Honey Pumpkin Brownies

With the babies' schedule I find myself having ridiculous hours, yet between 3:30 and 5am, I'm usually my most productive.  Yesterday morning I was able to get some of my NPS Foundation work done, and perhaps more significantly, create this easy one-bowl brownie recipe that is completely flourless/grain-free and a breeze to make.  The batter is mixed in minutes, and clean-up is quick; two musts when you're taking care of two little newborns!

Also since I'm obsessed with Squarebars (my go-to treat or dessert when I'm not making my own), I decided to create a fancy breakfast of a honey pumpkin brownie, dollop of plain coconut milk yogurt and 1/3 of a chopped up protein bar.  I have to say, my day became much better after that!  It looks and tastes pretty decadent, but is super filling, nutritious and protein-packed.  I promise you won't be disappointed with this easy healthy brownie...plus pumpkin.  Pumpkin in everything is usually a good idea in my world.

Honey Pumpkin Brownies

Ingredients:
1 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup raw honey
4 eggs
1/4 cup + 2 TBSP raw cacao powder
1/3 cup nondairy chocolate chips

Directions:

1.  Grease an 8" pan with oil, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2.  Stir all ingredients well in a large mixing bowl, and fold chips in last.  Use 1/4 to 1/2 cup of chocolate chips depending on your preferred level of sweetness; I used 1/3 cup of Enjoy Life nondairy chocolate chunks, chopped up, and it was sweet enough!

3.  Bake 30-35 min or until an inserted toothpick or knife comes out mostly clean.  Let sit at least 15 minutes before cutting and serving.  Store leftovers in a sealed container in the fridge.

Topped with plain coconut yogurt and a piece of chopped up vegan protein bar

Chickpea Chip Cookies

Ah yes, another chickpea cookie recipe.  The last one I made was great--if you want a sweeter more melt-in-your-mouth version, check out this one I created a couple years ago.  The one below I threw together recently is also very filling (and easier for me to resist) as well as not quite as sweet.  I like it without the additional honey, but if you are used to more traditional desserts, either keep the honey in, or add additional chocolate chips.

This is a good protein cookie to have a few as breakfast and keep you satisfied until lunchtime, or as a little energy snack or dessert.  I enjoyed them most warm almost right from the oven, and the husband appreciated them with a little more chocolate.  As he pointed out, if you hand him something that looks like a chocolate chip cookie, but tastes very healthy, it's a bit of a letdown.  For me though, cookies like these still seem like a decadent dessert--just customize it to your sweetness preferences!

Chickpea Chip Cookies
yields 15 little cookies

Ingredients:

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup coconut or almond milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 egg whites
3 tablespoons sunflower seed butter* or almond butter
2 tablespoons raw honey (optional)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
sprinkle sea salt
1-1/4 cup gluten-free quick oats**
3 to 4 tablespoons mini nondairy chocolate chips (or more to taste!)

*I used Wild Friends Organic Maple Sunflower Seed Butter, which lends a little sweetness already, allowing me to skip the honey.

Directions:

1.  Rinse and drain the chickpeas, and take a little time to rub off most of the skins.
2.  Heat oven to 300 degrees and continue prepping the cookies as it warms up.
3.  Puree the beans with the vanilla and nondairy milk, scraping down the sides of your processor or blender as needed until mostly smooth.
4.  Add egg whites, sunflower butter, powder and salt, and honey if using.  Pour this mixture into a bowl.
5.  Stir in quick oats into the mixture, or **make your own by food processing regular gluten-free oats until coarse and chopped.  Stir in chocolate chips.
6.  Spoon into cookie-size of choice (cookies won't spread) onto a nonstick baking mat or parchment paper.  Bake at 300 for 18 to 20 minutes, turning the cookie sheet around halfway through.  It may take closer to 20 minutes if you added honey.  Serve warm or melt additional chocolate and drizzle on top if preferred!

Walnut Honey "Shortbread"

These little bites are slightly sweet and have a hint of the light melt-in-your-mouth quality that shortbread embodies.  They are a breeze to make, and taste best chilled or frozen but can also be eaten seconds after making.  When frozen I think they resemble shortbread even more in terms of consistency.

If you're sensitive to nuts, you can use all seeds or whatever ratio of nuts work for you.  For me, I use 1/2 cup walnuts and 1/2 cup sunflower seeds as the first ingredient, or even 1/4 cup walnuts and 3/4 cup seeds.  On a hot day, especially after a run/walk/swim/what-have-you, it is pretty amazing to have a couple straight from the freezer.  They will stay soft yet be delightfully chill, making them a perfect summer treat.

Today after a lap swimming workout, I enjoyed a couple for a post workout treat and I must say they are one of my new favorites!  Speaking of lap swimming, I aim for 30-45 minutes per session and recently discovered the joy of creating a plan to make the swim time fly by.  A sample workout would be to do the following, repeating it if you'd like!

1.  Warm up 4 leisurely laps either freestyle or breaststroke
2.  Swim 4 laps at a higher exertion with a kickboard fluttering your legs keeping your head in the water and taking breaths as you would in freestyle.
3.  Swim 5 laps at a medium intensity.
4.  Leisurely swim 2 laps backstroke or sidestroke.
5.  With a float between your thighs, swim 2-4 laps using just the upper body.  Squeeze the float as much as you can with your thighs, even making little pulses.
6.  Swim 4 to 8 laps at a medium to higher intensity/speed.
7.  Cool down, 2-3 laps super easy.

Note: though I was forced to be on the swim team for years as a child, I'm no coach: I just took an online workout and tweaked it to my enjoyment/capability.  Use it as a loose guide and enjoy!  Now that I'm pregnant with my giant twin belly, the pool feels amazing and I can always count on swimming as a good way to exercise with no pressure on my joints.

Walnut Honey Shortbread
yields 16 cookies or so

Ingredients:

1 cup walnuts
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 cup gluten-free oats
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 to 2-1/2 tablespoons raw honey or maple syrup
(my lovely friend makes a similar cookie using stevia; use stevia to taste and omit the sweetener for a sugar-free version)
1 tablespoon coconut oil (soft, not melted)
1 to 2 tablespoons water

Directions:

1.  Food-process the nuts (or seeds if substituting), and coconut.  Once it is pretty mixed and mealy, add in the rest of the ingredients.  Start with 1 tablespoon of water, adding more only as necessary for dough to stick together.
2.  Roll into 1 or 2 tablespoon-sized balls or discs and chill.  Store in an airtight container in the freezer.
3.  Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rice Crispy Treats

I know, right?  More rice crispy treats?? Well, I purchased gluten-free brown rice cereal and I realized it is way more fun and tasty to create a bar out of it than eat it blandly in a bowl.

Check out my previous post if you still don't care much for pumpkin: it is so good for you!  So is cinnamon, for that matter.  This recipe is easy, tasty and sneakily healthy, like so many of my "desserts" are.  While my husband pointed out that I haven't had a real rice crispy treat in years and that they cannot truly compare, I disagree.  Because these rice crispy treats taste great and yet still provide nutrition through healthy ingredients to fuel you on your day or workout, they win over a traditional buttery marshmallow dessert, hands-down.  Plus they are gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, nut-free and corn-free for those of us with extreme sensitivities.  Perhaps best of all, they are very fast and simple to make.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rice Crispy Treats

Ingredients:
1/3 cup sunflower seed butter or almond butter
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon Red Ape cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon lucuma powder* optional
sprinkle of sea salt
3-1/2 cup brown rice cereal (I used Erewhon for this recipe)

Directions:

1.  Heat seed butter, honey, pumpkin and water together in a saucepan over medium heat.  Remove from heat after it bubbles and gets pretty liquid-y.  Stir in vanilla, then cinnamon and lucuma.

2.  Pour over brown rice cereal, then pack mixture into a lined or greased 8" pan.  Freeze 15 minutes to firm up before cutting and serving.

Why add lucuma powder?  You can reduce sugar or sweeteners in recipes by adding lucuma.  Lucuma is a great natural sweetener.  If you add lucuma to this recipe, you can even increase it to 1 teaspoon and reduce the honey to 3 to 4 tablespoons. Lucuma is a dry and starchy fruit native to Peru, and has a low glycemic index despite its sweet taste, and it has high amounts of beta-carotene, iron and vitamin B3.

By the way, most of these ingredients are found on Vitacost.com; they have tons of organic ingredients and ship in one day, which is hard to beat.  If you sign up through this link, you'll receive a $10 off coupon, and when you're order ships, I'll get a $10 coupon too--it's a win-win for both of us, and I'll have a reason to buy even more delicious organic ingredients to play with.