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!

Vegan Cinnamon Crumble Coffee Cake

It's my birthday! In lieu of birthday cake, I thought I'd share with you my recipe for coffee cake that recieved rave reviews at a business meeting this week. It has a lot of ingredients, but I'll bet you have most of them in your pantry. Plus, with whole wheat flour and applesauce in place of oil, it just doesn't feel entirely right calling this a "cake."

Crumbley topping ingredients:
1/2 cu whole wheat flour
1/4 cu brown sugar
2 T buttery spread (I use Earth Balance, you could also use the same amount of canola or vegetable oil)
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t ginger
1/4 t salt
1/4 cu chopped or crushed walnuts

Cake ingredients:
The Wet:
1 cu almond milk
1/2 cu applesauce
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 T vanilla extract

The Dry:
1 cu whole wheat flour
1/2 cu white sugar
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
2 t cinnamon
1 t ginger (I love ginger!)
1/4 t salt

You will also need:
A bundt cake pan
Non stick cooking spray
3 bowls
A spatula and/or whisk

The dry. The wet. The muffin method.

Delicious cake in 10 easy steps:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F
2. Mix the wet ingredients listed above in a medium bowl and set aside to rest for 10 minutes. This will effectively curdle the milk and give the cake a tangy flavor, but you will not taste the vinegar. Don't skip this step!
3. Melt the butter and mix with other topping ingredients. Mix until nice and crumbly. Pour into the bottom of a well -reased bundt cake pan. (It must be well-greased or you are not getting this thing out!)
4. Mix the dry ingredients listed above. in a large bowl Use a spatula or whisk to ensure that the baking soda, powder, and spices are well integrated with the flour. 
5. Add the wet to the dry and use a spatula to just mix the ingredients. Some lumps are okay.
6. Pour into the bundt cake pan overtop of the crumbly topping.
7. Bake for 25 - 35 minutes at 350° F until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
8. Let cook in the pan for 5 minutes.
9. Invert pan onto a plate and allow to cool for at least 10 more minutes.
10. Enjoy!


NOTE: If you don't have a bundt cake pan, you can make this in a regular square or round cake pan, but you will want to pour the cake batter in first and put the topping on top.

Vegan CranOrangNut Muffins

Using oranges, cranberry sauce, and walnuts, this recipe is a great breakfast solution to Holiday leftovers!



Ingredients:

Combine the following in a small bowl:

- Zest and Juice of 3 Oranges (You should get nearly one cu of juice)

- 1/4 cu brown sugar

- 1/4 cu agave nectar (I like these two together, but this recipe is certainly flexible with sweetener options)

- 1/2 cu canola oil (They are muffins, there is really no getting around the canola oil. But hey, compared to the Thanksgiving dinner you just ate, these are practically diet food!)

- 1 T vanilla extract (Make your own by infusing vanilla beans cut in half with vodka in a mason jar for a few weeks)

Combine the following in a large bowl:

- 2 cu whole wheat flour

- 1/2 t baking soda

- 1 T baking powder

- 1/4 t salt

Have the following standing by:

- leftover cranberry sauce (about 1 cu)

- 1 cu chopped walnuts (Thest are optional, but then they wouldn't be CranOrangNut!)

Very Simple Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir.

3. Gently stir in cranberry sauce and walnuts.

Pretty in pink!

4. Fill your lined muffin tins and bake for 20 - 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

They go in looking like this:

And come out looking like this:

 Let cool and enjoy! Although, they are delicious warm, and might not last until breakfast. In that case, you may want to look up my vegan waffle recipe. :)