Alicia's Berry Crumble

Remember that movie movie clueless? While its hard to imagine taking advice from Cher, it is surprisingly easy to aspire to be like the actress, Alicia Silverstone, who played the role. I know its a little stretch of the imagination, but with the help of a well written book with fabulous recipes you can absolutely do it. When my mom first told me, I'll admit i laughed, "do you remember that movie clueless? The actress who played the main character, I love her she's so inspiring..." You can picture how the rest of that conversation went. But after a visit home and a taste of her delicious vegan crumble I am a convert. This crumble is so delicious its hard to believe its vegan and while its not exactly healthy, it sure beats Ms. Smith's apple pie form the freezer section and is made with zero white sugar. The ingredient list is a little daunting if your new to organic or vegan cooking, but most of the items are staples and once you buy them, you'll find they are actually quite useful in cooking and many can substitute traditional sweeteners to make healthier meals. I should also mention that there is a fair ammount of the crumble topping in this recipe, but I agree with Alicia and think its tastes best this way, however feel free to halve the topping recipe if you prefer a thinner crumble layer.

Ingredients
 2.5-3 C. Sliced fresh or frozen mixed berries (Alicia's recipe calls for peaches)
1 C. Blueberries
1 3/4 C. Apple juice
2 Tbs. Kuzu
1 tsp Lemon juice
2 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
Pinch of fine sea salt

Topping
3 C. Rolled oats
2 C. Barley Flour, spelt flour, brown rice flour or sweet rice flour ( any of those will work great)
1/4 Tsp. Fine sea salt
1/4 Tsp. Ground Cinnamon
3/4 C. Safflower oil
3/4 C. Brown rice syrup
1 C. Chopped pecans or walnuts ( this post uses walnuts)

Directions
1. Take your berries out of the freezer to defrost them.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
3. Reserve 1/4 cup of apple juice and heat the remaining 1 1/2 cups in a small saucepan and turn to a low heat.
4. Add the kudzu to the reserved apple juice and stir until completely dissolved.

5. Add the kudzu apple juice mixture to the hot apple juice in the saucepan, as well as the lemon juice- stir constantly!

6.Turn off the heat and add the salt and vanilla.
7. Place the berries into a 9 inch pan and pour the mixture over the berries.
8. Time to make the Topping!
9. Dry roast the oats, flour salt and cinnamon in a saucepan over medium heat for 3-5 minutes.

10. Heat the oil and syrup together, in a different pan
11. Transfer the dry roasted oats into a bowl and pour the oil mixture over it

12. Stir in the nuts
13. Spoon the topping over the fruit.

14. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove the foil and bake for 15-20 minutes or until Golden

15. Enjoy what is in my opinion the yummiest dessert in the world!

Recipe Courtesy of The Kind Life 

Superhero Vegan Stuffed Cannoli

I swear this dish can give you Superhero powers- there's enough spinach and tofu packed into each serving to save the world, and best of all, you won't even know it until you start sporting guns like Popeye.

Can you tell the difference? Nope neither could I, or my boyfriend for that matter. Which may have contributed to the reason I have such bad photos of this dish, I think the photographer was really hungry and wasn't quite as concerned as I was about snapping a blog worthy photo of the delicious meal he was about to devour. So i'm left with a few awkward photos of some really yummy food, bottom line is that your gonna have to trust me on this one. These were good!  I was skeptical at first, I mean tofu and spinach- could something that healthy really be yummy? Oh yess. And I don't even particularly like tofu. Sorry ill try to contain my excitement for this dish and get to the good stuff.

Now the key to this whole dish is the nutritional yeast, well I think so anyways. It gives the tofu a cheesy flavor that actually makes you believe its ricotta. I had a bit of a struggle finding this stuff, but after a visit to the local health food store and a seven dollars I now have a bag of nutritional yeast large enough to last me a year. Oh the possibilities....  Hopefully you won't have too hard of a time finding the stuff!

recipe adapted from the Eat Live Run Blog

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1.5 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon oregano
16 ounces extra firm tofu
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
10 ounces frozen spinach, defrosted
1 box Cannoli 
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce

Directions:
Drain the tofu and pat dry with paper towels. Crumble into the bowl of a food processor or mix with a fork along with the olive oil, salt, oregano, garlic and nutritional yeast. 
Process on high until smooth and “ricotta-like”.

Add the defrosted spinach to the blended tofu mixture.

Cook the Cannoli in boiling salted water until el dente. Drain


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour about ½ cup pasta sauce into the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan. Stuff Cannoli tubes with 2 T of filling and place in pan, seam side down. Repeat until all the tubes have been stuffed.

Pour remaining pasta sauce over tubes, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Serve!

Enjoy!

The Blondie's Evil Step Sister: White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

What possessed me to want to bake cookies at 9 O'clock on a Wednesday night after 5 hours of lectures? I really don't know, maybe I was excited about surprising my boyfriend with his favorite type of cookie. I still haven't decided whether white chocolate really deserves to be called chocolate. I mean it doesn't have any coco in it and it's WHITE! That doesn't mean I don't like it, but then again just about anything with sugar in it will get my attention lately.


My last post was an attempt to satisfy my sweet tooth with a healthier alternative to your traditional blondies, and as successful as they were, I had a feeling a certain someone was still longing for the warm taste of melted white chocolate and warm macadamia nut cookies- I don't blame him. They smell pretty damn good, and I am more than tempted to eat one.... or more. But self control will prevail and hopefully these cookies, or at least most of them will make it over to his house.


I got this recipe from another blogger, but unfortunately I was disappointed in the first batch of cookies. They melted flat and all pooled together into one gooey chocolaty mess, not exactly what I was hopeing for! I modified the dough a bit and added an extra quarter cup of flour which seemed to do the trick and the next batch turned out beautifully.

Ingredients


1 1/2 c flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ c (1 stick) butter, softened
½ c packed dark brown sugar
¼ c granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
¾ c chopped unsalted macadamia nuts 
1 c. Dark chocolate chips  (6 oz)- this is optional, however not if your a true chocolate lover
1 c. White chocolate chips or a bar chopped up in my case (6 oz)

Preheat the oven to 375 F or 180 C

Mix the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.

In large bowl cream together the butter and sugars.

Add the egg and vanilla, mix thoroughly.

Slowly mix the flour mixture into the creamed egg, butter and sugar.

Stir in nuts and chocolate.

Shape the dough into balls using your a soon or your hands and lace on an ungreased baking sheet, about 2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies for 8-10 min or until the edges are lightly browned.

Allow the cookies to cool completely before transferring them.

Enjoy!

CCK's Genius Blondies

I swear i'm not lying- these are Healthy Chocolate Chip Genius Blondies


No its not an oxymoron, these Blondies are absolutely genius. They are vegan, gluten free and bean based! I came across a food blog called Chocolate Covered Katie when I searching for healthy dessert recipes. I initially looked at her Healthy Milkshake recipes and was very intrigued. Now I look at hundreds of dessert recipes a week and I have never come across such an unusual desert recipe. Avocado in chocolate mousse- sure, spinach in a smoothie- been there done that, but Chickpea Chocolate Chip Blondies- out of this world. Absolutely boggled my mind. And let me tell you, they are incredible! They have the most fabulous fudgy texture and are absolutely delicious. One bite and you completely forget how healthy they are and float into the land of gooey chocolaty blondness. 

Thank You Katie! ( recipe adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie)


1 1/2 cups chickpeas (1 250g can, drained and rinsed)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1-2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup ground flax 
1/4 cup peanut butter 
1/3 cup chocolate chips 

Directions: 
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Rinse and drain the can of chickpeas, then combine all of the ingredients except the chocolate chips into a bowl and mix thoroughly until the batter is a smooth consistency
note: I used a fork to mash us the chickpeas and it worked great!

Add the chocolate chips and mix till combined.

Line a 8x8 inch pan with aluminum foil or grease with oil.
Spread the batter into the pan and bake for 35-40 minutes.

note from katie : the blondies will firm up once they cool, so don't worry if they don't appear set after 4o minutes of baking.


Enjoy the healthy goodness of your delicious gluten free vegan baking!

Zucchini Spelt Bread

Welcome to Nom Nom!


My recent passion for all things edible sparked my interest to create a new blog to share my foodie adventures. Its about everything.. cooking classes, markets, my favourite health food stores, new ingredients- really anything to do with everything edible.


The recipe i'm sharing today is one which i've found on foodgawker, its possibly my most visited site and frankly the only place to look for recipes. I love it. In the last year the site has expanded and evolved into a full fledged blog index of the most delicious, nutritious and daring recipes.


The second thing that excited me about this recipe is that the zucchini and spelt flour i'm using are from the Manly Food Co-Op. I started volunteering there a few weeks ago and absolutely love it. They have managed to pack hundreds of organic and locally grown grains, fruits, vegetables, teas, chocolates and oils into a tiny store run completely by volunteers. Talk about making it work! But there will be more about the Co-Op later, it deserves its own post.


This is my first time baking with spelt flour. After all of the hype about it  I decided to do a little research. It turns out spelt flour is higher in protein, minerals and soluble fiber than traditional wheat flour and contains less gluten. An article in Food Chemistry even said that spelt helps regulate blood sugar and lower cholesterol! Basically, its healthier and has an awesome nutty flavour, just a little added bonus in my opinion.  it is a bit pricey, but if you buy its not too bad- I paid about 7/kg.


Now that i've convinced you about all of spelt's super powers, its definitely time to go bake zucchini bread filled with eggs butter and sugar! Well.... sort of. This recipe has actually been adopted from cooking illustrated and modified to be a bit healthier. I'm not saying its healthy, but for a treat this yummy i'd say we did pretty well.  So grab your apron, make a mess and enjoy!

Adapted From The Way The Cookie Crumbles


Ingredients
2 cups spelt flour, plus more for dusting
1 pound zucchini, washed and dried, ends and stems removed, cut into 1″ chunks (about 3 medium sized)
1/4 cup evaporated cane juice or granulated sugar (+ 2 Tbsp for mixing with zucchini)
1/4 dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon Cinnamon
¼ cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs, beaten lightly
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
2 tbsp canola oil


Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 F or 180 C and grease an 9″ x 5″ loaf pan

Put the zucchini chunks in the food processor with 2 T sugar and pulse until coarsely shredded.

Put in a mesh strainer and drain for 30 minutes. Tip: using a spatula stir the zucchini mush around a bit to help drain the excess water

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon and toss with the walnuts.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugars, yogurt, melted butter, and oil.

Squeeze any remaining liquid out of the zucchini, then mix into the egg mixture and stir well.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring gently until the flour is mixed in. 

Pour into the pan and bake for 

50-60 minutes or 

until a knife or toothpick comes out clean

Cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then turn out of the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

Enjoy!