Recipe | Vegan Granola

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A lot of granola recipes aren't vegan-friendly because honey is used as the sweetener/binder. This recipe is 100% vegan because agave is used in place of honey. Maple syrup is another good substitute if you don't have agave on hand

2 cups old fashioned oats (rolled oats)

1 cup steelcut oats

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup chopped pistachios

1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup raisins

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1 tbsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 cup agave

1 tbsp coconut sugar OR brown sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup canola oil

a pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 325° F.

Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Make sure you mix everything well so all the oats, nuts, seeds, and dried fruit are coated with the agave, canola oil, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract, and salt.

Line a baking sheet with tin foil or parchment paper. Spread the mixture onto the baking sheet and bake at 325 for 15 minutes, or until the granola starts to brown.

Let the granola cool off before transferring to an airtight container.

Enoy! :)

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Recipe | Vegan Pumpkin Maple Walnut Scones

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This recipe was loosely based on this pumpkin scone I found here. I had never made scones before, let alone vegan ones, and needed something to base my measurements off of.

Makes 10 scones.

1 cup raw walnuts
2 cups brown rice flour (or any flour you have on hand, really)
1/4 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup solid coconut oil
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 400° Fahrenheit

Spread your walnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet. Toast them for 3-5 minutes in your preheated oven. Remove them and chop them into tiny pieces.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, and walnuts.

In a separate bowl, mix together the pumpkin puree, maple syrup, almond milk, and vanilla extract.

Cut the solid coconut oil into the flour mixture until it becomes crumbly and lumpy. You can do this with a fork or if you're fancy, with a pastry cutter. The you can introduce the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.

Mix until the dough starts to come together.

Remove from the bowl and onto a lightly floured clean surface. Form the dough into a about a 1 inch thick circle.

Use a circular cookie cutter, a cup, mug, or some sort of small circular object to cut your scones into rounds. You could also cut them into triangles, but I'm partial to the round scone... I think it's because Ireland really only had round ones when I was there.

Place your scones on a lightly greased, or lined with parchment paper, baking sheet.

Bake for about 12-15 minutes, depending on your oven, or until lightly golden brown.

And there you go! A delicious addition to your morning coffee routine, afternoon snack, or just an anytime treat.

Enjoy! :)

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Update + Recipe | Happy Thanksgiving!

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No, this Friday I am not bringing you my face or the products used on it... mainly because I didn't feel like doing my make up. Instead, I thought I'd just make a little Thanksgiving-themed post since yesterday WAS Thanksgiving and all... for Americans at least.

My mom, sister, nephew and I drove up to my aunt and uncle's house for the holiday and it was really a nice time. I hadn't seen my cousins, aunt, and uncle all together since Liam's baptism back in September, so it was nice to see everyone again.

The night progressed as usual for our family get-togethers... political arguments, making fun of each other, and attacking the vegetarians of the family, and eating delicious food... just the way it's supposed to be!

Liam and I, before heading out to Thanksgiving Dinner

I am so thankful for the family I have been blessed with. They've helped me get through the roughest points in my life and I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to raise me and watch me grow up into the woman I am today :)

Now, for a recipe.

My mom gave me freedom to do whatever I wanted with the sweet potatoes we were bringing for the dinner, so I came up with this easy and delicious recipe for spiced, mashed sweet potatoes

8-10 sweet potatoes

2 tbsp butter OR butter substitute to make this a vegan recipe

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 - 2 tbsp dried, ground sage

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375° Fahrenheit 

*You can peel the sweet potatoes if you want. If you choose not to, make sure you scrub them really well

Bake the sweet potatoes for an hour, or until they are soft and mashable. Transfer them to a bowl and add the butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, sage, salt and pepper. Mash with a potato masher or with a hand-held or stand mixer... whatever's easiest for you... until you reach the desired consistency.

Enjoy letting people guess what the spices you used are!

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Recipe | Cinnamon Banana Butter

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When I buy bananas for myself, there's a very small threshold of time where I can eat them and actually enjoy them. I love slightly green bananas... just under their ideal ripeness. Once the green is gone, so is my appetite for them.

Because of this weird banana preference that I have, I'm often left with 2-3 bananas on hand that are too ripe for my liking. I usually will give them to my mom to make her delicious vegan banana bread, but if I won't be seeing her for a while, I thought up a VERY easy and VERY delicious way to use them up so they're not just sitting around.

Makes about a pint of "butter"

3 ripe bananas, mashed
*my bananas were on the larger side. if your bananas are looking a little skimpy, just add another one.
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl until they are thoroughly incorporated and the bananas are mashed to a smooth but chunky consistency.

Spread over toast, add to your oatmeal, or just eat it up with a spoon! Transfer any leftovers to an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to a week (if it even lasts that long)

Enjoy! :)

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Recipe | Vegan Apple Pumpkin Muffins

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Makes 12 muffins

2 cups brown rice flour
1/3 cup raw cane sugar
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2-3 tbsp plain, unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
*optionl* 2-3 tbsp raw pumpkin seeds

Preheat your oven to 325° F.

Combine all of the dry ingredients (brown rice flour, sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, salt) in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together the wet ingredients (pumpkin, applesauce, almond milk, canola oil) in a separate mixing bowl.

Once both are separately combined, add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients gradually until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed. The batter will be relatively thick.

You can either lie your muffin tin with muffin cups, or you can just spray the tin with some canola oil cooking spray to ensure that the muffins don't stick when you try to take them out. Scoop the better into each muffin mold about 3/4 of the way up.

*If you want, you can top each muffin with a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds before you bake them off. The pumpkin seeds will roast in the oven a little bit and provide a nice contrast in flavor with the slight sweetness of the muffins*

Pop those bad boys in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on your oven. Mine were perfect at 15 minutes. Just keep checking on them after the 15 minute mark by sticking a toothpick or a knife or fork through the center of a muffin to see if the inside isn't a gooey mess.

Enjoy! :)

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