Tag: vegetarian

Homemade KIND Bars (Vegan and Gluten Free)

Melissa King 47 Comments

Homemade KIND Bars.  After my Homemade Clif Bars were such a hit, I asked all of you which bar you would like to see next.  The answers were all asking for KIND bars.

I had never even tried one, so I went to the store and bought one to try.  The first flavor I attempted was Peanut Butter Chocolate.  I have plans for more homemade KIND bars in the future. 🙂

 

Homemade KIND Bars

 

These KIND bars, along with my Clean Eating Samoas,  are kind of involved; but I think they turned out pretty good!

I used my Sweet Peanut Butter Spread as inspiration for the ingredient that binds this bar together.  So here is the recipe.  I got about 10 bars out of the recipe, but mine are quite thick.

Homemade KIND Bars

Homemade KIND Bars

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Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 20 min

Ingredients

  • 2 cups mixed nuts chopped (I bought mine out of the bulk bin)
  • 2 cups brown rice cereal (I used Nature's Path)
  • 12 medjool dates pitted
  • 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
  • 3/4 cup water

For the chocolate coating

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325.
  2. In a large bowl , mix the nuts and cereal.
  3. In the food processor , pulse the dates and water until a thin paste forms.
  4. Add in the peanut butter. If you store your peanut butter in the fridge, pull it out a few hours ahead of time so it will be soft.
  5. Once all those are combined well, add it to the nuts and cereal.
  6. Mix well until everything is combined.
  7. I used an 8×8 baking dish, but I would suggest using a slightly bigger one because my bars came out a bit on the thick side.
  8. Line your pan with parchment paper leaving enough room for some paper to come out the sides so it’s easy to pull the bars out after baking.
  9. Press batter into the pan so it is coated evenly and then press down hard with the spatula. The batter will be very sticky.
  10. Bake for about 20-30 minutes.
  11. Let the bars cool before pulling them out of the pan.
  12. Once cooled and out, slice into bars, spread out and bake for another 18 minutes.  I cut my bars easily with a pizza cutter .

For the chocolate coating:

  1. Using a double boiler, melt the chips and milk together.
  2. Once a smooth and runny consistency is reached, drizzle over the bars and place in the fridge to set. 
  3. I had some chocolate left over, so if you want, you can dip the bottom of each bar in to coat as well.  That way, they will be a bit more like the real bars.  Hope you enjoy these.

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Sweet Peanut Butter Spread

Melissa King 8 Comments

This is so much more than peanut butter…

Sweet Peanut Butter Spread

I have big plans for this stuff in future recipes.  My husband just loves peanut butter.  He really loves making peanut butter and honey sandwiches at night as a sweet treat.  He used to love Nutella, but vegans can’t eat it and it’s not all that healthy anyway.  This is the peanut butter version of Nutella.  It would also make a great peanut butter fudge if left to chill in the fridge.  It could be used as a healthier alternative to frosting as well.  It would be delicious for the filling of my Thumbprint Cookies.  Heck, you can even sit there and eat it as is, which is what I did.  Ooops, did I say that allowed?  Warning….this is highly addictive.

Sweet Ingredient Peanut Butter Spread

Sweet Peanut Butter Spread

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Prep Time 20 min

Ingredients

  • 15 medjool pitted dates
  • 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup water

Instructions

  1. Combine the water and dates in the food processor and blend until a paste forms.
  2. Then, add the peanut butter and continue to blend until smooth. That’s it. Store in the fridge. Should last a couple weeks.

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Cranberry Coconut Granola

Melissa King 23 Comments

I have probably mentioned on more than one occasion how much I love homemade granola. Maybe you got the idea after I posted All Things Granola. Not only is homemade granola a great way to start your day, but it makes a great little snack in the afternoon when you are craving something sweet.  This is my latest homemade granola recipe.  If you like cranberries and coconut, you will love this homemade granola.

Cranberry Coconut Granola

This recipe doesn’t make much more than 2-3 servings so if you want, feel free to double the batch.  Granola would also taste great on top of my Chia Seed Pudding.

Cranberry Coconut Granola

Cranberry Coconut Granola

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Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 30 min

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl . Mix wet in another. Add wet to dry and mix until everything is coated. 
  3. Spread mixture onto a lined baking sheet .
  4. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes. Shake pan about halfway through. If the granola is not crunchy enough, feel free to cook a bit longer.

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Chia Seed Pudding (Vegan and Gluten Free)

Melissa King 83 Comments

This Chia Seed Pudding makes the perfect healthy breakfast!  I am not just talking about a ch-ch-ch-chia pet here.  Have you tried chia seeds?  They are super good for you.

I have only just tried them recently me myself.  Chia is the Mayan word for strength.  These little seeds were a big staple of the Aztec and Mayan diet.

One single serving of chia seeds contains 42% of your daily need for fiber and it packs more omega 3 fatty acids than a piece of salmon.

Chia seeds will absorb up to 12 times their own weight, making you feel full longer.  They are great to throw in smoothies and pudding.

 

Chia-Seed-Pudding

This dish is loosely adapted from Food Babe’s Chia Seed Fruit Salad.  This chia seed pudding would be great served as breakfast or dessert.  It would also be great with some of my homemade granola sprinkled on top.

Chia Seed Pudding

Chia Seed Pudding

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Prep Time 5 min Serves 4 servings     adjust servings

Get some superfoods into your diet with this yummy pudding!

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Throw all the ingredients in a bowl and chill in the fridge for a few hours.

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Recipe Notes

This chia seed pudding takes all of 5 minutes to make and will keep you full for a long time afterward.

Marinated Vegetable Salad (Vegan & Gluten Free)

Melissa King 33 Comments

Marinated Vegetable Salad.  This is a dish we have been making for a long time.  We got the recipe from my mother-in-law.  I love cold salads.

I recently wrote 5 Quick and Easy Salad Ideas that included a lot of my other salad recipes.  They taste great and don’t take much effort at all.  My kind of recipe if you haven’t noticed by now!

 

Marinated Vegetable Salad

 

We used dried beans for the recipe and just soaked them all in one big jar overnight, and then boiled them in the morning for about 15-20 minutes until they became soft.

Then, we let them cool before putting this recipe together.  Dried beans are far cheaper and taste much cleaner too.  I never noticed that until I started eating them on a regular basis.

 

Marinated Vegetable Salad

 

Want to make this recipe?  Watch the video below.  For more videos, you can subscribe to my You Tube Channel.

Looking for more salad recipes?

 

Marinated Vegetable Salad

Marinated Vegetable Salad

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Prep Time 10 min

Ingredients

  • 2 cups chickpeas
  • 2 cups kidney beans
  • 2 cups pinto beans
  • 2 cups corn (I used frozen)
  • 3 -4 T red wine vinegar
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 3 green onions chopped
  • 3 stalks celery
  • 1/4 cup flat leaf parsley chopped

Instructions

  1. Whisk together the vinegar, oil, garlic, oregano, cumin and salt in a bowl.
  2. Add the beans and corn.
  3. Then, add the onions,celery and parsley and toss to coat.

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Recipe Notes

You can eat this right away, but for the best flavor, please let sit in the fridge for at least 8 hours. That’s it. Easy! This makes about 6 good size servings servings. It should keep for at least a week in the fridge.

Marinated Vegetable Salad

Blueberry Oatmeal Waffles (Vegan)

Melissa King 49 Comments

Blueberry Oatmeal Waffles. So I got this waffle iron about a month ago.  My first few attempts at healthy waffles were epic fails.  Today I finally came out with a winning recipe!

These blueberry oatmeal waffles came out great!  My kids really enjoyed having these blueberry oatmeal waffles.  I hope you enjoy them too!

 

Blueberry Oatmeal Waffles

 

I got some organic blueberries from Sprouts yesterday and they were so good!  Blueberries are on the “dirty list, so I only buy them organic and in season.  I haven’t had them in months.  When I saw them sitting there, I had to snatch up a couple pints.

So glad I did because they were sweet and juicy!  We got some yummy strawberries too.  So good!  Waffles and pancakes are super easy to whip up fast.  I actually mix the dry ingredients the night before, so it takes just a minute or two to add the wet in the morning.

My daughter made a happy plate, as we like to call it around here.  She loved them!  If you don’t have a waffle iron, try one of my Homemade Granola Recipes or my Peanut Butter Pancakes for your Sunday morning breakfast.

Blueberry Oatmeal Waffles

Blueberry Oatmeal Waffles

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Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 10 min

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup oat flour
  • 1/2 cup spelt flour
  • 1 1/2 cups milk (I used almond milk)
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 T maple syrup
  • 2 T coconut oil
  • 1 egg (I used a flax egg replacer)
  • 1/3 cup shredded coconut
  • 3/4 cup blueberries (I used fresh)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the waffle iron.
  2. Mix all the dry ingredients together in one bowl.
  3. Mix wet in another.
  4. Add wet to dry and mix well.
  5. Fold in blueberries.
  6. Spray the waffle iron with oil before spooning batter on each time.
  7. I used a 1/2 cup measuring cup to scoop the batter onto the waffle iron.

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Recipe Notes

I got 4 large waffles out of my batch. If you have leftovers, you can freeze them in a plastic container with parchment in between each waffle.