English Muffin

Quick and healthy oat English muffin, homemade one. I promise this recipe will surprise you a big time!

- This is a brilliant in its simplicity recipe. English muffin, made exclusively of oats, yet stunningly resembling your usual store bought English muffins. Oh yeah, just without all those funny additional ingredients. 

- The only minor downside to this recipe is you can do just one muffin at a time. 

- It's a gluten-free (if you care), healthy recipe you will love. It's also handy when you suddenly are out of bread. 

Oat English Muffin

For 1 English muffin :

• 1/3 cup rolled oats (any kind)
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 tbsp plant milk

- Blend first 4 ingredients in a high-speed blender like Ninja until it resembles course flour. Transfer to a bowl, add remaining ingredients. Mix just until combined.

- Transfer dough into un-greased ceramic ramekin, smooth out with a spoon and cook in a microwave, on a high, for 2 minutes.

- Let it cool until able to handle. Transfer on a cutting board and slice with knife into two halves.

- Carefully place in your usual toaster (vertical one) and toast to your liking. 

- Ta-da!  Isn't it tastier that your regular one? Enjoy!

Notes

- You can play with this recipe using oat flour or whole chia seeds, or adding 1 tsp of ground flax seeds for additional nutritional value, or, perhaps some black cumin (nigella seeds) for surprising bursts of flavor.

- No worry, the dough is not going to stick to ramekin :)

- I bet you will be very surprised when you slice into the cooked muffin - it so close to original English muffins. Only tastier.

- For suggested usage for these English muffins see my pictures below.

- If you don't have apple sauce, finely grate 1/2 of apple instead, or perhaps you have canned peaches or pears, use them! In fact, I'm not even trying to keep apple sauce in a house, I just use fresh apples as they are always on a hands.



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IN PICTURES

I use fork to get it out carefully.

Bottom is a bit soggy which kept it from sticking to the bottom of ramekin.

Soo much like real bread..

Flip side, just like English muffin is.

I love it with homemade hummus and fresh salsa

Sweet version with almond butter, banana and chia seeds.

These are made using fresh grated apples instead of apple sauce. You might even notice one small apple chunk on a picture :) Below you see my breakfast with these muffin halves smudged with homemade pesto and curry leaves spread, topped with fresh Ox Heart tomato. It was such a yummy meal. I will be posting the recipes for those spreads later.

Healthy Banana Bread

The healthiest Banana bread ever! And perhaps the tastiest :) 

It's vegan, whole food, plant based, no oil, vegan version of banana bread. Not a vegan? Is it enough not to try this guilt-free recipe? I don't think so. Easy to make (one-bowl recipe!), delicious, this banana bread is a great snack, breakfast or dessert option for anybody. 

Notes

- I've chosen to mega-flavor my banana bread with lemon zest, cinnamon and vanilla. You can choose any combination of those or maybe something completely other flavor such as almond essence (one of my favorite flavorings), or something exotic such as pandan drops (oriental version of flavor).

- I like to use my mini-loaf silicon baking pans for this. Try not to use large pans as it should be baked through well to balance out oat moisture- keeping qualities. Silicon baking muffin cups are perfect as well as mini-loaf pans.

- I use store bought oat flour for this recipe, but, if you don't have it, make your own by blending regular oats in a food processor.

- If using other than medjool dates, just make sure you are taking enough quantity - we like our bread somewhat sweet, right ;) Also make sure you remove woody cap on a top of date, sometimes dates are sold with those.

- Ground flax seeds are required for this recipe. Soaked in a little water, they usually play role of eggs as a binder. It's besides all health-beneficial qualities of flax seeds. Sure you can use, two eggs instead, but flax seeds are so much healthier IMHO.

Healthy Banana Bread

For about 3 mini-loaf pans:

• 2 very ripe bananas
• 8 large medjool dates, pitted, tiny seed cap removed, roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp of ground flax seeds + 6 tbsp water (let it stand for about 10 minutes)
• zest of one lemon
• 1-2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 cups oat flour
• 1/3 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1.5 cups roughly chopped walnuts (it's a lot but I like it)

- Preheat an oven to 350F.

- In a large bowl, with a fork, mash bananas, add soaked ground flax seeds, lemon zest, chopped dates, cinnamon and vanilla. Mix well.

- Add remaining ingredients, mix. You'll get very thing batter. Distribute it evenly between three mini-loaf pans.

- Bake in a preheated to 350F oven for 40 minutes until golden-brown and baked through completely.

- Remove from an oven, let it cool down for about 30 minutes, then remove from forms.

- Enjoy!



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IN PICTURES

 All action going in one big bowl on a left. You will need just two supplemental bowls, one for flour,  one for flax seeds. Ground flax seeds, soaked in water are great binding ingredient (at bottom right)

 When baking I always pre-mix soda or baking powder into flour.

Mixing my wet ingredients.

Adding dry ingredients.

 Batter/dough is ready, it's very thick.

 Ready to go into an oven.

 Done!

 Pieces of walnuts, chunks of dates, lemon zest - awesome texture, delicious and flavorful!

 Yeah.. gluten-free if you care :)

Healthy Banana Bread

Easy No-Oil Hummus

Here is the 5-minute recipe for better-than-store-bought hummus. This is a truly healthy recipe, lower in calories than your regular hummus because it uses no additional oil. It's a basic recipe, simple and delicious, great as it is. But you also can customize it adding another components to get your favorite hummus flavor. 

The best hummus is just 5 minutes away, no need to run to a store. Just keep some canned chick peas and tahini on hands all the time and you will be able to whip very tasty hummus in no time whenever you want. This is the basic recipe for hummus. You can add an extra ingredients to your liking (see list of suggestions below) if you wish, but I like to make this, the very basic hummus, and then to serve it with different toppings - see pictures below.

Notes

- As additional ingredients to throw in your blender could be: marinated pepper, roasted garlic, herbs, fresh or dry, curry paste, lemon zest, turmeric, etc. Just keep in mind, that  additional ingredients can change viscosity of your hummus so coordinate it with quantity of liquid from a can. Also extra ingredients will shrink the time your hummus can keep in a fridge. This basic hummus will keep in a fridge for about 5 days. If, for instance, you decide to process your hummus with a fresh basil, or marinated pepper, then your hummus will keep in a fridge for about 2-3 days.

- Hummus is great as a dip with pita or vegetables, but it's even better as one of the elements of "Buddha bowl" or as spread for a toast, topped with a piece of cooked or raw veggie.

- This recipe uses liquid from the can. Sometimes it is more liquid than usual, then you'll get thinner hummus. If you absolutely need thick hummus than reserve part of the liquid and add it gradually as needed to get desired consistency.

- I use high-speed Ninja blender, it makes really smooth hummus. Vitamix would do a great job as well, I think. If you have neither, use kitchen processor, just let it run longer when you blend your hummus.

- I purposely use white vinegar, not lemon, when I make hummus. I just like it better. Give it a try!

Easy No-Oil Hummus

• 1 can chick pea (garbanzo beans) with liquid
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 3 tbsp tahini
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/3 tsp cumin powder
• 1/3 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

- Throw all ingredients into blender cup and process until smooth. I like to run two long cycles on my Ninja blender to get very smooth and silky consistency.

- Enjoy!



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IN PICTURES

 Here is my red cabbage and lentils leftovers with some homemade kimchi and hummus. Scrumptious.

 Toasted cocktail bread, rubbed with garlic, topped with hummus, canned kidney beans and sprinkled with smoked paprika. Garnished with cilantro leaf. Great hors d'oeuvres for a party!

 I love, love use hummus as saucy part of my impromptu Buddha bowl - collard greens sauteed with onion and spices, red cabbage salad leftovers, toast and fresh tomato, all topped with hummus and sprinkled with aleppo chili flakes.

 

Toasted bread with spoon of hummus and sauteed collard greens. Hummus is yellow-ish because I added some turmeric this time.