Vegan Banana Pancakes

I wanted to post a breakfast recipe, since my posts have been focusing mostly around dinners and snacks.
These banana pancakes are great for breakfast, but I had them for dinner last night :)

One thing I really like about this recipe is that it doesn’t use any butter (obviously because its vegan) and it doesn’t use and fake butter substitutes. If you remember from a couple weeks ago, I have a real issue with those :(  Check out that week’s blog if you get a chance (it was on a quick veggie dinner) here if you missed it.

This recipe calls for whole wheat flour, which if you aren’t already, you should always use when a recipe calls for flour. White flour is so processed that many of the nutrients are removed before you eat it. Whole wheat flour is exponentially better for you.
  
Ingredients
2 bananas
1 1/2 cups almond milk
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoons salt

Combine together the dry ingredients until they completely mixed.

Add all of the wet ingredients and mix until there are no bumps. If the mixture seems to dry or runny, add some more almond milk or flour appropriately.

Finally, slice the banana into 1/4 inch thick slices and gently add to the mixture.

On a hot skillet, add a little olive oil and let heat up to medium heat. Place the batter on the pan with an ice cream scoop into dollops about twice the size of a quarter.

Once the pancake starts to form small bubbles on top, usually about 4-5 minutes, flip over and let the other side cook.

Serve with some more maple syrup!

This recipe can be great for kids because it’s healthy, and you can make shapes! I’ve become an expert at the Mickey Mouse pancake :)

Variation On a Quick Dinner/Rant About Margarine

Hello all,

So last night I was still feeling sick and I was just not in the mood to cook. However, I was still hungry, so I mustered up the strength to throw something together. This is a variation on my last post, but completely vegan. I started with some olive oil and fried  up some onions and peppers.

I want to use this as an opportunity to talk about margarine. Up until a few weeks ago, I thought that margarine was awesome! It has significantly less calories than oil, and of course butter, its cheap and its easy to spread on bread and other foods. HOW WRONG WAS I! I didn't realize, or care to look up, just how bad margarine is for you. I don't want to lecture you, so check out this article from Wellness Mama to see what I'm talking about. Throw out your margarine now :)



OK, back to dinner. I have a serious love for pesto, as everyone should, so for this dish I mixed a traditional pesto with a tomato pesto from Wegmans. It's a nice change to a lovely condiment. Then I added some instant brown rice and that was it!

If you take anything from this post, don’t let laziness effect the way you eat. Quick, simple, homemade meals and snacks can make a big difference in your overall health. It only took about 15 minutes, and its vegan and healthy! Give it a try and let me know what you all think!
k!

Vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns

I'm pretty excited about this recipe. It came out really well and all of the people that tried them said they couldn't even tell they were vegan! So give this recipe a shot if you have a sweet tooth (like me) and want to satisfy your cravings in pretty health way.

I got this recipe, like most, from Pinterest. It's a great social networking site, so I suggest everyone checks it out! I altered the recipe slightly, so I've posted it below as well.

One way that I found to save some money is to buy whole flax seeds and then throw them into the food processor or blender. At my grocery store, ground flax seeds were about twice the price of whole seeds.

This recipe is pretty simple, but it does take some time, so make sure you set aside at least 3 hours.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp Earth Balance buttery spread
1/3 cup almond milk
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp flax seeds + 3 tbsp warm water
1 (1/4th oz) package dry yeast
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground ginger

filling:
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp Earth Balance buttery spread, softened
2 tsp cinnamon

for glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp almond milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract


This recipe basically has 3 steps, the dough, the combination and the decoration.

Step 1: The Dough

Heat the almond milk and the Earth Balance together in a small pan on the stove over low/medium heat until the Earth Balance melts and the milk is warm to the touch. Remove from heat, let cool a little (temperature should be around 100 degrees—like warm bath water. If it’s hotter than that, the yeast will die and the rolls won’t rise!) sprinkle in the yeast and stir so yeast will dissolve. Let yeast mixture sit for five minutes (it will look very creamy after a few minutes).

Meanwhile, combine the pumpkin and flex mixture (when you combine the chia seeds and water be sure to let the mixture sit for five minutes to gel a little bit). In another bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice. Add flour mixture to the pumpkin. Pour in yeast.

Knead dough by hand for about 10 minutes or with a KitchenAid for six on medium speed with either a paddle attachment or dough hook. The dough should be smooth and elastic when you’re done.
Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with a dishcloth and set in a warm area to rise for 1 hour 15 minutes.

Step 2: The Combination

While the dough is rising, mix together the softened Earth Balance, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Remove dough and punch dough on a lightly floured surface. Roll out to a large rectangle and spread brown sugar mixture on top keeping an inch bare around the sides.

Gently roll up dough so it resembles a log. Slice dough into 1/2 inch slices and place in a greased 9-inch casserole dish. Cover with a dishcloth and let rise for another 45 minutes.


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake rolls for 25 minutes. Let cool while you make the glaze.
For the glaze, mix together the powdered sugar, almond milk and vanilla extract. If glaze seems too runny, add a little more powdered sugar.

Step 3: The Decoration

I have found that the best way to design frosting on anything is to place the glaze in the a small plastic bag and snip the tip off. This way you have total control over the icing and its not too messy.

Change of Pace

Hello  followers,

It's been a long time since I've been posting, so anyone who still follows, thanks for sticking around! In the past, this blog has been devoted exclusively to photography. While that is still a passion of mine, I am going ot be moving the focus onto a new love of mine, cooking. Specifically, I will be focusing on healthy eating, and "living clean". If you care to keep up my photos, please follow my flickr.

I look forward to starting my weekly posts on Thursday (December 6th). See you all then!

-K