Quick & Easies: Vegan Choco-Banana-Nut Muffins

You probably have three overripe bananas sitting on your counter right now. What are you waiting for?

I set out to make this recipe as quickly as possible with as few ingredients and dirty dishes as possible but with as much yumminess as possible. Here are the results.

Makes about 12 muffins.

Ingredients:

2 T flax

6 T water

3 overripe bananas

1/2 cu sugar

2 T canola or veg oil

1 T vanilla (I use homemade vanilla extract and I love the flavor. If your vanilla is store bought  you may only want to use 1 teaspoon)

1.5 cu whole wheat flour

1 t baking soda

1/2 cu chocolate chips

1/2 cu chopped walnuts

Very Easy Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F Whisk 2 T flax and 6 T water in a small bowl with a fork. In a large bowl, add bananas.

2. Add 1/2 cu sugar to bananas and mash with fork. 

3. Add flax mixture, 1 T vanilla, 2 Toil, 1 t baking soda and mix. Slowly incorporate 1.5 cu whole wheat flour and fold in with spatula. Add 1/2 cu chopped walnuts and 1/2 cu chocolate chips and give a final stir.

4. Filled lined baking cups and bake at 350° F for 25 - 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Quick & Easies: Italian Roasted Green Beans

Hello! Happy New Year! It has been too long and I have so many recipes piling up to share with you, most notably my perfected Vegan Brownies. And I never did document last year's vegan adventure in Disney World. And I promise to walk you step by step through the start of my new Square Foot Garden! Oh the things I will grow!

If only everything could be so organized as my garden.

But those must wait for another day. For now, let me introduce you to a dish that takes less time to make than it took you to read that paragraph up there: Italian Roasted Green Beans. Here's what you need:

Ingredients:

1 bag frozen (yep, you read that right) French green beans

1 small sliced onion

1/2 pint grape or cherry tomatoes

2 T olive tapenade**

** Store bought is fine, but you can easily make your own by food processing (what? that's a verb!) your favorite pitted olives and any or all combination of parsley, olive oil, capers, lemon juice, garlic, red wine vinegar, sun dried tomatoes, and/or crushed red pepper.

4 Easy Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 400° F

2. Toss ingredients with bare hands on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat.

3. Roast for 15 - 20 minutes, tossing ingredients with a spatula every 5 minutes until tomatoes burst and onion starts to caramelize.

4. Enjoy!

PS: Leftover tapenade can be used on pasta, pita chips, or a fancy pizza, as a dressing, or in a sandwich just to name a few! How do you serve up olive tapenade?