Oatnuts - The HEALTHIEST Donut in the WORLD!

I'm sure everyone is familiar with the phrase "You can't have your cake and eat it, too!"  These little circles of heaven defy that logic.  I promise these are the best tasting donuts you'll ever have!  They taste sinfully delicious.  In all my years of Healthy Vegan hacking you could always 'taste the healthy' on a baked good.  I came to acquire a taste for the healthy, these make you feel like you are being bad.  

Of course, these are flour based products, which equates to some processing.  For those of us who are McDougall over achievers or just want to celebrate some Maximum Weight-Loss goals with a great treat that won't reverse your course, but certainly tastes like it does, these are perfection! 

Peanut Butter Oatnuts

Ingredients :

DRY BOWL

• 1/2 cup Pastry Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 3 T Tapioca Starch
• 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp Sea Salt
• 1 cup Quick Oats
• 4-5 T Betty Lou's Just Great Powdered Peanut Butter

WET BOWL 

• 1/2 cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce
•  1 T Brown Sugar 
• 3 T Maple Syrup (overflowing.. if you like it sweeter:)
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 T Apple Cider Vinegar

Peanut Butter Icing:
2 T powdered sugar
2 T  Betty Lou's Just Great Powdered Peanut Butter
1 tsp water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
–plus water as needed

Instructions

1. Purchase a Nonstick Donut Pan Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Combine the "Dry" Ingredients in a large mixing bowl, Mix.  Combine "Wet" Ingredients in a small mixing bowl, Mix.  Combine "Wet" Bowl into the "Dry" Bowl, Gently mix until completely combined. 
3. Bake for about 10 minutes, until tops look slightly crispy and very lightly browned. 
4. When the Oatnuts are cooling, make icing.  Drizzle the icing over Oatnut :)

 

 

Fat Free Red Enchilada Euphoria

If you're an enchilada lover like me, you will love these!! They are super simple and great for a quick large meal or leftovers the next day!  I like to serve them with Near East Spanish Rice Pilaf Mix, fast and simple is my style!

Low-Fat Red Enchiladas Euphoria

Ingredients:

• 12  soft fresh corn tortillas
• 1 cup salsa
• 2 packets Frontera Enchilada Sauce
• 1 can Pinto Beans
• 1 can Black or Kidney Beans
• 1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
• 1/2 cup Upton's Chorizo Seitan
• 1/2 bell pepper
• toppings: bell pepper, tomato, cilantro

* Make your own sauce:

• 1 8oz can tomato sauce 
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp chipotle
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 1/2 cup veggie broth
• fresh pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp cornstarch (mixed with 1/4 cup cold water)

Sauce Directions:  Place all the ingredients except cornstarch mixture in a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.  Add the cornstarch mixture.  Cook, stirring, until thickened. 


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the beans, salsa, bell pepper, spinach, and Chorizo (blend it food processor for smaller pieces) in a medium bowl.

Heat fresh tortillas in a Tortilla Warmer

Spread a small amount of Enchilada sauce in the bottom of the pan.

 
Spread a good portion of bean mixture down the center of the warm tortilla.

Roll up and place, seam side sown.  Repeat until all the tortillas are filled.

 
Pour the rest of the sauce over the tortillas (I only used one packet of sauce on mine pictured, needed two).

  
Cover with parchment paper, then cover with foil, wrapping edges tightly.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Top with fresh tomato, peppers, and cilantro

Fat Free Sugar Cookies

Alex and I have been Christmas cookiein' it up .. gotta get our xmas high ya know =)  I wanted to repost this to let you know these are STILL our best Fat Free Sugar Cookies YET!!

After many many tries at perfecting the fat-free cookie we have finally NAILED IT!  These are so good you'd swear there was a half a cup of butter in them.  Kristin ate the soy yogurt I bought to test as a fat replacement so I scrounged around the kitchen for anything else and found some pumpkin maple butter (just pumpkin puree and sugar) and Ginger Spread.  Best sugar cookies you'll ever have!
 
Here's the ingredient round up.
Pure Pantry Sugar Cookie Mix(Gluten/dairy/soy/nut free)
Stonewall Kitchen Maple Pumpkin Butter
Ginger People Ginger Spread
India Tree Natural Food Coloring
India Tree colored sugar sprinkles
Shadey Farms Maple Butter
Festive Cookie Cutters
Fancy Baking mat

Maple Butter works insanely well for icing.  A few drops of food coloring and you're in business. 

I put the new pistachio KitchenAid Mixer to work. (not supposed to have opened this until Xmas!  Good thing my mom never reads our blog :( 

 Reserve about a 1/2 cup of the mix to flour your rolling surface.
All you need to do is add about half of the pumpkin butter and tablespoon of the ginger jelly (optional) and mix until a dough.  You might need to add a few tablespoons of rice milk or water so the dough picks up all the sugar.  Just eyeball the pumpkin butter, adding more as needed.  The mix calls for 1/2 cup of butter so that amount of pumpkin butter is what we're aiming for.

Roll it out using the 1/2 cup of mix you reserved!  Its STICKY so flour your surface well.

Cut out your shapes and transfer to your parchment paper lined baking tray.

Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes or until they start to brown on top.

Stir up your icing and spread it on and add sprinkles.

Amaze everyone!  They are VEGAN - FAT FREE - SOY FREE - GLUTEN FREE - NUT FREE - and simply the best Xmas cookies I've ever had or made!

Perfect Pancakes!

I couldn't resist starting this Halloween morning with a batch of my favorite pancakes ... why not it's a holiday right!?!? =) 

INGREDIENTS
1 cup - All Purpose Flour

1/2 cup - Whole Wheat Flour

2 tsp - Baking Powder

Dash of salt &cinnamon

1 Tbsp - Apple Sauce  

1 cup- Mashed Bananas

1 cup - hazelnut/almond/cashew milk 

1/2 cup - sparkling water (makes it light and fluffy)

1 Tbsp- fresh lemon juice

Mix Dry ingredients & Wet ingredients in separate bowls.

Combine Dry & Wet, Mix well.

Use a Calphalon Unison Nonstick Pan & Set the heat to your cook top to LOW.  Use a 1/3 or 1/4 cup to pour the batter into the pan.  When you see the batter bubble on top it's ready to FLIP with a Silicone Flexible Turner.

NOW you have the PERFECT VEGAN OIL FREE / LOW FAT Pancakes everyone will enjoy!!

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Mexican Sushi

Here's a nice little party item that plates up well and tastes amazing. We call this Mexican Sushi because we roll it like sushi and rice is involved!

 
Ingredients:

• Spanish Rice (Near East) 
• Lavash Bread (Trader Joes) 
• Fat-Free Refried Beans
• Roasted Red Pepper  (jar)
• Orange Bell Peppers
• Fat Free Nayonaise (Nasoya)
• Lime 
• Tomato Paste 
• Spice blend (chipotle / ancho / garam masala / smokey paprika / rosemary / sea salt / sugar)
• Micro Greens 
• Lettuce (Romaine or Leaf or a blend)
• Cilantro
• Tomatoes

Directions:
Start the Spanish Rice mix, 2 cups of water to a boil, add rice and spices NO OIL! (simmer until the water is gone 20mins est) While the rice is cooking, cut your orange pepper into small strips & start the sauce in the blender or food processor.  Blend well.

Spicy Sauce:

• 1/4 cup Nayonaise Fat-free mayo
• 1/2 lime, TBS of fresh cilantro
• 4 Tablespoons roasted red pepper from a jar
• spice blend - You can use a mex spice, but just anything with chili powder and paprika will do! *I like to get creative and add rosemerry & Garam Masala to kick it up. 

Cut the lavash bread in half. Use a sushi mat covered in plastic wrap. Cover the lavash in a THIN layer of refried beans with the back of a spoon, don't miss anything because this is the glue! On top of the bean mix add your Spanish rice leaving the last 1/2" clear. On top of the rice strategically break and lay the lettuce like paper over the rice. Add two strips of cut orange bell pepper all the way across in the middle. Sprinkle micro greens and add a generous pour of the special sauce down the center.

Wrap like sushi!   We picked up this sushi mat from Sur La Table for $8.95

Fold over once to get all the fillings in place and give it a final roll so the 1/2" with just the bean dip overlaps and secures the roll in place. You want this roll TIGHT so it stays together and holds in all the fillings. If not you'll need to use a toothpick to hold it together.

 Cut in diagonal strips with flat bottoms to plate nicely.

Our Shopping List:

Trader Joes:
Micro Greens $2.29
Whole Wheat Lavosh Bread $1.99
Orange Bell Pepper $1.29
Fresh Cilantro $.99
Fresh Lime $.20

Whole Foods:
Fresh fire roasted Salsa $3.39
365 Refried Beans $.89
Italian lettuce bag $1.99
Cherry Tomatoes $2.99
Spanish Rice Mix $2.49
Roasted Red Peppers $2.69
Fat Free Naoynaise $4.39

Total: $25.59 for 24+ rolls.
*to cut cost everything can be purchased at Trader Joes besides Naoynaise. 

Awesomer Blossom - Fat Free Onion Rings!!

In life there exists a single menu item that can instantly make you ONE POUND heavier for LIFE.  Its the Awesome Blossom at Chili's
Chili's Awesome Blossom
2,710 calories
203 g fat
194 g carbs
6,360 mg sodium

"It takes a special talent to turn a single oversized onion into the fat equivalent of 67 slices of bacon, but the line cooks at Chili's manage this horrific feat with the help of a thick batter, a calorie-loaded dipping sauce, and a vat of bubbling fat." -Men's Health


So The Healthy Vegan's aren't ones to take on a challenge of making the worst possible item on the planet healthy.  And here you have it, thanks to my awesome vegan Mom for coming up with these healthy onion rings and sharing them with us & the world.

 INGREDIENTS:

• ONION

• FAT FREE NASOYA NAYONAISE

• PANKO BREADCRUMBS

• Parchment Paper

 HOW TO:

Mix equal parts water and Nayonaise.  Peel and slice onion.

Dip onion slices in the Nayonaise mixture then roll in panko breadcrumbs. Place on parchment paper.

Preheat oven to 450c. Cook for 12-15 minutes until lightly browned and crispy!

Super Simple Oil Free Brownies

My mom and I have been trying to perfect a simple quick and easy low fat brownie recipe for some time.  Unfortunately, with every attempt using gluten free mixes our oil free brownies would turn out gross and chewy with a very rancid odd taste.  Finally, my mother and I came to the conclusion that gluten was the missing ingredient to achieve our ideal brownie texture and taste.  That's when Dr. Oetker Organics Organic Brownie Mix came to the rescue!  It's a absolutely fabulous organic mix that can be purchased at most Whole Foods or local markets, if you can't find it in your area there's always Amazon!

Dr. Oetker Organics Organic Brownie Mix 1 6 oz. ~ Vanilla soy yogurt
1 tsp. ~Baking powder
1 Tb. ~ Water

*the package calls for 1/4 c. butter & two large eggs.. GROSS!!! 

DIRECTIONS:

Pre-heated 350 oven, 325 for a dark shiny metal pan

Mix all ingredients till moistened 

 Spread into a parchment lined 8x8 pan

Bake for 30-35 mins

Cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar

The Perfect PICNIC PASTA Salad

If the warm weather has your Facebook invites pop'n with picnic potlucks or you need something to instagram down the throats of your carcass grilling cousin give this perfect picnic pasta salad a closeup.

Assemble the ingredients.

• 1/2 box of bow tie pasta cooked and drained
•  3/4 C. uncooked broccoli heads chopped
•  1 red pepper chopped 
• 1/2 C. hearts of palm chopped 
• 1/2 C. red seedless grapes cut in half or 4ths 
• 1/4 C. chopped red onion

Dressing

• 1 cup of Fat free Nayonaise
• 1/3 C. rice vinegar, 
• 2 T sugar ( or to taste ) 
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Almost there, now time to mix!

 Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate. 

No fats to spoil your picnic, best if cold!  While the clogged artery carn"ee"vores are struggling to round the bases at your office softball game load up with this carb power and slide into home plate on a bunt.

Mary's Healthy Easter Basket Cookies

With Easter around the corner I wanted to come up with some treats to send my favorite Healthy Vegans.  They were passing out this recipe at Whole Foods for Thumbprint Cookies.  The original contained a 1/2 cup of oil!  Can you imagine pouring a half a cup of oil down your children or grandchildern's mouths???  I can only imagine what the average Easter Basket contains...

Ingredients:
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons of jam
1 cup of pecans (this is an Easter treat! nuts are not every day foods or even every month)

Preheat oven to 350F. 

Put pecans and oats into a food processor and pulse until coarsely ground.

 

Transfer to a large bowl and add flour, apple sauce, syrup and salt. Stir to combine well. 

 Roll walnut-sized balls of the dough in the palm of your hand to forum each cookie, then arrange on 2 large baking sheets, spacing cookies 2 inches apart.

Press your thumb gently down into the center of each cookie to make an indentation. Spoon a scant teaspoon of jam into each indentation.

Bake cookies until golden brown and just firm around the edges, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a rack to let cool completely, then serve immediately or store between layers of waxed paper in an airtight container.