Lemon Muffins

I'm normally a bit wary of vegan recipes, but these came out pretty good. And I've just now realized that I completely forgot to make the glaze for them! They were still good, even without the glaze, but it'd be nice to try them with it next time and see how it is.

Vegan Lemon Muffins

Slightly adapted from Love & Lemons

Ingredients

Muffins

• 1 c. + 1 Tbsp. vanilla almond milk
• 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
• 260g whole wheat flour
• 1/2 c. almond flour
• 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/3 c. coconut oil, melted
• 2 Tbsp. meyer lemon zest
• 3 Tbsp. meyer lemon juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. chia seeds

Glaze

• 1/2 c. vegan cream cheese
• 2 Tbsp. meyer lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 1 tsp. meyer lemon zest

Directions

Muffins

1. Combine almond milk and cider vinegar and set aside
2. Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt.
3. Whisk together sugar, oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla.
4. Add almond milk to sugar mixture.
5. Stir wet ingredients into dry and mix until combined.
6. Fold in chia seeds.
7. Spoon batter into greased muffin tin. (It should make 10-12 muffins.)
8. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 18 minutes.

Glaze

1. Beat cream cheese with lemon juice, maple syrup, and lemon zest until smooth.
2. Spoon glaze over cooled muffins.
3. Sprinkle with more lemon zest and/or chia seeds if desired.

PB&J Smoothie

I spent a while looking for new smoothie recipes a few weeks back and came across one for a PB&J smoothie that appealed to me. I jotted down the ingredients and was fully intending to follow the recipe, but one tweak lead to another and I ended up with something fairly different from the original in the end. Tasty, but not very much like the recipe at all.

PB&J Smoothie
1 c. strawberries
1/2 banana
1/4 c. plain yogurt
1/4-1/2 c. vanilla almond milk
2 Tbsp. peanut butter
1 Tbsp. honey

1. Blend and enjoy. (You may need to adjust the amount of almond milk depending on whether or not you're using fresh or frozen fruit and how thick you like your smoothies.)

Cranberry Smoothie

I used to sometimes make cranberry smoothies that consisted of nothing but plain yogurt, frozen cranberries, and a tiny bit of honey. They were probably reasonably healthy, they were certainly nice and thick, but they were also almost inedibly tart. I recently came across an actual recipe for a cranberry smoothie, so I figured I'd give that a try. I'll admit, I tweaked it a bit, but the original was gonna be hella watery. Honestly, I'll probably tweak it even more if I make it again. I'll share three versions here: the original, the tweaked version I made today, and what I'd do next time.

Cranberry Smoothie
1 c. cranberries
2 c. water
1 1/2 c. almond milk
1/4 c. raw cashews
1/8 tsp. stevia
4 ice cubes

Cranberry-Yogurt Smoothie
1/2 c. frozen cranberries
3/4 c. vanilla almond milk
2-3 Tbsp. raw cashews
2 Tbsp. honey
1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt

Better Cranberry-Yogurt Smoothie
1/2 c. frozen cranberries
1/2 c. vanilla almond milk
1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt
2 Tbsp. almonds
2 Tbsp. honey
2 Tbsp. frozen raspberries

Overnight Oatmeal

I can't remember exactly where I first heard about chia "pudding", but I know it's definitely not a new thing. Honestly, it never really appealed to me. Sure, it's easy and maybe I should've given it a chance, but it just didn't sound that good to me. I just felt like the texture would be off-putting. So I never tried it. And it never really occurred to me to use chia for anything else.

Then I came across a few "overnight oatmeal" recipes. I assumed it was some sort of slow cooked crockpot concoction like I'd seen once or twice before. But no! Uncooked oatmeal thickened with chia. Interesting... That I might actually be able to get behind.

I've tried a few similar versions so far. I'm still tweaking it, but I like the results so far!

Mixed Berry Oatmeal
1/2 c. quick oats
1/2 c. mixed berries
1 tsp. chia seeds
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. vanilla almond milk

Brownie Batter Oatmeal
1/2 c. quick oats
1 Tbsp. Nutella
1 tsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. chia seeds
1 tsp. maple syrup
2 cherries, chopped (next time I'd use 4)
1 Tbsp. chopped hazelnuts
1/2 Tbsp. chocolate chips
2/3 c. vanilla almond milk

Apple Blueberry Oatmeal
1/2 c. quick oats
~3/8 c. apple pie filling (preferably homemade)
~3/8 c. blueberries
1 tsp. chia seeds
1 tsp. maple syrup
1 Tbsp. wheat bran
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 c. vanilla almond milk

These all follow pretty much the same procedure. Just mix everything together in a mason jar or somesuch, stir it up, and pop it in the fridge overnight. The brownie batter one called for using the nuts, berries, and chocolate chips as a topping, but I think I'd just mix everything together next time.

The mixed berry one called for a whole cup of milk and was quite tasty, but a bit watery. The brownie batter one called for quite a bit less milk, but came out just a bit too thick. The latest attempt is just chilling in the fridge now, but I'm thinking that 3/4 c. is going to be just about right.