Sweet and Savoury Peanut Butter Recipes

Happy National Peanut Butter Day! (Do these “national days” count in Canada? I don’t know… but this one does)

I’m going to skip all the reasons why I love peanut butter, and I’m also going to skip the aflatoxin fungus speech.  Sometimes a girl’s just gotta have some peanut butter.  I love almond butter, but considering how much of it I consume it’s high time for almond butters’ more traditional cousin peanut butter to make its debut.  So long as it’s organic and non-GMO, I’m game!

Recipe numero uno:

Ginger Pumpkin Rice Noodles with Peanut Butter Ginger Sauce

1 package of King Soba Ginger Pumpkin Rice Soba Noodles (or regular brown rice noodles, quinoa noodles, spelt noodles)

1 zucchini

2 stalks kale

1 small sweet potato

1 tbsp coconut/grapeseed oil

Pinch sea salt

2/3 cup black beans

Sauce:

¼ cup peanut butter

1/3 cup veggie stock

2-3 tablespoons tamari

¼ lemon, juiced

½ inch piece ginger, peeled and minced

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

Pinch paprika

½ teaspoon tapioca flour

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Peel and chop sweet potato into small chunks and toss with oil and salt.  Bake for 35-45 minutes.
2. Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Add noodles, bring to a boil and cook for about 8 minutes.  Drain and rinse with cold water, set aside.
3. Mix together sauce ingredients (except flour) in a small saucepan.  Heat over medium-low setting.
4. Rinse and chop zucchini and kale.  Add to noodles along with sweet potato and beans.
5. Add flour to the sauce and whisk together quickly as the sauce thickens.  Taste and add salt as needed.
6. Pour sauce over noodles and veggies and serve warm.

My cookie recipe was inspired by CCK’s.  Originally I was just going to post a link to her recipe but ended up changing measurements and ingredients to make my own.  Here’s hers if you wanna check it out: click here.  Oh, and for any of you that got my peanut butter cookies for Christmas two years ago, these ones are even better.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Follow me on Instagram: achristens

½ cup peanut butter

¼ cup + 1 tablespoon spelt flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¼ cup Xyla (what’s Xyla, you ask? Find out here)

3 tablespoons maple syrup

1 tablespoon ground flax + 3 tablespoons water (mixed and set for 5 minutes)

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Mix together flour, baking soda, Xyla and sea salt.
2. Add peanut butter, maple syrup, flax egg and vanilla.  Mix together well and refrigerate for 30-90 minutes.
3. Remove from fridge and roll into balls, flatten with a fork.  I made 22 cookies, but the recipe probably could have made 25 if I hadn’t “tested” the dough so much.

Cook for 8-10 minutes and let cool for 5-10 before removing from the cookie sheet.  As Katie says, they will look under cooked but they’re good to go!  I suggest immediately freezing some, otherwise they’ll somehow disappear quite quickly.

Vega Chai Carob Muffins with Protein Icing

I’ve written a post on carbohydrates before (click here), so you all know that I’m not against carbs by any means.  In fact, I freaking love them.  That being said, I have a bit of a sweet tooth and I love baking.  So any chance to come up with a new healthy baked good recipe, I’ll take.  But seeing as I have a big tub of Vega Whole Food Health Optimizer sitting my on counter, I thought I’d do something a little different.

What if I used protein powder instead of flour?

I don’t ever find myself waking up craving this Vanilla Chai superfood mix.  It’s awesome in a pinch, but it’s not often I use it just because.  I wanted to find a way to reap the benefits of it, because in just one serving (220 calories), you get…

26g protein

6g EFAs

15g fibre

2.5g maca

1 serving of chlorella

Probiotics

Superfood berry-blend

Digestive enzymes

100% RDA vitamins and minerals (not that I subscribe to what those values are, but nonetheless you can see that it’s rully healthy!)

One serving is two scoops, but I always feel full after just one scoop in a smoothie.  From the Vega website,

“Easily digested, alkaline and great-tasting, Vega is clean and green, containing no animal products, dairy, egg, fillers, gluten, soy, sugar, wheat or yeast. Absolutely no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or sweeteners and GMO and pesticide-free.”

I’ll be honest… this Vega product kind of tastes like the earth.  I’m used to super earthy natural flavours, but if I have an equally healthy alternative I usually take it.  How to mask this? Bake it and slather it with icing.

Vega Chai Carob Muffins (~7-8 muffins)

2 cups Vanilla Chai Vega Whole Food Meal Optimizer powder

2.5 tbsp ground flax mixed with 1/3 cup water (let sit for 5-10 minutes to create flax egg)

5 tbsp carob

1 banana, mashed

½ cup berries

3 tbsp sunflower seeds

½ scant tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp baking soda

2 tbsp coconut oil

½-1 cup water (I think I added too much, the powder makes the batter quite thick though so use your best judgment)

1. Preheat oven to 350F and oil a muffin tin.
2. Mix together Vega, flax egg, carob, banana, salt, vanilla, baking soda, coconut oil and water.
3. Add in berries and sunflower seeds, stir.
4. Pour into muffin tins and bake for 30-45 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

I iced them with a protein icing I was inspired by on @powercakes Instagram.  I didn’t follow it to a T, but it was roughly…

2 scoops vanilla Sunwarrior protein powder

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp maple syrup

2 tbsp almond butter

Water to thin out

Pinch of pink sea salt

Mix together until you like the consistency.  I tasted it quite a bit along the way

These muffins are DENSE.  Seriously, I put some in the freezer, and they could probably double as weapons if I were ever attacked.   These little weapons each have:

293 calories

23g healthy carbohydrates

11g fibre

5.7g sugars

21g protein

Plus, micronutrients up the wazoo.  Next time, I think I’d add cacao powder instead of carob, and add less water, maybe omit the coconut oil.  It took quite a while for them to bake.

To Detox, or Not to Detox?

Remember that time I started a blog and stopped writing on it?

Yeah, sorry.  It tends to be a pattern I have.  Granted, I have had quite a few major changes happen in my life.  Like moving across the country, quitting my job, and pursuing a career in Vancouver.  Not to mention Christmas time, New Years, a trip to Alberta, and learning how to unplug and spend time with the amazing people I am surrounded with.

So it’s the New Year now, and I have been toying with the idea of a cleanse for a few weeks.  First, I wanted to do a 30-day juice cleanse (watching Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead helped encourage that).  But given that January is probably THE WORST month for fresh produce, I thought better of it. The winter is a time when the body draws inwards, and wants warm, comforting foods (although I have to say, as a TO girl, Vancouver’s winter feels more like March or April to me).

My latest creation: nutty chocolate brownie bites dipped in maple-almond chocolate sauce, dusted with cinnamon, cayenne and sea salt

Then I got onto the idea of the Master Cleanse (aka the Lemonade Cleanse, the Beyonce Diet, and so on).  It’s basically just drinking spicy lemonade and salt water for 10 days.  I thought, 10 days, no problem.  I watered that idea down to 3 days to give my body a chance to adjust.  By 5 pm on my first day I basically said eff this and made a bowl of quinoa, kale and avocado with some tamari.  The whole starving yourself thing is not for me.  And spicy lemonade doesn’t taste that good, bee tee dubs.

The New Plan:

I’ve decided that starting my day with some lemon juice and warm water is a MUCH better way to do it (plus, I have tons of lemons in my house right now).  I’ve also found that eating less, chewing thoroughly, and really tasting my food helps me too.

A lot of the stress of digestion occurs in the beginning.  When we don’t chew our food, it allows for big chunks of food to putrefy in our intestines and cause gas and bloating.  Chew your food till it’s mush, taste your food (because you can, it’s one of the simple pleasures in life) and take smaller portions.  Chewing your food will give your body more time to realize when it’s full, and when it’s still hungry.  Tasting your food will allow your mind to savour and enjoy the meal rather than scarfing it down.

These three things alone will improve your digestion and let your body detox itself naturally, rather than having to work overtime to compensate for your mouth not breaking down your food.  Come springtime, a proper whole food cleanse is definitely in store.  I’m also psyched for my summertime juice cleanse! (I found an awesome Champion juicer on Craigslist for $100)

Don’t forget to breathe, too.  I find that deep breathing helps with my overall sense of well-being (thank you yoga for bringing that to my attention).  Most of us take shallow chest breaths, but you’ll feel a difference in your satiety if you take deeper, big belly breaths.  It puts your mind in touch with how full your stomach is getting and gets oxygen flowing to your extremities and insides.

These are all things we know but don’t always remember.  We can easily find ourselves in a rush to just get some food down the pipe and get on with our day.  I’d like to extend on “We are what we eat” to “We are what we eat, and HOW we eat”.  Eat with consciousness

Some changes and upheavals will be happening for my blog in the near future.  Get ready 2012!