May
2019

3 Ingredient Brownies and Cookies!

categories: Eating In, Recipes

My dearest, most beautiful Starlings!

Happy Almost Summer! Today, I’ll share with you two recipes for quick and easy summer baking: a classic brownie recipe as well as a blonde brownie recipe, which can be made in the form of chocolate chip cookies! Everyone loves a baked treat in the summer months, but nobody likes to slave over a hot stove! Back in the day, I shared with you a simple recipe for a Nut Butter Brownie. It’s a super delicious recipe, but it wasn’t vegan, and I’ve been trying really hard to move towards a completely plant-based diet.

The Classic Slash Basic 3-Ingredient Brownie... done in less than 30 minutes FLAT!
The Classic Slash Basic 3-Ingredient Brownie… done in less than 30 minutes FLAT!
The Blonde Version: As Easy. As Healthy. As Yummy.
The Blonde Version in Cookie Form: As Easy. As Healthy. As Yummy.

In addition, while we all crave sweet treats from time to time, we also don’t want to be piling in those heaps of sugar, so why not bake with a natural alternative like bananas? Did I mention the recipe takes a total of half an hour if you’re doing it really slow, and that it is completely vegan? These three-ingredient treats will put all the joy and ease and health back into baking! Enjoy!

Before we start, let me just give you the basic formula for sweet treats: starch + sugar + binder + fat. Both the cookie and brownie recipes will follow this general formula. The starch comes from the oatmeal (cookies) or the cocoa powder (brownies). The sugar and the binder come in the form of the banana. And the fat comes from the peanut butter (thankfully, it adds to the binding as well). You could substitute any nut or seed butter for peanut butter if you want.

This recipe makes about 12 large pieces of each kind of treat. All the ingredients, except for the oatmeal, is naturally gluten-free, but do check the labels anyway. For the oats, please buy certified gluten-free oats, but hey… you knew that already! 🙂

Let’s start with the Classic Brownie recipe…

 

Close-up of the Classic Brownie...
Close-up of the Classic Brownie…

 

A close-up of when it is slightly underbaked, i.e. when the inside is gooey... It can also be made quite firm by cooking it for a few minutes longer.
A close-up of when it is slightly underbaked, i.e. when the inside is gooey… It can also be made quite firm by cooking it for a few minutes longer.

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup (or 60 ml) of pure, plain cocoa powder
  • 3-4 medium bananas
  • 1/2 cup or 120 ml of nut butter, e.g. peanut butter
  • Cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla for flavour (optional, but oh-so-yummy)
  • Chopped nuts, raisins, berries or chopped chocolate pieces (again, optional but please add it! Super yummy!) 

Method

1. Heat the oven to 175 Celcius.

2. Lightly grease a baking dish – I use a glass one! – that’s about  8″ x 8″ or 9″ x 9″.

3. Mash the bananas. Add cinnamon, vanilla and/or nutmeg. I do this quite generously, because it makes the brownies so fragrant when they come out of the oven!

4. Add the peanut butter (or nut butter). Mix by hand.

5. Add the cocoa powder. Batter should be thick, but not too heavy. Add a dash of water if too heavy.

6. Pour into baking dish and plop it in the oven! Bake for ~20 minutes… until a toothpick comes out clean. Let rest for awhile, and then serve it up!

Now, for the Oatmeal Cookies or “Blonde Brownies”:

The Blonde Brownie in Brownie Form... just cook it for 5 minutes less!
The Blonde Brownie in Brownie Form… just cook it for 5 minutes less!
Close-up of the Blonde Brownie "Cookie!" Do add chocolate chips or a chopped up 70-90% chocolate bar (if you want it to be vegan, otherwise any chocolate bar is fine). The ooey goodness makes all the difference for the cookie version!
Close-up of the Blonde Brownie “Cookie!” Do add chocolate chips or a chopped up 70-90% chocolate bar (if you want it to be vegan, otherwise any chocolate bar is fine). The ooey goodness makes all the difference for the cookie version!

The ingredients are almost exactly the same as the regular brownies, but substitute oatmeal (oatmeal, regular oats, or muesli is fine) for the cocoa powder. Increase the quantity to about 2 cups (or 460 ml). I’d especially encourage that you use chocolate chips in this case. You can also reduce the amount of nut butter used.

Bake till the sides are brown and come in slightly...
Bake till the sides are brown and come in slightly…

Ingredients

  • 2 cups (or 460 ml) of oatmeal or oats (haferflocken in German); IMPORTANT: make sure it’s certified gluten-free! 
  • 3-4 medium bananas
  • 1/4 cup or 60 ml of nut butter, e.g. peanut butter (note: you’re using less than with the brown brownies!)
  • Cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla for flavour (optional, but oh-so-yummy)
  • Chopped nuts, raisins, berries or chopped chocolate pieces (again, optional but please add it! Super yummy!) 

Method:

Surprise, surprise! Also exactly the same, except that you use a baking sheet and form little discs with your hand if you want to make cookies, and cook the mixture for approximately 12-15 minutes only (less time than the basic brownies).

It doesn't matter whether you make it as a cookie or as a brownie... they are super delicious BOTH ways!
It doesn’t matter whether you make it as a cookie or as a brownie… they are super delicious BOTH ways!

I hope you have fun with this super easy yet healthy sweetie recipe!

Peace,

Daisy


May
2019

Stuffed Bell Peppers!

categories: Eating In, Food Allergy Tips, Recipes

Hello Gluten-Free Bellos and Bellas (no pun intended),

I’m on a recipe roll here! I’ve been loving cooking at home here in Switzerland. Why? Well, because restaurant food is expensive (this ain’t no Malaysia) but also because raw ingredients are just so amazing here that I can’t help but desire to creatively make them myself!

So today’s recipe is an easy way to use up things that are about to go bad in your fridge while getting your daily vegetable intake in. It’s a vegan and gluten-free version of the Famous Stuffed Bell Pepper!

The trick to this recipe is… well, there’s no trick. It’s so easy, you can’t screw it up. Roasted bell peppers have been delicious to human beings for centuries. That burnt skin…. oooohhh! So let’s just get to it, shall we?

One sure-fire way to know you're eating a whole bell pepper! :)
One sure-fire way to know you’re eating a whole bell pepper! 🙂

Ingredients

  • Two large bell peppers
  • 1 small white or yellow onion, sliced thinly
  • Left-over rice or quinoa or buckwheat or whatever grain you have lying around
  • Left-over veggies: mushrooms and kale/spinach work well. Cut in small pieces, e.g. dice.
  • A drizzle of olive oil
  • A pinch each of rosemary and thyme
  • A dash of basil and marjoram if you have it (or oregano works as well)
  • Vegan cheese if you have it (optional)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Heat up a teaspoon of olive oil in a medium pan. Saute onion slides. Add salt and pepper to make the onion “sweat.” Quickly add the other seasonings: rosemary, thyme, marjoram, basil, oregano.

2. Add the veggies and lentils or beans to the pan. Stir-fry for a couple of minutes before adding the rice or quinoa. If the mixture is too dry, add a little water. You don’t want this mixture to be too oily.

3. While the mixture is cooking down, cut the bottom of the bell peppers to be flat – to ensure that they are stable. Next, cut off the top of the bell pepper, and clean out the seeds. Rub down with olive oil – inside and outside. Just a dash will go a long way!

4.  Heat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Place the two bell peppers in a tightly-packed position – ideally in a small backing dish. Stuff the peppers with your mixture. If you have some vegan cheese you would like to use, sprinkle it on top. It will lock in your mixture and act as a “glue” for the top of your pepper. But this is entirely optional! It works well even without the vegan cheese.

5. Bake for about 20 minutes – until the top of the peppers start to brown.

Take out and serve! So good, and you’ve rescued some of your own food from an Undelicious Demise!

Peace,

Daisy