Barefoot Healthy Hippie

This comes from Green Smoothie Girl. I have been wanting this recipe for a long time and here it is! It's not vegan, but that's easily fixed by adding 1 1/2 whipped bananas or a little flax seed. I would probably mix in a tablespoon flax seed and add one ripe, whipped banana to the mix. Her substitution is for chia, which I haven't yet done, I'll have to try that next time! While I'm making substitutions, I'd probably reduce the oil a bit too.


Chocolate Beet Cake

3 eggs (organic, free range) or 9 Tbsp. water with 3 Tbsp. chia soaked in it
1 1/2 cups unrefined coconut sugar
3/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cup pureed, steamed beets (about 3-4 medium size)
1/4 cup baking cocoa (non-alkalized) or raw powdered chocolate
2 cups finely ground whole-wheat flour (soft white wheat is best)
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. sea salt

Puree beets (steamed about 15 min.) in a VitaMix or BlendTec till you have 1 3/4 cups. Add eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla and blend until smooth. Add chocolate and other dry ingredients. Bake in 9"x13" greased pan at 350 degrees for 30 min.

Fudge Frosting

1 cup unsweetened non-alkalized cocoa or raw powdered chocolate
2 cups coconut cream concentrate (soft, room temp or slightly warmed)
2 cups coconut sugar, blended in dry blender container until "powdered"

Cream together by hand until smooth. This frosts a 9"x13" cake and leaves some extra for a treat.

Being Norwegian, I grew up with yummy shortbread treats in the house. Full of butter and crumbly and delicious. Now that I am vegan I have been missing those flavors until I found this recipe for muffins.

It's crumbly and even has a buttery shortbread like flavor. And my kids love it too! It comes from the book, "The Complete Vegan Kitchen." I am not totally in love with this book as it uses a lot of specialty ingredients instead of real food, but some of the recipes are total gems like this one.

The book calls them "Polka Dot Muffins" and I have altered the recipe a little bit.

1 1/4 cup flour (white or wheat works)
1 cup uncooked cream of wheat
1/2 cup sucanat (I love this because it's way better than sugar, but if you don't have it sugar is fine)
1 Tbsp plus 2 tsp baking powder (Aluminum free is best!)
1/2 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup almond milk (or rice, or soy, or hemp, or any of them)
3/4 cup olive oil or other oil
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat to 375, grease or line 12 muffin tins.

Combine all the dry ingredients, then add all the wet ones.

Divide batter between the 12 cups.

The directions say bake for 35 minutes, but I have never needed more than 20. So set it for 20 minutes and check it!