Raw Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Pie

Nom nom nom.

These were way too fun to make.

Like really. Thoroughly enjoyable.

But even better to eat...you with my dear. ;)

Sorry, we are writing Fairy Tales in my classroom as of late, if you can't tell.

Just a little while ago, it was this beautiful girl's birthday. She turned 27. OMGAASH! She is so old!

Haha, just teasing big sis. I am turning 25 in just a few short months--which is crazy!

Anywhoozles (language from my husband, I apologize), I thought: Man oh man, I need to make something epic for this girl's big day. So I did, and it was glorious. (Insert Heavenly chorus here.)

We're talking layers of dense peanut butter cookie crust, banana soft serve, chocolate peanut butter cups, flecks of gold dust...you get the picture.

Literally.

"And it's happy to see you!" (quote from the movie Mulan)

Sorry, I couldn't resist. (Totally unintentional smile, by the way.)

Mmmm...

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Pie

raw, vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free

Base (inspired by my raw peanut butter cookies):

• 1 cup raw, whole almonds (or almond meal)
• 1 cup pitted medjool dates
• ½ cup natural peanut butter
• 1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract 
• couple pinches of salt (to taste)

In your food processor, blend the almonds until they resemble a coarse meal. Add the dates, peanut butter, vanilla, and salt. Process the ingredients until the mixture starts to form into a ball. This will take anywhere from 1 to 2 minutes (depending on the strength of your food processor). If it isn't coming together, add another tablespoon or two of peanut butter, stir, and process again. You can even add in a teaspoon of water. Spread at the bottom of 4 ramekins (or small glass bowls).
*Note: you will have leftover cookie dough--you can thank me later. :)

Banana Soft Serve:

• 4 bananas
• 2-3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• a pinch of salt

Blend ingredients together until a smooth texture is reached (a food processor works just fine, or a blender if you want to wash more dishes, ha). Pour banana mixture into ramekins (or small bowls) and set in the freezer for 2 + hours.

Peanut Butter Cups:

• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• Peanut butter

Mix together coconut oil, cocoa powder, and maple syrup, in a small bowl. Pour chocolate mixture into the bottom of the mini cupcake liners (no need for a mini cupcake pan), just enough to cover the bottom. Set these on a plate and place in the freezer for 10 minutes. Remove from the freezer and spoon a small amount of peanut butter in the middle of the cups (a small spoonful is perfect). Pour the rest of the chocolate mixture over top of the peanut butter. Try to cover peanut butter completely. Place in the freezer for 20-30 minutes to harden the chocolate.

AND AT LAST!

Once everything is completed and ready to go, remove the ramekins and peanut butter cups from the freezer. Roughly chop the peanut butter cups. Place the peanut butter cups on top of the banana soft serve bowls. Use as many as you like. Serve and devour! :)

It was a fun day! To see pictures of the process of making this dessert, look below!

Devin pretending that our nephew Shem locked him out of the house. :)

Inspired by this recipe.

And of course by my peanut butter cookies.

"Raw" Peanut Butter Cookies (vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free)

Okay seriously, I LOVE peanut butter. I have a slight obsession with the stuff. Sometimes after school, I come home and just dip a spoon into the jar. I deserve it---it's exhausting teaching 3rd graders! ;)

This weekend, my sister and her cute family came to visit us. It's her birthday on Wednesday and I wanted to make her something special. Both her and I are health-fanatics and don't eat the regular sweets that people enjoy on their birthdays---cake, ice cream, cupcakes, cookies, etc. I really wanted to make her something somewhat birthday-oriented, so of course my mind went straight to peanut butter! 

And the end result? Raw Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Pie. (That's a mouthful. Really it was, and it was delicious.) I will post the recipe later this week. Keep an eye out for it! For the base, I made this Raw Peanut Butter Cookie Crust. I had extra so I made little peanut butter cookies with the traditional criss-cross pattern.

Raw Peanut Butter Cookies

vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free

• 1 cup raw, whole almonds (or almond meal)
• 1 cup pitted medjool dates
• ½ cup natural peanut butter
• 1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• couple pinches of salt (to taste)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. If you are using whole almonds, process them until they resemble a coarse meal in the food processor. If you are using almond meal, simply pour the almond meal into the food processor and you can move to step two!
2. Add the dates, peanut butter, vanilla, and salt.
3. Process the ingredients until the mixture starts to form into a ball. This will take anywhere from 1 to 2 minutes (depending on the strength of your food processor). If it isn't coming together, add another tablespoon or two of peanut butter, stir, and process again. You can even add in a teaspoon of water. (That's what I had to do because my dates were a tad dry.)
4. Form the dough into bite-sized balls and place on a baking sheet (or plate) covered with parchment paper. Press each ball gently with a fork to make the classic peanut butter cookie criss-cross pattern.
5. Store in the refrigerator or freezer.

Those are my cute little peanut butter crusts just ready to be made into birthday pies!

 Thank you Sweetest Kitchen for the inspiration!

Vegan Protein Cookie Dough (Gluten-free)

A while back, I received an email from a company called Simply Stevia. 

Simply Stevia is a company that sells stevia products. If you don't know what stevia is, it is a natural sweetener that comes directly from the Stevia Plant. Research shows that stevia is helpful in treating multiple health conditions, aiding people with weight loss, and even treating diabetes. In cooking, stevia is used as a non-caloric sweetener and flavor enhancer.

The stevia from Simply Stevia is of really high quality. I loved that it wasn't too grainy and had the perfect amount of sweet to it. (They also sell liquid stevia.)

They asked me if I would be interested in some free product in exchange for a few recipes in which I used their stevia. I was pretty excited. I couldn't decide on a flavor for them to send, so they graciously sent me a box of their mixed flavors, which includes Peach, Caramel Delicioso, Pomegranate, Natural, Mixed Berries, Valencia Orange, and Mango.

The first thing I did was use the stevia in my morning herbal tea. It was really tasty. I am a lover of Bengal Spice herbal tea from Celestial Seasonings. I put boiling water in a large mug, steeped the tea bag in the water for about 5 minutes, then removed the tea bag and stirred in one packet of Caramel Delicioso Stevia and about 1/8 cup almond milk. The flavor combination of the cinnamon, cloves, ginger, vanilla, and Caramel Delicioso was divine.

After that, I wanted to experiment a little bit. I looked in my pantry and grabbed a can of chickpeas and oats. My body was craving one thing and one thing only: cookie dough.

After mixing together the chickpeas, oats, peanut butter, almond milk, vanilla, cinnamon, Caramel Delicioso Stevia, and chocolate chips, I knew my task was complete. 

Oh my GOODNESS GRACIOUS...

My cookie dough was perfect. Now I just needed to roll them into cute little bite-sized pieces.

My work here was done.

Vegan Protein Cookie Dough

gluten-free

about 2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed (I used one 15 oz. can)

4 Tablespoons natural peanut butter

3 Tablespoons oats 

1/4 cup almond milk

2-3 packets Caramel Delicioso Stevia

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

a pinch of salt

3 dashes ground cinnamon

1/4 to 1/2 cup chocolate chips (vegans: use semi-sweet)

1. In a food processor, pour in the drained and rinsed chickpeas. Process for about 5 seconds. Add in the peanut butter and oats. Process for 15 seconds. Pour in the almond milk, Caramel Delicioso Stevia, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon. Process until smooth, for about 30 or so seconds. 
2. Make sure to taste-test your cookie dough at this point. Add in any more stevia or cinnamon that you need. 
3. Throw in about half of the chocolate chips and process into the cookie dough for about 20 seconds. Remove the cookie dough from the food processor and stir in the other half of the chocolate chips. (You can also choose to add in more oats here.)
4. Roll the cookie dough into bite-sized pieces or eat with a spoon straight from the container. :)  
5. Store in the fridge covered with plastic wrap or in a zippie.

chocolate chip cookie dough freezer fudge

Once upon a time there was an amazing blogger. Her name was Princess Angela, and she made delicious vegan food. One day Angela decided that she wanted to make healthy cookie dough fudge. That was the day that my life changed.

Just look at it.

Seriously, who can deny the deliciousness of cookie dough?

I know I can't.

Swap butter, sugar, and milk for coconut oil, sucanat, banana, and almond milk...and voila! A caramel syrup that you can feel good about eating.

Then pulse oats with some almonds, and you got flour with character!

Mix it all together...

Add some chocolate chips, of course.

Press it all down into a pan.

Cool, cut, and serve!

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I am telling you, this fudge is one of the most delicious things you will ever taste. The almond and oats gives the dough a rich and buttery flavor, all while keeping it healthy. If you like cookie dough, you will LOVE this.
P.S. It is called freezer fudge because it needs to be kept in the freezer to stay firm.

Cookie Dough Freezer Fudge
Vegan and gluten-free

• 3 tablespoons coconut oil
• 3/4 cup Sucanat (or brown sugar--just don’t pack it)
• 2 tablespoons almond milk
• 1/3 cup mashed banana (I prefer to sub-in applesauce because I don't like my cookie dough tasting like banana bread--but if you do, go ahead and use banana)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon salt, to taste
• 1 1/2 cups oats, ground into flour (use certified gluten-free oats to make it gluten-free)
• 1 cup raw whole almonds, ground into flour (or use 1 1/2 cups almond flour)
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips 

1. In a medium-sized pot, heat the coconut oil over medium heat. Stir in the milk and sugar and bring to a low boil. Immediately, reduce heat to low and stir for a couple minutes until sugar is dissolved. Stir in the mashed banana. Turn off heat and stir in the salt and vanilla. Set aside.
2. In a high speed blender, blend the oats until a flour forms. Add to a large bowl. Repeat process for the almonds, being sure not to over-process them as you don’t want the oils to release. Add to bowl and gently break apart any almond flour clumps with your fingers. Stir in the cinnamon.
3. Pour wet mixture over the dry mixture and stir well until no flour remains. Place bowl in the freezer for 30 minutes (this is so the chocolate chips don't melt). Remove and stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper. Scoop the cookie dough into the pan. Dip a spoon in water and spread it out until smooth. This dough will be very hard to spread, but don’t worry. Place in the freezer for 1 hour and then cut into squares and enjoy straight from the freezer. Store in the freezer in a ziploc bag or an air-tight container.

Deep-Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie

It's like a chocolate chip cookie...

Only better.

Because it's GIANT!

And thick and moist and oh so tasty.

Nom nom nom.

This thing is a winner.

Really, it is.

Look! It's a baby deep-dish chocolate chip cookie.

Awww...

Uh oh, it's getting eaten.

Hurry! Do something!

Too late! Muhahaha...

That's pretty much how this thing went. Once it came out of the oven, the baby-cakes were eaten within one hour, the cake was half eaten the first night (remember Valentine's Day?), and the rest of it was completely gone by the next day.

Yeah, it's that good.

Deep-Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie

(gluten-free and dairy-free...yay!)

• 2 cans garbanzo beans (or white beans), drained and rinsed (about 4 cups cooked, if using dried beans) 
• 1 cup gluten-free oats (or regular quick oats)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 3 tablespoons canola oil (or coconut oil)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar (feel free to use Sucanat, if preferred)
• 1 cup chocolate chips

1. Blend everything (except the chocolate chips) very well in a good food processor (not a blender).
2. Mix in chips, and pour into an oiled pan (either a cake pan or a springform pan--the smaller the pan, the deeper the cookie--I used a 9-inch cake pan and then made a couple baby-cakes in a muffin pan).
3. Cook at 350 degrees F for about 35-40 minutes. Let stand at least 10 minutes before removing from the pan.
4. Cook the baby cakes for about 10-15 minutes.

Inspired by this girl. Love her.

I pureed half of the beans in my food processor and set it aside, that way the remainder of the ingredients would mix up to be a smoother texture.

Mixing the other half of the beans with the ingredients...

Trying to get it smooth...

Mixing in the remaining beans...

It's chocolate chip time!
P.S. The batter is delicious.
Feel free to eat it by the spoonful.

Smooth it out in an oiled cake pan.

Before.

After.

Isn't she lovely?

So hurry, make it before anyone else does!

Really. Do it.

Okay? Promise?

What are you still doing here?

Oh yeah, I am still talking...

Okay, bye now.