Quick & Easies: Vegan Protein Crunch Bars

If you like these:

But hate shelling out this:

For this:



Then may I suggest you try these:

At under 50 cents a bar they are a steal and require very little time and prep! 

Credit where it's due: This recipe is a variation from the inspiration of Camilla at Enlightened Cooking. You can view the original here. I discovered this recipe while shopping for inexpensive treats to keep Robert full and happy while on our upcoming vacation! The experimental batch turned out so well they were gone in one sitting of Jaws with two friends. No better way to enjoy shark week!

The Ingredients:
1 cu crisp rice cereal (to add a little health factor to this ingredient, you can use a brown rice variety available at Whole Foods by Erwhon)
1 cu quick cooking oats (Old Fashioned and Rolled oats will work in a pinch, but the resulting bar will be chewier)
2 T ground flax seed
1/4 cu raisins (or dried cherries, or dried cranberries, or... you get the idea!)
1/4 cu crushed almonds (I placed whole almonds in a zip bag and let 'em have it with a rolling pin. You could use any nut or seed here.)
1/4 cu chocolate hemp protein powder
1/2 t cinnamon
1/3 cu brown rice syrup (with all the things you can do with this stuff, it's worth the investment)
1/2 cu peanut butter (you could use almond or sunflower seed if you like)
1 t vanilla extract

Three easy steps:
1. In a medium microwave safe bowl, combine the 1/3 cu brown rice syrup and 1/4 cu peanut butter. Microwave until well blended, about 30 seconds or so. Stir in 1 t vanilla.

2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the 1 cu rice cereal, 1 cu oats, 2 T flax seed, 1/4 cu raisins, 1/4 cu almonds, 1/4 cu protein powder, and 1/2 t cinnamon. Mix until well integrated.

3. Mix the wet and dry together in the large bowl. Start with a spatula since the brown rice mixture will be hot, but you will have to use your hands to mix it well. Pour mixture into a parchment lined and nonstick sprayed 9 X 11 pan (this is sticky stuff, so I lined the pan with parchment paper AND sprayed the paper with nonstick spray). Top with another piece of sprayed parchment paper use another pan to press down the mixture. Put your back into it and really squish the stuff! Refrigerate for 30 minutes then cut into 12 bars.

The bottom line: Our goal was to save money without having to sacrifice time or ingredients. These take about 10 minutes to make (minus chilling time) and although the cost of the whole ingredients may be in investment (the brown rice syrup will set you back around $5, while the hemp protein powder costs $10.99 for 16 oz) the final cost per bar is under 50 cents! And you will certainly find other uses for these products, right here in this blog!

Happy protein crunching!

Vegan Peanut Buttery Cookies

I’ll bet you have everything in your pantry to make these right now.

Robert’s favorite food is peanut butter, but so many peanut buttery treats are non-vegan. So, here’s my recipe revision for Peanut Butter Cookies!

Ingredients:

1.5 cu flour (I used whole wheat)

1 t baking soda

1 T ground flax seed

3 T water(in place of the flax and water you can use one egg or any substitution for one egg)

½ cu peanut butter

½ cu brown sugar

½ cu butter or butter substitute (I used Earth Balance)

1 t vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375° F.

In a nonstick skillet over medium heat whisk together the 1 T flax seed and 3 T water. This is your egg replacer. Add this to your stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add in ½ cu peanut butter, ½ cu brown sugar, ½ cu butter substitute, and 1 t vanilla and mix on medium speed until creamy. Slow mixer to low and gently add in flour and baking soda. Mix until just combined.

Dish out onto baking sheet lined with silicone mat or parchment paper. (I used my #70 disher – portion control!) Roll each portion into a ball then flatten with fork into a crisscross pattern.

The crisscrossing is my favorite part.

Bake at 375° F for 4 minutes then flip and rotate the sheets for even cooking. Bake for another 2 – 4 minutes until puffy and mouth watering. Let cook on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack. Allow to cool if you can stand it! Enjoy! I made 3 dozen cookies from this recipe!

What is your favorite cookie? Let me know and I’ll try to veganize it!

Honey Wheat Bagels

Discouraged by a lack of whole wheat everything bagels in the market, I decided to venture out to make my own. Turns out they are not all that time consuming, expensive, or difficult. Give yourself an hour and you'll be wondering why you haven't been making these all along.

On a personal note: It's been awhile since I've posted. It's been a busy couple of weeks for me as we've renovated the kitchen.

I've also planted some fall veggies - red cabbage and white cauliflower. So, expect my favorite recipes for those two in about 55 days!

Now, let's get to the bagels!

Step One: Gather Your Ingredients

Oh and if you want to make everything bagels, like I did, you'll need:

You could also use onion and garlic powder, but I prefer the real thing. So, dice 1/2 an onion (Vidalias are still in season) and cook in 1 t of olive oil until they look like this:

 Drain on a paper towel. I tried to put this on my bagels after the seasonings but had trouble getting it to stick. So, next time, I am going to simply mix the sauteed onions into my cream cheese! Yum!

Now, to the bagels!



Step Two: Bagel Dough

Mix together 2 cu of the whole wheat flour, the salt, and the dry yeast. Slowly add in the warm water and 3 T of the honey and mix well. Gradually add in the remaining flour. Note: my dough only needed an additional 2 cu - it should have a sticky texture but form into a single ball of dough.

Flour your hands and the surface you plan to knead on. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Form it into a ball and return it to the bowl:

Cover with a towel and let it rest for 10 minutes.

When the 10 minute nap is up, divide your dough into 12 equal parts. Shape each part into a ball and stick your finger in the middle to create the bagel shape.

Assemble your formed bagels on 2 sheet pans doctored with your favorite method of nonstickery (butter, nonstick spray, parchment paper, silicon, etc). Let the bagels sit, uncovered for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, start a large pot of water to boil.



Step Three: Broil, Boil, & Bake

After the 20 minute rest is up, turn on your broiler. Broil your bagels for 2 minutes on each side. You will need to do this for each sheet, so that they sit on the uppermost rack. Keep an eye on these, the second round may not need a full 2 minutes as the oven is quite hot by then. If they start to turn in color, they are ready to come out!

Post Broiler

Stir the last 1 T of honey into your now boiling water.Add enough bagels to the pot to cover the surface. Turn the heat down and simmer for 3 minutes. Flip the bagels over and simmer for 4 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375˚ F.

Once done, return your bagels to the sheet pan. When they are just cool enough to touch, but still a little sticky, dip the tops of the bagels into the seasoning mixture:

I made 6 of my bagels everything and 6 plain honey whole wheat.

Bake at 375˚ F for 20 - 25 minutes until the tops are golden brown. You can put both sheet pans in the oven at once this time, but you may want to rotate and flip the pans 1/2 through.

While they don't have quite the chewiness of a lye-cooked bagel, they are still darn good. And you know what's in them! And while the initial investment of the ingredients (especially the seasonings if you don't have them) might be a bit more than the average bagel, per recipe they work out to about 23 cents a bagel!

The Everything Bagels were made for onion cream cheese and the honey whole wheat ones go great with Trader Joe's Valencia Peanut Butter with Roasted Flaxseeds.

Make these but be warned - if you share, everyone will be asking you to make more!

Enjoy!