Savory snacks and breakfast ideas.

Hello everyone!

Hope everyone is having a good week so far, it may only be Tuesday... but that means three more sleeps then it's a long weekend, woohoo!  I'm not sure what this weekend will bring, but I definitely plan on getting some biking in, as well as shopping on Rue St-Catherine... because well, it's a shopaholics dream!  Thursday I'm going to do boxing with one of my co-workers!  I am so, so excited for this.  I have been wanting to do boxing for quite some time... every time I see people on The Biggest Loser, I feel a huge bout of jealous towards them.  Unfortunately however, one of the things that drew me to this particular boxing gym was that they offered MMA classes... but they cancelled them, so instead I will be doing female boxing.  We shall see what that brings, but I definitely look forward to that.  Perhaps I'll even try some hot yoga this weekend, it's supposed to rain for the rest of the week UNTIL Sunday, really?!  Long weekends are supposed to be beautiful... I'm just hoping that the weatherman is wrong :)!

I'm so excited about this blog too.  This morning I woke up and had a comment... (okay, it's not like I never get comments, but they're not something that happen on a regular basis, and every time I get a comment I always jump with glee).  Well this morning when I got a comment (I had woken up in the middle of the night at about 3:00 am, checked my phone and saw the comment in my inbox.  When I woke up I had a new follower, as well as noticed that my blog post for the Avocado-Lime Whip Fruit Medley Pizza in a Cinnamon Sugar Crust got put on Foodgawker!  I definitely felt like I had won the lottery, then I opened up blogger to write this post and another new follower, two in one day!  That has never happened before, I am so excited :)!  With that I just wanted to say a quick thank you to all of those who do check out my posts!

Now, onto my posts.  This summer one of my goals is to eat a diet primarily from local foods.  My mom and I live only a couple of minutes away from Jean-Talon Marcher, so I mean there isn't really an excuse not to do so.  Eating locally is going to mean beautiful, delicious, juicy, in season fruits and vegetables.  Over the weekend we stocked our fridge with an abundance of deliciousness, we really looked like French people (with the addition of her wine bottles), but it feels great; eating a vegan diet/eating local foods, perfect.

By going to Jean-Talon it has allowed me to give into my fruit-cravings.  I've been trying to curve my sweet tooth... before moving to Montreal let's just say I was going a little crazy with some of the sweets I was eating.  Ever since I started working out more heavily (doing my yoga/strength as well as biking) I've noticed a big difference in my desire for sweets.  If I do crave sweets now, I've been going to fruits... or vegetables dressed up as dessert...

Chocolate Coconut Kale Chips

Recipe adapted from here

 

The first time I made crispy kale... it wasn't such a good experience.  I wanted them to be "crispier" so I had put them in the oven for an additional two minutes... they went from crisp, to burnt, to the fire alarm going off.  I still ate the ones that were intact but... that was not fun.

Then I had tried making Crispy Kale again.  I was in food heaven.  I sat on the couch and just couldn't stop eating them, they are seriously addiction.  When I found this recipe I just about died, coconut + kale, heeeeellllooooo!  I felt as though this recipe was made for me.  Well, needless to say I picked up kale or as the French would say "chou frisee (my computer won't let me put the accent on the e)".  I had soaked my cashews before we left, and a couple of hours I was in the kitchen.  Oh heaven sent is what this recipe was.  Chocolate and all I was in heaven.  I've been munching on these for the past couple of days... trying not to eat more than I packed in my lunch but I wanted them to last more than one sitting, but it's hard to not dig into the container some more when I get home.  These are definitely rated at the high, high peek of my favourite snacks to date.  They are just amazing.  Yeah, there may be some sugar/fat, but it's all healthy!  Plus it's not a potato, it's kale!  Hallelujah!  You can guess kale is going to be on my grocery list again this week.  I'm going to make it a goal of mine to make crispy kale each week so I have healthy snacks if I'm craving any sort of sweets, oh heck yes.  Oh... maybe I'll make a barbecue version this week, meuhahaha.

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of kale, washed and ribs removed
• 1/2 cup cashews, soaked
• 1/2 cup raspberry agave nectar
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp coconut extract
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup coconut flakes
• 1 tbsp coconut oil

Directions:

Soak cashews in water for at least an hour (4-6 hours ideal).  Remove the soaked cashews and add all the other ingredients (except the kale) to a food processor or blender.  Blend until mixture is smooth to make the chocolate coconut coating.  Pour this mixture over a bowl of washed, de-stemmed kale leaves and toss to coat.

Transfer coated kale to a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake at 300F for about 20 minutes.  Flip, and bake for another 10 minutes, give or take.  Watch them closely because the honey/agave/maple mixture can burn quickly and it’s hard to tell with the dark chocolate color if they are burning or not.  

Remove crispy chips one by one if necessary.  

... now, if you have kale in the fridge (or if you don't get into your car and get some) and make these!  You will not regret it!

Now for some breakfasts' and other snacks that I have been enjoying.

Gingerbread Molasses Pancakes for One

Recipe by me

 

Pancakes, pancakes, pancakes.  My favourite.  My love.  My heart's desire.  I love them.  These may not look all decked out, because I couldn't really glorify-beautify them at work... but they're tastes' was definitely glorious.  I took my Pancakes for One recipe and adapted it so that it would feature my favourite flavours; "fall flavours".  Mmmm, these tasted like gingerbread men/molasses cookies, they were frickin' amazing!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup spelt flour (or just use 1/2 cup whole wheat or what you have on hand)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• Dash of salt
• 1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
• 3/4 tsp coconut oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 tbsp candied ginger
• 1 tbsp molasses

Directions:

Start by mixing your dry ingredients, add in your wet ingredients, finish by adding blueberries at the end. DO NOT over mix, allow your batter to sit for a few minutes so that the flavours really blend.

Cook as you normally would your typical pancakes.

... I took that same recipe and made Raspberry Banana Pancakes for One

 

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup spelt flour (or just use 1/2 cup whole wheat or what you have on hand)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• Dash of salt
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 3/4 tsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 mashed banana
• Handful of raspberries

Did the same directions etc... then made a Raspberry Compote

Mixed 3/4 cup frozen raspberries + 1 tbsp raspberry agave nectar + 1 tbsp coconut oil = in a medium pot stirred the mix for 4-5 minutes until it looked like the consistency I wanted.

I topped the pancakes with the compote, the remaining of the banana - sliced, and more raspberry agave nectar, they were deeee-lish!

Note: if you're raspberries are tart add more sugar, if they are juicy and amazing you don't need to add sugar unless you have a really big sweet tooth ;)

Apple Cupcakes

Recipe inspired from here

 

Can you go wrong with apples?  I don't think so.  I love apples... in all shapes and forms, desserts, cakes or cookies, I love apples.  When I saw Angela's version of Apple Cupcakes I knew it would be a quick snack to put together, it's healthy and with the addition of peanut butter you have some good fats/protein, win!  This certainly was delicious, and it was fun to eat because I even ate it like a cupcake, haha... it felt weird eating an apple that way but hot dang it was goooood.

Ingredients:

Half number 1:

• Vanilla yoghurt
• Balsamic reduction strawberries (strawberries marinated in balsamic vinegar + granulated sugar overnight)
• 1/2 of a cored apple

Half number 2:

• Blueberry peanut butter - I made this peanut butter over the weekend and it reminded me of being a kid... when my mom would make me blueberry pancakes and I would top them with creamy, dripping peanut butter, mmmmm) - I heated the peanut butter too so that it's nice and warm :)
• Granola
• Coconut flakes
• 1/2 of a cored apple

Directions: 

Core apple and cut in half. Place apple cut side up and add your layers.

Blueberry Peanut Butter

Recipe taken from here

Ingredients:

• 2 cups peanuts
• 2/3 cup dried blueberries (unsweetened)
• 2 tbsp chia seeds
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• Up to 1/2 tsp sea salt

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a food processor for about 5 minutes; scrape the sides every minute or two, until mixture is smooth and creamy

Taste and add salt if needed; run food processor for another 30 second.

Store in a leftover nut butter jar or tupperware container at room temperature for up to a month.

Cherry Bomb Vegan Overnight Oats

Recipe slightly adapted from here

 

And finally for yesterday's breakfast... it may not be the prettiest looking of breakfast's... I blame that on the rain, but it sure tasted good.  I have always loved eating cherries, but I couldn't eat them.  What?  There is just something about fruits with pits that I can't do... I mean last year, my mom's boyfriend accidentally bought grapes with seeds in them, I literally spent an hour cutting them in half and de-pitting them.  I'm sure I could of used a cherry pitter... but I do not have one, and I love grapes... I just can't do seeds, so I did what I had to do.  It wast tedious and long but well worth it.  A couple of weeks ago however when I was at Costco and found a huuuuge bag of frozen cherries I quickly threw them into the cart before my mom could say anything :D!

Last summer I had seen this recipe but never made it because I did not want to de-pit 1/3 cup of cherries and get red stains all over my clothes (no matter how gorgeous cherry red may be).  Instead I waited until yesterday morning and made it.  It was good, yes it was.  It wasn't pretty, but it sure was easy to eat, yummy.  I will be making this again this summer for sure, especially so I can make the picture prettier ;), until then you can always check out Angela's picture for motivation to make it haha.

Cherry Bomb Banana Soft Serve

• Process 1 frozen banana with about 1/3 cup frozen cherries and a touch of soy milk

Cherry Bomb Vegan Overnight Oats:

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup regular oats
• 1/3 cup x 2 cup soy milk
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• Pinch of sea salt (tiny!)
• 1 tbsp chia seeds

Directions: 

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a bowl and then add the wet ingredients and whisk. Place in fridge overnight or for 45 mins-2 hours in the fridge. Make Cherry Bomb soft serve (above) and layer in a dish.

What kind of breakfasts' have you been enjoying this week?