Knead to Cook

Food & fitness obsessed girl.

One bowl vegan whole wheat banana bread.

by Filed Under: Breads, Brunch, Quick Bread, Snacks, Vegan

I have an abundance of bananas in my house since quarantining. They are our go-to’s and we’ve been hoarding while others hoard toilet paper. So my weekly treats always have some bananas in them. Today, I morphed this recipe into a vegan and to work what I had on hand. It came out perfectly so I wanted to share. Would be lovely with some chocolate chips and/or chopped nuts. Because my husband is allergic to chocolate I omitted it.

Ingredients:

3 tbl flax meal
5 tbl of water
2 large, overripe bananas, peeled and mashed
1/3 cup of melted coconut oil (I used refined)
1/4 cup of maple syrup
1/4 cup of coconut sugar
1/4 cup of nut based milk
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbl of vanilla extract
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of ground cinnamon
1 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour
Optional: 1/3 cup of nuts or chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Spray your loaf pan with oil and set aside.

Into you stand mixer, add your flax and water. Mix to combine and allow to thicken for about 5 minutes. Then proceed to add the remaining ingredients in order from wet to dry. Blend until just combined. If adding mix-in’s … blend by hand. Pour your batter into your prepared pan and bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove and allow to cool for 30 minutes before slicing.

Sending all my love, ~ox

— Knead to Cook

Easy Crusty Vegan Herbed Bread.

by Filed Under: Breads, Breakfast, Brunch, Vegan

I’ve been on a bread making kick lately. Let’s face it… I have plenty of time recovering from knee surgery and with the COVID isolation. Honestly, homemade bread is super easy and tastes incredible but it was the one thing I thought I never had time to do before. The fact is it takes just a few minutes to create but a few hours of resting where you can do a ton of other things without worrying about it.

You can bake bread in a loaf pan or on a pizza stone but I opted to bake my bread in a Dutch oven to yield a perfectly crusty loaf. Honestly, this recipe is quite fail-proof. I hope you give this one a try! Tonight we’ll pair this up with some marinara and vegan meatballs. A simple plate of good olive oil and balsamic for dipping… basically heaven.

Ingredients:

3.75 to 4 cups of organic all purpose flour
1.5 cups of 100-105 degree water (you must gauge the temp to ensure you don’t kill the yeast)
2 tbl of instant yeast
1.5 tsp of sea salt
2 tbl dried oregano or 2 tbl of Italian seasonings
1 tsp of garlic powder or you can chop up fresh garlic and add that instead

Method:

Into your stand mixer, with the dough hook attached, add your flour (start with 3.75 cups), warm water, yeast, salt and spices. Stir to combine for about 2 minutes.

In the meantime, oil a large bowl and set aside. Once the dough is blended, should be slightly sticky but easy to handle. If the dough is super sticky add the additional flour and mix. Turn the dough out and place into your prepared oiled bowl. Cover with a towel and place in a warm spot in your kitchen. Allow the dough to rise for 1.5 to 2 hours. It will double in size.

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 450 degrees with your Dutch oven inside.

Once the dough has risen, turn it out on a floured surface and turn the dough onto itself basically like pulling the edges up and pushing into the center. Repeat until you have a lovely smooth ball of dough.

Carefully remove your Dutch oven. Again, carefully place the seam side of the dough ball into your pot and cover. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove and take the bread out and allow to cool properly. It should be crusty and sound hollow when tapped.

Slice and enjoy once you can safely handle it.


~ox

— Knead to Cook

Banana Blueberry Muffins. Vegan. Gluten free.

by Filed Under: Breads, Breakfast, Brunch, Fruit, Gluten Free, Holiday Baking Ideas, Snacks, Vegan, Wheat Free

Being inundated with blueberries this time of year, they inevitably end up in breads, muffins or pancakes. I absolutely love berries and all the fresh fruit. Blueberries are a great source of fiber, vitamins A, C, K1 and manganese. Along with being antioxidant rich, they encompass the following plant compounds:

Not only are they packed with healthy goodness, they are the perfect summer treat! This recipe yielded 13 average-sized muffins.

See recipe below…

Ingredients:

2 large bananas, mashed till creamy
1 flax egg (1 tbl ground flax mixed with 3 tbl water – allow to sit 5 minutes until thickened)
1/3 cup of a neutral oil (avocado, refined coconut etc.)
1/3 cup of a nut based milk
2 heaping cups of oat flour (make sure they are certified organic)
1/4 cup of coconut sugar
1 1/3 tbl of baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup of blueberries (see notes)
1/3 cup of walnut pieces

Method:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Line your muffin tins with a liner or spray with oil.

Into a bowl add your bananas and mash until a creamy consistency. Add your flax egg, oil and nut based milk (I used almond and oat and both worked nicely). Mix until incorporated. Then proceed to add your oat flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Blend. Wash your blueberries and toss with a tablespoon of oat flour – this will help suspend the blueberries in the muffins v. having them sink to the bottom. By hand mix and proceed to add the walnut pieces (I normally top each muffin with additional walnut pieces). Spoon into your muffin tins (3/4 of the way full). Bake for 24-28 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and allow to cool before eating.

Life remains really busy between work, family, home and working out. I’ve been enjoying weightlifting, limiting my cardio and hot power yoga. Although limited in some moves with my knee, I’m embracing all that I can do along with looking inward and challenging myself.

I hope you’re enjoying summer and embracing all the lovely fruits and veggies that come along with the warm weather. Sending you all my love,

— Knead to Cook

Vegan Eggnog Bread with a Spiced Rum Glaze.

by Filed Under: Breads, Breakfast, Brunch, Desserts, Evolution Power Yoga 40 Days, Holiday, Holiday Baking Ideas, Lucy Let's Go Post, Quick Bread, Snacks, Sponsored, Vegan 9 Comments

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Eggnog bread was a creation of mine from about 15 years ago-  long before I was plant based or an athlete.  Truth be told, it was my go-to holiday food gift for friends/teachers & neighbors for years.  Everyone I shared it with clamored over the flavor and moist texture of this treat.  Plus, it was a nice disparity from the sea of cookies everyone had in their kitchen.  You can find the original, vegetarian recipe here.

As time has passed, I’ll admit, I hadn’t made this treat in several years.  Going plant-based, I never quite found an equal counterpart to a traditional eggnog until now.  I’ve tried this recipe with several vegan eggnogs and I found success with most brands.  I’ve suggested the versions below, in the recipe, that worked best in my opinion.  I prefer to make small loaves for gifting.  They are the perfect size and let’s face it, most people are drowning in other holiday sweets & treats.  However, this recipe would work perfectly in a regular size loaf pan.

This recipe can be subbed out with traditional products like butter and eggnog but I wanted to take a healthier approach as much as possible while keeping with the integrity of my original recipe. I hope you give this recipe a try.  Also perfect on Christmas morning amidst the wrapping paper flying and children giggling for a fun and easy breakfast or brunch idea.

Happy holidays!

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— Knead to Cook

Zucchini banana muffins. Vegan and gluten free.

by Filed Under: Breads, Breakfast, Brunch, Desserts, Gift ideas, Gluten Free, Muffins, Snacks, Vegan, Vegan proteins, Wheat Free 3 Comments

Vegan & gluten free zucchini banana muffins.

After harvesting a behemoth zucchini from our garden this week… I quickly pondered a new recipe idea to use it up fast. I love to add zucchini to my smoothies, yes – it’s perfect for adding bulk and fiber without a ton of flavor to smoothies.  But I always have muffins, bars or cookies on my counter for grab and go snacking so I opted for muffins.  These muffins are so moist, not overly sweet and very filling.

Zucchini is a great veggie to sneak into food without kid-detectives seeing or tasting it.  It’s virtually flavorless.  Okay, so let’s get on with it.  See below for pics and the recipe.  Enjoy!

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— Knead to Cook

Spiced pumpkin muffins. Vegan. Gluten free.

by Filed Under: Breads, Breakfast, Brunch, Desserts, Evolution Power Yoga 40 Days, Gluten Free, Halloween, Holiday, Holiday Baking Ideas, Muffins, Snacks, Vegan, Vegan proteins, Wheat Free 4 Comments

   

When Amber over at Good Saint posted her pumpkin spice bread I knew I needed to try it.  After all I’m a self proclaimed pumpkin addict this time of year.  I’m mean, not PSL at Starbucks kinda addict, but muffins, breads, cookies…ya know the basics.

I made a batch Monday sans icing and by Tuesday (today) I was whipping up batch number 2 they were so loved!  Amber is a super talented, honest yogi/vegan blogger.  Clearly her recipes are as awesome as she is…. and this one is a KEEPER for sure!

Her recipe was made in loaf form and you can click here for her baking times but I went the muffin route because my family seems to need grab-n-go food plus my youngest cutting anyting results in a mass amount of crumbs for me to clean up so… muffins were the chosen option 🙂

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— Knead to Cook

Walnut Hemp Blender Muffins. Vegan. GF.

by Filed Under: Breads, Breakfast, Brunch, Desserts, Gluten Free, Holiday, Holiday Baking Ideas, Muffins, Vegan, Vegan proteins, Vitamix, Wheat Free 2 Comments

Well this has certainly been an exciting/drama-filled week thus far & these muffins were oh-so-necessary.  My youngest has torn a ligament in her ankle on Tuesday and of course that meant doc appointments, X-rays at the hospital so on… & so forth.  She’s good, sore and has a very swollen and colorful ankle but back to school hobbling around on crutches.  That interspersed with some colorful emails… I was done with the week by Tuesday night.

Wednesday I shipped out food to clients and went into the kitchen to just create.  Not job-related… just for me to bake something for my family.  I’ve been obsessed lately with blender muffins and my family eats them at rapid speed… I was in need of a fresh batch.  I focused on healthy fats and a bit of decadence (hello chocolate) and my youngest gave these 5 stars!  I knew I better blog them before I forgot what I used to make them… #bloggerproblems

Okay so let’s get started…

 

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— Knead to Cook

Banana walnut muffins. Vegan. GF.

by Filed Under: Breads, Breakfast, Brunch, Evolution Power Yoga 40 Days, Gluten Free, Muffins, Nuts, Quick Bread, Running/Races, Snacks, Vegan, Vegan proteins, Wheat Free 2 Comments

Banana walnut vegan & gluten free muffins. These muffins were inspired by a recipe from the Minimalist Baker.  In my house of 5, I’m constantly in an uphill battle with making healthy snacks to have on hand.  Breakfast on-the-go before school, pre or post workout fuel, snacks with lunch or after-school.  Sound familiar?  I’m always on the hunt for new recipes to work with & after the day I had yesterday (sore from my Monday TRX workout then falling on my run)… I wasn’t in the mood to get creative in the kitchen.  I wanted a tried and true recipe and this recipe hit that target.  I did make some modifications as noted below.

These muffins are packed with protein, omegas and fiber.  Each one has about 326 calories, 16 grams of fat, 7.2 grams of protein and sugars at 12 grams.  These muffins will rival your favorite coffee shop counterpart but without the overload of fats/sugars and gluten/dairy.

These muffins are perfect food gift ideas for friends, new moms or someone in need.  Hearty and quite filling.  

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— Knead to Cook

Spice and herb bread. Vegan. Gluten Free.

by Filed Under: Breads, Fitness., Gluten Free, Nuts, Snacks, Vegan, Vegan proteins, Vitamix, Wheat Free Leave a Comment

This herb bread became my legit obsession last week.  I made some for clients and had two loaves left for my family. I love cubing it up and keeping it in my dessert cloche on my counter.  My daughter takes it for breakfast at school (post early morning swim practice).  My husband eats it after dinner.  I snack on it whenever I need a pick-me-up.

Heart healthy fats, vegan & gluten free.  This bread is a wonderful companion to soups as well.  Adapting the seeds/herbs will completely transform this bread into your favorite too!

This week my Invisalign arrived so I’ve been pretty much relegated to eating two big meals per day with absolutely no snacking.  Taking the liners out to eat and then brushing them and my teeth every time really deters you from mindless eating.  This may be a good thing! Ha.  So I need to stop wasting time and get back to my kitchen and cooking.  Oh and if you don’t follow me on Insta-stories or Snapchat (kneadtocook) – I’ll be sharing an earth-shattering, awesome vegan and gluten free lasagna recipe I made yesterday.  It was mind-blowing!

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— Knead to Cook

Candy Cane Green Tea Chocolate Muffins. V GF.

by Filed Under: Breads, Breakfast, Brownies, Brunch, Desserts, Evolution Power Yoga 40 Days, Gluten Free, Holiday, Holiday Baking Ideas, Muffins, Snacks, Sponsored, Vegan, Vegan proteins, Vitamix, Wheat Free 5 Comments

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Candy Cane Green Tea Chocolate Muffins. V GF.

As December approaches, we transition from all things pumpkin spice into the crisp & refreshing flavor of peppermint. It’s rather coincidental how it aligns with the seasonal temperatures.

I wanted to take a different, albeit, healthier spin to a minty treat that would be perfect during the holiday season especially for snacking or your holiday breakfast, brunch menu or a gift-giving idea.  Let’s face it, cookies will be everywhere so why not take a different & healthier approach.  These muffins have a secret special ingredient – Peppermint Green Tea from Celestial Tea.  Green tea has been known to improve blood flow and lower cholesterol. Studies found green tea helped prevent a range of heart-related issues, from high blood pressure to congestive heart failure as well as many other health benefits.  Healthy and heart happy makes this little treat even better.

Through much recipe testing, I’ve found that adding the tea to warm coconut oil also makes this unique combination more flavorful and it yields a muffin that rivals a moist brownie in texture & flavor.  Plus these muffins are grain and gluten free as well as vegan.  Freeze nicely and are perfect prep ahead for the holidays.

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— Knead to Cook