Christmas Treats and Recent Eats

 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I hope you are all having a blast this holiday season! I did a 6 hr long marathon of baking on facebook live!

I wanted to bake all my close friends and family Christmas treats so I came up with some great ideas for healthy vegan treats for all my friends

Vegan Christmas treats: chocolate chip cookies, cranberry orange cinnamon toast truffles, chocolate peanut butter banana oat truffles, amaretto almond cherry oatmeal cookies, blueberry banana pecan bread, chocolate covered cranberries, pineapple macadamia toasted coconut chocolate bars, and chocolate covered dates stuffed with peanut butter and pecans.

 The first recipe I created was a pretty standard vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe I created a few weeks ago when my friend, Soar, came over to visit. I just freezed the extra cookie dough in the freezer and pulled it out the night before i was going to bake it for Christmas.

 

 Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

 Ingredients:

• 1 cup vegan butter
  
• 1 cup vegan granulated sugar
  
• 1 cup vegan brown sugar packed
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
  
• 2 ripe bananas
  
• 3 cups all purpose flour
  
• 1 tsp baking soda
  
• ½ tsp baking powder
  
• 1 tsp sea salt
  
• 2 cups vegan chocolate chips

Instructions:

Peel and mash 2 bananas and cream them together with the sugars, butter and vanilla extract.

sift in remaining dry ingredients blending until smooth.

fold in chocolate chips and then spoon out cookies onto a greased baking sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F or 12 minutes if the dough is cold. 

let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Yield: at least 2 dozen cookies.

 

Vegan Blueberry Banana Nut Bread

 

Ingredients:

 

    2 to 3 medium ripe bananas

    1/3 cup vegan butter 

    2 tbsp maple syrup     

    3/4 cup vegan sugar

    1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

    1/2 teaspoon baking soda  

    1/2 tsp salt

    1 bag of blueberry tea

    1 cup pecans

    1 pint blueberries or 12 oz frozen blueberries 

    Optional: blue sugar crystals for bread crust and blue food coloring

 

Instructions: 

Cream together ripe bananas peeled and mashed with butter and sugar and maple syrup. 

Gently stir in flour, baking soda, salt, and contents of 1 blueberry tea bag.

Once blended gently fold in pecans and blueberries.

Pour bread batter in a greased medium size bread pan and top with blue sugar crystals.

Easily make your own blue sugar crystals by adding a few drops of blue food coloring to vegan sugar. You can also use a few drops of blue food coloring in your bread batter.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 55 minutes or until pierced with a butter knife comes out clean.

Yield: 11-12 slices.

Cranberry Orange Cinnamon Toast Truffles

 

Ingredients:

 

    3 cups Cinnamon Toast Crunch

    1 cup date pieces

    1 1/2 cup fresh cranberries

    Juice and zest of a Mandarin orange or 2 tbsp dried orange peel

    1 cup date sugar

Instructions:

Add Cinnamon Toast Crunch, date pieces, cranberries, and orange to food processor and process on medium until dough starts to form a ball about 2 minutes.

Break off small pieces of dough and roll into balls and roll balls into date sugar.

It is best to chill truffles before serving.

Yield: 18-20 truffles.

Cherry Amaretto Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

 

    1 cup vegan butter 

    1 cup packed vegan brown sugar 

    1/2 cup vegan sugar 

    2 bananas 

    1 1/2 tsp amaretto 

    1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour  

    1/2 tsp baking soda 

    1/2 tsp baking powder 

    1/2 tsp salt 

    3 cups rolled old fashioned oats 

    1 cup dried cherries 

    1 cup chopped almonds

 

Instructions: 

Cream together peeled mashed banana with butter, sugar, and amaretto.

Sift in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and gently mix.

Fold in oats, cherries, and almonds.

Roll dough into balls and place on a greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes.

Let cool before serving.

Yield: at least 2 dozen cookies.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Balls

Ingredients:

    3 cups oats

    2 cups date pieces

    1/2 cup cocoa nibs

    1/2 cup cocoa powder

    1/2 cup peanut butter

    2 tbsp agave nectar

    2 ripe bananas

    1/2 cup date sugar and 1/2 cup cocoa powder mixed separately

Instructions:

Mix together oats, dates, cocoa nibs, 1/2 cup cocoa powder, peanut butter, agave nectar, and bananas in food processor until it forms a ball. less than 2 minutes.

 

Break of pieces of dough and roll into balls.

 

Roll in cocoa powder and date sugar mixture to coat.

 

Best to chill in fridge before serving.

 

Yield: 3 dozen balls.

 

Pineapple Coconut Macadamia Nut Chocolate Bars

 

 Ingredients:

    10 oz. macadamia nuts

    6 oz, toasted coconut

    5 oz. dried sweet pineapple

    4 70% or more cocoa vegan chocolate bars

    1 bag vegan chocolate chips

    1/3 cup coconut cream

optional: pineapple sugar

 

Instructions:

Mix macadamia and coconut in a big bowl. 

Chop pineapple and mix into nut mixture.

Add chocolate chips and broken up pieces of chocolate bars to a microwave bowl and microwave until melted about 3 minutes.

Gently stir coconut cream into melted chocolate.

Then pour bowl of chocolate into bowl of nuts and fold int to coat all nuts.

 

Evenly spread out chocolate candy on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.

 

Let chill in freezer before breaking in to candy bars.

 

Yields: at least 2 dozen bars.

Pineapple Sugar

Ingredients:

    Dried peels and core of 1 pineapple

    1 cup vegan sugar

 

Instructions: 

add dehydrated pineapple into food processor and process until it turns into a powder.

Sift into a bowl and mix in vegan sugar.

Can be used to dust on candies, desserts, and used on cocktails.

Yield: 8 to 10 oz. of sugar 

Chocolate Covered Dates Stuffed with Peanut Butter and Pecans

Ingredients:

    12 dates

    1/2 cup peanut butter

    1/2 cup pecans

    1 bag vegan chocolate chips

    Sea salt for garnishing candy

 

Instructions:

 

 

TikTok Video Instructions

Slice dates half way and remove pits.

Spread on the inside a small portion of peanut butter.

Stuff with pecans.

Melt chocolate in microwave for about 2 minutes.

With a fork, toss date in chocolate to coat the date.

Place chocolate dates on a plate lined with wax paper and sprinkle on sea salt.

Place in freezer or refrigerator until chocolate hardens.

 

Yield: 12 candy dates 

 

Chocolate Covered Cranberries

Ingredients:

 

    1 1/2 cup fresh cranberries

    1 cup vegan chocolate chips

    Optional: cranberry sugar

 

Instructions:

 

Melt chocolate in the microwave, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Toss in cranberries to coat with melted chocolate.

Spread berries out on a sheet of wax paper on a plate.

place in freezer or fridge to chill until hardened.

 

Yeild: 10 servings

Cranberry Sugar 

Ingredients:

     1/2 cup dehydrated cranberries

    1 cup vegan sugar

 

 Instructions:

 

blend dry cranberries in a food proccessor untill powder.

mix powder with sugar to make cranberry sugar.

 

 Yeild: about 10 oz, of sugar

Recent Eats Since My Last Blog

    Since my Last blog I ate lots of yummy vegan food. I've been so busy the past few days I finally caught up with logging it all on My Fitness Pal. 

I had a few extra snacks on the night of my last blog but still didn't go over calories.

I made some yummy vegan buttered bread topped with fresh sliced cherry tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, Italian seasoning, onion powder, vegan parmesan, and molasses.

It was very yummy and relatively low in sodium though if I had used olive oil it'd likely be lower.

I also snacked on some monkey brittle my brother gave me that was absolutely amazing and had zero sodium. I really want to try making some myself soon.

Then on the 24th I did all my baking, 6 hrs. of non-stop baking.

I didn't eat much that day just left-over pizza and wine and snacking while baking so I managed to stay under calories and pretty good on sodium.

After not eating much the day before and working my butt off in the kitchen I was ready for another solid meal, so I made a couple of veggie burgers, but only ate one and put the other in the fridge for later.

I did slip up on my diet a bit because my neighbor gave me a tin of butter cookies for Christmas so I couldn't resist having them with tea. But I do wish they were vegan.

Later for Christmas Dinner I made a delicious vegan cheesy scalloped potato bake inspired by my friend, Soar's, Grandmother's cheesy baked potatoes.

The potatoes were super delicious, I just layered sliced potatoes, seasoning them with Slap Ya Mama, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, parsley flakes, vegan parmesan, nutritional yeast, vegan cheddar shreds, and then a drizzle of Miyoko's Creamery vegan liquid mozzarella. I repeated this with each layer. And then I popped it in the oven to bake at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes.  Then I broiled the top for 5 minutes but wasn't quite satisfied and wanted to make it a bit creamier, so I poured creamy oat milk on top and let it bake for another 45 minutes. It turned out perfect! It made a very simple and wholesome Christmas dinner for one person with lots of leftovers.

Then I finished embellishing my homemade candle gifts for friends and family. It was a lot of fun but I used all of my E6000 so I need to buy more.

  The candle I made for my brother, Ben.

The candle I made for my cousin, Charla.

The candle I made for my Dad.

The candle I made for my friend, Soar.

I slept in mostly today and didn't wake up until 6pm. I think it is nearly that time of the month, so I am extra tired, but I have so much worked to get done before the end of the year. I will try to have blog updates for you every few days. 

I just wasn't awake enough to eat enough today but I am sure I will eat plenty tomorrow. I hope to start filming FitVlogs again this coming new year. If I don't post again until the new year, I would love to wish you all a Joyous Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year.