Vegetarian Chocolate Pudding

I have a great love of chocolate. We seem to be drawn to eachother, and there is no way I can resist chocolate’s sweet temptation. Many things I make and enjoy contain chocolate, however with a few lifestyle changes taking place (leaning more in the direction of a higher percentage of raw foods in my diet, and vegetarianism being a huge influence in what I’m putting into my body now), I’ve found that I eat less of this lovely food. Luckily for me, higher quality cocoa powder is quite tasty and satisfies that chocolate craving.

Looking for vegetarian dessert recipes, I found a few different things on recipe websites, but many of them had avacado (which I’m not a fan of), or other ingredients that I didn’t have in stock at home. So with a little inspiration from many different vegetarian recipe websites, (and the main chocolate pudding recipe I found on http://happyfoody.blogspot.com ) I put together this sinfully delicious chocolate pudding. It tastes like a combination of a rich chocolate pudding, and a decadent, moist chocolate cake. I was in heaven when eating this, and judging by the fact that my husband was licking the bowl, I’d say it passed the husband-taste-test also.

Vegeterian Chocolate Pudding

 (Recipe serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup dates, pitted and soaked in water for about 10 minutes
• 1/4 cup almonds
• 1/4 cup combined honey and maple syrup (or just honey, and omit the maple syrup)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 cup cranberries
• 1/4 cocoa powder
•  about 1/4 cup water

Method:

• Place all ingredients (and only half of the water) in a blender (or food processor), and blend until smooth, wiping down the sides of the blender every 1 minute to ensure that all ingredients are blended. If the pudding is too thick after 2 minutes, add the remaining water and continue blending. There will still be tiny pieces of almonds, but that’s okay.
• Pour into a vowl, and chill for about 10-15 minutes.
• Serve, and enjoy!

Zucchini Raw “Pasta” with Tomato and Red Bell Pepper Sauce

In a never-ending quest to incorporate more raw foods into my diet, and with my love of trying new things, I decided to go raw in the kitchen for dinner last night. I love (whole wheat) pasta, but unfortunately it’s not as appetizing uncooked. So I consulted with Google to learn about what “raw foodists” eat when they’re craving some pasta. Zucchini! I’ve never really eaten zucchini except for when it’s been tossed into a vegetable stir-fry, but thought that I might as well try it seeing as so many people recommended it. I also made a tomato sauce to accompany my raw “pasta”. I must admit that I was skeptical of this whole experience, but was pleasantly surprised! The dish was quite filling, and was so full of fresh veggie flavour! I encourage all of you out there to continue trying new ideas for each of your meals; you’ll be amazed at the new tastes you discover.

Zucchini Raw “Pasta” with Tomato and Red Bell Pepper Sauce

(Recipe serves 2)

“Pasta” Ingredients:

• 3 small zucchini (or 1-2 large zucchini)

Method:

• Cut the bottom end off of the zucchini, leaving the top end as something for you to hold on to.
• Peel the skin off of the zucchini, leaving about 1 inch of skin at the top to hold while you make your “pasta”.
• Once the skin is removed from the majority of the zucchini, continue to peel the vegetable into strips until you can’t peel anymore. Do this for each zucchini.
• Place all of the strips in the bowl. Set aside.

Sauce Ingredients:

• 2 medium tomatoes, or 1/2 small carton grape/cherry tomatoes
• 1 red bell pepper
• 5-6 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 of a jalapeño pepper, finely chopped (optional if you like extra spice!)
• dash of ground coriander
• dash of celery salt

Method:

• Place all sauce ingredients in a blender or food processor.
• Blend until smooth sauce is formed.

To serve:

• Fill your bowl with zucchini “pasta”, pour the sauce on top, and garnish with some freshly chopped basil, and enjoy! If you don’t want to go 100% raw or vegetarian for this meal, you can even top your dish with some grated parmesan cheese.

 

~.^

More recipes coming soon!

Frosted Chocolate Scone-Bits (Yes, ANOTHER scone!)

I can’t seem to get enough of scones, so I altered a previous recipe I had for the

Mocha Almond Scone, and came up with this little chocolate delight! I used icing on these ones, with a fancy little design, and they tasted similar to an old-fashioned chocolate glazed donut (but not deep fried!) This is probably why I liked these ones so much. This is a smaller recipe, and I made a batch of about 12-15 that were the size of timbits. 

Frosted Chocolate Scone-Bits 

Ingredients:  

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 50 ml brown sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp each baking soda and salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 an egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup skim milk minus 1 tbsp, and add 1 tbsp lemon juice to the milk and allow to sit for 5 minutes)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• Dash nutmeg
• 1/4 or 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 4 tsp espresso powder

Method: 

• Pre heat oven to 400
• Mix all dry ingredients. Add butter and mix until crumbly.
• Add wet ingredients and mix well.
• On floured surface with floured hands, knead about 5 minutes adding flour as necessary
• Use a cookie cutter or make balls of dough and place onto a floured cookie sheet.
• Bake for 18-20 mins, until lightly cracked tops and are just barely firm when tapped.
• Allow to cool completely before adding icing.

Icing Ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 2 tsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1/2 tap vanilla

Method: 

• Mix icing sugar, milk and vanilla in bowl. Split mixture into two separate bowls. In one bowl, add the cocoa powder and mix until blended. When scones are cool, apply a thin layer of the chocolate icing to each scone. Allow to cool, then drizzle each scone with a small amount of the while icing, making designs as you go along.

 

Peppermint Chocolate Bark

Straight from the Chocolate and Coffee Bible, I found a recipe that I really enjoy. The flavours of peppermint and chocolate are amazing when combined, and the addition of toasted coconut really lends a great texture to the chocolate. You can’t even taste the coconut once the chocolate is finished! This chocolate does need to be refrigerated, and will keep for a few weeks in an air tight container between pieces of parchment paper. This recipe makes about 80 pieces, and can easily be cut in half. If using white chocolate, for a Christmas look, sprinkle some red sugar sprinkles over the chocolate once being allowed to set. Enjoy!

 Peppermint Chocolate Bark

Ingredients:

• ½ cup granulated sugar

• 2/3 cup water

• ½ tsp peppermint extract (you may also want to experiment with orange flavouring)

• 200 g bittersweet chocolate, chopped (you can also use any gourmet dark chocolate, or even white chocolate)

• 4 tbsp toasted dry, unsweetened shredded coconut

Method:

• Oil a large baking sheet. Heat the sugar and water over medium heat until dissolved.

• Boil rapidly without stirring until the syrup registers 280 F on a sugar thermometer. (The sugar will turn a tinted golden brown.) Remove from heat, and stir in the peppermint extract.

• Pour the mixture onto the greased baking sheet, and leave until set. (It is set when it’s cold, and hard. It will resemble a sheet of glass.)

• Break the peppermint mixture into pieces, and put it into a small bowl. Crush the pieces with the end of a rolling-pin or other small blunt object until the whole bowl is filled with tiny broken pieces. (It’s best to make them as small as possible without turning all of them into dust.)

• Over a double broiler, melt the chocolate. Once melted, remove from heat and stir in the coconut and the mint pieces. (To mimic a double broiler, simply fill a large pot with out 1-2 inches of water, and boil. While the water is boiling, place a large [heat proof] bowl over the pot and melt the chocolate in that bowl. Ensure that none of the water is touching the bottom of the bowl.)

• Pour the chocolate mixture over a large sheet of parchment paper, ensuring to leave a border around the edges of just paper. Leave to set. When firm, use a sharp knife to cut the chocolate into thin sticks/pieces.

Hard Chocolate Toffee

I love Christmas baking! I like to make fudge, but sometimes I want to make something sweet that doesn’t take a lot of time. One of my favourites that I’ve made for the past few years is a hard chocolate toffee. It’s taken me a while to get the timing just right so that the candy isn’t too hard, but this year I’ve finally gotten it! This candy has a similar taste to chocolate Werther’s Originals. (Yum!) These work great as a festively wrapped up candy at Christmas time because they store well at room temperature. So here is my recipe for a hard chocolate toffee, enjoy! This recipe makes two batches, so for a smaller batch just cut the recipe in half.

Hard Chocolate Toffee

Ingredients:

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups chocolate chips (bittersweet, semi-sweet and milk all work well! Try white chocolate, or butterscotch chips for a new flavour! For a mocha flavour, add in about 1 tsp espresso powder to the pot with the chocolate chips.

Method:

• Grease a cookie sheet (with either baking Pam, or butter), and set aside.
• Over medium to high heat, caramelize the sugar in a saucepan until it turns to a golden brown liquid (there will be a few smaller chunks of sugar remaining, that’s okay!), and remember to stir constantly. This should take about 5-7 minutes.
• Reduce heat to medium, and add the butter. Stir until melted.
• Reduce heat to low-medium, and add the chocolate chips. Stir until just melted, and remove from heat. Continue to stir until all of the chocolate is melted and blended well into the mixture.
• Immediately pour the mixture onto the prepared cookie sheet, and allow to sit at room temperature until hardened.
• Once hardened, break into small pieces, and dust with icing sugar. (This will prevent the toffee pieces from sticking together when stored.)
• You can store these candies in an air tight container at room temperature for up to 1 month.
• Note: Don’t use a deep pan for this toffee as you would with fudge, as it is a hard toffee and will be unable to be properly broken if it is too thick. You want the toffee to be about 1/4 inch thick.

Healthy Spicy Green Baba Ganoush

I love baba ganoush, but I just really don’t like the taste of tahini in any of my food. I also don’t like how many of the store-bought versions of this amazing eggplant dip are just not all that healthy. So on my trip to the St Lawrence Market this weekend, I picked up some eggplant, and set on a mission to make some baba ganoush to my own tastes for the first time! I’ve got to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty this dip turned out! I’ve never even attempted to cook an eggplant before, so this was like an adventure for me. So here’s my slightly spiced (and much healthier!) version of a baba ganoush. And even though it’s an interesting shade of green (from the parsley), don’t let that turn you off of this smooth tasty dip! Enjoy!

Nikki’s Spicy Green Baba Ganoush

Ingredients:

• 1 eggplant
• 4-6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp ev olive oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Dash cayenne pepper
• Dash celery salt
• Sprinkle of ground cumin
• 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsley

Method:

• Pre heat oven to 350 F, and cover a cookie sheet with tin foil.
• Wash and slice eggplant in half from top to bottom. Place cut face down on a prepared cookie sheet, and prick little holes all over the skin with a knife. Bake for about 30-35 minutes, until the skin starts to look wrinkly and has a brownish tint. The eggplant will also look like it’s starting to cave in slightly.
• In a bowl, mix all of the other ingredients. Set aside.
• When the eggplant is finished cooking, allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Then turn the eggplant over onto the skin side, and sprinkle the inside lightly with salt. Allow to cool for another 5 minutes.
• Using a spoon, scoop the innards of the eggplant out into the bowl with the other ingredients and stir well.
• Toss everything into the blender, and blend on a slow speed until the mixture has reached a smooth consistency.
• Chill for about 15 minutes prior to serving, and garnish with a sprig of parsley. This dip is best served with pita bread, crackers, or even as a vegetable dip. 

Spicy Green Baba Ganoush with some tasty crackers

Graham Cracker Cookies

One of my favourite applications for the iPhone in regards to recipe ideas is the Whole Foods Market iPhone app. I don’t really shop at that grocery store, but they have some amazing ideas on their website! I tried out this recipe, and was so happy with it! If a gingerbread man and a graham cracker were mixed together, this is what you’d get! For Christmas time, you can even sprinkle some red sugar sprinkles onto the cookies prior to putting them into the oven, or even decorate them with some icing.  This recipe was adapted from the full 24 cookie recipe on the Whole Foods Market recipe application for the iPhone, and makes 12 small to medium-sized cookies. (Note: in the original recipe, for 24 cookies it calls for only 2 eggwhites. For this half-sized version of the recipe, I had to keep the egg white quantity at 2 because the dough was too crumbly and fell apart when kneading.)

Graham Cracker Cookies

Ingredients: 

• 156 g flour (whole wheat or unbleached)
• 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 each baking soda and salt
• 1 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 2 egg whites
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp liquid honey
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla

Glaze:

 

• 1 egg white set aside in a bowl
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• mix the sugars and cinnamon in a small bowl, and set aside. 

 

Method:

• pre-heat oven to 350 degrees farenheit. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. 
• In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Add butter and work into the flour with your finger tips until completely incorporated and mixture resembles fine meal. In a medium bowl, whisk together the 2 egg whites, brown sugar, honey and vanilla. Add this to the flour mixture and stir until a sticky dough forms. 
• Turn the dough out onto a very well floured surface and roll out into a (10-inch) square that is about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into 6 squares, then cut each square in half-length ways or on an angle. (Or even use a cookie cutter for different shapes!) Transfer onto prepared baking sheet about 1 cm apart.
• Lightly and carefully brush the tops of each cookie with the egg white you have set aside in the bowl. Ensure you don’t allow any egg white to get onto the parchment paper, otherwise the cookies will stick. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture lightly over each cookie. Bake until a darker shade of brown and fragrant, for about 14 minutes. (Check the cookies after 12 minutes.) Set aside to cool completely before serving. The cookies will harden as they cool. 

 

Graham Cracker Cookies

 

 

Peppermint Mocha Espresso

As a continuation to my post of the recipe for a Peppermint Mocha, I decided while at work to try something a little different. I can’t have milk in large quantities, and with November seeming to be a flavoured coffee trial month for me, I’ve been having too much of it. Sitting at my desk with coffee supplies in my bag, and the use of those cute little espresso mugs in the staff kitchen, I decided to try something that has the same flavour as a peppermint mocha, minus all of the milk.

Here is my recipe for a peppermint mocha espresso, enjoy!

Peppermint Mocha Espresso 

Ingredients:

• 1-2 shots of espresso (as with the peppermint mocha recipe, you can either brew the espresso from scratch, or use an instant espresso if you’re super short on time.)
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 2 tsp peppermint syrup
• optional: mint chocolate truffle Hershey’s Kiss

Method:

• Place the cocoa powder in the espresso mug (If you’re using a double shot, you may want to use a larger espresso mug rather than a small one), and add the peppermint syrup. Stir.
• Brew the espresso with hot water as you normally would if making from scratch, otherwise prepare the instant espresso as described on the jar (1 1/2 tsp powder, and about a shotglass full of water for a single espresso). Add the espresso to the mug, and stir well.
• Drop a mint chocolate truffle Hershey’s Kiss into the mug, and allow to melt for a few seconds, then stir again.
• Enjoy your peppermint mocha espresso!

peppermint mocha espresso

Peppermint Mocha

 Again with the Starbucks addiction! Everything they have seems to be something I really like to drink! However, their cups of amazingness can really dent the wallet.

Following the mint-craze of my last post, here is my version of a peppermint mocha. It blends three amazing flavours: coffee, chocolate and peppermint! (As almost everyone is already familiar with…) For the espresso, you can either brew your own or use instant espresso powder, both work well for this beverage. For my version, I like to add some peppermint syrup into the milk before heating it up, and then frothing some of the milk to give a creamy taste without using whipped cream. You can obviously add whipped cream to it if you like though. Enjoy!

Nikki’s Peppermint Mocha

Ingredients:

•  1-2 shots espresso (either freshly brewed, or instant espresso powder)
• 3 tsp cocoa powder
• 3 tsp warm water
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 2 tsp peppermint syrup (for the cocoa/espresso)
• 2 tsp peppermint syrup (for the milk)
• Garnish: red sugar sprinkles

Method:

• Prepare the espresso in 1 or 2 shot glasses and set aside.
• In a small bowl, mix the cocoa powder with the 3 tsp warm water and the other 2 tsp of peppermint syrup until blended well into a syrup consistency, and set aside.
• In a microwave-safe glass/mug, microwave the milk with 2 tsp of peppermint syrup for about 30 seconds. Stir the milk, and put back in the microwave for another 30 seconds. when finished, stir again to ensure an even temperature.
• Remove the milk from the microwave, and pour half of it into your coffee mug. then, using a milk frother, froth the remaining milk and set aside. (If you don’t have a milk frother, don’t worry. You can also make this recipe without frothing the milk!)
• Pour the espresso and the chocolate syrup into your mug. Then pour in the remaining frothed milk.
• Garnish with red sugar sprinkles, and enjoy!

My Peppermint Mocha with a melted red sugar heart