taste

Blend all ingredients on high speed until creamy: makes 4 servings

Baked Artichoke Dip

Ingredients:

2 14 oz. can artichokes, well-drained 4 oz silken tofu 3 cloves garlic 1/3 c fake parm. cheese (see prev post concerning mac and cheese) 2/3 c soy yogurt 1/3 tsp sea salt pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions:

1. preheat oven to 350

2. puree artichokes, tofu, and garlic in food processor

3. in med. bowl whisk parm, yogurt, salt, and cayenne

4. stir in artichoke puree and pour into baking dish

5. bake uncovered until heated (approx 45 min)

6. sprinkle with more parm. cheese if desired

 Friendly Mac and Cheese

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup rice milk

6 egg yolks

4 oz tofutti “better than cream cheese”

2 T parmesan-flavored grated soy topping

1 bag brown rice pasta elbows

salt/pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Bring large pot of water to boil (and cook pasta according to instructions whilst making the rest of the recipe, but do NOT rinse…)

2. Whisk milk/yolks in medium saucepot and heat mixture gradually over medium heat while whisking until yolks barely begin to scramble

3. Place mixture into blender, add cheese topping, salt, pepper, and blend

4. Drain pasta and combine with mixture

5. Add more topping, if desired!

Thank you, Jason!

Cinnamon-Raisin Bread

Ingredients:

2.5 cups almond flour

1 cup Hazelnut flour

1/4 cup applesauce

3 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup soy yogurt

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup honey (or sweetener to taste)

2 Tbsp cinnamon

raisins or nuts (amount desired) – apple pieces may also be a yummy addition to this recipe…

Directions:

1. Mix ingredients in food processor – add raisins and nuts last

2. Bake in greased loaf pan at 350 for 45 minutes (remove and slice to see if it is only slightly mushy inside… loaf will cook further when removed, so don’t overcook – however, sides and top will become quite browned!)

3. Cool completely and remove from pan

This Banana Bread is from a WONDERFUL site which I highly recommend! And the bread was incredible!

Ingredients:

3 cups almond flour

1/2 cup honey or sweetener (agave, stevia, etc. to taste)

3 eggs

2 mashed bananas

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 c raisins (optional – and nuts, gluten-free oats, cinnamon, or slivered almonds can be added as well, for a fun flavor/texture twist!)

Directions:

1. Mix ingredients until fully blended

2. Bake for 1 hour at 350 or until knife inserted comes out fairly clean (I kept taking bits off of it, so I knew when it was done!) (in a lined pan with greased wax paper)

3. Enjoy! (I had plenty, with delicious EarthBalance soy butter! (see “Staple Foods” post))