breakfast

no sugar breakfast cookies

November 6, 2017 / breakfast, sweets / 0 comment

I have bought way too many muffins and cookies on our weekend adventures. I was inspired to make a refined sugar-free, yummy, healthy breakfast cookie. I’ve been making these easy breakfast cookies on repeat since nailing the recipe. They’re a great road trip snack or simple breakfast with a coffee when you need to get out the door. Packed with oatmeal, walnuts, coconut and bananas, pretty much all my favourite things and also pantry staples. Sweetened with only a drop of maple syrup and two bananas. Recipe makes 24 small cookies. I will often keep half the batch on the counter and the other dozen in the freezer in bags to grab and go. I often make these with dark chocolate chips + walnuts, or raisins + hemp hearts/chia seeds. If you like these cookies you might also enjoy my no sugar banana muffins that follow the same style with no added sugar, but also taste delicious.

no sugar breakfast cookies

Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas mashed (can be previously frozen)
4 tbsp maple syrup
1 egg
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips (or raisins)
1/3 cup chopped walnuts (or hemp hearts or chia seeds or chopped pecans)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheer with parchment paper. Combine all wet ingredients in one bowl. Mix all dry ingredients in another bowl. Combine and stir until just mixed. Scoop teaspoon size balls onto a baking sheet. Bake 13-15 minutes until cookies set and bottoms are lightly brown. My oven takes exactly 13 minutes, and runs hot. Enjoy!

toasted quinoa granola

April 27, 2017 / breakfast, sweets / 1 Comment

Quinoa granola is quickly becoming my favourite breakfast lately. Packed with oats, crispy toasted quinoa, cinnamon, coconut oil and maple syrup it makes me excited to hear that weekday alarm. No joke. The nutty and crispy quinoa is the best! Served over yogurt with a little drizzle of honey? Yum. It’s totally vegan, gluten free and packed with protein and good fats to keep you feeling full. Seriously it is so easy, once you start making your own granola it’s hard to go back to store bought. Feel free to swap in pepita seeds or sliced almonds if you have them on hand too instead of the hemp hearts. I just measure out all the ingredients and pour them directly into my glass baking dish, using it as my mixing bowl and minimizing clean up. Makes 6-8 servings.

toasted quinoa granola

Ingredients:
2 and 1/2 cups old fashioned large oats
1/2 cup uncooked dry quinoa
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsweeteneed flaked coconut
1/4 cup hemp hearts
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 and 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup melted coconut oil

Combine all ingredients. Bake at 300 degrees for 35-40 minutes in a glass or ceramic baking dish, stirring once halfway. Once done cooking give the granola a good stir all the way to the bottom (sometimes the quinoa can stick a little) and let cool completely before storing. Keeps well in a sealed container in the fridge or on the counter top for two weeks or in the freezer for longer. Hope you enjoy!

tomato + zucchini baked egg shakshuka

October 2, 2016 / breakfast, supper / 0 comment

Tomatoes, zucchini, garlic and feta – maybe some of my favourite flavours ever. Shakshuka hails as a breakfast dish in the Middle East, but I often make it for weeknight suppers or late lunch on Sunday afternoons.

It cooks in one pan, and we sometimes have fresh bread from the market on Saturdays to scoop it all up with. Other wins? Shakshuka cooks in one pan, is meatless and loaded with veggies and protein from those eggs. Can you tell I have gone back to work with the cooks-in-one-pan business? Life’s full of big beautiful feelings with my boy now in daycare and it’s BUSY. Three of out four meals I am cooking these days cook in one pot or pan i.e.: soups, frittatas and dishes like this one. Okay enough about me, back to the recipe! I used tomatoes and zucchinis, but you can easily substitute any veggie your family likes. Red peppers, mushrooms or spinach all work. I’ll often make this on Sunday and enjoy it Monday for lunch, it’s one of those dishes that reheats well the next day too. Recipe makes four servings when paired with a green salad or fresh bread.

tomato + zucchini baked egg shakshuka

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion sliced into half moons
2 cloves garlic chopped
2 small or 1 large zucchini sliced into half moons
2 tomatoes diced
1 and 1/2 cups canned tomatoes or leftover tomato sauce
4 eggs
handful feta
chopped flat leaf parsley for garnish (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat olive oil in an oven proof pan (like a cast iron) on the stove top. Add onion and salt and pepper. Saute onion on low-medium heat until fragrant, approximately 5-10 minutes. Add the garlic, zucchini and fresh tomatoes and paprika and cumin. Cook for an additional 10 minutes until the tomatoes begin to break down and zucchini lightly browns.

Add canned tomatoes or leftover tomato sauce scrapping up any bits that are sticking. I almost always use leftover marinara-style tomato sauce which I usually have hanging around in my fridge or freezer. This has some basil and oregano already in it, so feel free check the seasoning and add a pinch of each and some extra salt and pepper if using canned tomatoes. If they are whole canned tomatoes, break them up a bit with your hands as you add them. Cook and stir occasionally until canned tomatoes warm. Lastly, using a wooden spoon push back the sauce and veggies creating an empty space in the pan for each egg. Break the eggs (I use a bowl in case of shells) one by one and add in. Transfer pan to the oven. Sprinkle feta on top. Bake for 5-10 minutes based on how well done you want your eggs. With a little toddler eating this at my house I veer more towards the 10 min mark. Serve straight from the oven topped with parsley and dive in.

no sugar banana muffins

August 2, 2016 / breakfast, sweets / 0 comment

Heading on a road trip to the beach and baked these muffins up to nibble on, because trip snacks are half the fun right? In other news, also heading back to work in two weeks and hoping a freezer stocked with these will ease what will soon be very busy weekday mornings. I like big life events that I can prepare [read: cook/bake] for.

This recipe came about as I cruised the kids aisle at the grocery store and found all the snack items to have sugar listed in the top ingredients. I am trying to avoid giving any to our 13 month old. Not entirely, just not on a routine basis. So i whipped these up (I think the photos are from the fourth batch I’ve made this summer) and skipped adding any sugar or maple syrup and don’t even miss it! Naturally sweet bananas and dates work so well together. Feel free to throw in some chocolate chips if you like but we thought these were pretty delicious as is. Recipe makes 12 regular sized muffins, or 18 smaller sized muffins for baby/toddler hands. I just fill the empty muffin cups with water when I bake the second round. These freeze well too, but don’t generally last very long in my house. Topping one with almond butter is my favourite breakfast this week. Wishing you happy summer adventures big and small.

no sugar banana muffins

1 cup oats
3/4 cup flour (or gluten free alternative)
1 + 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 + 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (use 2 tsp if using gluten free flour)
1/2 tsp salt
5 dates pits removed and chopped into small chunks
1/2 cup walnuts chopped
1 tsp vanillia extract
4 ripe bananas peeled and mashed
1 egg
1/3 cup melted coconut oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix wet and dry ingredients in two separate bowls. Combine them being careful not to over mix. Batter should be lumpy. Use muffin liners, or lightly grease the muffin pan with coconut oil or non stick spray and scoop out batter, filling each cup about 2/3 full. I bake these for exactly 17 minutes in my oven (which runs hot) and they come out perfect every time. Bake until a knife comes out clean and tops are slightly golden. Let muffins cool for a few minutes in pan before removing.

sweet potato smoothie bowl

June 8, 2016 / breakfast, sweets / 0 comment

I’m devouring this smoothie bowl as I type and it’s amazing. Slightly sweet and so satisfying. It feels a bit more mindful to eat from a bowl and spoon, rather than chug a smoothie straight from the glass, right?

Summer always feels busy. Our little man is turning 1 in a week, barbecues with family and friends are in full swing, and I am loving the last months of my maternity leave spending a lot of time at the park and local splash pad or cuddled up at home with my babe. I try to incorporate veggies in my breakfast and needed a break from green smoothies. This was a perfect change of pace.

A few tips for this recipe, boil your sweet potatoes the night before and this smoothie bowl comes together in a flash. I just stick them in the fridge cooked and whole and peel them quickly before I toss them in the blender. I added pepita seeds and shredded unsweetened coconut, but chia seeds and any nuts would be delicious. Makes enough for two small smoothie bowls, or one very hungry one!

sweet potato smoothie bowl

Ingredients:
1 pitted date
1 frozen banana
2 small organic sweet potatoes boiled and peeled (or 1 large)
1/2 milk of your choice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
pinch sea salt
1 scoop protein powder
Suggested toppings: shredded coconut, chia seeds, pepita seeds

Combine all ingredients in blender and blitz until smooth.

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