Festive Red and Green Smoothie Puddings

Have you ever put an avocado in a smoothie before? If not, you’re missing out! Imagine pudding without the sugar, dairy or eggs that is actually good for you. Plus, smoothies are way better when you can eat them with a spoon. I’ve made variations of the above smoothies for breakfast for the last few weeks and they are too good not to share!

They are super simple  to make (throw everything in a blender) and a great way to get eat healthy this Christmas while still feeling a little bit decadent! Feel free to adjust what you put in it or double the recipe to make two servings – it’s all about creative license!

“Green” Christmas Smoothie

1/2 frozen banana, cut into chunks
1/2 pear, cut into chunks
1 mandarin orange
1/2 large avocado
1 – 2 handfuls of spinach
Scoop of Protein Powder (optional)
Splash of orange juice

“Red” Christmas Smoothie

1/2 frozen banana, cut into chunks
1/2 pear, cut into chunks
10 – 20 fresh cranberries
1/2 large cooked beet (if you don’t have any, use any red fruit like cherries, raspberries, etc. but the colour won’t be as vivid)
2 pieces honey-candied ginger (or a slice of fresh ginger root and a small squeeze of honey)
Small handful of spinach
1/2 avocado
1 squirt of lemon juice
Splash of orange juice

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients except avocado in a single serve (or regular blender) and blend until smooth. Add avocado and blend until mixed. (If you have a high-powered blender, add everything at once).
2. Pour into a glass and eat with a spoon.
3. Enjoy!

I hope you have a blessed and merry Christmas! All the best to you and your family for 2015!

Dairy Free Banana Almond Butter Milkshake

So the morning that Mr. Bean and I were supposed to head out on vacation, I fell off my bike on the way to work and had a wonderful crash. Thankfully, there were people who saw my crash and they took me to the hospital to get stitched up, plus Mr. Bean was home so he was able to pick me up and take me to the dentist to fix my broken t00th. Great way to start a holiday, eh?

Having your face and mouth busted up means no solid foods, so it’s a good thing I brought my blender with me! Here’s one of my favourite dessert creations. It would also be really good with peanut butter or chocolate ice cream!

Dairy Free Banana Almond Butter Milkshake

1 banana
1 – 2 spoonfuls of almond butter
1 large scoop of vanilla coconut ice cream
2 large ice cubes (you could use more ice cream instead of ice cubes, but this helps lighten it up a bit)
Almond Milk

1. Add all ingredients to blender and blend until smooth, adding more ice cream/ice or almond milk to get the desired consistency.
2. Enjoy!

When was the last time you were on a liquid diet? Let’s Commiserate!

SRC: Life and Kitchen’s Banana Oatmeal Bread & Grilled Peanut Butter Apple Sandwiches

For January’s Secret Recipe Club, I was paired with Lindsay of Life and Kitchen. Lindsay has been a vegetarian since the beginning of 2012, so most of her recipes are meat free! As well as tons of delicious recipes, she includes lots of commentary on her life outside of the kitchen – including her ridiculously cute daughter, Lily, and their adventures with a growing kid.

But speaking of delicious recipes, I literally looked through 20 pages of her blog and was so indecisive about what I should make! Some of the recipes that caught my eye were her: Bacon and Goat Cheese Muffins, Cucumber Hummus Cups, and her Broccoli Salad with Raisins and Sunflower Seeds, (which is a variation of a favourite of ours, but since I’ve already made it, I decided not to make it again.

When I saw Lindsay’s recipe for  Grilled Peanut Butter Apple Sandwiches, I knew what I was going to make: her Banana Oatmeal Bread!  It’s super easy to make, is healthy and is super tasty! I made a few variations – making it gluten and egg free, reducing the sugar and adding more bananas. The only thing I didn’t like about it is that the some of gluten free oats were still uncooked after baking – apparently they take longer than regular, so next time I think I’ll either up the liquid in the loaf or soak the oats for a few minutes before mixing them in.

Gluten Free, Vegan Banana Oatmeal Bread

1/3 c. each brown rice flour, sorghum flour and tapioca starch
1/4 c. millet flour
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1/3 c. unpacked brown sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 egg replacers (1 tbsp. powder, 1/4 c. almond milk – make according to the directions on package)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1 c. old fashioned GF oats

1. Line a 8 x 4″ loaf pan with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 350F.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.
3. Add in egg replacers, oil and vinegar and mix until combined (mine was a bit dry at the moment as instead of adding the equivalent of another egg, I added another banana).
4. Mix in banana and oatmeal and then scrape into pan.
5. Bake for 45 – 50 minutes or until a few toothpicks inserted into the loaf come out clean.
6. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then let cool on a rack.
7. Enjoy by itself or in a grilled peanut butter apple sandwich!

Grilled Peanut Butter Apple Sandwich

2 slices banana bread
Peanut Butter
Apple Slices
Margarine (or soy-free spread)

1. Butter one side of each piece of banana bread and place butter side down on a board/plate/etc.
2. Spread peanut butter on both sides of the bread and arrange apple slices on one pieces.
3. Assemble your sandwich and cook in a preheated pan for about 5 min a side or until each side is golden brown.
4. Enjoy!

Please check out the rest of Group D’s recipes by clicking the link below!

SRC: Angel’s Homestead’s Peanut Butter Banana Pancakes

For November’s Secret Recipe Club, I was paired with April of Angel’s Homestead. April is the wonderful force behind the SRC and has a wonderful blog to boot! She recently became gluten free and primal, so there were lots of Bean-friendly recipes for me to look at! Tasty Recipes like: No-mato Sauce (I definitely passed this onto my brother who doesn’t like tomatoes), this Almond Flour Cornbread and these Baked Apple Chips.

After much pursuing, I decided to make her Peanut Butter Banana Pancakes using her Gluten Free Almond Flour Pancakes. For once, I didn’t actually change anything (gasp!) except that I have a feeling the original recipe used non-natural, smooth peanut butter, whereas I used natural, chunky stuff. They still turned out well!

I tried making a small amount of the peanut butter syrup, where I learned that it’s best to use smooth peanut butter as the chunky stuff doesn’t look that good. Plus, I have a feeling it was also for non-natural peanut butter, so it definitely wasn’t as smooth as it could have been! That being said, peanuts and maple go surprisingly well together!

In her instructions, she says to cook them on low heat – please do! I initially had my griddle at 325F and it was too warm, so the pancakes got quite dark. The next batch I cooked at 275F and they were much lighter coloured.

As I was making the pancakes, Mr. Bean was making bacon, which means: Elvis pancakes!

In case you don’t know what Elvis pancakes are – apparently Elvis liked to eat peanut butter, bananas and bacon together and the combination is surprisingly tasty! Add a bit of maple syrup and you’re good to go!

April, it was a delight to look through your blog! Thank you so much for all the work that you put into the Secret Recipe Club!

Please check out the rest of Group D’s recipes below!

SRC: Kudos Kitchen by Renee Peanut Butter Banana Bread

For this month’s Secret Recipe Club, I had Renee of Kudo’s Kitchen by Renee. Renee is a super creative person – she is incredibly talented at painting on glass – I am so impressed with everything she does! On top of that, she has tons of tasty looking recipes such as this rainbow chicken salad, bangers and mash and orange creme brulee. Plus, she has Boston Terriers – my kind of gal!

I chose to make her Peanut Butter Banana Loaf. I asked Mr. Bean if he would cry about it –  to which he replied “Only tears of joy”. Secret Recipe Club Choice for the win! As usual, I did adapt it – I reduced the sugar by 1 cup, made it gluten free, used egg replacer instead of the eggs and dairy-free margarine instead of butter. I didn’t have any coconut extract and many honey roasted peanuts have gluten in them, so I added some shredded coconut. Even with all those changes, it still turned out great and was super tasty! It’s a perfect breakfast loaf – not too sweet, has lots of fibre and protein and goes really well with a little margarine and a cup of tea.

Gluten Free Vegan Peanut Butter Banana Bread

2/3 c. brown rice flour
2/3 c. sorghum flour
1/3 c. tapioca starch
1/3 c. potato starch
1 tsp. xathan gum
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking powder
4 bananas, mashed
2 egg replacers (1 tbsp. egg replacer powder + 1/4 c. almond milk)
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 1/2 c. smooth peanut butter at room temperature (I used Kraft unsweetened creamy that I wanted to use up)
1/2 c. dairy free margarine, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 – 2 tbsp. almond milk
1/3 c. shredded unsweetened coconut

1. Line a 5 x 9″ pan with parchment paper and preheat oven to 350F.
2. Whisk together flours, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, egg replacers and brown sugar.
4. Whisk in peanut butter, margarine, vanilla, apple cider vinegar and almond milk.
5. Stir in flour with a wooden spoon. Once combined, stir in coconut.
6. Scrape into pan and smooth top.
7. Bake in oven for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in a few places comes out clean.
8. Remove from pan and parchment paper and allow to cool before slicing.
9. Enjoy!

If you want to make this non vegan, you can substitute the egg replacer with two eggs. If you don’t want to make it gluten free, use 2 c. of wheat flour for the flours & xathan gum and if you’re using eggs, reduce the baking powder to 1/2 tsp. and don’t add the apple cider vinegar.

Renee, it was great to have your blog and have the opportunity to witness all of your creativity! I look forward to trying more of your recipes!

Please check out the rest of Group D’s recipes by clicking the link below!