Tag: vegetarian

Homemade Clif Bars (Vegan and Gluten Free)

Melissa King 194 Comments

Homemade Clif Bar recipe.  When I made my Healthy Cookie Dough Bites the other day, I thought the flavors would be a great base for Homemade Clif Bars.

So, I set out to create them.  A lot of readers lately have been asking if Clif bars are okay to eat.  I used to but them by the case as well.  I would take them to work in the days when I waited tables on the Las Vegas strip.

Here are the ingredients to the Chocolate Chip Peanut bar that I got off their website:

Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch:

Organic Brown Rice Syrup, ClifPro® (Soy Rice Crisps [Soy Protein Isolate, Rice Flour, Barley Malt Extract], Organic Soy Flour, Organic Roasted Soybeans), Organic Rolled Oats, Organic Toasted Oats (Organic Oats, Organic Dried Cane Syrup, Ascorbic Acid, Natural Vitamin E [Antioxidant]), Organic Cane Syrup, Organic Peanut Butter (Organic Peanuts, Salt), Chocolate Chips (Dried Cane Syrup, Unsweetened Chocolate, Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin, Vanilla Extract), Peanut Flour, Peanuts, ClifCrunch® (Organic Oat Fiber, Apple Fiber, Inulin [Chicory Extract], Psyllium, Organic Milled Flaxseed), Organic Date Paste, Natural Flavors, Sea Salt.

Wow!  That’s a lot of ingredients!  Soy protein isolate is a hidden form of MSG.  There are also “natural flavors” in these.  Those two things alone would make me put these back on the shelf nowadays.  So, moving on to my homemade clif bars.

My homemade clif bar recipe is great because it serves as a good base for you to add whatever kind of flavors you like.

 

Homemade Clif Bars

 

These would go great with a glass of Homemade Almond Milk.

Homemade Clif Bars

Homemade Clif Bars

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Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 20 min

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325.
  2. Grind up the oats and almonds in the food processor .
  3. When they have a crumbly consistency, add the dates and coconut.
  4. Lastly add the water slowly as you pulse the ingredients together until a batter forms. It will be thick and sticky.
  5. Line an 8X8 pan with parchment paper leaving enough paper sticking out on each side so you will be able to lift the whole thing out when done.
  6. Working carefully, spread batter evenly out to all the sides.
  7. Press mixture down with a spatula to get it firm.
  8. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.
  9. Let cool completely before removing intact.
  10. Cut bars with a pizza cutter .

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Curried Kidney Beans and Corn

Melissa King 6 Comments

This is a dish that my husband and I have been making for a long time.  In fact, we made it so often, that we got tired of it for awhile.  We also did that with our Black Bean Veggie Burgers.  We decided to make it again because it had been months since we last had it.  If you are thinking about trying something different, I suggest you give this one a try.  It would be a great dish for you to test out whether you like curry and tumeric.

Curried Kidney Beans and Corn

This is also very inexpensive and easy to make.  It makes a fairly good amount too.  Just a warning though, tumeric will stain, so make sure to use cooking utensils that are not white.  I made that mistake and now mine is yellow. 🙂

Curried Kidney Beans and Corn

Curried Kidney Beans and Corn

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Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 30 min

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. In a food processor, mix the onions and garlic. 
  2. Once chopped well, transfer to a large pan with oil and cook the them down a bit.  About 5-7 minutes. 
  3. Once onions and garlic are cooked a bit, add in the beans, corn, spices, salt and about 1 cup of water. 
  4. Bring to a boil. 
  5. Once boiling, turn down, cover and simmer for about 20-30 minutes or until all the water has been boiled off.

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Recipe Notes

You can eat this alone, add it to rice or even top it with some tofu or meat if you are an omnivore. Super easy and healthy.

Healthy No Bake Cookie Dough Bites (Vegan)

Melissa King 156 Comments

Healthy No Bake Cookie Dough Bites.  Yes, you read that title right.  Healthy no bake cookie dough bites.  Such a thing does exist!  Who doesn’t love cookie dough?

 

healthy no bake cookie dough bites

 

These are sinfully good even with no refined sugar.  These no bake cookie dough bites may just be the most delicious things I have ever made.  It gets even better.

They only take minutes to make.  You could just be minutes away from popping one of these babies in your mouth.  I am drooling just looking at the picture.

Healthy No Bake Cookie Dough Bites

These would go great with a glass of my Homemade Almond Milk.

We filmed a short video for this recipe.  For more videos, you can subscribe to my You Tube Channel.

 

Looking for more no bake bite recipes?

Healthy No Bake Cookie Dough Bites

Healthy No Bake Cookie Dough Bites

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Prep Time 10 min

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Throw the almonds and oats in the food processor and blend into a fine powder.
  2. Then add dates and continue to blend. 
  3. Lastly, add the water, a little at a time until a paste like dough forms. 
  4. Roll dough into little balls and place on a lined baking sheet. 
  5. Put into the fridge to get the dough to firm up a bit.  Eat and enjoy!

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Healthy No Bake Cookie Dough Bites

Healthy Red Velvet Donuts (Vegan)

Melissa King 33 Comments

Healthy Red Velvet Donuts with no artificial dyes! I have been wanting to try making red velvet donuts for a long time.  So yesterday I took the plunge and they came out great.

 

Healthy Red Velvet Donuts

 

Most red velvet cakes, muffins, and cookies are made with artificial food dyes.  Artificial dyes are a deal breaker for me. Did you know that a traditional red velvet baked good does’t even call for food coloring? It really is all about using the cocoa powder and the vinegar together.

Maybe it was all about my handy prep cooks I had helping me.  I bought Meadow and I matching aprons and she is too stinking cute wearing hers.

 

Meadow1

 

Even Olive wanted to help out.  Well, kind of.

 

Olive

 

She was really just fascinated with the spoon.  It’s funny, you buy your kids all these toys, but really, they want to play with stuff you have lying around your house.

Every parent knows exactly what I am talking about.  Give kids a cardboard box and they will play for hours!

Red Velvet Donuts

Healthy Red Velvet Donuts

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Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 10 min Serves 7 donuts     adjust servings

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup spelt flour
  • 2 T coco powder
  • 1 egg (I used flax)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/3 cup yogurt (I used coconut)
  • 1/3 cup milk (I used hemp)
  • 1/3 cup coconut sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp vinegar
  • 1 T coconut oil
  • 1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Mix all the wet ingredients in one bowl.
  3. Mix dry ingredients in another bowl.
  4. Add dry to wet.
  5. Spoon batter into greased donut pans and bake for about 10 minutes.
  6. Let cool completely before removing from the pans.

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Recipe Notes

I got about 7 donuts out of my batch so you may want to double it for more. Not a red velvet lover? Try my Banana Chocolate Chip Donuts.

Vegan Avocado Alfredo

Melissa King 19 Comments

Before becoming vegan back in May, I really loved me some pasta with alfredo sauce.  So, of course I had to come up with a vegan friendly version!  This is so good that even omnivores can enjoy it too.

Vegan Avocado Alfredo

The avocado gives it the creamy texture that you get with a traditional alfredo.  When it comes to food, avocado makes everything better. 🙂  There is actually a little sauce left over that you can use a healthy dip for your veggies.  This dish is one of the quickest meals I have made so far.

Avocado Alfredo Pasta

Vegan Avocado Alfredo

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Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 15 min

Ingredients

  • 1 box pasta (I used quinoa pasta)
  • 1 large avocado
  • 2 cups unsweetened non dairy milk (I used almond)
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp dried basil
  • 1/2 T nutritional yeast

Instructions

  1. Cook the pasta according the box instructions.
  2. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth. I used a vitamix.
  3. Pour 2 cups of sauce over the pasta. That’s it.

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Cabbage Peanut Stir Fry (Vegan and Gluten Free)

Melissa King 39 Comments

Cabbage Peanut Stir Fry.  Stir fries are a great way to use up an extra vegetables you have in the fridge.  That is exactly what I was doing when I came up with this stir fry recipe.

Sometimes you really don’t even need a recipe.  Just throw a bunch of stuff together and viola!  Instant meal.

Often times with something delicious and easy.  That was the case with this healthy stir stir fry recipe.  This recipe will become a staple in our meal rotation.

 

Cabbage Peanut Stir Fry

 

If you wanted to add more protein to this recipe, you can add baked tofu. To bake the tofu, I cut it into cubes and bake in the oven at 350.  It usually cooks in 30-35 minutes.

This recipe would also be great served over wild rice or quinoa.  This helps also stretch the meal out longer.

This dish was inspired by my Peanut Noodle Stir Fry.

Cabbage Peanut Stir Fry

Cabbage Peanut Stir Fry

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Ingredients

  • 1 head cabbage sliced thin
  • 1 red pepper sliced thin
  • 1 yellow pepper sliced thin
  • 1 green pepper sliced thin
  • 4 carrots shredded
  • 1/3 cup peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup orange juice not from concentrate
  • 1/4 cup organic soy sauce or bragg's aminos
  • 2 T toasted sesame oil

Instructions

  1. In a large pan, throw the cabbage, peppers, carrots and oil and cook on medium covered until some of the cabbage cooks down. It will seem like a lot, but I promise it will cook down a bit.
  2. Stir the vegetables frequently.
  3. While the veggies are cooking, in a large mixing cup, add the peanut butter, soy sauce and orange juice.
  4. Once the veggies have softened a bit, add the sauce and cook a bit longer until everything is combined.

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