march kitchen madness

i've had a lot of energy in the kitchen lately, which seems to be common for me this time of year. it was five years ago this month that i finished up a vegan cooking class and decided to "go veg". maybe it's the promise of spring that gets me motivated. who knows, but i'm going with it!

on instagram i've been sharing many of my creations. it's just easier to post there, but the downside is i can't go into too much detail. so i thought i'd do a little round-up here in case you wanted to try something i posted.

1 // banana soft serve. this stuff never gets old. (actually, it does. ha! we go through phases with it.) this time i added peanut butter and raw chocolate and the taste reminded us of turkey hill peanut butter ripple ice cream. mmm! cold bits of peanut butter in frozen chocolate creaminess...

banana soft serve:

blend 3-4 frozen bananas in a food processor until smooth and "fluffy". you may want to let the bananas thaw about 15 minutes and you'll probably have to stop a few times to scrape down the sides. once a frozen banana flew up and broke the lid right off my old food processor, so now i hold the lid down tight and let the bananas thaw so they're not so hard. there are also gadgets that make banana soft serve (like this one) but i haven't tried them so i'm not sure how well they work.

2 // raw chocolate peanut butter cookies. john is a sweets lover and wants dessert every night. this week we said no to the processed vegan cookies at the store and i had to hear about it every night. lol, not really. i like to make john treats - he's so appreciative and sometimes cleans up my messes. yesterday i came home to a spotless kitchen, floors and all! i say that deserves dessert.

these cookies were his idea, actually. i used to make raw chocolate chip cookies with a cashew base, and john suggested i try a similar approach with peanut butter and chocolate. (noticing a trend here?=) so what i did was grind one cup raw cashews in the magic bullet, then stirred in peanut butter, melted coconut oil, raw cacao powder, liquid vanilla and maple syrup until a nice dough formed. when i make these again i will take note of the exact measurements and share.

3 // liquid vanilla. i am a huge vanilla fan. when i was a teen i wore vanilla-scented perfumes. a few years ago i got very angry with john for bringing me peanut butter fudge and not vanilla (do you even know me?!). tired of paying $12 for a bottle of organic vanilla extract (the conventional stuff is usually made with corn syrup, even the ones labeled pure), i decided to make my own vanilla flavoring. with the help of sweet gratitude raw dessert book and my vitamix, i easily whip up liquid vanilla in a ratio of 1/3 cup water to 1 vanilla bean. it stores for weeks, even months in the fridge.

4 // chocolate and coconut cream swirl. i've shared this recipe here before. the chocolate cream is made with avocado and the coconut with meat from young thai coconuts. they used to be hard to find, but now our local produce outlet is selling young coconuts. i make both creams in a high speed blender (the magic bullet or vitamix) but i'm thinking the food processor might do the trick.

i hope you all have a very sweet weekend. daylight savings time is here!!!

xoxoxo