Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

Tomorrow the Room Mums from my class are throwing a farewell party for the four children who are leaving our school at the end of the year.

One of the hardest parts about working in an international school is that families come and go quite easily. Parents are relocated for work and the kids are off to new lands. Although this is exciting and allows for so many wonderful learning opportunities, it’s also a bit sad.

Where I grew up, people rarely moved. The class roster was almost identical for 13 years.I graduated high school with almost all the same people that I went to kindergarten with. 

My high school English teacher even taught my father.

Saying goodbye to children is really hard for me. I care so much for each and every child in my class, and the thought that I will probably never see them again breaks my heart.

 So, to make the farewells more bearable, we’re throwing a party.

To make the farewells more sweet, I baked cupcakes.

Healthy Vegan Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

Slightly adapted from: Confessions of a Bake-a-Holic

Ingredients

4 cups flour

2 2/3 cups raw sugar

1 1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 Tablespoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup apple sauce

3 cups hot water

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line or oil a muffin tin.
2. In medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl, combine oil, apple sauce, hot water and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Mix just to combine. Add bananas.
4. Pour batter into prepared muffin tin. Bake for about 20 minutes, until a tester inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.
5. Remove from oven and let cool. Store in the refrigerator. Before serving, dust with powdered sugar.

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Vegan Carrot Cake

Last Saturday, I made a healthy vegan carrot cake for my friend Melanie’s birthday.

For my first attempt at a new approach to a classic, I turned to Mama Pea. Her vegan carrot cake has been on my recipe wish list for ages.

As usual, her recipe was divine! I made very few alterations to the cake recipe but created my own frosting since vegan cheese replacements haven’t made their way to Germany yet.

Steamed carrots waiting to be pureed.

Cream together the carrots, sugars, margarine and vanilla.

  Sift together the dry ingredients and stir into the wet.

Fold in the raisins.

Spread the batter into a prepared cake pan.

Bake and set aside to cool.

   For the frosting, I removed as much liquid as possible from vanilla soy yogurt.

 The yogurt eventually became much thicker.

Unfortunately, at that point, I realized how late I was and stopped taking pictures. The cake was actually delivered to Melanie’s house in two parts: cooling cake and ready frosting.

After a few more hours, I frosted the cake, stuck in some candles and sang happy birthday.

The cake was so moist and delicious. It was eaten with delight by vegans and non-vegans alike. Everyone raved.

Thank you, Mama Pea!

Vegan Carrot Cake with ‘Cream Cheese’ Frosting

Ingredients

• 10 carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks
• 1/3 c. vegan margarine, room temperature
• 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 c. unsweetened almond or soy milk (vanilla or plain)
• 1/2 c. packed organic brown sugar
• 2/3 c. organic raw sugar
• 1/2 t. vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp. ground flax seed
• 1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour (pastry flour is best but regular worked for me)
• 1/2 c. raisins
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. ginger
• 1/2 t. nutmeg

Frosting

• 3 T. vegan margarine
• 2 cups vanilla soy yogurt, well drained
• 2 c. powdered sugar

Method

1. Begin to dehydrate the yogurt by straining it for several hours using a mesh strainer and paper towels.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a round cake pan with vegan margarine and dust with flour. Steam the carrots until tender then puree in a food processor until smooth.
3. In a large bowl, cream together pureed carrots, margarine, brown sugar, raw sugar, vanilla, applesauce and milk. Stir in the ground flaxseed and set aside.
4. In a smaller bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, adding a little at a time until incorporated. Fold in the raisins.
5. Spread into the prepared cake pan and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean. Cool completely.
6. Once the yogurt has dripped off the excess liquid, create a bed of paper towels, about 6 towels thick and spread the yogurt on top. Place another pile of paper towels on top and allow to dehydrate even more. The yogurt will become quite thick and ‘cream cheese’ in consistency. Whip together the yogurt, margarine and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Spread over the cooled cake.

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Healthy Pumpkin Carrot Muffins

Pumpkin, pumpkin and more pumpkin!

Over the weekend, I cooked my first pumpkin of the season.

Slowly but surely, my pumpkin pile is dwindling.

Just look at the last 3 days’ breakfast for evidence.

Pumpkin oats with brown sugar and pecans.

Pumpkin oats with maple syrup and pecans.

  Pumpkin oats with ground flax, peanut butter and maple syrup.

Clearly, my morning pumpkin needs are being met.

But what about lunch and dinner?

If I had only thought about it earlier, I would have put pumpkin in my celeriac soup.

It was pretty amazing, even without pumpkin!

What about my lunch-time salad from yesterday?

I could have subbed pumpkin in place of the blueberries. Pumpkin would have gone well with the plum cobbler the Year 1 students made for the teachers.

I guess my pumpkin addiction will have to manifest in muffin form.

My attempt to create a Pumpkin Morning Glory Muffin was quite successful.

As an added bonus, my apartment now smells like autumn!

These muffins were tossed together using ingredients I had on hand.

Sift together the dry ingredients.

Whisk the wet ingredients together.

  Stir in the carrots.

 Add the dry ingredients.

Stir until well combined.

Chop the seeds, nuts and dried fruit.

  Fold in the nuts, seeds and fruit.

Spoon the batter into greased muffin trays and garnish with pumpkin seeds. 

Bake, cool and enjoy!

Makes 14 muffins

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ginger
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (or yogurt)
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 large carrots, grated
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup pecans, chopped
• 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1 cup dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, apricot, etc.)
• 1 Tbsp. flaxseed, ground
• 1 Tbsp. sunflower seeds
• 1 Tbsp. pumpkin seeds plus more to garnish

Method

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, pumpkin, vanilla and honey. Stir in the shredded carrots.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Stir until well mixed.
4. Fold in the nuts, seeds seeds and dried fruit.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the muffins.

Now please excuse me, I haven’t eaten pumpkin in the last 3 hours.

I must remedy this immediately.

Thank God for muffins!

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Bloggers’ Best

My oven and food processor are still sweating from the workout yesterday.

5 new recipes later, I’m making some progress on my recipe wish list.

It’s so much fun to use a recipe that has come from someone else. I felt like all my favorite bloggers came by to play last night. Pure bonding, I tell you!

So let’s jump right in, shall we?

As I mentioned, I volunteered to make the Baby Shower treats for my colleague who is unable to eat sugary sweets or anything made with white flour.

I love a good challenge.

My challenge was made easier by the help of the Happy Herbivore. I slightly altered the recipes, but the link is to the original recipe.

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1¼ cups whole wheat flour
• ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 whole banana, very ripe
• ½ cup raw sugar
• ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
• ¼ cup non-dairy milk
• 1½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup shredded zucchini

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease muffin pan and set aside.
2. Whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together.
3. In a food processor, cream together the mashed banana with applesauce and sugar.
4. In a small bowl, mix the banana mixture with the soymilk, vanilla, zucchini and any other optional add-ins you might like such as vegan chocolate chips or chopped raw walnuts. Stir until evenly combined.
5. Add flour mix to wet mix in 3-4 batches and stir until just combined.
6. Spoon batter into greased muffin pan and bake 18-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Butter Bean Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp cinnamon (optional)
• a dash of ground cardamon (optional)
• ½ cup canned white beans, liquids reserved
• ½ cup raw sugar
• ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup vegan chocolate chips
• a dash of salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a large cookie sheet or line with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Transfer 3/4 cup of the oats to a food processor and pulse, about 15x, until crumbly but not powder. Transfer to a mixing bowl and combine with flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cardamon. Whisk to incorporate and set aside.
3. Transfer beans to processor then add applesauce, sugar, vanilla extract and 1 tbsp of the bean liquid. Whiz until smooth.
4. Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and stir about 10 times. Add chips, remaining 1/4 cup oats and the rest of the bean liquid, stirring until combined. If the mixture is too wet, add more oats. If it’s too dry, add a little water.
5. Drop tablespoon’s of batter onto the cookie sheet, leaving an inch of room between each. Bake 15 minutes, until edges are just turning light brown and middles are firm. They will firm a bit more as they cool. Check the bottoms to make sure they are golden brown.

At the baby shower today, very few people were touching the treats I brought, not even the guest of honor!

Cookies, chocolate cup cakes, strawberries and whipped cream are my contribution.

Once I let her know about the nutritional value of the recipes, the table was flocked with “Oh thank God,” and “I was desperate but didn’t want to break my diet,” and “Really? NO WAY!” I’ve been asked to bring copies of the recipes tomorrow so I’d say the Happy Herbivore’s recipes were a hit! I came home empty handed.

The Guest of Honor was most satisfied. Chocolate cake is her favorite but she thought those days were gone. How wrong she was.

I was just happy she could have her cake while eating for two.

So back to the crazy cooking last night. We’re on to dinner!

On Monday night, I put out a ton of black beans to soak, following Allison’s helpful guidance. Yesterday, I continued the process by cooking the beans until ready to be used. These little gems can’t be found in canned from in Germany.

Vegan Black Bean Burger

Again, click on the link to see the original, unaltered recipe by Emily from The Front Burner

Ingredients: (makes 6 burgers)

• 3 cups cooked black beans
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1/2 cup dry rolled oats
• 1/4 pumpkin seeds
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4  tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp coriander
• 3/4 tsp chili powder
• 3/4 tsp onion powder
• 3/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Next, add the oats and pumpkin seeds to your food processor and grind until coarsely chopped (they will still be a little chunky).
2. Grate the carrots, and then add to your mixture in the food processor. Add 3/4 of the beans, all spices, and the olive oil. Once all of this is in the food processor, give it a whir and mix it all together.
3. Spoon mixture into a mixing bowl and then fold in the rest of the whole, reserved beans. Wet your hands and then form into 6 medium sized patties. Place patties on a non-stick baking sheet or into a baking pan, and bake at 300 degrees for 40 minutes, turning once in the middle. If you want to grill these, pre-bake them for 30 minutes at 300, and then throw them on the grill to reheat and get a little extra browning.

These veggie burgers were pretty good, but I prefer my old-stand-by which is chock full of fresh veggies.

I topped the burgers with a super-simple yet delicious alternative to guacamole.

This recipe comes from Liren over at The Kitchen Confidante

Avocado-Corn-Tomato Salad

• 1 large ripe avocados, diced
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, sliced lengthwise
• 1 small can of corn
• 1/2 medium red onion, finely diced
• handful cilantro, finely chopped
• 1/2 jalapeno, minced
• 1 lime, juiced
• salt & pepper to taste

Toss ingredients and enjoy!

As if my life wasn’t full enough after such a good dinner and a sickening amount of batter eater while baking the cookies and cakes, I had a dessert yet to enjoy!

Brandi at bran appetit always has such wonderful ideas. She is probably featured more than any other blogger on my recipe wish list.

There’s a reason I like her so much.

She does good. She does real good!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

Ingredients:

• 3 cups strawberries, halved
• 3 cups rhubarb, chopped into 1/2” pieces
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup agave
• 1/2 cup oat flour (simply oats ground in the food processor)
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• pinch salt
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp canola oil

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Mix strawberries, rhubarb, honey, and agave in large bowl and pour into greased 8×8 baking dish.
3. Combine flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, salt, butter, and oil until mixture is crumbly and butter and oil is incorporated.
4. Sprinkle oat mixture over fruit.
5. Bake 40-50 minutes until edges are bubbling and topping is golden.
6. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

This was so, so good!

So good in fact, it made a reappearance on my breakfast oatmeal this morning.

Don’t be surprised to see this again tomorrow!

Here’s what else I ate yesterday. Simple and repeat items. I just felt I had to share, what with my promise of catching you up and all.

Breakfast

Snack

One of the only photos I have of the Butter Bean Chocolate Chip Cookies

Lunch

Lamb’s Lettuce and Spinach from the balcony

After such a busy day yesterday, I’m taking it    e   a   s   y    tonight.

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Lightened-Up Pesto

I love the rich taste of a good, fresh pesto.

I don’t, however, like the way my body feels after indulging in the oily green Goddess.

Solution?  Lightened-Up Pesto.

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 4 ounces Romano cheese, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 6 cloves garlic
• 3 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
• 1/3 cup mixture of Brazil and pine nuts
• 2 sun-dried tomatoes
• dash of salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 cup lemon juice (1 large lemon)
• Hot cooked spaghetti

Method

1. In a food processor, combine Romano cheese and garlic; cover and process for 30 seconds.
2. Add the basil, nuts, tomatoes, salt and pepper; cover and process until combined. While processing, add the lemon juice; process until combined.
3. Warm the sauce with the prepared spaghetti, allowing the cheese to melt.

I added a skewer of boiled baby shrimp to my dinner.

This is the lightest, most refreshing pesto you will ever taste.

Once you make pesto with lemon juice, you will never turn back to oil again.

Here’s the step-by-step.

Collect your ingredients

Fresh ingredients always point to an outstanding meal.

Get your pasta going.

Process the garlic and cheese until combined.

Add the basil, nuts, tomatoes, pepper and salt.

Process while adding lemon juice.

Heat and serve.

Simply delicious!

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Trying New Things

Living in a foreign country is all about trying new things.

Such as Nordic Walking

Everything from the customs and traditions to the food and culture are different. And when living abroad, it’s all about becoming a part of something new.

Such as Carnival

I’ve tried many new things in the past 2 years…

Such as running my first half-marathon. (Or running at all for that matter.)

And living without a car and relying completely on public transportation.

…but something I hadn’t tried until today was something not too far from my home-land… Les Mills Body Pump.

For 2 years I’ve looked into the studio at my gym and watched strong men and women pump iron through the air. I’ve watched in amazement as their muscles bulged with every move. Witnessed the impossible changing of weights which would rival the speed and precision of any nascar pit crew. For two years I’ve looked in and wondered what it would be like. For two years, I’ve been too afraid to find out.

Well today was different!

With the support of my friend and Body Pump advocate, Larissa, I completed my first iron-pumping, muscle-bulging, weight-changing lesson. You want to know what? It wasn’t nearly as scary as I’d imagined. I actually enjoyed every bit of the burn. (Ok, well maybe not every… the never-ending lunges weren’t enjoyable.)

I followed up the new class with my old favorite- Body Balance.

I thought that the deep stretching and focused attention would be good after Body Pump, but found that my muscles were still shaking so badly that I couldn’t hold my poses as usual. I still enjoyed the class but found myself getting frustrated at my ability today. With some careful rescheduling, I have no doubt that I can fit in both classes- just not on the same day.

My day of trying new things continued with figuring out a way to walk to a restaurant as quickly as possible since said public transportation wasn’t working properly today.

When I first came to Bonn to do my student teaching, I got along really well with an assistant named Susanna. Unfortunately, she left the school after my student teaching year so hasn’t been there for the past two school years. Luckily, she came to visit this weekend. I met with her and three other lovely assistants for a late lunch at Vapiano. I mentioned Vapiano earlier this week when I shared a recipe I tried to recreate.

I had one of their specials: dill pasta with shrimp, garlic, cherry tomatoes, green and white asparagus, carrots, and arugula cooked in coconut milk. It was good but in my opinion had too many flavors going on at once.

Several hours later, back at home, I ate a dinner which included one of my favorite new things.

Arugula

If you haven’t noticed, I have a passion for this spicy salad leaf. I know arugula can be found in the US, but it is not nearly as common nor accessible as in Germany. Before living here, I’d never tried the stuff. Now, I’d be happy to eat it in every meal.

Dinner consisted of steamed asparagus with olive oil spread, salt and pepper and a salad with arugula, avocado, red pepper, tomatoes, and smoked cheese.

The smoky cheese went really well with the spicy arugula.

Sorry for the blurry photos, it was getting dark and I was holding my plate in one hand and my DSLR in the other. Never a good combination.

So here’s to trying new things- it might just end in a life-long love. I heart you, arugula!

What’s something new you’ve tried recently? Would you do it again?

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