Breakfast Bars... kind of

Another reason why I love Mondays... I have the whole morning and early afternoon free. This gives me time to play around in my kitchen and create what ideas and recipes I think up in my head. As you know, I love all things sweet. For breakfast I usually try and stick with veggies. Just ask my boss. She always makes fun of me (in a joking way of course) for bringing my steamed kale to the kitchen in the mornings. I always feel better starting out my day eating that way but sometimes I just want something sweet for breakfast. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with that, as long as it's prepared using wholesome ingredients and no sugar. Thank you stevia and yacon once again for making this possible. This morning I attempted to make no bake breakfast bars I had been thinking about. 

Cinnamon Carob Almond Breakfast Bars

They didn't come out exactly how I imagined... Revisions will be made for these.  Being a bit on the crumbly side they made a great topping for my yogurt. Here is the recipe if anyone would like to try them out. Modifications or suggestions are always welcome : )

1/2 cup blanched almond flour

2 Tablespoons ground flax

1 Tablespoon chia seeds

2 Tablespoons almond butter

2 Tablespoons cinnamon flaxseed oil*

15 drops stevia

1 teaspoon yacon syrup

1/8 cup unsweetened carob chips

In a bowl combine almond flour, flax, and chia seeds. Mix in almond butter.  The mixture will start to get crumbly. Add in remaining ingredients except for carob chips. Once the mixture turns into a ball of dough you can add in carob chips. 

*I use Barleans cinnamon flax oil. This stuff is amazing in smoothies. If you just have regular flax oil, add in 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon... I think that would work just fine.

Place on cutting board and form into a rectangle "bar" shape.

I placed in the fridge to let sit. This was only for about 5 minutes because I was so hungry. This recipe does contains a lot of fat from the nut flour, butter, seeds, and flax oil so you don't need much. This recipe yields 4 servings.

Happy Monday everyone! Enjoy your week.

Breakfast

Happy Monday! I love Mondays because I get to sleep in and spend my morning in bed drinking tea and catching up on writing. Once my appetite set in I had to get out from under my cozy blankets and make my way to the kitchen. Now I'm back in bed working on this. I swear my whole day won't be this lazy. I always feel like I'm craving something in particular in the mornings but once I see what I have to work with, I create something entirely different. This morning I made steamed apples with cinnamon, almond butter, Greek yogurt mixed with flax seeds, and topped with chopped apple peel. There were a lot of different textures in this dish but that's what makes food so interesting.

Bamboo steamers are probably my favorite thing to cook with. I use them at least once a day. Chinatown is a good place to find them.

I have to share this photo. On Friday we had a really busy day in the kitchen. I was filling our syrah cupcakes with fudge and as I pulled away the pastry bag this little face was smiling back at me. It  happened completely by chance and totally made my day. It's definitely a reflection of how I feel when I'm there. Having a job that you love and enjoy is the best feeling in the world.

Chocolate Pancakes with Berries and Cherries

How I love and hate PMS. I love it because I crave the yummiest treats but hate it for the way I feel after indulging too much. It's about that time of the month now when all I crave is sweets and carbs.  Since I have been very watchful over my sugar intake lately, I had to come up with something sweet that wouldn't contain too much sugar. After smelling chocolate cupcakes all morning at work I had the biggest craving for brownies, but I thought that my sweet treat, rather my lunch, should be a bit more substantial. I decided to make chocolate pancakes. Last week at the health food store I got a sample of Pamela's chocolate brownie mix. Molasses and honey are used as the sweetener. I mixed 1/4 cup of that with 1/4 cup of Pamela's pancake and baking mix. I added 1 Tablespoon of ground flax seed. The Spectrum brand is my favorite for ground flax seeds. A few drops of stevia and some water will give the mix a runny consistency. I also added some chopped unsweetened baking chocolate.

Chocolate with fruit is such a lovely combination.

To top my Pancakes I added a scoop of plain greek yogurt with blueberries, cherries, and walnuts. I did end up adding a little bit of yacon syrup as well, in place of maple syrup.