Veggie Staples

dairy free, gluten free, refined sugar free, plant based recipes

Archives for December 2014

Epic Cookbook Giveaway

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Do you have plans to start a new, healthy way of living and eating in 2015? How about entering to win a contest that consists of over $500 in books to do so? Here is an Epic Cookbook Giveaway to start your year off right! You do not want to miss out on a chance to win this!

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Some of the following include:

Eat the Yolks by Liz Wolfe

Against All Grain by Danielle Walker

Mediterranean Paleo Cooking by Caitlin Weeks & Diane Sanfilippo

It Starts With Food by Melissa Hartwig

The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf

ZenBelly by Simone Miller

Dairy Free Ice Cream by Kelly Broznyna

Every Last Crumb by Brittany Angell

& lots more!

Enter below via the Rafflecopter!

Disclosures: Giveaway ends January 5th at 9:00 PM PST. Open to Legal Residents (18 years of age or older) of the US only. Prizes cannot be shipped to PO Boxes. Winner will be selected by Random.org and be notified by email. Winner will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is selected. No Purchase is necessary to enter to win.

Winning entries will be verified.

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Crumbly Cranberry White Chocolate Bars

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Okay, last dessert of the season. I have been dreaming about a cranberry white chocolate bar (one of my favorite combos, check out my cranberry white chocolate scone recipe). I tried to find something but didn’t have any luck, so I knew I’d be in the kitchen trying to figure out how to make something. Holiday note from a blogger: taste test one, bring the rest to your co-workers. One of my co-workers said this was the best dessert I’ve made so far! How’s that for a compliment?! That’s how to avoid those extra holiday pounds! I’ve lost 10 pounds since Thanksgiving (with 30 more baby weight pounds to go), but I had to start somewhere. I haven’t been able to work out much, but eating a clean diet and watching macros has really helped a lot. How are you all doing with the holiday bulge?

Are any of you out there planning on going on a pretty strict diet after the holidays? Whole 30 or anything?

Well these cranberry white chocolate bars are of course paleo and gluten free, refined sugar free too. A little bit indulgent, but it’s the holidays, right? Enjoy! And Happy Holidays & Happy New Year to you and your loved ones!

P.S. Link on how to make Paleo White Chocolate Chips here
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Crumbly Cranberry White Chocolate Bars
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 12 bars
 
Ingredients
for the crumble
  • 2 cups almond flour
  • 1 cup coconut oil, melted
  • 1 cup pecans, chopped
  • ⅔ cup flax seeds
  • ½ cup coconut butter
  • ⅓ cup coconut sugar
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
for the filling
  • 2 tablespoons coconut sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 cup cranberries (fresh work best, but you can use dried)
  • ½ cup to 1 cup paleo white chocolate (depending on how much you like)
Instructions
for the crumble mixture
  1. Preheat oven to 350°.
  2. Grease and flour a 9”x 13”x 2” baking pan.
  3. Place crumble mixture ingredients in the food processor, pulsing several times until mixture is crumbly.
  4. Remove 1 cup of mixture and mix with pecans, forming small clumps with your fingers. Refrigerate until needed.
  5. Press remaining crust mixture firmly and evenly into bottom of prepared pan.
  6. Bake 15 minutes. Then, set aside to cool slightly.
for the filling
  1. Place coconut sugar, eggs, and lemon juice in a mixing bowl.
  2. Beat until combined and smooth.
  3. Stir in cranberries and white chocolate pieces
  4. Pour filling mixture over partially cooled crust. Spread evenly.
  5. Scatter reserved crumb topping over filling.
  6. Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until edges are brown and filling is set.
  7. Cool in pan for 20 minutes.
  8. Can be served warm or cool.

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Paleo Eats Giveaway & Review

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There’s nothing that I love more than reading, getting, and making food from fellow bloggers cookbooks! Especially when they include paleo/gluten free cereal. Yep, Kelly had me at cereal. Paleo Eats will have you there too. I cannot wait to make some of the other recipes - super, duper easy coconut flour chocolate chip cookies, anyone? Even if you don’t win this book, you must HAVE this book! (You can preorder it on Amazon, here). So that means if you also win, you’re going to get it before it even is released! Double awesome!

Here’s the recipe for some awesome coconut cinnamon cereal (next time I may need to throw in some chocolate). Enter the giveaway below & Good Luck!!

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Paleo Eats Giveaway & Review
Author: 
Recipe type: Breakfast
Cuisine: Paleo Cereal
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
  • ½ cup raw sunflower seeds
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • ¼ cup maple syrup
  • large egg
  • ½ teaspoon melted coconut oil
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  3. Place the coconut shreds and sunflower seeds in a food processor and grind for 30 seconds.
  4. Add the cinnamon, salt, maple syrup, egg, and coconut oil and pulse until combined, about 2 minutes.
  5. Scoop the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet.
  6. Cover with a second piece of parchment paper and with a rolling pin, roll to ¼-inch thick. Remove and discard the top piece of parchment paper.
  7. With a wet knife, score the dough into 1-inch squares.
  8. Place in the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until firm to the touch.
  9. Remove from the oven and let sit on the pan for 15 minutes to allow it to crisp up.
  10. Store in an airtight jar in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

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Gluten Free Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies

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I have been on a cookie making kick… can you tell? Actually, my absolute favorite is oatmeal butterscotch, but those butterscotch chips aren’t quite so healthy for you, so I may have to skip those this year (or maybe I’ll just make one batch?…) Everyone needs a few cheats every now and then.

I wanted to make something festive for the holidays, so I decided to whip up some colorful cookies (gluten free and paleo, of course)! Who can resist such cute spirals? I had a few mishaps (I decided to use coconut sugar, which is brown… guess what? brown sugar does not take color dye, whoops!). I found these awesome natural dyes by Color Garden after scouring the internet, and they worked really well! I was really impressed with the coloring, I wasn’t sure if they would turn out muddy or too dull. I would have been upset if I had ended up with pink instead of red!

I probably shouldn’t be encouraging eating desserts… I am trying to lose 30 pounds of baby weight myself. But I figure holidays treats are bound to happen, might as well make them healthy. I also track all of my food on My Fitness Pal, and I just found out they do this great new thing called “Recipe Importer” where all you have to do is enter the link and then all of the calories for said food will be figured out for you! I am currently in the process of entering all of my links so all you have to do is type in Veggie Staples into My Fitness Pal and all the recipes will come up. How’s that for genius? I was really excited about it. I always do it all by hand when I make my recipes!

Anyways, if you are into Chocolate Peppermint (my whole family is obsessed) you will really love these cookies! Did I mention they are also gluten free and paleo? Note: If you do use coconut sugar in this recipe, the color will not turn out! Don’t learn the hard way like I did! I recommend using honey crystals for this recipe, or stevia, or truvia (see my favorite brand here).
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Gluten Free Chocolate Peppermint Spiral Cookies
Author: 
Recipe type: Gluten Free & Paleo Chocolate Peppermint Spiral Cookies
Cuisine: Dessert
Serves: 24 cookies
 
Ingredients
  • 3 cups almond flour
  • ¾ cup honey crystals, stevia or truvia
  • 1 egg
  • 4 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
  • 3 tablespoons raw cacao powder
  • 1 tablespoon almond or coconut milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • green & red food coloring to liking
Instructions
  1. In a small bowl, whisk flour and baking soda.
  2. In a large bowl or in an electric mixer, beat honey crystals and coconut oil until fluffy (around 3 minutes)
  3. Beat in egg and vanilla into the honey crystals and coconut oil
  4. Add flour and baking soda, reduce mixer to low or beat until just blended
  5. Divide dough in half and place in two bowls
  6. Stir in cacao and milk into one bowl, stir in peppermint into the other bowl
  7. Divide peppermint dough in half and place in separate bowls
  8. Mix the red food coloring into one peppermint dough, green into the other
  9. Divide the chocolate dough in half
  10. Shape all the dough pieces into 3 X 5 inch rectangles, set on wax paper or parchment paper and place another piece of paper on the top for easy rolling
  11. Roll out dough into 9 X 12 inch rectangles.
  12. Refrigerate rectangles in the refrigerator for at least an hour
  13. Place 2 chocolate rectangles on a floured work surface (I like using arrowroot or tapioca flour)
  14. Remove from sheets of wax paper
  15. Lightly brush the chocolate dough with water (helps with sticking)
  16. Place red dough on top of one chocolate dough, place green dough on top of the other
  17. Trim edges if the dough shapes are uneven
  18. Roll dough together (from the long side) into a log form (both green and red dough)
  19. Roll dough tightly so the log is compact
  20. Wrap dough in plastic wrap/saran wrap for at least 3 hours
  21. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  22. Remove logs from refrigerator and unwrap
  23. Cut logs into ¼ inch thick cookie slices
  24. Place 1 inch apart on greased cookie sheet or Silpat
  25. Bake 10-15 minutes, until the edges begin to brown, rotating half way through

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Paleo, Gluten Free, Vegan Gingerbread Cookies

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Okay friends, it finally hit me this weekend that the holidays are really here. I’m not quite sure how that even happened. Christmas lights and christmas trees are up in the neighborhood, and the 25th is drawing ever so near. Yesterday, even though I was feeling a bit under the weather, I spent the afternoon in the kitchen. I usually make 3 recipes on Sunday, to post here during the week, it’s really the only time that I can get anything done (after crossfit, after grocery shopping, and then usually before bikram yoga at 4pm). My Sundays are busy to say the least. My husband, Jake, is doing this work 4 hours when I get home from work/paternity leave thing, which leaves me little time to get anything done during the week. I usually walk 3/4 miles after school on the afternoons it’s not bitter cold out, as Zoey is too small for our running stroller just yet. Although I did run a Santa Shuffle with my Mom & sister this year! I’m hoping we can make it a tradition!

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Anyways, it took me a few tries to get these gingerbread cookies right for y’all. But I was determined to get it right. Sometimes it takes throwing away some batches before anything turns out correctly (which gets expensive). I know when recipes are paleo, usually there a lot of eggs, and although I do eat eggs (fresh from a friends’ chickens!) I know I have a lot of vegan readers! This vegan, paleo, and gluten free recipe reaches out to all of you guys! You can make these for any holiday party, they will be a huge hit, and you know they are something you can feel good about eating or feeding others. Also, if you are thinking about a great gift for a baker (that’s not very expensive) try a resuable Silpat! No greasing needed, easy to wash, and great for the environment. I couldn’t live without mine!

(and that would be my husband’s hand, sticking his fingers into the cookie tin while I was trying to take photos!)

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Paleo, Gluten Free, Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
Author: 
Recipe type: Paleo, Gluten Free, Vegan Gingerbread Cookie
Cuisine: Dessert
Serves: 15-20 cookies
 
Ingredients
  • 1¼ cup almond flour
  • 1 cup arrowroot flour (or tapioca starch) (+ more for rolling out dough)
  • 3 tablespoons black strap molasses
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
  • 2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ginger (or more if you like them gingery!)
  • ½ teaspoon nutmeg
Instructions
  1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg) and set aside
  2. Mix wet ingredients in another bowl
  3. Add wet and dry ingredients together and mix until the dough becomes a ball
  4. Place dough in the refrigerator until cold (around 30 minutes)
  5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
  6. Grease cookie sheet if needed
  7. Roll out dough until the dough is ¼ to ½ inch thick (you can do this in small sections if needed)
  8. Cut out cookies with gingerbread people shapes (or any others like trees, snowflakes, etc)
  9. Place cookies on the cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges begin to brown
  10. Repeat as necessary until all the dough is used!

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Gingerbread Cookie Spread

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There’s not too much I used to love more than Speculoos Cookie Butter (except for maybe pumpkin)… I still, do, really. It’s really hard when I go to Trader Joe’s not to pick up a container. Definitely a food I have a downfall for! When I started eating clean about 5 years ago, this was something I dropped from my diet (not easy to do!). It’s full of a lot of not good things. Lots of sugar, margarine, wheat, etc.. check out the ingredients list (but it still tastes amazing, I’ll admit).


I haven’t exactly made the replica of cookie butter, but this comes close enough for me, and it’s at least healthy. This definitely satisfies the craving, and one of my favorite flavors is gingerbread (See my awesome Gingerbread Roll recipe here).

I didn’t try it (I used almonds and cashews) but I’m going to bet you could easily sub out the nuts and use 2 cups of a delicious grain free gingerbread cookie instead (you would just have to make those first, with a baby, I’m having a hard time finding that extra time!)! But I do love Danielle Walker’s Recipe, from Against All Grain. I ate my gingerbread cookie spread with homemade graham crackers (I use Elena’s Pantry recipe). Enjoy (I know you will)!!

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Gingerbread Cookie Spread
Author: 
Recipe type: Spread
 
Ingredients
  • 2 cups of almonds, cashews, a mix of both, or grain free gingersnaps
  • 6 pitted dates (soaked or unsoaked, blends better when soaked for at least 30 minutes in water)
  • ⅓ cup coconut oil, melted
  • 2 tablespoons of water (or more if you like it more smooth)
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
  • ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
Instructions
  1. Blend or pulse ingredients together in a blender or food processor until smooth
  2. Enjoy with graham crackers or fresh fruit

 

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