Vegan recipes and snacks

I have a group of girls I meet up with every week, aptly called “Girls’ Dinner” (at Holland House of course!). It’s one of the highlights of my week and I’m so grateful for this wonderful group of girls. I’m also grateful that they always like my food because I’ve been known to set the kitchen on fire once or twice. The girls have asked me for the recipes for a few of my dishes so I’ve decided to put my three favorite organic vegan snacks into one blog. They’re easy, inexpensive and healthier (except the popcorn) than the typical snacky dish, i.e. chips, hummus, cheese, crackers, pre-cut fruit, etc.

Kale Chips

The girls love these because it gives you the satisfaction of eating something crispy and salty but not fried and not starchy! 1-3 bunches of kale leaves (I use 3 for the party, 1 if it’s just me and a friend) Grape seed oil Seasons/spices of your choice: I’ve used garlic and Chipotle, smoked sea salt & pepper, sesame seeds & paprika, I’ve even thrown some pumpkin seeds in the mix. You can do an Indian theme, a Mexican theme, Italian…it’s whatever flavors you like. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Tear kale into bite-size pieces and put into your salad spinner. Rinse kale, spin and dump the water, repeating this process until there is virtually no water at the bottom of the bowl. Only take a large handful at a time and dry kale as much as possible by pressing it between layers of paper towels. Once all of the kale is spun, pressed and dried transfer it to a large mixing bowl. Prepare your seasonings in a small bowl and set aside. Drizzle kale with the grape seed oil – do not use too much, but enough to make sure every piece has some oil on it. Sprinkle spices onto kale/oil and thoroughly mix. Sprinkle kale onto a cookie sheet making sure that it’s not piled too high as you want it to be crispy. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until crispy. Make sure you keep a close eye on the kale, it likes to catch fire.

Organic vegan kettle corn

Like I said before, there are a few unhealthy things about this dish, but it’s 10,000 times better than any microwave stuff on the shelf so if you’re going to eat popcorn, may as well do it the best you can! Make sure your corn kernels are organic, that’s really the best you can do there as most corn is genetically modified and terrible for your system. I use organic agave but if you’re a high-roller you can use raw honey – it’s just really expensive to use for cooking (and wasteful of all of the benefits of honey). Agave isn’t great for you as it is very processed but it’s better than sugar or syrup or caramel sauce. Now that you know what you’re getting into, let’s make some popcorn! 1/3 cup of organic popcorn kernels 3 tablespoons of organic grape seed oil 5 tablespoons Organic Agave nectar (or more depending on how much “sweet” you want in your treat) Smoked salt according to taste Heat oil and agave in a large sauce pot (the kind with two handles) until it just starts to bubble. Add kernels and then cover. If you have a glass lid it really helps to monitor the kernels; if not, keep an ear on your popcorn (pun). Sporadically rotate the pot (with the lid on) so the kernels do not get burned by sitting in the same spot. This also allows them to get hot so they will pop. Do this throughout the entire popping process until popping starts to slow down and there are a couple of seconds between each popped kernel. Shut off the heat transfer popped corn to a large bowl. Be careful when you remove the lid as there will be steam and condensation. Add smoked sea salt, pink Himalayan salt or just regular sea salt to your corn, mix/fold and voila! Organic vegan kettle corn.

Banana Ice Cream

Since discovering I’m lactose intolerant, I’ve cut my dairy by approximately 95%. This means no cheese, no yogurt, no cottage cheese, no milk and most importantly no ice cream. : ( However I’ve also discovered that cutting these foods out of my diet drastically decreased my sweet tooth. There may not be a correlation but I’ve noticed the change. But I must say I really enjoyed ice cream. Then one day, a massage therapist at work discovered a brown banana in the freezer with no one to claim it. The moment she said “vegan ice cream” I was like Pavlov’s dog; salivating all over the idea. I’ve never been the same since. Here’s the recipe: Buy a bunch of bananas and let them get overly ripe as if you are making banana bread. This is the hardest part of making the ice cream because it requires patience. Once they are overly ripe peel them, break the bananas into sections and double bag them in zip lock freezer bags. Freeze overnight. When your bananas are fully frozen you are ready to make ice cream. Flavor suggestions: walnuts, dark chocolate, almonds, strawberries, dates, raisins, carob chips, cinnamon, almond butter, vegan brownie bites… anything that will mix well with the bananas. Take out the appropriate amount of bananas, which will be relative to how many people are eating the treat. Put the banana chunks in your food processor with your desired mix-ins. Blend but do not over blend as that will make it more like a smoothie and less like ice cream. Basically you want to blend JUST until there are no chunks of banana. That’s it! If you want harder ice cream, make a batch of your recipe, put it into Tupperware and freeze overnight. Done!