The god of desserts.

Happy, happy Sunday!

Okay today was a great day... is there any surprise it has to do with food?!  Last night unfortunately I slept horribly, I tossed and turned, woke up just about every hour, overall barely slept.  However, I woke up and started my day at about 9:00 am.

Date and Pear Breakfast Pizzert

Recipe thoroughly adapted from here

 

Today was "Pizza Night" at my aunt and uncles (which my mom and I were going to visit later so my day was based on that).  For breakfast I made a "pizza", but with all healthy ingredients.  It was delicious, filling and a nice change to regular breakfasts ideas.  I had been wanting to make pear and date pancakes, but instead I figured I would do those flavours in the breakfast pizza.  Yesterday when my mom and I went to Jean-Talon Marcher I had bought a bag of chickpea flour, I'd never used this type of flour before so I wanted to try it in this breakfast.  I didn't know if I needed to adapt the amount, but it worked out perfectly.  What I love about this was the addition of dates... every other bite you got a nice little zing of sweetness.  Pear and dates are definitely perfect matches, yummy!  I really enjoyed this breakfast and will be making it next weekend with some of my favourite flavours, which you will have to check in next weekend to know what they are ;)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup chickpea flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 6 tbsp water
• 2 tbsp applesauce
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger
• 6 dates - chopped
• 1 pear - chopped

Directions:

Mix everything together and pour into a pan.

Cook in an UNpreheated oven at 420 degrees F for 10 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

After breakfast I did my yoga, it was really night.  This week unfortunately I didn't do any strength training, I focused simply on cardio... biking in the morning and at night.  I'm not sure why I've done this, but I've just been really sick of doing the same strength day in day out, I needed a little break.  I did realize a big change in how long I could last on the bike though which is good because I'm be doing a 50km bike ride in June so I've been trying to train for that.  This mornings yoga was definitely a good change, and it felt good to do that again.  My yoga mat is at work, and seeing how this week it's supposed to rain until Thursday that means I will probably do yoga on my lunch break since we won't be able to go for our daily "Walk and Talk" at lunch, but we shall see!

After I did yoga mom and I headed to go get some extra groceries.  Oh my gosh... I love this city I really do, but I don't know what in the world they were thinking when they designed it.  The parking is atrocious, it is just horrible.  We drove around forever to try and find a parking spot... in the end, I ended up going into the store while my mom waited outside in the car.  Not only are the roads designed poorly, but the grocery stores are just like the roads; they look nice but do not work well.  I was so frustrated while shopping that it took double the time to do my regular groceries because the design/organization was just horrible I mean my mom wanted a "treat" i.e. potato chips... where were they you ask?  In the freezer section, I mean really?  I don't know it's just weird to me.

I finally finished, we got back into the car, then surprise surprise we got lost!  We drove around, as my mom likes to call them, "the back-a-lanes".  It definitely makes me laugh every time she does it... we even drove through the deepest puddle I've ever seen, honestly it was a mini lake.  Eventually we got back to where we knew we were, unpacked and I got to business!

Lunch was simple, and not note-worthy but what I was working on... ohhhhh my the house smelt like heaven.  I prepped this weeks snacks, which you will see tomorrow!  However, after that... I started on tonight's dinner and dessert.  Since I had already had pizza for breakfast, and I didn't want my aunt to have to change her whole dinner plans with pizza since I don't eat cheese I figured I'd make it easy on her. 

Shredded Lemon Pepper Brussels Sprouts Salad

Recipe by me

I made a simple shredded Brussels sprouts salad.  It was simple, took so little time to make it and heck it tasted amazing. 

8 Brussels sprouts (shredded with a cheese grates) + sea salt + pepper + walnuts + grapeseed oil + juice from 1/2 of a lemon = tossed together.  It was so good.  I was a little hesitant of eating raw Brussels sprouts but honestly it was just as good as if they were roasted.  I love this salad and would definitely make it again.

Avocado-Lime Whip Fruit Medley Pizza in a Cinnamon Sugar Crust

Recipe adapted from here

 

Dun, dun, dun...

Now... for the star of... this week, the most amazing dessert.  I cannot brag about this enough.  It was so, so, soooo good!  ...embarrassingly I couldn't stop eating this, it was beyond amazing.  This is by far one of my favourite recipes I've ever made.

The day my mom and I were leaving for Montreal I was in a bit of a rush and forgot a lot of my condiments, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, my jams, nut butters and my yeast.  With that being said I was a little... hesitant on what to do for the dough.  I've never made a pizza dough without yeast before but I looked up some recipes and figured what the hey... I found one recipe and holy jeebus was it ever easy to make.  I don't have a rolling pin here either, but it all worked out, I used my fingers to stretch the dough out and voila, it was a cinch.  It came out thin, hard on the outside and soft on the inside, chewy and crunchy but not too hard.  This dough was seriously addicting... if you've ever tasted Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal, you can just imagine how tasty this was... the cinnamon was perfect, oh my goodness the smell from the oven was delicate and beautiful.  I loved this dough so much.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Pizza Dough

Recipe adapted from here

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup chickpea flour
• 1 1/2 cup AP flour
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 1/2 tbsp grapeseed oil, or other neutral oil
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Mix flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar, and water. Knead on floured counter just until workable and spreadable, about 2 minutes. Put on pizza pan or stone, with fingers spread grapeseed oil on crust. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Take out and allow to cool.

Avocado-Lime Whip

Recipe adapted from here

Oh my goodness, this was sinfully delicious.  Eating this, you wouldn't even think it's avocado.  It didn't taste like avocado because of what else was added to the mix, and it was a beautiful smooth consistency that isn't really avocado-like.  This was wonderful, with the Cinnamon Toast-crunch like crush this was delicious... I can see myself making cinnamon raisin bread in the future with an avocado like whip for a delicious fruity-sandwich snack.  I loved this... yes, there might of been a lot of sugar, but it also had good fats so it's okay right? ;)

Ingredients:

• 4 avocados
• Fresh lime juice 1 lemon
• 1 tsp coconut extract
• 1/4 cup raspberry agave nectar
• 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 2 tbsp coconut milk
• 12 tbsp confectioner's sugar

Directions:

In a food processor, add in the avocado, lime juice, and agave nectar. Process until smooth.  Now add in the coconut extract, melted coconut oil, and coconut milk.  As the last step, add in the icing sugar very gradually until the consistency you want is achieved.  Spread over the base of cooled & cooked pizza crust.

Fruit Medley

Directions:

Chop up a mixture of strawberries, mango, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, peaches, and plums. You will want about 2-3 cups of the salsa.  After you have spread on the avocado-lime whip, it is time to layer on the fruit. Then I sprinkled the pizza with shredded coconut!

Now, no matter what time of the day it is... get into your kitchen and make this for your family... or for yourself... you will not regret it, seriously this is the god of desserts,