Gluten & Dairy Free Chocolate Protein Granola

The best thing about food blogging is that you get to create exactly what you have been craving, eat it al and then tell the world about it! Daniel and I have been on a granola kick for a few reasons…for one thing it’s delicious, secondly it can be eaten for breakfast or as an ice cream topper! thirdly it’s easy to make and lastly saves money in the long run! For me a bag of gluten free oats is about 4 to 5 dollars whereas a small bag of granola can be 6 to 8 dollars!

Not don’t get me wrong because I have definitely bought store bought granola, It’s delicious and I am a human being. So weather you are going to buy granola or make granola this week, great job! I mean it just seems to be the logical and best thing to always have granola on hand!

Anyways, I am getting a little carried away…For this granola what makes it protein granola is the addition of the pea protein & sun butter, which together contains about 50g of protein! Keep in mind that you can sub the sun butter for other kinds of nut butter and will vary the protein.

Thankfully the main goal of the granola is in tasting delicious, and it definitely accomplishes that!

P.S see if you can find me in the photo!

LL 107-1.jpg

Ingredients

  • 2 & 1/2 cups gluten-free oats

  • 1/2 cup pea protein powder

  • 1/4th cup coconut sugar

  • 1/4th cup cocoa powder

  • 1/4th cup chia seeds

  • 1/4th cup unsweetened coconut

  • 1 tsp fine Sea salt

  • 2 tbsp Nut butter (I used SunButter)

  • 1/3rd cup coconut oil

    Optional (But highly recommend)

  • 1/4th cup mini chocolate chips

Instructions

  1. preheat your oven to 350F and lightly grease a baking sheet

  2. In a large bowl whisk together your dry ingredients until well combined.

  3. Mix in your melted coconut oil and nut butter. This works best when you use a spatula.

  4. Pour and smooth your mixture onto the baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

  5. After ten minutes remove your granola from the oven and mix around the granola with a spatula. Flatten out the mixture and then put it in the oven for another 10 to 15 minutes.

  6. when it’s done baking take out of the oven and move to a glass pie plate to cool. You do this so the bottom of your granola doesn’t burn while sitting in the baking sheet.

  7. Once cooled sprinkle in 1/4th cup of mini chocolate chips if you like.

  8. Store & enjoy!

LL 107-16.jpg

Banana Milk // Vegan & Gluten Free

I think I might be the only adult I know obsessed with all things having to do with fun drinks! Well…not the fun alcoholic drinks, more like the fun drinks you might have had when you were a kid! I am talking strawberry milk, chocolate milk, Mint Matcha, milkshakes, etc. Anything sweet and sippable makes me happy, so when I realized that I hadn’t made you guys banana milk I had to get to it!

This is a recipe my sisters now husband and then-boyfriend taught me how to make. Unlike my husband, he is a fellow banana appreciating human beings and knows what’s up. In high school, we would go to his house to hang out and eat good food. One day While deciding on a snack Connor out of nowhere starts blending banana and milk together, that’s it! Nothing fancy, he even scoffed at me adding cinnamon, but can you blame me? What better in banana milk then cinnamon!

However you like it, this is a fun and simple way to enjoy something cool and refreshing and helps to keep things interesting while in quarantine…

Ingredients

  • 1 frozen banana*

  • 2 cups Almond or oat milk

  • 1/4th tsp allspice or cinnamon (optional)

Directions

  1. In a blender, combine all of your ingredients and blend on high until fully blended.

  2. Pour into a glass, sip, and enjoy!

    *You can Instead use a ripe banana and a few ice cubes if you don’t have frozen bananas on hand!

Don’t Forget to PIN IT!

BANANA MILK PIN.jpg

FUDGY SWEET POTATO BROWNIES // GLUTEN FREE & DAIRY FREE

Okay, so what you guys might not know is that I don’t like to follow the rules when it comes to baking and cooking, it’s one of the reasons why half of what I make doesn’t get to the bog, but today was different. I didn’t follow the rules exactly, I used sweet potato puree and made my flour, but then I did my research and followed some more traditional methods. I did use melted chocolate and cocoa powder, I didn’t overbeat the eggs, I used almost regular sugar, etc. And let me tell you, it worked like a charm!

These are healthy-ish because they are gluten-free, dairy-free, and have a bonus root vegetable in there which I can’t complain about. Thankfully these brownies are better than healthy brownies, there are real brownies with real ingredients for a great taste! the benefit of making brownies this way is that you get the bonus of healthier ingredients while also satisfying your sweet tooth bot emotionally and physically. 

These are fudgy decadent brownies with real chunks of chocolate and a drizzle of coconut caramel icing that is sure to make even the pickiest of eaters happy! 

Ingredients

Brownies

  • 1 cup sweet potato puree

  • 1 cup gluten-free oats (or 3/4th cup oat flour)

  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder

  • 1/4th cup coconut oil

  • 1/4th cup coconut sugar

  • 2 eggs

  • 1 tsp sea salt

  • 1tp vanilla

  • 3/4th cup chocolate chips

Coconut Caramel Icing

  • 1 Can of full-fat coconut milk

  • 1/4th cup coconut sugar

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350F and line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper. 

  2. In a blender pour in your oats and blend until a flour forms. It won’t fill your one cup measure once blended, but don’t worry about that. 

  3. In a small bowl combine 1/2 cup chocolate chips & coconut oil. Using the double boiler method melt your chocolate.

  4. Pour your melted chocolate into a large bowl. Whisk in your sugar and then your eggs, vanilla, and sweet potato puree. 

  5. Whisk in your sea salt, cocoa powder, and oat flour. 

  6. fold in the extra 1/4th cup of chocolate chips.

  7. spray your pan and pour in the brownie mixture. Smooth and sprinkle with flaky salt (optional)

  8. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes. To see if the brownies are done stick a toothpick into the brownies. If the toothpick comes out clean your brownies are good to go! 

  9. Let cool and enjoy! 

For the Coconut Icing

NOTE: Do not shake your can of coconut milk. You need the fatty liquid to be separated from the more watery liquid in the can of coconut milk. 

  1. In a small pan pour in your separated coconut cream and coconut sugar and whisk together over medium heat.

  2. Bring your mixture to a simmer and let cook for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring consistently. 

  3. Your mixture should reduce to about half and turn a light tan color. you do not want to make caramel or burn the liquid so keep a close eye on it.

  4. Once it is done, remove from heat and pour into a glass container to cool. 

  5. Drizzle over brownies & store excess in the fridge. 

Don’t forget to PIN it!

SWEET POTATO BROWNIES PIN 2.jpg

Vegan and Gluten-Free Mocha Granola

there are two things I am certain about when it comes to granola, 1 it is the best breakfast cereal out there, and 2, it is always worth making a double batch. So for today's dream granola, you are going to need only 7 simple ingredients that are easily interchangeable if needed!

Let’s start with the oats. I use gluten-free rolled oats because traditional rolled oats can contain traces of gluten. So if you are like me and are very sensitive to gluten, spend the extra dollar and get yourself a big bag of gluten-free rolled oats! I like to get mine at Trader Joe's because they are the cheapest and taste awesome! If you can’t access a Trader Joes you can buy them online. I use Thrive Market and they have them on there for only a dollar more than Trader Joes. You can also try Bob’s Red Mill and order them off of Amazon. 

Now for the coconut sugar, you can use whatever granulated sugar you like. The benefit of coconut sugar is nit just because it’s “healthier” but because coconut sugar has a unique caramel-like flavor that gives a lot more flavor to the granola! SO do what you wish, but I highly recommend using coconut sugar!

when it comes to the espresso, daniel and I dring ut coffee at home, if you don’t have access to freshly ground coffee, you can use store-bought espresso powder.. also if you use fresh coffee the milk will be smoother and more enjoyable. If you don’t have espresso powder at home feel free to omit the espresso powder and just make it chocolate! Don’t worry, you won’t be disappointed, either way!

When it comes to baking the granola make sure you follow the instructions and mix it around halfway through. This helps the granola to bake evenly, then when you take it out of the oven, put the granola in a glass plate to cool. I have learned the hard way, burning one too many batches of granola by letting it wit in a hot pan to cool off, then realizing I have half-burnt granola…

Anyways, thankfully I am here to make the mistakes so you don’t have to! 

LL 107-8.jpg

So without any further chit-chat here is your recipe for Mocha Granola! 

Ingredients

  • 2 cups gluten-free oats

  • 1/4th cup coconut sugar

  • 1/4th cup chia seeds **

  • 1/4th cup cocoa powder

  • 1 tsp fine sea salt

  • 1 tbsp espresso powder

  • 1/3rd cup melted coconut oil

Instructions

  1. Preheat your over to 350F and spray a baking sheet with coconut oil, set aside. 

  2. In a large bowl whisk together your dry ingredients

  3. Mix in the coconut oil until fully combined

  4. spread your mixture evenly onto your baking sheet and place in the oven. 

  5. Bake for 10 minutes, take your granola out of the oven, and give it a good mix, evening it out when you're done. 

  6. Bake for another 10 minutes. 

  7. Remove from the oven and transport granola into a glass plate to cool. Do not leave on the baking sheet as this will stay hot and possibly burn your granola. 

  8. Once cool serve with milk, on yogurt or all by itself!

  9. Enjoy!

mocha granola pin.jpg

Ten Minute Cherry Jam

The moment I laid my eyes on a big bag of cherries on sale in the produce section, I knew it was a sign to take them home and create something just for you and me! I will be honest, it has been a long time (a whole 7 days!) since I last created anything and I needed to start small.

Small batch cherry jam seemed to be the perfect solution! it’s something lovely, delicious and wouldn’t take a whole afternoon to make ! I had heard of this sweet and simple way to jam in the kitchen using chia seeds so I gave it a go and I was sold!

You can adjust the sweetness to your liking My cherries were sweet cherries, but they aren’t super sweet so I only used 1 tbsp of sugar but you could use two or three if you like it sweeter!

I ended up pitting the cherries by hand, and that took way longer then I would like to admit…I highly recommend getting a cherry pitter.

other then that, just make sure to have fun and feel free to experiment! add in some raspberries or black berries to the mix!

LL 107-6.jpg
LL 107-15.jpg

Ingredients

  • 2 cups pitted cherries

  • 1 tbsp coconut sugar

  • 1 tbsp lemon juice

  • 1 tbsp chia seeds

Instructions

  • Pit your cherries and then put all your ingredients in a food processor. Pulse for about 60 seconds.

  • Pour your mixture into a saucepan and heat on medium, stirring constantly until the mixture is heated through and bubbling.

  • Take off the heat and let it cool.

  • Store in a sealed container in the fridge or serve immediately!

  • I like to use mine to make parfaits, spread onto gluten free toast, or just eat bu the spoonful from the jar!

LL 107-33.jpg
LL 107-69.jpg

Don’t forget to PIN it!

CHERRY JAM PIN.jpg