Homemade Larabars and Chocolate Chip Cookie Cakes

I. am. so. full. Dinner was the most delicious thing that has crossed my lips in the past…however knows when.

But halt! Quick note: the Albany Vegetarian Network’s Vegan Fashion Show entries are all up on the web now! Our full-body and headshots as well as our answers to all of our questions. For those of you that are just dying to see my page…click hurr.

Okay, back to dinner. Tonight we decided to go standard-american-diet, but healthy and vegan. Let me rephrase that. We had pizza night! 🙂 Filled with pizza, veggies, and chocolate-chip cookie bliss accompanied by ‘naner soft serve.

The cookies ended up more like something I like to call Cookie Cakes, and they were de-licious. I had never had Banana Soft Serve before, so when I first tried it tonight I actually died. I think I’m still waking up. For all of you people in the blogosphere thinking to yourself “What’s so special about banana soft serve? It’s just bananas.” ….stop. This stuff is the darned bee’s knees if I ever knew them. I may never touch So Delicious again (gasp!).

How do you make ‘Naner Soft Serve, you may ask? My super-simple recipe, taken from the amazing Gina:

Banana Soft Serve

Ingredients:

• Bananas
• Aluminum foil/tupperware/saran rap/whatever you have for storage
• Food processor

Directions:

1. Peel bananas and wrap/store using your method of choice.
2. Freeze bananas (ours were frozen in 4 hours)
3. Stick ’em in the food processor and let it whirl! Stop every once in a while to scrape down the sides and mix it around until it looks like ice cream and no giant chunks are left.
4. Serve and eat immediately! Enjoy 🙂 Stuff your face 🙂

Seriously. Go freeze some bananas and make banana soft serve as soon as they are frozen. You will never regret it. Not only is it totally guilt-free because it’s just frozen fruit, it’s better than nice cream. Super sweet and scrumptious.

Okay, enough of this food-talk. I’ll show you the goods:

Pizza! P-I-Z-Z-A…

Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Pizza Dough (with thyme and oregano added in 🙂 ) topped with Amy’s Low-Sodium Marinara Sauce, diced purple onion, shrooms, basil, and spinach. I cannot wait for leftovers tomorrow!

Veggies! Broccoli, shrooms, red pepper, purple onions, and yellow summer squash 🙂

Slight camera fail

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cakes! Mmmm 🙂

With some freshly scooped ‘Naner Soft Serve:

I can’t wait for dessert tomorrow night 🙂 Can you say “cookies in the microwave”? Ohhh my gosh, melty gooey goodness.

The best part? Fat-free with no added sugar. But you would never know. Who woulda thunk? That’s the beauty of stevia!

Here’s my recipe! 🙂

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cakes

Makes 12

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups spelt flour (any flour will work, eyeball to adjust moisture for other flours)
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp. tapioca flour
• 3/4 cup NuStevia Baking Blend (or sugar/other substitute if you roll like that)
• 2/3 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp. unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1 cup vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease a cookie sheet.
2. Mix tapioca flour, NuStevia, applesauce, and vanilla almond milk in a large bowl. Then, add in vanilla extract.
3. Add in spelt flour, baking soda, sea salt, and chocolate chips. Mix well, and then use an ice cream scooper to scoop the cookie dough onto the cookie sheet, about 1/2 to an inch apart (they don’t spread out very much).
4. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the outsides are cooked and give a bit when pushed (or you can use a toothpick in the middle of one).
5. Let cool for a couple of minutes, and enjoy! 🙂

These were too delicious, and I love my guilt-free desserts! I will definitely be having one more than one tomorrow after din din. I can’t help myself – Rebecca and I had to split another one 🙂

Since Larabars are my favorite thing ever (but they’re super expensive), I decided to make my own Katebars to have with my morning oats! This time, I whipped up my own version of Cinnamon Bun Katebars. These are quick, simple, delicious, and most of all, nice to my wallet 🙂

Cinnamon Bun Katebars

Makes 2 Katebars

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup almonds
• 1/2 cup packed, pitted dates
• a few sprinkles of cinnamon
• a drizzle of vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Whiz the almonds in your food processor until they are well-crumbled but not a flour.
2. Add dates, cinnamon, and vanilla and process until no whole dates are left.
3. Put in a small bowl and squoosh it with your hands (this is the fun part 🙂 ) until combined to your liking.
4. Divide in half and shape each into an energy-bar type shape. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to eat.
5. Enjoy! 🙂

Variations:

• Substitute part of the dates with raisins or another dried fruit such as mango, apple, cherries, or pineapple. Mmmm 🙂
• Substitute a different nut. For example, you could use peanuts with an eensy bit of salt for Peanut Butter and Jelly Katebars!
• Use other spices, or no spices at all!
• The possibilities are endless. Go crazzaay

What flavors would you like to see? Give me some fun ideas!

Well, tomorrow I have work at 8 am, so I have to get up extra early to run – 5 am! This should be interesting. I am super pumped to go running though, especially with my brand-new 15 dolla watch! Checkit:

Thank you, Target 🙂

I’m off to go read before bed! See you tomorrow lovlies 🙂

xoxox,