Vegetarian Whole Foods Made Simple
These rich whole wheat Mexican Chocolate Cherry Brownies are spiced with cayenne and cinnamon, and dotted with tart cherries. Here we go again, I know, I am always touting my latest baked good as my new obsession, or the BEST THING EVER, and these Mexican …
These flourless White Chocolate Coconut Chickpea Blondies are a healthier way to get your sweet fix! Hey guys! Happy Friday! Today is a very special day for me… its Kirk and I’s five year anniversary! That’s right, FIVE YEARS! It has flown by. We have …
These quick and easy vegan Peanut Butter & Dark Chocolate Chunk Oat Bars are fudgy, satisfying and packed full of energy.
When I left the hospital with my tiny two day old baby, my sweet friend Tanya sent me home with a tin of homemade walnut blondies. I’m only exaggerating a teeny bit when I say that these walnut blondies saved my life the first week of being home. Whenever I felt like my energy was fading, I would pop a little blondie in my mouth and feel instantly lifted. I realised that having delicious snacks around was going to be an absolutely necessary part of my new life, where sitting down for a meal (let alone cooking it!), could be a challenge.
These bars take me less than ten minutes to whip up and then the bake in a little over 20, they have been a lifesaver over the past few weeks. Much as I would LOVE to be eating homemade blondies all day, I knew I had to make something a little healthier to truly sustain me. These bars are made with oats and therefore are whole grain, gluten free and packed with iron and fibre. They are sweetened with maple syrup and vanilla so they contain no refined sugar (ok, maybe a little in the chocolate chunks but its pretty minimal!). And they are so wonderfully peanuty, fudgy and satisfying.
Oh, and added bonus, they are GREAT with coffee…! Enjoy!
*Make sure your oats are certified gluten free if you need this recipe to be gluten-free
**Honey would probably work in place of maple syrup if you are not vegan, although, I have not tested this recipe using honey myself. Please let me know if you try it!
***Or any other milk you have to hand
****Make sure you are using vegan chocolate chips if you need this recipe to be vegan
Recipe adapted from the fabulous Sallys Baking Addiction.
You may also like these Flourless Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt, or these Chocolate & Coconut Energy Bars.
Chocolate and red wine come together to make magic in this vegan, whole wheat chocolate red wine cake. Perfect for your vegan valentine! Only a serious loser would bake her own birthday cake, right? Right. So I will just gloss over the fact that my hubby and …
This chocolate chip cinnamon muffin for one is whole wheat, vegan and refined sugar free, but still feels indulgent! Picture the scene: it is my first day on maternity leave, Kirk has left for work and I am alone, left to my own devices. It …
These pumpkin, white chocolate & cranberry scones are made with whole wheat flour, and have a mild pumpkin flavour with pockets of sweetness from the white chocolate and cranberries.
It is my observation that scones can be neatly divided into two categories: the British Scone and the American Scone. The British scone is plain, no frills. It might be dotted with dried fruit, but its main function is to provide a vehicle for the dollop of jam and cream (if you’re lucky, clotted cream) scooped liberally on top. The American scone is more of a self contained unit. Often larger and sweeter (of course…!), the American scone comes in all sorts of flavours, and stuffed full of all kinds of goodies- fruit, chocolate, nuts, spices, sometimes all of the above. No jam or cream are required on the American scone, that would be overkill.
This scone is much more American in nature, moist and amber-hued from the pumpkin, mellow sweetness from the white chocolate and vanilla, and studded with tart dried cranberries. Happily it is also made with 100% whole wheat flour, just like the rest, and has a relatively low sugar content. Even though they are made with whole wheat flour, they are remarkably light, and didn’t dry out for a couple of days (although, for best results: always eat your scones on the day of baking if possible!). These scones are perfect for a weekend breakfast with a strong coffee, or for a nice mid afternoon snack. I adore them for there autumnal quality, but I have a feeling I will be enjoying them all winter long.
Enjoy!
Basic scone recipe adapted from Cookie and Kate.
These can be easily made vegan by using coconut oil in place of butter, almond milk in place of milk, and vegan white chocolate chips.
Store for 2-3 days in an air tight container.
Hello friends! As you can see, I have been baking again! This time: Flourless Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt…! Phew, what a (tasty) mouthful! Last weekend, I was struck by a cookie craving, just a need for something sweet and comforting …
Hello, and Happy September! Are you ready to hear about my latest obsession? Let me introduce you to these Chocolate Quinoa Energy Bars… Yum! I have been whipping up batch after batch of these beauties, and I am still craving them. They are healthy and satiating enough …
The moment that you announce you have a tiny human on the way, is the moment that people suddenly have a lot of questions for you. They vary from the politely inquisitive (When are you due? How are you feeling?!), to the very personal (Were you trying to get pregnant?!), and everything in between (Names? Boy or girl?). Then there is the classic “Do you have any cravings?”.
Well, if it wasn’t obvious where I was going with this, I have been craving CHOCOLATE. Nothing too insane (discounting the time I ate almost an entire 200g bar of Dairy Milk in one sitting… oops), but I am pretty much eating chocolate in some form every day. To try and make things a little healthier for me and the babe, I have been trying to come up with ways to make my chocolate consumption a little more nutritious. That is how I came up with this beautiful Chocolate & Courgette Honey Cake.
My friend Emma made me my first Chocolate & Courgette Cake a couple of summers ago. I was dubious from the sound of it, but it was incredible! The courgette makes the cake so unbelievably moist, and surprisingly, the almost tasteless courgette really shines! I wanted to make my cake wholegrain, and if possible reduce the refined sugar to the absolute minimum. So this cake is made with 100% wholewheat pastry flour, organic raw honey, and olive oil. Good grains, better sugars and good fats- win! It is not the sweetest chocolate cake, but it is potent in its chocolateyness and very rich- sort of like eating dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. I found that this also means I only need a smaller slice to satisfy that craving!
It comes together quickly too, mix the wet ingredients, mix the dry, combine and bake! I topped the icing with some sliced almonds, mainly for aesthetic reasons, but the texture is very pleasing. I hope you give this one a try, you will fall in love- promise! If this doesn’t tickle your fancy, here are some other healthier chocolate recipes from the World Wide Web that I will be baking up in the next few weeks:
Double Chocolate Banana Bread Oat Bars from Ambitious Kitchen.
Wholegrain Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies from Texanerin.
Nut & Seed Bars with Chocolate Ganache from Running on Real Food
Enjoy!
Courgette is the English name for Zucchini 🙂
Recipe inspired by this one from BBC Good Food, and adapted from this one by Texanerin. Icing borrowed from this recipe on Cookie and Kate.
For more chocolate recipes on Emma’s Little Kitchen, click HERE!
For more healthy bakes on Pinterest, click HERE!
Last month I decided to commit to a vegan diet for six weeks. Fun, right?! From time to time I like to conduct mini-experiments on myself like this. Two years ago I gave up caffeine, that wasn’t too bad after I had got over the …
