Tag Archives: vita-mix

Apricot Bars – Snack time!

01 Saturday Dec 2012

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I was a little unsure about the naming – are they energy bars? But why do all things to be functional? And no, they are way to delicious to be no more than energy bars…

Are they pop tarts? They are similar – but there is way more stuffing! (Which is the very best part…)

So… Apricot Bars it is. Because… that’s what they are, after all. And delicious, they are really delicious, of course. But delicious is not really descriptive…

Apricot Bars

 

Oh, don’t let those Bars deceive you. They are definitelly not the most pretty thing… But one of the most tasty ones I’ve made lately. And, remember, if things are not that visually appealing, you might not have to share that much…

IMG_4762

 

Apricot Bars 

For the dough:

  • 225g  / 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour 
  • 50g / 1/4 cup ground hazelnuts
  • 100g / 1/2 cup margarine or vegan butter
  • 2-4 Tbsp water
  • soy cream or soy milk

For the filling:

  • 225g / 2 cups dried apricots 
  • 250ml / 1 cup apple juice
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 50g / 1/3 cup raisins

Coat a baking pan with baking paper or slightly grease it with margarine. Mix the whole wheat flour and ground nix. Add the margarine and as much water as needed. Knead either with your hands or the food processor until combined. Put the dough in the refrigerator for about 30 min.

For the filling, put the dried apricots, apple juice and cinnamon in a pot and boil the mixture for a few minutes until the apricots are really soft. Let it cool down and blend in your blender (or food processor) until really creamy. Stir in the raisins. That’s your filling!

Roll out one half of the dough and cover the ground of your baking pan with dough. Put the filling on top of it, roll out the second half of dough and cover the bars. Brush some soy cream or milk on top (it adds a nice glaze) and bake for 20-25 min at 200 C or 350 F.

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Remember this guy? Yes, he also loves apricot bars. Maybe it’s the golden orange color that appeals to him? And don’t worry, he didn’t need his axe to cut them… they are rather soft.

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All those secret beauties! I am getting hungry looking at this picture, honestly! This is actually a really old recipe, an accidentally vegan one, which I already made before I was vegan! And I don’t know why I haven’t made those bars in such a long time…

 

The one and only female knight. I think she looks angry. She needs something to eat. People always get grumpy when they are hungry!

Bon appetit!

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Djinn’s magic Chickpea Fingers

17 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by in Playful food and photos

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Arabian Nights.

Wonder lamps.

Djinn.

And the perfect food for reading the Arabian Nights? Falafel? That’s an old hat! Here’s chickpea fingers! They are similar to Falafel, but a perfect finger food. So you have one hand for turning the pages and the other one for eating chickpea fingers. (Btw, I really recommend reading that book… now during the cold season, with a candle… wonderful)

Chickpeas, aromatic spices and parsley… it makes a wonderful flavor and it’s easy to make!

And what about a yogurt dip on the side, or maybe even mango chutney…?

Djinn’s magic Chickpea Fingers

  • 2 cups chickpeas, cooked and drained (or use canned)
  • 2 tbsp soy flour
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp cilantro
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1 bunch of  parsley, chopped
  • 1 finely chopped onion
  • garlic to taste
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • coconut oil

Mix all the ingredients except the parsley in your food processor or blender (I used the vita-mix with a tamper) until combined. Fill into a bowl and fold in the parsley.
Now take some dough and form the chickpea fingers. They should be about finger-size (surprise, surprise!). Heat the oil in a pan (medium heat) and fry the chickpea fingers until they have a nice brown crust. Enjoy with some salad and a dip on the side!

Note: The recipe seems to work better with cooked (not canned) chickpeas. However, if you want to use canned, add an additional 2-3 tbsp of flour and take care that you chop the onion really fine!

Djinn – approved.

They are perfect for a party, as chickpea fingers are a nice finger food! And they are healthier than deep fried falafel…

What else could you wish for? ;)

Mini Pumpkin Pies – no bake

28 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by in Playful food and photos

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Make it small. I like small sized food. Small cookies = more cookies. Small cupcakes = more cupcakes.

Small pies = more pies!!!

And you have a whole pie to yourself… I think that’s great. Plus it’s no bake, so these pies are not only really cute, but also fast and easy to make. Could you ask for anything more?
Oh, and by the way… I think pumpkins are the only reason why fall has a right to exist at all. (You have to know that I don’t really like any season but summer. And yes, I know, I live in a very bad spot concerning my weather preference…).

Come on, they are cute!

The filling is rather a pumpkin pudding, or a pumpkin cream. But it’s one of the most delicious thing I had lately. If you add some corn starch, you could even use this cream as a filling for baked pumpkin pie.

For the crust: It’s raw crust, made from dried fruit, nuts and oats. You could actually use any kind of nut and dried fruits like dates, figs, apricots… I just used what I happened to have in the house. Feel free to use whatever you have on hand!

Mini Pumpkin Pies

  • 100g (1/2 cup) raisins
  • 80g (1/2 cup) almonds
  • 50g (1/2 cup) rolled oats
  • cinnamon
  • 200g (one can) pumpkin puree
  • 3-4 Tbsp Maple Syrup
  • 175g (6 oz or half a package) silken firm tofu
  • additional sweetener to taste
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ginger and cardamon
  • dash of salt, nutmeg and cloves

For the crust, combine the raisins, almonds rolled outs and a dash of cinnamon in your food processor (or vita-mix like blender). Press the dough into silicon muffin pans are into tartlet  pans. It should look like this:

For the filling, mix pumpkin puree, tofu, maple syrup and spices in your food processor or blender (I used homemade pumpkin puree, but it won’t make a big difference). Taste test and add more sweetener, if you like.
Fill the pumpkin cream into the crust and you’re ready to enjoy miniature pumpkin pies!

Spider, pink flower, bat. Nothing wrong here!

Trick or treat…

Great, “This is Halloween” is stuck in my head right now! I guess I will have to watch the movie some time soon… eating mini pumpkin pies and thinking of other Halloween food.

Happy Halloween!

Do you go to a Halloween Party and will you dress up?

Simple Apple Pie Smoothie

21 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by in Playful food and photos

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I never expected it… but this smoothie really taste like apple pie filling! It’s fresh, raw, foamy, yummy. The dates yield a delicious caramel flavor and sweetness. The almonds make it extra creamy and perfect.

I made this so often for breakfast this week. Seems to be my favorite right now. Another great part: It’s not pricey! Apples are the seasonal fruit right now, at my grocery store, it’s the freshest and cheapest thing I can get.

But what I like best about this smoothie: It’s so easy! I usually have all the ingredients at hand. You only need one kind of fruit! Just apples, no more.  And you won’t believe how delicious it is until you tried!

Apple Pie Smoothie
one big Smoothie

  • 2 apples, cut into quarters
  • 1/8 cup almond (about one hand full)
  • about 5 dates
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup ice cubes
  • 1/4 cup water or as needed
  • optional: some oats or flaxseed – make it a breakfast!

But everything in your blender, ice cubes first. Add as much water as needed for desired consistence. Blend – and enjoy! If you like your smoothie even sweeter, you can add some stevia.

I put some oats and flax seed in my smoothie as a breakfast – the oats make a great “pie crust”. You could also crumble some graham cracker on top of your smoothie. Or decorate it with some cream and cinnamon!

Summer in a bowl – Mango Ice Cream (RAW)

06 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by in Playful food and photos

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The last days of summer – time to enjoy some more ice cream!

Okay, actually… According to my very own definition summer is already over where I live. Oh well. You can still fetch it back to your plate bowl!

 

This is the kind of ice cream we enjoyed most this summer. Maybe I will even love this in winter – we’ll see!
One part I really love about it: You use dried mango instead of fresh! Just stock some dried mango and you’re fine! It’s that easy…

It’s super creamy, raw and does not contain bananas! As I mentioned before – I love bananas, but I don’t want every treat and dessert to have a banana flavor.

Last days of summer Mango Ice Cream 

  • 2 cups (300g)  ice cubes
  • half a carrot (medium sized)
  • 1 nectarine, halved
  • about 10 peaces of dried mango (50g or 1,7 oz)
  • 2 tbsp agave syrup OR 15 drops stevia (or sweetener of choice)

Put everything in your heavy duty blender (I used a vita-mix) in the  order they are listed. Use your tamper and blend until smooth (it will take about 1-2 minutes). Done. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Yes, I sneaked in some carrot – it will yield a beautiful color and I promise – you won’t taste it!

 

As long as there’s hot tea and warm blankets – I bet I’ll still love this when winter is here!

Banana Cookie Dough Blizzard

26 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by in Playful food and photos

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Do I have to say more?

You can’t imagine how excited I was when I thought about my own twist on the traditional blizzard. Big chunks of cookie dough. A creamy base made from frozen bananas and even more cookie dough. Heaven.

I’ve had some trouble to explain to my not American friends what a blizzard actually is though! Might have been the hardest part of making my own blizzard (you see, making your own blizzard is really easy!). I started to describe it as something like a milkshake with big chunks of something, like cookie dough! The consistence is somewhere between soft serve and milkshake. It’s a little to thick for a milkshake and the cookie dough chunks are a little too big for a milkshake. It is a… well, a blizzard! (That was the point where I just gave my friend a blizzard for test tasting. He liked it.)

It’s that good. I had it for breakfast…

Banana Cookie Dough Blizzard
2-3 servings 

  • 3-4 frozen bananas, very ripe
  • about 2 tbsp Almond milk
  • 1/2 batch cookie dough

Put the frozen bananas in your blender or food processor.  Process bananas, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary. (When you make this in a vita-mix, use the tamper). Finally, add some cookie dough and process until combined. (I used about 6 cookie dough balls. It depends on the size of your cookie dough balls though. Use as many as you like!). You should have a soft serve type consistency when done. If think the mixture is still to think, add some almond milk and process again. Pour the blizzard into a glass and stir in your desired amount of crumbled cookie dough. Crumble some cookie dough on top, too!  Serve your homemade blizzard with a spoon.

I never thought making my own blizzard could be that easy!

All the cookie dough goodness!

On a personal note: I created a facebook page for this blog and I’d be glad if you like it! =)

All lovin’ no oven!

23 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by in Playful food and photos

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Who doesn’t love cookie dough? I mean, seriously! I never quite understood why some people actually bake cookie dough! As I didn’t grow up with cookie dough treats, I’ve told you about my excitement when found out about cookie dough ice cream before…

And isn’t cookie dough the most playful food ever? You make any shape from dough, using your hands or cookie cutters and eating half of the dough while doing so…

Yes, you can do really exciting, creative shapes… or you can just form balls like I did. Yummy, rich, buttery cookie dough balls. Not your average cookie dough though! This is a healthier, almost raw version! But as delicious.

RAW Cookie dough 

  • 2/3 cup cashews
  • 1/3 cup rolled oats
  • 2 tbsp agave
  • 1 tbsp whole cane sugar (for the typical cookie dough flavor. Can be replaced by brown cane sugar or more agave)
  • dash natural vanilla powder or a piece of a vanilla bean
  • optional: chocolate chips

Put all the ingredients (except chocolate chips) in a heavy duty blender (use the tamper) or a food processor and mix. Once all the ingredients are combined, you can either add chocolate chips by hand or put them in your blender / food processor and mix for a few more seconds.
Form the cookie dough into any shape you like. Don’t forget test tasting!

Want something more special? What about cookie dough banana sandwiches?

Trust me, it’s a perfect combination.

It’s delicious. Take care. You might have to share. Maybe double the batch? You could also dip either the cookie dough balls or the sandwiches in chocolate! (I wasn’t feeling like chocolate though. Plain cookie dough is as good as the chocolate ship version though!)
And stash some bananas away! There will be a new twist on banana ice cream later this week…

RAW Frozen Hot Chocolate – Serendipity in a glass

19 Sunday Aug 2012

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Finally, summer arrived where I live! We have a few really hot days right now, and I am happy to enjoy them with my exams being over by now!

And the best part: hot summer days are the perfect time for frozen treats!!!
Delicious frozen treats melting away in your mouth… or in your hands, if you don’t eat them fast enough!

So, I have some really exciting news: RAW frozen hot chocolate!
Do you know Serendipity in New York? It might be the one place every chocoholic has to visit once in their life… Long ago, I tried some from a chocoholic friend and I had to admit that it was really delicious! In fact, I’d have loved to eat (or drink?) one myself… if it was not winter. I am a cold blain, I would have been cold all day! But know it’s summer! I could have a frozen hot chocolate! Okay, New York is  not close and Serendipity is not vegan… so… I make my own frozen hot chocolate! A RAW vegan frozen hot chocolate! However, frozen hot chocolate always reminds of New York City. So that’s why I put the little statue of liberty next to it!

Making your own frozen hot chocolate is easier then you might think! Your freezer does most of the work…

RAW Frozen Hot Chocolate

  • 50g (just under half a cup) Cashews
  • 50g (just under 1/2  a cup) Almonds
  • 450ml (2 cups) water
  • 3-4 tbsp cocoa powder
  • stevia, agave syrup or any other sweetener to taste
  • tiny dash of salt
  • 2 tbsp nut milk (store bought or just keep a few tbsp from the nut milk you will make for this recipe)

Put the nuts, water, cocoa and salt in a blender an mix. Strain the milk through a nut milk bag (a laundry bag, a cheese cloths or even a kitchen towel works, too! I always use a laundry bag!) This is like heavy chocolate cream made from nuts! Sweeten the milk. It should be slightly oversweetend, the finished product will be less sweet. Put in ice cube trays, ice cube bags or flat containers and freeze! Once it’s frozen, put the ice cubes in your blender (your blender should be able to crush ice), add 2 tbsp nut milk and mix again! I used a vita-mix and pushed the mixture into the knives with the tamper. This will yield the best results… however, I guess this will also word with any blender that can crush ice!

You will be rewarded with the most delicious frozen hot chocolate ever.

 

All right… this is serious food porn. It’s as delicious as it looks, I promise! It’s rich but not too heavy. And it’s healthy! Plus it’s a nice change to all those banana soft serve treats… (I do like bananas. But I don’t want everything to taste like bananas!)

 

Talking about frozen treats melting away…
As I found out, it’s really not easy to take photos of a frozen treat when it’s about 100 degrees and you don’t have an air conditioner… I would have loved to take more photos… to play around… but the Frozen Hot Chocolate had to be eaten before it melted, I hope you understand!

Make dough, not war!

16 Thursday Aug 2012

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Once upon a time, there was a war torn kingdom. The greedy king always wanted more land, more treasures. But when his soldiers came to the land of raw dough…

 

The land of raw dough was different though. There were no treasures they could fight for. But there were fearful figures like…

 

… rabbits. Yes. Don’t laugh. Compared to a lego figure, it is big. If you met a rabbit that’s bigger than you, you’d probably be afraid, too!

 

Once our little soldiers noticed that the rabbit wasn’t as dangerous as they thought, there was no reason to fight anymore. The rabbit was made from dough, after all. As everything else in this country. So, what to do?

 

Well, isn’t it obvious? Make dough, not war! Have your dough and eat it, too…

Raw dough
– The basic two ingredients recipe! 

  • 1 cup dates
  • 1 cup walnuts
  • optional: vanilla powder and / or cinnamon OR Indian Chai spice
  • optional: cocoa powder

This is as easy as it could be… first, grind the walnuts in your food processor or heavy duty blender (I use a blender). Once, they are powdered, put in the dates and mix until the mixture turns into a smooth dough! If you are using a blender, you have to push everything down with your tamper. It will only take about 3 minutes (or less, if your kitchen is more tidy than mine…) and you will have delicious raw dough! Form into balls… or use cookie cutters for any other shape!

Don’t ask about the rabbit. I just like rabbits, that’s all. I came up with this recipe while learning for my exams. I have a friend who always tells me to eat walnut when I have to learn. They are supposed to be good for your brain. Sounds reasonable. They look like brains, after all. So I decided to make a delicious raw dough from walnuts and dates. Brain food!

I added cocoa powder to one half of my dough. Both versions turned out great! I rolled some of the balls in sesame, some were dipped into self made chocolate and some were left plain.

Self made chocolate?

  • 1 tablespoon native coconut oil
  • 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • about 10 drops stevia (or 2 packets)

Melt the coconut oil, stir in the cocoa powder and stevia – that’s it. Life can be so easy.

Here’s the three versions I made.

 

And here are some more scenes from the land of raw dough…

 

even the evil knight preferred dough over war…

 

One more. Just because I like it.

Golden Cheesecake – beware of the dwarf!

02 Thursday Aug 2012

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Cheesecake for breakfast.

Or lunch. Or dinner.

For each meal of the day!

I have admit that I had most of it for breakfast. The good message: This moist and sweet vegan cheesecake without added sugar is healthy enough to have it for breakfast!

It’s been a long time until I started to experiment with vegan cheesecake. This might be due to the high prices of tofutti (I did not make my own cream cheese  at that time…) and because I knew it could not taste as delicious as the original. However, I didn’t know how delicious it can be… why didn’t anyone tell me? You wanted it all for yourself?

I wanted it all for myself, too… it didn’t quite work out though. I should have known…

Dwarfs are greedy. And this golden cheesecake might be perfect for him. Dwarfs like gold.

I am so lucky that he was too small to take it away. He tried though. Dwarfs are not the smartest creatures…

Golden Cheesecake – no sugar, all the fun
healthy vegan cheesecake with no added sugar, Ø about 20cm / 8 inch 

  • about 6 soft dates, deseeded (can increase if you want it even sweeter)
  • 4 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup ( 125 ml ) orange juice or non dairy milk
  • 1 very ripe banana
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 package (350g) firm (or extra firm) tofu

Put all the ingredients in your food processor for blender (use your tamper!) and mix. Test-tasting allowed: If like it sweeter, add some more dates (or even some stevia). Pour into a slightly greased pan and bake for about  30-4o  min. (380 F / 200 C )

Yes, it’s that easy. Be patient (that’s the hardest part, honestly…) and let it cool down a little until you remove the pan.

On a personal note: I was really amazed by all your sweet comments and your feedback! This is still a very young blog and I didn’t expect so many people to visit it! I just want to say “Thank you” for visit my blog and for leaving your comments. Each comment makes me happy cause it means that people actually read (and maybe even like…) what I am doing!

I think he gave it up…